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Featured, Hudson & Rex
Hudson & Rex showrunner Ken Cuperus: "I read it, and I actually turned it down"
March 29, 2019 Greg David	4 Comments
I've been writing about Canadian television for years and thought I'd heard every story possible both on and off the record. But Ken Cuperus shocked me when we spoke about Hudson & Rex.
He initially turned it down.
"When I came into the show, it was kind of a grim and grey kind of procedural," Cuperus said recently. "And I read it, and I actually turned it down. I said, 'I feel like the material is too dark.' I'm more of a comedy guy. I'm more of a heart guy. I feel like a show with a dog, you've got to have fun with it." Executive producer Christina Jennings agreed with his assessment and told him to make the series he wanted.
In Monday's new episode, "Fearless Freaks," written by Cuperus and directed by Felipe Rodriguez, Charlie (John Reardon) and Rex (Diesel vom Burgimwald) unravel a conspiracy surrounding the death of a thrill-seeking daredevil.
We spoke to Cuperus about developing the series, the writing room and being allergic to his canine co-star.
How's production been going?
Ken Cuperus: It's been really great. We've had some challenges throughout because we're trying to do more of a spring and fall show. But we're in Newfoundland for the winter, so it's been a little tricky with the weather there, and getting rid of snow and all that stuff. So that's kind of an added challenge, but other than that, it's been great.
How did the show all come about in the first place?
KC: I actually came onto the show pretty late in the process considering. I believe that Shaftesbury has had these rights for this show for at least a decade. They've been trying for the last 10 years to get somebody to bite on it, so to speak. I think they were really close about five years ago, and that didn't quite work out. Christina Jennings just really strongly believed in it, held onto it. And finally, they called me in about a year and a half ago and said, 'Listen, we have this show. We really, really think it can work. We want to do a lighter touch.'
When I came into the show, it was kind of a grim and grey kind of procedural. And I read it, and I actually turned it down. I said, 'I feel like the material is too dark.' I'm more of a comedy guy. I'm more of a heart guy. I feel like a show with a dog, you've got to have fun with it. It's a cop who has a dog for a partner. There's an inherent lightness to that concept that I didn't think was being utilized. So I said, 'No, thanks.'
When Christina found out the reasons why I turned it down, she called me directly and said, 'Listen, that's the take we want. We want to see what you can do with that.' And I couldn't turn that down. I probably took it too far at first in more of a comedic like direction, and so we just kind of wrangled it into a shape that more strongly resembled what would be ultimately a Citytv show.
You didn't want this to be Cujo.
KC: Yeah, exactly. But it was True Detective. The tone was just wrong. It wasn't an 8 p.m show, which is what a dog and a cop show really could be. We got there, I think.
I like the tone of how serious things were. You jumped right in with the action with this kid being kidnapped. You get an idea of this is a serious show, but it's going to have light moments as well.
KC: Yeah, that was the idea, the stakes have to be real or the concept is also not going to work. It was a balancing act.
Do you find that difficult?
KC: Not really. I've done a lot of procedural and if the stakes aren't high, even in a lighter procedural, you're just not going to engage the audience. The stakes have to be high. The stories have to be a little twisty. There have to be surprises. Then you layer everything else into that. You layer in the lightness. You layer in the heart and the comedy on top of that.
I know you are largely from children's programming, from Mr. Young and The Stanley Dynamic. Do you feel as though working in the children's genre has changed the way that you write?
KC: Well, I actually started in preschool. I think preschool writing is the hardest writing, and it trained me to take on those challenges in a way that made everything else I've done much easier, strangely. You'd think it would be the other way, but it is a very difficult genre. I get bored easily, so I've never wanted to just do one thing. I love going back and forth. I love going from an animated half hour to a laugh track, a multi-camera comedy, to a high stakes procedural. I love bouncing around like that. That's something that only Canadian writers really get to do.
How many folks did you have in the writer's room with you?
KC: We were a very small staff because we started with a smaller order of eight episodes. We did a couple of scripts before we were picked up. When our show was picked up, we already had two scripts. We only needed six more, so we started with a staff of four writers. And by the time it came time to move production and get it down to Newfoundland, there were only two writers. What happened was they added a back eight and we had to, basically, build the writing staff from scratch again. It was kind of like doing Season 1 and Season 2 at the same time and overlapping. It was quite a challenge, but it was a thrill to get more episodes.
Who did you have in the writer's room?
KC: When we started, it was myself and Avrum Jacobson. We had Jessie Gabe and a writer named Celeste Parr, who is terrific. We had a writer named Kate Melville who only stayed with us a short time. She moved on quickly because she got a Netflix series. We were excited for her. And then [Murdoch Mysteries'] Simon [McNabb] and Paul (Aitken] had come into the development room and done a script as well. We couldn't keep them because Murdoch keeps coming back and stealing all the writers.
What about the experience filming in Newfoundland? It's a beautiful part of the world. How has it been for you logistically and everything? You already talked about the weather a little bit. What's it been like working with the crew?
KC: Oh my god, the crew is an A-plus crew there. They only have really one crew. You have to stagger your production with anything else that's going on there. But man, you couldn't ask for a better, stronger crew. You can throw anything at them. They're so hardened from the difficult shooting conditions and the weather. Nothing phases these guys. I've worked with a lot of Toronto crews, and with no disrespect to them, they don't hold a candle to how efficient the crew in St. John's is, for a lot of specific reasons that are related to the environment.
Are you a dog person, a cat person?
KC: I'm actually allergic to animals. I've found this show is great because when we're outside, the dogs don't bother me or anything like that. I have a quite mild allergy to dogs. If this was a cat show, I probably would have had to turn it down. Because of my allergies, I never thought in a million years I'd work on a dog show. I was a little bit fearful of it. I discovered that it didn't bother me at all because the studio is so big that it's not like you're contained in a box with all that dog hair or anything. We keep it clean, and I've never had one single problem. I feel like up until now, I've wasted a lot of opportunities to work with animals because of it. And now, I think moving forward I won't have that fear. So it's actually been great for me.
What's it been like working with this canine co-star?
KC: I think we were incredibly lucky with Diesel. He was a very young dog, so he was being trained specifically for our needs about a year in advance because we were already preparing for our pilot. I feel like he was very specific to us. He is just such a spectacular dog. I can't believe the number of things he wants to do. He's excited every day to come to set.
I can't prove this because I don't speak dog. But I could swear he gets jealous when we bring in the other dogs to do the distance work or the stunts. I think he's got a look in his eye like, 'Why are you bringing in that other dog?' He's been a joy. I can't believe it. I honestly think we were just very lucky in that regard because like they say, it's very difficult to work with dogs. If they don't cooperate, your whole day is shot. We didn't lose one hour to a dog misbehaving this entire shoot.
Hudson & Rex airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on Citytv.
Images courtesy of Rogers Media.
CitytvHudson & RexJohn ReardonKen CuperusMr. YoungThe Stanley Dynamic
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4 thoughts on "Hudson & Rex showrunner Ken Cuperus: "I read it, and I actually turned it down""
Wow, another repulsive, snooze-of-a-dud from the Canadian Canon of Crap. Wasn't this a dumb movie idea starring Jim Belushi, like, 20 years ago? Why are Canadian broadcasters and producers so hell-bent on creating shows that feel decades too late? Seriously. I watched the first episode, and while I could go into specifics about the acting, writing, etc., I would rather just get an understanding as to why none of the shows being made in our country are in any way thought provoking or original? I'm asking as someone with no solid understanding of the Canadian industry, but I'm now sincerely curious. Someone, please, explain to me why this country continually churns out mountains of crap, then has websites like this write glowing reviews?? I've more or less given up on this country in respect to making anything that takes on the quality of programming of the Americans or British, but it just makes no sense as to why we're so incapable??
Greg David says:
Hey Jared, thanks for the feedback. When you refer to "mountains of crap," can you give me some specific examples? Hudson & Rex reflects the changing television landscape, where international series are purchased and remade for a new audience (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108829/?ref_=nv_sr_3?ref_=nv_sr_3). Murdoch Mysteries has been on the air for 12 seasons and has been sold internationally. It's a hit in France. Coroner, which debuted last fall, has gotten record-setting ratings for the CBC and has been sold by eOne around the world. As for "glowing reviews," as the owner of this website it's my mandate to spotlight Canadian originals and co-productions that I think are great and deserve some attention. You may not agree with me, but that's OK, you're allowed to have an opinion. As am I. -GD
Thank you for your reply, Greg. I appreciate honest discussion about this sort of stuff, and even though I know it doesn't cost tax payers much, these are our tax dollars at work, and I find it interesting to see the type of content our beloved broadcaster decides to put on air.
