The vaux swifts have been a community institution here in Portland returning each fall to Chapman Elementary chimney. For some reason this year they appear to have moved on. See the green oval highlight at top in the below link. https://birdallianceoregon.org/go-outside/swift-watch/
"Predators like Cooper’s Hawks and American Crows have always been at Chapman, but this year we’ve seen predators stay for longer periods, delaying the swifts’ entry into the chimney. This theory requires more investigation and additional observation from our community science team."
BTW: The University of Vermont Men's Soccer Team won the NCAA championship last night, beating Marshall 2-1 in overtime. First ever team championship for the school, though its skiers have won a number of NCAA titles. Go Catamounts! I think that deserves a TSAF. Just sayin'
Today’s special animal friend is Puma concolor, the puma, mountain lion, cougar, panther, etc. It can be found throughout the Americas from southern Chile to southern Canada. In the large and diverse family of wild cats, the puma is most closely related to the jaguarundi of South America and the African cheetah. They are the fourth largest cat species, on average. Adults average about 30” tall at the shoulder and can be 9 ft. in length, nose to tail. There is a wide range of weights, depending on habitat, but adults of both sexes usually weigh over 100 lbs., and some males are over 200 lbs.
There are a lot of kooks out there. Just saying. However, pumas are sort of the coyote (or black bear) of felines, in that they adapt to all sorts of environments with ease. They can be found in mountains, forests, savannah, scrubland, suburbs, city parks, your garage, and sometimes your kitchen. These guys are in an agricultural area:
… and we learned yesterday that they also hunt Darwin’s rhea. Pumas are generalist predators who will kill and eat anything available in their habitat, including smaller wild cats. They have no natural predators, but they compete intensely with other apex predators such as wolves. Feline vs. canine predation of cubs or weakened adults is not unknown.
The standard social grouping is a mother and cubs from one or more litters. Adult males drop by only to mate. Some biologists have observed communal ranges, so to speak, where the territory of a single, dominant male will be shared by several mom-and-kids families, where the dominant male may or may not be the father of the cubs. Females give birth to up to six (two is average) cubs, usually at intervals of two to three years. The mother provides all the care and food for the young, who are independent at two to three years old, depending on the habitat. Young males separate from the mother earlier and more completely than female offspring.
Pumas are a species of Least Concern. In parts of the Americas, such as Tierra del Fuego, they are no longer found in previous range, but in other areas, their population is growing and their range expanding. Like black bears, they are recolonizing the eastern United States.
I've seen all the big cats in Africa. Here in my front yard, fortunately, have yet to see live Bobcats or Mountain Lions. Captured near the coral with my trail cam.
Although.... I have seen their eyes, pretty sure reflecting back from my flashlight.
I haven't seen any puma recolonizing the eastern US, but I have seen jaguars in Jacksonville. Large numbers of people come out to boo them on Sundays this year...
There is a CTA elevated line in the Chicago area, now designated the Yellow Line. (Well, it's part of the elevated system, but most of this particular line is at grade level.) It was originally called the "Skokie Swift" because it could get people swiftly from that near northern suburb to connect at Howard with the Red Line that would take them the rest of the way downtown--for some, a better alternative to commuter trains if you could be dropped off/picked up. The original 1960s logo of the Skokie Swift featured the stylized silhouette of the bird.
I hard not heard reported that pumas were moving into the eastern US, not in the way that coyotes have been for several decades. (I don't think black bears ever left).
Mountain lions (pumas, catamounts, panthers) don't appear anywhere in the kind of numbers that coyotes can achieve. Wild cats as a class tend to be more sensitive to environmental change and pickier about their habitats than canids are. They also have lower populations densities throughout the world.
Black bear numbers got really low in many states before bouncing back with a vengeance. Coyotes (in much of the U.S.) and jackals (in Europe) are vacuum-fillers.
There's been bear sightings in southern Indiana, which is hilly, and full of tourists. Not that they are feasting on tourists, but rather on tourist trash....
I went down a rabbit hole investigating the school shooter in Wisconsin yesterday. Of course the lawyer in me looked up her dad’s name in CCAP, circuit court access. I discovered that her parents divorced in 2014 and again in 2020 and there was a placement dispute in 2022. No wonder she disliked them. Her life was likely chaotic. Her dad‘s Facebook cover page was of her shooting skeet in the same T-shirt she wore yesterday during the killing. That T-shirt was the same as the one worn by the Columbine killers. I think this will be a case of where there were many signs, but people just looked the other way maybe because she was a girl? There’s a Jeff Rupnow in our town (same name as the shooter’s dad) and he’s been inundated with calls. No relation though.
