Random Thought of the Day

My new favorite blog:

The Ever So Strange Animal Almanac, documented online by the blog entitled Proceedings of the Ever So Strange is one of the greatest collections of Earthly oddities on the internet. Every time I check out this blog I am astounded by another remarkable creature.

Like the bleeding tooth fungus, for example:

It looks like a bleeding tooth!

Stranger still is the bone-eating snot flower:

She likes to eat whale bones. And she also harbors
a few thousand feisty males which constantly
provide her with ample quantities of sperm.
Isn't she just lovely!

Or how about this little tidbit:

"The female brown trout fakes orgasm to encourage males to stop ravishing them. The male will think he has mated whereas the female will go off and have some fun with a more-highly regarded chap."

Fascinating stuff, right? I think so too.

Random Thought of the Day

Yes, it's another nudibranch! If you haven't ever visited National Geographic's photo galleries, you're really missing out. Specifically, these Ocean Galleries kick scyphozoan ass.

A crab riding on a jelly!
Scyphozoans don't have asses...

This is an argonaut octopus. It's kick-ass.

And just because argonaut octopi are sooo freaking cool, here's a video of them.

Random Thought of the Day

If I had more time today, I would be listening to...



I wonder what's playing over at RadioLab?

Random Thought of the Day

Here's a pleasant little pick-me-up.

Neil Pasricha, author of The Book of Awesome and the award-winning blog, 1000 Awesome Things shares his thoughts on living a happy and fulfilling life. The key, he says, are the three As of awesome: Attitude, Awareness, and Authenticity. A positive attitude, facilitated by a child-like awareness of all things awesome, and combined with authentic life experiences - those that are true to your heart and your dreams - is the secret to happiness.

In other words, stay positive, appreciate the little things, and stay true to yourself.

Random Thought of the Day

The Tawny Frogmouth.

An extremely photogenic nocturnal bird of Australia, like other caprimulgiforms (nightjars, night hawks, whip-poor-wills, potoos, etc.), it is heavily camouflaged by day and by night catches flying insects with its gaping frog-like mouth.

They're quite cute, actually.

No, that's not a new member of the Muppets cast...

I find it interesting that you only ever find Tawny Frogmouths photographed in one of three poses: sleeping Tawny Frogmouth, surprised Tawny Frogmouth, and angry Tawny Frogmouth.

Sleeping Tawny Frogmouth? Actually it's more likely that he's very
awake and very aware of your presence. It's his defense mechanism.
If he sits still long enough, you'll realize that he's not food,
he's a stick.

Surprised Tawny Frogmouth. I believe we interrupted
his dinner. Yes, he has a bit of mouse tail on his lip...

Angry Tawny Frogmouth. He's sick of leaf-blowers waking him
up at 6 AM every goddamn day of the week. Don't cross him.

Gotta love 'em!

Blending Science and Art!

I stumbled upon this interesting sculptor recently. Technically, she's not a sculptor at all, rather, she's a basket weaver.

Yes. A basket weaver.

Her name is Nathalie Miebach and she's also an amateur climatologist. Strangely enough she has a tendency to blend her two hobbies...

Things Robert thinks are absolutely incapable of being mixed (successfully):

• oil and water
• electrons and positrons
• potassium and water
• alligator gars and kittens
• bulls and china shops
• basket weaving and decades of climate change data

She has managed to do it. Ms. Miebach has successfully blended basket weaving with climate change data. Yeah, I was skeptical at first too, but take a look at her work!

Warm Winter - Reed, wood, data, 6’x 5’x6’, 2007

According to the artist, this piece has a 24-hour base and contains locally collected data (from Herring Cove, Maine), regional buoy data (Gulf of Maine Observation System), and historical data (NOAA and U.S. Naval Observatory). In total, the piece contains data for wind speed and direction, tides, moon phases, and air, water, and soil temperatures collected daily from December 2006 to January 2007.

That's a lot of data.

Representing data visually in a 3D format is a very interesting idea, and it's quite aesthetically pleasing, however I don't know how practical it really is. But since when was art supposed to be practical?

Anyway, I think it's rather beautiful. Here are a few others.

Antarctic Tidal Rhythms - Reed, wood, styrofoam, data, 8’ x 6’ x 3’, 2006

Changing Water - Gulf of Maine - mixed media, data, 20’ x 10’ x 1’, 2011

She also translates data into musical scores! Also very intriguing. If you care to take a listen or check out more of Ms. Miebach's artwork, visit her website here!