Author: David Bradley

Flattering photography

Always nice when someone notices you got a nice sharp and detailed photo. Happened this morning with a snap of a Figure of Eighty moth that was drawn to the actinic lure last night.

The final “developed” image

This Figure of Eighty moth was shot with a 90mm Tamron 1:1 lens on a Canon 6D digital SLR. Importantly, on a tripod with a shutter release wire, using Live View (on the rear screen, the camera’s mirror is raised) rather than allowing the mirror-raise to cause vibration as happens with a viewfinder shot. Obligingly, the moth lay flat and spread its wings, usually it curls them around its body to make a kind of twig-like tube.

This is a single frame with f/13 aperture, 1/90s shutter speed, ISO 500.

I almost always crop the original frame to get a nice composition. I adjust the levels/histogram to blacken the blacks and whiten the whites slightly.  I always lift the mid-tones slightly to soften any shadows on these kinds of shots, but nothing more than about 10-15 percent values.. I also pull down the highlights slightly if there’s been any blowout. Increase the saturation a tiny bit and apply a gentle standard sharpening. All in PaintShopPro.

The final crucial step for social media upload sharpness is then to resize the frame to 2048 pixel width. There’s no point in posting full size to Facebook or Instagram as their compression algorithms do something horrendous to bigger files and you end up with more artefacts and a less clear, less detailed image. After this resize I may up the vibrancy (which is a more subtle variation of increasing saturation that only boosts certain pixels to make the colours “pop”. I then apply a fairly subtle unsharp mask. If the image has been cropped to less than 2048 but not smaller than 1000 or so I apply the same unsharp. If it’s < 1000 I’ll pull back the unsharp a lot.

I then add my dB/ logo in the right-hand corner. As you might have noticed, there wasn’t room for the logo in the pre-processed image, so I rotated it and clone the stone background to fill the resulting gaps and then added my logo. I think it usually gives me a half-decent end result.

Here’s the original frame straight out of the camera, saved as a 90% JPEG rather than RAW, I rarely shoot raw…it was cropped and resized to fit the page here. It’s sharp (in focus) but dull and lifeless.

Pre-processed photo

Not corn-cockle – Wilding an English country garden

UPDATE: The Corn Cockle finally came through, lots of them, it’s well past flowering now and I have harvested lots of seed for next year.

UPDATE: The corn-cockle is yet to grow in our garden, the pictures are of another species entirely, something Borage like, apols.

Part of “wilding” involves scattering seeds from wildflowers…and hoping they’ll germinate and grow, flower, be pollinated, and set seed for next year. I borrowed some corn-cockle seed from a fellow #AllotmentLife person, and it’s now in bloom with invertebrates constantly in and out of the flowers.

This wildflower species, Agrostemma githago, was thought to be extinct in the British Isles until a specimen was spotted in Sunderland of all places by a National Trust assistant ranger in 2014.

It was a common species to grow in wheatfields until the introduction and widespread use of herbicides. It can now be found in fields, roadsides, railway lines, waste places, and other disturbed areas, now including our back garden.

A word of warning, as with many other wildflowers, and indeed, some cultivated flowers, all parts of the plant are poisonous as they contain the natural products githagenin (githagin, gypsogenin, (3β)-3-Hydroxy-23-oxoolean-12-en-28-oic acid)  and agrostemmic acid.

Thankfully, the corncockle has grown and bloomed in our garden since I wrote this post. Here, short discussion.

Common Corncockle flower

 

Covid-19 Reuters Q&A with William Haseltine

I live-tweeted a fascinating and perhaps rather depressing meeting with William Haseltine via a Reuters Newsmaker Broadcast. His talk was upbeat but the message does not offer a positive outlook unless we can collaborate internationally to identify, trace, and isolate and go back to early antivirals to treat people urgently. A vaccine will probably never be found, we must stay on top of this virus when we get communities under control. Moreover, we must recognise that another emergent pathogen could appear any time.

