Bird of the Year

 Every year, New Zealand has a contest for the bird of the year. Last year, I posted about the Pūteketeke, also known as the Crested Grebe (the Pūteketeke is the Maori name).

This year the winner is a disappearing penguin species, the Yellow-eyed Penguin, in Maori, the Hoiho - which means "noise shouter." The numbers have plummeted to only 1700 breeding pairs. Only birds native to new Zealand at considered. These are interesting little birds.

Wikipedia has a good explanation of dropping numbers, and the questions are still open.

On the New Zealand mainland, the species has experienced a significant decline over the past 20 years. On the Otago Peninsula, numbers have dropped by 75% since the mid-1990s and population trends indicate the possibility of local extinction in the next 20 to 40 years. While the effect of rising ocean temperatures is still being studied, an infectious outbreak in the mid-2000s played a large role in the drop. Human activities at sea (fisheries, pollution) may have an equal if not greater influence on the species' downward trend.^[4]meme

The breed in dense undergrowth.

It is cool.

By the way, this is last year's winner, the Pūteketeke.

And then there is my method

I saw this and had to share. This is the way I tell a story.

And Lynn...

And my mother...

And Lisa...

And, really really me...

WOW - This is odd - and kind of nincompoopery at the time.

 I can not make this up, so I present it here from National Trust of England:

Here’s a job title you won’t see on LinkedIn: “ornamental hermit.” The position was part of a strange trend that lasted roughly 100 years and saw English landowners hiring people to live in seclusion on their estates, often in the gardens, with byzantine rules governing their behavior. The practice is believed to have emerged around 1727 and ended just over a century later in 1830. Horticultural norms were in flux at the time, and some homeowners rejected the geometric designs of the past in favor of a more wild and natural approach. It would seem that nothing was considered more wild than an actual person, especially one forbidden from speaking, cutting their hair, trimming their nails, or wearing shoes.

Garden hermits were expected to do all this for a period of several months or years, and were generally paid handsomely before returning to the outside world. During their residency, they lived in hermitages, small structures that were as important in form as they were in function: In addition to providing a humble place to live, hermitages were meant to draw one’s eye to the landscape. Decorative hermits eventually fell out of fashion, but even today we have something similar adorning our yards: the humble garden gnome. From the gardens of Kedelson Hall

Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire

Recently restored, the 18th-century hermitage at Kedleston Hall sits in a Robert Adam-inspired designed landscape. Rustic on the outside, it was used as a summer house for the family to have a rest and drink tea and it even contained a mahogany tea table.

The Lincoln Project, run by ex-Republicans, can be funny

 

Capybaras and the revenge of the rodents

 The title of my post (above) is a joke. It may not be funny, but it is a joke nonetheless. I don't know if you all remember during COVID-19, but in many places, wild animals returned to cities. I remember pumas, civets, wild boars, elk, monkeys, and more enjoying the empty city streets. Apparently, capybaras expanded in Argentina and have decided to stay.

You can read more here, but I have known about capybaras for a while. Here is why. The Los Angeles Zoo has always played a big part in species recovery in sync with other zoos. It successfully breed and reintroduced the Golden Lion Tamarin into Brazil, where they have reproduced in great numbers. Before that, it was the Kudu of Southern Africa threatened by wars.

About 20 years ago, right before we left for New York, the Los Angeles Zoo worked with large, endangered Rodents (RUSs - get it?*). Anyway, the largest of these were the capybaras. I remember them lounging in the faux forest and pool at the Zoo.

Apparently, it worked! And now, some capybaras are like deer back east - they have repopulated quickly because their principal predators don't like human populations, and capybaras have decided humans are no threat any longer. Kind of funny.

* ROUSs or Rodents of Unusual Size were the names of the large rats in the Fire Forest of the Princess Bride.

What's the big deal with needing "Proof of Citizenship" to vote?

 One of the Republican big talking points is that illegal aliens are voting Democratic, and that is why they win. This is incorrect. Illegal aliens cannot vote. Despite near-constant complaints from Republicans, there are very few instances of illegal aliens voting and none where it makes any difference at all.

So why are Republicans so gung-ho that we need to have "proof of citizenship" to register to vote (although not to continue to vote). And why are Democrats so against it?

