Obstructions

R Brickston

On Mon, 04 Jun 2007 15:06:52 -0600, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:

>On Mon, 04 Jun 2007 20:32:10 GMT, R Brickston
><rb20170REMOVE.yahoo.com@> wrote:
>
>>On Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:09:08 -0600, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
>>
>>>On Mon, 04 Jun 2007 08:27:46 GMT, R Brickston
>>><rb20170REMOVE.yahoo.com@> wrote:
>>>
>>>>Tarantulas migrate? What were these Army Tarantulas? Or perhaps a new
>>>>sub-species of traveling Tarantula somehow related to the Monarch
>>>>butterfly.
>>>
>>>Dear RB,
>>>
>>>Yes, male tarantulas "migrate" in search of females, both singly and
>>>in large, mindless swarms, which is one reason that they're so often
>>>seen crossing roads:
>>>
>>>"Exactly when male brown tarantulas go a-roaming seems determined by
>>>the weather. Their movements tend to occur after a rain in early
>>>morning or late afternoon. Mass sightings are rare but memorable.
>>>Arachnologist David Sissom of West Texas A&M University in Canyon
>>>recalls braking to a stop on Highway 385 just south of Odessa early
>>>one summer morning in 1986. 'There were hundreds of tarantulas
>>>crossing the road, all moving in the same direction,' he says. 'For
>>>100 yards or so, there was easily a tarantula every meter or two. It
>>>was pretty incredible.'"
>>>
>>>http://www.nwf.org/nationalwildlife...=988&issueId=70
>>>
>>>Cheers,
>>>
>>>Carl Fogel
>>
>>Dear Carl,
>>
>>While I don't dispute what Sissom saw, the article doesn't reveal
>>whether that occurance was normal, a rarity or even a one off.
>>
>>RB
>
>Dear RB,
>
>http://www.k6sgh.com/migration.htm
>
>Cheers,
>
>Carl Fogel

Egads! Carl...

As you can see from the picture from the above quoted site:

http://www.k6sgh.com/migration_2006/one.jpg

there are thousands of them!

carlfogel@comcast.net

On Tue, 05 Jun 2007 00:10:26 GMT, R Brickston
<rb20170REMOVE.yahoo.com@> wrote:

>On Mon, 04 Jun 2007 15:06:52 -0600, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
>
>>On Mon, 04 Jun 2007 20:32:10 GMT, R Brickston
>><rb20170REMOVE.yahoo.com@> wrote:
>>
>>>On Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:09:08 -0600, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
>>>
>>>>On Mon, 04 Jun 2007 08:27:46 GMT, R Brickston
>>>><rb20170REMOVE.yahoo.com@> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>Tarantulas migrate? What were these Army Tarantulas? Or perhaps a new
>>>>>sub-species of traveling Tarantula somehow related to the Monarch
>>>>>butterfly.
>>>>
>>>>Dear RB,
>>>>
>>>>Yes, male tarantulas "migrate" in search of females, both singly and
>>>>in large, mindless swarms, which is one reason that they're so often
>>>>seen crossing roads:
>>>>
>>>>"Exactly when male brown tarantulas go a-roaming seems determined by
>>>>the weather. Their movements tend to occur after a rain in early
>>>>morning or late afternoon. Mass sightings are rare but memorable.
>>>>Arachnologist David Sissom of West Texas A&M University in Canyon
>>>>recalls braking to a stop on Highway 385 just south of Odessa early
>>>>one summer morning in 1986. 'There were hundreds of tarantulas
>>>>crossing the road, all moving in the same direction,' he says. 'For
>>>>100 yards or so, there was easily a tarantula every meter or two. It
>>>>was pretty incredible.'"
>>>>
>>>>http://www.nwf.org/nationalwildlife...=988&issueId=70
>>>>
>>>>Cheers,
>>>>
>>>>Carl Fogel
>>>
>>>Dear Carl,
>>>
>>>While I don't dispute what Sissom saw, the article doesn't reveal
>>>whether that occurance was normal, a rarity or even a one off.
>>>
>>>RB
>>
>>Dear RB,
>>
>>http://www.k6sgh.com/migration.htm
>>
>>Cheers,
>>
>>Carl Fogel
>
>Egads! Carl...
>
>As you can see from the picture from the above quoted site:
>
>http://www.k6sgh.com/migration_2006/one.jpg
>
>there are thousands of them!

Dear RB,

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...la+migration%22

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

R Brickston

On Mon, 04 Jun 2007 19:30:32 -0600, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:

>On Tue, 05 Jun 2007 00:10:26 GMT, R Brickston
><rb20170REMOVE.yahoo.com@> wrote:
>
>>On Mon, 04 Jun 2007 15:06:52 -0600, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
>>
>>>On Mon, 04 Jun 2007 20:32:10 GMT, R Brickston
>>><rb20170REMOVE.yahoo.com@> wrote:
>>>
>>>>On Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:09:08 -0600, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On Mon, 04 Jun 2007 08:27:46 GMT, R Brickston
>>>>><rb20170REMOVE.yahoo.com@> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>Tarantulas migrate? What were these Army Tarantulas? Or perhaps a new
>>>>>>sub-species of traveling Tarantula somehow related to the Monarch
>>>>>>butterfly.
>>>>>
>>>>>Dear RB,
>>>>>
>>>>>Yes, male tarantulas "migrate" in search of females, both singly and
>>>>>in large, mindless swarms, which is one reason that they're so often
>>>>>seen crossing roads:
>>>>>
>>>>>"Exactly when male brown tarantulas go a-roaming seems determined by
>>>>>the weather. Their movements tend to occur after a rain in early
>>>>>morning or late afternoon. Mass sightings are rare but memorable.
>>>>>Arachnologist David Sissom of West Texas A&M University in Canyon
>>>>>recalls braking to a stop on Highway 385 just south of Odessa early
>>>>>one summer morning in 1986. 'There were hundreds of tarantulas
>>>>>crossing the road, all moving in the same direction,' he says. 'For
>>>>>100 yards or so, there was easily a tarantula every meter or two. It
>>>>>was pretty incredible.'"
>>>>>
>>>>>http://www.nwf.org/nationalwildlife...=988&issueId=70
>>>>>
>>>>>Cheers,
>>>>>
>>>>>Carl Fogel
>>>>
>>>>Dear Carl,
>>>>
>>>>While I don't dispute what Sissom saw, the article doesn't reveal
>>>>whether that occurance was normal, a rarity or even a one off.
>>>>
>>>>RB
>>>
>>>Dear RB,
>>>
>>>http://www.k6sgh.com/migration.htm
>>>
>>>Cheers,
>>>
>>>Carl Fogel
>>
>>Egads! Carl...
>>
>>As you can see from the picture from the above quoted site:
>>
>>http://www.k6sgh.com/migration_2006/one.jpg
>>
>>there are thousands of them!
>
>Dear RB,
>
>http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...la+migration%22
>
>Cheers,
>
>Carl Fogel

Someone must have taken at least one photo of this event. Please post.

carlfogel@comcast.net

On Sun, 03 Jun 2007 01:13:09 -0600, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:

[snip]

>Finally, here's about ten pounds of expectant mother, a bit bigger
>than a bike helmet. Inflamed by a thunderstorm, she foolishly dug a
>nest this afternoon at the edge of a sandy but poorly drained two-rut
>road, fifteen feet from her marsh:
>http://i12.tinypic.com/6gxpi1g.jpg
>
>Tails are often broken or truncated, but this tail is pristine, ready
>for the show ring. (Yes, I once kept them as pets, but no, there are
>no formal best-of-show competitions.)
>http://i13.tinypic.com/4zvf9nb.jpg
>
>Excellent shell, little moss, no leeches, no holes:
>http://i17.tinypic.com/6434ia9.jpg
>
>The tail has been moved to one side to show to advantage, while the
>eye catches the camera flash:
>http://i8.tinypic.com/5y9huds.jpg
>
>Cheers,
>
>Carl Fogel

Snapping turtles don't bask much, but they often float far out on a
nearby pond, so this evening I was looking for the tell-tale shell and
head just barely above the water.

Alas, I saw nothing but ducks and geese.

However, part of a cottonwood log covered with dry gray bark was
sticking up out of the water in a nearby narrow channel.

After watching the log for a while, I climbed a convenient tree and
took some pictures of the log, which was close to three feet long from
the tip of its nose to the end of its tail:

http://i9.tinypic.com/5xzxetu.jpg

You can see that my Tarzan act has disturbed the log, which has raised
its head and is ready to deal with any irritating ducklings that come
too close. The two bottles give some idea of the size of the log, most
of which is below the waterline. Judging by the logs that I kept as
pets, this one is easily over twenty pounds.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

Bill

carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
> On Sun, 03 Jun 2007 01:13:09 -0600, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
>> Finally, here's about ten pounds of expectant mother, a bit bigger
>> than a bike helmet. Inflamed by a thunderstorm, she foolishly dug a
>> nest this afternoon at the edge of a sandy but poorly drained two-rut
>> road, fifteen feet from her marsh:
>> http://i12.tinypic.com/6gxpi1g.jpg
>>
>> Tails are often broken or truncated, but this tail is pristine, ready
>> for the show ring. (Yes, I once kept them as pets, but no, there are
>> no formal best-of-show competitions.)
>> http://i13.tinypic.com/4zvf9nb.jpg
>>
>> Excellent shell, little moss, no leeches, no holes:
>> http://i17.tinypic.com/6434ia9.jpg
>>
>> The tail has been moved to one side to show to advantage, while the
>> eye catches the camera flash:
>> http://i8.tinypic.com/5y9huds.jpg
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Carl Fogel
>
> Snapping turtles don't bask much, but they often float far out on a
> nearby pond, so this evening I was looking for the tell-tale shell and
> head just barely above the water.
>
> Alas, I saw nothing but ducks and geese.
>
> However, part of a cottonwood log covered with dry gray bark was
> sticking up out of the water in a nearby narrow channel.
>
> After watching the log for a while, I climbed a convenient tree and
> took some pictures of the log, which was close to three feet long from
> the tip of its nose to the end of its tail:
>
> http://i9.tinypic.com/5xzxetu.jpg
>
> You can see that my Tarzan act has disturbed the log, which has raised
> its head and is ready to deal with any irritating ducklings that come
> too close. The two bottles give some idea of the size of the log, most
> of which is below the waterline. Judging by the logs that I kept as
> pets, this one is easily over twenty pounds.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Carl Fogel

