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Rita and Mike on the Elephant Walk Tandem
Here we are on our homemade tandem after finishing the 30+ mile St. Paul Classic a few years back. We have missed the Classic with assorted injuries-back/wrist/etc but we are healthy for the 2011 season and look forward some good rides and I(Mike) am shooting for 1000 miles tandem and equal solo. We'll see.
We love to ride in the Classic as you get to see some serious hardware/outfits and see great riders too. I hate to have them go by me as I have a problem with my competitive gene , at least that is what Rita says. The best part is the tribal aspect of the event. We are are bicycle riders together and we have something to share , the experience of riding in large groups and stretched out for a long way. There are stops with food and entertainment and all and all it is a wonderful way to spend a half a day on the road.
We have become somewhat devoted bike riders. Rita and I log in the area of 1000 miles together each summer. (I-Mike- also ride solo)and hope for at least as good of a season this year . We have now been biking for 10+ years(newcomers compared to many).The main benefit is that we are fitter than any point in our lives. As the Elephant Walk keeps us busy in the summer we ride early AM or in the evening.We usually manage to ride just over 18 miles 2-5 times a week and return to the inn at about 7 AM , to start breakfast. A Favorite ride in the evening is out to the Gausthaus Restaurant for a beer and one of their great sampler platters. A nice light dinner and exercise too. You get to ride next to McKusick lake and Oak Glen Country Club.
Our favorite ride is 6+ miles from the B&B to Pine Point Park on Washington County Rd 5 and 55, the terminus/beginning of the Gateway Trail; this a wonderful resource for biking/roller blading/walking, etc, and is a vital part of our(both personal and public)health care system. From Pine Point Park we take the Gateway for 6+ miles to highway 12; which turns into Myrtle St in Stillwater. We return to Stillwater on a paved trail next to hwy 12 for our last 6 miles. We see deer and turkeys on a regular basis. You will see horses in their pastures,riders too, and a few farms. The Gateway Trail's generally flat( an old rail bed) terrain is a great place to ride, especially for new riders. When we first start to ride each season we put the bike on the back of the car to avoid some of the hills and drive to Pine Point Park. After a few of these " training " rides we are ready for the hills. We would then ride 10-16 miles on the gentle hills the Gateway offers.We see a lot of riders even in the early AM which is great. If you come to Stillwater, bring your bike and take a ride.
Jan 19, 2011
In our travels we get to meet all kinds of folks from all corners of the earth this year we met Thomas, a German fellow. He is also staying at the Baan Kaew guest house in Chiang Mai, Thailand . He is wheel chair bound but has a wonderful attachment that allows him to manually crank a bicycle like drive train to his chair. So he cranks, he is a strong guy, instead of walking. I have rented a bike , as usual, and plan to ride with Thomas . I hope I can keep up as I am not in my best cycling shape. If not then not. I will be riding with the Chiang Mai Cycling Club on Sunday(s)and will be asking Thomas to join in.
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Dec 20, 2012-Crash Report
On a cycle outing I decided to see how I'd do on Doi Su Tep temple mountain in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Its a big climb and I was not going to attempt the whole 15km climb as I didn't get as much saddle time as I have in past years. So I wasn't in the best shape and as it turned out my biking skills were not up to the descent . On a particularly nasty corner I crashed into a concrete drainage ditch. I woke up to the park rescue team working on my wounds they could see. I actually had a bunch of broken ribs, broken collar bone and scapula and a punctured lung . I spent 8 days in Chiang Mai Ram hospital with a chest tube to drain my lung of fluid. I am now totally healed , April 15, 2013 and the biking season is a bit delayed by the weather but I plan on a lot of miles this year.


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Hi,Summary: is it possible to configure access control such that users to can add, but not delete, entries?
Details: My planned schema has a branch: ou=tags,dc=example,dc=com The entries below this are like this: objectClass=groupOfNames cn=sometagname member=<user dn 1> member=<user dn 2> member=<user dn 3> ...I have worked out how to make it so users can only add and remove themselves from a tag:
access to dn.children="ou=tags,dc=example,dc=com" attrs=member,entry # Allow people to add and remove themselves from any other tag by dnattr=member selfwrite # Allow anyone to read by anonymous readSo far so good, but I would like authenticated users to be able to add new entries (tags), and add themselves as members to them, but _not_ to be able to delete tags.
Even better, the tag would be deletable, or even automatically removed, but only if the user removed their own name and there were no more members - i.e. it was empty. (I believe the member attribute is mandatory in groupOfNames, and I don't want it to be impossible for someone to remove their name because they are the only member!)
This is difficult, because as far as I can see the "write" permission does not distinguish between adding and deleting.
Can someone tell me if this is possible? Thanks, Gerv

subset: commoncrawl


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Chicago Fire defender Jalil Anibaba was voted MLS Player of the Week by the North American Soccer Reporters (NASR) for Week 32. Anibaba notched a first half brace as the Fire defeated the Columbus Crew 3-2 to close out the MLS regular season as winners of seven of their final 10 games.
The rookie defender opened his MLS account in the 11th minute when Pavel Pardo sent a hopeful ball into the penalty area and Anibaba glanced a header past Crew goalkeeper William Hesmer and into the back of the net for a 1-0 Fire advantage.
The University of North Carolina product solidified his grasp on the Player of the Week Award when fellow center back Cory Gibbs sent a driven cross into the area and Anibaba tucked a well-timed, looping header over Hesmer and inside the back post. Fire defenders have accrued six goals in 2011, all of which were scored on headers in the box.
The rookie center back became only the second defender to capture the award in 2011 joining Seattle Sounders FC's Jeff Parke. Anibaba is the second Fire player to win the MLS Player of the Week award alongside Fire midfielder Marco Pappa, who took home the honor in Week 29.
The MLS Player of the Week is selected each week of the regular season by a panel of journalists from NASR. The group consists of members of print, television, radio and online media. More information can be found at http://www.soccerreporters.com/.


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Toolkit for the Home Florist
Recently I've been approached by quite a few people looking to learn about arranging flowers at home. Professional floral designs can be expensive, of course, and there is a time and place for them (otherwise I'd be out of a job!), but I think these days, DIY flower design appeals both as a frugal alternative and as a comforting domestic and artistic task.
While a simple, unfussy arrangement can be stunning, of course there's more to floral design than just sticking some stems in a vase, and I'll be introducing you to various techniques in this column from time to time. But for now, let's start at the beginning and talk tools.
A lot of specialized items common in flower shops aren't necessary for the home toolkit. That being said, if you're going to dive into this as a hobby, why not collect a few relatively inexpensive tools for your arsenal? It's part of the fun. Here are my favorites, along with some suggestions for a basic vase collection:
• Shears. You'll want both a pair of scissor-like shears and a set of garden pruners. (Good-quality pruners have a built-in wire cutter at the bottom of the blade as well.) Personally I like Fiskars brand for scissors and Felco for pruners. Neither of these are cheapies, but this is not an area where you want to skimp. You've got to have good sharp shears and pruners to make clean cuts; otherwise you risk damaging your stems (which could impede the flower's ability to absorb water). If you like giving flowers as gifts and want to use ribbon, keep a separate pair of scissors on hand for ribbon-cutting.
• Utility Knife. Sometimes a knife is more useful than shears when it comes to getting a nice clean cut. Also you'll want one for stripping the bark off the ends of branches (a great way to prep branches for maximum water absorption without damaging them).
• Frogs. Floral frogs are little weighted spiky disks that go in the bottom of a container as an aid for placing stems exactly where you want them. These are a tremendously useful alternative to the even more useful but environmentally disgusting floral foam. They can be kind of expensive, but used/vintage ones are often available at flea markets. Don't bother with the plastic ones, which don't work very well in my experience.
• Scotch Tape. An even easier alternative to using a frog is to make a grid of scotch tape over the top of your container; you can place your stems in the squares created by the tape to allow for a more structured arrangement. Click over to this post for a nice photo tutorial.
• Floral Tape. You might not need to use floral tape much if you're not making corsages, but it's useful if you want to incorporate succulents into your arrangements (check out our tutorial here), or if you think you might venture into wreath-making or something along those lines.
• Floral Wire. Some florists use wire (and tape, for that matter) to manipulate uncooperative stems, but I tend to be more inclined to use the natural form of the flower just as it comes; that being said, wire is needed if you want to work with succulents (see above) or sometimes, for a more elaborate centerpiece, it's nice to use wire to bind a few stems together into a bundle. Start with some paddle wire and a few lengths of something thicker, like 16-gauge.
• Stem Stripper. I don't personally work with tons of roses, but when I do, the stem stripper is a must for removing the thorns. It's also helpful for berries and other thorny types. Sometimes I use it to strip the arms of little baby palm leaves too. If you're working with flowers and foliage cut from your own garden, it's likely that you'll appreciate having a stem stripper on hand.
• Twine. Jute twine comes in handy if you like to make hand-tied bouquets for gifts. Some people use rubber bands, which are just fine, but I find that twine is less likely to damage the stems. As you're working you can tie small bunches with twine and combine them together into the larger bouquet.
There are some other obvious items that you'll want to have on hand... rags for sopping up spills, a couple of buckets for conditioning your stems and keeping them in water while you work. Newspaper to protect the surface of your table or countertop. And of course: vases. Needless to say you can use almost anything as a vase, from a cereal bowl to an old suitcase; look around in your travels, at flea markets and in thrift stores, for interesting options. In the meantime, it's nice to have some few tried-and-true containers on hand. For a basic and versatile vase collection, try these:
• Two or three mason jars, clear or blue glass. I like the quart size best for bouquets. Old ones are available on ebay, or you can just buy the new canning jars.
• Two basic cylinders, one glass and one opaque. Any vase with a relatively narrow opening (but not too narrow) is a good place to start, and I like a basic cylinder, which looks streamlined and modern.
• One ceramic cube. Choose a neutral color like brown or olive green. Opaque containers make for an elegant and clean presentation, which is why I like ceramic. And a cube is a simple and timeless choice.
• One large glass or ceramic globe. A sphere-shaped vase with a small opening (maybe 4 inches or so) in the top is a gorgeous and dramatic container for a buffet centerpiece. I have one that's etched glass (cheap) and one fancy glazed ceramic one, painted with an Asian design (a wedding gift). At almost every party we have I use one of these for the centerpiece. They're fantastic with bunches of branches or with something weepy and romantic, like tulips.
Floral supplies are easy to find online and at craft stores. If you have a local flower market, pay a visit there as well; the supply vendors are often open to the public. And please feel free to add your own home flower arranging essentials in the comments below!
(Images: Caitlin Atkinson/Flora Grubb Gardens; Smith and Speed Mercantile; Fred Aldous; Blooms by the Box; Apartment Therapy)


text: > Maybe what you are really looking for is a way to stop one or more > processes and save them to disk, instead of the entire system state. This > is a feature I would think could be extremely useful, but I'm not sure > anyone is implementing a way to do this. Anyone know? There are several such systems. Condor does it, RWCP's Score-on-Linux does it, and there's a guy in Brazil who has a fairly ugly x86-only checkpoint. You often have to add hacks to support stuff, i.e. re-open MPI sockets. -- g