Today's China experience involved going to the Hubei Corps Hospital of CAPF Medical Orthopaedic Beauty Speciality. Don't ask me what the name means; I don't know. It used to be called the Hubei Armed Police Hospital. The Armed Police are a branch of the PLA. It's the hospital where military and armed police go for care. There are lots of levels of police in China, most not armed, like England's Bobbies. The Armed Police are, uh...armed. They look like tactical squad guys. It's also where TCM and acupuncture is performed on folks that need Orthopaedic care. I'm old friends with Dr. Xu, my sinus is acting up, and he informed me he might be able to help.
The hospital is NOT where laowai, especially AMERICAN laowai, are expected. Lotta young PLA in camo gear, old guys still wearing their olive green overcoats with the ear flap commie hats sporting the red star....that sort of thing. Entering the lobby, all eyes turned, the usual expressionless stare of Chinese, but that is strange because Chinese have long developed the perfect peripheral vision stare because to be seen actually staring at someone breaks the 4th wall. Chinese are embarrassed if they see you catching them looking. I smiled and a small wave, it broke the ice. Folks acknowledged the wave, even the folks in camo gear. I was Dr. Xu's "guest", which made everyone extremely curious.
The usual tea and brief relationship mending after a long absence, I was shown to a curtained cubicle, in moments I was a pin cushion of needles in my hands, arms, legs and feet. Apparently, the problem isn't really in my sinus, it's the universal life force, Qi, that is disrupted because I was "too healthy" and therefore my system was running hot, manifested in a problem sinus. I don't ask questions, I nod and put the universal "I understand" look on my face and nodded approval.
Afterward, I took Dr. Xu, his assistants, and training students to lunch. Shown to a private room, very common in Chinese restaurants, and the obligatory 5 minutes of everyone jockeying position insisting that I take the seat of honor (always that seat furthest from and facing the door), we got down to a pretty good dinner, and eventually, extremely polite and timid "Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure, of course. What?"
"We've heard that sometimes there is discrimination against Asians and Chinese in America. Is that true?"
"Yes, it is rare and isolated, but there have been instances of discrimination and sometimes physical assault. I am very embarrassed and sorry to tell you this is true."
Nodded silent acknowledgement.
"Show us your Chinese speaking."
Gesturing with a toast toward the two young women, I say "Ni hen piaoliang!" (You are very beautiful!) Wild excited laughter and tittering, covering their mouths... Can you imagine saying that in current America? It'd devolve in a second to Andrea Dworkin level verbal thrashing.
"We have heard that some Americans leave their air conditioning on, even when they are not in the house. Is this true?"
"Yes, most Americans leave the air conditioning on nonstop. All day, even if they aren't home. Some people leave the air conditioning on just for their pet dog."
Mildly wide eyed stare acknowledgement with a "wow" kind of facial expression.
"What about lights? Do Americans leave their lights on when they leave a room?"
"Yes, very common, although many people do turn off their lights."
"We see advertisements where people are driving boats around and they don't appear to be fishing. Do Americans just drive boats for entertainment?"
"Yes, boating is a major sporting activity. People just drive around drinking and having a good time."
"DRINKING AND DRIVING A BOAT?!?" The amazement was palpable.
"Yes, it is very common. Lots of drinking when boating." (It's true.)
"Don't the police arrest them?"
"It is very rare for there to even be police on the water. Even when they are present, they do not usually bother boaters unless someone is causing real trouble."
Amazed stares.
Finally...real timid... "What about Trump? Do like Donald Trump?"
"No, he's an idiot."
Big explosive laughs, camaraderie.
9 people, major good lunch, 8 dishes, hot coca cola with ginger for drinks... $80.
Reminds me of a business trip I made to Australia while Bush II was in office and the Iraq War was at it’s worst. In a group setting I was asked sort of gently but also obviously pointedly what Americans thought of him. I sensed a set up and difficult conversation coming on and I used my best diplomatic skills to provide a vanilla answer and quickly redirected the conversation. I think that’s also known as tap dancing. Something similar happened in London when a guy in a bar heard me tell someone I live in Texas and he immediately wanted to discuss Bush. No thanks sir, my mouth is full of beer and I can’t talk at the moment.
