??, or hanami is a Japanese term that refers to flower appreciation. It’s most commonly used in early spring, to describe the Japanese tradition of celebration when the cherry blossom trees are in bloom.
That happened in most parts of the country about 3 weeks ago, and amongst the more striking images to come out of Japan this year were the following:
That is a town in which a light snowfall occurred during the spring bloom. This is apparently close to the height of beauty as far as the blossoms are concerned, and the photos from the town were widely shared on the Internet.
The above photo was taken in Ueno park, in Tokyo, a couple of weeks back. This was the height of the season, and the park was full of people out to see the blossoms and having picnics. Can you see what they are all taking photos of?
I enjoyed some hanami of my own today, because the grove of cherry blossoms at SUNY is now in bloom:
Its almost exactly one month later than last year.
The flowers only last a few days. For the Japanese, part of the appeal is the transience. Enjoy them while you can.
This time I put the camera in the back of our yard, in the only ‘wooded’ part of our property. I scattered corn amidst the fallen leaves as well. In a few days, over 150 photos had collected on the device. Even better, the vast majority actually had animals in them!
There were about eighty like these:
There are (at least) two squirrels in the second photo. Can you see them both?
And then there were fifty or so photos like these:
That second guy looks like he knows what’s going on doesn’t he? Two of the photos contained four deer in them!
And then we get to the unusual shots. Of the ~140 animal photos, all but two contained deer or squirrels. Here are the other two:
THERE HE IS AGAIN! A raccoon! Although his tail looks shorter…
And there we have it my friends, the first wildlife shot of a rabbit 🙂
(I won’t comment here that it’s not uncommon to see rabbits hopping around our backyard in the summer…)
Now this is a disappointment. As everyone knows and agrees, Jon Pertwee’s version of the doctor was the best ever in all fifty years of Doctor Who. One may suppose therefore that the literary output of such a great man would be without reproach. Sadly, that’s not the case.
This, my dear readers, is a book for babies. Containing piffle such as stories about dragons hatching from eggs and befriending children, or man-eating fungus houses, or amorphous blob-creatures that rampage out of lakes and devour dozens of people, there’s nothing very… well now I think about it most of the stories in this book actually are quite monstrous!
But the way they are told leaves a lot to be desired. Many of them I suspect were written in minutes, and even as I read them I supposed I may have been able to do better myself. Let me try:
At last the fated hour had arrived. Kron-pirr viewed the battlefield from atop his Daedalus platform, watching the Void Gigas units assemble their time cannons. At his signal they would fire at the city, breaching the etheric defenses and opening the way for the final invasion. Victory was by no means certain, and the losses would be great. But if the Machine Brain was ever to be defeated, it must be here, and it must be now. Once more Kron-Pirr remembered the events that had led him here: the discovery of the artifact (back when he wasn’t even elevated), the human invasion in which Glork’fth was killed, the accidental reactivation and ultimately apotheosis of the dreaded alien technology. Kron-pirr had indirectly caused the machine revolution, and if his planet had any chance to survive, he must now end it. He noted the Gigases had completed their task, and the troops were ready for his signal. He raised his tentacle…
Hey, that’s not really anything to do with Monsters is it? It’s almost as if the saga of Kron-pirr has taken over these reviews!
At any rate, this book is hardly worth the Pertwee name. My advice: save your gold sovereigns.
There’s nothing like a craft project on Easter Sunday is there? But for me, this year I wouldn’t be colouring eggs or making a basket… I decided to tackle three of the projects I received for Christmas.
The first was this Praxinoscope kit received from JAF:
It’s not really a craft project at all, since there is very little assembly. Even the batteries were included! The few pieces snapped together and it looked like this:
The idea is to look through the viewing window while rotating the disc to see a simple animation. Here’s a short video of what the above disc looked like when animating:
Not bad is it? I have to be honest though; the product does have it’s issues. The printed discs with the animations on them didn’t align well with the reflecting surfaces, and the weight of the top of the device is too great for the tiny support it is attached to. It also could have done with a better axle mechanism allowing for smoother and longer spinning. Still, it does a good job of illustrating how these 140-year-old devices work and would be, I believe, a fun toy for a kid since it includes blank discs on which someone could design their own animation.
Continuing the theme of row boats, the next challenge was this one:
SFL gave me this for Christmas, and I was very much looking forward to putting it together. Let’s look inside the box:
Hrm, not too many parts, but some that look a bit complex. Recalling the tank incident from the other week, I was particularly hesitant when I noticed the little blue bottle. Happily, that ended up being grease and not glue!
Assembly was challenging but not difficult, mostly due to the screws not being particularly co-operative and requiring a lot more force than I was initially prepared to supply. I was worried about cracking the plastic!
That’s the motor case above, showing the switch, motor (underneath) and the wiring. The wires gave me a bit of trouble; I was quite relieved when I tested the mechanism to see that the motor actually worked!
The close to finished boat. Much of the mechanism is installed, including the battery case, the rowing ‘pistons’ and the gearing system. Also, not very visible in this shot, a mysterious piece of styrofoam is attached inside the rear back of the boat. Since this would not help buoyancy under normal use, I can only imagine it is to prevent the entire thing from sinking if it starts going under.
And there it is fully assembled, which took maybe an hour. It is well balanced and well geared, and it works! Here’s proof:
I didn’t flip the switch correctly in the video, which is why it stopped at the end 🙂
Anyway this thing has to be tested! But the test will wait for SFL herself. Next time she visits I’ll find a pond somewhere and we’ll send it on it’s maiden voyage. Stay tuned for results!
The last craft kit came from BFS (the F is for Francis), who sent me the third in an ongoing series of metal insects:
Yes, that is a pair of cute paws in the above picture 🙂
As you may recall from previous blog entries, these metal kits are known for their difficulty in assembly, and their ability to shred the tips of fingers due to many sharp edges. This one, happily, only fulfilled one of these criteria…. my fingers still hurt!
Here’s what it looked like once opened:
Such a tiny amount of pieces! But when I opened the plastic, it suddenly looked like a lot more:
Probably because I’ve made two such kits before, assembly was quick and easy, taking less than half an hour. All those pieces seen above (plus some screws and springs), went together to form this savage beast:
Who looks a bit bigger in the above shot than he is in reality:
He now joins his comrades, scorpion and mantid, sitting next to the TV!
Some years ago, KLS suggested, based on something she’d read, that I was a supertaster. This is a term used to describe someone that has particular, possibly abnormal (although the actual percentage of supertasters is unknown) sensitivity to certain types of food. It’s neither a good nor a bad thing: supertasters simply taste certain foods differently.
The cause of ‘supertasting’ is twofold. First, supertasters have a greater density of tastebuds, and therefore can taste with greater ‘resolution’. This allows them to distinguish smaller concentrations of taste. Secondly, supertasters have a sensitivity to a chemical called 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP). About half of people can’t taste this at all, about a quarter of people can taste it and find it bitter, and the other 25% of people are sensitive to it and have a strong negative reaction.
PROP is present in many foods, but particularly common in a few, including vegetables (particularly brussel sprouts and cabbage), coffee, grapefruits, chili peppers (the burn is much more pronounced for supertasters) and olives.
At this point, you may want to re-read the list at the start of this old post…
I have often, in my life, had a strong negative reaction when eating certain foods. And I don’t mean psychological. I remember many times as a child (and occasionally as an adult), gagging uncontrollably when eating something I found particularly unpleasant. This is apparently a not-uncommon reaction for a supertaster when they eat food containing a large concentration of PROP.
Am I actually a supertaster? Who knows. But do I believe – objectively – that the evidence supports the possibility that I am?
