A terrible day for fossils, only 3 teeth.
Friday, May 27, 2022
Beach Report 5/27/22
Get Thee Behind Me, DIY Politics
Doing it DIY to catch myself up, after a long tiring day on the water. I don't see how Pete does it day after day (but to be completely honest about it being in the low 50s instead of the low 70s may have something to do with it).
Electoral Politics
In The Mailbox: 05.26.22 (Evening Edition) : The Other McCainIn The Mailbox: 05.26.22 (Morning Edition) : The Other McCain
CBS News Poll: 51% of U.S. Adults Say Biden is 'Incompetent' | CNSNews
Ace of Spades HQ Professor Bungles Falls to 36% Approval in Reuters/IPSOS Poll, With 59% Disapproving
Foreshocks Warn Democrats of a Red Tsunami - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
Joe Biden: All He Has Left is His Spite - American Thinker
‘Republicans For Biden’ Owe The Nation — Heck, The World — An Apology – Issues & Insights
Trump Reacts To Pence Potentially Running In 2024 | The Daily Caller
Opinion | Why Trump’s 2024 chances are even worse than Georgia suggests - The Washington Post
Top Republican Michigan Governor Candidates Ineligible for Ballot Due to Lack of Valid Signatures
The New York Times Election Lie - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
MLB Ignores Georgia Voting Surge After Citing Voter Suppression For Moving All-Star Game – OutKick
Stacey Abrams Twists Herself Into Knots Trying To Explain Away Surging Voter Turnout | The Daily Caller
Eric Adams for president? Not so fast, Mr. Mayor!
Sen. Kennedy: 'We Need an Election Day, Not an Election Month' | CNSNews
Chuck Schumer BLOCKS school safety bill—says 'gun legislation' is the answer | The Post Millennial
If Republicans Collaborate with Dems to Betray Us on the 2A, They Will Lose the Midterms
Boston University Students Argue Free Speech Doesn’t Apply to Conservative Writer
VIDEO: New “Racial Literacy Curriculum” for High School Pushes Social Justice in Every Subject, Including Math
Northern Arizona University Ramps Up Diversity Requirements
Disney Gay 'Pride Collection' Clothing Made in Anti-LGBTQ China
Does Anyone Really Believe in This Transgender Stuff? – PJ Media
Va. Judge Finds Probable Cause That "Court of Mist and Fury" and "Gender Queer" Are "Obscene for ... Minors"
WALL: There Must Be Real Consequences For Biden’s Ministry Of Truth | The Daily Caller
Welcome Back, Carter. Nixon, Too | The Pipeline
GOP Congressman: ‘What’s Happening Here Is an Assault on the Disposable Income of Americans’ | CNSNews
'Big Short' Michael Burry Warns Stocks Will Crash, Rallies Won't Last
Ace of Spades HQ Unexpectedly, First Quarter GDP Plunged Even Harder and Steeper Than First Estimated, With Country Losing 1.5% of Its Total Wealth
New Home Sales Plummet, Sparking Recession Fears | The Daily Caller
The Free State of Florida Leads Nation in Wage Growth, Palm Beach County 15.6 Percent, Miami Dade 11.1 Percent, National Average 5.9 Percent - The Last Refuge
Team Biden might be purposefully crushing the middle class
Ukraine: Major Food Crisis Looms, 20 Nations Sending Weapons to Kyiv
Videos: Davos Elites Warn ‘Painful Global Transition’ Should Not Be Resisted By Nation States – Summit News
Mortage Crisis Here We Come - Do Dah, Do Dah - Victory Girls Blog
Fish Pic Friday - Motivator Fitness Fishing
Aka Mary Harper:
Linked at Proof Positive in the weekly Best of the Web* and at The Right Way in the weekly Rule 5 Saturday LinkOrama. The Wombat has Late Night With Rule 5 Sunday: Dorothy Lamour up and collecting clicks at The Other McCain.
Thursday, May 26, 2022
I'm Back
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| Col. Dziengeleski with the bent stick |
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| Hoopersville on Hoopers Island |
A great trip; much thanks to Ski and Pete.
Gone Fishin'
A little like this but without the pretty girl, and I'd be damned surprised to catch a Bonefish.
The Wombat has Late Night With Rule 5 Sunday: Dorothy Lamour up and collecting clicks at The Other McCain.
Thursday Tune - Shoulda
An Oklahoma native, Kylie Morgan starting writing songs at the age of 12, gaining national attention from music producers and television executives after releasing her music independently. This early success led to her making regular trips to Nashville, crafting her voice, and polishing her songwriting. At 19, she made the decision to officially call Music City home. Recognizing Kylie’s unique talent, the SMACKSongs team signed her to their roster under the guidance of GRAMMY Award-winning songwriters, Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne.
The Wombat has Late Night With Rule 5 Sunday: Dorothy Lamour up and collecting clicks at The Other McCain.
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
A Garden Visitor
Yeah, we did go to the beach today, but it rough, the tide was high, and we came away with a total of 3 teeth, a Tilly Bone and a crab claw.
Biden Still Underwater, Another Primary Day Passed, Berlin Airlift Backwards, Misdismal Board Worse
A really big shew today. Capt. Ed at Haut Hair gives us the rundown on the new Harris poll, Biden still slidin': Harvard-Harris job approval 41%, underwater on all issues -- but one (Covid) and NY Mag: "Soul-searching" Dems wonder about the future of "visibly aging" Biden. 'Bonchie' at Red State thinks Democrats Are Scrambling to Find an Alternative to Joe Biden in 2024.
