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How Mosquitoes Use Six Needles to Suck Your Blood | Deep Look Video

April 14, 2017
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Seen up close, the anatomy of a mosquito bite is terrifying. The most dangerous animal in the world uses six needle-like mouthparts to saw into our skin, tap a blood vessel and sometimes leave a dangerous parting gift.

This is another installment of the PBS Deep Look series. If no film or link appears in this email, go to the blog to view it by clicking on the blog title above. If the film stops & starts in an annoying manner, press pause (lower left double bars ||) to let it buffer and get ahead of you.  [Chuck Almdale]

California Natives Saturday 15th ONLY

April 10, 2017
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Please don’t get conflicted! Tax day is on the 18th this year, so you DO have time to go the CA Native Plant Society show.

Apr 2017 CNPS announcement

5 Weird Involuntary Behaviors Explained! | PBS Science Video

April 10, 2017

More head-banging news from the land of hard knocks.Our bodies do a lot of weird things, and many of them are completely involuntary. Why do we often jerk our bodies awake right before falling asleep? Why do we yawn? Why do we hiccup? Why do some people sneeze when they look at the sun? And why does your eye twitch? This week we’ll look at the science behind these crazy involuntary behaviors!

This is an installment of the PBS – It’s OK to be Smart series. If no film or link appears in this email, go to the blog to view it by clicking on the blog title above. If the film stops & starts in an annoying manner, press pause (lower left double bars ||) to let it buffer and get ahead of you.  [Chuck Almdale]

These Lizards Have Been Playing Rock-Paper-Scissors for 15 Million Years | Deep Look Video

April 6, 2017

Male side-blotched lizards have more than one way to get the girl. Orange males are bullies. Yellows are sneaks. Blues team up with a buddy to protect their territories. Who wins? It depends – on a genetic game of roshambo.

This is another installment of the PBS Deep Look series. If no film or link appears in this email, go to the blog to view it by clicking on the blog title above. If the film stops & starts in an annoying manner, press pause (lower left double bars ||) to let it buffer and get ahead of you.  [Chuck Almdale]

Joyas Voladoras

April 3, 2017
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Something to think about before our April 4 show
on Andean hummingbirds

Anna’s Hummingbird female (Jim Kenney 8/14/12)

Joyas Voladoras

by Brian Doyle
From: The American Scholar

Consider the hummingbird for a long moment. A hummingbird’s heart beats ten times a second. A hummingbird’s heart is the size of a pencil eraser. A hummingbird’s heart is a lot of the hummingbird. Joyas voladoras, flying jewels, the first white explorers in the Americas called them, and the white men had never seen such creatures, for hummingbirds came into the world only in the Americas, nowhere else in the universe, more than three hundred species of them whirring and zooming and nectaring in hummer time zones nine times removed from ours, their hearts hammering faster than we could clearly hear if we pressed our elephantine ears to their infinitesimal chests.

Link to the rest of the essay.
Thanks to Joyce for the suggestion.