derenbaby

[derenbaby]

This week on Aquarium of the Podcific, our o-fishal podcast, Documentary Filmmaker Chris Stanford joins us to discuss his film, “Love and Life Beyond the Glass”. Chris and the hosts discuss falling in love with Parker the sea lion, the film’s emotional impact, and what it was like working with our staff and animals.

“Love and Life Beyond the Glass” plays throughout the day in our Honda Pacific Visions Theater. Don’t miss it on your next visit!

Click the link above or find Aquarium of the Podcific anywhere you listen to podcasts!

[derenbaby]

Can you tell an invasive species from a native one?

I've pulled up a lot of invasive plants over the years, and some of them have native species that are close look-alikes. This is a great example. On the left you can see a European holly seedling (Ilex aquifolium) that I uprooted, and on the right are the leaves of Oregon grape (Berberis aquifolium) that was growing nearby.

Both plants have leaves that are oval in shape with spiky edges, dark green in color on top with a paler green underside, a shiny/waxy texture, and a prominent central vein with more slender veins branching off to both sides. Both can grow into a sizable shrub, though holly often grows into a small tree much taller than its native counterpart.

The biggest giveaway that the plant on the left is holly is the fact that the edges are wavy and the spikes are more unruly, often pointing in different directions. They may also be spaced further apart. Oregon grape's leaf margins are flatter, and the spikes more orderly. Oregon grape leaves are usually a little lighter in color, and a little less shiny, especially when dry. If you have a chance to see the berries of each species, holly berries are bright red, while Oregon grape's are a dusty blue, and they show up earlier in the year than holly berries. Oregon grape flowers, which are yellow, also appear earlier in the year than holly's white flowers.

Holly seedlings often dot forest floors in the Pacific Northwest because it is a common ornamental shrub, and the region also produces large quantities of holly for holiday decorations. Unfortunately birds will eat the seeds and then distribute them far and wide, making this plant hard to control. If you decide to pull holly seedlings by hand, double check those leaves to be sure you aren't accidentally pulling a small native Oregon grape.

[derenbaby]

Racist KKK Mfucker.

White cop who lynched a black man was pardoned. Not because the trial had issues. Not because he was innocent.

It' because racism is the law of the land in Missouri.

A cop represents white supremacy. White racist politicians betray justice and decency to give guilty white racist cops special treatment.

Red States are sick.

[derenbaby]

It was the Winter Solstice, the darkest, shortest day of the year, and Algy had risen, quite literally, high into the air, as soon as it was light enough to see, in order to inspect his new surroundings.

And joy of joy, he knew where he was! Algy was the happiest fluffy bird in all the world, for at last he was not only no longer lost, but he was in an area he knew well, not all that far from his very own home.

Setting off as soon as he had consumed a hasty and decidedly scanty breakfast – for there was little food to be found in the snow – Algy flew steadily through the brief hours of daylight, with his magic pumpkin clasped firmly in his beak. And when the shortest day quickly gave way to night, Algy did not pause, but continued to fly ever onward through the silvery moonlight, rejoicing at the familiarity of the landscape below.

Gazing up at the moon from time to time, Algy recalled one of the best poems ever written about that beautiful Empress of the Night, and practised reciting it inside his fluffy head as he continued to make his way happily homewards:

The Moon was but a Chin of Gold A Night or two ago – And now she turns Her perfect Face Upon the World below – Her Forehead is of Amplest Blonde – Her Cheek – a Beryl hewn – Her Eye unto the Summer Dew The likest I have known – Her Lips of Amber never part – But what must be the smile Upon Her Friend she could confer Were such Her Silver Will – And what a privilege to be But the remotest Star – For Certainty She take Her Way Beside Your Palace Door – Her Bonnet is the Firmament – The Universe – Her Shoe – The Stars – the Trinkets at Her Belt – Her Dimities – of Blue.

[Algy is thinking of the poem The Moon was but a Chin of Gold by the 19th century American poet Emily Dickinson.]

[derenbaby]

The 7th great ballplayer of my lifetime has gone this year...

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/21/sports/rickey-henderson-dead.

[derenbaby]

They can’t even give a straight answer.

[derenbaby]

In the end one should not regret what one can not know.

Carl Jung

[derenbaby]

Don't forget... IT'S CATURDAY!!!

[derenbaby]

How about some action, not just ‘investigation’?

[derenbaby]

I know Greece will be ecstatic...

Definitely gathering of clowns. Ugh.

[derenbaby]

Be fun uphill, too!

Why, Charlie Brown, Why? (1990)

[derenbaby]

Yes, it's CATERDAY.

[derenbaby]

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year. He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake. The only other sound’s the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake. The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep. And miles to go before I sleep. by Robert Frost

[derenbaby]

This is why we wash our lettuce.

[derenbaby]

Those were the days.

Sharp 1983

[derenbaby]

Happy Caturday, ALL!!

[derenbaby]

I was once asked if I had any ideas for a really scary reality TV show. I have one reality show that would really make your hair stand on end: ‘C-Students from Yale.’

George W. Bush has gathered around him upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka Christians, and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or PPs, the medical term for smart, personable people who have no consciences.

To say somebody is a PP is to make a perfectly respectable diagnosis, like saying he or she has appendicitis or athlete's foot...

PPs are presentable, they know full well the suffering their actions may cause others, but they do not care. They cannot care because they are nuts. They have a screw loose!...

So many of these heartless PPs now hold big jobs in our federal government, as though they were leaders instead of sick. They have taken charge of communications and the schools, so we might as well be Poland under occupation.

They might have felt that taking our country into an endless war was simply something decisive to do. What has allowed so many PPs to rise so high in corporations, and now in government, is that they are so decisive. They are going to do something every fuckin' day and they are not afraid. Unlike normal people, they are never filled with doubts, for the simple reasons that they don't give a fuck what happens next. Simply can't. Do this! Do that! Mobilize the reserves! Privatize the public schools! Attack Iraq! Cut health care! Tap everybody's telephone! Cut taxes on the rich! Build a trillion-dollar missile shield! Fuck habeas corpus and the Sierra Club and In These Times, and kiss my ass!

There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don't know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president.

― Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country: A Memoir of Life in George W. Bush's America (2005)