{"id":6823,"date":"2018-03-02T23:36:25","date_gmt":"2018-03-03T06:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/?p=6823"},"modified":"2018-03-02T23:36:25","modified_gmt":"2018-03-03T06:36:25","slug":"this-weeks-not-so-nasty-news-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/?p=6823","title":{"rendered":"This Week\u2019s Not So Nasty News<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

. . . . from John, awaiting Nancy\u2019s draft of her week\u2019s news.<\/p>\n

Item #1: How’s your weather?<\/span><\/p>\n

Much of the USA and Europe have been dealing with nasty weather.
\nWe seem to be in a pocket of tranquility.
\nIt is March, and March’s weather is said to arrive like a Lion with a thorn in its paw.
\nWe have had a bit of snow that quickly melted. By mid-morning Friday the sky was mostly clear with a few clouds. Temperature at the EBRG airport hit 46\u00b0F this afternoon.
\nWhat’s not to like?
\nSorry for the rest of you. Ya. Right.<\/p>\n

Item #2: Until I got to ‘rats’, I thought this was a good story<\/span><\/p>\n

From Eugene, OR came this story about a female turkey and her brood taking up residence in the City. The term “gangster” turkeys was used. That’s a play on the collective noun for a group of turkeys. In flight, birds are usually called a flock, but on the ground three terms are used for turkeys: rafter, gang, posse.
\nSo. I was following this story thinking it might be interesting. Then there was this line: “The wild turkeys, along with a burgeoning population of rats . . .<\/em>”
\nSo never mind. Links here:
\nNewspaper <\/strong><\/a>
\n Youtube video<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

A more interesting collective noun is ‘parliament’, as in – – –\"\"A parliament<\/strong> of Burrowing Owls – Florida.
\n (Photo: Tania Thomson)
\nMore names here<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Item #3: Why is Heather smiling?<\/span> \"\"
\nBy using high-resolution satellite imagery, Stony Brook University ecologist Heather Lynch and others discovered the population of
\nAd\u00e9lie penguins to be 53% larger than had been estimated 20 years ago. They now think there are 4.5 million breeding pairs.
\nA few years ago a number of places where penguins had been in large numbers had none. There have been some ice flow movements in those areas and the animals either left or died. Researchers don’t know. The current story involves penguins inhabiting newly discovered breeding sites in the Danger Islands of Antarctica. There sea ice typically isolates the nesting area from fishing fleets intent on harvesting the krill on which the well dressed birds depend.
\n\"\"“When they examined old aerial photographs of the region taken in 1957, they found evidence that the penguins were already in residence on the islands.<\/p>\n

.
\nPerhaps a “waddle” <\/strong> of penguins?
\n\u201cAll the evidence suggests that population there has been stable since the late 1950s,\u201d Dr. Lynch said.”<\/p>\n

Heather Lynch has been the lead researcher for this project. The photo was taken on a nice day in Antarctica, with numerous penguins behind her. Worth a smile.<\/p>\n

Item #4: About Jim Palmer<\/span>\"\"
\nIf you are\/were a baseball fan you likely know of the Baltimore Orioles’ pitcher Jim Palmer.
\nMaybe you knew he as adopted. Nah, me either.
\nAt age 7 he learned he was, and at age 72 he learned more.
\nHere’s the story: It’s complicated<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Item #5: Cherry blossoms<\/span><\/p>\n

Not the ones in our yard, but part ours nonetheless.
\nIf our trees produce cherries it is not until the first week of July. Also, that week, our Mariposa lilies bloom. I wrote “if” because many years we do not get cherries. At our elevation, clear sky at night can let the temperature drop below freezing. Or wind and rain can destroy the flowers and chase the bees away.
\nSuch problems exist in Washington, D. C., but the National Park Service still tries to predict when you should visit to see the cherry blossoms there.
\nThis year the “best” time is expected to be March 17-20. Others say the 23rd to the 27th. Either will be a bit earlier than average, as was last year. Last year during bloom, many froze. Again?
\nHere is a site that keeps track of such things, and has nice photos. Click link: Call your travel agent.<\/strong><\/a>\"\"
\nPhoto from wiseGEEK<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

And that, for this week, is the not so nasty news.
\nJohn<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

. . . . from John, awaiting Nancy\u2019s draft of her week\u2019s news. Item #1: How’s your weather? Much of the USA and Europe have been dealing with nasty weather. We seem to be in a pocket of tranquility. It is March, and March’s weather is said to arrive like a Lion with a thorn … Continue reading “This Week\u2019s Not So Nasty News<\/em>“<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-random-issues"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p72iNf-1M3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6823"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6833,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6823\/revisions\/6833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}