Clara's birthday

Clara's birthday
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

This weekend was quite the party time. First, there was Purim, the jewish holiday where people wear costumes and drink a lot. Then there was the Holi day festival for the Indian students. Finally we had a barbecue for Clara for her birthday. Really crazy stuff.

The Purim party was a good time. Some very good costumes. The best was a woman who dressed as a bedouin, with her boyfriend trailing along as the goat at the end of a rope leash. There were an assortment of aliens, dolls, babies, Mexicans, Indians (both Indian ones, and N. American ones), and a few that probably shouldn't be shown in the light of day. That was Friday.

On Saturday we had the Holi festival, the Indian festival of colors. That was really interesting. The celebration consists of a bonfire, followed the next day by throwing colored dyes all over each other (of course, this being Sede Boqer, we did this in the reverse order). There is a story that goes along with this festival, that is a bit long for me, but you can find a lot of internet sites with the story. Basically, there was an evil king, and his good son. There was a plot among the gods to burn him alive, but the woman who was flame proof died instead (hence the bonfire). The king was then overthrown and there was much rejoicing (hence the colors). Here, we had some colors, and a lot of some black powder, so a lot of us ended up with black faces. In India, apparently the colors are a bit longer lasting and people are dyed for weeks after the festival.

Finally, we had a birthday barbecue for one of the Colombians. That was a pretty typical barbecue, that ended in a game of "super facist" Taki. Taki is a card game a lot like Uno. The 'super facist' label is because we are pretty strict about holding people to the rules, and the punishments are wielded at the slightest provocation. For example, asking, "is it my turn" is rewarded by having to take two cards for not paying attention. Great fun!

Holi party 1

Holi party 1
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

The Indian festival of colors - Holi day. There is a story about some gods, an evil king and his good son, but that has nothing to do with what's going on in this photo. The day is celebrated by throwing colors all over each other. The main color in Sede Boqer happened to be black. Most of the colors came out with water, though I think that the sidewalks will be colored for months to come.

Holi party 2

Holi party 2
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

More Holi party stuff. You get the idea of the colors. Apparently in India, the colors are everywhere, and they dyes used last for days.

Purim Party 1

Purim Party 1
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

Lina, me and Vania at the Purim party. The holiday has something to do with a jewish princess being rescued from an evil turk, or something like that. It is celebrated by everyone getting dressed up in crazy costumes, and drinking a lot. The very religious jews use this as the only opportunity in the year to get falling down drunk. We just had a big party.

Purim party

Purim party 2
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

Part of the Purim celebration is to dress up in crazy costumes. Another part is to get so drunk you can't stand. It's the only Jewish holiday where it's okay to get completely pissed. The Israeli students took the opportunity to do just that.

Rant

Right, I've been listening to news radio today - ABC, BBC, NPR - and all I hear is about this Terri Schiavo case. This is amazing to me. With all of the crises going on right now, the US congress has stopped to try to force a feeding tube into the body of a woman in a persistent vegetative state (for 15 years!), who apparently never wanted a feeding tube anyway. As if the government weren't doing enough to embarass US citizens overseas already. I can't even imagine a similar debate in the Israeli Kinesset. The most disturbing bit was an interview I heard with a very religious activist, who proclaimed that the religious right "worked their tails off to put sympathetic people in power in the government", so it was about time the government did something to repay those efforts, and bloody well shove a tube in Schiavo whether she wanted one or not (my paraphrasing). The fact that the government has enacted emergency legislation for what is ultimately a personal (potentially religiously influenced) decision is really scarry.

I'll say it here, so plenty of people know just in case - I don't want a feeding tube. If I'm in a vegetative state with no realistic hope of returning to a meaningful quality of life, pull the plug, pull the tube, let me go. If I'm going to die, so be it. And bloody well leave congress out of the whole thing! They have enough to do - increase fuel economy regulations by 1-2 miles per gallon so we don't have to destroy ANWR for 6 lousy months of oil, finish the war in Iraq so we don't have soldiers dying for no reason, stop screwing up Social Security so those of us who aren't rich will be able to retire some day, give all loving couples the same legal rights regardless of what sex they are, stop mucking around with whether the science of evolution should be taught in science classes (it's a science class, not bloody sunday school!) and support the people who educate children by giving enough money to schools and especially to teachers so that we won't raise whole generations of ignorant, self-absorbed, isolationist, bigots.

