[ID: a line less illustration of a gila monster, a vulture, and a fennec fox surrounded by desert motifs including an arrow, a shrub, a feather, a sun, and some cacti. End.]
The devilishly handsome lappet-faced vulture (don’t argue with me) or Nubian vulture was named for the two flaps of skin, known as lappets, that decorate either side of the bird’s head and neck. They’re also endangered like many vulture species, so show them some love!
In honor of vulture awareness day, let me ask you a question.
Do you love vultures?
You should.
Here’s why:
1, They are simultaneously the most majestic, and the most f*cking derpy of birbs. Observe -
2. THEY’RE SO FUCKING BADASS. We all know that they eat dead things. Eww, right? Wrong. They’re capable of digesting fucking rabies, cholera, hundreds of strains of bacteria that would straight up kill your ass given the chance. They deserve ALL of the respect, but they don’t get any, because ‘eww they eat dead things’.
3. THEY ARE FUCKING AMAZING AT WHAT THEY DO - Some of the highest flying birds ever recorded, with amazing eyesight and smell. Vultures are highly specialised - yes, that means they sometimes have bald heads. So what? People are all over sphinx cats and those semi-hairless dogs.
4. If you think they’re ugly, well, look at these precious babs and tell me you still don’t feel anything:
I have more reasons, but, look, I’ll just get straight to the point:
THEY’RE GOING EXTINCT, AND MORE PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW.
Populations of some vultures have fallen more than 90% in the last 20 years, and that’s scary as fuck. Reasons for this range from livestock carcasses being contaminated with certain drugs, to poachers killing them off because vultures give them away. But whatever the reasons, they’re dying off fast, and we need to act before it’s too late. We need to help protect them and conserve them as much if not more than some of the ‘cuter’ endangered creatures.
So what can you do? Here are some useful links if you want to learn more:
Please consider helping our seldom appreciated vulture buddies, either by donating, or even just by helping to change their bad reputation!!
They really are amazing birds ~ thank you for sticking with my long-ass post
:P
IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN, PALS!!!!
in the last year, I’ve visited several bird of prey specialist centres, many of which are now actively championing the plight of our vulture friends - trying hard to endear them to the public and supporting/ participating in overseas causes that help in various ways. One of these places was the Hawk Conservancy Trust which, if you’re in the UK, I HIGHLY recommend - both for the quality of the centre and the displays they run, and for the extensive conservation work they do at home and overseas!
Anyway, enough talk. It’s time to appreciate this sleepy boy.
But you forgot my most favorite of all!! The Bearded Vulture (Lammergeier or Ossifrage)!!!
Hucksters and quacks always try to cash in on a crisis, but the coronavirus is fast becoming a windfall for those already on top. Guamblog identifies a flock of shameless pandemic profiteers who have been circling for weeks…and have landed, lining their nest with $300,000 in pandemic money.
Despite the proliferation of low-level hucksterism, when we get to the other side of this pandemic, the people already sitting atop mountains of cash are the usual suspects who will have raked in even more…while the rest of us sit at home trying to figure out how to put food on the table for the coming week.
From the moment Lou & Josh decided to finally address the inevitable, after making a commercial inviting people from virus sticken countries to come to Guam, they began to work on a framework that would allow the petty thievery of profiteers and price-gouging on critical pandemic supplies, by their friends.
Last Thursday, guamblog sent the former Kotex sales honcho over at Homeland Security, Tim Aguon, as well as the Civil Defense administrator Charles Esteves, a Freedom of Information request. The public needs to see all the contracts, agreements, and proposals, wholly or partially implemented by GovGuam as part of the Covid-19 a.k.a. Wuhan virus crisis since March 1st.
I also asked for all electronic, digital and paper communications related to any such contracts, which would include emails and WhatsApp messages, so we can have full transparency in how this confounding pandemic response has been handled, thus far.
The next day, I FOIA’d Lou for similar, but slightly different and more targeted information related to pandemic contracts and expenses.
Tim and Chuck have not acknowledged receiving the FOIA requests. But, Adelup has.
Guamblog will analyze the information and timeline and publish our findings for the public. One of the things I will be looking for is more info on the outrageous, and shameless profiteering reflected in the price gouging of test kits sold by Lou & Josh’s cronies to the government.
At some point in time, according to guamblog sources, Lou ordered 6,000 test kits from her friends, Bic Sobti, Brian Bamba, Derrick Quinata and his auntie Annmarie Muña. The test kits were acquired by these profiteers at $15, per kit according to sources. The vultures then jacked the price up to $60, and sold them without a bid, RFP or competition to GovGuam.
Instead of getting the test kits directly, through GSA for $15 each, Lou shelled out way above the $35 average price tag…the amount paid by the CNMI government for their kits - including shipping.
