Stan C. Smith's Blog

Life's great mysteries - Would it be better to have a PAUSE button or a REWIND button for your life?

It occurs to me that some of the mysteries I contemplate get a little weird. But hey... I'm a sci-fi author, so weird is the way I roll.

When you were a kid, didn’t you wish you could have a PAUSE or a REWIND button? A PAUSE button would stop everything around you (except it wouldn’t stop you). A REWIND button would let you go back in time and do something over that you messed up. Which one you choose might say a lot about who you are.

Let’s consider these one at a time. A PAUSE button would allow you to pause when things get frantic, or just before doing something important, so you could contemplate it carefully or perhaps “phone a friend” for advice. Or, if you suddenly found yourself in a dangerous situation, you could pause and remove yourself from the danger, such as when you suddenly realize a car is about to run into you. Hmm… but I guess it wouldn’t help much if you slipped and were already falling. However, one could argue that access to a PAUSE button would lead to people becoming careless, which would result in getting themselves into more bad situations, perhaps even deadly ones in which a PAUSE button would not save them.

A REWIND button might allow you to correct mistakes, in hopes of achieving a different outcome. Or perhaps some people would use it to relive happy or thrilling moments. If you could use your REWIND button repeatedly, it might allow you to try things over and over until you figure it out (this reminds me of two movies: Groundhog Day with Bill Murray and Edge of Tomorrow with Tom Cruise). However, one could again argue that a REWIND button would cause a person to become apathetic, eventually not caring much about his or her actions. After all, if you can have a redo to fix every mistake you make, you might stop being careful. Also, there is a risk that, in the process of reliving something, you might change something else that causes a cascading effect and makes your future even worse.

Okay, I’ve talked myself out of both of these. I’ve decided I don’t want either one! Why? Because life’s risks and potential dangers are what keeps us on our toes, and they make life exciting.

But I still wonder what other people might choose. I dug into this question enough to realize that no psychologists have ever done a serious, large-scale study or survey to see what most people would choose. Well, now I want to know why no one has done a large survey on such an important question! Possible answers: First, this question is abstract, not easy to answer. So, researchers probably assume many people surveyed would simply not answer it, leading to what is called non-response bias, making the results unreliable. Second, large-scale surveys usually are designed to provide insights tied to product or policy improvements. A question like this is interesting, but it doesn’t really offer practical outcomes for businesses or institutions, making it a lower priority. Bummer.

My conclusion (pure speculation, or course)? If you’re a PAUSE person, you’re more focused on the present, on caution, and on savoring the moment. If you’re a REWIND person, you’re more focused on nostalgia, regrets, and a desire to fix past mistakes.

There you go... something to think about as you start your day today!

Bandicoots... Yaaay!

Lately, I've been working hard to prepare two of my series for audiobook narration—Bridgers and Diffusion. Savage, one of my favorite novels, is done and published. It's a fun listen (Audible, Amazon, or Apple Books).

Samuel, the main character of Savage, encounters some very unusual bandicoots. No, not like Crash Bandicoot, the video game character, but these bandicoots are strange in a Stan-C-Smith-science-fiction kind of way.

Bandicoots are, of course, real animals. Some of them look kind of like rats, but they could hardly be more different. This photo is a long-nosed bandicoot.

Rats are rodents, which are placental mammals (more closely related to humans than to bandicoots). Bandicoots are marsupials (more closely related to kangaroos than to rats). Marsupials are unique among mammals in that their young develop mostly outside of the female's body instead of in a uterus inside the female's body. They are born VERY small, then they crawl to a pouch on the mother's abdomen, where they attach to a nipple and grow by feeding on mother's milk. Eventually, they get so big they can no longer stay in the pouch.

Bandicoots hop like rabbits when they run. They also have a high-pitched, bird-like call they use to locate each other.

Baby bandicoots are born after a very short gestation period—only 11 days (one of the shortest pregnancies of all mammals). Like with other marsupials, when they are born, they are tiny and they move out of the uterus and to the mother's pouch.

Bandicoots normally stand on all fours, and the mother's pouch is open facing the rear, to prevent dirt from entering the pouch as the mother digs for food.

