Cop Car's Beat

Pretty strange bird

The strange little bird (SLB) is undoubtedly a semi-leucastic house finch. The un-strange little bird is, indeed, a female house finch. The SLB has come to our feeders several times this afternoon. I seem to recall that, a couple of months ago, we had a female (or immature male) house finch that sported white patches on its cheeks. I suspect this is the same bird; but, I've no clue where it's been hiding, lately. I'm anxious to see if the SLB sticks around.

Aside: Evening-before-last, as our family were leaving the house, one female house finch (perhaps, even, the one in the photo?) flew down from the old nesting site near the ceiling of the front porch - into the house. It flew from perch-to-perch in the dining room and living room for about one minute. I turned off all of the interior lights and one of our guests enclosed the finch between her hands while it was perched on a wall sconce. It was happy to fly away, outdoors.

Addition of 1/2/2015:

This bit (below) isn't worth a separate posting; but, I just knew that my blog friends would wish to know. From Slashdot.org:

Study: Birds Slur Their Songs When Drunk, Just Like Humans 54                        

Posted by samzenpuson Friday January 02, 2015 @05:10AM from the how-dry-I-am dept.

An anonymous reader sends word of researchers getting zebra finches drunk for science.  "In the latest example of strange science, researchers at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland got some finches drunk and watched what happened. Their main finding? Like drunk humans, boozed-up birds slur their 'speech.' For the study, the researchers gave grape juice to one group of zebra finches and an alcoholic juice cocktail to another group. The cocktail-quaffing finches became somewhat inebriated, with blood alcohol levels of 0.05 percent to 0.08 percent, according to NPR. 'At first we were thinking that they wouldn't drink on their own because, you know, a lot of animals just won't touch the stuff,' Christopher Olson, a researcher at the university, told NPR. 'But they seem to tolerate it pretty well and be somewhat willing to consume it.'"

Merry Christmas

Happy holidays!

Qatar comes to Wichita

A Boeing 747 belonging to the royal family of Qatar landed at @FlyICT today! #PlaneSpotting pic.twitter.com/1xEM6IIRU6

— MidContinent Airport (@FlyICT) December 22, 2014

If there is anyone who doesn't know it: Wichita Mid-Continent Airport is about 15 miles from us, as the crow flies. I probably would not have noted the tweet had not Stu previously distributed the link to a video of five Airbus 320is flying formation. At least one of the five was in Qatar livery.

P.S. I hope that Stu won't mind my sharing the video with you. (He has not posted it on his own blog, yet - at least, not on the blog that he keeps in English.)

Idiomatically speaking

Ronni Bennett posts daily; but, sets aside Saturday postings for assorted items suggested by her readers. Yesterday's posting included a link to an article in The Atlantic. The article, in turn, provides a link to a quiz that evaluates how much one knows, or can guess, about (international) idioms. Very surprisingly, I scored seven out of 11! I'd rather be lucky than good, as Hunky Husband always tells me.

This is how The Atlantic leads into the subject:

An idiom is, by one definition, "an expression whose meaning cannot be inferred from the meaning of its parts." Or, as Jag Bhalla, author of I'm Not Hanging Noodles on Your Ears, described them in the book, idioms are "cryptic little word puzzles" or even "fossilized metaphors"—preserved figurative expressions that have outlasted their original context. One example: "To pull out all the stops" now refers to making "every possible effort," even though few people who do so are playing an organ with its "stops" out to activate all the pipes, as Bach reportedly did in helping give the phrase its original meaning.

Since I have spent the last week or two attending farewell events for people who are retiring, I'll let my posting for the day go with that!

Kansas has its own time warp!

Some of us denizens of Kansas USA lament that the state is firmly embedded in the late 19th/early 20th century. The small town of Wier seems to be in a time warp. Wier is located in Cherokee County, the most southeastern county of the 105 counties in Kansas.

This is the posting from Slashdot.org:

Small Bank In Kansas Creates the Bank Account of the Future 114                        

Posted by samzenpuson Monday December 15, 2014 @10:15AM from the tomorrow's-deposits dept.

HughPickens.com writes Nathaniel Popper writes at the NYT that the Citizens Bank of Weir, Kansas, or CBW, has been taken apart and rebuilt, from its fiber optic cables up, so it can offer services not available at even the nation's largest bank.  In the United States the primary option that consumers have to transfer money is still the ACH payment. Requests for ACH transfers are collected by banks and submitted in batches, once a day, and the banks receiving the transfers also process the payments once a day, leading to long waits. ACH technology was created in the 1970s and has not changed significantly since. The clunky system, which takes at least a day to deliver money, has become so deeply embedded in the banking industry that it has been hard to replace. CBW went to work on the problem by using the debit card networks that power ATM cash dispensers. Ramamurthi's team engineered a system so that a business could collect a customer's debit card number and use it to make an instant payment directly into the customer's account — or into the account of a customer of almost any other bank in the country. The key to CBW's system is real-time, payment transaction risk-scoring — software that can judge the risk involved in any transaction in real time by looking at 20 to 40 factors, including a customers' transaction history and I.P., address where the transaction originated. It was this system that Elizabeth McQuerry, the former Fed official, praised as the "biggest idea" at a recent bank conference. "Today's banks offer the equivalent of 300-year-old paper ledgers converted to an electronic form — a digital skin on an antiquated transaction process," says Suresh Ramamurthi. "We'll now be one of the first banks in the world to offer customers a reliable, compliant, safe and secure way to instantly send and receive money internationally."

