Mesopotamia Comes to Canada

This Post by Helaine Becker www.helainebecker.com

In my 2010 book, What's the Big Idea?, I took a look at some of the most important and influential inventions in the history of the world - from the point of view of kids. What was more important - TV, or clocks? Cars, or toilet paper?

Many of the key inventions we rely on today had roots in earlier inventions (like the clock). We take those early items for granted, but without them, we wouldn't have many others. For example, that clock is at the heart of many of our best-loved tools and toys: televisions and computers, airplanes and cars, bicycles and (ahem) school.

The first schools can be traced to Mesopotamia, where scribes needed to be trained for another big league new invention - written language. Mesopotamia, in fact, was home to dozens of these life and culture-changing innovations. (Can anyone say "beer?")

That's why I was so thrilled to learn that the Royal Ontario Museum is hosting a new exhibit, Mesopotamia: Inventing Our World. More than 170 artifacts, most never before seen in Canada, will be on display.

 I'll be going ASAP. If you go, let me know what you think!

Giving Turtles a Helping Hand

by Jan Thornhill

Newly hatched snapping turtle (photo: Megan Racey, USFWS)

In the past few days, I’ve had five separate close encounters with turtles—three painteds, a Blanding’s, and a snapper. Why? Because it’s turtle-nesting season and I was helping females get safely across the road so they could lay their eggs. It's nice to do my part even if they sometimes make my hands smell funky.

My favorites are common snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina). They’ve been around for 40 million years and they look it. They’re very long lived—and long-necked!—and old ones can weigh as much as a ten-year-old child. In their wetland homes, they act like reptilian garburators, scavenging dead fish and other animals while carving out underwater routes for smaller reptiles, fish and amphibians. Because the snapping turtle’s lower shell, or plastron, is small, it can’t just hunker down and tuck in its head and legs the way other turtles do when threatened. Instead, snappers have developed an aggressive temperament and can be downright ornery. They have powerful claws and a sharp bony beak that—you guessed it—snaps shut, though not hard enough to take off a finger.  

A snapper can't tuck itself into its shell because its belly plate is too small. (photo: Jarek Tuszynski)

Like all turtles, snappers lay their eggs on land and sometimes have to walk substantial distances to find suitable nesting spots. Unfortunately, this means they often have to cross roads that are near waterways. Though snapping turtles are well armed against predators, their hard shells and sharp claws are no match for the wheels of fast-moving cars and trucks.

But even without the dangers of crossing roads, snapping turtles don't have it easy. They face heavy egg predation from animals such as raccoons, skunks and foxes, who can easily smell out freshly buried eggs and dig them up. And even when a nest is overlooked and the eggs hatch, young snappers still face so many dangers that the chances of surviving long enough to reproduce are incredibly slim, so slim it’s been estimated that only about one in 1,500 eggs laid will produce a turtle that reaches sexual maturity. 

Many female snapping turtles wait almost twenty years to they lay their first eggs. (photo: Moondigger)

Along with natural stressors, road mortality and severe habitat loss (southern Ontario has lost about 70% of its original wetlands to development), snapping turtles have yet another problem to contend with—hunting. Anyone with a valid recreational fishing license is permitted to "harvest" up to two snapping turtles a day in Ontario, with a possession limit of five. Considering that snapping turtles have been listed under Ontario’s Endangered Species Act as a species of special concern because of the aforementioned stressors, the continuation of this hunt seems unconscionable.

An adult snapping turtle with hitchhiking snails. (photo: Willy Logan)

What You Can Do

Help a Turtle Cross a Road

Pull over to a safe spot before getting out of your car. If it's any species other than a snapping turtle, use two hands to carry it in the direction it was travelling. Turtles often urinate when picked up. Don’t let this startle you or you might drop it! NEVER pick a turtle up by its tail—you could damage its spinal cord.

Snapping turtles have long necks that can easily stretch half the length of their carapace and they can also inflict a nasty bite or gouge you with their claws, so it's best not to pick them up. Instead, try using a stick or a shovel to coax them across the road. A snapping turtle will also sometimes latch onto a stick held near its mouth, making it easy to drag it across the road.

