hikari_lass

"Cloudspotting" is a new pastime of mine inspired by Gavin Pretor-Pinney's The Cloudspotter's Guide. It's based on the notion that observing clouds, finding shapes in them, and being able to identify type can be a relaxing and wonderfully rewarding thing. Already I get excited when I look up and recognize a cloud as a Cumulus humilis or Stratus.
The nice thing about cloudspotting is that it can be done anywhere in the world, and is always sure to impress. If you're going to learn the classifications of a particular thing, it doesn't get much easier than clouds, which have relatively few. The basics are:

Cumulus - fluffy clouds with well-defined edges.

Stratus - broad, thin sheets that can coat the whole sky.

Cirrus - high-flying wisps ready to be blown away.

Each category has different variations, and some can be rather tricky. This is especially true because clouds are ephemeral, elusive things, and at times defy any identification. For this reason Gavin recommends that we cloudspotters not find frustration in the skies, but understand that seeing a pushbroom in a dissipating Cumulus is just as legitimate as understanding that it is a Cumulus.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics, also known as the Law of Entropy, states,

"The entropy of an isolated system not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium."

What this basically means is that everything loses more energy than it produces, and what this means is that billions of years from now, everything will have run out of energy and the universe will cease all...everything. Alternately: the universe is slowly dying. Real slow. Like molasses pudding. Or banana pudding...mm...allow me to diverge for a moment...

Ingredients

* 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
* 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
* 1 (5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
* 3 cups cold milk
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
* 4 bananas, sliced
* 1/2 (12 ounce) package vanilla wafers

Directions

1. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Beat in condensed milk, pudding mix, cold milk and vanilla until smooth. Fold in 1/2 of the whipped topping.
2. Line the bottom of a 9x13 inch dish with vanilla wafers. Arrange sliced bananas evenly over wafers. Spread with pudding mixture. Top with remaining whipped topping. Chill.

Anyway, my boyfriend and I were discussing the banana pudding law last night, and it was depressing me. It's not just because death is often a depressing concept, but also because it seemed to directly conflict with the Taoist philosophy, which I happen to like. A lot.
If you are unfamiliar, the "Tao" is a force affecting everything which keeps the universe balanced. In case you were wondering, Christianity also conflicts with the banana pudding law, which is odd considering the number of Christians who enjoy banana pudding. Hinduism does not; in fact it practically states the law:

"Hinduism holds that once the Universe was more pure and free of sin, and as the Yugas (Time cycles) progress, the condition of the Universe deteriorates more and more, until at the end of the last Yuga- the Kali Yuga (which is linked with disorder) the state of disorder will reach an apex and then God will come and purge the world of all sin and destruction."

Go Hindus. But as for us Taoists, I was concerned when I noticed this contradiction. I enjoy the idea of balance and I often choose the middle road. I could always assume that the natural motion of the universe's decay is opposing the balancing force of the Tao, but that's just silly. I could also ignore the contradiction and focus on the fact that Taoism emphasizes "non-doing", which means you make as few waves as possible, which of course conserves energy, thus doing a better job of keeping things balanced. You can imagine this concept by picturing two devices: a perfectly balanced scale, and Newton's cradle in motion.
The scale is motionless and balanced indefinitely. It is a Taoist scale. Newton's cradle, which are those things with the balls that knock against one another, will have an initial WHAM, bam! beginning, then slowly wind down until it stops. Only when it is motionless is it balanced. The moving Newton's cradle is a Hindu.
Earth at this moment is like the moving Newton's cradle. Eventually, it will be the toy at rest. So I suppose you could say that the universe, through the fact of its own motion, is striving for balance. But this is still not Taoism, which states that the universe is already balanced.
I previously thought there was much proof of the balance, what with the water cycle and all. I am very disturbed to learn that the water cycle is constantly losing energy. And sadly, I must conclude this article rather lamely by saying that as yet, nobody has disproved The Second Law of Thermodynamics, and I have not found a loophole for Taoism.
Returning to Newton's cradle, I can only say that this reminds me of the one reason I have never been a full Taoist: I like motion. I like fire. I like for things to get shaken up now and again. "If nothing is done, all will be well." But what a goddamn boring world that would be! So I'll continue to lift the ball and watch them clack. It might be coming to a motionless end, but let's keep seeing that silver glisten instead of staring at a scale.

