notes from past week

[eub]

In the Arboretum we noticed lots of these things on posts, upright black cylinder with four perhaps-nozzles, or sensors, or cameras. On posts of varying height, some a good twelve feet tall and sturdy six-inch wood, others just on a pipe out of the ground, some right at ground level. What are they?

"Chassis" is cognate with "capsicum".

Urinal usage quiz.

Winter-squash latkes work well.

My Cheese of Many Colors, even after cutting all the *visible* infestation off, was also of many tastes -- some parts sharp Cheddar, some parts nutty, some buttery.

Chickadees can get through the squirrel barrier to the feeder. They have an easier time getting out than in: going out they hop from the feed and land sitting half-through a hole, with their center of mass over a wire; then they fall forwards and fly from there. Going in they land on the outside of the cage, dangling from a wire, and then the difficult step is kipping themselves up over their feet, from which point they can hop onto the feeder. Why don't they land on the outside body-over-feet? They can do it from flight onto a twig. Well, here they have to get their head and forebody through the hole, which is a very tight target to hit (a couple of mm radius, given that when they try to fit through a slightly-squashed hole they barely do), and maybe they can't hit that at speed, or flinch from the onrushing cage.

Comments

[shandrew.livejournal.com]

My time at DFW yesterday reminded me of this post.

I entered the lavatory, and all but one (center) urinal was occupied. Each was separated by a modesty panel. As i entered the urinal and unzipped, the occupant to the right of me shifted his left foot away from me, and in complete synchronicity, the occupant to the left of me retracted his right foot. There was a strong rhythm to the urinals that day; the ticking clock of the pattering feet celebrated the holidays gloriously.

[jcreed.livejournal.com]

Lovely!