Can’t you Hear Me Knocking?

Keith Richards is more interesting than a tree. I have a blog article about a species of tree ready, and I will probably publish it next week, but I have been reading Keith Richards autobiography lately, and his life holds more fascination for me than a tree. I enjoy reading biographies of rock stars because they experienced unfettered lives when they were youthful and had all the money, women, and drugs they desired. Keith Richards has been the guitar player for the Rolling Stones for about as long as I have been alive. (They are going on yet another farewell tour this summer, and Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are 80 years old.) The Rolling Stones are one of the greatest rock bands of all time with a deep catalogue. My favorite Rolling Stones songs include “Can’t you hear me knocking?” “I know (it’s only rock’n’roll but I like it),” “Brown Sugar,” “Gimme Shelter,” and “Shattered.”

“Can’t you hear me knocking?” is my favorite Rolling Stones song. I have listened to this song quite a few times while I am drunk.

Keith Richards grew up in a working-class household in England at a time when the English economy was struggling to recover from World War II. He had a low opinion of the educational system in England at the time he went to school. I’ve also read biographies of Ozzy Osbourne and Bernie Taupin, and they share his assessment. Keith learned to play guitar in his teens and was soon covering Chuck Berry songs. Chuck Berry along with Muddy Waters and Chicago blues artists were his biggest influences. He didn’t live far away from Mick Jagger who was able to get blues albums from Chess Records directly–hard to get items in England at the time. The two of them formed the Rolling Stones and started writing songs together. When the Rolling Stones first toured England they opened for the Everly Brothers, but by the time the tour ended the Everly Brothers were opening for them. This was before the Stones even had any hits and were merely covering Chicago blues songs.

Keith Richards is an exceptionally innovative guitar player with a unique sound. He changed the strings around on his guitar to give him the sound he was seeking. It sounded so good, Ike Turner of Ike and Tina Turner forced Keith at gunpoint to show him how he was playing his guitar. Keith created the famous hit, “Satisfaction,” in his sleep. He says he woke up one morning and played back a cassette. He heard the riff for “Satisfaction,” then 10 minutes of snoring. He also learned he liked the way his acoustic guitar sounded distorted when he played it back on cassette. Songs such as “Jumping Jack Flash” sound like they use electric guitar, but actually Keith was using distorted acoustic guitar. Oddly enough, “Start me up” was originally a reggae song. For years the group couldn’t get it to sound right until they played it as a straight up rock song. It became one of their most popular songs that they usually use to begin their concerts.

On the Stones first tour of the U.S., they played in some southern cities including Nashville and Memphis. Keith recounts how the white side of town would be completely closed by 10:00 pm, so the group would cross the railroad tracks where most of the black side of town was still jumping with juke joints playing music and serving booze all night. He’d wake up in the morning in bed with his face in some black woman’s enormous cleavage, while her mother served them breakfast in bed.

Photos of Keith Richards when he was young and old. Considering his unhealthy habits, it is surprising he is still alive and performing strenuous rock concerts at the age of 80.

The entire band took a great variety of drugs. Keith met a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust who was a fan of the band. He was a shady businessman and owner of drug stores where doctors on the take agreed to send people for recreational drug prescriptions. He supplied Keith with pharmaceutical grade cocaine, a much purer form than could be found on the street. However, it was heroin that got Keith into the most trouble. He was a junkie throughout the 1970’s and early 1980’s. When he was on heroin he would stay up for many days, working on his music. His record for being awake was 9 days straight when he suddenly collapsed, stumbled down some stairs, and finally fell asleep. He was busted for drug possession in several countries including England, France, and Canada. Canadian authorities tried to nail him for distribution (a minimum 10-year prison sentence), but the judge sentenced him to give a free concert to blind people. He finally got the monkey off his back in the early 1980’s.

A more remarkable story involves Keith’s bandmate, Bobby Keys–the saxophone player. On the way home from a tour of Asia the band had to stop at customs in Honolulu. Bobby forgot he had hidden a heroin syringe in his saxophone. The customs agent turned the saxophone upside down to look at the serial number, and the syringe fell out and landed needle side down, like a dart in a dart board, on the customs agent’s desk. They arrested Bobby, but the rest of the band had already left for the continental U.S. The only number Bobby had to call was Mr. Dole, owner of Dole Pineapple who gave him his business card when he caught Bobby fooling around with his daughter in his mansion. Mr. Dole had enough influence to get the charges dropped.

The band members left England to avoid paying an 85% tax rate. They became non-resident citizens to prevent the government from confiscating so much of their wealth.

Keith enjoyed countless groupies, but he had 3 important lovers in his life. His first great love was Anita Pallenberg, actress and former girlfriend of fellow bandmate, Brian Jones. Keith basically stole her from Brian, but that relationship had been falling apart for some time. Keith and Anita had a lot of fun together, and the relationship produced 3 children. She also was addicted to heroin. Their relationship couldn’t survive their mutual addiction. Keith moved on to Lil Wergelis who helped him get over his addiction to heroin. Keith has nothing but good things to say about Lil, but he admits he “dumped” her for Pattie Hensen, a Vogue cover girl model. He is still married to her some 40 years later. At the time he met her Mick Jagger was also dating a supermodel, and in my opinion Keith might have wanted to keep up with Mick.

Keith and Mick are the heart of the Rolling Stones. There was some resentment between them in the late 1980’s when Mick attempted to kindle a solo career but mostly played Rolling Stones songs on his tours. Keith played guitar on tour with a reggae group, then formed his own band known as the X-pensive Winos. Keith and Mick reunited and have played together on many mega-tours since.