The more we know, the more confusing it becomes - at least, to me!

I saw this posting (below) on Slash.com, yesterday, and thought of it when I heard a news article on the radio this afternoon. I don't recall the name of the program making the report. More about the radio piece, after the Slash.com posting.

Study Explains Why Women Miscarry More Males During Tough Times 104                        

Posted by samzenpuson Friday December 12, 2014 @12:31AM from the selection-process dept.

sciencehabit writes In times of trouble, multiple studies have shown, more girls are born than boys. No one knows why, but men need not worry about being overrun by women. An analysis of old church records in Finland has revealed that the boys that are born in stressful times survive better than those born during less challenging periods. The work helps explain why women may have evolved a tendency to abort certain males and could lead to a better understanding of miscarriages. [Is there a "tendency to abort certain males? Or, perhaps the males fail to thrive? The statement smacks of Sen Todd Akins' remark, "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." for which he later apologized, labeling it a misstatement. Female ducks are said to have control over which sperm (from multiple donors) gets accepted. Perhaps the strange is true. But...I've not read about it's having been proven, so far. CC]

Radio news article

The radio news article explained that a male human's going through tough times (as in near-starvation conditions) during pre-puberty years affected the cardiovascular health of his son - and - even of his grandson. The radio news article was based on a study out of Sweden, published in 2002 by G Kaati, L O Bygren and S Edvinsson.

Here is a link to the report and below is their abstract.

Abstract

Overfeeding and overeating in families are traditions that are often transferred from generation to generation. Irrespective of these family traditions, food availability might lead to overfeeding, in its turn leading to metabolic adaptations. Apart from selection, could these adaptations to the social environment have transgenerational effects? This study will attempt to answer the following question: Can overeating during a child's slow growth period (SGP), before their prepubertal peak in growth velocity influence descendants' risk of death from cardiovascular disease and diabetes? Data were collected by following three cohorts born in 1890, 1905 and 1920 in Överkalix parish in northern Sweden up until death or 1995. The parents' or grandparents' access to food during their SGP was determined by referring to historical data on harvests and food prices, records of local community meetings and general historical facts. If food was not readily available during the father's slow growth period, then cardiovascular disease mortality of the proband was low. Diabetes mortality increased if the paternal grandfather was exposed to a surfeit of food during his slow growth period. (Odds Ratio 4.1, 95% confidence interval 1.33-12.93, P=0.01). Selection bias seemed to be unlikely. A nutrition-linked mechanism through the male line seems to have influenced the risk for cardiovascular and diabetes mellitus mortality. European Journal of Human Genetics (2002) 10, 682-688. doi:10.1038/sj.ejhg.5200859

I want to start a movement.

I don't know about your email provider, but my providers (2) do a great job of protecting me from scam and spam emails. Why can't my phone service providers (2) do a great job of protecting me from scam and spam phone calls?

A few years ago, I got into the habit of reporting scam emails to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). I don't know that it did a lot of good, but it could not have hurt. Eventually, incoming email filters were improved to the point that I don't recall the last time I received an actual scamming email.

Please tell me: Why have I not been reporting scamming phone calls? *shoulder shrug*

The following is from the FTC website - The FTC Complaint Assistant. Note that this site is not just for reporting phone calls, but for any type of problem that affects interstate commerce. (As consumers of internet and phone services, we are a part of the commerce equation.)

Welcome!

Complaints from consumers help us detect patterns of fraud and abuse. The FTC would like to know more about your complaint and the Complaint Assistant will help guide you. To use the Complaint Assistant:

• Choose a complaint category on the right [See below - CC]. If you can't find a match select "Other".
• Answer a few questions related to your complaint.
• Tell us what happened in your own words.

This is a listing of the menu items - not linked, here, but found at the linked website.

• Identity Theft
• Credit and Debt
• Unwanted Telemarketing, Text, or SPAM
• Mobile Devices or Telephones
• Internet Services, Online Shopping, or Computers
• Jobs and Making Money
• Other

-    Counterfeit Checks

-    Impostor Scams

-    Sweepstakes and Prize Promotions

-    Automobile

-    Satellite and Cable TV Provider

-    Magazines

-    Health and Fitness

-    Foreign Lottery

-    Grants or Education Scholarships

-    Charitable Solicitations

-    Romance Scams

-    Immigration or Tax Services

-    Travel, Vacations or Timeshares

-    No match found? Click Here

FTC has an interesting article posted, FTC shuts down multi-million dollar phone scam.