And... male bandicoots have a "bifurcated" penis, with two ends. Why? Because the females have two vaginas. Actually, this is true of many marsupials... they have two vaginas, and two uteruses (uteri?). This allows marsupials to have several young (or litters of young) that are at different stages of development. For example, a kangaroo female can have a developing fetus in one uterus, a baby that is already born but is developing in her pouch, and another baby that is out of the pouch but is still young enough to be dependent. Pretty cool, huh?

Photo Credit:
- Long-nosed bandicoot - JJ Harrison, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In our neck of the woods... Fawns and Doves

Two things I love about this time of the year in Missouri. First, the white-tailed deer fawns still have their spots (barely), but they are getting big enough that we occasionally see them out and about on their own. Remember, when fawns are small, they are much safer when they are alone, lying still in the vegetation of the forest floor, than when they are with their mother. The more hours per day the mother leaves them alone, the more likely the little fawns will survive. It's much more dangerous to be with the mother. Why? Because the mother is more visible, and more likely to draw the attention of predators. Which draws attention to the fawn. Most fawns taken by predators are those that are up and moving around, following their mother.

But now that fawns are large enough to outrun a coyote, it is safe for them to be with their mother (or even moving around on their own), and we see them more often. This fawn came into our driveway recently.

The second thing I love this time of the year is the soothing calls of mourning doves. For some reason, these haunting calls make me think of summers when I was a kid, staying in bed late on Saturday mornings and listening to the doves through the screens of the bedroom's open windows. It was a simpler time, so I try to rekindle those feelings whenever I hear them now. It seems we always have a few pairs of these birds near our house. Mourning doves are normally monogamous, mating for life (or until something happens to one of them).

Photo Credits:
White-tailed deer fawn and mourning dove - Stan C. Smith

Tree Kangaroos - Info you never knew you needed

I've decided far too many people are unfamiliar with tree kangaroos. I intend to fix this problem. Tree kangaroos have been on my mind lately because I've been re-editing my Diffusion series for an audiobook narrator. A major character throughout the series is Mbaiso, a tree kangaroo with mysterious capabilities and intellect. Indeed, Mbaiso is not exactly what he seems to be.

Tree kangaroos are, however, real animals, and since they are under-appreciated, I'll give you a fun overview of these amazing creatures.

Yes, tree kangaroos are real! They live on the island of New Guinea, but also in very northern Australia and some of the Indonesian islands. Why are tree kangaroos so cool? Because they’re kangaroos—that live in trees. When Australian Aborigines and Papuan (New Guinea) natives told early European explorers about tree kangaroos, the explorers refused to believe the stories. You have to admit it seems pretty unlikely, right?

The first photo is a Goodfellows tree kangaroo.

Tree kangaroos are marsupials, in the genus Dendrolagus. There are about 14 different species, but this is one of very few types of large mammals with species still being discovered. Most tree kangaroos are about the size of a house cat. They are a fascinating example of divergent evolution (when groups of similar creatures become isolated and gradually diverge in form and function). Long ago, groups of ground-dwelling kangaroos became isolated in areas of dense tropical forest, as opposed to the open grasslands more typical for kangaroos. Once isolated in rainforest areas, they evolved the ability to climb trees.

These creatures eat, sleep, and breed in the treetops, but that doesn’t mean they live a comfortable existence. After all, breeding in the treetops might require some caution, right? Also, they're a tasty meal for their primary predator, the amethystine python (which has a habit of hugging much too tightly). And... natives hunt tree kangaroos for food In New Guinea: "The man who has successfully hunted a tree-kangaroo has greatness bestowed upon him. He has conquered the largest, most prestigious and human-like marsupial known to his people." (Tim Flannery, from the awesome book, Throwim Way Leg). And finally, they depend on pristine rainforest, and if you haven’t heard, rainforests are getting smaller every day (a real bummer).

Tree kangaroos are reclusive. Some are extremely rare and live in places so remote that they are unusually tame, as they have never learned to fear humans. Just a few years ago, National Geographic published an article about the Wondowoi Tree Kangaroo, a species that had not been spotted since 1929 (almost a hundred years ago). It was thought to be extinct, until an amateur botanist led an expedition into the nearly-impenetrable bamboo forests of the Wondiwoi Mountains of West Papua to find it. After much searching, he took the first ever photographs of this species.