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A leader is one who, out of madness or goodness, volunteers to take upon himself the woe of the people. There are few men so foolish, hence the erratic quality of leadership. John Hoyer Updike
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Learning and Culture Director at Stellar Philippines
Franelyn Saguindang Riego de Dios, MS has been in training and leadership development for more than a decade now. In earning her Master of Science in Biology degree, she joined the College of Science and Mathematics faculty of MSU-IIT and published her studies in Asia Life and Philippine Scientists Journals. For her, moving into the corporate world felt odd at first but with the scientific method and discipline in her backpack, it has become a fulfilling experience. You may also visit her personal Science & Leadership Blog Site at Leadership Genome Project. She also enjoys music (sings and plays the piano) and art (portrait sketch).
Latest posts by Fran (see all)
- Ellen DeGeneres - May 27, 2018
- Albert Einstein - April 1, 2018
- Malala - November 12, 2017


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Horst Wackerbarth ist ein Sammler, er sammelt Schicksale.
Zentraler Teil seines Lebenswerks sind neben anderen Projekten Werke mit der Roten Couch. Seit über einem Vierteljahrhundert bereist er die Welt mit seinem Sofa, welches er in das Lebensumfeld unterschiedlicher Menschen platziert und diese darauf porträtiert.
Kinder und Alte, Arme und Reiche, Prominente und Unbekannte, Nobelpreisträger und Analphabeten in der Eiswüste Alaskas und dem Regenwald in Südamerika, in den Metropolen Europas und den Dörfern Sibiriens haben auf der Roten Couch Platz genommen.
Ziel ist, ein Porträtwerk zu schaffen, eine Galerie der Menschheit. Die Rote Couch ist dabei gemeinsamer Nenner, roter Faden, Bühne, Thron, Kommunikationsplattform zugleich.
Die Rote Couch bringt alle Menschen auf Augenhöhe!
The Red Couch – A Gallery of Mankind vs. ELPIO Production
The Red Couch Tour - Canada 150: A Rip Off?
Does the Canadian Goverment funds copyright infringement?
Düsseldorf, Germany and Montreal, Canada, August 14, 2017
Renowned Photographer and Video Artist Horst Wackerbarth Denounces Canada 150 Red Couch Tour as an Infringement of his Rights.
Horst Wackerbarth, the renowned German photographer and video artist, has lodged a formal complaint against the Canada 150 Red Couch Tour,
which is currently touring Canada in association with celebrations surrounding the 150th anniversary of Confederation.
Wackerbarth states that he is "profoundly offended" by Red Couch Tour which he sees as a blatant imitation of his life's work The Red Couch – A Gallery of Mankind.
Wackerbarth has lodged a formal complaint with the organizers of the Canada 150 Red Couch Tour, Elpio Production of Ottawa Ontario,
as well as with Heritage Canada which has provided substantial funding to Elpio for the Red Couch Tour.
He seeks only that he be credited for his lifework and paid reasonable compensation for the use of his work.
His overtures have been rebuffed, negotiations for a settlement failed.
"This Canadian initiative which was done without my approval is extremely upsetting to me as an artist who has invested almost 40 years of my life in
The Red Couch – A Gallery of Mankind. This work collects people and fates. Since 1979 I have been traveling around the world with my red couch,
which I place in a variety of peoples' living environments and in which I portray and interview them as they are seated on or around the couch.
My subjects are young and old, poor and rich, famous and unknown, Nobel laureates and illiterates in the ice deserts of Alaska and the rainforests of South America,
in the big cities of Europe and in the villages of Siberia", says Wackerbarth.My aim is to create a work which portrays a gallery of humanity.
The red couch is a common element, recurrent theme, stage, throne and communication platform all in one," he adds.
To this day, 989 people in 53 countries have sat down and been photographed on Wackerbarth's Red Couch.
The Red Couch works have been published in 10 monographs, have been displayed in more than 50 exhibitions in museums and galleries around the globe,
included in 13 major collections of contemporary art. Several documentary films have been produced on Wackerbarth's Red Couch works.
From 1979 through 2017 Wackerbarth has realized 17 Red Couch projects worldwide, including:
The Red Couch – A Portrait of America 1979 – 1983
Red Couch stories, a TV- series, 1990 – 1996
Red Couch Gallery of Mankind – Europe, 1998 – 2004 (to celebrate the enlargement of the European Community on May 1 2004)
Red Couch - heimat.nrw, 2015 - 2016 (to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the state of NRW, Germany)
Wackerbarth's life work The Red Couch - A Gallery of Mankind puts all people on a par.
It is a "work in progress", a never ending story, which will only end with Wackerbarth's death.
"Any projects I may have had to bring my Red Couch to Canada have now been jeopardized by this misappropriation of my work.
Canada is a wonderful country and its 150th anniversary is a true cause for celebration. But I am saddened that this celebration has now been tarnished
by these unfortunate events, that others are profiting at my expense and that the Canadian Government finances a blatant imitation" concludes Wackerbarth.
For further information, contact: Horst Wackerbarth, email@example.com, phone +49-172-251-93.92


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Comprehensive DescriptionRead full entry
Comprehensive Description
Ruud (1954) published the first detailed report on several Antarctic fish species in the family Channichthyidae, including the Mackerel Icefish (Champsocephalus gunnari), that have nearly colorless blood as a consequence of a total lack of hemoglobin (many icefish species, including the Mackerel Icefish, also do not produce the related myoglobin proteins in their muscles [Grove et al. 2004] and, like many related Antarctic fishes, carry compounds in their blood that prevents it from freezing [Cheng and Detrich 2007; di Prisco et al. 2007]). This lack of hemoglobin results in an oxygen-carrying capacity in icefishes that is less than 10% of that seen in closely related red-blooded species. However, the problem of obtaining sufficient oxygen is at least somewhat reduced because the solubility of gases is inversely proportional to temperature, making oxygen content in Antarctic waters extremely high. Nearly all icefishes live only in the cold-stable and oxygen-rich environment of the Southern Ocean. The Mackerel Icefish is one of the few icefishes with a low-Antarctic range of distribution, nearly all the others being confined to high Antarctic latitudes (Kock and Everson 2003). It is a prominent member of the coastal fish fauna of the Seasonal Pack-Ice Zone and the islands north of it (Kock and Everson 1997). Mackerel Icefish are generally found above 300 m in depth and have never been found below 700 m (Kock and Everson 2003 and references therein).
A range of anatomical and physiological features of icefishes appear to be adaptations associated with the lack of hemoglobin. Notably, modifications of the cardiovascular system of icefishes help compensate for the absence of oxygen-binding hemoglobin. Denser vascularization supplying tissues with especially high oxygen demand, such as retinal tissue, has been shown in some icefishes, including the Mackerel Icefish. More generally, icefishes possess large capillaries and have blood volumes that are two to four times larger than those of red-blooded fishes. Hearts are larger in icefishes than in red-blooded fishes of similar size, resulting in mass-specific cardiac outputs that are several times greater than those of red-blooded species. As a consequence of these features, icefishes are able to circulate large blood volumes at relatively high flow rates. This is achieved at low arterial blood pressures due to decreased systemic resistance to flow. The combination of high-throughput cardiovascular systems, waters of high oxygen content, and relatively low absolute metabolic rates enables icefish to deliver sufficient oxygen to their tissues. (Kock 2005 and references therein; Wujcik et al. 2007 and references therein; Garofalo et al. 2009)
Mackerel Icefish are active bentho-pelagic fish which migrate up and down the water column in a daily cycle (Kock and Everson 2003 and references therein). In contrast to many Antarctic fishes, when Mackerel Icefish form dense aggregations, they often stay in the water column 20 to 30 m or even farther above the bottom during the day (Kock and Jones 2005). Mackerel Icefish mature at three to four years of age (Kock 2005) and may exceed 60 inches in length and live to 15 years. Sexually mature males have a significantly higher first dorsal fin than do females (Kock and Jones 2005 and references therein). Mackerel Icefish were targeted by commercial fisheries in the 1970s and 1980s and most stocks had been overexploited by the beginning of the 1990s (Kock 2005).
Main et al. (2009) studied the stomach contents of more than 2000 Mackerel Icefish individuals. They found that diet varied significantly between year and age classes. In general, the diet was dominated by Antarctic Krill (Euphausia superba) and by the amphipod Themisto gaudichaudii. Smaller (younger) individuals tended to include in their diets a higher proportion of T. gaudichaudii and smaller euphausiids (such as Thyanoessa sp.) and fewer Antarctic Krill.
Kock and Everson (2003) review what is known about the ecology of this species. Kock et al. (2007) review the history of the Mackerel Icefish fishery.


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Keselowski's Discount Tire Dodge Dominates at Kansas
October 10, 2011
Keselowski led four times throughout the afternoon after starting on the front row on the strength of the morning's qualifying effort, which saw the reigning NASCAR Nationwide Series Champion post the second-fastest qualifying lap.
In the opening laps of the event, after battling Carl Edwards for the lead, Keselowski radioed to his team "that was fun man, did you see that? That was some good racing."
The No. 22 Dodge Challenger was in a class of its own all day long and Crew Chief Todd Gordon only called for minor air pressure adjustments to keep up with the changing track conditions during the race. The Discount Tire crew gave Keselowski solid pit stops over the course of the 300-mile race and the only miscue of the day saw Keselowski stall the car as he left the pits during a caution period, which put him back to 14th in the running order for the ensuing race restart.
In a display of dominance rarely witnessed on a mile-and-a-half oval, Keselowski drove the Discount Tire Dodge from 14th to first place in just six laps. After a late-race caution flag, Edwards was able to come out in front of Keselowski exiting pit lane. As the Penske Racing driver restarted the race in second place, Keselowski reclaimed the lead on Lap 187 and carried it to the checkered flag.
"You couldn't ask for more, that's for sure. This car was just hauling the mail," said Keselowski after exiting the car in Victory Lane. "We have fast cars, good pit stops, all these things. Just an awesome day, it was very special. I wish I could have cars like this all the time, but I'm very, very thankful to have a car this fast. Ready to go race 'em on Sunday now, I can tell you that. This Discount Tire Dodge Challenger...awesome."
Saturday's result marked Keselowski's fourth win of the season and his 16th career Nationwide Series victory.
The Nationwide Series will compete next weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the Dollar General 300 Miles of Courage. The race will be televised live on ESPN2 on Friday, October 14 at 7:30 p.m. The race will also be broadcast on PRN and Sirius 90.