It comes down to who can get to vote. Most Americans do not have Passports. That is one of the ways to register if this passes. Less than 1/2 of citizens have a passport. Less than 90% of Americans have aan "Authorized" birth certificate, the other way to register.

In America, to get an authorized birth certificate, you have to request one, sometimes in person, from either your county or your city—it depends. Some areas let you request via mail, but it is a process that usually requires notarization from a person in your state.

So let's look at a poor single mother of any race. 

1. She has to contact the city or state of her birth and request information on how to get her birth certificate. 
1. This is the first big hurdle for many people. Some don't know where they were born. IN some places in the South, they did not register live births for decades. This is particularly true for Blacks and Hispanics.
2. If they don't require her to show up at the courthouse, she needs to get a form by mail (sometimes by email - which she may or may not have).
1. Yes, some locals you have to visit in person to get a birth certificate.
3. She fills out the form and then has to find a notary and get it notarized ($).
4. She has to send in the form AND the money required from the city or county (more $).
5. She waits a week to 2 months to get her birth certificate.
6. Then, she has to go to a place to physically show her birth certificate. These places will only be located in some areas, so she must get there ($ and time). Talking off work, having coverage from the children while she is gone (more $).
7. Then she can vote. 3 weeks to 3 months later.

The less money you have, the more impossible this is. Now, if the requirement was a Driver's License, that would be cool to me. Or proof of residency, which includes a gun license in many states, would also be cool. But the Republicans are trying to tie the right to vote to the ability to afford it in terms of time and money.

Cheaters.

The speaker announced last week that he planned to link a government funding bill to legislation that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. The package would keep spending levels mostly steady, punting a government shutdown deadline currently set to hit on Oct. 1 to March 28.

Politico (link)

Sunset in the Desert

 Last night, there was a beautiful sunset, brought to you by the Line Fires in San Bernardino and Orange County. Fires are scary and terrible things. 

I think of them like a cross between a tornado and a hurricane. They strike, often with little or no warning, like a tornado. You know the conditions are right but don't know where it will hit.

Once it starts, it is like a Hurricane. It sometimes advances slowly and sometimes quickly—usually both at the same time in different areas.

I do not like the, and I try to avoid the areas where they burn.

But they do make a beautiful sunset.

Yuck it up fellas, this is quite possibly our next President

 Is this political, but only partially. More than that, it is complete and total nincompoopery. Here is a Donald Trump - Press exchange.

During a campaign stop with the very friendly Economic Club of New York last week. They threw him a softball question about child care. I say softball because no one would check his answer, and the question was teed up to trash Democrats. Here is the question:

President Trump, you – you talked about how the increase in the price of food, gas and rent is hurting families, but the real cost that’s breaking families’ backs and preventing women from participating in the workforce is child care. Child care is now more expensive than rent for working families and is costing the economy more than $122 billion a year, making it one of the most urgent economic issues that is facing our country. In fact, the cost of child care is outpacing the cost of inflation, with the majority of American families of young children spending more than 20% of their income on child care. One thing that Democrats and Republicans have in common is that both parties talk a lot about what they’re going to do to address the child care crisis, but neither party has delivered meaningful change. If you win in November, can you commit to prioritizing legislation to make child care affordable? And if so, what specific piece of legislation will you advance?

-- Reshma Saujani

And here is his "answer". The mark of a true intellect.

Well, I would do that. And we’re sitting down – you know, I was somebody – we had – Sen. Marco Rubio and my daughter Ivanka were so impactful on that issue. It’s a very important issue.

But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I’m talking about, that – because, look, child care is child care. It’s – couldn’t – you know, it’s something – you have to have it. In this country, you have to have it.

But when you talk about those numbers compared to the kind of numbers that I’m talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels that they’re not used to, but they’ll get used to it very quickly – and it’s not going to stop them from doing business with us but they’ll have a very substantial tax when they send product into our country.

Those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers that we’re talking about, including child care. That – it’s going to take care – we’re going to have – I – I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time, coupled with the reductions that I told you about on waste and fraud and all of the other things that are going on in our country.

