Acme

I think Darwin gave the evidence as he found it, so yes I think it is true. As to the link, I'm using I'll give it again as it's just one of several. I don't know anything about 2cm, but the document is a PDF and moving the cursor to the bottom brings up a tool bar which allows you to increase the size as well as download the document to you computer to read offline as I have done. You can also increase a page size using your browser tools. The Formation Of Vegetable Mould, Through the Action of Worms, with Observations on Their Habits by Charles Darwin, LL.D., F.R.S. With Illustrations 1881] PS A couple more thoughts of a preemptive nature. Before I get the old 'science is just a belief like religion' crapola because I said "I believe Darwin', let me amend that to "yes, I have confidence in Darwin's research". Then too before I'm castigated for being insulting I point out that Bibbity's argument is an argument from personal incredulity and therefore a logical fallacy of a most insulting kind.

And I don't care what you believe. Get out and conduct your own experiments and stop with the one-liner potshots. Have you read Darwin's book that we are reading and discussing, or do you intend to read it? Or are you content to provoke skepticism with nothing to substantiate it? That last question is rhetorical of course; you have made the answer clear.

But that's the best part! While I do [obviously] enjoy the investigation and speculations involved, the better part -in my view- is in the knowing. After all, it is knowledge that is power and not speculation.

They -for the most part- anchor themselves in the burrow by their posterior end and stretch out the anterior [mouth] end as they search about for food and plugs. Darwin says that in the absence of leaves or twigs they will plug/cover their burrows with stones. He noted one instance that he observed of a stone 2oz in weight being pulled to cover the burrow and that the gripping action of the mouth is largely one of suction. I suggest you read Darwin along with Arc and I -if not StringJunky too- as it covers a great deal that we might otherwise speculate on.

Indeed. I referred to the downloadable PDFs at the Darwin Society link I gave in post #27. The text images that Arc has been posting come from similar, if not the same scans. However, on pages 58-59 Darwin says: I still think you may learn something by coloring the needle tips, though food coloring may be a better choice than the 'paint' I first suggested. Using different colors for loose needles and needles already pulled into burrows you can get some notion of their movement. You would be able to see if needles disappear down the burrows or stay more or less in place at the top, and you can pull out some needles that have been in place a while to see if the ends have been gnawed. Now that we have thawed you may see the activity resumed.

Nice find Arc! Alas my reading of Darwin has been stalled today due to the arrival of my new camera and the reading of its manual. (And I haven't taken a single photo yet. ) I will get to it. Perhaps there's a dab of resin at the needle's base that plays a roll in the selection. Something to do with closing the hole, or getting a good lip grip, or perhaps with their diet. ???

Jaunt away. The thread is a split from the git-go and "mine" only by proxy.

Maybe you just need a charge controller? I think you need one even if you have just wind-turbine or solar input so that you don't overcharge the battery. Here's a hybrid that looks like you can connect both solar & wind turbine inputs: Hybrid Charge controller

Enough with the bossiness. It's not up to you how we discuss the topic and your post just [further] derails the thread if our questions and answers were a derailment at all. If you think a post is out of line then report it. Please do not respond to this in the thread, rather if you care to respond to me then address the points I made at length beyond my seeking clarification from MigL.

OK. But isn't that just stating the obvious? I mean, doesn't everyone have a political affiliation, or leaning if you will?

This was raised in another thread. Want to explore it here. First, calling for someone to declare a political affiliation as MigL does is out of line. If someone wants to declare it fine, but setting it as some kind of test smacks of the very issue of some sort of test for voting. Something of a no true Scotsman fallacy in that if you belong to affiliation x you can be judged to not be a 'true' patriot or some such a matter. Again with the force. Oy vey. But I get it; no hedging. So, voting is a right as I see it. Period. What got this going was the business I brought up about the photo ID. The thing here is not about a voter being able to identify themselves, it's about trying to put an unreasonable restriction on what kind of ID. Just how does a photo ID trump a birth certificate? Let alone, what kind of identification is required to get a photo ID. Give me a break. The whole thing is no more or less than an attempt to limit voting by a class of people on the idea they won't vote the way the law promoters wish. It's a political dirty trick and one which I don't think will work. These laws have been challenged in court and also concerned groups have organized to get photo ID's for those who don't have them where these laws are applied. So too with the gerrymandering; political dirty tricks. As to felons, in many places they can have their voting rights restored after release. That is the case in my state of Washington, though I'm sure it varies. Making voters take a test about the issues is ridiculous, as is requiring people to vote. Where I am we vote by mail and a voter pamphlet with detailed information is mailed to every address. For refeerendums this includes detailed wording as well as arguments for and against the law. We also have a relatively new law for primaries wherein the top 2 vote-getters go on the ballot regardless of party. (I'm unsure still how well this will work to break the 2-party stagnation; too early to tell.) For the system to work the way it was intended, every effort should be made to have as many people as possible exercise their right to vote.

Those Brits! Am I being too pernickety-snickety? Hope you got that joke earlier; I was aware both are correct. Well, the drive is not in a machine. It came out of an old hand-me-down tower that had no USB or even a writable CD. I was moving and had no monitor for it so I took the drive out and junked the rest. I have a laptop now so no option to just plug the drive in like a desktop.

