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If you should pull off the Blue Ridge Parkway in July here at Linville in western North Carolina, you may spy some men walking along in Scottish highland dress, their kilts swaying with their gait. Far in the distance you may hear the drone of bagpipes echoing off the surrounding hills. That's because Linville is the site of the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games, which attract participants and visitors from all over North America. |
The games here -- basically a weekend event, but with preliminaries that begin on a Thursday evening -- represent the largest such gathering in the United States. Each year it is scheduled for the second full weekend in July -- this year the 12th and 13th. It's a time when the laurel is in fine bloom along the parkway, and the summer rains and mist seem to duplicate the mood of Scotland. |
The games are held on MacRae Meadows, a huge clearing on the side of Grandfather Mountain, over which the mists drift in and out. Main events are held on the oval-shaped track and field. Encircling part of the field are the clan tents, waving their brightly colored flags. Some 30,000 spectators usually line the banks surrounding the other half of the field. Outside the gates, vendors specializing in Highland dress and accessories can fit you for a kilt or sell you a Balmoral or Glengarry (traditional headwear). |
The field itself offers more activities than a three-ring circus. After the 7 a.m. start on Saturday, runners from the Mountain Marathon, one of the toughest courses in the US, make their finish at the track. The pole vault and high jump are just two of the many track and field events held on both Saturday and Sunday. Traditional Scottish athletic events include tossing the caber and throwing the weight and the hammer. |
While these events are progressing, the highland dance competition is also in full fling. The Grandfather Mountain Games includes the Atlantic International Championships, one of five Scottish country dancing championships held annually in the US. Girls and boys from all over North America don their kilts, blouses with lace jabot, velvet vests or jackets, and argyle hose, along with leather ballet shoes called ghillies. The competition is fierce. A few dancers misstep and leave the boards, but most are wonderfully graceful and agile. Even the beginners, at ages six or seven, can execute the intricate footwork of the sword dance, or, clad in Royal Navy dress, perform a hornpipe worthy of a sailor. |
At the other end of the field from the dance contest, the pipe and drum competition goes on. Pipers are judged on their timing, tuning, and expression in jigs, reels, and marches. Like the dancers, some pipers start quite young, and the quality of the piping is said to be improving every year. |
One of the most popular events at the games is the demonstration of border collies at work. These fine black-and-white dogs herd sheep or ducks through wooden barriers on the field and then return them to their pens. The dogs are commanded by the trainer's whistle, and they work with total concentration, despite the athletic events going on around them. |
Although any event here can enthrall a spectator, the tents that surround the field, making the meadow resemble a medieval festival, are central to the Highland Games. Each clan posts a prominent list of the septs, or surnames, which it traces back to a common ancestor. Some people come here to see their tartan displayed and to register as a clan member. In the clan tents the camaraderie is palpable; even the newcomer is treated like a long lost brother or sister. |
On Sunday morning, the clans appear in full regalia for the Parade of Tartans. Tartan flags are assembled for a 9:30 outdoor church service, where the Kirkin' (or blessing) of the tartans is a fitting start to the pageantry. Massed pipe bands march to ``Scotland the Brave'' and ``Morag of Dunvegan.'' As the drumsticks twirl, pipe majors salute the guests of honor, and the clans are announced. |
Utimately people are what the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games are all about. The clans emphasize a sense of family, and the Games foster a kinship among Scots -- and everyone involved. Some visitors come just for a glimpse of another culture. Others come to find their roots. Everyone experiences the spirit of Scottish tradition. Practical information |
The gathering begins on Thursday evening with a picnic and continues through Sunday afternoon, with the competitions scheduled on the weekend. |
