Orangutans at waterside, laryngeal air sacs

Update 03/2010: Orangutan orphans in water
http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/orang-utan-water/1
Face always kept above water surface with throat air sac inflated while nose breathing.
-

Orangutan protects human from crocodile:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-saved-by-an-orangutan-821624.html


You can protect orangutans from extinction:
Sumatra http://www.orangutans-sos.org/

Borneo http://redapes.org%20/



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_page_id=1965&in_article_id=562236


"Swimming" orangutan, note the throat-neck, likely the bare skin is slightly swollen due to laryngeal air sacs inflated, used when vertical floating or surface sculling with head above water.

Orangutan attempts to hunt fish with spear (likely bamboo, note the nodes [click to enlarge photo]). See here for article on fishing macaque monkeys fishing monkeys


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3828123.ece

Naturalists were shocked to see the apes go across a river to gain access to some of their favourite fruits at a conservation refuge on Kaja island in Borneo.

Orangutans at Runga river pallas island orphan orangutan sanctuary seen entering water for sweet corn cobs, splashing. No crocs in that area. Probably not swimming. link

http://redapes.org/news-updates/leila-the-orangutan-drowns-in-german-zoo/

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/740542/Suyria-Florida-ape-Baby-orangut\
an-is-king-of-the-swimmers.html

http://redapes.org/voices-from-the-field/any-mother-will-swim-to-save-her-child/
http://www.orangutans.com.au/Orangutans-Survival-Information/Orangutans-swim-to-\
safety.aspx

The more stories and "almost swimming' photos, the more doubt arises.
Wading? Yes. Vertical floating? Possible, but probably only if learned in
shallow wetland first. Swimming horizontally? No, no clear evidence of that. Can't blame the folks there for making a fuss about it though, the forest is being destroyed so quickly for oil palm plantations and lumber.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISScU6W1vIg


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The bottom photo is of two siamang gibbons (lesser apes) which frequently call loudly with inflated air sacs. I hypothesize that ancient hominoids lived in tidal rainforests (estuarboreal), and enlarged throat air sacs were selected (like in frogs) for better vertical flotation and vocalization. Human ancestors remained at the tidal shores but moved from these dense mangroves (per MV) to open shores diving/backfloating at lagoon reefs for shellfish etc. while the ape ancestors followed rivers inland to more arboreal and less aquatic habitat. Humans today do not normally have laryngeal air sacs, however trumpet blowers and glass blowers sometimes develop laryngocoels which are pathological laryngeal air sacs.

The morphology of all extant apes (except the small gibbons) and the skeletal fossils of Lucy & Selam (Australopithecus afarensis) possessing hyoid bones indicate enlarged laryngeal air sacs, while those of Homo neandertalensis and ancient Homo sapiens do not.



Background: Laryngocoele/laryngocele/laryngeal air sac

A laryngocele is usually a cystic dilatation of the laryngeal saccule. The etiology behind its occurrence is still unclear, but congenital and acquired factors have been implicated in its development [1,2]. Laryngoceles appear to be an atavistic remnant from the higher apes (DD: correction, higher apes are not our ancestors, hominoids are ancestral to both Homo and extant apes), particularly those who use their arms with the thoracic cage fixed whilst swinging through the trees (DD: addendum, vertical climbing/floating/wading with arms holding vegetation). ... the laryngocele could have been caused by prolonged and repeated valsalva... the increased air pressure in the larynx may make an already existing laryngocele manifest [1].

Congenitally, the laryngeal saccule is a remnant corresponding to the lateral laryngeal air sacs of the higher anthropoid apes, which may on occasion, manifest suddenly in response to pressure caused by coughing, straining at stool, or trumpet playing (i.e. valsalva maneuvers [used in diving to equalize middle ear pressure]). An acquired laryngocele may develop when the laryngeal ventricle becomes functionally obstructed as a result of an increase in intraglottic pressure, e.g. excessive coughing, playing a wind instrument or obstruction of appendicular ostium [1,2].

Three types of laryngoceles are described. An internal laryngocele is confined to the interior of the larynx and extends posterosuperiorly into the false vocal cord and the aryepiglottic fold; this type appears on laryngoscopy as a smooth swelling of the supraglottis. An external laryngocele extends superiorly to appear laterally in the neck through the opening in the thyrohyoid membrane for the superior laryngeal nerve and vessels; these clinically present as a swelling in the neck at the level of the hyoid bone anterior to the sternocleidomastoid muscle. The simultaneous existence of both features is termed a combined laryngocele [1-4].

The simple laryngocele is an uncomplicated air-filled dilatation of the appendix of the laryngeal ventricle.

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2482/6/14

Laryngeal air sac in whales, function: Full size right whales forage at the water surface, swim slower than human sport swimmers, and are the fattest whales (float at the surface when dead, which is why whalers called them "right whales"). Pygmy right whales are far less fatty due to their small size and metabolism, so their laryngeal air sac adds buoyancy when foraging on krill copepods near the surface. Apes in shallow water generally seek surface Aquatic Herbaceous Vegetation (AHV) (see the gorilla videos) and only seek bottom foods (water bugs under rocks/leaves) while wading in ankle-deep water. Human ancestors at seashores were tide-affected, and foraged for food from the shallows to perhaps 30+m deep. Because they were enveloped in a thin layer of buoyant thermoinsulative skin fat, denser bones were selected for, bringing the body to neutral buoyancy in seawater (similar to sea otters and walruses).

update: bowhead whales also surface feed and have lar. air sacs, AFAICT no other whales have lar. air sacs and do not typically feed at the surface.

So, bowhead whales, pygmy right whales and apes forage near the water surface and possess laryngeal air sacs; while (ancestral) humans, sea otters, blue whales forage near the sea bottom and lack laryngeal air sacs.

Air sac size quite small (though this is a small whale), compare to 1 liter air sac in orangs or 20-50 liter pharyngeal air sac in walrus. Why did Homo lose the laryngeal air sac? Switch to humming type speech and backfloating and addition of subcutaneous fat layer and stop climbing?



(Stranded) Pygmy right whale dissection, showing lungs and laryngeal air sac at left.
http://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/category/pygmy-right-whale/%20

















Gorilla foraging in wetland with partly inflated laryngeal air sac:
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=gorilla&view=detail&id=F3C63788AE6768B1E99B65DFE64B1D105D87E520&first=0&qpvt=gorilla&FORM=IDFRIR

Note gorilla posture, red scalp, air sac, water just below shoulders.

upright posture - moroto/proconsul aquarboreal climbing/slow brachiating/wading/floating/walking/hanging

red scalp - post-hylobatid hominoid canopy woven nesting mimicry of raptor, grabbing hook-like hand, cooing infant (became hooting in large arboreals), human preemies have lanugo from eyebrows to scalp, which when pulled forward in surprise (eyebrow flash/frown) (or sun avoidance without protruding brows) becomes danger sign to raptor from above, evolutionarily later lost when brain-skull-protruding jaws enlarged.

air sac - visible in photo to the right of the sunlit hair, to left of throat, it is convex ( rather than concave )
due to partly inflated air sac. Human throat would show concave except at adams apple.

water - high enough to give flotation (of face) an advantage

Maritime Security: Ocean protection

http://www.abdi-secure-ecommerce.com/asis/p-808-1773.aspx

How do we protect our oceans and waterways from the blind overexploitation and pollution of our species on our planet's bodies of water? Will our future descendants have abundant clean water?


