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CynthiaW's avatar

Evening, all. The Envirothon group went to a farm this afternoon. There were cows. The farmer, who is the son-in-law of the owner, is doing regenerative agriculture stuff with some cows. The cows seemed fine. There were also two horses, and Daughter D and I brushed them most of the afternoon, after admiring the cows.

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IncognitoG's avatar

Cows are smart. They figured out that they get to eat and poop and reproduce in relative comfort and safety from vicious predators. Well, except for us. *evil villain cackle*

Is the brushing to regenerate you or the horses?🐴

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CynthiaW's avatar

Everyone seemed happy.

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Jay Janney's avatar

Well, I'm now at 16 days without having had the dogs escape! I'm doing well. This weekend when katie goes morel hunting, I'll be put to the test.

Saturday all the kids came over for dinner with Godparents. Towards the end of the meal, the Godparents announced they are moving to the Isle of Man in June. One will work remote, the other is looking for a job over there. If no job, then they have to come back in 180 days, but they hope to stay a few years. Why go? They love to travel, but cannot afford it so much. But by moving to Europe, they can do more long weekend trips, which they can afford.

We of course have been invited to come visit. We might.

My son brought a homemade bread to the meal featuring a chocolate swirl. It was good. He begins his new job at NASIC today (National Air & Space Intelligence Center).

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IncognitoG's avatar

Won’t that make it the Isle of Gods and Man?

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Jay Janney's avatar

Nahhh, they are pretty humble, actually.

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IncognitoG's avatar

Children of the Lesser Gods?

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Phil H's avatar

From the mothership:

Worth Your Time II: 'The Line Between Good and Evil Cuts Through Evangelical America'--David French

https://tinyurl.com/2mnnyhe9

http://archive.today/3XTC3

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The original Optimum.net's avatar

Interesting. But that was a really long way to go just to be able to deliver that last sentence.

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IncognitoG's avatar

Some might say two-and-a-half centuries is a long way to go to learn the republic has merely been a joke with the punchline “President Donald J. Trump.”

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The original Optimum.net's avatar

You make a very good point.

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R.A. Watman (Anne)'s avatar

Good one, Marque! I was talking to my husband about “global warming” recently, wondering just how much we think we can actually change anything. (I wonder what those fields of solar panels do to temperatures?)

People are fixated on things they don’t have much control over in the first place. Some days, for me, it’s about getting old! Ugh.

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Jay Janney's avatar

Short answer: Solar panels capture heat, so if you place them where we already capture heat, no big deal. But replace farmland with them, and you increase heat.

I'm not crazy with putting solar panels over farmland.

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R.A. Watman (Anne)'s avatar

Thanks, Jay. I wish so much of this wasn’t such an eyesore, too.

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Jay Janney's avatar

I don't mind them on rooftops. In fields, not so much.

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IncognitoG's avatar

Good point: we do have individual and group obsessions over things beyond our control. I suppose that’s why global warming/climate change works on us.

Still, it’s worth pointing out the limited range of claims that can be supported by reliable evidence. People have no clue as to how extremely limited the available evidence really is.

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R.A. Watman (Anne)'s avatar

Remember when the hole in the ozone layer was so alarming?! And, I just read or heard yesterday that the honey bee problem apparently isn’t a problem after all. I also remember when scientists were warning us about cooling temperatures. 🤷‍♀️

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Jay Janney's avatar

Yeah, I remember all the buzz about the honeybees too! Winnie the Pooh is very happy they are alive and thriving.

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IncognitoG's avatar

“Breaking news” on the science beat is to be taken with a very heavy dose of skepticism. It usually contains little more than the obsessive biases of some newspaper editorial board—mainly the New York Times’s.

Top university PR departments now market their employees’ findings as revolutionary and pathbreaking long before such claims are justified.

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R.A. Watman (Anne)'s avatar

We have too many people competing to give us the “latest news.” Especially, the “bad” news.

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Phil H's avatar

Good morning. Low 30s and a frost this morning, but sunny with a predicted high reaching 60. All quiet thus far on the mothership.

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IncognitoG's avatar

I couldn’t fall asleep at 11, so was up till three. Thus, I missed the frost, if there was one. Probably was, since it’s 36 now.

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Phil H's avatar

The mothership is reporting a real “Man bites dog” story — Congress actually doing its job. That is, the House on Saturday passed 3 military aid bills, including a crucial one for Ukraine, which all Democrats support but which split the GOP caucus.s. They also passed aid to Israel (opposed by some leftists Democrats) and an Indo-Pacific package with aid for Taiwan. A fourth bill included a ban n TikTok and other popular GOP measures.

