Open Thread
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Mexican free-tailed bats exiting Bracken Bat Cave
photo credit: USFWS/Ann Froschauer
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Tadarida_brasiliensis
Zhong Kui the Demon Queller with Five Bats
By Anonymous
traditionally attributed to Wu Wei (1459 - 1508), but probably painted by an anonymous painter from the Ming dynasty.
Oxford: Ashmolean Museum. Public Domain commons.wikimedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhong_Kui_the_Demon_Queller_with_Five_Bats
Western cultures have often portrayed bats as being creatures to be feared even demonic. But in other cultures that is not the case. In Chinese culture for instance, bats are used to symbolize five blessings; health, longevity, virtue, wealth, and a graceful death. Those are the five bats depicted in in the top right corner of the Wu Wei (or anonymous) picture above.
Western culture has typically portrayed bats as having monstrous qualities as in the Goya below.
The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters
Goya 1799
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
In many of the decorative arts from Asia, the bat pops up. It is a surprising motif to one inculcated in western cultural ideas about bats, especially when used in something like a ceremonial dress.
Woman's Ceremonial Robe, The Bat Medallion Robe
first half of the 18th century, China
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Dish with Peaches and Bats, 1723-1735
Yongzheng
Qing dynasty, China
Art Institute of Chicago
Bottle with Bats
Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392-1910), 19th century
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Issho, 19th century, Japan
Art Institute of Chicago
Vessel with Bat Heads
Guatemala, Alta Verapaz, Cobán or vicinity, Maya, 650–850 CE
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Texas is host to Mexican free-tailed bats and there are a few great places to watch bats emerging from caves at dusk.
The Mexican free-tailed bat ranges from the southern half of the continental United States through most of Mexico, and through most of Central America into South America. Their range in South America is less understood where they live in the eastern Brazilian highlands and coast, the northeastern Andes, the coast of Peru and northern Chile, and the center of Argentina. The largest known colony is found at Bracken Cave, north of San Antonio, Texas, with nearly 20 million bats; the bats from this colony congregate in huge numbers at altitudes between 180 and 1,000 m (590 and 3,280 ft), and even as high as 3,000 m (9,800 ft).
In Austin, Texas, a colony of Mexican free-tailed bats summers (they winter in Mexico) under the Congress Avenue Bridge 10 blocks south of the Texas State Capitol. It is the largest urban colony in North America, with an estimated 1,500,000 bats.[12] Each night they eat 10,000 to 30,000 lb (4,500 to 13,600 kg) of insects. Each year, they attract 100,000 tourists who come to watch them. In Houston, Texas, a colony is living under the Waugh Street Bridge over Buffalo Bayou. It is the home to 250,000 bats and also attracts viewers. The Mexican free-tailed bat is the official flying mammal of the state of Texas.[13]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_free-tailed_bat
Here is a group that works to protect bats and raise awareness of the need to conserve habitat for them.
https://www.batcon.org/about-us/
This is the cave that Merlin Tuttle helped to make into a reserve: https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/species/bats/bat-watching-sites/bra...
Some bats are really fast!
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2112044-speedy-bat-flies-at-160kmh-...
More problems for bats, we're blaming them for covid.
https://issues.org/a-viral-witch-hunt-bats/
Where to see the bats in Austin:
https://web.archive.org/web/20081112012632/http://www.batcon.org/home/in...
There are so many incredible photos of bats at this link:
gallery of photos: https://merlintuttle.smugmug.com
Dr. Merlin Tuttle is Texas' own bat superhero. He has been studying bats for a very long time and has a plethora of accessible bat information for everyone who is interested. I love the photos of bat emergences.
.
How to Love Bats
Begin in a cave.
Listen to the floor boil with rodents, insects.
Weep for the pups that have fallen. Later,
you’ll fly the narrow passages of those bones,
but for now —open your mouth, out will fly names
like Pipistrelle, Desmodus, Tadarida. Then,
listen for a frequency
lower than the seep of water, higher
than an ice planet hibernating
beyond a glacier of Time.Visit op shops. Hide in their closets.