"As ships get bigger, the pollution is getting worse. The most staggering statistic of all is that just 16 of the world’s largest ships can produce as much lung-clogging sulphur pollution as all the world’s cars.
...
In the meantime, according to Corbett’s figures, nearly one million more people will die.
...
Smoke and sulphur are not the only threats from ships’ funnels. Every year they are also belching out almost one billion tons of carbon dioxide. Ships are as big a contributor to global warming as aircraft – but have had much less attention from environmentalists.

16 ships produce as much air pollution as all the worlds cars

Solunar: Gyre-Tectonic-Tide

Pangea propeller tide


Global Climate of wind and wave:
http://numbat.coas.oregonstate.edu/cogow/index.html

The winds effect on ocean surface @ Siber-Alaskan pipeline:
http://numbat.coas.oregonstate.edu/cogow/quikscat/72/jan/one_x_one.html

Tectonic and tidal effects:



http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/image/global_topo_large.gif

1800 yr ocean tidal cycle
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=18099

The gravitational force of the moon is one ten-millionth that of earth, but when you combine other forces such as the earth's centrifugal force created by its spin, you get tides.
When the moon is full or new, the gravitational pull of the moon and sun are combined. At these times, the high tides are very high and the low tides are very low. This is known as a spring tide. The net result of this is that the Earth gets deformed into a slightly squashed, ellipsoidal shape due to these tidal forces.

The tidal bulge of the Moon follows along the path on the earth's surface which intersects with the orbital plane of the Moon. This plane is tilted about 23 degrees with respect to the equatorial plane of the earth. The result is that near the equator, the difference between high tide and low tide is actually rather small, compared to other latitudes.

The Proxigean Spring Tide is a rare, unusually high tide. This very high tide occurs when the moon is both unusually close to the Earth (at its closest perigee, called the proxigee) and in the New Moon phase (when the Moon is between the Sun and the Earth). The proxigean spring tide occurs at most once every 1.5 years.

During the last 400 years, there have been 39 instances or 'Extreme Proxigean Spring Tides' where the tide-producing severity has been near the theoretical maximum. The last one of these was on March 7 1995 at 22:00 hours Greenwich Civil Time during a lunar Full Moon. There were, in fact cases of extreme tidal flooding recorded during these particular spring tides which occur once every 31 years."

Offshore, in the deep ocean, the difference in tides is usually less than 1.6 feet

Lunar tide effects
http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/moontides/

Tides are created because the Earth and the moon are attracted to each other, just like magnets are attracted to each other. The moon tries to pull at anything on the Earth to bring it closer. But, the Earth is able to hold onto everything except the water. Since the water is always moving, the Earth cannot hold onto it, and the moon is able to pull at it. Each day, there are two high tides and two low tides. The ocean is constantly moving from high tide to low tide, and then back to high tide. There is about 12 hours and 25 minutes between the two high tides.

The gravitational attraction of the moon causes the oceans to bulge out in the direction of the moon. Another bulge occurs on the opposite side, since the Earth is also being pulled toward the moon (and away from the water on the far side). Ocean levels fluctuate daily as the sun, moon and earth interact. As the moon travels around the earth and as they, together, travel around the sun, the combined gravitational forces cause the world's oceans to rise and fall. Since the earth is rotating while this is happening, two tides occur each day.

Pilgrimage: Journey of mankind

forest: foli-frugivory/qpal walk/vert. pluck/call
mangrove: coast food/upright forage-walk-wade-float/stick
seashore: bait-trap/beach-cave/diving/thrust spear/words
rivers: dugouts/travel/woodcraft/hut/throwing spear/fire
plains: herding/STPost barter/horse/fibercraft/atlatl
fields: farming/town trade/carriage/shipping/owners
city: factories/machine/mass tele-comm-travel-edu

Sequence:
omnivory plucking, poking stick for hidden food crab-termite-tuber
thrusting spear & stone hammer/knife to open seafood, cutting
bait-trap bivalves/biface/blade in fish against predators/pests
seasonal migrations coasts, rivers, fruit/nut/flint/hunt rift
seasonal herd/harvest nets->sacks carry flint, fruit, nuts home
accidental gardening garbage/feces attracts pests, bury it, seed

dugouts, trade foods/goods:
coast foods/salt, sun-drying/smoking: basketry, fish net
forest fruit, herbs, vegetables: tump-line sack, head-carry
mountain flint, gems, ochre, grinding: knap-sack, ruck-sack
floodplain grain, grassland grazers, herding: cloth, leather
ports/trading posts: concentration of goods/people, town/city

Pilgrims: Rift-coastal migrations from South Africa to China to the New World

My interpretation: first there was the clam/oyster on the shores of the
Tethys mangrove coasts, picked up and eaten by a hominoid, that then
dropped the shell below the mangrove branch which was immediately
swallowed by a croc that then died from indigestion (or so).

Xmillion years of this accidental littering/shittering produced a
hominid that intentionally sets clams filled with fishguts/rotten
crab/fresh meat out to be consumed by shore pests like cats and
baboons and crocs around the papyrus marshes while seeking eggs.

Another Xmillion years, Homo is in the Rift valley without oysters but
lots of sharp rocks to make fake shells to set traps, so as to
dominate the herding migrating masses on their way from south Africa
to China along the Peri-Tethys shores (Mediterranean/Black/Caspian/Bolkash).

Another Xmillion years the Homo Proto-San are herding the sheep,
goats, horses, elephants, cattle along the same Peri-tethyan path when
nature lets loose with a monsoonally induced rainy glacial
melted massive flooding that swamps the entire Eurasian basin, leaving
only isolated populations in highlands separated culturally and
linguistically with confused mythic memories of terrible loss/fear of
the hordes of barbarians (herds of berber/barber/baabaa) and the
heroic shepherds "san|tek|elfs and the reindeer" (Saami, Evenki) that
saved the starving isolated upland settlements that had become so
dependent on trade due to specialized crafts.

No metaphysics, no supernatural abracadabra, just megafauna migrations
and natural interpretations from cultural myths derived from pre-literate
disasters. Ice Age mathematics-phonetics-genetics.

DDeden

tektionary

Where does language come from? Why don't apes talk, if they are genetically so similar to humans?

Our 2ma-.5ma ancestors lived along shores, they progressed from simple calls and gestures to words and languages. Here are clues:

Ural<- Ura (ore, quarry, source, Ur) mountain
Altaic <- al-tek? (Ur-al-tek?) mountain
Aztec <- az-tek? lakes, hills?
Toltec <- tol-tek mountain

Ukraine <- ochreyn ochre-crayon-clay rich moist soils (strongly suspect Hs settled the low riparian Ukraine plains w/ dugouts)

Chippewa/Ojibwe <- chip-wa <-tek-wa riparian
Ottawa <- ahkt-wa riparian

to the more obvious links to the pre-historic past through language:

oct-ahkt-hawk-hatchet-hammer (stone axe on hollow log)
ket-kit/set-(group of paint/powder/toolkit)
ket-skreyt-scratch-script-sanskrit-scribe
ket-sketch with stick/stone/ochre (ground clay writing)
keyt-skate-kaolin-clay-(Sumerian writing on clay tablets)
kleyt-clay, ochre (hammer ground) crayon (wax/grease/oil mix)
peyt-paste, paint, powder, petro (fat rock), bed(rock), beach
peyt-bait-trap in body of fish on beach, bet (chance?)
keyv-cave-cavern-carve (soft stone)-quarry (hard stone), karst
ahkt-ock-rock (English stone)
ahkt-aht-batu (Malay stone)
wawa-well-wave-wind-
wata-wet-wed (throw conf-etti/splashing)
mar-marine-marriage/marital
market-merchand-samarkand-open water shares (trade) wares fairs
ket-cut-gut-goods shared
tek-trek/tred (walk to quarry), trade/train/terrain
tekcheyn-exchange?? vows, barter(boater?), tax,