Yes, I'm wondering why, in lieu of creating interesting, home-grown, original content we're reviving 20+ year old Austrian procedurals? These are stale, run-of-the-mill ideas that scream "dated", and it's – perhaps – a sign worth considering that it took them 10 years to bite on this show? Again, I don't know enough about the nitty gritty nuances of this industry, but as someone who works in sales/manufacturing, I know when to walk away from a bad deal (never mind pounding at the door for 10 years!)
As for other Canadian shows? Well, I understand that this is your website, and it's by no means meant to be a source of objective critiques, and I'm sure plenty of the creators and actors on the shows are grateful for your unwavering support, but short of Murdoch Mysteries & Heartland I can barely think of any real successful Canadian show that hasn't made me roll by eyes and chuckle. Ones that come mind… let's see: Cracked, Frankie Drake Mysteries, Burden of Truth (possibly the worst of the bunch), Street Legal's revival (barf), 18 to Life, Arctic Air, Bellevue, The Border, Caught, etc.
Again, this isn't intended as an attempt to insult. I'm sure no one who works on any of the above sets out to make a bad show, and they're undoubtedly at the mercy of a long list of creative interferences, but I just find it really sad to see what this country COULD do, and what it does. Where are the show examining the failure of our institutions? Where are hard-hitting drama that deal with drugs, poverty, racism, the treatment of our First Nations people? There's so much opportunity to make shows like The Wire (to give a strong example) that go beyond just knee slapping fluff?
Let's get this conversation going!
Happy to keep it going Jared! You mentioned our tax dollars and I think you were referring to Hudson & Rex. That airs on Citytv, which is a private broadcaster. But if you're referring to Murdoch and Heartland then I apologize. Please check out Blackstone. It's available on APTN.ca and is just the hard-hitting show I think you're looking for. It deals with First Nations stories in a gritty Sopranos-style I think you'll enjoy. If a mystery is your taste as well, catch Cardinal on CTV or Crave. Dark, atmospheric and based on a stellar book series. It's our take on Scandinavian noir and it's very good.


From IBM Corp. v. Lufkin Industries, LLC, No. 17-0666, slip op. (Tex. Mar. 15, 2019): IBM told Lufkin that IBM could adapt a particular software system to Lufkin's needs. The project turned out badly, and Lufkin sued IBM for fraudulent misrepresentation, but a reliance disclaimer in the contract ruled out the fraudulent inducement claim.
IBM made numerous representations about its Express Solution that turned out to be false.
IBM represented that the Express Solution was a preconfigured system that could be implemented for Lufkin within four to six months and meet eighty percent of Lufkin's requirements without any enhancements.
IBM knew, however, that its Express Solution would require extensive customization before it could meet most of Lufkin's needs.
Yet IBM continued to represent the Express Solution as a "fit" for Lufkin, hoping it could land the sale and then figure out how to provide what Lufkin needed.
In September 2009, IBM presented a demonstration of the Express Solution for Lufkin.
During this demonstration, IBM's representatives again represented that the Express Solution would meet eighty percent of Lufkin's needs without any customization.
In fact, the representatives knew that Express Solution was designed for much smaller operations and could not meet Lufkin's requirements without extensive and costly enhancements.
Relying on IBM's misrepresentations, Lufkin agreed to a written contract with IBM in March 2010. The contract— called the "Statement of Work," or "SOW"—gave IBM about a year to finalize and implement the system, projecting that Lufkin could "go live" with IBM's Express Solution system on March 1, 2011.
Id., slip op. at 2-3 (extra paragraphing and bullets added).
This SOW, its Appendices, and the Agreement represent the entire agreement between the parties regarding the subject matter and replace any prior oral or written communications.
… we hold that contractual disclaimers bar the buyer from recovering in tort for misrepresentations the seller made both to induce the buyer to enter into the contract and to induce the buyer to later agree to amend the contract.


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Self-service customer support 3 min read
Expand Your Help Content's Reach: 3 Tips to Get More Views
Ben Foster • November 10, 2017
Online self-service delivers benefits for brands and consumers alike. So how do you get more people noticing, reading, and sharing your online help content?
Online self-service is the new reality in customer experience. In the words of analyst firm Forrester:
"The use of help or FAQs on a company's website increased from 67 percent [of consumers] in 2012 to 81 percent in 2015."
Yet you want to make sure your customers are getting the right answers, and doing so quickly - so they don't seek you out, frustrated, on another (likely more expensive) support channel.
That's why it's important to surface your own online help content. And there are a few steps you should take to accelerate the process.
Publish answers to a platform that search engines love
Imagine you're a consumer with a question. Where are you going to start your journey to getting an answer? Odds are, your first stop will be a search engine.
By one estimate, 77 percent of people will turn to a web search when they have a service question. Your challenge, of course, is getting noticed. Most web users don't click past the first search engine results page (SERP), meaning that links on the second page will see far fewer clicks.
One key step for you, then, is to ensure your content ranks on "page one" as often as possible.
Essential to making this happen is the technical back-end of your content platform. Is new content getting meta-tagged so it's more easily indexable? Are your help pages structured in such a way that search engines can identify the author of each post? These elements have a huge impact on how prominently you rank in search.
Publish the content that real customers need
Still, a platform that optimizes for search engines is only the first step. The content itself is critically important, too.
If you're like most brands, your support team is responsible for creating support how-tos and FAQs. Few people benefit from this approach, though. Your team has to manually create hundreds or thousands of pages of content - time that could be better spent actually helping people. Meanwhile, your customers only get the answers your agents think they need.
One solution is to fill your help pages with user-generated content, instead of using branded content exclusively.
For one thing, Google recognizes UGC as being more valuable to users, and typically rewards it with better rankings. That's especially true when the content is helpful, as Search Engine Land explained in March 2017.
On top of that, letting users answer each other's questions ensures that only the most relevant help content bubbles to the surface. Trust your customers to identify the issues that matter to them - and help each other solve those issues - and the quality of your help content will improve.
You can do your part by editing your help pages to match the terms people use in searches. Get people to the right answers even faster by also verifying user-generated content as correct.
Cross-publish content, e.g., in FAQs and community
Another way to improve the visibility of your help content is to simply publish it in more places.
For example, think about extending the reach of your FAQ page by publishing FAQs in your user community - or vice versa. Repurposing content across platforms increases the likelihood that your customers will find the answer they need, on the channel they want to use.
T-Mobile NL does this with their "Toestelhulp" ("Device Help") FAQs. Toestelhulp is a mix of user-generated content from the T-Mobile community and posts created by T-Mobile employees.
The company's approach is straightforward: to make sure the best answer is the first one the user sees. Of course, on the T-Mobile community, many user-generated answers are visible. But only those marked as correct (as mentioned above) make it into T-Mobile's FAQs.
How effective has this cross-platform approach been for T-Mobile? The company's social knowledge base receives millions of visits annually, helping T-Mobile reduce its overall support costs by more than 15 percent.
By Ben Foster
Content Marketer at inSided. Having worked in B2B tech in San Francisco and Boston, Ben's now happy to be in New York City. He'll never root for the Yankees, though. Connect on Linkedin
Go on, you know you want to.
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We facilitate community success through real partnership. We'll even help you build and train a world class community management team. Read more about our success approach.
Learn more about inSided and the power of conversations
Why User-Generated Content is Vital for Successful Customer Service
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Topics: Long-term care insurance, retirement location factors, mutual fund fees destroy retirements, lack trust, Canada in real estate bubble? realtor rip-off, not-for-profit pensions, CPP vs. PRPP, "financial repression", insurance company demutualization? Fama: efficient markets and passive vs. active investing.
Ellen Schultz in the WSJ's "Picking a place to retire" writes that while "most people tend to retire close to home" those who move, are either the frail moving closer to children or the "energetic affluent". Two key considerations she suggests are cost of housing and taxes in general, i.e. what income is taxed in each state, property taxes, sales taxes, wealth taxes, etc.
The Economist's "The great realtor rip-off" writes that "In Britain, if you want to sell your home, an estate agent will list the property, find a buyer, help you negotiate a deal and guide you through the transaction, all for a commission of 2-3% of the sale price. In America, realtors provide the same services for roughly double the fee." The article tries to answer the question "why are (U.S.) fees so persistent" even though the internet was successful in eliminating inefficient middlemen in other industries. The answers suggested include: housing crash made selling more difficult so more 'expert' help is needed, "clients are suckers", there is less competition than it appears with a few large brokers dominant, "industry captured its regulators", "interdependent nature of the business" forces brokers to collaborate.
In the Financial Times' "Repression on bonds heralds masochism" Gillian Tett defines "financial repression" as "when governments engineer a situation in which investors feel compelled to buy bonds at unfavourable rates, i.e. below the prevailing level of inflation, thus helping to reduce national debt". Yet investors in general and pension funds in particular are voluntarily piling into bonds "more focused on capital preservation and liquidity, than returns", and potentially exposing themselves to massive risk should inflation and/or growth spurt. Tett suggests that this "mass market financial masochism" might continue for a while.
