jane hendron

A Chesapeake Bay retriever named Train flunked out of drug detection school for being too energetic. Today, there's a statue of him in Argentina's largest provincial park. Train was a Humane Society rescue. His rescuers tried to make him a narcotics dog, but ultimately gave up. He was, in his trainer's words, "like a bull in a china closet." So conservation biologist Karen DeMatteo took him on instead. She needed a dog who could cover hundreds of miles of Atlantic Forest in northeast Argentina, finding the poop of five elusive carnivores: jaguars, pumas, ocelots, oncillas, and bush dogs. Trail cameras kept getting stolen by poachers and the animals were too rare to spot directly. The data that Train collected over his career mapped the multi-species wildlife corridor that's now expanding across Misiones Province. His findings (published in PLoS ONE in 2023) showed jaguars actually use disturbed habitats more than scientists thought. Train died in September 2022 at sixteen years old. His last working trip had been to Nebraska, sniffing for mountain lions at age twelve. By the end he was grey, tired, and finally allowed unlimited tennis balls. The next summer, the Argentine government unveiled a statue of him at Urugua-í Provincial Park, sniffing the ground in his orange field harness.

@amyforsandiego @SDCountyFires Looks like an idiot dragged a chain.

🔥 10–20 fires are burning in California along SR-76 and up I-15 right now, according to incident command in San Diego County. Most are small (about 50’ x 50’) but spreading risk is real. 🚧 Eastbound SR-76 is being hard closed from Mission Rd to Hwy 395. Source @SDCountyFires & @watchdutyapp

Wowza!

@dustinkittle @AshleyPosey22 Another Love Canal in the making if it goes through. And in 20 years, it becomes a superfund site. Smh

A Note on #MonsantoMeadows || Columbia, TN — The developer and their lawyers are actively engaged in efforts to silence the noise around their project to put 1,300 homes on the former Monsanto property; While I continue to maintain that this proposed resort community, on a former Brownfield site, may be more strategic than realistic, given their pending litigation, it is apparent the developer and others (who may just stand to profit from same) have become even more aggressive in this latest push. In fact, they had Fox 17 pull their story on the unanimous vote by the Maury County Planning Commission opposing the project. What’s more, they have some familiar names locally who are carrying water for them, contaminated as it may be; while they continue to pitch that the Tailings Pond on site is nothing more than a Water Reservoir — a position that lacks a fundamental understanding of the industrial waste process (or is indicative of how far their side is willing to go to reshape the narrative). It is no secret they are working to neutralize us as well as others who are continuing to speak out; and as has been the case in near all of these local matters, there is a group, of lawyers mainly, who detest us sticking our nose in what they perceive to be their business. With that said, it will not change how Ashley and I go about our business in doing what we view as right. Thank you to everyone who is willing to take a stand in this world for what they believe in. It’s a dying trait. — DK

Perfection in a picture. Padstow, Cornwall

Behold, the greatest, and most comforting sight on planet earth.

Myth: "I only wear vegan fabrics. Better for the animals, better for the planet." Let's check in on Doris's annual contribution. Once a year, in late spring, Doris is sheared. The procedure takes approximately three minutes. Doris does not enjoy it. Doris does not, by any visible measure, suffer from it. Doris is, immediately afterwards, a noticeably more comfortable animal in the British summer. The fleece weighs approximately 3 kilograms. It is sold to the British Wool Marketing Board for, depending on the year, between £0.40 and £2.50 per kilogram. The shearing costs more than the wool fetches. Brian is shearing Doris at a loss. The wool is then: - Naturally flame-retardant - Naturally antibacterial - Moisture-wicking - Biodegradable - Renewable, annually - Carbon-storing while in use The replacement, in performance fabrics: - Polyester - Polyamide - Acrylic - Polypropylene - All petroleum-derived - All shedding microplastics on every wash - All requiring fossil fuel inputs to produce - All non-biodegradable, with a typical landfill lifespan of 200-500 years A single wash of a polyester fleece can release up to 700,000 microplastic fibres into the water system. These fibres are now in: every tested water source on earth, every tested human placenta, every tested rainfall sample, the deep ocean, the Arctic ice, and the lungs of marine mammals. A single wash of a wool jumper releases: nothing. The wool, when eventually disposed of, returns to soil within a few years. The fabric being marketed as the "ethical" alternative to wool is plastic. The plastic is "ethical" because nobody has been asked to slaughter the polymer. The polymer also has not been asked. Doris, by being a sheep on a fell, is producing the most thoroughly sustainable performance fabric humans have ever made. Brian is selling it at a loss. The fashion industry, meanwhile, is selling petroleum at a profit and calling it ethical. Reject plastic. Wear wool. Doris is, this morning, growing next year's batch.

