© C. Ford.
Affinity
Art, Fun, & Nonsense.
© C. Ford.
CBBC wildlife star Steve Backshall said Sir David “completely transformed my view of the wild world”.
Sir David did that for me too, and much more. Growing up, it was Sir David’s journeys across the world and his science narratives that helped to keep that love of learning alive in me. Thanks aren’t enough. Happiest of birthdays to Sir David, and I hope he’s with us all a long time yet.
The BBC has a special page: Celebrating Attenborough at 90.
Protestors outside Beyoncé concert in Houston — (KHOU screen grab)
Beyoncé got a rude hometown welcome on her return to Houston, when local law enforcement officers and supporters protested outside her concert on Saturday.
As fans lined up to see Beyoncé’s sold-out concert at NRG Stadium they were treated to cops, sheriff’s deputies and supporters — some wearing “Police Lives Matter” T-shirts — railing against her appearance, reports KHOU.
“Some of her performances we believe to be anti-police,” explained Tony Ragsdale, from the Pasadena Police Department and a member of the Coalition for Police and Sheriffs (C.O.P.S.).
To make their point, the members of C.O.P.S. shined a large blue light on the outside of the concert venue.
[…]
Besides references to Black Lives Matter — which many law enforcement officials see as a slam at their profession following the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson — Beyoncé‘s video also featured a police cruiser sinking in the flood waters of New Orleans.
Previously, the Tampa Police Department encountered difficulties getting cops to volunteer to work security at her sold-out show in April.
Cops – don’t criticize us! Don’t make references to us! Don’t ever mention the numerous times we fuck up! Don’t say a word about all the murders we commit and get away with! Don’t suggest we police ourselves! Don’t suggest we’re scarily power mad! Don’t suggest we’re bigoted! And on and on it goes.
On a recent episode of his “Pray In Jesus Name” program, Gordon Klingenschmitt declared that gays are driven by a demonic “spirit of persecution” that makes them attack Christians and “demand to have sex in your guest bedroom.”
“There is a spirit of persecution that is coming out of this homosexual movement,” Klingenschmitt said, “and it’s not enough that they get weddings in their own private churches, they want to come to your church, they want to come to your business, they might even come to your home — if you are a bed and breakfast owner, they’ll come right into your home and demand to have sex in your guest bedroom and there’s nothing you can do, they say, to deny them service because they have a right to violate your freedom.”
“That is an evil spirit of persecution,” he stated. “There are also evil spirits influencing them to come after the church and we’ve got to stand up, not necessarily against the humans, we’ve got to stand up against Satan, who is inside of them.”
From Right Wing Watch.
© Sara Landeta.
http://www.saralandeta.com/2015/05/la-medicina-y-sus-metaforas-medicine-as.html
A most poignant series by Sara Landeta. Her description:
The project includes a collection of 120 boxes of drugs that have been consumed by different patients to overcome their illnesses. All boxes are illustrated inside with a broad classification of birds from different families, being the only animal that although it gives it a meaning of freedom, because it is the only one able to connect with the earth and the sky, is also one of the main animals in captivity. This juxtaposition of the natural and the synthetic interprets the patient as a captive animal, and the bird as its metaphor.Draw a collection of birds inside these boxes holding a single reflection ; l will learn to be birds in captivity, but they are wanting to fly, and that is what keeps them alive.
It’s Mother’s Day. This is not a day which affects me personally, in either direction. That said, I want to thank all those women who are also mothers, and are doing an amazing job at raising up thoughtful, accepting, inclusive children. Here are some of those moms, via HRC.
1. Michelle: Michelle is just your average mom in Northern California. She is the mother of three children, including her transgender daughter, Malisa. “Malisa is your typical pre-adolescent girl,” Michelle said in a video for HRC. “She loves to craft and sing.” Michelle and her father, Congressman Mike Honda, have both been open about their undivided support for Malisa and equality for the transgender community.
2. Annie: Annie always knew there was something special about her grandchild, Kaycee. “I knew it was something different about Kaycee,” she said in a HRC video. “Kaycee didn’t have to tell me. I knew it.” While Kaycee was worried about coming out to her family as transgender, her grandmother stood by her side every step of the way.
There are four more wonderful moms, check them out at HRC.
