Stan & Olli & Juan & Carlos

Image via Wikimedia Commons

Image via Wikimedia Commons

Penguins get more recognition and acceptance than people. Why am I not surprised?

Two male king penguins, Stan and Olli didn’t quite reach the expectations of zookeepers in Berlin. Both penguins were placed under the European Conservation Program (EEP) to reproduce with a female in order to ensure a strong future for the existence of the species. It turns out the penguins weren’t interested in the females, but rather, each other.

“They’re gay, as far as we know,” said Berlin Zoo spokeswoman Christiane Reiss. “They never bred. And when it came to courtship, they only mated with one another.”

According to The Local, both penguins have been transferred to a zoo in Hamburg where they will be a part of an exclusive male community that’s also home to another gay penguin couple, Juan and Carlos.

[…]

In a country where same-sex marriage is not legal and gay couples have limited adoption rights, it’s nice to see penguins at the forefront of LGBT rights in Germany.

Article.

Birch Bark Biting

Birch Bark Biting poem by Denise Lajimodiere from her book of poems “Dragonfly Dance." (Mary Annette Pember)

Birch Bark Biting poem by Denise Lajimodiere from her book of poems “Dragonfly Dance.” (Mary Annette Pember)

“I see the design through my eye teeth,” said Denise Lajimodiere, Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe.

“I keep my eyes closed when I work because I see the design in the darkness,” said Lajimodiere of her work in birch bark biting or mazinibakajige, which means “marks upon the bark.” […]

Birch bark biting was a pre-contact method of creating designs for beading or quillwork according to Lajimodiere. “Mazinibakajige died out in my tribe until I began doing it about eight years ago,” she said. […]

Lajimodiere was recently selected for a six-month Minnesota Historical Society Native Artist-in-Residence. With the award funds she plans on visiting the National Museum of the American Indian NMAI’s Archive Center in Suitland, Maryland to see the ancient mazinibakajige held there.

Full Story Here.

Algae-Based Water Bottle Biodegrades When It’s Empty.

Very cool, this. More people need to work on the plastic problem. It seems as much as I try to eliminate plastic products from my life, I end up surrounded anyway.

Photo credit: Ari Jónsson

Photo credit: Ari Jónsson

Plastic bottles can lay around in landfill sites or the ocean for centuries. While our planet struggles to cope with our ever-increasing appetite for plastic, an Icelandic product design student was inspired to create a little something to address the issue.

Ari Jónsson, from the Iceland Academy of the Arts, has harnessed the properties of red algae to create a biodegradable bottle for drinking water. He unveiled his invention at Reykjavik design festival DesignMarch last month. The bottles are made out of agar powder, which derives from the supporting structure in the cell walls of certain species of algae. If this is added to water and allowed to cool, it will eventually set and mould into a jelly-like substance.

The bottle retains its shape when it’s full of fluid but will start to decompose as soon as it’s empty it.

Full Story at IFLSCIENCE!

Bullet go smash

 

Bulletproof technology has certainly come a long way since Marty McFly bluffed his way through that Wild West shootout, as evidenced by this incredible video of a bullet getting a taste of its own medicine courtesy of the next big thing in body armor.

Designed by Afsaneh Rabiei of North Carolina State University, the projectile-smashing material on show consists primarily of a super-strong yet ultra-light composite metal foam (CMF), made of hollow steel spheres – each measuring 2 millimeters in diameter – embedded in a stainless steel matrix. While you’d probably expect a bullet to make mincemeat of such a squishy substance, the foam actually absorbs the kinetic energy of the moving ammunition.

Full Story at IFLSCIENCE!

Raturday: Paaaint!

I had an almost empty tube of black acrylic, so I gave it to Grace and crew. Oh, and for obsessive asses at certain corners of the ‘net, why yes, that is a Hobby Lobby label! That paint was purchased years ago, prior to imposing a self-ban on buying there. Have fun insisting I’m lying!

GracePaint1

GracePaint2

GracePaint3

Photos © C. Ford.

Do I look sufficiently self-righteous?

John Kasich gives a Bible lesson to Jewish voters in Brooklyn (YouTube/screen grab)

John Kasich gives a Bible lesson to Jewish voters in Brooklyn (YouTube/screen grab)

I’m getting tired of feeling like I should just go pound my head into the wall. Or maybe pound someone else’s head into a wall. It’s a toss up. Kasich decides to Jesussplain to Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn.