The Ket people of the Altai mountains are the closest kin
to the original Amerindians. Tek flipped is ket, indicating stone
tools and cutting. Note the word tomahawk, a handled stone-axe,
includes the sound ~ahwk, likely derived from original oct/ahkt. I
don't know the meaning of tomah~, but there is a town in Wisconsin of
that name which originated from Ojibwe/Chippewa Indian language AFAIK.
I've no doubt that the earliest AmerIndians had watercraft, not heavy
wooden dugouts but rather lightweight ribbed portables. In Africa and
southern Asia, crocs/hippos required strong dugouts, but in Eurasia
lightweight ribbed craft were faster and easier to steer in streams
and to paddle upstream to smaller steeper creeks. So Amerindians
already had experience in these vessels. Eskimo names for ribbed skin
boats: umiak and kayak, both include ~ahk, again derived from the
stone hammer-axe, but lost the wa~ and added a prefix, and no longer
used log dugouts. The Chippewa adopted ribbed birch-bark canoes, I
don't know the canoe name. The tribal name of the forest/river
dwelling Ojibwe/Chippewa may derive from chip/tek wood and stone
working ancestors of Eurasian hilly forests/streams. I can only think
that when Beringia was above sea level, it must have had some forests.

Processing stone/wood/meat:
Tek<->ket<->cut<->cook<->kitchen/cuccina/kocina
Tek<->check<->chef<->chief?/chevron?
Tek<->flake<->fillet<->file?
Tek<->tendon?<->o-raw-hide? (uncooked)
Tek<->took?<->hook?<->crook? (take the bait)
Tek<->ket<->knet<->knit<->knot (cut/tie fibers)

knapping a hand-axe / bait-trap means chipping off tets (irregular),
stone knife blades, (like a nose), are irregular tetrahedrons.
So the word 'tet', source of tetrahedron, is ancient too.

name of orig. core/manuport: 'ora' /ore/core/ura/ora/aura/raw (uncut/uncooked)
name of process: 'tek' /check/tick/flake/
name of chips: 'tet' /chip/flek/spec
name of finished bait-trap: 'gen' /gen-/gin-/gem
name of the hammer-stone: 'ahkt' or 'ahx' /axe/adze

Where oct- came from. It exists in Greek (oct) and Sanskrit (aaht). It has a sort of hollow sound (aaoo) as opposed to the sound of pebbles tikking together. My guess is that it was the name of the pounding hammer-stone used for the chipping, also used to describe drumming
hollow logs. A hollow tubular stem (bamboo, crane bone, kudu horn, conch shell) blown through with pinched lips produces only octaves so the word oct/axe was used for hammering and for the natural octaves. The later words axle and axial derived from hollow tubular cylinders like hollow tree stems used in early dugout canoes, found rotting inside-out at waterside, bending towards the
open water and sun. A stone adze/axe and fire were used later to produce a better streamlined watercraft, and then solid straight tree stems were preferred for the lightest unleakiest vessels.

Since the oldest PIE (Proto-Indo-European) name for water is akwa, I'm thinking that water was earlier called wawa or wata during daily diving, and that once dugouts were used, akwa actually was ahkt-wata meant "action in/of water" where act derived from the motion of the hammer-axe. A boat flipped is a tub and vv, in German boat is boot which flipped is toob or tube, boating in water was shortened to akwa, eventually used for any water-related activities/things once
Homo stopped daily diving and become dependent on boats and technology. PIE has no word for tidal surf (they used the 'mar' in coastal marine instead for inland riparian marshes, mires, moors,
markets, merchant), so likely it developed along the Black/Caspian seas and rivers/lakes of the Russian/Ukrainean plains, where there was no tide but there was snow, wheat and lions.

from tek to other words is a very small step "I tap the top of the typewriter keys with the tip of my finger". That sentence has 5 individual derivations from tek.

top (Sanskrit topi = hat), flipped becomes pot or bot-tom
tip, flipped becomes pit
tap, flipped becomes pat on the back
tep, now extinct, was root of step
tape, adhesive
Top-ic, iso-topic, iso-tope, iso-tropic, iso-trophic?
flip, from tip to flip/fly/flew/flutter/flow/flour/FLUID

then tube (hollow cylinder, tuba), flipped becomes boot (car trunk) tub, tab, etc.

Is there a dictionary based on these ancient roots, rather than on alphabetic order (which is much more recent) or pure phonetics?

ora = pre-chipped core or manuport
gen = hand-axe/bait-trap/clam
tek = chip from core

or-gan = whole (heart) core
Ur ~ ora ~ (See my Sumerian trading post scenario)

Conjecture: genetic root (gen-e-tic) (see origin of ur also)
original name for the hande-axe (bait trap) ~ gen
original name for the flaking ~ tek
original name for the chips ~ tek + derivatives

gen=general=the whole (can you dig 1/2 a hole?)
tek=special=the part/spec/spark/flek/flake/tack/trac/tach/tech/...

gen is soft & hummy, tek is clicky, in the mouth.

'tek' is derived from the sound of chipping stone/bone/stick
'gen' probably a tropical bivalve mollusc (the original model for the bifacial bait trap).

Tek is now a buried root word, a fossil, alive only in evolved derived forms.
detach has replaced tek in the functional sense. At-tack, at-tach, at-tach`e, abstract, attract detract, distract merging and separating items. There are an enormous variety of words that relate to the coming together and going apart (compression/tension, gravitation/radiation..), scale is part of the reason for different words, another is geographic isolation of languages..
trac-tion: frictional adhesion
derivation of "abstract": This word comes from a German root "tragen" that means "to
drag". In other words, abstract literally means "dragged away from reality."

tesselate? (sanskrit?)

Does 'compound' derive from pounding a simple stone, making many components? take a flake.. tek a flek, compound 'frac-ture' or frac-tion etc...

tek is also used for finger, digit, one in various languages.
I've 'stuck' to English, but I think all languages had a similar root.

ora-gen-tek

Po-e-tic -|- Syn-er-ge-tic -|- Pol-i-tic

[in memory of buckminster fuller, geodesic designer]
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"now i know why i don't like politics" by DDeden

pol - tic (tek)

people - separated

the skill in keeping people disunited/distracted,
(easier to make/keep them slaves/serfs that way)
Tyrants are anti-politicans, they force unity.
Politicians are anti-tyrants, dividing unity.
USA is a bifacial clam, a bilateral tyrant
made up of two political shells/parties
which trust each other to competence,
I'm not knocking (tek) politicians,
just don't follow their religion
pick pock tick tock nick knock
spec spark spire pyre fire
first spear was a spire
first gem was a gen
1st shard shared,
1st croc snared
lions scared
un homme
laird
wet
~


the bait-trap tek culture really was a major league change-up in human pre-history. Before it, language was there but limited to natural objects mom, dad, nana, eat, water, etc. filled with physical gestures and sounds.

boater-barter-border(war?)-bother-buffer-boundary-brother-boarder
sailor-seller (not cellar), seller-dweller, sail-sale
paddler-peddler (not pedestrian)

Why do European languages start their teens at 13, not 11? Because they derived from the Caspian basin Proto-Indo-European nomadic herders.