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Fancy a Cuppa: Cozy Mug Collections
Cozy sweaters, knit blankets, and fuzzy slippers are all great ways to ward off the January chill. But my favorite is wrapping my hands around a piping cup of coffee, tea, or hot chocolate. Break free from the cupboard — this pretty collection of mugs from around the web are functional and beautiful.
1. Featured on Design*Sponge, Elias and Theresa pick up a Starbucks mug from every new place they travel.
2. Is there anything sweeter than this display from Amy & Keith's Candy Coated Dollhouse? I think not.
3. Spotted on Decor8, a frame adds drama to this shadowbox collection from Living Etc. L'art pour la mug!
4. Simple IKEA shelving creates a space-saving hallway display. Flickr via Pinterest
5. Loved this ReadyMade 100 contest entry featured on Re-Nest. Spoons and mugs go hand in hand!
Images: As linked above.


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Priests and parishioners killed. A cathedral almost completely obliterated. The head of a wooden statue of Mary badly burned, but miraculously intact.
It's been 50 years since the reconstruction of the Urakami Catholic Cathedral, which the atomic bomb ravaged in 1945 in Nagasaki, Japan. Built by the French in 1914, it had been the largest Catholic church in Asia.
The superior of the Jesuits in Japan suggested the creation of a memorial church, and citizens competed in an architectural contest, according to Catholic News Service archives.
An unnamed American benefactor gave $50,000 to erect the church.
"Americans dropped the bomb," the benefactor said, "so Americans should help build the memorial."
Foreign nations raised about $60,000. Much of it came from Catholic War Veterans, based in Alexandria, Va. A spokesperson could not verify this and said many veterans from that time have passed away.
A group in Switzerland has been pushing to place the Mary statue on the World Heritage List since 2001. A displaced Japanese soldier and Catholic priest found the eyeless statue while praying in the ruins of the church, according to group's Web site. He kept it in his monastery for 30 years until giving it to a professor, who kept it for 15 years. It then spent some time in an atomic bomb museum until the group's leader helped it find its home in the rebuilt church.
More than 20,000 people have signed petitions to have the statue recognized.


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Thank you to all our Makers and Volunteers for coming out to Carl Schurz High School this Saturday, April 21st to launch the first annual Mini Maker Faire Chicago Northside! And thank you to everyone who attended, planted a flower, pet a chicken, blasted a nerd, shot a basketball, participated in a circus, picked a lock, built your own Chicago, built a blinkie, constructed a catapult, designed recycled jewelry, composed a song, learned about glass-blowing, created a T-shirt scarf, painted your own knife wound, braided Renaissance style hair, joined a hackerspace, worked a 3D printer, operated a robot, rode a DIY segway, completed an electrical circuit, chilled with the Wandering States, and MADE something!
Please check the website in the coming weeks for pictures, videos, and blogs about the event. Follow us on Facebook and check out posts on Twitter: #makerfairechicago #makerfairechicagonorthside #makerfaire.
P.S. If you missed the basketball shooters from FIRST Robotics, here they are, thanks to @pdp7


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Public Comment
Comment on Hazardous Fire Risk Reduction Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Berkeley/Oakland Hills
I am submitting this comment [to FEMA] as a frequent user of the Claremont Canyon and Strawberry Canyon trails and resident at 6442 Hillegass Avenue, Oakland; and apparently a mildly dissenting member of the Claremont Canyon Conservancy. While my professional practice over 40 years has concentrated on preparation of or response to comprehensive comments on environmental documents, this comment will not focus on linear detail but attempt summarily to reach the heart of the matter.
The EIS posits a choice between only two alternatives: do nothing, or remove all the eucalyptus and Monterey pine. And so the community appears to have divided: those advocating wholesale acceptance of the FEMA proposed project, and those advocating no action. This circumstance, which flows from legal error so gross as to invite FEMA to withdraw the DEIS and proceed properly lest one of the interested advocates prosecute a worthy legal challenge, represents a regrettable disservice to the community. As I frequently advise my clients and my students, in the face of extremes your challenge is to find the third way. FEMA must develop and implement the third way of selective tree removal.
This writer accepts the reality that eucalyptus and other exotics pose a fire threat in the Claremont and Strawberry Canyon areas. This hazard must be moderated to the greatest degree balanced with other considerations. At the same time, this writer believes that stands of eucalyptus and Monterey pines within the two canyons form an important element of the historic and evolving landscape. One need only consult paintings from the California plein air school to comprehend that these trees have for a century formed a recognizable part of our region's environment and ecology. Just as the law recognizes that few absolutely natural watercourses remain in the state, such that we treat the changed water resource as "natural" for regulatory purposes, so should these trees be understood as earning recognition as part of the landscape that we view and in which we recreate.
Totalitarian elimination of this heritage landscape should be no more pursued than would we pursue elimination of other exotics, for example the striped bass from the Delta, or the post-McClaren vegetation in Golden Gate Park. And yet, action must be taken to improve both the fire security and visual access in these two canyons. Not all environmental conflicts lend themselves to beneficial resolution of competing values, but this one does. On rewrite the authors of the EIS will have the opportunity to honor the philosophy of Immanuel Kant and Isaiah Berlin, that all values are relative.
A thinning of the exotics to preserve the most prominent trees, while removing concentrations that pose environmental risk and actually detract from the views of both hikers and observers, should be developed as a third alternative. For example, the prominent row of Monterey pines atop the north ridge of Claremont Canyon provide a visual landmark to users of the canyon and to those from afar; these should be maintained. Similarly, the landmark eucalyptus inside the elbow of the second switchback on the Claremont Canyon trail -- that is, the switchback that overlooks the Golden Bear soccer field -- would be unthinkable to destroy. Selective thinning will leave these untouched, while promoting the health of the remaining forest and improving visual access from points along the trails. Shade and habitat will be preserved. This worthy example is the one followed by UC Berkeley a few years ago in Strawberry Canyon, and which now forms the preferred method of fuel reduction within the Tahoe National Forest.
The EIS is fatally flawed by deliberately avoiding the development of this alternative, instead including a partial clearance as a variant and part of the proposed project. This fallacy enables the decision-makers to avoid independent consideration of a partial-clearance alternative on its own, and more regrettably, from conducting the legally-required comparison of that alternative to both project and no action. The present EIS enables the decision-maker to avoid the legal necessity of identifying the alternative, other than no action, that is environmentally favorable; that strikes at the heart of NEPA.
Finally, the EIS fails to stand as a joint EIS/EIR, and thus cannot serve the state-law actors (UC Berkeley and EBRPD) whose approvals to carry out the project also require environmental documentation. This error is also more than academic, in that not only must those local agencies make use of an EIR, but they must formulate and adopt enforceable mitigation measures more potent than those required by NEPA; and prior to that, consider alternatives that are capable of attaining most, if not all, of the project objectives, which a thoughtfully-designed thinning project can accomplish.


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Image: Cross boomerang E013838
This is an Aboriginal cross boomerang collected from Cairns in 1900. It consists of two pieces of thin pointed wood tied crosswise with split lawyer cane, which is threaded through a central hole. Both pieces of wood are painted with red and white ochre bands, some outlined in black charcoal. Each piece of wood measures 30 cm in length and 4.2 cm in width and ranges from 2.7 cm to 0.7 cm in depth. E013838
- Photographer:
- Australian Museum Photography Unit
- Rights:
- © Australian Museum
Last Updated:
Tags Aboriginal, indigenous, cross boomerang,


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Homeseller Tips
Deciding to sell your home is big decision. Here at WK Real Estate, we do our best to make it as easy as possible. These are what we consider to be the 7 basic steps in the home selling process.
- Plan and Prepare - Getting your home ready to go on the market can feel like a big task. Start by thinking about how you could improve your home's value. Things like new paint and updating the landscaping can go a long way.
- Find a REALTOR - Going at the process of selling your home on your own is a huge and daunting task. A WK Realtor adheres to the strict National Association of Realtor's (NAR) code of ethics and is licensed to assist, market, and help sell your home on your behalf.
- Set the price - A person's opinion of a home varies depending on what part they play in the transaction. There is the price the owners would like to get depending on their own needs, the value buyers would like to offer, then of course finally the sale price is the agreement between the two parties.
- Market it - Your WK Realtor will handle the majority of this for you. Your agents will host open houses and advertise for them in print and online. An Individual Property Website will also be made and marketed, as well as your home being on hundreds of websites locally and nationally.
- Sell it - Before your house is actually sold, you must review the offers and determine if any are suitable. Did they buyer try to bury extra costs in clauses? Are you both on the same page as to what is expected? These are some questions to consider before accepting the offer.
- Closing - This is the 'settlement' stage of the process. It's the meeting in which the buyers pay out money to the owner and makes sure the purchaser's title is properly recorded in local records.
- Move out - Depending on how far you're going, you might need a truck or just a large van. Refer to our 'Moving Checklist' for more information.


