Sexy voices

Recent research has documented a variety of ovulatory cues in humans, and in many nonhuman species, the vocal channel provides cues of reproductive state. We collected two sets of vocal samples from 69 normally ovulating women: one set during the follicular (high-fertility) phase of the cycle and one set during the luteal (low-fertility) phase, with ovulation confirmed by luteinizing hormone tests. In these samples we measured fundamental frequency (pitch), formant dispersion, jitter, shimmer, harmonics-to-noise ratio and speech rate. When speaking a simple introductory sentence, women's pitch increased during high- as compared with low-fertility, and this difference was the greatest for women whose voices were recorded on the two highest fertility days within the fertile window (the 2 days just before ovulation). This pattern did not occur when the same women produced vowels. The high- versus low-fertility difference in pitch was associated with the approach of ovulation and not menstrual onset, thus representing, to our knowledge, the first research to show a specific cyclic fertility cue in the human voice. We interpret this finding as evidence of a fertility-related enhancement of femininity consistent with other research documenting attractiveness-related changes associated with ovulation.   Source   (Note: small sample size)

So, from a biological, evolutionary standpoint, men would find women whose voices had the greatest pitch disparity between vowels and consonants the "most sexy".

I suppose the AI content creators are already aware of this and are exploiting it. 

Where does the time go?

I did a little bit of math yesterday.

Mrs ERJ got tired of my fretting around the house and suggested that I go out to the property and do some springtime chores.

It took me 0.5 hours to load the truck. Depending on the chores, it can take up to two hours to load the truck.

It takes 0.75 hours to drive to the property one-way. Of course, that takes longer if I need to stop at a store and pick up supplies.

I used a stop-watch and logged 3.25 hours of time-on-task work with another 0.5 hours of breaks between each hour. That is, work an hour then drink some water and have a bite to eat.

Adding up the time: 3.25 hours of work and 2.5 hours of overhead for a total of 5.75 hours clocked start-to-finish.

Add another 3.0 hours for the time I am responsible for Quicksilver and another hour or two for a nap which keeps my disposition sweet-and-happy and I don't have a lot of day left for recreational activities like writing deep and thoughtful blog posts.

That is why the recent content has been reading like a fifth-grader's "This is what I did on my summer vacation".

Yesterday's work-ticket

I start laying out beds for perennial plants at the property.

 If you squint a little bit, you can see two pieces of green surveyor's ribbon in the foreground. I used the small mulberry tree on the right side of the image as one of the corners.

The other end of the rows were also marked with green tape. The reason the spacing looks uneven is because the bottom row (on the right) is penciled in as blackberry bushes and the next two rows are penciled in as asparagus. There is 6' between the rows on the right and 4' between the two rows on the left.

 

I used a traditional compass, my smartphone and the distance from the center-line of the road to keep the rows running true-to-grid. Lucky for me, my part of Michigan has magnetic north currently aligning with true north. Magnetic north and smartphone north varied by about 4' in a 100' of row. The center-of-road north was the "flier" and farther away from smartphone north than magnetic north so I ignored it.

 

The plot that was brush-hogged has some naturalized crocus.

 

Another item on the work-ticket was to spray the nettles that are in the Upper Orchard.

 

The last two items on the work-ticket were to cut-and-drag brush. Since the brush was infringing on the field that is rented out to the farmer, it is imperative that I get it dragged off so it doesn't interfere with his field operations.

 

I dragged the brush to the linear brushpile (four minutes per round-trip) and stacked the thicker pieces on a property line where the neighbor could use them for firewood. It helps him and it made my job easier. 

 

Managing fertilizer shortages

There has been the sudden realization that the current storm of events will impact fertilizer availability and cause shocks in the food supply.

At a very fine granularity, as gardeners and food-growers, we need to pay meticulous attention to the most basic elements of gardening. We need to run a full-court press against weeds. We need to really pay attention to soil-moisture. We need to plant at optimal times and choose varieties that are productive. We need to harvest food so it is not wasted.

