Burning Bright

Technofool* that I am, I cannot convince Dreamwidth to import my past LJ entries to the DW account I created five years ago nor simultaneously crosspost the test LJ post I made just now.

I rarely post to LJ anyway, but for now when I do I will cut and paste to DW and I will look for my friends in both locations.

I don't want to lose anyone. If you don't already have my RL contact info and you would like it, please let me know.

Crossposted this — manually — from LJ.

*I have given up on posting images in LJ.

The Shortening Winter’s Day is Near a Close

by Joseph Farquharson c1903

Went to a science demo at the Field Museum on Friday, not knowing quite what to expect. It turned out to be the full dissection of a beaver. (Who, I understand, died of natural causes or perhaps an encounter with a car.)

Most amazing fact: beavers have a cloaca! I'm still trying to get my head around this -- it seems like such a bird 'n' reptiles thing to do, not the preserve of mammals at all.

I watched for the first forty minutes and the whole time there was this little girl aged about nine standing with the most rapt attention. Then I left for forty-five minutes to have lunch, and when I came back she was still there, still riveted. The event was live streamed, and a question came in from the internet asking what kind of animal the two women doing the demonstration hadn't yet dissected but would like to. One said she like to work on a really big whale. The kid got a little smile on her face at that and then I noticed I had one, too. It was like she was the manifestation of my inner child!

The other woman wanted to dissect a wolverine. She told us she was an adult before she found out they were real -- thought it was just an X-man character. Anyhow, she said wolverines have lobulated kidneys which provide more surface area, the better for the efficient clearing out of toxins.

Oh, and beavers have a gland that produces a substance called castoreum, which they brush through their fur to make themselves waterproof.

I didn't get to stay till the end, and I'll admit that when they got to the head I found it a bit hard to watch, but it's all on YouTube: