Every time I hear that song, I can’t help to think back to last summer floating down the East Canada Creek on my rubber truck tube after smoking some truly europhic grass and drinking much too much coffee. There’s just something about those Grateful Dead lyrics that are so hilarious when your high as fuck – your heart racing, laughing uncontrollably – the idea of playing cards with a Dire Wolf, begging him not to murder you.
Like so many things in this world, it’s often more fun to think about it then do it. Maybe because in your imagination you don’t have look to carefully at the downsides of it. As much as I like smoking pot, I actually enjoy more being sober and thinking about those good times high as one can be. That warm sun, the laugher, and cold water and singing along, “Don’t Murder Me!” I am sure there are those who find such behavior to be concerning, but in the wilderness, who really gives a damn?
There is a time to be serious and do work. But also good times, high times on vacation full of laughter and enjoyment. Often people are too staid and unwilling to have a little drug-induced fun to free them from their everyday problems and fears. Turn off the news, and just laugh a bit. And even when you aren’t high, spend some time looking back and remembering those high times.
If you’ve ever driven along a highway or walked through an old, abandoned pasture, you’ve likely seen the Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana). These resilient evergreens a pioneer species because they are among the first to move back into disturbed sites like mines or abandoned, worn-out farmland.
A Survivor Against All Odds
The Eastern Red Cedar is an anomaly in the natural world. Most pioneer species are short-lived, meant to pave the way for larger forests. However, this tree can live for over 900 years. It thrives where others struggle, surviving in everything from dry, rocky soil to rich riverbanks. Its secret? An extensive, fibrous root system and small leaves that make it incredibly drought-tolerant.
However, there’s a catch: Eastern Red Cedar can’t tolerate the shade. On rich soil where faster-growing hardwoods can tower over it, the red cedar is quickly out-competed and rarely becomes the dominant tree. But in worn-out pastures, mines, abandoned “waste lands” it can be a very aggressive species.
The “Double-Edged Sword”
While beautiful and durable, the Eastern Red Cedar has a complicated relationship with its environment:
Orchard Enemy: It acts as an alternate host for cedar–apple rust, a fungal disease that can devastate apple crops. Because of this, farmers often have to remove these trees if they are too close to their orchards.
The Fire Hazard: Red cedars are fire-intolerant. Their low-hanging branches act like “ladders,” allowing ground fires to climb and engulf the entire tree. In places like Oklahoma and Texas, dense populations have been blamed for the rapid spread of dangerous wildfires.
Ecosystem Invader: In the Great Plains, these trees are expanding so aggressively that they are transforming grasslands into cedar thickets. This “invasion” pushes out native birds and ruins grazing land for cattle, leading many conservationists to use prescribed burns and cutting to keep them in check.
A Winter Lifeline for Wildlife
While sometimes invasive and damaging to apple orcards, Eastern red cedar is considered a “workhorse” for local wildlife, providing essential food and shelter throughout the year. While it can be aggressive in some landscapes, its ecological value to dozens of species is undeniable. Female red cedars produce bluish, berry-like cones that are a critical high-energy food source, especially when other food is scarce in winter.
Birds: More than 50 bird species rely on these berries. The cedar waxwing is even named for its preference for this fruit. Other frequent visitors include Eastern bluebirds, American robins, Northern mockingbirds, and game birds like wild turkeys and bobwhite quail.
Mammals: A variety of mammals, from small white-footed mice to black bears, consume the cones. White-tailed deer also heavily browse the foliage and twigs, particularly during harsh winter months.
The tree’s dense, evergreen foliage provides year-round protection from predators and the elements.
Year-Round Cover: Its thick branches offer “thermal cover,” helping animals stay warm during cold winter nights.
Nesting Sites: Many songbirds, including chipping sparrows and song sparrows, choose the red cedar as a preferred nesting site due to its privacy and protection.
Building Materials: Squirrels and birds like the indigo bunting use the tree’s soft, peeling bark as a primary material for building their nests.
The Eastern Red Cedar is also host plant for more than 30 species of native moths and butterflies. Most notably, it serves as the exclusive host for the juniper hairstreak butterfly, which lays its eggs on the tree’s foliage.
A Legacy in the Landscape
The presence of Eastern Red Cedar is often a “clue” to the past—an echo of a time when the land was cleared for agriculture, pasture or mining decades ago. These hardy pioneers continue to march across the landscape, changing our ecosystems one seedling at a time. Next time you see one, remember: you’re looking at one of North America’s most ancient, tough, and debated residents.
In the bear populated Adirondack High Peaks, bear canisters a legal requirement. Enforced by ticket welding Forest Rangers and regularly now being undermined by the same bears they’re trying to protect. State government regulations mandate the use of hard-sided bear canisters for overnight stays to prevent wildlife from becoming dependent on human food.