Fire and Ice
Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire;
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

Continuation
New speculation! I talked about this with my father for a while and read through some of the Tao Te Ching again. Here is the change.
Nothing is certain. What do we know? Nothing. Is the Universe in balance after all? What about the end. Is it truly the final end? Or is death balanced by an afterlife. Will the Universe condense and explode again in new life, thus maintaining balance? Is all of the deterioration in the mortal life balanced by a constant gain of energy by some manner of Heaven?

Tao Te Ching
1
Translated by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English

"The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.
The named is the mother of ten thousand things.
Ever desireless, one can see the mystery.
Ever desiring, one can see the manifestations.
These two spring from the same source but differ in name;
this appears as darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gate to all mystery."

In attempting to do away with mystery and give a name to the Tao, I became confused, but now I have found my understanding of not understanding again.

Why entomologists? Why would I write about scientists who devote themselves to the study of insects?

Because due to two books I have read, Winter World by Bernd Heinrich (Heinrich is how I found out about the pika in my previous entry) and The Creation by E.O. Wilson, I have grown to understand the motivations of the best of entomologists. Winter World is about "the ingenuity of animal survival" in environments that would kill a naked human being, and The Creation is a plea for people of all kinds, including Southern Baptist ministers, to come together on common ground to save our world, Nature, and ultimately, our lives. However both are by entomologists. Why, with so much to study, have they chosen this as their chief field?
Both spent some time discussing insects. Heinrich mainly focused on butterflies/caterpillars and honeybees, while Wilson focuses almost solely on ants (I say this when I'm only 49 pages into a 168-page book).



But both discuss the wholly, irreversibly VITAL role of insects in the world. Wilson offered the following explanation:

"But if insects were to vanish, the terrestrial environment would soon collapse into chaos. Picture the steps of the cataclysm as it would likely unfold across the first several decades:

A majority of the flowering plants, upon being deprived of their pollinators, cease to reproduce.

Most herbaceous plant species among them spiral down to exinction. Insect-pollinated shrubs and trees hang on for a few more years, in rare cases up to centuries.

The great majority of birds and other land vertebrates, now denied the specialized foliage, fruits, and insect prey on which they feed, follow the plants into oblivion.

The soil remains largely unturned, accelerating plant decline because insects, not earthworms as generally supposed, are the principal turners and renewers of soil.

Populations of fungi and bacteria explode and remain at a peak over a few years while metabolizing the dead plant and animal material that piles up.

Wind-pollinated grasses and a handful of fern and conifer species spread over much of the deforested terrain, then decline to some extent as the soil deteriorates.

The human species survives, able to fall back on wind-pollinated grains and marine fishing. But amid widespread starvation during the first several decades, human populations plunge to a small fraction of their former level. The wars for control of the dwindling resources, the suffering, and tumultuous decline to dark-age barbarism would be unprecedented in human history.

Clinging to survival in a devastated world, and trapped in an ecological dark age, the survivors would offer prayers for the return of weeds and bugs.

The bottom line of my scenario is this: be careful with pesticides. Do not give thought to diminishing the insect world. It would be a serious mistake to let even one species out of the millions on Earth to go extinct. That is, let me add quickly, with an extremely few exceptions..."

Here Wilson mentions creatures "specialized to prey on human beings," that being certain mosquitos and lice. He also mentions insects inadverantly transported without their environment, like the Brazil and Argentina-native fire ant that terrorizes the South.
It's kind of a mindblow, isn't it? Even though you knew that already, to hear it told, not said, to you, makes it more prominent. You might think, "THAT tent caterpillar, THIS little black ant, THAT bee needs to stick around??"
Yeah. And creepy as they look, please let the mosquito-catcher outside instead of smushing it. They are wholly harmless to humans, unlike their prey.


Entomologists are divided into two categories: those who study insects for the sake of knowledge (basic), and those who participate in the control of insects (applied). Often entomologists focus on a specific order of insects, and many others focus on insects harmful or helpful to humans and domesticated animals.



The insect world is so vast that the weight of the population of ants alone outweighs the weight of the population of humans by a great deal. Thus even entomologists sometimes have great difficulty identifying a species.
When attempting to understand a thing, it is usually best to start small and then enlarge scope, such as beginning with addition instead of calculus. This is why I now think that insects are essential to understanding the world and our place within it.
This is also why I am finding that the most intriguing, in-depth, understanding, and wondrous accounts of the world are written by entomologists. Just as I've said, they began with a fascination of tiny creatures, and then expanded. I am not saying I want to be an entomologist. I don't love insects and that is simply not my place in life. But what I AM saying is that they are one key to seeing the world around us anew, and that without them, all of this vast knowledge of the insect world would not exist.
Like the creatures they study, these scientists who draw to mind images of nerdy, self-absorbed men are much more varied and complex, are essential.

