Orcas, Phoenix, Hatzegopteryx

A pod of about 12 orcas leapt and surfed the waves around Wellington Harbour and the south coast yesterday.

Lyall Bay, cool brisk NorthEaster whipping spray back from breakers.
Kayak tries to catch.
Chubby red 737 from Sydney lands slowly into the Rongotai wind.
Dog pretends to lose salty stick amidst blackening beached kelp.
Orcas here yesterday, A Right whale last year, Bottlenose dolphins.
realsurf shop overlooking them all.
Not a great break, but just 20 minutes from the Capital.
New Zealand,the Cetacean suicide capital of the world.
Singular beaked whales come to die here of loneliness.
Boxed wine and blueberries on the beach, before biking back via Houghton bay.

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see norightturn
for explanation of this: Future Drought frequencies
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Phoenix sees footprint on Mars...
jpl

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Hatzegopteryx thambema from western Romania... the biggest live flier ever? walked rather well.
from pterosaurs.wordpress
"over fifteen meters (?) from wingtip-to-wingtip and taller than a giraffe."

bigpic
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New book: Feathered Dinosaurs with paintings by amazing wildlife artist Peter Schouten.

Dromaeosaurus brevitertius
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com

Cougars by the drinking trough
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And voices in me said, If you were a man
You would take a stick and break him now, and finish him off.

But must I confess how I liked him,
How glad I was he had come like a guest in quiet, to drink at my water-trough
And depart peaceful, pacified, and thankless,
30 Into the burning bowels of this earth?

Was it cowardice, that I dared not kill him?
Was it perversity, that I longed to talk to him?
Was it humility, to feel so honoured?
I felt so honoured.

D.H. Lawrence

Snake

kalliope
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May 23, 2008 Prime Minister Kevin says Aussie photographs by Henson are 'repulsive' Kate Blanchett defends them, merely says they are disturbing. ... The opening night of an exhibition ... was dramatically cancelled after police visited the Paddington gallery
Bill's pics are sure large, night murky, & it seems increasingly featuring mud spattered wire draped naked kids, looking like recent violence.


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Orcas, Phoenix, Hatzegopteryx