Mimicry?

The stink bug pictured is from Singapore; it looks like it’s imitating some type of tribal mask, baboon, or alien…

Photo: InSectHunter

 

Oldest living tree on the Earth

A Norway Spruce in Sweden is the oldest living tree that has been found on our planet. It’s trunk is not quite 600 years old (merely a babe!), but it has roots that reach back 9,550 years through the mists of time… (photo found at : National Geographic’s Site)

 

Louis Vuitton Armadillo

Artist Billie Achilleo has created a series of animal sculptures for the launch of Louis Vuitton’s Mon Monogram line. I particularly like the Armadillo pictured below:

 

The Klein Bottle

The Klein Bottle is named after Felix Klein, who conceived the idea of joining two Möbius Loops together, thereby generating a single sided tube with no boundary; its outside is its inside, and vice versa.

To form a Klein Bottle, you join the opposite sides of a rectangle to make a cylinder. Then you connect the other pair of sides with a half-twist; unfortunately, this isn’t possible in our three-dimensional universe. An authentic Klein Bottle can only exist in four-dimensions because the surface must pass through itself without creating a hole (a little difficult to visualize).

The image shown is the ‘usual’ configuration, which is an immersion in three-dimensions; apparently there is another one possible, the figure-eight model. The equations (for those beyond common curiosity) can be found here.

animated image found here

 

Cadillac Ranch

The image below (Copywrite Rik Gruwez) is an old picture from Cadillac Ranch, near Amarillo Texas. Newer images show  graffiti-covered vehicles. For those interested, there is also a Carhenge in Western Nebraska.

 

That Monday Feeling

 

Interlude

It could be said that some (Most. All?) of the notions in this blog reflect nothing so much as idle flummery. The author, an acquaintance of mine, would be the first to admit (with an appropriate degree of humility) that his head is stuffed full of such flummery. The notions contained within are the types of things that clutter a confined space. The transcription of these notions is an attempt to order his cerebral Jell-O. Any inconsistencies are due to the cloud that surrounds his cephalic-peanut. The author apologizes to the gentle reader who finds his notions supercilious; however, he would also like to point out that in his humble opinion the world could be, and indeed would be, a better place if his flummery danced freely about the streets (well, I suppose there is no accounting for taste).

 

Ogden Nash

The armadillo lives inside
A corrugated plated hide.
Below the border this useful creature
Of tidy kitchens is a feature,
For housewives use an armadillo
To scour their pots, instead of Brillo.

The Armadillo, by Ogden Nash

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Fish dreams

Walking was drudgery.

The air slapped me with damp heat, which seeped through to marrow. Breathing was difficult; the air was viscous, heavy and claustrophobic. Fractal sunlight swam through the thick canopy dozens of meters above. There were sounds from all sides; jungle life, I reasoned.

I came to a clearing and saw a man: a native. He stared at me with a mixture of curiosity, fear and awe. I had walked about fifty meters and was nearly done-in.

He dropped his javelin, pointed at me and said “Hkzzt-t-t kumar, bonk!” looked at the sky, said “fioir kapuet regdt,” twirled his hand above his head and spat out: “Spthhht!”

And he was right.

Years would pass before it flew again…

 

Co-dependency

“There exists a unity and bondedness among living things, and by being quiet and watchful each one of us can sense that belonging. The armadillo… …contributes to what geographers call the ‘personality of a region.’ Its presence adds to the sense of place, and as such it becomes a vital link in the chain that binds life and land — our common heritage.”

from The Amazing Armadillo: Geography of a Folk Critter (p.105), by Larry L. Smith & Robin W Doughty, University of  Texas Press.