What would you choose: to know the future, or to be able to change the past?

Neither, because they are both desires of a person who is not content with their present. The present is the only place that anyone will ever be, so why try to run from the one thing that is most important?

Austin's teacher pressed him to choose, but he held his position, and argued that, between a choice of two things, there's always a third choice.

Conversationalist Repercussion Management

Austin has been trying to explain to me the concept of "trolling." It's a popular activity among groups of students at his high school. My impression is that people try to get someone to do or say something to embarrass themselves, then laugh hysterically at the achievement.

Today during PE, Classmate sidled over to Austin and mumbled something that Austin didn't really understand. He asked, "Are you a [mumble]?" When Austin asked him to repeat the question, Classmate did, but Austin still didn't understand.

So Austin answered, "I have a degree in  conversationalist repercussion management." Classmate walked away bewildered and tried to repeat to his friends what Austin had just said. ;-)

Denial

This morning, Austin and I listened to an interview with Ajit Varki, the author of "Denial: Self-Deception, False Beliefs and the Origins of the Human Mind," on CBC Radio's The Current.

According to the Amazon book description, "It was not, the authors argue, a biological leap that set humanity apart from other species, but a psychological one: namely, the uniquely human ability to deny reality in the face of inarguable evidence - including the willful ignorance of our own inevitable deaths."

In the interview, we were introduced to the term, "anthropogeny," which is the study of human origins vs. "anthropology," which is defined as the science of humanity.

Following is Austin's refutation (bearing in mind he has not read the full published work) of Varki & Brower's theory.

Humans evolved from dietary changes which affected our biology and allowed our biology to evolve easier and survive. Varki & Brower's theory is, by design, non-refutable because it is self-fulfilling. If we deny their theory to be true, we have denied it and therefore we have substantiated it.

Changes to the human diet have contributed the most to human evolution. Humans are designed for running long distances over long periods of time. The animals humans were hunting couldn't cool down while running, so humans were able to outrun their prey by causing them to overheat. The animals would collapse from exhaustion and the humans would easily be able to eat.

Roughly guessing, human psychology (the first "why?" question) occurred around 10-20,000 years ago. My interpretation of Varki's theory is that human evolution is just a bunch of freak accidents. Psychology requires hardware (i.e. the human brain). Therefore, biology trumps psychology. In order to be able to move my hand, I need my hand. My brain can't move my hand without the hand, itself.

Take an example of a glass that has a capacity to hold water. What if you just kept on filling that glass with water? There would come a point when the glass couldn't hold any more water. We require hardware to be able to program it with software. Without human brains evolving to a bigger size and more complexity, we wouldn't have the psychological capabilities that we have now.

Human evolution is about the physical human brain, not human thought. If we suddenly started thinking, "Oh, we're going to die," then that's not a good survival strategy, because we would be too busy thinking about that to do anything else. This is where Varki's denial theory comes in. He says it's a freak accident, but I argue that there can be no freak accidents without the material required. We need a banana peel to be able to slip on one.

Varki has a very lessened view of Darwinism. If we suddenly evolved big brains, we would need the food to fuel them. However, if we were still vegetarians and we hadn't had a dietary change, we wouldn't have evolved. Today, it's fine for humans to eat a vegetarian or vegan diet because we can acquire the nutrients necessary, with minimal effort.

Other animals that may have evolved a big brain haven't had the diet to compensate the power demand. Dolphins eat a lot of protein, but they are always hungry and they are always moving, burning off calories. Dolphins are among the more complex-brained mammals. Tigers eat a lot of meat when they can, but they have to hunt and catch their food. The protein that tigers consume is quite high, though they can't express their ingenuity in the same ways that humans can. Tigers have claws and paws, dolphins have flippers and teeth. None of these appendages can be used to make tools and shovels, for instance.

Humans are able to more easily express our ingenuity, with tools and protection (ie. shelter and armour) and dexterity. Wolves, hunting in packs, can see beyond the present. Wolves and dogs have intelligence without dexterity. The existence of a brain doesn't equal good memory processing, cause-and-effect understanding, etc. Elephants have some dexterity and good memory.

Evolution requires both a freak accident (genetic mutation) and the material to be evolved.

Humans tend to view intelligence as the expression of it (ie. a tool), however dogs, for example, demonstrate their intelligence through their behaviour.

It's possible that chimpanzees could evolve to be more human-like, with bigger brains, if their diet changes to include more protein. The human brain consumes approximately 20-25% of our daily caloric intake. Most vertebrate species' brains consume 2-8% of food energy.

While I agree with Varki, that humans today are living in denial, I propose that human denial is a learned trait rather than an evolutionary phenomenon. Denial is not the evolutionary factor that set us apart from all other species.

Dog Days of Spring

Austin has been trying to figure out a way to get out for more exercise. It's been challenging, because (understandably) he doesn't want to be on his own, and his schedule often collides with mine.

