Elephant mothers don’t get cards, flowers or presents on Mother’s Day, but they definitely deserve them. Mammal mothers are all stellar (compared to snake moms, for example), but the female pachyderms all should receive a huge bouquet of carrots for exceptional mothering.

Female elephants have the longest gestation of any animal…..22 months. Then, while still standing up, they deliver their 300 pound babies. Fortunately, each mother takes one or two “nurse” elephants with her to a secluded spot for the birth, and, again fortunately, twins are extremely rare.

The big baby is helped to its feet and soon starts nursing. Each day, 10 gallons of milk are consumed and 2 pounds of weight are gained. To produce this much milk, the new mothers have to eat copious amounts of food. Younger female elephants called allomothers baby sit for the calves so the cows can forage.

Elephants are not born with loads of instinctual behaviors. They do not even know what to do with those peculiar trunks that keep getting in the way. Some of the babies suck on their trunks the same way human babies suck their thumbs. All the females in these matriarchal herds teach the babies the skills necessary to survive. The ladies also fight off lions, hyenas and other formidable predators.

Baby elephants are walking from birth, so tending them is like having instant toddlers. The calves fall in ditches, wander off and get stuck in mud. Every mom takes responsibility for all the babies. The herd is a child care cooperative.

Calves aren’t fully weaned for five or six years. Boys continue to stay in the herd until they are young teenagers. The girls never leave home. The herd is one big girl party; mothers, daughters, aunts and cousins.

I recently completed a big elephant art unit for many first and second graders. We talked about science facts like the ones above. We also saw examples of how people in India decorate their elephants for special holidays and parades. The kids resulting art work was pure joy.

To find spring in Wisconsin, a scavenger hunt is necessary. Swelling buds and returning birds are present, but discovering them takes patience, persistence and luck.

Spring in the southeastern states is an entirely different scenario. The season sweeps in like a diva who is delightfully in your face. Everything that can flower seems to be doing so simultaneously. The woods are snowing dogwood blossoms, azaleas line yards and walks, magnolia flowers are gigantic and wisteria are dripping like huge purple raindrops. Flowering redbud trees line the Interstates for miles with their lacy, lavender flowers. Subtlty is not practiced here.

Anyone weary of an endless northern winter can get a head start on spring by taking a road trip south. In a mere five hour drive recently we went from 34 degrees and not a leaf in sight to 65 degrees and blooming daffodils.

However, our most dramatic spring happened in the southwest. We had flown from Wisconsin on a frigid, snowy April day and landed in Albuquerque at night. A snowstorm had just come down from the mountains and blanketed the city. “1,430 miles and no spring,” we moaned.

The next morning the famous New Mexico sun came up and big clumps of snow started dropping off the trees. By 10:00 AM the snow was all gone and we realized to our delight that every flowering tree was in splendid full bloom. Divas do like grand entrances.

Scary reports about drones frequently pop up in the news causing many people to think of all drones as sinister military weapons. But not all drones are mercenaries.

Thirty years ago, I came home to find a drone flying around in my living room. Since my husband and son were flying it, I wasn’t the least bit scared. I did, however, strongly suggest that the outdoors might be a better place to fly their remote control helicopter.

My husband has built many of these remote control aircraft over the years. They are tricky to build and even trickier to fly. On more than one occasion, he would return from a flight with a sad expression on his face and drone pieces in a bucket.

We were recently visiting the famous zig zag Lombard Street in San Francisco when a little darting drone appeared overhead. ”It’s taking pictures,” my husband noted. Later we saw the drone make a perfect landing on a nearby sidewalk.

Not all drones are this lucky. I recently found this hilarious item in Dutch News. So if you fear drones, just get yourself a chimp.

Chimp Attacks Drone Flying Over Dutch Zoo

Officials at Burgers Zoo in Arnhem found out to their cost how intelligent chimps are, when one knocked a drone which was filming the apes’ enclosure out of the sky.

The drone was being used to make footage for a television programme but did not go down well with one of the inhabitants. Once the drone had been spotted, the primates armed themselves with long sticks, the zoo reports on its website.

One chimp, a 23-year-old female called Pushi, was sitting in a high tree when the drone came buzzing by.

She managed to swipe it with the stick, causing it to fall to the ground. The chimps then proceeded to dismantle the spy plane, which kept on filming during the process, the zoo said.

Zoo spokesman Bas Lukkenaar told USA TODAY Network it was no surprise that Pushi was the ‘main perpetrator’.

‘Some are good at throwing and others only produce poor shots and Pushi is a very clever and capable chimpanzee,’ he said.

Click here to watch the video.

The Above Article Was Found at DutchNews.nl April 14, 2015

Merriam-Webster defines ‘ephemera’ as “Things that are important or useful only for a short time: items that were not meant to have lasting value.” In other words, disposables such as posters, greeting cards, paper shopping bags, magazines, menus, post cards, travel brochures, theater programs and packaging.

My own art medium has always been paper and my technique is paper cutting. I love the irony that all the greeting cards, posters and brochures I’ve designed through the years were meant to be thrown away. I also appreciate that change is a part of life, and that room has to made for the new. I am not a hoarder as anyone who has ever visited my home can attest.

But here is more irony. I do have a modest collection of ephemera…..disposables that I have not been able to dispose. If select pieces of ephemera are stored long enough, they turn into history. Highlights from my personal gallery of ephemera follow. None of these pieces were purchased: my elders and I simply saved them. I’m guessing you could create your own gallery as well.

I am surrounded by smarts. Almost everyone I know has a smart phone, I live in a smart home and most of the classrooms I visit have smart boards. The planetary invasion of smart electronics is up and running (most of the time).

My techie loving husband has been installing smart home devices for eighteen years now. His main focus is on lighting and our lighting has gotten smarter. Yesterday the kitchen lights were so smart they took control and turned themselves randomly on and off all day. Obviously, in addition to being smart, they have a sense of humor.

Smart boards can be a valued teaching tool in classrooms. Unfortunately, most of the classrooms I visit are so underfunded that they have no appropriate shades to darken the room so the smart board images can be seen. For the foreseeable future, I will be bringing quality art reproductions with me when I visit schools.

Despite these glitches, I know that future smart technology holds promise. While taking a road trip on wide open highways and seldom used back roads is a joy, being stuck in urban gridlock is not. I would love to drive a smart car (or, rather, have a smart car drive me) from Milwaukee through Chicago and Gary.

The Dutch are already testing smart highways that glow in the dark, have interactive road signs and charge electric cars as they drive. They have also created the first smart bike paths that light themselves up as the bikers cycle over them. This creates a beautiful experience as well as a safer one.

I am not as  excited about the smart clothes that a research team in Canada is currently working on. The goal is to turn rigid electronic parts into soft clothing material. Then, for example, you could brush your arm to adjust the volume of your sweater’s music device. But do I really want to turn myself into a radio, and how would I wash my new smart clothes?

On our crowded, polluted, resource limited planet, one thing is certain: if we don’t thoughtfully choose where to apply smart technology, smart will make us humans the new dumb.