The Papuan people of New Guinea have numerous ancient myths about tree kangaroos, some of which play a role in the Diffusion novels. For example, Mbaiso's name comes from a rare tree kangaroo, Dingiso mbaiso, which is revered by the local Moni people as an ancestor. When describing encounters with these animals, the tribesmen hunters say the creatures sit up, whistle, and hold up their paws in greeting. So the Moni believe the creatures are ancestor spirits who recognize them.

Another interesting story, this one about the Matschie’s Tree Kangaroo, is that the creature has a special power. If you think of the girl you love before you let your arrow fly to shoot this tree kangaroo, at the moment the arrow pierces the animal’s body, that’s when the girl will fall in love with you.

The second photo is the Matschie's tree kangaroo.

Tree kangaroos really are adapted to life in the trees. Compared to ground kangaroos, they have longer, curved nails for gripping the bark. Their hind feet are longer, and they have spongy, padded grips on their palms and the soles of their feet. Perhaps most striking is their tail. It is longer and heavier than those of ground kangaroos, which gives them better balance as they climb. When they climb straight up a tree trunk, they wrap their forearms around the tree and use their powerful hind legs to "hop" up the tree.

They are terrific jumpers. They can leap from one branch to another that is thirty feet (9m) below them. And, this may be hard to believe, but they can leap to the ground from as high as sixty feet (19m) without getting hurt! Considering adults can weigh 25 to 30 pounds (11 to 14kg), this is astounding.

As mentioned above, tree kangaroos are marsupials. You know what that means, right? It means they give birth to their babies very early, and then the babies develop in an external pouch. The babies are only the size of jellybeans at birth. At that point, the only parts of their external anatomy that are well developed are their hands and mouth. They use their hands to crawl to the pouch, then they attach their mouth to a nipple and hang on—for a long time. Astoundingly, baby tree kangaroos stay in the mother's pouch for up to 275 days. And then, after they come out, they are not weaned for up to another 240 days!

The third photo is a Bennett's tree kangaroo with a large baby, getting almost too big to fit in her pouch.

There you go. Now you can regale your friends with your tree kangaroo knowledge.

Photo Credits:
- Goodfellow's tree kangaroo - DepositPhotos
- Matchie's tree kangaroo - DepositPhotos
- Bennett's tree kangaroo with baby in pouch - DepositPhotos

The Scariest Bird Ever - Terror Bird

The first novel in my Bridgers series takes place on a version of Earth where birds have evolved to fill all the niches that are filled by mammals on our Earth. However, in the past, our version of Earth has had some carnivorous birds that would give the monstrous birds in Bridgers 1 a run for their money. Including the Terror Birds. So, what the heck is a Terror Bird?

These were large flightless birds that lived in South America (and up into North America) between 62 million years ago and 15,000 years ago (although some evidence suggests they only survived until 1.8 million years ago). They were huge, fast, vicious predators. We have found evidence of about 25 species of terror birds. 

Terror birds were big! They ranged in size from 3.3 to 9.8 feet (1 to 3 meters) tall. We think the larger ones weighed at least 330 pounds (150 kg). In fact, the largest bird skull ever found was a terror bird skull, 28 inches (71 cm) long, with a wicked-looking predator beak 18 inches (46 cm) long.

Terror bird is an appropriate name for these creatures. They must have struck terror into the mammals they preyed on. They had clawed wings that were more like arms (hey... just like the birds in Bridgers 1). They had huge, powerful talons (hind feet). They almost definitely grabbed their prey with their huge beaks. But CT scans of their skulls indicate they couldn't swing their prey side to side with much force. They had much more power in their up and down motion, and therefore we think they killed their prey by grabbing the creatures in their massive jaws and bashing them into the ground repeatedly until dead. Today, roadrunners, seriemas, and secretary birds still practice this feeding technique.

And terror birds were fast. Based on the birds' size and the structure of their bones, scientists believe they could run at least 35 miles per hour (56 km/h). It's possible these birds sometimes ate large mammals, but most likely they commonly ate rabbit-sized creatures that were easier and less dangerous to kill.

