tiny-librarian:

On March 15th, in 44 B.C., Gaius Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of conspirators led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus. Marc Antony had gotten wind of the plot the night before and tried to head Caesar off, but the conspirators intercepted Caesar before he could do so.

Caesar was assassinated just outside the Theatre of Pompey, and not directly inside the Senate Chambers as many paintings and dramatic retellings would have us believe.

Over 60 men were said to have participated in the murder, and Caesar was stabbed a total of 23 times. According to the autopsy performed after the fact, just one of the stab woulds, the second to his chest, had been fatal.

lazyevaluationranch:

2/8 The chickens and ducks spend nights locked up inside the nice coyote-free chicken house. Most mornings, the peacocks make an incredible sky-curdling racket until someone lets the chickens out.

“Aw, how cute,” I said. “They miss their little chicken friends,” I said.

That was before I read this article.

According to a new study by Roslyn Dakin and Robert Montgomerie, published in The American Naturalist, male peacocks will sometimes sit around making fake sex sounds, noises loud enough to be heard far and wide—a trick to make other peacocks think they’re getting some.
Whenever a peacock attempts to mate, he gives an exuberant squeal or hoot call as he rushes towards the female and attempts to mount her. 

Sometimes, though, says the new research, the males will make this characteristic sex sound even when they’ve got nothing going on. But here’s the thing: faking claims of sexual prowess actually make the males seem sexier. Females are more likely to visit males after they give a solo hoot call, and we confirm using a playback experiment that females are attracted to the sound of the hoot.

Does this look like the face of a fancybird who waits for the chickens to be out of sight so he can wake the entire peninsula up with his FAKE SEX HOOTS?

Yes. Yes it does.

lazyevaluationranch:

Tesseract is delighted that someone has finally recognized her rightful role as a fashion leader! All these long and weary years she has been living with people who think Pants With A Loop You Can Hang Fencing Pliers On are a good clothing decision. None of them know the proper way to model a delightful Vintage Mid-Eighties Nautical-Themed Beach Towel.

Her first act after she is finally appointed as a member of the Fashion Police is going to be to make all Pockets With Snaps Or Zippers That Exclude Nosy Goats From The Delicious And Fragile Contents Of Said Pockets illegal.