2018.05.12 13:00 - Another World
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The Guardian for this meeting was Bruce Mowbray. The comments are by Bruce Mowbray.
--BELL-
Bruce Mowbray: Hi, Storm.
Storm Nordwind: Howdy :)
Bruce Mowbray: I'm in a quandary today. . .
Storm Nordwind: Better a quandary than a quarry :)
Bruce Mowbray: I was looking at some moist soil in a rainwater solution. . . (mix) and found a creature I can't identify.
Bruce Mowbray: I will slide you three images of it...
Storm Nordwind: OK
Bruce Mowbray: Maybe you can help.
Bruce Mowbray: Hydra?
Storm Nordwind: Perhaps
Storm Nordwind: though where would be the rest of it?
Bruce Mowbray: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydra_(genus)
Bruce Mowbray: Right. . . there is no stalk.
Bruce Mowbray: Maybe this is a stage in its development. . .
Storm Nordwind: I am no expert
Storm Nordwind: It was not alive, I take it?
Bruce Mowbray: Hydra have seven appendages, (arms) so that's what made me think it was related to hydra.
Bruce Mowbray: No, it is not alive - nor was, when I first saw it.
Storm Nordwind: Almost like some species of marine starfish
Bruce Mowbray: Hydra also have chloroplasts . . but this does not.
Bruce Mowbray: Hmmm... good suggestion.
Bruce Mowbray: Except this is fresh water. . .
Storm Nordwind: If nothing else, you could create some very dark art with it and use it to scare people ;)
Bruce Mowbray: I've emailed my biologist friend about it. . .
Bruce Mowbray: It IS a bit scary, if I do say so myself....
Bruce Mowbray: but also VERY small.
Bruce Mowbray: Size matters!
Storm Nordwind: Cthulhu's minions precede him
Bruce Mowbray: Oh yes, Lovecraft.
Bruce Mowbray: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cthulhu
Storm Nordwind: Branching out to freshwater perhaps
Bruce Mowbray nods.
Bruce Mowbray: Octopus has eight arms. . .
Bruce Mowbray: this has only seven.
Bruce Mowbray: A strange number for natural things, no?
Storm Nordwind: Seven?
Storm Nordwind: Hmmm
--BELL--
Storm Nordwind: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luidia_ciliaris
Bruce Mowbray: a search for 7-armed creatures.
Bruce Mowbray: Starfish are all marine, I think.
Storm Nordwind: Seven is an unusual number in nature it seems. Perhaps does not confer any natural advantages. Nor easily fit into 2D or 3D symmetry.
Bruce Mowbray: Right.
Bruce Mowbray: Radial symmetry is one of my favorite things in nature.
Bruce Mowbray: Until today, I've been concentrating on flies - and similar insects - that I've found dead.
Storm Nordwind: There are two things that look like scars in your photos. Could it originally have had nine legs?
Bruce Mowbray: Hmmm. Let me check the originals....
Bruce Mowbray: I don't see what you're referring to.
Bruce Mowbray: well, maybe, in the 100x picture.
*****Update: It is a Stellate Trichome, an out-growth of epidermal cells of many plant species.
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Stellate-trichomes-in-many-layers-completely-masking-the-underlying-epidermal-cells-and_fig9_249011704
Stellate Trichome has been identified in 90 million-year-old amber.
Storm Nordwind: Two dark rings below center
Bruce Mowbray: Yeah, maybe.
Storm Nordwind: But I am no biologist
Bruce Mowbray: I looked up Rhizochrysis .... because an image in my protozoa book looked a bit like it, but none of the returns in my search looked anything like this one.
Storm Nordwind: Rhizochrysis?
Bruce Mowbray: Yeah, that was the label on the drawing in my book.
Bruce Mowbray: It was the only thing remotely resembling my creature.
Storm Nordwind: I thought you were going all medieval on me ;)
Bruce Mowbray: I can't tell whether my creature has more than one cell, either.
Bruce Mowbray: no cilia, no chloroplasts , , ,
Bruce Mowbray: I think one of the wounds you mentioned might be the eighth (or 9th) arm.
Storm Nordwind: Does remind me, however, of the green alga Nitella.
Bruce Mowbray: Hmmm.
Storm Nordwind: So perhaps suggesting part of a plant rather than an animal
Bruce Mowbray: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitella
Storm Nordwind: Reminiscent of the fractint forms I used to make 20 or more years ago.
Bruce Mowbray: LOTS of subspecies with that one.
Bruce Mowbray: Ahhh! I used to use Frantint, too!
--BELL—
Bruce Mowbray: Back in the late 80's or early 90’s
Bruce Mowbray: Have you heard from Pila?
Storm Nordwind: No I have not.
