Beauty

People Magazine  announced their choice for the world’s most beautiful woman, and there is no doubt that their choice is blessed with many physical attributes that are considered beautiful.

But beauty, to me, is more than a physical construct; it is an indefinable quality that emanates from within and transcends physical ideals. Even in the most beautiful works of art there is an enigmatic characteristic that resides within, and emanates from, the work. It is not just the object itself; rather, there is a metaphysical connection to the soul of the artist: the art is a tangible representation of the beauty within the artist.

[Image credit: Joel Carillet]

And so it is with human beings. A photograph of a person is not the person, and their beauty can only be experienced by bathing in their mysterious emanations (I was once within a few-dozen feet (ten meters) of the Dalai Lama as he spoke, and that was close enough for me to decide that he was a beautiful human being).

I believe that beauty can emerge from the most unlikely places, so I make a conscious effort to focus on the beauty of my everyday world and the beauty that emanates from the people whose lives I share, whether they are my friends, colleagues, family, or a person I meet in passing. Sometimes, their beauty overwhelms me.

 

Deer sculpture electrical towers

Sculpture meets industrial function: by Design Depot, a firm established in Moscow. It might not be cost efficient, but it’s a design concept that I’d love to see while driving along the highway…

 

The Red Panda

Loss of habitat (from deforestation) has pushed the red panda (Ailurus fulgens) toward extinction: they are an endangered species.

Adult red pandas are the size of a house cat, and they have long, bushy, ringed tails, which are used for warmth in the cold mountains of Nepal, northern Myanmar and central China.

[photo credit: Animal photos].

They live in trees and, like their larger black and white namesakes, enjoy the flavor of bamboo, but also forage (at night) for fruit, nuts, roots, and eggs. Like the giant pandas, they have an extended wrist bone that facilitates grasping, almost like an opposable thumb.

Red pandas are solitary unless mating; and, for the most part, the males ignore the young. The females care for the juveniles for three months in a tree-nest.

The red panda has been difficult for biologists to classify: at one time they were thought to be a close relative of the giant panda; alternately — and partially because of their ringed tail and nocturnal foraging — they were considered to be a relative of the raccoon, but now they are categorized as a separate family, the Ailuridae.

The red panda has many nick-names, including: Bear-cat, Cat-bear, Fire-fox, and Nigalya Ponya (Nepalese for eater of bamboo).

 

Werm Hole Exparimunt

This image is by Charles Paul Wilson III

It can be found at deviant art (I got there through i09).

It’s an odd mix of Super Heroes (from the Marvel universe, I believe) and Winnie the Pooh.

I also liked Wolverine Meets the Hulk (Piglet and Winnie the Pooh (well, sort of; maybe in an alternate reality))

Check out his deviant art page for other images.

 

Eucharitid wasps

Their heads are curiously reminiscent of  a cartoon reindeer, but their life-cycle is quite different from any mammal.

Eucharitid wasps are a parasitoid species that develop within ant nests and feed on the ant brood (the host larvae do not survive the experience).

The fully mature male eucharatinae emerge from the nest and wait for the females. The eggs are fertilized soon after the females leave the nest and  their eggs are laid on plant buds, leaves, fruit, and occasionally on other insects (ant prey) as an intermediate host.

The eucharatinae larvae fasten to foraging ants and are carried back to the nest where they attach themselves to host ant larvae (there are external and internal parasitic species, but all species complete their development as ectoparasites, on the surface of the host).

The adults are from 2.0 to 5.4 mm (~ 0.1 to 0.2 inches) in length.

[Image: getty images; Rundstedt B. Rovillos ]

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Rocket into the aurora borealis

Last Saturday (February 18), a group of scientists sent a two-stage, suborbital rocket from a research station (Poker Flats, near Fairbanks, Alaska) into the aurora borealis to gather data on the phenomena.

The fish eye photo was taken by Donald Hampton, and I found it here.

The picture was taken as the Terrier-Black Brantt rocket passed through the aurora borealis approximately 350 kilometers into the sky.

 

Chinese Diplomats

China has used pandas as goodwill ambassadors for centuries. In our modern times, they are offered on an annual lease for a million dollars; and, apparently, it’s worth the investment: in 1985, the Toronto Zoo made an extra six-million dollars in revenue for the one-hundred days that a pair of pandas was on loan.

(image: flikr_mush2274)

China is about to loan a pair of pandas to the Toronto Zoo (Katie Gray, a zoo spokeswoman, all but confirmed the rumor: “Until there is a formal announcement, we have no further comment.”).

But, really: should pandas be used as a diplomatic and economic tool? These are endangered animals. Give them some dignity, and ensure they are protected in their natural habitat: don’t fly them around the world to be gawked at.

 

Western Europe; in the evening, from space

This shot of Western Europe was taken from the International Space Station on January 22. Belgium and the Netherlands appear in the bottom center of the nightscape of  lights. Also visible: the British Isles, which  peek out from behind solar panels at the left; the North Sea, center left; and Scandinavia, center right (behind the “end effector of the Space Station Remote Manipulator System” (Canadarm2)).

Photo credit: NASA

 

Penguin Awareness Day

January 20th is Penguin Awareness Day and, at least in my part of the world, it looks like the Antarctica outside this morning (with a few more trees).

So, if you see a Penguin in your travels, give it a hug.

The image of Rockhopper penguins is from National Geographic

 

Rockhopper penguins are one of the smaller species of penguins: they’re about 50 centimeters (20 inches) tall. They are currently on the IUCN vulnerable list. Their population is declining and they could become endangered in the near future.

 

The World’s Smallest Vertebrate

I first saw this picture in the newspaper yesterday (I’m one of the dinosaurs that still gets a hard copy). It’s not only the world’s smallest frog, but the world’s smallest vertebrate (a creature with a spine). In the picture, the frog is resting on a dime [photo credit: Christopher Austin, LSU].

The frogs — named Paedophryne amanuensis — live in damp, fallen leaves on the floors of the tropical forests of Papua New Guinea and were discovered by a team led by Christopher Austin.

They found the frog by focusing on its peculiar “tink-tink-tink” call, which apparently sounded a bit like a cricket. They scooped up a large bundle of leaves — from within which the sound was emanating — and, when the diminutive creature hopped from one of the leaves, they were surprised that it was not an insect.