Trichinella sp.

My late father was a physician fresh out of medical school when he encountered a patient with symptoms that baffled his more experienced colleagues. The patient suffered from fever, nausea, diarrhea, fatigue, muscle soreness, headache, stomachache, and eye swelling. None of the older doctors could diagnose his ailment, and the young teenager appeared to be on the verge of death. In desperation they consulted with my father, and he recognized the symptoms of trichinosis, a parasite infection caused by roundworms in the trichinella genus. At first the teenager denied eating undercooked pork, but then he admitted to tasting uncooked pork sausage. He was treated with life-saving anti-parasite medications. The boy’s father happened to be a gangster who worked for the mafia, and after this incident my dad liked to brag the mafia would get him anything he wanted in gratitude. My dad also liked to think his help influenced the boy not to follow in his father’s footsteps. Instead of becoming a gangster, he chose dentistry as his profession.

Lifecycle of a trichinella round worm parasite. Image from the CDC.

Image of trichinella cysts in human muscle tissue. From a medical encyclopedia.

Carnivores, humans, pigs, and rodents spread trichinella worms when they consume meat infested with roundworm cysts. Digestive juices in the small intestine activate the cysts, freeing the roundworms from encasement within the cyst. The parasites pierce the lining of the small intestine and enter the blood stream where they burrow into muscles, mate, and lay eggs that become cysts, waiting to get eaten. How sick an animal gets depends on how many cysts are ingested and how strong the animal’s immune system is. An ingestion of highly infested meat can be fatal because the trichinella worms will also burrow into heart, lungs, brain, and eye tissues. Doctors diagnose trichinosis by taking a muscle biopsy and exposing it to digestive juices. If roundworms are activated, the patient is considered to have trichinosis. Patients are treated with anti-parasite medications including mehendozole or albendozole.

Trichinella is supposedly absent from pork raised in the U.S. and western Europe because modern pigs are fed a clean grain-based diet and are kept in sanitary cages where they don’t have the opportunity to eat dead rats. This hasn’t always been the case. During the middle of the 20th century, trichinella was widespread among domesticated pigs. One study in 1947 of 5000 people found trichinella roundworms in 16.1% of the population. The infestation rate was particularly high in New York City during the 1930s because New Jersey pigs were fed restaurant garbage with trichinella-infested meat and rats. An average of 400 cases of trichinosis were diagnosed every year during the middle of the 20th century, and this figure is likely an undercount because trichinosis symptoms mimic flu symptoms. Many people with trichinosis probably thought they had the flu. As late as the 1960s, 2.2% of Americans had trichinella parasites in their bodies.

New cases of trichinosis in the U.S. average about 20 a year now, and these are from hunters who consume undercooked wild boar or bear. The CDC recommends cooking meat to an internal temperature of 180 degrees F to kill trichinella, though other sources say temperatures as low as 120 degrees F are adequate. Freezing meat at 5 degrees F for 10 days will kill Trichinella spiralis, but freezing does not kill other species of trichinella, and these species are more likely to be found in wild game.

I ate wild boar last week. Sprouts Market sells Durham Ranch products, and this company sources wild boar from Texas. I made wild boar papardelle–a dish reportedly popular in the Tuscan region of Italy. To make wild boar papardelle, marinate 1 lb of ground or finely chopped wild boar in 1 cup of Burgundy and 1 TBL of rosemary overnight. Put a carrot, onion, and chopped garlic in a food processor and grind them up. Remove the meat from the marinade and brown it in an electric skillet, while sautéing the chopped vegetables. Mix the vegetables with the meat and add the marinade and a 6 ounce can of tomato paste. Let this simmer, then add cooked egg noodles. In Tuscany parmesan cheese is not added, but my wife and daughter wanted it on their servings. The meat tastes of wine and tomato paste, and any meat would probably taste the same with this recipe.

Wild boar should be cooked thoroughly. Unlike pigs raised in modern sanitary conditions, wild boar can ingest trichinella parasites.

Wild boar papardelle is reportedly a popular dish in the Tuscany region of Italy. It’s easy to make.

