FIVE SECOND STORIES

I was watching an episode of "The Outer Limits" from the early '60's concerning lost time, a subject brought up many times on the X Files. Sadly, it contained a familiar trope of the times: a man striking his "hysterical" wife to "shake her out of it". 

The series also made great use of the creepy, otherworldly sound of a theremin-a stock device of the 50's and 60's creature features.

Named after it's inventor, Leon Theremin who patented the device in 1928, it is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer. A theremin works by generating electromagnetic fields around two antennae. A straight, vertical antenna controls pitch; A horizontal, looped antenna controls volume. A masterful player makes very small, precise finger and hand movements in the field around the vertical antenna to change pitch and create melodies.

Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys famously used an electro theremin in his song "Good Vibrations", a delicious pun. This device was invented in the '50's by Paul Tanner and Bob Whitsell. It is simpler for non-experts to hit specific notes and control the volume.

꩜

This is a Mega Marvin, used to create creepy sounds in horror flicks. It was developed in the late-60's by Richard Waters.

꩜

Fun Facts: 

Island dwarfism: When trapped on an island, a large-bodied mammal tends to evolve into a smaller creature; a small-bodied one will become larger. The Komodo dragon is a good example of this phenomenon.

Gigantopithecus: an extinct genus of ape  that lived in southern China from 2 million to approximately 300-200,000 years ago represented by one species, Gigantopithecus blacki. Some folks think Bigfoot and Yeti are relatives.

A new idea concerning prehistoric cave paintings suggests that under a flickering campfire, images of animals seem to move. Entertainment for the whole family!

 

Unique among mammals, Nine-banded armadillos typically give birth to identical quadruplets.

The oldest existing, and continually operating educational institution in the world is the University of Karueein, founded in 859 AD in Fez, Morocco. The University of Bologna, Italy, was founded in 1088 and is the oldest one in Europe.

The Sahara desert is roughly the same size as the lower United States.

 

Desert Breath land art:

D.A.S.T. Arteam

Located near the Red Sea in El Gouna, Egypt, Desert Breath is an immense land art installation dug into the sands of the Sahara desert by the D.A.ST. Arteam back in 1997. The artwork was a collaborative effort spanning two years between installation artist Danae Stratou industrial designer Alexandra Stratou, and architect Stella Constantinides.The piece covers 1 million square feet. It is still visible despite erosion from desert winds.

Out of the 193 UN recognized countries, four national anthems have no lyrics. These include Spain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and San Marino.

Image of tongue surface, coloured scanning electron micrograph. The tongue is covered in many backward facing projections called filiform papillae which are unique in every human and being considered for future security devices.

More than 50 percent of the cortex, the surface of the brain, is devoted to processing visual information.

A banana tree is not a tree, botanically, it's a berry produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus Musa.

Mongolia is the 18th largest country in the world but has the least densest population outside of Greenland.

In an example of convergent evolution, koalas have fingerprints that are virtually indistinguishable from ours, even though our last common ancestor lived more than 100 million years ago. Like human prints, each individual koala's fingerprint has a unique pattern.

Venus and Uranus rotate clockwise while all the other planets turn counter-clockwise. It is thought that they were involved with a celestial collision that changed their movement. All planets rotate around the sun counter-clockwise.

 ꩜

Fun Vids:

Fabulous gag:

Aerial shot of a forest on a windy day:

 Aerial drone footage beach art from Jben:

How our solar system moves through space:

 The Cyclo Knitter from the Netherlands:

This vid is from 2020-I am surprised this doesn't seem to have caught on in the States. One would think with the legions of exercising grandma's out there, that clubs aren't organized to create quantities of scarfs for the poor and homeless. Sure, there is a modest investment in materials but folks could get creative with crowdfunding or applying for grants from their local government.

In 2016 researchers recently discovered a glowing jellyfish in the depths of the ocean near the Mariana Trench. It looks like a UFO.

A rhino walked up to a photographer and wanted a belly rub:

Nabataean Tombs of Arabia:

Qasr al-Farid carved out of a giant boulder

More on the Nabataean:

 ꩜

Critters:

Buddy-roo being cute

 Finches at the feeder

 Mamachuck is back! Again

Elsewhere, the two cicadas broods are beginning to emerge. South Carolina residents are already experiencing these relentlessly loud insects and Illinois is not far behind. People who are calling the police should rest assured that by July, the cicadas will have mated and died.

We're loud and we're proud!

I wonder how many knuckleheads will commit crimes then attempt to claim temporary insanity due to the incessant noise. "They drove me to do it, you honor!"

 ꩜

4/28-A lovely day where morning clouds gave way to mostly sunny, breezy with 80° temps. The first day where most of the windows in the house were opened. 

Mr. Birch continues to leaf out, the honeysuckle in the Back 40 is blooming. The regulars came and went at the Diner. Jo Nutkin checked out the bath.

It was comfy enough for C to engage in her first deck yoga of the season. 

We've always talked to our cats. When Bud comes in from the outside, he'll come up the hall to my office mewing. I will ask if he'd like some grub and Bud will answer (pitching my voice upward) "Is the pope Catholic?" 

I picked up this chestnut  from my Dad-it's his style of humor.