At The Diner:
I put out a jar of peanut butter that we were finished with. The squirrels and Stampies both love peanut butter. Duffy found it quickly:
Mr. Red-bellied Woodpecker and a BigTail at the bath:
Nutkin having a bite:
Mr. Goldfinch-long time buddy!:
Mr. Black squirrel visited:
DHS passing through:
It's startling to look up from the couch while writing and see these huge birds:
At this time of year with the sun setting at a particular angle, the Back 40 will be in darkness while the parking lot to the North is lit up.
Crane flies first appeared during the Middle Triassic, around 245 million years ago, making them one of the oldest known groups of flies!
Seen recently: there was a mature squirrel at the Diner so I went out on the deck to toss peanuts. He came running up to me! As he turned, I saw that he was a member of the BentTail clan although his tail end had dropped at the kink and had grown back but ends abruptly. I wondered if this was my old pal Stubbs? Other BentTails do not approach me.
The setting sun illuminating Benny's maple:
10/10: 34° this morning-frost on the rooftops and lawns.
10/11: We have not seen a robin in a month. Have they gone South? Or shifted elsewhere for food as we continue to have drought.
Nor have we seen any wooly bear caterpillars-in fact, we haven't seen any in 2 years.
10/12-13-finally, we got some rain-about .5"-the highest accumulation since events in late September and early August.
10/14-45° wet and windy-the Turkey Bros stop by:
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Astronomy:
Comet A3: I discovered why I was seeing pics posted yet had not gotten a visual on it: when I looked at the photographer statements, it was revealed that their pics had been long exposures. The comet barely was a naked eye object.
We should be able to view the comet (10/14) but of course, the weather hasn't cooperated in the past few days because of rain.
Our temporary moon: Earth has gained a new temporary companion in space. It's being referred as a new mini-moon. Asteroid 2024 PT5, approximately the size of a school bus, has been captured by Earth's gravity and will orbit our planet for about two months, till November 25, 2024. It is not a naked eye object.
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Hodgepodge for $400, Alex:
The Serpent:
From Wiki:
The serpent is a low-pitched early wind instrument in the brass family developed in the Renaissance era. It has a trombone-like mouthpiece, with six tone holes arranged in two groups of three fingered by each hand. It is named for its long, conical bore bent into a snakelike shape, and unlike most brass instruments is made from wood with an outer covering of leather. A distant ancestor of the tuba, the serpent is related to the cornett and was used for bass parts from the 17th to the early 19th centuries.
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Plants audibly communicate:
Plants emit high-pitched, low-intensity ultrasonic sounds when they are stressed, such as by drought, dehydration, or being cut. These sounds are similar to the popping of popcorn or the bursting of bubble wrap.
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Esher-like brick structures:
Indian stepwells-are wells, cisterns or ponds with a long corridor of steps that descend to the water level. Chand Baori -Abhaneri was built in the 10th Century and is 13 stories tall.
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Gangkhar Puensum-tallest unclimbed peak in the world:
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| Gradythebadge |
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The Ouse Valley Viaduct-this rail bridge in West Sussex, Britain, was constructed 1839-41.
At ground level, looking down the expanse of arches:
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Akhal-Teke horses: From Wiki- They have a reputation for speed and endurance, intelligence, and a distinctive metallic sheen. The shiny coat of the breed led to their nickname, "Golden Horses". These horses are adapted to severe climatic conditions and are thought to be one of the oldest existing horse breeds.There are currently about 6,600 Akhal-Tekes in the world, mostly in Turkmenistan.
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How to weigh a young owl-make a owlritto!
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A doggie stick library:
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The Atlas of Recoleta, Buenos Aires
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Made in 2014 by sculptor Joaquin Arbiza Brianza who works with scrap metal. This piece was made of over 3000 car parts and holds up a limb of a large rubber tree.
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Abraham Lincoln is in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame!
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Most US presidents have kept pets while in office, or pets have been part of their families. Only James K. Polk, Andrew Johnson and Donald Trump did not have any presidential pets while in office however, Johnson did take care of some mice he found in his bedroom.
One notable pet was Andrew Jackson's African Grey parrot named Poll who was bought for his wife and stayed with him after her death. It is said that Poll had a foul mouth and had to be removed from Jackson's funeral for verbally acting out.
A joke from Simon Whistler who hosts a variety of educational podcasts:
Just as polytheists religions tend to have a god for every purpose you can imagine, so too does the Catholic Church have a myriad of saints for a similarly diverse prayers. Take in case St. Lawrence who was the Church treasurer in the 3rd C AD. Emperor Valerian outlawed the Church and demanded that Lawrence turn over all monies to him. Lawrence instead gave it to the poor and Valerian had him executed by grilling over an open flame. After the martyr had suffered pain for a long time, the legend concludes, he cheerfully declared: "I'm well done on this side. Turn me over!" and thus became the patron saint of chefs and comedians.
