Inventions

Floor at Postal Museum

Chocolate rocks

This is for you, Rotifer.

This is also for you, Rotifer.

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Farriery

Farrier tools

A farrier is a specialist in equine hoof care, including the trimming and balancing of horses' hooves and the placing of shoes on their hooves, if necessary. A farrier combines some blacksmith's skills (fabricating, adapting, and adjusting metal shoes) with some veterinarian's skills (knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the lower limb) to care for horses' feet. 

In countries such as the United Kingdom, people other than registered farriers cannot legally call themselves a farrier or carry out any farriery work (in the UK, this is under the Farriers (Registration) Act 1975). The primary aim of the act is to "prevent and avoid suffering by and cruelty to horses arising from the shoeing of horses by unskilled persons".

However, in other countries, such as the United States, farriery is not regulated, no legal certification exists, and qualifications can vary. In the US, four organizations - the American Farrier's Association (AFA), the Guild of Professional Farriers (GPF), the Brotherhood of Working Farriers, and the Equine Lameness Prevention Organization (ELPO) - maintain voluntary certification programs for farriers. Of these, the AFA's program is the largest, with about 2800 certified farriers. Additionally, the AFA program has a reciprocity agreement with the Farrier Registration Council and the Worshipful Company of Farriers in the UK.

Within the certification programs offered by the AFA, the GPF, and the ELPO, all farrier examinations are conducted by peer panels. The farrier examinations for these organizations are designed so that qualified farriers may obtain a formal credential indicating they meet a meaningful standard of professional competence as determined by technical knowledge and practical skills examinations, length of field experience, and other factors. Farriers who have received a certificate of completion for attending a farrier school or course may represent themselves as having completed a particular course of study. Sometimes, usually for purposes of brevity, they use the term "certified" in advertising.

Where professional registration exists, on either a compulsory or voluntary basis, a requirement for continuing professional development activity often exists to maintain a particular license or certification. For instance, farriers voluntarily registered with the American Association of Professional Farriers require at least 16 hours of continuing education every year to maintain their accreditation.

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Signs

DUR means STOP in Turkish

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Keeping birds away from windows

Concern:  Here’s the deal, the windows on the front of the house are practically mirrors, and apparently a magnet for birds who see their reflection and thus fly at and peck the windows…

The blue-gray tanagers in the area somewhat chill, they just land and peck at the windows, however, superciliated wrens don’t play around and it seems like they almost “attack” the windows.

I’ve read a lot of info from western bird resources that suggest applying decals, ect. to the window in the form of predators (raptors) but I’ve read reports this does little to alleviate the issue…

Do you know of any effective techniques for deterring birds from attacking the windows? 

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Bioluminescence/Fluorescence (plants)

Question: Are there any naturally fluorescent plants?

Comment: Do you mean bioluminescence (glow in the dark) maybe instead of fluorescence (emit a different color when exposed to a certain wavelength of light)? I think all plants fluoresce - chlorophyll was already mentioned as a fluorescent molecule, and there are many phenolics and secondary metabolites in plants that fluoresce as well. I think pretty much everyone who has ever done fluorescence microscopy on plant samples knows about the issues with background noise that can be caused by this autofluorescence when trying to observe a genetically introduced molecule such as green or red fluorescent proteins.

However, when it comes to bioluminescence such as the glow of a firefly or the light emitted by some deep sea creatures, I am not aware of any plants that can do that unless genetically engineered by introducing the luciferin gene and provided with the appropriate substrate. The only “plant-like” organisms that I can think of that do that are some algae, specifically dinoflagellates, which aren’t even in the kingdom Plantae. They make ocean water glow in the dark when swirled up.

Comment: chlorophyll fluoresces red under UV light. so i would think most plants are fluorescent to some degree.

Comment: Other than induced fluorescence I don’t know of any examples of naturally fluorescing plants.

Fungi, on the other hand, have a number of species that naturally glow. Of course, those aren’t plants, but at least they’re not animals.

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Parasitic plants

Orobanche, commonly known as broomrape, is a genus of over 200 species of small parasitic herbaceous plants, mostly native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. It is the type genus of the broomrape family Orobanchaceae.

As they have no chlorophyll, the broomrapes are totally dependent on other plants for nutrients. Broomrape seeds remain dormant in the soil, often for many years, until stimulated to germinate by certain compounds produced by living plant roots.

Orobanche ramosa

Branched broomrape Orobanche ramosa, native to central and southwestern Europe but widely naturalized elsewhere, is considered a major threat to crops in some areas. Plants that it targets are tomato, eggplant, potato, cabbage, coleus, bell pepper, sunflower, celery, and beans. In heavily infested areas, branched broomrape can cause total crop failure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orobanche

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2022 Russian businessmen mystery deaths

It's hard to know what to believe regarding anything anymore.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Russian_businessmen_mystery_deaths

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