Reference:

Richard, Keith

Life

Back Bay Books/Little Brown and Company 2010

The Arab-Israeli Conflict is Entirely About Religious Antisemitism

The Arab-Israeli conflict is entirely about religious antisemitism. Arab Muslims oppressed Jews in the Middle East for 1400 years, and Arab Muslims cannot tolerate Israel because it is a Jewish state that has political control over some Muslims. This is the sole reason why so many Arab governments, still to this day, refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist. Many Muslims who live in the rest of the world feel the same way about Western governments but are outnumbered in places like the U.S. and Western Europe by the “infidels,” and they know they have to tolerate it. But Muslims in the Middle East greatly outnumber the Jews, and they feel outraged because there is a tiny slice of land where Muslims can’t dominate Jews.

Jews have had a continuous presence in what today is Israel for at least 5000 years. Over time, many Jews left seeking better economic opportunities around the world because Israel (known as Judea and Samaria in ancient times) was a poor nation often being overrun and conquered by larger kingdoms. The Romans ethnically cleansed Judea when they conquered it during the first century AD. The Romans enslaved tens of thousands of Jews and dispersed them throughout the Roman Empire. Romans gave the province of Judea the name Syria Palestinia–a completely made-up name–to erase the existence of a Jewish state. There is no such country as Palestine, and there never has been, and therefore there is no such thing as a Palestinian. The name has always been applied to a colony of a conquering power. Arab Muslims defeated the Romans during the 7th century and forced most of the inhabitants to convert to Islam. Jews and Christians were treated as second class citizens. Eventually, this region became part of the Muslim Ottoman Empire, and they ruled for centuries, until the British Empire defeated the Ottomans (now known as Turks) during World War I and took control of the province that the Romans called Palestine.

For centuries Muslims oppressed Jews in the Middle East, though some rulers were more friendly toward the Jews than others. But Jews living in the region were considered second class citizens, and they didn’t have the same rights as Muslims. It was Muslims who first forced Jews to wear yellow stars, a practice imitated by Nazis during the Holocaust. Periodically, Arab Muslims massacred Jews in deadly pogroms that were just as brutal as the pogroms in Russia and Poland. The Koran is astonishingly antisemitic. The Koran refers to Jews as “apes and swine.” The Koran accuses Jews of being treacherous and says they are a disgrace. Jews are cursed for their refusal to believe in Islam, and the Koran advocates the killing of Jews, if they believe they are the chosen people. The Koran specifically warns Muslims not to ally themselves with Jews and Christians. The religion of Islam is clearly hostile to the existence of Jews, let alone a Jewish state.

During the 19th century European Jews founded the Zionist movement, so that Jews could have their own nation where they wouldn’t be persecuted. They dreamed of returning to the land of their forefathers. At the time the Ottoman Empire controlled that land, and they often passed laws that outlawed Jews from buying land in Palestine. However, after the British took control of the land following World War I, Jews began legally buying land from local Arabs and absentee Turkish landlords. They also purchased public land controlled by the British government. Jews established many settlements, and many Arabs abandoned land and moved to the city to escape Bedouin tribesman who they feared. Nevertheless, Arab gangs, many from far outside the area, massacred quite a few Jewish settlements. During World War II the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was an ally of Adolf Hitler, and many Arabs wanted to join the Nazis in their goal of annihilating the Jews.

Here is a list of Jewish settlements that were wiped out by Arabs prior to the establishment of Israel. The world didn’t have a problem with these massacres. It didn’t become a problem until Jews started fighting back. Whenever a Jew defends himself, the world considers it a war crime.

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was an ally of Adolf Hitler. Nazi officials who escaped trial at Nuremburg helped administer the fascist governments of all the Arab countries that tried to wipe Israel off of the map. Arab Muslims are still allied with neo-Nazis.

There is still an alliance between Arab Muslims and neo-Nazis. They share a hatred of Jews. Here are some neo-Nazis waving a “Palestinian” flag.

Ignorant antisemites wrongly accuse Israel of being a colonial state. This is simply false. Jews legally bought land and were legally granted rights to land when it was controlled by the British, and the U.N. officially recognized the creation of Israel in 1948. The entire Arab Muslim world attacked Israel as soon as this happened. Arabs abandoned additional land in Israel, some hoping to return after Israel was defeated, while other Arabs were forcibly removed during the war when Israel was fighting for survival. This is how Israel gained even more territory. Israel won the war. Wars have consequences. It was a war Arabs started, and Israel justifiably asserted control of land in a war of self-defense.

Map showing progressive Israeli gains in territory over the years. Arabs could have had all the land colored in red, if they would have chosen to live in peace with the Jews. Instead, they went to war. They lost. Moreover, following the war, Egypt seized the Gaza Strip, and Jordan seized the West Bank. There were no demands to have an independent state of Palestine between 1949-1967 when those territories were controlled by Muslims. This proves the Arab-Israeli conflict is entirely about religious antisemitism.

During the war of 1948 Egypt took control of the Gaza strip and Jordan took control over the West Bank. When Jordan and Egypt had control of these territories (1948-1967) there was no demand for an independent Palestinian state. The so-called Palestinians accepted Jordanian and Egyptian rule. This proves the conflict is entirely about religion. During 1967 in another war of self-defense Israel defeated the Arabs again and took control of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. (Israel was forced to launch a preemptive attack because Nasser, the dictator of Egypt, mobilized a large army on Israel’s border and announced he was going to blockade Israeli ports.) Suddenly, Arabs demanded the creation of a Palestinian nation because it was intolerable for Muslims to live under Jewish political control. Jordan and Egypt reject the Arabs who live in those territories, so they won’t have to take care of their own people. In 1984 Jordan officially renounced the citizenship of all the Arabs who live in the West Bank, thus abdicating the responsibility of taking care of their own people.