So where do Democrats go from here? Nowhere good is the answer. They are stuck in a kind of political purgatory where the incumbent president is a clearly declining, incapable old man who will be almost 82-years-old by the time of the next presidential election. Yet, the alternative of Kamala Harris is hardly preferable, and machinations to try to place a more “moderate” figure such as Roy Cooper at the top of the ticket are sure to fail and further destroy the party.
And Republicans? Newt Gingrich, no spring chicken, pines for The Trump Presidency That Could Have Been, while at PJ Media (VIP), Matt Margolis warns of Trump vs. Pence: The Battle the GOP Doesn't Need. Pence is a good man, but not a leader.
Yesterday was primary day in some important states, and Fox claims Trump looms large over Tuesday primaries in Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, and runoff in Texas. Nick Ballasay at JTN, More Trump endorsements put to the test in Georgia on Tuesday, "Trump-backed candidates compete for the GOP nomination in a series of races for offices including governor, U.S. senator and secretary of state." Politico hopes Trump sparked a GOP war in Georgia. Some aren’t ready to forgive and forget, while the Camon Linker at Da Week is positively giddy at the idea that Trump loses his grip on a Trumpified GOP.
So how did it all turn out? As expected, Brian Kemp, Herschel Walker Win Georgia GOP Primary Races; Will Face Democrats Stacey Abrams, Raphael Warnock In General. Trump endorsed Kemp's opponent Perdue, and Walker. Also the Atlanta J-con reports Raffensperger wins Republican primary for Georgia secretary of state, not at Trumpian Never-Trumper AllahPundit at Haut Hair calls it The night the lights went out in Georgia and whines about Herschel Walker: I've never heard Trump say the election was stolen Atop Da Hill, shows concern that Herschel Walker clinches GOP Senate nomination in Georgia. Uppity. Causing liberal heads to turn bright red and explode, WaT reports Marjorie Taylor Greene cruises to GOP primary win in Georgia
Elsewhere, Red State reports Sarah Huckabee Sanders Wins Arkansas Governor GOP Primary. I don't like political nepotism, but I like her more than I like her dad. A win for team Trump. Fox, Trump-backed Ken Paxton wins Texas AG primary, leaving last Bush in elected office without a job, "Paxton victory in Texas attorney general GOP primary runoff brings an end to the Bush political dynasty". So, overall, a good night for Trump, but not a sweep by any means.
Matt Vespa at Town Hall on the redistricting, Here's the Dems' New 2022 Midterm Nightmare. From the Slantic, cited at Haut Hair, When your vote doesn't matter, try switching ballots, suggests some Democrats in Ohio should have switched party to vote for 'moderate' Republicans to avoid Vance. Now do Maryland? The Connecticut Star reports how Connecticut Democrats were Forced to Remove ‘Racist’ Tweet Portraying Black Republican Congressional Candidate as Monkey ‘Curious George’. The racist party.
RNC Research @RNCResearch "Democrat Stacey Abrams on Georgia's skyrocketing turnout: "We know that increased turnout has nothing to do with suppression". Even AllahPundit, who can be counted on to take a Democrats side at the turn of a hat, Stacey Abrams: Record turnout in Georgia has nothing to do with whether there's voter suppression "Abrams has a problem and she knows it." Fox, NBC's Alcindor bashes Georgia GOP voting law: They think Blacks don't deserve access to citizenship, "Early voting in Georgia's primary election has outpaced the 2018 and 2020 elections." Matt Palumbo at Bongino, Trump: What “2000 Mules” Exposed Was Given to Georgia Officials Who Did Nothing
In the long-lingering PA Republican Senate primary race between Dr. Oz and
Brian McCormick, McCormick Sues Over Mail-In Ballot Procedures “U.S. Senate candidate David McCormick has filed a lawsuit in a
Pennsylvania court to compel the counting of Republican mail-in ballots
submitted without a handwritten date on the outside envelope in a bid to close
the gap with primary opponent Dr. Mehmet Oz, who has been endorsed by former
President Donald Trump,” the Washington Examiner
reported."
The Neon Nettle notes that Biden Admits Inflation Will Last Longer than Expected: 'It's Going to Take Some Time'. From Fortune, Google Maps workers say they can’t afford to return to the office, "Citing low pay and high fuel prices, employees of the third-party supplier petition for same flexibility to work from home as Google staff ahead of June 6 deadline." They voted poorly. USA Today, 'I go hungry': What parents are sacrificing amid soaring inflation to feed their families.
Rick Moran at PJ Media calls it the Berlin Airlift in Reverse: U.S. Flying Baby Formula From Germany. At Based Politics, Rand Paul Introduces Bill That Would (Actually) Help End the Baby Formula Shortage. Allowing parents to import formula from Europe, something the FDA currently prevents.
William Teach at Pirate's Cove, Biden Seems Happy With High Energy Prices. Mike LaChance at LI, Gas Hits $6 a Gallon in California, Might Go Even Higher in Washington State, “California gas prices continue to climb as the statewide average price per gallon reached $6.06 Monday.” They voted poorly, too. Houston Chronicle, Soaring diesel prices spare no corner of U.S. economy. And from the Colorado Sun, Federal judge blocks plan for 35 gas wells on national forest land in western Colorado, "A U.S. District Court vacates federal agencies’ approval of drilling by Bill Koch’s Gunnison Energy, agreeing with an environmental coalition’s lawsuit."