HIGH in the mountains of the world, and existing across America's Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada, California and New Mexico, the little pika makes its adorable home. The American pika (Ochotona princeps) is a tiny, plump, herbivorous mammal which lives "usually at elevations of between 8,000-13,500 feet." They keep dens within the rocky mountainside, often living in small colonies, but fighting off non-colony intruding pikas.

They seem to be quite intelligent little creatures, using short, high-pitched bleats to communicate and protecting their own with awesome tactics:

"An observer of pikas once noted a fascinating sequence of events, when a weasel, attempting to capture an American Pika, was chasing it among the rocks. When the pika began to tire, another pika emerged and ran between the weasel and the first pika. The weasel then pursued the newcomer until the larger animal tired and withdrew to find easier prey. While it is not known if such behavior is widespread, it is easy to see how it could have evolved as a defensive response beneficial to the entire community."
Most mammals in cold regions hibernate or somesuch thing, but the beyond-cute pika stays active all year 'round. They munch on grasses between collecting them during the Summer, accumulating as much as a bushel of plants. Pikas then lay their grasses out to dry in the sun, often moving them to better spots or to protect them in the rain. Once the grass has turned into hay, the pika will carry it all into their den. "If its supply runs low, it will forage for lichen and cushion plants."

Pikas are diurnal (sleep at night). But once their hoard of dried plants is collected, they have to be on guard for pika from other communities, who will readily steal their food/bedding. While the pika fight, predators such as ferrets and large birds find it easy to surprise the poor laggies (lagomorphs). Other predators include eagles, hawks, coyotes, bobcats, foxes, and weasels, but the worst is ermine, which find it easy to slink into pika dens due to their slender, flexible bodies.
The pika mating season usually begins in late April and lasts 'till early July. Their bark is most often used by males in search of a mate. The two to six pika pups are weaned in about a month's time after birth, and three months later have reached adult size. The pikawife may then mate again.
Despite their rabbitlike reproductive abilities, "human activity and global climate change appear to be pushing the American pika population to ever-higher elevations, and thus possibly toward extinction." Moo. -_-

On a final, adorable note...

"In the mountains of Eurasia, pikas often share their burrows with snowfinches, which build their nests there."

I don't care if you want to know about Hinduism. I have a test to take. Read it, ya might learn somethin'.

"Hinduism" was a name created by the British in the 1800's for a census, but is derived from the Indus River and is not the name the native people use. They much prefer "Sanatana (endless) Dharma (faith)." According to my textbook, there are ~330 million deities in India. All of these religious beliefs are mixed together and swirled about, like a taffy pull. "Hinduism" basically embodies all of these, so when you hear some mess about the number of people who are Hinduists, it's mess.
LONG, long ago, the peoples of India were invaded by nomads who mostly likely hailed from Russia. No one is sure whether the Vedas --texts considered the beginnings of Sanatana Dharma-- were brought by the invaders, or were already the Indians'. These invaders were called Aryans, and the invadees called Dravians. They were a warlike people, with horse-drawn chariots and Romeish stuff, and probably couldn't even write. Also, the Vedas never mention any other land than India. So the "Aryan Invasion Theory," where the Aryans brought the Vedas, is crap.
The Vedas are a compilation of religions poems written in Sanskrit. Part 1, the Samhitas, praises the deities. Part 2, the Brahmanas, details sacrifice rituals and other practices. Part 3, the Aranyakas, contains the writings of those who had meditated in the forests. Part 4, the Upanishads, tells of something similar to enlightenment, or the benefits of worship. This text is...SO mad old. Its first known written form was about in the middle of the first milennium B.C., but it goes back practically to the first year of...years, orally.
Hindus believe that the Vedas are the result of divine dictation, heard by the rishis (sages) long ago and later dictated by Vyasa (Collector). There is one verse, The Gayatrimantra (I know it seems tricky, but more'n half is just "tri" and "mantra"), still recited daily by devout Hindus. It's boring. The oldest known scripture is the Rig Veda, which prays for the cosmic deities, the devas, to bless the religious.

