If homing pigeons wonder why humans are always driving them to faraway spots and leaving them behind, they dont hold it against us. They just keep coming back, providing prize money for pigeon racers and new data for scientists studying the navigational powers of an avian brain. Now those scientists have discovered a new trick in pigeons homing toolkit: the birds learn best when traveling near a boundary.

A homing pigeon thats looking for its loft can use many kinds of clues. It may navigate by the sun, the earths magnetic field, or the smell of a nearby chocolate factory. It might use visual landmarks, too. The birds seem to return well to the spires in the center of Oxford, for example, says Uppsala University mathematics researcher Richard Mann. However, Mann says, What has been missing is a direct link from something we can measure about [any] landscapeto a measurable change in the birds navigational behavior.

So Mann and his colleagues studied the flight paths of 31 homing pigeons, recorded by tiny GPS devices the birds wore on their backs. Each pigeon flew home 20 times from one of four different sites around Oxford. The birds had never been released at these sites before the study began.

Using an aerial photograph of the landscape around Oxford, the researchers calculated how simple or complex the birds-eye view was from one pixel to the next. They did this using edges, or changes in intensity in the image, Mann explains. You get a lot in cities and in forests, while an open field has fewer.

Left: Paths to the pigeons home loft from each of the release sites, ranging from 5 to 10.6 kilometers away. Right: The same aerial image filtered to show edges, or complexity. Boundaries between dark and light areas were where the birds learned best.

Then they calculated how similar each flight was to the flight taken right before it. As a bird repeated the same trip over and over, how quickly did it memorize the route it would stick to?

A birds faithfulness to one route, the scientists saw, depended on the complexity of the landscape it was flying over. Very complex spaces with lots of edgeslike the middle of the city, or dense areas of forestwerent ideal. (Previous studies have found that its hard to teach pigeons a route over a city, and that the birds avoid flying over certain patches of woodland.) But empty spaces werent great either.

There seemed to be a kind of Goldilocks landscape, not too dense and not too open, over which the pigeons learned best. Mann says you can picture this ideal scenery as a view that was half open field, half houses or dense trees. In other words, a boundary between an open area and a city or a forest. I think it is likely that the pigeons are [using] these large-scale boundaries as landmarks, Mann says, when they navigate their way home.

Mann has mostly moved on from navigation research and is now studying collective behavior in birds, fish, and humans. In homing pigeons, he and scientists at Oxford are now trying to find out how flocks of birds can pool their knowledge to navigate as a group. Mann has also published a paper about the best strategy for a game of Battleshipa problem that, compared to navigating home from an unfamiliar place, is more suited to a feeble human brain.

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Homing Pigeons Like to Live on the Edge

The mid-point of the 2013-14 scholastic season has come and gone, and much has happened in the high school wrestling landscape. This includes the development of Aaron Pico no longer being part of the scholastic wrestling pool. Pico is going to focus exclusively on an international wrestling career, and then move onto mixed martial arts. Since he is no longer wrestling scholastically, or in college, Pico will no longer be evaluated in the grade rankings. As a result, Mark Hall moves into the No. 1 slot for the Class of 2016. The other four No. 1 positions remain unchanged: Kyle Snyder (Good Counsel, Md./USOTC) leads the 2014 group, Lance Benick (Totino Grace, Minn.) is best in the 2015 class, Spencer Lee (Franklin Regional, Pa.) is tops among the Class of 2017, while Cade Olivas (California) is the top junior high wrestler.

A notable mover in the senior class is Dylan Milonas (Blair Academy, N.J.), who is now No. 18 after winning titles at the Ironman and Beast of the East. An additional positive mover in that group is Zeke Moisey (Bethlehem Catholic, Pa.) up to No. 21 after winning titles at both the Beast of the East and the Escape the Rock Tournament.

Among juniors the notable mover is Ke-Shawn Hayes (Park Hill, Mo.), who is now No. 4 overall after winning titles at both the Walsh Ironman and Kansas City Stampede.

A newcomer to the junior high top 15 is Theorius Robinson (Colorado), who won a title at the Tulsa Nationals earlier this month.

InterMat Platinum is required to view all the rankings.

Class of 2014 | Class of 2015 | Class of 2016 | Class of 2017 | Class of 2018+

Sneak Peek

Below is a sneak peek at the top wrestlers in each grade.

Class of 2014 (Top Ten): 1. Kyle Snyder (Good Counsel, Md.) 2. Chance Marsteller (Kennard Dale, Pa.) 3. Bryce Brill (Mount Carmel, Ill.) 4. Nick Nevills (Clovis, Calif.) 5. Bo Nickal (Allen, Texas) 6. Micah Jordan (St. Paris Graham, Ohio) 7. Jason Nolf ( Kittanning, Pa.) 8. Joey McKenna (Blair Academy, N.J.) 9. Thomas Haines (Solanco, Pa.) 10. Sam Stoll (Kasson-Mantorville, Minn.)