Breathe in the scales and dust
of clothes left hanging. To the underwear
and to the crumbled black silks — well,
give them your imagination
and plenty of line, also a night of gentle wind.By now your fingers should have
touched petals open. You should have been dreaming
each night of anthers and of giving
to their furred beauty
your nectar-loving tongue. But also,
your tongue should have been practising the cold
of a slippery, frog-filled pond.Go down on your elbows and knees.
You’ll need a spieliologist’s desire for rebirth
and a miner’s paranoia of gases —
but try to find within yourself
the scent of a bat-loving flower.Read books on pogroms. Never trust an owl.
Its face is the biography of propaganda.
Never trust a hawk. See its solutions
in the fur and bones of regurgitated pellets.And have you considered the smoke
yet from a moving train? You can start
half an hour before sunset,
but make sure the journey is long, uninterrupted
and that you never discover
the faces of those Trans-Siberian exiles.Spend time in the folds of curtains.
Seek out boarding-school cloakrooms.
Practise the gymnastics of wet umbrellas.Are you
floating yet, thought-light,
without a keel on your breastbone?
Then, meditate on your bones as piccolos,
on mastering the thermals
beyond the tremolo; reverberations
beyond the lexical.Become adept
at describing the spectacles of the echo —
but don’t watch dark clouds
passing across the moon. This may lead you
to fetishes and cults that worship false gods
by lapping up bowls of blood from a tomb.Practise echo-locating aerodromes,
stamens. Send out rippling octaves
into the fossils of dank caves —
then edit these soundtracks
with a metronome of dripping rocks, heartbeats
and with a continuous, high-scaled wondering
about the evolution of your own mind.But look, I must tell you — these instructions
are no manual. Months of practice
may still only win you appreciation
of the acoustical moth,
hatred of the hawk and owl. You may needto observe further the floating black host
through the hills.
by Judith Beveridge
Comments
Morning all
Fascinating critter that bat. We used to have several brown bats under the eves. Not sure if they were big (Eptesicus fuscus) or little (Myotis lucifugus) but mostly gone now. The recent issue of the RIDEM Wild Rhode Island featured an article about monitoring bats. Estimates are about 80% of bats have died in the NE due to White-Nosed Syndrome (WNS). About 6 million lost thru-out the US.
Used to love watching them swoop around dusk hoovering flying insects. Funny folk lore, women were fearful of bats getting tangled in their hair. I caught one once knocked into the water by waves while swimming. It clung to me so I tossed it back in the air. Fly away pup.
https://defenders.org/wildlife/bats
Thanks for the OT rand!
question everything
Morning
. Thanks for the link, they have posted a "what you can do" to help the bats. Some easy steps we can take:
Wow, an 80% reduction in bat population in the NE is not good. I agree, they are just amazing creatures. Bats belong to the order chiroptera which is a word of Greek origin; Cheir-hand, and Petron -wing. So hand-wing.
Bat fact: 3,000 + species of plants rely on bats for seed dispersal.
We need those bats.
Have a good one QMS.
Are you batty?
We like bats too. We have a little cave on our place where there is a small colony. I like to watch them at dusk working the mosquitoes and other insects. Their flight pattern is different from birds. We also have tree dwelling bats...
https://www.outdooralabama.com/nongame-wildlife-program/alabama-bat-moni...
The big threat is https://www.whitenosesyndrome.org/
There are some large colonies in Alabama...
https://www.fws.gov/southeast/articles/to-the-bat-cave/
Here's another http://www.cityofscottsboro.com/index.php/76-sauta-cave-national-wildlif...
We usually play a dance for the Audubon retreat here on the mountain. They have various activities at night including a bat survey using an electronic (batery powered) sensor monitoring their sonar calls. It can ID the type of bat based on their calls. Pretty neat cause you can't hear them.