And finally watch a six minute Financial Times video of Gene Fama being interviewed by James Mackintosh "Investors should stop trying to beat markets and use passive trackers". This is well worth your time, especially if you are still pursuing active investing. Fama talks about: efficient markets, passive vs. active investing, "bubbles" and "luck vs. skill" in active management.


text: Algorithm study.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


To make this delicious spread, start with pumpkin seed butter from your favorite grocer. There are many commercially available high-quality varieties; just be sure to double-check the ingredients list for any Avoids. If you'd rather make your own butter, simply ground up two cups of pumpkin seeds, and add linseed or olive oil as needed to achieve a smooth consistency.
Smear the pumpkin pie spread on a rice cake or bread compliant for your type.
Drizzle some extra maple syrup on top.


Kyle created the augmented reality walking tour, "The Chester County Time Machine", that allows you to use your smartphone or tablet to "look" into the past in association with the Chester County Historical Society. It has been featured on Comcast Newsmakers, West Chester Life, The Daily Local and other local publications.
This entry was posted in Blog, Press and tagged startup meetup, startups, Time Machine Tours. Bookmark the permalink.


Birth Place: Bikaner, Rajasthan, India.
Academic degrees: Bachelor in Arts from University of Rajasthan, Master's degree in Sanskrit from University of Ajmer, Rajasthan and 2nd Master's in Jain Philosophy and comparative studies from Jain Vishva Bharati Institute, Ladnun, India.
Travel: USA, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, Israel, Europe and major states of India.
Specialization: studies in the Jain Agams, various other Jain scriptures. Science of Living (Jeevan Vigyan) and Preksha Yoga and Meditation.
Languages: Hindi, Rajasthani, English, Sanskrit and working knowledge of and Ardhmagdhi.
Public works: Attended world peace conference in Milano, Italy, interviewed by Darpan and radio talk show, addressed press conferences in India and Nepal, organized and participated in various workshops, Preksha Meditation Camps, Jainism lecture series, interfaith programs, prayer at US senate and assemblies and preksha teachers training.
Writings: Param ko Pranam (Songs book available in Hindi), Stories, Articles and poems.


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Top Engineers – Robin Geoffrey Cable
Elton John / Madman Across The Water – Lush Sound Is Key to the Best Pressings
An outstanding copy of Madman with Double Plus (A++) sound from the first note to the last
A ridiculously tough album to find with the right sound and reasonably quiet surfaces – which is why we so rarely have them on the site
The last of the classic albums Elton recorded at Trident, the best of which have more Tubey Magic than anything that came after
4 1/2 stars on Allmusic: "The record remains an ambitious and rewarding work, and John never attained its darkly introspective atmosphere again."
This Madman is guaranteed to blow your mind.
The amount of effort that went into the recording of this album is comparable to that of the engineers and producers of bands like Supertramp, Yes, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, The Beatles (of course) and far too many others to list. This is some of the best high production value rock music of the '70s.
It seems that no effort or cost was spared in making the home listening experience as compelling as the recording technology of the day permitted. Of course, as it turns out, recording technology only got worse as the decade wore on, and during the '80s the sound of most Big Rock records went off a cliff.
Madman Is Lush
You don't need tube equipment to hear the prodigious amounts of Tubey Magic that exist on the best copies of Madman. For those of you who've experienced top quality analog pressings of Meddle or Dark Side of the Moon, or practically any jazz album on Contemporary, whether played through tubes or transistors, that's the luscious sound of Tubey Magic, and it is all over the album.
The problem is that most British copies — the only ones that have any hope of sounding good in our experience — don't have all the Tubey Magic that can be heard on the best copies. They are simply not as rich, tubey, and LUSH as the best that we've played.
This is the one quality that separates the winners of the shootout from the copies that came in second or third. Lushness isn't the only thing to listen for of course. The rich copies can't be too rich, to the point of being murky and muddy. Achieving just the right balance of Tubey Magical Madman Sound with other qualities we prize such as space, clarity, transparency and presence is no mean feat.
It's the rare copy that will do well in all these areas, and even our best Shootout Winning sides will have to compromise somewhere. There is always a balance to be struck between richness and clarity, with no copy able to show us the maximum amounts of both that we know are possible. (more…)
Posted in A List of Records that Are Usually Noisy, Advice - What to Listen For - Transparency Vs Opacity, Advice - What to Listen For - Tubey Magic, Labels We Love - DJM, Pressings with Excellent Sound Quality, Records that Sound Best on Big Speakers at Loud Levels, Records that Sound Best on the Right Import Pressing, Top Artists - Elton John, Top Engineers - Robin Geoffrey Cable and tagged audiophile vinyl, Better Records, Hot Stampers, tom port on July 27, 2020 by humorem.
Elton John – Tumbleweed Connection
A distinguished member of the Better Records Rock and Pop Hall of Fame.
A side two for the ages — it beat our best Ref Copy to earn a Four Plus (A++++) grade. Both sides are stunning with superb Demo Quality sound: huge, rich, spacious, dynamic and lively. An incredible recording and longtime member of our Top 100 — our pick for Elton's very best music and sound.
We rate records with a Four Plus grade so rarely that we don't even have a graphic for it on our Sonic Grade chart seen above. The scale only goes up to three pluses, but this side two blew our minds to earn a fourth!
This is an incredible recording, but finding killer pressings like this is no walk in the park. We've had countless copies with promising sound that were just not in any condition to sell, and plenty of clean ones that just didn't sound good.
This copy really delivers on the sound side — you get stunning immediacy, big-time presence, tons of depth to the soundfield, full-bodied vocals, amazing transparency, and BOATLOADS of Tubey Magic. Elton John fans, today is your lucky day. (more…)
Posted in A List of Personal Favorites, A List of Records that Are Usually Noisy, Demo Discs for Recordings that Are Doing It All, Demo Discs for Tubey Magic, Five Star Albums, Labels We Love - DJM, Masterpieces of Rock and Pop, Pressings with Mind-Blowing Sound Quality, Records that Sound Best on Big Speakers at Loud Levels, Records that Sound Best on the Right Early Pressing, Records that Sound Best on the Right Import Pressing, Rock and Pop Top Ten, Top 100 Rock and Pop, Top Artists - Elton John, Top Engineers - Robin Geoffrey Cable, Top Producers - Gus Dudgeon and tagged audiophile vinyl, Better Records, Hot Stampers, tom port on December 20, 2019 by humorem.
Elton John – Madman Across The Water
More Elton John
More Madman Across The Water
Shockingly good sound, the best sound for any copy that has ever made it to the site. This Madman is guaranteed to blow your mind. It certainly blew ours.
A ridiculously tough album to find with the right sound and reasonably quiet surfaces — which is why we never have them on the site. (more…)
Elton John – Elton John – Our Shootout Winner from 2011
Elton John – Elton John
This original DJM British pressing has a SUPERB Demo Disc Quality side two and a wonderful A++ side one! You could easily play a hundred records from the '70s and not hear one that sounds this good. The richness and sweetness of this side have to be heard to be believed. We would be very surprised if this copy didn't become your favorite Elton John record — it's an absolute knockout.
As is usually the case for this album and specifically these Brit DJM pressings, the vinyl is a bit noisy — Mint Minus Minus with constant moderate surface noise under the music.
Folks, if you're looking for Classic Rock that still appeals to sophisticated adults forty plus years after it came out, this is the album for you. It's one of the four Classic Elton John records (five if you count GYBR) that belong in every right-thinking audiophile's collection.* (more…)
Posted in Advice - What to Listen For - String Tone and Texture, Labels We Love - DJM, Pressings with Excellent Sound Quality, Top Artists - Elton John, Top Engineers - Robin Geoffrey Cable and tagged audiophile vinyl, Better Records, Hot Stampers, tom port on July 16, 2019 by humorem.
Elton John's Self-Titled Second Album – In Audio, We Live and Learn, Or At Least Some of Us Do
A classic case of Live and Learn. Scroll down to read what we learned from our recent shootout. To illustrate how the game is played we've copied some of the previous commentary into this listing to show the change in our understanding from 2004 to today.
Folks, if you're looking for Classic Rock that appeals to adults with sophisticated tastes forty plus years after it was made, this is the album for you.
What's especially remarkable about this album is the quality of the string arrangements. I don't know of another pop record that uses strings better or has better string tone. The strings are all over this record, not only adding uniquely interesting qualities to the backgrounds of the arrangements, but actually taking the foreground on some of the songs, most notably Sixty Years On. When the strings give in to a lovely harp just before Elton starts singing, the effect is positively glorious. It's the nexus where amazing Tubey Mgical sound meets the best in popular music suffused with brilliant orchestral instrumentation. Who did it better than The Beatles and Elton John? They stand alone. (more…)
Posted in A List of Personal Favorites, A List of Records that Are Usually Noisy, Difficult to Reproduce Recordings, Important Lessons We Learned from Record Experiments, Labels We Love - DJM, Top Artists - Elton John, Top Engineers - Robin Geoffrey Cable, Top Producers - Gus Dudgeon, We Was Wrong and tagged audiophile quality vinyl, audiophile records, audiophile vinyl, best sounding vinyl, Better Records, hot stamper vinyl, Hot Stampers, hot stampers vinyl, record-experiments, tom port on June 23, 2018 by humorem.
