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Better Than Coffee: The Maori Legend of the Kiwi [Nov. 9th, 2009|11:50 am]
coilhouse

[Good morning, dear comrades. I'm chugging redbull and running to catch a ferry in a few minutes, so please forgive the sloppiness of this edition of BTC!]

Last night, I and ten other curious folks took a guided nocturnal hike through the Karori Sanctuary. A dense and verdant square mile of forest located mere minutes from downtown Wellington, the preserve is surrounded by a predator-proof fence (specially designed to keep out invasive species like hedgehogs, possums, cats and dogs), and has become “a safe haven for some of [New Zealand's] most iconic and endangered native animals, including tuatara, little spotted kiwi, saddleback, hihi and giant weta.”

kiwilsom copy

Our lovely tour guide, Tracy, told us that there are approximately 100 little spotted kiwis living in the sanctuary. They’re extremely shy and elusive critters, so there was no guarantee we’d get to see one. But we lucked out and encountered one foraging in the underbrush mere feet from the trail. He was one of most adorable, strange, lovable creatures I have ever seen. I will cherish the memory of his fuzzy rump bounding off through the twilight for the rest of my life.

There are hundreds of different factoids I could share about his species. Perhaps when I return from my travels in a few days, I’ll add some of them in comments. Hopefully some of Coilhouse’s more knowledgable NZ and/or birding readership will chime in as well?

For now, here is the Maori legend of New Zealand’s beloved hairy little whiskered flightless bird, imparted by Ben, Hayden and Gavin, three young storytellers from Mangakahia Area School in Titoki, Northland:

The Maori Legend:

Why Kiwi Lives on the Forest Floor

One day the king of the forest, Tanemahuta, was walking through the forest. He looked at his trees and noticed that they looked sick. They were being eaten by the bugs that lived on the forest floor. Tanemahuta told his brother Tanehokahoka (King of the sky) what had happened to his children the trees.

Tanehokahoka wanted to help his brother so he called all the birds together for a meeting. Tanemahuta said to them all
“The ground bugs are eating the trees. I need one of you to give up your life in the sky and come and live on the forest floor so the trees will be saved. Who will come?

Tanemahuta and Tanehokahoka waited and listened – but everything was quiet, and not a single bird spoke. Tanehokahoka turned to Tui…

[Story continues after the jump]


Read the rest of Better Than Coffee: The Maori Legend of the Kiwi


Post tags: Better than coffee, Flora & Fauna

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(no subject) [Nov. 9th, 2009|10:34 pm]

tws_support

[thesaurosie]
http://robert-lindsay.blogspot.com/2009/10/face-split-diving-accident-video.html

video and story


have a nice day!

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Daily Twitter [Nov. 10th, 2009|12:00 am]

jsr
  • 00:21 My laptop can't handle WoW and playing an episode of Jeeves and Wooster simultaneously. From the bath. #firstworldproblems #
  • 00:22 I mean, it does work, but the fps in WoW is quite low. #
  • 13:09 Finally got my copy of Emmas book. And it's excellent. Plus, there are boobs on the cover and my co-workers saw this when I opened it. #
  • 15:14 @Ghetsuhm Your boobs are embargoed? That's not usually the case. #
  • 15:47 Drat. Work wants me to film something, but my tripod is busted. Can anyone recommend a source for a good video camera tripod? #
Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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Too lazy to blog [Nov. 9th, 2009|11:30 pm]

camelopard_boy

  • 12:26 @HORansome Words? Never use 'em myself. They give you leprosy, don't you know. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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Japanese science fiction [Nov. 9th, 2009|09:09 pm]

sf_with_bite

[dfordoom]
I can name plenty of Japanese science fiction movies, but I'm afraid I can't name any Japanese writers n the genre. Except perhaps Haruki Murakami, some of whose stuff might qualify as science fiction.

I'm sure there must be others. Does anyone want to recommend any?
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The Ginger Has Landed. [Nov. 9th, 2009|03:42 am]

heragonylost
[Tags|, , , , , , , , , , , ]
[Current Location |Work.]
[mood | impressed]
[music |Babylon Zoo - Spaceman | Powered by Last.fm]

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )
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The Streets Of San Diablo [Nov. 9th, 2009|08:39 am]

act_i_vate

[tallguywrites]
News. I'm restarting The Streets Of San Diablo on Activate.com. The strip will return at the end of November and appear every Monday. http://act-i-vate.com/index

I've been so busy with my Psychiatric Tales book project that I had to put San Diablo on hiatus. However, now that book is almost finished, I can get back to my freakish Western/superhero/horror mash up tale. Yippee!

