INTERESTING TIMES

Ninety nine million years ago a dinosaur got its tail stuck in the sap. Then, in 2016, someone noticed some interesting stuff in the amber at a Myanmar amber market. The pictures of dinosaur feathers are great--and they show a flowchart of feather evolution, and where these feathers fit in.  So cool.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/artful-amoeba/jaw-on-the-floor-entire-chunk-of-feathered-dinosaur-discovered-in-amber/

I know nothing of it and just watched it for the first time. This is the Kokoro dance. Not safe for work due to nudity, however, it is nonsexual. ( Cut for suggestive image on youtube window. )

True story, just happened, 6:49am. Kitten just came muttering into my bed. She let out her little vibrato meow and I reached over sleepily to pet her hello. My hand landed on something wet. I let out a howl of disgust, thinking it was a dead mouse. She jumped down out of the bed, and then on the bedroom floor something went crunch. I turned on the light, and there was a spot of bright red blood and a few gray feathers on my white bedspread. I looked down at the kitten, and she was hunched over, eating the bird. Crunch, crunch, crunch, methodically. I laid back down and listened. Then I got up, to get a rag so that I could get the blood out of the carpet. By the time I got back the kitten had finished eating the bird, and was crunching on dried cat food. There was nothing left but a small pile of tail feathers that moved in the wind I created. No blood on the carpet, but the down comforter has a new spot. There's a drizzle of blood on her white chest.

This is really cool.

The Flu of 1918 and the Politics of Flu in Current Times
Notes for oral presentation, 3/19/08, paper to follow
( no way am I going to fit this into a 3 minute presentation )

I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December
A magical thing
And sweet to remember.

'We are nearer to Spring
Than we were in September,'
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December.

Oliver Herford, 1863 – 1935

This morning Shakti on Four Paws caught another grey bird, which went in the trash. Then I went on a hike and was gone for about 3 hours. When I got home she had a dead red-headed bird, and fresh grey bird, still fighting. She would pin it to the carpet, and then let go the same way she does a toy. Released, the bird would take flight for the window. The window was only open a crack, and because the feathered creature possessed only a birdbrain, it would fly into the glass every time. Shakti the huntress would jump up and nail it against the glass, and take it in her teeth back to the carpet. I witnessed two cycles of this vicious game before I figured out the solution. I opened the window all the way, and the next time the kitten let the bird go, it flew out the window and left her stunned.

Moments later I had recovered her collar with the bell from my side table drawer. I had to let the collar out a couple of inches from the last time that I had it on her. She hates it. Now she is trying to get it off. She will, too. I am sure that I will have to find a more secure collar for this kitten. She is born to hunt in silence.

I do not mind her huntress nature, but I do not enjoy the scene of carnage in my room. She must have tormented the red-headed bird for a long time, because its blood was smeared on my kitchen floor, and there were feathers EVERYWHERE. I have vacuumed twice today already. Shakti is pissed. She will get madder, and she will never accept wearing a bell. Is there a better solution?