Well thanks for the batty OT...An under appreciated fellow creature.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Morning
. I'm so glad to hear about the very cool bat places in Alabama. You are right, bats are fun to watch especially when you know they are busy eating mosquitoes. According to the San Diego Zoo site; https://zoo.sandiegozoo.org , bats eat half their weight in insects every night.
Bats also pollinate trees, flowers, cacti, avocados, breadfruit, dates, figs, mangoes, bananas, peaches, etc. We need them and it looks like they need us to try to make sure they can survive.
Your Audubon retreat sounds like so much fun. To ID the bats by using their inaudible sounds?...Just plain awesome.
Bats dancing upside down
fun stuff
``
``
question everything
Ha,
what a picture. Very cool close-ups of very unusual dance moves. Who knew they had their own nightclubs? These must be teenagers, they look a bit sullen and wary, as well as trying very hard to look tough?
The average life span of a bat ranges from 5 years up to 30 years. So some could be around for quite a while.
Ok really off topic, but this is for QMS...
Steve Earle with a cool lead in to Copperhead Road (horrible YT but great Farm Aid concert)
[video:https://youtu.be/KB3cc1awNjk]
Lyrics:
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.
I still remember that rumblin' sound
Thanks for that
whatever is left of the brain
seems to be able to absorb the some of the same.
question everything
So, what are you all doing?
I can't quite understand, why nobody talks about what is going on.
I watch the debate in Congress, if Congress should impeach Trump or not. I follow this on CNN. The only source I have that show large parts of it live.
Are you hiding?
So would you vote for the impeachment of Trump or not? Was it a mistake to close Trump's access to Twitter?
Watching the vote debate in Congress makes my guts revolt. So, how can Trump pardon himself and pardon his kids and wife? Do you really have that kind of strange laws?
'What the founders said' is one of the most often used sentences by Congress members in the debate.
May be you could just have a resolution to get over your founders and find new founders to write a new constitution, one which is a bit more reasonable and common sense?
You are lucky that so many foreigners can't follow what is debated. If they would, I guess they just would turn around and run away as fast as they could and wonder where they can find the nearest 'Klapsmühle' (mental health ward or Loony Bin ) for all the completely abused, mislead, brainwashed, betrayed American common people.
If the deep state researchers make 'mind confusion' a science and then use their methods to confuse and mess with people's minds, don't be amazed when their minds messing up the country and mess around with you.
I pray that you will be able to get out of this mess. One President you can't get rid off, the other you can't get in without to make your country and the Capitol a war-zone dead zone.
Enjoy your liberty movement and your 'wonderful' freedoms, which make you slaves.
I guess I need to sleep. I don't mean to upset anyone. Just wished you would not upset those outsiders like me.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Do you know how long they debate the article of impeachment?
Just wondering ...
https://www.euronews.com/live
This seems to be the latest
:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/1/13/house-to-vote-on-article-of-imp...
You can also check out this website for specific questions.
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/SMAN-113/pdf/SMAN-113-pg223.pdf
edited to add link
thank you, I think they will vote "soon"
it is 3:25 pm EST now.
https://www.euronews.com/live
I can't speak for anyone else
but you don't upset me.
My guts are revolting too (:-)) and have been for a very long time.
I can't agree with you more, it certainly would be nice to get out of this mess.
Take care of yourself, I hope things look better over there than they do here.
I am with you on this.
@lotlizard
I think HI would be one of the US states that shouldn't be US states, but an independent country. But I doubt, if Hawaiians were to fight for that kind of independence, Hawaiians would be brutally oppressed and a blood bath would be the result.
It is one of saddest history. But it would be too much to bare to see people killed in such a fight. Sometimes I think the kind of colonial US take-over HI is worse than what African countries have gone through.
Be well and don't catch the virus.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Same to you
, be well and don't catch the virus.