As gardeners we need to examine some of our biases. Will it hurt anything if we tinkle in the orchard when nobody is looking? Maybe we don't dump the chicken litter into a pile but look around and find some plants that look a little bit puny and give them a shovel-full at their drip-line.

At a very coarse granularity, vast numbers of people in Bangladesh, East Bengal, rural China, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Nigeria and Mexico will depopulate and move to cities where "services" are offered. The good news is that many jet airplanes will be grounded and the mass migration will be restricted to trains, buses and hoofing-it.

At a granularity between the two extremes, meat will be come exceptionally expensive. Various political entities will come to the conclusion that it makes more sense to send grain to the countries mentioned above than to machine-gun refugees from those countries at their(our) borders in wholesale-lots. Grain that went to chickens, pigs and steers will be diverted to Bombay, Dhaka, Lagos, Mexico City and Cairo.

Seafood will increase in price by an even greater percentage. Seafood has a very high "embedded energy" cost that is masked by fuel subsidies by nation-states. If you like meat, buy a pellet-gun and learn how to shoot it. If you like fish, then learn how to tie an Improved Clinch Knot and thread a worm on a hook.

The good news is that food is about to become much more delicious without the benefit of exotic spices. There is no sauce that makes food more delicious than hunger. 

Bonus tip

Stock-pile enough sugar for a year's worth of canning.

Our biggest year for applesauce was 180 quarts. Given the amount of sweetening that I prefer, that requires 25 pounds of sugar. Even if I don't choose to can such a ridiculous amount of apple sauce, sugar will have trading value.

Characteristics of Money. Money is:

• Infinitely divisible
• Durable
• Universally accepted
• Compact 

Sugar isn't "compact" but it meets the other three criteria. And even if you don't use it for trading, in time you will consume it within your household. 

Presented without comment

 

Back in the saddle again

I am starting to feel like a human again. I was really tired Sunday and Monday. Yesterday Mrs ERJ broomed me out of the house and I was able to get about three hours of work done. 

 I dug and replanted about 15 persimmon seedlings. 

I moved some Rocambole Garlic plants  to the Upper Orchard where I want them to naturalize. 

I pruned two apple trees. 

I poured some concrete to seal off some holes that Red Squirrels were using to get into the pole barn. I also cleaned and rebaited a couple of dog-proof raccoon traps.

I moved 14 bags of composted cow manure from the back of the truck to the persimmon trees in the Hill Orchard. 

I "stuck" another 40 willow cuttings so there are now three rows of willows rimming the west edge of the depression.

Beautiful in every way

 

Win some, lose some

Topping the tray of elderberry cuttings with wood-shavings proved to be a mistake.

The temperature of the potting mix hit 123F which cooked the bottoms of the cuttings.

I unplugged the heating mat, trimmed the cuttings back to green cambium and re-stuck them.

BBB

Big Brown Bat. That is what we had flying laps in our living-room this morning before I took Quicksilver to her play-date. I opened one of the windows and then we departed. Maybe it left. Maybe it did not.

Quicksilver had asked me what was chirping over by our exterior door. Of course, I could not hear anything and thought it was a bird outside. I bet it was the bat.

Wins

Quackerberries

Nicotiana tabacum cv. "TN-90" seedlings

The big day for planting seeds will be April 1. That is when I will be planting the tomato seeds: Stupice, Federle, Rosa de Bern and Ace 55. I will also plant the sweet peppers, Stocky Red Roaster and the Lovage.

Pressure on multiple fronts

One of the things Trump's team has done well has been to flood-the-zone.

Saturating an issue with multiple initiatives tangles up the opponent's ability to file law suites and halt implementation of those initiatives.

An example of this is a voter initiative that parallels the SAVE Act in many ways.

Hat-tip to Esox lucius lover.