Elton John's and Bernie Taupin's Co-Masterpiece – Tumbleweed Connection
More Tumbleweed Connection
You'll find outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound from first note to last on this Elton John classic
The overall sound here is incredibly big, rich, spacious and dynamic with plenty of presence and bottom end weight
An incredible recording and longtime member of our Top 100 — our pick for Elton's very best music and sound
5 stars: "….their most ambitious record to date… A loose concept album about the American West… draws from country and blues in equal measures…"
Superb Music and Sound
This has to be one of the best sounding rock records of all time — certainly worthy of a Top Ten spot on our Top 100 list. Engineered by Robin Geoffrey Cable at Trident, there is no other Elton John recording that is as big and powerful as Tumbleweed. (more…)
Posted in A List of Records that Are Usually Noisy, Demo Discs for Recordings that Are Doing It All, Demo Discs for Tubey Magic, Five Star Albums, Labels We Love - DJM, Masterpieces of Rock and Pop, Pressings with Excellent Sound Quality, Records that Sound Best on Big Speakers at Loud Levels, Records that Sound Best on the Right Early Pressing, Records that Sound Best on the Right Import Pressing, Rock and Pop Top Ten, Top 100 Rock and Pop, Top Artists - Elton John, Top Engineers - Robin Geoffrey Cable, Top Producers - Gus Dudgeon, Well Recorded Rock & Pop Albums - The Core Collection and tagged audiophile vinyl, Better Records, Hot Stampers, tom port on May 22, 2018 by humorem.


We take a brief look at some of the Rapha Pro Team II Kit.
With the first signs of spring arriving in Belgium, I have been sent a pair of the Pro Team II bib shorts and a matching Pro Team Midweight Jersey to test. Both are in matching dark teal. Rapha also included a logo T-shirt to try out for casual, post ride café visits and the like – more on that in a separate piece.
Design wise, both the bib shorts and jersey have a very clean look. It is apparent on first inspection that these are well made and quality bits of kit. Personally, I find the teal colour very attractive. It's a unique tone that Rapha have opted for, but if you're not a fan, there are other options available, such as the famous Rapha pink or discreet black for the jersey. The shorts are available in black, white, teal, pink and yellow. Both items are made in Portugal.
The theme across the Pro Team range is 'forçats de la route', French (what else?) for 'convicts of the road'. The connotations may appear a little intense, but the theme certainly underscores the extreme commitment to the sport that the pros must provide to succeed. In fact, Rapha calls the stripe motif that adorns the Pro Team kit 'convict stripes'. These little nods to the quirks and romance of road cycling you often find on Rapha items are always nice; indeed there are often hidden patches with text that ties into the identity behind each Rapha item.
As the most race-orientated shorts in the new Rapha short range, the technical nature of the bibs is evident from the get go. Picking the shorts up they are lightweight and it is clear that the cut is optimised to hug the body. The construction is complex, and the finishing is done to a high standard, with well implemented transitions between different materials.
Holding everything together, the straps are stretchy and well ventilated, and two race radio pockets are stitched into the lower portion of the material.
The bedrock of any decent pair of shorts is, of course, the chamois, and Rapha have gone down the dual density route with the pad here. Actually, the company uses different sized chamois across the range, aiming to provide optimum comfort no matter your body shape. In the size M shorts, the pad does appear larger than most, and the thickest padding is centred around the supportive sit bone area. The Rapha logo also appears on the chamois itself. Overall the chamois appears very promising.
The legs of the bibs are finished with RAPHA printed logos on each side. The left is in the matching dark teal, while the right leg has a black logo. Inside the leg, the grippers are made up of small silicone dots.
It does appear that these are a pair of advanced bib shorts, melding comfort and high performance – it will be interesting how they perform on the road.
For this season, Rapha have released four Pro Team jerseys; Midweight, Lightweight, Aero and Flyweight. For the UK and low countries in spring, the Midweight option is probably the best way to go, with Rapha billing it as a 'performance jersey for training and racing in mild to warm weather'.
The feel of the jersey is very silky and the simple clean design screams aero race jersey, with a cut to match. While not a concern in March, the jersey does have a SPF50 treatment.
There is a full-length zipper which works smoothly with some simple styling at the bottom. Some convict stripes appear at the bottom, as well as internally near the top of the jersey.
Underneath the arms are small perforated holes – handy for cooling when riding hard, and the Rapha armband is embossed on the left sleeve.
The pockets on the jersey seem a good size and are finished with a mesh material inside, seemingly to aid with cooling as well as prevent the pockets filling with water when riding in the wet. There is a zip- up pocket on the right-hand pocket, and more convict stripes appear. On the bottom of the central pocket is a reflective stripe, and on the edge of the left-hand pocket is a soft plastic tab with the word FORÇATS displayed (the Bib Shorts also sport the same tab).
Overall, first impressions of the kit are highly positive, with Rapha clearly having put a lot of thought into developing and styling this kit. The 'forçats' identity is certainly interesting, and I'm looking forward to some tough rides in this kit. A full review will delve into all elements of the kit in further detail in the coming weeks.


text:
Deleterious effects of repeated cold exposure in a freeze-tolerant sub-Antarctic caterpillar
Brent J. Sinclair,
Brent J. Sinclair *
Spatial, Physiological and Conservation Ecology Group, Department of Botany and Zoology, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, Matieland 7602,South Africa
*Author for correspondence at present address: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154-4004, USA (e-mail: celatoblatta@yahoo.co.uk)
Steven L. Chown
© The Company of Biologists Limited 2005
https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.01455
Brent J. Sinclair, Steven L. Chown; Deleterious effects of repeated cold exposure in a freeze-tolerant sub-Antarctic caterpillar. J Exp Biol 1 March 2005; 208 (5): 869–879. doi: https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.01455
Multiple freeze–thaw cycles are common in alpine, polar and temperate habitats. We investigated the effects of five consecutive cycles of approx.–5°C on the freeze-tolerant larvae of Pringleophaga marioniViette (Lepidoptera: Tineidae) on sub-Antarctic Marion Island. The likelihood of freezing was positively correlated with body mass, and decreased from 70%of caterpillars that froze on initial exposure to 55% of caterpillars that froze on subsequent exposures; however, caterpillars retained their freeze tolerance and did not appear to switch to a freeze-avoiding strategy. Apart from an increase in gut water, there was no difference in body composition of caterpillars frozen 0 to 5 times, suggesting that the observed effects were not due to freezing, but rather to exposure to cold per se. Repeated cold exposure did not result in mortality, but led to decreased mass, largely accounted for by a decreased gut mass caused by cessation of feeding by caterpillars. Treatment caterpillars had fragile guts with increased lipid content, suggesting damage to the gut epithelium. These effects persisted for 5 days after the final exposure to cold, and after 30 days, treatment caterpillars had regained their pre-exposure mass, whereas their control counterparts had significantly gained mass. We show that repeated cold exposure does occur in the field, and suggest that this may be responsible for the long life cycle in P. marioni. Although mean temperatures are increasing on Marion Island, several climate change scenarios predict an increase in exposures to sub-zero temperatures, which would result in an increased generation time for P. marioni. Coupled with increased predation from introduced house mice on Marion Island, this could have severe consequences for the P. marioni population.
climate change, fitness consequence, freeze–thaw cycle, Lepidoptera, Pringleophaga marioni
Cyclic changes in temperature are a daily feature of almost every terrestrial habitat on earth (Bonan,2003), but this variation becomes of especial ecological importance when it is about a threshold important to the biology of living organisms, such as the freezing point of water(Sømme, 1995). Repeated freeze–thaw events are common daily, seasonally or annually in alpine(e.g. Krog et al., 1979; Mark, 1994), polar (e.g. Coulson et al., 1995a,b; Bockheim and Hall, 2002; Sinclair et al., 2003b),sub-polar (e.g. Davey et al.,1992; Blake, 1996; Boelhouwers et al., 2003; Grogan et al., 2004) and many temperate habitats (e.g. Inouye,2000; Boelhouwers and Meiklejohn, 2002). Furthermore, the frequency and intensity (i.e. minimum temperature reached) of freeze–thaw is often greatly modified by interactions between precipitation, snow cover and ambient winter temperatures(Danks, 1991; Leather et al., 1993; Sømme, 1995), which may have fitness implications for overwintering insects. For example, midwinter thaw and freezing rain events can result in the loss of insulating snowpack and the development of a thick ice layer, which was responsible for killing 50% of collembolan populations in a high arctic field experiment(Coulson et al., 2000). On the Rock and Pillar Range, in alpine New Zealand, strong El Niño years lead to a decrease in insulating snow cover in the alpine zone, consequently increasing the frequency and intensity of freeze–thaw cycles(Sinclair, 2001b). Conversely,insulating snow cover results in an overall increase in winter energy consumption by the gall fly Eurosta solidaginis (Diptera:Tephritidae), leading to a decrease in fecundity for flies that experienced warmer winter conditions (Irwin and Lee, 2000, 2003).
