Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Caution - Giant Caterpillar Blocking Road!

Carmi's Thematic Photographic 267 is That golden glow.

Cacapon mountain in the afternoon sun:

A chickadee and a titmouse enjoying suet in the morning:

Rory likes pillows:

Oh, right...Caution - Giant Caterpillar Blocking Road!


Cross-posted at Whiskey Fire. Mouse over pics for captions, and click them for larger versions.
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Saturday, October 26, 2013

Let the Turkey Vulture Soar!


Here's the moon from last week.

Fall has been coming along nicely here on the mountain.

Baeolophus bicolor agrees!

Cross-posted at Whiskey Fire. Mouse over pics for captions, and click them for larger versions.
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Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Dirt, Cheap

Carmi's Thematic Photographic 266 is Let's get dirty.

Here's the compost heap out back. Somehow, no matter how many leaves, coffee grounds, and vegetable detritus I put here, no dirt builds up. I suppose it just gets washed down the mountain. At least it doesn't go into the landfill...

There's not much dirt in the parking lot, either. But we've got plenty of leaves.

Critter Time!

The flocks these days are more likely to have a Downey Woodpecker or two along with the Tufted Titmice, White-Breasted Nuthatches, and Chickadees.



Mouse over pics for captions, and click them for larger versions.
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Sunday, October 20, 2013

Mr. Andrea Mitchell Speaks, You Listen

Why don't you warm up the crowd with a few jokes, Sir Alan?
In his new book "The Map and the Territory," to be released on Tuesday, Mr. Greenspan, 87, goes on a hunt for what has gone wrong in American politics and in the U.S. economy. He doesn't blame the current administration for today's partisan divide. The culprit? "It's the benefits," he says, pointing to the disagreements between Republicans and Democrats over how to deal with the growth of entitlements.
Everything will be fine, once we put granny on a catfood diet.
He said he is baffled by all the blame that has been piled on him. Since the recession, critics have said the increased money supply and low interest rates during his tenure at the Fed from 1987 to 2006 led to bubble investments. Mr. Greenspan first heard that theory, he says, in 2007, when John Taylor, a professor of economics at Stanford University who has advised Republicans, made the connection between easy money and the housing bubble.
Here's a tip for you, WSJ: There are other critics who don't buy the magic of the markets, greed is good claptrap that you do.
"I've always considered myself more of a mathematician than a psychologist," says Mr. Greenspan. But after the Fed's model failed to predict the financial crisis, he realized that there is more to forecasting than numbers. "It all fell apart, in the sense that not a single major forecaster of note or institution caught it," he says. "The Federal Reserve has got the most elaborate econometric model, which incorporates all the newfangled models of how the world works—and it missed it completely."
Oh, sure.
Mr. Greenspan set out to find his blind spot step by step. ... Studying the minutiae of the events leading to the financial crisis brought to mind some lessons from his famous friendship, from the 1950s on, with the late Objectivist philosopher Ayn Rand. He says that Rand didn't influence him politically—he was always a libertarian—but she did point out tensions in his philosophy about life. "She caught me in contradictions, which shook me, and I said, 'My God, she is right,' " he says.
That first blind step was a doozy. A shame that you didn't retrace far enough.
With his new book, Mr. Greenspan hopes to provide politicians and the public with a road map to avoid making the same mistakes again. His suggestions include reducing entitlements, embracing "creative destruction" by letting facilities with cutting-edge technology displace those with low productivity, and fixing the political system by encouraging bipartisanship. He hasn't yet sent a copy to Janet Yellen, the nominee to be the next Fed chief. Though they are good friends, he says, "she and I don't agree on lots of things and never have, but I enjoy talking to her because she has arguments and logic behind it."
While you have a crazy lady's 'philosophy' and a burning desire to make granny pay for the mess. And of course, a Nobel Prize that ought to be rescinded.

P.S. The crooks were allowed to abscond with the loot. This does not mean there were no crooks.

Cross-posted at Whiskey Fire. Mouse over pics for captions, and click them for larger versions.
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Thursday, October 17, 2013

The Power of Cheese Compels You

Chickadee and Tufted Titmouse

White-breasted Nuthatch and Tufted Titmouse

The Power of Cheese Compels You

Cross-posted at Whiskey Fire. Mouse over pics for captions, and click them for larger versions.
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Monday, October 14, 2013

Cacapon Mountain Streetscape

Carmi's Thematic Photographic 265 is Streetscapes. Carmi mentions an urban environment, but right now my local streets are in the woods. Here's a picture of a box turtle that Theda and I ran across on a rainy walk down the road outside the house.

These next few pictures are of deer I've seen well driving back to the house the last couple of days.



This picture doesn't qualify as streetscape. Would you believe a porchscape?

Mouse over pics for captions, and click them for larger versions.
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Sunday, October 13, 2013

Extraordinary Naivety and Arrogance

The Guardian has shown "extraordinary naivety and arrogance" over the publication of articles based on NSA documents leaked by the US whistleblower Edward Snowden, the former foreign secretary Jack Straw has said.
I'm not suggesting for a moment anybody in the Guardian gratuitously wants to risk anybody's life. But what I do think is that their sense of power of having these secrets and excitement – almost adolescent excitement – about these secrets has gone to their head.

"They're blinding themselves about the consequence and also showing an extraordinary naivety and arrogance in implying that they are in a position to judge whether or not particular secrets which they have published are not likely to damage the national interest, and they're not in any position at all to do that.
Extraordinary naivety and arrogance? You don't say, Jack.


P.S. For no particular reason, here's Lindsey and Miley.

Cross-posted at Whiskey Fire. Mouse over pics for captions, and click them for larger versions.
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Thursday, October 10, 2013

Song of the Day, Orbs

Thank M.B. for the youtuber.


How about a Nuthatch and a Chickadee?

Cross-posted at Whiskey Fire. Mouse over pics for captions, and click them for larger versions.
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Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Walnut Reflections

Carmi's Thematic Photographic 263 is Feeling Reflective. My favorite mirror around here is Lake Siri.

Theda reflects on the mountainside.

Re: The Walnut Problem - I've seen smashed walnuts in the road. Maybe using the Civic in our gravel driveway will get the hulls off without crushing the shells? I prepared a test with two walnuts, puttered around inside, and came out to find that a helpful woodland creature had neatly cleaned one of them for me.




Mouse over pics for captions, and click them for larger versions.
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Wednesday, October 2, 2013

A Plethora of Walnuts

Carmi's Thematic Photographic 263 is Multiples

What if you had multiple walnuts?

Fall is arriving in Berkeley Springs.


To cast a caterpillar spell, you need a caterpillar wand.




Cross-posted at Whiskey Fire. Mouse over pics for captions, and click them for larger versions.
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