“Once inside a rainforest, structural complexity is obvious. How immense it seems, and how dark and enclosing as dense canopy foliage shades the forest interior, especially in the attenuated morning light.”

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“The bad news is that for students of Neotropical biology, it will not be possible to identify accurately most plants to the level of species. There are just too many look-alike species, and the ranges of many species are not precisely known….”

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“As we continue our perambulations through the rainforest we cannot help but notice the plethora of vines and epiphytes. Trees are so laden with these hitchhikers that it is often a challenge to discern the actual crown from the myriad ancillary plants. With binoculars and practice, however, we can begin to make some sense of what is growing where and on what.”

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“In many tropical forests, even the epiphytes can have epiphytes. Tropical leaves are often colonized by tiny lichens, mosses and liverworts, which grow only after the leaf has been tenanted by a diverse community of microbes: bacteria, fungi, algae and various yeasts, as well as microbial animals such as slime molds, amoebas, and ciliates. This tiny community that lives among the leaves is termed the epiphyllus community, and its existence adds yet another dimension to the vast species richness of tropical moist forests.”

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All quotes from James Kirchner’s A Neotropical Companion

Last week I paid a visit to an elementary school in Oakland. The man I was going to visit said: after you park, just walk straight ahead and “my door is the one without the bar on it.” Literally, all the other doors had steel bars locked in place across them. A 14 foot high chain link fence wrapped around the school perimeter, with barbed wire at the top where the the playing field bordered on a construction zone. It was unclear whether the fence was there to keep kids in or out.

Afterwards we stopped at Chevy’s, where I was surprised to see giant beer ads on the restroom doors.

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The navy greets tourists at the historic dockyards in Portsmouth, UK.

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My favorite little street message from Maastricht.

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A promotional display for selling DVDs of Wall-e, the Pixar/Disney animated movie.
The crate is also decorated cardboard, and serves as an integrated pedestal.

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[pix by kp]