The consequences of repeated cold exposure for cold-hardy insects are poorly known. In the absence of other evidence, Sinclair(2001b) made the assumption that cold hardiness parameters (for example, temperature of crystallisation, Tc, the temperature at which an insect freezes) remain static across repeated frost cycles. However, Bale et al.(2001) showed that supercooling points (SCP, equivalent to the Tc) of larvae of Hydromedion sparsutum (Coleoptera: Perimylopidae) on South Georgia are plastic. The SCP of some individuals of H. sparsutum decreases after an initial freezing event, leading to the segregation of the population into individuals that continue to utilise freeze tolerance, and those that avoid freezing (Bale et al.,2001). Furthermore, Brown et al.(2004) demonstrated that SCP decreases and pupation and emergence success rates decline (but 72 h survival remains unaffected) in Syrphus ribesii (Diptera: Syrphidae) larvae that are repeatedly frozen and thawed. These effects do not differ markedly between groups of insects frozen at weekly, daily and hourly intervals(Brown et al., 2004). Mechanical and physiological stress during freezing and thawing(Zachariassen, 1985; Sinclair and Wharton, 1997; Kristiansen and Zachariassen,2001), coupled with observations of increased post-thaw metabolic rate (Zachariassen et al.,1979; Block et al.,1998), suggest that repeated freeze–thaw will be accompanied by energetic and other costs, even in freeze-tolerant insects. However,several groups of insects may be well-adapted to repeated cold exposure cycles, especially those from temperate habitats in the southern hemisphere(Sinclair et al., 2003a). Sinclair et al. (2004) found a post-thaw decrease, rather than an increase, in metabolic rate of Pringleophaga marioni (Lepidoptera: Tineidae) larvae relative to pre-exposure, suggesting that the metabolic cost of a single freeze–thaw event might not be high in this species and others that share its response to low temperatures (Sinclair et al.,2003a). Thus, repeated freezing and thawing might not be necessarily associated with alterations in strategy and increases in metabolic and other costs.
Here we investigate the consequences of repeated cold exposure cycles for Pringelophaga marioni caterpillars, a freeze-tolerant species from sub-Antarctic Marion Island. We do so for several reasons. First, the responses of the larvae of P. marioni to freezing and to low temperatures are well understood (Klok and Chown, 1997; Sinclair and Chown, 2003; Sinclair et al.,2004). Second, caterpillars of P. marioni are ecologically important on sub-Antarctic Marion Island (46°54′S,37°45′E) because of their wide distribution, large size(0.1–0.3 g) and role as keystone decomposers(Crafford et al., 1986; Smith and Steenkamp, 1992). Therefore, these freeze-tolerant larvae are a useful model for exploring the impact of the island's climate on the physiological responses of the fauna. Marion Island is a cold, wet island lying just north of the Antarctic convergence (Hänel and Chown,1998), which has undergone rapid climatic change over the past 50 years (Smith, 2002). Among the likely continuing climatic changes on Marion Island are a decrease in precipitation, and at least one scenario envisages an increase in clear-sky days (Smith and Steenkamp,1990). While the effects on the flora and fauna of the changes to the average moisture and thermal environments are currently under experimental investigation (M. A. McGeoch, manuscript submitted for publication), the increased insolation scenario suggests that an increase in daytime microclimate temperatures will be accompanied by a decline in night-time temperatures, resulting from a decrease in sky emissivity(Campbell and Norman, 1998). Thus, the third reason for this study is that the frequency of microhabitat sub-zero temperature events may increase, particularly at the high elevation sites on the island where snow cover is likely to decrease as a consequence of decreased precipitation and higher temperatures (cf. Sinclair, 2001b).
An important aspect of investigating population-level effects on insect cold tolerance is the selection of measures of performance. While survival is adequate for studies of tolerance mechanisms, if questions are being addressed on an evolutionary scale, and particularly if the effects are likely to be sublethal, the correct response variable is the fitness (sensuEndler, 1986) of the individuals in question (Baust and Rojas,1985; Bale, 1987; Chown and Nicolson, 2004). Although following individuals through to measure (for example) fecundity is not always feasible, other measures relevant to reproduction (e.g. locomotor performance in frogs; Irwin et al.,2003) or longer-term survival (e.g. emergence as adults in syrphids; Brown et al., 2004)can be suitable surrogates. Pupal mass in Lepidoptera is strongly correlated with both potential and realised fecundity(Tammaru et al., 2002; Thurston and MacGregor, 2003;but see Leather, 1988). Thus,factors that affect the ability of larvae to feed and obtain a high pupal mass are likely to be related to fitness, particularly in flightless species (see Thurston and MacGregor, 2003). We assess critical thermal minimum, below which the caterpillars cannot feed(Lee, 1991), and several measures of larval size and body composition (larval mass, gut mass and water and lipid stores) as measures of larval performance, and therefore as fitness proxies, in our assessment of the sublethal effects of repeated exposure to low temperatures. In particular, we ask (1) do repeated exposures to cold have fitness consequences for P. marioni, and (2) does P. marionialter its cold tolerance strategy in response to repeated exposure to cold?
Animals studied
Pringleophaga marioni Viette larvae are found in most habitats on the island from sea level up to heights of approx. 1000 m, and are postulated to live several years before pupation(Crafford, 1990). Klok and Chown (1997) found that P. marioni larvae are freeze tolerant, with a mean Tc of–5.0°C and mortality beginning at temperatures below –6°C. The mean critical thermal minimum (CTmin) was–0.6°C. Pringleophaga marioni larvae do not exhibit a rapid cold-hardening response (Sinclair and Chown, 2003), but cold hardiness is enhanced by prior exposure to desiccation or heat stress. Death of caterpillars after acute exposure to low temperatures seems to be associated with nervous system failure leading to water loss at the organismal level, as metabolic rate does not differ between thawed dead and living caterpillars(Sinclair et al., 2004).
Caterpillars (≥ third instar) were collected in during the April(Autumn) 2004 relief voyage from abandoned wandering albatross nests within a 3–4 h walk of the meteorological station, and returned to the laboratory in bulk in bags of nest material (which doubles as food) within 5 h of collection. Larvae were then transferred into individual plastic Petri dishes with nest material and held in darkness at 5°C for 5 days. Nest material was moistened with island stream water every 2 days. Larvae were weighed(start mass) and assigned to treatment groups (control N=200, or treatment N=150) before being kept overnight in the incubator prior to the commencement of experiments the following day. With the exception of dissection of the 30-day recovery animals (see below), all experiments and dissections were conducted in the laboratory on Marion Island.
Effects of repeated cold exposure
Treatment caterpillars were exposed to five cold exposure cycles on consecutive days [repeated cold exposure (RCE) caterpillars]. Both control and treatment caterpillars were transferred individually into numbered 7 ml plastic tubes which were treated in groups of 50. Viability of caterpillars was monitored at this stage, and any caterpillars that did not show a righting response, or were turgid and immobile, were removed from the experiment and noted as dead. Tubes containing control caterpillars were then kept in the incubator in the dark at 5°C for the duration of the day's cold exposure experiment. Tubes containing treatment caterpillars were placed in plastic bags in the bath of one of three Grant LTC-12 refrigerated circulators (Grant Instruments Ltd, Cambridge, UK) and allowed to equilibrate for 30 min at 5°C. The caterpillars were then cooled at 0.1°C min–1to –5.5°C, where they were held for 2 h. –5.5°C was chosen as a temperature at which most caterpillars were expected to freeze, but no mortality was expected. Dummy tubes containing a thermocouple indicated that in practice the caterpillars were exposed to a temperature of approx.–5°C. After 2 h, thecaterpillars were re-warmed at 0.5°C min–1 to 5°C, and both control and treatment animals were transferred back to their Petri dishes and returned to the incubator at 5°C.