I see there is a difference in counting systems.

Decimal: (small base) 10, (large base) 100 (Modern, India)
Duodecimal: (small base) 12, (large base) 144 (Niger plateau)
Caspian: (small base) 12, (large base) 120 (PIE Caspian basin)
Sumerian: (small base) 60, (large base) 3600 (Sumerian Traders)

The ancestral European counting system from the Caspian basin counted their knuckles and fingers 120. This allowed them to trade goods at Sumerian trading posts along rivers from Sumer to Moscow, who used the 30/60/360/3600 counting system which is still used in degrees, minutes.

Does anyone know where I can verify the real history of the 12/120-based system? Wikipedia doesn't even mention the herding.
http://www.sizes.com/units/hundred.htm#120
(I think some translation errors snuck in, eg Doggermen probably used 8 x 12 + 4)
Note that 120 is used with heads/herds, 100 with iron.

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/duodecimal
http://www3.aa.tufs.ac.jp/~P_aflang/TEXTS/oct98/decimal.html

my words:

The first cattle herding began on the Nigerian plateau and the Caspian plains, a few
plateau Nigerian languages still use the duodecimal system, but in Europe only the vestige of 11, 12 not being -teen, and the presence of dozen in the languages indicate a past use before the decimal system.)

herd = 12 head / kids (kind-herd) / tribes / tributaries Mesopotamian
herders, exported to Levant, Caspian.

A head-count of 12 was counted/divided quickly using the thumbtip
tapping the flesh above the 12 inner knuckles of one hand, dividing by
2, 3, 4, 6 was easy. Continue to higher numbers by folding a finger or
thumb to represent each additional 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84, 96,
108, 120 when all digits folded = both hands closed = count-herd-ol =
10 x 12 (hundredfold)

cent<- kent-um = 100 among city folk. (10 x itself)
hundred<- count10 x herd12 = 120 among nomad herders. (10 x 12 knuckles)

The word hundred meant 120 items. from count-herd
The word gross meant 144 items. big/many
The word cent meant 100 items. from kentum
The word count meant 12 items. from kent
The word kent meant 10 items.

herd = 12 head / kids (kind-herd) / tribes / tributaries Mesopotamian herders, exported to Levant, Caspian.

A head-count of 12 was counted/divided quickly using the thumbtip tapping the flesh above the 12 inner knuckles of one hand, dividing by 2, 3, 4, 6 was easy. Continue to higher numbers by folding a finger or thumb to represent each additional 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84, 96, 108, 120 when all digits folded = both hands closed = kent-herd-ol = 10 x 12 (hundredfold)

kent-um = 100 among city, port. (10 x itself)
count-herd = 120 among nomad herders. (10 x 12 knuckles)

-ol- fold, wool, roll, scroll, wheel
-ai!- eye, hive, fly, spyre, pain, fire

PIE and IE retained this (China lost it, instead using 10 fingers (no knuckles) and decimal abacus from shells/coins on a string). IE teens start at 13, not 11.

Our later written numerals are based on the Chinese decimal (as did Rome) via India/Arabia numerals which added the 0.

Abraham <- ora-ham (in Chaldean) ora = source, core, origin

Neither Chinese, Eskimos nor Austronesians herded cattle/sheep on open plains, their counting systems differed.

calendrical temporal jitterbug regulate
morality-mythos-taboo jitterbug IKTHYS4MEN
head-count trade-good jitterbug knuckle/digit
icosa-cubocta-octa-tet jitterbug hexapenta
10c 12 oz. weight coin jitterbug cheap metals

A constant bore tube's lowest notes aren't octave intervals.
A conical bore tube's lowest notes may approximate an octave interval.

It is interesting, the bugle frequency ratios 2-3-4-5-6
I'd guess it is actually 1-2-3-4-5-6-12, with the 1-2 gap equal to an octave (if I have inferred correctly).

I am basing this on Buckmister Fuller's "Jitterbug transformation"
where in geometry, there is an overlap between an icosahedron (1-2-3-4-6-12 fold symmetry) and a cuboctahedron (5 fold symmetry)

(note images at right)
http://www.4dsolutions.net/synergetica/synergetica6.html
"The jitterbug transformation starts with a cuboctahedron and twist contracts it into a regular octahedron with 1/5th the volume, passing through the intermediate icosahedral phase on the way. This latter form of the jitterbug is useful when applied to individual spheres as it shows how they can contract to become between-sphere concave octahedral voids (see 1:1032.00). Fuller uses oscillatory ripplings of such sphere-into-space-into-sphere alternations, the so-called space-filling jitterbug transformation, to suggest new models of omnidirectional energy propagation within the fields of electro- and hydrodynamics."

I believe the same math mechanism was used by Proto-Indo-European herdsmen and Sumerian traders, calculating quantities via knuckles (12 base) and fingers (10 base).

Wikipedia, hundred: "The larger value originated with the Teutonic tribes that invaded England after the Romans departed; their Hundert equalled 120."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teutonic
The word Teutonic derives at once from both the Latin name for a tribe who were thought by the Romans to be Germanic, die Teutonen, "the Teutons" and, from the Germanic word tiutisch (New High German deutsch = German), originally meaning "belonging to the people".

The Romans identified die Teutonen as a Germanic tribe, and therefore Roman writers began to use the term Teutonicus as a synonym for their existing word for Germanic peoples, Germanicus.

Today many scholars think that die Teutonen were not a Germanic tribe at all, but rather, that they were a Celtic tribe. It has been suggested that Teutone derives from the Celtic word tuath meaning "the people" or "the tribe" (as in the mythical Irish race, the Tuatha de Danaan, the "tribe of Danaan").[citation needed] [1]

Tiutisch is the source of the German word Deutsch, as well as the English word "Dutch". English is considered a Germanic language by linguists.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_language

rind: cattle
kind: children





--- In AAT@yahoogroups.com, Ken Moore wrote:
>
> DDeden wrote:
> >
> > "a conch shell, a bugle, a didgeroo, and a shoffar (bored out kudu or
> > ram's horn) when blown with pursed lips at various air pressures can
> > only produce full octave tones or no tone at all".
> >
> > Would you agree that is accurate?
> >
> No. If constant bore tubes, such as didgeridoos, are blown with pursed
> lips sealed to one end, the interval between the two lowest resonances
> will not be an octave. A shofar may be close to a conical bore, in
> which case its corresponding interval will be near an octave. A bugle
> is designed so that the lowest note is rarely used. It will be
> approximately an octave below the second, but the main object of the
> designer is that notes 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 will be in those frequency
> ratios, giving intervals of a fifth, a fourth, a major third and a minor
> third, typically Bb, F, Bb D, F. (per Ken)


kent<-ket(=cut)<->tek(chip/flake)
count<-kent
kindred<-kent & herd
hundred<-kent & herd
hand*2<-kent

