Readers’ wildlife photos

September 9, 2015 • 8:10 am

There’s a new contributor today, but before highlighting his photos I’ll put up a singleton sent by regular Stephen Barnard:

I see lots of the exotic European Collared Doves here, but this is the  first Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) I’ve seen on Aubrey Spring Ranch. Over the past three years or so the European doves, which are larger and  more aggressive than the native Mourning Doves, have been taking over.

Barnard mourning dove

And some photos from reader Tom Hennessy with notes (the photos arrived Aug. 25). I’ll call this selection “Six ways of looking at a heron,” and give my own Stevens-esque take.  Here are Tom’s notes (indented):

Last week my wife and I visited Duck, NC which is on a barrier island (the outer banks) between the Atlantic ocean and Currituck Sound.  The sound is the home to a number of bird species, and while we were on the sound in the evening to photograph some gorgeous sunsets, we saw a number of Great Blue Herons (Ardea herodias). Initially, they were in silhouette with the sun behind them, but eventually I got some photographs of them lit by the setting sun.  These are very graceful birds, and I was thrilled to get a number of shots of them.  I used a Canon 6D with  a 100 t0 400 mm lens for most of the heron photos.

At the sight of a heron
Blue in the blue light by the blue water
Even the bards of felinity
Would cry out in wonder.

Tom Hennessy OBX 2015 Blue Heron 01

Among the salty marshes of Duck Island
The only thing moving
Was the beak of the heron.

Tom Hennessy OBX 2015 Blue Heron 02

A crab and a mussel
Are one.
A heron and a crab and a mussel
Are one.

Tom Hennessy OBX 2015 Blue Heron 03

I do not know which to prefer,
The anticipation of noms
Or the nomming itself,
The heron scanning the water
Or gulping a fish.

Tom Hennessy OBX 2015 Blue Heron 05

O thin men of Carolina
Why do you imagine the buttered crab?
Do you not see how the willowy heron
Stalks the marshes?

Tom Hennessy OBX 2015 Blue Heron 06

The waters are placid,
The heron must be fishing.

Tom Hennessy OBX 2015 Blue Heron Morning

Finally, a sunset, photographed by reader Karen Bartelt over Badlands National Park:

P1020377cr

Jesus ‘n’ Mo ‘n’ Teh End Timez

September 9, 2015 • 7:25 am

In the new Jesus and Mo strip, the artist reveals that “Mo has big news!”. The strip’s title is “Stir,” and the explanation is “It’s the best method He could come up with at the time.”

I have to say that I don’t fully get this one. But in many things I’m clueless, so perhaps readers can explain.

2015-09-09

Wednesday: Hili dialogue

September 9, 2015 • 6:30 am

Inexorably, as both school and fall approach in tandem, the weather cools. Yesterday it rained all day, flooding many of the streets of Chicago. That is all, for we are in the Big Hiatus at the University between Labor Day and the beginning of October, when classes start. Meanwhile

Hili: Now everything is clear.
A: What do you mean?
Hili: This sparrow is an invasive species.

When I asked what this dialogue was supposed to mean, because I didn’t get it, Malgorzata gave me three interpretations:

Well, you are in a good company. I asked Andrzej and his answer was: “She is very territorial”.

Sarah’s [Malgorzata’s friend] idea was, “I think Hili is looking for an excuse to kill the sparrow, which she wants to do anyway, and so now she can do what she wants and be virtuous at the same time. As it is an invasive species and a pest, people should thank her for her deed and certainly not criticize it.”

I have no idea at all except that we have many more starlings than sparrows and Hili might think that starlings are her neighbours and a sparrow is an intruder. But I know it’s a feeble explanation.

P1030325In Polish:

Hili: Wszystko się wyjaśniło.
Ja: To znaczy?
Hili: Ten wróbel to gatunek inwazyjny.

 

Heather Hastie and her flowcharts

September 8, 2015 • 2:30 pm

Over at Heather’s Homilies, reader Heather Hastie has her own take on “The value of prayer,” a piece inspired by Ben Goren’s recent post here on why Jesus doesn’t call 9-1-1.

