Saturday, July 19, 2014

On the South County Trail in Westchester County

No Sasquatch pics yet.

60 comments:

  1. Hmm, doe and twin fawns in the Big Apple? That sent me to google maps, trying to figure out where there is any whitetail habitat. Old Putnam Trail area? Hillside Park?
    Jurhing Nature Preserve? East Irvington Preserve? Not much forest acreage, considering the highway and residential areas. Apparently the species adapts if
    they have the deer necessities (and perhaps no 'deer season'?)

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  2. It's right there in Hastings-on-the-Hudson. In fact they say there is such a deer problem in Hastings the Mayor there wants to put the deer population on some sort of birth control program. Maybe the SCOTUS will weigh in some day.

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  3. It is amazing when you tell someone you recently saw a coyote and they haven't a clue. To twist around Rene Descartes if it's not in the app store it doesn't exist.

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  4. If you go to Google maps and put in lake tibet that will show you where i grew up. It was even more backwoods then.

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  5. While you are hiking the wilderness areas of Yonkers, you might as well take up birding ; snap some photos, get your name in
    the Audobon catalogue, etc. Maybe even spot one of the state's 658 bald eagles !

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    1. Best place for that is Bear Mtn. on 6/202 esp. Iona Island in the Hudson. Have as yet to see one though. Environmentalist contradiction - wind turbines are bad for birds particularly bald eagles and they talk about fracking!

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    2. True, wind farms kill birds andeagles but no nearly
      as many as other practices in the past (there is still an argument about DDT between Foxnews & fellow traverlers vs scientists and wildlife folk) , but
      it has a long half life and accretes at the top of the food chain; main effect in raptors appears to be reproductive failure). Since renewable energy is considered a good thing, perhaps the wind farms should be situated well
      away from bird habitat, which it is mostly, out west. The feathered victims
      seem to be migrants passing over remote areas..

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    3. Wind farms are also an eyesore unless you like that sort of thing. What would van Gogh have done with it?

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  6. Yeah, windfarms are not scenic. Idaho is 4th in the country in windpower, but I have never seen them, probably down south in the lava plains (which aren't that scenic either). Coal fired generation plants are an eyesore as well + they through out mercury, sulfuric acid, soot and nitrogen oxides + we are using up coal. Hydropower
    is big in the NW, so electricity is cheap. Of course huge dams on the rivers preclude
    millions of salmon running upstream to spawn. Pros and cons to all the modern
    stuff, ya know?

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  7. So wait Rachel Carson and "Since Silent Spring" isn't enough for Fox?

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    Replies
    1. They said she was born in Kenya.

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    2. No doubt one of Obama's great-aunts. Maybe there's also a pro-asbestos wing at Fox News.

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  8. I'm currently pondering 'The American Age of Unreason', and while you surmised that the author was a flaming liberal (a bit, she isn't big on the religious fundamentalists), there was a slow stop and reversal in US culture after WW2.
    Up to that point, there was a growing appreciation for science, there was the
    'middlebrow' increase in culture (Book Of Month Club, long classical paper backs,
    etc) an interest in learning world history and geography and respect for higher
    academia. Then came TV. As TV changed from 'Playhouse 90/See It Now type
    things, it also became endemic. Heck, my favorite in Jr. High was the Walt Disney
    program. Even prior to the computer age, TV devolved into entertainment: we found out they cheated on $64,000 Question and pro wrestling was choreographed silliness. And we became accustomed to, well, trash. SATs peaked in 1963 (although a careful analysis indicates not significantly), students avoided hard
    college classes, there was grade escalation (in physical chemistry back in the day
    a student was lucky to pass, let alone get a 4.0). Along came the computer, a
    significant event, useful in so many business and academic areas; then it to seemed to devolve into lightweight games and chatter. Now, apparently, dumb is the new
    good, patriotism without a clue is much bantered about, astrophysics and paleoarcheology laid aside for biblical literalism and many think highly of old
    Joe McCarthy & Sarah Palin is modern heroes. The more us old guys ponder,
    the more it looks like we screwed up bigtime, ya know?

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    1. Of late I've found myself in conflict with many older Americans' overall philosophy. First there's their extreme notions of frugality then there's the glorification of war and their endless WWII stories. Our music was better, our gen was more moral etc. I find myself getting cranky about it. It's important to study that link to the past known as History take some of it update it and then go forward.

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    2. You will be a cranky old guy some day too: the younger generation will
      have subcutaneous smartphones and their robots will do their work.