These are essentially my notes from Haseltines’s talk.

Might we ever achieve herd immunity?

There is no herd immunity. It doesn’t exist for any other coronaviruses, it is unlikely this one will be an exception. Sweden is a bad example of controlling this pandemic because they chased herd immunity.

Don’t assume because you’ve been infected you are immune, even if you had an antibody response. This virus doesn’t have to change to re-infect, probably because it gets in through respiratory mucus membranes, this means a vaccine may never protect as they don’t protect such membranes. Vaccines work in the blood.

Remember, as long as one person in the world is infected, we’re all at risk. This pandemic started with one person, after all.

The US has to collaborate with China. We’re one world, we need a one-world solution. We’re not in a race, this isn’t a competition, we’re one species. We have to work together against this virus.

If not a vaccine, then treatments?

Monoclonal antibody infusions may be the first line of therapy to work and then possibly small-molecule antiviral drugs. We may never have a vaccine. Do not count on the possibility of a vaccine. See also HIV. The SARS and MERS vaccines didn’t work…but we can control it by identifying infection, tracing people, and isolating them (controlled quarantine with healthcare). This has worked in Beijing and even Wuhan.

Don’t even need to test. If you’ve been in contact – isolate!

Opening up is possible but needs full contact tracing and quarantine and immediate lockdown if there’s an outbreak. We have to look at this as a long-term approach: identifying those infected, isolating them, tracing their contacts, and putting placing them all in quarantine. Summarily.

Monoclonal antibodies are expensive and will need blends of 2-3 to overcome viral mutations. Chemical therapies [pharmaceuticals] will be cheaper and easier…when we can identify the compounds that work. But will companies make them affordable?

What about Trump’s claims to be taking a drug for this disease?

Hydroxychloroquine doesn’t prevent or treat the disease and if you have heart problems it can kill you. Trump’s probably not taking it and he’s saying he is for purely political reasons to encourage people back to work in time for the presidential election. Science denialists and antivaxxers are a big problem.

This virus is transmitted all summer long but will peak in the winter as do some other viruses. We don’t know why. Some viruses like rhinoviruses and polio peak in the summer. [Incidentally, polio is airborne, facemasks would have prevented its spread rather than avoiding swimming].

There’s a Covid-19 spike in Mumbai where it is hot and humid, right now. When the winter flu comes around again will it overload our hospitals when beds are still needed for Covid patients

Did we learn nothing from earlier epidemics, such as AIDS, SARS, MERS?

The scientific and medical community learned a lot…that might all be applied to the current virus. But in some cities 70% of 15-25 females are still infected with HIV. Some parts of the world learned from SARS etc, but did we? We’re part of nature, we can’t control it. Viruses are part of nature. We knew this was coming, it was predicted, but we have to prepare for the next one, this is not the last. Devastation to lives, economies, opportunities. We have to prep ourselves.

We need to strengthen education so people understand science and technology for the next time…strengthen our healthcare systems, overcome the science denialism.

Also, learn from Singapore and don’t neglect neglected communities such as migrant workers [and ethnic minorities] they need to be protected too!

What are the wider impacts?

National debts are going to be 5-10 times bigger than they were at the start of the pandemic, this means more taxes, this means limited opportunities for investment and for young people, for everyone…

As an e.g. of that Jeremy Corbyn’s “debt” plans if he’d got 5 years as British Prime Minister have already been exceeded massively in the UK by the government that beat him.

Might we find anti-viral drugs?

There are half a dozen antivirals that were developed for SARS that might work against Covid, but they were never stockpiled so we don’t have them to use right now. We have stockpiles of anti-anthrax drugs and treatments for bioweapons. We could’ve stockpiled against this natural terrorist.

We need to use all the scientific tools we have to defend ourselves against all the future threats too…governments are there to protect us, but they’re not doing that…they should be not just bioterrorism but natural terrorism.