Heather’s is a fine piece, and, as she is wont to do, it’s nicely illustrated with photos and charts. I’ll let you read her piece for yourself, but I wanted to swipe two nice flowcharts that she used as illustrations. I LOVE flowcharts like these, as they’re among the most amusing and effective forms of sarcasm:

Screen Shot 2015-09-08 at 1.35.48 PM

And another:

Screen Shot 2015-09-08 at 1.35.09 PM

Finally, I’ll add one I found on Facebook:

11951224_970490282974237_6581521275572150180_n

Dumb-sounding birds of North America

September 8, 2015 • 1:00 pm

From National Public Radio’s Skunk Bear, with the help of birder Nick Lund, we have a new video of the dumbest-sounding birds of North America. If you’re a birder or bird aficionado, close or avert your eyes from the screen, listen, and see how many you can identify by sound alone. There are five, so make a list when you’re not watching. And report your answers below.

Kim Davis is out of jail

September 8, 2015 • 12:40 pm

According to CNN, Kentucky Rowan County clerk Kim Davis has been released from jail, with the proviso that she not interfere with clerks in her office issuing marriage licenses. It’s not yet clear whether her name will still appear on the licenses, but it seems that that will remain unless and until the legislature changes the rules in January.

A long and complicated analysis by Eugene Volokh (a UCLA law professor) at the Washington Post concludes that Davis probably is legally exusable from signing licenses based on Kentucky’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act. It’s complicated, and apparently comes down to whether religious beliefs can be accommodated without undue hardship to the employer. But Davis is back at work, and remains a religious bigot.

More creationist nonsense from Ben Carson: why we didn’t come from a “slime pit of promiscuous chemicals”

September 8, 2015 • 12:15 pm

I’ve already written at length about Republican Presidential candidate Ben Carson’s creationism (see here), which is even odder coming from a neurosurgeon. But of course we know that among all those who use scientific information, doctors and engineers are among the most likely to be creationists. Carson has also equated homosexuality with bestiality and pedophilia, although he later apologized for his “poorly chosen words.”

But such idiocy doesn’t seem to turn off Republicans; in fact, it seems to inspire them. While a lot can change between now and a year from November, at this moment Carson is nipping at the heels of Donald Trump for the most popular GOP candidate. One would think that with the election looming, Carson would ratchet down his ridiculous young-earth creationism. But one would be wrong.

Right Wing Watch gives the audio and transcript of a four-minute “Faith & Liberty” interview that Carson gave in 2014, in which he raises all the young-earth creationist tropes: the earth just looks old because God made it look old (why would he do that?), that natural selection can’t explain the evolution of complex features like an eyeball or a kidney, and so on. RWW reports:

In a “Faith & Liberty” interview posted last week, potential GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson discussed his rejection of the theory of evolution, arguing that the science of evolution is a sign of humankind’s arrogance and belief “that they are so smart that if they can’t explain how God did something, then it didn’t happen, which of course means that they’re God. You don’t need a God if you consider yourself capable of explaining everything.”

He claimed that “no one has the knowledge” of the age of the earth “based on the Bible,” adding that “carbon dating and all of these things really don’t mean anything to a God who has the ability to create anything at any point in time.”

Carson pointed to the “complexity of the human brain” as proof that evolution is a myth: “Somebody says that came from a slime pit full of promiscuous biochemicals? I don’t think so.”

He said evolution is unable to explain the development of an eyeball: “Give me a break. According to their scheme, it had to occur over night, it had to be there. I instead say, if you have an intelligent creator, what he does is give his creatures the ability to adapt to the environment so he doesn’t have to start over every fifty years creating all over again.”

The rest of the interview decries the “persecution of Christians” and the prevalance of Obamacare, with Carson praying that God will show the “people of low information” the flaws of Obama’s plan.

But talk about people of low information—Carson is their poster boy! His rejection of evolution means one of three things: that he’s blinded to the facts by religion (which means that he can’t be an objective President), that he’s simply ignorant of the massive evidence for evolution (which means that he won’t be a good President), or that he’s lying to cater to the many Republican creationists (which means he can’t be an honest President).  I don’t think he’s lying; rather, he’s sworn by his faith to ignore the scientific facts.

It is incumbent on the press—and I hope they do this—to press Carson incessantly on his opposition to evolution. It’s not just that it’s a bad sign that a President doesn’t accept evolution, but that it shows how blinded to reality his religion has made him. It’s a character flaw, and it’s time that we stop seeing a President’s religious beliefs as beyond criticism.

Here’s a 2014 podcast by the Discovery Institute in which Carson disses evolution. I find it frightening. What’s even worse is that he accepts natural selection but denies evolution! Have a listen it’s short (9 minutes and 42 seconds):