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    3. "..endless WWII stories.." Well, 60,000,000 people died in that war, which is 59,999,996 more than Benghazi. So this AM I was watching the return of the dead from the downed airliner in the Ukraine, where a few
      million Dutch turned out as they landed at Eindhoven: FoxNews had Darrel Issa instead, then a brief survey of the military removing the coffins while John Bolton intoned that it was all Obama's fault, CNN and
      CNBC had pretty decent coverage. But us over the hill folk were thinking
      Eidnhoven, yeah then up the road was Nijmegen and a bit further on,
      Arnhem- there thousands of paratroopers dropped in 'Operation Market Garden', right onto SS Panzer Divisions. It was 'A bridge Too Far', and
      yes, we remember the 'Band of Brothers', Company E, 506th regt, 101st
      Airborne (Screaming Eagles). I watch the news and think of the depth.

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    4. WWII was mind-boggling as a couple episodes of "Globetrekker" attests. Reading "Silent Spring" and that's when the whole insecticide scourge took off, a kind of strange intersection between research into chemical warfare and look the stuff can control the insect population too. WWII fascinating on so many levels.

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    5. "..Our music was better, our gen was more moral etc. " A generational thing. We had some (then) top ranked pop stars in town on winter night:
      Buddy Holly , the Big Bopper and Ritche Valens . Most of the HS was there and it was damn cold. The stars, who all had a #1 in the charts that year were touring by bus, but the heater gave out so they charted a small plane out of Spirit Lake Iowa. It crashed and it was the day the music died . Pretty devastating for all the young fans. Pretty
      lucky for Waylon Jennings, back up guitar for Holly at the time, who swapped his seat with the Big Bopper. I graduated HS that Spring and
      would not say 'our' music was any better than any other generation, but
      it was a 'times they are a changing' era. Elvis was up and coming. My generation has no claim to being any more moral than any other, on the other hand.


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    6. Of course they say tv was better then too to which I say "Mr. Ed" and "The Flying Nun."

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    7. IMO, TV has always had a range of quality- the 'housewives of', looking for sasquatch, etc. Me, I will watch 'Dirty Jobs' as a learning experience and the Weather Channel when driving through tornado country.

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  9. I recently read a short book on lucid dreaming. This has only happened a handful of times to me but during the dream you're actually aware of the fact that you're dreaming. The author also states it's hard to purposely dream about sex. Who needs drugs?

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    1. I sometimes wake up from a dream, get a drink of water and go right back to the same dream to see how it plays out.

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    2. That's actually part of the definition of lucid dreaming when you can go back to the same dream. You're partially lucid.

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  10. I'm also currently pondering why Samsung smartphones in tandem with the AVG virus scanners almost tell you your phone is gonna explode if you want to install apps not from the Play Store. Are all the other major appstores chopped liver? Sometimes it's the only way to do something. I'm beginning to sense something Corporate here.

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    1. Sounds corporate- like big pharma saying their high priced US Lipitor is better than their Canadian Lipitor, both of which were synthesized and bottled in Ireland. Caveat emptor, etc. Are you using an updated app to
      de-app your device?

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    2. I went with the non-market Mobogenie Pro to install the apk file for Yonkers PD Tips to see what all the fuss is about. I guess it's not in the Yonkers City Budget to have a nice app.

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  11. Are you going to be getting the new app that tracks all ongoing US covert drone strikes as they occur. Heck, you could be up all night, ya know?

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  12. Of more use to me would be a colon app, you know take a picture of the inside of your own bum and send it in and be done with it. Dev - Assappz.

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  13. Here's what the conservative movement's been reduced to, chopping on black astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson as in the latest edition of NR, that and complaining about Hillary's "dead broke" comments. Oh boy are we in trouble!

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    1. An Indian casino in N. Idaho dropped Mr. Ted Nugent from their venue a
      few days back. The Coeur d'Alene Tribe explaining that their values were
      different than his. The 'Nooge' explains that he is really a nice guy and is being picked on.
      The GOP hasn't been offering much positive stuff, other than cutting taxes.
      And that hasn't worked out too good in Kansas where Brownback cut
      taxes bigtime to lure business: results- infrastructure, education etc got
      cut bigtime.....and no business came. I guess his sole plus is that he is
      anti-abortion, and in Kansas that might save him.

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    2. So the conservatives have this image problem of not liking black folk esp. when they gain some sort of power. Not saying the perception is justified but it's out there. So what do they do? go after a black astronomer. My only beef with Tyson is he was pivotal in taking away Pluto's planethood.

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    3. The International Astronomers Union voted Pluto out in Prague, so conservatives being anti-union have another gripe. The fundies really
      dislike Tyson, as well as any other astrophysicist (or for that matter any
      other scientist) and they have clout as part of the base. As for the minor
      planets like Pluto, ya got yer Eris, Ceres, Haumea, Makemake and 38 other small objects out in the far orbit area (all the way down to tiny,
      but interesting UB313. So the planetary astronomers had a choice between delisting Pluto or adding 44 of its brotherly minor planets.
      I guess...I'm no planetary astronomer.