Before commencement of the experiment, and after each cold exposure cycle,40 caterpillars were permanently removed from the experiment for determination of CTmin (N=10 each for control and treatment)and body composition (N=10 each for control and treatment). To examine the effects of recovery after five cold exposure cycles, a total of 25 treatment and 30 control caterpillars were kept in the incubator at 5°C. Five days after the final exposure, CTmin was again determined (N=10 for both control and treatment) and caterpillars were dissected (N=10 for both control and treatment). The remaining caterpillars were returned alive to the laboratory in Stellenbosch, South Africa and dissected 30 days after the final cold exposure cycle (control N=10, treatment, N=5). Thus, we have measures of body composition and CTmin for caterpillars exposed to 0, 1, 2,3, 4 and 5 cold cycles, for caterpillars exposed to 5 cold cycles and given 5 days recovery, and matching measurements of animals subjected to the handling control at each stage of exposure. Body composition only was measured for control and treatment caterpillars (allowed 30 days recovery after the final exposure).
Measures of performance: critical thermal minimum and body composition
Critical thermal minimum (CTmin) of caterpillars was determined using a method similar to that of Klok and Chown(1997). Individual caterpillars were placed in one of ten water-jacketed chambers connected to a Grant LTC12 refrigerated circulator (Grant Instruments). A 40-gauge type-T thermocouple was inserted into a control chamber to measure chamber temperatures with an electronic thermometer. The caterpillars were allowed to equilibrate for 30 min at 10°C before CTminassessment. After equilibration, the chambers' temperature was decreased at 0.25°C min–1. The temperature of onset of critical thermal minimum (CTmin,onset) was recorded for each individual when coordinated muscle function was lost at decreasing temperatures. Subsequent to CTmin,onset, the chamber temperature was lowered 1°C below the lowest CTmin,onset and held for 10 min before being rewarmed at 0.25°C min–1. As the temperature increased, the recovery of the caterpillars from chill coma was recorded until they had regained a coordinated righting response (CTmin,recovery). Determination of CTmin was performed on two groups of five individuals for both control and treatment caterpillars. The position of control and treatment individuals within the array of chambers was randomised. If individual caterpillars froze during the CTmin run(N=10 of 126 individuals), their CTmin,recoverywas not used in analyses because it would be confounded by the time taken to melt internal ice.
To assess the condition of the RCE caterpillars, ten control and ten treatment caterpillars were dissected in random order before the commencement of the experiment, after each cold exposure, and after 5 and 30 days of recovery, as follows. Caterpillars were narcotised with CO2 gas and weighed (mass at dissection). Their abdomens were then gently torn open and head capsule carefully pierced, and all haemolymph blotted onto filter paper. The haemolymph-free larva was then weighed to give an estimate of haemolymph mass (Kristiansen and Zachariassen,2001). The gut was then dissected out, and the gut and body weighed separately (fresh gut and fresh body mass, respectively; mass at dissection – gut mass = gutless mass). Gut and body were then dried and reweighed (dry mass of each, or combined to give total dry mass of the caterpillar). Mass lost on drying was assumed to be water, and water content was therefore calculated as fresh mass – dry mass. The dry body and gut were then subjected to three changes of a 1:1 chloroform:methanol mixture and dried and reweighed to give lipid-free dry mass (and therefore an estimate of lipid content; method modified from Naidu and Hattingh, 1988). Whole and haemolymph-free caterpillar masses were obtained to 0.1 mg using a Mettler AE163 balance, while masses of fresh and dry gut and body were obtained to within 1 μg (Mettler UMT-2 (Marion Island) or UMX-2 (Stellenbosch) balances; Mettler-Toledo, Columbus, OH,USA).
Effect of repeated cold exposure cycles on temperature of crystallisation
A different set of larvae (TC caterpillars) consisting of three groups of 16 caterpillars (total N=43 after loss of three animals during handling and loss of data from two more due to thermocouple failure during one or more runs) were weighed and placed individually in 1 ml plastic pipette tips in contact with a 40-gauge Copper–constantan (Type T) thermocouple held in place with cotton wool. The thermocouples were connected to a computer via two Pico Technology TC-08 thermocouple interfaces (Pico Technology Ltd, Cambridge, UK), whose proprietary software logged the 16 channels of input. The pipette tips and caterpillars were placed in a plastic bag in the bath of a Grant LTC-12 programmable refrigerated circulator (Grant Instruments Ltd), and allowed to equilibrate for 30 min at 5°C before being cooled at 0.1°C min–1 to –5.5°C, where they were held for 2 h before being rewarmed at 0.5°C min–1 to 5°C. Caterpillars were then removed from the pipette tips, and returned in their containers to the incubator at 5°C until the next day's freezing run. If the caterpillars had frozen, freezing exotherms were readily observable in the traces from the thermocouples (see Lee, 1991). Temperature of crystallisation Tc of animals that froze >0.2°C above the minimum temperature of the run were included in analyses. After five such cold exposure cycles, caterpillars were dissected as below. To determine the effects of handling on the Tc, ten handling control caterpillars removed from the repeated exposure experiment were also cooled in contact with thermocouples under control conditions each day, and their survival monitored. Thus, each measurement of Tc in the repeatedly exposed caterpillars is matched with a measurement of Tc in caterpillars that had received equal handling, but no cold exposure. The body composition of all the TC caterpillars was assessed 24 h after the final cold exposure cycle using the methods described above.
All mass analyses were conducted on log10(x)-transformed data and all data were checked for normality prior to all analyses. Pearson's correlation coefficients were used for correlations of body mass, CTmin and Tc. Body composition was compared between treatments and across exposures (RCE caterpillars) or freezing frequencies (TC caterpillars)using analyses of covariance (ANCOVA, with total dry mass, dry gut mass or dry body mass as covariates where appropriate). For the repeated cold exposure experiment, significant treatment or treatment × exposure interactions are reported, as these imply differences between treatment and control groups. Critical thermal minima and Tc values were also compared between treatment and control groups across exposures, using ANCOVA with fresh body mass as a covariate. Comparison of the proportion of caterpillars frozen was made between treatment and control groups using Generalized Linear Models(GLZ, using log-link and assuming a binomial distribution). Within-individual repeatability (± 95% confidence limits) of Tc was calculated using the ratio of between and within individual variances(Krebs, 1999) from an ANOVA calculated in NCSS 2000 (NCSS, Kaysville, Utah, USA). All other analyses were conducted on Statistica 6.1 (Statsoft, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA).
Microclimate measurements
Soil temperatures (1 cm depth) were monitored at hourly intervals using iButton Thermochron data loggers (accurate to ± 0.5°C; Dallas Semiconductors, Dallas, TX, USA) along a transect from sea level to 800 m a.s.l. (above sea level) on the eastern side of Marion Island since April 2002, and will be subject to more detailed analysis elsewhere (S. Slabber and S. L. Chown, manuscript in preparation). In order to determine the likelihood of cycles of subzero temperatures occurring at a frequency greater than or equal to that used in our experiment, we chose a subset of data from the beginning of July to the end of September 2002 (the time of year when the coldest air temperatures are recorded; Hänel and Chown, 1998) at 200 m and 800 m a.s.l. We then used the macros described by Sinclair(2001a) to count the number of times the soil temperature cycled below 0°C, and used Microsoft Excel to calculate the mean ± standard deviation (s.d.) of duration of subzero temperatures, as well as the overall mean, maximum and minimum temperatures experienced in the habitat.
Effects of repeated cold exposure on performance of caterpillars
No control and four of 150 treatment caterpillars died during the repeated cold exposure experiment. Body mass was negatively correlated with CTmin,onset (r=–0.207, P=0.020, N=125), and near-so with CTmin,recovery(r=–0.171, P=0.067, N=116), and was used as a covariate in all CTmin analyses. Critical thermal minima did not differ between treatment and control caterpillars at any stage of the experiment (CTmin,onset: F1,121=1.429, P=0.234; CTmin,recovery: F1,111=0.734, P=0.393; Fig. 1A). Caterpillars that were repeatedly exposed to –5°C lost mass relative to their control counterparts (Fig. 1B). This mass was not regained with 5 days of recovery, and 30 days after the final exposure, the mass of treatment larvae had increased to initial levels compared to control larvae, which had significantly gained mass over the recovery period (Fig. 1B). Gutless mass declined relative to initial mass with repeated exposures, and this became more pronounced after 5 exposures and 5 days of recovery(Fig. 1C). Gutless mass was significantly lower in experimental than in control larvae 30 days after the final exposure (Fig. 1C). During dissections, treatment caterpillars were observed to have empty guts with thinner, more delicate walls than their control counterparts. Measurements of body composition showed a significant decrease in gut mass in treatment caterpillars as compared to controls (main effects: fresh mass: F1,131=29.474, P<0.001; dry mass: F1,131=38.113, P<0.001; total dry mass as covariate), and higher gut lipid mass in treatment compared to control animals(treatment effect: F1,129=11.876, P<0.001;treatment×exposure interaction: F7,129=3.477, P=0.002; Fig. 2). There were no significant differences in total or body lipids, haemolymph mass or water content between control and treatment animals (P>0.05; Fig. 2; Table S1 insupplementary material).
