Sniper Trifle

Anchoring (in negotiation) is a term for the way that the first number put on the table by a party sets the scale for all the other numbers used. For example, I could start a negotiation by telling you that I sold a painting at a thousand dollars. Your brain will take that number and latch on to it as a benchmark. If I were to then later say that I had a certain painting available for $500, your instinct will be to see that as a great deal. And if I were to then say I have another painting for $2000, your mind is naturally going to come back to the first number I gave you as a price comparison.

Taras Shevchenko and Ira Aldridge by Heorhiy Melikhov, 1963

Levi's said yes, actually. Assless chaps and a biker vest. Happy Pride.

Pawpaws are a Michigan native fruit that looks like it should not be a Michigan native fruit.

I'm told that it has the consistency of avocado, but tastes like a combination of banana, pineapple, and mango, with and earthy aftertaste. They are EXTREMELY delicate fruits, such that they are not really shipped anywhere- to eat them you have to find someplace local that has trees, or have trees, yourself.

I've always wanted to try them, so, I bought a few saplings, and spent a couple hours tonight planting them. They won't fruit for another 5 years at least. Each hole dug, each rootball excavated from its pot, each circle of mulch around the base of them... that's hope. That's a promise to be here 5 years from now, to see them flower, to pull sweet fruit from the limbs and try it for the first time.

They're doing great in their little houses!

Bug and the babies helping in the morning. They're not allowed actually near the saplings due to the toxic nature of the leaves and stuff, but they forage for bugs at the edge of the yard and the babies nap under her while Bug watches me work from afar.

This sick bleach shirt I made. Something to showcase my undying love for prehistoric cave art.

It can almost certainly tell different species apart based on the shape of those air bladders. And it can tell if a fish has something weird inside it, like a metal hook. In Hawaii, false killer whales often pluck tuna off fishing lines, and “they’ll know where the hook is inside that fish,” Aude Pacini, who studies these animals, tells me. “They can ‘see’ things that you and I would never consider unless we had an X-ray machine or an MRI scanner.”

This penetrating perception is so unusual that scientists have barely begun to consider its implications. The beaked whales, for example, are odontocetes that look dolphin-esque on the outside—but on the inside, their skulls bear a strange assortment of crests, ridges, and bumps, many of which are only found in males.

Pavel Gol’din has suggested that these structures might be the equivalent of deer antlers—showy ornaments that are used to attract mates. Such ornaments would normally protrude from the body in a visible and conspicuous way, but that’s unnecessary for animals that are living medical scanners.’

I'm not sure if I ever shared this story before here, but in Curacao, when I was allowed to assist in a guest interaction programme, there was suddenly consternation in the pool behind us. A guest had entered the water and the dolphins were going crazy, paying no heed to the trainers anymore. The lead trainer that was with me gave the dolphins to me to watch over while she went to help. When she came back she told me what had happened. The guest that had caused so much uproar had left the water again and was asked if he had done anything to upset the dolphins. He hadn't, and he couldn't imagine what was wrong... until he mentioned he had a pacemaker. The younger dolphins in the pool had never seen someone with a pacemaker before and apparently it rocked their world.

"Great! What do you recommend?"

Little fish eats his foods