Occasionally, he will comment about how nice it would be to have a dog, and if we had a dog, he would probably take the dog for walks a lot. Well, we aren't eager to bring a dog into our family at this time. Recently, I countered one of these comments with, "Well, there's a dog right next door! Why don't you ask our neighbour if you can walk her dog during the day while she's at work?"

A few days ago, Austin went on a "training" walk with our neighbour, Allison, and her 7-year-old golden retriever, Ace. Allison talked about some of Ace's habits and some strategies she uses while walking with him. He was allowed off-leash for part of their hike.

Yesterday, Allison arranged with Austin for him to go to her house this morning and take Ace for a walk. I heard Austin say to her on the phone, "Sure, I'll put that into my calendar to do tomorrow." Austin had scheduled to take Ace out for a walk at 10:00am.

When I returned home around 9:00am, from dropping off A2 & A3 at their respective schools, I was surprised to find Austin already awake. He seemed a bit nervous and excited about his rendezvous with Ace. Austin explained to me that there were several things he was considering, including: did Allison remember to leave her door unlocked?, will Ace behave strangely/differently when Austin goes to his house when Allison isn't there?, how will Ace behave on the leash without Allison?

He couldn't wait until 10:00, and by 9:30 they were off. Austin said everything went without a hitch. He returned home at 11:15, absolutely beaming and animated. I laughed out loud as Austin described Ace's behaviour and mannerisms. This outing was the best medicine for both of them.

Here's an e-mail (dictated to me as I typed) that Austin sent to Allison, to let her know how things went on his first walk with Ace, alone:

"Hi Allison,

This is Austin.

Ace was amazing today. Really well behaved. A lot of slack leash and a lot of fun and exercise. We went down into the forest a bit and came back up, walked over to horse loop and walked horse loop, then came home. It was a really fun day and I'm looking forward to doing more walks with him.

We encountered a couple dogs who had been barking before we got there, and he was very well behaved around them. He didn't stiffen up or stop. He simply eyed them suspiciously.

We almost lost the ball in the biggest mud puddle on the walk. It was up to Ace's knees and about as big as your kitchen. He was fishing for the ball for at least five minutes. He tried going out and coming back in the way he came, possibly hoping it would pop back up where he lost it. I was amazed he actually found it in the end. I thought that ball was a goner. Since he had submerged his head up to his eyes, he looked like a raccoon dog. A very happy one, though! 

The mud was washed off by the rain and I towelled him off after we got home.

At first, when he was off-leash in the forest, when I threw the ball, he would drop it and leave it where it landed and have me go get it. Then, I tried just leaving the ball and he would eventually pick it up and bring it onto the trail and drop it in front of me.

He also got to know that if my hand went near my pocket, that would mean we would play ball.

I suppose, since we had the ball today, he didn't want any sticks. I tried throwing him a couple sticks, but he wouldn't go get them.

If you would like to do another training walk with me, I would be happy to do that. Today, I will be available after around 6:15pm when Aidan gets home from his voice lesson.

I hope you're having a great day.

-@U$+!N"

Nature School

Here's the Story of the Day, written by Danielle, class leader:

We had another gorgeous day out at Pacific Spirit Park, the fog brightening up throughout the day and sunshine peeking through the trees by the afternoon. I'm sorry for the confusion about the dates. The program usually runs in the first weekend of the month, but since the last month was the start of a new year and people were on holidays, I pushed everything back a week to accomodate that. The next session is on March 2nd.

We worked on bow drill kits for the first part of the morning, played around with a couple of primitive hunting methods and started looking a little more in depth at animal tracks and gaits. We also played some of the most intense and funniest blindfold tag games I have ever participated in. Blindfold games are a great way of tuning into using our other senses. As humans, our eyesight is our dominant sense and when we can see we tend to pay far more attention to our sight rather than what we hear, smell and feel. It's great to see the intensity and skill level of these games pick up as we learn to rely more on our other senses.

Just a reminder for everyone to bring their knives and bow drill kits out for the next class - Im looking forward to seeing you all there.

Cheers

Danielle

Austin was only one of two students in the class on Saturday. He, too, really enjoyed the blindfold games and described some of his strategies to me. For instance, he would sigh, then ever-so-quietly tiptoe away from where he was standing. The person trying to reach him, would move to the region from where the sigh originated, and only find empty space! She started to suspect that he had put the other player up to sighing to trick her.

Planning and preparation

Today, Austin is on a field trip to Fraser Valley Gleaners, to help prepare vegetables to be dehydrated to make dried soup mix for the needy around the world.

