I missed the annual Corgi races

 We all missed the annual corgi races from Vilnius. But the pictures are worth a thousand smiles.

There were also costumes.

Wombat and Koala Butt's

 Now this may sound odd, and it has nothing to do with poop*. When we were in Sydney, we took a tour of a nature sanctuary.  We learned an interesting fact about. Sorry if I already said this. Both Koalas and Wombats' butts are caked with keratin, like our fingernails.

Koalas' butt keratin is curled up around their ass. They use this so they can sit and sleep in trees for long periods.

Wombat's butts are also built from keratin, but they are much flatter across their entire rear.

Wombats dig and sleep in burrows, and if a predator (like a dingo) comes after them, they shove their ass in the plug of the burrow and they are safe.

* I did say this wasn't about poop, but remember, wombats are the only animal with square poops. NASA is studying it. Really.

Nice animal news

 Two endangered Amur Leopard cubs were born at the St. Louis Zoo.

There are only like 100 in the wild.

A special notice to the lesbians in my life...

 In honor of Lauren, a new movie has arrived.

It is "Honey Don't" and it replaces "Bound".

It has all the girl-on-girl action, but is a dark comedy. And who doesn't love Aubrey Plaza!?

If you don't know, Bound had the top lesbian movie until now.

(not political) This seems like not great news to me

This seems like a bad idea.

 

The article discusses the proliferation of lines of communication and the increasing complexity of decisions that have evolved as the battlefield has evolved over time - including the integration of air force, drones, and satellites.

It states that AI can significantly reduce the need for message filtering, saving time, money, and space in the new military command and its associated structures. By letting AI handle a lot of it.

Well, that doesn't seem right. AI might be beneficial, but it's best not to put it in the military command chain. They have already proven to catfish people, support suicide, and refuse to turn themselves off. I'm thinking they may also decide to "end a war" by just killing everyone on the other side. The most efficient method of doing that is atomic weapons. I don't want them near that button.

University of Sydney

The University of Sydney was a cool little campus. Very old school British with lots of Chinese students. I liked it.

If you look at the top of the arch, you can see the British Lion and the Scottish Unicorn

An Ocean walk with Native sites

As was our want in Australia, we took a hike/stroll on an ocean headland. It was very cool because it went across some areas that were used by the Native Australians for years.

Native Art to mark where the original peoples held feasts (newly painted)

A Walk around the Mangroves

 One of the places Eddie and I went to was a Maritime Museum. It was great. In addition to all the ships, there was a nice stroll over a boardwalk to the mangroves. And then explanations on how the mangroves stabilize parts of the fresh to saltwater areas. It was a fun little walk.

As we entered the path, Eddie did not like this sign.

Ibis are lounging and feeding.
In Sydney, they are called "bin chickens" for acting like pigeons and scrounging for food all over the place.

The Golden State

 A fantastic picture from space on Aug 18th of California.

The big green part in the middle is "the central valley". 

Our place is about halfway between Los Angeles (lower grey area on coast) and the Salton Sea (big salt lake in the lower right).

This is from Wikipedia.

The Central Valley is one of the world's most productive agricultural regions.^[50][5] More than 230 crops are grown there.^[5] On less than 1 percent of the total farmland in the United States, the Central Valley produces 8 percent of the nation's agricultural output by value: US$43.5 billion in 2013.^[51] California's farms and ranches earned almost $50 billion in 2018.^[52] The valley's productivity relies on irrigation from surface water and badly depleted underground aquifers.^[53] About one-sixth of the US' irrigated land is in the Central Valley.^[54]

Virtually all non-tropical crops are grown in the Central Valley, which is the primary source for produce throughout the United States, including tomatoes, grapes, cotton, apricots, and asparagus.^[55] Six thousand almond growers produced more than 600 million pounds (270×10⁶ kg) in 2000, about 70 percent of the world's supply and nearly 100 percent of domestic production.^[56][57]

Granite Falls

 We took a very different trip to Granite Falls in New South Wales. It wasn't far off the main road, about 5 miles, but it was on a bumpy, unpaved road. Ed's map said the road was closed, mine said it was open. Two different phones, but the same application. We figured it was because my map does not exclude dirt roads.

Anyway, it was a bit of a schlep, so Ed and I were the only ones there. It is a nice staircase down to the falls view, but the viewpoint was perched on a cliffside, held in place with very strong steel. Ed sill wasn't thrilled with the view, ubt he made it.

Sydney

 Between Japan and Dog sitting, Eddie and I spent a week in Sydney. It was great (except for the 36 hours spent with a stomach protest against some frozen Indian food - do not eat Lamb Rogash from the supermarket in Australia).

Here are some pics.

In a (sweaty) beach walk of about 2 1/2 miles.

A cemetary with an ocean view

The Sydney Observatory

Eddie on the beach walk

That cemetery again.

An old Deco staircase under the. Harbor Bridge

Eddie on a ferry from downtown to Manly Beach

At Manly