The major devas include Indra, the god of thunder and rain; Agni, the god of fire; Soma, the embodiment of a plant used to make the (likely hallucinogenic) holy plant of the same name; and Usha, the goddess of the dawn. I can't rephrase this, I'll ruin it, so, as said by Mary Pat Fisher, "But behind all the myriad aspects of divinity, sages perceived one unseen reality. This reality, beyond human understanding, ceaselessly creates and sustains everything that exists, encompassing all space, and causation."
The last scriptures in the Vedas were probably the Upanishads (400-600 BC). It emphasises, and was borne of, introspection and personal worship/experience. The senses, with the body, are transient, but spiritual awakenings last. The "transcendent reality from within" is called Brahman. "The joyous discovery of the rishis was that they could find Brahman as the subtle self/soul, atman, within themselves." When Brahman and its child, atman, merge, the person transcends and feels utter bliss.
The Upanishads also discuss reincarnation and karma. The combination of these things is called samsara, and there is an eventual escape from it. The way is through devout faith and goodness, etc. This is called moksha.
There are several "philosophical systems" related to the Vedas. These include Samkhya, Advaita, Vedanta, and yoga. And that'll do.

Also known as: panflute, syrinx (συριγξ), nai (Romanian). The Chinese version is called a paixiao, and is one of the land's oldest instruments.

It's one of everybody's oldest instruments. The Greeks threw it every-frickin'-where. The most common English names come from the God Pan.
According to Wikipedia, "Syrinx was a nymph and a follower of Artemis. Pursued by the amorous Greek god Pan, she ran to the river's edge and beseeched succor from the river nymphs. In answer, she was transformed into hollow water reeds that made a haunting sound when the god's frustrated breath blew across them. Pan cut the reeds to fashion the first set of pan pipes, which were thence forth known as syrinx."
There are many sorts of panflutes; it's not all a bunch of bamboo hollowed and stopped at the bottom and laced together with string! SOME of them are cleverly curved and crafted. Some of them are glued together, some given a handle, some a neck string. So as you can see, panpipes can be a bunch of bamboo hollowed and stopped at the bottom and glued together. With glue. They can be carved as holes in a single block of wood (LAME), set in two rows, and even made of glass. The highest quality (Romanian) ones are manufactured specifically for one musician and are curved like so:


However, uncurved ones are still good and a chief Andean instrument.
A panflute is played by resting the pipe around the center of the lower lip and blowing air across the top. More experienced players can play sharps and flats by varying the distance from their lips to the instrument.
The most famous panflute musician is Romanian Gheorghe Zamfir (1941-). He was originally self-taught, then educated at the Bucharest Academy of Music, from whence he made his considerable mark on the musical world. He rocks. He rocks so bad.
...there's really not much else to say about them. Pan vs Apollo!

Varying Types

Rosaceae. 蔷薇科. The family most commonly ravaged and third-party raped by botanists. But that's beside the point, because Rosaceae contains some of the loveliest plant species on Earth.
As you may have guessed, roses are a part of this family. But there's much more: it contains 106 genera and about 3,000 species! At least 60 are used by humans for everything from food to decoration. The edible species include (among many others) apples, peaches, pears, plums, cherries, almonds, raspberries, strawberries, and loquats.

Robert Frost shares the following with us about these developments:
The Rose Family
The rose is a rose
and was always a rose;
But the theory now goes
That the apple's a rose,
And the pear is, and so's
The plum, I suppose.
The dear only knows
What will next prove a rose.
You, my love, are a rose,
but were always a rose.

Isn't that a horrible ending? Doesn't he know about "those?" Oh well. We don't care about apples! I just wanted you to see that there is a connection between peaches and almonds, scientifically.
A peach tree, the poor thing, rarely lives thirty years. I know you think that most of them are dying in Georgia, but the states growing most of them are CA, NJ, and SC. CA is the top producer in the world.
Everyone LOVES peaches. One small example of this is the popular song by The Presidents OTUSA, "Peaches." Peaches come from a can, they were put there by a man, in a factory downtown, they note, and it couldn't be truer. The US and Italy are the leading producers of peaches in the world, and according to some encyclopedia, more than 445,000 metric TONS were canned, in the US, every year of the 1980s. 1.2 million tons were harvested each year.

