Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

Archive for April 2013

Out the Back Window – 04-15-13



ant-aphids

In a past summer, it was about time to trim back some of the bridal wreath bushes near the house. The many black ants were troublesome. They were about 1/2″ long on many of the tips of the small branches. They seemed very intent doing something slowly and deliberately. A closer look revealed tiny, light green aphids had been herded by the ants toward the ends of the small branches.

Ants and aphids have a relationship called Mutualism. The relationship serves to benefit both the ant and the aphids. The ant obtains a sweet source of food from the abdomen called honeydew. The aphids are protected on the branch by the ant. Each can exist independently of the other. But, both parties benefit when together. Here is a link to a better close-up view of ants herding their aphids together. The link also talks about the mortal enemy of the aphid, the Ladybug or Ladybird beetle.

Finally, this video shows some ants tending their aphids. Watch for the stroking action of the antennae on the abdomen of the aphids.

Have you seen other examples of mutualism in your backyard? Is there any noteworthy sign of spring?

The Daily F Bomb, Monday 4/15/13

Interrogatories

It’s Tax Day!

Did you get your taxes done in time? Do you do your own or have someone do them for you?

When you are sick with the flu, do you valiantly carry on or huddle at home in abject misery?

Do you have a green thumb?

Are you an introvert or extrovert?

The Twitter Emitter

Motley Monday Check in and Mooselaneous Musings

Good morning Motley Meese! Hope your weekend was lovely. Remember to let your peeps know where you are!

Here’s today’s Motley Monday Shot of the Week, a female Eastern Pondhawk dragonfly. Females and immature males are this happy green to blend with the grass. Males get a dusty light blue coloration when they mature. Like birds, it’s the male in most dragonfly species that are the most colorful. With Eastern Pondhawks, the females have the brighter color, but only to blend with spring grass.

female eastern pondhawk

Native schools and stolen generations: U.S. and Canada




photo CarlisleIndianIndustrialSchool_zpsf3823e74.jpg

Pupils at Carlisle Indian Industrial School, Pennsylvania (c. 1900)




The plight of Native American and First Nations children in the United States and Canada as stolen generations cannot simply be brushed off as “ancient” history.

Many readers here are aware of the history of Native American boarding schools, like Carlisle, depicted above, and the Canadian Indian residential school system, thanks to the ongoing efforts of editors and writers for Native American Netroots, founded by navajo, both on their site and here at Daily Kos. They have also provided critical coverage of the current South Dakota kidnapping of Indian children-placing them white foster care, in pieces written by Meteor Blades, and Aji.

Unfortunately, too many of our fellow citizens remain in complete ignorance.

Sunday All Day Brunch: A Magician Named Merlin

Cross Posted from Street Prophets

Welcome to Sunday All Day Brunch. This is an open topic thread so help yourself to the goodies and sit a spell and let us know what is new in your life. Today I want to pay tribute to a beloved companion who has crossed the Rainbow Bridge. I write a lot about Pixie who was my Mom’s caregiver as much as I was. However Merlin was my baby from the time he was 4 weeks old and he was my solace in difficult times.

Doors

Doors

I live with two dogs and two cats. They all need me to let them in and out. 

This is because I worry. I worry that if I made them their own door, they’d get in trouble. Casey the Border Collie would freak out at some noise and claw himself over the fence and run off. Jess the Calico Cat would take to working the streets and never come back again.

Charlotte the Mildly Autistic Tortoise Shell would likely still hang around and sleep on my spot on the couch. She likes being an indoor-ish cat. Caught herself a big mouse on the stoop this evening though. I was effusive with praise. Jess hung back and looked at me a bit plaintively, perhaps suggesting that she’d had a role in this fine capture of this exceptionally impressive mouse?

Likely. I’ve seen them tag-team before.

My other inhouse non-human here is The Fabulous Furry Frolicking Falcor. All my pets are rescues, and he and the cats date from last year. Falc is a border collie-Great Pyrenees cross, and is okay left in the yard, but still, I worry. What if something horribly terrifying happened while I was gone? I’ve only been his human since last summer. We haven’t done the thunderstorm thing since the weather hasn’t been cooperating. 