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    4. Lost respect for the fundies when the Rev. James Dobson ran that interview with Ted Bundy blaming porn for his killing hobby. Used to get stuff in the mail from the Rev. Don Wildmon telling me to boycott the slop on tv. TV's always sloppy, don't need a fundie telling me that.

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    5. Didn't know the fundies had it in for Tyson. Too much time on their hands.

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  14. Been thinking about computer viruses. The neuroscience and e-geeks are prone to compare the computer systems to lifeform brains. But the defense against the living virus vs the computer virus is quite different: lifeform immunity is an extremely complex biochemical operation with various feedback loops- recognition of foreign
    protein triggers a flood of white cells to surround the interlopers, which the lymph and marrow centers create new antibodies to destroy the surrounded little varmints.
    Computer virus defense is based on a more delayed reaction- reports of certain
    files and .exe programs that cause problems are catalogued. The virus protector
    spots these and either blocks or quarantines them when they try to enter a user's
    system. And we run into the ongoing logical paradigm of analog vs digital. Guess
    I'll have a nightmare tonight.

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    1. Apparently there's an app called a wifi killer but you need a rooted device. Gives the nerd power as he can then kick off other devices from public wifi. The cyberpest has more tools at his disposal than ever.

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  15. Just popping in. I'm sort of here.

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  16. Went to two major libraries yesterday and couldn't find a parking space. Said to one woman who was also waiting "don't people work anymore?"

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    1. I heard there is lots of parking over at the colonoscopy place.

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    2. You have to wonder about certain professions - morticians, executioners, cat/dog killers at shelters and colonoscopists to name a few. There's a lot going on in colonoscopies, things gotta be super-cleaned before and after the procedure and the procedure I would imagine is fairly stressful for the doctor. Furrows and folds, air insufflation, a recalcitrant anus, curvatures and tricky turns and so I would think they'd want to perform less of them and only then when it's really warranted for some reason. Instead they want to perform as many as possible ($$$$$$).

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    3. I sorta wonder what a mortician does for a hobby.

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  17. Meanwhile, in the important political polling department, a Public Policy Poll found that folks think congress is worse than a colonoscopy (or lice, brussel sprouts, used car salesmen and root canals. Happily, they still rank congress higher than Lindsey
    Lohan, the Kardashians and gonorrhea.

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    Replies
    1. George Carlin used to say we hate Congress but we keep giving the assholes another term.

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  18. Also what kind of dreams do morticians have?

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    1. Were I to guess, the mortician nightmare might be the corpse that wakes up and walks away (without paying) and cynically, perhaps their pleasant dream is mass casualties? More than likely, these folks have normal hobbies and dreams, just like sewer workers and explosives scientists.
      Hard say about Michael Jackson all strung out on propofol and benzodiazdepine: lurid Technicolor with much spinning?

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    2. Mortician and cemetery business should never be affected by the state of the economy.

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  19. 50 Shades of Grey trailer just came out and it's being panned. Semi-respectable housewife porn, I mean if K-Mart sells it. Middle-core erotica that doesn't go all the way. A natural role for a Mickey Rourke the DVD will no doubt have 10 extra minutes of boring footage not shown at the mall.

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  20. I'm not a film fan, but I have heard several people comment favorably on the new
    'Planet of the Apes' movie.

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    1. Because of its alleged latent gun control message your average conservative doesn't like the movie. Give 'em a good Western and they're happy.

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    2. Guns don't kill people, monkeys do?

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    3. Conservatives just can't go out to the movies, they're always looking for all those liberal subliminals.

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    4. It seems to have been ok's by the Catholic Bishop's Review , with an A-III rating. Do the eminences sit in a Vatican theatre with popcorn, then send out colored smoke signals?

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    5. All I remember is they gave "Last Tango in Paris" an offensive rating. Probably the line where Marlon Brando says "in a few years you'll be playing soccer with those tits."

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  21. Kind of peculiar case. In Arizona, a brilliant neuroscientist carried his AR-15 into the crowded airport to demonstrate his 2-A rights. He scared a lady when he pointed it her way and was arrested. A hero to the gun-rights crowd, it appears he may be out of a job: his neuroscience lab website went dead. hmm

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    1. "When he pointed it her way" My phallocentric theory re gun rights is looking stronger by the day.

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    2. Seems like a reasonable theory. Perhaps an experimental study to verify
      the Freudian concept of female adolescents and Gun Envy?

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  22. Phallocentric, dont you see where theyve been calling them.ammosexuals?

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  23. It all points in the same direction.

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