Funky Food

My parents raised me to be "a good eater".
In part, this was necessity, as we were not
well to do when I was young. Meat loaf was
a big treat, and to this day there are parts
of a cow that can make me shudder.

But there were compensations too, like
home-baked bread because store-bought
was way too expensive.

In part, it was also to make us good guests.
We were taught that when you went to someone's
house for dinner, you ate whatever they served
you and said thank-you very much.

This accounts for my lack of patience with vegans
and the various kinds of vegetarians at large
in the world to this day.

That said, I am not sure I could have eaten many
of these funky foods and said "Thank-you very much" afterwards...

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Feral Cats - pet, pest or plague?

The full title of this should probably be "Feral Cats and Why I Hate Them". Why do I have 'issues' with these cute little balls of fur?

Here's why....






Some feline experts now estimate 60 million pet cats and 70 million feral cats live in the United States. Britain has an estimated 7 million pet cats and 1 million ferals.

Num num num...

Exact numbers are unknown, but some experts estimate that each year domestic and feral cats kill hundreds of millions of birds, and more than a billion small mammals, including rabbits, squirrels, and chipmunks.

Cute little feral kitten eating the head of a bunny.

Cats can have two litters a year, averaging four kittens a litter. Few survive to become adults but those that do are weaned at 8 weeks and become sexually mature at approximately 12 months.

Adult feral eating the head of a bunny.

"Cats are an aggressive, invasive, nonnative, subsidized predatory species whose presence results in loss of wildlife," Dr. David Jessup, a senior wildlife veterinarian for the state of California contends.


NEW ZEALAND
It is estimated that cats kill up to 100 million birds in New Zealand each year. Many of the victims are natives such as tuis and kūkupa.
In New Zealand, it's estimated that feral cats have been responsible for the extinction of six endemic bird species and over 70 localised subspecies, as well as depleting bird and lizard species.
HAWAII
The State of Hawaii Department of Health estimates that there are 500,000 cats on the Island of Maui. Thousands of these are feral, non-domesticated animals left to hunt and capture prey in the wild...

Maui feral eating tropical bird.

According to David Duffy, Ph.D., a botany professor at the University of Hawaii, they pose the biggest risk for other protected species especially on islands*. 
Although cats generally prefer small mammal prey items, they utilize a wide range of food resources including native avifauna. Forest birds that forage in the understory, such as the poouli, are especially vulnerable to cat predation. Predation by feral cats has had serious negative effects on populations of insular avifauna.

Japanese feral eating endangered Amami rabbit.

Studies show free roaming feral domestic cats killed millions of small mammals, song and game birds. Estimates range from a minimum of 47 million up to 139 million songbirds are killed each year.
WISCONSIN
In Wisconsin alone, says Stanley A. Temple, Ph.D., of the Department of Wildlife Ecology of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, there are probably 1.4 million free-roaming and feral cats in the state, who bag an estimated 7.8 million birds each year.

Temple characterizes these cats as 'subsidized predators' in that they receive food, shelter and other benefits from their relationship with human beings, yet also hunt.

"Their predation on native wildlife can have serious consequences for species already stressed by other sources of human-caused environmental degradation," he adds.

Nice kitty.

NEBRASKA
A Nebraska report estimates that 60 million feral cats kill 480 million birds every year, and the American Bird Conservancy estimates they kill more than a billion small mammals annually.


... and so it goes- island by island, and state by state around the world.



BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!!!

Not only do feral cats slaughter billions of native birds and mammals every year,  they frequently come with parasites and diseases such as sarcosporidiosis and toxoplasmosis, which can infect humans!

How cool is that?



Many people, including me, think feral cats are free-range vermin and should be dealt with accordingly. Others seem to think they are cute or something...

If you're one of those people, and you want to help feral cats in their drive to hunt birds and small mammals to extinction, there's a special day just for you!

http://www.alleycat.org/Page.aspx?pid=388

SOURCES/FURTHER READING

http://www.feral.org.au/pest-species/cat/

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10346/1109893-358.stm#ixzz1Kp46L3eEhttp://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/09/0907_040907_feralcats.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_cat#Diet_and_predatorshttp://wildlifeprofessional.org/blog/?http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/dvm/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=31506www.abcbirds.org

http://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/t_standard2.aspx?pid=8236

http://sandhill.typepad.com/sandhill_trek/2005/03/wisconsin_feral.html

http://mauiforestbirds.org/articles/23

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Worst Inventions in History #7

for some, autumn is a time of reflection on the beauty of nature, the passing of time and the coming of winter. for others, it's a time to fire up the leaf blower and gout out and blow their lawns. 