Politico has a 'Recession warning': Sales of new homes plunge in April, "New-home sales fell 16.6 percent last month from the revised March figures, according to Census Bureau data released Tuesday." ZeroHedge wonders Is The Housing Crash Starting? Jim Geraghty at NR has a Warning: The Spike in Home Prices Is Steeper Than It Was before 2008. What goes up. . . I&I thinks This Is The Worst Possible Time For The FHFA To Mess With Lending Standards, but they'll do it anyway.
Rasmussen has a Consumer Spending Update: Economic Confidence Plummets in May. Jazz Shaw, Chicago's free money program "unexpectedly" swamped with applicants. Who here doesn't like free money? Ace reviews an article I glanced on yesterday (and used in the title of the post: DOOM: The American Economy Now Runs on Fake Money and Slowing the Fake Money Production Loop May Cause the Fake Economy To Crash "So warns Adam Mill of American Greatness. He's not arguing in favor of continuing to print fake money. He's just arguing that the Expert Class -- the Smartest Guys in Any Room, the people you should always defer to because they are good at thinking and you are not -- have built an inescapable trap for us."
Bob Spencer at Front Page reports The ‘Mary Poppins of Disinformation’ Inadvertently Spills the Truth About What the Board Was Going to Do. "But how could Jankowicz counter disinformation that was supposedly “entrenched in domestic politics” if her Disinformation Governance Board were only dealing with the “threat of disinformation from foreign state adversaries”?" Ace, Nina Jankowicz: Criticizing Me Damages National Security, "You nasty lunatic little goblin." Adam Turner at Da Fed, No Matter What Happens To Biden’s ‘Disinformation’ Board, The Feds Are Spying On Americans. At Da Signal, Homeland Security’s Rebooted Disinformation Plan Is No Better Than the First. Former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick." Chertoff wrote the Patriot Act, while Gorelick set the wall between foreign and domestic intelligence that arguably let to 9/11.
From TNP, World Economic Forum Panelist Demands ‘Recalibration’ Of Free Speech; I'm guessing she doesn't mean freer. Sundance at CTH, Australian eSafety Commissioner Tells World Economic Forum Audience It is Time to Recalibrate Free Speech. Michael Walsh at Da Pipeline riffs, Invasion of the Body-and-Soul Snatchers.
Paul Bedard at WaEx sees Liz Cheney go to DEFCON 1 in war with Trump. Across da pond at Da Guardian, Capitol attack panel to hold six public hearings as it aims to show how Trump broke law. "Congressman Bennie Thompson, recently told reporters. . . “The public needs to know what to think." The PI caught it too, January 6 Committee To Hold Public Hearings – Chairman Declares ‘The Public Needs to Know What to Think’. The redoubtable Julie Kelly at Am Great, hears Another January 6 Lie: No ‘Recon’ Tours on January 5, "If January 6 was so horrific, comparable to 9/11 and other deadly terror attacks, why do Democrats keep lying about what happened?" Charlie Martin at PJ Media Doesn't Pass the Smell Test: Jan. 6 Committee Demanding $20,000 to Release Surveillance Video. What are they, a profit center for the DNC now?
The committee has started to examine events in the days before, in particular identifying Republican members of Congress as having guided “insurrectionists” on reconnaissance tours of Congress. One of these, Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA), has been pressing the committee to release video they say shows Loudermilk escorting visitors through the Capitol on these so-called reconnaissance tours.
So far, the committee has refused. They are now accusing Lowdermilk in particular of doing the “reconnaissance tours.”
Congressional rules, and the iron will of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have managed to impede the release of anything other than the committee’s carefully curated chosen video, but that’s not an absolute bar. The Constitution establishes, through the Speech and Debate clause, that members cannot be restricted from saying anything from the floor in the course of their duties. In the past, this has been used, for example, to ensure that former Democrat Leader Harry Reid could accuse then-candidate Mitt Romney of paying no taxes. (Later, Reid’s explanation: “He lost, didn’t he?”)
So, according to a story in The Hill, the House Administration Committee intends to release the video on its own. This means getting a copy of the video.
“Clearly things have changed when one of our committee members is being insinuated that he led reconnaissance tours in the Capitol on Jan. 5 when we know for a fact the video footage shows otherwise,” a senior aide to the committee told The Hill.
The proposed cost: $20,000.
An outside observer might wonder at the cost. Today, a casual search at B&H shows several 20-terabyte external drives for between $600 and $1000 retail. How much data are we talking about?
It’s easy to make a back-of-envelope estimate. Let’s assume that all these surveillance cameras record at full high-definition, full color. (Based on the surveillance camera footage that’s usually released, that seems exceedingly generous.)
An hour of HD video is around 1.5 gigabytes, 1.5 billion bytes of data. So, 1 TB is enough for 667 hours of video; a $1000 20 TB disk, more than 13,000 hours.
According to published reports, the Capitol Police have 14,000 hours of video from January 6th. Two 20 TB drives should be plenty for all of that video, not just the “hundreds of hours” the committee wants to release.
Something stinks.
ET reports DOJ Announces Hate Crimes and ‘Bias-Related’ Initiatives Including Reporting Hotline. One of the Bulwark Girlz wonders Why Hasn’t DOJ Appointed a Special Prosecutor for Jan. 6th? If they thought the Democrats would benefit, they would have, ergo . . .