(A) Mass-independent critical thermal minimum (CTmin)onset and recovery (least-square means ± 95% confidence intervals) of P. marioni larvae repeatedly exposed to cold (filled squares, broken lines) or handling controls (open triangles, solid lines). Number of exposures on x axis includes 5 days recovery after final exposure (r-5). (B)Mass at dissection (g) and (C) gutless mass (g; mass at dissection – gut+ contents) of Pringleophaga marioni larvae exposed to –5°C on up to 5 occasions (filled squares, broken line) and handling controls (open triangles and solid lines). Number of exposures on x axis, includes 5 days (r-5) and 30 days (r-30) recovery after 5 exposures. Values are least-square means with initial mass as covariate ± 95% confidence intervals. All analyses were performed as ANCOVA on log10-transformed data. Asterisks indicate masses that are significantly different from initial mass (0 exposures), on the basis of non-overlapping confidence intervals. Control-treatment pairs whose confidence intervals do not overlap are significantly different (P<0.05). Mass at dissection: main effect F1,134=80.99, P<0.0001; treatment × exposure interaction F7,134=4.721, P<0.0001. Gutless mass: main effect F1,133=21.61, P<0.0001; treatment× exposure interaction F7,133=1.71, P=0.112.
Body composition in Pringleophaga marioni larvae exposed to increasing numbers of freeze–thaw cycles (filled squares, dotted lines)or handling controls (open triangles, solid lines), and 5 (r-5) and 30 (r-30)days after the final exposure. Values are least-square means ± 95%confidence intervals of nine measurements. T indicates a significant difference between treatment and control, T×E indicates a significant treatment × exposure interaction. See Table S1 in supplementary materialfor statistics and covariates used for each analysis.
Of the 43 caterpillars cooled in contact with thermocouples, 39 caterpillars (91%) froze at least once, and 11 (26%) froze on every exposure(Fig. 3). Because freezing did not necessarily occur upon exposure to cold, we make a distinction between the effects of freeze–thaw cycles (in which freezing events were confirmed in individual caterpillars attached to thermocouples), and the effects of repeated cold exposure (regardless of whether the larvae froze). A reduced proportion of treatment caterpillars froze after the initial exposure, and this was not observed in control animals (Wald statisticχ 2=6.04, P=0.014, d.f.=1; Fig. 4A). The probability of freezing was significantly positively correlated with caterpillar mass(Fig. 5). In the absence of prior cold exposure, larger caterpillars froze at higher temperatures[Tc–(log10mass) correlation at first exposure: control: r=0.371, P=0.012, N=46;treatment: r=0.756, P<0.001, N=43], and mass was therefore used as a covariate in all analyses of Tc. The profile of freezing across the exposures for each individual caterpillar is given in Table S2 of the supplementary material. Least-squares mean Tc (approx. –4.3°C) did not change with repeated exposures in control (F3,40=0.9079, P=0.45) or treatment groups (F4,119=0.0655, P=0.992; Fig. 4B). However,within-individual repeatability of Tc in treatment animals was not significantly different from zero (r=0.114, upper/lower 95%confidence limits 0.315/–0.007; MSBetween exposures=0.335,MSWithin exposures=0.147, N=10, F5,10=2.28, P=0.13), suggesting that, while the mean Tc remains stable, it is highly variable within an individual between exposures.
Frequency distribution of freezing events of Pringleophaga marionilarvae exposed five times to –5.5°C. Note that some caterpillars froze on every exposure, while others did not freeze at all; N=43. See Table S2 in supplementary material for individual freezing profiles.
(A) Proportion of caterpillars that froze at each exposure to–5.5°C. Filled squares, broken line: treatment animals, exposed to–5.5°C each time; N=43. Open triangles, solid line:handling controls, exposed to –5.5°C for the first time at each exposure; N=16. (B) Least-squares mean temperature of crystallisation(Tc) ± 95% confidence intervals (after ANCOVA with body mass as covariate) of control (open triangles, solid line) and treatment(filled squares, broken line) caterpillars exposed to repeated cold events. Only individuals that froze every time are included in the treatment data. Control animals were exposed to the same handling as the treatments, but each exposure was their first exposure to cold for those individuals.
Positive relationship between caterpillar mass (g) and the number of times an individual caterpillar froze during five exposures to –5.5°C. Pearson's correlation coefficient r=0.552, P<0.001, N=43.
Because the TC caterpillars froze a variable number of times during their five exposures to –5.5°C, we were able to partition out the effect of the number of times a caterpillar froze on its body composition. Increasing numbers of freeze–thaw events were associated with increased gut water content (F5,35=4.000, P=0.006), but no other significant changes were detected (Fig. 6; Table S3 in supplementary material).
Body composition of larvae of P. marioni exposed five times to–5.5°C, and that froze between 0 and 5 times during those exposures. Values are least-square means ± 95% confidence intervals of mass (g)measurements. Gut water differed significantly with frequency of freezing;significant differences are indicated by different letters above the bars. See Table S2 in supplementary material for statistics and covariates used in ANCOVA.
Microclimatic conditions
During the period for which microclimate data were analysed, soil temperatures at both 200 and 800 m a.s.l. dropped below 0°C repeatedly(Table 1, Fig. 7). At 800 m, there were 13 frost cycles in the 13 day period from 11 to 23 August, and at 200 m there were 9 frost cycles in the 13 day period from 1 to 13 September(Fig. 7). The minimum temperature at 200 m was –2.5°C, higher than the highest P. marioni Tc recorded in our experiments (–2.6°C), but at 800 m, the temperature dropped below –5°C on eight occasions over the winter (Table 1), although these never occurred on consecutive days.
Summary of microclimate temperatures, number and duration of freeze–thaw cycles at two threshold temperatures on Marion Island
200 .
Microclimate temperature (°C)
Mean 3.3±0.1 0.7±0.1
Maximum 18.5 23.0
Minimum -2.5 -12.0
0°C threshold
Number of events 18 49
Mean duration (h) 5.9±1.1 15.5±1.9
-5°C threshold
Number of events 0 8
Mean duration (h) 4.5±1.3
Mean values are ± s.e.m.
Measurements were taken at 1 cm depth in soil at two altitudes on the eastern side of Marion Island in July, August and September 2002.
Hourly microclimate temperatures measured at 1 cm depth in soil at 200 and 800 m above sea level on the eastern side of Marion Island from the beginning of July to the end of October 2002.
Arthropods that ordinarily experience freeze–thaw cycles in their habitat (for example, sub-Antarctic and alpine habitats) might be expected to be well-adapted to repeated cold exposure. Indeed, many species of insects display a rapid cold-hardening response, which is an increase in tolerance to low temperature after a previous exposure(Lee et al., 1987; Sinclair et al., 2003c). Although hourly cycles (as used by Brown et al., 2004) are probably unrealistic, daily cold exposure cycles are frequent events in tropical high mountain(Krog et al., 1979), temperate alpine (Sinclair, 2001b) and Antarctic (Sinclair et al.,2003b) habitats. Recordings of soil temperature during the winter of 2002 show that five consecutive frost events is, in fact, a conservative set of exposures for habitats at 200 and 800 m a.s.l. occupied by P. marioni on Marion Island (Fig. 7). Although the minimum soil temperature at 800 m was–12°C, in neither habitat did the temperature drop to –5°C on consecutive days, so the frequency of exposure in our experiment was realistic, even though the temperature chosen may have been somewhat extreme.
We experimentally exposed larvae of P. marioni to five sequential low temperature (–5°C) events. This repeated exposure did not result in a change in either CTmin,onset or CTmin,recovery, suggesting that repeated cold exposure does not affect threshold temperatures for activity and feeding by the caterpillars. Nevertheless, repeated exposure led to a decrease in total body mass, largely accounted for by a decrease in gut mass (although accompanied by a decrease in gutless mass), which suggests that the caterpillars stopped feeding after the second cold exposure. This cessation of feeding, however, is not simply a short-term effect: after 30 days of recovery, treatment caterpillars had merely regained their initial (pre-exposure) body mass, and gutless body mass was significantly lower than controls, which had substantially gained mass by both measures. After 30 days, relative gut mass did not differ between the groups, suggesting that feeding had recommenced in treatment caterpillars. Thus, repeated freeze–thaw cycles, which resulted in very little mortality, had substantial and long-lasting sublethal effects on growth rate of the larvae, and hence their fitness. Brown et al.(2004) exposed syrphid larvae to repeated low temperatures, and also found sublethal effects, manifested in a substantial reduction in successful pupation and emergence.