Looking at the apparent size of the 'log' I can tell I would not want to
mess with it. I picked some up on interstate 40 in Oklahoma to put them
out of harm's way and they did their level best to bite me. I tried the
pencil test since I had one in the car and the test turtle bit it clean
in half. Feisty little buggers.
Bill Baka

Bill

R Brickston wrote:
> On Mon, 04 Jun 2007 19:30:32 -0600, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
>
>> Dear RB,
>>
>> http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...la+migration%22
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Carl Fogel
>
> Someone must have taken at least one photo of this event. Please post.

Now you know I didn't make it up. I thought it was strange behavior for
spiders who normally fight for territory. In the march over my legs they
were only about 6" apart from each other. I guess they were focused on
their mission of marching.
Nature is fun to participate with, and not just watch Animal Planet.
Bill Baka

carlfogel@comcast.net

On Tue, 05 Jun 2007 02:51:54 GMT, Bill <bbaka@comcast.net> wrote:

>carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
>> On Sun, 03 Jun 2007 01:13:09 -0600, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
>>
>> [snip]
>>
>>> Finally, here's about ten pounds of expectant mother, a bit bigger
>>> than a bike helmet. Inflamed by a thunderstorm, she foolishly dug a
>>> nest this afternoon at the edge of a sandy but poorly drained two-rut
>>> road, fifteen feet from her marsh:
>>> http://i12.tinypic.com/6gxpi1g.jpg
>>>
>>> Tails are often broken or truncated, but this tail is pristine, ready
>>> for the show ring. (Yes, I once kept them as pets, but no, there are
>>> no formal best-of-show competitions.)
>>> http://i13.tinypic.com/4zvf9nb.jpg
>>>
>>> Excellent shell, little moss, no leeches, no holes:
>>> http://i17.tinypic.com/6434ia9.jpg
>>>
>>> The tail has been moved to one side to show to advantage, while the
>>> eye catches the camera flash:
>>> http://i8.tinypic.com/5y9huds.jpg
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>> Carl Fogel
>>
>> Snapping turtles don't bask much, but they often float far out on a
>> nearby pond, so this evening I was looking for the tell-tale shell and
>> head just barely above the water.
>>
>> Alas, I saw nothing but ducks and geese.
>>
>> However, part of a cottonwood log covered with dry gray bark was
>> sticking up out of the water in a nearby narrow channel.
>>
>> After watching the log for a while, I climbed a convenient tree and
>> took some pictures of the log, which was close to three feet long from
>> the tip of its nose to the end of its tail:
>>
>> http://i9.tinypic.com/5xzxetu.jpg
>>
>> You can see that my Tarzan act has disturbed the log, which has raised
>> its head and is ready to deal with any irritating ducklings that come
>> too close. The two bottles give some idea of the size of the log, most
>> of which is below the waterline. Judging by the logs that I kept as
>> pets, this one is easily over twenty pounds.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Carl Fogel
>
>Looking at the apparent size of the 'log' I can tell I would not want to
>mess with it. I picked some up on interstate 40 in Oklahoma to put them
>out of harm's way and they did their level best to bite me. I tried the
>pencil test since I had one in the car and the test turtle bit it clean
>in half. Feisty little buggers.
>Bill Baka

Dear Bill,

Usually, the claim is a broomstick.

In practical tests, even large common snappers were barely able to
break a pencil. This is unsurprising, since they don't eat sticks or
gnaw bones.

The tell-tale sign of the myth is that the stick/pencil/broom-handle
is always bitten in _half_, which is impossible.

A turtle's beak would have to divide any stick into _three_ pieces,
leaving the middle section hopelessly wedged in the lower beak. No one
ever mentions having to remove the chunk of wood stuck in the turtle's
mouth.

A large common snapper's head is about the size of a big fist--and all
the jaw muscles are right there on the side of the skull, not lurking
up the elbow.

Common snappers are chiefly bottom-dwelling carrion feeders, but will
grab live crayfish, frogs, ducklings, small snakes, and unwary fish.

If you keep common snappers as pets, you learn that they seize freshly
killed bullfrogs with their beaks and then tear them to pieces with
their powerful clawed forelegs. My largest pet was a plump 28-pound
female. She couldn't bite through a bullfrog leg, but she could rip
the amphibians in half with her claws and gulp them down.

A foolish claim is floating around the internet about snapping turtles
having thousand-pound bites. Possibly someone was thinking of a 150-lb
alligator snapper, an entirely different beast than a common snapper,
which is huge in the wild at 40 pounds.

(The record weight for a wild common snapper was a 68-lb Nebraskan,
much to the embarrassment of certain Southern states. The commonly
cited 86-lb common snapper was a huge, overfed captive, which was kept
in a swill barrel and bore about as much resemblance to a normal
snapper as Chalo does to a typical RBT poster.)