Pleistocene Caracaras

The pasturelands interspersed with woodlots that cover much of rural south Florida today likely resemble the coastal oak and pine savannahs of this same region during the Pleistocene. South Florida and the southern Gulf Coast were climatically out of sync with the rest of North America during Ice Ages. When climate phases of dry cold conditions struck the rest of North America, south Florida and the southern Gulf Coast experienced warmer wetter subtropical climates. The Gulf Stream of the present day carries tropically heated water north, keeping climates in the northern latitudes of North America relatively moderate, but during cold climate phases of the Ice Age, it shut down. Instead, this warm water stayed at lower latitudes ironically making climate along the southern Gulf Coast even warmer than present day conditions. This warm climate spurred frequent thunderstorms and hurricanes. Lightning-ignited fires and windstorms destroyed trees and created open savannahs where mammoths, bison, and horses further suppressed the growth of unbroken forests. Trees that survived fire and wind were spaced far apart, and woodlots were restricted to the vicinity of waterholes where the trees were protected by watery fire breaks. This warm savannah habitat occurred from south Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas all the way to eastern Mexico. Much of this land has been inundated by sea level rise since the end of the last Ice Age. Warm coastal savannahs were ideal habitat for many species of plants and animals including caracaras.

Crested caracara. Photo by Wisniewski.

Crested caracara range map. There is a disjunct population in south Florida. During the Pleistocene this range was continuous with its population in Central and South America. Warm savannah occurred along the Gulf Coast, much of which is now inundated by rising sea levels.

Two species of caracaras inhabited Gulf Coast savannahs during the last Ice age–the crested caracara (Polyborus plancus) and the yellow-headed caracara (Milvago reidei). The former still occurs as a relict population in south Florida. This species lived on dry prairies throughout much of Florida, but that type of habitat has largely been transformed to rural, suburban, and urban landscapes. A recent scientific study in Florida found 103 crested caracara nests, and most of those were on improved pastureland. They seem to prefer pastureland over what remains of their original dry prairie habitat. I think this is a clue they benefit from the presence of megafauna. During the present day this means herds of cattle, but formerly they accompanied now extinct and extirpated megafauna. Caracaras forage on the ground for carrion. There was an abundance of carrion during the Pleistocene. They hunt for insects, reptiles, and small mammals stirred up by grazing herds of megafauna. And along with swallow-tailed kites and other opportunistic birds, they hunt down small animals fleeing wildfires. The widely spaced trees and small woodlots located on the pastures or savannahs are used for nesting.

Study of crested caracara nests in south Florida. Most of their nests are located on cow pastures that resemble Pleistocene habitat. Image from the below reference.

Yellow-headed caracara.

Yellow-headed caracara range map. During the Pleistocene they also occurred in Florida.

Fossil remains of both species were found at the Cutler Hammock site located in Miami, Florida. Yellow-headed caracaras no longer occur in North America, but habitat during some phases of Ice Age climate was so favorable in this region that it attracted both species. The Cutler Hammock site is notable for having yielded many remains of large carnivores including dire wolf, saber-tooth, giant lion, jaguar, and cougar. Their kills helped feed a diverse population of avian scavengers.

Reference:

Morrison Joan

“The Crested Caracara in the Changing Grasslands of Florida”

Click to access 3-17145_p.21115_Mor_FDPC_d.pdf

See also: https://markgelbart.wordpress.com/2013/10/18/two-pleistocene-carnivore-dens-near-miami-florida-part-2/

Pigloos

Wild boars (Sus scrofa) are an amazing adaptable Pleistocene survivor. Their fierce disposition and large litter sizes enabled them to survive predation from wolves, lions, and humans during the Pleistocene, and even today modern human hunters, sometimes armed with machine guns, have trouble putting a dent in their populations. They eat just about anything, and they can live in most climates. Wild boar remains, dating to the Pleistocene, have been found in at least 109 fossil sites located in Israel, Morocco, Libya, Greece, Monaco, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom, Slovakia, the Czeck Republic, Russia, China, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Some populations of wild boar were domesticated 5,000 years ago, and their descendants are modern day pigs–source of the pork chops, ribs, and bacon stocked by supermarkets. European settlers brought pigs to the Americas 500 years ago and let them forage in the woods where many escaped and went wild. 100 years ago, hunters introduced wild boars to the Appalachians, and they promptly interbred with existing wild pig populations, creating a kind of super hog that game managers have difficulty controlling. Pure bred wild boars wouldn’t be unmanageable, but domesticated pigs have been bred to produce exceptionally large litters, and the combination of tough wild boar with pigs that produce super-sized litters has overwhelmed many areas.