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R.A. Watman (Anne)'s avatar

I didn’t need any more info on Taylor Swift. I never listen to her, and I never go out of my way to learn anything about her, yet I’m constantly running into “her!” 🙄

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The original Optimum.net's avatar

Its not my cup of tea either, but she is an immensely talented songwriter and performer. And a pretty keen businesswoman as well.

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R.A. Watman (Anne)'s avatar

I know, I just don’t care.

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The original Optimum.net's avatar

You---we, actually---are not meant to. We are decidedly not her demographic.

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Phil H's avatar

Although not my cup of tea either, Taylor Swift is all of those things, not unlike another talented woman (of a different musical genre) -- Dolly Parton.

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R.A. Watman (Anne)'s avatar

I understand, but I just don’t want to read about celebrities, in general, especially in TMD. People Magazine takes care of that.

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IncognitoG's avatar

It’s plain and obvious these days that the GOP at the national level is only united by allegiance to Donald Trump. Their only purpose is to serve as his backup band. For everything else they’re practically useless.

The Dems seem surprisingly unified and disciplined for a party of a sitting president at this point in an administration. The fear and loathing of Trump still manages to keep them unified, it seems to me.

The situation is very unusual, since the governing party normally starts breaking apart into factions that are jealous of each other’s power. You can clearly see lines of fracture among the Ds, but the Trump/MAGA nuttiness keeps them all to heel in a pinch.

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R.A. Watman (Anne)'s avatar

Yes and no. I think we’re finally starting to see more Republicans in Congress standing up to MTG, Matt Gaetz, et.al., than in the past. I think/hope I’m starting to see a small crack in Trump’s hold on everything. But, there’s still time, and it’s probably going to continue to be a bumpy road.

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The original Optimum.net's avatar

Yeah. I wonder how it feels to wake up and realize that you are being "led" by a group of morons. I wonder if MTG gets to work on the first try every day; Gaetz just gives me the creeps, as does Massie.

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IncognitoG's avatar

Yes. I was one of those who figured Trump would have worn thin and blown over well before now. But it’s like that quote about stock and bond markets: They can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent.

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Phil H's avatar

That reminds me of a George Will quote, calling Donald Trump "as stale as flat beer and cold pizza."

But there are a lot of irrational people who seem to love flat beer and cold pizza.

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LucyTrice's avatar

Thanks to you, we had delicious pizza for supper - and my brother thought it sounded so good he and his boys had it, too. You are responsible for about $100 in pizza sales!

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LucyTrice's avatar

Cold pizza isn't stale, just sayin'.

On those rare occasions when we have good pizza AND there's some left over, cold pizza for breakfast hits the spot (we are usually confined to GF pizza).

And now I know what to have for supper. Thanks Phil!

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R.A. Watman (Anne)'s avatar

Don’t rain on my parade, Marque! 😉

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Graham Cunningham's avatar

A bit tangential (well more than a bit really) but I couldn't resist...... because these lyrics take me right back to my teens:

"Hot town, summer in the city

Back of my neck gettin' dirty and gritty

Been down, isn't it a pity?

Doesn't seem to be a shadow in the city....."

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The original Optimum.net's avatar

Ahh, the Lovin' Spoonful!

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Phil H's avatar

A little early for that song. But it's still a fun tune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YgevxRGXIU

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R.A. Watman (Anne)'s avatar

Yeah, I’m not watching that! Lalalalala… 😉

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CynthiaW's avatar

All around, people looking half dead, walkin' on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head.

Good morning.

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C C Writer's avatar

But at night it's a different world.

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CynthiaW's avatar

I'm usually asleep, so I miss it. Unless we're camping and I have to go to the bathroom.

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C C Writer's avatar

I myself would rather get a good night's sleep than dance all night.

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CynthiaW's avatar

Maybe they don't have air conditioning. It can be hard to sleep if it's really hot at night.

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C C Writer's avatar

That's how most people lived back when that song was a hit.

