March 19, 2016

He was in a tree by the highway in IA this morning looking for his breakfast in spitting snowfall

We went over to Iowa this morning for breakfast. Marta spotted this hawk sitting in the tree. This is taken with her phone.



Now that we have a microphone aimed at the feeders we can hear the birds calling to be fed before we get out there in the AM. A flicker. A woodpecker yesterday morning. We are adding a web cam this afternoon. So we will see and hear them from the family room.



The new web cam view just went online.

March 9, 2016

 The Nation: Why Bernie Sanders’s Win in Michigan Is Huge

Couldn't the headline say YUGE?

The results prove it’s far too early to declare the nomination contest over.


http://www.thenation.com/article/why-bernie-sanderss-win-in-michigan-is-huge/



 Bernie Sanders supporters rally in Miami on March 8, the day of the Michigan primary. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

 By D.D. Guttenplan Twitter TODAY 8:00 AM

So that wasn’t supposed to happen. Like many Sanders supporters, I spent the weekend bracing myself for Michigan. And not in a good way. The most recent poll had Clinton ahead by 27 points. The RealClearPolitics average had her winning by 21 points. Even the most optimistic poll had Sanders trailing by 13 points. And that was just the maths.

There was also the fact that Clinton, to her credit, responded early and effectively to the lead poisoning crisis in Flint. Plus the way Sanders seemed to shoot himself in the foot in the last debate by appearing to suggest no white voters lived in poverty—or that all blacks lived in “the ghetto.” Of course that wasn’t what he actually said, but what he did say was easily spun against him, and while that isn’t fair, it is politics. As was, Clinton’s supporters would argue, her claim that Sanders “voted against the money that ended up saving the auto industry”—by itself no more than an artful deception, but coupled with her statement that Sanders “was against the auto bailout” an outright lie. Which Sanders then had to waste precious time—and advertising money—on the eve of the vote rebutting. Call me cynical, but I figured it would probably work, and prepared myself for yet another round of Clinton’s media megaphones singing “Let’s Bury Bernie” this morning.

Instead we have a vivid reminder of how much the Sanders message matters. And why it remains far too early to declare the nomination contest over. As FiveThirtyEight’s Harry Enten admits, to find an upset on the same scale as what Sanders achieved in Michigan you’d have to go back over 30 years. Those polls that put Illinois and Ohio out of Sanders’s reach look a lot less reliable today. And if Sanders wins in those states, it won’t be his viability as a candidate that is in question.

Forestalling that possibility was what last week’s rash of premature defeatism was all about. That, and cutting the legs off the threat to the business-as-usual corporate sock puppetry posed by the kind of mobilized, organized, militant electorate that carried Sanders to victory in Michigan. Because the longer Sanders stays competitive, and the more delegates he brings to the convention, the harder it will be for any nominee—or Democrats further down the ticket—to “pivot” away from pledges to break up big banks, tear up TPP, block pipelines like Keystone, end voter suppression, prosecute both Wall Street fraud and police violence, and prevent corporations from stashing their profits in overseas tax havens. Which, though it may not add up to a political revolution, wouldn’t be a bad start.

FULL story at link.

March 6, 2016

A few photos AND NEWS from my NE caucus location today (Bernie has YUGE lead WON NE)

Up to the moment NE caucus results here: http://www.omaha.com/news/politics/caucus-updates-bernie-sanders-sweeps-sarpy-county-lancaster-county-caucuses/article_0e948b20-e26f-11e5-8813-0389a16e501a.html

Sarpy county had 2 Legislative districts at Bryan High.

It has been a long day. I'm out all day tomorrow for a volleyball tournament. See everybody soon.

OS

The line.



Hillarys group in LD 45.



Bernie's groups won't fit in one shot. Lower left in head scarf. I gave her and her friend in a wheel chair a yuge hug in the entry hall. I wish I had taken a selfie of the smiles we all 3 had.


From the OWH. This is from my LD where I was a caucus captain.

MEGAN FARMER/THE WORLD-HERALD

Jenny Henry, center, smiles while sitting with Brooke Ryan, left, and Cale Henry before the caucus begins at Bryan High School on Saturday.

March 4, 2016

An old friend came to visit, she is the largest breed (Pileated) woodpecker in N America

Taken just moments ago. Woody the Woodpecker was based on a piliated.




Info on piliateds here: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pileated_Woodpecker/id


On the large yellow feeder is a red bellied woodpecker. Info: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-bellied_Woodpecker/id

March 3, 2016

At First, They Thought It Was an Old Tire. When These Scientists Got Closer, They Couldn’t Believe..

http://blog.therainforestsite.com/nautilus-siphonophore-discovery/?

When deep sea explorers see something they can’t believe, you know it’s a big deal.

Researchers with the Nautilus Live expedition — a live-streamed deep sea exploratory mission — nearly passed right over a rare specimen floating along the sea floor.

The creature was later identified as a siphonophore: a superorganism that’s made up of a colony of smaller animals called zooids. You may remember the Portuguese Man-o-War, which is perhaps the most well-known type of siphonophore. Like jellyfish, these aquatic predators use their tentacles to capture prey. Of the 175 known species, some reach lengths of up to 40 meters.

Watch the rare footage here:



Published on Jun 27, 2014
NAUTILUS LIVE 2014 | E/V Nautilus, the current ship of exploration of Titanic discoverer Dr. Robert Ballard, is exploring the ocean studying biology, geology, archeology, and more. Watch http://www.nautiluslive.org for LIVE video from the ocean floor. For dive updates follow along on social media at http://www.facebook.com/nautiluslive and http://www.twitter.com/evnautilus on Twitter.

This beautiful colonial organism drifted past Hercules' cameras, and we followed it for as long as we could keep track. They are made up of many smaller animals called zooids, and can be found floating around the pelagic zone in ocean basins around the world. One famous siphonophore species is the deadly Portugese Man O' War.

We would like to credit Wikipedia for the information read aloud toward the end of the video.

About Us:

The Ocean Exploration Trust was founded in 2008 by Titanic discoverer Dr. Robert Ballard to engage in pure ocean exploration. Our international programs center on scientific exploration of the seafloor and many of our expeditions are launched from aboard Exploration Vessel (E/V) Nautilus, a 64-meter research vessel operated by the Ocean Exploration Trust. In addition to conducting scientific research, we offer our expeditions to explorers on shore via live video, audio, and data feeds from the field. We also bring educators and students of all ages aboard during E/V Nautilus expeditions, offering them hands-on experience in ocean exploration, research, and communications.