During dissection, we observed that the guts of treatment caterpillars were very fragile. In combination with a cessation of feeding, this suggests that repeated cold exposure resulted in damage to the gut. Feeding had clearly not resumed after 5 days of recovery, which suggests that this damage to the gut was not transient, but persisted, and possibly required extensive repair when animals were no longer exposed to cold. Temperature and other perturbations can have a marked effect on the insect gut, leading to a decrease or cessation in feeding, and sometimes death (Chown and Nicolson, 2004). The larval gut of Drosophila melanogaster is particularly susceptible to heat shock (which may be mitigated with increased Hsp70 expression; Feder and Krebs, 1998), and non-lethal virus infection can result in increased sloughing of gut cells and consequent loss of gut function in Lepidoptera(Brooks et al., 2002). The deleterious effects of repeated cold exposure in P. marioni probably result from damage to the gut. This suggests that the gut cells of P. marioni may not be as robust to low temperature damage as has been observed in some other freeze-tolerant taxa(Yi and Lee, 2003; Worland et al., 2004).
The increase in gut lipids in treatment larvae could be confounded with a decrease in gut contents in those animals, as P. marioni diet has a low lipid content, and full dry guts are likely to contain little lipid. Given the fragile nature of the gut in treatment animals, removing and weighing gut contents was not practical. However, the increase in gut lipids in treatment caterpillars remained if dry body mass (rather than dry gut mass) was used as a covariate in the model (main effect F1,128=11.796, P<0.001), suggesting that there is a genuine increase in gut lipid mass. The source of this increased lipid mass is not easily explicable, as there was no concomitant decrease in body lipids, and a significant proportion of the fat body is associated with the gut in lepidopteran larvae(Gullan and Cranston, 2005)making redistribution of lipid among tissues unlikely. However, membranes are particularly sensitive to temperature, and as well as changes to lipid composition, fluidity can be maintained in the face of temperature stress by incorporation of additional cholesterol or polyunsaturated fatty acids into the membranes (Logue et al.,2000; Hochachka and Somero,2002; Hulbert,2003). It is likely that our chloroform-methanol extraction would also remove non-polar cholesterol, possibly causing the increase in measured`lipids'. However, this extraction method is a somewhat blunt instrument, and changes in gut lipid associated with repeated cold exposure require further qualitative, as well as quantitative, investigation.
A switch between the dichotomous cold tolerance strategies of freeze avoidance and freeze tolerance has been observed in the wild in Dendroides canadensis (Coleoptera: Pyrochroidae) and Cucujus clavipes(Coleoptera: Cucujidae) larvae (Horwath and Duman, 1984). In both cases, this switch was from freeze tolerance to freeze avoidance, perhaps as a result of a series of mild winters that might have repeatedly exposed the insects to freeze–thaw cycles(Duman, 1984). Similarly, Bale et al. (2001) and Brown et al.(2004) assert that Hydromedion sparsutum and Syrphus ribesii larvae(respectively) actually change their cold tolerance strategy in response to repeated freezing. However, repeated cooling of P. marioni did not result in a change in the mean Tc, and although there was a reduction in the proportion of individuals that froze after the first exposure (possibly a consequence of a decrease in mass, Figs 1B, 4A), all individuals that froze still survived freezing. This suggests that there was no systematic change in the cold-tolerance strategy of P. marioni individuals from freeze tolerance to freeze avoidance during the course of the experiment. Nucleation via gut material is expected to be prevalent in winter-active insects(Sinclair et al., 2003a; see Palmer et al., 2004, for a graphic demonstration), which means that we would expect Tc to decline as the gut is emptied. Mean Tc in treatment P. marioni remained unchanged despite a decline in gut mass, suggesting that other factors besides gut contents, such as resident gut flora or ice-nucleating proteins, may be as important as food content in determining the temperature at which caterpillars freeze; however, our experimental design did not allow us to measure a Tc below –5.5°C, and the eleven individuals which froze above that temperature on every occasion may not provide an accurate representation of ice nucleation in the population as a whole. The reduced proportion of caterpillars that froze after the initial exposure(Fig. 4A) may be due to a decrease in overall mass, to a reduction in gut contents and thus susceptibility to nucleation by gut material, or to changes in the efficacy of gut nucleators as a result of (for example) increased sloughing of the gut epithelium. However, because we only measured gut mass at the conclusion of the five exposures of the TC caterpillars, we are unable to tease these explanations apart here.
Of interest here is that the effects of repeated freezing events were relatively minor (only gut water content increased with increasing numbers of freezing events in an individual). By contrast, repeated exposure to cold had a significant effect on feeding, regardless of whether the individual caterpillars froze or not. This means that the deleterious effects we demonstrate cannot be ascribed solely to the obvious mechanical and physiological effects of internal ice formation(Ramløv, 2000). Non-freezing low-temperature injuries are not well understood, but among the candidate causes are oxidative stress, structural changes to proteins and phase transitions in membranes(Ramløv, 2000; Chown and Nicolson, 2004). In a situation where low temperature per se is a source of deleterious effects, there is limited benefit to a switch in cold-tolerance strategy compared to avoiding the low-temperature stress entirely. Indeed, freezing and thawing in P. marioni do not seem to be associated with increased energy expenditure (Sinclair et al.,2004), and there is some evidence of the preferential selection of beneficial thermal microenvironments by P. marioni on Marion Island(B. J. Sinclair and S. L. Chown, manuscript submitted).
It is clear that insects respond to low temperatures at temporal scales ranging from minutes (in the case of rapid cold-hardening), through diurnal changes in cold tolerance to seasonal acclimatization(Bale, 2002; Sinclair et al., 2003c). However, as Bale and colleagues (Bale et al., 2001; Brown et al.,2004) have pointed out, investigations of these responses have generally focussed on the effects of a single exposure. Nevertheless, this study, and those of Bale et al.(2001) and Brown et al.(2004), demonstrate significant sublethal effects for larvae repeatedly exposed to low temperatures. This raises something of a paradox, as cold-exposure cycles of various frequencies are common in many terrestrial habitats, and are thought to select for freeze tolerance in those habitats where freeze–thaw may be experienced year-round (Sinclair et al., 2003a). Although we observed a cessation of feeding and apparent damage to the gut in caterpillars repeatedly exposed to cold,mortality of treatment caterpillars was less than 3%, and after 30 days recovery caterpillars had resumed feeding. Thus, we make a distinction between selection associated with survival (e.g. the selection of a cold tolerance strategy; Sinclair et al.,2003a), and selection associated with life-history traits like growth and development (in this case, feeding performance).
The microclimate data shown in Fig. 7 demonstrate that sub-zero temperatures do not occur every day during the winter, even at high altitude on Marion Island, which means that there is ample opportunity for recovery and resumption of feeding by caterpillars in the field. However, a temporary cessation in feeding as a result of cold exposure means that the feeding and growth performance of caterpillars in the field will be substantially decreased. This will result in lengthened life cycles, for example, limitations to growth rate imposed by freezing stress and aestivation to avoid parasitoids results in a 7 year life cycle in G. groenlandica(Morewood and Ring, 1998). Indeed, slow rates of growth and long life cycles are typical for many sub-Antarctic terrestrial arthropods(Crafford, 1990; Convey, 1996, 2000), in spite of apparently normal Q10 and preferred temperatures(Ottesen, 1990; Crafford and Chown, 1993; Todd, 1997), and this particular paradox is resolved if responses to low temperature are viewed not simply as a linear relationship, but as a step function, with a considerable decrease in growth and development beyond threshold microclimatic conditions(in this case, repeated cold exposure). The exact nature of the threshold in terms of frequency and intensity of cold exposure remains to be elucidated for P. marioni, but it is clear that knowledge of these parameters would be necessary to model this species' responses to climate change.
Under the clear-skies scenario for climate change on Marion Island(Smith and Steenkamp, 1990),an increase in daytime temperature would result in a decrease, rather than an increase, in developmental rate if balanced with increased frequency of sub-zero night-time temperatures. Thus, the biological consequences of climate change on Marion Island cannot be predicted simply from mean temperatures, but must encompass changes to the patterns of variation about that mean. Moreover, P. marioni is the primary prey of introduced house mice on Marion Island (Smith et al., 2002),and an increase in predation is expected if mean temperatures continue to rise(Smith and Steenkamp, 1990). Coupled to an increased development time, such increased predation could lead to severe impacts on the Marion Island population of P. marioni.
Thanks to Sue Jackson, Jaco Klok, Mhairi McFarlane, Ruan Veldtman and two anonymous referees for comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript and John Terblanche for help with repeatability calculations. We are grateful to Sarette Slabber and Erika Nortje for assistance with transferring and watering caterpillars, to Richard Mercer, Thembile Khoza, Shallin Abraham and Bettine Jansen van Vuuren for assistance collecting caterpillars, and to members of the 2004 takeover `Gogga lab' for their support and discussion. This work was funded by NRF Grant GUN 2068305 to S.L.C., the South African Department of Environmental Affairs andTourism provided logistic support, and B.J.S. was supported by a New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science and Technology postdoctoral fellowship. This is a contribution to the SCAR EBA programme.
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