I ran into a neighbor just now and told her about the hawk-flicker encounter. She said she saw two hawks tag-teaming a squirrel last winter.
The squirrel was not as fortunate as the flicker....
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Faunascrolling--what's visiting where you are? -
Faunascrolling--what's visiting where you are?Just saved a life. And deprived someone of dinner.
Went outside and heard a bird screeching. Looked over to my neighbor's front lawn and saw a Cooper's hawk on the lawn. Looked like it was holding something down with its talons. I walked towards it and it took off to the south. A now-free Northern flicker took off to the north.
Human messing with nature.
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Pulse-FiWiFi signals can measure heart rate—no wearables needed
Engineers prove their technique is effective even with the lowest-cost WiFi devices
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Happy birthday, kluurs!!I lost my list of birthdays and am working from memory…which puts me on very shaky turf…
@AdagioM - is yours on the 5th? I thought you were on the 6th.
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Happy birthday, AdagioM! -
Medicare to Require Prior Authorization Using AIAs @Steve-Miller said recently…What fresh hell is this???
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Happy birthday, kluurs!! -
Will you be able to get a COVID vaccine?Be prepared, fellow geezers.
Some older Americans on Medicare are facing an unexpected problem: The updated Covid shots — approved last month by the Food and Drug Administration for all adults 65 and up — aren’t being covered, forcing them to decide whether to pay out of pocket.
Allison Engel, 74, said she visited her CVS in Pasadena, California, on Tuesday, where she was told the shot would cost $225 out of pocket.
“They typed everything in, and handed me a rejection letter,” Engel said. “They told me it wasn’t in the Medicare system yet and I should come back in two weeks.”
Engel didn’t want to wait, so she paid out of pocket, and hopes Medicare will reimburse her.
Brant Mittler, 78, of San Antonio, said he and his wife stopped by their CVS pharmacy on Monday where they ran into the same issue.
“The pharmacist tells my wife, ‘We’ve had Medicare patients coming in all day, and everybody’s upset because we can’t give it,’” he said. Mittler said they got their Covid shots Thursday after the pharmacist said Medicare had updated the system there..
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How much will it cost for the Department of War rebrand?Pentagon officials grappled Friday with the Herculean task of fulfilling President Donald Trump’s executive order to remold the enormous, global agency into the Department of War.
Many expressed frustration, anger and downright confusion at the effort, which could cost billions of dollars for a cosmetic change that would do little to tackle the military’s most pressing challenges — such as countering a more aggressive alliance of authoritarian nations.The details of the order Trump signed Friday are still vague, but officials may need to change Defense Department seals on more than 700,000 facilities in 40 countries and all 50 states. This includes everything from letterhead for six military branches and dozens more agencies down to embossed napkins in chow halls, embroidered jackets for Senate-confirmed officials and the keychains and tchotchkes in the Pentagon store.
“This is purely for domestic political audiences,” said a former defense official. “Not only will this cost millions of dollars, it will have absolutely zero impact on Chinese or Russian calculations. Worse, it will be used by our enemies to portray the United States as warmongering and a threat to international stability.”
This article is based on interviews with more than half a dozen current and former defense officials, many of whom have insight into the broader sentiment in the department. The people were granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue.
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LOLcritters (gardener cats edition)