The addition of 'r' usually indicates separation/torn/sherds/parts/rip/scratch,

While the -um means "times itself" or mirrored
eg. bivalve/bilateral sYMMetry, Mirror, clAM, Multiply, tIMes, Mollusc, centUM, sateM

name of orig. core/manuport: 'or' /ore/core/ura/ora/aura
name of process: 'tek' /check/tick/flake/
name of chips: 'tet' /chip/flek/spec
name of finished bait-trap: 'gen' /gen-/gin-/gem
name of the hammer-stone: 'ahkt' or 'ahx' /axe/adze

Sorry, typo. Khald, not Kald. Derived into Kali, Cailleach, Catholic, Gaelic, Chaldean, Celtic, Baltic, Bog, Basque, Khalidya, Goth, (Thor?) Gott, numerous other IE terms in various locales where IE/Aryan/Celtic/Cultic/Turkmen/German/herdsmen of the Black-Caspian basin and Ukraine-Central Asian plains herded between mountain ranges then settling at well watered sites engaged in trade of dried salmon, flint, salt, herds. Settlements at fertile farmlands and trading posts produced great chiefs (probably Kiev, then King) who employed jesters (gestures) and mimes to assist in language/dialect translation before writing arrived. Later writing put a new overlay, with new names of tribes and homelands.

Cailleach myth
by Karla Morgan
Cailleach is referred to as the "Mother of All" in parts of Scotland. Also known as Scotia, she is depicted as an old hag with the teeth of a wild bear and boar's tusks..She is also known to have created the earth. "With her hammer she alternately splinters [flint, perhaps flanders] mountains,.."


--- In HumanMigrations@yahoogroups.com, "DDeden" wrote:
>
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Indo-Eurasian_research/message/9088
>
> why does your keyboard start with qwerty? qrt/krt/krst/ktb
> reading, writing, reciting, and a-rith-ma-tic. Education.
> The al quran name begins at the same source as krist/krish, and are
> derived from Assyria/Syria/Urartu/Armenia region. The name of their
> Deity was "Kald", now retained as "God", (not Deus or YHWH or Elohim
> or Allah in English), they were Kaldian aka Celt/Gaul/Chaldean, but
> through time they mixed with others and had different names, now
> Armenian.
>
>
>
>
> --- In HumanMigrations@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Parker"
> wrote:
> >
> > Daoud - you're treading or paddling in very dangerous waters.
> >
> > Krit may be a proto-word for all I know, and may be related to
> > Sans_krit_ and _Kri_shna and s_cript_ure, but it is also very
> > obviously related to _Chri_st.
> >
> > Don't ever suggest anyhing like that in the Bible Belt, or you'll be
> > lynched.
> >
> > regards
> >
> >
> > Richard
> >
> >
> > --- In HumanMigrations@yahoogroups.com, "DDeden"
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > RP: Greek may share some root words with Sanskrit, but was not
> > inherited
> > > from it. They both derive from Proto-Indo-European (PIE), an
> > > entirely imaginary language 'reconstructed' from later descendent
> > > languages. PIE, or something very like it, just may have been
> > spoken
> > > by the people who were present when the roots of Indo-European were
> > > being set up, but PIE is an imaginary language, not a real one.
> > >
> > > DD: The sound -krit-/-grik- derived from the sound of scratching a
> > > stick/stone/stylus on stone/clay/leaf, and the later
> > > national/tribal/cultural designations in the title above were
> > merely
> > > local derivations. The modern word "written" had lost the initial
> > k/g,
> > > while the modern word "scripture" has preserved it.
> > >
> > > Once you remove the written word from their ancestors, what were
> > they?
> > > PIE. I guess that both scribe and priest were derived from krit,
> > > (krist = writer, cf artist) (krshna in Hindu). Writers created
> > (krit-d
> > > cf crafted) religions and omni-gods from muddled old memories,
> > while
> > > oratory folktales were retained because they included music and
> > > gesture (jester) not yet available in written (tab) form.
> > > DDeden
> > >
> >
>

Acheulean Hand Axe or Bifacial Bait Trap?

Update January 2010: Poisonous yellow lichen Letharia vulpina mixed with ground glass or fat in reindeer carcass used to poison wolves. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letharia_vulpina

The use of this species for poisoning wolves and foxes goes back at least hundreds of years, based on the mention of the practice in Christoph Gedner's "Of the use of curiosity", collected in Benjamin Stillingfleet, Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Natural History, Husbandry and Physics (London, 1759).[5] According to British lichenologist Annie Lorrain Smith, reindeer carcasses were stuffed with lichen and powdered glass (small chert flakes?), and suggests that the sharp edges of the glass would make the animals' internal organs more susceptible to the effects of the lichen poison.[6] However, it is known that the lichen itself is also effective—powdered lichen added to fat and inserted into reindeer carcasses will also be fatal to wolves that consume it.[5] The toxic chemical is the yellow dye vulpinic acid, which is poisonous to all meat-eaters, but not to mice and rabbits.[5] (hat tip to Brian & comments at Laelaps).)

After more thought on hand axes, I now think that by 1ma they were primarily used as simple tomahawks and later adzes, using hand-wound roots/vines to attach the bifaces to wood handles.
However, it is not unlikely that small biface stones, chert/obsidian flakes, razor clam shards or sharp sticks could have been inserted into fish or game meat/fat/organs as night-time bait-traps against any nocturnal predators around the cave or beaver-lodge-style hut camp.
-

Hand axes in Crete: Crete bifaces
Stone hand axes unearthed on the Mediterranean island of Crete indicate that an ancient Homo species — perhaps Homo erectus — had used rafts or other seagoing vessels to cross from northern Africa to Europe via at least some of the larger islands in between, says archaeologist Thomas Strasser of Providence College in Rhode Island. Several hundred double-edged cutting implements discovered at nine sites in southwestern Crete date to at least 130,000 years ago and probably much earlier, Strasser reported January 7 at the annual meeting of the American Institute of Archaeology. Many of these finds closely resemble hand axes fashioned in Africa about 800,000 years ago by H. erectus, he says. It was around that time that H. erectus spread from Africa to parts of Asia and Europe.
-

Original from 2007:

I've read that one way Inuits reduced competition from wolves was by inserting a sharp blade into a chunk of meat, swallowed it would tear up the stomach and kill it.

Could a hand axe or sharp blade be put in a fish or meat bait at waterside to kill a lion, sabercat, leopard, tiger, crocodile? (Rhetorical question)

Since unlike hyenas they don't crack and eat the bones, they may be susceptible to something sharp lodging in the GI tract.

Crocs (and seals and other aquatic animals) swallow rounded stones for ballast. Louis Leakey found near-sphere pebbles ("bolas") among masses of hand axes in the Rift valley at Olorgesailie, according to Rick Potts. Thanks to Lee Olsen for bringing Potts article to my attention.

Fishermen fishing for catfish in some areas attach chicken or other meat materials wrapped around a stick sharpened at both ends, which lodges in the pharyngeal-GI tract.

East of the Movius line in Asia, bifacial hand axes are only rarely found (Unlike Africa, Europe and west Asia). Most likely bamboo slivers were used instead.

Tyranosaurus Rex didn't chew, it tore flesh into chunks, probably tossing them into the air and swallowing whole, similar to how Orcas toss baby seals and cats toss mice. Crocs and big cats have their own methods, but have some resemblance to this style of carnivory.