no other power tool requires so little of the operator, so most people don't even really know how to use it very well- the result being that they spend hours chasing their leaves around the yard before creating anything resembling a pile.

the advent of the leaf blower has meant the virtual disappearance of mildly aerobic activities like raking leaves and sweeping sidewalks.

it has also resulted in a decrease of neighbourly conversation. leaf raking and sweeping and such are quiet activities, but they do take time. few are the neighbours who would mind being interrupted by a "hey, how's it going while thus engaged" and breaking off for a few minutes conversation.














leaf blowers discourage such interactions with a frightening finality. you cannot communicate with anyone using one of these aggressive appliances without a total shutdown and/or risking that the user will turn to face you and blow dirt, small stones, bits of stick, dried dog foeces and anything else not glued to the planet at you and into your eyes, mouth, ears etc.


- if there is a hell, may the inventor of the leaf blower be found there, with one of the high-powered gas-driven industrial models
blowing up his butt, forever and ever, amen.

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Self-Destructive tendencies

I don't do a lot of things that are "good" for me.
But given the fact that I don't drive, I do a lot of walking. I always have, and if these infographics
are accurate, it seems that could be a good thing.

*

talking to the Judge

Judge Pontiac muscle car 60s Hurst dream bargain American





*

i've found myself in an interesting
place this week...

with people saying very kind things
about the images i've posted.

what i haven't had the words to say
is that any beauty i've captured
was always there.

i just stopped to take a picture of it.

it's a bipolar thing...

i can't help but see this.
i see it all the time.

it's part of my disability.

i can't escape it.

i can't 'not' see it.

welcome to bjpolar living.

.

Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile

years ago, i heard Cedric Smith proclaim these lines by William Shakespeare during a concert.
he also recorded them on a Perth
County Conspiracy album.

they are from As You Like It,
and are some of my favourite
words in English.

Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile,
Hath not old customs make this life more sweet
Than that of painted pomp?














Are not these woods
More free from peril than the envious court!













Here feel we not the penalty of Adam,














The seasons difference; as the icy fang
And churlish chiding of the winters wind,
Which when it bites and blows upon my body,
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say
This is no flattery;

these are counsellors
That feelingly persuade me what I am.

Sweet are the uses of adversity;

 Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;

And this our life,
exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees,
books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones,
and good in everything.

I would not change it.

.

My Emo Panorama

it's just greedy
til we're guilty

and it all
just makes us
small.

but i could just be projecting.

.

Sometimes...

...sometimes this life's
      a long river




 
.

A Walk Is...

they're putting in new sewers
down the street...



- tbc -





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My New Clock

...living in a more rural place these days,
and generally being well out of any loops,
professional and otherwise,
i think i need a new time piece
that fits how i live better...


like, what good is 'a second'?

i can't get anything done in a second,

and that stupid ticking just distracts me

and stresses me out.

'a minute' isn't much better.
even when people say 'give me a minute',
they never mean 60 seconds.
they usually mean like 5 minutes.

and so on.

... this setting would read
"monday, nearly full moon, almost fall",
which is just about as oriented
as i get these days...

-30-

.

Ipod therefore I am

i have the same mixed feelings
about the Ipod that i had 
about the walkman 
back in the day...

i also know how de-stressing
it can be to pull back
from the whole 'reality' thing...
a bike ride,
a plane,
a bus full of cranky wet people... 

sometimes the world is easier
to deal with when you are
in charge of the soundtrack.
it can be a pleasant escape,
or even a necessary one.

but it does isolate us
from each other...
and when i think about that,
it's still a weird thing.
back when, music was something
to bring people together.
when i wear my mp3 player,
music becomes something
to keep us apart...

likewise, the cel phone.

i don't like cel phones.

i think that just as all the street 
lights and security floodlights
are a sign of a culture
that's afraid of the dark,
cel phones are a sign
of a culture that's afraid
- very afraid -
to be alone. 

...so afraid that they are willing
to settle for a disembodied
experience of invisible friends...
make that virtual friends...
if it means they don't have
to be alone
with themselves.
or be where they are
now.

yup.
 
from now on, when i'm in
a cellular environment, i'm just
going to keep on singing
along to my favourite songs.

i'm not a loud singer, but i don't
hit every harmony i go for,
even if i've heard the song
a million times.

but to hell with it-
if people can insert half
of all the trivial conversations
of their lives in my sonic space,
i can sing into theirs. 
yup....

-30-

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