NFW.... Talking politics is not just a dumb move, it's very bad manners. I was with a bunch of PLA and practicing my best P2P diplomacy. Also, if it was you and me, sitting around the campfire, I could get into a lengthy disquisition putting this and that into a coherent set of thoughts where you would very likely get an entirely new perspective on things. Seriously. Not saying anyone is good, bad, or anything. Just an entirely different perspective.
I’ll have to tell the ENT hubs to see if there are any acupuncture conferences for sinus. We boat and drink but two beers max! We also 🏄♀️ while boating. Sometimes I’ll take my lady friends out, drop an anchor, sip some beers and laugh away!
Yeah. When I first told my in-laws I had a boat, they were like "oh, what a responsible man. He fishes for extra income.". When I told them "nah, we just blast around and burn gas and have fun"...it kinda stopped them in their tracks. "Huh?" I don't drink, but everyone else is hammered. They don't get to drive my boat. I don't get on theirs.
"What about lights? Do Americans leave their lights on when they leave a room?"
Yes, even though they should hear their mother's voice ringing in their ears (even if their mother has been dead for a decade), "Turn those lights off! We're paying for the electricity!"
How are your sinuses now? In order to "fix" your sinuses, does something else have to go wrong, so you're not "too healthy"?
Man. You are just making me smile. So many experiences in Asia, but some funny ones here with customers and colleagues visiting.
Feng shui. 風
My wife learned about Feng Shui in the 60s at college.
Sitting with your back against a wall, facing openings is threat protection. From startles and surprises.
Dogs have been practicing this for thousands of years. It's why many dogs will circle an open bowl scouting for threats. Put the bowl against a wall, usually they go right to it and eat. It's the same with sleeping. They prefer a U shaped situation. Box canyon so threats are only from ahead. Relaxation all around.
If you move an open spaced couch against a wall, you'll often be more relaxed.
Also there are many certified Canine Acupuncturists. Works.
The door thresholds on all really old buildings were raised like a dam...like 8"-12" depending on the building...to keep out evil. You have to step over it.
So more about chimneys in 1970s western Massachusetts.
We had 4 places, 3 chimneys. Yes a big barn of a house. What's a 23 year old newly married husband to do!!
So this Jotul wood stove was gorgeous. Bas relief cat panels in porcelainized hunter green. Plate to boil water for tea.
First year, I piped the flue up through the now sealed chimney shaft.
Part of running a 24/7 wood stove to heat, is the necessary "chimney 🔥" to burn off the tars and deposits in the woodnstove, pipe and chimney.
So that summer of 78, young house engineer me realized I needed to put in a stainless steel pipe up the chimney. Had some help. All screwed together and supported via a flat flange atop the chimney. But before that, I filled the cavity with vermiculite. Mg,Fe2+,Fe3+)3[(Al,Si)4O10](OH)2·4H2O. ( I cheated..copied from Wiki 🫡🤐
Then our morning chimney fire sounded like a hurricane. We stacked and burned 10 cords a year.
Because the awesome steam boiler, which made great heat in cast iron radiators, was about 75 ft back from the first radiator.
The other side of the house, was built with a coal fired center downtown hot air system in 1866
40 degrees here. It was warming up yesterday--the skiing was very good in the morning and it was sticky and soft in the afternoon. Never got below 40 at night so I think I will find something else for my houseguests to do today. Temps are expected to drop a lot overnight.
I think they have expressed interest in going to The Vermont Country Store. That will keep them busy. Its pretty cool. You can check out their catalog at https://www.vermontcountrystore.com/?
The main store (they have a second location) is a real trip. Especially their candy section where you can still get items such as Blackjack gum, Clove Gum and Beeman's Pepsin Gum, among other old fashioned candy favs. They have some nice Vermont clothing as well, so the flatlanders can look all country-fied...
Today’s special animal friend is the East African lowland honey bee, Apis mellifera scutellate. After learning about the honey badger and the honeyguide, we naturally wondered who was making the honey, and here’s the answer. A. m. scutellate is a subspecies of the Western or European honey bee, which is believed to have originated in Africa anyway. The African subspecies is slightly smaller than bees found in Europe.
