COMING ATTRACTIONS

Today is Dance Like a Chicken Day.   15 Craigside once had an annual holiday night of entertainment, and many were conned into dancing like a chicken.  It was funny, but not the kind of thing I enjoy doing.  So I found a way to avoid being involved.  For the record:

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  This day was created by Swiss accordion player Werner Thomas, and the dance became popular at weddings in the USA.  Watch this!  Another version.
• Hey, put formality aside and just have some good-natured fun.  A more modern beat.

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  While there are nearly 8 billion humans on Planet Earth, we are outnumbered by 19 billion chickens. 
• There are 1.5 billion cattle, 1 billion sheep and 1 billion pigs.
• Cruelly, we slaughter 50 billion of them/year.  Poultry makes up a third of all the meat consumed worldwide.
• Americans consume around 250 eggs/year/person.
• Compared to half a century ago, the amount of all meats we have eaten/capita has tripled.

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  A few more noteworthy chicken facts:
• While beef produce nearly 25 kgCOwEQ/200 kcal, chickens are at around 6.  
• So if you are a conscientious environmentalist, eat chicken...or pork, which is only around 4.
• However, beans, insects wheat and nuts are closer to 1, with nuts the lowest.

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  Chickens have been domesticated for 8000 years.
• Romans invented the omelet.
• Why does Kauai have so many wild chickens?  
• These are fighting chickens set free by Hurricane Iniki in 1992.  
• Noticed a lot of feral fighting chickens all over West Loch Golf Course in Honolulu, so Oahu too now has what some say is a problem.  If you look closely at a rooster, it has a dangerous appendage that can cause you harm.  
• 
  There is a city in Alaska called Chicken.
• Chickens were used to determine that birds came from dinosaurs.

Nice segue into another coming attraction, for on June 1 maybe the final Jurassic film will premiere in South Korea, entitled Jurassic World Dominion.  There have been six of them.

• Many of your favorite stars return, like Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Chris Pratt and Bryce Howard.
• Of course, too, the Velociraptor, or Raptor.
• In real life, the Raptor was about as large as a Turkey.
• What you see on the screen is a synthesis of fossils found, but enlarged to being 6.5 feet tall and 180 pounds.

• 
  There is battle between a Giganotosaurus and a T. Rex.
• They are about the same size, both being 20 feet tall, although the Giga is 17,600 pounds and T. Rex 15,000 pounds, but Giga moved much faster, 31 MPH vs 17 MPH.  Yet, the bite power of T. Rex went as high as 64,000 Newtons, while the Giga was only at 6,000.
• In real life, they missed each other by 10 million years
• 
  A Giganotosaurus fossil was only found around 30 years ago in Argentina, while the first T. Rex skeleton was discovered in 1902 in Montana.
• A North African Spinosaurus was larger than both, weighing up to 46,000 pounds.
• Long film of around 2.5 hours.

Changing subjects, the Eurovision Song Contest Finale will be streaming on Peacock at 2:55PM East Coast Daylight Savings Time.  There will be 25 acts.  How do you watch it if you don't have Peacock?  Good luck.  Ukraine's Kalush Orchestera-Stefania is expected to prevail, for an obvious reason.

If you live in South America and much of the North, you will be treated to nearly 1.5 hours of an extra large full moon turning a deep blood red.  This all begins at 11:29 PM EDT on Sunday, May 15, into early Monday morning.

Last year Hawaii was the place to be.  This year, the Moon will rise around 7:10PM, and the eclipse will be more than half finished, so we won't see red, but only a dark shadow that will last for an hour.  But not to fret, for Hawaii will again be a good place to be on 8 November 2022.

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