Nick in NC

I’m old fashioned, so I never gave up buying CDs and then ripping them for my phone’s music library.

But most important, if you decide the music sucks, you can hang the shiny CD from some monofilament and scare squirrels in your garden.

White crocus flowers with bright orange stamens.

The outside of the flowers showing off large purple blotches.

First crocuses of the year! I forgot to label these guys, but I think they are Crocus chrysanthus ‘Panda’. 🌱

A very small pitcher plant with greenish pitcher, cylindrical at the top and bulbous at the bottom. The leaf is indented where the pitcher tendril emerges.

Just a wee babby Nepenthes clipeata. Leaves are not yet peltate, but the newest are showing tendencies in that direction. 🌱 🌴

Five people on stage playing great music.

Solas in Raleigh this evening! It’s always fun to watch Winifred Horan’s bow disintegrate during the fast songs.

“I” not ai. *sigh*

I’m a big fan of snakes, and it was the first rattlesnake ai had ever seen.

We were friends for about 4.5 years first. The night we met, we watched The Princess Bride. The weekend that the relationship became more, we walked around Matthai Botanical Garden and found a massasauga.

She was not frightened off by my extreme excitement over the rattlesnake sighting.

The ability to read and write well has been much more important to my science career than the ability to do math. 2/2

That’s especially awful, because it isn’t true (or is only true because sexism). I sucked at math (never fully memorized multiplication tables in elementary school, bombed calculus in college), but no one discouraged me from pursuing a science career. Of course, I’m a cishet white guy. 1/2

Pretty cool.

One of our local orchids is inexplicably named “rattlesnake plantain.” It does not look anything like Plantago major or the Musa.

Ester Ledecka of the Czech Republic and Dan Hicks revisit Ledecka's historic and shocking victory in the alpine skiing super-G at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics. #NBCOlympics #WinterOlympics2022 #EsterLedecka "» Subscribe to NBC Sports: https://www.youtube.com/nbcsports?sub_confirmation=1 » Watch live Olympic coverage on NBCOlympics.com: https://www.nbcolympics.com/schedule Visit NBCOlympics.com,: https://www.nbcolympics.com Watch the 2022 Winter Olympics on Peacock: https://www.peacocktv.com/olympics Download the NBC Olympics App: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/nbc-sports/id542511686 Find NBC Olympics on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nbcolympics Follow NBC Olympics on Twitter: https://twitter.com/NBCOlympics Follow NBC Olympics on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nbcolympics NBC Sports Group serves sports fans 24/7 with premier live events, insightful studio shows, and compelling original programming. NBC Sports is an established leader in the sports media landscape with an unparalleled collection of sports properties that include the Olympics, NFL, Premier League, NASCAR, PGA TOUR, the Kentucky Derby, Tour de France, French Open, IndyCar and many more. Subscribe to our channel for the latest sporting news and highlights! NBC Olympics is responsible for producing, programming and promoting NBCUniversal's Olympic coverage. It is renowned for its unsurpassed Olympic heritage, award-winning production, and ability to aggregate the largest audiences in U.S. television history. Having produced every Summer Olympics since Seoul in 1988 and every Winter Olympics since Salt Lake City in 2002, the networks of NBCUniversal are synonymous with the Games in the United States. NBCUniversal has the U.S. media rights on all platforms to all Olympic Games through 2032. At the conclusion of the 2032 Games, NBCUniversal will have presented 23 total Olympic Games and 17 consecutive, the most for a U.S. media company in both categories. Relive Ester Ledecka's historic 2018 Olympic super-G title | Winter Olympics 2022 | NBC Sports https://www.youtube.com/nbcsports Relive Ester Ledecka's historic 2018 Olympic super-G title | Winter Olympics 2022 | NBC Sports

My all-time favorite Olympics moment was when Ester Ledecka, a snowboarder who was racing on borrowed skis, could not believe she had won gold in the Super G. Her reaction was so wonderful.

When I was in middle school, we had a semester of Home Ec, but that isn’t a thing any more.

(at least they still get a semester of “Personal Finance” before graduation.)

Good stuff in this thread.

One of the things we did for our kids was sign them up for a cooking class one summer. They grew up seeing us cook every evening, but it was still valuable to have someone systematically teach them basic techniques.

When viewed from the side, the flower is obviously covered with glandular hairs.

Stems are semi-pendant. Would probably look good in a hanging basket.

A flamboyant flower, narrowly tubular greeniah yellow at the base, foaring and dark red at the tips. The shape reminds me a bit of a whale shark.

Flowering today! Columnea raymondii, an epiphytic gesneriad from Costa Rica. 🌴 🌱

Rhododendron ‘Pennywhistle’ flowering again, right on schedule. R. bagobonum seems to be very dominant in vireya hybrids, consistently producing small orange flowers with very heavy substance. 🌱 🌴

To clarify, it is a 2.5 mile run, eat a dozen donuts, run another 2.5 miles.

Eldest Offspring completed the Krispy Kreme Challenge this morning. 5 mile run, a dozen doughnuts, just over 1 hour.

*sniff* So Proud. Those Olympic skiers have nothing on this.

Book extract showing excerpt from a letter: “I am still just as frightened of bombs, & guns going off, as I was at the beginning. I turn bright red and my heart hammers, in fact I’m a beastly coward but I do believe that a lot of people are, so I don’t mind! Well darling I must stop, and I do feel sure that all your present work is useful, and if you can put in a little refresher in nursing – well all the better. Tinkety tonk old fruit, & down with the Nazis always your loving Peter

That splendid sign-off of the Queen Mother’s – “Tinkety tonk old fruit, & down with the Nazis” – celebrates its 85th anniversary today

A small tabby cat is sitting in a black chair with a high back that is drawn up to a wooden dining table.

I sit at the table like a people but do not receive people food. Is a #Caturday injustice!

A large face, blue with eyes closed and red lips and a crown that says Eno River Goddess. Being carried in a parade by a group of people holding wooden poles. This is a parade where everything is made by local artists. This goddess was made by Paperhand Puppet Intervention, a puppet theatre company founded in 1998.

#WeekEforEponymous
#AlphabetChallenge

The Eno River Goddess in the Hillsborough Handmade Parade. The river is named for the Eno Native Americans who once lived in this area.

Wise. Very wise.

Is it bad to admit that they creeped me out so badly, I went to Dicks and bought a little .22 rifle?

Oh, God, lumpy squirrels.

This is John Scalzi. Make it a burrito.

Often a lighting issue, as long as the relative humidity is within spitting distance of 50%. Aim for roughly Cattleya light levels.

The Nepenthes maxima x alata that I got last summer is growing really well and making bigger and bigger pitchers, despite the short winter days. Just an all-round good hybrid.

Based on its vigor, I suspect the “alata” parent was actually the species now called N. graciliflora. 🌴 🌱

Grabbing a badger out of its burrow and holding it up to view its shadow would be A Lot More Exciting.

Today I'd like to honor the memory of my mentor and friend, Roger Tsien, born 1952 February 1. Today would have been Roger's 74th birthday.

Most know Roger for his 2008 Chemistry Nobel Prize with Shimomura and Chalfie. Roger made GFP into the versatile imaging method it is now.

Yep. One of my favorites. I love the color combination.