A turkey is a large bird that is distinguished from many other birds with two characteristics. The first is their wattle, which is a small fleshy reddish-pink flap of skin right under their chin. The second is their ability to spread out their back feathers almost like a peacock. Europeans first encountered turkeys in the americas and thought they were guinea fowl. They were later given the group name raptors.

Large domestic turkeys are the ones that are eaten on Thanksgiving day and many other holidays. They are not able to fly. But small wild turkeys can fly very well. This is not an effective way of transport for them though and turkeys mostly hop and walk around. Also wild turkeys are not able to fly within the first two weeks of their life, but after that they can fly.

The wild turkey is native to North America and is the largest type of turkey. Males are also usually larger and you are able to tell them apart from the females because of the thick tufts of feathers on their chests. These clumps of feathers are called beards. Turkeys normally have about 5000 to 6000 feathers. 

Turkeys are omnivores which means they mostly eat vegetables, and meat as a last resort. They mostly eat nuts, seeds, and berries. And the coolest thing about turkeys in my opinion is that they could have been our national bird! Benjamin Franklin thought turkeys should have been our national bird because the turkey goes out and finds food, unlike the bald eagle who forages after other animals’ food. But if the turkey became the national bird, we wouldn’t be able to eat them on Thanksgiving!

 Have you ever looked up to the sky in the middle of nowhere… and seen  the beautiful shining stars? A lot of people have, and go into the middle of  nowhere (like a desert) to camp at night and go star gazing because where  they live they are not able to see stars. This is not usually because of dense  clouds and smog, or lots of air traffic. But those are other issues. A big  reason for having to leave cities to see stars is light pollution.

 Light pollution is a result of artificial lighting. Street lamps, lighted signs, and decorative lighting all shine up and outward into the night blending and blocking the view of the stars. But not just being able to see stars isn’t the only problem, birds have trouble migrating because of the light pollution. The birds get confused with the bright lights and fly into buildings.

Another issue is the leatherback sea turtle going to the wrong area to lay her eggs. Normally the turtles swim towards the sun, seeing the glow near the water but now they often mistake popular beach resorts lights for the sun. But, they will still lay their eggs on that beach, resulting in stray hatchlings getting eaten by predators or run over by cars. Even worse, leatherbacks are endangered!

Light pollution is easily exterminated and many places have cut off unnecessary lights or even controlled the light focus downward with new types of lamps. For example, in Florida, many street lamps are shaped like upside down bowls. They use light bulbs that give off a yellowish light, instead of bright white. These bulbs are made out of high pressure sodium. In St. Louis, the arch lights are shut off when there is heavy fog to multiply the light or when there are birds migrating.

There are many things that you can do to fight light pollution. You can make sure that your porch light is tucked into the ceiling, rather than sticking out and giving off light in ever direction. You can also turn off unnecessary lights outside. Porch lights don’t need to be on all night. You can also work with your local government to turn streetlights off time from 11 pm – 3 am in residential areas.

One of the best songs on this months paste C.D. is Id Engager by Of Montreal. This song is off Of Montreals 9th C.D. titled Skeletal Lamping. I’ve heard a few of Of Montreals songs in the past, But surprisingly all the songs have been sung in different ways. This isn’t because they have a different lead singer… But because Of Montreals lead singer gets bored of his life, and spices it up by making up new personas. For example this song is sung as his persona Georgie Fruit, which is a eccentric transvestite looking and acting person… when in reality he has a wife and a kid!

This song is very jumping and discoish because of the electronic sounds in it. I chose to review this song out of all the other songs on the paste C.D. because it stood out with the electronicness. This song also has very cool bell sounds which I think is really cool and different! 

Of Montreal has been around since 1997 and includes the following band members… Kevin Barnes, Bryan Poole, Dottie Alexander, Jamey Huggins, Davey Pierce, and Ahmed Gallab, and the lead singer, Kevin Barnes has had at least two different personas!

Visit their website here.

This year for the presidential elections I decided to follow them and make a map to help me track how many electoral votes each person had. I listened to the radio and CNN to get the information that I would need for Tuesday night. Whenever each state had finished counting, or was almost done counting their electoral votes, and they had announced who got the electoral votes for that state I would color in that state on the map. Red for McCain, and blue for Obama. 

There were a few surprises that occurred when I was tracking the states… the first was that Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia, and Florida all voted republican (Bush) last year, and this year they all their electoral votes went to the democrat (Obama)!

The other surprise is that Missouri and North carolina are still currently counting their votes, but even if both of their electoral voted went to McCain, Obama still would’ve won!

Congrats Barack Obama!

Have you ever wondered what different celebrations there are during halloween? And what kids do there? Well I have so I decided to do a little research on it!

Austria - In Austria families leave bread and water on a table with a lamp next to it. This is supposed to help greet and beckon dead souls back to Earth on such a spiritual night.

Spain - In Spain children go trick or treating and eat a pastry called Bones of the Holy. It is covered in an orange glaze and has anise seed in it. Afterwards families go to cemeteries to visit dead family members and they stay there throughout the night. The next day families clean the deceased burial plots. 

Japan - In Japan water and food is put in front of a photo of a deceased friend or family member, then lanterns are lit and set floating in water or next to a body of water to light the ghosts to Earth and to show them where their family & friends are. It is called the Obon Festival.

Germany - In Germany households put away knives and other harmful objects on Halloween night, so that the ghosts coming back to Earth will not accidentally hurt themselves during celebrations. Cemeteries are cleaned and wreaths and lanterns are placed at family grave sites.