Because I have to say with child care – I want to stay with child care – but those numbers are small relative to the kind of economic numbers that I’m talking about, including growth, but growth also headed up by what the plan is that I just – that I just told you about.

We’re going to be taking in trillions of dollars. And as much as child care is talked about as being expensive, it’s, relatively speaking, not very expensive compared to the kind of numbers we’ll be taking in.

We’re going to make this into an incredible country that can afford to take care of its people, and then we’ll worry about the rest of the world. Let’s help other people, but we’re going to take care of our country first. This is about America first, it’s about Make America Great Again. We have to do it because right now we’re a failing nation. So we’ll take care of it. Thank you. Very good question.

Huh?

Why no one knows what will happen in Presidential Race

 It is a tough time for pollsters right now. They know the problems, and we know the issues. So why aren't polls better?

Let's look at the reasons:

1. Trump performs better than polls indicate. This has been true in the past and may be true now. Lots of people don't admit they vote for Trump, but in the privacy of the voting booth - they pull the Trump lever.

2. There may still be a "Tom Bradley" effect. Some people say they will vote for a minority but then do not. This was documented first in the run for California Governor when Tom Bradley, mayor of Los Angeles, looked poised to win, per the polls, but lost.  So Kamala may underperform if people hesitate to vote for a minority or a woman.

3. Abortion performs better in actual votes. Reproductive rights have consistently outperformed expectations. Even in very Republican states, every time reproductive rights or overturning too strict abortion bans is on the ballot, it wins. This is why some critical states have worked very very hard to disqualify initiatives. States that seem to cheat included Arkansas and Missouri, where state officials told supporters EXACTLY what they had to do. When the supporters followed every rule, the state still overruled the initiatives on narrow legal grounds, lying to initiative gathers to ensure abortion access would not be on the ballot.

4. Who answers landlines or cell phone numbers from unknown callers? No one. Many people, particularly younger people, do not answer cold calls, which polling depends on. This is similar to polls showing FDR would lose his 2nd election. Calls only went to households with phones, which only the richest had.

The moral of this tale. No one knows what the outcome will be.

Well, we are going way back

This is a picture of me in the 1980s. I am sharing our new Xerox 4517 (?) printer. this is the Nordic Countries Release Team.

Me. then Finland, Norway, and Swedish Project Managers.

 Gosh, I was skinny.

Have you all heard about RFK Jr.

For those outside the United States, you probably have not had to suffer through the entertainment that was Robert F Kennedy Junior. You've missed fun and shenanigans.

RFKj is from the long line of Kennedys remembered most fondly by John Kennedy, the president who went by JFK. Robert F Kennedy Senior was John Kennedy's younger brother. In 1968, he was well on his way to being a President until he was killed after a California primary. There was an outpouring of goodwill that even their younger brother, Edward, didn't lose after accidentally killing a girlfriend on a bridge. RFK was handsome, whip-smart, and dedicated to ending the Vietnam War about 5 years before anyone else.

So RFK Junior had a ton of goodwill. He was a lawyer who moved into environmental law and activism before going a little anti-vax autism nuts. But he was easy to ignore.  But during Covid, he was vehemently anti-vax and that brought him love from the MAGA folks.

Earlier this year, he said neither Trump nor Biden represented Americans and that he would run for president. That has since changed; he quit and endorsed Trump, but that isn't the strange part. During his run for the President, we heard some batshit crazy things. Like these:

• Two of his "just plain folks" stories started with the line, "As I was falconing in upstate New York..." Falconing? Yeah, lots of average Joes do that.

• Once, driving into New York for a dinner meeting, he found (hit?) a bear cub on the road. He stopped his car and threw it into the trunk, thinking he would skin it and eat it later. Seriously, this was his claim. But then he got to New York, had dinner, and remembered that he had a flight out of JFK airport that evening. It was too late to drive back to Connecticut and put the bear cub on ice, so he left it in Central Park. No, he didn't tell anyone. No, not even when the police asked for help figuring out how the hell a bear cub got into Central Park.

• We also found out that a few years earlier, he had a brain worm in his (wait for it) brain. They took it out, but it was one of his unrequested stories.