My favourite, and they were out in force today. I’m so glad to see them again. A Ternarius can repeat sting, but they aren’t aggressive. I have been warned off a few times, and taken the warning seriously. Click for full size.
© C. Ford. All rights reserved.
I decided to sit on the front deck today. It’s a small deck, but the birds don’t mind me if I’m not being an obvious nuisance. A little Black-capped Chickadee did the neck twist, and a juvenile Grackle posed for me. (The juveniles are easy to spot, because they are mostly brown. This was one was just coming into adult colours.) Click for full size.
© C. Ford. All rights reserved.
Esther van Hulsen at work on an octopus drawing using 95 million-year-old ink. Photo by Stian Steinsli
Dutch wildlife artist Esther van Hulsen was recently given an assignment unlike her typical drawings of birds and mammals from life—a chance to draw a prehistoric octopus 95 million years after its death. Paleontologist Jørn Hurum supplied Hulsen with ink extracted from a fossil found in Lebanon in 2009, received as a gift from the PalVenn Museum in 2014. After several millennia Hulson was surprised to find that the color had remained so vibrant, preserved all of this time in the cephalopod’s ink sac. “Knowing that this animal has used this ink to survive is absolutely amazing,” said van Hulsen of the prehistoric ink.
Ugh. I can’t even suppress the nausea induced by this mess of a person.
via YouTube Republican State Rep. Tila Hubrecht held a press conference Thursday to defend her views on rape pregnancies.
During an intense Tuesday floor debate on the measure, Hubrecht made the case that women should not be allowed to abort pregnancies caused by rape.
“When God gives life he does so because there’s a reason, no matter what,” she said. “Sometimes bad things happen, horrible things, but sometimes God can give us a silver lining through the birth of a child.” Because, yeah, rape sucks, but there’s nothing like nine months of living with your rapist’s baby growing inside you to help you get over it!
Transgender students across Oregon should be able to use the bathrooms, names and pronouns they want, according to unprecedented guidelines released Thursday by the Oregon Department of Education.
In a sweeping 15-page document the department issued what are likely to be controversial suggestions for Oregon educators — directing them to allow transgender females to play girls sports, for example, and transgender boys to wear tuxedos to prom.
They also suggest school leaders use transgender students’ preferred names, even if that differs from a legal name, on all transcripts and diplomas. And they say the state will require no proof before changing a student’s gender in Oregon records.
“A student who says she is a girl and wishes to be regarded that way throughout the school day should be respected and treated like any other girl,” the document reads. “So too with a student who says he is a boy.”
Full Story Here. And, YAY, Oregon!
Courtesy Yellowstone National Park
Scarface, a famous, beloved and much-photographed grizzly bear living in Yellowstone National Park, was shot dead by a hunter in a killing that is being investigated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Another wild animal with a fan base among humans has met a violent end, when Grizzly Bear No. 211—known to his human friends as Scarface—was shot dead near Gardiner, Montana. Scarface was the best known of about 750 grizzlies who call Yellowstone National Park home but who, like the Yellowstone bison, sometimes stray across the invisible lines marking the park on a map.
[…]
This was the context of Scarface becoming a rock star among the grizzly population in Yellowstone National Park. Male grizzlies fight among themselves during mating season and Scarface had sustained injuries over the years that made him easy to pick out of a bear lineup, particularly his damaged right ear. In the ongoing research into the habits of the grizzlies in Yellowstone, Scarface had been captured, collared, and released 17 times.
Scarface did survive to a ripe old age for his species, 25. In his prime, he weighed 600 pounds. He was down to 338 pounds and biologists expected this last winter to be his last. They meant a death from old age, not from gunshots. Social media were full of outrage from biologists and wildlife photographers, for whom Scarface had become a symbol of the species struggling for survival against climate change and the invasion of bear habitat by humans.
[…]
Shooting a grizzly is unlawful except in self-defense, but Scarface had a long history with people that made him an unlikely candidate to attack a photographer or a hunter. Because of the Endangered Species Act violation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has opened an investigation into the circumstances of the shooting. Several photographers, decrying the shooting, declared that Scarface was the most photographed bear in Yellowstone.
Vala and Violette.
© C. Ford
