The Amazing Moby Dick

Common Name: Sperm Whale
Scientific Name: Physeter catodon

In some of the deepest waters of the world's ocean lies a Moby Dick -- a sperm whale.

Weighing up to 59 tons and up to 70 feet in length, the sperm whale is the largest toothed whale. In Greek, the name means "spouter with teeth on the bottom." The lower jaw contains 18-25 teeth, which helps them successfully disgest squid and other cephalopods. Since squid is the whale's primary food, much of thier behavior and biology can be credited to the search of squid.
Since the past two centuries, one million sperm whales have been killed; Hunting being the primary source of their deaths. There are no other threats and hunting is currently no longer a contributor; however, the past catches up to us. An estimate of 20,000-100,000 sperm whales are remaining.
According to New York State's DEC, whales are often sighted in Long Island waters and occasionally become stranded or wash up dead mainly along the south shore of beaches. Sperm whales can be found anywhere in the world's most largest, deepest oceans from California to Hawaii (north of the Bering Sea) and from Maine to the Gulf of Mexico, bascially everywhere except the Artic region. Sperm whales sleep 3,000 to 6,000 feet under and go up to 8,000 feet in depth when diving.
The well-known sperm whale is generally being symbolized in toys and drawing, as well as books and movies -- Moby Dick. The most distinguishing part of the mammal is its massive head that contains spermaceti, a substance that was once used for candles and ointments. Sperm whales has the largest brain compared to any other mammal: the brain's weigh ranging from 15 to 20 pounds.
We adore the 1851 great American novel written by Herman Melville, and the 1956 motion picture, but we fail to realize these creatures are harmless to humans. They don't sink ships, bite off sailors' legs; however, in many countries people still tend to hunt the whales. Thanks to the Save The Whale movement in the 70's, the whales are believed to be saved.

Interesting Facts:
-Sperm Whales are often found to have thousands of beaks in their stomachs; Giant squid have beaks similar to those of a parrot.

-They swim at 550 feet per miute.

-In the 18th ad 19th century, New England "whalers" sought out for the rare spermaceti oil, which is known to make fine lubricant.

-Sperm whales can hunt complete darkness using echolocation: the whale produces a series of loud clicks that travel through the water and bounce of objects, reflecting the sound back to the whale.

- The blowhole is at an angle on the left side of its head. The blowhole looks like a pair lips and it works like one,too -- closing when the whale dives in order to keep water out.

What Do Urban Sounds Do to Your Brain?

We live in a sonic world, immersed in vibrations that stimulate microscopic hair cells deep inside our ears. This unseen energy influences our mood, our learning, even our health. We experience it as comforting music, as information-laden speech, or—all too often—as irritating noise, a by-product of our increasingly mechanized world. Despite all the ways sound affects us, we often let it slip unnoticed into the background of our lives. Hoping to understand it better, I set out to explore the mysteries of sound in the course of one day.

Dragging the reader in with an interesting fact automatically gives the journalist a handful of points. Not just any old fact: It was a fact that incorporated every reader. Our ears are something we don't really know about. This pulled me in and as I continued to read on I was intrigued and wanted to know what she had to say. She listed how it influences us daily -- the possible ways people perceive noise. There was no generalization of the subject. The journalist has a voice and personality in her writing, making the lede much more conversational. There weren't any intellectual words, so it wasn't intimidating. But it is also very misleading since the rest of the article consisted of words that the average person wouldn't understand. The last sentence had an adventurous tone to it and lead me to the narrative article. "I set out to explore the mysteries of sound in the course of one day," made me feel as if both of us were on this road of exploration. I couldn't wait to find out what she had discovered.

http://discovermagazine.com/2009/jul-aug/24-what-do-urban-sounds-do-your-brain

Lede of the Week: To Explain Longevity Gap, Look Past Health System

If you’re not rich and you get sick, in which industrialized country are you likely to get the best treatment?
The conventional answer to this question has been: anywhere but the United States. With its many uninsured citizens and its relatively low life expectancy, the United States has been relegated to the bottom of international health scorecards. - NY Science Times

The lede relates to nearly everyone that is reading it. The biggest issue of today is healthcare and controversial topics like this should be approach with that angle of writing --- refering to the people and having them think. It appealed to me because after I read the lede, I wondered what country would give the best treatment [I even guessed]. The lede makes a smooth transition to the nutgraf which lets the reader know excactly what the rest of the article is about. The nutgraf also had a bit of humor in it --- "anywhere but the United States."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/22/science/22tier.html?ref=science

Charlotte's Web

Scientific Name: Neoscona crucifera
Common Name: Orb-weaver (Orb refering to a circular object ---hence the spider's web shape).

How can someone not love the spider that saved Wilbur's life in "Charlotte's Web." If Fern learned to love the Orb-weaver spider, I'm pretty sure anyone can do the same.
There are alot of people (especially females) who are terrified of spiders, but I've always wondered why the fright. Yes, they have eight legs, they catch their dinner in their webs, and they create their own living space; These living spaces --webs-- are the most intriguing thing about spiders.
Orb-weaver spiders are one of the three largest spider groups from the family of Araneidae, which is very diverse. The spiders vary in color [bright colors], size, and shape, but all consist of two rows with four eyes on each. You may think they have 20/20 vision;however, they have really bad vision and rely on the vibrations of the web as a alarm for food and predators.
Orb-weavers possess four spinnerets, which help them produce different textures of silk: non-stick silk for the radial web lines, sticky silk for the spiraling strands, and sometims even ultraviolet silk to attract insects. When vertically building their webs, Orb-weavers attach their strands to basically anything ranging from manmade ojects to stems, creating these sometimes massive webs that are several feet in width.
The oldest evidence of these spiders originated during the Jurassic period and the oldest known true orb-weaver is Mesozygiella dunlopi, from theLower Cretaceous. Several fossils show that there were three major orb weaving families: Araneidae, Tetragnathidae and Uloboridae, which have evolved about 140 million years ago and all have the common origin.