Class of 2015 (Top Five): 1. Lance Benick (Totino-Grace, Minn.) 2. Logan Massa (St. Johns, Mich.) 3. Anthony Valencia (St. John Bosco, Calif.) 4. Ke-Shawn Hayes (Park Hill, Mo.) 5. Myles Martin (McDonogh, Md.)

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Grade rankings updated; Hall now No. 1 sophomore

Submitted The Aragon by Toll Brothers is one of two quick-delivery homes available in Bonita Lakes.

Bonita Lakes by Toll Brothers is offering homebuyers the opportunity to immediately move in to the home of their dreams. The Athena and award-winning Aragon quick-delivery homes are available.

The Athena home design positions the study and formal dining room directly off the foyer. The generous great room opens to a well-designed kitchen with a large center island. The open layout features three bedrooms and two full baths in 2,649 square feet. Set in a lush tropical landscape, the Athenas custom pool and spa enable homebuyers to enjoy Southwest Floridas weather. The home is priced at $489,995.

The one-story Aragon features a foyer, formal dining room and study. The great room is perfect for entertaining, with its coffered ceiling and glass doors leading to the outdoor covered lanai, which includes a custom pool and spa. The three-bedroom, three-and-a-half bath Aragon home encompasses 3,120 square feet and is priced at $599,995.

These move-in ready homes are two of the most popular Toll Brothers designs in Bonita Lakes, said Kevin Brown, vice president of Toll Brothers Florida West Division. Each home features an open layout and expansive great room, making them perfect for all homebuyers.

A gated community, Bonita Lakes offers 11 single- and two-story home designs, ranging from 2,058 to 4,354 square feet of air-conditioned living space. Ten of the homes feature a first-floor master suite, and every design offers four elevation options with an extensive list of luxury features included with each home. Prices range from the low $300,000s to the $500,000s.

Online at BonitaLakes.com.

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Bonita Lakes by Toll Brothers offers new move-in ready homes

Pool and Landscape Remodel - Arizona
Alexon Design Group has provided a before and after video of a complete pool and landscape remodel completed in late 2013. Visit http://www.alexondesign.com/...

By: Alexonaz

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Pool and Landscape Remodel - Arizona - Video

>> UC Merced: Natural Reserve earns regents' approval

By Kathleen Wong

Rolling grasslands that harbor rare vernal pool ecosystems next door to UC Merced have joined the UC Natural Reserve System. The 6,561-acre Merced Vernal Pools and Grassland Reserve will enable students and faculty to study fairy shrimp, endemic plants and some of North America's oldest soils just minutes from campus. Most of California's original vernal pool habitats have been destroyed, making the new reserve a critical refuge for rare and endangered plants and animals.

"It's like taking a national monument and bumping it up to a national park," says Sam Traina, UC Merced vice chancellor of research, of the reserve's new designation. "Having it as part of the UC Natural Reserve System increases its visibility, opening it up to students and faculty from all over the world, and it anchors our commitment to the land and its conservation."

"This new reserve protects one of the most extensive vernal pool landscapes remaining in the state," says Peggy Fiedler, director of the UC Natural Reserve System. "We're deeply pleased and proud to help make this rare place available to scientists, artists, students, and classes over the long term."

The Merced Vernal Pools and Grassland Reserve is the 39th reserve in the system, a network of protected areas throughout California providing undisturbed environments for research, education, and public service. The NRS includes more than 750,000 acres, making it the largest university-administered reserve system in the world. UC Merced will perform day-to-day management of the reserve, while the NRS systemwide office will administer it via NRS guidelines. The reserve will be funded in perpetuity by UC Merced and a generous endowment from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

"If you look at the key reasons for having the reserve-education, research, and our requirement to be good stewards of the land-being part of the NRS will help us do a better job of all three," says reserve director Christopher Swarth. "It's a feather in the cap for UC Merced."

The reserve's namesake pools form due to a combination of local soils and California's Mediterranean climate. Winter and spring rains deliver the area's yearly allotment of moisture. But instead of percolating into the earth, a layer of impervious hardpan near the soil surface causes water to pond. Inundation awakens a flurry of life in the pools. Many-legged fairy, tadpole, and clam shrimps hatch. California tiger salamanders emerge from upland burrows and trek to the pools to mate and lay eggs. As the days grow warmer, and the water begins to evaporate, native wildflowers bloom in concentric rings of yellow, white, and blue around pool edges. Young salamanders lose their gills, and leave their natal pools to find a welcoming nearby ground squirrel burrow. The shrimps lay eggs containing embryos in suspended animation. By June, the pools are little more than a memory, and their inhabitants are prepared for triple-digit temperatures and many months without rain.