I don't think hand-axes aka bifacials were simply the result of knapping flakes, nor do I think they were used effectively as frisbees. (As I said in Paleoanthro.) I think the butted hand-axes
were used in woodcraft and possibly bone splitting, the cleavers were used in butchery, the "beautiful" ones perhaps as social trade/status items, but the majority which according to Mikey Brass were found at waterside, were used as bait traps for carnivores that did not habitually chew medium-sized chunks of meat or fish but rather swallowed them whole without chewing.

If effective in terminating competition, it would not be surprising that hand-axes continued to be in use for such a long time with little modification. The unique flattened teardrop shape being effective for swallowing but not regurgitating.

I'd appreciate any relevant comments.
DDeden

Video: Elaine Morgan, human prehistory

YouTube Playlist about Elaine Morgan by Algis Kuliakas
video link

froggy on my bloggy? 2008 Year of the Frog

copied from Tetrapod Zoology blog, better quality photos and descriptions there:
http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2007/12/flying_frogs_and_friends.php

2008 is the year of the frog. Frogs and other amphibians are under stress, they are keystone species in many ecosystems. See how you can help here: tetrapod zoo

Earth = Home. Can't just throw it away & buy a new one.

Videos, pics, articles on human ancestry along sea coasts and whale evolution
humans and dolphin link

Some of the lines of Siddhidas Mahaju(N.S.987-N.S.1050) read as follows

सज्जन मनुष्या संगतनं मूर्ख नापं भिना वै
पलेला लपते ल वंसा म्वति थें ल सना वै

which state that even a moron can improve with the company of good people just like even a drop of water appears like a pearl when it descends upon the leaves of a lotus plant.

(my last blog post for now, can't predict the future)

100th post @ THE ARC blog

See below for Teeth & Armor and Parallel Convergence Speculations and much more.

I have some things to clean up and a few hundred newsletters to fold and insert, so I'm off.

Any lurking visitors, feel free to drop a question or two or leave a message.

May the arc be with you! (^u^) Peace be within you ~ salamalaikumsalam ~ shalomelaichemshalom

Really nice free diving video with Tanya Streeter, flying penguins etc.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsyHt0WHqb4

Parallel Convergence

Parallel Convergence, Generally speaking:

Anurans: Throat sac buoyancy, vocal mate selection, no tail
Salamanders: no, no, long tail

Hominoids: Laryn. air sac buoyancy, vocal mate selection, no tail
Monkeys: no, no, mid to long tail

Aves: Resp. air sac buoyancy, vocal mate selection, short tail
Reptiles: no, no, long tail

Walruses: Pharyn. air sac buoyancy, vocal mate selection, short tail
Mustelids: no, no (scent), long tail

Pterodons: soft tissue air sac, vocal mate sel.?, reduced tail later
Dinos: no, no, long tail

Teeth & Armor Speculations

[further discussion on this at:]
http://forums.deeperblue.net/674527-post20.html

Introversion of external hair (armor) to internal "teeth"

Baleen whales (blue, humpback, right whales) developed their baleen (whalebone stringy teeth) on the upper jaw, because their fish & mollusc eating ancestors had had walrus-like mustache whiskers which gradually migrated from the upper lip into the upper gums (over a period of a million years), changing from nerve-rich sensory bristles to long net-like filters, straining krill and small fish while allowing water to escape the mouth. (This is one of my hypotheses, haven't seeen any confirmation from others.)

Extroversion of internal teeth to external scales (armor):

Lamphrey (and hagfish?) types lack jaws, but have replaceable teeth which are used to grasp. Is it possible that fish scales derived from multiple teeth replacing (like in sharks, but non-jawed) in a previously non-scaled lamphrey-like ancestor? Various fish scales do resemble teeth in some way, although many have become ultra-smooth for high-speed hydrodynamics. Do fish embryos develop their scales in a cephalo-caudal direction starting at the head? Do primitive scaled fish have more dental-like scales?
Is this a new idea, or has anyone heard of it before? (This is another hypothesis)

Anyway, just seems cool that the opposite actions may have happened in fish and whales.

[Now consider that birds have feathers, which have bloodflow in the plume, do feathers derive from vestigial teeth in early aves which were developing beaks and bills and reducing their ancestral dentition? Are feathers malformed teeth with roots? Where did the beak come from? I don't know.]


DDeden
__________________
"Dive well and come up for more"

The-Arc-of-a-Diver: http://the-arc.wikispaces.com/ / http://the-arc-ddeden@blogspot.com

thoughts

Unfinished thoughts to be cont'd.

[QUOTE=naiad;673130]Fascinating. The AAT sounds plausible enough. There are still some things that I don't understand about it though. These are:

Nostrils which cannot be closed. Most aquatic mammals close their nostrils when diving. No animal uses a noseclip or pinches its nose, and few use sinus flooding.[/QUOTE]

True. First, our ancestors went through two different stages.

The first (amphibious) was transitional from a tarsier-like mammal with tail to a vertical-oriented part-time awkward bipedal upright wader/walker/floater (amphibious tree-frog-like) which lost the tail due to large laryngeal air sacs that inflated upon cool-water immersion due to a gasp-like reaction, allowing plucking foods on the water surface and shallow snails etc. but which did not swim well and did not dive at all, about 15 to 5 million years ago, along coastal lowland forests often flooded, this included all ape ancestors. But while human ancestors remained there, other apes moved inland into Asia and African into various swamps and riverine gallery forests, moving deeper and deeper into tropical rainforests, and because of large inland predators became more and more tree dependent, and when walking on the ground, tended to knucklewalk for more speed and stability. About 5 million years ago, when the chimps finally permanently split, chimps followed the path that a million years previously gorillas had gone, into the Rift valley and Congo. At this time all hominoids had air sacs, used for floating vertically with the face out of water, and for calling loudly. So now only the human ancestors were left at the seashores, they never knucklewalked (but the infants kneecrawled on the soft sands), they climbed easy-to-climb fig trees, mangroves and coconut palms, but not the tall forest trees. They adapted more to coastal pocket beaches surrounded by cliffs with caves and rockshelters, and slowly became better surface swimmers but not divers, mostly beachcombing and peeling molluscs from mangroves and rocks at low tide, in addition to fruits and seabird eggs. At this time, the nose was shaped like a baby's pug nose, the bell jar shape keeping water out during the rare dunkings. Since the nose was usually kept above the water by the air sacs, there was no natural selection for closable nostrils. This was completely unlike other aquatic animal ancestors, none of which had inflated laryngeal air sacs keeping the nose above water.

The second phase (aquatic) was only human ancestors, not apes, and seems to have occurred about 3 - 1 million years ago, when they gained a fat layer under the skin, the air sac was reduced to a vestige, lost most of the fur coat, but retained hydrodynamic hair in the voids of the body (throat, neck, armpits and pubic areas), and changed from surface floating and plucking to deeper diving, and eventually at some point developed a backfloating-diving cycle somewhat like a sea otter. Up until then, the pug-nose shaped like a bell jar was enough to keep water out of the airways as long as the mouth was closed or the tongue or velum closed the airway, this worked fine at the surface with the inflated air sac just under the throat, but only allowed plucking food below at arm's length. The air sac interfered with face submersion, and was slowly selected against, allowing deeper dipping, while the nose was selected for longer length. so during backfloating breathing was done through the nose when head was tilted back.



Until this time, the nostrils would not have been selected for closing, since the air sacs always kept the face above water. But with deeper diving, came water pressure problems and breath holding, which no ape had ever had before.