Whew, I'm going back to doing science now...

Purim Parade

Purim Parade 1
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

Saturday there was a big parade in Sede Boqer for Purim. It is a fun holiday, where people get dressed up in costumes, especially the little kids. My understanding is that it celebrates the rescue of a princess from the turks, so little boys dress as turks (or soldiers, etc.) and girls dress as princesses. Of course, there are various aliens, rabbis, drag queens, monsters, big blue things, etc. also. It was a beautiful day for a parade - sunny and warm. I have been enjoying the spring here. I haven't experienced on for a few years, so it has been nice. The parade was huge. The high school art class made a bunch of the floats. There were four themes, some of which were obvious (Alice in Wonderland, Toy Story, a farm) and one that wasn't (I think it was some sort of enviromental/local environment/soil theme, complete with isopods, volcanos and miners). There were literally thousands of people in the crowd, from all over the region. I wouldn't have believed that Sede Boqer could hold so many people. Quite good fun.

Chickens on Parade

Purim Parade 4
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

There were some great floats in the parade. These chicks were my favorite. Some great costumes dancing around too.

Purim Parade and soldiers

Purim Parade 2
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

I thought this was a great symbol of Israel - A celebration happening on a beautiful spring day, and soldiers walking around.

Caravans

Caravans
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

These are the old dorms at the Blaustein Institute. They were replaced in May by the flash new dorms I've shown before. They may not look like much, but they are a lot warmer than the new ones!

Sunset pipe

Sunset pipe
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

Great shadows this night.

Ironworks

Ironworks
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

Lots of construction around Sede Boqer this spring. Sunset and construction sites make for good photos.

Tropical cyclone advice 62

Well, right now, cyclone Ingrid is almost directly north of Darwin, about 115km away (70mi). Ingrid has been slowly weakening as it crosses the Tiwi islands, and is now a category 3 cyclone, with 215km/hr gusts, instead of the 320 km/hr gusts last night. It looks like it is going to pass far enough to the north that Darwin will miss most of the destructive winds. We are supposed to get gale force winds any minute now, but there is little damage predicted.

Of course, there is the possibility that the cyclone will make an abrupt turn. Cyclones in this area are notorious for doing that. Two years ago, cyclone Craig was bearing down on Darwin, then turned at the last minute, and wandered off through Kakadu. And, of course, cyclone Tracy managed to round the Tiwi islands, turn sharply left, and bashed right into Darwin. So some of the old timers are a bit nervous - Ingrid is following a path a bit too close to Tracy.

Right now, we have a steady rain, and some wind, but nothing particularly severe. More like a typical wet season night, actually. Certainly nothing worth evacuating at this point. I'm still not sure if I'll be leaving tomorrow, but if things continue as predicted, I think my flight might actually go.

cyclone advisory 53

Right, so the storm watch continues. As of 23:00 Darwin time, cyclone Ingrid is a category 5 cyclone, with sustained winds of up to 250km/hr (155mph) and gusts up to 320km/hr (195mph). It seems to be hugging the coastline, but is predicted to cross the Coburg peninsula and enter the Van Diemen Gulf sometime tomorrow. The predictions are that it will roam over the Tiwi islands to the north of us, but cyclones in this area are notorious for weird changes of direction. As near as I can tell, teh path isn't all that different from cyclone Tracy, which pretty well flattened Darwin in 1974. Currently, we are under a cyclone warning, with gale force winds expected by tomorrow night.

We have made hotel reservations for tomorrow night in Katherine, about 3 hours south of here. Not sure if we will really be heading south or not, but we're not the only ones with reservations. Keith and I spent a bit of time today lashing down things around the house, and moving sensitive lab equipment away from windows. We've had to move the university field vehicles into a building. If we go, it should be interesting with us, and the two dogs in tow.