He infrequently joins a group of his age-peers for an outing, so this is special and he was quite excited yesterday. Since we would be leaving the house around 7:15am, I asked him to take his shower before going to bed last night. He insisted that he much preferred to shower in the morning, so I warned him that I'd be waking him up at 6:30 to give him enough time. He requested, instead, that I wake him at 6:00 so he also has time to pack. And so it was agreed.

Around 8:45pm last night, I was mixing up a banana bread recipe so Austin could take it with him to share. Austin wanted to show me part of "Journey to the Edge of the Universe," and suggested that we could watch the movie together while the banana bread was baking. I countered that he really should be focussing on getting a good night's sleep and he pointed out that I need my sleep, too.

A moment later, however, he was busily rushing about the house, asking me questions like, "Where's my Oscar the Grouch shirt?" "Where's my backpack?" and otherwise collecting objects near the front door. We talked about his footwear and I tried to convince him to wear runners, but his runners are a size too small. If you don't know this about Austin, he likes to wear Crocs ... all seasons ... everywhere. Fraser Valley Gleaners had instructed our field trip coordinator to ensure the teen volunteers would be wearing close-toed shoes. I found their website this morning, and it specifically states, no "CROCS," but I didn't know this for sure, last night. Anyway, Austin agreed to pack his rain boots, so hopefully they'll be acceptable for today.

Something really significant took place in this flurry of activity. Austin planned and prepared ... on his own! He fully took control of making sure he packed what he needed, and he even covered self-care, including showering and planning what to eat and drink. He wanted to be sure that he would have enough to eat before leaving, to keep him from feeling hungry before noon (when they are scheduled to finish working). The only thing that appeared to be missing, was teeth-brushing, but hopefully he did that, anyway.

Austin prepared reminders and checklists and taped them to the fridge and the front door, and placed his bag packing list on top of his partially-packed backpack. To each checklist, he taped a pen which could be used to check off completed items. Here are photos of his lists and reminders:

"Eat Nana's apple sauce + bananas + cranberry juice + milk DO IT!!! (signed) Austin"

"Bag list:

Transformers packed ⧠

iPad packed ⧠

iPad charger packed ⧠

Phone packed ⧠

Spare clothes packed ⧠

Dreadwing packed ⧠

Encyclopedia packed ⧠

Are you wearing your proper clothes ⧠

Somno Pro ⧠"

"Did you do these things

Complete breakfast list ⧠

Shower ⧠

Bag list complete ⧠

Finish did you do these things list ⧠

If complete proceed to vehicle"

He was so excited this morning, that he woke up two hours early and was having his shower by 4am!

I'm really proud of Austin for being so organized and taking initiative. He thought about everything he would need to include an overnight at Nana & Papa's house. And this morning, when I was dropping him off to his ride, he even reminded me that he needed Nana and Papa's phone numbers in his phone.

Great job, Austin!!! I'll miss you today and tonight. Have a wonderful time.

Family analogy

Austin and I had a good talk tonight. We used a "talking sword," so we wouldn't interrupt one another. It's a plastic toy sword that we tossed across the living room to each other, when we switched speakers.

The conversation was about his learning, my hopes and dreams for him, and a few tangential topics.

At one point, he came up with an analogy I really liked.

"Mom, you should try to stop thinking about yourself and dad as two separate people, and start seeing you more as one. It's like you are a cloud looking down on a lake and thinking, 'You have more water than me," when the lake is getting it's water from you!"

This was his insightful feedback after I talked about how grateful I was that dad works so hard and has a really good job, and how much more we might be able to do and afford if I were also working.

Austin asked me who would look after him, Aidan and Aaron if both parents were working full-time. I told him someone else would, to which he promptly responded, "No. Because there's no river in this system. There's only a cloud, a lake and the air in between them." He says the air represents A1, A2, A3 and Iain.

I really like this analogy, and it's even growing on me, as it hits me on new levels. We talked about how clouds hold more water than we can easily imagine (remembering the podcast we listened to on the boat). We had listened to a short recording of "How much do hurricane's weigh?" from NPR's Krulwich on Science.

The Making of the Fittest

The Making of the Fittest DVD (HHMI). A trilogy of short films revealing the evolutionary process in action:

Natural Selection and Adaptation:

The rock pocket mouse. A very good example of Darwin’s theory. This video took place in New Mexico. Scientists did a study on these mice that had adapted to life on black lava flows against a bare desert. The lava flow is about 1,000 years old.

Predators of the mice are owls, rattlesnakes, foxes, hawks, jackals and coyotes. Most of these predators rely primarily on sight to catch their prey.

There was a black mutation in the gene and that mutation wasn't weeded out because of the background they were on, so the mutation spread. The mice with the normal (light-coloured) fur gene died out, and the ones with the black fur did not.

It was interesting that the black fur appeared only on the mice backs and heads, not on their bellies. The dark fur was not needed on their bellies, in order for the population to survive.