There are numerous ignorant young people who accuse Israel of apartheid and genocide. Arab citizens living in Israel are allowed to vote, and there are Arabs serving in the Israeli government and even in the Israeli Army. There are not many real democratic elections in the Arab world, and there are very few Jews in any Arab countries because they were forcibly removed following the creation of the Israeli state. Israel has built defensive walls separating themselves from some Arabs. Israelis shouldn’t be expected to have to live next to Jew-killing terrorists who have launched countless terrorist attacks against them. Israel is not committing genocide. Genocide is the deliberate extermination of another group of people. Some Arabs in the Gaza Strip are being killed because they elected terrorists as their leaders, and the terrorists are using them as human shields in their war of aggression against Israel. They are despicable monsters who use hospitals and children’s playgrounds as their military headquarters and rocket-launching sites. There seems to be plenty of Jew-hating simpletons in the world who refuse to grasp this logical fact. Hamas definitely does hope to commit genocide against Jews. Their charter calls for the destruction of Israel. Schools and parents in Gaza and the West Bank indoctrinate their children into hating Jews from the day they are born. Some of these schools are run by the U.N. The U.N. is an antisemitic organization.

A children’s puzzle used in Palestinian schools to indoctrinate their children into attacking Jews. They also teach math problems that encourage the murder of Jews.

Some people lament the loss of innocent life in Gaza. Israel is not responsible for this. Hamas is responsible for these deaths because they use their own people as human shields. Maybe Gazans shouldn’t have elected terrorists to be their leaders. Maybe they shouldn’t indoctrinate their children with blind hatred for Jews. The women and children who live there are not so innocent. Women and children followed Hamas into Israel on October 7th and participated in the looting, rapes, mutilations, murders, and kidnappings. They celebrated the murderous attacks. Yeah, that doesn’t sound innocent to me.

Student protests against Israel in the U.S. are antisemitic hate rallies and should not be tolerated. They chant pro-genocidal slogans against Jews, and they regurgitate pro-terrorist slogans. Some even wave Hamas and Hezbollah flags. They harass and bully Jewish students and at Columbia University, they won’t allow Jewish students to enter the library. Their demand that the universities divest from Israel is obviously antisemitic. Why are they singling out the Jewish state? Why don’t they demand the divestment of university funds from China where real human rights violations are occurring? Students participating in these protests should be expelled and blacklisted for life. I’d deport them to Gaza, if I had the power to do so. The gay protestors would be executed because that is what Hamas does to homosexuals.

From the River to the Sea is a genocidal chant calling for the extermination of millions of Jews. Comically, many protestors don’t know which river and which sea. They are just ignorant.

Pro Palestinian protestors are telling Jews to go back to Poland. I have a lot of dead relatives in Poland who were killed by the Nazis.

Here’s a pro-Palestinian demonstrator urging a terrorist attack against Jewish counter protestors. Note how she covers her face. Pro-Palestinian protestors are cowards who are afraid to reveal their true identities.

Unfair criticism of Israel from extreme leftists in the Democratic Party is predictable antisemitism. But it’s disappointing to hear mainstream Democrats also unfairly criticize Israel for defending themselves against terrorism. (I am a mainstream Democrat. I think the Republican Party should be outlawed because Republicans no longer believe in Democracy.) Mainstream Democrats are afraid they have to appease antisemitic Arabs, or they will lose to Trump in the Presidential election because there is a significant Arab population in Michigan–a critical battleground state. I especially hate Tim Kaine of Virginia. He falsely accuses Israel of indiscriminate bombing and of preventing food aid from going into the Gaza Strip. There is more food rolling into Gaza now than before the war started. Kaine recently co-sponsored a resolution condemning antisemitism. He thinks this gives him cover to kiss antisemitic Arab ass by unfairly criticizing Israel. He disgusts me. Republicans are even more disgusting. Over 100 Republican congressmen voted against a bill sending aid to Israel because they felt they had to kiss undemocratic fascist ass and didn’t want to send aid to Ukraine.

Tim Kaine and Barack (the bastard) Obama. I hate these antisemites. Kaine unfairly criticizes Israel to appease antisemitic Arab ass. Following the October 7th attacks, Obama equated the Jewish victims of terrorism with the Arab terrorists.

A Virtual Visit to Broxton Rocks in Coffee County, Georgia

My family and I were considering options for this year’s summer vacation. I thought of Broxton Rocks–a unique site in Georgia where we had never been before. I happened to mention all the rocky crevices at Broxton Rocks probably offered good denning habitat for copperheads and rattlesnakes, and they were likely abundant there. My wife told me we would not be going to Broxton Rocks. I informed her that snakes are our friends, and if we left them alone, they would leave us alone. I couldn’t change her mind, and I wasn’t going to make this trivial issue an argument. Anyway, Broxton Rocks is in the middle of nowhere, and there are no other attractions nearby. I did decide to take a virtual tour of Broxton Rocks, using many of the images I found on Google, especially Alan Cressler’s fine photographs. Alan Cressler has visited many natural areas in Georgia, and he posts photos of them on Flickr. He’s a much better photographer than I am.

There are 6 species of venomous snakes living at Broxton Rocks including timber rattlesnakes, diamond-backed rattlesnakes, pygmy rattlesnakes, copperheads, water moccasins, and coral snakes. The site also hosts endangered indigo snakes, a non-venomous species, and endangered gopher tortoises.

Location of Broxton Rocks.

