Pictures or it didn't happen.
I just learned about the Hopkinsville goblins case the other day, which is surely the most amazing story about great horned owls imaginable.
Are you sure there are really four, not just two going in circles the way the Soviets did with their missiles parading through Red Square?
2: I'm watching Alex Jones's custody trial to see if the truth comes out about that.
I'm going to assume "living space" is code for "Lebensraum" and that this is really about the border wall. I'm going to be really upset if the government shuts down on Friday and leaves my stranded away from home because the FAA isn't open.
It is really quite something that there's a non-zero risk of a government shutdown, that isn't even tied to the debt ceiling, with a unified government. I'm assuming it's all just Trump's usual bluster though.
I'm not sure it's bluster if by that you mean Trump won't blow shit up if he doesn't get his wall. He's delivered on literally none of his campaign promises, this is his most vivid promise, and the aura of "win" is essential to his movement. I think the Congressional GOP is more likely to cave on this, because what's a few billion dollars wasted if you can take it from poor people anyway.
Well, sure, if the GOP caves, but I don't really see why they (ie the ones on the border opposed to it) would. I mean bluster in that if Congress doesn't blink, I don't think he'll veto it (couldn't they just pass a veto proof version anyway, if needed?).
Supposedly, the Republicans aren't supposed to let something come to a vote in the House if it doesn't have a majority of their own party. I'm not sure how that would play out.
Trump seems to think the Democrats are going to cave for a concession from him on Obamacare. I could see that as a good trade ($23 billion dollars of pointless infrastructure* for tens of millions of people getting healthcare coverage and substantial income redistribution to the bottom 20% of people on the income chart), but I don't see how Trump could make the deal convincingly enforceable if Republicans in Congress were opposed.
* It's not fundamentally different from Sen. Byrd's attempt to pave (and name after himself) every bit of West Virginia.
Anyway, it will probably come to nothing, but there is the strong possibility that it will come to worse than nothing.
Trump seems to think the Democrats are going to cave for a concession from him on Obamacare
A concession from him? What's his leverage, considering he can't even get the Republicans to agree on Obamacare?
That was the point of my next sentence.
The point of my final sentence is that driving across West Virginia, everything is named after Senator Byrd and it always used to bother me before I realized it was worth the money to buy off the white underclass.
Trump's formal position is that he'll make a deal to fund O-care for now, but repeal O-care, and the funding that's in the deal, as soon as possible thereafter. Master negotiator.
Also, driving across West Virginia is kind of nice because the roads are so very much better than the ones in Pennsylvania.
The problem with a CR isn't just the wall or O-care; the right wing nutjobs don't want to vote to fund a whole bunch of things. My guess is that no one has explained this to Trump yet.
In conclusion, kill buy-off whitey.
Anyway, big birds are the best. Lack of birds is one thing I really don't like here.
19: That's not true, but the formal title for June is "The Robert C. Byrd Center for Spring Presents June."
23: Perhaps a rodent can climb up a wire and shit on your head like a bird.
Or vomit up bones and fur, if you prefer owls.
I'd fund the wall in exchange for mandatory Medicaid expansion.
Yes. I just don't see how Trump could make a plausible commitment to hold up his end of the deal.
I'm sure rodents do both those things. Not owning a vehicle, any additional birdshit would be the problem of others.
30 There's no way on earth they're going to do individual appropriations bills on this schedule.
Trump is just such a weak person. If he was actually interested in governance, he'd have realized that he has some real leverage with Ryan. The biggest barriers to Republican governance are two TP inspired positions: the demand that bills get at least 218 Republican votes, and the end of earmarking. The Republican base only cares about those things (and most of the other procedural things they've demanded/won) as part of an anti-Obama/Pelosi power play: Trump could have the ability to reach beyond the TP'ers and make Ryan pass bills with 40 or 50 Dems, which they can get with some liberal ear-marking.
I doubt anyone has explained that to him either.
Would you want to explain stuff to Trump? It sounds tremendously frustrating and pointless. I think there's a reason only real shitheads like Bannon and Jared are explaining stuff to Trump.