Here's a fair example of a wild snapper record:
http://www.kdwp.state.ks.us/news/la...snapping_turtle

And another state wild record:
http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/...e/bigturtle.htm

(It's not uncommon to catch two snappers in the same trap like the
North Carolina giant and his little friend. You bait a simple box trap
with liver scraps, and the snappers follow the scent through the
water. I once had a hell of a time getting a pair of 18-pound males
out of a large box-trap that I'd foolishly built when I expected only
a single 10-lb snapper if I was lucky.)

Here's a pdf with some details about record weights:
http://wfs.sdstate.edu/wfsdept/Publ...20M.S.-1968.pdf

"What perhaps makes chelydrids most interesting is what they eat, or
at least what they bite. ‘Large individuals are known to have caused
injury to people unwary enough to step into or swim in the water near
them, and they are quite capable of removing a toe or finger if given
the opportunity’ (Alderton 1988, p. 112). Indeed, they are anecdotally
credited with being able to ‘bite through a broom handle’. For his
excellent TV series ‘O’Shea’s Dangerous Reptiles’, Mark O’Shea decided
to test this dubious assertion. With the help of a colleague he caught
the largest and nastiest alligator snappers he could, pissed them off
by poking them, and then pissed them off some more by shoving a broom
handle into their mouths. All the turtles bit happily, and bit hard.
And as impressive as it was, sad to say not one turtle was powerful
enough to cleave neatly through 25 thick mm of solid wood, which to be
honest isn’t much of a surprise."

"Rather more rigorous tests were applied by Herrel et al. (2002) who
tested the bite force of numerous diverse turtles, including both
snappers and alligator snappers. They found snappers to have bite
forces of between 208 and 226 Newtons, and alligator snappers of
between 158 and 176 N."

http://darrennaish.blogspot.com/200...bite-lunge.html

Here's the scholarly Herrel et al. article mentioned above, with
enough graphs to please Robert Chung and an early table of bite forces
for a variety of turtles, with a common snapper (chelydra serpentina)
6th on the awkwardly rotated alphabetical list:

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/do...01.2002.00459.x

The roughly 10-lb common snapper managed a bite force of 209 Newtons,
or about 47 pounds, only 5% of the wild thousand-pound claims. Most
RBT posters can break a hundred pounds.

You do not, however, want to let even a baby snapper with a 2-inch
shell get its jaws on your finger, whose flesh is considerably easier
to damage than a pencil and much more sensitive. (Guess how I know.)

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

Bill

carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
> On Tue, 05 Jun 2007 02:51:54 GMT, Bill <bbaka@comcast.net> wrote:
>
>> carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
>>> On Sun, 03 Jun 2007 01:13:09 -0600, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
>>>
>>> [snip]
>>>
>>>> Finally, here's about ten pounds of expectant mother, a bit bigger
>>>> than a bike helmet. Inflamed by a thunderstorm, she foolishly dug a
>>>> nest this afternoon at the edge of a sandy but poorly drained two-rut
>>>> road, fifteen feet from her marsh:
>>>> http://i12.tinypic.com/6gxpi1g.jpg
>>>>
>>>> Tails are often broken or truncated, but this tail is pristine, ready
>>>> for the show ring. (Yes, I once kept them as pets, but no, there are
>>>> no formal best-of-show competitions.)
>>>> http://i13.tinypic.com/4zvf9nb.jpg
>>>>
>>>> Excellent shell, little moss, no leeches, no holes:
>>>> http://i17.tinypic.com/6434ia9.jpg
>>>>
>>>> The tail has been moved to one side to show to advantage, while the
>>>> eye catches the camera flash:
>>>> http://i8.tinypic.com/5y9huds.jpg
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>>
>>>> Carl Fogel
>>> Snapping turtles don't bask much, but they often float far out on a
>>> nearby pond, so this evening I was looking for the tell-tale shell and
>>> head just barely above the water.
>>>
>>> Alas, I saw nothing but ducks and geese.
>>>
>>> However, part of a cottonwood log covered with dry gray bark was
>>> sticking up out of the water in a nearby narrow channel.
>>>
>>> After watching the log for a while, I climbed a convenient tree and
>>> took some pictures of the log, which was close to three feet long from
>>> the tip of its nose to the end of its tail:
>>>
>>> http://i9.tinypic.com/5xzxetu.jpg
>>>
>>> You can see that my Tarzan act has disturbed the log, which has raised
>>> its head and is ready to deal with any irritating ducklings that come
>>> too close. The two bottles give some idea of the size of the log, most
>>> of which is below the waterline. Judging by the logs that I kept as
>>> pets, this one is easily over twenty pounds.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>> Carl Fogel
>> Looking at the apparent size of the 'log' I can tell I would not want to
>> mess with it. I picked some up on interstate 40 in Oklahoma to put them
>> out of harm's way and they did their level best to bite me. I tried the
>> pencil test since I had one in the car and the test turtle bit it clean
>> in half. Feisty little buggers.
>> Bill Baka
>
> Dear Bill,
>
> Usually, the claim is a broomstick.
>
> In practical tests, even large common snappers were barely able to
> break a pencil. This is unsurprising, since they don't eat sticks or
> gnaw bones.
>
> The tell-tale sign of the myth is that the stick/pencil/broom-handle
> is always bitten in _half_, which is impossible.
>
> A turtle's beak would have to divide any stick into _three_ pieces,
> leaving the middle section hopelessly wedged in the lower beak. No one
> ever mentions having to remove the chunk of wood stuck in the turtle's
> mouth.
>
> A large common snapper's head is about the size of a big fist--and all
> the jaw muscles are right there on the side of the skull, not lurking
> up the elbow.
>
> Common snappers are chiefly bottom-dwelling carrion feeders, but will
> grab live crayfish, frogs, ducklings, small snakes, and unwary fish.
>
> If you keep common snappers as pets, you learn that they seize freshly
> killed bullfrogs with their beaks and then tear them to pieces with
> their powerful clawed forelegs. My largest pet was a plump 28-pound
> female. She couldn't bite through a bullfrog leg, but she could rip
> the amphibians in half with her claws and gulp them down.
>
> A foolish claim is floating around the internet about snapping turtles
> having thousand-pound bites. Possibly someone was thinking of a 150-lb
> alligator snapper, an entirely different beast than a common snapper,
> which is huge in the wild at 40 pounds.
>
> (The record weight for a wild common snapper was a 68-lb Nebraskan,
> much to the embarrassment of certain Southern states. The commonly
> cited 86-lb common snapper was a huge, overfed captive, which was kept
> in a swill barrel and bore about as much resemblance to a normal
> snapper as Chalo does to a typical RBT poster.)
>
> Here's a fair example of a wild snapper record:
> http://www.kdwp.state.ks.us/news/la...snapping_turtle
>
> And another state wild record:
> http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/...e/bigturtle.htm
>
> (It's not uncommon to catch two snappers in the same trap like the
> North Carolina giant and his little friend. You bait a simple box trap
> with liver scraps, and the snappers follow the scent through the
> water. I once had a hell of a time getting a pair of 18-pound males
> out of a large box-trap that I'd foolishly built when I expected only
> a single 10-lb snapper if I was lucky.)
>
> Here's a pdf with some details about record weights:
> http://wfs.sdstate.edu/wfsdept/Publ...20M.S.-1968.pdf
>
> "What perhaps makes chelydrids most interesting is what they eat, or
> at least what they bite. ‘Large individuals are known to have caused
> injury to people unwary enough to step into or swim in the water near
> them, and they are quite capable of removing a toe or finger if given
> the opportunity’ (Alderton 1988, p. 112). Indeed, they are anecdotally
> credited with being able to ‘bite through a broom handle’. For his
> excellent TV series ‘O’Shea’s Dangerous Reptiles’, Mark O’Shea decided
> to test this dubious assertion. With the help of a colleague he caught
> the largest and nastiest alligator snappers he could, pissed them off
> by poking them, and then pissed them off some more by shoving a broom
> handle into their mouths. All the turtles bit happily, and bit hard.
> And as impressive as it was, sad to say not one turtle was powerful
> enough to cleave neatly through 25 thick mm of solid wood, which to be
> honest isn’t much of a surprise."
>
> "Rather more rigorous tests were applied by Herrel et al. (2002) who
> tested the bite force of numerous diverse turtles, including both
> snappers and alligator snappers. They found snappers to have bite
> forces of between 208 and 226 Newtons, and alligator snappers of
> between 158 and 176 N."
>
> http://darrennaish.blogspot.com/200...bite-lunge.html
>
> Here's the scholarly Herrel et al. article mentioned above, with
> enough graphs to please Robert Chung and an early table of bite forces
> for a variety of turtles, with a common snapper (chelydra serpentina)
> 6th on the awkwardly rotated alphabetical list:
>
> http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/do...01.2002.00459.x
>
> The roughly 10-lb common snapper managed a bite force of 209 Newtons,
> or about 47 pounds, only 5% of the wild thousand-pound claims. Most
> RBT posters can break a hundred pounds.
>
> You do not, however, want to let even a baby snapper with a 2-inch
> shell get its jaws on your finger, whose flesh is considerably easier
> to damage than a pencil and much more sensitive. (Guess how I know.)
>
> Cheers,
>
> Carl Fogel

Interesting stuff. I forwarded this to myself so I can look it all up.
Saying the turtle bit the pencil 'clean' in half was a bit of
overstatement, but I still had a broken pencil, so I wasn't about to get
my fingers near his mouth. The ones I tried to move off the freeway were
in the 5 to 10 pound range, so no spectacular whoppers in that bunch.
Still the number of flat turtles on the road was a grim testament to the
fact that cars trump shells.
If you got bit as you say that kind of means you tried keeping one as a
pet, and I had a baby alligator who would bite my finger but not draw
blood. The alligator would not let go and I could pick him up while he
was clamped to my finger. I would not want to try that with a snapping
turtle.
Good day.
Bill Baka

carlfogel@comcast.net

On Sun, 03 Jun 2007 01:13:09 -0600, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:

Something always goofs up my pictures of great blue herons.

