mars has shared its heart-shaped craters, mesas, and depressions
photo credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
when a baby goes rogue looking for cracker crumbs in our classroom
at a class shower for my teaching partner’s soon to arrive first baby
roaming baby’s mom said not to worry,
she is just building up her immunity.
clearly not her first child.
—
“babies are such a nice way to start people.”
― d
the diag at center of the university of michgan campus
on a beautiful day
a good people watching place to be.
—
“i’m still passionately interested in what my fellow humans are up to.
for me, a day spent monitoring the passing parade is a day well-spent.”
-garry trudeau
-Garry is an american satirist whose comic strip, doonesbury,
reflected social and political life in the united states during the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
“oh how I love to read, she thought. ihe whole world gets bigger.”
— Louise Fitzhugh, Harriet The Spy (1964)
—
i always was interested in detectives and spies, and books were a way for me to feel a part of it.
without any real danger, but just enough suspense…
on international book day
where are those kids going and what are they up to?
—
today we went back to the farm
to see how it has changed since our fall visit
there were no leaves
there were no pumpkins
there were lots of new babies
there was not a lot of green
but the animals were as sweet as ever
and that never changes.
—
‘to teach children that animals have certain rights
creates in their minds a respect and regard for life.’
*-caroline earle white
*Caroline Earle White founded the first animal shelter in the United States in 1869. Born on September 28, 1833 in Philadelphia, Penn., White became an influential figure not only in animal welfare, but also fought for women’s suffrage and equality. White and a group of 30 women activists created the Women’s Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (WPSPCA), America’s first official animal shelter. Later known as the Women’s Humane Society, the organization pioneered programs that helped save homeless animals and employed animal cruelty officers to prevent and punish animal abuse. The organization still operates today as the Women’s Animal Center.
toads, rabbits, certain bird species, kangaroos and wallabies hop and jump.
by contrast frogs, hares and jackrabbits and monkeys leap,
the latter
routinely covering the distance from one large tree to another in a single leap.
tough to pass up this amazing offer
it’s really got it all
charm, the military, friendship, threats, god, a random stranger, a thank you, a blessing,
and a photo of general milley of course
such a smooth operator
but i’m going to have to take a hard pass on this one
too bad, so close!
—
“bad decisions make good stories.”
-ellis vidler, american romance author
is it really, though?
what would stop anyone from just walking around the sign,
unsure of where the private part begins and ends?
or to test the boundaries?
—
“there is no private life which has not been determined by a wider public life.”
*George Eliot, Felix Holt: The Radical 1866
*Mary Ann Evans, known by her pen name George Eliot, (who changed her name because she wanted her writing to be taken seriously), was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and widely recognized as one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrote seven novels: Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Romola, Felix Holt, the Radical, Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda.
it’s been two years
—
“and the sunflowers are an eternity in themselves.
let them embrace our dreams and invigorate our hope evermore.”
* bhuwan thapalia
*Bhuwan Thapaliya is a nepalese poet writing in english.
he is an economist and is the author of four poetry collections.
—
photo credit: hollie adams, getty
apes playfully tease each other just like humans
Joking around is a key element of human interaction — one that starts emerging in babies as young as 8 months old, before they can even speak. Now, a new study is suggesting that the human instinct to play goes further back than previously thought.
An international team of cognitive biologists and primatologists documented playful teasing in the four species of great apes: orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas. They identified 18 distinct teasing behaviors, indicating that “the prerequisites for humor evolved in the human lineage at least 13 million years ago,” per a press release.
“Similar to teasing in children, ape playful teasing involves one-sided provocation, response waiting in which the teaser looks toward the target’s face directly after a teasing action, repetition, and elements of surprise,” explained lead author Isabelle Laumer.
The concept of playful primates isn’t new — Jane Goodall previously documented such behavior — but this is the first study to systematically analyze it. “We hope that our study will inspire other researchers to study playful teasing in more species in order to better understand the evolution of this multifaceted behavior,” Laumer said.
—
“the very essence of playfulness is an openness to anything that may happen,
the feeling that whatever happens, it’s okay…
you’re either free to play, or you’re not.”
-john cleese
—
source credits: Proceedings of the Royal Society, Laumer, Winkler, Rossano, Cartmill
photo credit: anup shah, getty
I didn't have my glasses on.... 