Hi mimi. There has been some discussion and debate
concerning impeachment and the twitter ban, and we are pretty much divided on it. Many would just like it all to go away, but I fear some of it will be with us forever. I suspect that most would agree that the "impeachment" is just political theater at this point, and our differences lie in our various views as to the mid and long term effects and the political strategies those projections entail.
No matter how long the House debates this, the Senate won't receive it before the nineteenth. The Senate has at best a very slim chance of acting while Trump is still in office, so what is the point? The only things that I can think of are 1) If he is convicted by the Senate he will be barred from running for any federal offices in the future, and 2) whether he is convicted or not he will now be able to play the martyr for his followers. This could lead to a long and intermittent period of violence of an essentially terroristic nature, and possibly lead to the rise of some sort of inheritor of his mantle as whatever the hell his followers see him as.
One other thing that could happen is that the open question of whether or not one successfully impeach a President after hir term ends might get answered. This is a multi-part question - 1) What if the articles aren't finally approved by the 20th, 2) what if they are but don't get delivered to and accepted by the Senate by the 20th, 3) What if they get there, but the Senate doesn't act upon them by the 20th? Consideration of that as a procedural matteere could drag the Seante process out past the 20th, fwiw.
One last can of worms is that the President has certain official, legal, immunities and certain informal, practical ones. These can protect him from private lawsuits and criminal charges for things he did while sitting, but a successful impeachment before the 20th could weaken or eliminate some of those? As above, a successful impeachment after the 20th, if such a thing can even exist or occur might not be so effective in removing them.
Nancy Pelosi has spend almost the entirety of Trumps term engaging in political theater. It is questionable if she can still function as a purely legislation driven member of Congress. It is possible that she has become so enamored of her theatrics that she is blinded to any and all political strategms beyond the immediacy of her strut across the stage. Perhaps she has thought long and hard about all of the possible ramifications and has made a clear case to her tribe, we'll likely never know.
Whatever the case may be, she has set the ball rolling, and all we can do is applaud or decry it, both of which are really a waste of time. It is arguably both more puposive and more entertaining, at this point, to watch bats dance.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
thank you for your comprehensive response
somehow I have heard and read these points here before, but for me it is just too much to hold together and be able to repeat them in my own words. If nothing matters anymore, then that's it and game is over.
They vote now and they say it will take more than an hour.
The debate at least was very emotional, very nerve wrecking and I am glad not to have to deal with this as an American citizen.
Mitch McConnel says he has not made a final decision on how he will vote. I consider this pretty irresponsible and snaky.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Good morning, randtntx,
Bats remind me of Phantom of the Opera and the farm; playing with them at dusk, especially. Amazing creatures, good to learn more about them thanks to you.
Fabulous images, the dish with peaches is exquisite, wow; got to add some museum visits to my to do list.
Cheers and hopes you have a wonderful day.
Afternoon
, so glad you enjoyed the images. There are so many incredible images to choose from but many are not in public domain so I can't use them. I liked the peach plate in part, because it indicates the knowledge that bats are pollinators. It's also just beautiful and I really like the shape of the bats, they don't seem very realistic but more expressionistic.
Funny how memories of something as seemingly inconsequential as watching bats can take us back to our childhood. I guess that is when we more easily impressed at the wonder of things and often we had the mindset to just be happy watching fascinating critters.
Thanks for the Phantom. I got to see that in Chicago, a nice memory for me. I sure do miss doing all those sorts of things.
Have a good one and take good care.
Good morning rand. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
This is a subject somewhat near to my heart, but first a bit or cultural analytic observation. Perhaps in China they understood and appreciated the role bats play in keeping insect populations down early on. At any rate, I was informed by someone very familiar with the matter that the word for luck and the word for bat are the same in Chinese (can't say which Chinese, however) - Fu - means luck and also bat. I didn't, upon hearing this, pursue the matter, but thinking upon it, the language is very tone and inflection based, so that would not be problematic for them. So today, I checked the wiki and it says Fu ( 福 ) means fortune or good luck and that:
Now, Bat Conservation International, which you linked to, is only one of many organizations dedicated to protection of bats and their habitat. Their site has information on building and installing bat houses ( https://www.batcon.org/about-bats/bat-houses/ ) and some nature oriented shops like Wild Birds Unlimited also sell them..
