Science Musings Discussion
In the past year or two I have found myself choosing NOT to watch some of the nature programs presented on Japan's NHK TV. The reason for this is a little strange. They depress me. The reason these programs depress me is that I have become convinced that it is all being destroyed. Well, almost everything.
I have this weird vision of the future where the only birds left are crows and pidgeons.
I think Chet wrote about the Monarch Butterfly. (I think). Anyway, I read that they are, what else!, decreasing.
In actual fact, what is being done about US destroying species after species on this planet. Next to nothing.
Everything comes to an end. Each and every life. Each and every star. This planet will end as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow. But we may be the only life in the whole universe. When are we going to get it together?
The Moody Blues released an album in 1970 called A Question of Balance. It really IS a question of balance, I think.
Terrorism, mutual assured destruction (madness), McMansions, the second coming, corporate profits, quiet desperation, and heads in the sand.
---
Adam I concur
and offer this:
Sometimes
in the longing
to make things right
for others
or for the future
we forget the only thing
we can honestly offer
the world:
the self
we are becoming.
There is balance in chaos.
The description of
the beautiful mystery
before us
the honoring and faith
in expressing it
can and has
changed the universe of
consciousness.
Therein lies the
connection
therein lies the
source
of all change.
Tony thanks for that.
The interesting life of James Van Allen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Jam...James_Van_Allen
According to the article the space race started in Mr. Van Allen's living room in 1950 . The space program has provided a lot of data and experience that inspired the environmental movement. It concerns me when cuts to the space program are proposed. However I do have some concerns that a lot of scientific work is not very productive, that we need an educated public and body politic that can effectively decide where limited research dollars are to be spent. The volume of scientific literature is emmense--overwhelming--and when politics enters into decisions, each side cherry picks its science to promote an agenda. A body politic without an understanding of science is in danger of being lead down the wrong path.
I would like to bring the topic back to butterflies for the moment. Chet's blog brought to mind a favorite literary reference to the butterfly -- a poem by Nobel Prize winner Juan Ramon Jiminez, entitled "TIME."
If you hasten,
Time, like a golden butterfly, will flee
Before you.
If you tarry,
Time, sloly like a patient ox,
Will follow you.
Sorry -- a typo error.
...SLOWLY like a patient ox .....
Thank you Peter -- that's lovely. And the idea of 'tarry' takes me back to Tony and Geoff on the subject of love -- the possibility of definition, which is not easy. Geoff's response contains two words which I feel are essential -- 'empathy' and 'compassion.' How can there be love without them?To slow down, to tarry, to have some feel for the other (whoever, whatever) is the beginning.
Nature continues to surprise, in this case it is Myxococcus xanthus - a soil bacteria, that hunts in packs and aggregates into a mass upon starvation. The movies of them in action do not seem to work. http://cmgm.stanford.edu/
~kaiser...myxococcus.html
brome grass,
About a dozen years ago I aquired from a biological supply house my very own colony of Dictyostelium discoideum, a slime mold with habits like your own. After a week or so of close observation with a microscope and magnifier, I wrote about them. Maybe I'll offer it next Sunday. Thanks for reminding me of a very pleasant week.
Thanks Chet and others for your blog, poems, comments and links. I have been a "lepster" for about 10 years belonging to a local society of butterfly enthusists(observation without oollecting) and enjoy the beauty and interest these creatures provide to the ecology. It is great how children respond to massses of them in butterfly houses at botanical gardens. We have spent some hot and muggy but thoroughly enjoyable days in the southeastern US "chasing" after some species to identify them.
These hardest to identify are the small folded wing skippers that flirt about rapidly among the flowers and grasses.
Another interesting insect are hoverflies(Syrphidiae) and there are some who mimic bees and wasps but are harmless pollinators. My favorite are a genus who resemble minature dragonflies.
Monarch in my backyard today.
http://xs104.xs.to/xs104/06320/m.../
monarchweb.jpg
A very fresh one in my yard also today, a few Fiery Skippers and a Hackberry Emporer on it's namesake and host plant.
Monarch near my doorstep yesterday -- and more that I don't recognize. i will get out my 'little golden book of butterflies' and find them.
That was the first time I tried to identify the Monarch as the Viceroy is similar. I needed the photo to identify it.
The Viceroy has a horizonatal black line across it's hind wings that distinguish it.
I have the Golden book also which is a good place to start. When I got involved identifying butterflies with others in the field, we used Jeffery Glassberg's "Butterflies Through Binoculars" which helps when you are trying to ID them between their frequent moves, especially the smaller ones. Different species of Sulphurs can be hard to identify because of subtle differences in markings and color.
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