John Sexton Fired professor: Princeton fed me to the cancel culture mob. Althouse, "Princeton University’s board of trustees voted Monday to fire Joshua Katz,
a tenured professor in the classics department..."
WaPo reports. Here's my earlier post on this case.
. . .
The top-rated comment at the new article is: "I work at a university and it is a pretty clear policy and clearly understood that engaging in a relationship with a student will get you fired no matter what your politics or rank."
Okay, but then it had better be the case that every single one of these having-sex-with-students professors has been fired. No mercy. Zero tolerance. Yet, Katz's case itself shows that's not the policy, because the University looked into this very relationship in 2018: "He was suspended without pay for a year for violating school policy banning sexual relationships between faculty and students, and placed on three years’ probation."
Libs of TikTok@libsoftiktok, "@Ankeny_Hawks brought in drag queens to perform for students during school. The drag queens also spoke to students about gender identity and expression." Also, Libs of TikTok@libsoftiktok, "Trans preschool teacher says he gets his gender identity validation from his 3-year-old students." Ugh. Ace on the State Farm scandal, State Farm Insurance Caught Pushing Transgender and Non-Binary Books to School Libraries to Start Conversations with Children as Young as Five Year Olds About Their Genders, "And Like a Pedo Neighbor, State Farm Is There..." From Jen Van Laar at Red State, State Farm Exec Apologizes to Angry Agents, Says 'We Made a Mistake With Our Involvement' With GenderCool. At Spec World, Sorry State Farm: we’re boycotting now. BIC, Netflix Gives The Boot To Left-Wing Activist Employees, Pulls The Plug On Several Woke Projects. NYT (cited at Haut Hair) whines about Trump, DeSantis, Orban and the use of political payback. Now do Chic-Filet, to mention only one.
Some Wednesday Wetness
The Wombat has Late Night With Rule 5 Sunday: Dorothy Lamour up and collecting clicks at The Other McCain.
Tuesday, May 24, 2022
They's Owed Them Crabs
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Maryland- The Delmarva Fisheries Association is pushing back against a Maryland DNR report that found a record low amount of blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay.
The report measured the female spawning crab and young male crab populations and found both were down compared to last year. But captain Rob Newberry of the Delmarva Fisheries Association says that report doesn’t present the entire picture.
He says the DNR only tests one location when making their assessment, and that a milder winter season meant that some blue crabs decided to burrow in other locations.
But Newberry tells us that going on what he is hearing from watermen the crab numbers seem to be increasing in terms of harvest counts.
“My crabbers right now are seeing a load of little crabs from both the north bay and lower bay there are a lot of small little white crabs and as far as the male crabs go the report is a report historically every time we get a bad report we get a good season,’ he said.
The Captain also says – he thinks the decreasing number of blue crabs shown in the report could be a result of factory pollution from factories along the Patapsco river in Baltimore and Climate Change. He tells us he wants to see the report reflect the changing environmental conditions and, in his words, better reflect the current crab conditions.
Anything but acknowledge the role of commercial crabbing.
The Wombat has Late Night With Rule 5 Sunday: Dorothy Lamour up and collecting clicks at The Other McCain.
A remarkable Recovery
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Lauren Scruggs Kennedy lost an eye and a hand after accidentally walking into the propeller of a small plane in 2011, but she looks incredible after her remarkable transformation.
The entertainment personality and model made the headlines in 2011 when a trip in a small plane to see the Christmas lights in Dallas took a very tragic turn, according to ABC News. Kennedy walked toward the aircraft to thank her friend that had piloted the airplane, and accidentally walked into the spinning propeller. Her gruesome injuries resulted in the removal of her left eye, including the nerves, the total loss of her left hand, and a brain injury, according to Today.
Kennedy has persevered, and recent photographs posted to her social media page show her stunning transformation, and reveal that she has become a mom since the tragedy.
Kennedy endured a number of surgeries, suffered tremendous pain and had to make dramatic changes to her lifestyle, but she has managed to come out on top. It’s hard to tell that the gorgeous woman in the photographs went through this traumatizing experience.
The Wombat has Late Night With Rule 5 Sunday: Dorothy Lamour up and collecting clicks at The Other McCain.
The Famous Flying Salamanders of California
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| The Wandering Salamander, Aneides vagrans |
Salamanders that live their entire lives in the crowns of the world’s tallest trees, California’s coast redwoods, have evolved a behavior well-adapted to the dangers of falling from high places: the ability to parachute, glide and maneuver in mid-air.
Flying squirrels, not to mention numerous species of gliding frogs, geckos, and ants and other insects, are known to use similar aerial maneuvers when jumping from tree to tree or when falling, so as to remain in the trees and avoid landing on the ground.
Similarly, the researchers suspect that this salamander’s skydiving skills are a way to steer back to a tree it’s fallen or jumped from, the better to avoid terrestrial predators.
“While they’re parachuting, they have an exquisite amount of maneuverable control,” said Christian Brown, a doctoral candidate at the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa and first author of a paper about these behaviors. “They are able to turn. They are able to flip themselves over if they go upside down. They’re able to maintain that skydiving posture and kind of pump their tail up and down to make horizontal maneuvers. The level of control is just impressive.”
The aerial dexterity of the so-called wandering salamander (Aneides vagrans) was revealed by high-speed video footage taken in a wind tunnel at the University of California, Berkeley, where the salamanders were nudged off a perch into an upward moving column of air simulating free fall.
