— छह हज़ार चौवन —
I had no plans yesterday after work to report on, except for a Zoom PCC Member Event featuring guest speaker
Dr. Darren Croft, Executive Director of the
Center for Whale Research, which receives 100% of the proceeds from our store sales of a line of greeting cards called
Cards by Lodie.
The cards retail for $6, and apparently a few hundred dollars have been raised through this. I want to say the figure mentioned during the talk was in excess of $400,000, but I can't remember the exact number.
Anyway, after a maybe five-minute introduction by a PCC staffer in the Marketing and Purpose department, Darren Croft spent about 40 minutes on an incredibly well-polished and well-timed presentation about orca whales. I learned a lot of incredibly fascinating stuff about orca whales and was so glad I signed up for this; it ran from 5:30 to 6:30 so I had about half an hour after I got home to make my chai, dish up some of the dinner Shobhit had made, and settle in at my laptop on my desk on the bedroom. Here are some of the highlights from my memory:
* Orca whales are among about five species of whales that are the only non-primates in the world to experience menopause.
* This happens around age 40, but many females can live for decades after their reproductive years, and all the younger whales in pods that have such elder females statistically live longer; the elders help them survive.
* The orca whales that travel through the Salish Sea eat salmon and salmon only; even though orca whales in other parts of the world regard other species as food, this is a
cultural difference analagous to humans regarding different things as food depending on where they are from. For these whales, salmon is food; another fish like tuna is simply not, so they don't even consider them. I found this incredibly fascinating, as this is learned behavior and I don't think I quite grasped the complexity of social behaviors in this species.
* Salmon in the Salish Sea has gotten smaller over time, which means orca whales have to work harder to catch prey that can more easily evade them, in order to attain the same nutritional value they once had with larger fish.
These examples just scratch the surface. The Center for Whale Research has a great "
About Orcas" web page that is
packed with information. Some stuff shared in the presentation was not on this page, though (like whales being the only non-primates that go through menopause).
Just for kicks, I also found these web pages: "
10 Little Known Facts About Orcas" by Orca Spirit Adventures; and
this page at the Natural History Museum website goes into how menopause and the presence of elder females is important to the survival of young males (why not the survival of young females? I have no idea).
Oh, and it was stated in the presentation that our orca whales are the most studied cetaceans on the planet. The narrow waterways in which the same pods regularly return probably make that an easier achievement.
— छह हज़ार चौवन —
— छह हज़ार चौवन —
Anyway, Shobhit had a SAG-AFTRA Seattle Local board meeting to attend from 6:00 to 7:00, and he walked there and back, so he was gone much of the evening. He was home when I got home but left just minutes after.
We did take one more step in our Netherlands trip planning shortly after he got back, though. We have booked our tickets to the Van Gogh museum for late morning the first full day we'll be there. As far as I can tell, this covers all of the most critical things we needed to book well in advance: the guided tour of the European Parliament Hemicycle (I actually booked this first, weeks ago, as soon as dates were available to book), which will be during our detour to Brussels on Tuesday, August 4; the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, which we booked for Sunday, August 2; and now the Van Gogh Museum, which we booked for Monday, July 27.
We have decided to buy a 3-day "IAmsterdam City Card" and use it the first three days we are there, which is going to result in us
really packing our days in order to get our money's worth, but oh well. The card covers four attractions or experiences I already planned to visit or do, which alone do not match the value of the City Card, but we'll easily find other things to do that add to the value, plus the card also covers the in-city trams. This means spending a bit more than I originally planned for, but that's okay; we'll also do a lot more than I initially planned for.
I'm happy to get all this out of the way in those first three days though, because I really would prefer more freedom on other days to just do whatever strikes our fancy at whatever time, especially during days dominated by World Pride events. I suppose I should find out if we need to register for the World Pride March on Saturday, August 8; I think we did at both World Pride Sydney in 2023 and World Pride Washington, D.C. last year. ...Never mind! I just checked the web page for the event and it says nothing about registration, only where to gather and where the march goes.
— छह हज़ार चौवन —
[posted 12:32pm]