From Asheville, take highway 40 E to US 221 to Linville, or take the Blue Ridge Parkway (allow three hours). From Charlotte, take 77N to 40W to US 221 to Linville. At Linville, there are fields for parking, with bus service to the Games. Daily entry fee is $8 for adults and $4 for children under 12. |
For a list of accommodations call 800-438-7500 from the eastern US, 800-222-7515 from North Carolina, or (704) 264-2225 from other areas. |
How to avoid poor Decision-Making! |
Decision-making is a tricky issue and one that affects us all! We have to make many decisions in our daily life, whether they are small or large, life-changing or not, or involve much or little actual, conscious thought-processing, they all involve us making a decision. However, how can we make sure we are good decision-makers? |
An article on Harvard Business Review Blog by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman discussed exactly this topic. Their research looked into the ‘root cause of poor decision-making’ by reviewing 360-feedback of more than 50,000 leaders and using this to compare the behaviour of those who were perceived as poor decision-makers and those who were good at making decisions. Through this they were able to capture the nine factors which were the most common in leading to poor decision-making… |
1. This involves failing to make the effort and take the time to check facts and instead just making assumptions without finding out the ‘whole story’. In order to effectively solve problems the first time around, you need to know the finer details and background information. |
2. Not appreciating obstacles. You need to consider what could go wrong and what problems could potentially arise. This will make sure you can make the most effective and educated decision; taking into account the negatives as well as the positives and making sure the positives still outweigh the negatives of your decided course of action. Being aware of potential issues will ensure you are fully prepared if something bad does happen, rather than thrown into a state of turmoil. |
3. It is important to understand all the facts and background information, but taking too long to analyse and reflect on a decision results in delays and opportunities could be missed. As Zenger and Folkman comment; “It takes courage to look at the data, consider the consequences responsibly, and then move forward”, this is why strong decision-making is such a valuable skill to have. |
4. Scared of change! Being stuck in routine and doing things in the same way simply because ‘we have always done it like this’ will restrict you from moving forward. Don’t base the future on past assumptions and look for alternative, more effective ways forward! |
5. Lack of strategic alignment. Decisions need to be linked back through to a strategy to add context and make the best decisions come out on top. |
6. Relying on one person’s opinion too much could delay the process, especially if this one person is waiting for someone else’s input too! |
7. On the flip side, not asking opinions or input from your peers is just as harmful. Your team can provide specific expertise, viewpoints or a new way of looking at decision – make use of this. Zenger and Folkman have found that there are usually two reasons why people do not choose to ask for others’ perspectives; they lack networking skills to access the right information or a disinclination to share the credit for the decision. |
8. Lack of technical knowledge. It is not enough to just rely on the technical expertise and knowledge of others’, because this makes it harder to integrate and make sense of this information alongside your own thoughts and decisions. |
9. Failure to communicate a decision. Communication of decisions in any organisation and team is vital and a well thought through decision can become a failure if not communicated effectively within the team. Be sure to cover the what, when, where, how and the rational and implications of the decision. |
Understanding and appreciating these nine habits which lead to poor decision-making will stand you in the best stead for making effective and well-informed decisions. All these points are easy habits to fall into or mistakes to make, so do not feel disheartened if you have pinpointed that you have succumbed to one or a few of them. Also increase the overall effectiveness of your team by discussing these ‘factors of poor decision-making’ with them and make sure you all have a better chance of success! When you are next faced with a decision at work, why not refer back to this list and make sure you are not falling into any of these traps! |
Tuesday, August 31, 2010 |
And now..onto the show... |
(from Echinoblog Art Department!) |
So How Does this work?? |
Good question. |
Unlike true parasites, Entovalva remains fully developed! |