Broxton Rocks Preserve is about 4 miles in extent and over half of it is managed by the Nature Conservancy. It’s a particularly unique geological site. It’s part of the Altamaha Formation and is known on the surface as Altamaha grit. Most of the Altamaha Formation is deep underground and consists of sedimentary sandstone deposited when the coastal plain was below sea level. The sediment in this formation was deposited about 12 million years ago. Broxton Rocks is unusual because it is a rare area where the surface of the coastal plain has eroded to expose the Altamaha Formation. Most of the coastal plain is flat with few rocks, but Broxton Rocks has 50-foot cliffs, cliff walls, sandstone outcrops, waterfalls, and rocky pools. It is a beautiful area and was formerly known as the Picnic Rocks.

Waterfalls at Broxton Rocks.

Another waterfall and a pool.

A cliff at Broxton Rocks. Photo by Alan Cressler.

Rocky Creek and other tributaries of the Ocmulgee River have eroded the surface of the coastal plain to the Altamaha Formation which is deep underground elsewhere in the coastal plain. Photo by Alan Cressler.

A natural bridge formed by different rates of erosion. Photo by Alan Cressler.

Open pine savannah at Broxton Rocks. Photo by Alan Cressler.

Photo showing contrast between surrounding pine savannah and sandstone outcrops at Broxton rocks. Photo by Alan Cressler.

The rocky cliffs and gullies host rare plants and disjunct populations of species normally found in the southern Appalachians such as flame azalea (Rhododendron calandulaceum). Georgia plume (Elliottia racemosa) is a rare species found here. This species is restricted to 4 counties in Georgia but formerly occurred in parts of South Carolina as well. Its preferred habitat is sandstone bluffs, and it is fire adapted. It is not known to grow from seed. Instead, it grows clonally from roots. They resprout following fires. Green fly orchid (Epidendrum conopseum) is the only native species of orchid in the U.S. found outside Florida. It grows on cliff walls and trees, commonly alongside ferns. Scientists think it is pollinated by nocturnal moths, but no one has yet studied this hypothesis. Broxton Rocks is surrounded by pine savannah, but the topography and varied microenvironments break up the monotony of a typical pine flatwoods.

Flame azalea is a species found in the southern Appalachians but occurs as a disjunct population at Broxton Rocks.

Georgia plume is a rare fire-adapted species found at Broxton Rocks and just 3 other counties in Georgia.

Green fly orchid is common at Broxton Rocks. It’s the only native orchid outside of Florida found in the U.S. Unlike most species of orchid, it can survive frosts.

Asiatic black bears (Ursus thibetanus) Lived as far West as Spain during the Pleistocene

Remains of Asiatic black bears have been found at 5 fossil sites in Spain, showing this species formerly had a much more widespread range. Today, Asiatic black bears are restricted to mountainous regions of China, Japan, and a few other Asian countries, but during the Pleistocene they occurred across southern Siberia, the Ural Mountains, the Caucuses, and Western Europe. Recently, scientists discovered additional fossils of Asian black bears at the sites in Spain where they were previously found. It gave them an opportunity to compare these ancient specimens with other specimens.

Asiatic black bears occurred in Europe from about 620,000 years BP to about 100,000 years ago. It’s likely the onset of full glacial conditions restricted this species in Europe to a narrow refugia along the Mediterranean coast where modern humans, brown bears (U. arctos), and wild boars outcompeted them. Black bears are a forest and woodland species, habitat that mostly gave way to cold, arid grasslands during Ice Ages.

The Asiatic black bear is closely related to the American black bear (U. americanus). They probably had a common ancestor during the Miocene when temperate-subtropical woodlands existed across North America and Eurasia. A land bridge periodically connected the continents. Genetic studies are contradictory, but as a whole they estimate Asiatic black bears diverged from American black bears between 6 million years ago and 2 million years ago. Genetic studies do suggest the 2 are sister species. In turn American black bears are sister species to brown bears and polar bears (U. maritimus).

Asiatic black bear. I found this image on Wikipedia.

Present day range of the Asiatic black bear. Before the most recent Ice Age, they ranged all the way to western Europe.

Asiatic black bears have surprisingly small home ranges–some are smaller than a square mile. They gorge on forest mast and will also attack and kill large mammals more commonly than American black bears will. On occasion they will attack and kill people. They fall prey to tigers in ranges where they 2 species overlap.

Reference:

de Albvarado, de M.V,; et. al.

“Pleistocene Asian Black Bear (Ursus thibetanus, Cuvier 1823) in the Iberian Peninsula-New Evidence and a Complete Review”

Quaternary Science Review 325 Feb. 2024

Debunking the Lovelock Giants

I didn’t want to waste a whole blog article debunking this stupid click bait I came across, but I can’t let people think 9-foot-tall skeletons of Indians had ever really been found. A recent popular article written by Harriet Brewer and published by something called “Indy 300” was disseminated by Microsoft News. Brewer reported about an article published by a pseudo-archaeology magazine claiming archaeologists had discovered 9-foot-tall specimens of Indians in the Lovelock Cave in Nevada. The only human skeleton found in the cave measured about 6 feet tall. Early cave explorers mistakenly thought bones of mammoths were human bones, and their false assumption that they were bones of giant humans became tied to a local Indian legend of a giant race of cannibal humans who were forced into the cave and defeated once and for all by these local Indians. The Indian legend is likely based on the same mistaken assumption. Archaeologists have found 2000-year-old duck decoys buried in bat guano here. In any case there have been no bones of giant humans ever found anywhere. Ms. Brewer is a really shitty excuse for a journalist. Moreover, the New York Post is a really shitty excuse for a newspaper because they repeated this bogus claim in an article as well.

