Was this weird event caused by extreme rainfall upriver or …?
NOLA Ready: The Mississippi River current is moving at 5.5 miles per hour, which is very dangerous. As a safety reminder, do not attempt to enter the water.
***
We are staring at a national debt limit calamity, so GOP leaders (including the appalling House Speaker) are, naturally, in D.C., working hard to find a way to avoid the catastrophe default would bri__ No, no, they are not. They have gone to Israel because that country will help resolve the debt default … No, not that, either. Going to Israel has nothing at all to do with a prospective default on the national debt … but it *is* an ideal venue for politicians to gain brownie points.
***
I started to forward a story about a Texas cretin who murdered 5 people after one of them - ONE OF THEM - had asked him to stop shooting his semi-auto rifle, but then I saw the article about another man shooting & killing his neighbor because the neighbor was using a leaf blower. I crept away from the computer in order not to read any more [senseless, appalling] news.
***
Woman has ‘loud and full body orgasm’ during LA Philharmonic concert
Journalist Jocelyn Silver wrote on Twitter that her friends said the woman “had a SCREAMING orgasm, to the point where the whole orchestra stopped playing. some people really know how to live.”
[NYPost]
***
Until today I had never even imagined the term “accidental incest.” One more damned thing to worry about.
THE HAGUE, April 28 (Reuters) - A Dutch court on Friday ordered a man who judges said had fathered between 500 and 600 children around the world to stop donating sperm.
The decision came after a civil case started by a foundation representing the interests of donor children and Dutch parents who had used Meijer as a donor.
They argued that Meijer's continued donations violated the right to a private life of his donor children, whose ability to form romantic relationships are hampered by fears of accidental incest and inbreeding.
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/father-hundreds-gets-sperm-donation-ban-dutch-court-2023-04-28/
***
I am chagrined and full of remorse. During the past week I failed - by more than one game - to watch all of the Cardinals baseball games. Result? Cards won *1* & lost 6. I am so embarrassed
***
2 remarkable, unexpected events that Ben Wittes provides us -
The London telephone booth has a second life.
No, nobody uses the telephones in them. any more. I can’t imagine a legitimate reason why anyone would use those. But the influencers have figured out a different use for the booths themselves. And if you look at just about any phone box in Central London, these days you’ll the use: someone will be snapping a selfie with it.
Shockingly often, there’s a professional or semi-professional photographer accompanying the influencer—or the would-be influencer. And while my interest level in taking pictures of women (and they are mostly women) in or coming out of telephone booths turns out to be limited, I could actually spend all day—I have learned—taking pictures of the human drama of them posing for shots in front of their photographers using a London phone box as a prop. I’m honestly not sure why, but for some reason, capturing the faintly pathetic glamorlessness behind the glamorous London influencer shot amuses me.
and
A new study from researchers at Northeastern University, in collaboration with scientists from MIT and the University of Glasgow, investigated what happened when a group of domesticated birds were taught to call one another on tablets and smartphones.
The results suggest that video calls could help parrots approximate birds’ communication in the wild, improving their behavior—and, likely, their well-being—in their owners’ homes.
…
Rébecca Kleinberger, an assistant professor at Northeastern; Jennifer Cunha, a parrot behaviorist and Northeastern researcher; and Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas, an assistant professor at the University of Glasgow, showed a group of parrots across a range of species and their volunteer caregivers to use tablets and smartphones how to video-call one another on Facebook Messenger.
The researchers then observed how the birds used that newfound ability over a three-month period. They wondered: If given the choice, would the birds call each other?
The answer, relayed in delighted squawks and head bobs, was a resounding yes. “Some strong social dynamics started appearing,” Kleinberger says.
Not only did the birds initiate calls freely and seem to understand that a real fellow parrot was on the other end, but caretakers overwhelmingly reported the calls as positive experiences for their parrots. Some caregivers watched their birds learn skills from their video friends, including foraging, new vocalizations and even flying. “She came alive during the calls,” reported one.
A few significant findings emerged. The birds engaged in most calls for the maximum allowed time. They formed strong preferences—in the preliminary pilot study, Cunha’s bird Ellie, a Goffin’s cockatoo, became fast friends with a California-based African grey named Cookie. “It’s been over a year and they still talk,” Cunha says.
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGsmNTcndnJPvxSJclGHWGsdgKl?compose=CllgCHrglpJhXHwXQvhwfZzcMvBqRXVrLRLBlKMwxkcZkptTtSvTKlHjXBGMDhbjlfCnWxclWKg