Few species can tolerate such harsh environmental conditions. For this reason, vernal pools are strongholds of native species that have evolved to cope with short periods of inundation and many months of desiccation. The reserve hosts four out of California's 23 species of fairy shrimp, among them the endangered Conservancy fairy shrimp (Branchinecta conservatio) and vernal pool fairy shrimp (B. lynchi). Other endangered species present include the California tiger salamander (Ambystoma californiense) and 24 species of endemic, rare and protected plants. The reserve also serves as potential habitat for the endangered San Joaquin kit fox (Vulpes macrotis mutica), which occurs on nearby lands.

More than 57 bird species have been spotted on the reserve, including Swainson's and ferruginous hawks, burrowing owls and grassland songbirds. "Sometimes you encounter flocks of horned larks that stream toward you, hundreds of them, in an unending group," Swarth says.

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Merced Vernal Pools join Natural Reserve System

(ANDREW CROWLEY)

At Endsleigh, where the garden relates so strongly to the house, Olga is in her element: she has designed the interior and implemented various tweaks to the exterior. The inside and out work in harmony and reinforce the picturesque style of the architecture as designed by Sir Jeffry Wyatville.

The absence of change to the gardens from the original design is emphasised by leafing through Reptons Red Book for Endsleigh. You can see his watercolours of the original landscape with the overlays of his proposals which look remarkably true to todays views.

Repton did much work for the Duke of Bedford, especially at Woburn, and Endsleigh (a glorified holiday cottage) was maintained, but the design was left pretty much untouched. It stayed with the family until 1955 when it was taken over by relatives of the late dukes, including sons and grandsons. They together formed the Fishing Friends and shared the property.

The garden became rather neglected, but the hurricane of 1987 brought massive tree loss. This event, coupled with a realisation of the importance of the landscape, galvanised the fishing club into action. Members wives joined their husbands and instead of fishing, they were out weeding and restoring.

Olga Polizzi and her daughters bought Endsleigh eight years ago. The head gardener, Simon Wood, had been working there for 14 years and is now in day-to-day charge of the restoration. About half of the 60-acres of woodland has become walkable and are full of stunning specimens acers, cherries, cedars and more including fine champion trees. His programme includes restoring paths and removing much of the self-sown ash and sycamore that has taken over.

Simons favourite part is the Dairy Dell, a steep-sided valley of more than 40 acres, exposed bedrock and many fine trees. There is a stream running through it. The tiny model dairy was built for Georgiana a down-to-earth duchess who married the sixth duke in 1803 who liked to milk the cows. In 1910, more exotic trees were planted here, especially maples and cherries, as a result of the Duke of Bedford funding plant expeditions to Japan.

The garden has other striking areas, such as the hexagonal Shell House and Grotto , which was designed as a summer house for the display of geological specimens. The rockery and grotto have a central pool and a fountain, many beautiful pebbled paths and are connected to the dell by a serpentine flight of stone steps. Another extraordinary feature is a small terrace constructed from sheeps knuckles. These are intricately laid to form hard paving.Presumably, the duke had a thrifty side and lots of sheep. Now, using like-for-like replacements is illegal, so Olga has to substitute special plastic alternatives.

Elsewhere, a few minor alterations have been made to enhance the gardens for guests. Another adjacent terrace was all grass, but to cope with garden furniture it has been surfaced with crushed slate Olgas daughter Alexs idea, which fits in well.

Lawns have been reseeded and the 100m-long herbaceous border (perhaps the longest uninterrupted herbaceous border in the country ) that Repton designed has been renovated. When it was a holiday cottage for the Bedfords, a border full of summer flowering show-offs, such as delphiniums, aconitums and poppies, was perfect, but now other plants, such as hellebores and euphorbias, have been added to increase the year-round appeal. Historic watercolours of their former incarnation have been studied to retain the original feel, though.

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Happy 200th birthday to a legendary hotel garden

Anyone who has gone to the California Maritime Academy campus to watch a basketball game has likely found the seating area a little, say, snug, if not downright crowded.

That shouldn't be the case when the new Physical Education and Aquatics Center on the South Vallejo campus opens next year.

Under construction since March, the new building will house a large swimming pool, basketball courts, classrooms and various offices.

Construction activity, plus new walls, concrete slabs and other features can clearly be seen to anyone driving by the campus on Interstate 80 or on local streets nearby.

"This is a big project for our little school," said Kurt Lohide, Cal Maritime vice president for administration and finance.

Once complete, the main gymnasium will seat 650 spectators -- about 500 more than the current gym in Mayo Hall.

