Here's an article from the Toronto Star newspaper (HERE and copied below) written by my first-year journalism teacher Curtis Rush, who convinced me in the second term not to drop out of Humber College's journalism school when I was completely despondent over the lack of skill being shown our school news paper's editors.
He told me to hang on, get to the second-year when I would be one of the editors on the school paper then called The Coven, and make the changes necessary to elevate the newspaper to a new level.
One year later, my classmates and I had done that - ensuring every campus of Humber was well represented with news (okay, at least the Lakeshore Campus - as I was trying to date the women's athletic director there, the beautiful blue-eyed and extremely sexy Connie Ryan - to no real avail, but at least I she and I became friends, and showed me I could date beautiful women). We also took to editing like a rooster takes to crowing at daybreak and made that paper one of the best school newspapers in Canada. Guys like Kevin Paterson, Mike Kirkey, and my current boss (?!) George Guidoni - we all did great work. Yeah, it's strange to me, too, but GG is a great egg.
As well, thanks to the efforts of our newspaper, plus one during a teacher's strike - the Ad Hoc (my punny play on words for the Humber Hawks school nickname), I was invited to take part in the very exclusive Toronto Star Summer Internship Program, which I helped play off in to being accepted into the JET (Japan Exchange & Teaching) Programme.
And, since I got to Japan and then created this blog, for better or worse, every time I write something here, it's because of Curtis.
Now... here's what Curtis Rush wrote:
He told me to hang on, get to the second-year when I would be one of the editors on the school paper then called The Coven, and make the changes necessary to elevate the newspaper to a new level.
One year later, my classmates and I had done that - ensuring every campus of Humber was well represented with news (okay, at least the Lakeshore Campus - as I was trying to date the women's athletic director there, the beautiful blue-eyed and extremely sexy Connie Ryan - to no real avail, but at least I she and I became friends, and showed me I could date beautiful women). We also took to editing like a rooster takes to crowing at daybreak and made that paper one of the best school newspapers in Canada. Guys like Kevin Paterson, Mike Kirkey, and my current boss (?!) George Guidoni - we all did great work. Yeah, it's strange to me, too, but GG is a great egg.
As well, thanks to the efforts of our newspaper, plus one during a teacher's strike - the Ad Hoc (my punny play on words for the Humber Hawks school nickname), I was invited to take part in the very exclusive Toronto Star Summer Internship Program, which I helped play off in to being accepted into the JET (Japan Exchange & Teaching) Programme.
And, since I got to Japan and then created this blog, for better or worse, every time I write something here, it's because of Curtis.
Now... here's what Curtis Rush wrote:
Roosters use internal clock to decide when to crow: Study
Anybody who has been awakened by a rooster’s crowing knows the fowl like to perform their “cock-a-doodle-do” at daybreak.
However, what accounts for the fact that roosters also crow at different times of the day?
Researchers from Nagoya University in Japan wanted to find out if crowing was under the influence of an internal clock or was simply caused by external stimuli.
After assessing roosters under various conditions, the researchers concluded that they are governed by an internal clock, triggering their crows in the pre-dawn hours.
Study author Takashi Yoshimura reported that, while roosters crow at different times of the day and under varying light conditions, their crowing is most predominant at the first light of day.
“Although external stimuli such as light and crowing by other individuals also induce roosters’ crowing, the magnitude of this induction is also regulated by the circadian clock,” Yoshimura wrote.
Audio and video recordings were used to study three groups of four roosters that were placed in light- and sound-tight rooms.
Crowing was observed about two hours before the onset of light, which is called anticipatory predawn crowing.
Under round-the-clock dim light conditions, crowing was also observed about two hours before daybreak. The crowing “gradually damped out,” Yoshimura stated.
And in constant light conditions, crowing was observed most strongly at daybreak.
“These results clearly indicated the involvement of a circadian clock in anticipatory predawn crowing,” the study author reported.
Although it was noted that roosters also respond to external stimuli such as light or the sound of other roosters crowing, the crowing was “significantly higher” during the early part of the day.
That indicated that the roosters’ internal clocks take precedence over external cues, the study found.
“Our observations prove that the rooster breaks the dawn every morning as a function of his circadian clock,” Yoshimura said.