Of course, I'm supposed to be flying out of here on Monday. We'll see if that really happens. I have a hard time believing that I'll really be getting on a plane in less than two days, particularly since the predictions are that the cyclone will be between here and Singapore (my first stop). I guess I shouldn't have been complaining about needing a few more days here to finish things.

cyclone plans

Right. It is less than three days before I am supposed to hop on a plane and head to Israel. Unfortunately, the weather may make this a bit more up in the air that it should be. It seems that tropical cyclone Ingrid is headed this way, and according to the predictions, could well be parked on top of Darwin on Monday. I'm not terribly keen on taking a plane through a cyclone. I'll certainly be keeping up with the models to see how likely I am to actually leave here on Monday. This is at least the second time, if not the third, when my plane trips from Darwin have been threatened by cyclones. Nothing really happened before, but Ingrid is being particularly tenacious. This cyclone went from a category 1 to a category 5 in a single day, and proceeded to bash into Queensland. Now it is threatening the Top End. And to think I was complaining about the lack of rain we've been having...

One small voice in the chorus

Litoria tornieri (?) calling
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

A couple of nights ago Seb and I made another trip out the Arnhem highway to collect frogs. It has been raining in the area for the last few days (a bit each day – not continuously) so the frogs are happy. We stopped at Ben Phillips’ place at Middle Point for a bit of BBQ dinner, and then headed out. It was a good spot for Cyclorana australis. We also stopped by a scrape area that we’d been to a couple of weeks ago. That was a froggy orgy. Amazing sound coming from there – truly deafening. There were at least 8 species of frogs (Litoria tornieri, L. pallida, L. rothii, L. bicolor, L. rubella, Limnodynastes ornatus, Limn. convexiusculus, Uperoleia inundata) breeding there when we looked, and all calling like crazy. They were in such a breeding frenzy that they didn’t pay attention to us walking around looking at them (and in some cases, putting them in the bag). On the way home, we had a bag of L. pallida, that made lots of noise all the way home. There was one pair in amplexus, and I managed to get them to lay eggs in a box. One little female produced about 300-400 eggs (rough estimate), and about half of those have managed to make it out of the eggs and start swimming around. We'll see if I can get the eggs all the way through to metamorph stage.

The litte male in this photo was calling away, trying desperately to be heard among the cacophany. I can't remember if it really is a L. tornieri, or if it is a L. pallida. They are a bit hard to tell apart without hearing the calls or looking at the outside of the shin (hidden in this photo). I think it is L. tornieri, though.

Litoria rothii in amplexus

Litoria rothii in amplexus
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

There were frog pairs everywhere in this chorus. Most of them totally oblivious to Seb and me wandering around taking photos (and swatting mossies!).

Litoria rubella in amplexus

Litoria rubella in amplexus
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

This pair had a nice little nook for their nookie. This species was one of the louder ones in the chorus.

The frog that got away

frog got away
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

I think this was a Litoria pallida, but you'd never know from this photo. I had it all lined up, took the photo, and then stared at the patch of rocks in the background trying to find the frog. Never did figure out where it went.

Uperoleia inundata in amplexus

Uperoleia inundata in amplexus
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

This was the first frog pair I saw when Seb and I walked into the chorus. These guys are about as big as my thumbnail. There is something funny about tiny, fat frogs in the clinch.

Surreal 24 hours

It has been a strange 24 hours, well, maybe it's closer to 30 hours. A little background build-up. We have a new student working in the lab on one of our projects with water loss in frogs. He is measuring water loss rates in a lot of species of frogs across different temperatures. He's just getting started, and I've been spending a lot of time getting him going on the techniques, the frog species, etc. Part of that has been trying to get some frogs for him to work with. Now, I know there is one that comes to my front door every night, but we've already got the data we need from that species. so I've been going out trying to find frogs. Unfortunately, we've had a bit of a dry spell in the middle of the wet season, and it has not really rained enough to bring out frogs in the last couple of weeks. Well, that spell finally broke on Sunday, and I've been trying to take advantage. Last night, I was monitoring the local weather radar, and it looked like there was going to be some rain out at one of our sites on the Adelaide River flood plain about 80km from here. It's a good spot to get a lot of frogs because it is a huge wetland at this time of year, with a highway running right through the middle. That means it is possible to just drive along a pick frogs off the road (as long as they haven't been flattened by the road trains carrying Uranium ore from the Jabiluka mine in Kakadu).

Last night, Keith offered to let me take his car - a Jeep Cherokee (Jeep Liberty for people reading this in the US). It's a long story, but the gist is that it is possible to get a car here as a salary perk, and thus avoid some taxes. Part of the deal is that you have to drive a specified number of kilometers in a year, and Keith is a bit under schedule so far. The deal actually pays for all of the fuel, maintenance, etc. for the car. Anyway, he let me take that car out to chase frogs last night.