Yesterday, a flock of idiots rafting down the river on inner tubes
began waving, splashing, and yelling, "Hey, mister, look at that big
duck!" as I tried to get my camera out of the bag with a heron
standing only fifty feet away:

http://i13.tinypic.com/54eccjn.jpg

By the time I pushed the button, the bird was a few hundred yards
upstream toward the dam. Those power cables hang across a mile-wide
valley.

Today, I stopped, got the camera out with my back to another heron,
fumbled the switches to get the camera ready, and was just turning to
take a picture when a recumbent--one of the four bicycles that I saw
in fifteen miles--pedalled past and spooked the bird.

By sheer luck, the camera caught a glimpse of the heron through the
chain-link fence:

http://i8.tinypic.com/5y7j8cg.jpg

Apart from the chain-link fence, that setting looks almost natural,
doesn't it?

Regrettably, the heron landed further down the beach and posed,
letting me stick the camera's snout through the fence and capture the
truly hideous nature of the pond:

http://i19.tinypic.com/6ewmk43.jpg

Some claim that the odd circles on the pond are caused by drops of
water falling from the sky, but there is little evidence to support
this strange belief.

I'll spare you the sight of the almost always unused three-story blue
waterslide to the left of that hideous artificial beach. What a
fenced-off and usually abandoned watersport park with its pedal-boats
and enormous empty parking lot is doing in the middle of nowhere in a
state park is as much a mystery as those odd circles in the pond.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

Bill

carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
> On Sun, 03 Jun 2007 01:13:09 -0600, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
>
> Something always goofs up my pictures of great blue herons.
>
> Yesterday, a flock of idiots rafting down the river on inner tubes
> began waving, splashing, and yelling, "Hey, mister, look at that big
> duck!" as I tried to get my camera out of the bag with a heron
> standing only fifty feet away:
>
> http://i13.tinypic.com/54eccjn.jpg
>
> By the time I pushed the button, the bird was a few hundred yards
> upstream toward the dam. Those power cables hang across a mile-wide
> valley.
>
> Today, I stopped, got the camera out with my back to another heron,
> fumbled the switches to get the camera ready, and was just turning to
> take a picture when a recumbent--one of the four bicycles that I saw
> in fifteen miles--pedalled past and spooked the bird.
>
> By sheer luck, the camera caught a glimpse of the heron through the
> chain-link fence:
>
> http://i8.tinypic.com/5y7j8cg.jpg
>
> Apart from the chain-link fence, that setting looks almost natural,
> doesn't it?
>
> Regrettably, the heron landed further down the beach and posed,
> letting me stick the camera's snout through the fence and capture the
> truly hideous nature of the pond:
>
> http://i19.tinypic.com/6ewmk43.jpg
>
> Some claim that the odd circles on the pond are caused by drops of
> water falling from the sky, but there is little evidence to support
> this strange belief.
>
> I'll spare you the sight of the almost always unused three-story blue
> waterslide to the left of that hideous artificial beach. What a
> fenced-off and usually abandoned watersport park with its pedal-boats
> and enormous empty parking lot is doing in the middle of nowhere in a
> state park is as much a mystery as those odd circles in the pond.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Carl Fogel

I can relate to your problems. My first digital camera had a horrendous
boot time and shutter delay which cost me many fine shots. Now I carry
my 35mm Minolta and a bag of lenses but still have to get it focused and
set the exposure for the shot..
Maybe I'll just take all my lunch money for the year and buy an
overpriced super digital, which will be old news by next year.
It ain't easy riding AND taking pictures.
Bill Baka

carlfogel@comcast.net

On Sun, 03 Jun 2007 01:13:09 -0600, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:

Aha! Whining and complaining works!

Today, a great blue heron posed for me against the tasteful backdrop
of a brick outhouse, a dumpster, and a trash barrel:

http://i13.tinypic.com/62p5gk8.jpg

Then it flew off:

http://i8.tinypic.com/6gl6l28.jpg

An email asked me about the absurd water slide mentioned elsewhere:

http://i10.tinypic.com/4xwp82e.jpg

That's what a water slide is, and that's how this one usually
looks--unused. Mostly, it serves to justify part of the maintenance
budget for the state park. A cheerful sign warns that the pond is
filled with untreated river water, a tactful method of warning
swimmers that they could get sick if they let any of that stuff get up
their noses.

The chain-link fence through which the picture was taken keeps out
beavers, which gnawed down the ornamental trees years ago. The fence
also stops softshell turtles, which I sometimes find on the path next
to the fence, imitating green manhole covers, baffled and furious
because they can't reach the sandy beach, which would be perfect for
laying eggs.