“What struck me when I first saw the videos is that they (the salamanders) are so smooth — there’s no discontinuity or noise in their motions, they’re just totally surfing in the air,” said Robert Dudley, UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology and an expert on animal flight. “That, to me, implies that this behavior is something deeply embedded in their motor response, that it (falling) must happen at reasonably high frequencies so as to effect selection on this behavior. And it’s not just passive parachuting, they’re not just skydiving downwards. They’re also clearly doing the lateral motion, as well, which is what we would call gliding.”
The behavior is all the more surprising because the salamanders, aside from having slightly larger foot pads, look no different from other salamanders that aren’t aerially maneuverable. They have no skin flaps, for example, that would tip you off to their parachuting ability.
“Wandering salamanders have big feet, they have long legs, they have active tails. All of these things lend themselves to aerial behaviors. But everybody just assumed that was for climbing, because that’s what they use those features for when we’re looking at them,” Brown said. “So, it’s not really a dedicated aerodynamic control surface, but it functions as both. It helps them climb, and it seems to help them parachute and glide, as well.”
Among the questions the researchers hope to answer in future research are how salamanders manage to parachute and maneuver without obvious anatomical adaptations to gliding and whether many other animals with similar aerial skills have never been noticed before.
“Salamanders are sluggish, you don’t think of them as having particularly fast reflexes. It’s life in the slow lane. And flight control is all about rapid response to dynamic visual cues and being able to target and orient and change your body position,” Dudley said. “So, it’s just kind of odd. How often can this be happening, anyway, and how would we know?”
A paper describing the behavior will be published May 23 in the journal Current Biology.
Using the wind tunnel, Brown and UC Berkeley graduate student Erik Sathe compared the gliding and parachuting behavior of A. vagrans — adults are about 4 inches (10 centimeters) from snout to tip of tail — with the abilities of three other salamander species native to Northern California, each with varying degrees of arboreality — that is, the propensity to climb or live in trees. The wandering salamander, which probably spends its entire life in a single tree, moving up and down but never touching the ground, was the most proficient skydiver. A related species, the so-called arboreal salamander, A. lugubris, which lives in shorter trees, such as oaks, was nearly as effective at parachuting and gliding.
Two of the least arboreal salamanders — Ensatina eschscholtzii, a forest floor-dwelling salamander, and A. flavipunctatus, the speckled black salamander, which occasionally climbs trees — essentially flailed ineffectively for the few seconds they were airborne in the wind tunnel. All four species are plethodontid, or lungless, salamanders, the largest family of salamanders and mostly found in the Western Hemisphere.
“The two least arboreal species flail around a lot. We call it ineffective, undulating motion because they don’t glide, they don’t move horizontally, they just kind of hover in the wind tunnel freaking out,” Brown said. “The two most arboreal species never actually flailed.”
Brown encountered these salamanders while working in California’s Humboldt and Del Norte counties with nonprofit and university conservation groups that mark and track the animals that live in the redwood canopy, primarily in old growth forest some 150 feet off the ground. Using ropes and ascenders, the biologists regularly climb the redwoods — the tallest of which rise to a height of 380 feet — to capture and mark wandering salamanders. Over the past 20 years, as part of a project led by James Campbell-Spickler, now director of the Sequoia Park Zoo in Eureka, the researchers discovered that most of their marked salamanders could be found in the same tree year after year, although at different heights. They live primarily in fern mats growing in the duff, the decaying vegetable matter that collects in the junctions of large branches. Brown said that few marked wandering salamanders from the redwood canopy have been found on the ground, and most of those were found dead.
I'm familiar with the the Sequoia Park Zoo from my undergraduate years at Humboldt State University (then Humboldt State College). Georgia lived within walking distance, but then, in Eureka, nearly everything was within walking distance. It seemed a small, sad zoo to me at the time, a transplant from LA familiar with the far larger and more sophisticated LA Zoo. I wonder what it's like now
Brown noticed, when picking them up to mark them, that the salamanders were quick to leap out of his hands. Even a light tap on a branch or a shadow passing nearby were enough to get them to jump from the redwood canopy. Given their location high above the forest floor, their nonchalant leaps into thin air were surprising.
“They jump, and before they’ve even finished toeing off, they’ve got their forelimbs splayed out, and they’re ready to go,” he said. “So, the jump and the parachute are very closely tied together. They assume the position immediately.”
When he approached Dudley, who has studied such behavior in other animals, he invited Brown to bring some of the salamanders into his wind tunnel to record their behavior. Using a high-speed video camera shooting at 400 frames per second, Brown and Sathe filmed the salamanders for as long as they floated on the column of air, sometimes up to 10 seconds.
They then analyzed the frames to determine the animals’ midair posture and to deduce how they used their legs, bodies and tails to maneuver. They typically fell at a steep angle, only 5 degrees from vertical, but based on the distances between branches in the crowns of redwoods, this would usually be sufficient for them to reach a branch or trunk before they hit the ground. Parachuting reduced their free-fall speed by about 10%.
Brown suspects that their aerial skills evolved to deal with falls, but have become part of their behavioral repertoire and perhaps their default method of descent. He and USF undergraduate Jessalyn Aretz found, for example, that walking downward was much harder for the salamander than walking on a horizontal branch or up a trunk.
