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Small Talk

Discussion in 'Your Front Porch' started by Maggie, Apr 17, 2016.

  1. Nathan

    Nathan Well-Known Member

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    The Bismarck masked flying fox (Pteropus capistratus). Males of this species can lactate - a very rare trait in mammals.

    Also rare is the fact that the Bismarck masked flying fox looks as though it consist of several different animal parts, stitched together in random fashion - 1/4 large rat, 1/4 small adorable dog, 1/4 aging bovine testicle, & 1/4 magic witch fingers.

    Slightly disturbing, yet somehow cute in an awkward kind of way.
     
  2. Marta

    Marta Active Member

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    Half cute, half gross. Definitely an interesting creature Nathan.
     
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  3. Nathan

    Nathan Well-Known Member

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    *nods & laughs… From a female/male Pteropus capistratus' point of view, he/she (I'm not sure if the bat photographed is male or female) may be the hottest woman/man hanging in the tree.

    Why he/she might well be the sexiest Bismarck masked flying fox in all of Papua New Guinea.
     
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  4. AnneT

    AnneT Well-Known Member

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    Random interesting things from the knitting brigade this morning...

    A friend of a friend has a large floor loom she’s giving away. I’m thinking about accepting it, if I can declutter a space for it. Hmmm.

    She also told me about someone who would do pet therapy visits at nursing homes... with a HORSE!! And that someone who was dying in hospice arranged to have her 3 donkeys come to the hospice to say final goodbyes.
     
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  5. Marta

    Marta Active Member

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    We have ‘chicken therapy’ in our school for SEN kids. I would not touch them (chickens obviously) ! The kids however love them!
     
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  6. Nathan

    Nathan Well-Known Member

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    If receiving pet therapy, whether it be therapy for a benign, malignant, terminal, or moderate illness or disability, which animal or animals would you preference?

    Are preferences possibly determined by the severity of the illness?

    *Notes: A loom, or floor loom is a device used to weave cloth & tapestry.
     
  7. Marta

    Marta Active Member

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    I would go by personal preference. It would have to be a horse or a dog. Cats are adorable but they cannot be trusted. Never ever any feathery creatures though!:D
     
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  8. AnneT

    AnneT Well-Known Member

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    For me... cats, donkeys, chickens, sea turtles, and some well behaved dogs.
     
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  9. Nathan

    Nathan Well-Known Member

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    *is laughing
     
  10. AnneT

    AnneT Well-Known Member

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    And goats, for maybe an hour or less, before they eat everything in my garden including my clothes.

    Here in Calgary the City hires a herd of goats from Kimberly BC to weed some of the public grasslands. They eat thistles!! What kind of superhero animal can stick a thistle down his gullet?!
     
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  11. Pupper

    Pupper Active Member

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    There's some small petting zoo or whatever near me in the hills. I was petting a baby goat and he started sucking on my finger. I was uneasy at first because I thought he was trying to bite me.* His tongue was super rough. It was so funny-weird. I called over to my gf at the time. "c'mere. stick your finger out." "NO WAY". "yes, just do it." He started sucking hers. We were cracking up. Goats are odd as hell.

    *I do not encourage putting hand or head in an animal's mouth. Don't be one of those idiots who ends up on the evening news. The ancients felt that goats were mixed up with Satan. We got lucky that day. We were young and reckless. Little Satan goat had mercy on us.
     
  12. AnneT

    AnneT Well-Known Member

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    Haha! Little Satan Goat. My laugh for today. If I ever have a goat, that’s her name.

    Or next time my cat leaves his creative gory mouse guts on the front porch, that’ll be his new nickname. (Though he already has a great name: Vito Corleone. Named by my son, after “The Godfather”, my eldest son’s favourite movie.)
     
  13. Bonlyn

    Bonlyn Active Member

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    Oh that reminds me that it is almost time to celebrate the King Puck Festival Day in Kilorgin, Ireland... I think it is August 15, where according to tradition all the finest goats are brought to town and the best one is voted King for the day. So for all of you goat lovers. Thanks for bringing that to mind Pupper. :)
     
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  14. Bonlyn

    Bonlyn Active Member

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    It is Killorglin, Ireland, sorry didn't pick that up on auto correct, which also keeps changing Pupper's name to Puppet. o_O
     
  15. AnneT

    AnneT Well-Known Member

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    On other species...

    I was digging in my garden, wanting to divide some overgrown skinny irises with years of dead leaves at the base. I heard buzzing, but with my poor echolocation I didn’t know where it was coming from. After a few minutes a bumblebee flew around me, acting all aggressive but not actually landing or trying to sting me.

    I concentrated my good ear around the plants and realized an underground hive was buzzing under the irises!

    I’m impressed at the peacekeeping politeness of these bees! Like, they send out one messenger to say “excuse me but could you please not destroy our house? A million thanks and have a great day.”

    I mean, if they had been wasps, it would have meant war.

    www.honeybeesuite.com has some fascinating factoids about bumblebees.

    So, the mess of irises stays put.
     
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  16. Pupper

    Pupper Active Member

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    You're such a weirdo AnneT.
     
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  17. Nathan

    Nathan Well-Known Member

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    Are you familiar with the tarantula hawk? If not, the tarantula hawk (spider wasp) preys on tarantulas.

    They, the tarantula hawks, paralyse the tarantula with their sting, subsequently dragging the tarantula into their brood nest as living food — a single egg is laid on the tarantula, hatching to a larva which eats the tarantula alive.

    A badass wasp, with one of the most painful stings among insecta.

    Watch an interaction between a tarantula hawk & a tarantula & you will likely experience empathy pains on behalf the tarantula: an odd sensation to experience granting the object of pain empathy.
     
  18. AnneT

    AnneT Well-Known Member

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    Wow nature is crazy!!
     
  19. Nathan

    Nathan Well-Known Member

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    Nature is blind, selecting that which survives & replicates.
     
  20. Nathan

    Nathan Well-Known Member

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    Finally, a valid excuse to wear body-paint in public. I will definitely be doing this to ward off mosquito bites.

    Context may be required. Story time!

    I was arrested, sort of not arrested, more so removed from the public for a number of hours in 1997, or it may have been 1998 for walking along St Kilda Beach while painted head to toe in pink body-paint for my high school media project Pink Bits. Yes, I was wearing underwear, of course—pink Pink Bits underwear.

    The combination of disappointment, embarrassment, & outrage smeared across my fathers face when he collected me, his pink son from the police station remains to this day etched in my psyche.

    Hence there's a part of me, a sort of warped vindictive part deeply embedded somewhere in the back of my mind that rejoices in the idea of walking the same beach. Only this time in black & white body-paint, as shown in the article above, so to possibly rebut the ultra prudish charge of "challenging cultural sensibilities"… with science!

    Although I wouldn't be surprised if I were arrested again, in the summer of 2019. However this time not so much for challenging cultural sensibilities, per se, but rather culturally appropriating Zebras.

    I think it's wroth it, though.
     
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