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To be frank, I'm pissed with this team. There is absolutely no excuse for the performance its had this week.
I'm not one to normally go off and rant, but it seemed a little appropriate here. The Dodgers made this huge blockbuster deal (in August, no less) and they can't even beat the likes of the Rockies or Diamondbacks.
I get it, playing in Colorado sucks. I piss and moan about it all the time when the Dodgers go there. But this was not only a last-place Rockies' team, but one of the worst, most depleted teams in baseball.
If you need further proof of that, Jeff Francis shut the Dodgers out for five innings on Monday.
Yes, that Jeff Francis.
That was the beginning of this (so far) horrific week. They were never in the game on Tuesday before barely escaping with a win on Wednesday -- a game that was 10-1 at one time (final was 10-8).
Let me just get the scoreboard watching out of the way: the Giants got the Astros this week and swept that series. Houston probably should have won at least one of the games, but had a chance to win two. Then, miraculously, the Cubs took the first game of the three-game series on Friday. However, they lost today's affair 5-2.
Point being, the Dodgers weren't going to get help from other teams, so taking down teams like the Rockies and Diamondbacks were of the utmost importance. The Dodgers have games remaining against Cinicnnati, Washington and St. Louis -- all playoff-contending squads. The Giants don't.
The Dodgers have lost nine straight games to Arizona and trail the season series 10-4. That is completely unacceptable. I know Arizona won the division last year, but they aren't the same team (even though they are). This is even more depressing knowing Justin Upton owns a .759 OPS this season.
The Dodgers have been hit by injuries. Matt Kemp missed a couple games this week and Chad Billingsley went back on the disabled list. But that's no excuse to lose games to mediocre-to-bad teams.
Believe it or not, the Dodgers are closer to Atlanta in the wild card race (1.5 games) than they are San Francisco in the division race (4.5 games). It always seemed like it was division or bust. So, I guess that's the silver lining in the whole situation.
There is just far too much talent on this roster (injuries notwithstanding) for them to be this far behind the Giants and playing like absolute crap.
Manager Don Mattingly held a closed-door meeting earlier this week because of the team's piss-poor performance. It didn't help.
Let's just hope the Dodgers make the playoffs and, preferably, don't have to play in the one-game wild card affair. Otherwise, this could be a long winter.
The future is bright, but the present is rather dim at this point.
Photo credit: Mad Peruvian Media, Flickr


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This week Mary Lynn is joined again by comedian Eliza Skinner (@elizaskinner) and psychic Kris Cahill (kriscahill.com). Eliza gets a mini reading from Kris which reveals Eliza's need to let out her inner evil empress. They all discuss the nature, meaning and purpose of "being psychic." The snack of the week was forgotten and eaten after the podcast was done. (It was fortune cookies.)
Kickin' It Mary Lynn Style #28: Kris Cahill
Was it Dana cook? Please tell me it was Dane cook.
I really like the point of view the psychic had, about reading and being aware of the energies we give off. Finding chemistry in a relationship is about finding the energy that fits well with yours. We talk about someone having good or bad luck, but that is often about the energy they give off, it's something we all know but don't let ourselves seriously recognize or fully appreciate. Good talk!


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Stampede Hold Off Sioux City for 9th Straight Win
SIOUX CITY, IA - Two goals in the first period and strong goaltending by Charlie Lindgren were enough for the Stampede on Saturday night in Sioux City as they took down the Musketeers 2-1 for their ninth straight win. Sam Rothstein and R.J. Majkozak scored for the Herd while Lindgren stopped 22 of 23 shots for his seventh straight win. The Herd are now 6-0-0 against the Musketeers this season.
The win gave the Stampede a four point lead over Fargo for first place in the West as the Herd improved to 25-8-1 while winning three games in a four game stretch. Sioux City fell to 3-9-8 in one-goal games this season and are now 6-21-8 overall.
Sioux City came to play and showed it early, scoring just 20 seconds into the game to take a 1-0 lead. Jared Kolquist brought the puck down the right wing boards and centered through the slot to Trevor Olson who one-timed a shot past the glove side of Stampede goaltender Charlie Lindgren to give the Musketeers a 1-0 edge. The Musketeers controlled much of the play in the first 10 minutes before the Stampede finally got a shot on goal and took control of the period.
The Herd would get on the board at 13:08 when Sam Rothstein tallied his 12th goal of the season. Thomas Forgione took the puck behind the net and sent it in front of the goal where Rothstein tucked the puck under the pads of Musketeer goaltender Kyle Hayton to tie the game at one. Sioux Falls took their first lead of the night at 17:40 when R.J. Majkozak recorded his third goal of the season. Ryan Siiro wristed a shot from the left circle that was gloved by Hayton, but Majkozak knocked the puck in mid-air past Hayton to give Sioux Falls a 2-1 lead after one period. The Herd outshot Sioux City 12-10 in the period.
In the second, Sioux Falls had three powerplay opportunities to increase the lead, but the Sioux City defense shutdown the Stampede and the game remained 2-1 at the end of two periods with the Stampede outshooting Sioux City 9-5.
In the third, the Stampede penalty kill held off a Sioux City rally. The Musketeers got three powerplay opportunities, but Charlie Lindgren shined between the pipes and the Stampede defense limited scoring chances as the Stampede held off the Musketeers for the 2-1 victory. Sioux Falls outshot Sioux City 24-23 on the night.


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CRESTVIEW � Pamela Junger has wanted to help special needs children since she was a teenager.
Editor�s Note: This concludes our series on north Okaloosa County Teachers of the Year.
CRESTVIEW � Pamela Junger has wanted to help special needs children since she was a teenager.
"I saw a (TV) movie when I was a junior in high school called 'A Circle of Children,' about a teacher working with special needs kids," Junger said. "When I saw (it), I knew what I wanted to do."
Junger has taught special education for the past 31 years in Okaloosa County, with the past four years at Southside Center. The school specializes in pre-kindergarten education for children ages 3-5, including children with learning disabilities.
Working with them is �rewarding,� Junger said.
"They are just so eager to learn; they are happy and loving," she said. "If you judge (them) by what you see physically, then you are way out of the ballpark."
Hands-on learning is an effective teaching tool, Junger said.
"They get in it, see it, touch it ... that is the best way they learn," she said.
Teaching assistant Pat Odom said Junger's love for her students also makes her a successful teacher.
"She really genuinely cares ... she wants them to progress as far as they can go," she said.
Working with parents also helps, Junger said.
"(Parents) are always supportive; they are always open to any new ideas we may have," she said. "We get a lot (of feedback) too. They will notice things at home that their kids need to work on ... and (we) work on them here."
Junger, Southside�s 2013 Teacher of the Year, has earned the recognition twice before. She accepted this year�s honor on behalf of the faculty and staff.
"There are some awesome teachers at this place," she said. "They put in just as much time and energy as I do."
Southside principal Debra Haan said she appreciates Junger�s willingness to instill such values in new teachers.
"She is the first one that will mentor a new teacher," Haan said.
"She will always open her door to assist any individual's needs."
Contact News Bulletin Staff Writer Matthew Brown at 850-682-6524 or email@example.com. Follow him on Twitter @cnbMatthew.