Scientists are pretty sure there is a descendant of terror birds still living today. It's called the Seriema. There are two species, and they live in South America (where most of the terror birds once lived). They stand a little less than a meter tall. They can fly for short distances, but they typically hunt while running. They even escape predators by running, and they can run fast. Like their terror bird ancestors did, they chase down prey, such as insects, lizards, snakes, frogs, birds, and rodents, then kill them by repeatedly slamming them against the ground with their beak.

The third photo below is a red-legged seriema.

Photo Credits:
- Terror bird head - DepositPhotos
- Terror bird on dry lake bed - DepositPhotos
- Red-legged seriema - DepositPhotos

Life's Great Mysteries - Do woodpeckers get headaches from banging their heads all day?

Woodpeckers live pretty much everywhere in the world except Madagascar, Antarctica, and Australia and the surrounding islands, with more than 300 species worldwide. So, most people have seen these crazy birds banging their heads against trees like there’s no tomorrow. Why do they do it?

Three reasons. The first reason is to communicate to other woodpeckers, both to attract mates and to tell other woodpeckers this is their territory. This is called drumming, and it is the typical rapid series of hits that we usually hear from woodpeckers. Each species has a specific number of hits in the drumming roll, as well as a specific length of the roll, cadence, and other variables. This way, the birds can announce what species they are. Sometimes they even do this on houses with metal or plastic siding, simply because they like how loud it can be. While drumming, they hammer the tree up to 20 times per second, and during mating season, male woodpeckers make up to 12,000 hits per day.

The second reason is for hunting food. Woodpeckers are typically predators, feeding on insects and other small animals, and they often pound on the bark, or even burrow into soft trees with their beaks, to find these creatures.

The third reason is to excavate holes in trees to make their nests or to store food. In places where trees are in short supply, they will create cavities in large cactuses or even in vertical earth banks by rivers.

So, how do they do all this pounding without damaging their brains? Well, first, a millisecond before the bird’s beak hits the tree, thick muscles in the neck tighten, which causes the force to radiate down the neck muscles, thus protecting the skull. Woodpeckers also have some anatomical characteristics that help immensely. For example, woodpeckers have unusually small brains. Smaller brains have less mass, thus decreasing the chances of damage with each blow. Also, a woodpecker’s upper beak is not the same length as its lower beak, so only one beak hits the tree, softening each blow. Detailed scans show that woodpecker skulls are hard on the outside, with soft, spongy areas on the inside, concentrated where they can best cushion the brain.

A woodpecker’s brain fits tightly inside the skull, which keeps the brain from jiggling around. The brain is also oriented inside the skull to increase the area of contact when pecking, which further reduces stress on the brain. One researcher said the brain is “like a half orange with the flat side facing the front.”

So, these adaptations keep the woodpecker’s brain safe through all of that hammering.

Let’s end this head-splitting mystery with a smile: A woodpecker with a sore beak walks into a bar and asks, “Where is the bar tender?”

Here is a red-headed woodpecker that visited us a few months ago.

In our neck of the woods... Raccoon ingenuity, Part 2

A few days ago, I posted about the abundant raccoons and their young that like to invade our deck, looking for anything edible (including sugar water for the hummingbirds). Well, here is further proof of their determination and smarts.

We have a corn feeder that throws a handful of corn twice per day to give the deer and turkeys a nice treat. The 30-gallon feeder hangs from a winch system chained to a tree. Well, the winch finally gave up the ghost (the gears stripped), and I had to leave the feeder hanging near the ground while I ordered a replacement winch.

After only one day, we saw that a raccoon had figured out it could reach those few kernels of corn that always remain in the small space below the spinner and on top of the motor. Usually, there will be a dozen or so kernels sitting there. But the raccoon kept getting more corn... and more... and more.

I grabbed my camera and zoomed in on the critter. That's when I saw it had figured out how to manually turn the spinner and make more corn fall out onto the little platform. And more corn. And more.

Well, the winch arrived, so I guess I need to fix it so I can once again crank the feeder up out of the raccoon's reach. But, I'm wondering... now that the little genius has learned this trick, will it figure out a way to reach out from the tree and get unlimited corn? It would be a stretch, but we ARE talking about a raccoon here. The moment the critter sees that I've raised the feeder, one thought will go through it's little brain: Challenge accepted.