[QUOTE]
Poor underwater vision. Although some people are apparently better off than others, including tribes who dive regularly, most aquatic animals have much better underwater vision than we do. Those which do not, or live in murky water, have other adaptations such as long whiskers (seals), echolocation (dolphins and whales), lateral line (aquatic amphibians).[/QUOTE]

Celebes Sea: rare marine species

(Photo not linked to article)
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/10/friday_cephalopod_free_octy.php

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071016/ap_on_sc/new_marine_species

Project leader Dr. Larry Madin said Tuesday that U.S. and Philippine scientists collected about 100 different specimens in a search in the Celebes Sea south of the Philippines. Madin, of the Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, said the sea is at the heart of the "coral triangle" bordered by the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia — a region recognized by scientists as having a high degree of biological diversity.

The deepest part of the Celebes Sea is 16,500 feet. The team was able to explore to a depth of about 9,100 feet using a remotely operated camera. "This is probably the center where many of the species evolved and spread to other parts of the ocean, so it's going back to the source in many ways," Madin told a group of journalists, government officials, students and U.S. Ambassador Kristie Kenney and her staff. The project involved the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and National Geographic Magazine in cooperation with the Philippine government, which also provided the exploration ship. The expedition was made up of more than two dozen scientists and a group from National Geographic, including Emory Kristof, the underwater photographer who was part of the team that found the wreckage of the Titanic in 1985. The group returned to Manila on Tuesday after spending about two weeks in the Celebes Sea off Tawi-Tawi, the Philippines southernmost provincial archipelago nearly 700 miles south of Manila.

Madin said the specimens they collected included several possibly newly discovered species. One was a sea cucumber that is nearly transparent which could swim by bending its elongated body. Another was a black jellyfish found near the sea floor. The most striking creature found was a spiny orange-colored worm that had 10 tentacles like a squid, Madin said. "We don't know what it is ... it might be something new," he said. He said it would take "a few more weeks" of research to determine whether the species are newly discovered. He expects to release a report by early next month.

Madin said the Celebes Sea, being surrounded by islands and shallow reefs, is partially isolated now and may have been more isolated millions of years ago, leading scientists to believe that "there may be groups of organisms that have been contained and kept within" the basin since then.

Simplest Proof

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/10/17/early.seafood.ap/index.html

Editor's Summary: Nature | 18 October 2007 | Life was a beach

It's been suggested that the first thing Homo sapiens did once he and she had evolved was head for the beach. This is demonstrated in dramatic fashion by a series of discoveries in Middle Pleistocene sediments from a South African sea cave near Pinnacle Point. The finds suggest that by around 164,000 years ago, the residents were on a diet that included shellfish — the earliest evidence for the exploitation of coastal resources by some 40,000 years. There is also evidence that they used pigments such as red ochre for symbolic behaviour. This was at a time when the world was going through a cool, dry spell, and Africa was mostly desert. Perhaps this environmental stress drove small bands of hunter–gatherers down to the sea in search of new food
sources and lifestyles.

News and Views: Palaeoanthropology: The coast in colour

A South African cave overlooking the Indian Ocean was apparently a desirable residence for early humans. The site has provided rich evidence for the early use of colour and marine resources.

Sally McBrearty & Chris Stringer
doi:10.1038/449793a Full Text | PDF (584K)

Letter: Early human use of marine resources and pigment in South Africa during the Middle Pleistocene

Curtis W. Marean, Miryam Bar-Matthews, Jocelyn Bernatchez, Erich Fisher, Paul Goldberg, Andy I. R. Herries, Zenobia Jacobs, Antonieta Jerardino, Panagiotis Karkanas, Tom Minichillo, Peter J. Nilssen, Erin Thompson, Ian Watts & Hope M. Williams
doi:10.1038/nature06204


Re: 1998 AAT videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFsgtLxALac
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTPQUU0KxMY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKSBWHGA5KI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-88v2pLSYCk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnPJBuWPt0Y

A fine presentation!

Thanks to Algis for putting these videos on You-Tube for all to see.

Good to see Sir Alister Hardy, Dr. Morgan, Dr. Verhaegen, Dr. Tobias, Dr. Brain, Dr. Crawford, and more contributing to our knowledge of the human ancestral condition in relation to water.

DD

Blog Action Day: Environmental Stability

Today is World Environmental Sustainability Day on the Blogosphere.

Links to sites:
http://www.blogactionday.org/
http://www.blogactionday.org/my

Replacement of primary rainforest ecosystem with large-scale oil palm plantation improves short-term economic development but may result in silt erosion of coral reefs and major reduction of biodiversity. What is the optimal path of development? Ecosystem collapse benefits no-one, forest preserves benefit future generations sustainably.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv8NlidN2wg&NR=1



Ecosystemic Society Collapse Symptoms: (As the world turns)
http://www.logic-fu.com/archive/archive/collapse.html

10 year old Chinese girl "dolphin swimming"

http://webcenters.netscape.compuserve.com/whatsnew/gallery.jsp?floc=g-wnew_huang_li1&gname=wnew_huang_li&pi=4&grurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dhuang%2Bli%2Bdaosheng%26ie%3Dutf-8%26oe%3Dutf-8%26aq%3Dt%26rls%3Dcom.ubuntu%3Aen-US%3Aofficial%26client%3Dfirefox-a&photo=1&xad=true
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/10/04/china.swimmmer.ap/index.html?eref=rss_mostpopular

hands and feet bound, "dolphin swimming"

She intends to cross the English Channel this way I guess.

I'd think it would be better if the bindings were a simple loop, that she could remove.

3 hours in the river, 3 km / 1.8 miles downstream.

Earth travelers

African mega-droughts:
http://www.physorg.com/news111083381.html


10.10.07
davina.quarter...@oxon.blackwellpublishing.com
Environmental setting of human migrations in the circum-Pacific Region

A new study by Kevin Pope of Geo Eco Arc Research and John Terrell of The Field Museum adds insight into the migration of anatomically modern humans out of Africa and into Asia less than 100,000 years before present (BP). The comprehensive review of human genetic, environmental, and archaeological data from the circum-Pacific region supports the hypothesis, originally based largely on genetic evidence, that modern humans migrated into eastern Asia via a southern coastal route. The expansion of modern human populations into the circum-Pacific region occurred in at least four pulses, in part controlled by climate and sea level changes in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene epochs. The initial "out of Africa" migration was thwarted by dramatic changes in both sea level and climate and extreme drought in the coastal zone. A period of stable climate and sea level
45,000-40,000 years BP gave rise to the first major pulse of migration, when modern humans spread from India, throughout much of coastal southeast Asia, Australia, and Melanesia, extending northward to eastern Russia and Japan by 37,000 years BP.

The northward push of modern humans along the eastern coast of Asia stalled north of 43°N latitude, probably due to the inability of the populations to adjust to cold waters and tundra/steppe vegetation. The ensuing cold and dry Last Glacial period, ~33,000-16,000 year BP, once again brought dramatic changes in sea level and climate, which caused abandonment of many coastal sites. After 16,000 years BP, climates began to warm, but sea level was still 100 m below modern levels,
creating conditions amenable for a second pulse of human migration into North America across an ice-free coastal plain now covered by the Bering Sea.

