Thursday: Hili dialogue

March 16, 2017 • 6:30 am

by Grania

Good morning. Happy Day of the Book Smugglers (what a fantastic name) a day that commemorates smugglers transporting banned Lithuanian language books printed in the Latin alphabet into Lithuanian-speaking areas of the Russian Empire in the last years of the 19th century.

Jerry is on his way to Hobbit Land, or New Zealand as it is more formally known. I will keep you updated as news comes in, although Jerry will join us as often as wi-fi permits.

It’s the birthday of musician Nancy Wilson of Heart, famous for her song Dreamboat Annie.

Another Hollywood notable with a birthday today is Alan Tudyk, recently of the Star Wars Episode the Something-eth fame; but always for me Wash in Firefly / Serenity. Nope, never going to forgive Fox for that one.

Over here in Ireland everyone is gearing up – or winding down – for the long weekend courtesy of Paddy’s Day tomorrow. We’re having uncharacteristically balmy weather right now, but there is still a 50/50 chance of our Traditional Rain in time for the parade. Festivities here are quite different to those in the USA – you could fit the entire population of Ireland into New York and still have half the city left over. I’ll post some pictures tomorrow to show what an Irish St Patrick’s Day looks like.

In Dobrzyń Andrzej is teasing Hili a little, but she is buying into it.

A: Humans were created in the image of a cat…
Hili: But something went wrong.


In Polish

Ja: Ludzie zostali stworzeni na obraz i podobieństwo kota…
Hili: Ale coś poszło nie tak.

Taskin sent us some beautiful Gus photos as a bonus. Someone is unconcerned about the weather, international politics and Trump’s unreleased Tax Returns. Be like Gus just for today.

Surprise piglet

March 15, 2017 • 1:00 pm

In the absence of being able to write anything substantive, I proffer you this tweet with a little piglet (is that redundant?). Be sure to watch the short video. Dick King-Smith is a well known author of children’s books.

h/t: Grania

Are you woke?: The neologism I hate the most

March 15, 2017 • 9:00 am

That new word is “woke,” and the Urban Dictionary defines it with some accuracy (and snark):

In other words, it denotes a state of ideological purity that agrees with the speaker’s views. It’s equivalent to calling yourself a “bright.”

For a more long-winded and arrogant explanation of the word, head over to Raven Cras’s piece at Blavity, “What does it mean to be woke?”  At first I thought it was a joke, but I don’t think so. It starts like this:

The phenomenon of being woke is a cultural push to challenge problematic norms, systemic injustices and the overall status quo through complete awareness. Being woke refers to a person being aware of the theoretical ins and outs of the world they inhabit. Becoming woke, or staying woke, is the acknowledgment that everything we’ve been taught is a lie (kind of/mostly). Woke(ness) provides us with a basic understanding of the why and how come aspect of societies’ social and systemic functions. The phrase itself is an encouragement for people to wake up and question dogmatic social norms.

. . . the piece goes downhill from there.

Feel free to comment on the neologisms you most dislike; that’s always a lively and curmudgeonly discussion!

Readers’ wildlife photos (and video)

March 15, 2017 • 7:45 am

This will be the last batch of readers’ wildlife photos for a while. But please keep accumulating them to send me when I return.

First, Christopher Moss, whose “first chipmunk of spring” photo was posted two days ago, adds a video of what he says is a mating call. (Do female chipmunks call?) His comment: “Beginning at first light, and continued now for five solid hours! She must have a sore throat!”

And some diverse photos by reader Damon Williford from Texas, whose notes are indented:

Attached are some photos of wildlife from May of last year. The photos were taken at the Lost Maples State Recreation Area, which is located on the Edwards Plateau.  This region is home to endemic species as well as other species more characteristic of western North America.
The first three photos are of Spot-tailed Earless Lizard (Holbrookia lacerata lacerata).
The fourth photo is of a Common Raven (Corvus corax), which is difficult to find in Texas outside of the Edwards Plateau.
The fifth is a Black-crested Titmouse (Baeolophus atricristatus), formerly considered a subspecies of the Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor).
I purchased a macro lens 2 years ago and I am trying to do more arthropod photography. The sixth photo is a damselfly, the Great Spreadwing (Archilestes grandis).
The seventh photo is Prince Baskettail (Epitheca princeps).
The last photo is my first attempt at trying to photograph a water strider (Gerridae). I have no clue about the species or genus of this insect.

