The LA district of the USFWS should be embarrased

"But the anticipated massive storm fizzled, and the agencies ended up with hundreds of threatened fish and nowhere to put them if, indeed, their native habitat is lost."

This is the silliest article I have ever read. Can anyone explain why they can't just put most of them back into the stream and keep a few dozen if the last remaining stream is destroyed in a landslide (which I believe is unlikely - 14 miles of stream completely destroyed by a little mud? I think the fish probably evolved to take a debris torrent or two)?

This is the most specious argument I have ever heard *we had to move them because we were afraid they were going to be extirpated from LA County and now we can't put them back because there is a danger of their last remaining habitat being destroyed... at some point in time.*

It sounds like the obvious solution is to restore old habitat in a few other streams (Malibu Canyons have some great habitat) and reintroduce them to their historic range in LA County so that the USFWS and the USFS don't have to cart them around town.

Read the entire ridiculous article in the LA Times here: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-station-fire-fish18-2010jan18,0,5732740.story

Plant Slug - Photosynthetic Animal!

In addition to being able to steal the light harvesting compounds from its food source algae, this slug is born with the ability to photosynthesize. "Even unhatched sea slugs, which have never encountered algae, carry “algal” photosynthetic genes." Read more at http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/green-sea-slug/#ixzz0cdWpj6gh

This slug can eat algae once and sunbathe for the rest of its life. Amazing.

Jaguars in the USA - Maybe

From the NY Times,

"

In 2006, the service argued that jaguars were primarily native to South and Central America and that their range in the United States was largely incidental to its survival.

Wildlife advocates sued to protest those findings, pointing out that jaguars were thought to have once ranged from Louisiana to California, although they had rarely been seen in recent decades.

Last March, the Federal District Court in Tucson told the government that it would have to come back with a decision that was soundly based in science.

In theory, the service could have sought again to rule out habitat conservation. But this time the government said it would move to protect critical habitat and would publish a description of the land proposed for the designation.

It also agreed to develop a formal recovery plan, which will envision how the jaguar might make a recovery.

The Fish and Wildlife Service says there are no known jaguars in the United States today. The last jaguar known to exist within the nation’s borders died last March.

However, there are nearly 5,000 in Mexico, and more ranging as far south as Argentina and Paraguay.

The notion behind a critical habitat designation is to enable the jaguar to survive if it ranges north again."

Check out the entire article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/science/earth/13jaguar.html?ref=science

Sierra Nevada Mountain Range Younger than Previous Estimates

"The Sierra Nevada reached their present height 50 million years ago -- 30 million years earlier than geologists once believed, according to a new study. "

Interesting findings as they are still trying to deduce how migration into the great basin occurred. Read the entire article in the LA Times here: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-mountains9-2010jan09,0,615361.story

Homemade soy sauce

For the past six months, I have been attempting to make soy sauce at home. In contrast to the extensive info on other fermented products such as cheese, beer, or bread, there is next to nothing available in English on the production of soy sauce. Although I am still working out the kinks, I have finally succeeded in producing a passable soy sauce.

The production of soy sauce involves allowing cooked soybeans (and often wheat) to mold, drying them, and then soaking in a brine. For my first attempts I relied on natural yeasts. From a practical standpoint this meant cooking the soybeans, mixing them with wheat flour, and letting them sit. The result was disgusting. I waited about two weeks for a 'delicate white mold' to cover them. Instead they developed a disgusting smell which really cannot be described (one of the worst things you can imagine). I tried this process again quite a few different ways (no wheat, whole beans, fermented cold, fermented warm . . . ) They all turned out bad.

At this point I went back to the drawing board, and reconstructed a recipe based on my brewing practices. The most successful attempt so far used a sanitized, sealed fermenting container, whole soybeans (no flour), and a fungus starter derived from Koji, a key ingredient in the production of Sake that harbors the right mold. After three days the beans had a nice white (and some green) mold. They smelled sweet and fermented but not 'funky'. I dried them in the oven on low heat, then brined them in a 20% salt solution for ~ 2 weeks. The result was definately soy sauce. It was quite salty and light colored. The light color and mild flavor probably the result of the short brine. Soy sauce is traditionally soaked 6 months to a year, and develops a dark color after exposure to light. I am currently working on refining the process, and plan to post a final recipe when I work out the kinks.

Planets

A new mass, much hotter and denser than known dwarf stars and much too hot to be a planet, was found orbiting another star. The mass was discovered as part of a project to look at stars within our galaxy (in the region of the constellation Cygnus). Although many planets have been found outside our solar system almost all are more like Jupiter than our own (size, atmosphere, and relative distance from a star).

Read this interesting article in the Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/04/AR2010010401366.html?hpid=moreheadlines

Turtles vs. energy

"One [new solar] project, scheduled to break ground in the Mojave Desert, is now being challenged after green groups objected to its site, home to several dozen endangered turtles."

See the entire article here http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/01/california-brightsource-tortoise.php