I was ‘there’

by rjones0856

Water water everywhere
[Via Cosmic Variance]

Northern New Mexico is an absolutely fabulous place to live. But, on occasion, I wish I had a teleporter handy. One of those occasions would be when the “Swell of the Century” hits the Hawaiian Islands, as it did last week. It turned out to be more like the “Swell of the Decade”, but apparently was nonetheless quite spectacular. Spectacular enough to hold the Eddie, a big-wave contest that can only be held in epic conditions.

There’s some good video here and here. Conditions were apparently squirrely, so most of the footage consists of fairly spectacular drops leading to gnarly wipeouts. Every now and then someone (often Kelly Slater [at left above]) emerges intact. Unless you’ve been out in overhead+ surf, I think it’s hard to fathom just how powerful these waves can be. You’ve bodysurfed three footers, and you think you have a clue. But you don’t. For a little perspective, here’s an excellent video from a (professional) surfer who wiped out at Jaws (on the north shore of Maui; it only fires on big days [like last week]). He survived (more-or-less).

[More]

I wrote about this last week. Seeing it live on the web was awesome. It was almost like being there. No compilations, no editing. Just the raw stuff. Knowing it is something that only happens once or twice a decade and being part of the immediacy of the event made it a highlight of the year for me.

What is nice about watching surfing competitions live like this is that there are lots of lulls between the excitement, so I could get other work done while having the video on in the background. The early heats were okay but the last ones were incredible. The waves just got bigger. Watching the wave explode and then seeing the surfer appear in front of it is always spine-tingling. Thank goodness there were all the watercraft present to help surfers. In fact, some of those rescues were very exciting as the jet ski raced in to get the surfer before another wave came in and pounded him. They really should have a highlight of what those rescuers accomplished.

But, of course, the edited material is wonderful. You can check out some of the highlights at the Quicksilver site. Check out the Best Waves and Wipeouts for a real feel of the power of these waves and the balls of anyone who tries to ride them.

In honor of this event, I have my Endless Summer genius playlist going on iTunes. Here are the first 6 songs:

[Listening to: Perfidia from the album "Gold" by The Ventures]

[Listening to: Baja Flats from the album "El Surfeador" by Rudy and the Surf Kings]

[Listening to: Surf Beat from the album "Dick Dale and His Del-Tones: Greatest Hits 1961-1976" by Dick Dale and His Del-Tones]

[Listening to: Endless Summer from the album "Surf Fever 2000" by The Supertones]

[Listening to: Telstar from the album "Play Favorites" by Los Straitjackets]

[Listening to: Hammerhead from the album "Surf Guitar Greats - One Dozen Surf-Rock Instrumentals" by The Halibuts]

And the one that started it all back in 1961:

[Listening to: Let's Go Trippin' from the album "Dick Dale and His Del-Tones: Greatest Hits 1961-1976" by Dick Dale and His Del-Tones]

Maybe not a bad thing

by Smudge 9000

Scotland’s deer ‘changing shape’
[Via BBC News | Science/Nature | World Edition]

Scotland’s wild red deer are changing shape due to breeding with a foreign species, a new study finds.

Researchers previously found Japanese sika deer, brought to the country in the 19th Century, have bred extensively with native deer.

It was unclear then how crossbreeding would affect the species.

Now research by some of the same scientists shows that hybridisation is causing red deer to become smaller and sika deer to become larger.

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In many ways, diversity followed by natural selection is a major driver of evolution. These are two opposed processes. Natural selection tends to drive the genes of an organism towards ‘the best’ fit for the environment. Taken to its extreme, all the organisms would essentially be the same but be highly evolved to survive a particular environment.

But this is death to the species if the environment changes. Think koalas without eucalyptus. So a species also needs to have a diverse genome in order to provide the possibility to adapt to a new environment and allow individuals survive.

Reaching a balance between the solitary genomes superbly fit for a particular environment and diverse genomes fit for a possible range of environments is a constant ballet for any species.

In this case, a novel species was added to the environment in Scotland and, instead of disappearing or overwhelming the extant species already present, it has coexisted. More than coexisted, it as mated allowing gene flow to occur and increasing the possible diversity of both species.

Instead of just one form of deer, there are now four: red, red-like, sika-like and sika. The deer now can deal with the environment in different ways due to this diversity. Depending on the environment, this may drive one form to greater success, produce two different species for two different environments or remain as a range of hybridizations.

Thus the red deer actually now has a greater probability that their genes will survive in some form than as a single, less diverse species. The species has a better chance of surviving in some form.

To my mind, this is a better result than the extinction that often happens when a foreign species is introduced. It will be interesting to see what develops.

[Listening to: I Am A Rock from the album "Collected Works (Disc 1)" by Simon & Garfunkel]