The Crow You Know

Crows seem like part of landscape every where you go.

They get a bad rap in that they appear to be scavengers. They are opportunists when it comes to food. Seeds and insects make up a lot of their diet. A crow''s beak is not tough enough to break the skin of a squirrel. So roadkill and animal remains have to be opened up for Crows to eat. In the natural world, crows use their intelligence to steal food from other animals

Crows live in most of the continental United States and summer in Canada. Ravens which are similar live in Canada and the Western United States.

Crows live in large families and are very intelligent. Most crows do not have babies until they are two and usually are four before they do. This period of living in an extended family increases the education and learning of crows.

Yes, we have no bananas.

The banana we eat today is a Cavendish which was found in China. It's genetics makes it a triploid and sterile fruit. Wild bananas are filled with small flinty seeds much like bb shot. The Cavendish is not as tasty as the banana it replaced which was the Gros Michel or better known as the Big Mike. Big Mike suffered from a Fusarium wilt fungus and the Cavendish did not.

Fusarium wilt of Gros Michel banana plants
in Costa Rica

Unfortunately, Fusarium has evolved into a form which kills the Cavendish. A perfect predator or parasite does not totally eliminate it's host. Fusarium is not the perfect parasite in that it has ended the production of banana's in Southeast Asia and Oceania. It is a matter of time that the fungus reaches Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa.

Scientists have worked on manipulating the genes of Cavendish to produce a fungus resistant variety. Being sterile, each plant is a clone of the others. For the banana industry to survive, another variety needs to be found or an innate resistance needs to be created in the Cavendish. A replacement banana is more likely of the two.

The banana's problem is the same problem that caused the American Chestnut to become functionally extinct. The Chestnut blight kills the Chestnut tree. Chestnuts were a huge food source for people, livestock, and wild animals. Much like bananas are a huge food source globally for people.

 Nature has a natural balance with wild nut trees where there are years with heavy production and years of little or no production. Wild animals suffer in years when acorn or pecan production is low and Chestnuts no longer fill the gap.

The American Chestnut has one advantage over the Cavendish and Big Mike banana's, they have sexual reproduction. Sexual reproduction allows the exchange of genetic material in order to produce some offspring that are able to survive a new adversity. There are Chestnut trees that have survived the blight. Scientists have used these trees to try to produce an American Chestnut resistant to the blight.

Chinese Chestnut trees have been crossed with American Chestnuts to produce offspring that inherit the Chinese Chestnut's resistance. These offspring are crossed with one another to retain the most of the American Chestnut's qualities. The resulting tree is 15/16th's American Chestnut and 1/16th Chinese Chestnut. The American Chestnut produce a better nut which releases more easily from it's hull.

They have not been able to insert blight resistant genes into the American Chestnut in that they do not know which genes create the resistance in the Chinese Chestnut. Currently, this is the method of creating a Fusarium resistant Cavendish banana.

American Chestnut Society

American Chestnut Research and Restoration Project

We Have No Bananas  January 10, 2011 issue of the New Yorker

Can This Fruit Be Saved  June 19, 2005 issue of Popular Science

There's a fruit store down our street, It's run by a Greek And he keeps good things to eat, but you should hear him speak When you ask for anything, he never answers, 'No' He just yesses you to death,and as he takes your dough, he tells you. 'Yes, we have no bananas. We have no bananas today We've broad beans like bunions, cabbages and onions And all kinds of fruit, and say, we have the old fashioned tomato The nice Jersey potato, but yes, we have no bananas We have no bananas today.' Business got so good with him he wrote home to say Send me Pete, Nick and Jim, I need help right away. When he got them in the store, there was fun, you bet Someone asked for sparrow-grass and then the whole quartet. All answered, 'Yes we have no bananas. We have no bananas today We've coconuts and doughnuts and some nuts like no nuts And walnuts that passed away. We've got some large Filberts and Brazils, called Gilberts and Basils But, yes, we have no bananas. We have no bananas today.' 'Yes, we have no bananas. we have no bananas today We've turnips and cow-cumbers, fresh leeks for plumbers And runners that run away. We've got carrots, garlic and gherkins grown by Mrs Perkins But, yes, we have no bananas. We have no bananas today.'

Written and composed by Frank Silver & Irving Cohn - 1923

Air

Ah good clean air to breathe. The air in the United States is actually cleaner today than it was in 1970 when the Clean Air Act was made into law during the Nixon administration. We don't have horrendous pictures like they have in China where people wear masks as they travel about large cities particularly in the summer time. Smog increases with heat. This is why there are burning bans during summer months.

What is the major component of our atmosphere? Surprisingly, it is nitrogen. 78 percent of the Earth's atmosphere is nitrogen. Plants called legumes use atmospheric nitrogen to manufacture protein. This is a part of the Nitrogen cycle and the origin of all protein used by plants and animals.

Oxygen makes up 21 percent of the Earth's atmosphere. A higher concentration and everything would spontaneously combust. It is hard to comprehend that on a molecular level, there is a fire in each of our cells when the chemical bonds of glucose are broken to release the energy of those bonds and carbon dioxide and water.

There is a cycle of carbon dioxide and oxygen production which green plants facilitate. Plants change carbon dioxide and water using sunlight to manufacture glucose. Glucose is changed to more complex sugars or starches. Cellulose which is wood fiber is a sugar made from the combination of two glucose molecules. Many other sugars such as sucrose more commonly known as table sugar are also made from the combination of two glucose molecules.

It gets complicated real quick doesn't it. What sort of complex sugar is formed depends on the molecules it is formed from and how they are positioned and combined. Sort of like if you want crispy cookies you cook at a lower heat for a longer period versus a high heat for a short period of time to produce a soft cookie.

You often read where plants make oxygen and animals release carbon dioxide. That is roughly true. Plants do release oxygen during photosynthesis. However they release carbon dioxide when they break down some of their sugars for their own energy needs.

One percent of the Earth's atmosphere is Argon.

Water vapor makes up perhaps almost nil to 4 percent of the atmosphere. It depends on where you live. If you live near the ocean or any other large body of water, there will be more moisture in the air than you would find in the desert. Water is part of the water cycle which is necessary for life on Earth. Water also helps trap heat from the sun. Have you ever noticed the coldest days are often cloudless. At night when heat is released, no clouds means more heat escapes.

Carbon dioxide makes up 3/100 of a percent of the atmosphere. More correctly written as 0.03%. Such a small amount of gas causing such a benefit or problem depending on how you look at it. Carbon dioxide traps energy from the sun. A lack of carbon dioxide and the night time lows and daytime highs would be much more extreme. Too much carbon dioxide, too much heat is trapped.

We have an excess of carbon dioxide in that we are burning fossil fuels. Hydrocarbons made from dead plants and animals release carbon dioxide when they are burned. Sort of like every car on the road is burning a campfire. We produce more heat in addition to more carbon dioxide.

Fossil fuels are similar to whale oil. Whale oil was used to produce light in homes as "right whales" were almost hunted into extinction. We like fossil fuels in that is what we are familiar with. But they are the right whales of our era. The future holds a different energy source. When you read about carbon caps, they are talking about man growing more trees that store water, energy and excess carbon dioxide.

Neon, helium, krypton and xenon are trace gases in our atmosphere. With krypton in our atmosphere, superman had to have some health problems. 😊