Wednesday: Hili dialogue

March 15, 2017 • 6:30 am

Good morning on my last day in Chicago for a while; it’s Wednesday, March. 15. (Starting tomorrow, the Hili Dialogues will be brought to you by Grania for a while, as I’ll be Down Under.) Today is National Peanut Lovers’ Day, and all my squirrels say they’re on board with that. (I’ve provided for their care and feeding in my absence.) It’s also World Consumer Rights Day, which surely includes the right not to have homeopathic remedies sold at CVS and Whole Foods (they are).

This is of course the Ides of March, and on this day in 44 BC , Julius Caesar was assassinated. (That was using the Roman calendar, not the one we use now, so we’re just within an order of magnitude here.) Caesar was stabbed 23 times, with only one wound deemed fatal in the autopsy—the first post-mortem report in recorded history. On March 15, 1493, Columbus returned to Spain from his first voyage to the Americas. Wikipedia reports that on this day in 1819, “French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel wins a contest at the Academie des Sciences in Paris by proving that light behaves like a wave. The Fresnel integrals, still used to calculate wave patterns, silence skeptics who had backed the particle theory of Isaac Newton.” Finally this day (and part of the next) in 1952, a world rainfall record was set: in 24 hours an astounding 1.87 meters (73 inches) of rain fell in  the town of Cilaos on the Indian Ocean Island of Réunion. That’s the most rain ever recorded within a 24-hour period. Can you imagine what that downpour was like?

Notables born on this day include Saint Nicholas, the model for Santa (273 AD), Andrew Jackson (1767), Jackson Scholz (1897, see “Chariots of Fire”), Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933), Jimmy Swaggart (1935), Phil Lesh (1940), Mike Love (1941), Sly Stone (1943), and Ry Cooder, (1947; clearly a good day for rock stars). Those who died on this day include, besides Julius Caesar, H. P. Lovecraft (1937), Lester Young (1959), Aristotle Onassis (1975), and Benjamin Spock (1998). Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, the beasts, some distance apart, are contemplating sport:

Hili: Can you play ping pong?
Cyrus: I don’t know, I never tried.
In Polish:
​Hili: Czy umiesz grać w ping ponga?
Cyrus: Nie wiem, nie próbowałem.​

Lagniappe: Can you tell the kitten from the ice cream? More important, which would you rather have? (Image from imgur, h/t: Taskin)

Intrepid eagles warm their eggs in a storm

March 14, 2017 • 6:07 pm

It’s a sign of the bald eagle’s return that there is a pair nesting at the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. The two, named, appropriately, “Mr. President” and “First Lady” (I prefer to call them “Obama” and “Michelle”), were caught in the latest storms, but sat intrepidly in a snow-filled nest to keep their eggs warm. As WTOP reports:

A pair of nesting bald eagles at the U.S. National Arboretum teamed up to protect their two eggs from the storm. The arboretum’s eagle cam captured both First Lady and her mate, Mr. President, atop the eggs.

Mr. President joined his mate for several hours in the nest, adding an extra layer of warmth. The First Lady was seen sheltering her eggs from the storm Monday night and into Tuesday morning, the arboretum said.

Look at these cold and bedraggled birds protecting their genes! Yes, I know it’s just a form of kin selection (which is what parental care is), but it still tugs at the heartstrings, just as we feel sadness when a cheetah takes down an antelope, which is simply natural selection.

This is from today’s eaglecam feed; be sure to check it out it tomorrow at the link above.

h/t: Nicole Reggia