Bruce Mowbray: Hmmmm. Wonder if he had to evacuate.
Storm Nordwind: last I heard it wasn't showing signs of letting up
Bruce Mowbray: Right...
Bruce Mowbray: They're saying it could throw out boulders the size of refrigerators.
Storm Nordwind: Last online 2 days ago. So there's hope.
Bruce Mowbray: Good,
Bruce Mowbray: My farmer planted 250 acres alone - in one day - yesterday.
Bruce Mowbray: Amazing to watch.
Storm Nordwind: Ah refrigerator - reminds me of one of my favorite haikus
Bruce Mowbray: Can you recite one?
Storm Nordwind: Sure
Storm Nordwind:
haikus are easy
but sometimes they don't make sense
refrigerator
Bruce Mowbray: LOVE it!
Bruce Mowbray dies from laughing....
Bruce Mowbray: Here's Robbie on the same equipment five years ago:
Bruce Mowbray: http://hermitdog.com/planting2013/planting_2013.html
Bruce Mowbray: a 36-row fully automated planter. . .
Storm Nordwind: Amazing!
Bruce Mowbray: that uses four GPS coordinates....
Bruce Mowbray: It is one amazing machine.
Storm Nordwind: Rented out, or owned?
Bruce Mowbray: Normally sells for $300,000 but Robbie bought it for 1/3 of that because it first owner couldn't figure out how to operate it.
Storm Nordwind: o_O
Bruce Mowbray: He takes it apart every winter and puts it back together....
Bruce Mowbray: Look how CLEAN the cabin is!
Bruce Mowbray: (when outside everything is dusty).
Storm Nordwind: So clean it could be Second Life
Bruce Mowbray: Yeppers!
Bruce Mowbray: He's an amazing young man.
Bruce Mowbray: If we were not selling the farm, Robbie would inherit my 1/3 ownership of it.
Storm Nordwind nods
Bruce Mowbray: His father sold an adjacent 100 acres last year, so we are going to sell to the same buyer. . . using the same lawyer and same surveyor. . .
Bruce Mowbray: A smooth operation all around -- and I get to continue living here the rest of my life.
Bruce Mowbray: and our farmers will continue to farm it.
Storm Nordwind: That's important
Bruce Mowbray: The only apparent thing that will change is the deed.
Bruce Mowbray: Well, the farmer and the buyer have known each other since first grade.
Storm Nordwind: Wow
Bruce Mowbray: and the buyer said he wouldn't buy it if our farmer didn't agree to continue farming it.
Storm Nordwind nods
Bruce Mowbray: Robbie is the son of the farmer we've had since mid-1980's.
Bruce Mowbray: Robbie is a prodigy . . . really.
Storm Nordwind smiles
Bruce Mowbray: He can LOOK at a machine and know how to fix it.
--BELL—
Storm Nordwind: The world needs these people :)
Bruce Mowbray: I couldn't even find the lever to open the hood of my new car, even using the manual.
Storm Nordwind: haha
Bruce Mowbray: Robbie found it in two seconds.
Bruce Mowbray: (without the manual).
Bruce Mowbray: Seriously.
Storm Nordwind: "kick here"
Bruce Mowbray: ha ha.\
Bruce Mowbray: Anything you'd care to discuss? If not, I think I'll return to microscope adventures. http://hermitdog.com/microscope/images.htm
Bruce Mowbray: But I can stay. . .
Storm Nordwind: Well I have no interesting things to reciprocate a show and tell!
Storm Nordwind: But it has been fascinating, and the time has flown by.
Bruce Mowbray: Yesterday, I spent the whole afternoon looking at the fly at the bottom of that web page.
Bruce Mowbray: This is a whole new world for me.
Bruce Mowbray: I knew it (that world) was there, but I'd never really taken a close look before...
Bruce Mowbray: except in college bio class.
Storm Nordwind: Pond water can be fascinating too
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, it's finally warm enough for me to do that.
Bruce Mowbray: My friend Charlie is really hot on pond life.
Bruce Mowbray: He's the guy who first got me interested in microscopy.
Storm Nordwind: And looking at the micro-crystals in soil can be beautiful
Bruce Mowbray: (and he's the guy who owns the book I referred to earlier... the one with the images.)
Storm Nordwind: All stardust.
Bruce Mowbray: ahhhh. . . I haven't done that yet.
Bruce Mowbray: Another world to explore.
Storm Nordwind: May it never end!
Bruce Mowbray: I don't think it will.
Bruce Mowbray: So, thanks for looking at my "Show and tell", Storm.
Bruce Mowbray: Have a beautiful weekend.
Storm Nordwind: My pleasure! I will thank you for hosting and wish you more fun at the glass
Bruce Mowbray: Thanks!
Storm Nordwind waves