The scientists explained that, if the mutation gave the mice a 1% advantage of survival on the dark lava flows, it would take 1,000 years for 95% of the population to have dark fur. A 10% advantage would cause an evolutionary change in a population, within 100 years.

The Birth and Death of Genes:

On December 26, 1927, a Norwegian expedition (Norvegia) to Bouvet Island, an island at the edge of Antarctica, discovered a scaleless fish, later named crocodile fish or ice fish.

This was a very intriguing and special genetic discovery. The ice fish almost looks like an albino fish, crocodile-like. This fish has no red blood cells, because of a genetic mutation. The fish looks weird and disgusting. Its skin is translucent and it’s possible to see its brain and heart and optic nerves through its skin. This is primarily because the fish has no scales.

With no red blood cells or hemoglobin (the protein that delivers oxygen to the cells of the body), scientists wondered how blood could flow in the ice fish. The ice fish can survive without hemoglobin because of the high oxygen content in the frigid waters in which it lives.

Art Devries discovered antifreeze proteins in the 1990s, in fish that live in waters with a temperature of -1.8 degrees celsius. These proteins resulted from an accidental mutation of the ancestral genes.

Natural Selection in Humans:

This video highlighted the work of Tony Allison, who studied the connection between sickle cell disease and malaria in Kenya.

Dr. Allison took many blood samples across Kenya and detailed maps showed the correlation between sickle cell disease and malaria, near Lake Victoria and the coast. Sickle cell disease appeared in very low frequencies in the high country of Nairobi, where malaria is not a problem.

We learned the meanings of homozygous and heterozygous. Tony Allison explained that genes are lined up on chromosomes and humans have pairs of them, with the exception of the sex chromosomes. The chromosomes can be the same or different. If they are the same, they are homozygous and if they are different, they are heterozygous.

It was discovered that carriers of the sickle cell gene, were seemingly protected from malaria. The sickle cell mutation compromises the ability of the parasite to reproduce. Protection from malaria comes at the cost of more sickle cell disease in the population.

Tony Allison believes this proves that human evolution is taking place in our living population. And this is evidence that environment is the catalyst, rather than genetics alone.

Presidential Debate #3

This morning, Austin and I watched the third presidential debate. This debate topic was foreign policy and was mediated by Bob Schieffer.

Following are some of Austin's observations:

1. Romney describes Russia as a geopolitical foe. This led us to look up the definition of geopolitics: "a combination of political and geographic factors relating to something." Austin feels that labelling Russia as a geopolitical foe is not a very good way of making them an ally.

2. Austin thought the funniest part of the debate was when Obama responded to Romney's accusation that navy spending was too low ("our Navy is smaller now than any time since 1917 ... The Navy said they needed 313 ships to carry out their mission. We’re now down to 285. We’re headed down to the — to the low 200s if we go through with sequestration..."). Obama: "Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets (laughter)... We have these things called aircraft carriers where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines." This was a bit condescending of Obama, but Austin found it humorous. And, according to the transcript, so did the audience, who had taken a vow of silence (oops!).

We looked up the meaning of sequestration: "The action of taking legal possession of assets until a debt has been paid or other claims have been met."

3. Austin thought Romney said, "When I'm President of the United States," too often, as though it's going to happen.

4. Romney stated, "Well, my strategy’s pretty straightforward, which is to go after the bad guys, to make sure we do our very best to interrupt them, to — to kill them, to take them out of the picture." Austin: "He doesn't know who the bad guys are."

5. Austin feels that Obama could have done better. He spent too much effort focussing on Romney.

6. An example of China not playing by the trade rules (Romney): "I was with one company that makes valves in — in process industries. And they said, look, we were — we were having some valves coming in that — that were broken, and we had to repair them under warranty. And we looked them up, and — and they had our serial number on them. And then we noticed that — that there was more than one with that same serial number. They were counterfeit products being made overseas with the same serial number as a U.S. company, the same packaging. These were being sold into our market and around the world as if they were made by the U.S. competitor."

Austin: "This is proof of how bad China's trade practices are."

I mentioned FIPA to Austin, with a brief description of the Canada-China trade agreement set to be put into place this Halloween. Austin's response: "Really bad idea."

Presidential Debate #2

Austin and I watched the second presidential debate, yesterday. I can't find links that still work, displaying the facts or comments ... too bad.

It was so entertaining for me to spend this time with Austin. With this debate, ABC News flashed timely facts and platform (Republican or Democrat) statements on the screen. Every time words appeared at the bottom of the screen, Austin paused the debate and read aloud the statements. It took us 3 1/2 hours to watch the full 90-minute debate.

Here are a few snippets of Austin's perspective on the performance:

1. Regarding Romney's push to decentralize government and give more power to the states and small business (employers): "Romney could probably sit in his presidential office, eating muffins for four years. He could take the credit if his agenda succeeds, and blame the states and the employers if it fails."