So, I do the door thing all the time. I keep my non-human peeps here in, I keep them out occasionally. But it all seems so rude on my part. 

There is an ex-pet door, covered over with plywood, that I could uncover and rework. I could also fit it with a movable cover.

Point being, I spend a lot of time here on my turf. I like to keep doors closed because of flies. (mosquitoes are technically flies.) So why am I being so controlling about this door thing with my nonhuman friends? 

I can probably fix this by knocking out a little sheetrock, maybe cutting back a few two-by-fours some, and making some kind of flap and then working out an interior barrier with plywood and slotted hardware. 

Yes, I can.

Nurse Kelley Sez: If You Die, How Will We Know?

Dying is a matter of “when”, not “if”. Pretty much everyone knows what they should do to make their final arrangements, and doing so is not just for the old and infirm. Even you college students could get hit by a bus and die tomorrow. If you’ve got more than a few possessions or think you might even consider having children someday or don’t want your brothers to fight over your DVD collection, you need a will. If you’ve got a complicated family of in-laws, outlaws, stepkids and exes, you REALLY need a will. If you are the parent or guardian of a disabled person you need to make legal arrangements and trusts NOW. If you are a member of the GLBT community and don’t yet have the same rights as everyone else, you MUST have a will.

If you have strong feelings about organ donation (you do, don’t you?) don’t just sign a donor card. Your family can override your wishes when you die. Your Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare, your Living Will, and your Power of Attorney should be executed, discussed with your next of kin and safely stored where they can retrieve them when needed. Don’t forget to choose a guardian for your kids and make arrangements for your pets.

Today’s topic is more about notifications than arrangements. It was simple enough when my parents died; we notified family members and close friends, then got in touch with the company Daddy worked for his entire life. Both my parents graduated from Rice University and were active in the alumni association, so we called them and asked them to get the word out. They’d volunteered for a variety of organizations and causes, and they’d been members of the same church for eons. We knew which neighbors they were friends with and we called them. Their address books provided the names of friends we weren’t aware of, and obituaries in the local paper were seen by the one or two friends we’d missed.

My, how times have changed! Address books have been replaced with password protected computers and handheld devices. If your survivors are lucky enough to know (or guess) your passwords, what then? Will they know which social networking site(s) you frequent … and how to get into them? Do they know if you’re in secret facebook groups, and how to contact someone in the group?

What about the financial sites you use? I’ve got a Power of Attorney and my son knows where it is, but he could begin managing my affairs immediately if he knew how to access my accounts online. Should I give him that information now? Just in case? If not, what do I do with the myriad web addresses and sign-in names and passwords currently clogging my brain?

More to the point today, if you die and you’re still an active member of this crazy place, how will we know?

At the end of 2009 I saw a posting on facebook that resonated with me. I don’t remember who posted it, so this is as close as I can come to the original:

My New Year’s resolution is to stop referring to you guys as my internet friends. You’re friends, period.

Do Nurse Kelley a favor, please. Tell someone you love and trust how to access your account here, or how to get in touch with a mutual friend here. Don’t just disappear:

photo de7b6945-f572-4348-958c-4f576d1ff154_zps1e331280.jpg

Republished by request

Weekly Address: Sandy Hook Victim’s Mother Calls for Commonsense Gun Responsibility Reforms

From the White House – Weekly Address

This week’s address is delivered by Francine Wheeler, whose six year old son, Ben, was murdered alongside nineteen other children and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, four months ago. Now, Francine – joined by her husband David – is asking the American people to help prevent this type of tragedy from happening to more families like hers. Since that terrible day in December, thousands more Americans have died, and thousands more families have suffered the pain of losing a loved one to violence. Now that the Senate has agreed that commonsense gun safety reforms deserve a vote, they must finish the job and pass those reforms to protect our children and our communities. Now is the time for all Americans to help make this a moment of real change.

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