Wild boars have been abundant for over a million years.

Hunters recently introduced wild boars to Canada, resulting in the same situation found in parts of the U.S. and South America. Their ability to adapt to frigid Canadian climates surprised researchers. During winter these intelligent animals build houses constructed of cattail reeds near marshes. Snow and ice cover the houses, giving them the appearance of an igloo, and accordingly they are called pigloos. The pigs burrow into their pigloos, and the reeds covered in snow insulate the pigs and help keep their body heat inside the structures. Canadians need to increase the wolf population, so they can huff and puff and blow the pig houses down. Unfortunately, this would face too much opposition from hunters and ranchers.

Wild boars are spreading throughout Canada. They can live in colder climates because they build nests out of cattail plants known as pigloos. The well insulated nests are kept warm by the beast’s own body heat.

Cretaceous Age Fossil Feathers Found in Alabama

More fossil feathers of Cretaceous Age have been found in the state of Alabama than in any other state. 14 fossil feathers, encased in shale, were found in a lens located in the Eutaw Formation, the site of an ancient shoreline. Shale is basically fossilized mud, and ocean currents rapidly buried the feathers in mud which eventually turned to shale. The fossilized feathers are impressions of the original objects. The Cretaceous Age lasted from 145 million years BP to 66 million years BP, and these feathers probably date to about 80 million years ago. Fossilized feathers have also been found in Kansas, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Alberta; but none of these states or provinces have yielded as many as Alabama.

Fossil feathers found in Alabama. The impressions were made in mud and later fossilized when the mud turned to shale. Photo from the below reference.

The feathers include 2 different sizes. Scientists believe the smaller ones come from extinct species of shorebirds. The larger feathers may be from the tails of either a species of hesperornthid or a dromaeosaur. Hesperornthids were an aquatic fish-eating dinosaur that occupied a niche similar to modern day penguins. They were related to the ancestors of birds, and they lived in lakes, rivers, and oceans. Dromaeosaurs include dozens of families of carnivorous dinosaurs ranging in size from 2 feet long to 20 feet long. Some species hunted in packs, though paleontologists are unsure whether they were organized hunters or disorganized mobs like modern Komodo dragons and crocodilians. Some species had a large retractable claw on their 2nd toe that could inflict devastating damage on their prey or each other. Carnivorous dinosaurs were cannibalistic, and the number of carnivorous predators in ratio to herbivorous prey was higher than in modern day ecosystems. For example today in a pristine environment there may be 1 large predator per 40 deer, but during the Cretaceous there may have been 1 predator per 5 large herbivores. Dromaeosaurids were related to the ancestors of birds, and some species may be directly ancestral to birds. Paleontologists don’t agree with each other about the exact evolutionary relationship between birds and dromaeosaurs. Nevertheless, I catalogued this blog entry under ornithology.

The larger feathers found in the Eutaw Formation may be from an extinct species of hesperornthid, an aquatic dinosaur. Image from Dinopedia.

Alternately, the larger feathers may be from a species of dromaeosaur. There were dozens of families of dromaeosaurs alive during the Cretaceous. Image from UCMP Berkeley.

Scientists looked at these fossil feathers under a microscope and found structures that look similar to the bacteria involved in feather decay. However, these structures also look like melanosomes responsible for the color in feathers. The feathers from the shorebirds were likely gray, brown, or black. Whether these structures are feather-consuming bacteria or melanosomes is yet another point of contention between paleontologists. Fossils are a vague clue compared to a live organism.

Reference:

Knight, T.; S. Bingham, R. Lewis, C. Saurda

“Feathers of the Ingersoll Shale, Eutaw Formation (Upper Cretaceous) Eastern Alabama: The Largest Collection of Feathers from the North American Mesozoic”

Palaios V. 28 N. 51 May/June 2011

Refrigeration is Wonderful Technology

I bought a Kenmore refrigerator 18 years ago, and it is still working, but I decided to take pre-emptive action and replace it before it breaks down. It often shakes when it quits cycling, and I’m afraid it will cease functioning when the weather warms. Online sources suggest replacing refrigerators after 15 years, and I’ve been putting this off for a while. I’ve noticed house temperature makes a difference in how much the refrigerator labors. During the cooler months when our house is 67 degrees F, the refrigerator doesn’t cycle much, but during summer when the house is 77 degrees F, it seems to constantly cycle. I chose an energy efficient LG refrigerator to replace the Kenmore. It costs $830 to have it delivered from Lowes including hauling off the old one. 18 years ago, my Kenmore was priced at $800, showing inflation is minimal for refrigerators.

