Panzer Tank

I went to Disney World this week.   They have various theme parks like the Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Disney Hollywood Studios.   I chose to go to the Disney Hollywood Studios.   One of their big attractions within the Hollywood Studios park is the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade show.   They have numerous artifacts from the World War II era scattered around.   And one of the artifacts is a tank.

But this tank looks to be of World War I vintage.   I say this because of the shape of the body, the tread, and the side gun ports.   The treads appear to be made of rubber and look to be brand new. 

And what is that on the left hand side of the picture next to the tread.  Is it a tensioner for the track?

But for some reason I didn’t think that the World War I tanks had a revolving turret.   What do you think?  

Plus the armor on the front of the tank is not sloping.   Didn’t the early panzers not have sloping armor?   But my main reason for this blog is the symbols on the tank.

What kind of symbol is this: an eight pointed star with arabic writing on it plus the white crescent?   Were these symbols used by the Afrika Korps?  

I thought that the symbol for the Afrika Korps was the date palm.

There were so many war artifacts.   Much too numerous to include in this blog.  

Are there any panzer people reading this who may be bale to figure out what the tank is?   Have a great day.    Lew

Otter Paws

Mary and I went shopping at our local Publix grocery store today.    Publix is a grocery store chain which I believe is limited to just Florida.   Very pleasant store to shop in.   As we passed by the ice cream section we saw an ice cream flavor called Otter Paws.

The name took me by surprise.   Definitely not the usual type of name for an ice cream flavor.   I mean what do otter paws taste like.   I looked at the list of ingredients.

The ingredients look pretty good and I am confident that it will taste really good.   I guess that the name is sort of like the names of some of the Ben & Jerry ice cream flavors.   Have I tried it yet?   Not yet.   Has anyone else seen any crazy flavors names?   Can you beat "otter paws"?  

Bon appétit.    Lew

Broken Wing

One day I was driving down a dirt road at the plant in southeast Florida.   Well, actually the road was more like a crushed coral rock and dirt road.   And I saw this wounded bird.   It's wing was obviously broken as it fluttered around on the road holding its wing fanned out in an abnormal position.   I got out of my van to see if I could help it but it was too frightened.   Every time I tried to approach it, the poor bird would flutter a little further down the road with its broken wing.   I decided to go to the biology department where perhaps one of the biologists might be able to help this poor little wounded bird with the broken wing.    After arriving at the biology office I excitedly told the biologists about the wounded bird with the broken wing.   The biologists told me that the wing wasn't broken.   That this was a type of bird that nests on the ground and they use the broken wing tactic to draw predators away from their chicks by pretending to be hurt.   They said that there were lots of them nesting in the area at that particular time of year and had seen them.   They told me to watch for the chicks and the eggs and not to run over them accidentally.    They said that the eggs looked like rocks and would be difficult to spot but to try.   I returned to the area and sure enough there was a small chick.

So tiny and easily missed.   It wouldn't move.

Can anyone identify this bird for me?   I kept an eye out for the chicks in the road and gave them a wide berth as I drove far to the side of them.   I noticed all of the cars drove around them and placing as much distance as possible.   Amazingly I did not see one injured bird chick or eggs the whole time.    An awful lot of very compassionate people worked at the plant.   Here is an adult bird that I spotted sitting on its nest.

Yeah, right on top of those hard lumpy rocks.   I would think that a nice soft nest lined with down feathers high in a shady tree where it can catch a nice cool breeze would seem a lot better.   She flew away as I approached to take a picture.   I snapped a picture of the eggs.   Can you spot them?

Here is a blow-up to help you spot them.  Her eggs are speckled to make them look like rocks.   Great camouflage.   And very pretty eggs also.

I got my pictures and left immediately.    I was concerned about the eggs overheating without the mother's feathers shading them.    But that broken wing trick by the bird was very convincing.   It fooled me.   What a great adaptation.   Nature is just so amazing.   I really would like to know what kind of bird this is.   The biologists were right, they were all over the place and then after a couple of months they seemed to fly away elsewhere.   At least I didn't see them on the ground anymore.   At least not until the following year.   Have a great day.   Lew