The almond! Prunus (subfamily of Rosaceae) amygdalus dulcis! How old? OLD! It originated in Iran, and then where? GREECE! Some fellow named Cato then brought it to Italy. It spread on from that point, and "in 812 AD Charlemagne ordered almond trees to be planted in his imperial orchard." North America only got them around 1800. Yeah, dread SLOW, right?
Almonds are kinda poisonous. In fact, Rosaceae kinda flows that way, what with the amygdalin. I know people have always told you that a peach pit is poisonous, and it really is. So are cherry and plum pits, and even apples have a little love in them. It's only wild Prunus armeniaca pits that you have to worry about, though. That would be apricots. Do you know what an apricot is? If so, tell me, cuz I sure fuckin' don't.

This is an apricot:
Different from a peach how? I don't know...

Anyways, vitamin B17, also known as amygdalin, contains the following: 2 parts glucose. 1 part benzaldehyde. 1 part cyanide. It's a little poisonous. I mean helpful. People use it to fight cancer! The most anything you buy in the store will contain is 8%. That's right, every almond contains a little cyanide.* If only you knew how to extract it...
But back to the cancer. That's this intelligent kook's idea. Don't listen to it. "Laetrile and natural products containing it, such as apricot pits were thus found to be 'ineffective as a treatment for cancer'" (Tyler). "Moreover, laetrile has been banned by the FDA because of the risk of poisoning from its cyanide content" (Fetrow). Laetrile, by the way, is another name for amygdalin.
*Okay I just said that to freak you out. It's only bitter almonds that contain cyanide, and they're outlawed, and you have to eat fifty or more to die from them.
Moving on!
The flowers of Prunus dulcis look almost identical to those on peach trees. Clearly, the almond likes the hot weathers (originated in Iran, you'll remember). They live longer than Prunus persica (peach trees), able to surpass 50 years. Here is an almond's fruity capsule:



Isn't that cute? And inside is that woody littled holed shell, and inside that, the smooth, teardrop-shaped almond. How does this relate to the peach?

Well, aside from being in the same subfamily...have you ever cracked open a peach pit? It's not like there's just a bunch of jazz inside. There is, in fact, our very own little amygdalin carrier, which looks shockingly similar to an almond. Observe!



Yes, and now for the real shock: an almond is NOT A NUT! No! It's not! It's a drupe - "a fleshy fruit, such as a peach, plum, olive, or cherry, usually having a single hard stone that encloses a seed. Also called stone fruit."
"In true nuts the hard outer wall constitutes the entire pericarp. The coconut (Cocos nucifera) is a classic example of a dry drupe, with a thin, green, outer layer called the exocarp, a thick, fibrous middle layer called the mesocarp, and a very hard inner layer surrounding the large seed called an endocarp. These same three layers are easily visible in fleshy drupes such as the peach (Prunus persica), plum (Prunus domestica), and apricot (Prunus armeniaca). Unshelled almonds (Prunus amygdalus) are seeds still contained within an endocarp layer."

So there! Furthermore, a peach's scientific name is not in fact Prunus persica, but Prunus amygdalus persica! It is the almond's closest relative. And not surprising, since they're both drupes (okay, the actual almond fits the definition of a nut, but the entire bundle is the same as a peach. this means there's such a thing as a peach nut)!
But since they're so similar, why did they both originate in different places? Didn't the peach begin in China?
No, you fool! In fact, it began around where almonds did, along the Middle East. You know what's cool? You know what's cool happened?
"The original population of peach/almond progenitor species was separated by the formation of mountain ranges in southern Asia millions of years ago. The resulting climate change allowed almonds to evolve in the arid western part of this region, while peaches evolved in the humid eastern areas of south-central China."
They kinda spindled their way apart, but their love is forever! And I really meant love, not cyanide, this time.

"Italians used to distribute almonds at weddings as tokens of fruitfulness. The almond was referred to as the "womb of the world", suggestive of its supposed birth-bringing powers."

Learn TONS more cool stuff about peaches and almonds here.

The word "carousel" does not simply mean a merry-go-round. It is also used in such terms as "luggage carousel"; that is, a rotating device. But that's beside the point, because there's a very interesting history surrounding the word.
Though there appears to be some dispute around it online, the general concept is that it comes from the French "carrousel," which was a festival/game held by royalty back-when. This game involved four groups of nobles, told apart by their varying highly colorful clothes, attempting to be the first to grab an item from a pole. What this item was I am unsure of, though there is speculation of animal heads. But I am sure that France, probably around the 1600s, produced the world's first merry-go-rounds.
In the United States, carousels began with farmers who wanted to entertain children, and the simple things were generally "mule-powered." It was around 1870 that music and engines joined with the horses, and professional carvers really had their fun!