For years, the industry leader was BearVault, a product engineered to be physically impossible for a bear to open. Its design relied on a fundamental assumption: that while a bear is strong, it lacks the cognitive ability to solve a multi-step mechanical lock.
Then came Yellow-Yellow who made a mockery of the state law.
A Law-Violating Genius in Fur 😆
Yellow-Yellow wasn’t the hulking beast you’d expect. She was a modest, 125-pound female black bear, named for the twin yellow tracking tags wildlife biologists clipped to her ears. Despite her size, she became a legend by becoming the first—and for a long time, the only—animal to systematically “crack” the vault.
Backcountry campers began reporting a bizarre phenomenon. They would wake up to find their canisters sitting upright, completely intact, but entirely empty. There were no signs of a struggle—no claw marks or punctures in the tough polycarbonate. It was as if a human had simply walked into camp and unscrewed the lid.
Decoding the Machine 🤟
When researchers finally caught her in the act, they realized Yellow-Yellow wasn’t trying to break the canister; she was operating it.
Her technique was clever to say the least:
The Grip: She would roll the canister against a rock or log to keep it steady.
The Key: Instead of thumbs, she used her canine teeth to press down on the locking tabs with surgical precision.
The Twist: Once the tabs were depressed, she used her paws to provide the torque needed to spin the lid open.
The Evolutionary Arms Race 🧑🔬
This sparked a years-long battle between Yellow-Yellow and the engineers at BearVault. When the company heard about her, they didn’t just ignore it; they redesigned the product. They made the tabs harder and changed the plastic, effectively “updating the software” to see if she could find a new exploit.
She did. Every time. Within a single season, Yellow-Yellow would adapt to the new design and find a way back into the hikers’ snacks. Eventually, the manufacturer had to include a disclaimer on their website warning that their product was approved for use everywhere in North America except for Yellow-Yellow’s territory.
A Legacy of Intelligence 🐻❄️ 🐻
Yellow-Yellow’s story, which came to an end in 2012, remains one of the most significant case studies in wildlife behavior. She proved that “instinct” is a limited word for an animal capable of mechanical reasoning, long-term memory, and problem-solving.
She didn’t just stumble onto food; she outthought some of the best outdoor engineers in the country. For those who trek through the Adirondacks High Peaks today, her story serves as a humbling reminder: we aren’t the only ones in the woods with a mind for puzzles. Nature always finds a way!
I rode into the office. I noticed when I got into the office that the emergency tire pump got left home, so I best not get any flats on the commute home, though I have a new tube and rear tire, so that reduces the risk of a flat. But there is always so much broken glass and metal trash on the roads between Erie Boulevard and I-787 where everybody throws their glass beer bottles out their car windows.I so despise things packaged in glass, not just because I can’t burn it, but because it makes sucha mess wherever it breaks and recycling like so many other things is a scam but with better marketing with the greenies then plastic.
It was nice riding to work, and not taking the SuperDuty in. 🛻 I mean the SuperDuty is great for traveling, but it’s kind of big and heavy, and Water Street is such crap in Albany and it’s tight getting past all those parked cars and tight turns. And it gets like single-digit fuel economy in the city, even if I am happy enough with the fuel economy on the open road. The bike ride is so much better for my sanity. Now I’m just waiting for the truck cap, I should reach out to Ruth’s for an update at end of the week. Probably the rest of the week it’s back to busing it, as it’s going to rain. I mean I guess I could take the SuperDuty but that’s stupid as it burns a lot of soon-to-be $5 a gallon gas. At that price, if I let the tank get down to the last gallon, probably not recommended for risk to fuel pump, it would be $165 to fuel up. Granted that is well over 500 miles of gas on the highway, still that’s a big number.
Just to be safe, I plan to ride straight home tonight, and make a quick dinner and then grab the air pump and go out to Five Rivers assuming the weather is good. After fiddling a bit with quick link I got in on the bike, and a bit of adjusting – I mean bending the derailuer hanger – and no longer is the chain clicking, straining or jumping as I downshift and accelerate hard out of traffic lights. I think the stress on the chain actually caused the quick link to break off the Shram Chain I had, but I do think the quick link I got from Steiners was good. I am debating now about the junk QuickLinks crap I got from Amazon – send them back or not? The cheap QuickLinks are machined so poorly, and Mom sent me the UPS label for printing and I can drop them off tomorrow at UPS bin in the Empire Plaza. I kind of hate to reward a scam business. I know I won’t be ordering any non-brand name parts off Amazon any time soon again. I hate dealing with bike stores an the granola eating crowd, but generally what bike stores sell is quality parts, once you find out how to install them.