Many differences between African and European honey bees can be explained by climate. Warmer and more stable temperatures in southern Africa mean that the bees don’t have to devote energy to staying warm. According to melittologists, this allows the African bees to produce honey more quickly and in greater volume than European bees do. They are also generally more active, responding to threats more quickly and with more workers, and a swarm can easily relocate itself in search of better habitat.
As we learned yesterday, several African groups have a culture of honey-hunting in cooperation with honeyguide birds. One of these groups is the Hadza, a hunter-gatherer tribe of Tanzania. Linguists believe the Hadza language is an isolate, which suggests that this non-Bantu people experienced thousands of years of largely untouched life. Their oral history supports a residence of, perhaps, 20,000 years in their territory near the Olduvai gorge.
Back to the bees, whose ability to fly is considered kind of anomalous. There are very complex discussions about the energy needs of flight vs. temperature vs. reproduction, but one point is that East African bees eat warmer, less viscous nectar because it can be gathered more quickly, allowing them to just do everything faster. They can see the temperature of flowers and choose the ones they can process more rapidly. Another trait of African bees is to collect more pollen than nectar, which seems to allow them to accelerate their life cycle.
A. m. scutellate is threatened in its far southern range by the Cape honey bee, A. m. capensis. Complicated genetic stuff allows the Cape honey bee to infiltrate scutellate colonies and take over, mucking everything up until the original colony have all died.
East African honey bees were introduced to Brazil. They have spread northward, hybridizing with some other species. Readers my age may remember periodic flurries of media about Africanized or “killer bees.” Bee afraid! Bee very afraid!
I remember the killer bees. They were about the same time the American sportball team the KC Chiefs required their players to wear red blazers when traveling. They were known as the "killer beets".
The vaux swifts have been a community institution here in Portland returning each fall to Chapman Elementary chimney. For some reason this year they appear to have moved on. See the green oval highlight at top in the below link. https://birdallianceoregon.org/go-outside/swift-watch/
"Predators like Cooper’s Hawks and American Crows have always been at Chapman, but this year we’ve seen predators stay for longer periods, delaying the swifts’ entry into the chimney. This theory requires more investigation and additional observation from our community science team."
Very interesting.
I saw that when I was looking for videos of chimney swifts going into the chimney. They are closely related species.
https://www.the-sun.com/sport/13108326/basketball-star-janis-timma-dead/
Sudden Russian Death Syndrome alert.
"reportedly fell from a Moscow apartment complex."
No indication if an open window was involved.
I hope Assad stays off of hotel balconies. On second thought…
He seems like an unlucky guy.
We capped our chimney. Swifties no doubt consider me a war criminal.
It's not cold here this morning!.
Last night I missed a question on Jeopardy! because I only skimmed a recent TSAF.
That'll teach you!
BTW: The University of Vermont Men's Soccer Team won the NCAA championship last night, beating Marshall 2-1 in overtime. First ever team championship for the school, though its skiers have won a number of NCAA titles. Go Catamounts! I think that deserves a TSAF. Just sayin'
Congratulations.
Today’s special animal friend is Puma concolor, the puma, mountain lion, cougar, panther, etc. It can be found throughout the Americas from southern Chile to southern Canada. In the large and diverse family of wild cats, the puma is most closely related to the jaguarundi of South America and the African cheetah. They are the fourth largest cat species, on average. Adults average about 30” tall at the shoulder and can be 9 ft. in length, nose to tail. There is a wide range of weights, depending on habitat, but adults of both sexes usually weigh over 100 lbs., and some males are over 200 lbs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXpsbDA5nUQ
There are a lot of kooks out there. Just saying. However, pumas are sort of the coyote (or black bear) of felines, in that they adapt to all sorts of environments with ease. They can be found in mountains, forests, savannah, scrubland, suburbs, city parks, your garage, and sometimes your kitchen. These guys are in an agricultural area:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh9lZGrcbcg
This one heard that people feed cats:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2evD8Jn30pQ
In South America, they hunt guanacos, the wild ancestor of the domestic llama:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIt0ub7PhWY
… and we learned yesterday that they also hunt Darwin’s rhea. Pumas are generalist predators who will kill and eat anything available in their habitat, including smaller wild cats. They have no natural predators, but they compete intensely with other apex predators such as wolves. Feline vs. canine predation of cubs or weakened adults is not unknown.