We’re learning things all the time about how someone might seem to have recovered but then suffer effects weeks later, we need to understand why. At the beginning of the crisis, 90% of people on ventilators died, but then they spotted blood clots were killing so now using anticoagulants and that has fallen to 30%..

School’s out forever?

The rules of this coronavirus are not any different from common cold transmission…this is essentially a lethal cold virus…you catch colds easily from children [See also polio]. Multiple-organ effects can kill children. This is not a simple pneumonia.

What about travel and holidays?

It’s going to be a long, long time before we get back to travelling the world…especially for Americans…the rest of the world doesn’t want them coming to their countries.

Could the virus have started somewhere other than the Wuhan market?

Yes. Easily. Someone could’ve turned up infected and entered the market. But the viruses are coming along all the time from animals. It’s very, very unlikely that it came from a lab. [It didn’t, in other words].

Footnote
Dr William Haseltine is a scientist, businessman, and philanthropist. He is well-known as a pioneer in the fight against HIV/AIDS and cancer. He was in conversation with Reuters Global Managing Editor Alessandra Galloni on 20th May 2020, with additional questions from invited representatives of the media.

Floral colour schemes in the garden pond

UPDATE: Two bio friends on Facebook came back with two different answers when I posed this question there. Grace Baynes pointed to a paper about genetic changes in stems from the same specimen of Mimulus (monkeyflower) plants here. The keyphrase in the paper “monkeyflowers mutate as they grow”.

Julie Webb posted: tranposable elements and pointed to a paper suggesting that this can occur because of viral infection, here.

I planted up some aquatic plants in #PondLife as regular readers will know. Among them a few Mimulus in a pot. They’re in full bloom right now. Big, buttery yellow horn-shaped flowers with patches of burgundy red and ruddy spots leading into the flower.

Mimulus flower pond
Original mimulus bloom

Now, at some point early in Covid lockdown, I plucked some of the shoots protruding from the basket of Mimulus and planted them in another basket-pot in the pond with some nutrient-depleted aquatic compost (as I had with the initial bunch).

The new shoots took well and one of them bloomed a week or so ago. Same horn-shaped flowers, same colours, but a lot smaller than the make crop.

However, this morning more of the offshoots have bloomed and they have produced similar small flowers but with a very different pattern and colour scheme. Now, if these had been grown from seeds from the original plant I’d have invoked Mendelian genetics to explain the colour variation. But, these offshoots are as the name would suggest shoots off the original plant. They’re genetically identical, they’re not even clones, they’re simply bits of the original plant…

Adverse effects of hydroxychloroquine

UPDATE: If you have been prescribed this drug for another condition, do not stop taking it without consulting your GP. Your GP will have prescribed it for a good reason and will know your medical history and undertaken a risk-benefit assessment before signing your prescription. The majority of the side-effects are rare and it is generally safe to use for the approved conditions if heart problems and other underlying possible complications and contraindications have been ruled out for you.

In case you were ever stupid enough to follow Trump’s lead you would have already injected ultraviolets in your eyeballs by now to save you from Covid and maybe bathed in Domestos or sulfuric acid or both! Anyway, his latest bullshine claim is that he’s been taking the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine to keep Covid at bay.

Well, for starters there is no evidence that this drug acts as a prophylactic against infection with SARS CoV-2 or indeed any pathogen other than the causative agent of otherwise drug-resistant malaria. It’s primary use is in treating lupus. There was some testing done weeks ago to see whether it might work against SARS-CoV-2, it almost certainly doesn’t, there will be actual antivirals to try and some being developed as we speak.

Either way, did anyone actually do a benefit-risk balance assessment for him or has he self-medicated on a whim? I strongly suspect that he is not taking it at all and that there is some hidden agenda. As with everything else he says bullshit or otherwise a political or financial incentive is often at the front of his frothing, festering mind.