Protect a Clutch of Eggs

If you know the location of a new turtle nest, you can lightly sweep the surface to remove the scent or cover it with a board for a few days. You can also protect a nest from predators with a piece of wire mesh (at least 2’x2’) stapled onto a wooden frame or held down with rocks. Remove the mesh protection after 14 days. DO NOT disturb the eggs in a nest.

Report Sightings

There are various turtle monitoring programs in North America that want to hear about turtle sightings:

http://ontarionature.org/protect/species/herpetofaunal_atlas.php

http://www.torontozoo.com/adoptapond/

Help an Injured Turtle

Never try to nurse an injured turtle yourself. Use Google to find a licensed wildlife rehabilitation facility near you. In southern Ontario, contact the Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre (705-741-5000). For information on how to transport an injured turtle: http://kawarthaturtle.org/blog/about/drop-off/

Support the Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre

This non-profit, registered charity operates a hospital for injured wild turtles. They release recovered turtles back into the wild and also harvest eggs from wounded females, which they incubate and release after hatching. You can volunteer to be a Turtle Taxi driver, help with ongoing care, donate money or simply help to spread the word about their work: http://kawarthaturtle.org/blog

Stop Snapping Turtle Harvesting in Ontario

Write your local MP. Write Ontario’s Minister of the Environment and the Minister of Natural Resources. There's an online email you can send via: http://action.davidsuzuki.org/snappers

 

 
 

A day at the beach: Benllech, Wales, UK

View of Benllech Bay from our balcony (photos by L L Melton)

A Day at the beach: Benllech, Wales

For five days in May, I woke every morning to a view of the Irish Sea, as it shushed in and out on its regular tides.

My daughter and I stayed in Benllech, in Anglesey, Wales (UK). Since we live on the Saskatchewan prairie, right in the middle of Canada, it was a treat to find ourselves in a place where the mountains touch the seashore.

Our apartment was only a 10-minute walk from the beachfront. It didn't take us long to begin exploring this new habitat.

Wading at the shore (L L Melton)

On our first day, we pulled off our shoes and socks and walked on the yellow sand. It was a sunny day, with mild temperatures rising to about 12°C.

Benllech retained its Blue Flag status this year, which is a voluntary ecological label used in more than 48 countries around the world. It means that a beach follows a strict set of criteria including water quality, environmental management, safety, and services. In April, the Daily Post had called Benllech one of the 10 best beaches in North Wales.

When we waded on the seashore, the water felt warm and inviting. We noticed no one was actually swimming, though, which surprised us. We still needed our sweaters, even on this warm afternoon, and we noticed some people exploring in jackets.

Tidal pools in Benllech Beach (L L Melton)

Farther out on the water, people were enjoying water sports in wet suits. Canoeing, water surfing, and water skiing seemed popular. The water temperature in this part of the Red Wharf Bay averages 10°C (50°F), according to Surf Forecast. It's warmest in August (14-17°C) and coldest in February (5-9°C). Wetsuits are recommended.

Luckily, we waded in late afternoon, when the sun had been warming the shoreline for several hours. Generally, the sea takes longer to heat up than the sand, because the specific heat capacity of water is greater. This was the warmest dip in the sea my toes had ever enjoyed.

We shared the shore with a number of other creatures as well.

Lugworm casts (L L Melton)

For example, these strange tracks dotted one section of the sand. My daughter knew what they were, but I'd never seen lugworm casts before. These marine worms are popular bait for fishing, but we didn't see any of the actual worms or anyone digging for them while we were there.

We found treasures like this seashell all along the beach. Although broken shell and even small shards on the sand showed where seagulls and other seabirds had dined, many of the shells were intact.

This shoreline follows a section of the Anglesey Coastal Path starting at the nearby harbour village of Moelfre. The Coastal Path is a well-known walk, and this section leads along a hedged path near limestone cliffs, through wooded areas, and over boardwalks that provide many interesting views.

Crab (L L Melton)

But we preferred the leisurely walk along the shoreline, exploring as we went.

We saw several small crabs in the water and on land.
This fellow seemed to have somewhere to go, so we left him undisturbed.

Treasures from the sea (M E Powell)

We explored the tidal pools that formed along the way as well, and were often amazed at the conglomerates we discovered.

Here, for example, we found a variety of intact seashells and interesting rocks embedded in the rocky material jutting out in a line from the shore into the sea.

