Sad that the americans let their measles vaccination drop so low they lost herd immunity now.

Measles is absolutely no joke. Even if most cases are fairly mild. And it's not like the vaccine is difficult to access, you usually just get the combined MMR vaccine.

Am watching the cam right now and the eagles switched places, giving the camera an opportunity to zoom in on the eggs. No pips visible yet (at least from the camera side).

LPL: "I happen to have a pick for this lock..."

Of course he does.

ForgedReality wrote on Mar 3, 2024, 00:32:
COVID can cause drops in intelligence? Yikes. The Trumpanzee anti-maskers don't have much to lose in the first place. 😱

Soon all you'll hear is the droning of "One of us. One of us. One of us."

COVID can cause drops in intelligence? Yikes. The Trumpanzee anti-maskers don't have much to lose in the first place. 😱

The US Buried Nuclear Waste Abroad…

The gift that keeps on giving.

In the spring of 1946, J. Robert Oppenheimer was asked in a closed congressional hearing room "whether three or four men couldn't smuggle units of an [atomic] bomb into New York and blow up the whole city."
The father of the atomic bomb answered, "Of course it could be done, and people could destroy New York."

When a nervous senator then asked how such a weapon smuggled in a crate or even a suitcase could be detected, Oppenheimer quipped, "With a screwdriver," to open every crate, package and suitcase.

We Finally Know What Turned The Lights on at The Dawn of Time.

"They produce ionizing photons that transform neutral hydrogen into ionized plasma during cosmic reionization."

Oh. Uh, yes of course. Yep. Makes perfect...uh...

Found this on the fobbv Facebook about what’s happening in those eggs right now.
Lots of info

Breaking Out Is Hard, But You Can Do It!
February 29th is a leap day, and also the day when we start our Pip Watch. The ‘Pip’ we are watching for is the first tiny hole or crack in the eggshell and it’s created by the chick inside.

So what’s happening behind the eggshell?
As the chick reaches maximum size inside the egg, the amount of oxygen supplied through the egg membranes becomes insufficient. Sitting comfortably inside the egg is no longer an option, it’s time to go and do some hard work!
Hatching is a very strenuous process that usually takes between 1 and 3 days from start to finish. It is a major test for the chick.

First things first: the chick has to assume a very special Hatching Position inside the egg with the head tucked under the right wing and the beak pointing toward the Air Cell. The Air Cell is located at the blunt end of the bald eagle egg. It slowly expands as the inner membrane drapes over the chick and the remaining yolk and fluids are absorbed into the chick's belly. These nutrients will support the little one through the entirety of the hatching process and beyond.

The chick’s beak has a special sharp protrusion at the top, called the Egg Tooth, which will aid greatly in breaking through the egg membranes and the hard egg shell. The Egg Tooth can be visible after hatching and disappears slowly as the beak grows around it. Sometimes, it remains visible even after several weeks!

As the oxygen level continues to decrease, the Hatching Muscle at the back of the neck starts contracting. This is the best developed muscle the chick currently has, and it will play a crucial role in the process. Internal Pipping occurs once the Egg Tooth pierces through the inner membrane and the chick breaks into the Air Cell, taking its first gulp of air. Once that is accomplished, the chick will need about a day to get a lot of rest and adapt to breathing air, while the membrane responsible for the oxygen continues to recede slowly and the remaining fluids are absorbed. At this time the chick is able to vocalize softly. Internal vocalizations may be hard to hear on cameras even with highly sensitive microphones, but Jackie and Shadow should be able to hear the little chirps just fine.

External Pipping occurs once the oxygen level decreases again, prompting the chick to use the Hatching Muscle and the Egg Tooth to poke the first crack in the egg shell visible to us. The Initial Pip often looks like a small, star shaped raise or a hair width crack in the smooth surface of the eggshell. Once the chick pips externally, it will need more rest before hatching contractions can resume again, expanding the Initial Pip and turning it into a larger Pip Site. The chick will continue to vocalize between the periods of rest and sleep, and we are usually able to hear those vocalizations with our sensitive microphone.

The final effort occurs when the chick rotates inside the egg by pushing with its legs while simultaneously using the Egg Tooth to scrape the eggshell, effectively “unzipping” itself. Sometimes the rotation can only encompass half of the circumference of the egg, and it would be enough to break out.

We have noticed that when Shadow is on egg duty during hatching, he tends to be quite fidgety (isn’t he always?), rolling the egg this way and that. He may even refuse to get off the eggs to show Jackie the new addition to the family!

With lots of resting involved, the whole process may take several days. The yolk absorbed right before hatching will provide enough nutrition before the chick is ready to take on the world.

Exhausted, looking almost bald, the chick finally arrives into this world weighing only about 3 ounces. You probably guessed that it will need more time to rest and dry off to turn into a fluffy dandelion covered with light gray natal down. Since the natal down is quite thin, the chick will need warmth from parents until the thicker, thermal down develops (this is not going to happen for another 2 weeks). Meanwhile, Jackie and Shadow will continue to brood the hatchling and the remaining eggs, making sure they stay warm enough.

On February 29th, when egg1 is 35 days old, we start looking for early signs of hatching. Jackie and Shadow may start paying more attention to the eggs, spending some time “listening” to the eggs or maybe even stocking the pantry (leaving uneaten fish on the nest).