There were approximately 3,500 carousels wood-carved in the U.S. from 1885-1930, but there are scarce over 150 left. Most were dismantled when people lost interest in the 1930's, considering them to be old-fashioned and gaining more interest in roller coasters and ferris wheels. From that point, even carousels that were not dismantled often wore down, because for a carousel to stick around, the owners have to take care of it, even restoring it periodically. The city with the greatest amount (but not the oldest; that goes to state R.I.) of antiques is Greater Binghamton, NY. Six were donated by George F. Johnson, who lived from 1857 to 1948 and believed that every child should be able to enjoy a carousel at no price at all--and in Greater Binghamton, that is the way it still is.
Because there are so few carousels left, there is a fairly good collector's market for them. Knock-offs carved in Asia often get accepted as the real thing, because many collectors simply love the horses but have no knowledge of how to tell an original. This, however, is generally surprisingly easy: if one side is not carved as intricately as the other, it is likely a real American antique, because they put most of the effort into the side that would be seen by observers. Horses on the outside of the carousel are worth far more than those on the inside, because they, too, were given more effort. The pole in an authentic horse goes directly in front of the saddle, not through it.


The Antique Roadshow: "'The things you have to know are: who carved it, where it sat on the carousel, and whether it has any extraordinary features,' DeMars says. These factors, as well as the condition of the horse and its paint, can put the value of a horse anywhere between $1,500 to $160,000. Most, though, are in the $5,000 to $10,000 range."

American carousels rotate counter-clockwise, and European ones rotate clockwise.
Hood River, Oregon contains the International Museum of Carousel Art, which of course contains more animals than any other place.
Some carousel animals move up and down, and some are stationary. The moving animals are called jumpers, the others, standers.


Three of the most prominent carvers were M.C. Illions, Allan Herschell, and Gustav Dentzel.
Horses can be bought on Ebay...but how can you know it's real?
Listen to carousel music (really quite cheering)
Carousel books.
The steps of restoration.
What you can do to save carousels.
Find an antique carousel near you.

Pre-Article Note: Pufferfish (family Tetraodontidae) are often confused with porcupinefish (family Diodontidae). Both pufferfish and porcupinefish are within the order Tetraodontiformes, but there is a marked difference, much easier than alligator-crocodile: Porcupinefish are coated with sharp spines.

Yeah. Weirded out. But you have to think about the fact that the eye is proportionate to the fish when it's inflated, which, I think, was a rather interesting choice on Oceanus' part.

**

There are approximately 120 species of pufferfish in the world, and being so cute, I bet they have tons of names. A few in English are blowfish, globefish, and balloonfish. They mostly live in warm reefs off the coasts of islands such as Hawai'i, Japan, and the Philippines. They have four teeth, which is more than most fish can say for themselves: two on top, and two on the bottom. These form a sort of beak, which the fish use to break open the shells of crustaceans, molluscs and echinoderms. Aside from some sharks, they are the only fish that can close their eyes. Currently they have an important place in science, which I don't care about, but you can learn more here.
Some species of pufferfish carry the poison tetrodotoxin (named after Tetraodontiformes). This poison can be contained in practically every bit of the fish, intestines to skin--yet, oddly, usually not in the epidermis. The ovaries are the most poisonous part; the female of the species is even more deadlier than the male. It is worth noting that this same poison is used by the blue-ringed octopus, the most deadly octopus in the world. This little octopus is sick (by which I mean spine-tinglingly creepily scary): the rings on its body only appear right before it attacks. This is a trait related to other octopi; most can display their feelings by changing colour (I'm not going to do an article on octopi because there's too much to say). In any case, the point is, the poison is a neurotoxin that blinds you within seconds and suffocates you in less than five minutes. Thus, it should come as a bit of a disturbance that the pufferfish is a Japanese and Korean delicacy; as one page put it, "Sharks tend to eat puffer fish and so do humans." The parts most commonly eaten are those most likely to have poison! Sushi made from the flesh of fugu kills 70-100 people per year, yet they keep on eatin' it! It costs more than $100 for a single puffer meal (called fugu in Japanese, which simply means pufferfish anywho, which I learned 2 years ago HUH), and can cost even $400 for gaijin (foreigners in Japan). Many restaurants produce fugu dishes exclusively. When properly prepared, the fish is calming and almost narcotic.
It is illegal for anyone but specially trained chefs to prepare the fish. These chefs must pass a difficult (think Asia) exam, and then eat a pufferfish they have prepared! Only 25% of takers pass.

