Beautiful. That’s an impressive wingspan.

That’s a lot of tiny bones in what looks like a pretty short neck (at least from the outside). Also interesting how the blood flow works. You mentioned a little bit about that before, so I got curious and found this:

Also, it has recently been discovered that in the owl neck, one of the major arteries feeding the brain passes through bony holes in the vertebrae. These hollow cavities are approximately 10 times larger in diameter than the vertebral artery travelling through it. The extra space … creates a set of cushioning air pockets that allow the artery to move around when twisted.

Blood vessels at the base of the head, just under the jaw bone, can also act as contractile blood reservoirs, allowing owls to pool blood to meet the energy needs of their large brains and eyes, while they rotate their heads.

I would read that. It’s interesting to learn how other cultures see things. And I think learning about the not-so-pretty side of things isn’t anything to shy away from, personally. As long as it’s done tactfully, it’s a good way to get more context and learn how to interact with the world around us.

Like illegal timber cutting. It can be hard to appreciate how harmful that can be until you see it, and compare it to how a healthy forest looks. Or vultures, you have to learn about how they were hunted to extinction to really appreciate how neat it is to have them back. Or how wolves help keep Yellowstone healthy.

Plus there’s plenty of cute stuff around here to balance out the negatives.

Revenue pressure was even brought down to the level of nurses – some of whom say they have been pushed to charge for the smallest of items from Kleenexes to batteries. One 2022 email, obtained by the Guardian, shows a supervisor at Parkview DeKalb telling nurses that she had reviewed their charts for the week and found they had “missed” $50,000 in charges as a team. The following year, managers told staff to be more stringent about how many linen towels they handed out to patients – an initiative they termed “linen stewardship”.

…

This fiscal year it found roughly $140m to pour into capital projects across greater Fort Wayne – investments that, a Moody’s report from July noted, will help further its goal of regional expansion.

Also mentioned in the article…some hospitals have their own private police forces.

Aww. Looks like her fur is standing on end. But she’s pretty brave, getting so close to the Ungeheuer (monster). Nice to see her exploring her new home.

I love that view, especially at night. Crazy how different (and barren) it used to look.

I started learning a little about music theory. I’ve been interested for a while, but always thought I wouldn’t be able to understand it. But it’s doable, a little at a time.

And I’ve been going outside more. I spend too much time in front of the computer. It’s nice to have fresh air and read, listen to music, or just take in the surroundings.

Good posture also helps you breathe better, which can help you feel more energized and concentrate better. Your diaphragm doesn’t work right when you sit hunched over, so your breath gets more shallow.

If you ever need to talk a lot for work or some other reason, good posture is essential so your voice sounds good and doesn’t get tired too easily.

And it helps strengthen your core, which is good for balance and other things.

Pünktchen is a very cute and fitting name.

Und doch verbleibt er die flauschige Zicke die ich immer lieben werde.

I love this sentence and your translation “sir floofs-a-lot.” He looks too cute to be a jerk, but I guess appearances can be deceiving :)

Facebook’s machine translation isn’t great. There’s nothing here that’s even remotely close to the word for “machete.” But the translator might have lost its mind because “Kauz” was misspelled (there’s no “t” in it). And sometimes unique names make the computer go crazy.

I couldn’t find any info about this particular owl, but my best guess would be some kind of conservation program. There are quite a few of those (for all kinds of animals) in the German-speaking countries.

This particular place is a nature park and raptor rescue near Frankfurt. Very cute little owl!

Looks like it could have baked just a little bit longer, but it still looks good. I’m gonna have to go make one now too.

I like them with a spritz of lemon juice and powdered sugar. A little lemon zest in the batter is nice too.

Here’s a link to the original song. The part the meme comes from starts around 0:45. It was a hit in 2004.