If you don't already avail yourself of the opportunity, join me in a movement to start reporting the scamming phone calls. It won't stop the annoyance of the spamming phone calls; but, one step at a time! Bitchin' ain't enough. I need to start telling the people who can do something about scamming phone calls!

P.S. Did I tell you that a few days after my previous posting (Pet Peeve#7), Hunky Husband picked up a similar call to the same phone line?

Telephone calls from idiots (Pet Peeve #7)

I had just, a couple of minutes prior to the phone's ringing, hung up from answering a question that Hunky Husband had about the shopping list from which he was selecting groceries. You can understand how I may have thought it was HH calling about another selection (especially if you understand that two or three calls from him is standard for his weekly shopping foray) and, thus, may have answered a bit more flippantly than "usual"*.

-ring! ring!- as in the landline phone is ringing

CC: At your service!

Unknown Caller: This is the United States Government in Washington DC. How are you, today?

-Click- as in CC hanging up.

I know that I don't look as if I may have been born yesterday. What is it that leads idiots into thinking I will fall for every scam they can cook up?

The phone rang at least 20 times that day (Thursday). Only once (when HH called) was it a real phone call. Give me a break! Oh! And did I fail to tell you that Unknown Caller had a heavy East Indian accent?! (This is not to imply that there is no one who works for the US Government who has a heavy East Indian accent.)

Now, had the conversation started with, "This is Rajesh Koothrappali with Cal Tech...." the call may have ended differently! I might have asked him if I could be invited to a colloquium or symposium.

__________________________________________________

* "Usual" is that I do not answer at all. Phones are not my medium. I don't yet feel adult enough to use that new-fangled contraption. (I still feel that Mom or Dad will get after me, I guess.) The answering machine will pick up after two rings...and I am perfectly willing to let it! I do know that I need to answer the phone when HH is out shopping, however.

 

Sad news - another airplane crash

A younger woman whom I have admired for years is in dire straights. She and her two (adult) children were flying from St Louis to Kansas City in a single-engine airplane owned and operated by her husband. About mid-way into the trip, about 1/2-mile from a small airport, the aircraft smashed into the ground killing the pilot. The woman is in critical condition, her daughter is in serious condition, and her son is in good condition.

I've not seen the woman for nearly 2 1/2 years. For the previous 18 years she had served as my primary care physician - the best I've ever had. I'm hoping for the best for her and her family, and grieving for her loss.

Update posted 12/6/2014

On Wednesday, December 3, I was told by a mutual friend (Physics professor at Wichita State University), that Dr S had undergone 6 hours of surgery and could not yet feel her legs. He also said that the son had experienced a double compound leg fracture.

From the Salina Journal, comes an excerpt (below).

Salina doctor improving after plane crash

By ERIN MATHEWS Salina Journal

Dec 5, 2014

The condition of a Salina physician who was injured in a plane crash Sunday in Missouri has been upgraded, a Columbia, Mo., hospital spokeswoman said.

Dr. Brenda Schewe, 56, an internal medicine hospitalist at Salina Regional Health Center, was in fair condition Friday at the University of Missouri Hospital.

Her daughter, Kathryn Taylor, 25, of Wichita, was being released from the hospital Friday, and her son, Jacob Taylor, 23, of Kansas City, already has been released, the hospital spokeswoman said.

From the Woodward [Oklahoma] News, I give excerpts, below.

Charles Sojka’s last flight                            

Posted: Friday, December 5, 2014 7:32 Updated: 7:42 am, Fri Dec 5, 2014

By Rachael Van

As long as Candice Sojka Clark can remember, her father, Woodward native Charles K. Sojka, was a pilot and probably spent more time in the air than anywhere.

In fact, if you ask any Woodward pilots who remember her father, they might say "that guy got his pilot's license before he got his driver's license," Clark said.

On November 30th at 9 a.m., Woodward High School graduate, class of 1969, Charles K Sojka of Salina, Kan., went down with his Bellanca Model 17-30 aircraft about a half mile from a small airport in Boonville, Missouri. The crash fatally injured Sojka, who was trying to land the plane at the time it crashed, according to news reports. His wife, Dr. Brenda Schewe and his two step-children, Kate and Jake Taylor were with him in the aircraft and were seriously injured, but survived the impact. The cause of the crash is still unknown.

....

He eventually made his home in Salina, Kan., where he was a flight instructor and Director of Maintenance for Kansas State University-Salina Aviation Department.

Charles was 63 years old.