Bill Glasheen wrote:
If you arbitrarily set a rule that the grass cannot grow above a certain height - and we can assume that Roundup isn't in the budget or business plan - then you've just set a bad rule. You're the grasslands guy; you should appreciate this. Someone like my son would cut the grass close like a putting green so he wouldn't have to cut it as much. It would look fantastic - for a few cuts. Before long, the fescue is waning and the yard is riddled with wiregrass, chickweed, and clover. Go on down the road to my neighbor with the plush lawn and you'll see he cuts it at 3 to 4 inches every time - and no closer. He has what a female friend of mine once called "sex grass." Bottom line - the rule is a dumb one. Fescue likes to be a bit taller than Bermuda grass or some equivalent. I in fact won't cut my grass much at all if the temperature hits above 90. I'll wait until a cold front is coming and cut it hours before it hits. When I look around the neighborhood, I note a few other property owners are out there at the exact time I am. Hmm... coincidence? I think not.
I am with you on this. My lawn is an island of drought-resistant fescue in a neighborhood sea of bluegrass. Bluegrass does not survive well in the generally arid Great Plains and my neighbors have to water it constantly to keep it alive, which becomes an issue when there are drought-induced water restrictions like last year. Meanwhile the number of times I water my lawn a year can be counted on one hand, and that is more to keep this clay soil from developing huge crevices when it dries out than it is for the plants. This year I have yet to water it once, since we have been getting decent rainfall so far, meanwhile my neighbors water regularly even in weeks with heavy rainfall
Likewise I cut it at 4 inches and rarely cut it during the hottest part of summer.
Quote:
Dumb rules begat dumb behavior.
My favorite example around here is that Lincoln planners like to have two lanes merge into one lane right after an intersection. This tends to encourage drivers to race each other to try to reach the merge ahead of the other, particularly when a red light turns green. While the driver behavior is at fault, I also lay blame with the planners who create this situation, something easily remedied by having the right-most lane end at the intersection as a right-turn only lane instead of merging into the left lane right after the intersection.
Quote:
But here's a brain twister for you. This is the common color of the peppered moth in Britain before the industrial revolution.
Here is the common color of the moth during the industrial revolution, when coal-burning plants were common.
Is this "natural" selection or "artificial" selection? Man after all caused this transformation - however accidental.
It is natural selection. The reason is that humans are not purposefully selecting for any traits in the peppered moth. Purposefully selecting larger cobs, more kernels per cob, taller plants, etc over many generations led to the development of Indian maize from a central Mexican grass called teosinte, and over the past 500 years maize has been further transformed into the dent corn that dominates the fields all around Lincoln.
Likewise our current dog is a Llewellin English Setter we adopted a little over a year ago. Llewellins look like
although mine looks more like this one in color patterns
Llewellins are a strain developed in the late-1800s and early 1900s by R. Purcell Llewellin (1840-1925). Both corn and Llewellins are the product of purposeful selection by humans of specific characteristics, and thus are considered the result of artificial selection.
In the case of the peppered moths, both forms exist in nature, we did not create any new forms. We did influence the population genetics by creating conditions that in some areas changed which moths were more susceptible to predation by birds, but the actual selection of the moths by the birds was still natural. Humans were not trying to select specific characteristics to permanently transform the moth, like we did corn and dogs, and the effect turned out to be temporary since increased pollution control has resulted in fewer areas favoring the darker form these days.
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
