Buddy was weaving figure eights around C's ankles as she went into the kitchen to feed him. She gave him our standard warning: don't trip the hand that feeds you! He continued as she made mention of his infinity patterns. I chirped from the couch: "He's saying 'I love you forever and ever, Mum' !"
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| Mr. Chill |
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I spotted Mamachuck make a beeline to the raised beds and watched her rise up on her haunches to view my tomatoes. Oh dear, I hope I don't have to fence them off.
The next day, Mama had returned with 5 of her chuckettes. For a time they stayed to the West of the shed, wandering around in my neighbor's yard and the berm. The Diner complex was filled with 4 very active squirrels so Mama thought it prudent to keep away.
When the squirrelies went home for the evening, the chucks moved on over.
I wonder what happened to the 6th chuckette?
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Busy afternoon at the Diner:
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| Mrs. Red Bird and M/M Purple Finch on the feeder, Mamachuck, Liza, Eli, Stubbs at the buffet |
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| Big Blue enjoying the waters |
Liza, recognizes my voice now and will turn and bound towards me when I am tossing peanuts.
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6/10-this morning I discovered that all the tomatoes had been badly nipped by the chucks. The maters are now fenced in.
A learned a couple of things about the chucks: they are part of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. Hmm, so they are relatives to our squirrel gang-no wonder they seem at ease hanging out at the Diner! According to the blurb, the chuckettes should be around only for another month at most. Let's cross our fingers that they aren't too clingy to their Mum!
A nice example of OS European graphic design-sharp and playful:
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Mid-'80's pop! Katrina and the Waves "Walking on Sunshine".
I remember this was a big hit on Christian radio stations.
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The mysterious Rongorongo tablets of Easter Island:
From Wiki: Rongorongo is a system of glyphs discovered in the 19th century on Easter Island that has the appearance of writing or proto-writing. Numerous attempts at decipherment have been made, but none have been successful. Although some calendrical and what might prove to be genealogical information has been identified, none of the glyphs can actually be read. If rongorongo does prove to be writing and to be an independent invention, it would be one of very few inventions of writing in human history. Authentic rongorongo texts are written in alternating directions, a system called reverse boustrophedon.This is a style of writing in which alternate lines of writing are reversed, with letters also written in reverse, mirror-style. This is in contrast to modern European languages, where lines always begin on the same side, usually the left.
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Australian researchers have made a breakthrough in the technology of "water batteries":
Chinese researchers have been working on their own version as well as calcium based batteries.
Let's see how this progresses and whether or not those powerful interests heavily vested in rare metals such as lithium move to squash this new technology.
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Red Shift, blueshift and the Doppler effect-wonky.
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| View of the deep universe from the James Webb Space Telescope |
From Space.com: Redshift and blueshift are used by astronomers to work out how far an object is from Earth, the concept is key to charing the universe's expansion. Redshift and blueshift describe how light shifts toward shorter or longer wavelengths as objects in space (such as stars or galaxies) move closer or farther away from us.
When an object is moving away from us, the light from the object is known as redshift, and when an object is moving towards us, the light from the object is known as blueshift.
To understand redshift and blueshift, first, you need to remember that visible light is a spectrum of color each with a different wavelength. According to NASA, violet has the shortest wavelength at around 380 nanometers, and red has the longest at around 700 nanometers. When an object (e.g. a galaxy) moves away from us it is 'red-shifted' as the wavelength of light is 'stretched' so the light is seen as 'shifted' towards to red end of the spectrum.
The concept of redshift and blueshift is closely related to the Doppler effect — which is an apparent shift in soundwave frequency for observers depending on whether the source is approaching or moving away from them. The Doppler Effect was first described by Austrian physicist Christian Doppler in 1842 and many of us experience the Doppler effect firsthand almost every day without even realizing it.