The US Food and Drug Administration warns against taking this drug outside the clinical environment because it can cause serious and potentially lethal heart problems”. If you were thinking of taking inspiration from The Trunt listen to the FDA or maybe have a look at the huge list of post-approval adverse reactions and side-effects already reported for hydroxychloroquine:

Bone marrow failure, anemia, aplastic anemia, agranulocytosis, leukopenia, and thrombocytopenia, hemolysis in people with G-6-PD enzyme deficiency, Cardiomyopathy and fatal cardiac failure, ventricular arrhythmia, Vertigo, tinnitus, nystagmus, nerve deafness, deafness, eye irreversible retinopathy with retinal pigmentation changes (bull’s eye appearance), visual field defects, and visual disturbances, macular degeneration, corneal edema and opacity, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain, fatigue, liver failure, urticaria, angioedema, asthma, poor appetite, hypoglycemia, porphyria, weight loss, sensorimotor disorder, skeletal muscle myopathy or neuromyopathy leading to weakness and muscle wasting, failing tendon reflexes and abnormal nerve conduction, headache, dizziness, seizure, ataxia and dystonia, dyskinesia, and tremor, emotional problems, nervousness, irritability, nightmares, psychosis, suicidal thoughts, rash, pruritus, pigmentation disorders in skin and mucous membranes, alopecia, skin eruptions, toxic epidermal necrolysis, photosensitivity, psoriasis…

The complete, detailed list of ADRs and side-effects can be found here.

Pine Hawk-moth in the garden

I have written about the Hawk-moths (Sphingidadae) several times during my short time mothing with an actinic lure in our back garden. We have seen a fair selection of the species present in the British Isles. My photos are in the HM section of my Mothematical Gallery.

So far in 2020, Lime HM, Eyed HM, and Poplar HM have made appearances. Morning of 19 May 2020, a new one for the garden – Pine Hawk-moth,  Sphinx pinastri (Linnaeus, 1758).

Pine Hawk-moth from above
Pine Hawk-moth from above
Pine Hawk-moth from the side
Pine Hawk-moth from the side
Pine Hawk-moth face-on
Pine Hawk-moth face-on
Grey/Dark Dagger agg with Pine HM
Grey/Dark Dagger agg with Pine HM. The Dagger is about 18mm long

Handgel and hot cars

There’s some deceived wisdom doing the rounds about not leaving bottles of 60% alcohol hand sanitizer in your car when it’s hot because it could spontaneously burst into flames. There are pictures of the damage apparently caused by the hand gel burning through the dashboard.

This is not at all likely to happen at the temperatures you’re like to reach in the passenger compartment of a car. Moreover, if the interior of your car were to reach the necessary temperature for spontaneous combustion of hand sanitizer, that little bottle of gel is the least of your worries.

The flashpoint for 60% ethanol in water, may well be low (about 23 Celsius), but you need something to *ignite* the liquid, it won’t spontaneously burst into flames. Even petrol cannot spontaneously combust until it’s above 280 Celsius, hence the spark plugs to ignite it (an electric spark will peak at about 4500 Celsius).

However, the handgel may well get very hot and opening the lid might lead to it spurting out and scalding you. There is also the issue of putting handgel on your hands while smoking or holding a candle…that would be risky-ish.

Bombus pratorum on Cynoglossum officinale

This is an “Early Bumblebee”, Bombus pratorum, feeding on a kind of borage (Boraginaceae) but with puce flowers, Cynoglossum officinale, on the flood plain of the Old West River, a couple of miles North of Cottenham. It’s growing wild and free and in abundance there.

The plant has several common, folk, or vernacular, names among them houndstongue, houndstooth, dog’s tongue, gypsy flower, and “rats and mice” due to its odour).