Our days at the beach proved all too short. Although we enjoyed exploring, there was so much left to see and do when our visit came to an end.

By Marie Powell

Marie Powell is a professional writer, and the author of Dragonflies are Amazing (Scholastic). Her six-book series of beginner readers will be published this fall. She stayed at 7 Llys Rhostrefor, Benllech, as a guest of Visit Wales.

Making a Splash!

Great Science Books for Kids!

While all of us who contribute to this blog, create books for children, I would like to share two titles with you that you might not yet have seen.

Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau was was a French naval officer, explorer, conservationist, filmmaker, and author. He also became a world renowned scientist. As if that wasn’t enough, he co-developed the Aqua-Lung, enabling scuba diving, and pioneered marine conservation. Cousteau left his mark for ever on the planet. When Cousteau and his teams embarked aboard his ship Calypso to explore the world, no one yet knew about the effects of pollution, over- exploitation of resources and coastal development. The films of Calypso's adventures drew the public's attention to the potentially disastrous environmental consequences of human negligence. Cousteau, through his life and his work, was a major player in the environmental movement.

Now his grandson Philippe has taken up the cause and is following in his grandfather’s footsteps by bringing awareness about oceans to young readers. “Everything you do makes a difference,” he says, “What can you do to make a positive difference?” Together with renowned educator and award winning author Cathryn Berger-Kaye, this dynamic team has produced two recent books with Free Spirit Publishing. Make a Splash, a Kid’s Guide to Protecting Oceans, Lakes, Rivers and Wetlands is aimed at ages 8-12. It gives crucial information and ideas through bright photos and activities. The book features kids who have made a difference and offers tools to kids who are interested in doing the same.

www.freespirit.com/splash offers an online guide to parents and educators.

Going Blue is the accompanying title aimed at teens in grades 6 and up. The book encourages investigation into problems, demonstrates how to prepare for action, how to reflect on results and how to actually make a difference in protecting the environment.

Water is the most important substance on Earth, the authors state; and go on to explain that it is also the most threatened by climate change, trash, and pollution (such as the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico). Young people across the globe are responding to the world water crisis by transforming their ideas and energy into action and participating in service learning. The call to service is being sounded by world leaders such as President Barack Obama, Jane Goodall, and by Philippe Cousteau. Teens are answering the call to help our environment by being green, and to rescue our oceans and waterways by going blue.

Going Blue vividly presents facts and statistics about Earth’s oceans and waterways and information about the issues surrounding our current water crisis. Readers will find a wealth of strategies and examples that help them see themselves as change agents and move forward to complete an effective service project. The book is divided into the five stages of service learning:

STAGE1: Find Out - Investigate
STAGE2: Dive In - Prepare
STAGE3:  Get Going! - Act
STAGE4: Think Back! - Reflect
STAGE5: Tell It! - Demonstrate

Using real case studies, this book gives teens tools to tackle their own concerns and raises environmental awareness to a whole new level. Know a kid who likes to dive? Give them this book!

Go to this website: www.freespirit.com/goingblue- scroll down to the PDF’s of several chapters and print off activities.

Also by Cathryn Berger-Kaye: A Kids’ Guide to Climate Change & Global Warming, How to Take Action!

Welcome Back, Commander Hadfield!

When I was a child, the Apollo space missions were taking place. My brother wore a home-made space-suit for Hallowe'en, and we learned everything we could about the American space program. It was exciting to see the formation of the Canadian Space Agency and to find the CSA's Facebook page. I've even been lucky enough to meet two Canadian astronauts, Marc Garneau and Bob Thirsk. But for a couple of months now, I've had an astronaut in space as my Facebook friend and Twitter contact!

This is astronaut Chris Hadfield's profile photo from Facebook!

For the past five months, it's been fascinating to follow the activities of Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield in orbit aboard the International Space Station. Space fans and science fans around the world have been able to keep track of Hadfield's journey in many ways. The usual news reports on television, radio, and in the newspapers -- usual for any space program -- have been supplemented with an amazing number of updates directly from Hadfield.

With the help of his grown son back on Earth, Hadfield has sent a series of Twitter updates that give readers an interesting perspective on the life of astronauts aboard the space station. Many of these Twitter updates have a photograph or a short video attached! You can see an album of fifteen of these photographs at The Guardian newspaper's website. The same website has a three-minute video with a few highlights of the many videos Hadfield has shared.