Uriel Heilman of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency recommended on Thursday that Kasich abstain from giving Christian Bible lessons to Jewish voters.

“Talking about Christ’s blood during a visit to Borough Park? Oy vey,” Heilman wrote. “Please, somebody, prep this guy Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn want to hear about food stamps, affordable housing, Medicaid. Ix-nay on the Jesus-nay.”

Full Story Here.

Liberty Counsel Behind Anti-LGBT Bills in 20 States

Mike Huckabee, Kim Davis and Mat Staver (Fox News)

Mike Huckabee, Kim Davis and Mat Staver (Fox News)

The lawyer who represented Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis after she refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses told CBS News that his group was also behind anti-LGBT legislation being pushed in at least 20 states.

After governors in North Carolina and Mississippi recently signed laws limiting the rights of LGBT people, CBS News began investigating why so many anti-LGBT bills were cropping up in state legislatures around the country.

The network found that the conservative group Liberty Counsel had placed lawyers in all 50 states to draft legislation and advise lawmakers on how to rein in the rights of LGBT people in response to a Supreme Court ruling which legalized same-sex marriage in 2015.

CBS determined that bills tied to Liberty Counsel have been filed in at least 20 states so far.

“Well I certainly want to push back against that [same-sex marriage] ruling,” Liberty Counsel founder Matt Staver told CBS News. “It was a wrong ruling. It has no basis in the constitution.”

Full Story Here.

Judo Jesus and The Spitter

I’ve often written about the Red River Clinic  in the comments at Pharyngula. It’s the last clinic standing in ND, and they always have anti-choicers hanging about. (Any and all pennies you might have to contribute to keep the clinic open would be more than appreciated). Then there’s Jesus, but for a change, he’s on the right side…

IMG_0265

Nik Severson

In this Forum file photo, Fargo police responded to a disturbance between Tyson Kuznia, left, and Nikolaus Severson, right, outside the Red River Women’s Clinic in downtown Fargo, N.D. on Sunday, October 25, 2015.

FARGO – A judge has ordered a Fargo man to pay a $400 fine for fighting someone outside the downtown Red River Women’s Clinic last year.

In October, Nikolaus Severson was goading anti-abortion protesters picketing outside the only clinic that performs abortions in North Dakota when a passer-by spit in his face.

Severson “grabbed the victim, threw him to the ground and sat on him,” prosecutor Ian R. McLean said in Municipal Court on Thursday, April 14.

[…]

Tyson Kuznia, who spit on Severson before being tackled, was also ordered to pay $400 and granted a deferred imposition of sentence when a Municipal Court judge found him guilty Jan. 14 of a misdemeanor disorderly conduct.

Kuznia said he felt compelled to spit on Severson because Severson was harassing anti-abortion protesters.

[Gosh, those anti-choice protesters, not harassing anyone, no, not at all, nope.]

Severson irritated the anti-abortion protesters for several days, holding up signs like “F— these haters.” In an interview late last year, Severson said he has no stance on abortion because he is not a woman. But he said, “I just don’t like people using God to shame women.”

Full Story Here.

Cool Stuff Friday

First up, absolutely stunning macro shots of some awesome insect architecture: Macro Photographs of Nature’s Tiniest Architects by Nicky Bay. Be sure to click the link so you can see all of the photos. All I have is “Wow!”

Arctiine moth pupa (Cyana sp.)

Arctiine moth pupa (Cyana sp.)

Bagworm Moth

Bagworm Moth

Next, a lake of mirrors. This left me speechless. A Photographer’s Digital Journey to Produce a Lake of Shattered Mirrors.

“Impact” by Erik Johansson, image provided by artist.

“Impact” by Erik Johansson, image provided by artist.

Swedish photographer Erik Johansson had a vision for a digital photograph of a lake shattering like a mirror, an image he wanted to produce as accurately as possible. To achieve this effect for Impact, Johansson bought 17 square meters of mirrors, found a boat and a model, and posed all three in a stone pit until he got the best shot for the final image. Several months of planning, shooting, and editing later and he has an entire video that documents the tasks that lie far beyond the many hours he spent in Photoshop.

Sometimes

I must work. How I love the smell of turpentine in the afternoon. It would be really good if I could remember that I need to stock up on black oil paint. Time for a note. Back to work.

Work

Aaaaand got the second canvas finished up today:

Work1

This is the swarf that will go on the 2nd canvas:

Swarf