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CynthiaW's avatar

Today’s special animal friend is the Vervet Monkey, Chlorocebus pygerythrus. This primate is found on the eastern side of southern Africa, and Chobe National Park is at the western edge of its range. Their taxonomy is in disarray, as some argue that they are a subspecies of C. aethiops, the “grivet,” and the malbrouck (Chlorocebus cynosuros) might be a subspecies of either one or its own thing. Vervet monkeys are a species of Least Concern, and they are not, in my opinion, particularly cute. I just felt like it was time to include a primate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hISUXpA-DDk

Vervet monkeys have a head-body length about 20” and a tail about 2/3 of that. They weigh up to 10 lbs. Males are bigger than females. They have mostly gray fur, with a black face surrounded by white fur on both the head and the chest. Vervet monkeys are omnivorous, but fruit is their staple. Their consumption of figs and subsequent excretion of the seeds is essential for the growth of new fig trees. They also eat some flowers, seeds, insects, and birds’ eggs and chicks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63l5Y0jRWdk&t=39s

Vervet monkeys live in family-based bands. Females are the stable participants; males may come and go. Siblings have long-term, mostly cooperative relationships, although there can be competition for attention and resources from the mother. A young vervet can identify its grandmother and will seek her out for food or grooming. The whole group helps to care for infants, with sexually immature females, in particular, serving as “allomothers” who provide a great deal of child care.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaeQn-AN6I0

Vervet monkeys are used as proxies for humans in scientific research. Features of interest include alcoholism, anxiety, and high blood pressure. Their genetic code is considered sufficiently similar to ours to be useful for study.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSm7BcQHWXk

Vervet monkeys easily adapt to new habitat, including forests, savannah, agricultural land, and urban areas. They have been introduced to islands in the Atlantic and the Caribbean as well as to Florida.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7CLzpGtW5U

I forgot to mention the males' bright turquoise blue scrotum. Readers may have noticed it in the videos.

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Phil H's avatar

Interesting that vervets are not only tolerated, but liked, in the vicinity of the Fort Lauderdale airport, even while stealing food out of parked cars.

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CynthiaW's avatar

Yeah, people can be very silly about animals.

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IncognitoG's avatar

I think the Beeb narrator in the last one was getting a little carried away when he claimed drunk monkeys were respected leaders among their peers. Maybe respected among the boozers and party animals.

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CynthiaW's avatar

Interpretations of animal behavior as if the animals were humans is always kind of fictionalizing.

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IncognitoG's avatar

Good point. We do a lot of projection.

Their behavior is good further evidence that sugars (and its alcohol byproduct) are very appealing to other animals, too.

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CynthiaW's avatar

Moose get drunk on fermenting fruit, too.

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Phil H's avatar

Monkeys are (unless you are a strict creationist) kinda cousins.

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CynthiaW's avatar

I think it's wise to use caution about interpreting the behavior of other humans, too. The world is full of people with different values and expectations.

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CynthiaW's avatar

Good morning. My husband and I took Thor the Son uptown last night for dinner and a concert. After hearing the plan - park, walk to restaurant, walk to theater, walk back to garage, in the rain - I decided to wear my hiking boots, and I didn't regret it.

The dinner was nice - Thai - and the concert was excellent.

The opening band was Okan, an "Afro-Caribbean Canadian" duo who are very successful in the "world music" scene in Canada, which is part of the world. They were very energetic and had excellent vocals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Kcm_3q9Sjo

The headliner was Rodrigo y Gabriela, a Mexican duo, who did a lot of electronic stuff although they are best known for acoustic guitar. It was very impressive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfSJCVWrpWE

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The original Optimum.net's avatar

Rodrigo y Gabriela are quite good. I will listen occasionally, but a good friend of mine is a big time fan. Thor the Son has good taste.

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CynthiaW's avatar

Sometimes. He listens to Japanese pop, too.

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The original Optimum.net's avatar

Permission to revise and extend my remarks?

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CynthiaW's avatar

Of course.

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IncognitoG's avatar

Nice music! It’s like pop-Carib, pop-Mex, and pop-Can. Or something…

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CynthiaW's avatar

Yes, all that stuff.

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Wilhelm's avatar

Well, that sounds nice. Okay especially.

For some reason it made me look up the Bar du Zombie scene in "To Have and To Have Not." Exotic music. Bacall's eyes. <i>Swoon.</i>

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CynthiaW's avatar

Exotic. I haven't seen that movie in a long time.

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Wilhelm's avatar

Is "exotic" verboten speech? I never recall much.

Actually, there aren't many similarities in the music from the bar scene, or not as much as I imagined. But still...

https://youtu.be/CEBFzgxJWJM

It's an OK movie with incredible chemistry.

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CynthiaW's avatar

'Is "exotic" verboten speech?'

Probably somewhere, but who cares. Boring people are boring.

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