2. On women's fair pay: "Romney presented himself as the "Golden Hero." Austin observed that Romney tends to boast about himself.

3. Austin is very conscious of manipulative language: ie. "Obama doubled the deficit." Doubled from what? $2,000? Or $2 trillion? Big difference.

4. Quoting Romney (about Obama): "He's great as a speaker ... Describing his plans ..." 
Austin: "Funny! He's describing himself, except he doesn't describe his plans. He's got a slick tongue, that guy."

5. Paraphrasing Romney: "If you bring your kids here illegally and we catch you, we'll put your kid in the army." Ugh!
This was how Austin responded when Romney said this: "The kids of those that came here illegally, those kids, I think, should have a pathway to become a permanent resident of the United States and military service, for instance, is one way they would have that kind of pathway to become a permanent resident."

Vice-presidential Debate

This morning, Austin and I watched the replay of the Vice-Presidential Debate in the U.S. 2012 election race.

Joe Biden and Paul Ryan faced off, discussing foreign policy, tax strategy and Medicare, among other subjects.

Austin and I enjoyed this debate more than the first presidential debate. At one point, Austin expressed that he wished Joe Biden were running for President - he likes him the best of all four players in this race. Being the eldest, Austin feels he can trust him most.

Austin learned the definition of "sanctions": threatened penalties for disobeying a law or rule. In the context of Iran, I explained that the U.S. has imposed sanctions to prevent Iran from being able to develop nuclear weapons.

Biden was arguing that the sanctions currently in place are crippling Iran. Ryan argued that Iran is getting closer and closer to having nuclear weapons and more sanctions need to be imposed. Biden scoffed at this suggestion, explaining that the U.S. Administration knows that Iran doesn't presently have nuclear weapons and that they would definitely know if they did.

I think Biden did a great job of turning things around for the Obama team, after a less-than-stellar performance by the President in the first debate. How can anyone resist that contagious smile of his?

Austin prefers Joe Biden out of all four debaters - he says he wishes Biden were running for President.

Bike repairs

Skye showed Austin a few things about bike maintenance when he received his new bike in April. About a week ago, Austin had a chance to share some of what he'd learned, with Aidan.

Aidan's bike needed a new front wheel. Austin showed Aidan how to remove his wheel, remove the tire and inner tube, place the tire and inner tube on the replacement wheel, then re-install the wheel. Austin remembered that the tube needed to be fully deflated before removing it from the wheel rim.

Austin is quite a good teacher and Aidan was able to complete the repair on his own.

Piano Teacher

Austin has been teaching his brothers how to play the piano. Austin doesn't actually read music, himself. He plays by ear. He can, however, identify notes on the keyboard. He's a bit puzzled as to why  the notes are described in terms of octaves, since there are only 7 notes. He seemed to accept the explanation that the octave needs to include the note at the beginning and the end, which means, for instance, A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A (8 notes).

To teach Aaron how to play American Jesus, by Bad Religion, Austin applied strips of masking tape to  about 15 keys, and coloured them. He told Aaron to play by colour, and Aaron was able to play the basic melody after only about 30 minutes.

Yesterday, Austin added letters to the coloured tape strips, and this is helping Aidan to learn the notes. Aidan is learning to play the violin and to read music. Fortunately, the violin is also a C instrument, so the notes in his violin music, match the piano keys.

This morning, Aidan was playing a Star Wars song, Battle of the Heroes. Austin has written the letter-notes for Ode to Joy, so Aidan plays this as well. Austin can play Beverly Hills Cop, Requiem for a Dream, and the Davy Jones Song from memory (he learned these in his piano lessons three years ago).

It's particularly fun when the boys have both instruments playing at once (Aidan on the violin and Austin on the keyboard).

On Writing

This evening was spent, compiling some of Aidan's story ideas into the opening paragraphs of his novel project. Partway through the exercise, Austin joined us and gave Aidan some feedback from a reader's perspective.

Austin has a strong vocabulary, and offered several good suggestions for word replacements, or more impactful verbs. He also offered his opinion on some directions Aidan was considering taking his story.

As Aidan and I were wrapping up for the evening, Austin complimented Aidan on his story ideas and his stamina for generating imaginative twists and character development. Austin has had some ideas brewing in his mind for some time, and invited Aidan to help him to turn them into a story. Aidan felt good about the compliments and seemed willing to help, but was very tired and needed to tuck into bed.

Austin was clearly intrigued by what Aidan and I had been doing together, and asked me to describe the process for him. I explained that the process started weeks ago, when Aidan first thought of some story ideas, drew a map of the territory where his story takes place, then worked to create an extensive character list. Austin has noticed that Aidan has been writing out his character lists in a notebook. But Austin was interested to know what was different about tonight, and my involvement.

