Readers’ wildlife photos

September 20, 2015 • 7:20 am

I’m off to Poland/Sweden/Atlanta tomorrow, and will need animal/plant/landscape photos for a while, though I’m taking my backlog with me. But the tank is only about half full, so do send your good photos.

Today, reader Bob Lundgren from Minnesota furnishes us with some photos from his latest trip to Africa; his notes are indented. Before we get to them, let me remind readers that there’s only one species of giraffe (Giraffa cameleopardis, named after its resemblance to a camel, but with spots like a leopard), and the species is fragmented into morphologically distinct populations. These are named as nine subspecies, though systematists differ a bit on this division.

Here’s the range map showing the subspecies from Wikipedia, which has a nice article on the beasts. Be sure to read the short section on “internal systems,” which describes the changes in anatomy that have evolved to accommodate the long neck, including the famous recurrent laryngeal nerve.

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Common names for the subspecies are, in order from the key, Rothschild’s giraffe, West African giraffe, Angolan giraffe, Nubian giraffe, Kordofan giraffe, Rhodesian giraffe, Masai giraffe, Reticulated giraffe, South African giraffe. Back to Bob:

The first photo is a pair of Rothschild’s Giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi) taken in Tarangire National Park, Tanzania. We were in Tanzania in January during what is called the “short rain season” which precedes the “long rains” that typically occur in April and May. You can see how green everything is. Because of the abundance of water and the lushness of vegetation, the animal populations were spread throughout the park rather than concentrated at water sources as they would be during the dry season in August and September.

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The Rothschild”s Giraffe is a sub-species of the Masai Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), seen in the second photo. You can see that the markings in the Masai Giraffe are more irregular and browner than those of the Rothschild. The Masai Giraffe is also taller than the Rothschild. I called being impressed by its stature. The Masai Giraffe was photographed in Lake Manyara National Park. (I do have to say that I’m not a biologist and not by any means an expert regarding subtleties of species identification. I’m relying quite a bit on my “Wildlife of East Africa” guidebook for this comparison. We didn’t realize while we were in Tanzania that we were looking at two different giraffes. It was only after getting home and sorting through our photos that we noticed the difference.)
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This photo is of a youngster stooping to drink at a waterhole in Serengeti National Park. it shows pretty clearly the drinking position giraffes have to get into because of their height. This is when giraffes are most vulnerable to attacks from predators.
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The fourth photo is a close-up of a giraffe munching the top of an acacia tree. It has nice eyelashes. There isn’t much zoom in this photo. We found the giraffes to be generally unaffected by our presence and while park rules required us to keep a distance most animals tended to flaunt the rules and would get quite near on their own. One evening at our tented camp in the Serengeti while sitting near the communal campfire (bush TV), two grazing giraffes came through the camp. They were very intent on grazing and one of them wandered very close to the chair my wife was sitting in. We of course froze so as not to disturb it. The giraffe got interested in munching on a bush about six feet from her and went at it quite noisily before noticing us, leaping back and galloping off to join its friend.
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The fifth photo shows a group of giraffes and zebras in the Ngorogoro Conservation Area. During January and early February, the great wildebeest migration is in this area (generally the southern Serengeti). Zebras and to some extent giraffes follow the migration and indeed, as we crested the ridge just beyond the giraffes, the vast herds of wildebeest were spread before us (subject of an earlier series of photos).

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I just liked the last photo.
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Sunday: Hili dialogue

September 20, 2015 • 6:30 am

It is one day before I leave for Europe, and every cherry pie in Poland should be quivering in its boots. I’ll have to finish packing (tins of Fancy Feast for Hili!), and so posting may be light today. In this day in 622, or so the legend goes, Muhammad and Abu Bakr arrived in Medina, an event that marks the beginning of the Muslim calendar.  Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili sees the ghost of a mouse, which is puzzling since she seems to be up in a tree. . .

Hili: Do you believe in ghosts?
A: No. Why do you ask?
Hili: I fancy I see the shadow of a ghost of the little mouse I ate yesterday.

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In Polish:
Hili: Czy wierzysz w duchy?
Ja: Nie, dlaczego pytasz?
Hili: Bo mam wrażenie, że tam jest cień ducha myszki, którą wczoraj zjadłam.

A pale blue marble: The first accurate scale model of the solar system

September 19, 2015 • 1:49 pm

This video, made by Wylie Overstreet and Alex Gorosh, is apparently the first attempt to make a model of the solar system completely to scale: that is, the sizes of both the planets and their orbits must be on the same scale of measurement. The one constraint is that they start with a model Earth the size of a marble: the rest follows automatically.

The model was constructed in the Nevada desert, and they needed seven miles of empty space to do it—and even that is excluding Pluto (it’s a planet, dammit!), an inclusion that would have made the model much larger (readers can calculate how much larger). It’s a laborious and fascinating task, and has garnered nearly 900,000 views in the last three days.