Later, I came across this fiend, lurking in one of the wooden
bird-boxes nailed to the cottonwoods:

http://i9.tinypic.com/637fyqf.jpg

Apologists for the creature may try to excuse it for gnawing that huge
hole in the bird box, but what can they say about this hideous debris
at the foot of the tree?

http://i8.tinypic.com/62h8bch.jpg

Yes, that's a nail sticking up from a board, a plank that has
obviously torn off the tree where it supported the lower part of the
bird house and thrown down by the squirrel to endanger passing bicycle
tires.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

Bill

carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
> On Sun, 03 Jun 2007 01:13:09 -0600, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
>
> Aha! Whining and complaining works!
>
> Today, a great blue heron posed for me against the tasteful backdrop
> of a brick outhouse, a dumpster, and a trash barrel:
>
> http://i13.tinypic.com/62p5gk8.jpg
>
> Then it flew off:
>
> http://i8.tinypic.com/6gl6l28.jpg
>
> An email asked me about the absurd water slide mentioned elsewhere:
>
> http://i10.tinypic.com/4xwp82e.jpg
>
> That's what a water slide is, and that's how this one usually
> looks--unused. Mostly, it serves to justify part of the maintenance
> budget for the state park. A cheerful sign warns that the pond is
> filled with untreated river water, a tactful method of warning
> swimmers that they could get sick if they let any of that stuff get up
> their noses.
>
> The chain-link fence through which the picture was taken keeps out
> beavers, which gnawed down the ornamental trees years ago. The fence
> also stops softshell turtles, which I sometimes find on the path next
> to the fence, imitating green manhole covers, baffled and furious
> because they can't reach the sandy beach, which would be perfect for
> laying eggs.
>
> Later, I came across this fiend, lurking in one of the wooden
> bird-boxes nailed to the cottonwoods:
>
> http://i9.tinypic.com/637fyqf.jpg
>
> Apologists for the creature may try to excuse it for gnawing that huge
> hole in the bird box, but what can they say about this hideous debris
> at the foot of the tree?
>
> http://i8.tinypic.com/62h8bch.jpg
>
> Yes, that's a nail sticking up from a board, a plank that has
> obviously torn off the tree where it supported the lower part of the
> bird house and thrown down by the squirrel to endanger passing bicycle
> tires.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Carl Fogel

Carl,
I'm in the need for a digital camera since I loaned one to my daughter
to take pictures at a party and guess what, she lost it.
Can you recommend any decent ones for pocket use or at least not to
break the bank. My old one was a whopping 1.3Mp Vivitar fixed focus but
did use rechargeable AA NiMH batteries and standard SD memory cards.
For all that matter does anyone have any camera ideas for a budget
camera that I won't cry about falling on??
Bill Baka
TIA

carlfogel@comcast.net

On Thu, 07 Jun 2007 23:15:32 -0700, Bill <bbaka@comcast.net> wrote:

>carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
>> On Sun, 03 Jun 2007 01:13:09 -0600, carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
>>
>> Aha! Whining and complaining works!
>>
>> Today, a great blue heron posed for me against the tasteful backdrop
>> of a brick outhouse, a dumpster, and a trash barrel:
>>
>> http://i13.tinypic.com/62p5gk8.jpg
>>
>> Then it flew off:
>>
>> http://i8.tinypic.com/6gl6l28.jpg
>>
>> An email asked me about the absurd water slide mentioned elsewhere:
>>
>> http://i10.tinypic.com/4xwp82e.jpg
>>
>> That's what a water slide is, and that's how this one usually
>> looks--unused. Mostly, it serves to justify part of the maintenance
>> budget for the state park. A cheerful sign warns that the pond is
>> filled with untreated river water, a tactful method of warning
>> swimmers that they could get sick if they let any of that stuff get up
>> their noses.
>>
>> The chain-link fence through which the picture was taken keeps out
>> beavers, which gnawed down the ornamental trees years ago. The fence
>> also stops softshell turtles, which I sometimes find on the path next
>> to the fence, imitating green manhole covers, baffled and furious
>> because they can't reach the sandy beach, which would be perfect for
>> laying eggs.
>>
>> Later, I came across this fiend, lurking in one of the wooden
>> bird-boxes nailed to the cottonwoods:
>>
>> http://i9.tinypic.com/637fyqf.jpg
>>
>> Apologists for the creature may try to excuse it for gnawing that huge
>> hole in the bird box, but what can they say about this hideous debris
>> at the foot of the tree?
>>
>> http://i8.tinypic.com/62h8bch.jpg
>>
>> Yes, that's a nail sticking up from a board, a plank that has
>> obviously torn off the tree where it supported the lower part of the
>> bird house and thrown down by the squirrel to endanger passing bicycle
>> tires.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Carl Fogel
>
>Carl,
>I'm in the need for a digital camera since I loaned one to my daughter
>to take pictures at a party and guess what, she lost it.
>Can you recommend any decent ones for pocket use or at least not to
>break the bank. My old one was a whopping 1.3Mp Vivitar fixed focus but
>did use rechargeable AA NiMH batteries and standard SD memory cards.
>For all that matter does anyone have any camera ideas for a budget
>camera that I won't cry about falling on??
>Bill Baka
>TIA

Dear Bill,

Mine's a--uh, let's see . . . a Canon A530 with 4x optical. One
advantage was that it was just a step below the model that allowed you
to add expensive accessories

I buy 30 batteries for about ten bucks at Home Depot.

Its only mechanical failing is an occasional half-hearted effort to
open the protective lens shutter, either due to poor quality
(unlikely) or else a careless owner who carries and uses it in dusty
conditions (embarrassing).

It's ridiculously good at automatically taking good ordinary pictures
and can be forced to focus up close. Long hand-held shots with fading
afternoon light require either steadier hands or setting shorter
exposure times.