Refrigeration is an amazing invention, but I can track down no single person who invented electrical refrigeration. Instead, it seems to have been a collective advance in technology, and the concept was understood well before the widespread availability of electricity. As early as 1740 William Cullen, a Scottish scientist, demonstrated the principle of mechanical refrigeration, but he never made a usable refrigerator. Jacob Perkins invented a working refrigerator in 1838, but it failed commercially because nobody had electricity. John Gorrie invented an ice machine in 1842 to cool patients with yellow fever, but it was never used commercially to cool food. Breweries and meat-packing plants started using refrigeration in 1870 just when electrical power became more widely available. Albert Marshall patented the first mechanical refrigerator for home use in 1899, and this was followed by many other patented refrigerators at the turn of the century. At first refrigerators had to compete with iceboxes. Workers would cut big slabs of lake ice during winter and store the slabs in warehouses where they were insulated with sawdust. The ice was distributed to homes in urban areas. The ice slab was placed in the top of the icebox. The cool air sank and melting water would also cool the inside of the box. The ice had to be replaced every few days, and the melt water was a mess to clean up. Mechanical refrigerators began to replace iceboxes during the 1920s after William Durant introduced the Frigidaire model in 1918, and General Electric introduced their model in 1927. Nevertheless, many still referred to their refrigerators as iceboxes until well into the 1960s.

Before mechanical refrigerators people used iceboxes. Big slabs of ice were stored in massive warehouses where they were insulated with sawdust.

Old-fashioned icebox. Cool air sinks and melted water from the ice also cooled the inside of the box.

Early patented mechanical refrigerator.

The process of mechanical refrigeration is based on the principle of evaporation. When a gas cools it condenses to form a liquid. The evaporation of this liquid removes heat. Refrigerators have coils that hold refrigerant gases. Gas is forced into the coils inside the refrigerator where it cools to a liquid which removes heat from inside the refrigerator. The removed heat from this cooled liquid is turned into a gas that takes the heat into the coils outside the refrigerator. It is a self-contained system that cycles over and over.

Diagram from Science ABC showing the principle of mechanical refrigeration.

No Blog Entries until At&T Fixes my Internet

I have no internet at my house for the first time in 24 years. I am typing this from a library computer terminal. The internet at my house became unusable 4 days ago, but AT&T couldn’t send a technician until yesterday. Then, the shithead couldn’t fix it. If anything, he made it worse. All I know is he failed. He made all kinds of excuses–he even blamed Covid. If they don’t have it fixed by the middle of next week, I’m going to have to switch internet providers. I asked AT&T to send a different technician, but they said I’d have to wait another 7 days. The stupid shmuck who failed to fix my internet told me there were only 8 customers on the road where I live, and AT&T was going to drop us all at the end of the year anyway. He then backtracked on that statement. He told me to keep checking to see if might start working with all the “improvements” he made. It’s not and without internet at home I’ve got nothing. I don’t know when this will ever get resolved. I haven’t been able to find anybody who knows how to fix my stove for 8 years. I’ve been cooking on Bunsen burners and an electric skillet. Incompetent doctors put my wife in a wheelchair 27 years ago, and nobody helps me take care of her. I’m tired of having to do everything all the time for everybody without support from anybody. Nobody helps me, and now they can’t fix my stuff. My mom used to help me, but she went senile and passed away years ago. Fuck it!

List of Wars Russia Lost over the Past 150 Years

I know more than the so-called “experts” who get paid the big bucks to spout their “wisdom” on news talk shows. Retired military generals and ex-Defense Department leaders told political news pundits Kiev, Ukraine would fall to the Russian Army in 24-48 hours. A few weeks ago, I was curious and spent 30 minutes researching the Ukranian and Russian militaries on Google. I learned Ukraine has a decent military. On paper Russia has far more firepower than the Ukraine, but the Russian military is notorious for having soldiers with low morale and weapon systems that often malfunction. The experts’ claim that Kiev would fall fast made no sense to me. Furthermore, these experts questioned whether Ukrainians would have the will to fight. I wondered why they assumed Russians would have the will to fight. 7 days into this war, it seems as if my 30 minutes of research makes me smarter than the wrinkled-up generals who talk to Wolf Blitzer on CNN. CNN should fire them and hire me.

