The US Fish & Wildlife Service has a feather atlas to help people ID North American birds.

It’s not perfect as they may only have feathers from one or two individuals, and like people birds of the same species aren’t all identical. But it’s still a good resource. Plus it has an Identify My Feather feature that’s fun and interesting to use.

I wonder if it’s a Gaillardia species or something related to an oxeye daisy - the leaf clasping a “branch” as it shoots off the stem reminds me of them

Did you buy it as seeds or a plant, or did it come up on its own? You are right, this don’t appear to be an Asclepias species, which typically have single leaves that come directly off the stem.

English word: curmudgeon or cattywampus

French word: hippopotame

We couldn’t be happier. And if you can afford to pay for a year up front, it’s only $15/line per month for unlimited data ($180 for the year). We just switched to that after using US Mobile for about 2 years. I wanted to be absolutely sure it worked before prepaying for an entire year.

Edit: Clarifying the price

Look into US Mobile. It runs on Verizon’s network (I think T-mobile too actually, you pick one or the other when you sign up). We have 3 phones sharing 12gb for $41 per month. You can also do a “top-up” of an extra 5gb for $10 if you’re running low one month, and it only charges for that month - meaning the next month they only charge you the 12gb plan.

Both rurally and in large Midwestern cities we’ve never had any issues with a connection. Which I did worry about them making us low priority since we’re piggy backing Verizon. But so far at least I haven’t seen it happen.

I’ve been on 2 cruises and enjoyed them, which still kinda shocks me because I’m generally an introvert who doesn’t like going to crowded places. However there are a few reasons I liked the cruises I took and would consider going on one again:

1. The first cruise only had 1 “at sea” day (out of 7). The rest of the days we were in a port. The 2nd cruise did have 2 at sea days but they were at the beginning and end of the cruise. I’d probably stick with just 1 at sea day if looking at a cruise in the future.

2. To me the ship is just the hotel. It’s where I sleep, and the food is decent with the added bonus that I don’t have to cook or wash the dishes. With the cruises I went on, we got deals where it was cheaper per night than sleeping in many hotels. And we never had a problem finding some quiet corner to hang out if we didn’t want to be in our room when we were on the boat.

3. I didn’t take any tours offered through the cruise. Instead we would get off the boat and use public transportation or a cab to take us to where we wanted to explore for the day. This let us avoid the cruise crowds.

4. I didn’t feel much sales pressure. Yes they mentioned a couple times about getting a deal if you book your next cruise before the one I was on finished, but I knew I wasn’t interested. I just ignored it and no one bothered me about it. I also didn’t have any presentations I had to sit through either.

It’s definitely not the only way I’d vacation, but I’d take a cruise again under certain circumstances.

How did you find out your sleep cycle length?

See also: “Just do (whatever task you’re struggling with).”

As if it’s as easy as that for everyone.

I’ve met a gastroenterologist named Dr. Brown