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Northeast Conference
Favorite: Bryant This is the first year the NEC owns an automatic bid. The Bulldogs (5-8) got off to a 1-8 start out of conference, but coach Mike Pressler's troops have rallied by winning four straight. In conference, Kevin Massa has won 81 percent of his faceoffs. Long-pole Mason Poli has 18 points. Contenders: Robert Morris, Quinnipiac, Sacred Heart Robert Morris (6-5) thrives in high-scoring games, with six players accumulating 20 points. Quinnipiac (5-6) is led by 37 points from Michael Sagl, but its defense is tied for No. 49 in the nation, surrendering 11.3 goals against per game. Sacred Heart (2-9) has beaten Mount St. Mary's and Wagner. After taking down Bucknell, Georgetown and Delaware, the Mount (4-9) has lost five straight games and is winless in the conference. NEC teams are a combined 14-38 out of conference in 2013.
Bryant Athletics
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|Other BSD and UNIX/UNIX-like Any other flavour of BSD or UNIX that does not have a section of its own.
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"The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words." -Philip K. Dick
This largely depends on the distribution. I know Debian does not do it.
Sheesh, I can't even get back into Linux, ever since I started using FreeBSD. I've tried FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD, and loved them all, FreeBSD the most. I haven't tried Dragonfly yet. Since then, I've tried some of the Linux distributions I've used before, and the feel bad.
"UNIX is basically a simple operating system, but you have to be a genius to understand the simplicity."
MacBook Pro (Darwin 9), iMac (Darwin 9), iPod Touch (Darwin 9), Dell Optiplex GX620 (FreeBSD 7.1-STABLE)
I am running ubuntu on my notebook (good support of all the hardware, amd64 nvidia drivers, didn't think that *BSD would provide sufficient support (hibernation essential, for example), I was lazy), but I must say that I am constantly annoyed by the lack of good documentation. Would it kill them to, say, _write_ a _man_page!!!!!!_
And the config files are who knows where, (I'd know where if it was listed in that man page!!!) and are messed around with by various gui tools (stay _out_ of my sources.list, please!!!)
Still everything works, and it is almost a pleasure to use most of the time.
The only dumb question is a question not asked.
The only dumb answer is an answer not given.
To say that about a Corey post is somewhat redundant.
In answer to Robbak, yes, that is my biggest complaint. When my job change brought me back to Linux, I was in shock for a few weeks. I would see a program I didn't get, type man <program_name> and find there was no man page. In /usr/share/doc there would be a one or two line non-explanation.
Mostly it's with Gnu programs.
I remember viewing a bug report on the fact that with RHEL 5, they moved the default named.conf and didn't tell anyone. The bug report said that's fine, but why not a one or two line README.REDHAT in /usr/share/doc/bind.
The developer's answer was, well, you just documented here. (I should add that their bugzilla is, errm, buggy--searches often don't work, plus, the database is so huge that the site is extremely slow.)
Conversely, they did another violation of POLA with their Rawhide, the equivalent of CURRENT. I posted on the mailing list that a line or two in the affected file would save a lot of people a lot of time, and within a few hours, the person working on that particular program had committed the change. (He also answered me on the list, agreeing.)
Linux man pages used to make me think I was stupid till I got to the BSDs and realized that no, it was that many man pages are very poorly written.
I saw a thread on a mailing list the other day that struck me as very typical. Someone asked for a tutorial, someone else suggested the site's home page. The OP wrote back that he had looked there, but found it obscure, for example, he didn't understand X Y and Z. The reply was that he should look at the intended audience of the tutorial and it was his fault for not reading enough in advance.
Rather than add a line or two or three to the tutorial, blame the reader. It strikes me, sometimes, as being like the Emperor's New Clothes. For those unfamiliar with the child's tale, a swindler convinces the emperor that only the pure of heart can see the marvelous suit he is being given. In a parade, everyone feels it's because they aren't pure, so no one mentions that he's in his underwear.
Finally, a child says, the emperor's in his underwear. I think Linux man pages are often like that--say it's badly done and you're jumped on for not knowing enough.
To repeat, I fell for this till I began reading BSD man pages.
scottro, you're right!
But a lot of BSD man pages aren't perfect, too - especially, if one is looking for some basic information (and is not an expert!). Much often I have read man pages and after I knew as much as before. Why? Because a) quite often they are lacking structure (like starting with the basics and then proceeding to the more advanced tasks) and b) they are very theoretical.
In my case I often make the experience, that I read a man-page and after that I still do not know what to do. Partially, it's because I'm not a native english-speaker. But even with a good dictionary it's sometimes hardly possible to get what the author wants to tell me.
And I think that it's sometimes because experts are writing for experts.
No, the BSD man pages aren't perfect, of course, for as you say, sometimes they too, as well as the handbook at times, are by experts for experts. One difference is that, (probably because of FreeBSD's smaller size) the man page authors and developers are more willing to listen.
(I thought you meant I was right about Corey_James. Speaking of English not being your native language, I think it's better than his, and he's from an English speaking country.)
On the other hand, for example, ifconfig might be hard for the beginner to follow, but at the end, it has the examples section. Robert Watson's page on jails is the example I always give when pointing out how a man page written for the busy professional should be--it doesn't ask you to google all over the place to figure it out, it says do this, then that, then this and explains what's going on.
With third party programs, it's hit and miss. The fluxbox man page is an example, in my mind, of how (and WHO) should write them. The writer is enthusiastic about the program and WANTS you to understand how to use it--it's full of comments like, "With fluxbox, this is easy!" Then shows you how to do it.
The BSD pages might not always be clearer than the Linux ones, but they are far more likely to have an EXAMPLES section, which is the most important. Plus, things ARE documented, even if it's not clear. For example, the RedHat based systems start about 40 programs by default. Many are not documented, or if they are, not to the point where you can really understand if they're necessary or not. Everything in BSD's /etc/rc.d/ and the defaults are documented to a point at least.
Once again, compliments on your English. What country are you from? I had no idea you weren't a native English speaker. (By the way, the "to" of nihonto should probably be tou, it's a long o, and would be written, in Japanese phonetics, as tou.)
Last edited by scottro; 10th July 2008 at 01:01 PM.
Nowadays I look them up much more often, because now I'm using OpenBSD alongside Debian, and - as some of you know - it's no good idea asking a question on an OpenBSD forum or mailinglist without having checked the FAQ and the man pages before.
In short: If the "first contact" fails, a lot of unexperienced users are lost for the man pages.
Concerning "nihonto" - I know that it's a long "o" at the end of the word. But up to now, I've always seen this way to write it:
I would say that Linux is always getting worse in some ways but improving in others. Linux is in a state of constant change. Just look at some of the changes recently. Tickless kernel, merging of x86 and amd64 architectures, supporting ide hard drives with the sata driver, and others. These changes are intended for good purpose, increased features or simplified code, but proper testing becomes impossible. Most of the distributions I've tried have required tweaking to work and fixing one issue leads to another. Updating? Don't. Who knows what you'll break.
davidgurvich, your statements can't help but remind me of some line posted somewhere in this forum about a "slackware box in the basement" running for over a decade without being touched. I wasn't sure if it was true or exaggeration but I would believe the former just as much as the latter >_>.
One time I was doing something in FreeBSD, the program kept giving me an error although I was doing it 'properly' as far as I understood the manual (along with testing every which similar way while trying to read the writers mind).
In the end I had to go look up the source code and mutter, "thanks for not writing an EXAMPLES section !#%!" !
When I was learning LaTeX I also read some good advice:
0/ Tell them simply and concisely what you want to tell them.
1/ Then explain it in detail
2/ Then give a summery of what you just told them, simply and concisely.
For both experts and people who are less experts, especially if you ever want to get anyone expert or not reading past the abstract or introduction.
I would describe my learning by "show me, then tell me" so manuals don't always cut it -- sometimes I need to quickly look up how to do X or my memory has one of those "Uhh, what switch does Y again?" moments.
So I like manual pages that put it in English and show you what the flib you are supposed to do without requiring a Ph.D. AND also manage to tell you everything !
That way, you can use the manual to get a quick understanding of it's operation and use the more detailed explanations to find out how to use it to best serve your needs.
A *good* manual page should be all someone needs and including examples in the documentation and in configuration files, so you don't have to push 20,000 things onto your brains stack when using the program really helps to do that !
My Journal
Thou shalt check the array bounds of all strings (indeed, all arrays), for surely where thou typest ``foo'' someone someday shall type ``supercalifragilisticexpialidocious''.
Like Terry, I prefer show then tell. Back to nihonto, yes, it seems you folks auf Deutschland tend to have very good English. Every time I try to write in German on one of these forums, it makes Dr. J and Oliver snicker, so I won't even try. Sheesh this gnaedige gnaedig something else for a guy is confusing.
As for the to of nihonto, I don't even try with the line over the o--that can make it confusing if you're trying to learn the language as to whether the hiragana is oo as in Oosaka, the city, or tou as in tou, the sword. I just try to copy the hiragana.
I recall one I read recently (can't recall off the top of my head which one) that gave you a list of 2-3 options (out of who knows how many), but none of them did what I needed. The program doesn't run with the proper arguments, but the documentation doesn't tell you what those arguments are. Am I supposed to read the programmers mind as to how they designed the program?
Documentation is a royal pain to do (at least that's how I feel), but it is on of the most necessary things a program needs - after all, if the user doesn't know _how_ to use the program, they won't use it at all, no matter how good it is. Documentation (both in the form of source comments and manpages) is a duty and obligation on the part of the programmer(s).
And the WORD was made flesh, and dwelt among us. (John 1:14)
Perls Getopt::Long and Plain Old Documentation are probably why most of my Perl scripts that survive past | perl'ing them are better documented then any other back scratchers I've got JMJ ;-)
I know what you mean though, some of the crap I've tested from ports has made me think about the possibility that some developers would have brain damage if they ever thought to write *useful* documentation.
My Journal
Thou shalt check the array bounds of all strings (indeed, all arrays), for surely where thou typest ``foo'' someone someday shall type ``supercalifragilisticexpialidocious''.
scottro. How did you made the tty's background grey? And does it work in NetBSD 4?
BTW: Wow, is just me, or there's a lot of linux bashing going on here. I thought that all of the OSS ppl (both linux and BSD) had M$ as the ones to bash.
To make an xterminal of any sort gray can be done in any *BSD system.
Create a file in your $HOME directory called .Xdefaults
Then put in (for example, using urxvt)
urxvt*background: gray
(grey will also work, they honor, or honour as the UK folks say, both spellings. Of course, we from the US think the UK has strange spelling, but many of we older foulkes like the Roulling Stounes.)
In FreeBSD at least, it can be done in console as well (vs. an xterminal). The command is vidcontrol (with a decent man page) but I've forgotten the syntax. I tend to prefer the standard black console with white text.
Also, most xterminals can have their background (and foreground) colors changed from command line. For example
urxvt -bg blue -fg white
With some terminals it's just -b and -f rather than -bg and -fg.
As for the Linux bashing, well, Corey_James and Vermaden like to do it. Most of the rest of us don't have the energy. There are bad things about it of course, but of course, there are bad things to say about all operating systems.
In the end, its popularity probably helps the BSD folks as well, since it increases the likelihood of a manufacturer providing open source drivers.
OP (55 posts back) is right. Don't see any appeal either.
personally, I like color ls as it helps me when I'm look at the content of an unfamiliar directory.
But, I worked with a programmer who said "I see in color, why shouldn't I print in color?" I assume that was kind of behind the color everywhere in Linux.
But - I don't like Linux, but it's got nothing to do with the colors.
"The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words." -Philip K. Dick
Colors are a useful way to convey extra information with the same amount of characters, I have color ls, color vim, color grep, etc.
The problem is that most (if not all) Linux distributions often turn on color by default, and that this sometimes this causes problems ... BSD on the other hand uses the more safe default of black/white.
UNIX was not designed to stop you from doing stupid things, because that would also stop you from doing clever things.
By the way, I don't think it's been mentioned, but one can put in the .bashrc
unalias ls
Or, simply type it in the command window for it to just have effect for that one session.
Lastly, one can escape it with a backslash.
will simply run the ls command without color.
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Lithodid crabs (and other skeleton-crushing predators) may have been excluded from cold Antarctic continental shelf waters for more than 14 Myr. The west Antarctic Peninsula shelf is warming rapidly and has been hypothesized to be soon invaded by lithodids. A remotely operated vehicle survey in Palmer Deep, a basin 120 km onto the Antarctic shelf, revealed a large, reproductive population of lithodids, providing the first evidence that king crabs have crossed the Antarctic shelf. DNA sequencing and morphology indicate the lithodid is Neolithodes yaldwyni Ahyong & Dawson, previously reported only from Ross Sea waters. We estimate a N. yaldwyni population density of 10 600 km−2 and a population size of 1.55 × 106 in Palmer Deep, a density similar to lithodid populations of commercial interest around Alaska and South Georgia. The lithodid occurred at depths of more than 850 m and temperatures of more than 1.4°C in Palmer Deep, and was not found in extensive surveys of the colder shelf at depths of 430–725 m. Where N. yaldwyni occurred, crab traces were abundant, megafaunal diversity reduced and echinoderms absent, suggesting that the crabs have major ecological impacts. Antarctic Peninsula shelf waters are warming at approximately 0.01°C yr−1; if N. yaldwyni is currently limited by cold temperatures, it could spread up onto the shelf (400–600 m depths) within 1–2 decades. The Palmer Deep N. yaldwyni population provides an important model for the potential invasive impacts of crushing predators on vulnerable Antarctic shelf ecosystems.