A New Species of Anaconda (Eunectes akayima) Discovered

If someone told a scientist, a 21 foot long 500-pound animal was discovered for the first time this year, they would be in a state of disbelief. Yet, that is what happened. The reason for its recent discovery is its similarity to a known species. For over a century scientists thought the recently discovered northern anaconda (Eunectes akayima) was the same species as the southern anaconda (E. murines). However, a recent genetic study determined northern anacondas diverged from southern anacondas 10 million years ago. Despite their identical appearance, the 2 species genetic characteristics differ by 5%–more than twice as much as the genetic difference between chimpanzees and humans. Southern anacondas occur in Peru, Bolivia, French Guiana, and Brazil. Northern anacondas occur in Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana.

There are 3 other species of anacondas in the Eunectes genus including the Bolivian anaconda (E. beniensa), the dark spotted anaconda (E. deschavenseei), and the yellow anaconda (E. notheus). All species of anacondas are semi-aquatic apex predators that feed upon waterfowl, deer, rodents (including large capybaras), and even caimans. They suffocate their prey by constricting their coils around their victim. There are no known cases of an anaconda feeding upon a person, but it is certainly possible. They are not the king of the jungle, however. There are no documented cases of anacondas feeding upon jaguars, though it seems possible. Jaguars can bite really hard, causing fatal wounds on anacondas. A Wikipedia entry falsely claims anacondas are known to prey upon jaguars, but the source cites an article which makes no mention of any recorded incidents of such an event occurring. Likewise, a purported youtube video of such an event looks doctored and inconclusive.

Jaguar preying on a yellow anaconda.

Reference:

Fry, B.

“How we Found the Northern Green Anaconda, a New Species of the Heaviest Snake on Earth”

Live Science 2024

A Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) Flying Over Piney Grove Road

I was jogging on Piney Grove Road, located in Richmond County Georgia last summer and saw a flock of crows mobbing a bald eagle and a red-tailed hawk. I sprinted inside my house, grabbed my camera, and took a decent photo of the eagle. I don’t often see eagles and was excited to document my sighting. The eagle was near the red-tailed hawk, and I was able to make a direct size comparison. I never realized how much larger eagles are compared to hawks.

Crows were mobbing this hawk and a nearby eagle.

I was excited to get this photo of the eagle. I was surprised how much bigger it was than the hawk. Nevertheless, crows were tormenting both.

This incident inspired my investigation into genetic studies of bald eagles. Bald eagles belong to the sea eagle genus (Haliaeetus) which includes 9 species with a near worldwide distribution, excepting deep ocean and polar regions. Genetic studies suggest bald eagles are more closely related to species of sea eagles found in the Northern Hemisphere. All sea eagles occupy the same ecological niche, feeding upon fish, waterfowl, carrion, and small animals.

Another genetic study determined bald eagles living in Alaska belonged to a different clade than those living in Florida. The study found significant genetic differences between boreal populations and Florida populations. Eagles found near Florida bay located in the southern part of the state are sedentary populations living in a resource rich region, but they are genetically similar to eagles found in the central and northern part of the state. The differences between boreal and Florida populations are probably due to geographical distance. Southern bald eagles may be more resistant to malaria.

Despite a sudden population decline following DDT exposure during the middle of the 20th century, scientists have not found any genetic bottlenecks in eagle populations. This is probably because it is such a widespread species.

I found an error in general information about bald eagles on google. According to more than 1 website in a basic google search, bald eagles supposedly appear suddenly in the fossil record during the late Pleistocene about 125,000 years ago. However, I looked at the University of Florida museum database and learned an eagle fossil identified as belonging to the Haliaeetus genus dating to the early Pliocene was excavated from the Chicory Mine (a phosphate mine) located in Polk County Florida. Fossils from this site date to the early Pliocene (5.3 million years ago-3.6 million years ago). It seems likely bald eagles and closely related ancestors have lived in North America for millions of years. Eagles belong to the Accipitridae Family which includes the Buteo and Accipiter hawks and the kites. The ancestors of eagles diverged from the ancestors of kites about 36 million years ago.

References:

Helnick, E.

“Genetic Differentiation Among Populations of Bald Eagles, Haliaeetus leucocephalus”

Masters Thesis for Florida Atlantic 2011

Nadeau, A.

“A Genetic Analysis of Bald Eagles in the Pacific Northwest: Retained Genetic Diversity Following a Large Scale Population Bottleneck”

Masters Thesis for Boise State August 2012

Wink, M. ; P. Heidrich, C. Fentcliff

“A mtDNA Phylogency of Sea Eagles (genus Haliaeetus) Based on Nucleotide Sequences on the Cytochorme b Gene”

Biochemical Systematics and Ecology 24 (18) 1996

2 Million Year old DNA Recovered from the Kap Kobenhavn Site in Greenland

I’ve been writing this blog for 14 years, and since its inception, the advances in the technology to extract information from minute paleo-ecological data have become amazing. Recently, scientists took 41 sediment cores from 5 sites at the Kap Kobenhavn Site in Greenland. This site has been a polar desert for almost 2 million years due to the aridity and frigid temperatures. Remains of the last forest that grew here can still be found, indicating climate change with the onset of Pleistocene Ice Ages was sudden. Sub-fossil tree stumps and limbs from trees including spruce, birch, poplar, and northern white cedar are exposed wherever erosion occurs, and they are millions of years old. The dry cold temperatures retard bacterial decay. Scientists were able to extract DNA from the sediment cores, and to date, this is the oldest DNA ever recovered. They were able to find DNA from many of the plants and animals that lived here almost 2 million years ago. This supplements the sub-fossil remains that have been found including bones from an extinct species of rabbit (which helped date the site), rabbit turds, and dung beetle parts. The site is thought to have been near an estuary 2 million years ago.

Photo of an ancient tree limb from the Kap Kobenhavn site. Today, it is a polar desert, but 2 million years ago it was a thriving ecosystem with a type of open spruce woodlands that no longer exists.

