Dan, thanks so much!
You're a gem, truly ~ and we love you too!
http://rainforest.care2.com/i?p=583091674
ul, so glad your feeling better!
Yep ~ kept checking the pie to make sure it wasn't going the same way as the timer...and an hour later - voila! Pie and ice cream for dessert!
You and your 300 friends have supported 2,872,171.6 square feet!
~~~
~~~
around here you're more likely to get a chunk of old cheddar with your apple pie
I've been tempted to try to make some of the recipes for cheddar pie crust to deposit my apples in ...
Song when born = "(I've Got a Gal in) Kalamazoo" by Glenn Miller
Yeah, I know it was a looooong time ago.
Glad to hear we are all feeling better....
ehBeth, I think you are in for a HEAT spell. We are having 80 degrees plus tomorrow. This IS actually still WINTER and all the trees are budding and leafing here. Flowers are blooming and there are sooo many insects it's unbelievable. What is happening to our world?????
our 14 day forecast shows at least another 4 days of snow
it's going to be a record-breaker (I hope)
almost 7 feet of snow here this winter!
Hey, Danon
Carlyle Fund's Assets Seized
Leaders Fail to Stop Securities Sell-Off
By Thomas Heath
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 13, 2008; D01
A publicly traded affiliate of the Carlyle Group said yesterday that lenders were seizing its assets, sending the fund, Carlyle Capital, into insolvency.
The collapse of Carlyle Capital is the first time a Carlyle Group fund has failed and is a stinging embarrassment for the District private-equity powerhouse, which has built an international reputation with a client list that reaches around the world.
The high-profile downfall, part of the broad turmoil in credit markets worldwide, followed a week of frantic negotiations between the Carlyle Group and a number of lenders. Carlyle Group's three founders as recently as Monday were considering injecting cash into the fund as a way to usher it through the credit crisis.
By yesterday the fund had defaulted on $16.6 billion of debt and said it expected to default soon on its remaining debt. The fund's $21.7 billion in assets were exclusively in AAA mortgage-backed securities issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, traditionally considered secure and conservative investments, which it was using as collateral against its loans.
In a statement, Carlyle Capital said that it had been unable to meet margin calls in excess of $400 million over the past week and that it expected its lenders to take control of its remaining assets. The lenders, headed by Deutsche Bank and J.P. Morgan Chase, began selling the securities last night, according to a report on the Wall Street Journal's Web site.
The problems at Carlyle Capital have preoccupied the top leaders at Carlyle Group. The firm's founders, David M. Rubenstein, William E. Conway Jr. and Daniel D'Aniello, had been in meetings with lenders in an effort to resolve Carlyle Capital's problems, not only to protect their own investment and that of employees who have put millions of dollars into the company, but also to preserve Carlyle's Midas-touch reputation.
Forbes magazine last year estimated Carlyle's three founders to each be worth about $2.5 billion.
Carlyle Capital is incorporated on Guernsey, an island in the English Channel, and is traded on Amsterdam's Euronext exchange.
The fund was set up in August 2006 with roughly $670 million in cash from Carlyle's owners and other investors, and about $300 million in additional capital raised from a public stock sale.
The capital allowed the fund to go to banks and borrow far more, leveraging its cash investment some 20 times into the portfolio.
Carlyle Capital's prospects were dimmed by the same doubts that have upended securities linked to riskier subprime mortgages, namely whether the underlying assets were losing value and whether the homeowners would continue to make their payments.
As the market value of the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securities has dropped, Carlyle Capital's lenders asked it to increase its cash equity from what was 1 percent to as much as 5 percent. An increase of that amount on $20 billion in loans amounts to several hundred million dollars.
The Carlyle Group last summer loaned Carlyle Capital $150 million to cover debt obligations.
Conway and Rubenstein were in New York much of this week, accompanied by a team of Carlyle Group insiders, including the company's chief financial officer, negotiating a "standstill" agreement with lenders as they tried to work out a financial solution.
The agreement would have stopped lenders from foreclosing on loans they made to Carlyle Capital.
Carlyle Capital stock closed at $2.80 in Amsterdam yesterday before the announcement, off 89 percent from its peak.
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. "Sunday, Monday or Always" by Bing Crosby
Don't think I know that one.
Glad that you are both feeling better, Ul and Stradee.
I am not getting email updates either, and I am not turned off.