“That suggests that when they’re wandering, they’re likely walking on flat surfaces, or they’re walking upward. And when they run out of habitat, as the upper canopy becomes drier and drier, and there’s nothing else for them up there, they could just drop back down to those better habitats,” he said. “Why walk back down? You’re already probably exhausted. You’ve burned all your energy, you’re a little 5 gram salamander, and you’ve just climbed the tallest tree on Earth. You’re not going to turn around and walk down — you’re going to take the gravity elevator.”
OK, admit it, that was cool.
"The Doom Loop . . . Has Begun"
Kevin Downey at PJ Media says My Biden-Voting Friend Had 'No Idea' Things Could Get This Bad. Buckle Up, Buddy, We're Just Getting Started. "My response to him was, “You get what you vote for.” “But I didn’t vote for this,” he argued. Yes, he did." Ace, ¡Aye, Dios Mio! FJB Hits 60% Disapproval With Lantinexexexes, "¡Ayúdemi! Joe Biden se ha caido y no puede levantarse!" (NYPo, Biden job disapproval among Hispanics hits 60%, just 26% approve). From Breitbart, 69% of Americans Say The Economy Is Bad. Where do the remaining 31% live? Matt Margolis at PJ Media on a possible WuFlu return in Fall, Is This How Biden Hopes to Save the Democrats in the Midterms? "Will a new surge in cases have Democrats dusting off the 2020 playbook to reimpose mass mail-in voting and other measures that will make our elections less secure and minimize the Democrats’ losses? I wouldn’t put it past them." Matt Margolis at PJ Media observes Biden Continue to Prove His Masking Is Pure Theatre. At WaEx, Jeffries: 'Decisive' Democrats don't need to consider new leadership, because inflation was the plan.
Da Wire reports DeSantis Wins Wisconsin GOP Poll Of Possible 2024 Presidential Candidates. OK. Anxious anxiously supports Pence open to 2024 run against Trump. I don't believe he's viable without Trump, but that's just my opinion. From the Slantic, cited at Haut Hair, Is Larry Hogan living in a fantasy world?. He is if he really think there's a nationwide market for his brand of Republicanism. It's the best we can hope for in Maryland, though. At Da Caller, Trump Releases Ad Going After Clinton Following Bombshell Testimony From Former Campaign Manager
Trump posted a new ad on Truth Social:
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) May 23, 2022
pic.twitter.com/kIXlJ4rEBG
Breitbart thinks Primary Races Foreshadow a Blockbuster November in Georgia. At Haut Hair, AllahPundit whines Gloves off: Trump spokesman slams Pence before rally with Brian Kemp in Georgia, "It’s not really all-out war until Trump himself posts something nasty on Truth Social. It’ll happen tomorrow for sure, if not tonight." At CTH, sundance comments GOPe and Media Narrative Engineers Set Stage for Tuesday Georgia Election as Referendum on Donald Trump Influence.
At Da Caller, Remember ‘Jim Crow 2.0’? Voting In Georgia Surges After Democrats Complained About ‘Racist’ Republican Rules. Stephen Kruiser at PJ Media calls it. Democrats' Georgia Lies Are Being Laid Bare. Also at PJ Media, Chris Queen Stacey characterizes Abrams' Pitch: 'Georgia Sucks, So Put Me in Charge of It'. When you put it that way . . . Jazz Shaw at Haut Hair wonders What about that "racist jab" at Stacey Abrams?. Perdue said if she didn't like Georgia she should go back to where she came from, which turns out to be either Minnesota or Mississippi, depending on how far back you go. WaPoo whines Perdue makes racist remark about Abrams: She’s ‘demeaning her own race’
Jim Troupis at Am Mind explores The Cancer of Election Fraud, "For those paying attention to detail, Dinesh D’Souza’s 2000 Mules provides evidence of what virtually everyone knows. Under the cover of COVID, and with the enormous boost from undisclosed financial backers, efforts were taken to deliver for tabulation as many ballots as possible, without regard to their source." J. Bob Smith at Am Think thinks about Salena Zito’s Big Miss about Pennsylvania’s Midterms
Salena’s Zito’s latest analysis for the Washington Examiner (“The conservative populist coalition has grown in Pennsylvania. What that means going forward is important”) correctly describes the trend that has been ongoing in the Keystone State for the past decade. What it misses, though -- and it’s a big miss -- is that Democrats are at it again in the commonwealth’s 2022 midterms elections. They’re tilting the playing field in their favor.
This autumn, the “No Questions” mail-in balloting returns have the potential to blunt a favorable GOP trend with a deluge of Democrat ginned up mail-ins, which will impact critical statewide contests and competitive congressional and state legislative races.
From the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 05.23.22 Am Power notes how CNN whines about 'Stop the Steal' Republicans Now Dominating State Legislators. Capt. Ed at Haut Hair sees Kelly Ann Conway: Let's face it -- Trump lost in 2020, Not so much an admission that there was no cheating, but that they got away with it before it could be fixed.
Breitbart gets around to the finding that the Census Bureau Undercounted 5 Red States, Overcounted 6 Blue States "The data suggests that voters who twice voted to elect Trump over Democrat candidates were more likely to be undercounted in the 2020 Census than voters who backed Democrats against Trump in the last two elections."