DNA degrades over time, and the scientists who studied the data from this site were able to reconstruct the past environment here from just fragments of DNA that they pieced together. It was like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle. 2 million years ago, this location was an open boreal woodland with no modern analogue. The past plant community was dominated by spruce, poplar, birch, willow, and northern white cedar with an understory of grasses, sedges, forbs, and shrubs including blueberry (now rare in Greenland). Scientists found DNA from mastodon, caribou, hare, rodent, goose, ant, and horseshoe crab. This is the northernmost known occurrence of mastodons, though mastodon fossils have been found in Alaska and the Yukon which are about the same latitude as Greenland. Mastodons lived this far north during warmer phases of climate but became extirpated at this latitude during Ice Ages. Scientists suspect the fauna here was even more diverse than what the evidence suggests, but much of the DNA is so degraded it is unrecognizable.

Chart from the below reference showing the kinds of plants that occurred in Greenland 2 million years ago.

Chart from the below reference showing the kinds of animals that lived here 2 million years ago.

The site dates to the boundary between the Pliocene and the early Pleistocene. Scientists dated the site using a combination of paleomagnetism, biostratigraphy, allostratigraphy, and the molecular clock. Here is a brief explanation of each. Dating using paleomagnetism is based on the orientation of associated magnetic pebbles which change orientation when polarity between the south and north poles shift. These shifts occurred at known pre-historic times. Scientists can determine the relative age of the associated fossils or DNA by looking at the orientation of the associated magnetic pebbles. Biostratigraphy is the use of index fossils to date the age of other fossils. Scientists have a general idea of when certain species lived, if those fossils have been found in regions where they can be dated radiometrically. Radiometric dating is not possible in all regions because it requires the presence of volcanic rock or younger biological organisms. However, the relative age dates of fossils in areas where radiometric dating is not possible can be bracketed. Allostratigraphy is the use of geological disconformities between phases of erosion and sedimentation to date fossils. And finally, the molecular clock is the use of the known rate of mutational changes in DNA to estimate the age of fossil specimens.

Reference:

Kjaer, K.; et al

“A 2 Million Year Old Ecosystem in Greenland Uncovered by Environmental DNA”

Nature 612 283-291 2022

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9729109/#:~:text=Analysis%20of%20two-million-year-old%20ancient%20environmental%20DNA%20from%20the,representing%20an%20ecosystem%20that%20has%20no%20present-day%20analogue.

A Short Biography of Dr. Arthur Gelbart Chapter 10

Retirement and Death

Arthur retired in 2000 at the age of 70, and he enjoyed the first 9 years of his retirement, until chronic health problems began to diminish his quality of life. He had a healthy routine throughout most of his 70s. He would go for a 4-5 mile walk in the morning. In the afternoon he would go to the Family Y where he would exercise some more, swim, and sit in the steam bath with his buddies, most of who were also retired. They discussed politics, sports, and investing money. Arthur’s favorite teams were the Atlanta Falcons and the Georgia Bulldogs. He long ago learned to like American football better than the soccer he grew up with. But he never liked baseball. He often said, “Jews like baseball, but I don’t.” Some of the political discussions became heated and Arthur’s liberal and conservative friends were no longer on speaking terms.

When Arthur would return home he would snack on fruit and cheese. His favorite fruits were cherries and grapefruit. Cherries reminded him of when his family was hiding in a hayloft during the Holocaust, and they didn’t have much to eat, but the farmer had a cherry orchard, and they could fill up on cherries during the middle of the summer. He always wondered how long a person could live on grapefruit. Perhaps, this also harkened back to the days of near starvation. For supper his favorite foods were roast chicken and halupkes (stuffed cabbage rolls), prepared by his wife. He enjoyed his salads with cottage cheese and tomato juice poured over it all. He frequently supplemented supper with salami.

From the ages of 6 to 11, Arthur’s granddaughter, Daphne, called Arthur almost every evening on the telephone, and they had long discussions. Once a week, he and Audrey went to visit his son’s family on the other side of town, and they went on yearly vacations together, along with his daughters and their families.

Arthur Gelbart’s children and grandchildren. Top row Susan and Mark. Bottom row Elizabeth, Justin, and Daphne.

Arthur and Daphne.

Arthur and Daphne.

Arthur liked to watch television, and as his health declined, he began to spend more time watching tv. He enjoyed watching Seinfeld reruns over and over, and he loved old movies, especially war films that depicted Nazis being killed. He still held a grudge because he lost many relatives during the Holocaust. During their old age Arthur and Audrey became completely brainwashed by Fox News network. They believed the most ridiculous lies, such as Barack Obama was not born in the U.S., and Obamacare was going to eliminate their health insurance. The only time in his life Arthur ever voted was the 2008 Presidential election when he voted for John McCain over Obama. Both Audrey and Arthur were liberal in their younger years, but they believed every word they heard on Fox News. Their inability to discern truth from fact puzzled and frustrated their son.

Arthur’s chronic health problems caught up with him when he was about the age of 79. Until this age, he was usually a cheerful person, but he became depressed and acutely anxious. He suffered from occasional painful bouts of gout. The medicine used to treat it caused diarrhea. He was also diagnosed with idiopathic anemia. This caused his first spiral into depression but was alleviated with a cure similar to the treatment for leukemia after he began regular appointments with an oncologist. Cardiac arrythmia and a leaky heart valve likely caused his death. Arthur experienced an irregular heartbeat for over a decade in addition to hypertension. Sometimes his heart beat too fast (200 beats per minute), and at other times it beat too slow. Medicines could prevent his heart from beating too fast, but he needed a pacemaker inserted to keep his heart from stopping. Arthur was never the same after he had the pacemaker inserted. He could no longer take long walks in the morning because he became short of breath. He did continue walking back and forth in the living room every morning, but he didn’t dare walk in the neighborhood where he would find himself struggling to get back to the house. He was not a candidate to have his leaky heart valve repaired. He was considered too old for heart surgery.