Lou more recently, oddly cited a conversation with her ‘friend’, the republican governor of Maryland, who also acquired for his state test kits from South Korea; 500,000…at about $35 each - a small detail of the conversation which Lou conveniently failed to mention to media.
Lou and Josh ignored Guam law against price gouging durng a public emergency to slide a tidy $300,000 profit to their greedy pals.
Meantime, guamblog gets messages from people pleading for help because they are worried about being able to feed their kids. They don’t have answers about when they will receive a stimulus check. Or go back to work.
They are told to go get food stamps.
While, Lou and Josh hook their friends up to line their pockets with easy money at the expense, health and life of island residents, they are turning the island into a welfare state.
The scheme to enrich a group of greedy pandemic vultures seeking to prey on the fear and anxieties of Guam residents was coordinated by Josh Tenorio, and massaged for weeks in stealthy meetings.
Over that same period, he has done nothing for the people of Guam. Together with Lou, they have little to show how they have worked to make it easier for island residents to access the same funds they have already started shelling out in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to their rich friends, even as tens of thousands of families are shut out of work and school….and roads.
Our lives are on hold, while they focus on how to funnel federal aid money into their already full coffers. We struggle as they plot ways to take away our rights and liberties so we cannot ask about thier pandemic pillaging and price gouging schemes.
We will get through this crisis as a community – despite Lou and Josh, and their flock of scavenging pals.
But when we do arrive on the other side of this later this year, we should all resolve to meet in November, and start the real work of putting these bandits, gangsters, pirates, profiteers and pillagers, along with their corrupt, amoral value system, where they belong – in the dustbin of Guam’s history.
In honor of vulture awareness day, let me ask you a question.
Do you love vultures?
You should.
Here’s why:
1, They are simultaneously the most majestic, and the most f*cking derpy of birbs. Observe -
2. THEY’RE SO FUCKING BADASS. We all know that they eat dead things. Eww, right? Wrong. They’re capable of digesting fucking rabies, cholera, hundreds of strains of bacteria that would straight up kill your ass given the chance. They deserve ALL of the respect, but they don’t get any, because ‘eww they eat dead things’.
3. THEY ARE FUCKING AMAZING AT WHAT THEY DO - Some of the highest flying birds ever recorded, with amazing eyesight and smell. Vultures are highly specialised - yes, that means they sometimes have bald heads. So what? People are all over sphinx cats and those semi-hairless dogs.
4. If you think they’re ugly, well, look at these precious babs and tell me you still don’t feel anything:
I have more reasons, but, look, I’ll just get straight to the point:
THEY’RE GOING EXTINCT, AND MORE PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW.
Populations of some vultures have fallen more than 90% in the last 20 years, and that’s scary as fuck. Reasons for this range from livestock carcasses being contaminated with certain drugs, to poachers killing them off because vultures give them away. But whatever the reasons, they’re dying off fast, and we need to act before it’s too late. We need to help protect them and conserve them as much if not more than some of the ‘cuter’ endangered creatures.
So what can you do? Here are some useful links if you want to learn more:
Please consider helping our seldom appreciated vulture buddies, either by donating, or even just by helping to change their bad reputation!!
They really are amazing birds ~ thank you for sticking with my long-ass post
:P
IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN, PALS!!!!
in the last year, I’ve visited several bird of prey specialist centres, many of which are now actively championing the plight of our vulture friends - trying hard to endear them to the public and supporting/ participating in overseas causes that help in various ways. One of these places was the Hawk Conservancy Trust which, if you’re in the UK, I HIGHLY recommend - both for the quality of the centre and the displays they run, and for the extensive conservation work they do at home and overseas!
Anyway, enough talk. It’s time to appreciate this sleepy boy.
But you forgot my most favorite of all!! The Bearded Vulture (Lammergeier or Ossifrage)!!!
[ID: A cropped photo showing a cellphone tower made of white metal, with 20 black vultures perched on it, many of them sleeping with their heads resting on their wings. The vultures have black feathers and featherless dark grey faces, and are numbered 1-20, perched on various places on the tower. The sky is dark blue behind them, with light coming from the setting sun on the forward right side of the picture. End ID.]
the rest of the flock was sleeping in the pine trees nearby.
This King vulture (Sarcoramphus papa) is ready for takeoff on this #Feathursday! #SciArt by Friedrich Wilhelm Kuhnert for Richard Lydekker, Wild Life of the World, Vol. 2 (1916). Contributed for digitization by the Gerstein Science Information Centre (@gersteinlibrary), University of Toronto Libraries (@uoftlibraries) to #BiodiversityHeritageLibrary. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/21739111 _________________________________________________ #KingVulture #Vultures #Birds #Ornithology #BHLib #Biodiversity #NaturalHistory #NatHist #ScientificIllustration #ScientificArt #OpenAccess #Libraries #Archives #SpecialCollections #LibrariesofInstagram #IGLibraries #IG_Libraries #UniversityofToronto #UofTLibraries #UofT