Russia’s military is performing terribly. It appears as if their generals don’t know what they are doing, their soldiers don’t even know why they are there, and their equipment stinks. Russian missiles often miss their targets, then don’t even explode. Troops ran out of gas and food after just 2 days. Their tactics are disastrous. They are feeding troops piecemeal into Kiev, and they are getting slaughtered. Much of their army is stuck in a traffic jam on 1 highway, and the element of surprise has been lost. Russia hasn’t even yet achieved air superiority over the tiny Ukranian Air Force, a phase that should have taken 2 hours. I don’t think Russia will ever take Kiev, but if they do, they will face an insurgency they will never be able to quell. Putin is a stupid bully who made a stupid blunder that may eventually bring down his regime. I’m puzzled why the world community and military experts thought the Russian military was invincible. Russia has a long history of losing wars.

Russia fought the Ottoman Empire, England, France, and Sardinia during the Crimean War from 1853-1856. Russia lost 500,000 men and was forced to give up Romania, Moldavia, and Serbia. The Crimean Peninsula was demilitarized, and Russian warships were banned from the Black Sea. It was a disastrous loss.

500,000 Russian soldiers were killed during the Crimean War of the mid-19th century. Russia lost this war.

Japan humiliated Russia during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. Japanese soldiers drove the Russian Army out of Manchuria. During the Battle of Tsushima the Japanese Navy sank 4 Russian battleships, 7 cruisers, and 3 destroyers; and they captured 3 battleships and 3 destroyers. Japanese losses were minimal–3 damaged battleships and 3 little patrol torpedo boats sunk. Teddy Roosevelt brokered a peace deal where Russia simply agreed to give up Manchuria.

The Japanese sunk most of the Russian Navy during the Battle of Tsushima during 1905, leading to another Russian military disaster.

Though Russia was on the allied side with England and France (the U.S. entered about the time Russia dropped out), Russia still managed to lose WWI to Germany. The Battle of Tannenberg was the main reason why Russia lost that war. Retreating Russian army groups ran right into fortified German trenches. Russia lost tens of thousands of men killed (the exact number is unknown) and 92,000 were captured. This disastrous loss sparked the Russian Revolution, and Russia sued for peace with Germany.

Russian armies retreated and ran into German fortified trenches during WWI. Over 30,000 men were killed and 92,000 were captured. Russia sued for peace.

After the Russian Revolution, Russia tried to spread communism by force to neighboring countries including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania. All of these military efforts failed by 1921. Russia was more successful following WWII.

Russia spent 10 years fighting a war in Afghanistan from 1979-1989. The primitive Mujahadeen defeated them. Russia also failed to subdue the tiny province of Chechnya from 1994-1996 and were forced to withdraw. They returned in 1999, but it took them 10 years to defeat the Chechen insurgency. The Ukraine is much larger, and the people are fighting for freedom and democracy. Ukraine did fight a guerilla war against the Soviet Union from 1944-1953. The Soviet Union was much stronger then, and people were war weary. I see no way for Russia to win this time, and in this war there are clear cut good guys and bad guys. Putin is a brutal dictator who poisons his political rivals. Zelensky is a democratically elected Jewish comedian who refuses to flee for his own personal safety. It’s a modern-day David vs Goliath story. I am rooting for freedom and that means the Ukrainian Army needs to kill as many Russian soldiers as possible. Twitter temporarily locked my account for tweeting this wish, but I can express this opinion on my blog. Winning a war means killing.

In the Beginning There was Proto-Earth and Theia

4.6 billion years ago, gravitational forces pulled enough star dust and rock together to form the planet Proto-Earth, and it began to orbit the sun, but another planet–Theia–shared the same orbit for 20-30 million years. According to the Giant Impact Hypothesis, the shared orbit eventually led to a collision between these 2 planets. Ejecta from the impact circled the Earth’s orbit for millions of years in a ring not unlike the ring that currently circles Saturn. Gravity consolidated the ring into the moon which had a much closer orbit then than it does today.

20-30 million years after Proto-Earth formed it was struck by another planet that occupied the same orbit.

The impact of the collision between Proto-Earth and Theia caused ejecta to orbit earth in a ring. This ring eventually consolidated into the moon.

