For the class of 2012, I wish you joy…I wish you a roof, four walls, a floor and someone in your life that you care about more than you care about yourself…I wish you the quality of friends I have and the quality of colleagues I work with. Baseball players say they don’t have to look to see if they hit a home run, they can feel it. So I wish for you a moment—a moment soon—when you really put the bat on the ball, when you really get a hold of one and drive it into the upper deck, when you feel it. When you aim high and hit your target, when just for a moment all else disappears…The moment will end as quickly as it came, and so you’ll have to have it back, and so you’ll get it back no matter what the obstacles.  A lofty prediction, to be sure, but I flat out guarantee it.

— Writer Aaron Sorkin at the 2012 Syracuse University Commencement Ceremony

An analysis of [Ethiopian hyena] scat [during Lent] showed that hyenas turned to a diet of donkey as humans gave up butchering meat. Before Lent, 14.8 percent of hyena droppings contained donkey hair. During Lent, that number increased to 33.1 percent, dropping again to 22.2 percent once Lent ended and butcher scraps again appeared around human settlements.

The results, published April 4th in the Journal of Animal Ecology, illustrate how adaptable and opportunistic hyenas are, according to the researchers. They also show how intertwined the lives of humans and hyenas really are — a fact that could have implications for how hyena-human conflict should be managed.”

How do Hyenas Observe Lent?