Don't bother installing a bat house unless you are near water or some other source of sufficient insects to feed them.
Don't Touch bats , especially not barehanded (without your rabies shots). If you can touch one it is either ill or injured, and some of the illnesses they can get, like rabies, can also infect humans. Those who work with bats in rehab centers 1) always wear gloves and 2) are required to get rabies shots and keep them up to date, which is a PITA, trust me. Also, you can injure the bat (if it isn't already injured) In many states, if you touch a bat bare handed it will be euthanized. Bat world sanctuary has some info on what to do if you find a bat https://batworld.org/what-to-do-if-you-found_a_bat/.
Bats won't get caught in your hair, even a pompadour which is one of the legends about them. They are uncannily good flyers and don't wish to get tangled in shit or run into things. My wife and I once were luckily to stumble across a bunch of them swarming around some decomposing foliage which was literally spewing insects and they were zip-zooming and right by us, but scrupulously avoiding us, to the extent that we never felt the wind of their passage.
I went to look up a few more bat related orgs and discovered that the wikipedia has a list of them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bat_conservation_and_research_groups
It looks like bat conservatin international and bat world sanctuary are the principle ones, along with Lubee Bat Conservancy of Gainesville, FL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lubee_Bat_Conservancy
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Several years ago my black cat
brought a bat into the house and dropped it on the bed just as we were getting tucked in. My SO looked at what it was and started screaming. It appeared to be a dead bat so I got some tissue, picked it up and placed it in the kitchen garbage.
L finally calmed down and we got back into bed and fell asleep. In the morning I heard
frantic bloodcurdling screams from the living room. I jumped out of bed and ran to see what was amiss. I thought someone had broken in and was trying to kill L.
I soon discovered the problem. The bat had just been playing dead the evening before. It had managed to disentangle itself from the ball of tissue it was wrapped in, crawl out of the flip-top plastic container, push the spring loaded hinges and slip out of the kitchen cupboard.
Now it was flying around the living and dive bombing L who was trapped in the far corner of the room. I opened the front door wide but the bat avoided the brighter light. In the end a got a net I had for the kids and managed to scoop it from the air and release it outside - no mean feat. It took dozens of tries. Those little buggers can turn on a literal dime.
Just picture the scene - a naked old man dancing around the living room wildly waving a child's butterfly net. L still laughs about it. I tell her she should appreciate the speed at which I came to her aid - I didn't waste a minute getting my pants on.
I like bats. When I was about 12, I found two bats and brought them home. I released them in my bedroom. During the day they hung on the curtain rod so my mom didn't know they were there. But at night they flew around the room searching for food and even buzzed my face. After two nights of this I let them fly out the window - couldn't figure out how to feed them - them wouldn't touch bits of hamburger meat I set out for them.
I also kept live field mice and snakes in my shirt pockets at school (to scare the girls and impress the boys). I had a Huckleberry Finn childhood - including the raft, swiping vegetables and roasting rabbits and pigeons over an open fire. BTW, to cook the best potatoes in the world, just toss them on the hot embers. When they burn black as coal, crack them open, add some salt and scoop out the delicious innards.
That’s the America I was looking for, when off I went to college
on the Mainland, leaving Hawai‘i… free-range, free-spirited haole kids like Huckleberry Finn.
I imagined sharing with them the joys of playing “Kilauea vs. Kapoho: volcano versus vulnerable village,” with nothing more than some dirt, some sticks, and the garden hose.
Nevah wen fine. No get. Dakine childhood pau long time ago awreddy.
Heh, the Bat episode would be great filmic comedy.
No Huck Finn here, though I did adopt the odd snake lizard or spider, but not for scaring anybody, just 'casue they were cool.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Sounds like you were
, a Farley Mowat type of kid. I bet you had a good time. I think I read every Mowat book I could get my hands on when I was a kid and then re-read some as an adult. Good stuff.