Psychiatric Tales will be out from Blank Slate in February. You can see chapters here: http://darryl-cunningham.blogspot.com/

Here's a frame from the first new San Diablo page.

demons in hell
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This actually happened... [Nov. 9th, 2009|12:11 am]

ghoulgurl
[mood | amused]

DSC01878
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(no subject) [Nov. 9th, 2009|07:18 am]

vintage_ads

[carabaas]

Оригинал Ссылка откроется в новом окне  (714×1024)
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(no subject) [Nov. 9th, 2009|07:17 am]

vintage_ads

[carabaas]

Оригинал Ссылка откроется в новом окне  (752×1024)
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(no subject) [Nov. 9th, 2009|07:10 am]

vintage_ads

[carabaas]

Оригинал Ссылка откроется в новом окне  (910×1297)
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(no subject) [Nov. 9th, 2009|04:02 pm]

lillim
uhh...wut?

Ascension in the Terrorgraph!

AS controversial ARIA nominee Ladyhawke played down the road, things got into the, er, gloom at a reoccurring goth night called Ascension at the Sly Fox Hotel earlier on, where piercings, platforms and pink hair pervade and The Cure play on repeat. But we learnt never to judge a goth by its make up - everyone was lovely and only one person tried to bite us. Just joking.
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(no subject) [Nov. 8th, 2009|11:56 pm]

act_i_vate

[iconotrast]
Photobucket

A week & a half of book touring and an unexpected job
caused me to miss last weeks posting.
Sorry.

Here’s page 53 of “Adventures of The Floating Elephant!”
At Activatecomix.com!

See it right here:
http://activatecomix.com/23-1-53.comic

Read “Adventures of the Floating Elephant” from the start:
http://activatecomix.com/23-1-1.comic

Thanks for reading!
link

George of the Jungle [Nov. 8th, 2009|10:18 pm]

k_e_l_l_e_t_h
[mood | delighted]

Late on Friday afternoon, Jourdan and I found ourselves wandering into the Toronto Humane Society for the third time in two weeks, oggling the kitties. Having been there the day before as well, we were surprised to see that many of the cats from the day before were gone and that so many new ones had arrived. Then we spotted a familiar face from the day before, George. At a mere two months old, George was the smallest kitten there and had his face pressed into his mother's belly but would jump up and come to greet us everytime we passed by. We had our eyes on a couple older cats as well but opted to adopt a kitten due to the fact that the Humane Society won't let you touch any of the animals, even if you're ready to adopt (a policy that definitely needs to be revised) and none of the staff there seemed able to give us any information on any of their personalities. We were debating between George and another kitten when we noticed that another young couple behind us was about to enquire about George too! We practically threw ourselves on the counter and screamed "George!!!" (don't worry, the other couple opted for another little guy). George has adjusted to his new home magnificently. He is fearless and definitely LOVES attention and having his head rubbed. After the first day of having quite a number of accidents, George quickly took to his litter box and is now a pro. He follows us around the house, loves curling up between us for a nap and, I swear, purrs 24/7. I don't know how I ever lived without him. He's the love of my life!

Pussy behind the cut )
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The joke's on me ... [Nov. 9th, 2009|04:12 pm]

phaedravelveta
[mood |Apprehensive]

After making a rather inappropriate comment on [info]six_demon_bag's entry I've just realised the irony ...
A cut to spare you my unpleasant medical procedure )
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desserts-cupcakes -allergies-gluten/wheat [Nov. 8th, 2009|08:58 pm]

vegancooking

[hobochan]
[Tags|, , ]

I attend a game every week with my friends and have ALWAYS brought goodies for everybody (totaling six people). I guess part of my love for it is the smug feeling of victory when they eat it and say it's too good, it couldn't possibly be vegan (HA!).

I've been thrown a curve-ball, though. One of the girls found out she's allergic to gluten. While I make something twice a year for my gluten intolerant aunt, I'm definitely not prepared for an every week goodie.

Do any of you have recipes for group treats that you've liked? Also, are there any flour mixtures that you use for a cupcake base - or is it a case-by-case basis? The more creative, the better! Thank you all, in advance.
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Weegee [Nov. 8th, 2009|09:54 pm]

adski_kafeteri

[sensen]
[Tags|]

Image and video hosting by TinyPic
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SUCCESS! [Nov. 9th, 2009|03:03 pm]

ellebabe
THE WARDROBE IS FINISHED!

Yay!
link2 comments|post comment

Laced [Nov. 9th, 2009|01:46 am]

darkpinupgirls

[azrelle]
( You are about to view content that may only be appropriate for adults. )
link1 comment|post comment

RANDOM [Nov. 8th, 2009|05:09 pm]

adski_kafeteri

[deev]

++++++++++++ )
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