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Electric Company Guilty of Censorship!
Jul. 12th, 2003 03:30 amI was all set to write something inspiring and beautiful, and the power went out on me. Actually, I'm not sure if it was inspiring and beautiful. I can't remember what I was going to talk about. Damn. Anyway, I bothered to log on again after the 'puter was done restarting, so I'd better talk about something. Um.
I love fireflies. Some time last week I was distressed that I hadn't seen any yet this year. I spotted some about an hour later, though, so everything's fine. I'm not sure quite when they first started coming out. I can't remember when their "season" is. I feel really lucky that we get them in our back yard. I had fun catching them in jars (temporarily) when I was younger. I thought I remembered them actually blinking while in jars when I was younger, but they don't seem to do that when I catch them these days, so maybe I'm imagining things. They're actually more fun to watch while they're flying around, anyway.
Bioluminesence seems strange simply because we don't see it very often in our day to day lives...well, I don't, at least. It seems incredible that nature has evolved an insect that can cause itself to glow briefly on command. Often portrayed as yellow in children's books and cartoons, I think the color is more like the greenish light produced by glow sticks - I suspect that the chemical reaction in glow sticks was developed from studying fireflies, though of course it's far too late at night for me to verify this theory. I wonder what it was like for people hundreds of years ago, or even just pre-lightbulb times, to see fireflies. When did people first learn that the tiny motes of green light were insects? You can't really tell from a distance that it's an insect, after all, since all you see is a tiny mote of light wink in and then out. You need to see one under another light source like a flashlight or lamp or something to tell it's a bug.
The thoughts of weirdness and color in the animal kingdom remind me of squid and octopi. It's fairly well known that they can change color. But I remember being stunned when I first learned how _quickly_ they can change color, and that they can assume such an amazing variety of patterns and colors. I saw a special about squid once that showed one cycling from dark to light so quickly that it was an almost strobe light effect. More recently, I caught a few seconds of footage in which one was cycling colors to attract the attention of a female - but only on the right side of its body, so as not to let the other male squid on its left know what it was doing. The degree of control they have over their appearance is just amazing.
Speaking of squid and octopi, I'm looking forward to episode 2 of "The Future Is Wild." I wasn't terribly impressed by Episode 1, but episode 2 is supposed to have semi-terrestrial octopi and huge jellyfish. So, even if the science is poorly explained, the clips are hideously repetitive, and the whole presentation is just a bit goofy, it will be extra cool to see the computer-generated wacky critters this time.
I love fireflies. Some time last week I was distressed that I hadn't seen any yet this year. I spotted some about an hour later, though, so everything's fine. I'm not sure quite when they first started coming out. I can't remember when their "season" is. I feel really lucky that we get them in our back yard. I had fun catching them in jars (temporarily) when I was younger. I thought I remembered them actually blinking while in jars when I was younger, but they don't seem to do that when I catch them these days, so maybe I'm imagining things. They're actually more fun to watch while they're flying around, anyway.
Bioluminesence seems strange simply because we don't see it very often in our day to day lives...well, I don't, at least. It seems incredible that nature has evolved an insect that can cause itself to glow briefly on command. Often portrayed as yellow in children's books and cartoons, I think the color is more like the greenish light produced by glow sticks - I suspect that the chemical reaction in glow sticks was developed from studying fireflies, though of course it's far too late at night for me to verify this theory. I wonder what it was like for people hundreds of years ago, or even just pre-lightbulb times, to see fireflies. When did people first learn that the tiny motes of green light were insects? You can't really tell from a distance that it's an insect, after all, since all you see is a tiny mote of light wink in and then out. You need to see one under another light source like a flashlight or lamp or something to tell it's a bug.
The thoughts of weirdness and color in the animal kingdom remind me of squid and octopi. It's fairly well known that they can change color. But I remember being stunned when I first learned how _quickly_ they can change color, and that they can assume such an amazing variety of patterns and colors. I saw a special about squid once that showed one cycling from dark to light so quickly that it was an almost strobe light effect. More recently, I caught a few seconds of footage in which one was cycling colors to attract the attention of a female - but only on the right side of its body, so as not to let the other male squid on its left know what it was doing. The degree of control they have over their appearance is just amazing.
Speaking of squid and octopi, I'm looking forward to episode 2 of "The Future Is Wild." I wasn't terribly impressed by Episode 1, but episode 2 is supposed to have semi-terrestrial octopi and huge jellyfish. So, even if the science is poorly explained, the clips are hideously repetitive, and the whole presentation is just a bit goofy, it will be extra cool to see the computer-generated wacky critters this time.