My friends and I are currently having a friendly argument about which video is our favourite. One space fan likes the haircut best of all -- in this sequence, another astronaut is trimming Hadfield's hair back to a short brush-cut, using an electric clipper hooked up to a vacuum hose so the bits of hair don't drift around and make a hazardous mess. Several of us were fascinated to watch Hadfield doing a simple experiment at a Canadian student's suggestion: what happens when you wring out a washcloth, in space? When Hadfield co-wrote a song with Ed Robertson of Barenaked Ladies, there were several recordings made so that Hadfield could sing in real time with both this Canadian music group and with choirs from Canadian schools.

One of the most popular videos is Hadfield's version of a song by David Bowie, called "A Space Oddity."


Hadfield's current video interview is posted here on YouTube. It takes almost an hour -- something that might be nice to listen to while getting homework books organized, or doing some sketching, or washing dishes. (Can you tell that I like to multi-task, and also to integrate my science interests into the rest of my day?) An additional bonus for Canadians is that Hadfield speaks in French for portions of the interview; if you're an English-speaker who is learning French, this video is a good opportunity to practise picking out words in your expanding vocabulary of science words.

Save the night

by Joan Marie Galat
Author of the Dot to Dot in the Sky books - blending astronomy with ancient mythology

While delivering astronomy presentations at schools in southern Alberta a few weeks ago, I took advantage of the opportunity to ask my elementary age audiences two simple questions. How many of you have heard of a supernova? How many have heard of a black hole? While I was surprised to see how many hands went up in the Kindergarten to grade three groups, I was not surprised to see their interest in the night sky.  Exploding stars are exciting! Black holes fill imaginations with "what if" questions.

Although exploding stars are rarely seen and black holes are invisible, there are many other objects in the night sky to enjoy. You can see the Andromeda Galaxy with the naked eye, as well as Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the 88 official constellations.

Unfortunately not everyone can enjoy the celestial wonders that should be visible on a good dark night. Those living in brightly lit cities and towns face light pollution strong enough to make dim stars less visible, constellations difficult to identify, and dark sky objects impossible to see. Even those in rural communities may find their night sky lit by yard lights, traffic, and nearby communities.

You can help reduce light pollution in a number of ways:
-stop using lights to decorate outdoors
-never use more light than you need
- choose lower wattages whenever possible
-close curtains at night to prevent light from trespassing outdoors
-consider whether you can be more selective about when you use outdoor lighting
-ensure outdoor lighting only illuminates the area you need lit
-turn off lights when they are not needed
-encourage others to be aware of their use of lighting.

Discover more strategies to reduce light pollution from the International Dark-Sky Association.

Earth at night

Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/NOAA NGDC

The Bionic Science Writer

I am old and until recently I wore glasses with very strong progressive lenses- better known as “trifocals”. Without glasses I was myopic meaning I could not see things far away.  I was also hyperopic, meaning could not see things close up. And I had astigmatism, meaning my oval shaped corneas gave me blurred or distorted vision.  I couldn’t see my fingers if I held them at an arm’s length from my body. I could not walk across the room without my glasses. Even with glasses, my eyesight was so bad I begged my husband to buy a 70 inch TV so that I could see the screen from 10 feet away on the couch.

 

When I saw my friendly ophthalmologist, for my yearly exam he informed me that due to many years of reading books, while sitting in the sun, I had damaged my already bad eyes to the point where they had developed cataracts. Really, I’m practically blind and now I’m going to be even blinder? Thank you so much.

Cataracts are a very common, and not the worst thing that can happen to your eyes as you age. Your eyes have a lens, and it works like the lens on a camera. Basically light comes into the eye through the cornea. Behind the cornea is the lens which focuses the light on the retina. This results in an image being sent to the brain. A cataract clouds the lens, which in turn cuts down on the light and images being sent to the retina. If you want to know what a person with cataracts sees, smear a thin layer of Vaseline on a pair of 3-d movie glasses and walk around the house.  You’ll get the idea.

