Hobo Jungle

[Mitch]

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[webenda]

Happy anniversary Hev & Patty.

San! Man, I thought you fell off the face of the earth. It is flat, ya know?

Mitch! I think you are wrong there. Everyone knows Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 to discover a western route to the spice port of Goa, India. On his return he even presented Queen Isabella with six Indians to prove he had sailed west to India and collect his fee for a successful mission. Could he have done that on a flat earth?

[Mitch]

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[webenda]

Hell yeah! He went off the edge and landed on the Indian Island. He brought back a half-dozen as slaves to help winch the boat back up onto the ocean!

You must be right. The sudden end to the oceans at the edge of maps has always puzzled me. Winching back to the ocean's edge after falling off is the only thing that makes sense.

[2railjon]

Could he have done that on a flat earth?

YES!!!!!!!!!!!

[webenda]

That's nutz! No wonder they were looking for another route.

[webenda]

Hardly a plant grows in the Sonoran Desert that does not have a weevil that specializes in consuming it.

Here we find weevil Scyphophorus acupunctatus on cactus Opuntia santa-rita.



The white stuff on its right rear knee (do beetles have knees?) and small white spots elsewhere is a waxy substance created by red dye producing cochineal scale insect, Dactylopius coocus.
My wife keeps washing the cochineal scale insects off the cactus. Poor Scyphophorus acupunctatus got splattered with the cochineal's waxy stuff.
In this photo it looks like he is getting cactus spines up his butt. It has been a bad day for Scyphophorus acupunctatus

One of these days I will try to get my camera to the cochineal scale insect before Mary washes them off. They are very interesting bugs.

[DennisB]

How big is that bug?

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Bugs rule the planet. Not us, that's for sure. It's their planet.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

The world is a question, and we are a question to ourselves.

The answer is 42.

[webenda]

How big is that bug?

Almost one inch long.
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Paradise has eluded me for years (talking about a flower here.) Then one afternoon, before a dry lightning storm, the air is dead still, the camera actually focuses on the flower instead of the background and... success!

Red Bird Of Paradise


Presenting: Caesalpinia pulcherrima, the Red Bird of Paradise.

[rogruth]

Wayne,

My usual ooohs and aaaaahs.

Beautiful as usual.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

The world is a question, and we are a question to ourselves.

The answer is 42.

Who told you that?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

The world is a question, and we are a question to ourselves.

The answer is 42.

Who told you that?

Deep Thought. We were playing double deck pinochle the other night and he let it slip out,

[MurphOnMillerAve]

The answer is 42.

Who told you that?

Deep Thought. We were playing double deck pinochle the other night and he let it slip out,
This is disappointing news, on many levels. Now, I see why the affinity for horrid clowns (Can a man say "horrid"?)