1. Introduction
It has recently been argued that lithodid crabs, and many other large durophagous (crushing) predators, have been excluded from the cold waters of the high Antarctic continental shelf (less than 600 m depths) for more than 14 Myr [1,2]. It is hypothesized that the Lithodidae have failed to colonize the Antarctic shelf due to lower thermal limits of 0.4–2°C for adults and/or larvae [1–3]. It is further speculated that the absence for millions of years of lithodids and other durophagous predators (e.g. sharks, brachyuran crabs, a variety of bony fish) from Antarctic shelf ecosystems has allowed the development of diverse epifaunal communities that are likely to be highly vulnerable to invasion by crushing predators [1,2,4].
Marine ecosystems of the west Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) are warming rapidly, with sea surface temperatures on the WAP shelf rising by approximately 1°C since 1950 [5–7]. Such warming may allow the entry of temperature-limited taxa onto the Antarctic shelf [1]. At least 14 species of lithodids are known from the Southern Ocean north of 60° S, and significant numbers of lithodids have recently been recorded at shelf and slope depths from Antarctic Islands as far south as 67.5° S in the Bellinghausen Sea and 75° S in the Ross Sea [2,8,9]. In addition, two lithodid species (Neolithodes capensis and Paralomis birsteini) have been reported from the WAP continental slope itself, including 13 specimens (and one juvenile) of P. birsteini at depths of 1123–1304 m northwest of Adelaide Island (figure 1) [2,4,9]. These recent records of N. capensis and P. birsteini are hypothesized to indicate an ongoing lithodid invasion up the WAP slope and onto the shelf effected by seafloor immigration of adults or dispersal of demersal larvae [1,2]. However, the reproductive status and population densities of N. capensis, P. birsteini and other lithodids on the WAP slope are unknown (no ovigerous females have been collected on the WAP slope), and the ecosystem impacts of these and other lithodid species remain undocumented in Antarctic waters.
Here, we report the presence of an apparently large, reproductive population of the lithodid crab Neolithodes yaldwyni in Palmer Deep, a 1440 m deep basin on the inner WAP continental shelf 120 km from the open slope. This is the first evidence that lithodids can cross the Antarctic continental shelf, and the first report of N. yaldwyni beyond the Ross Sea. We present data on the depth distribution, ecosystem effects and evidence of reproduction for N. yaldwyni, based on a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) survey and crab collection. Our data indicate that this king crab has major impacts on sediment texture, bioturbation and diversity of epibenthos in Palmer Deep below 950 m, and that lithodids are likely to have been present in Palmer Deep at least since 1998.
2. Study area, materials and methods
(a) Study area
Palmer Deep is a mud-floored basin located approximately 120 km southeast of the WAP continental shelf-slope break with a maximum depth of approximately 1440 m (figure 1) [10]. The basin is approximately 14 × 8 km and is embedded in a continental shelf with a mean regional depth of 400–600 m (figure 1) [11]. Sedimentation rates in Palmer Deep are 0.1–0.4 cm yr−1 [12], and oxygen concentrations exceed 4 ml l−1 at all depths (Palmer LTER 1994–2008, unpublished data). Any water mass or planktonic larvae crossing the WAP shelf from the Southern Ocean into Palmer Deep must pass over sill depths less than or equal to 450 m on the shelf (figure 1) [10].
Water mass characteristics of the WAP shelf and Palmer Deep are complex. The top approximately 200 m of the water column is characterized by Antarctic Surface Water (AASW), which warms seasonally near the surface but remains colder than 1°C below 100 m [6,7,13,14]. Below approximately 200 m depth, the WAP shelf and Palmer Deep are influenced by Upper Circumpolar Deep Water (UCDW), which floods and mixes eastward onto the shelf driven by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current [6,14,15]. The UCDW is typically warmer (more than 1.0°C) and more saline than the deep AASW immediately above [13]. Warming since 1990 in the WAP region is reported to have increased the heat content of the UCDW influencing the WAP shelf in the Palmer Deep region, potentially warming the upper 300 m of the UCDW by approximately 0.7°C [7].
(b) Remotely operated vehicle survey
We used Genesis, a Cherokee (Sub Atlantic) remotely operated vehicle (ROV) operated by the Renard Centre of Marine Geology, deployed from the RVIB N. B. Palmer to conduct a 5.2 h survey along the floor of Palmer Deep at approximately 1419 m and up its eastern slope to a depth of 600 m (figure 1; see electronic supplementary material, table S1). Metre-scale positioning of the ROV was achieved with an IXSEA ultra-short baseline positioning (USBL) system. The ROV carried forward-looking colour digital video and digital still cameras on pan-and-tilt mountings, parallel laser scalar beams (10 cm separation), a stand-alone memory CTD (Sea & Sun Technology CTD90M; accuracy 0.005°C), a small manipulator arm and a sample drawer. The ROV was lowered to the Palmer Deep floor, and then driven eastward at approximately 0.5 knots and an altitude of 0.5–1 m (figure 1). The ROV generally moved in a straight line, occasionally stopping to obtain video and still images of megafauna and bottom features, to collect megafaunal specimens and to obtain video of crab activities. A single lithodid crab was collected by the manipulator and recovered in the ROV drawer (figure 2; see electronic supplementary material, table S1).
(c) Density estimates of crabs and other megafauna
The abundance and 95 per cent confidence limits (CL) of lithodids and other megafauna along the ROV transect were evaluated using line-transect sampling methods [16,17] and the software Distance v. 6.2. Line-transect sampling is widely used for estimating the abundance of biological populations along linear transects, such as our ROV survey [17]. For line-transect analysis, the digital ROV video was replayed, and lithodids and other identifiable megafauna (more than or equal to 5 cm in minimum dimension) were counted as the ROV moved in a straight line at an altitude of approximately 0.5 m with good visibility; no counts were made when the ROV deviated from a linear course or when sediment was stirred up by ROV thrusters. Lithodid positions along the transect are based on GPS fixes from the ROV USBL system. The distance of each megafaunal individual from the centreline of the transect, as the animal came into ROV view, was measured using the laser scale. The ROV field of view (average 250 cm width) was also measured with the laser scale. Errors in distance measures from the centreline were estimated to be +5 cm, based on replicate measurements. We then used the program Distance v. 6.2 to select the best model (from four alternatives) for the distribution of animals from the transect centreline based on the Akaike information criterion [17]: the uniform key with cosine adjustments model best fitted the crab data; the hazard rate simple polynomial model best fitted the non-crab megafauna. For estimates based on line-transect sampling to be unbiased, the following assumptions must be met [17]: (i) objects on the survey centreline can be detected with a probability of 1.0, (ii) objects do not move in response to the ROV prior to measurement and (iii) distances are measured with little or no error. These assumptions are reasonably well met in our dataset.
The approximate abundance of lithodid bioturbation traces on the seabed was also evaluated along the ROV survey using the laser scale. The abundance of crab bioturbation features was classified as high (more than 100 crab traces m−2, with many traces overlapping), moderate (numerous isolated traces visible) or low/absent (few to no lithodid traces recognizable).
To determine whether the diversity of epifauna on drop stones differed in depth zones with abundant lithodids (i.e. at depths more than 950 m) compared with depths without lithodid crabs (less than 850 m), we evaluated species density (i.e. number of species per unit area) on drop stones resting on the seafloor. Using the laser scale, we estimated the plan areas of drop stones visible as the ROV moved along its survey line and counted the number of distinguishable epifaunal species on each drop stone. The overlapping distribution of animals on densely covered drop stones precluded counts of individual abundance. We only included species counts for drop stones ranging in size from 200 to 1000 cm2, to avoid biases resulting from the effects of drop-stone size (i.e. habitat-island area) on species diversity. Species richness per drop stone was normalized to 500 cm2, the approximate mean size of drop stones studied. Differences in mean drop-stone size and species density between depth zones were assessed with t-tests, and differences in the proportion of 'clean' drop stones (devoid of countable epifauna) were evaluated with Fisher's exact test. Statistical tests were conducted in Minitab v. 15. For sediment-dwelling epibenthic megafauna, diversity comparisons were made with rarefaction diversity curves for total megafauna from more than 950 m and less than 850 m, using the software Primer v. 6.
(d) Seabed photographs
Still photographs of the Palmer Deep seafloor were obtained in 1998 from the RV L. M. Gould during cruise LMG98-02, with a vertically downlooking Benthos 372 Camera and Strobe system deployed on a CTD frame with a 3 m bottom-contact switch. The bottom area photographed in each frame (5.3 m2) was calculated from camera view angles and elevation.
(e) Historical hydrographic data
Water-column profiles of in situ temperature and salinity for the Palmer Deep vicinity from 1980–2009 were obtained from the National Oceanographic Data Centre, from the Palmer LTER Program (courtesy of D. Martinson and R. Iannuzzi), and unpublished (but calibrated) data from cruise LMG98-02.
(f) DNA identification of the lithodid
A 650 base-pair region of the mitochondrial gene for cytochrome oxidase c subunit I (COI) was sequenced to identify the lithodid collected in Palmer Deep using accepted sequencing protocols (details provided in electronic supplementary materials). A consensus sequence was produced in Sequencher v. 4.7 and compared against GenBank and the Barcode of Life databases.
3. Results
(a) Lithodid abundance, depth distribution and estimated population size
The ROV survey ranged from 1419 to 600 m depths, along a total distance of approximately 3.3 km (figure 1; see electronic supplementary material, table S1). During the survey, we observed 42 live lithodid crabs and one dead specimen (or exuvium) along the 2.02 km of the survey between 1419 and 850 m depths (i.e. within the depth zone where crab traces were present; figures 1–3; see discussion of traces below). All lithodids occurred on the flat, muddy seafloor. Eighteen crabs were examined in close-up video or digital still images (e.g. figure 2a) and they closely resembled the collected specimen in morphology and size (with carapace widths of approx. 8–10 cm); the remaining 24 crabs also resembled the collected specimen, based on visible features. Thus, all 42 observed live lithodids appear to be in the genus Neolithodes, and most are probably a single species, identified below as N. yaldwyni (figure 2). Crabs were distributed broadly along our transect below a depth of 950 m, occurring mostly as single individuals, but three times in pairs within 2 m of one another. We estimate crab abundance within the 850–1419 m depth range to be 10 600 km−2 (95% CLs 8030–13 900 km−2), based on line-transect sampling [16] (table 1). The area of Palmer Deep below 950 m (i.e. the depth zone where crabs and crab traces were most abundant) is 146 km2; if we assume that the mean abundance (95% CL) of crabs per km2 on our transect are representative of the entire Palmer Deep area below 950 m, then this yields a N. yaldwyni population size of 1.55 × 106 individuals within Palmer Deep (95% CL of 1.17 to 2.04 × 106).
(b) Lithodid identification
A single ovigerous female crab (carapace width = 103.6 mm, carapace length = 117.3 mm, postorbital carapace length = 103.2 mm), carrying nearly mature eggs and larvae, was collected at a depth of 1154 m (figure 2; see electronic supplementary material, table S1). A 650 nucleotide region of the COI gene for this female specimen was identical to COI sequences of two N. yaldwyni specimens identified by S. Ahyong, a co-describer of the species [18] (see electronic supplementary material, figure S1). The Palmer Deep N. yaldwyni COI sequences are substantially distinct from those of the closely related species N. brodiei, N. asperrimus and N. duhameli (see electronic supplementary material, figure S1). Morphologically, the collected specimen keys out to N. yaldwyni [19] and matches the diagnosis of N. yaldwyni [18,19]. We are therefore confident that this gravid female is N. yaldwyni.
(c) Lithodid locomotion, feeding and bioturbation
Numerous king crabs were observed walking across the Palmer Deep seafloor, creating puncture marks with leg tips and gashes in the sediment as leg tips were dragged through the sediment (figures 2 and 3; see electronic supplementary material, videos S1 and S2). Puncture marks from leg tips were approximately 1 cm in diameter and gashes were up to approximately 1 cm wide, approximately 0.5 cm deep and up to 20 cm long. In addition, crabs were observed to forage by repeatedly probing the sediment to 3–4 cm depths with open chelipeds, closing the chelipeds while the tips were submerged in the sediment, and then scooping the captured sediment bolus into open mouthparts for processing (figure 2a; see electronic supplementary material, videos S1 and S2). This probing and scooping activity created sediment puncture marks and clumps 2– 3 cm across (figure 3). Much of the sediment scooped to the mouthparts fell through the mouthparts during processing (see electronic supplementary material, video S1). This locomotion and foraging activity created a dense fabric of gashes, punctures and sediment clumps, producing a characteristic gashed/lumpy texture to the sediment–water interface (figures 2a and 3). The crab locomotion and foraging activities in Palmer Deep appeared to substantially mix sediments to depths of 3–4 cm.
The abundance of lithodid walking and feeding traces was high (approx. 100–300 lithodid traces per m2) and the gashed/lumpy sediment texture was continuous from depths of 1419 to approximately 950 m along the transect (figures 2a and 3). From depths of approximately 950 m to approximately 850 m, the lithodid trace abundance gradually diminished from high to low/absent until there was no evidence of crab activity on the sediment shallower than approximately 850 m (figure 3). At depths of less than 850 m, the texture of soft sediments was relatively smooth, and characterized by worm tubes and small biogenic mounds (features missing at depths more than 950 m), indicating that walking and foraging N. yaldwyni were rare or absent shallower than approximately 850 m in Palmer Deep (figure 3). At depths of 850–600 m in Palmer Deep, sediment texture and bioturbation features were similar to those of the muddy seafloor observed over wide areas of the WAP shelf at depths of 430–725 m at latitudes from 63 to 68° S, where lithodid crabs have not been recorded during extensive bottom photographic surveys and trawl sampling (figure 1; see electronic supplementary material, table S2; [20]; C. R. S. Smith, L. J. Grange & C. Clark 2008–2010, unpublished data).
All three photographs of the Palmer Deep floor from 1998 (cruise LMG98-02), taken at two locations 1–4 km from the ROV transect (figure 1), show a sediment surface covered with a gashed/lumpy texture (figure 3). This sediment surface texture is essentially identical to that along the ROV transect between depths of 1419 and 950 m (figure 3), and suggests that foraging lithodids were present at approximately 1400 m depths in Palmer Deep in 1998, 12 years prior to our ROV survey. Although no crabs were observed in the photographs, at the density of crabs estimated from our ROV survey (approx. 0.01 m−2), the probability of seeing a lithodid in three photographs covering a total area of approximately 16 m2 was very small (less than 2%).
