LET'S GO PENGUINS! (Aviary Post 3)

Here is three month old Sidney. He is rooting for the Penguins and his namesake Sidney Crosby tonight, are you?

• Press Release on Sidney the African Penguin
• Eastern Conference Champion Hockey Team Pittsburgh Penguins

Aviary Post 2- Pigeons

On the way home from NYC back in January, I ran into the apparently now defunct "World of Pigeons." I knew that all pigeons and doves were of the same family, Columbidae, but I didn't realize how varied they were...truly a world of pigeons...until I went to the National Aviary in Pittsburgh yesterday...

Some of the Columbidae Family at the National Aviary:

• Nicobar Pigeon
• Pied Imperial Pigeon
• Victoria Crowned Pigeon
• Green-Naped Pheasant Pigeon
• Bartlett's Bleed Heart Dove
• Fruit Dove

Victoria Crowned Pigeon

fruit dove

Pittsburgh Aviary Post 1

This begins a series of posts based on my visit to the Pittsburgh Aviary yesterday (Friday May 30th). The following is a short video clip I took at the Free Flight Zone show of Max the Parakeet singing Happy Birthday. I wished I had turned the camera on sooner, because he just got done singing opera.

Make-Your-Own-PostCard

I made this postcard for my Mom out of an old VHS cover of Thoroughly Modern Millie. I ripped it to postcard size, added sparkly star stickers, and inked a division for the message and address. Easy as pie, a great way to reuse. Thanks to Jeannie for the idea.

There is No Exit Strategy

It's not so much what it is, but what it is combined with when it is. I saw this on 5th ave in downtown Pittsburgh on April 3rd, 2008. The fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq was on March 20th, 2008. The facts are stated simply, you don't need to add shock and awe for it to be shocking.

Happy Anniversary
March 20
2003-2007
?

"Maybe a hundred years---would be fine with me" --Sen. John McCain

4,000 U.S. Military Dead
39,395 U.S. wounded

....what is best
Who's laughing now?

The placement on a marble building drew my attention to it. I noticed the resemblance to the iPod stickers, though, so did a little research and found this MadTV parody... it's a little predictable, but still has a good message.

I *heart* Math

Addition Combos for 2-10

If I keep trying to convince myself I love and enjoy math, eventually it will be true... right? Well, I spent an hour proving to myself that there are indeed 45 unique addition facts. First I wrote out all the possible combinations of adding positive integers to get the numbers 2 through 10 and then I figured out the 45 unique addition facts. If you memorize these facts, you can figure out any addition problem (well, you have to know how to carry or how to add without carrying, which is what the next math post will be about.

45 unique addition facts

The Water Is Ours

Seen in the Strip District, April 18, 2008, This stopped me in my tracks. It was one of our first warm days of Spring and the streets were alive with people on their lunch breaks. Everyone was walking or eating or smoking and generally enjoying the weather. People kept walking around me when I stopped to read this and take the picture. It was especially poignant because of the water damage, the text streaked by rain, when the topic was the right to WATER. This is what it says:

"The water is ours damnit!" In 1999, under pressure from the World Bank, the Bolivian government, sold off the water system of its 3rd largest city Cochabamba behind closed doors to multi-national investors including the Bechtel Corporation. Over night people were asked to pay 25% of their income for water including collected rainfall and backyard wells. Months of protese ensued. The country was declared under martial law but thousands took to the streets. This, combined with international activist pressure forced Bechtel to flee the country. Despite subsequent attempts to sue Bolivia for $25M in loss of "potential profit," the people of Cochabamba succeeded in defeating a corporate giant and reclaiming control of one of life's most neccessary resources.