The standard social grouping is a mother and cubs from one or more litters. Adult males drop by only to mate. Some biologists have observed communal ranges, so to speak, where the territory of a single, dominant male will be shared by several mom-and-kids families, where the dominant male may or may not be the father of the cubs. Females give birth to up to six (two is average) cubs, usually at intervals of two to three years. The mother provides all the care and food for the young, who are independent at two to three years old, depending on the habitat. Young males separate from the mother earlier and more completely than female offspring.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1SvSf2G3SI
Pumas are a species of Least Concern. In parts of the Americas, such as Tierra del Fuego, they are no longer found in previous range, but in other areas, their population is growing and their range expanding. Like black bears, they are recolonizing the eastern United States.
That's a cat!
I've seen all the big cats in Africa. Here in my front yard, fortunately, have yet to see live Bobcats or Mountain Lions. Captured near the coral with my trail cam.
Although.... I have seen their eyes, pretty sure reflecting back from my flashlight.
I haven't seen any puma recolonizing the eastern US, but I have seen jaguars in Jacksonville. Large numbers of people come out to boo them on Sundays this year...
The ruling on the field is that names of athletic teams are not puns.
3 TSAFs today??
You won the jackpot! Only the chimney swift article is new.
There is a CTA elevated line in the Chicago area, now designated the Yellow Line. (Well, it's part of the elevated system, but most of this particular line is at grade level.) It was originally called the "Skokie Swift" because it could get people swiftly from that near northern suburb to connect at Howard with the Red Line that would take them the rest of the way downtown--for some, a better alternative to commuter trains if you could be dropped off/picked up. The original 1960s logo of the Skokie Swift featured the stylized silhouette of the bird.
https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/HoDEfQ_bZlbdTcoHbOA160KzADI=/0x0:1469x771/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:1469x771):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/9269145/9641200384_013e128ffa_o.jpg
The current Yellow Line signage still shows the bird in a different form.
https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Kvn9EONO6_Ipq5lZI0Z6ByIPgH8=/0x0:2048x1365/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:2048x1365):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/9269117/14076313213_2dd5228bbe_k.jpg
No chimneys seem to be involved in any of this--merely speed, and of course with the CTA that's relative.
Cool logos.
I hard not heard reported that pumas were moving into the eastern US, not in the way that coyotes have been for several decades. (I don't think black bears ever left).
Mountain lions (pumas, catamounts, panthers) don't appear anywhere in the kind of numbers that coyotes can achieve. Wild cats as a class tend to be more sensitive to environmental change and pickier about their habitats than canids are. They also have lower populations densities throughout the world.
Black bear numbers got really low in many states before bouncing back with a vengeance. Coyotes (in much of the U.S.) and jackals (in Europe) are vacuum-fillers.
Black bears are making a comeback in Ohio, but were never completely absent.
There's been bear sightings in southern Indiana, which is hilly, and full of tourists. Not that they are feasting on tourists, but rather on tourist trash....
Thanks!
I went down a rabbit hole investigating the school shooter in Wisconsin yesterday. Of course the lawyer in me looked up her dad’s name in CCAP, circuit court access. I discovered that her parents divorced in 2014 and again in 2020 and there was a placement dispute in 2022. No wonder she disliked them. Her life was likely chaotic. Her dad‘s Facebook cover page was of her shooting skeet in the same T-shirt she wore yesterday during the killing. That T-shirt was the same as the one worn by the Columbine killers. I think this will be a case of where there were many signs, but people just looked the other way maybe because she was a girl? There’s a Jeff Rupnow in our town (same name as the shooter’s dad) and he’s been inundated with calls. No relation though.
I read excerpts from that manifesto. It was sad. She wrote as if she felt unloved, uncared for, unnoticed.
With counseling it's possible she could have been helped.
My heart wept for her.
"I think this will be a case of where there were many signs, but people just looked the other way maybe because she was a girl?"
That might be an element, but warning signs often don't lead to action when it's a boy.
Very reminiscent of bats. Oh Lord, that video of 1500 of them entering a house. Eeek!
They are more closely related to hummingbirds than to birds such as swallows which have a similar appearance.
> organized groups of Swifties <
*ahem* Those Swifties sure get around!
https://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2024/12/swifties-descend-on-rock-hall-for-taylor-swiftmas-holiday-celebration.html
38 degrees and sunny here. Well, it will be sunny once the sun comes up.
But the forecast is for increasing darkness later in the day, right? Same as here.
Counting down the days until that turns around, 4 to go!
I blame climate change.