Paul Ryan qualifies under the "shithead" condition, of course. But he's got very little incentive to explain to Trump why Trump shouldn't listen to him.
I've seen a couple of big brown hawk-looking things swooping along the rivers. And big white egrets. That's about it. I don't count the the big dovecotes everywhere including directly opposite my window, because they live in cages and have never, even once, serenaded me with gentle cooing.
38: Maybe you and teo should change places.
But I have a feeling teo won't be reading this thread.
Trump is just such a weak person
Unfortunately, no. I'm a weak person. Trump is an idiot with a whole lot of power.
More than five horned owls at once could be classed as a Bubonic Plague.
44 is so money and doesn't even know it. As the kids say.
My city park has a lovely little marsh that hosts a lot of different wading birds. The Earth Day crowds meant they were driven off and we were treated to flocks of displaced birds and extremely grumpy herons staring down at us from trees.
Heron addicts cause plenty of social problems.
Unfortunately, the enterprise of boxing in Trump and making him ineffectual must take priority over the much more hypothetically fitting and satisfying, but much less likely, prospect of making him break down in self-realization of his own inadequacy.
I'm going to be really upset if the government shuts down on Friday and leaves my stranded away from home because the FAA isn't open.
I believe they kept air traffic control running as essential during the 2013 shutdown.
Trump seems to think the Democrats are going to cave for a concession from him on Obamacare. I could see that as a good trade ($23 billion dollars of pointless infrastructure* for tens of millions of people getting healthcare coverage and substantial income redistribution to the bottom 20% of people on the income chart), but I don't see how Trump could make the deal convincingly enforceable if Republicans in Congress were opposed.
Yeah, as pointed out by others, he's not saying he'll let the ACA go untouched as his part of the bargain, he's also demanding Democrats come over on something like the AHCA. So unless they help him torpedo coverage for 24 million (subsidized + Medicaid), he'll torpedo coverage for 12 million (all those on exchange plans, including unsubsidized). Doesn't quite work.
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New Orleans following through with taking down monuments to slavers! Thrilling. (Also hammering home how much the past isn't past, viz. the armed police guard and construction workers wearing masks.)
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Why was there a Lamborghini parked nearby and why did somebody burn it?
52: quite something that there was a monument in New Orleans celebrating the murder of 16 policemen.
54: Indeed. Also says a lot, I think, that they didn't take it down long before they took down the ones for Lee and other generals.
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I just spilled a full glass of some of the finest Kentucky bourbon available in Arrakis all over my dining room table. FML.
I think the last time I was this stressed out was over grad school applications when I was applying for PhD programs.
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Even this close to Kentucky, we use malt liquor for pouring out. Saves money.
Good luck Barry! Don't drink before the interview!
Thanks! Earlier (pre-Bourbon incident) I was trying out the Google Hangout and working on my lighting. Tomorrow haircut and trying on some of my suits and ties. I bought a new tie on Saturday. I don't know how to tie them though.
Been working on my schpiel, I think it's pretty good.
You can get clip on tie. Not for real-life interviewers, but fine over the webcam.
Trying to think if I've spilled bourbon on anything other than myself. Surely, right? Yet nothing really springs to mind. I'm going through a super clumsy phase right now, but not particularly drinking.
Speaking of, I am in your honor infusing a jar of baiju out of its misery. Cinnamon, nutmeg, raisins, prunes. (Don't have juniper, and not big on gin anyway.)
I'd only had a few sips too. It almost took out my laptop so thanks for small miracles.
64 sounds... better than I've heard baiju described. Was it you who linked to the incredible commercials?
Good luck Barry!
I think the last time I was this stressed out was over grad school applications when I was applying for PhD programs.
You were pretty stressed out when you were getting this job and moving overseas, weren't you? I need to know the exact calibrations of how stressed-Barry ranks these situations.
68 Yes that too.
I think I'm as stressed out as I was when I applied for this job and started moving overseas. Grad school was actually heart-attack level stress. I don't know why it felt more acute at the time because this now and the previous when applying for this job were in many ways worse.
