Lowell And Mars

From AI Gemini

Percival Lowell 1855-1916, a wealthy American businessman-turned-astronomer, spent the latter part of his life convinced that the "canals" he observed on Mars were monumental engineering projects built by a dying, highly advanced civilization.

The wildest, most quintessential quote from his body of work comes from his 1906 book, 'Mars and Its Canals'. In it, he essentially argues that Martians were not only smarter than us but also better at city planning and governance:

"A mind of no mean order would seem to have presided over the system we see—a mind certainly of considerably more comprehensiveness than that which presides over the various departments of our own public works. Party politics, at all events, have had no part in them; for the system is planet-wide."

Why this is his "wildest" take

- Social Commentary via Astronomy: Lowell didn't just claim he saw lines; he used his observations to critique human bureaucracy. He projected a utopian, unified Martian government onto the planet’s surface, contrasting it with what he saw as the inefficient, bickering political climate of Earth.
- The "Artificial" Conclusion: He doubled down on the idea that because the lines were straight and spanned such vast distances, they could not be natural. He concluded that the Martians were forced to build these planet-wide irrigation systems to transport water from the polar ice caps to the equatorial regions to survive their planet’s inevitable drying.
- Scientific Legacy: While his observations were eventually debunked as optical illusions caused by his brain attempting to connect faint, disconnected surface features, his romanticized vision ignited the public imagination. It paved the way for the "Martian" archetype in science fiction, directly influencing H.G. Wells (The War of the Worlds) and Edgar Rice Burroughs (Barsoom series).

Lowell's 19th-century map of Mars, featuring the 'canals' he believed were artificial. Source: The Planetary Society / Percival Lowell's Map of Martian Canals

 

NBCLA - After Jackie's Death Will Shadow Find A New Mate?

Orbiting

 This is about the debris orbiting the Earth at this point.

 From Neil deGrasse Tyson - "NASA tracks 25,000 objects larger than a softball. The estimated population of particles bigger than a marble is approximately 500,000. The number larger than a pinhead exceeds 100,000,000. All moving at 18,000 miles per hour. What could go wrong?"

Giulio Cercato - 'Simple Feels'

 I call this an example of the new ambient music; repetitive, beat oriented, gentle, in the backgrouund.

'Klara And The Sun' – Official Trailer

Rome

 National Geographic: One thing Hollywood gets right about Ancient Rome - Gladiators really were sex symbols—just not in the way one might expect. by Harry Sidebottom

What It’s Actually Like Living Inside The $2,000 Dome Homes Americans Build For Homeless People

Food

 Science Daily: This food compound may help vaccines work better in older adults

Spring

Spring by Pablo Neruda

The bird has come
to bring light to birth.
From every trill of his,
water is born.

And between water and light which unwind the air,
now the spring is inaugurated,
now the seed is aware of its own growing;
the root takes shape in the corolla,
at last the eyelids of the pollen open.

All this accomplished by a simple bird
from his perch on a green branch.

Birds

My question, are birds unspoken farmers?

AI Gemini responded with:

That’s a poetic way to put it—and functionally, yes, absolutely.

While they aren’t wearing overalls or driving tractors, birds are essential, full-time stewards of the land. In ecology, they are often referred to as ecosystem engineers or primary dispersal agents.

Here is how our feathered friends manage the fields:

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1. Seed Sowing (Orchardists of the Wild)

If you’ve ever wondered how fruit trees, berry bushes, or oak forests plant themselves across miles of landscape, thank birds:

- Frugivores (Fruit Eaters): Birds like robins, waxwings, and blue jays consume fruits and berries whole. The seeds pass through their digestive tracts unharmed—often wrapped in a fresh dose of natural fertilizer—and land miles away from the parent plant.
- The Cachers: Birds like jays and nuthatches actively plant trees. A single Blue Jay can cache thousands of acorns in a single autumn, burying them in the soil for winter. Because they don't recover every single cache, tens of thousands of oak trees are planted every year purely by bird memory lapses.

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2. Natural Pest Control (Pesticide Specialists)

Long before synthetic pesticides, birds kept agricultural ecosystems from collapsing:

- Insectivores: Warblers, swallows, chickadees, and woodpeckers consume vast quantities of caterpillars, beetles, mosquitoes, and wood-boring larvae. A single pair of nesting chickadees will catch thousands of caterpillars just to raise one brood.
- Rodent Management: Owls, hawks, and kestrels act as natural crop guards, keeping populations of mice, voles, and destructive agricultural pests in check without harming the soil chemistry.