I arrived at the floodplain just in time for a good wet season storm, complete with lots of sheet lightening, driving rain, wind, etc. Of course the frogs loved it. I decided that standing on a raised highway in the middle of a great, flat floodplain, during lightning storm might not be the smartest of plans, so I pulled off for a while and waited for the worst to pass. After about a half hour, the rains eased off, and I hit the road looking for frogs. I found lots of them. I was having a great time, and found about 10-12 species hopping around (including only 1 of the pestiferous cane toad, but he was calling...). The rain had slowed to a light spitting rain, and the frogs were everywhere. I came across a good sized water python, and this is where the trouble started. I hopped out of the car, to shoo it off the middle of the road, and closed the door behind me. The snake was a good looking one - about 1.3 m long (4 feet). After a bit of convincing, I got it off the road, and went to get back in the car. Somehow, I had manged to lock the door before closing it. I'm not sure how, because it is one of those cars with electronic, remote locks, and the key was in the ignition. So, there I was, standing in the rain, in the middle of the floodplain, with frogs calling all around me, and a water python sliding happily back into the weeds, staring at a running car, with everything safely locked inside.

Now, these days, cars are made so you can't easily get into one, unless you are an employee of the AAA or an average car thief. I'm neither. My cell phone (which probably wouldn't have worked there anyway) was locked inside the running car, it was 11:30 at night, and I was in the middle of a highway that goes to Jabiru - a very small town. Part of the appeal of this highway for catching frogs is that there isn't much traffic, particularly at night, in the rain. I was about 20km in either direction from the nearest people - not a great place to be. So I waited for one of those road trains that is so good at flattening the fauna in the area. There was something a bit unreal about standing in the middle of the highway, in the middle of the floodplain, in the middle of the night, in the rain, and having a road train pull to a stop right next to me. It felt a bit like a dream sequence. Anyway, the truckie had no idea how to get into the car, without a lot of damage, but he did have a satellite phone, so I rang Keith (the only phone number I could remember) and told him about the predicament. I'm sure he was a bit nervous when I said there was an issue with the car. Last week a student rolled one of our lab field vehicles, and I'm sure Keith had visions of his nice new Jeep upside down, with a belly full of Adelaide river mud. Of course, the bigger issue, is that, of course, I had his car. He rang Steve, who came out to deliver a spare key.

Normally, a couple of hours in the middle of nowhere watching frogs hopping across the highway would be quite nice. And the rain had managed to keep down the mosquitos and other nasty insects. I did enjoy it, but there were moments when I had to laugh at the absurdity of it all. It did end up being a good frog night, though. I suppose the worst part was that I didn't make it home until almost 3am, which added to the surreal nature of the whole thing.

Today's adventures were a bit more earthshaking, literally. This evening there was a 7.1 magnitude earthquake a couple hundred miles to the north. I was helping call lines after our volleyball game when it happened. It was quite strange - I was leaning up against a wall of storage doors in the gymnasium, and the doors started shaking pretty violently. I pulled away from the doors, but couldn't feel the ground shaking. The whole thing was strange because my first thought when the doors started shaking was earthquake, but then I couldn't feel anything through the floor, so decided it much have been something else. Not sure what I was thinking it could be. So, that was interesting.

The last bit to the saga of the last day is a bit tragic. I found out that a friend (not very close) died in a bit of a strange accident with an arc welder. Apparently he was welding when the storm hit yesterday, and died. His wife, a better friend, came home and found him still attached to the current, but there wasn't anything she could do. They were just married last year, and their tales of their honeymoon in Bali helped me figure out my own trip there. It was quite a shock (no pun, please) to the system.

I don't want to wrap up on that sad note, so I'll add one more little strangeness from today. As I was going to volleyball, I turned on the radio and heard a familiar voice. Jared Diamond was doing an interview with the ABC about his new book Collapse, how societies choose to fail or succeed. I just got the book, but haven't had a chance to read it yet. I'm looking forward to that. It sounds like a good one, and his last one (Guns, Germs and Steel) was quite interesting. At least it should be thought provoking.