In the past, our eggs hatched around 38-39 days. However, this is our first full 3-egg clutch and we noticed that this time around egg1 got considerably more delayed incubation, so we would not be surprised if it hatched a little bit later.

1badmf wrote on Mar 2, 2024, 18:56:
...don't understand how it doesn't bother her, but she's been doing this for years so keep going mama.

So all avians have pockets of warm air that exist throughout their feathers because feathers do not lie perfectly flat. This keeps their body warm and is reheated by that same body in a recirculatory fashion. It's why raptors and other large birds don't freeze to death in frigid temperatures while smaller birds sometimes do. More mass = more heat = more comfort. She may not even feel the cold except in the nostril passages in her beak and around her eyes.

she's literally covered in ice right now and it'll only get worse through the night. don't understand how it doesn't bother her, but she's been doing this for years so keep going mama.

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Mar 2, 2024, 14:29:
I know these two are not mutually exclusive, as the CDC argument is that current Covid strains are more flu like, I just thought it was depressingly funny that one article is followed by the Covid19 article about severe mental impacts of the virus.

"Don't worry about the life changing brain trauma that you might be spreading, you can go back to work or school almost immediately!"

Plenty of people go to work with the flu by the way, or these days, send their sick kids to school anyway. I think the CDC is royally fucking up, but this WAS on my Apocalypse Bingo card, so, win win, I guess?

Time to open a for profit school is all I read.

Awe fudge.
Snow in the nest. Jackie’s back is flecked with white. Looks like the sky is spitting ice.
I hope those eaglets can stay safe in their eggs until the last minute.

The area is under a Winter Storm Warning

San Bernardino County Mountains above 6500 feet
...WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM PST SUNDAY ABOVE 6500 FEET...
WHAT...Heavy wet snow. Additional snow accumulations 5 to 8 inches above 7000 feet, 3 to 5 inches from 6500-7000 feet, and 1 to 3 inches from 5000-6500 feet. Winds gusting as high as 80 mph.

fobbv also runs a second camera that shows a wide view of the tree, so you can get an idea of how high it is.

I laughed out loud about that too... It's all bullshit from top to bottom.

RedEye9 wrote on Mar 2, 2024, 14:41:
EDIT
Found the wind info in the Live Chat “pinned” notes.
Strong sustained winds and wind gusts are not uncommon in the mountains (~7100 ft ASL). Our nest has withstood wind gusts in excess of 80 mph over the years, sustained winds - in excess of 40mph.
Posted by Kathy Chortles

Whoa, that's cool. So the eagle's name is Kathy Chortles? I never knew that eagles could live chat!

I'm a little amazed though that peeping on eagles is so popular. Is it not enough that we spy on our own species with shows like Big Brother? Did Kathy sign up for this?

Anyway, it is certainly better than watching some shitfluencer so carry on...

We Finally Know What Turned The Lights on at The Dawn of Time

Well that's great and all but what about the night that the lights went out in Georgia?

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Mar 2, 2024, 14:29:
I know these two are not mutually exclusive, as the CDC argument is that current Covid strains are more flu like, I just thought it was depressingly funny that one article is followed by the Covid19 article about severe mental impacts of the virus.

"Don't worry about the life changing brain trauma that you might be spreading, you can go back to work or school almost immediately!"

Plenty of people go to work with the flu by the way, or these days, send their sick kids to school anyway. I think the CDC is royally fucking up, but this WAS on my Apocalypse Bingo card, so, win win, I guess?

From NPR
there are almost 20,000 people getting hospitalized with COVID each week…
Most of those hospitalizations (and deaths) are in people who are 65 and older..
95% of people hospitalized with COVID did not get a fall booster shot.

A couple people I told keep it running in the background, (you’re sure to never miss any of the action because an Eagles call is piercing), glad you like it.
Big Bear Eagle~Nate Goes Up To Big Bear Nest For Cam Maintenance! Moves Shadow's Pine Cone 😊 10.5.21 Shows him climbing the tree and Gives some idea of the size of the nest.

I read somewhere about the winds that the nest has experienced, I can’t find the link but it can handle some real weather.💨🍃🌬️
From the faq https://www.friendsofbigbearvalley.org/eagles/eagle-faq/
It is estimated that the nest is about 120 feet high, very near the top of a Jeffrey pine tree.

EDIT
Found the wind info in the Live Chat “pinned” notes.
Strong sustained winds and wind gusts are not uncommon in the mountains (~7100 ft ASL). Our nest has withstood wind gusts in excess of 80 mph over the years, sustained winds - in excess of 40mph.
Posted by Kathy Chortles

Reading some of the history, they’ve lost their fair share of eaglets due to exposure during severe weather. 2014, 2018, 2019
https://www.friendsofbigbearvalley.org/eagles-updates/

This comment was edited on Mar 2, 2024, 15:10.

I know these two are not mutually exclusive, as the CDC argument is that current Covid strains are more flu like, I just thought it was depressingly funny that one article is followed by the Covid19 article about severe mental impacts of the virus.

"Don't worry about the life changing brain trauma that you might be spreading, you can go back to work or school almost immediately!"

Plenty of people go to work with the flu by the way, or these days, send their sick kids to school anyway. I think the CDC is royally fucking up, but this WAS on my Apocalypse Bingo card, so, win win, I guess?