An Indian silver pierced Esther scroll case, circa 1900
height 26 cm
This very unusual model of Esther Scroll case was acquired by the consignor from a member of the Sassoon family. The patriarch David Sassoon moved from Baghdad to Bombay in the early 1830s, and the first generation after him maintained the Baghdadi style for their Esther scrolls. It was thus probably a member of the second generation of Sassoons who commissioned this piece reflecting Indian rather than Iranian taste.
So the crane tours are the best way to see the birds (you go out in a blind, and the cranes seem to like that part of the river more so there’s more of them) but there are other places to see them. Just not as good, and crowded, and noisy, and right by a road.
So yesterday was my morning tour but this morning I went down to another place, and I guess yesterday was the perfect day for me. The birds all take off and leave the river for the day at some point, and yesterday it was late enough that there was good light, but today they took off SUPER early. Like by 7 they were already gone.
They’ve been coming into the river super late lately, but I have another tour tonight and I’m really hoping they come in early. Cause otherwise you don’t see much.
Today is my midwestaversary (the blessed day on which I left Colorado) so it’s funny that I’m 2/3 of the way back to Colorado.
Also I realized that this is the closest I’ve been to my mom and sister in 2 years. And I’m still like 500 miles away from them. I had vaguely considered heading out there to see them, but 1. That’s a 6 hour drive, 2. I don’t want to go to Colorado at ALL, and 3. It’s their goddamn turn to visit me. In 7 years my mom visited me once in Chicago, and my sister hasn’t ever visited me. So.
Anyway. Hashtag blessed to not be living in Colorado anymore.
Listen man, you need to read the news. Actually seek it out and read it. Preferably local or state news if you have it.
My congressman and Senators are the most boring moderate white guys to ever moderate white guy.
And they are out there every single fucking day raising hell like I haven’t seen in ten years.
They’re boycotting the joint address. Trying to block every piece of legislation and every nominee. They’re trying to get into federal buildings to see what DOGE is doing. They’re holding town halls every week. They’re holding job fairs for laid off feds and connecting them to resources.
These boring white guys are getting up in republicans faces during hearings and screaming at them red faced with righteous fury.
My guys ALONE are doing a fuck ton.
Do you even know who yours are? What they’re doing? Or do you just want to be angry?
We have 30 days until the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) laws are rescinded. This is the 50-year bedrock of American conservation. Normally, these actions take years but the administration has provided 30 days for public comment gutting clean water and clean air. Drop what you’re doing, before you make any more calls or read any more social media posts, please populate the Federal Register with dissent.
B. Click on the green rectangle in the upper right corner (“SUBMIT A PUBLIC COMMENT”) .
C. Fill in your comment, and info at the bottom, and SUBMIT COMMENT.
I just did that (2/27/2025), and the message on that website said:
The comment period ends March 27, not March 30!!!
I strongly suggest (in your own words) couching your dissent in Trump’s (and followers’) own rhetoric. Here’s what I said:
Removing these regulations will make America sick again, cause neurological and intellectual impairment in children (due to less regulation of lead), and raise the level of preventable cancers in adults (due to less regulation of known carcinogens),thus reducing American productivity and greatness.
Done! It took me two seconds.
Key things to remember when commenting:
They include this in the instructions: “All submissions must include the agency name, “Council on Environmental Quality,” and docket number, CEQ-2025-0002, for this rulemaking.”
Regulations.gov posts tips for commenting in a PDF found here.
I just donât get it. How can our society act so goddamned normal about seahorses. How can anybody so casually accept that thatâs a fish???
This is one of natureâs most anatomically perverse of all beasts. A FISH, like a carp or a bass or a beta is a fish, but it bent its body straight up only to bend its head permanently back down. It stretched its skull into a pipe. It tapered its tail like a lizard, specifically like a chameleon. It can also move its eyes independently by the way, you know, like a chameleon. Fun fact, it can change color to express its mood, like you know whatever does that. It doesnât properly swim anymore. It buzzes its few remaining fins like an insectâs wings to float itself around at a snailâs pace. It lives its whole life clinging to coral branches or seaweed, which means it decided to become a âtree dwellerâ in an environment where gravity didnât even matter anyway. The males get pregnant. They make noises at each other by rubbing some of their neck bones together. Every day, EVERY DAY a mated pair does a little dance and a little neck bone song so they remember which two seahorses they were. Theyâre a beautiful precious obscenity. Nothing so adorable ever made such a strong case against a logical creator.
They have as little skin and meat as they could get away with. Their skeleton is almost all they are.
This thing is one of the most successful hunters on the planet. Because their mouth is fused shut, except for the tip, they can create a powerful suction force in front of that one little opening in order to draw in prey.Â
Lions have a 20-30% success rate on their hunts, depending on daytime and if theyâre in a group. Great white sharks, anywhere from 40% to 80%, depending on the size and skill of the individual. Dragonflies, which are one of the most successful terrestrial hunters, can hit about 80-85%. Seahorses? 90% success rate, sometimes more. Only a fraction of their prey escapes that powerful vacuum. Theyâre incredibly precise.Â
If you touch them, they feel hard, because of the skeleton underneath their skin. Their tails are being studied to make coiling bridges, because of how strong that interlocked structure is. Different species range in size from over a foot long, to barely an inch.Â
Behold: not just a fish, but a wildly successful predator!Â
horsey
donât forget their majestic cousins the sea dragons! these are the leafy and weedy sea dragons
and the newest seahorse family member, discovered in 2015, the ruby sea dragon â¤ď¸
Yeah thatâs when someone tried to straighten the seahorse back out and it still didnât look right. The more they bent and mushed it in their hands to look like a fish again the worse they fucked it up until finally they just left it and walked off and hoped nobody would ask who did this
(I love them so much)
Oh, so itâs actually the ruby sea dragon on a string! Got it.
i doubt that someone hasnât already brought them up in another reblog but anyways. donât forget about pipefish! relatives of seahorses which are literally as physically close to a worm on a string as any real animal could get, imo