The findings are just the start of research into roosters’ crowing, which isn’t learned like the songbirds or human speech, the researchers say.
“We still do not know why a dog says ‘bow-wow’ and a cat says ‘meow’,” Yoshimura wrote.
The research was reported on March 18 in Current Biology.
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Nicely done, Curtis, however, as an aside, in Japan, a cat is thought to say 'nyaa' and a dog 'wan-wan'. So, what the heck is Yoshimura actually saying? Or did he thoughtfully translate those words to English, for the article. In Japan, they say a rooster's crow is 'koke kokko'. Regardless, they still crow when the sun comes up - Day Light Saving's Time be damned.
I loved teaching the students at my junior high schools in Ohtawara-shi, Tochigi-ken Japan the different sounds. Of course, being a half-way decent mimic, I can make the real sounds, and can assure you that even us so-called native English speakers have stupid words that do not sound like onomatopeia (the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it like 'buzz' or 'hiss'. I would then bark deeply like any of the three rottweilers I owned at the time, freaking out the kids who wondered just what the hell was wrong with their gaijin (foreigner) Canadian sensei (teacher).
A strange talent to have, but this puppy can be an animal. Just don't wake me up at daybreak. Stupid rooster.
And - look at that. A blog about Japanese scientists, birds and me.
Cheers
Andrew Joseph
Anybody who has been awakened by a rooster’s crowing knows the fowl like to perform their “cock-a-doodle-do” at daybreak.
However, what accounts for the fact that roosters also crow at different times of the day?
Researchers from Nagoya University in Japan wanted to find out if crowing was under the influence of an internal clock or was simply caused by external stimuli.
After assessing roosters under various conditions, the researchers concluded that they are governed by an internal clock, triggering their crows in the pre-dawn hours.
Study author Takashi Yoshimura reported that, while roosters crow at different times of the day and under varying light conditions, their crowing is most predominant at the first light of day.
“Although external stimuli such as light and crowing by other individuals also induce roosters’ crowing, the magnitude of this induction is also regulated by the circadian clock,” Yoshimura wrote.
Audio and video recordings were used to study three groups of four roosters that were placed in light- and sound-tight rooms.
Crowing was observed about two hours before the onset of light, which is called anticipatory predawn crowing.
Under round-the-clock dim light conditions, crowing was also observed about two hours before daybreak. The crowing “gradually damped out,” Yoshimura stated.
And in constant light conditions, crowing was observed most strongly at daybreak.
“These results clearly indicated the involvement of a circadian clock in anticipatory predawn crowing,” the study author reported.
Although it was noted that roosters also respond to external stimuli such as light or the sound of other roosters crowing, the crowing was “significantly higher” during the early part of the day.
That indicated that the roosters’ internal clocks take precedence over external cues, the study found.
“Our observations prove that the rooster breaks the dawn every morning as a function of his circadian clock,” Yoshimura said.
The findings are just the start of research into roosters’ crowing, which isn’t learned like the songbirds or human speech, the researchers say.
“We still do not know why a dog says ‘bow-wow’ and a cat says ‘meow’,” Yoshimura wrote.
The research was reported on March 18 in Current Biology.
-------------------------------------
Nicely done, Curtis, however, as an aside, in Japan, a cat is thought to say 'nyaa' and a dog 'wan-wan'. So, what the heck is Yoshimura actually saying? Or did he thoughtfully translate those words to English, for the article. In Japan, they say a rooster's crow is 'koke kokko'. Regardless, they still crow when the sun comes up - Day Light Saving's Time be damned.
I loved teaching the students at my junior high schools in Ohtawara-shi, Tochigi-ken Japan the different sounds. Of course, being a half-way decent mimic, I can make the real sounds, and can assure you that even us so-called native English speakers have stupid words that do not sound like onomatopeia (the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it like 'buzz' or 'hiss'. I would then bark deeply like any of the three rottweilers I owned at the time, freaking out the kids who wondered just what the hell was wrong with their gaijin (foreigner) Canadian sensei (teacher).
A strange talent to have, but this puppy can be an animal. Just don't wake me up at daybreak. Stupid rooster.
And - look at that. A blog about Japanese scientists, birds and me.
Cheers
Andrew Joseph
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