Ah..aint' life grand! |
Thursday, August 26, 2010 |
Wednesday, August 25, 2010 |
The 6th North American Echinoderm Conference in Anacortes, Washington!!! |
An announcement from Professor Jim Nestler at Walla Walla University about the 6th North American Echinoderm Conference! |
The 6th North American Echinoderm Conference will be held on 14-19 August 2011 at the Rosario Beach Marine Laboratory, Anacortes, Washington USA. The 6th NAEC is the first to be held on the west coast of the US. |
View Larger Map |
The conference will commence with a Welcome Reception on the evening of Sunday 14 August 2011. Oral and poster presentations will occur on Monday (15 August), Tuesday (16 August), Thursday (18 August), and Friday (19 August). Wednesday (17 August) is set aside for field trips and an evening “Cuisine of the Pacific Northwest” banquet. |
The official web site for the 6th NAEC is at http://naec.wallawalla.edu (or click on the logo above). Online registration and abstract submission will open on 1 December 2010. Costs for registration, housing, and field trips have not yet been set, but will be announced prior to 1 December. |
A Facebook page has been set up (search for “6th North American Echinoderm Conference”) to allow you to keep track of updates, ask questions, and share information. |
Tuesday, August 24, 2010 |
Shrimps ♥ Sea Urchins!! Videos showing tropical crustacean-urchin LOVE! |
I'm not sure why..but for some reason there's a TON of awesome sexy shrimp-sea urchin commensal love videos floatin' round the Internets this week!! |
Go Forth and be amazed!! |
A shrimp that the videographer-the awesome Morphologic Studios identifies as Gnathophylloides mineri on the Caribbean "sea egg" Tripneustes ventricosus... |
Morphologic studios shot this amazing footage of a "pea crab" (Dissodactylus primitivus)(length=7.0 mm!) on the heart urchin Meoma ventricosus! |
A tiny shrimp on what looks like a fire urchin.. |
Here's a little guy in what looks like a diadematid urchin..with just some stunning video.. |
What looks like the same species...of shrimp/urchin... |
I'm guessing this is a decorator crab that has added a fire urchin (Astropyga?) as it makes a break for it across an open plain... |
Oddly enough here's another person with video of the SAME thing... |
Tuesday, August 17, 2010 |
A sea urchin that eats.... WOOD??? |
Today there is weird deep-sea sea-urchin fun! This great but kind of tucked away paper by Pierre Becker et al. published in 2009 in Les Cahiers de Biologie Marine (50: 343-352) reporting on Ind0-Pacific sea urchins from deep-sea wood falls! |
What is Asterechinus elegans??!! |
In my experience, the first indication that you've got an interesting story is when you've got an unusual critter that no one's ever heard of... |
Case in point: According to the NHM echinoid site, Asterechinus is a member of the Trigonocidaridae, a family SO frakkin' weird that I had never even heard of it or Asterechinus before! |
And since the database picture is based on scanned images from the original description and figures by Theodor Mortensen in 1942, the species is rare enough that pictures were NOT immediatley available! And for the NHM database...that's sayin' something! |
So, from the paper's Figure 1A comes what is likely to be the FIRST live picture of this animal since 1942 (over 65 years!). Its a small species with the largest never exceeding 25 mm. And look! It lives on...wood! |
(Figure 1A from Becker et al. 2009) |
These were specimens collected by the French BOA I and SANTOBOA cruises in 2005 and 2006 respectively to the Vanuatu Archipelago. Apparently, a great deal of woodfall organisms were obtained...One of which is written up here.. |
Here's a deep-sea log to give you kind of an idea of what deep-sea wood looks like.. |
So before we start on the next section just a brief bit of background- "Wood fall ecology" is part of a relatively new part of marine ecology, including the study of whale falls that studies the influx of massive amounts of organic nutrients to the seafloor's bottom. More on whale falls can be had here. |
Because the deep-seafloor lies so far below the sun's immediate influence, it can be relatively poor in nutrients, making ANY kind of potential nutrient deposit, such as a dead whale, unrooted kelp, trees, etc. a BIG event. |
A succession of unusual faunas, composed of both fishes and invertebrates, usually springs up around these deep-sea oases when they form. As it turns out, this urchin forms a member of this fauna. |
Other wood-related echinoderms include the weird-enigmatic sea daisy Xyloplax! |