The Pine Hollow Arboretum was spectacular last night but not a lot of yellow flowers. Lots of reds and blues. Felt good to have the bike on the road, and after some adjustments shifting well, though once the chain came off at the stoplight. But now seeming good. Got dark quickly, kind of a bit of clouds to west in evening, plus the hollow is kind of a darker place. I was noticing the Paw Paw Tree wasn’t looking so hot, but maybe it’s been too cold to leaf out, as it’s part of the northern range. The Giant Laurel aka Rhododendron were quite spectacular though some still aren’t out in the full bloom. Got to the bank after picking up the bike part, went to Price Chopper and they had very affordable 18-pack of eggs packed in paper carton and milk as with rain coming tonight through Friday, I doubt I’ll be riding in on my bike with easy access to Hannaford in the mean time.
Daraxonrasib is an experimental targeted therapy that fights pancreatic cancer by “turning off” a protein that acts like a broken growth switch inside cancer cells.
The Problem: In about 90% of pancreatic cancers, a protein called RAS (often KRAS) develops a mutation. Normally, this protein acts as a switch that tells cells when to grow. In cancer, the switch gets stuck in the “ON” position, sending a constant, out-of-control signal for cells to multiply and spread.
The “Molecular Glue” Solution: For decades, scientists found this “on” switch impossible to grab onto (calling it “undruggable”). Daraxonrasib works by pairing up with another protein already in your body (cyclophilin A) to create a “molecular glue”. This duo can finally latch onto the active RAS protein and physically block it from sending growth signals.
Pan-RAS Targeting: While some drugs only target one specific type of mutation, daraxonrasib is a “pan-RAS” inhibitor. It can block many different versions of the RAS mutation (like G12D, G12V, and G12R), making it effective for a much wider range of patients.
Targets the “ON” State: Many older experimental drugs tried to catch the protein while it was “off.” Daraxonrasib is designed to hit the protein while it is actively driving the cancer.
Survival Impact: In a major Phase 3 clinical trial (RASolute 302), the drug nearly doubled the overall survival time for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer compared to standard chemotherapy—increasing it from roughly 6.7 months to 13.2 months.
Availability: As of May 2026, the drug is not yet fully FDA-approved but is being fast-tracked. The FDA recently authorized an Expanded Access Program (EAP), allowing some eligible patients to access the drug while the final approval process continues.
![Untitled [Expires July 16 2024]](https://andyarthur.org//data/photo_014376_large.jpg)
![Cedar Above the Clay Pits [Expires May 26 2026]](https://andyarthur.org//data/photo_022911_large.jpg)
Now I’m just waiting for the truck cap, I should reach out to Ruth’s for an update at end of the week. Probably the rest of the week it’s back to busing it, 
as it’s going to rain. I mean I guess I could take the SuperDuty but that’s stupid as it burns a lot of soon-to-be $5 a gallon gas. 
At that price, if I let the tank get down to the last gallon, probably not recommended for risk to fuel pump, it would be $165 to fuel up. Granted that is well over 500 miles of gas on the highway, still that’s a big number.
and make a quick dinner and then grab the air pump and go out to Five Rivers assuming the weather is good. After fiddling a bit with quick link I got in on the bike, and a bit of adjusting – I mean bending the derailuer hanger – and no longer is the chain clicking, straining or jumping as I downshift and accelerate hard out of traffic lights. 
I think the stress on the chain actually caused the quick link to break off the Shram Chain I had, but I do think the quick link I got from Steiners was good. I am debating now about the junk QuickLinks crap I got from Amazon – send them back or not? The cheap QuickLinks are machined so poorly, and Mom sent me the UPS label for printing and I can drop them off tomorrow at UPS bin in the Empire Plaza. I kind of hate to reward a scam business. I know I won’t be ordering any non-brand name parts off Amazon any time soon again. 
I hate dealing with bike stores an the granola eating crowd, but generally what bike stores sell is quality parts, once you find out how to install them.
but not a lot of yellow flowers. 
Lots of reds and blues. Felt good to have the bike on the road, and after some adjustments shifting well, though once the chain came off at the stoplight. 
plus the hollow is kind of a darker place. I was noticing the Paw Paw Tree 
wasn’t looking so hot, but maybe it’s been too cold to leaf out, as it’s part of the northern range. The Giant Laurel aka Rhododendron were quite spectacular though some still aren’t out in the full bloom. 
Got to the bank after picking up the bike part, went to Price Chopper and they had very affordable 18-pack of eggs packed in paper carton
and milk 
as with rain coming tonight through Friday, I doubt I’ll be riding in on my bike with easy access to Hannaford in the mean time.