Convincing evidence supports the Giant Impact Hypothesis. Earth’s spin and the moon’s orbit have similar orientations. Earth’s high momentum of rotation suggests the occurrence of an ancient impact. Analysis of moon dust indicates it was once molten–the result of a fiery impact that melted the ejecta that eventually accreted to form the moon. (Scientists refer to the consolidation of material into a planet as accretion.) The moon has a small core, suggesting most of Theia’s core fused with Proto-Earth’s core. The moon has small quantities of volatile elements, indicating most vaporized upon impact. Isotope ratios of zinc and oxygen on the moon are identical with those on Earth.

This is what the early Earth looked like after the moon consolidated. Widespread tectonic activity combined hydrogen and oxygen in rocks into water vapor released by volcanoes.

Earth is the most unusual planet in the solar system, and from what scientists can determine is unlike any known planet from other solar systems based on the limited data they can glean from such distant bodies. Water is abundant on Earth, while most planets are absolute deserts. Moreover, Earth is surrounded by an oxygen-rich atmosphere. Scientists wonder how earth accumulated water because they believe heat from the early sun was so great that most of the water on Proto-Earth boiled off. The prevailing theory posits meteorites and/or comets from the outer solar system delivered water to earth. However, a new study suggests water always existed in earth’s rocks. Scientists examined 13 inner orbit meteorites, known as enstatite chondrite meteorites, and determined they have the same isotopic ratios of various elements, including hydrogen, found in rocks on earth. Hydrogen and oxygen in earth rocks combined to form water that was released as vapor during volcanic activity. Proto-Earth likely formed from the accretion of enstatite chondrite meteors and asteroids within just a 5-million-year timespan. It’s mind-boggling to imagine how the consolidation of lifeless rocks led to our weird planet rife with so many different lifeforms.

Reference:

Piani, L.; et. al.

“Earth’s Water may have been Inherited from Material Similar to Enstatite Chondrite Meterorites”

Science 369 (6907) August 2020

Schiller, M.; M. Bizzarro, and J. Siebert

“Iron Isotope Evidence for very Rapid Accretion and Differentiation of the Proto-Earth”

Science Advances 6 (7) 2020

What Vultures Eat in Coastal South Carolina

A road trip along any highway in Georgia will usually reward birdwatchers with the sight of vultures patrolling the skies above it. They feast upon the carnage caused by vehicles colliding into animals. Without vultures, roads would be littered with rotting corpses, attracting a plague of disease-carrying flies. In India recently, vultures were poisoned, causing a disastrous problem with sanitation. There are 2 species of vultures in southeastern North America–the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) and the black vulture (Coragyps atratus). Both species nest communally, but the former flies in solitary pursuit of carrion, while the latter scavenges in flocks for dead animals. Though carrion makes up a majority of the diet of turkey vultures, they are also known to feed upon fruit and insects. Black vultures have an even more varied diet and will eat eggs, nestlings, newborn mammals, fish, fruit, and shit. They will actually peck out the eyes of newborn calves that then go into shock and die, providing a feast for the birds.

Scientists studying vulture diets in coastal South Carolina examined 176 pellets found under communal roosts of vultures. The 3 most common animal remains found in these pellets included in order white-tailed deer, striped skunk, and raccoon. Human garbage was found in 45% of the pellets. Vultures in this region basically live on roadkill and garbage.

Black vultures scavenging a road-killed cat in Augusta, Georgia.

Vulture populations in North America have likely increased over the past 2 centuries because the increasing population of humans has provided them with such an abundance of food. They are uniquely evolved to consume rotting flesh without ill effects and are able to take advantage of the carrion supply resulting from the habits of humans. They have heads and necks naked of feathers, so blood and gore doesn’t accumulate on them, and they are resistant to bacteria toxic to most other animals. However, they do prefer fresher meat. They nest on the ground, and all they need is a thicket where they can hide their eggs and young. They can live for decades.

Vultures may have been just as common or perhaps more so during the Pleistocene when they scavenged the corpses of megafauna. There were a greater variety of species then. The 2 species that live today occurred then, though some scientists consider the Pleistocene black vulture (Coragyps occidentalis) to be a different species. It was on average larger but otherwise identical to the modern species. In addition, massive teratorns that likely tore open freshly deceased mammoths and ground sloths soared in the sky. 2 species similar to Old World vultures ranged into parts of North America. Fossils of the American griffin vulture and another species have been found in southwestern North America, and they may have ranged into other regions of the continent. New World vultures, the black vultures and turkey vultures, were formerly thought to be more closely related to storks, but genetic studies determined they are most closely related to ospreys and secretary birds. Old World vultures belong in the family that includes eagles, kites, and hawks.