At NYPo, Biden praises high gas prices as part of ‘incredible transition.’ At Da Caller, ‘An Incredible Transition’: Biden Suggests Soaring Gas Prices Are Part Of Green Agenda. Sundance, Biden Admits U.S. Gas Prices Driven by Incredible Transition Away from Fossil Fuels. Insty, BUILD BACK BRANDON: It’s not just electricity. We’re heading for shortages of diesel, jet fuel and gasoline. At Da Caller, Biden Considers Draining Yet Another Key Emergency Fuel Stockpile, "Biden recently asked officials to begin preparing a plan to order a release of fuel from the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve (NEHHOR), a government stockpile of ultra-low-sulfur diesel last tapped in 2012 during Hurricane Sandy, a senior administration official told CNN." Also from the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 05.23.22 Weasel Zippers display Biden’s Energy Secretary Snaps When Asked About High Gas Prices. At City Journal, Fight Inflation with Energy, "If President Biden wants to tackle higher prices, he should forget about more tax hikes and instead reverse his policies on domestic oil and natural gas production." He should, but he won't.
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| From EBL via the Wombat |
At NYPo, It’s not just spending — Biden’s record regulations are driving inflation too. See above. 'Adam Mill' at Am Great claims The Economic Doom Loop Has Begun. I hope he's wrong, I fear he's not. USA Today, 4% rule about how much to spend each year of retirement no longer works, creator says. The Intelligencer, Buy Now. Pay (and Pay, and Pay, and Pay) Later. ZeroHedge claims Americans Have Lost $20 Trillion Since The Start Of 2022. Thanks, Brandon! At Ace's Morning Rant, 'Buck Throckmorton' calls Globalism’s Gift To America – Mutual Assured Scarcity. 'Bonchie' at Red State is more succinct They Want You to Suffer.
Also from the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 05.23.22, Mike LaChance at LI discusses how Princeton University Fires Professor Joshua Katz, suspiciously after he criticized BLM. At Behind the Black, Pushback: Professor fired for having opinions wins total victory. At the College Fix, a Canadian university pulls LGBTQ poster after Muslim community complains, establishing their dominance.
From Da Caller, New York’s Department Of Education Recommends School Children Read Books On Transgenderism, Racism And Liz Warren, but, no agenda, right? Also, 1.2 Million Students Abandoned Public Schools Since The Pandemic. At the Political Hat, School Smut Hypocrisy, Vegas Edition. Also via the Wombat, Victory Girls, State Farm: Creepy Grooming Neighbor Is There, "The insurer is reportedly recruiting agents in Florida to distribute LGBTQ-themed books to children as young as five years old, according to the non-profit organization Consumers’ Research." At Front Page, Prager U Video: a California Teacher Talks About Why She Quit Her Job
Tuesday Tanlines
The Wombat has Late Night With Rule 5 Sunday: Dorothy Lamour up and collecting clicks at The Other McCain.
Monday, May 23, 2022
‘I Don’t Know How Much Worse It Can Get’
At the Wa Free Bee, ‘I Don’t Know How Much Worse It Can Get’: Democrats Turn on Biden as Poll Numbers Plummet Yet Again. On Sunday Talks sundance at CTH notices even Face the Nation Cannot Spin Away from Their CBS Poll Highlighting Major Disapproval for Biden Policy, 74 Percent Feel Things are Going Badly. At NYPo, Most Americans say things going badly under ‘distracted’ and ‘incompetent’ Biden: poll. I'm surprised at Biden's continued slide; I would think he would hit the rock bottom of ignorance and intransigence by now. Alex Berenson, at Unreported Truths, Yay Joe Biden! "Uncle Joe is finally best at something! With a net negative approval rating of -13 percent in the 538 polling average, he is the MOST unpopular President ever recorded at this point in his term. Worse than Trump, Carter, Ford, or anyone else since modern polling began."
At Da Wire, Rick Scott: Midterms Are All About Inflation, Biden Is ‘Slow To React’, ‘Behind The Problem’. At WaEx, RNC outraises DNC in month of April by over $1 million. At Am Great, Jeff Younger asks Are Republicans Finally Standing Up?, but Jack Kerwick wonders If Voting Republican Is the Answer, Why Has It Never Worked Before?. Voting conservative/Republican has in the past been an inherently reactive response; Republicans resist the changes Democrat/liberals demand. Changes go forward, but at a reduced rate than if Democrats were unopposed. I would like to say only Trump pushed back hard enough to make progress, but I don't think that's really true. Victor Davis Hanson has a treatise at Am Great, Joe Biden and Racial Demagoguery, " Joe Biden’s cognitive challenges have stripped away his political savvy and left him in the raw, revealing his real essence—a racialist of the first order." NYT cited by Haut Hair, thinks Pence, tiptoeing away from Trump, lays groundwork for 2024 run. Pence without Trump is nothing; the reverse is not true.
Politico reports McCormick and Oz joust over counting of undated ballots. Mail-in ballots continue to clog the system. Joh Levine at NYPo claims Eric Adams eyeing White House run in 2024: sources, and Ace reacts, The Left Has Lost Its Mind...Are They Really So Out Of Touch That Eric Adams Thinks He Has A Shot? YES!. More fallout from the Democrat Gerrymandering debacle in NY, Rick Moran at PJ Media says De Blasio Readies Run for Congress as Democratic Incumbents Panic Over New Map. It could get worse, At Da Wire, Stacey Abrams Calls Georgia The ‘Worst State In the Country’ As She Runs For Governor. Ed Driscoll at Insty, GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA HAS HER “DEPLORABLES” MOMENT: Stacey Abrams Calls Georgia The ‘Worst State In the Country’ As She Runs For Governor. "Not only that, I’ve heard from the president of United Earth that it’s the worst state in the entire United Federation of Planets, to boot." NYT cited at Haut Hair thinks they know What Donald Trump didn't count on in Georgia. I don't trust the NYT to have the pulse of Georgia voters, but it sure looks like Kemp will beat Perdue, and I'm OK with that.