Tonight, we hung up a large blank sheet of paper on the wall. In the centre, I wrote "Into the Sea," the title of Aidan's novel. I envisioned a mind map and wrote the names of Aidan's four clans on rays from the centre. Then, I asked Aidan to write the clan personalities and territory. He recorded names of the main characters of the four clans, a few characteristics of the clans, and drew a sketch of the territory.

I explained to Austin that there was one particular idea of Aidan's that really struck me as unusual and intriguing. It inspired me to start writing some fiction, so I began writing and Aidan read as I wrote. Austin heard us going through the iterations of writing and revising, and participated in some of this activity. I invited Austin to go through a similar process with me, and he says he is interested. He also wants Aidan to help with building on some of his story ideas.

As I wrote this blog entry, Austin wrote a prologue for his story. And here it is ...

The Great Beginning Warriors

Prologue

Ferns flashed in Sabercub’s face, tickling his nose, but he didn't dare stop to rub it. His sister, Starcub, raced beside him. As they ran, behind them, the sound of their pursuers was getting louder. A tree loomed ahead as they rushed deeper into the undergrowth. A horrific screech sounded behind him as he kept running. The sound grew more and more distant and his sister found an old tree trunk to hide in. It was dark and damp as it always was in the jungle, and the trunk was covered in moss. As he lay down, recent events came flooding back to him.

He was nestled comfortably beside his sister. It was a warm day, so he felt groggy and tired. His stomach growled, reminding him of how hungry he was. His mother, Goldenfur, sat up and watched the horizon. She bent down and picked up Starcub by the scruff of her neck and heaved her off the ground. Starcub complained, "Mother, I'm big enough to walk by myself! I'm not a tiny cub anymore." His mother replied, “Well, you’re right about not being small, that’s for sure. Now keep up and follow me closely.” She put Starcub down and headed off into the jungle. 

His sister pelted after her and he began to stalk his mother’s tail. Just when he was about to pounce, Goldenfur stopped abruptly and crouched, grabbing him by the scruff of his neck. “Keep down!” she hissed, and put his sister beside him. 

"What's going on?” he asked. 

"Shh! Keep quiet." she whispered.

Just then, the smell hit him. It smelled pungent and rotting. He stiffened. He knew what that smell was. The death birds had found them. 

Suddenly, the grass in front of them wavered and a giant beak shot through and grabbed Goldenfur. She roared and clawed the head of her attacker. The bird stepped back and began slashing at his mother with its enormous beak. Goldenfur yowled, “Run! Get back to the jungle!” 

Sabercub raced off with his sister trailing him. Before he reached the ferns, he glanced back. With a horrific screech, the bird drove its beak into his mother’s neck. She shrieked in pain and flailed once, then went still. The world lurched and his sister began to go towards their mother. Before she could take a step, two birds darted out of the grass and ran towards them. They looked terrible with their cold green eyes staring forward at them. He turned and fled with his sister beside him and crashed into the undergrowth.

As the memories briefly faded, he felt exhausted and he curled up close to his sister and fell into sleep.

Tigercub yawned in the morning heat. His brother, Stripecub, stirred beside him. His mother, Nightclaw, had just returned from hunting in the jungle and had brought back a small antelope, so they had fed well. Tigercub spotted a butterfly and pounced in the air. He landed with a whump on his brother, who sat up in alarm and tackled him to the ground. They wrestled each other. Stripecub leaped to bowl him over, but he sidestepped and Stripecub ran straight into their mother. 

Nightclaw sat up in alarm. Stripecub tumbled back to his brother. Nightclaw gave him a cuff over his ear and shoved Stripecub over. He fell down and Tigercub decided to tackle him. As they rolled in the grass their mother lay down in a sunny patch away from the energetic cubs. Tigercub wanted to play hunter and prey so he asked Stripecub if he wanted to be the hunter. 

"Yes, I can catch you anywhere you hide or run. I'll be the best hunter in the jungle," he replied.

So they set off into the bush. He told Stripecub to wait there and he headed to his favourite hiding spot in an old rotten log where the mushrooms disguised his scent. He was startled to find it already occupied. Two saber cubs lay there sleeping. 

Suddenly, a horrible screech sounded far behind him, and shortly after, his mother’s roar filled the air. He was about to head back, but then the screeches sounded again. He heard his mother calling for him and his brother was wailing as the screeches increased. Their calls grew more and more distant, until they faded into silence. 

He turned and saw that the saber cubs were trembling and wide-eyed. He wondered why saber cubs would be afraid of him. Then, he remembered the birds and he realized that, like him, these cubs were on their own.

UBC Biodiversity Museum

By Austin:

When I went to the museum I saw a big skeleton of a whale and it had a big mouth for eating krill.

We saw the steps a whale took to feed and we saw some krill. We also found out how you can tell what an animal ate by it's skull. For example, where the eyes were and how the teeth were shaped. We also saw some snail shells and found out how they ate their food. The tour guide talked about how plants were very successful in their evolution. Then, we went onto fishes and the evolution of the jaw and we saw some funny-looking fish called hagfish.

I noticed then that the guide was dumbing the talk down.

And I don't have any evidence to support this, but believe me, it could have been a lot more informative.

Then we went into the fossil sectionals. We heard about the trilobite dilemma where they found fossils of trilobites with bite marks on them, and at the time that they lived, nothing could have bitten into anything.

And then a recent fossil field was discovered in BC where soft-bodied animals were fossilized. They found one with only three hard pieces. It was called anomalocaris and it had a very early form of a jaw. After that, we saw some hunting trophies and there was a moose with its face falling off.

And a stuffed penguin ... that's all. I hope you enjoyed this. Farewell and good night.

To add, by Mom:

We went to the UBC Museum of Biodiversity last Tuesday, September 25. We had intended to go to the UBC Geology Museum, but it is closed for renovations. We plan to go there next month, when they reopen.

The blue whale skeleton is quite impressive. It is a female skeleton. The next time we go, we will watch the movie, “Raising Big Blue,” a Discovery Channel production about this skeleton and her transport across the continent.

A few minutes into the tour, our guide showed us two sets of skull bones, one of a mountain goat, and another of a wild cat. Our guide asked us what we noticed about the skull features, that would indicate what kind of food the animals would have eaten. One visitor pointed out the large canine teeth on the cat’s skull. The tour guide pointed out the dull molars on the sheep’s skull, and the difference on the cat’s jaw - the cat’s back teeth were sharp, indicating it was a meat-eater. Then, the tour guide asked about any other features we noticed, to distinguish between prey and predator. Austin mentioned, “the position of the eyes.” The predator has eyes that are positioned forward on the face, and the prey has eyes that are positioned at the sides. Austin says he remembers learning about this over the years, with all the animal videos he’s watched, or perhaps at demonstrations at science centres we have visited.

Hagfish

Anomalocaris

The fossil field Austin mentioned, where so much was learned about Anomalocaris, is the Burgess Shale, located in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

Austin was impressed by the comparatively tiny amount of geologic time during which humans have inhabited the earth. This isn’t new information to him, but the chart on the wall of the museum, which spanned about 20 metres, really put this into perspective!

Austin has requested a family trip to this museum. He is looking forward to going there again, spending more time, and sharing what he’s learned, with his brothers.

The Comeback of the European Brown Bear

We had a 500lb black bear visitor in our neighbourhood last night, which sparked some conversation between Austin and me, today.

Austin expressed his regret that there is no bear population in Europe. I was surprised, and insisted there must be bears in Europe ... a google search ensued, and I found this post from 2005:

The Great Bear Comeback

Here's an excerpt of Austin's favourite section from the article:

"The animals here have become especially fond of rapeseed oil, which is used in chain saws and large machinery." Rauer recently dealt with a case involving a steam roller that a bear had dismantled to reach the oil in the hydraulic system -- the most costly damage he has ever seen, says the biologist.

Austin was incensed, however, to note that bears were regularly described as "predators" in the article. He urged that the bear's primary diet is berries, roots and grubs, and fish when fish are running. In Austin's opinion, a bear is only a threat to a human if the human is being stupid.

Austin was pleased to hear that biologists are trying to resettle brown bears into the Alps. He hopes that the efforts will finally be accepted by the general population, and appropriate signage will go up on popular hiking trails, so that hikers and tourists will be educated and informed of bear safety, so they can co-exist.

Inter-River Bike Skills Park

So, I'm not sure why I didn't know about this place before, since we've lived here all these years. Glad we know about it now, though, and before school lets out for the summer and the place is always packed!

I had scheduled a play date with one of Aaron's friends, Malia. Malia's mom suggested that we meet at Inter-River Park to go bike riding (Malia rides a 2-wheeler too). I had no idea what to expect. This is a huge park, many ball fields ... I pictured something with meandering easy bike trails (and for all I know, the park has this as well), but we found Nora and Malia in the fifth parking lot we checked out. They were parked beside the skills park which has a variety of dirt hills, asphalt curves, and a separate wooden skills park with logs and a teeter-totter. So cool!

I had invited Austin to join us, and despite asking him several times between 9:00 and 9:30 this morning, he wouldn't budge from his bed. So Aaron and I went alone.

Aaron had a great time and now has a few more "cool" scratches and owies, and a couple spectacular bails to talk about. One was quite a hard landing, and he even bounced! He has a knick in his helmet now, because of it. And he never cried once ... until he got home and I tried to wash off the dirt. At the park, he would quickly get up, say he was okay, and remark, "That was totally awesome!!" I wondered if he was putting up a brave face for Malia.