Good morning. About 37 here, maybe reaching 50, and sunny. It rained most of yesterday.
The mothership story is “What’s Next for Syria?” The FP is reporting on “Christmas in the Gulag” for Americans imprisoned in Russia.
47 now with a high of 67 expected.
Near 50 this morning, with ongoing showers. Definitely making up for the late-summer-to-fall drought.
Today's China experience involved going to the Hubei Corps Hospital of CAPF Medical Orthopaedic Beauty Speciality. Don't ask me what the name means; I don't know. It used to be called the Hubei Armed Police Hospital. The Armed Police are a branch of the PLA. It's the hospital where military and armed police go for care. There are lots of levels of police in China, most not armed, like England's Bobbies. The Armed Police are, uh...armed. They look like tactical squad guys. It's also where TCM and acupuncture is performed on folks that need Orthopaedic care. I'm old friends with Dr. Xu, my sinus is acting up, and he informed me he might be able to help.
The hospital is NOT where laowai, especially AMERICAN laowai, are expected. Lotta young PLA in camo gear, old guys still wearing their olive green overcoats with the ear flap commie hats sporting the red star....that sort of thing. Entering the lobby, all eyes turned, the usual expressionless stare of Chinese, but that is strange because Chinese have long developed the perfect peripheral vision stare because to be seen actually staring at someone breaks the 4th wall. Chinese are embarrassed if they see you catching them looking. I smiled and a small wave, it broke the ice. Folks acknowledged the wave, even the folks in camo gear. I was Dr. Xu's "guest", which made everyone extremely curious.
The usual tea and brief relationship mending after a long absence, I was shown to a curtained cubicle, in moments I was a pin cushion of needles in my hands, arms, legs and feet. Apparently, the problem isn't really in my sinus, it's the universal life force, Qi, that is disrupted because I was "too healthy" and therefore my system was running hot, manifested in a problem sinus. I don't ask questions, I nod and put the universal "I understand" look on my face and nodded approval.
Afterward, I took Dr. Xu, his assistants, and training students to lunch. Shown to a private room, very common in Chinese restaurants, and the obligatory 5 minutes of everyone jockeying position insisting that I take the seat of honor (always that seat furthest from and facing the door), we got down to a pretty good dinner, and eventually, extremely polite and timid "Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure, of course. What?"
"We've heard that sometimes there is discrimination against Asians and Chinese in America. Is that true?"
"Yes, it is rare and isolated, but there have been instances of discrimination and sometimes physical assault. I am very embarrassed and sorry to tell you this is true."
Nodded silent acknowledgement.
"Show us your Chinese speaking."
Gesturing with a toast toward the two young women, I say "Ni hen piaoliang!" (You are very beautiful!) Wild excited laughter and tittering, covering their mouths... Can you imagine saying that in current America? It'd devolve in a second to Andrea Dworkin level verbal thrashing.
"We have heard that some Americans leave their air conditioning on, even when they are not in the house. Is this true?"
"Yes, most Americans leave the air conditioning on nonstop. All day, even if they aren't home. Some people leave the air conditioning on just for their pet dog."
Mildly wide eyed stare acknowledgement with a "wow" kind of facial expression.
"What about lights? Do Americans leave their lights on when they leave a room?"
"Yes, very common, although many people do turn off their lights."
"We see advertisements where people are driving boats around and they don't appear to be fishing. Do Americans just drive boats for entertainment?"
"Yes, boating is a major sporting activity. People just drive around drinking and having a good time."
"DRINKING AND DRIVING A BOAT?!?" The amazement was palpable.
"Yes, it is very common. Lots of drinking when boating." (It's true.)
"Don't the police arrest them?"
"It is very rare for there to even be police on the water. Even when they are present, they do not usually bother boaters unless someone is causing real trouble."
Amazed stares.
Finally...real timid... "What about Trump? Do like Donald Trump?"
"No, he's an idiot."
Big explosive laughs, camaraderie.
9 people, major good lunch, 8 dishes, hot coca cola with ginger for drinks... $80.
I'm going back, 3 times a week.
Reminds me of a business trip I made to Australia while Bush II was in office and the Iraq War was at it’s worst. In a group setting I was asked sort of gently but also obviously pointedly what Americans thought of him. I sensed a set up and difficult conversation coming on and I used my best diplomatic skills to provide a vanilla answer and quickly redirected the conversation. I think that’s also known as tap dancing. Something similar happened in London when a guy in a bar heard me tell someone I live in Texas and he immediately wanted to discuss Bush. No thanks sir, my mouth is full of beer and I can’t talk at the moment.