Thanks for your rendition of the bat-in-the-house saga. It's a good one.
It's very interesting
that bats are ubiquitous symbols in Chinese culture. It is true that as I was wandering through the various museums (via the web) there were so many Asian artifacts incorporating bat motifs. I didn't initially know it was a thing and I was surprised. I intended to look for pottery and more ancient artifacts that generally incorporate figures of animals. I found a few, but the Asian artifacts were a sticking point.
Thanks for your insight into this and showing how the language uses the same ideograph for fortune and for bat. I did read that mothers would sew small buttons or medallions depicting bat motifs into their infant's clothes.
I'm being interrupted right now but will come back later to finish my thought.
You're welcome
, my pleasure, and thank you for the extra info especially the "Do not touch bats" instruction. It's always a good policy not to handle wild animals but especially so with bats. I checked out the link you mentioned from Bat world sanctuary about what to do if you find a bat. It's really good, so thanks for that as well. Bottom line, be careful of them, they could inadvertently hurt you or you could accidentally hurt them.
This is good news on racism
Utah hospitals declare systematic racial disparity a public health crisis
Worth a read.
Comments:
These 2 go together.
Lots of others have totally missed the point. "I should be ashamed of being white?"
This adds to Lookout's comment here:
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
It seems to me that rolling back white supremacy in Hawai‘i
would have to include restoring Hawaiian independence as its own sovereign country, as well as changing the whole basis of Hawai‘i’s economy and infrastructure away from reliance on the U.S. military.
Few North Americans I know are even aware of, let alone working toward, any of that, which is why I have doubts about the sincerity of “Church of Woke” dogma when it comes to Hawai‘i / East Asians / Pacific Islanders.
Hawai‘i is unique in that more “diversity” as it is usually understood in North America — more Black and Hispanic population and influence — displaces and demotes local Asian-Pacific culture and identity just as much as dominance by equivalent white migration from the Mainland.
I read the article that you posted
. I suppose it's a good first step. I know this issue a bit but I really have a hard time with this:
This suggests that lower quality care is intentional even to the point of having black infants three times more likely to die if they are cared for by a white doctor. I'm not saying that this statistic is wrong, I am accepting it at face value, but childbirth is not a disease and if the deciding factor between a good outcome or not is the color of the doctor, then I am astonished.
More people died in the UK of Covid yesterday, than died
in the sinking of the Titanic.
But, you know. Meh. Kinda makes you wonder why 100 years later we're still going on and on about a ship sinking that hardly killed anybody, really, when you think about it. I mean, what was the big deal? Probably wouldn't even have made the papers, if there hadn't been all those rich people on board.
Mind you, proportional to the UK's population at the time, the Titanic casualties were higher. Whereas, the number of Americans killed by Covid yesterday was proportionally higher than the number of Americans killed by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor. December 7, 1941, a day that will life in Mehfamy.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
Jack Johnson went to get on board,
cap'n said "I ain't hauling no coal".
singing fare the well, Titanic, fare the well ...
~~ Leadbelly
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Jack Johnson…
This one is remembered
the wright brothers haven't even started fooling with kitty hawk yet
Who's she?
question everything
It is strange
how we can be very alarmed by one incident that results in a bunch of dead people, yet a different incident that results in the same number of dead people is not cause for the same kind of alarm. Funny that.
Make folks think of dead people —> push their emotional buttons…
… —> use their heightened reactive state to slip motivation-manipulating messages to their subconscious…
… —> profit!
Unfortunately, even the tallest tales told about some dead people make for a much more profitable mental franchise than even the truest tales told about other dead people… whatcha gonna do? That’s show biz.
Showbiz
. Looks like this show has run its course.
Bats are so great.
We saw the Austin evening showwhen we checked out UT with our daughter. People lying on grass banks near the bridge. Similar crowd in Portland watching the Vaux Swifts in the old schoolhouse chimney.