66: It's certainly smelling better. I'll let you know how it turns out.
64
Good luck! I'm not sure what you can infuse it with to not taste like baijiu though...
I had a bad experience with baijiu mixed with cheap red wine once (this is why we should never let 20 year olds drink), and to this day even the smell of baijiu makes me nauseous.
64.1 is probably correct. I'll get to eat the fruit though, so there's that.
Update: the owls are still there.
It's cool, but I reminded my wife that this is how The Birds went.
The Birds went pretty well. One guy managed to have both Tippi Hedren and Suzanne Pleshette pining for him.
Anyway, the thing to worry about isn't "The Birds." The thing to worry about is what attracted that many rodent-eating creatures to your yard. Hint: Lots of rodents is the likely answer.
Jealous. Scarcity of owls in my otherwise decent for birds neighborhood. Had some around when we first moved in 30 years ago but very rare since.
What we have now is turkeys.
The thing to worry about isn't the turkeys. The thing to worry about is what attracted that many turkey-eating creatures to your neighborhood.
One of whom set off fireworks early on the morning of 11/9.
Oh seriously: has the turkey vulture population exploded in the United States in the past 30 years? I remember seeing them one time as a kid, and it was a big unusual novelty. Now they're like pigeons.
80: I think maybe not using DDT was very good for the vulture population.
Turkey vulture trivia:
In a 1964 paper by Kenneth E. Stager called "The Role of Olfaction in Food Location by the Turkey Vulture" (PDF) we read that the "decision to conduct field tests with ethyl mercaptan (CH3CH2SH) as an olfactory attractant [the odorant added to methane] for turkey vultures came as a result of conversations with field engineers of the Union Oil Company of California." Its purpose would be "to aid in locating leaks in natural gas lines."
I guess waiting for houses to blow up isn't what you'd call an early indicator.
Anyway, saving birds can get a bridge named after you. Of course, drawing cans of soup is probably easier.
If you followed the vultures to the houses you'd lead even less.
But I have a feeling teo won't be reading this thread.
Wrong! I don't mind reading about birds as long as I don't have to see them too.
I remember seeing them one time as a kid, and it was a big unusual novelty.
Maybe their range has expanded? Growing up in Central Texas they were bog-common.
80 I saw them all the time as a kid in rural north Texas (Palo Pinto & Parker Cos.) Even more common than Hueys, which were also all over the place.
89/90: I think their range could have stayed the same then, and my range expanded.
It seems that they have increased but not sure how much. An estimated 18M now.
Turkey Vultures increased in number across North America from 1966 to 2014, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey.
My NE Ohio experience is similar to Carp and Minivet. Saw a lot of them (and see fewer around P'burgh but probably place more than time).
I've also increased dramatically from 1966 to 2014.
Turkey Vulture range has definitely experienced significant changes - from the Cornell BNA acount:
During 1960s and 1970s, North American continental summer population was stable but shifting geographically, with local and regional declines in s. and w. U.S. ( Brown 1976j , Taylor 1986b , Coleman and Fraser 1990 ), and increases in northeastern and Great Lakes states associated with northward range expansion (see Distribution: historical changes, above). During 1980-1994, expansion and growth of northern populations continued, and summer populations increased in many other areas. Numbers from BBS counts (Downes and Collins 1996 , B. Peterjohn pers. comm.) increased significantly continentwide, in eastern and western regions, in 10 widely distributed states and provinces, and in 10 physiographic regions. Significant declines found only in glaciated coastal plain of e. Texas. Overall significant mean annual increase of 0.9% continentwide between 1966 and 1994. Predominant trends in wintering birds in se. U.S. reversed from declines during 1963-1970 to increases during 1970-1987 ( Coleman and Fraser 1990 ). Fall migration counts showed significant increase during 1980s in w. U.S. ( Hoffman et al. 1992b) and during 1975-1990 at Grimsby, Ontario ( Hussell and Brown 1992 ).
