Happy Earth Day!

http://muttscomics.com/

BEAUTY: Photography--Riitta Ikonen and Karoline Hjorth

Interdisciplinary artists Riitta Ikonen and Karoline Hjorth collaborated on the series "Eyes As Big As Plates," originally exploring imagery and characters in Norwegian folklore. It has since morphed into a broader exploration of the psyches of not only the people and culture of Norway but Finland as well. The pair convinced mature adults to don branches, rush, rhubarb, lichen, and seaweed in an effort to embody and blend in with the Norse and Finnish landscape. The results are actually sweet and charming, speaking to a tradition of and a closeness to the land that one comes from, a sort of "bio-genetic memory" if you will.

http://riittaikonen.com/
http://karolinehjorth.wordpress.com/

It must be March...

...because here in northern California, the wild daffodils are blooming, right on time. They grow in clumps, dotting the hills all around. And they look so beautiful against the green of the emerald grass. Soon enough, the hills will dry and turn golden for the summer.

I love daffodils. The classic yellow kind. They remind me of my grandmother, The Good Grandma of the North, as I referred to her (and yes, I actually did have a Wicked Grandma of the South, too... for real, believe me). The Good Grandma of the North believed in decorating for the holidays--I credit her with my love for interior design--and for spring and Easter, she would set out huge panoramic sugar Easter eggs, the kind with a little idyllic scene inside, and lots of daffodils...

Foxes love them too.

BEAUTY: Photography--Benoit Paillé

French Canadian photographer Benoit Paillé's series entitled "Alternative Landscapes" explores light in the darkness of night. The juxtaposition between these undisturbed natural settings and the apparition of the foreign, lighted white cube is enigmatic, startling, and evocative. I am reminded of The Monolith in "2001: A Space Odyssey" or the science fiction idea of worm holes or portals to other places or dimensions...

http://www.benoitp.com/

Crows Are Doin' It For Themselves

The New Caledonian crow, native to the French archipelago located in the Pacific Ocean 750 miles east of Australia, uses tools in daily life to perform tasks such as locating and retrieving food. The crows use plant material to create hooks or barbs for extracting grubs from inside logs and branches. But even more interesting, the New Caledonian crow (apparently capable of a degree of higher thinking and reasoning) is the only non-primate animal known to invent new tools to then modify existing tools in order to perform these tasks. Gavin R. Hunt and his research colleagues at the University of Auckland conducted an experiment which involved putting food in a box out of the crows' reach. They were given a stick too short to reach the food, but they could use this to retrieve a longer stick from another box. The longer stick was then used to retrieve the food.

In 2002, researchers at the University of Oxford who were observing a pair of crows named Betty and Abel noticed that "Betty's toolmaking abilities came to light by accident during an experiment in which she and Abel had to choose between a hooked and a straight wire for retrieving small pieces of pig heart, their favorite food. When Abel made off with the hooked wire, Betty bent the straight wire into a hook and used the tool to lift a small bucket of food from a vertical pipe. This experiment was the first time the crows had been presented with wire." The experiment was repeated. Out of ten successful tries, Betty bent the wire into a hook nine times.

A Monkey Rides A Deer

Why not?

A Manatee Eats A Carrot

Of course.

BEAUTY: Photography--Tim Flach

Tim Flach's series "More Than Human" features breathtakingly beautiful portraits of primates. These magnificent apes, chimps, and orangutans are so powerful, innocent, and beautifully authentic. How can anyone be upset at the idea of being biologically related to such sublime creatures of the natural world?

http://www.timflach.com/

Rainbow Eucalyptus

Eucalyptus deglupta, commonly known as the Rainbow Eucalyptus, is the only Eucalyptus species found naturally in the Northern Hemisphere. Patches of outer bark are shed annually at different times, showing a bright green inner bark which then darkens and matures to create blue, purple, orange, and maroon tones.

Underwater Mandalas

Underwater diver and photographer Yoji Ookata discovered something strange on a recent dive near Amami Oshima, Japan, something he had never encountered in his fifty years of diving: large circular patterns with odd, geometric details, some up to six feet in diameter, located eighty feel below sea level on the ocean floor.

He took a camera crew from NHK (the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation) back to the spot where they found the source of these mandala-like sculptures: the tiny pufferfish!

Apparently, the male pufferfish makes these structures to attract a female, working tirelessly, day and night, using only a fin to carve out the peaks and valleys in the sand. The bigger and more elaborate these structures are, the more likely the female is to mate with the male and lay her eggs in the center of the circle! The ridges serve as a baffle, neutralizing the underwater currents and preventing the eggs from being tossed around or lost. The male also cracks shells and lines the ridges with the fragments which could possibly serve as food for the newly hatched eggs. Amazing.

http://ookatayouji.amaminchu.com/