Monday: Hili dialogue, farm rush hour and some on this day tweets

November 11, 2019 • 3:26 am

by Matthew Cobb

Hili is being a good scientist:

Hili: According to my research what I was looking for is not here.
A: And what now?
Hili: Further research is needed.
In Polish:
Hili: Jak wynika z moich badań, prawdopodobnie nie ma tu tego, czego szukam.
Ja: I co teraz?
Hili: Muszę przeprowadzić dalsze badania.
Duck report from JAC:  One of the Secret Duck Farmers reports a record number of ducks in the pond:
34 ducks for lunch. Lots of fussing and shoving and jockeying for position was going on at lunch. Most of the ducks hop up to the grass for chow, and some stay back in the middle of the pond and don’t come near me. I’m making a wild guess that the majority have been here before. Those could be our ducklings all grown up? Maybe?
It’s possible, but I’m hoping these ducks are fueling up before migrating south. 34 is a record number of ducks in a small pond in my experience. (They have, as one SDF suggested, read a Yelp review that Botany Pond has great accommodations and a free buffet.) The pond should freeze this week, and if the ducks don’t leave by then we’ll start discussing cutting their rations.
The farm rush-hour takes place at a site called Marsh Farm, but it is in fact the Caenhill Countryside Centre, a charity. More here. Anyway, this morning it is dry but muddy, and the animals are in a real hurry to get out – even the goat and the sheep (why Bumblebee the sheep is kept in the barn at night, and not in the field with the others, I don’t know).

 

Smudge the cat is very interested in the roses that are on the barn door, and then does some climbing:

On an alpaca farm, the rush hour is more sedate:

 

Male copperhead snakes having a standoff:

A fabulous Monday murmuration:

 

On this day:

 

101 years ago today, the guns fell silent in World War 1. In the UK and the Commonwealth, the day is marked by wreaths of poppies, which grew ‘in Flanders fields’ despite the destruction, as the Canadian poet John McCrae put it in 1915. In Australia, something rather touching has happened.

 

12 thoughts on “Monday: Hili dialogue, farm rush hour and some on this day tweets”

  1. Love the Remembrance pigeon!

    Jerry will be interested in this perhaps –
    The Church, intensive kinship, and global psychological variation

    “There is substantial variation in psychological attributes across cultures. Schulz et al. examined whether the spread of Catholicism in Europe generated much of this variation (see the Perspective by Gelfand). In particular, they focus on how the Church broke down extended kin-based institutions and encouraged a nuclear family structure. To do this, the authors developed measures of historical Church exposure and kin-based institutions across populations. These measures accounted for individual differences in 20 psychological outcomes collected in prior studies.”
    https://science.sciencemag.org/content/366/6466/eaau5141

    Reply

  2. Lovely Hili Dialogue (including other offerings)

    I finally saw They Shall Not Grow Old. Astonishing. Makes you think.

    Reply

  3. Re Marsh Farm ,what is the name of the black cat i saw being let out a few days ago .
    Also ,those little birds you can see around the 0.29 point ,how do they avoid becoming lunch for the two cats?

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    1. Forgotten the name of the black cat I’m afraid! Chris – who runs the site and does the commentary – says that the cats are just used to living with the birds, including the chicks, and don’t try to eat them…

      A more cynical answer would be provided by one of Jerry’s favourite jokes:

      A group of interfaith religious leaders were getting a tour around the Jerusalem Zoo by its administrator, Shmuel Shapira. Shmuel showed them one cage where a lion was lying together with a young lamb.

      The head of the delegation was amazed. “For 2000 years, we’ve prayed for signs of the messianic era and the prophesy that the lion will lie down next to the lamb. How did you do it?”

      “It was quite easy,” Shmuel replied, “All it needs is a new lamb a day!”

      – MC

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      1. Back in the summer (what summer ) I heard a chicken outside my shed ,went out and my three cats were transfixed by it ,but they were all keeping a safe distance from it.
        They have bought a rabbit or two home to me in the past .

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  6. Love the alpacas. Friends had some a while back, which they said were a bit of a tax shelter doubling as exotic pets.

    “Economists suspect that hyping may have played a role in the alpaca investment bubble last decade. In 2005, the average male sold at auction fetched over $70,000, implying significant savings for purchasers who used the tax exemption intended to stimulate business investment. The creatures, smaller cousins of the llama, were being pitched to buyers as an about-to-boom industry, promising the market for alpaca fleece was on the cusp of taking off…And like all bubbles built on speculation, it eventually burst”.

    Reply

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