everlasting blort: ‘ziptie is watching’.

It links where you think it links, and to whom you think it links.

Ehh… That is if you know what the hell I’m talking about. Sorry.

Raed in the Middle | Metafilter leads to a membership invites to the Iraqi posse. Which I must say sounds interesting.

Borges in Indiana, by Michael Martone, is called to my attention by AZ, and rightfully so.

The piece is full of era-specific detail. But did Borges ever visit my hometown?

Esta verdad. En 1976, se parece. Y otra vez alrededor 1979-1980, probablemente.

Magical, real news.

Capitol Hill sports new guerrilla art: The story says that these sculptures appeared ‘last week.’ I’m pretty sure they appeared between 8pm an 11pm Sunday night, since they were not in the street when I walked to Thanh Bros at 8 but were there when I went home at about 11. I guess it’s possible I walked by them without noticing, but I kinda doubt that they were there ‘all week,’ as the story describes.

On the other hand, there were grafittied and one had a broken arm when I saw them last night, so who knows.

West Nile Virus may be the crow killer. Reporting is encouraged.

The World’s Only Ass Kicking Machine. [via MoFi]

Really, what more need be said? Ken, can we get you down there soon?

Subservient Chicken: BK online ad campaign that right now allows you, the random web surfer, to instruct a full-grown person in a very elaborate chicken outfit to do, well, more or less anything.

Really.

Here’s a MeFi thread which keeps track of what the Chicken will and won’t do. The thread also includes anecdotal evidence that the Chicken is a collection of looped video actions tied to keywords. A monkey dissected it, provding further evidence for that line of reasoning.

Is this Sars the Chicken?

“allintitle: danelope week site:mike.whybark.com” was just spotted in my referrers.

‘Allintitle.’ Who knew? I deem this: useful.

In general, more than 1.5 grams of caffeine a day can cause the typical symptoms of caffeinism: anxiety, insomnia, irritability and palpitations.

[from a Times wire story in the P-I]

Jeff has noticed that he is encountering the same crow repeatedly.

I warned him that the crow might also recognize him, and went off to Google a couple of things.

First off, I found contact information for James Ha, a University of Washington psych prof who, among other things, has studied crows.

I dropped him a line pointing out Jeff’s post, and asked if the banded crow was a part of his study, and furthermore, if the banding represents multiple captures.

Here’s his reply:

Mike,

The bird was banded only once, but was banded so that we could identify
each unique individual so the pattern of bands identifies this animal.

I can tell by the position of the aluminum Fish and Wildlife
Service-registered band that this bird was not banded by us but by the
other major crow researcher in the United States, also at UW, John
Marzluff and his lab. Check out:

http://courses.washington.edu/vseminar/main.htm#3

Cheers,
Jim Ha

And off I went. Lo and behold, this key and accompanying instructions point to a sighting report form!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Jeff had read through another set of tagging info, and according to the rules seen therein, noted that the crow might be known as RB-GYS, for the banding order on his or her legs.

Since Jeff is assigning the male pronoun, I’ll follow suit. However, I’ll go one better. The bird’s name is now Robgys, [rob-ghis] as far as I am concerned.

This concludes my initial bird post of the day.