Male or female?

I mentioned a couple of days ago that I'd made a video with Herman - a useful one, for a change. :-) Here it is. It's about how you can tell the sexes apart in turtles of the Chinemys species. It covers pretty much all the points you need to tell the sex of your Chinemys turtle. Only thing missing is that I only have males to show and no female. But there are some crucial features that the latter will be lacking that should mean you'll easily be able to tell anyway.

So does it matter which sex a captive freshwater turtle is? Yes, definitely, and for three reasons. One applies to all of them, and the others to ... not all species, but a lot. The last two reasons first: Size. A lot of freshwater turtles have significant sexual dimorphism - that is, physical differences between the sexes. Since these animals are oviparous, the females tend to be larger. And in Chinemys species, this size difference can be significant. As I mention in the video, any Chinemys larger than about 6" shell length will probably be female. But the females can also get a lot bigger than that. Worst case scenario the female will be twice the size of the male or more. o_O This has an impact on the enclosure you need to provide for your turtle - of course all captive turtles should be given as much space as possible, but a female Chinemys will require more space than a male.

If you have more than one specimen, the sex distribution is also important. Say one female and three or four males - that will usually be very unpleasant for the female, as she will receive a tremendous amount of attention from the males. The courtship may be quite intensive and the males may injure the female ... or, if the size difference is extreme, the female may get fed up with the constant nagging and injure or even kill the males. :-( So you'll want to consider carefully if you're going to mix the sexes.

Finally the last and most important reason why you need to know the sex of your turtle. An obvious reason, but still: Female turtles lay eggs. :-) I talk about this in the video, so I won't get into it here, but if you have a female turtle - of any species - make sure you provide proper laying opportunities for her. Egg binding is a very serious condition and it may kill your pet. :-(

Coming up October 8th

So, MyDamnChannel has a big premiere coming up this week. Spärhusen, about a fictional 1970s pop band ... who can't pronounce their own band name, apparently. :-D Keanu plays their producer. The series also has some other really cool people, like Illeana Douglas ... I like her a lot. Wallace Langham plays the band's manager and Keanu's best friend Rob Mailhouse plays one of the band members. I'm really looking forward to this. The premiere is on October 8th. I hope I'll be able to see it here right away, even though I'm outside North America.

Here's the trailer. Check out those totally fake-looking wigs. :-) And Keanu imitating a whale. :-D



Speaking of TV, people are stupid. I mean, really stupid. In the new season of Farmer Wants A Wife here in Norway they have a gay guy as one of the farmers. Now apparently TV2 have been getting a bunch of calls complaining about this. People saying that 'farmers shouldn't be gay' or whatever. o_O Not from his neighbors or people who actually know the guy, they all think it's fun that he's on the show. But from totally random strangers who are calling the channel and saying that they 'don't want to see this on TV'. o_O

What I'd like to know is who the hell is forcing them to watch it?? Turn off the damn TV and read a book if it's so offensive to ya. Sheesh, humans.

Quote of the Week, &c.

It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I cannot take seriously. I feel also not able to imagine some will or goal outside the human sphere.
Albert Einstein

This is a really interesting quote, IMO. It highlights one of the typical flaws of religious argumentation ... even though Einstein is arguing against religion, I know. I mean, I agree with him. Obviously. :-) But it's interesting that even such a great thinker at least this once fell into this very typical trap - he can't imagine it, so it can't be real. That's something creotards will often claim as an argument against evolution - they don't understand it, they don't see how it's possible, so then it can't be real and/or valid. But of course a failure of human understanding proves nothing except that human understanding sometimes fails. Even if you're Albert Einstein. :-)

A rhetorical question: Why do some people feel the need to jump down the throat of anyone who disagrees with them, even if they disagree politely and without offensive language? And can doing so be blamed on supposedly having ADD?

But more importantly, it's Herman's birthday today! (Or hatching day, whatever. :-) Yay! My little critter is six years old today. Aw. My special little guy. :-) As a birthday treat, he's going to get his usual dinner. Hey, he only has the hindbrain, he doesn't understand about birthdays. He's also getting to star in a Youtube video on how to differentiate between the sexes in the Chinemys species. I'm uploading it now, it's just taking forever.

Here he is a couple of days ago getting out of the small travel cage after one of these incredibly boring treatments he's been having - the last one was yesterday, so fingers crossed. :-)

Nordens Ark 2009

I'm not going to write 35 posts or whatever it was about my trip this year, but I've got to write some. :-) This first one will just show off the park a little bit ... some nature shots and what not ... and also a video that I made showing off the place. Not a lot of animals in that one, I've made others with the various animals. (Coming up, of course. :-) The park is just so beautiful in and of itself ... it's 20 years old now and it really shows, the woodlands are well established. It's also very well maintained, clean and neat and tidy. Just a gorgeous place all over. If you ever get the chance, please do visit. :-)

The Ark's hotel and restaurant, with the entrance in between the two buildings.

The entrance. 'Welcome to the Nordic Ark'! :-)

Animals born at the Ark in 2009.

The back of the building in the first shot. The entrance into the building is here. There are also picnic tables, and you can rent little carts to pull your gear or your kids around.

