A furry friend who was blowing in the wind when I met him/her.
I have some cute tiny birds that visit the trees (bare in winter of course) outside my windows over the laptop screen. Sometimes I try to take their photos...usually pretty sad results.
Big Windy had hoarfrost showing early on last Monday morning.
He was all fluffed up and kept coming back to that branch all day long. Silly guy wasn't even in warm sunshine most of the time.
Our smattering of snow Wed. morning last...melted away by noon and that was all we got here!
Thursday morning Big Windy showed a bit of snow, and neighbor's roof had either frost on snow...so grateful not to be snowed in, but actually I was "cold-in," and didn't go out till Friday (except to get the mail wearing my big coat)
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Sharing with Saturday's Critters
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Today's notes on politics: (which I mainly post to have as a journaled record of what these crazy times are experiencing!)
From PBS News Tues. Feb. 18, 2025 - 9:55 pm
Let’s look at some of the facets of the federal workforce that have lost staff. Consider this a snapshot of the landscape right now, with the caveat that more actions may take place after this week’s email.
- U.S. Forest Service: 3,400 workers laid off
- Department of Energy: some 1,000 workers laid off
- Veterans Affairs: more than 1,000 workers fired
- National Institutes of Health: Between 1,000 and 1,200 workers fired
- Bureau of Land Management: 800 workers fired
- National Park Service: 1,000 workers fired
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: About 750 workers fired
- Small Business Administration: About 720 workers fired
- Federal Aviation Administration: About 400 workers fired
- Environmental Protection Agency: About 400 workers fired
- Federal Emergency Management Agency: More than 200 workers fired
Other agencies, such as the General Services Administration, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the Department of Education, have had dozens of staffers cut.The hardest hit agency. Currently the largest source of layoffs is the U.S. Agency for International Development.So far, more than 12,000 American workers — most of them contractors — have been laid off, according to Stop-WorkUSAID, a group tracking the cuts. Organizer Sadie Healy told us they tallied this figure based on individual names they have vetted. The actual total is likely larger, she said.Thousands more at USAID are also under a stop-work order and face potential firing, depending on a court ruling, which has frozen action against them for the moment.
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Today's quote:
A memory may feel abstract or immaterial, but it is actually a biochemical process taking place in the brain. It involves neurons communicating with each other via the “wires” or synapses connecting them. The pathway an electrochemical signal follows as it continually travels from neuron to synapse to neuron constitutes a memory.
Whenever you have that memory, the same pathway gets activated. And the more it’s activated, the more it becomes hardwired into the brain’s circuitry. Eventually, it becomes a long-term memory.
Activation also requires enzymes, molecules that set off chemical reactions. The problem is that these enzymes don’t exist for longer than a week. If a memory is to endure, it would seem that the enzymes would have to remain functioning for years or even decades.
Once the enzymes turn off, one would expect the memories to go with them. “This became a holy grail in neuroscience,” Lisman says. “How can a molecule in your brain serve as a memory? How does nature accomplish this?”
—John Lisman
Thanks to fellow blogger, Love is a Place,
I'm quite relieved to know why my brain has such trouble these days!
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Today's art:
Noelle E. DeVito
Happy Saturday to you. Almost 7am. I sort of slept in until 6 today but not very deeply as I was feeling the cold. BTW we are supposed to rise above freezing for a few hours next week.
ReplyDeleteYay you, a late sleep-in! Gosh, as all that snow melts, I shudder to think of the slush your walks will endure. But it's a necessary evil to get to spring bulbs, that are buried under it looks like 4-6 feet of snow!
DeleteWhat a cute dog!
ReplyDeleteIf the wind wasn't so bad I'd have loved to pet her/him. But they'd just arrived, and I dare say dog needed his/her walk.
DeleteHello Barb,
ReplyDeleteLove the cute dog. I see the bluebird, they are one of my favorites.
The art work with the dragon is cool.
I feel for all the workers being laid off, I feel things are only going to get worse.
Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Take care, have a great weekend.
I love seeing your clear photos of birds outside your windows, and then my poor iPhone blurs, and am glad you could find the bluebird today. I will be going outside later, when it's above freezing, and get some photos that are a bit clearer. Glad I'm not cabin-bound by snow at least. Yep, I figure people are tired of my views out my windows.
DeleteCutting thousands of federal workers is supposed to make their departments and agencies more 'efficient'. If by efficient they mean everything will take longer to do and those remaining employees will have their workload increased.
ReplyDeleteI remember as I was leaving some job somewhere, I wrote up a job description so those who followed me might know what I did. I hope many of those vacancies have the same, or we're in deep doodoo. Which of course we're in because of this thoughtless scalping of so many critical positions. It's not only the running of things that will suffer, but the scale of human suffering by the families of those cut off.
DeleteThere are other non-governmental agencies which have had to let staff go too because the funds were cut or stopped. One of my daughters is one of those.
ReplyDeleteAs this happens, so many on unemployment, I am so sad for all the past-employees and their families...who are not prepared for this. So sorry your daughter also got caught in this maelstrom.
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