I'm resisting the urge to get a 10x with auto-stabilizer, figuring
that the increased zoom would just about offset the stabilizer, even
though the new toy would be fun.

Legions of RBT posters are hoping that I don't give in and plague them
even more. Slightly smaller legions have forgotten more about cameras
than I'll ever know.

The new issue of Consumer Reports reviews recent digital cameras and
is always a good place to start.

Gratuitous obstructions the windstorm Wednesday, starting with a
familiar creature:

http://i14.tinypic.com/6bv8tja.jpg

That was the only snake that stayed on the path long enough to be
photographed. There were several others, since no one else was fool
enough to ride in the high winds and the path was pleasantly deserted.
The wind was 25 to 45 mph where I was, with several trees blown down
across the path, but I expect that Peter Chisholm saw much worse up in
Boulder.

This little fellow (the males are smaller, as is common outside our
species) was marching stupidly up the road that climbs up the south
side of the Pueblo dam, sticking next to the yellow center line:

http://i18.tinypic.com/664uhoj.jpg

Normally, they cross roads instead of following them, but maybe he
wanted to head straight into the wind--which was what I was stupidly
doing, mashing away at 5 to 6 mph up into the wind. When I shooed him
off the pavement, he flipped in the wind (twice) and lay on his back
before reaching the grass.

Both pictures were just point and shoot.

For resizing and converting to other formats, the free IrfanView
program is good for Windows. I use it for converting the odd format
that the patent office prefers, which requires a plugin and which
takes forever to load--I figure that anyone curious enough to look at
whatever catches my bizarre fancy would be discouraged if they had to
download and install plugins and then wade through the patent office
tarpit.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

Bill

carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
>
> Dear Bill,
>
> Mine's a--uh, let's see . . . a Canon A530 with 4x optical. One
> advantage was that it was just a step below the model that allowed you
> to add expensive accessories
>
> I buy 30 batteries for about ten bucks at Home Depot.
>
> Its only mechanical failing is an occasional half-hearted effort to
> open the protective lens shutter, either due to poor quality
> (unlikely) or else a careless owner who carries and uses it in dusty
> conditions (embarrassing).
>
> It's ridiculously good at automatically taking good ordinary pictures
> and can be forced to focus up close. Long hand-held shots with fading
> afternoon light require either steadier hands or setting shorter
> exposure times.

The Canon would be a step up for me and the 4x optical sounds good.
Those stupid digital zooms are a complete joke.
>
> I'm resisting the urge to get a 10x with auto-stabilizer, figuring
> that the increased zoom would just about offset the stabilizer, even
> though the new toy would be fun.

If I could pick one up for about $300 I probably would would go for a
10x zoom, but now they are pushing 4Mp and up, even at a bottom end
store like Wal-mart. Even that is five times what will fill a computer
screen.
>
> Legions of RBT posters are hoping that I don't give in and plague them
> even more. Slightly smaller legions have forgotten more about cameras
> than I'll ever know.
>
> The new issue of Consumer Reports reviews recent digital cameras and
> is always a good place to start.

Their reviews and my uses are really different points of view.
I'm avoiding proprietary Lithium Ion batteries since if one goes dead,
the replacement will kill you.
>
> Gratuitous obstructions the windstorm Wednesday, starting with a
> familiar creature:
>
> http://i14.tinypic.com/6bv8tja.jpg

Good quick shot. We had a windstorm in sunny Ca. that had them putting
out tornado warnings. What they would call a tornado in California would
barely be a gust in the midwest.
>
> That was the only snake that stayed on the path long enough to be
> photographed. There were several others, since no one else was fool
> enough to ride in the high winds and the path was pleasantly deserted.
> The wind was 25 to 45 mph where I was, with several trees blown down
> across the path, but I expect that Peter Chisholm saw much worse up in
> Boulder.

Sort of what I encountered after the storm since I really did not want
to ride in it. I did go out for a run in the storm and nearly got blown
over a few times.
>
> This little fellow (the males are smaller, as is common outside our
> species) was marching stupidly up the road that climbs up the south
> side of the Pueblo dam, sticking next to the yellow center line:
>
> http://i18.tinypic.com/664uhoj.jpg
>
> Normally, they cross roads instead of following them, but maybe he
> wanted to head straight into the wind--which was what I was stupidly
> doing, mashing away at 5 to 6 mph up into the wind. When I shooed him
> off the pavement, he flipped in the wind (twice) and lay on his back
> before reaching the grass.
>
> Both pictures were just point and shoot.

Fast auto focus?
>
> For resizing and converting to other formats, the free IrfanView
> program is good for Windows. I use it for converting the odd format
> that the patent office prefers, which requires a plugin and which
> takes forever to load--I figure that anyone curious enough to look at
> whatever catches my bizarre fancy would be discouraged if they had to
> download and install plugins and then wade through the patent office
> tarpit.

Are you talking MrSID? I have run into that on the Smithsonian site.
I'm using IrfanView now as my main viewer and some picture manipulation
but I got a free package with both my Visioneer and HP scanners.
I'll have to check out the patent sight a little more carefully because
I am working on some patent projects right now. (Energy related).
Bill Baka
>
> Cheers,
>
> Carl Fogel