The final test, in which they compare the image of the real rising Sun with that of the model Sun, both from the vantage point of the model Earth, is lovely. Kudos to the filmmakers!

h/t: Kevin H.

Ben Goren: is there free will in Heaven?

September 19, 2015 • 10:15 am

The last time Ben Goren wrote a post on this site, it really twisted the knickers of the ID-ers (particularly Vincent Torley) who frequent the creationist Uncommon Descent site. I thought it was time to twist them a little more, so we’re following up “Why doesn’t Jesus call 9-1-1?” with a new post on the topic, “Is there free will in heaven?” That may sound like a funny question, but do remember that, to many Christians, heaven is populated by souls, and the soul is supposed to be what runs our mind on Earth. Herewith, Ben Goren, who is apparently afflicted with Alliteration Syndrome.

The Flip Side of Free Will

by Ben Goren

Regular readers are by now fairly familiar with Jerry’s assurance of the importance of recognizing the reality that we lack free will — as well as where the regular commentators specifically situate.

But all our debate occurs within a secular assemblage. We all agree: no gods grace our globe. Alas, we are almost alone; most support supernaturalism: Christians, chiefly. For them, free will fits a different function, superbly summarized by Terry Gilliam in his timeless classic, Time Bandits:

Should you absent our sane sanctuary and encounter an evangelizing ecclesiast who proffers profundities on allegorical autonomy, consider countering with a couple of queries:

Is there evil in Heaven? And also free will?

If nay and yea, free will engenders no evil. If yea and nay, what need we needless will? And if even Heaven has evil, why wish it?

Of course, sophisticated sophists supply replies. Frequently, free will itself is slaughtered on the hereafter’s altar…after which it wends its way to the world and wearies us once again with weapons-grade divine indifference.

Heather Hastie: “Is New Atheism a cult?

September 19, 2015 • 8:45 am

I wanted to direct you to a nice post on reader Heather Hastie’s site, Heather’s Homilies. The post is called “Is New Atheism a Cult?“, and I believe it’s a rule that when an article’s title is a yes-or-no question, the answer is “no.” And indeed, that’s the conclusion Heather reaches after considering Neil Godfrey’s rather intemperate rantings against New Atheists and his strong approbation for a book by He Who Shall Not Be Named. The links to the relevant accusations are in her post.

Rather than post an excerpt—as you should read her piece for yourself—I’ll just put up one of her graphics, for Heather’s really good at finding relevant illustrations. I love this one,had never heard it, and my trolling of the Internet suggests that it’s real:

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Caturday felid trifecta: Cat idioms, the non-distractable cat, bafftime freakout

September 19, 2015 • 8:00 am

Three cute videos for today. The first gives cat-related phrases from around the world. Being an India-phile, I especially like the phrase at 1:51: “After eating 900 rats, the cat goes on a pilgrimage.”

I believe this next clip is from Russia, one of the great sources of cat videos.  What we have is the world’s most focused cat, but what does it see?

Finally, here is a cat who doesn’t like his bath AT ALL. Not only that, but he appears to be Jewish, for it’s meowing “OY!” over and over again.  Poor thing. His name is Tigger, and he has his own Facebook page, “Tigger–The NO Bath Cat.”

Poor Tigger!

h/t: Steve U., John S

Saturday: Hili dialogue

September 19, 2015 • 7:31 am

It’s a rainy Caturday in Chicago: we had tremendous thunderstorms last night and my phone blurted out three loud flash flood warning. It’s settled down now to a gray drizzle, but the rain should stop by Monday, Departure Day. In this day in 1959, Nikita Khrushchev was barred from visiting Disneyland because of security issues, and became livid with anger. As the History Channel notes:

Khrushchev’s anger increased when he learned that he would not be allowed to visit Disneyland. Government authorities feared that the crowds would pose a safety hazard for the premier. Khrushchev, still fuming about the debate with Skouras [Spyrous Skouros, head of Twentieth Century Fox, who had criticized Krushcheve to his face], exploded. “And I say, I would very much like to go and see Disneyland. But then, we cannot guarantee your security, they say. Then what must I do? Commit suicide? What is it? Is there an epidemic of cholera there or something? Or have gangsters taken hold of the place that can destroy me?” Khrushchev left Los Angeles the next morning.

Meanwhile in Dobryzyn, Hili is also upset, but because of noms:

Hili: Did you buy salmon pate?
A: There wasn’t any.
Hili: You could go to another shop.

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Hili: Kupiłeś tę pastę z łososiem?
Ja: Nie było.
Hili: Mogłeś pójść do innego sklepu.

Tw**t of the week

September 18, 2015 • 3:30 pm

I’ve showed videos of raptors flying through small spaces before, but this one is pretty remarkable.  Do not underestimate the abilities of any animal!

h/t: Grania