We've always had bats at dusk: in the US and here in France. This year, did not see one. Fewer Swallows too. I'm worried.
I've had at least three bats follow a moth into the house in the evening. The first I found behind the coffee maker in the morning when I pulled out the pot. We both screamed. Using their eco location they zig zag around trying not to hit things. Makes unpredictable flight unlike birds which fly straight and into things.
I keep hoping to overcome my innate fear of Bats. It's a hard one. But they are a really cool Fledermaus. (flying mouse). Die Fledermaus, one of my favorite pieces of music often heard at New Year. Johan Strauss II
[video:https://youtu.be/Dka-_N6KaG0]
For absolutely gorgeous intervals and harmonies, and also often performed on New Year: Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss.
[video:https://youtu.be/3D7abQTy71I]
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.
what gets into these conductors
seems like they are flying without wings
just a stick and some internal imepdus
may be bat magic.
question everything
I'm glad
you had a chance to see the bats in Austin when you went to check out UT with your daughter. That's awesome, hope you all had a good time.
Bats are a bit scary, there are good reasons to treat them with caution as e.l. points out in his comment above. I am usually not happy when wild creatures are in the house. Outside is 100% good, but inside... not so much and kind of scary.
You may be able to find out what is happening to the bat population in your area of France. There are quite a few resources online that might be work for you. Hope you don't discover a precipitous population decline.
https://www.batworld.org
https://www.batcon.org
Thanks for reminding me of Die Fledermaus and Der Rosenkavalier. They are both fun operas and I haven't listened to them in a very long time. I think they will be part of my soundtrack for the next couple of days.
edited to correct links
afternoon randtntx
You wouldn't be implying any of us are batty would you? heh
Walking with my cousin one night we happened onto a school playground and heard some odd sounds. Soon we discovered it was coming from bats that were sounding off the concrete and the walls as they were feeding. Mesmerizing and wonderful.
More climate news for y'all...
An Exhausted Planet Limps Into 2021 (worth reading the whole article)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/01/12/an-exhausted-planet-limps-into-2...
Take good care, all, and have a good one.
Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation
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Hi
. I would never! Although, given the circumstances, if we're not all batty, I don't know why not.
I love all these bat stories and encounters you all had. Funny how we remember them so clearly. They must have struck a chord somehow.
Thanks for the science news. It's about time the scientist frame their warnings this way. I wonder if it will help people hear better.
Take care magi, see ya later.
So they have impeached him now. 4:23 pm EST
so far the world still continues turning... sigh. t
If we just could President Nobody.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Have you a link to that little jewell?
extinct the stink
question everything
here
here
It's now 217 votes. I just get that on CNN how it is broadcasted on TV here in Germany.
I can't make a screenshot of what I see on TV, as no computer is attached to the TV.
Now they show that there are 222 vote of the Democrats and 10 votes of Rapublicans for impeachment, making it 232 in total.
There are 0 veotes against impeachment by the Democrats and 197 votes by the Republians against impeachment.
https://www.euronews.com/live
what does this mean? Trump don't get no pension?
thanks for the link
yes we have no bananas (tv here)
loser, you are fired!
question everything
Nope. It doesn't mean anything in terms of real consequences
Unless he gets convicted by the Senate. If that happened, then he would lose his pension and lifetime secret service detail, and many other benefits. But that is unlikely to happen. So all it really means is Trump gets the distinction of being the only president in U.S. history (so far) to be impeached twice. It's supposed to be a "humiliation" but personally I doubt Trump cares. He'll just call it another bogus witch hunt. Or maybe he will brag about it. Who knows?
no bananas in a banana republic? Unbelievable.
Do you have oranges? May be at TOP. ?
Sorry, I am meany again. heh, there is a time for everything, and I am convinced a time for good things is ahead.
Good Night.
https://www.euronews.com/live
No Pension?