"I was going to go to my nursery school reunion, but I've gained like what? 120 pounds?"
(I think that is a Paula Poundstone line.)
There was glaciation in Texas?
Lots of rodents is the likely answer.
No doubt. My wife plants a bunch of stuff in the garden, and there are plenty of critters about. There was one owl in the tree when we looked at the house before we bought it. It's been around since we've lived here. Maybe these are its kids?
Oh wow, that is super informative.
To come back to the Trump/Ryan subthread, I know that Trump really wants to find a way to blame Democrats for a shutdown, but I'm really not seeing the mechanics. Can a bill pass the House? If not, no blame for Democrats, no matter what Trump says. If so, the Senate ends up passing a 'clean' CR, not doing any wall or O-care stuff, and it goes back to the House. Ryan either signs on with a few Dems to replace his crazies, or there's a shutdown because Ryan can't pass a bill.
Trump has to either sign or veto. He can sign a clean CR and claim that the government has stayed open solely because of his superior negotiating skills. Or he can veto it, and everyone will blame him.
100 I hadn't known there was still ice left over from the glaciers in Texas. But I'm not that familiar with the Nacogdoches area . . .
102: You have to sqwinch to really understand how the culture has been shaped by the landscape there, but the natural sculptures are nearly pickle-like.
The Birds of North America accounts are amazing. If you have access to a university library, you probably have access to them. They all have the same structure and cover everything from behaviour, phenology, threats, appearance, sound recordings, pictures, nest descriptions, similar species, territory size. Everything is cited and they're usually written by an expert in the species. Just super amazing resources.
Apparently there has been some geomagnetic weather activity in effect. Maybe the owls got that memo.
This link is better because it has pictures of the sun exploding.
Update: as I was bringing in groceries just now, two guys walking by introduced themselves. One is a new neighbor, and the other is his father in law, who was carrying camera with a loooong lens. The neighbor had seen owls around, and the FIL was hoping to get a shot. I invited them into the back yard and sure enough, one was still hanging out in the tree. You could tell the birder was thrilled to get some great owl shots.
I once drove 20 miles to take a picture of a snowy owl.
Is there a non-Mail link for the space pretties?
72
That's possibly the most horrific thing I've ever seen written on the internet.
Assuming that you meant mixed in the same glass, I mean. I can see how you might be mixing the two in the same evening.
I once stole a taxidermied Great Grey Owl from a pretentious nightclub.
It stayed in my room for years. I went home a couple of years ago and asked my mother where it was, and she airily said "Oh, I thought it was attracting moths. I threw it away."
Not "I wrapped it in a plastic sack and left it in the cellar." Not "I sold it and here are the proceeds." Not "I called you to ask first and then threw it away." Just... "Oh that enormous magnificant stuffed owl, with the black and white eye-disk? That's landfill now."
I'm still pretty angry about it, actually.
112: yeah it must suck when you've taken something that belongs to someone else without asking and then someone else takes it off you without asking.
112 Still, that's better than any "my mom threw away my priceless baseball card collection" story that I've ever heard.
I had a huge bag full of chunks of the Berlin Wall that my mom threw away.
113 They tell me two wrongs don't make a right
Maybe your mom gave it back to the nightclub.
Their business model was "rent one of the most expensive locations in a very expensive city and then only open twice a month when one of your schoolmate's bands wants to play" so I would be surprised if they were still in business. Nevertheless there'd be a degree of poetic justice there, I admit.
Maybe their business model was about smuggling heroin and the owl was the stash and there were armed enforcers looking for you and your mom saved your life by sneaking it into the hit man's car while he was trying to find you.
Nothing is ephemeral as a stolen stuffed bird.
119: The hitman should probably have the moths cleaned out of his car's upholstery by a professional, those things can do real damage
How do you herd turkey vultures? Perfume the gas.
Several variants on a popular apocryphal story about methyl mercaptan and fume hoods (known by every first-year chemistry undergrad) to be found here
Trump caves on wall funding, to nobody's surprise.