For a while Arthur felt anxious whenever the sun set because he feared death and was afraid to go to sleep. But during the last 2 years of his life he had 2 temporary strokes and a minor stroke, and after these events he seems to have lost his fear of death. He didn’t seem to care anymore. Taking his daily regime of pills exhausted him, and he was no longer independent. He often told Audrey, “I wish I didn’t wake up this morning.” He lived to watch television, but the cable malfunctioned 1 day, and the company couldn’t come out and repair it right away. He watched 2 movies on dvd that day–Dr. Zhivago and Europa, Europa–perhaps because they reminded him of his younger life, especially the latter which is a remarkable story of survival during the Holocaust. The next morning, he woke up and asked, “who called in the middle of the night?”, referring to an early morning phone call. Later that morning, Audrey found Arthur unresponsive, and an ambulance carried him to MCG Hospital. A massive stroke put him in a coma, and he died 2 days later at about 6:00 am with his daughter, Susan, by his side.

Arthur was buried in the Jewish tradition–quickly and in a plain pine box. His family, a few of his friends and former colleagues, and his Christmas party dance partner attended his funeral on a sunny day in October of 2014.

This is Arthur Gelbart’s biography written by his son, Mark, for the record. It’s meant to be straightforward and factual with no embellishments. Some chapters of it have fewer details, especially the time period from 1945-1960. Any additional details about this time of his life would be welcomed.

Reference:

Gelbart, M. personal observation

A Short Biography of Dr. Arthur Gelbart Chapter 9

Professor of Family Practice at MCG and the Medical Director of the Georgia War Veterans Nursing Home

The final stage of Arthur Gelbart’s career was a prestigious position with 2 responsibilities. He was the Medical Director of the Georgia War Veterans Nursing Home, also known as the Blue Goose, and he taught family practice at the Medical College of Georgia. He held this position from 1977 until his retirement in 2000–almost twice as long as he spent in private practice.

Arthur often proudly stated he awarded an A to every student he ever had, and he expressed impatience with the teachers who didn’t give his grandchildren an A. However, his pupils were medical students, and medical students usually are the kind of scholars who earned straight A’s for their entire academic careers. He couldn’t understand that maybe his grandchildren got the grades they deserved.

Arthur’s patients at the Blue Goose consisted of war veterans who were living out the last years of their lives, and younger veterans who had suffered permanent disabilities from their wounds. Arthur received many written testimonials from the relatives of his patients. They liked the way Arthur carefully and thoroughly explained the condition of their loved ones. Many people were forced to put their husband or father in the nursing home because they could no longer take care of them. End of life care can be just overwhelming. They were also mystified as to the uncharacteristic behavior they’d witnessed from their loved ones as they’d grown senile. Arthur always helped them understand the reason behind this erratic behavior.

Part of a letter written by Nadine Eslinger of Gainesville, Georgia praising Dr. Gelbart’s care of her brother at The Georgia War Veterans Nursing Home. It was published in an MCG newsletter. Audrey Gelbart kept a box full of testimonials like this. Most of them were not published publicly.

Dr. Gelbart was the medical director of this nursing home from 1977-2000. It’s nicknamed the Blue Goose.

Not every patient in the Blue Goose was on the verge of death. In 1 case Arthur had to resolve a dispute between 2 feisty old men who couldn’t get along. They were beating each other up with their walking canes.

Arthur made a major discovery soon after becoming Medical Director. Many of the patients who were thought to be suffering from irreversible dementia were not that senile. Instead, they’d been prescribed too many drugs or the wrong combination of drugs. This gave them a kind of brain fog that contributed to their confusion. When Arthur reduced the amount of prescription drugs they were given or stopped giving them the wrong combination of drugs, they usually returned to reality, and some even showed no sign of senility. Arthur published his findings in several medical journals including American Family Practice, Family Medicine, The Georgia Academy of Family Physicians, and The Journal of the Medical Association of Georgia. Most of his research was published during the 1980’s, and he became world renowned in the field of geriatrics. His research team studied how to teach geriatrics to family physicians, how much heart medication to give to people of different weights and physiological characteristics, how to treat and diagnose dementia and Parkinson’s disease, and ways to improve communications between physicians and pharmacists to reduce errors.

Dr. Gelbart and his research team. The article is from an MCG Today article written by Sally Simkins in the Summer of 1986.

Arthur had a great relationship with almost all his students and co-workers. However, he did have an issue with 1 nurse who continuously refused to follow his orders. He also didn’t like 1 colleague, Dr. Melchor. Arthur felt this doctor was stabbing him in the back because he was after his job.

Arthur Gelbart at work.

Arthur Gelbart in the prime of his life with his wife, Audrey, and his daughters, Elizabeth and Susan (from left to right).

Arthur’s father, Isadore, died in 1983. Arthur traveled to Europe to attend his father’s funeral and help take care of the financial arrangements for his brother and stepmother. His brother suffered from schizophrenia triggered by his experiences during the Holocaust. Although better decades later, Josef still needed support. This was the last time Arthur ever saw his brother, and he had not seen him in over 22 years. Arthur inherited some gold from his father, but to keep the German government from confiscating it, he smuggled it back to the U.S. He taped the gold to his body underneath his clothes. His action was reminiscent of the days when he fed his family by selling cigarettes to Russian soldiers on the black market.