 

 

When you have cataracts the world is a strange looking place.  Snow white colored objects appear to be ivory and bright colors are dull.  Your life looks like a laundry detergent commercial, where clothes fade. Not only are colors not the same, but everything is just slightly out of focus even if you are wearing prescription glasses.  You  don’t want a person with cataracts to drive you anywhere after dark. It’s downright scary as night vision is a problem.

If you’ve ever seen a person or even a pet that has a milky colored eye, you are probably looking at a cataract. The clouding is sadly just a part of growing old.  While it is a common problem for people in their 60’s, you can develop cataracts at a younger age.

If you wear glasses with transitional lenses, the kind that change color in the sun, these glasses are not dark enough to keep you from getting cataracts.  You’d have to have frames with very dark colored UVA, UVB, polarized lenses that wrapped around your face and kept all light out in order to have some level of protection and even then, it might not be enough. Most doctors believe that to shield your eyes and skin from the harmful rays of the sun the appropriate face wear is a welder’s helmet.

My doctor said that having cataracts wasn’t bad news because he could fix my sight while he was scraping out the clouded lenses.  Now this is the interesting part: he wasn’t going to laser my eyes, but was instead going to put in intraocular lens or IOL.  Let’s put that in more layman terms: implants.

Those of us of a certain age might remember the 70’s series, The Six Million Dollar Man and his girlfriend, the Bionic Woman.  After the surgery, that would be me! I would have bionic eyes. My husband was very excited when he learned that I was going to have implants.  He was very disappointed when le learned they were those kinds of implants.

If you are faint- hearted, you might want to skip the next few paragraphs.

Surgery

The doctor schedules operations so that you have your left eye done on say, a Monday, and your right eye done a week later.  The waiting room is full with standing room only. The operation is about 10 minutes, meaning they can move 50 people through in a morning.   Based on the number of people in the room, cataract surgery is very common and very popular.

The admitting nurse asks each patient to describe their level of anxiety.  Wizened old ladies with canes, calmly replied, “I’m fine, deary.” When they asked me I told them I was having an anxiety attack and that I wanted to run from the room screaming.  They offered me a 5 mg or 10 mg Atavan. I asked for both. They gave me the 10 and as it is fast acting. I immediately discovered that 10 mg was a bit too much for a woman my weight.  I proceeded to pass out.  The nurse caught me and put me into a bed. I woke up to find they had put ice packs on my head and neck, and they were taking my vitals, while putting stinging drops into my eye. The doctor walked by, took one look at me and said, “She’s just a drama queen, bring her in next.”

As they are wheeling me into the operating room, the nurse starts squeezing ice cold gelatinous goop into my eye. I’m still having an anxiety attack, but now am too stoned to be able to run from the room. I have to lie there as they position a light strong enough to reach from earth to the moon over my eye.  Next the doctor puts a thick white sticky diaper over my face, presses into place and cuts a hole into it over the eye on which he is operating. He puts more goop into my eye. They now start pumping oxygen under this shield to keep me from passing out again.

 If you’ve ever had a cavity filled at a dentist, you are probably familiar with a rubber dental dam they clamp onto your teeth.  The surgeon uses something similar on your eyes and it’s very Clockwork Orange in feeling.  So now I’m wide awake, still filled with panic as the doctor begins to cut a slit in my eye.

Dr. F, only cut a tiny opening in the eye and used a delicate instrument to scrape away or remove the clouded part over my lens. I know it was only a small cut but it felt like he was removing my eyeball from the socket. And he wanted to have a conversation while he was doing this.  The reason you are awake for the procedure is that you have to try to move your eye into different positions and not roll it back into your head.  Good luck with that.  After the cataract was gone, the doctor inserted an artificial lens through the slit and placed it behind my iris.

 

Safe to read now

I have an Acrysof  IOL tm multifocal lens in both my eyes. Thanks to these lenses I can now see everything perfectly. I can read the newspaper without glasses. I can drive without glasses. I can use my computer without changing the font to 14. I now can wear fashion sunglasses, which I have never been able to do for lo these 50 years  The downside is that I am still very light sensitive so I wear said fashion sunglasses all the time, even when I’m at the movie theatre or while I’m in a meeting.  Driving at night is not wonderful and all lights have a large “halo” around them. When the light hits my eyes at a certain angle, I’m told that the implants “sparkle”.. No idea if that’s true, but apparently it looks really interesting.