Think about that for a moment.

It is a popular aquarium pet worldwide. Since their poison comes from a bacteria, domestic puffers are not poisonous. "They can be tame but shouldn't be hand fed because of their sharp teeth. Puffer fish owners usually try and make their fish puff up when friends come over. This is very stressful for the animal and shouldn't be overdone." Furthermore, if an aquarium is not extra-roomy, they can become unable to deflate and die. Poor fishies. That's sorta like trying to make a person scream.
When pufferfish inflate by gulping up water and air, they double in size, and their speed decreases by about 50%. Which is neat because it involves balance.

Wikipedia Trivia: The first recorded cases of tetrodotoxin poisoning were from the logs of Captain James Cook. He recorded his crew eating some local tropic fish (pufferfish), then feeding the remains to the pigs kept on board. The crew experienced numbness and shortness of breath, while the pigs were all found dead the next morning. In hindsight, it is clear that the crew received a mild dose of tetrodotoxin, while the pigs ate the pufferfish body parts that contain most of the toxin, thus killing them.
WT:Dolphins have been observed using pufferfish as a sort of toy in the wild. They tease the pufferfish with their teeth, causing the small fish to become alarmed and then inflate. After a while the fish calms down and deflates, thus starting the cycle over again. It is speculated that dolphins may also enjoy the mild numbing effect from small amounts of the pufferfish toxin.

Amusing Note: On one page about porcupinefish, there was an advertisement for a "Colon Cleansing Kit" and also, "Crystal Spring Detox Pads," as if, if I have been poisoned by a fish, I will look it up online, and quickly order some detoxification when offered the idea, so I don't have to worry about any adverse effects.

Judith Golden is a painter and photographer, born in 1934 and still workin'. She is known for criticizing the degrading media depictions of impossibly beautiful women, hand coloring, and a completely different style involving mystical elements. She until recently worked as a professor at the University of AZ.

"Jerre Johnson, Tucson writer and critic, recently described [her] work:

'Judith Golden's images are a progressive process of self-exploration involving temporal and eternal time, anima and animus, the conscious and the unconscious self, and a cast of allegorical characters that figure both as the subject and medium of artistic expression. Layered realities form the poetics of psychological presence in the photographic portraits that explore the elemental sense-memory of being.'"

She has made a collection of photographs depicting the tarot Major Arcana, inspired by psychologist Carl Jung.
The Moon: The Star:

She did one entire collection from the same shot of a girl's back and curled braid. My personal favorite is Lifetimes, Lifelines:

I do not believe her media commentary, involving shots of herself melded with magazine models, is on her site, but here is one of the less disturbing examples.

There are hundreds of types of hats, which may surprise the average "bonnets ballcaps" American.

A bandeau is, aside from underwear, a sort of thick sash/headband worn by women around the nineteenth century. They are almost entirely unproduced nowadays.

Berets were made popular by armies and artists, but anyone can wear one!

A boater is that sort of gay hat Bert wore in Mary Poppins.

A bowler hat, also known as a derby, is that famous rounded black cap worn generally by businessmen circa Victorian times, especially in Britain.

A breton is a squished sort of cap traditionally worn by officers and the like.

The carriage known as a calash was the grounds for the naming of the calache or calash hat, a strange head covering with a tie under the chin similar to that of a bonnet, but a great ribbed hood reminiscent of the carriage top.

Cavaliers were made famous by the Three Muskateers. The plumed feather and flat top are recognizable to nearly everyone, despite their not being worn anymore, except in costumes.

A chef's hat, properly called a toque, is another well-known hat that nobody wears on the street. I mention it because it has some interesting trivia surrounding it. One of the least likely tales goes that King Henry VIII found one of his cook's hairs in his soup. He ordered the cook beheaded, and insisted that the replacement wear a hat.
In A Pageant of Hats, Ancient and Modern by Ruth Edwards, she states that, "It was regarded as natural that any chef, worthy of the name, could cook an egg at least one hundred ways. The most-renowned chefs often boasted that they could serve their royal masters a different egg dish every day in the year, some of them so cleverly prepared, that aside from being highly palatable they had flavours as widely different as completely diverse kinds of foods. Today, noted chefs are seldom called upon to prove their prowess in this manner.” The number of ways they could cook an egg showed in their hat's pleats: the master chefs had 100 pleats. Today, a chef's prowess can still be rated according to his pleats.