(d) Abundance and diversity of other benthic megafauna
The abundance of sediment-dwelling, epibenthic megafauna countable in the ROV video was approximately threefold greater within the crab zone at depths more than 950 m than at depths without crabs (i.e. less than 850 m; table 1); however, 90 per cent of megafaunal abundance at depths of more than 950 m consisted of a single species of cerianthid anemone, while cerianthids constituted 76 per cent of abundance at depths of less than 850 m. The abundance of non-cerianthid, sediment-dwelling megafauna was thus roughly similar at depths of more than 950 m and less than 850 m (approx. 4290 km−2 and approx. 4670 km−2, respectively; table 1). Rarefaction diversity of the sediment-dwelling megafauna was substantially higher at depths of less than 850 m than at depths of more than 950 m (figure 4). This was a consequence of both greater taxonomic richness (curve endpoints) and much greater evenness (initial curve slopes) at the shallower depths (less than 850 m) where N. yaldwyni was absent. Echinoderms were absent from the sediment-dwelling epibenthic megafauna at depths of more than 950 m, while four species of echinoderm (three asteroids and a cidaroid urchin) occurred on sediments at depths of less than 850 m. Two species of demersal fishes (a nototheniid and a zoarcid) occurred on sediments at depths of more than 950 m, and only the nototheniid species occurred at depths of less than 850 m. Fish densities were higher at more than 950 m than at less than 850 m depths (3700 versus 1900 km−2), but small sample sizes (n = 20 and 1, respectively) precluded statistical significance using line-transect analysis.
Species richness and species density of epifauna on drop stones was substantially higher, and the percentage of clean drop stones substantially lower, at depths of less than 850 m (i.e. above the depth zone of N. yaldwyni) than within the lithodid depth zone at depths of more than 950 m in Palmer Deep (figure 3, table 2). In particular, mean species density (i.e. number of species per 500 cm2) was fourfold lower (two-sample t-test, p = 0.006), and the percentage of drop stones devoid of epifauna 3.5-fold higher (Fisher's exact test, p < 0.003), in the presence of N. yaldwyni. Echinoderms were wholly absent from drop stones at depths of more than 950 m, while four species (a brisingid asteroid, two species of ophiuroids and an echinoid) occurred on drop stones at depths of less than 850 m.
(e) Palmer Deep hydrography
During the ROV dive, in situ seafloor temperatures declined from 1.53°C at 1419 m depth to 1.45°C at 600 m (figure 5). Since the lithodid and its traces disappeared at depths of less than 850 m, N. yaldwyni appeared to be restricted to water temperatures more than or equal to 1.48°C within Palmer Deep.
Bottom temperatures in Palmer Deep have exhibited a warming trend from 1982 to 2010, with the temperature minimum increasing from 1.20°C to 1.47°C below 800 m depths (i.e. increasing at a rate of approximately 0.01°C yr−1; figure 5). In 1998, when crab traces were present, the Palmer Deep bottom temperature was approximately 1.4°C. During the time interval 1990–2005, composite summer and winter hydrographic sections across the WAP shelf into Palmer Deep suggest that benthic or larval stages of lithodids dispersing near the seafloor across the sill depth of approximately 450 m into Palmer Deep would probably have experienced temperatures no colder than approximately 1.0°C (figure 5; see electronic supplementary material, figure S2). Minimum temperatures within the depth range of 400–600 m in Palmer Deep (i.e. at the mean depth of the continental shelf in the region; figure 1) exhibit substantial seasonal and inter-annual variability, but appear to have risen from approximately 1.04 to 1.36°C since 1992 (i.e. at a rate of approximately 0.01–0.02°C yr−1; figure 5).
4. Discussion
Our ROV survey indicates that large, adult lithodids, most probably N. yaldwyni, were abundant over large areas of the Palmer Deep seafloor at depths of 950–1419 m in February 2010. The population density of N. yaldwyni estimated for Palmer Deep (10 600 km−2, 95% CL of 8030–13 900 km−2) is greater than the mean density (5100 km−2) of the commercially important red king crab Paralithodes camtschaticus in an Alaskan fjord, and similar to the abundance of the lithodid Paralomis formosa being considered for commercial exploitation at depths of 719–1518 m on the South Georgia slope (mean = 8313 km−2) [21]. The biomass of N. yaldwyni in Palmer Deep is also potentially large; if we apply the lithodid body-weight model of Collins et al. [21] to adult N. yaldwyni, each N. yaldwyni has a weight of approximately 500 g, yielding an estimated crab biomass in Palmer Deep of approximately 5000 kg km−2. Our ROV transect only crossed a portion of the Palmer Deep seafloor deeper than 950 m, but king crabs and crab traces were broadly distributed along this approximately 2 km transect; if we assume that the estimated N. yaldwyni abundance was representative of the entire Palmer Deep more than 950 m in depth, the population size of N. yaldwyni in Palmer Deep exceeded 1.55 × 106 individuals and the biomass was substantial (approx. 800 tonnes).
Some lithodids are known to aggregate during certain life stages [21,22]. Is it conceivable that the high densities of N. yaldwyni recorded along the ROV transect reflect a recent lithodid aggregation in the process of dispersing? The broad distribution of lithodids and abundant crab traces throughout our approximately 2 km ROV transect below 950 m, as well as the abundance of traces in widely spaced bottom photographs from 1998, are not consistent with an aggregation in the process of dispersing. Thus, we think it very probable that lithodids are broadly dispersed across the floor of Palmer Deep below 950 m.
There is evidence that N. yaldwyni exerts substantial impacts on bioturbation, ichnofabric, and the diversity and taxonomic structure of megabenthos in Palmer Deep. Walking and feeding activities of lithodids in Palmer Deep created a high abundance of traces and a gashed/lumpy sediment texture covering the seafloor at depths of more than 950 m (figures 2a and 3; see electronic supplementary material, videos S1 and S2). This gashed/lumpy texture closely resembles the sediment texture of 'digging pits and tracks' created by invasive red king crabs (Paralithodes camtschaticus) in the Barents Sea in the Arctic [23]. We cannot directly calculate a bioturbation rate from the activities of N. yaldwyni in Palmer Deep, but the sedimentation rate of approximately 0.1–0.4 cm yr−1 [12] indicates that the centimetre-scale lithodid traces should be obscured by sediment accumulation (i.e. buried beneath 0.5–1.0 cm of sediment) in less than 10 years. In addition, the fresh appearance and overlap of many lithodid traces (figures 2a and 3; see electronic supplementary material, videos S1 and S2) indicate that crab retracking is causing trace turnover at much shorter timescales than sediment accumulation [24]. Thus, the heavy cover of lithodid traces at depths of more than 950 m (figure 3) suggests that the particle-displacement and predatory activities of king crabs are influencing much of the sediment to depths of 1–4 cm over timescales much less than 10 years. Other studies have shown that the walking, resting and foraging activities of epifaunal crabs (including lithodids) can mix surface sediments to depths of several centimetres [25], disrupt infaunal tubes and burrows (i.e. alter ichnofabric), and change rates and patterns of bio-irrigation by removing infauna performing important ecosystem functions [23,26]. Thus, N. yaldwyni is likely to be acting as a major ecosystem engineer [26,27] by substantially modifying the bioturbation regime, sediment stratigraphy and sediment geochemistry (e.g. the location of labile organic matter decomposition and the depth of the redox potential discontinuity of Palmer Deep sediments), and by removing habitat-forming echinoderms (see below). These sedimentological alterations could prove useful for reconstructing the history of king crabs in Palmer Deep from sediment stratigraphy.
The diversity of epibenthic megafauna, both on sediments and on drop stones, was substantially lower in the lithodid depth zone (more than 950 m) than at depths lacking lithodids in Palmer Deep (less than 850 m). In particular, echinoderms, which are common prey items for lithodids [1,26], were absent on soft sediments and drop stones within the lithodid depth zone, yielding substantial declines in biodiversity. Megafauna on sediments and on drop stones were dominated by tubicolous cerianthid anemones and sponges, respectively; both these taxa appear to be lightly preyed upon by lithodids in other regions [26]. The diversity and taxonomic structure of megabenthos in the Palmer Deep lithodid zone was also markedly different from similar depths on the nearby open slope lacking crabs; in photosurveys at 800–1000 m depths off King George Island, Piepenburg et al. [28] found no lithodids, relatively high megafaunal diversity (17–24 species versus 8 in our Palmer Deep data) and abundant echinoderms (3.8–6.0 m−2). These data are highly consistent with the hypothesis that predation by the duraphagous predator N. yaldwyni reduces the diversity and alters the community structure of Antarctic megabenthos below depths of 950 m in Palmer Deep, as predicted for lithodid invasions of Antarctic communities [1,2,4]. Similar substantial reductions in epifaunal diversity have been associated with king crab invasions in Arctic fjords [23,26]. Nonetheless, because our results on the impacts of N. yaldwyni on benthic diversity in Palmer Deep are correlative, they need to be confirmed by additional studies (e.g. gut-content and biomarker analyses, and crab-exclusion experiments).
Based on our ROV survey, N. yaldwyni and its traces were absent from depths of less than 850 m in Palmer Deep. Extensive photographic and trawl surveys from 2008–2010 at nineteen stations at depths of 430–725 m along the WAP shelf and in fjord basins from 63° to 68° S also failed to detect lithodids or their traces (figure 1; see electronic supplementary material, table S2). The total area surveyed and trawled (approx. 238 000 m2) at the nineteen stations is approximately 40-fold greater than the area surveyed by the ROV in Palmer Deep, providing strong evidence that N. yaldwyni or other lithodids did not occur at depths shallower than 725 m on muddy habitats on the WAP shelf from 2008 to 2010. Similarly, Thatje et al. [4] failed to find lithodids on the continental shelf at depths of 500–600 m in Marguerite Bay in 2007, and extensive video and trawl surveys of the WAP shelf west of Palmer Deep at depths of 500–600 m failed to detect lithodids between 1999 and 2001 [11,20]. We conclude that lithodid crabs, including N. yaldwyni, were absent or extremely rare on the WAP shelf at depths of less than 725 m at least up to 2010. It is noteworthy that megabenthic abundance and diversity in these lithodid-free, soft-sediment WAP communities at 430–725 m depths were dominated by echinoderms, which are absent from the lithodid zone in Palmer Deep ([20]; C. R. S. Smith, L. J. Grange & C. Clark 2008–2010, unpublished data).
The abundance, large body sizes, apparent isolation and extensive bioturbation effects of N. yaldwyni in Palmer Deep suggest that this population had been established for years. The abundance of apparent crab traces at the Palmer Deep floor in 1998, 12 years prior to our ROV survey, is consistent with this conclusion. It seems unlikely that N. yaldwyni in Palmer Deep is maintained by continuous migration of walking life stages across the shelf because of the apparent absence of benthic life stages from the shallower depths surrounding Palmer Deep over the period 1999–2010 (see electronic supplementary material, table S2) [20]. Similarly, the poor dispersal abilities of demersal, lecithotrophic lithodid larvae [29,30] suggest that continuous transport of N. yaldwyni larvae over distances more than 120 km across the shelf is unlikely. The recovery of an ovigerous N. yaldwyni female from Palmer Deep indicates that this lithodid population is capable of reproduction; thus, the population may be self-sustaining. Alternatively, the high abundance of king crabs in Palmer Deep could have resulted from one or a few large recruitment events mediated by benthic immigration, or, perhaps more probably, by pulsed larval transport from the continental slope across the shelf in UCDW [14]. Demographic, reproduction and genetic studies of the Palmer Deep N. yaldwyni population are needed to resolve its occupation history.
The abundance of N. yaldwyni in Palmer Deep below 950 m, and its apparent absence at depths of less than 850 m and water temperatures below 1.4°C, has interesting implications for the invasion of WAP shelf waters by this species. If the distribution of lithodids in Antarctic waters is limited by a lower temperature threshold, as argued by a number of authors [1–4], our results suggest that the Palmer Deep population of N. yaldwyni cannot disperse and/or reproduce in temperatures colder than approximately 1.4°C. In 1982, Palmer Deep bottom temperatures were significantly colder than 1.4°C, at approximately 1.25°C (figure 5), and were likely to have been warming for some decades [5]; thus a lower temperature limit of approximately 1.4°C would suggest that N. yaldwyni invaded Palmer Deep within the last approximately 50 years. A lower limit of 1.4°C is significantly warmer than the 0.5°C waters from which individual adult N. yaldwyni have been reported from the Ross Sea [2,19], so different populations of N. yaldwyni may have different temperature tolerances. Alternatively, other unknown environmental factors might exclude N. yaldwyni from depths of less than 850 m in Palmer Deep; however, fish predation on crab larvae and juveniles [26] is unlikely to be important since demersal fishes are, if anything, more abundant in the lithodid zone of Palmer Deep than just above. If temperatures of less than 1.4°C are indeed limiting for the Palmer Deep population, N. yaldwyni may not long be excluded from the WAP shelf. Considering the rate at which Palmer Deep waters are warming (approx. 0.01°C yr−1) and the fact that WAP shelf waters (i.e. at 400–600 m depths) around Palmer Deep now have temperature minima around 1.35°C (figure 5; see electronic supplementary material, figure S2), the Palmer Deep N. yaldwyni could move up onto the WAP shelf within 1–2 decades. Thus, the population size, depth distribution and ecological impacts of the Palmer Deep N. yaldwyni population merit careful study in the near future to elucidate the rates and consequences of WAP shelf invasion by duraphagous lithodid predators. The Palmer Deep lithodid population is likely to serve as an important model for the potential invasive impacts of crushing predators, especially king crabs, on Antarctic shelf ecosystems due to climate warming.
We are very grateful to the extraordinary support at sea provided by RPSC, the captain and crew of the RVIB N. B. Palmer, and our colleagues in the LARISSA Project during cruise NBP10-01. Data collection occurred as parts of the LARISSA and FOODBANCS2 Projects, and was generously supported by NSF-OPP grant numbers 0732711 and 0636806 to C.R.S, 0732467 to E.D., 0732450 to C. L. Van Dover and 074735 to B.H. The ROV was funded by Impulsfinanciering of the Special Research Fund of Ghent University, and participation of the ROV team (Dries Boone, Katrien Heirman and Lieven Naudts) was co-financed by the BELSPO project HOLANT. We thank the referees A. Clarke, H. Ducklow and J. Pearse for substantially improving the manuscript. This is publication number 8479 from SOEST, University of Hawaii at Manoa and number 7492 from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
- Received July 15, 2011.
- Accepted August 18, 2011.
- This journal is © 2011 The Royal Society


