Satin Bowerbird Pictorial

My elusive male Satin Bowerbird, with his bower (nest) conveniently parked alongside my driveway, and his mates, have recently hit the headlines at Current Biology, Australian Geographic and Deakin University.

What’s all the fuss about? A study has revealed the male Satin Bowerbird utilises a altered visual perspective trick, coupled with the confines of his bower, to give the illusion to female Satin Bowerbirds that he’s larger than he really is. Yes, size matters, even for our feathered friends.

How does the male Satin Bowerbird create the altered visual perspective? Having constructed a bower with two walls of sticks and twigs, with a long avenue inside, places blue items that increase in size with distance from the avenue entrance in his court; an area outside the avenue where he goes through his courtship routine, a buzz-wing-flip. This entails an elaborate dance where he fluffs up his feathers, produces buzzing vocalizations and hops to and fro while the female looks on like an X Factor judge from the confines of the bower. Now for my images!

Male Satin Bowerbird  Building a nest video

Female Satin Bowerbird  Mating Behaviour Video

Female Satin Bowerbird entering the bower  Fembot Bowerbird Video

Satin Bowerbird Nest  Bowerbird thief video

Satin Bowerbird Nest – Top View  Male & Female Bowerbird video

What I have noticed with my Bowerbird is that his favourite court contains fewer blue items and is raised higher than the other, and, his blue items are all roughly the same size. Odd considering his least favourite side fits the description in the articles, with blue items increasing in size with distance from the avenue, including one piece that has the Australian flag on it. Believe it or not!

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Let me count the ways to betrothal and marriage

Prelude to a father’s wedding speech - in words and images.

For a start, welcoming a prospective daughter-in-law into your family doesn't commence from the day they become betrothed to your son. It starts way before and the sooner the better to make her feel at home and at ease. Failing that will have you classed as an outlaw and nobody wants that.

Impressed from day one with her love and devotion to our son, reciprocated in kind, nothing was going to get in her way, no matter how far she had to travel  to reunite with the apple of her eye.

After settling down in the top end of Australia together, they announced their engagement; and with that, cries of “It's about bloody time!” reverberated from Sydney to Townsville, several times over. On a side issue, with one almost down, we wait impatiently with baited breath for other fair ladies to capture the hearts of our other two sons. Any takers?

It's fair to say that parents have a fair idea what their son's love of their life is like well before the big day, and in our case, our soon to be daughter-in-law, the daughter I never had, is the best thing since sliced bread, not only for our son but us as well.

Now one has to ask what does the soon to be bride see in our son? Is it his childish good looks and behaviour, his noteworthy stamina in getting things finally done, his newsworthy fishing talents  and stories about the one that got away, his stoic loyalty to friends and the Rugby League team, the Sydney Roosters, his excellent craftsmanship as an electrician or is it his tender and loving ways?

What do we see in our soon to be daughter-in-law? This fair lady is everything we'd hoped for and much, much more. Yes, I'd have to say they broke the mould when they made this one, with the icing on the cake a heaven sent blessing.

And soon there will be another Mr & Mrs McCartney! We wish them well and may they have an eternity of love, peace and harmony together.

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Guest Post: The Road to a Master of Science in Nursing

The following is a guest post written by American Nurse, Maryanne Osberg.

Nursing is not just a career; rather, it is a profession that encompasses every aspect of your life because of the nature of your work. When you choose to become a nurse, you dedicate a part of yourself to caring for other people, no matter who they are. This is why nursing provides you with a sense of accomplishment and personal pride, and no matter how demanding a career it is, no matter how many hours you work and how challenging your schedule, you feel it is all worthwhile when your patients express their gratitude and affection for all the care you have bestowed.

Besides this, nursing is a career that is growing by leaps and bounds; it is probably one of the few professions that offer job security and where demand is less than the supply. So if you’re an Registered Nurse (RN) who is considering pursuing an Master of Science in Nursing degree (MSN), there are various ways you could go about it:

Enroll in a traditional school: If you have the money to go back to school full-time and don’t depend on your job for your livelihood, you could take this route to your MSN degree. The main advantage here is that you can be totally focused on your education without having to worry about work-related problems and issues. Your stress level is reduced and you can finish your degree faster. However, you would have to take time off work and you would have to pay more in terms of tuition fees. But if you’re going to a local college and can live at home, you could cut down on costs.

Sign up for an online degree: Gone are the days when online degrees were not accepted by employers – today, they are the choice of every working professional looking to further their careers. Nursing schools in particular offer a variety of online degree options that you could consider. The key benefits that online schools offer include the following - you can continue working even as you earn a degree, you don’t have to shell out an exorbitant amount in terms of tuition fees, and you don’t have to travel to and from college every day. However, you would have to be very disciplined and dedicated to both your job and your education in order to prevent messing up at either one.

As regards pre-requisites, almost any school will accept you if you are an RN with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree (BSN). However, there are a few schools that offer MSN programs for RNs without a BSN. So choose your school according to your qualifications and convenience, and according to the specialization you want to work in. With an MSN degree, you could step into the management side of nursing, enter the academic field, or become an administrator in healthcare settings. Some MSN degree holders choose to stay on in clinical care with specializations in acute care, geriatrics, pediatrics, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, and other areas of medicine.

An MSN degree is also a stepping stone to a doctorate in nursing. So if you’re interested in going into research at any future date, don’t waste time in earning your MSN today.

By-line: This guest post is contributed by Maryanne Osberg, who writes on the topic of RN to MSN Online Degrees. She can be reached at mary.anne579(AT)gmail(DOT)com.

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