The road towards the 'Wild Park' and the entrance to the Land Farm.

Ducks enjoying the late summer sun.

Some ... nature ... along the side of the Southern Púdu enclosure.

Looking up into the trees. I really like taking shots like these, with the sun shining through the branches. :-)

Wilderness along the path from the panda enclosure.

Bright light, bright light ...

They have some vacant enclosures as well ... extra space just in case, I guess. :-)

The 'Wolf House' ... an outdoor and indoor picnic area with a small café which projects out into the wolves' enclosure. One of the best places to spot the wolf pack.

Wooded area between the wolves and the reindeer. :-)

Some of the old forest that's been left standing ... between the reindeer and the first of the big cats.

Next to the peregrine enclosure, I think.

Life finds a way ... :-)

They even have a rainbow ... ! ;-)

The aforementioned video.

Success!! ... or, I give up.

I was going to write a really deep & profound blog post today, all about religion and what's wrong with it. But I've spent so much time (and even some money) fiddling around with this goddamn decoder thing that now I don't have the energy to write more than just a short rant. >:-(

The reason why I spent money is that I have more than one doodad hooked up to my TV - a DVD player, the recorder, etc. And there's something wrong with the gadget that they're connected through ... the DVD player I can hardly use because I have to get up every two minutes (and I'm not necessarily exaggerating) to adjust the connector cable because the picture goes all wonky (eg, turns blue, yellow or pink). So I decided that now I'm digging through all this shit anyway I may as well get around to replacing those. Even though I should be trying to not spend money right now ... but generally speaking I have been really good about that. So.

The good news is that I have figured out a way to get the signal back via my DVD player. Or whatever the hell the problem was, I fixed it. Sort of. I can actually use the player now. Yay. :-) Canal Digital - thanks for nothing - can't contribute anything whatsoever. They claim that the problem is something with the settings on my TV set. WTF? Then those settings have been affected by their fucking update, because I did nothing to any settings at all other than what they asked me to do!! >:-( Anyway, I've unplugged the whole damn thing. It is now entirely unconnected to anything whatsoever except the surface of the table it's sitting on. I reconnected the player to the TV set the way it was before these idiots started fiddling with it. So now the DVD player works. Success?

Yees ... except that if I should want to watch anything on the channels I have via the decoder, I have to pull out that whole section of shelf again and disconnect and reconnect and whatever, and that's harder than it sounds because now I don't even remember what was connected to where on that stupid box. Argh. I need help.

I guess I sound kind of obsessed about this right now, I don't want to give the wrong impression ... It's not like my life is empty without my TV working. But right now it's just really nice to have a working DVD player so that I can watch some movies sometimes. Plus, not to mention that I have a lot of time right now to obsess about it. >:-) I've actually been really pissed off about this tonight ... and looking around me I still am, a little, when I see all these goddamn cables lying all over the floor and the shelf with the TV on it halfway out from the wall, lamps on the floor ... Argh. Again, I need some help.

But, anyway, I was in a really bad mood, but then I checked my subscriptions on Youtube and discovered that Pat Condell has uploaded a new video. And it's his best ever. Fantastic.

Look what I've got!!

This arrived in the mail from England today. Thank you so much, James!!! I wasn't going to blog about it, but after I read your letter I just had to. ;-) Thank you, I really appreciate it, so much. I can't wait to watch it. If only I could!! >:-( Stupid Canal Digital. I may have convinced them that there is a real problem now, though, but of course these things take forever to fix. Here's hoping. In the meantime, hm, maybe I have a friend or two who wouldn't mind watching this and who has a DVD player that actually works ... ?

Thanks again, James!! I'll email you tomorrow. ;-)

Books I've read in 2009 - September

High Society by Ben Elton – AUDIO
Summer of Love by Lisa Mason
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Juleoratoriet by Göran Tunström – AUDIO
The Crow Road by Iain Banks
Drottningens juvelsmycke by CJL Almqvist
Fitter by Juan Manuel de Prada
The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins
Katedralen vid havet by Ildefonso Falcones – AUDIO
Det ska bli ett sant nöje att döda dig by Magdalena Graaf
De gales hus by Karin Fossum
Paradiset by Liza Marklund
Muhajababes by Allegra Stratton
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood – AUDIO
Michael K by JM Coetzee
Sekten by Peter Pohl
The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

13 printed books, 4,038 pages
(+ one graphic novel which I have not counted in the page total).
4 audiobooks, 59h 50m.

Favorite fiction:
Summer of Love ... because it's taken me literally years to get around to reading it, and it turned out to be really great. :-)

Favorite nonfiction:
Ooh ... Sekten was really good, and I loved reading something by Pohl again, haven't done that in ages. He used to be one of my absolutely favorite writers when I was a teenager. But no, I think I have to say the Dawkins book. It was so well written and it explained things so beautifully. Everyone ought to read that book. :-)

Favorite audio:
I guess I have to say Katedralen vid havet ... I spent such an eternity reading it. :-D No, but it was just incredibly long ... more than 23 hours, I just felt like I was never getting to the end of it. But it was a really good book, very gripping, with great characters and a very vibrant setting. I'd recommend it, but you need some patience. ;-)