“Texas, Ontario, that is.”
Of course, were you to ask about Xi Jinping (aka "Big Daddy" . . .)
Interesting that acupuncture coexists with modern medicine.
NFW.... Talking politics is not just a dumb move, it's very bad manners. I was with a bunch of PLA and practicing my best P2P diplomacy. Also, if it was you and me, sitting around the campfire, I could get into a lengthy disquisition putting this and that into a coherent set of thoughts where you would very likely get an entirely new perspective on things. Seriously. Not saying anyone is good, bad, or anything. Just an entirely different perspective.
I’ll have to tell the ENT hubs to see if there are any acupuncture conferences for sinus. We boat and drink but two beers max! We also 🏄♀️ while boating. Sometimes I’ll take my lady friends out, drop an anchor, sip some beers and laugh away!
Yeah. When I first told my in-laws I had a boat, they were like "oh, what a responsible man. He fishes for extra income.". When I told them "nah, we just blast around and burn gas and have fun"...it kinda stopped them in their tracks. "Huh?" I don't drink, but everyone else is hammered. They don't get to drive my boat. I don't get on theirs.
Kash Patel takes notice of your remarks...
Probably not. I don't think he's very bright.
Good point.
"What about lights? Do Americans leave their lights on when they leave a room?"
Yes, even though they should hear their mother's voice ringing in their ears (even if their mother has been dead for a decade), "Turn those lights off! We're paying for the electricity!"
How are your sinuses now? In order to "fix" your sinuses, does something else have to go wrong, so you're not "too healthy"?
I find that guests in my home are the biggest "leave the lights on" offenders.
I'm following directions largely out of serious curiosity. I will report back when I know something.
"It's also where TCM and acupuncture is performed on folks that need Orthopedic care."
It sounds sort of like an osteopathic clinic.
It is, with camo wearing PLA. Decidedly 80's Socialist Minimalist concrete architecture, so there's that part.
Around here, it would be camo-wearing farmers and hunters.
Man. You are just making me smile. So many experiences in Asia, but some funny ones here with customers and colleagues visiting.
Feng shui. 風
My wife learned about Feng Shui in the 60s at college.
Sitting with your back against a wall, facing openings is threat protection. From startles and surprises.
Dogs have been practicing this for thousands of years. It's why many dogs will circle an open bowl scouting for threats. Put the bowl against a wall, usually they go right to it and eat. It's the same with sleeping. They prefer a U shaped situation. Box canyon so threats are only from ahead. Relaxation all around.
If you move an open spaced couch against a wall, you'll often be more relaxed.
Also there are many certified Canine Acupuncturists. Works.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomancy
Yeah. No mirror in an entry hall. The worst.
No direct entry into a house, there has to be a screen or turn, it prevents evil from entering.
Evil is not clever enough to make a turn?
The door thresholds on all really old buildings were raised like a dam...like 8"-12" depending on the building...to keep out evil. You have to step over it.
Just like on Navy ships.
I never thought about it, but yeah. Exactly. It keeps random water outside from sloshing inside, would be my reasoning for it.
Of course not. If it could figure out turns it would (redacted filthy to the point of disgusting description of what evil would do).
Birds smash into windows.
In 2020, apparently not....In 2024, perhaps so?
So more about chimneys in 1970s western Massachusetts.
We had 4 places, 3 chimneys. Yes a big barn of a house. What's a 23 year old newly married husband to do!!
So this Jotul wood stove was gorgeous. Bas relief cat panels in porcelainized hunter green. Plate to boil water for tea.
First year, I piped the flue up through the now sealed chimney shaft.
Part of running a 24/7 wood stove to heat, is the necessary "chimney 🔥" to burn off the tars and deposits in the woodnstove, pipe and chimney.
So that summer of 78, young house engineer me realized I needed to put in a stainless steel pipe up the chimney. Had some help. All screwed together and supported via a flat flange atop the chimney. But before that, I filled the cavity with vermiculite. Mg,Fe2+,Fe3+)3[(Al,Si)4O10](OH)2·4H2O. ( I cheated..copied from Wiki 🫡🤐
Then our morning chimney fire sounded like a hurricane. We stacked and burned 10 cords a year.