Muchas gracias. Alas, I may still be screwed. Color me 64 bit bitten (bited?). Note the misspelling of license is theirs. Anyway, I do have a licensed copy of Canvas and I checked a couple years ago about an upgrade and IIRC it was around $200. I may check again just for kicks. Even then my old Canvas files may or may not work in the new version. So on the issue of getting the data off the old hard drive. It's not in a machine, it's just the drive. I presume I could take it to a shop & they could transfer everything to a thumby. Oui/no? If oui, what could I expect it to cost?

Holding out on us!? That's the page that led me to the PDF that I linked to. Seems they have copies of different editions. I've just started but looking forward to Chuck's ascertainments of wormy intelligence. In The Botany of Desire, a story is told of Johnny Appleseed throwing away his shoe to punish his foot for having stepped on a worm. As to the path, Chuck makes some mention of them in his introduction in The Formation of Vegetable Mould.... and it seems that it may be misplaced to judge a worm on a path as being on an unfriendly surface. I would quote some germane bits but the PDF text copies as an image and I'm not predisposed at the moment to type it out. By all means have a look as I think you will enjoy.

I take exception to that. I wistfully cast back at the remembrance of the joy of that silly little blink on black which both invited and dared me on my dual 5.25 floppy 8088. Ah well, surrender gracefully the things long past. More on topic, I have a hard drive with Windows 98 and an early version of Deneba's Canvas among other programs. I would dearly love to be able to transfer it and run it on my Windows 7 lappy. Specifics on achieving this will be well received.

Excellent. Beyond the cameras, I have learned a fair amount about worms that I didn't know; tant mieux. If nothing else this all seems in the spirit of science discussion as it should be. Onward then. In your OP I was interested to learn that many earthworms in the US are not native and that these invasive species are doing -and have done- severe damage to forest ecosystems. Equally if not more interesting was finding that we here in the Pacific Northwest United States have some very large species of native earthworms. Here's a local link from Washington State University that outlines this situation: >> Are Worms Natural? The Global Worming Debate Beyond that in space and time is the -perhaps- little known last scientific book by Mr. Darwin. While I have known of it for many years I can't say that I ever read more than some citations from it. However, in researching the work for this post I found the full monty in PDF format and I have saved the file and will be reading it in its entirety. For any and all interested in joining me in the venture, here is the link: >> The Formation Of Vegetable Mould, Through the Action of Worms, with Observations on Their Habits by Charles Darwin, LL.D., F.R.S. With Illustrations 1881

Thanks for the new info Sensei. I did not order the adapter but I may do so in a couple months. If I see a need for the intervalometer I may get it as well. I saved both your links to favorites for future use. I downloaded the 204 page manual for the camera from the Nikon site and I'm about 2/3 of the way through. Damn there are a lot of features!! The L830 screen doesn't move forward as yours does so there's no hand gesture function but I'm not much of a selfies sort of guy so I expect the timer will take care of my needs. The screen does however tilt up & down which will be great for the low work I do photographing wildflowers. (Might help with wormies too! ) I have not had a new camera in many years & all-in-all I am thoroughly jazzed. Thanks too Arc for your broad allowance for my digressions here. Happy New Year again all.

I don't know offhand and I am disinclined to go look it up for you. If you're really interested in the whys and wherefores of the ID law efforts, Goggle is your friend. It may be an issue for another thread. Anyway, I have followed the news stories and this thread and now put in my penny's worth. I won't be flame-baited into yet another political pissing match thank you very much.

Thanks. I was not trying to steer away from the violence aspect, rather address some of the racial bias issues being introduced. The police violence, i.e. violence by police directed toward minorities in Ferguson, is simply a specific example of a wider general problem. While it hasn't received the national media attention that Ferguson has, Portland Oregon right across the river from me has similar problems/incidents that have brought attention from federal investigators. The Portland police not only kill unarmed racial minorities, but unarmed mentally unstable folks of all races. It has to do with the current line of argument, yes. The point was being made that blacks in Ferguson could vote in a way that balanced their police force racially, but if the blacks are being influenced in a way that limits their voting then their ability to influence the police force is limited. Whether that influence is codified as in voter ID laws or by districting or by un-codified means such as sundown 'rules' the intent is clear.

Because more minorities than whites are poor.

Then there is of course the Good Ol' Patriots working their tails off to put the kibosh on poor and minority voters under the guise of voter fraud which does not exist. Missouri is among the states so disposed. UFO Sightings Are More Common Than Voter Fraud The GOP says election fraud is rampant. A close look at the numbers shows there's no evidence of that.

At the risk of being off topic I'm going to revisit this. As promised I looked up the specs on your camera and I was duly impressed. Not only the things you mention but the swiveling view screen which would make life so much easier for my visual impairments. So impressed was I that I was going to buy one, but it's an older model and I could only find them used. Undeterred I looked into new Nikon Coolpix cams and found the new Coolpix L380 to my liking and within my means. It arrives Saturday!! Thank you double time Sensei; you da scientist. :-)

Greed by any other name and in any other place will stink as bad.

Yup. With all the machines being wasted in London it sounds like an opportunity for a startup business specializing in their removal from basements. Reassemble them for resale as well as reselling used or refurbished parts. In this vid 6 guys disassemble & reassemble a Jeep in 4 minutes. http://www.snotr.com/video/5516/assembling_and_disassembling_a_car_in_4_minutes/ . It's tough finding an exact quote for the JCB brand in the OP but I found similar diggers (we call them backhoes in the states) going for $40,000 US dollars.

Roger that. I can also imagine the machine manufacturers saying/threatening a void warranty if a machine was disassembled and reassembled, unless by them at a high cost of course. Obviously they would want to sell new machines.