opinion
I have a new friend. He is a valley carpenter bee Xylocopa varipuncta. Xylocopa means carpenter, and varipuncta means very punctual. He visits every day before dusk, hovering around the tulsi trying to steal some pollen. He is a big bee, about as big as my thumb. One of the
opinion
For many in the world, early August is a time for heat waves, monsoons, and torrid humidity. In my neighborhood, late summer is a time for wildfires and the big bumbling beetles Cotinis mutabilis, the figeater beetle. Two days prior, I set out some old oranges to help hydrate thirsty
Music
Summer heat is in full swing, and then some in certain parts of the world. One nice thing about the season--apart from skimpy outfits, summer bodies, and scorching heat and humidity is a surge of upbeat feel-good, often synthesized, music. After all, it is festival season! But this is not
Art
I sat around at home watching NHK World, Japan's English-language international propaganda channel, mostly because it offers some interesting programs and news stories that don't reach American news media. One such story is that of an A.I. conductor. The more I watched this story, the
opinion
Global warming is seriously going on right now. We have been talking about climate change for decades. I was in 5th grade, reading TIME magazine, trying (in vain) to rally the other children into planting trees, anything we could do to suck up the C-O-2. I was convinced by the
Music
Mamamoo consists of 4 young women: Kim Yongsun a.k.a. Solar (main vocals), Moon Byulyi a.k.a. Moonbyul (main rapper), Jung Wheein (lead vocals), and Ahn Hyejin a.k.a. Hwasa (vocals and rapper). Featured on one track is Kang Seulgi from Red Velvet (lead vocals). Please don&
Music
Happy birthday to me! It was a couple weeks ago, but I got an early present when Mamamoo dropped their new track, "Egotistic." This MV follows in the footsteps of their previous releases, which they filmed on location in New Zealand. The production value of the new video
Science
Within the animal kingdom, only a handful of lineages evolved flight. Birds are the undisputed masters of flight. This is because, in this day and age, birds pose the largest and most powerful flying creatures. Consider the golden eagle and 400 PSI of grip pressure between its large talons. To
Art
I'm going to throw this stream of consciousness in before my post on animal flight. Actually, I have been watching the PBS Eons series of short videos on Youtube. They are very well produced with soft background music from APM, beautiful illustrations of prehistoric biology, and charismatic hosts
Science
Today I want to discuss vultures. There are two main varieties and both belong to the large order of fearsome birds, the Accipitriformes. The four families within this order are Sagitariidae, Pandionidae, Cathartidae, and Accipitridae. Let's quickly break them down. Sagitarridae contains the Sagittarius serpentarius, the secretarybird. This