The stabilization of climate and sea level in the early Holocene (8,000-6,000 years BP) supported the expansion of coastal wetlands, lagoons, and coral reefs, which in turn gave rise to a third pulse of coastal settlement, filling in most of the circum-Pacific region. A slight drop in sea level in the western Pacific in the mid-Holocene (~6,000-4,000 year BP), caused a reduction in productive coastal
habitats, leading to a brief disruption in human subsistence along the then densely settled coast. This disruption may have helped initiate the last major pulse of human migration in the circum-Pacific region, that of the migration to Oceania, which began about 3,500 years BP and culminated in the settlement of Hawaii and Easter Island by 2000-1000 years BP.

The arc of a diver

Lucia: Dive reflex not always helpful? I have been doing dry and pool {dive} training for a long time now, and my dry breath holding apnea performance is always significantly better than in the pool. I have tried to work out what the reason is, but nothing fully explains it. What a useless reflex, I don't know how it could possibly be good in any situation to gasp when falling into cold water.

DD: It helps to understand how the body reacts to temperature and pressure changes.

Feet first: gasp, wading in cool water
Face first: MDR, diving in cool water

It's actually the same reflex, maximizing oxygen retention, but face-first shuts off the inhalation phase, while feet-first exaggerates the inhalation phase.

Your best MDR response might be this approach:
(with a buddy at poolside watching and estimating time, not a small crowded pool)

1) NO wetsuit, just swim suit, warm and dry, no nose/ear plugs/mask/cap.
2) PLAN only ONE dive, (afterwards hit the hot shower, then dry and leave).
3) NO breathe up, just walk to the edge of deep end, casually deflate lungs while leaning forward, and pushing gently off into the water, entering face-first with arms down at your sides, to between 1/2 to 2 meters deep, glide down and forward until stopping, then casually but with strength, kick a few times while gliding hydrodynamically, then, when ready to climb, [*see note below] bring your arms forwards and SLOWLY power stroke laterally at sides (no more kicking) diagonally or vertically up to the surface, turn onto your back and inhale a few slow moderate breaths (not deeply) while laying flat like a board on the surface relaxing, backstoke over to the edge and climb up and leave pool. You did it. Shower, dry, go home, forget it.
4) It's not the length of time or distance, it's the technique, 20 seconds submersed is fine.
5) That night, dream the dive again, let the experience come back, learn from it subconsciously while sleeping, adjust little things (slower or faster kick, hear echoes under water, sense difference between surface temp. and depth temp. etc.).
6) Repeat pool dives often, after the first day, 2nd and 3rd dives are ok, but stay focussed on technique, hydrodynamics and sensing conditions. No more dry/wet statics until normal dives are smooth enough to make a dolphin smile.

* Assuming no lane intrusions and not close to wall, close eyes during ascent and allow face skin to inform you of your position. Your ears know the depth and body orientation via the eardrums and the 3 semicircular canals of the inner ear, your hair/forehead/eyebrows/eyelids/eyelashes know the speed and the difference between water and air temperature and pressure, rely on this sensitivity. Once in backfloating position and ready to scull to the edge, only then open the eyes and go.

Lucia: Maybe I will try the one-dive approach, with a buddy. I am still a bit scared of getting into cold water, because for me the gasp reflex happens even if I put my face only in the water. It is not so bad if I take a deep breath and hold it, and much worse with empty lungs.

DD: I fully empathise with the dislike of cold water immersion. The reason I mentioned it was because I assume your available pools aren't really warm and the pumps keep moving the water around. The ideal would be very very warm at the surface (6" 15cm) and quite cool just above the pool floor, with the water almost still and thermally stratified, like in a sunlit tropical lagoon completely surrounded by reefs.

By breathing up, and then filling the lungs with air, the body's sensors read "low CO2 so plentiful O2", and keep burning O2 at a regular aerobic non-MDR pace.
Then when the CO2 rises due to the fast O2 burning, contractions or air hunger starts.

OTOH, having the MDR/gasp occur right away with empty lungs forces O2 conservation, burns O2 slowly and builds CO2 slowly. This registers in your mind as discomfort because you haven't gradually habituated to it. The same physiological gasp that tries to suck in air to the lungs is actually pumping O2 from the extremities. By sealing the mouth and nose (with tongue in back), the coldwater gasp has nowhere to come from but the blood cells and muscle cells rich in O2 in the limbs, biochemically kicking them to move faster towards the core to ease the pH differential.

Lucia: Interesting. That makes sense. I remember that when I was a kid, if I was outside and there was a cold wind blowing, I would get an uncontrollable apnea reflex, which was unpleasant but bearable. It must have lasted for a few seconds. It still happens occasionally, but much less. It was very similar to the feeling I now get when I put my face in cold water.

DD: Right, the fast combined thermal and pressure change on the face, and also in the throat triggers the reflex.

When you hold your breath with full-lungs, I think you are getting about 1/2 of this effect due to air pressure on baroreceptors in the mouth/nose/throat/lungs.

When you did empty-lung breath hold, that 1/2 effect was missing, so you only felt the struggle phase, without the benefit of the 1/2 effect.

What I've been saying, is that by first being warm and dry, and knowing that soon you will again be very warm in the shower afterwards, then, casually diving in slightly cool water, that if you relax and accept the "switch-over" discomfort, knowing that it's just a temporary adjustment your body makes as it "becomes one with water" (no longer bothering to carry this huge "bubble" of excess air in the lungs down under the surface), and let your body feel the water as you glide through, and limbs smoothly power you along, and then rising up again to the surface, you are fully aware and sensitive to your immediate environment, and gracefully exchange the gift of air. Upon contacting the surface, you will want to exhale, but don't push it out, just exchange it gratefully.

As you climb out of the pool, your body which was adapted to the cool water during the dive, is now warming up due to the aerobic metabolism required to deal with moving in regular terrestrial gravity, so do a brief stretch of arms and legs and trunk, and a moderate aerobic breathe-up (no forced inhale, just a yawn), this should give a blush or flushed face and a tiny sweat reaction (the opposing reflex of the gasp), and then go take a warm shower and dry off.

Actually, I think that both of these reflexes release biochemicals into the bloodstream including micro-doses of endorphins and natural steroids, that help relax during stress.

Anyway, like I said, if something doesn't sound or feel right, don't do it, take time to figure out what's happening. Don't rush a dive, relax a dive. Those super-fast dolphin's ancestors 50 million years ago were once very slow divers too, as were our ancestors at the seashores 1 million years ago. It takes time. Dive with dolphins, backfloat with sea otters, blow bubbles with koi, breathe.

The thermoreceptors and baroreceptors of the face, mouth, throat are involved in the early part of the MDR empty lung dive.

The chemoreceptors in various places where blood flows through are involved in the next part of the dive. They are affected by the pH changes, as CO2 accumulates, diaphragmatic contractions and/or air hunger due to higher CO2 concentration gets stronger. It is the MDR gasp all over again, but this time triggered internally at the core, rather than externally at the skin surface of the face.

Since most people aren't used to making their blood send O2 more efficiently, we tend to get a "shock" when getting contractions. But the contractions simply move O2 towards the lungs. By propelling while matching these contractions to a whole body undulation or kick or arm stroke makes them less noticeable and might even add some extra oomph with no additional energy or oxygen consumption.

VISUALIZE

Flight of the Malaysian fruit bat
Xray of nose and paranasal sinuses of Chinese lady



http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/317/5846/1858

Go to the site linked and enlarge the photos by clicking on them. Very unique "art".