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Nature 1 Minute

Psychotria Elata: The Hooker’s Lips Plant

Psychotria Elata is one of the plants that will impress you with its rather unique visuals right from the start. Commonly known as the Hooker’s Lips Plant actually seems to be pretty similar to some very large lips. It’s basically a small tree found in Costa Rica and Columbia that has some very “alluring parts”.

It’s not easy to find this plant, that’s for sure. It constantly grows all the time. They are particularly fond of growing in damp soils, which makes them even harder to reach when compared to regular plants.

The downside is that this plant has now come close to extinction, mainly because its homeland was affected by constant deforestation. This is rather sad, considering that it is so unique.

There is a confusion though. People believe that the lips of this plant are the actual flower. No, this plant’s flower is separate from the “lips”.   In fact, the flowers come in between the lips. The overall lips are just modified leaves. They are actually named bracts.

Interior growers turn to plants from around the world to add exotic touches to the home. Hot lips plant fits the bill but requires a tropical environment. For this reason, it is mostly a collector’s plant for much of the United States. Growing hot lips plants requires a heated greenhouse or solarium, high humidity, and shelter from harsh solar rays.

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Published by pat frederick

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160 thoughts on “Pucker Up!”

  1. it’s yahoo…so read with a grain of salt

    Winston
    February 14, 2023 1:25 pm

    Exclusive: Ex-Russian military bomber engineer seeks asylum at U.S. border, offers military secrets
    Government officials told Yahoo News that the man was deemed credible and potentially of interest to the U.S.
    13 Feb 2023

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-ex-russian-military-bomber-engineer-seeks-asylum-at-us-border-offers-military-secrets-220728915.html

    A Russian military bomber engineer drove up to the U.S. Southwest border in late December, asking for asylum and offering to reveal some of Russia’s most closely guarded military secrets, according to an unclassified Customs and Border Protection report obtained by Yahoo News.

    The man and his family arrived in an armored SUV and asked to be admitted into the U.S. because he feared persecution for participating in anti-Putin protests in support of Alexei Navalny, an imprisoned Russian dissident. He then told CBP officials that he had information wanted by the U.S. government.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. he will reveal putin’s plan to “pearl harbor” us…but we will “first strike” them so they can’t.
        then it will be an ooopsie…the russian wasn’t a russian…but we’ll be in www3 so we won’t notice

        Liked by 1 person

  4. Mike van (still a non-GMO)
    February 14, 2023 3:01 pm

    Foux news San Antonio is finally sounding the alert on the invasion at the southern border.

    No, it’s not the millions of invaders already here that has their hair on FIRE.
    Nope.
    They have just found out that some of those being processed at the border are (wait for it) RUSSIANS!!!

    https://foxsanantonio.com/news/immigration-reform-policy-vs-humanity/podcast-1000-russians-waiting-on-the-mexican-border#

    Liked by 1 person

  5. i watched the sb video of stapleton’s anthem. THAT was real, and so well done

    Liked by 1 person

  6. what a bunch of idiots…they want to pass a law in illinois to require an EV sharging station in every new home built
    FTA
    Proposed measures at the Illinois statehouse could require electric vehicle charging stations in the garage of new homes, a change one builder says would increase costs.

    House Bill 2206 and Senate Bill 40 require a new single-family residence or a small multifamily residence to have at least one electric vehicle charging station for each residential unit with dedicated parking.

    Dean Graven of the Home Builders Association of Illinois said neither measure considers the added costs.

    “This is a mandate with no funding behind it, a mandate that every new house, single-family duplex, then it gets into the multi-family, would have to have electric car charging stations,” Graven told WMAY. “For every $1,000 price increase on a home, you knock out 6,000 buyers.”