It Eats Wood!!! (aka Xylophagy!)So, upon collection and preservation, they opened the specimens up and looked at the guts-and lo and behold! The guts of these critters were FILLED with wood!! To quote the paper |
Observations on the gut content of all individuals (n=20) revealed that they were mainly composed of numerous wood fragments of different size, shape and colour. For instance some were small light cubes, while others were large dark twigs of up to 7mm long.(!) |
Although most sea urchins are known primarily as herbivores, they-like many other animals- naturally LACK the ability to innately digest cellulose from trees. And so, Becker et al. cultured and analyzed the microbes in the gut and came up with this... |
There was FILAMENTOUS BACTERIA in their guts!! And all of it was in contact with the woody food in the urchin's intestine... |
(from Fig. 2C from Becker et al. 2009) |
Tests of these bacteria revealed them to be composed of a variety of bacterial types, including Proteobacteria, Planctomycete, Firmicutes, Cytophaga-Flexibacter-Bacteroides, and Actinobacteria. These were all compared against other known marine bacteria using DNA phylogenetic analysis. And it turns out that the bacteria had CLOSE relationship to a bunch of veeerrryyy interesting other bacteria including |
1. bacteria from the gut of other xylophagous (wood-eating) animals |
2. bacteria from sulphide-rich environments (such as big dead whale falls) |
3. mangrove soils |
4. marine sediments from hydrothermal vents & cold seeps!! |
Why is # 4 important? Bacteria function in vent and seep animals to help process toxic substances, such as sulfide, into digestible form in order for the host to process the nutrients. Closely related organisms often share similar qualities... |
Although the authors did not have the exact and complete story, the data above, in addition to other elements of the intestinal bacteria flora all STRONGLY suggests that Asterechinus elegans may host a bacterial community in their guts which they use to aid in wood digestion!! |
What other animals use a microbial flora in their guts to aid in digestion? |
and People! |
(this image from Nature.com) |
Finally...if these deep-sea urchins EAT wood..Do they also eat....WITCHES? |
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 |
Hawaiian Deep Sea-Urchins!!! Below the Surface of a Tropical Paradise! |
So, following up on the Hawaiian deep-sea starfish post from a few weeks ago...I thought it would be cool to show some other echinoderm diversity...and who doesn't love sea urchins??? |
A brief background on where these pictures came from... These were ALL taken by the Hawai'i Undersea Research Laboratory (HURL) at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa and are all species that live in deep-water in and around the Hawaiian Islands. HURL operates two manned submersibles..the Pisces V and the Pisces VI. |
I went down and deep-sea stalked my echinoderm loves in the Pisces V back in 2000. The following are not images from that expedition but a mix of pix from past voyages of HURL's Pisces V submersible... Thanks to Chris Kelley at HURL for allowing me to use them! |
1. Aspidodiadema hawaiiensis. |
Here's a neat species that is also observed in the Bahamas. It has these long freaky spines, which they use to MOVE. |
These urchins remind me of the giant black spy spider robot from Johnny Quest.... |
2. Phoromosoma bursarium. What survey of deep-sea echinoderms is complete without some echinothuriids?? I wrote up a blog on these for Deep-Sea News awhile back as one of the 27 BEST Deep-Sea species (it made the top 10!). |
Basically, these are weird urchins that walk around on hoof-like spines. Some genera have these big puffy sacs of unknown function. |
But one thing I HAVE experienced from firsthand observation-those spines on these critters? They STING. A colleague of mine at MBARI experienced this during the North Pacific Expedition last year. |
3. Chaetodiadema pallidum. There's not very much known about this species, but in and around the Hawaiian region between 50 and 402 m on fine sediment. |
These can be VERY abundant... and bringing up a bunch of them doesn't do them justice when they are observed on video arranged in these almost unnatural distribution patterns... spooky! |
Who needs science fiction when you've got reality? |
4. Chondrocidaris gigantea..Speaking of freaky... Here's one of the shallower-water urchins that you see in deeper waters.. Note that the spines are completely covered over by overgrowth..sponges or other encrusting invertebrates, perhaps? |
In this species and other cidaroid urchins (you'll be seeing these below) the spines LACK epidermis and you get all kinds of weird things growing on them.. |
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