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3. Pollination (The Orchard Workers)

While bees get most of the credit, birds like hummingbirds and honeyeaters are crucial pollinators for thousands of flowering plants and fruit-bearing trees. Because birds can fly much farther and withstand cooler, windier weather than insects, they ensure cross-pollination across vast distances.

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4. Soil Tilling & Nutrient Distribution

- Tilling: Ground-foraging birds like towhees, thrashers, and sparrows constantly scratch through leaf litter and soil, aerating the earth, mixing organic matter, and helping seeds reach the soil layer.
- Nutrient Transport: Seabirds and waterfowl transfer massive amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus from aquatic environments back to terrestrial soil via their droppings (guano), essentially fertilizing coastal forest ecosystems.

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The Verdict

They clear the fields of pests, till the soil, pollinate the blooms, and plant the forests of tomorrow—all for the price of a few seeds or a warm nesting spot. Unspoken farmers indeed!

The Police - 'Roxanne' - Live In Fréjus 1980

Decorator

 "A decorator crab uses its own body, its own shell, as a setting for the arrangement of other life. Often its bodily arboretum contains not just sponge but corals and other cnidarians. These are all stationary forms-and inedible ones, from most points of view. The crab is protecting itself. The decoration provides a combination of concealment and discouragement to many hunters, especially to an octopus."
Peter Godfrey-Smith

Photo from Wikipedia Commons

Weekend!

 Have an excellent weekend. See you first thing Monday morning.

Pema Chodron - The Secret To Feeling Calm No Matter What Happens!

'Particle'

 This is what I was doing around 22 years ago. Time flies. The artwork I used for this track was a collage done by my brother, William Sande. William passed away in 2003 at the age of 60.

What To Read

 My question, what to read next after reading 'Eat, Poop, Die' by Joe Roman, 'Thinking Like A Wolf' by Rick McIntyre, and 'Metazoa' by Peter Godfrey-Smith?

AI Gemini replied:

You have built an incredible reading list! You are spot on with the connection you've noticed—the specific field bridging Joe Roman's work with ecology is called zoogeochemistry (how animal behavior, movement, and digestion drive Earth’s chemical and nutrient cycles), blended with cognitive ethology (how animals experience and think about the world).

It is a fascinating genre that sits right at the intersection of animal behavior, philosophy, and global Earth systems.

Here are three stellar books that build directly on what you’ve been enjoying:

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1. 'An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us' By Ed Yong

- Why it fits: If you loved Metazoa and Thinking Like A Wolf, this is the ultimate companion. Yong explores the concept of the Umwelt—the unique sensory bubble each creature inhabits. From how electric fish map murky waters to how magnetic fields guide migrating birds, it changes how you view the perceptual worlds of other creatures.

2. 'Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet' By Ben Goldfarb

- Why it fits: This is a direct spiritual successor to Joe Roman’s 'Eat, Poop, Die'. Goldfarb dives into "road ecology," examining how human infrastructure fragments the vital movement pathways of wildlife—and how innovative scientists are redesigning landscapes (like wildlife overpasses and underwater culverts) to reconnect natural nutrient and animal corridors.

3. 'Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest' By Suzanne Simard

- Why it fits: Simard is the forest ecologist whose research proved that trees communicate, share nutrients, and warn one another of threats through vast underground fungal networks ("the Wood Wide Web"). It captures that same awe-inspiring sense of deep ecological interconnectivity found across all three of your recent reads.

Josh Johnson - Taylor Farms, Taco Bell, Your Tummy…

'The Laundromat Off Malibu' - Short Film

Shrimp

 Monterey Bay Aquarium: Meet the Skeleton Shrimp

"If you can put aside their alien appearance, skeleton shrimp are fascinating creatures. Unlike most of their cousins in the order Amphipoda (which actually do resemble tiny shrimp), the skeleton shrimps (or “caprellids”) are specialized for clinging rather than swimming in marine habitats." Source

Photo from Wikipedia Commons

 

Neil

“What they’ve (Hollywood sci-fi movie producers) gotten right from the beginning, however, is flying saucers with ramps that extend down to the ground. When not otherwise beaming you or themselves in or out of their craft, their use of ramps means that Hollywood flying saucers were wheelchair-accessible long before such accommodations were legally mandated in the United States.” Neil deGrasse Tyson

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'The Rivals Of Amziah King' - Trailer

Flivverboob

 A flivverboob is an old-fashioned 1920s slang term for a reckless, careless, or obnoxious automobile driver. The word combines flivver (early 20th-century slang for a cheap car, like a Ford Model T) and boob (a foolish person).