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Students...!
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| Portrait by Thomas Philips c 1813. |
Lord Byron was a huge animal lover having kept geese, horses, monkeys peacocks, an eagle,
guinea hens, a badger, a fox, a heron, a falcon, an Egyptian crane, a
goat and a crow.
In 1805 when he studied at Trinity college in
Cambridge, the college authorities told him that he couldn’t bring his
pet dog with him as dogs were banned. Lord Byron was so annoyed by this
that he brought a bear with him instead! He argued that the rules didn’t
say anything about being forbidden from keeping a bear.
Surprisingly, Lord Byron won the argument against the college and the bear stayed with him in his room, he would also walk the bear around the college ground on a chain.
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Ernest Hemingway suffered 9 concussions in his life including one as a result of two plane crashes in two days in 1954. In some corners, it is thought he suffered ECT-the type of brain injury found in football players.
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The ancient Egyptians used honey as a antiseptic. Honey's lower ph inhibits the growth of many pathogens. It's also an early use of the scientific method: a systematic process for gaining knowledge through observation, experimentation and analysis.
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The lifetime risk of elephants getting cancer is less than 5%, for humans, it is 20%. Why?
Scientists call it Peto's paradox: cancer is caused by gene mutations that accumulate in cells over time, yet long-lived animals that have lots of cells, such as elephants and whales, hardly ever get it.
For elephants, at least, part of the answer may be the gene commonly known as p53, which also helps humans and many other animals repair DNA damaged during replication. Elephants have an astounding 20 copies of this gene. Those copies, each with two variations called alleles, produce a total of 40 proteins, compared with humans' (and most animals') single copy producing two proteins.
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Curious creature who looks like a cross between a fish and a butterfly: Red Gurnard
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Wow, that's a big kittykat! Siberian Tiger next to human giving you an idea of scale:
Here's another big cat:
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| Jack Olsen |
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Alaskan woman's visitor to her garden one Summer:
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| Bonnie Sturn |
When I see things like this, I am thankful we don't have big critters like moose and bear in our neighborhood.
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Urban myth: there is not a single verified instance of a stockbroker jumping out of a window as a result of the 1929 stock market crash.
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Most of us were taught in school that the 3 ships in the Christopher Columbus expedition were the Niña, Pinta and the Santa Maria. This is not true as in those days, Spanish ships were given saints names. It is likely the names we know were actually nicknames given by sailors. The Santa Maria was known as la Gallega after the province of Galicia where it was built; Niña was the Santa Clara with the nickname for the owner Juan Niña; la Pinta became la Pintada ("the painted one," in other words, "the prostitute"). The nicknames were censored by the Catholic Church.
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Occasionally, strong winds from the South will send Saharan dust and sand up into the Alps in Europe transforming the landscape:
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Fire Rainbows:
The name fire rainbow comes from its bright rainbow colors and almost flame-like shape. Unlike rainbows, circumhorizontal arcs occur from the refraction of sunlight through hexagonal, plate-shaped ice crystals when the sun is 58 degrees above the horizon and no rainfall is involved. Sunlight enters these ice crystals and splits into individual colors, like a prism.
Circumhorizontal arcs appear primarily where cirrus clouds are located. Cirrus clouds are thin and wispy high-altitude clouds and when fire rainbows are observed it almost appears that these wispy cirrus clouds take on a rainbow palette.
Fire rainbows are most often spotted in the spring and summer in the mid-latitudes since the sun is not sufficiently high enough above the horizon in higher latitudes.
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Fun Vids:
3 controversial Halloween candies in the US (they all suck in my book):
Pokey LaFarge retro music-mix of hot swing, early jazz and ragtime blues.
Do octopuses have bad dreams and/or PTSD?
Hong Doong cave-World's largest cave:
Nellie Bly-Pioneering Woman
From Wiki: Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman (born Elizabeth Jane Cochran; May 5, 1864 – January 27, 1922), better known by her pen name Nellie Bly, was an American journalist, who was widely known for her record-breaking trip around the world in 72 days in emulation of Jules Verne's fictional character Phileas Fogg, and an expose in which she worked undercover to report on a mental institution from within. She was a pioneer in her field and launched a new kind of investigative journalism.
Butterflies flying in slow motion at the Cockrell Butterfly Museum in Houston:
Monarch butterfly swarm in the mountains of Mexico:
Motorcycle chariot racing:
Curiously, I had no idea this existed but evidently, it's been around since at least 1922. The popularity of the 1925 film version of Ben Hur helped spur interest.
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