Arthur met the famous soul singer, James Brown. One of Arthur’s patients at the Blue Goose, was James Brown’s father. James Brown came to visit his father, while Arthur was there. Mr. Brown offered Arthur a $100 bill as a reward for taking care of his father. Arthur explained he was on salary and couldn’t accept a cash gift, so the “hardest working man in show business” gave him an autographed calendar instead.

Arthur convinced Alan Sloan, the fiddle player for the Dixie Dregs (a popular local instrumental band), to play for Audrey and him in their living room as a Valentine’s Day gift to his wife. Mr. Sloan played an entire concert for them. Alan was a medical student at the time. It’s unclear whether Arthur paid him, or he did it for a good grade.

Arthur and Audrey attended MCG Christmas parties every year. They were an opportunity for Arthur to show off the dance moves he perfected during his years as a dance instructor in the Catskills.

Arthur showing off his dance moves at an MCG Christmas party.

During his later years working for MCG, Arthur welcomed 2 additions to the family. His first grandchild, Daphne, was born in 1995 to his eldest son, Mark, and his wife, Anita. His second grandchild, Justin, was born in 1998 to his youngest daughter, Elizabeth, and her second husband, Neeraj Uppal.

References:

Gelbart, A. personal communication

Simkins, Sally

MCG Today Summer 1986

I also found some information from 2 MCG newsletters archived online including The Beeper and The MCG News Column.

A Short Biography of Dr. Arthur Gelbart Chapter 8

A Health Scare

During 1975 Arthur noticed a bleeding mole on his back and worried about it because it looked like malignant melanoma–a deadly form of skin cancer. A biopsy of the mole reviewed by a skin doctor confirmed his fear. The diagnosis caused Arthur to feel panic, and he called his in-laws who were then living in Inverness, Florida for support after his Uncle Charles failed to agree to see him. They traveled to Ohio immediately–another reason he liked Audrey’s family better than his own. The treatment for melanoma in the mid 1970’s was the removal of the mole and 6 inches of flesh around it. For the rest of Arthur’s life he had a deep crater-like scar on his back, and whenever he went swimming people mistakenly believed it was a war wound. The prognoses then for melanoma was not good. Patients were given 6 months to live, and the cancer usually spread to the intestines and brain. A cancerous tumor was found in Arthur’s small intestine 4 years later. The tumor caused internal bleeding and was removed along with a section of intestine, but Arthur was never troubled by the cancer again.

Arthur Gelbart was diagnosed with skin cancer during 1975 and given 6 months to live. He survived the skin cancer, but the diagnosis caused minor and major life-changing decisions.

Arthur was a rare survivor of the Holocaust and also a rare survivor of this deadly form of skin cancer. At the time Arthur didn’t know he was going to survive the cancer, and he suffered from terrible anxiety. After work he would take valium and lay on the couch. The valium helped him with his anxiety, and he began promoting the benefits of valium to his patients. The Ohio State Medical Board got wind of this advocacy and ordered Arthur to report to Columbus for a hearing. Arthur feared they would take his medical license away, but they let him off with a warning. This may have contributed to his decision to give up his practice and leave the state of Ohio, though the cancer diagnosis was the primary impetus of this change.

Arthur began making small changes in his life after the cancer diagnosis. He formerly smoked little smelly cigars that were similar to cigarettes. The brand name was Erik. He gave up smoking. By then, it was well known that tobacco was a carcinogen, and it didn’t look good for a doctor to be a smoker anyway. He also quit the high protein Atkins Diet. For a year his supper on every weeknight was a steak, melba toast, and a pickle. Excessive exposure to sunlight likely caused the melanoma, but he didn’t know for sure and blamed the diet as a possible cause.

Arthur used to smoke these little smelly cigars. He gave it up following his diagnoses of skin cancer, though exposure to sun was likely the cause.

Arthur also decided to make a major change. He was working 60 hours a week, and he realized that if he didn’t have long to live, he should work less and enjoy life more. He sold his practice to a doctor from India, and he sold his other house in Niles as well and moved his family to Athens, Georgia where he took a 9-5 job as a staff physician for University of Georgia college students. He could spend more time playing tennis, an activity he enjoyed. He purchased a new home in the Cedar Creek subdivision and had a clay tennis court built in the backyard. The practice he built from scratch was worth a great deal of money, and he invested the proceedings from the sale of his practice, while still collecting a steady salary that paid the bills. Arthur and Audrey quickly made many new friends in Athens.

Arthur met a couple of celebrities when he worked at UGA. One day, he was walking on campus and ran into Dean Rusk, the former Secretary of State under Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. Dean Rusk was a professor at UGA. Arthur liked to exercise during lunch at the school gym, but on 1 occasion a group of black teenagers wouldn’t let him play basketball with them. Ray Goff, the quarterback for the Georgia Bulldogs that year, arrived. He ran the teenagers off, and just he and Arthur played basketball in the gym for the rest of his lunch hour.

Arthur got free tickets for the best seats in Sanford stadium because he was on call to help students and fans at the game. Many students got so drunk they passed out, and fat out-of-shape fans often suffered heart attacks from the excitement of the game. Arthur treated the fans and students, but he was able to watch most of the games he attended.

Arthur got tired of his job as a staff physician after 18 months. He complained because it was not challenging enough–all he ever saw was the flu and venereal diseases. Joe Tollison, a fellow physician who formerly worked with Arthur at UGA, recruited Arthur for a position in Augusta, Georgia as the Medical Director of the Georgia War Veterans Nursing Home (also known as the Blue Goose because of the color of the building). As part of the job, Arthur would also teach family practice at the Medical College of Georgia. This was Arthur’s next and final career move.

Reference:

Gelbart, Mark personal observation