Still not snowing, a challenge, and more

[kinzel]

Still not snowing ... is anyone getting snow out of this mess? Sharon is reporting a flock of robins at the college campus ...I guess they fled the snowfields of Pennsylvania and Maryland for more comfortable weather in Maine.

Yesterday I found this: who can name the source? No, it does not belong to one of Maine's well-loved Great Striped Northern Ravens.

The length is approx 15.5 inches/ 39 cm.

Meanwhile, I noted earlier in a tweet ( if you twitter, you can follow bechimo ) that at 6 AM this morning ...
6 AM -- Lee & Miller do Space Opera! Amazon says: Space Opera: Mouse and Dragon #29;Fledgling #43: Saltation #89: Dragon Variation #99   ... this deserves a bit of discussion. For one thing three of these books are yet unpublished -- so you can join in if you haven't ordered or pre-ordered, or please, go to your local indie bookstore and make sure they'll have them on publication date.  For another, Amazon has chosen to muddy waters by throwing kindle books among the paper ones, and more, I think among the books those books are some of their special offer (i.e. FREE) kindle books.  And then ...

Really, would you call Rachel Caine's Weather Warden books space opera? Earth Abides? Brave new World? John Birmingham's alternate history thrillers? No? me too -- but they've snuck into Space Opera at Amazon ... sigh. Databases are useful. Accurate databases are *more useful* ...

Have to get the trash out, catch you later!

Comments

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Wild turkey wing feather, sayeth the Naturalist.

[kinzel.livejournal.com]

Ah... and indeed, the feather was directly in one of their favored paths ...
they haven;t been by lately, i guess the land is too soggy or maybe they aren't as desperate now that the snow is just about gone

[verana1111.livejournal.com]

The feather seems too long, but otherwise looks like one of the red-shouldered hawk ones I find around here. Be aware, only Native Americans can legally possess feathers from raptors (or so I've been told).

Nevermind--wild turkey makes sense! And that explains the length, too.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Yes on feather possession, and not just raptors. The nature center where Wife (The Naturalist mentioned above) has to have special permits for a lot of the displays, and even they don't have permits for eagle feathers. Have to hand those over to the local Native Americans.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Note that this doesn't apply to turkeys, ducks, grouse, and other legal game birds.

Then again

[bookmobiler.livejournal.com]

Databases are useful. Accurate databases are *more useful* ...

If you plan to make a dubious point inaccurate data bases are more useful yet.

Checking the accuracy of a data base can be darn near impossible!

Re: Then again

[kinzel.livejournal.com]

I saw a spread-sheet and database based presentation once where the assumptions were cooked on purpose -- so people were allowed to "test" their scenarios and prove to themselves that they couldn't *possibly* lose money investing in the project... sigh. Instead of the database they should probably have been investigating the start-ups administration, who helped teach me the meaning of "burnrate." This was also the demo where 2 of 5 "automated in depth web searches" were actually me querying a multiple search engines (something like dogpile) with my own search terms because neither the presenters nor the audience had any clue how to do searches.

[mamabeast.livejournal.com]

as for the question of snow, the southern tier of NY state is socked in cause my 2 friends from Binghamton were driving to pittsburgh to we coud all go to the Clapton concert tonight and they didnt get out in front of it and they have the tickets with them so there goes 4oo dollars and my christmas prestent

[klingonguy.livejournal.com]

The snow is falling here in Philadelphia. The forecast is calling for a heavy, wet snow, up to four inches today, with probably another eight inches tomorrow (along with 50+ mph winds). Probably more larger accumulations where I live.

Right now it's quite lovely and little is actually sticking to the roads. But the expectation is that it will be bringing down tree limbs and powerlines by mid afternoon, and so the various offices of my DayJob™ opted not to open today. Likely not tomorrow either.

Pheasant? (wild guess, hur, hur) + No snow here

[(Anonymous)]

Baltimore seems to have ducked the snow issue and all beginnings for tonight keep getting pushed back. It may well be too warm.

That - kinda - looks like a pheasant feather to me but I'm not a birder.

We may ACTUALLY get to hold our book club meeting tonight - first February event not impacted by snow! We're reading Food Rules - short, sassy and common sensical. Yay!
Lauretta@Constellation Books

PS Someone at Amazon definitely needs an education on Space Opera! Rachel Caine's stuff is definitely urban fantasy.

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

It has been snowing here in PA all day although it didn't really start accumulating until about an hour ago.

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

I do admire the juxtaposition of the comments on databases and the offhand, "Have to get the trash out..." Digital trash collectors, where are you?