Fun Facts:
- Males, who are much smaller than the females, spend most of their time trying to find a mate;however, the females await for a male to impregnant them, so they can later eat the male as her next meal. Talk about marital issues.
- When female spiders lay several hundreds of eggs in they fall, they wrap the sack in thick silk because she knows she will die from the first frost of the winter, leaving her eggs to be hatched in spring. What a Mom!
- Orb-weavers are carnivores and those weavers who are large enough can consume a hummingbird or frog.
- When a orb-weaver's prey is caught on her web, she uses her venom to paralyze them, making it much easier to digest.

Orb-weavers can be found everywhere except cold areas such as the Artic and Antartic regions. In North America, there are approx. 180 species of the weaver.

Little White Lichen Moth

Scientific Name: Clemensia albata
Folk Name: Little White Lichen Moth

It was a sunny yet chilly day last week Wednesday when I stumbled upon an annoying "white thing" nagging me as I was walking to class. I paused to watch this tiny insect live its' life for just a moment being curious as to what it was. The fly of some sort decided to pose for my cameraphone as soon as I decided to use this mysterious insect for the blog. I've always thought they were butterflies, but my friend assumed it had to be a moth. As soon as I got to the Google homepage, my mind was blank and I didn't know what to type in the search box since I never learned about this insect. After using descriptive adjectives, I finally found a picture that had the exact moth that I had in my picture.

The pattern on the moth's wings are captivating. How could such a small, "annoying" insect be so beautiful and interesting at the same time? The creases in the wings resembles the wrinkles on a human's skin. A sort of wavy line flows through the wings which makes the little moth more definitive. The moth is the size of your standard flashdrive (maybe even smaller) and is as light as a piece of paper. The color can vary, but I've seen an off-white moth Wednesday.

The moths are known to be seen more from June to September. So watch out and pay close attention to your surroundings, you might get a chance to see this little mysterious insect.

Family: Arctiidae
Common Family: Tiger moths
Food: The larvae feed on lichens (fungus that grows on leaflike or crust liemt hings such as rocks, trees, etc.).

Bathing, but Not Alone

While a group of microbiologists from the University of Colorado were conducting a project measuring the amount of microbes (a bacterium that causes diseases) in the indoor human environment, they discovered that humans bathe in the bacteria daily.

Norman Pace, head microbiologist of the experiment, said he had found 15 different types of bacteria in showers across the country. New York City has the highest level of a microbe called Mycobacterium avium. Wow. This startling statement is frightening because I'm a New Yorker who takes at least two showers a day. I'm disgusted knowing that I splash this tuberculosis related bacteria on my face. Luckily, Pace says that we're in no serious danger except those who have weak immune systems.

Cities treat their water supply with chlorine in order to kill most of the bacteria; however, this only gives avium an opportunity to live in our showers. Temporary solutions would be to use a metal showerhead rather than a plastic one and running the water for 30 seconds before entering the shower since the bacteria builds in the showerhead from the water causing it to spray out as soon as the shower is turned on.

Interesting Fact: Pace tested the air in New York City subways and found that "it's like outdoor air, fresh." The only reason for this fact is because the trains push fresh air into the tunnels when they're in motion. "It's healthier to breathe subway's air than the shower's mist."

Pace said these projects rose from a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which was curious as to how they could get microbes that would be useful in a bioterriost attack. Scary, right? This article relates to alot of readers and journalism's 5 W's and H have been answered clearly.

"Dr. Pace said he was still taking showers, which he deemed no more dangerous than getting out of bed in the morning. “The yuck factor isn’t nearly as great as people may think it is,” he said." -The Science Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/15/health/15shower.html?ref=science

A Problem the Size of a Pea

I'm glad I can finally relate to a medical issue that was written in The New York Times. I've always wondered about those yellowish, smelly pebble size things that randomly come out of my mouth. Like Meghann Swan, a source in the article, and many others I know, including myself, have been victims of these foul-smelling blobs. We never thought to ask a professional because it didn't seem serious or we've just found our own remedies to take care of the issue. I don't suffer from it, but I have experienced it. It causes people to continuously have occurrences of strep throat, sore throats, and/or swallowing complications. These tiny stones are a buildup of mucus, dead cells, and other debris that gets caught in the tonsil causing the yellowish color to appear. Bacteria feeds on this stone, giving it the funk. This can be very irritating on a daily basis. This specific article is the ultimate service piece helping the people that suffer from this thing called tonsilloliths, cope with the rarely known medical issue.The article has a tremendous impact on readers and influences them to take action by including home remedies sources have given the journalist. A large amount of Americans suffer from it; however, most doctors don't know what it is and they tell their patients "it's just a piece of food."

Luckily, I don't suffer from it. I've just experienced it. Those who do most likely have bad breath and their social lives are heavily affected. The journalist, Elizabeth Svoboda, included extended help in her article referring victims/readers to a doctor who sells medicated mouthwashes and sprays to help people deal with this "minor" issue. The journalist has done extensive research which makes her credible. This was a expertise advice piece which allowed readers to relate and react. Unfortunately, there is no real solution besides going under the knife to get your tonsils removed --tonsillectomy. Linked to the article was a website where tonsilloliths sufferers go for advice and sympathy (wrongdiagnosis.com).
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/health/01tons.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=in%20tonsils,%20a%20problem%20the%20size%20of%20a%20pea&st=cse