In our neck of the woods... Raccoons are proliferating

Our deck and yard are visited frequently by a mother raccoon with three youngsters, another with four youngsters, and even one with five. We have to bring our bird feeders in every night, or these little bandits will knock them down and destroy them. One night, I looked out on the deck, and a raccoon was standing on its tippy toes on the railing, reaching as high as it could to tip a hummingbird feeder sideways in such a way that the sugar water was pouring down into its mouth. Points for creativity, I suppose.

A few nights ago, we went out onto the deck to find a mother and four kids crawling all over everything. Adult raccoons will run off when you shout at them, but we have found that the youngsters simply freeze, and they hardly budge even when you nudge them along with your foot. This photo shows one that refused to move.

Raccoons exist over an astoundingly wide range, including all of North America, Central America, and into South America. Unfortunately, they have been introduced in Europe and Asia, and since raccoons are incredibly adaptive, and they even thrive in cities, they have proliferated in these other places as an invasive species.

Personally, I like seeing raccoons, but they can be persistent!

Life's Great Mysteries - Who is Tom, and why does he peep?

The phrase “peeping Tom” has been around for a long time, to describe a voyeur, someone who spies on other people, particularly for sexual gratification. Why do we always say Tom? Why not peeping Oliver, or peeping Hubert? Or, to be fair, why not peeping Jennifer? It’s always poor Tom.

Well, we need to look at some history to understand this seemingly unfair judgement of the Toms of the world. It all starts with Lady Godiva, who lived in the 11th century. A noblewoman, she was the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia. Mercia was one of three kingdoms founded when Anglo-Saxons settled in Sub-Roman Britain, now known as the English Midlands. Lady Godiva was a patron of several churches and monasteries.

In the 13th century (and possibly earlier), a legend emerged, in which Lady Godiva rode naked on a horse through the streets of the city of Coventry. According to the story, Lady Godiva pitied the people of Coventry, who were suffering because of her husband’s harsh taxation. She repeatedly asked her husband to lower his taxes, but he refused. Finally, to get her to stop pestering him, he said he would lower the taxes if she would remove all her clothing and ride a horse through the streets of Coventry naked. She decided to do it, but not before ordering all people to shut their windows and stay indoors. She rode through the city, covered only by her long hair. In later versions of the legend, starting in the 1700s, people added an interesting detail: a tailor named Tom, who was the only person in the city who peeked at her through his window to see her naked. Most versions of the story have Tom abruptly being killed or struck blind for this misbehavior (either by the local townspeople or by divine intervention).

Most historians do not consider this story to have much truth to it, and numerous versions have evolved over the centuries. The idea of adding Tom the peeping tailor to the story probably originated in verbal stories in the area of Coventry, and it didn’t show up in literature until the late 1700s.

Although Tom probably didn’t really exist, his deed has become part of our culture. Voyeurism is a punishable offense in many countries, usually a misdemeanor with a fine, which is nothing compared to Tom’s punishment of blindness or death.

Image Credit:
Peeping Tom - Midjourney 7

In our neck of the woods... Dumb Dude

I'd like to introduce you to Dumb Dude. Dumb Dude is an eastern wild turkey. Specifically, a tom (a mature male). Here is Dumb Dude in all his glory, strutting for the ladies. Impressive, don't you think?

Dumb Dude likes to hang around our property because this is apparently a good place to hook up with mates. Such as the hen in the second photo, which happens to be the hen he was strutting for when I took these photos.

There's a bit of a story behind Dumb Dude's unusual name. You see, this tom turkey is obsessed with my truck. Well, what he is actually obsessed with is his own reflection in the side of my truck. I don't mean he's slightly curious... he is obsessed. He will spend hours at a time standing in our gravel parking area and pecking at his reflection in the glossy black paint. I kid you not... hours. I can go out there and chase him off, but he'll come back within minutes.

Each time he pecks the truck, it leaves a slight mark on the paint, but I discovered these marks buff out easily, so I stopped worrying about it. Now there are hundreds of marks. Maybe thousands. And still, Dumb Dude enjoys this odd hobby of pecking at himself.

Well, the scientific explanation is that tom turkeys are naturally aggressive toward other toms in the spring when they tussle with each other (or their reflection) for the right to claim the hens. But seriously... hours at a time, pecking his own reflection?

Hence, Trish named this bird Dumb Dude.