Night Music ~ This is Your Fight Song (Rachel Platten Scottish Cover) - The Piano Guys

Toad Tuesday

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lemurs (/ˈliːmər/ ( listen) LEE-mər) are a clade of strepsirrhine primates endemic to the island of Madagascar. The word lemur derives from the word lemures (ghosts or spirits) from Roman mythology and was first used to describe a slender loris due to its nocturnal habits and slow pace, but was later applied to the primates on Madagascar. As with other strepsirrhine primates, such as lorises, pottos, and galagos (bush babies), lemurs share resemblance with basal primates. In this regard, lemurs are often confused with ancestral primates, when in actuality, lemurs did not give rise to monkeysand apes, but evolved independently.^[5]

Variety of lemurs, from top to bottom and left to right: Ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) Diademed Sifaka (Propithecus diadema) Aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) Giant sloth lemur (Archaeoindris fontoynonti) Gray mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus) Red-tailed sportive lemur (Lepilemur ruficaudatus) Red-fronted brown lemur (Eulemur rufifrons) Black-and-white ruffed lemur (Varecia variegata)

Due to Madagascar's highly seasonal climate, lemur evolution has produced a level of species diversity rivaling that of any other primate group. Until shortly after humans arrived on the island around 2,000 years ago, there were lemurs as large as a male gorilla. Today, there are nearly 100 species of lemurs, and most of those species have been discovered or promoted to full species status since the 1990s; however, lemur taxonomic classification is controversial and depends on which species concept is used. Even the higher-level taxonomy is disputed, with some experts preferring to place most lemurs within the infraorder Lemuriformes, while others prefer Lemuriformes to contain all living strepsirrhines, placing all lemurs in the superfamily Lemuroidea and all lorises and galagos in the superfamily Lorisoidea.^[a]

Ranging in weight from the 30-gram (1.1 oz) mouse lemur to the 9-kilogram (20 lb) indri, lemurs share many common, basal primate traits, such as divergent digits on their hands and feet and nails instead of claws (in most species). However, their brain-to-body size ratio is smaller than that of anthropoid primates, and among many other traits they share with other strepsirrhine primates, they have a "wet nose" (rhinarium). Lemurs are generally the most social of the strepsirrhine primates and communicate more with scents and vocalizations than with visual signals.√ Many lemur adaptations are in response to Madagascar's highly seasonal environment. Lemurs have relatively low basal metabolic rates and may exhibit seasonal breeding, dormancy (such as hibernation or torpor), or female social dominance. Most eat a wide variety of fruits and leaves, while some are specialists. Although many share similar diets, different species of lemur share the same forests by differentiating niches.

Lemur research during the 18th and 19th centuries focused on taxonomy and specimen collection. Although field observations trickled in from early explorers, modern studies of lemur ecology and behavior did not begin in earnest until the 1950s and 1960s. Initially hindered by political instability and turmoil on Madagascar during the mid-1970s, field studies resumed in the 1980s and have greatly increased the understanding of these primates. Research facilities like the Duke Lemur Center have provided research opportunities under more controlled settings. Lemurs are important for research because their mix of ancestral characteristics and traits shared with anthropoid primates can yield insights on primate and human evolution. However, many lemur species are threatened with extinction due to habitat loss and hunting. Although local traditions generally help protect lemurs and their forests, illegal logging, widespread poverty, and political instability hinder and undermine conservation efforts. Because of these threats and their declining numbers, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) considers lemurs to be the world's most endangered mammals, noting that—as of 2013—up to 90% of all lemur species face extinction within the next 20 to 25 years. ....

Smithsonian article.

Night Music ~ Driving Miss Daisy Theme

Molly and Todd on Monday

 Molly here,

    We had a visitor.  Bruce came over to pick a couple of things up for Ginny.  He and I had a nice visit.  Todd as usual went into hiding.  He has trouble warming up to new people.

B G woke up in the morning and saw the full moon.  He said it was a "worm moon" because it was getting warmer and the weather wake up and the worms come out start  working.

Theresa came to see us.  She and I talk and B G also talks to us. 

She is a good friend and sometimes she the only person we talk to.. Oh of course B G gets a lot of wrong numbers because his phone number is close to HyVee's so a lot of people call looking for HyVee.  Their number is a 1-800 number and ours is a 1-515 so a lot of people make that mistake.

Then we get ready for our nap.

 And we got our bouquet for February.  Almost did not make it in time. but we like it.

Thanks for stopping by to see us.  Woof!

Night Music ~ Billy Watman - Bohemian Rhapsody (Classical Guitar)

Apiarian

"Were I to be the founder of a new sect,

I would call them Apiarians, and, after the example of the bee,

advise them to extract the honey of every sect."  

- Thomas Jefferson

“War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace.”

~Thomas Mann

"Joy is not in things; it is in us."

~ Richard Wagner

“There is nothing that war has ever achieved

that we could not better achieve without it.”

~H. Havelock Ellis

"Fight your tongue , The tongue is quick to kill a man.

The tongue is the posting of the heart.

It shows a man his intellect."

Abdullah bin al-Mubara

"In small proportions we just beauties see,

And in short measures life may perfect be."

- Ben Jonson

“Instead of hating the people you think are war-makers, hate the appetites and disorder in your own soul, which are the causes of war. If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed - but hate these things in yourself, not in another.”

~Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation

"You look back on some little decision you made

and realize all the things that happened because of it,

and you think to yourself 'if only I'd known,'

but, of course, you couldn't have known."

~Mary Downing Hahn (b.1937)

“I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars

for young men to die in.”

~George S. McGovern

Someday, after mastering the winds,

the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God

the energies of love, and then, for a second time

in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.”

~Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Be grateful to those who left you,

for it gave you the strength to grow in the space

they abandoned and appreciate the people

who embraced you when they saw the person that you truly

were before you did. The truth is, unless you let go,

unless you forgive yourself and others,

unless you forget the situation, unless you realize that that situation is over, you cannot move forward."

~Zakia Usmani