Alessandro Pinto

Alessandro Pinto is a contemporary Italian composer, musician, and visual artist. 

On Spotify: Alessandro Pinto  

His work is quite stunning. Two of Alessandro's paintings

 

'Reflection'

Merwin

"To Paula in Late Spring" by W.S. Merwin“

Let me imagine that we will come again
when we want to and it will be spring
we will be no older than we ever were
the worn griefs will have eased like the early cloud
through which the morning slowly comes to itself
and the ancient defenses against the dead
will be done with and left to the dead at last
the light will be as it is now in the garden
that we have made here these years together
of our long evenings and astonishment

Cubero

painting by Rolando Cubero - born 1957

 

Boundaries

 Scary Mommy: 16 Characteristics Of Highly Toxic Parents - It all boils down to boundaries. by Shannon Ashley

Life

 The Marginalian: From Mitochondria to Minds: The Illustrated Science of the Psychedelic Dream Called Life by Maria Popova

C

 SciTechDaily: New Study Suggests Vitamin C Could Help Prevent Cancer by University of Waterloo

Iggy Pop - 'The Passenger'

Cicada

 Cicada time.

 

Fare

Parts of the English language are kinder than we realize.

Farewell = Fare + well

Fare (from Old English faran): Means "to go, travel, journey, or proceed."

Well (from Old English wel): Means "in a good, satisfactory, or healthy manner."

Farewell = literally ordering or wishing someone to "go well," "proceed successfully," or "get along in good health."


Cyclosporiasis

 Guardian UK: CDC reportedly expands scope of US cyclosporiasis outbreak to 15 states, including Arkansas and Missouri - Six additional states caught up in investigation after Michigan reported first two US deaths linked to disease by Maya Yang

Medically Assisted Death Is Now Legal In New York

 Health.NY.gov: Medical Aid in Dying

Effective August 5, 2026, Medical Aid in Dying is available to terminally ill New Yorkers with less than six months to live under Public Health Law Article 28-F.

Goo Goo Dolls - 'Iris'

String

 Cosmopolitan: What Is the Invisible String Theory? Therapists Explain the Viral Relationship Belief - From soulmates to red flags, experts explain the viral relationship belief taking over TikTok. by Rachel Varina

Safe

 Good Housekeeping: Experts Say These Are the Best Ways to Keep Ticks From Your Yard - Stay safe this summer. by Arricca Elin SanSone

Tick Tock

Not a pleasant topic, I asked AI Gemini to give us some facts about ticks.

AI Gemini wrote:

Here are 6 succinct and salient facts about ticks:

1. They Are Arachnids, Not Insects
Ticks have eight legs as adults and nymphs. They belong to the class Arachnida, making them more closely related to spiders, scorpions, and mites than to true insects.

2. They Don't Jump or Fly
Ticks cannot jump or fly. To find a host, they climb to the tips of tall grass or shrubs and stretch their front legs outward—a behavior called questing—waiting to snag onto an animal or human as they brush past.

3. Their Saliva Contains Painkillers
A tick’s saliva contains a cocktail of natural anesthetics, anti-inflammatories, and anticoagulants. This numbs the host's skin and prevents blood from clotting, allowing the tick to feed undetected for several days.

4. Disease Transmission Is Rarely Instant
For most tick-borne pathogens, including the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, a tick generally needs to remain attached for 24 to 48 hours before the infection transfers to the host. Quick removal significantly lowers infection risk. (Note - Jim here - experts tell me that disease transmission can happen within one hour)

5. One Species Can Trigger a Red Meat Allergy
A bite from the Lone Star tick (Amblyomma americanum) can introduce a sugar molecule called alpha-gal into your bloodstream. In some individuals, this triggers an immune reaction known as Alpha-gal Syndrome, creating a severe allergy to red meat (beef, pork, and lamb).

6. They Are Remarkably Resilient
Ticks can survive months—and occasionally years—between blood meals. They can also endure freezing conditions, survive under water for long stretches, and even make it through a cold wash cycle in the laundry (a hot dryer run, however, dehydrates and kills them quickly).

Porky Pig's Full Name

In the classic 1936 Looney Tunes short 'Plane Dippy', Porky gives his full name as:

Porky Cornelius Washington Otis Lincoln Abner Aloysius Casper Jefferson Philbert Horatius Narcissus Pig

Image from Wikipedia Commons