• And then there was a time a beached whale ended up in Connecticut. So he drove down, took a chainsaw, and cut the whale head off. He tied it to his car and brought it back home for some good eatin'.

• He agreed to endorse Trump as long as Trump promised to investigate Chemtrails and see how it was making children autistic.

• He believes that chemicals in water make kids gender confused and gay because it has "endocrine disruptors."

And this is the 2nd saniest guy in a 3 person race.

A PoEm

Birdie, Birdie in the sky

Why did you do that in my eye?

I want to laugh; I want to cry.

I'm just glad that cows don't fly.

Obstacles to Peace - From the Mideast Perspective

 I get a weekly newsletter on Middle East affairs from the Emirates Policy Center. It is fascinating because the Emirates (UAE*) is a moderate voice in the area. They have official relations with Israel and good relations with most other countries, bar Iran and Qatar.

The newsletter examines the problems of getting an official cease-fire or final peace plan with these Israeli conditions. I will confess the Netzarim Corridor issue was new to me.

These are where those corridors are located.

From the Israeli point of view, these are vital to their security. The Philadelphi corridor was controlled by Egypt until the lastest war. Both Egypt and Israel watched the corridor for tunnels that supplied arms from Iran to Hamas, but missed many. 

From Gaza's point of view (Hamas or not), this corridor controls the ONLY access point not controlled by Israel, the Rafah border crossing. And so this is the only way to bring in supplies of food, water, medicine, and foreign visitors without asking Israel to let them in.

The Netzarim corridor is a new request. Israel thinks it is critical to prevent the Northern Part and the Southern Part of Gaza citizens from free movement in the territory. An equivalent situation in the United States would be if we took Miami, Florida, and cut a 2-mile-wide swath through the middle of it. Then, we let Cuba control it. Cuba would then be in charge of who could move between northern and southern Miami, what goods could be taken in or out of the area, and closed access to the area to the United States altogether.

From that point of view, it would be a non-starter. Hamas and the US thought they had a deal, proposed by Israel they agreed to, only to have Israel add these two conditions later and reject the deal they proposed.

It is good to look at things from the other side's viewpoint.

*The Emirates and UAE are two shorthand ways of saying "United Arab Emirates". Just like America and the USA refer to the "United States of America."

We have become inured

 The ease with which we ignore these shootings is heartbreaking. We have an election mini-scandal about 13 soldiers dying in Afghanistan during the pull-out.

A Tragedy - Partially our own fault.

And yet...

This is from today's news.

As of Sept. 5, at least 11,598 people have died from gun violence in the U.S. this year -- an average of almost 47 deaths each day, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The death toll does not include suicides, which the organization used to track annually but is currently awaiting data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Uvalde Shooting alone

Travel and Crowds

 I learned pretty early on (relatively) that crowds of people should be avoided when traveling. Either go somewhere on the shoulder season or go somewhere very new.

This is why we often go someplace off the beaten path (Iceland in 2004, Montenegro, Faroes Islands 5 years ago, and Cambodia in 2009) or on the off-season (Door County last week, Hay-On_Why after the Author Festival, Venice in early spring, Laos in Spring, etc).

With the advent of social media, influencers, and the dreaded cruise ship ports - some spots are crazy busy sometimes. It did "help" a little that Ed and I were usually required to stay in New York for the US Open for most of July, August, and early September. Necessity is the mother of invention and all that.

And it helps that we have the time and money to visit off-season. We are, of course, very lucky!

Some areas we have visited that are now a little (or lot) crazy.

Venice when the cruise ships are in.

Santorini with people trying to get an iconic picture. (We haven't been to Santorini and don't plan to go).

"Unexplored" Iceland

Dubrovnik (Croatia)

Walt Disney World (Walt is rolling over in his grave)

Burning Man

Barcalona

Amsterdam

Athens

Anyway, these are some nightmare destinations now. Plan ahead, and check where you are going to enjoy your time. AND put down the camera. I am terrible at this; I love a picture. But now Ed and I share photos, and so we can enjoy the time together.

Also, don't take a video of an event. They are primarily on YouTube anyway, and you never show them. And, if you do show them, no one wants to see them.