@AGJamesUthmeier Sloths are covered under CITES. Did any federal agency approve this massive importation of these animals?

Sloth World is filing for bankruptcy, and the remaining sloths have been turned over to the Central Florida Zoo for proper care. One of our Statewide Prosecutors is assisting the Ninth Circuit with the ongoing criminal investigation.

San Diego folks. Supposedly there is a huge animal seizure taking place in Julian today. If you are thinking of adopting a pet, please do it. SD Humane will need room for all these new animals. sdhumane.org/about/media-ce…

The U.S. Postal Service is hatching a new set of stamps, just weeks after beloved bald eagles Jackie and Shadow welcomed two baby chicks in Big Bear. Find out how to order: ktla.com/news/californi…

Britain's pubs have no room for improvement

One of a few Whitethroats at Combwich in Somerset last weekend, my first sightings of the year! 😀🐦

The Bridge House, Ambleside 🏡

@maestrogirl369 @dieworkwear Thanks for the correction. Not up to speed on British royal titles.

@Hendja @dieworkwear HM, no longer HRH.

I'm a big fan of how Charles dressed in the past, particularly during the 1980s and 90s. However, he broke up with his primary tailor a couple of decades ago. I've heard some conflicting rumors about who cuts his clothes now. He dresses better than most men, but I agree that suit doesn't look great. In that specific case, it looks to me like someone hit his suit with a steamer, rather than giving it a good pressing. This occasionally happens when people travel, although some of the King's position should have a valet traveling with him to press his clothes. Perhaps another warning about the dangers of using a steamer on tailored clothing.

@DrHelenFry Several. My dad, my uncle, and a bunch of cousins - with American and British forces.

Do you have a family member who served in WW2?

On the second Sunday of April, a couple from Birmingham walked the footpath that crosses Brian's fell. Their dog, a young border collie named Otis, was off the lead. There were sheep in the field. Otis went after the sheep. The owners called Otis. Otis did not return. Otis was, in dog terms, six months into a lifelong relationship with sheep that had, until that moment, consisted entirely of seeing them on television. Otis chased a small group of younger ewes for approximately eighty metres, which is, in Otis's own assessment, a successful afternoon. Doris, who was on the section above the wall, observed this. Doris did not run. Doris walked, deliberately, at a measured pace, to a position approximately fifteen metres from where Otis was, by then, pursuing the younger ewes in a circle. Doris stopped. Doris looked at Otis. Otis stopped. There is, in the literature on livestock guarding behaviour, a phenomenon known as the calm interdiction. It does not require aggression. It does not require display. It requires only a confident, settled animal placing itself in the path of the disturbance and refusing, with absolute mildness, to be impressed. Otis, who had, until that moment, been having the best afternoon of his short life, was suddenly looking at a Texel ewe who was not running. The category had broken. Otis sat down. The owners reached Otis approximately two minutes later. Otis was on the lead by then. The owners apologised, profusely, to Brian, who had walked up from the gate at a measured pace and was holding his stick in the way that people who have not been to agricultural college nevertheless know how to hold sticks. Brian: "You'll need to keep him on the lead from now on." Owner: "Yes. Of course. We're so sorry. We didn't think." Brian: "Most don't." He could have said more. The law gives him the right to shoot a dog worrying livestock. The literature on stress-induced lambing failure is extensive. The young ewes, by the time Brian reached them, were panting hard enough that Brian made a mental note to check them again in the morning, and to tell the apprentice to do the same. He didn't say any of this. He said: "Have a nice walk." He went back down to the gate. Doris, by then, was already grazing again. The young ewes recovered. The lambing in autumn was unaffected. British footpaths cross approximately 140,000 miles of farmland. They have done so since some of them were carved by mediaeval cattle. The system depends on dogs being on leads near livestock, on walkers closing gates, on the basic countryside code that takes about four minutes to read and is, somehow, still not being read. Doris has not read it either. Doris does not need to. Doris simply stops, and looks, and the dog stops with her, and the system holds for one more afternoon. It would be nicer if it didn't have to.

I’ve written a few campaign ads in my day. But holy shit. This ad from @ossoff might be one of the best I’ve ever seen.

Still working my way through this monster cross-stitch, but it's progressing. Finished size will be 22"x22"

@dustinkittle Pass. While Bass has not been a good Mayor, the last thing I want is another angry, yelling dude. We need to elevate politics beyond accusations and talk about solutions.

We may have a first ballot entry here in the Political Campaign Ad Hall of Fame

There's nothing quite like the Yorkshire countryside on a sunny day 😍