Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Do human babies learn to speak the same way birds do?..........."Scientists have recently found that when birds produce sounds that mimic the sounds that they had previously memorized, there was an increase in activity in some neurons within the cortico-basal ganglia circuit and a decrease in activity in other brain circuits".........."Cortical-basal ganglia circuitry is key for learning motor skills, particularly those that become highly practiced habits"............. "That's one of the reasons basal ganglia are related to human conditions such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, addiction, and Tourette's syndrome".............."One hypothesis to explain human speech development is that the sound of each word creates a memory, or template in the brain"............The finding regarding bird learning is exciting because it provides a rare example of changes in neural activity that correspond with behavioral attempts to achieve a mental goal; in this case, to produce vocalizations that mimic the memory of a sound"............ "The findings offer key insight into the brain's learning process".........."Perhaps the way people learn to speak, perfect a tennis serve, or master other precise skilled movements can be explained by the same process"................."There will be more research conducted with birds to determine if human learning proceeds in the same fashion as our feathered friends"

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https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-12-songbirds-secret-babies.html Songbirds may hold the secret to how babies learn to speak Decem...
Monday, December 25, 2017

The Selway-Bitteroot ecosystem in Montana is one of 5 United States Fish & Wildlife(U.S.F.W.) designated Grizzly Bear recovery zones in the USA..........It is a critcal linkage landmass that can support up to 300 Grizzlies and ensure their long-term survival by bridging the two largest remaining Griz populations that remain--The Greater Yellowstone and the Northern Continetal Divide populations.....................The last Griz to occupy the Bitterroots was killed in 1932, part of the effort at that time led by Ranchers to protect their livestock from Bears and Wolves ...............Right after Wolves were re-introduced into Yellowstone Park in the mid 1990's, plans to re-populate Grizzlies to the Bitteroots were put in place only to be scrapped by incoming President George Bush.......... While a lone bear has reportedly been seen or footprinted in the "ROOTS" over the past 10 years, colonization of the region by the Greater Yellowstone and/or Northern Continental Divide populations will likely take a good many years into the future, especially as the USFW Service is going about turning over bear mangement (Yellowstone and NCDE) to Wyoming and Montana..........These States most certainly will establish hunting seasons on the Bears, reducing their numbers, and thus reducing chances for lone bears to emigrate out of their two core systems into the Bitteroots

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http://missoulian.com/news/ local/grizzly-bears-expected- to-return-to-the-bitterroots- eventually/article_a22fcffd- 4715-50c5-aa6b-7da5ff...
Sunday, December 24, 2017

Regardless of one's race, creed, color or religion, if you are an American citizen, you celebrate Christmas...........Christmas, like New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Day, Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day and Thanksgiving are the 10 United States Federal holidays celebrated as a Nation...........Christmas joined this "gang of 10" in 1870, when President Grant signed it into law...........So on this fun and joyous national holiday, though it appropriate to share NORTHERN WOODLANDS MAGAZINE'S (Chief Editor Dave Mance) insightful Christmas essay entitled OUR COMMON HOME.......As Dave Mance states----- "It is indeed heartening that over the past 50 years, the Catholic Church has been trying to bring greater awareness to the fact that we all share this unique "Planetary Ark" called Planet Earth"........."As such, we must take active steps to see all of natures creation, and not just man, as sacred"............."In 2015, our current Pope Francis made the environment a central plank of his papacy, writing a 100 page encyclical letter entitled: ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME"................"The main gist of Francis' tomb is that a mathematical or biological understanding of nature is not enough"............. "Intellectual appreciation and economic calculation are not enough"............ "We need love to be at the core of our environmental consciousness"........... "The same kind of love that binds us to our partners and children – the kind where we put their needs in front of our own and, contrary to all logic, it makes us feel good"......."Francis also pays homage to the old tropes awe and wonder".............. "As adults we can be quick to dismiss them as romantic and superficial, but the Pope challenges us to get over this"............. “If we approach nature and the environment without this openness to awe and wonder, if we no longer speak the language of the fraternity and beauty in our relationship with the world, our attitudes will be that of masters, consumers, ruthless exploiters, unable to set limits on their immediate needs"...........Dave sums up the Pope's philosophy stating : "Francis speaks of an environmentalism based on learning to give, not just give up".................. "When we learn to give, forestland becomes more than a spreadsheet"............. "When our management goes from passive to active, we find that we get as much or even more joy from practicing good stewardship – spraying barberry, building a skidder bridge, releasing a stand of maple – than we do from the gifts we receive from the land: the timber revenue, the venison, the nice place to take a walk".............I hope all of this resonates with you Blog readers as it does with me.............Let me wish you a fun and restful Christmas,,,,,,,,,Enjoy the holidays!

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Our Common Home Our Common Home by Dave Mance III Editor's Blog December 22, 2017 3 Comments Sain...
Saturday, December 23, 2017

Did you know that when you kiss someone on Christmas Eve underneath the Mistletoe, you are smooching under a poisonous plant?..........Did you also know that Mistletoe is also a parasite"............... "The plant grows on tree limbs and sinks its roots deep into the living wood of the tree and sucks out the nutrients"................ "That’s how mistletoe remains leafy and green at Christmastime when the trees have lost their leaves"..............."The tree-worshipping Druids of the 7th century Germany felt that putting Mistletoe inside their homes with its white berry-like fruit brought "good magic" to those that dwelled there"..........."Kissing under the mistletoe may have begun with the Greeks’ Kronia agricultural festival"........... "Its Roman successor, the Saturnalia, combined licentious behavior with mistletoe".......... .."The Scandinavian peoples used it as a symbol where warring prople or spouses could come together and reconcile their differences"............"Puritan-influenced America was slow to follow. Historically it was wary of Christmas rituals"........... "During the 17th century, celebrating Christmas in Boston had carried a five-shilling fine"............... "When Americans finally accepted mistletoe, literature led the way. Washington Irving’s hugely influential 1820 ”The Sketch Book” endearingly described a “traditional” English Christmas—mistletoe, servant girls and kissing included"................American Mistletoe grows from NY south and west to New Mexico........This plant is truly a "wildlife-biodiversifier".............."While trees infested with mistletoe die early because of the parasitic growth, the standing snags provide useful nesting holes to birds and mammals"................. "A mistletoe-infested forest may produce three times more cavity-nesting birds than a forest lacking mistletoe".............. "A variety of birds nest directly in witches’ brooms, including house wrens, chickadees, mourning doves and pygmy nuthatches"................ "Researchers found that 64 percent of all Cooper’s hawk nests in northeastern Oregon were in mistletoe".......... "Several tree squirrel species also nest in witches’ brooms".............."When food is scarce in Winter, deer, elk, squirrels, chipmunks, porcupines, robins, chicadees, bluebirds and mourning doves feast on Mistletoe berries

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primer on mistletoe Ho, Ho, The Mistletoe From the Druids to Islesboro by Christine Parrish Thursday, December 21, 2017 9:3...