Taste of Madison

 When we visited Phil and Julie on our way from Door County to the airport, they took us to "A Taste of Madison." It was fun, but one thing I was more surprised by is the ease of which Wisconsinites use the square around the capital. It is used for this, for concerts, and a weekly farmer's market.

The idea of using public spaces is not new. But opening this space, so close to the state capital, is uncommon now in the age of terrorism and worry. But Madison uses the square a lot. Here are some pics.

Ed (holding my disgusting blue drink), Julie, and Phile. The Capital is behind them.

The sun, the flag, the Capital, and the corn in front. It is a demo garden. The real corn is, like, 10 minutes away.

Me and Eddie at the balloon "Taste of Madison" sign. I turn my hat around so you could see my face. Didn't work.

Can't Use Presidential Words

A few days back, I wrote a post flagged for adult content. It is a sad state of affairs. I shall attempt to rewrite it to conform to "community" guidelines.

My proposal was to stop whitewashing the ex-President and current President's comments. In particular, his comments that "When you're a celebrity, you can do anything you want. You can grab them by the p*ssy" and calling other countries "sh*th*le countries."

In particular, his Truth social post about Kamala getting her national positions by giving "bl*wj*bs."

In my mind, the media's euphemisms are downplaying how sick and disgusting this man can be. It is like calling the current school shootings "personnel and student forced downsizing." Look if the President and Presidential Candidate says SOMETHING, PUBLISH IT!

Instead of discussing the horribleness of Donald JT and what he actually said, we have cute little discussion about when Trump said Kamala just discovered being Black. It makes the Orange one seem more capable and less of an *ss than he really is.

Don't believe me, look at this:

 

Lost Birds of North America

 Many bird species have been "lost" in the world. They are not necessarily extinct but haven't been spotted in decades or centuries. These are not birds that we have tracked over time, but ones that were lost before now. Again, in this case, "lost" is not "extinct," even though lost usually means extinct in writing.

Together, a few bird advocates worldwide published a list of 144 birds that haven't been seen in over 10 years but may still be around. The entire list is in the article.

Previously "lost" and now found. 
Clockwise from top left: Santa Marta sabrewing; Golden-fronted bowerbird; yellow-eared parrot; Hook-billed kite; Edwards’s pheasant; Bronze parotia.Credit...Carole Turek; Tim Laman; Federico Rios for The New York Times; Karine Aigner; Ernie James; Tim Laman/Nature Picture Library, via Minden Pictures

One of the birds previously on the list as lost since 1879 is the Santa Maria Seebring, a hummingbird on the top left of the image. It was just photographed by a naturalist in Colombia. I quote from the article.

In 2022, an ornithologist high in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains of northern Colombia spotted the shimmering emerald green and cobalt blue feathers of the Santa Marta Sabrewing. A large hummingbird, it had only been documented twice since 1879. As the bird sat on a branch the ornithologist, Yurgen Vega, captured images.
Once lost to science, it now was found.
The bird was on the American Bird Conservancy’s 10 most wanted list, which sits atop a longer register of “lost birds,” which are formally defined as not having been documented by photographic, audio or genetic evidence in at least a decade.

Interesting. If you see something, say something.

Pictures of Madison and some a new idea for me.

 So, I am going to recap some of our trip to Wisconsin.

The Badgers, Wisconsin's beloved state weasel, had a big enclosure.

First, we visited the Madison Zoo, a great FREE zoo. I loved it, but I loved the idea more. Because it was free, there were a lot of families there with kids under kindergarten age range. There were moms together with smaller kids, grandparents, and some people, like Ed and me, just visiting the zoo.

The screams of kids were pretty far away. They have a playground on the site, but far away from the animals, behind the food. So, the high energy of children had a place to burn it off. There was going to be some serious sleeping tonight!

Then we went for a walk at the University's botanical gardens. It was nice, but I was blown away by the prairie there. It was not what I was taught (either by school or movies, I don't know which).

Wind Cave Nat. Monument Prairie - from the US Depart. of Interior

from movies

Self-explanatory

From Disney's The Vanishing Prairie

Well, that is not the prairie that Wisconsin is preserving. This is their picture of the prairie at the end of the Summer.

Somebody owes me an explanation PDQ.