Veggie garden rototilled and lettuce and swisschard from last fall finally got going, over wintered nicely, and arugula is in bloom (I saw a bee today). Gave away a ton of arugula, mustard greens, and am ready to replant with seeds. Will rototill one more time next week, then get going. Will start hot weather plants from seeds in my new portable 6' x 7' greenhouse. It is not unpacked and put up yet.
With the price of food, the only defense is to grow your own and become a vegetarian.
March 11, 2008, 11:17 pm
Stop the Mutants!
This week, I'm going to do an impossible experiment.
I'm going to wave a magic wand and reduce the mutation rate to zero, instantly, in all species, and forever. Then I'm going to watch to see how long it takes for evolution to stop.
I'll report back in several millennia.
As I've mentioned in previous columns, mutations ?- accidental changes to DNA ?- provide the raw material for evolution. They make the difference between fur that is black and fur that is golden; between pink petals and blue ones; between the ability to fly over the Himalayas, as bar-headed geese do, and being able to stay underwater long enough to drown prey, as crocodiles can. Mutations are the ultimate cause of all the genetic differences we see around us; the ultimate cause of the differences between a human and a banana, between a starfish and a toadstool.
crocodileCrocodile, without prey. (Walter Astrada/Associated Press)
Actually stopping mutations is a physical impossibility ?- hence the need for a magic wand. But if they were to stop, so would raw invention.
But evolution would not. Not for a long time.
Although we often think of evolution in grand terms ?- a lineage of fish turning into frogs, or monkeys becoming apes ?- the technical definition is more humdrum. It's simply a change in the frequencies of different versions of a gene in a population over time.
To see how this can work, imagine a population of mosquitoes. Suppose most of them are sensitive to insecticide, but a few harbor a version of a gene that confers resistance. If you suddenly start spraying insecticide, you'll kill many of the mosquitoes that are sensitive; those that are resistant will be much more likely to reproduce, and will tend to leave more offspring. In the next generation, the frequency of the gene for resistance will have increased, and the population will have evolved a little. (For this article, I'm ignoring the possibility of evolution through non-genetic means, such as culture, which though important for humans is irrelevant for most other organisms.)
In short, a supply of genetic variation is all that's necessary for evolution to continue. And in most populations, genetic variation is already abundant.
Just look at us. Genetic differences among humans include differences in the ability to taste different flavors, digest alcohol or milk, or resist malaria or HIV; they include differences in skin, hair and eye color; in predispositions for heart disease or breast cancer; in amount of chest hair, the ability to grow a beard, the tendency towards baldness; the list goes on and on.
Nor is it just humans and our entourage of cats, dogs, sheep and company, that have lots of versions of lots of genes. Wild organisms in a given population vary genetically, too. Oak trees a few feet apart differ in the size and shape of their acorns. Male guppies from the same stream come in different colors, and with enormously different patterns of spots. Fruit flies from the same species differ in the number of bristles on their bellies; stalk-eyed flies differ in the lengths of their eye stalks. Galápagos finches, famously, differ in the shapes of their beaks.
Indeed, one of the great surprises of the past decades has been how much genetic variation there is, for there's far more than anyone expected. Some of this variation (exactly how much is the subject of debate) is meaningless, or "neutral" ?- it has absolutely no effect. But the rest can play a role in how well organisms survive and reproduce. Moreover, the utility of a gene depends on circumstances. Insecticide resistance genes are useful when there's insecticide about, but not when there isn't: then, they can be detrimental. In areas where insecticide is not sprayed, mosquitoes without the resistance gene do better. For some reason, having the resistance gene makes you less likely to survive the winter.
Since there's so much pre-existing variation, getting rid of mutation wouldn't cause evolution to grind to a halt until all the meaningful genetic variation ran out, leaving everyone in a population with the same sets of genes.
How long would that take? It depends. Some lifestyles, and some forces of nature, act to reduce genetic variation; others act to promote it. Let me give a few examples. (I'm not aiming to be comprehensive ?- if I went through the full list, we'd be here for hours.)
Among the forces that can cause genetic variation to disappear, one of the most severe is a population crash. For instance, in the 19th century, beavers were hunted to extinction in Sweden. The present Swedish beaver population of around 100,000 is descended from fewer than 50 animals that were brought in from Norway in the 1920s. The small number of founders restricted how much variation there was to begin with, so it's not surprising that today's Swedish beavers show remarkably little genetic variation.