I wonder if Pence serving 7 or 8 days would thereby earn his lifetime Presidential secret service and pension benefits and Trump will go without? Or will they both be treated equally as ex presidents?
“ …and when we destroy nature, we diminish our capacity to sense the divine,and understand who God is, and what our own potential is and duties are as human beings.- RFK jr. 8/26/2024
yeah, the'll probably double their pensions
hazard pay, going out their widows
question everything
This is one inspiring
...brilliant, potentially commercial, generous, universal, heartwarming, unique, and creative Morning Essay.
Thanks, randtntx.
Thank you
, so glad you enjoyed it.
Dynamite's in the belfry.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
recently read
dystopian novel soonish after the fall
some yokels out west blasted a bat cave
for some new development
which chased out the bats
who got infected by some lab built bio-virus
which were spread so deadly
human kind almost disappeared
the bats were not effected
question everything
Those yokels
fictitious our not, are famous for that behavior.
Thanks for all your contributions on the thread, much obliged.
do the bat boxes have bat phones?
I asked this once at a meeting with lots of public officials in L.A. once. City, county, state, Federal, they were all there. As this 'respected' science dude, it brought 'em all to the ground.
I heard the taxonomists recently changed the official name to Brazilian Freetailed Bat.
Which I will never get after learning them 50 some years ago as Mexican Freetails.
Histoplasmosis I think is the disease in the caves. The Bracken Cave used to open one day a year in winter for people to come in and harvest bat guano. Any that used it said it was the best ever. You had to sign waivers to do this, and wear nearly hazmat level gear. But it was open to the public for quite some time. Probably not nowadays.
I live near the Frio bat cave, in Concan, TX, which is 15 miles as the bat flies, but about 30 on the ground because that is how the hill country of Texas drives. Ten million bats there, the emergence is spectacular, an event one will never forget. A batman leads tours all spring to fall, $10 per person, the cave is on private property. I saw Ringtail at the lip of the cave take a bat out of the air with a grab. Hawks and owls fly through the cloud and grab snacks. It is incredible.
Bain often snags one with his ballcap...
Here are a couple pics of the emergence
Thanks to all for all the great comments!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
Those are great pictures
. We went to a cave in Comfort at an old abandoned railroad tunnel to see a bat emergence. Your account of the ringtail grabbing a bat must have been an amazing sight. Do you mean a ringtail cat? I have never seen such a thing but we did see the Red-tail Hawks grab bats out of the air as they came out of the cave. We used to have a ringtail cat hanging around here, she would climb up a tree and drop to the roof, scared me until I figured out what it was.
You're right, histoplasmosis is a danger in bat guano but the guano is famous for being an awesome fertilizer so you have to be cautious with it.
Bat on baseball cap?
Thanks for stopping by with pictures and everything!
yeah sorta...
I think technically to biologists they are Ringtails, or Cacomistle, but they are probably most often called Ringtailed Cat by most people. Obviously they are not cats. Mammalogists have long strived to get away from using the cat epitaph since they are not one. It gives the wrong idea about them by putting them in the wrong group of animals. Of course lots of things are named like that, or called names like that. Ringtails live in lots of barns or attics, which are strangely devoid of rodents. They actually take lots of bats, their bones are common at Ringtail homes. One sex largely prefers rock cave type houses, the other wood as in tree holes, I read in one of my mammal books. They are awesome fascinating animals. We have some that live around us, one I think in the attic of 'the cottage'.
great to see bats get airplay!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
Really interesting
, thanks. I had no idea. Ringtail it is then. Good to know. I haven't seen the one that was around here in quite some time. I wonder about him now and then. It's a rough place for wild animals.
Thanks again.
redacted my bat-shit crazy comment, apologies /nt
https://www.euronews.com/live
Batshit crazy comments
, are not out of bounds in a batshit crazy world. No problem.
Okay, now I’m gonna invest all my munnies in Batcoin… n/t
Showdown
, the battle of batcoin vs the battle of bitcoin. Hope you make a billion.