John Solomon at JTN reports In key Wisconsin battleground, law and order becomes Achilles heel for Democrat incumbents "While most of the country braces for a pocketbook election driven by runaway inflation, record gas prices and baby formula shortages, Wisconsin is seething over a crime wave." The first duty of government is to protect the citizens. Rick Moran at PJ on The Last Stand of the Bush Dynasty in Texas. George P. running pro-Trump.
At the Dispatch, Fact Checking Dinesh D’Souza’s ‘2,000 Mules’, they're really not checking the facts, just telling us they don't matter: "Even if a vote is illegally harvested in a state where harvesting is illegal, but the vote itself has not been tampered with in any way (i.e. it is signed and sealed) the vote itself would still be considered a legitimate legal vote. " Yes, we know. There's nothing we can do about 2020, but we can prevent it in 2022 and beyond. Deroy Murdock at Am Spec, This Opinion Just In: 2,000 Mules Offers Vivid Proof of Vote Fraud. Athena Thorne at PJ Media report the Arizona Sheriff's Office Investigating Active Organized Voter Fraud in Yuma County. Democrats hurt worst. At CNS News, Shortage of Paper for Election Materials Has Some Jurisdictions Scrambling, Witness Tells Congress.
Jonathon Turely takes on the NSTA Guide Advises Against the Use of “Parent,” “Male,” Female,” “Mother” and “Father”
It is important to keep this guide in its proper context. The guide does not call for mandatory rules in schools barring the use of these terms. The guide is not calling for Father’s Day cards to be converted into “Happy Person with Testes Day.” However, we have seen such guides cited as the basis for sanctions, including allegations of hostile classroom environment or micro aggressive speech.
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| "Sasha Jane" Lowerson |
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| Anastasia Ashely for the palate cleanser |
MB Matthews at Am Think thinks it's all A New Kind of Child Abuse "You would not take a child's opinion seriously on any matter of national defense, marriage, the economy, surgery, or cosmology. Why would you assume that they know what they want, sexually, before their brains are psychologically or physically mature?" Gil Gutknecht at Town Hall is hopeful that The Day of Reckoning For Woke CEO’s is at Hand. We'll see.
From Da Caller, University Quietly Alters Application That Excluded White People After Professor Files Complaint. Also, Here’s The New Left-Wing Theory Parents Are Fighting In Schools "“It’s not a conspiracy theory to say that SEL might be a delivery mechanism for hard left ideology, because the central SEL organization (CASEL) has embraced this ideology,” Max Eden, research fellow for the American Enterprise Institute, told TheDCNF."
Some DIY on the economy, oil prices and baby formula:
Sunday Talks, Harvard Kennedy School Economist Celebrates U.S. Inflation Because Consumer Spending is Higher - The Last Refuge“Woke” Fed Fell Asleep on the Job | AIER
Mortgage demand falls as interest rates increase to 13-year high | ADN América
Biden Economic Adviser Deese on Recession: 'There Are Always Risks'
Former Obama Chief Economist: Democratic-Backed Anti-‘Price Gouging’ Bills Won’t Fix Inflation, Would Likely Make Shortages Worse | The Daily Wire
Just Who Is Gouging Whom? - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
Americans feel uneasy as economic concerns grow — CBS News poll - CBS News
Everybody except Democrats sees inflation as the big issue | Washington Examiner
Instapundit » Blog Archive » BERLIN AIRLIFT IN REVERSE: U.S. Flying Baby Formula From Germany. “There’s some irony in the news …
‘Can’t make this sh*t UP’: Eric Swalwell’s curse-filled victory lap over Biden begging Europe for baby formula does NOT go well – twitchy.com
Dangerous DIY Baby Formula Recipes Go Viral as Parents Get Desperate
US military delivers baby formula from Germany to address shortage | Washington Examiner
78,000 pounds of baby formula arrive on first flight of 'Operation Fly Formula' | Washington Examiner
Sick Babies Now Hospitalized as Consequence of Formula Shortage
Biden's Formulagate Has a Third World Hell Hole Feel to It – PJ Media
Time to Play 'Truth or Consequences' | The Pipeline
Salena Zito: Rhetoric versus realism at the pump, and in the formula aisle | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Biden Cancels More Oil Lease Sales While Prices At The Pump Soar – Issues & Insights
and free speech and censorship:
EXCLUSIVE: 'Minister Of Truth' Nina Jankowicz's Firm is Still Receiving Federal Funds To Fight ‘Disinformation’.Ex-Head of Biden Thought Police: Attacking Me Is a National Security Threat
18 Senators Call to Defund Biden Disinformation Board
Speech Controllers Out of Control - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
Beat the Censors › American Greatness
Obama Supercharged the Left's Embrace of Censorship - American Thinker
Pelosi: You Know, That Freedom of Speech Has Got to Go – PJ Media
House passes “Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act” targeting Americans’ thought, speech - American Thinker
White Nationalism? Are You Kidding Me? › American Greatness
Trump says Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter is probably illegal | Daily Mail Online
The Wombat has Late Night With Rule 5 Sunday: Dorothy Lamour and FMJRA 2.0: RIP Vangelis up and collecting clicks at The Other McCain.
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