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“Once-in-a-Hundred Year” Sightings of Bamboo Blossoms Reported in Japan

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Re: “Once-in-a-Hundred Year” Sightings of Bamboo Blossoms Reported in Japan

#71

Post by Jedd »

checker wrote: post #31
Jedd wrote: post #10

Bamboo species are amazing. I grow Bambusa oldhamii - useful for food (shoots) and timber. It's a clumping variety, so quite easy to control, and tolerant (if not particularly happy) of dry, wet, heat, and cold. But my clones are taken from a variety that flowered in the 90's, IIRC, so there's some confidence they won't all flower (and immediately die) for another ~70 years. The variety they're talking about here is…

I wish my bamboo (inherited from a previous owner) would flower instead of battling me for control of my yard. I really need to read up on the best way to control it - sounds like my variety might be a "runner".

Sounds like it. I avoid runners, as the risk is just too high to recover them if they get away. Also in Australia most boo suppliers eschew running varieties, as suburbian horror stories abound.

As noted by dbcurtis, you need to have a physical barrier -- either metal (but that'll eventually corrode) or some very thick rubber (ditto), or concrete - to about 60cm depth, depending on variety. Alternatively they are typically stopped by roads and permanently running creek beds.

My clumpers (Bambusa oldhamii, B.multiplex, B. ventricosa, and B. gracilis) vary in height, but after 15 years the largest is, albeit a very dense, 1.5m diameter clump.

Re: “Once-in-a-Hundred Year” Sightings of Bamboo Blossoms Reported in Japan

#72

Post by hammock »

blahedo wrote: post #65
hammock wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't have to be counting up. Counting down would be much easier.

Counting up and counting down are the same thing, if 0 and 1 are arbitrarily assigned.

Help me understand. Here is what I am thinking:

If I have a cell with 5 "beans" (hypothetical counting organelle) in it. And the cell will die if it does not have at least one bean. These beans stack on top of each other like Legos, and "float" inside the cell so that the top bean is at the surface of the cell, exposed to the weather. Every winter the exposed bean dies, so that each year there is one less bean - and the next highest bean is now "floating" at the top. After 5 years there will be no beans left and the cell will die.

Now try to do that by counting up. How does it work?

Re: “Once-in-a-Hundred Year” Sightings of Bamboo Blossoms Reported in Japan

#73

Post by blahedo »

hammock wrote: post #72
blahedo wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counting up and counting down are the same thing, if 0 and 1 are arbitrarily assigned.

Help me understand. Here is what I am thinking: If I have a cell with 5 "beans" (hypothetical counting organelle) in it. And the cell will die if it does not have at least one bean. These beans stack on top of each other like Legos, and "float" inside the cell so that the top bean is at the surface of the cell, exposed to the weather. Every winter the exposed bean dies, so that each year there is one less bean - and…

Ooh, I thought your post was a response to the binary-counting one but it's a sibling to yours—my comment was referencing that. In a binary-based arithmetic system of fixed number of bits, counting up from 000 to 111 is isomorphic with counting from 111 down to 000 if you flip all the bits.

Re: “Once-in-a-Hundred Year” Sightings of Bamboo Blossoms Reported in Japan

#74

Post by thaumasiotes »

pvaldes wrote: post #36
mangatmodi wrote: post #13

Long back I read that Bamboo blossoms are often accompanied by famines due to rise in rat population.

In the past maybe. Now cats, dogs and foxes population just would explode. In the 21 century finding some glass jars or metallic recipients with a solid cover lid shouldn't be a great problem. If you can find a beer or a cocacola in your village you have yet a rat-proof recipient for safely storing seeds. Rodents are edible also if not other food is available Is also interesting to notice that this bamboo ecology fac…

> In the past maybe. Now cats, dogs and foxes population just would explode.

Why would the response of cats, dogs, and foxes be different now than in the past?

Re: “Once-in-a-Hundred Year” Sightings of Bamboo Blossoms Reported in Japan

#75

Post by Obi_Juan_Kenobi »

avip wrote: post #64
bluejellybean wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As another user mentioned, oscillating loops can achieve these phenomenon and they're extremely abundant in biology. The circadian rhythm is an excellent example of this behavior. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4758938/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4073891/

It's interesting the article says: ... even if there are no exogenous cues present, periodical patterns are still shown (1) indicating that these rhythms result from an internal time-keeping system. ... For humans, the most prominent circadian rhythm is the 24 h rhythm in the sleep-wake cycle. I thought it's a well-studied fact that humans settle on a 30 hours sleep-wake cycle in constant light conditions?