    Graven said different electric vehicles require different setups and that these stations are not universal in use or price. For example, according to Energy.gov, the standard for charging is a 110-volt outlet, but other vehicles like Tesla use 220-volt outlets.

    https://www.thecentersquare.com/illinois/proposed-legislation-to-require-ev-charging-stations-could-make-homes-more-expensive/article_7b9dfde4-abf5-11ed-b139-db4cdd41872c.html

    Liked by 1 person

  11. Issue: February 14, 2023
    “Google project is running “prebunking experiment” on social media – Running since September.”
    By Didi Rankovic
    Posted 2:53 pm

    ENTIRE ARTICLE @ ReclaimTheNet: “Who better than Google to “uphold technology as a force for good” – all joking aside, but that is exactly how the tech behemoth presents Jigsaw, its unit that “explores threats to open societies, and builds technology that inspires scalable solutions.”
    According to a blog post, the latest such solution is “the largest prebunking experiment on social media to date” launched in September, with the goal of “countering the threat of disinformation.” Speaking of jigsaws – this also appears to be a piece in the puzzle that is the fierce “war on disinformation” that is being waged by Big Tech and traditional media.

    “Prebunking” could be described as “precrime’s little cousin” – it means debunking what is deemed to be lies, tactics or sources before they happen/can act. Developing effective ways to do this can be a force for good – or evil, and so given its track record with censorship, Google (via Jigsaw) conducting this kind of experiment is sure to raise a few eyebrows.

    Perhaps to make the whole thing more palatable, Jigsaw tied this effort to an actual war – that in Ukraine – and explains the need to test “prebunking” techniques as a way to protect refugees. One would think that once out of a war zone, people are at least safe – but not according to Google’s unit, which writes that even hundreds of miles from the front lines, now in various European countries, Ukrainian refugees “face ongoing threats to their safety.”

    It is further asserted that the threat comes from Russia targeting these refugees with disinformation campaigns – such as disseminating claims that the 4.9 million newly arrived people represent a burden on the European taxpayers, as well as to their “health and identity.” Jigsaw says that false stories to this effect have appeared as videos and images – and this is then blamed for dozens of attacks on refugee centers in countries such as Germany. So the Google lab used this opportunity to trial new ways of “countering the threat of disinformation.”

    “Jigsaw developed a series of six short videos prebunking then emerging disinformation narratives and the rhetorical tactics used to press them. These narratives were identified through interviews we conducted with experts in Poland, Czechia, and Slovakia, including Demagog, the Polish National Research Institute NASK, and One World in Schools,” the blog post says, adding:

    “Two videos, each prebunking a different narrative, ran across YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok in each of the three countries. Ultimately, we found the share of viewers who could correctly identify misinformation tactics increased by as much as 8 percentage points after viewing one of these videos,” reveals Jigsaw.

    India and Germany are the next planned “testing grounds,” while the Google unit concludes that, “Learnings from this campaign — including efforts to simplify critical messages and iteration on the survey questions to effectively measure knowledge gain — will inform our future experiments as we seek to better understand the effectiveness of prebunking in the wild.”

    Liked by 1 person

  14. Like

  17. Issue: February 14, 2023
    “New York Times: First Amendment lawsuit could be a “barrier” to combating “disinformation.” The lawsuit against social media censorship is ongoing.”
    By Christina Maas
    Posted 2:12 pm

    ENTIRE ARTICLE @ ReclaimTheNet: “The federal lawsuit filed by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana alleges that federal officials violate the First Amendment when they ask social media companies to take down content or suspend certain accounts. However, according to the New York Times reporter Steven Lee Myers, the lawsuit “could disrupt the Biden administration’s already struggling efforts to combat disinformation.”

    Myers further argued that the results of the lawsuit will decide whether, “the First Amendment has become, for better or worse, a barrier to virtually any government efforts to stifle a problem that, in the case of a pandemic, threatens public health and, in the case of the integrity of elections, even democracy itself.”

    Put shortly, according to Myers, the First Amendment is a threat to “public health” and “democracy itself.”

    Liked by 1 person

    1. gees. ultra maggot is struggling to combat disinfo? they haven’t impeached pickle head USING disinfo like they did with REALPOTUS, so he’s ahead of the game if you ask me. which you didn’t…LOL

      Liked by 1 person

  28. I am adding a short daily prayer to the board. I would invite each of you, if you wish, to also add one or maybe two of your own liking. I do not want to stifle anyone but please limit yourself to one or two religious postings. here’s one I found that I liked.

    Like

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