Knowing the rains are coming, we made sure not to miss our sunshiny walk this morning, and decided to go to the Ballard Locks, because I'd read their salmon fish count was way up as of late.
Sure enough, as we walked along the south shore of the estuary, we could see scores of enormous salmon just under the top surface of the water.It's hard to see with the naked eye in this photo, so I put some orange arrows in, each pointing to a big ol' fish. There were more fish than I've 'arrowed,' to be sure.
While I stayed up top with the tourists, the kids went down below to the fish ladder viewing windows. Annabelle captured this action shot.
Of course we also watched a few boats motoring through the locks, including this huge vessel, Akutan.
According to the Web Site Maritime-Connector.com, the ship's gross tonnage is 749, and it was built in 1944. It sure was pumping out some stinky blue smoke today, I can tell you that.
We also watched a really long train cross the railroad bridge before we headed back home.
DOGSPERIMENTS: We took our first test for our "Dog Emotion and Cognition" class this morning, and afterward, conducted our first experiement using the Dognition Web site. Our test subject this morning was Laika, a three year old Havanese.
We played two test games with her. The first was the "Yawn Game." One person was supposed to yawn every 5 seconds for 30 seconds total, while the other gave the yawner time cues.
According to the Dognition site, "Yawning in dogs can be an indicator of stress, but we were measuring something different - social yawning." Dogs are purportedly capable of contagion yawning.
CJ was going to be the yawner, but it turns out he is absolutely TERRIBLE about yawning on command. He tried to spontaneously-yet-on-command yawn and made a horrible noise, like a yeti stepping on a LEGO, and made a crazy head gesture.
"You look like a breached whale," Annabelle assessed.
We decided Annabelle would be the yawner.
It might have been a moot point, however, because Test Subject did not yawn in response to Annabelle's yawning.
The Dognition Web site tried to reassure us, however, noting ... "this is not surprising. Although dogs are one of the few species besides humans that contagiously yawn, there is variation among dogs. Data from several research groups shows differing results, but our preliminary data shows that only 20% of dogs yawn contagiously."
OK, so Laika's in the 80 percent. Go Laika.
Next up was the "Eye Contact Game." Per the Dognition Web site, "Before babies can hug or speak, they use eye gaze to bond with their mothers. Research with dogs has shown that a similar phenomenon may happen with owners and dogs"
Hmm. OK, interesting. But it gets better. ... "Owners whose dogs stared at them for longer had significant increases in the hormone oxytocin. Oxytocin, also known as the "hug hormone," is related to feelings of bonding, pleasure and affection."
At first I read oxytocin as oxycontin. Apparently it's not the same thing. ;)
So, we did the eye contact test, which involved holding a doggie treat next to your eye and seeing how long your dog would stare at you. Yes, really.
I just want to go on the record as saying if someone held a t-bone steak next to their eye, I would stare at it longer than someone who was *not* holding a steak next to their eye. But I digress.
Anyway, the results are in and they say, "Judging by the extraordinary length of time Laika spent gazing soulfully into your eyes, you probably often find her staring at you for no reason. You might wonder if Laika is trying to tell you something, like she is hungry, needs to go to the bathroom or has an opinion on what to do over the weekend. But Laika may not want or need anything - she may be just hugging you with her eyes."
Based on the combined results of the two tests, what are we told?"Laika's empathy scores were off the charts. Empathy is the ability to feel what someone else is feeling. Humans are extremely empathetic; it is one of our best qualities. Empathy is not something we are taught; it is present even in young children, growing and strengthening as we get older.Researchers have recently suggested that other animals also have empathy, or at least a basic form of empathy. If this is true, dogs are an ideal place to look.Humans and dogs go back thousands of years - enough time for the bond between us to develop into something special.This is even more special because initial results suggest that small dogs like Laika tend to be more individualistic than large dogs. By being more on the bonded end of the scale, Laika certainly stands out from the small dog crowd. If most dogs are bonded to their owners, Laika absolutely adores you."CJ contemplated the results and asked, straight-faced, "Do they mean she's empathetic, or pathetic?"
STAR ROCKS: One science lesson for the day came via a wonderful story on Forbes.com about the geology of Star Trek. They had me at Star Trek, but it's a well-written article, with lots of interesting examples of how crystals, minerals and other geological aspects are essential plot devices in the Star Trek world. In fact, one of the "Trek in the Park" performances we went to see was "Devil in the Dark," about the Enterprise crew visiting a mining colony and finding out that the 'rocks' were, in fact, sentient beings.
GOING UP: What’s the connection between a warming world and rising seas? NASA lets us know in this great Earth Minute video: https://youtu.be/msnOHuPep9I.
"It gets across the message quickly and easily," said CJ.
"I think the illustrations are a great way to show younger kids what he means if they don't have a full vocabulary developed yet," observed Annabelle.
BIG ONE: Today marks the anniversary of the really big and bad eruption of Krakatoa in 1883.
The volcano rumbled to life on May 20, 1883, venting after a 200 year slumber. Over the next three months, there were regular small blasts, and on August 11, ash started spewing, growing progressively stronger until Aug. 26, when the epic disaster began.
At around 5:30 a.m. on Aug. 27, began a series of four powerful eruptions, the last of which made the loudest-then-recorded on the planet. Krakatoa is in the Dutch East Indies, and the eruption was heard as far away as central Australia.
Of the 36,000 or so souls who were lost, 31,000 of them were actually killed in subsequent tsunamis rather than the devastating eruption.
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