Because the awesome steam boiler, which made great heat in cast iron radiators, was about 75 ft back from the first radiator.
The other side of the house, was built with a coal fired center downtown hot air system in 1866
My 3rd grade writing skills. I was in 3rd grade. So...
Insert because no editing on substack; cast and downflow
Right. Why I read and write on the web version of CSLF. My writing ALWAYS needs editing.
40 degrees here. It was warming up yesterday--the skiing was very good in the morning and it was sticky and soft in the afternoon. Never got below 40 at night so I think I will find something else for my houseguests to do today. Temps are expected to drop a lot overnight.
Play Monopoly?
I think they have expressed interest in going to The Vermont Country Store. That will keep them busy. Its pretty cool. You can check out their catalog at https://www.vermontcountrystore.com/?
Love the Peanuts sheets,towels, etc available in catalog for the grandsons!
I had Peanuts sheets when I was a kid in the early 1970s.
We used to get their catalog.
The main store (they have a second location) is a real trip. Especially their candy section where you can still get items such as Blackjack gum, Clove Gum and Beeman's Pepsin Gum, among other old fashioned candy favs. They have some nice Vermont clothing as well, so the flatlanders can look all country-fied...
I wanted some of the clothing when we lived in Oklahoma, where it gets very cold in the winter, but I couldn't afford it.
Yeah not cheap. i recommend the Orvis outlet.
Let them assemble some Ikea furniture for charity!
Just brainstorming here…
Yeah, but then you're always stuck with one screw that was supposed to go SOMEWHERE, and then the thing collapses and lawsuits ensue...
You didn’t mention there were lawyers present.
There aren't.....yet. That species has an uncanny instinct for budding lawsuits...
That's why so many people put chimney caps on...not to keep out the swifties but the lawyers....
I thought that video of them just flying around the neighborhood was in 2x motion until I noticed the cars were moving at normal speed. Impressive.
How do people NOT have caps on their chimneys?
Lost it in a windstorm and didn't realize it?
Morning. 4.44am 44F
We put a bas relief cast Jotul wood stove in our 1865 chimney back in 78.
Chimney swiftes!
Today’s special animal friend is the East African lowland honey bee, Apis mellifera scutellate. After learning about the honey badger and the honeyguide, we naturally wondered who was making the honey, and here’s the answer. A. m. scutellate is a subspecies of the Western or European honey bee, which is believed to have originated in Africa anyway. The African subspecies is slightly smaller than bees found in Europe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4fNyHQsOI0
Many differences between African and European honey bees can be explained by climate. Warmer and more stable temperatures in southern Africa mean that the bees don’t have to devote energy to staying warm. According to melittologists, this allows the African bees to produce honey more quickly and in greater volume than European bees do. They are also generally more active, responding to threats more quickly and with more workers, and a swarm can easily relocate itself in search of better habitat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vodfHmHNE_s
As we learned yesterday, several African groups have a culture of honey-hunting in cooperation with honeyguide birds. One of these groups is the Hadza, a hunter-gatherer tribe of Tanzania. Linguists believe the Hadza language is an isolate, which suggests that this non-Bantu people experienced thousands of years of largely untouched life. Their oral history supports a residence of, perhaps, 20,000 years in their territory near the Olduvai gorge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fb_gwGsjoNM
Back to the bees, whose ability to fly is considered kind of anomalous. There are very complex discussions about the energy needs of flight vs. temperature vs. reproduction, but one point is that East African bees eat warmer, less viscous nectar because it can be gathered more quickly, allowing them to just do everything faster. They can see the temperature of flowers and choose the ones they can process more rapidly. Another trait of African bees is to collect more pollen than nectar, which seems to allow them to accelerate their life cycle.
A. m. scutellate is threatened in its far southern range by the Cape honey bee, A. m. capensis. Complicated genetic stuff allows the Cape honey bee to infiltrate scutellate colonies and take over, mucking everything up until the original colony have all died.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weq2BixujRI
East African honey bees were introduced to Brazil. They have spread northward, hybridizing with some other species. Readers my age may remember periodic flurries of media about Africanized or “killer bees.” Bee afraid! Bee very afraid!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7kKqgPEGs
I remember the killer bees. They were about the same time the American sportball team the KC Chiefs required their players to wear red blazers when traveling. They were known as the "killer beets".
Really?
John Matuszak, used that line in his autobiography. He briefly played for the Chiefs.