Do you know what kind of things might get turned down and what would count as a good reason? And if your claim gets turned down, do you have any options other than “go bankrupt or suffer” like us in the U.S.?

I’d take hunting for the right form any day over being told to hork down ibuprofen for what I know is a serious problem, and hope the insurance company might eventually deign to approve an MRI. There’s a reason a lot of Americans are out of shape, and it’s not just because of desk jobs and junk food.

Interesting article, thanks for the link. I missed owl of the year last year, and the first couple posts this year. It sounds like an awful lot of work, but I love the idea.

I’d like to see an owl eating a porcupine. If it’s anything like a camel eating cactus, it’s gotta be pretty interesting. Maybe they have a way to pull out the spines.

Interesting pictures, and a very striking owl. How do you decide who gets in the bracket?

I’m curious to see how far the saw whet will get. They’re so cute with their giant heads and big eyes. Eagle owls are neat too. Maybe not as classically cute, but majestic.

I had to look up barking owls just now. They really do sound kind of like a dog barking. Interesting that they eat bats. I didn’t know there were birds that did that.

Live music does it for me. It’s best when I’m close enough to make eye contact with the musicians, and when the audience is into it too. It’s a total rush. If I had to pick between music and sex, it’d be music, hands down.

I can relate to the comment about swimming too. I imagine hiking, kayaking, or anything else physical that you really like could give you a similar feeling.

Many whale species feed in the depths of the ocean where prey is plentiful, but where the water pressure is immense. At depth, says David King, a chemist at the University of Cambridge in England, many whales find that “their orifices are jammed shut.” So, to properly relieve themselves, they head toward the surface, where their defecations bring a steady flow of nutrients—such as iron, nitrogen and phosphorus—to a part of the sea where they’re typically in short supply.

Interesting. I never thought about how whales poop before. I wonder how critters that live at the bottom of the ocean do it.

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”.

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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.

Beetle banks are particularly good at harbouring predatory beneficial insects such as ground beetles, ladybirds and spiders. When in close proximity to crops, the invertebrates will eat nearby pests.

Broad- and fine-leaved grasses can provide different functions within beetle banks. For example, tussock-forming grasses are important as overwintering sites for invertebrates, and herbs can be added for greater diversity.

I’d never heard of beetle banks before. Interesting article, definitely worth a read.

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.

Here you go. Courtesy of Courthouse News.

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

Yeah, I’d be curious to see that. As long as the gif is good quality, you can usually pretty much figure out what’s going on.

Sometimes it takes a little research, but it’s worth it for a good recipe.

It’s a lot, but the sandwiches are huge. NYC is the only place I’ve been where the sandwiches are usually big enough for 2-3 people.

It’s also one of the cheaper cities to eat as a tourist. No need for restaurants, just grab a sandwich that lasts all day. Or cheap street food, or something from a hole in the wall. I love it there.

Yeah. Those keys on the piano are E and F. You can see those notes in the sheet music for the title track. Those long rows of notes are a bunch of E’s and F’s.

If you hit the play button in the bottom left corner, you can hear a computer-generated version of the song. Real version here.

Gorgeous! Thanks for sharing :)

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.

Apparently they taste a little like pineapple. I found some white strawberries at the store a few months ago. They might have been the pineberries mentioned in the article, which are a cross between the white Chilean strawberries and another kind.

They’re white with a pink tinge. They tasted kind of like how a strawberry smells, and a little like pineapple. A little sweet, not very acidic. Kind of like lychee.