We've all heard how a siren changes as a police car rushes past, with a high pitch siren upon approach, shifting to a lower pitch as the vehicle speeds away. This apparent change in pitch to the observer is due to sound waves effectively bunching together or spreading out. It is all relative as the siren's frequency doesn't change. As the police car travels towards you the number of waves is compressed into a decreasing distance, this increase in the frequency of sound waves that you hear causes the pitch to seem higher. Whereas then the ambulance goes past you and moves away, the sound waves are spread across an increasing distance thus reducing the frequency you hear so the pitch seems lower.
This principle of the Doppler effect applies to light as well as sound.
American astronomer Edwin Hubble was the first to describe the redshift phenomenon and tie it to an expanding universe. His observations, revealed in 1929, showed that nearly all galaxies he observed are moving away.
"This phenomenon was observed as a redshift of a galaxy's spectrum," NASA wrote. "This redshift appeared to be larger for faint, presumably further, galaxies. Hence, the farther a galaxy, the faster it is receding from Earth."
The galaxies are moving away from Earth because the fabric of space itself is expanding. While galaxies themselves are on the move, there is an overall phenomenon of redshift happening as the universe gets bigger.
The terms redshift and blueshift apply to any part of the electromagnetic spectrum, including radio waves, infrared, ultraviolet, X-rays and gamma rays. So, if radio waves are shifted into the ultraviolet part of the spectrum, they are said to be blueshifted or shifted toward the higher frequencies. Gamma rays shifted to radio waves would mean a shift to a lower frequency or a redshift.
The redshift of an object is measured by examining the absorption or emission lines in its spectrum. These lines are unique for each element and always have the same spacing. When an object in space moves toward or away from us, the lines can be found at different wavelengths than where they would be if the object were not moving (relative to us).
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| Concordia Station |
Researchers studying the physiological and psychological effects of isolation in preparation for future trips to Mars are working in the most remote bases on Earth in Antarctica.
Death has been crossing into our orbit lately: a cousin, a next door neighbor, 2 of C's friends/family. We had begun watching the 2001 HBO series "Six Feet Under" and it brought up a memory from Michele's funeral.
I arrived early at the funeral home for the visitation. She was laid out in a side room, dressed in her favorite blue-grey dress and pearl necklace. I touched her cheek and felt the morticians wax underneath. A man came in, I believe one of the funeral home managers. He quietly greeted me as we gazed at her. "She doesn't quite look like herself, poor woman" he said. He patted me on the back and left.
Only later did I consider this comment-it seemed odd. Then I thought perhaps this was a funeral home aphorism-to compliment a grieving man on how beautiful his wife was in life (they had worked from a recent photograph). I don't think it was a comment disparaging the funeral home's job, it was more of a guy thing.
The other morning as I drowsed, I thought about the tragedy that befell one of C's friends mentioned in the 6/6 post. They lost their young (early 20's) daughter who battled a bi-polar condition. The funeral featured peonies from their garden. In her memory, a fable:
Once upon a time there was a beautiful girl child born, alas stricken with a spell cast upon her by an unknown sorcerer. She was named Luna, reflecting her mercurial temperament. She could be bright and loving one moment then shift to dark and sullen the next. This was hard on those who loved her and as she grew older, the family sought potions from magicians to counter the spell but they rarely worked. Luna grew weary of her uncontrollable changes and yearned to be like others, normal.
Life as such had become unbearable so one day in late May, she decided to leave. It seemed a fitting time she thought. Her family had a great garden with many peonies whose bloom lasted for only a few days. Those days and nights were magical, as the sweet scent of the flower filled the house and garden. I am like these flowers-remember me at this time, she wrote in her journal.
And so it was every May, for all those who knew and loved her, remember with bittersweetness, her life both bright and dark, with the fleeting scent of peony.
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Fun vids:
Frozen bubbles under Chinese lake-they are formed in rivers and lakes when bacteria decompose organic matters in the water and expel methane gas.
A smooth knob tailed gecko-a lizard crossed with a fawn with big, Disneyesque eyes:
Sea Robin-a fish who walks:
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