A capeline is a women's hat with a domed center and curved brim. They are still popular today, specifically with old ladies.

"Caubeen" is Irish slang for shabby old hat. Bagpipers!

One lovely medieval headdress was the chaplet, which was a sort of not-quite-connected circlet, almost a headband. In medieval times, they were originally of flowers but later of gold. However, the one in this picture is from an excavation of Mesopotamia.

One VERY weird hat, which I am mentioning solely for its quirkiness, is the "child's pudding." It was sort of a pre-helmet era covering for young children, to make falling easier whilst they were learning to walk. This is not to be confused with the helmets Japanese schoolchildren wear, which apparently serve no purpose whatsoever. Either that, or the Japanese are very unstable people.

A cloche is a ladies' hat with scarcely any brim. It does, however, have variations, and can be brimless, as with the flapper cloche.

One semi-silly and dainty headdress is the cocktail hat, which is generally worn toward the front of the head and a tad to the side, stylishly. It can have a wide range of decorations and may or may not include a veil.
Note: this is not to be confused with a doll hat, which is around the same size and worn the same way, but can be anything from a top hat to bucket hat, so long as it's miniature.

If you don't know what a fedora is, it's time you learned! It's that derbyish hat with a kind of dent in the middle, and can include a feather. I believe this is the same thing as a homburg and trilby; also known as an asshat.

Gable hoods: the most important of head coverings! This is that Elizabethan thing that had a long sort of veil down the back. It was popular around 1500, and has four straight sides that rather box around the head. More info.

Gaucho: the Zorro hat! Can't forget that.

Huers were borne of medieval times, but are still manufactured and worn today, especially in Wintertime. They do not have to have any ear coverings or straps, but all have that little ball in the center, sometimes emphasized cutely since it cannot be comfortably eliminated.

The maid's hat, the ladies' nightcap, the baby's annoyance: the mob hat.

Audrey Hepburn popularized the mushroom hat. No, not this...this. Straw is not a requirement. The specifics of this hat seem very vague, as with a lotta hats.

An opera hat is a collapsible tophat with an upward curve to one side. They are made to collapse so that they can be easily carried and hidden once removed.

Picture hats were those beautiful wide-brimmed hats worn by women for the last few centuries. They could have fake fruit, flowers, ribbons...pretty much anything could be piled on these decorative sunhats.

Pillbox: the rounded, brimless hat that seems to have a mysterious sexual appeal. It basically either Works or it Doesn't; it looks like a box sitting on your head, or it looks hot to trot for no apparent reason. It is "chic" and summons images of cigarette holders, slithering trails of smoke, short evening dresses, and crossed, pale legs.
'Least, to me it does.

A vagabond is one of my least favorite hats. It inexplicably widens at one side and I think it looks like somebody made a mistake molding it.

Tuque. Warning: sexy picture. This Canadian [hat] is a popular cutie everywhere.

Everyone knows that the yarmulka is the trademark headwear of Jews. However, this skull cap, also known as a calotte, originated in ancient Greece.

To learn about many more types of hats, visit http://www.hatshapers.com/Dictionary.htm

Also known as pearl tea, tapioca pearl drink, and boba milk tea, this drink originated in Taiwan in 1983, and quickly spread across Asia, then gradually overseas to the Western world.
The fad has hit all of the big cities in America, including D.C., San Francisco, NYC, Los Angeles, and Seattle. The tea is a pretty trendy item, and can be served in anything from a clear plastic cup to a wine glass. I expect it to become a typical cafe staple, the same as chai tea.



"Tapioca pearls are made mostly from tapioca starch. Tapioca starch is starch made from tapioca or bitter-cassava plant, sometimes called manioca or yuca in some parts of the world. The bitter-cassava plant is native to South America and was introduced into Asia sometime during the 19th century. Someone came up with the idea of adding tapioca pearls as a bit of novelty, and the idea spread."
The tea itself is simply a delicious flavor combined with milk, though that flavor can range from peach to green tea.

**

Wikipedia Trivia: In September 2004, defending a US$18 billion weapon purchase plan, the ROC Ministry of National Defense used bubble tea as an example of the overall cost of the proposed purchase. The Ministry stated that the total cost of the weapons systems would be equivalent to the money saved if all Taiwanese drank one fewer pearl milk tea per week for a period of twenty years.

Bubble Tea Supply Store: http://www.bubbleteasupply.com/index.php?page=main.html

Drink up!