Friday, May 25, 2007
Nature red in tooth and claw*
I have learned that my friends the house sparrows, who cluster so entertainingly in the bare branches in the winter, are not native to North America (which my blood line isn't either, come to that). They were introduced to New York in the 1850s; one theory is that they were brought over to pick out the undigested seeds from the horse manure that littered streets in the mid-19th century, thereby hastening its decomposition. (Why that makes it rot faster I don't know - perhaps just by the mechanical action. I don't want to think about this any more.)
From these humble beginnings they've spread to the entire North American continent. Their drive and hustle are to be admired, I suppose, but they do drive out native songbirds like the bluebird, by such rude means as killing them to take over their nests. (Warning: graphic
pictures of dead bluebirds.)
I'm sorry about the bluebirds, of course, but closer to home I've decided the sparrows are responsible for the dismal showing this spring of the forsythia in which they hung out this winter and spring. I think they ate the buds, or crapped all over them and prevented their maturation. (Hey, it's no goofier a theory than the "sparrows get rid of horse manure" one.) In any case, up on top of the bush, where they hung out, there are no blossoms. Down below, there are. Coincidence?
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* Tennyson, In Memoriam
From these humble beginnings they've spread to the entire North American continent. Their drive and hustle are to be admired, I suppose, but they do drive out native songbirds like the bluebird, by such rude means as killing them to take over their nests. (Warning: graphic
pictures of dead bluebirds.) I'm sorry about the bluebirds, of course, but closer to home I've decided the sparrows are responsible for the dismal showing this spring of the forsythia in which they hung out this winter and spring. I think they ate the buds, or crapped all over them and prevented their maturation. (Hey, it's no goofier a theory than the "sparrows get rid of horse manure" one.) In any case, up on top of the bush, where they hung out, there are no blossoms. Down below, there are. Coincidence?
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* Tennyson, In Memoriam
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Dark matters
It is gratifying, if epistemologically challenging, that it now appears that we can see dark matter, whose principal characteristic seemed to be that you couldn't see it. Thanks to our friend the Hubble Space Telescope - a genuinely delightful use of taxpayer dollars - there seems to be a more or less visible ring of dark matter in a galaxy far far away. I guess we're not actually seeing the dark matter directly, but seeing the distortions its gravity imposes on our view of objects on the other side of it.
But still.
And elsewhere in the annals of darkness, I'm trying not to be inappropriately happy that Jerry Falwell died. But I'm not trying very hard.
But still.
And elsewhere in the annals of darkness, I'm trying not to be inappropriately happy that Jerry Falwell died. But I'm not trying very hard.
Monday, May 07, 2007
Pretty much the end for this year
For the first day or so it was kind of fun driving a car that looked like it had just been at a wedding. Then, as the petals faded and refused to blow off or even wash off in rain, it got a little old. I finally had to scrub them off this weekend.
There's a metaphor lurking in here somewhere, I just know there is.