Also sighted there this morning, first Common Blue butterfly of the year for me, a male Polyommatus icarus. Lots of the white-flowered wildflower around, but not entirely sure of the ID on that, yarrow? Saxifrage? Other…

Friends of mine had mentioned seeing a particular wildflower, Scarlet Pimpernel, Anagallis arvensis, recently (poor man’s barometer, it’s sometimes known, presumably it’s a folksy indicator of changeable weather). I hadn’t realised which species they mean until I happened to photograph some this morning and looking it up in colour-coded Collins Wildflowers, Lippert and Podlech.

Then there were the Kingfishers, Alcedo atthis, which were the primary target of my photographic trip.

There’s a very simple solution to combating video call burnout

Zoom burnout, they’re calling it.

We’ve probably all experienced it by now, that feeling of exhaustion and of having Zoomed too far, joined one two many “webinars”, Whatsapped a bit too much with the family, argued over the quiz results, and drank far too much “at” far too many friends on House Party.

You’ve logged in and fiddled with mic and cam settings until everyone in the video-chat can see and hear you. You’ve waited, sometimes minutes, for the host to show up and let you all in. You’ve put up with the audio feedback issues when two of you are in the same room and in the same chat.

You’ve changed your background to the blue planet and to the Golden Gate Bridge, and the palm trees on the beach. You’ve had the Aurora whisping away behind you as your face mysteriously modulates from visible to invisible and back again like Alice’s Cheshire Cat. You’ve even downloaded all those empty TV studio set photos from the BBC. You’ve virtually sat in Noel’s chair from Multicoloured Swap Shop, you’ve pondered which era Doctor Who that particular TARDIS background is [Peter Davidson] and one of your best friends hopped aboard The Liberator and shouted Avon calling in the most camp voice possible. You’ve searched to see if there is a Tomorrow People background, so you might chat with Tim in the frame and jaunt about a bit.

Then there’s the issue of which app to actually use for the best experience. Zoom is okay, but it sometimes gets overloaded and it’s definitely overloaded with tabloid scaremongering so some friends won’t use it. You’ve tried to persuade others to opt for yet another app or website. “This one’s better, it’s faster, there’s no privacy or issues [there are always privacy and security issues].

There’s even the vague possibility that we might all be able to sync up and sing or play instruments together across the ether because this new app has much lower sound delay, latency, [it doesn’t, none of them have a sufficiently low delay to let musicians perform together online].

Your eyes are feeling blurry, you’re thinking…it’s the staring at the screen for so long, that’s why you feel so tired. But, we’ve all been staring at screens interminably for years, it’s not that. It’s something else. Maybe it’s the needing to be constantly “on”. Constantly concentrating on all those faces staring slightly askew in their blue reflected haze.

It’s neither of those things.

Maybe it’s the lack of body language cues. It’s hard to converse and fully engage without seeing someone’s expressive hands and shoulder shrugs. But, as we’re all sitting on our hands to stop us touching our faces anyway, those cues are always off-limits. But, it’s not that either. We’ve managed on the good-old telephone with no video for decades with no real problems.

So, what is it, why are we all feeling burned out and a little melancholic, miserable even, after all this facetime zooming by? We should be happy that despite the global pandemic those of us with the tech can still cling to each other, sticking together while we’re apart, as it were. Very unfortunate for those in places with no tech…for so many reasons.

Could it be that every time we fire up those webcams and tweak that background, for another online chat that we are simply mourning the loss of what we had? The meeting up in the real world, the pubs, the clubs, the musical rehearsals, the live theatre and music festivals, the art galleries and museums, the beauty spots, the far-flung holidays, the freedom? The freedom from worry about catching or spreading a lethal pathogen? I think so.

Zoom burnout isn’t tiredness. It isn’t the strain of feeling one’s eyes going square like we were warned about back in the days of proper television with just three channels. It isn’t irritation at the silly backgrounds and the clamouring, clanging sounds of everyone trying to talk at once.

It’s grief.

It’s bereavement.

It’s mourning.

For the life we’ve lost…

…for now.