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Carrion Luggage

by Waltz in the Lonesome October

Rated: 18+ · Book · Opinion · #2336646

Items to fit into your overhead compartment

Carrion Luggage

Native to the Americas, the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) travels widely in search of sustenance. While usually foraging alone, it relies on other individuals of its species for companionship and mutual protection. Sometimes misunderstood, sometimes feared, sometimes shunned, it nevertheless performs an important role in the ecosystem.

This scavenger bird is a marvel of efficiency. Rather than expend energy flapping its wings, it instead locates uplifting columns of air, and spirals within them in order to glide to greater heights. This behavior has been mistaken for opportunism, interpreted as if it is circling doomed terrestrial animals destined to be its next meal. In truth, the vulture takes advantage of these thermals to gain the altitude needed glide longer distances, flying not out of necessity, but for the joy of it.

It also avoids the exertion necessary to capture live prey, preferring instead to feast upon that which is already dead. In this behavior, it resembles many humans.

It is not what most of us would consider to be a pretty bird. While its habits are often off-putting, or even disgusting, to members of more fastidious species, the turkey vulture helps to keep the environment from being clogged with detritus. Hence its Latin binomial, which translates to English as "golden purifier."

I rarely know where the winds will take me next, or what I might find there. The journey is the destination.

Show Recent Comments

10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

tj says Boris sent me

about 3 hours ago
In response to "Naturally"

When I first read the title, I thought "chemophobe" was a person with a deep fear of chemotherapy. I fear each coming infusion, know the effects, but it's not a phobia:

As for: “I should really get the organic peaches,” I say yes, the plastic and wax ones are terrible.

As for Twinkies, I've heard that they have been found in the tombs of pharaohs along with honey, both of which were still good!

2 Like

Annette

about 4 hours ago
In response to "Naturally"

I remember when bags of gummy bears were advertised as 99% fat free.

That's when I gave up on "free from something something" claims.

If a product is known to be one thing (sugar and colors) and I've agreed to eat it because it's fun and I enjoy it, then telling me a random factoid usually puts me off.

But I'm the kind of person who understands that I AGREE with the ingredients in prepared foods if I choose to buy and eat them.

The chemophobes are a sad group of people who need to go back to second grade reading and comprehension class.

3 Like

Spudy Specter👻

about 5 hours ago
In response to "Naturally"

I ate Cheetos and peppermint patties while reading this.

4 Like

Battywyn🎶Prep!

about 6 hours ago
In response to "Naturally"

You already know you and I are sympatico on this topic. Don't even get me started on GMOs. But I did want to thank you for the (ridiculously punny) apple article. I shall keep that up my sleeve for future arguments debates, since the article is probably nicer than I am when the topic of "chemicals" comes up.

3 Like

🌝 HuntersMoon

about 6 hours ago
In response to "Naturally"

Hey! What's wrong with Twinkies?

OK, if you actually read labels you'd never eat again. As you point out, most of the "chemicals" are found in nature. Few people are sitting in a lab, beakers boiling, creating the next wonder food.

Until something is shown to be harmful, just consider yourself part of the long term study and enjoy.

3 Like

tj says Boris sent me

about 23 hours ago
In response to "Flick of the Risk"

Unfortunately, fear, whether justified or not, has been used to influence people since the dawn of humanity. As for natural and unnatural, if it comes from nature, it's natural; if it's created by wizardry and magic, it's unnatural. It may be a very simple explanation, but it works for me.

1 Like

Annette

a day ago
In response to "Flick of the Risk"

Waltz in the Lonesome October

- I was aware that apples are a poor example of something natural because of all the GMO. As of now at least, they still grow on trees. We don't manufacture them by baking sugar and coating it with sugar. (yet?)

I wonder if a Twinkie tree would look good in my front yard.

2 Like

Waltz in the Lonesome October

a day ago
In response to "Flick of the Risk"

Annette

- I think his point is that the apple you're describing is the result of some amount of genetic manipulation and/or had insecticides, fungicides, etc. used on it. "Natural" doesn't always mean "better;" poison ivy and deadly nightshade are "natural." And as he notes, lots of our food has been subject to selective breeding at the very least.

What you're describing is, in my view at least, the difference between lightly processed and heavily processed.

And also in my view, we humans are part of the natural world, so anything we do can be considered natural. Even Twinkies.

2 Like

Annette

a day ago
In response to "Flick of the Risk"

"every single item in supermarkets has received some amount of manipulation by humans and finding any boundary between natural and unnatural becomes impossible"

That's like he just said, "I'm a blithering idiot with zero discriminative abilities."

A normal person can understand that an apple tree was planted, apples were harvested, apples were put into crates, and apples are displayed in a supermarket. They are, for the most part, a natural item.
To say that the Hostess cake next to it, which is designed to be our food supply after the nuclear holocaust, has no natural/unnatural boundary compared to an apple is so far beneath dumb that I don't know what to call it.

1 Like

Spudy Specter👻

a day ago
In response to "Flick of the Risk"

Although the dark side of allegedly "Science Based Laws" is the Eugenics movement and the policies of the Third Reich. Yes those were somewhat based in messed up philosophy. However, they were based on the warped application of science by Charles Darwin's cousin .(His name escapes me.)

Then there's companies like Montsanto who use Science to develop and patent GMO crop lines. Without purchasing Monsanto's seeds a farmer couldn't plant "Roundup Ready" crops. Otherwise that farmer that "broke" that law was subject to lawsuits and possibly being snitched on by the neighbors.

Ideally I think it would be best for laws to be science based and ethical. (E,g. In the best interests of the people and not Third Reichy.)

2 Like

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