When it was time to drop Aaron off at preschool, I asked Austin to join me for the drive because I wanted to show him the skills park. He reluctantly came along.

As we pulled up, I thought he'd be impressed with the wooden ramps, but he said he's still not ready for those. Then he looked over at the dirt hills and said, "Maybe those would be okay." I had Aidan's bike (Austin's old bike) in the back of the car, so I invited him to try it. I thought he'd refuse, but he was already opening his door to get out.

The bike is too small for him, but he loved it. He "got some air" on the first big jump, and he was hooked. After a couple spins around the circuit, he asked me to go home to get his bike, his friend and his friend's bike. He wanted to come back and try the course again, on the bike he loves.

We tried to call Ian and he wasn't home, but I'm not sure both bikes would have fit in the car anyway. Austin's bike is very big!

So we went back to the park and Austin had a chance to try out his bike instead. He was in heaven! He had both wheels off the ground for the first jump and set himself a goal to clear the first rise. Before we left today, after about 30 minutes of riding, he had nearly made it!

It's a beautiful skills park with a variety of easy-to-challenging runs. What a nice setting, and I can see we would be wise to make the best use of it outside of school hours. What a treat to have the whole park to himself!

Archery

Austin was invited to attend archery lessons with our neighbours last Saturday. He's signed up for a 6-week series of lessons.

He really enjoyed working with the bow and arrows and was instructed by a world-class athlete.

Independence Day

A1: "Mom, can we go to Deep Cove?" I was working at my client's office about 1/2 an hour away from home. It was 3:15pm and Austin had just returned from picking up Aaron from preschool about 5 blocks away.

M: "Well, that's pretty far from home, but it's a nice day and I had been thinking the same thing before you called."

A1: "Can we have some money for ice cream?"

M: "That's what your allowance is for."

A1: "What about Aaron? He doesn't get allowance."

M: "Well then, you and Aidan will have to agree to buy Aaron an ice cream by splitting the cost, or else none of you should get any."

I left A1 with instructions to let Dad know where they were going and not to call me to complain if Dad says, "No." Skye was working downstairs.

Around 3:45, I received a text message from Skye asking if it was ok with me for the boys to go to Deep Cove. I responded, "Sure. I'll pick them up on my way home."

I reached Panorama Park at 5:15 and found the boys on the path near the beach. They were all happy and Austin was drinking water from a Tupperware container he had obviously filled at home. I was impressed that he had thought to pack water for the trip.

Austin excitedly told me that he had bought himself two slices of Deep Cove Pizza and he had $0.02 left over. Aidan had bought himself some ice cream and he had $1.51 left over.

M: "Did Aaron get some ice cream too?"

A1 & A2: "Yeah!"

A2: "We bought Aaron a small dish of vanilla ice cream."

M: "You shared the cost?"

A2: "Yes, Austin paid half and I paid half."

A1 and A2 explained that they had decided before they left the house, how much money they were willing to spend. So, they brought only that much ($10 and $5, respectively) down with them and left the rest in their wallets. Now comes the reason for the packed water bottles...

A1: "I wasn't going to be spending any of my money on water, so I filled up water bottles to take with us." Good thinking!

I asked how everything went and if they all enjoyed going down to Deep Cove (about 10 blocks from home) on their own. I received a very balanced answer.

A1: "Aaron got a little upset when I accidentally hit his chin with the scooter, and Aidan tread on the heel of his boot. We weren't really paying good enough attention at the start, but we got better at it. We made sure that Aaron was always farthest away from cars when we were walking on the sidewalk, even if Aaron got mad at us for that."

I was really proud of all the boys, and I told them so. This was a big step and they handled the responsibility beautifully.

A theory on why people lose their imagination

When we're young, we don't know much. So, we ask a lot of questions and we make the rest up.

As we get older, we don't have to ask as many questions and there's less and less we have to make up.

You need understanding to preserve an imagination. You need to use it like a muscle.

You subconsciously imagine when you don't understand. You don't know that subconscious thoughts are there until you examine them.

Is it important for other people to understand what you're thinking?

No, and yes. If it's understandable, understanding is the universal imagination. Very boring. Imagination is something you create.

Understanding is no imagination. Understanding isn't a bad thing. The most imaginative people just can't get their message across. People who are viewed as the most imaginative in the world, are simply the most successful at getting others to understand. People who are actually the most imaginative people in the world, can't be understood.

Like Aidan.


...


We went on to talk about how, theoretically, A3 must be the most imaginative one in our family. However, I would argue that A1 and A2 are each highly imaginative as well. Austin explained that he is imaginative because he exercises his imagination like a muscle.


We also debated whether subconscious imagination is more valuable than conscious imagination. Austin responded quickly that imagination is imagination, it all carries the same value. He does seem to value imagination that can't be understood by others, however, as the most worthy of acclaim.