No, it's somewhat longer, but much less dramatic at around 25 hours: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/074873040301800...

However, your confusion is understandable.

Nathaniel Kleitman spent a month in a cave in 1938 studying sleep/wake cycles, and found that he could maintain a 28 hour cycle. He did this deliberately, however, and this does not reflect the circadian rhythm. Rather, this wake/sleep cycle depends on C (the circadian rhythm) and S, homeostatic effects that reflect the previous period of wakefullness. It's also entirely possible to sleep at any point in the circadian rhythm (as anyone who has napped will know), so the circadian rhythm can simply decouple in extreme wake/sleep cycles (e.g. 20h or 28h).

http://www.chronobiology.ch/wp-content/uploads/publications/...

Also, even with the circadian rhythm not being preciesly 24 hours, it's still 24 hours with entertainment. That's the standard physiological condition; it really is a 24-hour cycle. Free-running is like removing a component of the clock, seeing that it doesn't keep 24-hour time, and calling it broken. That's not the case; entrainment is part of the process and how the body keeps coordinated with its environment.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2717723/

Re: “Once-in-a-Hundred Year” Sightings of Bamboo Blossoms Reported in Japan

#76

Post by sdrg822 »

komali2 wrote: post #58
wbl wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coming from NJ I can safely say cicadeads are not made up.

I promise I am not trying to be an asshole here - is there some joke I'm missing about both of your spelling of cicadas?

I also have been wondering whether I am out of the loop on some joke...

Re: “Once-in-a-Hundred Year” Sightings of Bamboo Blossoms Reported in Japan

#77

Post by sdenton4 »

komali2 wrote: post #58
wbl wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coming from NJ I can safely say cicadeads are not made up.

I promise I am not trying to be an asshole here - is there some joke I'm missing about both of your spelling of cicadas?

I imagine its just that cicadas - when they finally show up by the millions - also die by the millions, and leave little crunchy carcasses EVERYWHERE.

Re: “Once-in-a-Hundred Year” Sightings of Bamboo Blossoms Reported in Japan

#78

Post by Terretta »

komali2 wrote: post #58
wbl wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coming from NJ I can safely say cicadeads are not made up.

I promise I am not trying to be an asshole here - is there some joke I'm missing about both of your spelling of cicadas?

In southeastern seaboard US states, some folks called them cicadas, some called them katydids, and some got the syllables confused and said things like katydeads or similar. Some people claimed the name depended on where you’re from.

But they’re not the same:

https://zippyfacts.com/what-is-the-difference-between-katydi...

Re: “Once-in-a-Hundred Year” Sightings of Bamboo Blossoms Reported in Japan

#79

Post by tdaltonc »

yorwba wrote: post #68
tdaltonc wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In undergrad I made models of oscillator genes. They allow for digital cycle counting. They can also be chained to give base-2 counting systems. For example, cycle of gene A turns on gene B be turns off itself, one cycle of gene B turns on gene C, turns on gene A and turns off itself, etc. This would give you a binary counter. Assuming they all oscillate the same frequency, you would get something like: +-------+---+…

Is there any particular reason you link to Wikiwand instead of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscillating_gene ? The content appears to be the same.

No. I think the wikiwand site looks nicer so my browser is set to auto redirect. For me, that's just how wikipedia looks now, so I forget that posting those links will look weird and sometime dodgy to other people.

Re: “Once-in-a-Hundred Year” Sightings of Bamboo Blossoms Reported in Japan

#80

Post by tdaltonc »

radarsat1 wrote: post #67
tdaltonc wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In undergrad I made models of oscillator genes. They allow for digital cycle counting. They can also be chained to give base-2 counting systems. For example, cycle of gene A turns on gene B be turns off itself, one cycle of gene B turns on gene C, turns on gene A and turns off itself, etc. This would give you a binary counter. Assuming they all oscillate the same frequency, you would get something like: +-------+---+…

Super interesting, thanks for that. I guess a synchronization mechanism could just be the cycle of sunlight.. I'm amazed though.

The sun is a great sync signal for diurnal cycles. And something about temp could be used for annual cycles. I would be very interested to know if you cloned a cicada (for example) and put it out in the wild, would it be able to get in sync with the wild ones or wound the clones clock stay out of phase?
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