Refererence:

Hill, J., et. al.

“Diets of Black Vultures and Turkey Vultures in Coastal South Carolina, USA with a Review of Species Dietary Information”

Southeastern Naturalist 21 (1) 2022

Breasts were Invisible in Hollywood Movies until the 1940s

I like to watch old movies on Turner Classic. I often joke with my wife that boobs weren’t invented until the 1940’s because silent movie actresses whose careers continued until well into the 1930’s talkie era were flat-chested. I google-searched images of silent movie actresses and confirmed the 56 most famous actresses before World War II wore A-cup bras. Occasionally, little-known actresses with big or at least medium-sized breasts were given bit parts in early movies, but they invariably played maids or matronly figures unimportant to the script. 19th century literature portrayed the ideal woman most desired by men as frail and sickly. Men supposedly pined over helpless women on the verge of their death beds. Love was associated with sadness and a sense of loss. I wonder if this notion influenced early 20th century cinema. Most people were poor, and plenty were malnourished back then, perhaps contributing to smaller average breasts sizes. Maybe, there were simply more flat-chested actresses available for work during this time period.

Clara Bow, a famous silent movie star. The 56 most successful actresses of the silent era and early talkies were all flat-chested.

During World War II America was flexing its muscles, and Americans were becoming more prosperous. Hollywood finally started featuring healthy-looking voluptuous actresses. Howard Hughes produced a western (The Outlaw) that prominently featured Jane Russell’s cleavage. The film, released during 1943, broke barriers and defied censors. Voluptuous women including Marilyn Monroe, Kim Novak, and Elizabeth Taylor began to take center stage as the baby boom exploded. Macho war veterans came home from service and impregnated their Mrs. America wives. Women with 36-24-36 figures were the ideal–the opposite of the frail damsels-in-distress so sought after during the previous era.

Jane Russell was the first Hollywood star with big boobs. Howard Hughes featured her breasts prominently in his epic Western, The Outlaw.

Iconic photo of Sophia Loren eyeing Jane Mansfield’s tits. Mansfield was the first actress to perform nude in a mainstream Hollywood movie. Stag movies featuring nude women were among the first films ever made, but they were not distributed to mainstream audiences.

The 1960’s and 1970’s saw a trend of skinny actresses, but full-figured women were no longer completely absent, and they eventually returned to popularity. Even lean actresses rejected the flat-chested look and often chose to have surgically enhanced breasts. A great majority of mainstream actresses have frequent plastic surgery, and porn actresses seek ever-expanding cleavages. There seems to be no limit to how large they will go. I prefer naturally large breasts.

Modern actress Christina Hendricks with her ex-husband Geoffrey Arend. She probably has the largest breasts in Hollywood history. They make Jane Mansfield’s look small. Breasts are modified sweat glands found on all mammals, including the primitive egg-laying monotremes. Wow! Those are some modified sweat glands.

Surprisingly, there are few scientific studies of breasts and culture. The United States is tied with the United Kingdom, Iceland, Norway, and Luxembourg for largest average bra size; but the claim that Americans have the biggest boobs in the world was a hoax. A few years ago, 18 media outlets from The New York Daily Times to Teen Magazine reported a find by The Journal of Female Health Science that Americans had the biggest average boobs in the world. This journal doesn’t exist. I did find 1 scientific study that surveyed men from Brazil, Cameroon, Namibia, and Czechoslovakia on their breast size preference. Most men from those countries preferred medium-sized breasts. Not me. I favor the biggest breasts and the fattest asses. I told my wife, if I outlive her, I will replace her with a sex doll. (Amazon.com sells realistic, voluptuous, life-size sex dolls for a few hundred dollars.) I have gotten particular in my old age, and if a real woman wanted sex with me, she would have to make a minimum weight limit. She would have to weigh at least 170 pounds. I have been making love to a heavyset woman for 30 years, and I am too old to change.

Happy Valentines Day

Reference:

Havlicek, J. et. al.

“Men’s Preference for Women’s Breast Size and Shape in 4 Cultures”

Evolution and Human Behavior 38 (2) 2017