Natural selection can also, sometimes, be an agent of genetic uniformity. If natural selection consistently favors the same trait ?- such as insecticide resistance ?- then genes for insecticide resistance will sweep through the local population until everybody has them. Variation can then run out quite quickly: experiments where humans subject organisms to consistent and strong selection for a particular trait start to depend on new mutations after about 20 generations.
But the "if" is a big one. Natural selection may just gust about, favoring different sets of genes from one year to the next. As long as none of the gusts is too strong, lots of different genes can persist. Such gusting accounts for fluctuations in the beak shapes and body sizes of the Galápagos finches. Between 1972 and 2001, the beaks and bodies of two finch species on the island of Daphne Major were measured, and shown to wander, beaks shifting about from blunt to pointy, bodies, from large to small. Natural selection blew in the same direction ?- i.e., favored the same sets of characteristics ?- for, at most, three years in a row.
And sometimes natural selection actively promotes the persistence of genetic variation. This can happen when there's an advantage to having genes that are rare. Among guppies, for example, males with rare color patterns are much more likely to survive than those with common color patterns, presumably because predators get good at spotting the patterns they encounter often. In such situations, the rare type does well, begins to become common ?- and then becomes the victim of its own success and starts to do badly. In situations like this, the frequencies of different genes can rise and fall, cycling indefinitely.
Among lifestyles that promote genetic diversity, far and away the most important is sex. Sex shuffles up genes, continually producing new gene combinations. (An important difference between sex and mutation is that sex can only create genetic novelty if it already exists in the population. If everyone is genetically identical, sex will have no effect.) Sex also ?- and this is important ?- decouples the fates of genes from one another. For example, sex means that genes involved in fur color and genes involved in, say, blood type, can be inherited independently ?- you get a mix of the genes your parents had. Asexuals, on the other hand, are genetically identical to their parent ?- they are clones. If one of their genes becomes strongly detrimental, the whole genome can be lost.
But sex isn't the only diversity-boosting lifestyle. For many plants, genetic diversity isn't limited to what you see in genomes here and now. Large numbers of genetic time capsules ?- i.e., seeds ?- remain buried in the soil, a phenomenon known as a seed bank. And although the seeds of some plants don't remain viable for long, the seeds of others can germinate after sitting in the soil for decades or (occasionally) centuries. A seed from a sacred lotus fruit that had been buried in a dry lake bed for around 1,000 years sprouted when it was dug up, planted and watered.
(In the case of the lotus, the age was worked out by carbon dating of the fruit. In general, however, it's hard to know for sure how old an old seed is. But thanks to the foresight of a certain Dr. William James Beal, a seed viability experiment has been going on in East Lansing, Michigan, for more than 120 years. In 1879, Dr. Beal buried 20 bottles each containing sandy soil and a mixture of seeds from 21 different species. At regular intervals, a bottle is dug up, and the sand-seed mix is transferred into a shallow tray of soil and watered. Most recently ?-the 120th year ?- 26 seeds from three different species sprouted, and several of the plants went on to produce normal seeds in turn. The next bottle is due to be dug up in 2020.)
Since seed banks can contain as much, or more, genetic variation as living plants, they can buffer plant populations against the loss of genes: a gene that vanishes today may be reinstated at some stage in the future. A few animals also have a capacity for time travel. Tardigrades and rotifers ?- small invertebrates ?- are among those that have evolved the ability to go into suspended animation in tough times. Rejuvenation can take place a few years later: here again, genes that were lost can reappear.
What all this means is that even if I waved my wand and stopped mutation for good, there are at least some species in which evolution could carry on for ages, perhaps indefinitely.
I'll let you know in a million years.
ECOLOGY: Shared Prosperity
Andrew M. Sugden
The relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem function (such as productivity and nutrient dynamics) have mostly been investigated with tractable ecological communities such as herbaceous vegetation. Now Potvin and Gotelli have extended such studies to simple tree communities, with an experiment on the effects of tree species diversity on yield, measured by growth in tree basal area. In a forest plantation in Panama, plots in which several species of tree seedlings were planted yielded 30 to 58% more growth than monocultures after 5 years. The increased yield resulted from increased growth in the mixed-species plots rather than from mortality in the monocultures. The authors speculate that competition for light is greater in monocultures, implying that more effective partitioning of resources permits more biomass accumulation in the mixed-species plots. -- AMS
Ecol. Lett. 11, 217 (2008).
Lots of rain today, spring cleaning in nature.
I clicked yesterday - but couldn't log on A2K. Oh well.