That old gym plus the existing pool have changed little over the last five decades and hearken back to a time when the student population was about 200, far fewer than the record number of students who have applied for entrance to Cal Maritime, about 1,045.

The new building will have "California Maritime Academy" and "California State University" in large lettering on the outside, making it clear to those driving in the vicinity that Vallejo is home to a state university.

Estimated to cost about $29 million, the new gymnasium and outdoor pool are part of an evolving Cal Maritime landscape which also includes a new dining hall, new bookstore and new building to house the campus police department.

Construction of the new gymnasium is funded through state bonds and represents an expansion of the Cal Maritime footprint well outside its boundaries on Morrow Cove.

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New gym, swimming pool taking shape on Cal Maritime campus

The Kingsmen Pool on a busy afternoon in 1954.

image credit: West Vancouver Archives

Many North Shore residents growing up in the '50s, '60s and '70s took their first swimming lessons at Kingsmen Pool in Ambleside Park.

Overlooking Stanley Park and Lions Gate Bridge, the outdoor pool was once a popular hangout on sunny days.

The photo above was snapped on a busy afternoon in 1954, the year the pool opened.

At first the landmark location was heavily used, but attendance began to decline when the West Vancouver Aquatics Centre was built nearby.

In 1977, less than 11 months after the new indoor facility was created, the Kingsmen Pool was filled in.

This year marks the pool's 60th anniversary.

The landscape has changed a skatepark and basketball courts now take up the area but memories haven't faded.

And there are calls to bring back an outdoor pool to West Van.

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Ambleside pool fondly remembered on 60th anniversary

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) January 17, 2014

San Mateo Architect, Max Woo, has lived in his San Mateo home for over twenty years and recently embarked on a huge remodel project in his backyard. The new landscape design included utilizing an artificial boxwood hedges on existing concrete walls that surrounded the patio, pool, and tennis court areas. The deck was also redesigned, and everything was included to compliment the minimalist, low maintenance theme of the property.

Architect Woo, consulted with his general contractor and Geranium Street Floral for the artificial boxwood hedge. He decided on a UV rated directional artificial boxwood hedge to cover the walls around the pool and deck area. He later extended the hedge wall to cover portions of the tennis court area. The project was one of Geranium Streets biggest installs to-date.

We worked closely with Max and the general contractor to construct the artificial hedge wall so that it would conform to local building codes, and be durable enough to last, said Geranium Street president, Bob Smith. We learn new tricks on each job that helps us to more efficiently create artificial hedge walls... added Smith.

To construct the wall, Geranium Street pros attached blankets of artificial hedge mats to corrugated steel frames and then attached those frames to the ten-foot concrete walls surrounding the back yard. The results were quite impressive and the artificial hedge wall added some much needed texture to the otherwise bare walls. The artificial hedge wall looks particularly nice beside the pool.

An artificial boxwood hedge has good sound proofing qualities, and that is a plus, especially near a pool or tennis court, Smith said. The artificial hedge acts as a muffle to harsh sound waves that echo off of flat concrete walls. This will decrease the noise in the tennis court, or when many people are using the pool or deck area. The other factor Woo liked was that the artificial hedge was maintenance free. Geranium Street Floral has recently installed artificial hedge walls at other properties in San Francisco, Palm Springs, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Las Vegas.

About Geranium Street Floral: Geranium Street Floral is the premium provider of Outdoor Artificial Plants, Artificial Hedge Panels, Artificial Bamboo, Boxwood Bushes, Boxwood Balls, Topiary, and more. Conveniently located in beautiful San Marcos, CA, theyre here to provide all of your artificial plant needs 7 days a week.

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Related Hashtags: #GoogleTrending #BreakingNews #ArtificialHedge #FakePlants #TreeTuesday #GeraniumStreet #MaxWoo

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San Mateo Architect, Max Woo Remodels Own Home with Artificial Hedge Design

Jan. 17, 2014, midnight

THE Albury Council is digging Thurgoona and its residents out of a giant hole that has been an eyesore for years.

THE Albury Council is digging Thurgoona and its residents out of a giant hole that has been an eyesore for years.

The Thurgoona pool will soon be gone, with work already started.

The council set aside $50,000 for the project in its 2009-10 budget, which was not enough.

So it now has $183,280 set aside to remove the pool, compact the soil and extensively landscape the area.

We are elated, absolutely thrilled. It has been a long time coming, Thurgoona Community Centre co-ordinator Sherylyne Moran said.

It gives us an area the community can use.

We want to turn the area into a barbecue and recreation area the community can use.

Concept plans show a community hall on the grounds near the neighbourhood house which would double in size.

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Good riddance to an ugly hole