text:
Social worker writes daily to Prez, PM for Kasab's hanging
A social worker, who had barely left the CST railway station when Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab and his accomplices wreaked havoc on Nov 26, 2008, has been sending letters every day to the Prime Minister and President since then, praying that he must be hanged immediately.mumbai Updated: Sep 23, 2012 12:24 IST
A social worker, who had barely left the CST railway station when Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab and his accomplices wreaked havoc on November 26, 2008, has been sending letters every day to the Prime Minister and President since then, praying that he must be hanged immediately.
On death row for the brazen Mumbai terror attacks in 2008, the lone surviving perpetrator, Kasab, recently filed a mercy petition before the President.
Shell shocked after the attacks, 42-year-old social worker Narayan Patil started dropping a letter everyday addressed to Prime Minister, President, state chief minister, state home minister since December 17 at Kalyan tehsildar's office seeking justice be delivered by hanging Kasab.
"Till Saturday, I have dropped 1,372 letters at the tehsildar office. I demanded in my letters that Kasab must be taken to gallows immediately," Patil, whose father is a retired Army subedar, said.
Immediate capital punishment is the only solution for a terrorist like Kasab, Patil insisted.
"Condemning the attack, I also questioned the security system of the state government," Patil explained adding that, "Till the time Kasab gets hanged, I have decided not to celebrate any festival. So far I have remained away from any celebrations."
Kalyan tehsildar Shekhar Ghadge said, "Patil has been delivering the letters daily since December 2008 seeking Kasab's capital punishment. We are forwarding these letters to higher departments."
Recalling the incident, the social worker said he had just left the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station, one of the terror sites, when he heard of the attack.
"One of my friends lost his life in the strikes. Like me, many people lost their family members and friends," he said sadly.
"I hope he should not be treated like terrorist Afzal Guru, who is yet to be given capital punishment," Patil said.
"I am living in agony for justice for the last four years. If Kasab has to be hanged tomorrow, then why not today?" he asked.
Kasab and nine other Pakistani terrorists had landed in south Mumbai on November 26, 2008 by sea from Karachi and had gone on a shooting spree at various places, including Mumbai's landmarks - Hotel Taj and CST railway terminus, killing 166 people, including foreigners and policemen.
While all other Pakistani terrorists perished in the counter-offensive launched by security forces, Kasab was captured alive.
According to a reply received under RTI, as many as 11 mercy petitions of death row convicts are pending before President Pranab Mukherjee.
While only the file related to Balwant Singh Rajoana, killer of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, is with the home ministry, 11 cases including that of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru are with Rashtrapati Bhavan.
First Published: Sep 23, 2012 12:20 IST


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