Clicked today.
Easter Break!
Spring cleaning, painting easter eggs, just an old fashioned Easter week.
![[URL=http://imageshack.us][img]http://img235.imageshack.us/img235/311/osterhasenteaserso6.jpg]([URL=http://imageshack.us][img]http://img235.imageshack.us/img235/311/osterhasenteaserso6.jpg)
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Hamsters were nynite yesterday - flu season
Clicked the Rainforest team link posted at Maggies site though. Hurray!
Lots of rain here too, ul.
Have fun with Easter Egg decorations!
sue, that has to be the most interesting [and humorous] article written about evolution that i've read to date! LOL
Bio trees? Good God!
Amazing there are bees buzzin' in the Sierra's again! Well, one that i saw {must be sue's bees cousin
} Organic gardening. Yep.
ehBeth, cheddar cheese must be the flavor of the month! Found {for making a great penini} sliced french bread with cheddar n' garlic added to the recipe. yum
Have a great day all ~
http://rainforest.care2.com/i?p=583091674
Great rain event here - same system that produced the tornado in Atlanta. I had to distribute the contents of my rain barrels to make them fillable again. Everyone getting a really great drink.
Yep, that cheddar cheese pie crust looked fabulous, and your bread sounds wonderful. Bread is so expensive now. Heard on TV that the price of wheat has tripled in the last 10 months. I will have to make my own. But the basic ingredients, including eggs, will be expensive also.
Have lots of weeding to do, and some planting, and then wait for two more shipments of plants. Will get my greenhouse up as I have ordered packets of seeds as well.
I love spring! So full of promise and new beginnings.
sue, bread is quite expensive - over four dollars per loaf for most brands here in California. Checking out ConsumerSearch for bread machines...
http://www.consumersearch.com/www/kitchen/bread-machines/index.html?source=adwords&refcd=GO013325s_bread_makers&tsacr=GO381159262&gclid=CNqDqLaukJICFQFfxgodICM-_w
Three days rain, and today hail. Supposed to clear by Sunday, and i'll be outside the weeds missed last week when the weather was mild. Spring cleaning just about done. Just a few more items for donations, and some i found that are worth saving. Have a stereo that's ancient but found that the receiver can be repaired! Happy bout that.
Looking for a small cabinet for housing building items, nuts n' bolts, and other misc stuff - and for the auto/truck manuals, a book cabinet - hurray for organization! Soon as the weather permits the garage gets a new coat of paint also.
Luv Spring
Yes, organization makes one feel really good. Not to mention the instant accessibility it affords. Throwing out, giving away, putting away. Did a lot of that before I moved, and still eyeing things carefully.
I have a bread machine, with recipe book. Will have to get going on that.
Another inch of rain - the weeds really took off and are in bloom so they must get out. I have lots of native annual lamiums blowing in on the wind. Rather not have them reseed. Even mowed the lawn to get rid of the flower heads. Will rototill, or use as mulch, everything but grass and perennial weeds with tap roots. Now I have three more large tubs of water to protect against evaporation because nothing needs it now. Got an inch of rain.
Today is a weeding day for sure. Then mulching with chopped up leaves and such.
sue, sounds like your garden will be absolutely wonderful when the weather warms - new seed, veggies, plus a hot house - and rain! The growth gods are smiling.
Today, the suns shining and i'm gonna tackle the lawns {if i can find the bolt that fell out of the mower last outing
} Then odds and ends cleaning at the shed - pots n' mulch n' seed n' garden tools. An antique rod iron umbrella stand holds the leaf/lawn rakes = saves wall space.
Wildflowers have bloomed near where the shed lives, and new cymbidium stalks sprouting also. Mr Silver Birch rallied last summer, and i believe all the beetles relocated - hurray! Lovely new growth!
The landscapings dressing for summer
http://rainforest.care2.com/i?p=583091674
Your garden work sounds grand, sumac.
Something to dream about here - the backyard is still under about 3 feet of snow - even after 2 days of melt.
Clicked.
You and your 300 friends have supported 2,873,131.6 square feet!
Lots of pics - but, only two shamrocks.
Quick backcheck - there are three including the intro "How many Shamrocks are there?"
My goodness, it's actually still winter - but, flowers are blooming and trees are leafing - things are still alive from last Fall, like insects and lizards and mice and all the creatures that Winter should keep in check, but, doesn't anymore.
sumac, I bet your garden is the grandest of all.
Happy week to come folks.
