Sunfish in the Galapagos - BBC Earth

In this exciting moment from the BBC’s Mission Galápagos, Liz Bonnin joins marine biologist Tierney Thys and MV Alucia submersible pilot Mark ‘Buck’ Taylor in what looks like a Triton 3300/3 submersible. At 82 meters (269 feet) below the water’s surface, they spot a gentle giant: The Mola Mola.

The ocean sunfish or common mola (Mola mola) is the heaviest known bony fish in the world. Adults typically weigh between 247 and 1,000 kg (545–2,205 lb). The species is native to tropical and temperate waters around the globe. It resembles a fish head with a tail, and its main body is flattened laterally. Sunfish can be as tall as they are long when their dorsal and ventral fins are extended…

Many of the sunfish’s various names allude to its flattened shape. Its specific name, mola, is Latin for “millstone”, which the fish resembles because of its gray color, rough texture, and rounded body. Its common English name, sunfish, refers to the animal’s habit of sunbathing at the surface of the water.

Two Cats Try to Get into a Japanese Art Museum

Paging director Hayao Miyazaki.

A compelling subject for a feature length animation is hanging around the sliding glass doors of Hiroshima Prefecture’s Onomichi City Museum of Art.

In June of 2016, a black tomcat started showing up at the museum on the regular, for reasons unknown.

Those open to the sort of narrative whimsy at which Miyazaki excels might choose to believe that the beast was drawn by a cat-themed exhibit of work by noted wildlife photographer and filmmaker Mitsuaki Iwago, a portion of which would have been visible to him through the modern building’s large glass windows.

Whatever his reasons, the cat, Ken-chan, whose owners run a nearby restaurant, was refused entry by a white-gloved security guard and other staffers, whose efforts to send him on his way started blowing up the Internet shortly after his first appearance.

Eventually, Ken-chan started bringing back-up in the form of a well-mannered orange tomcat the museum staff dubbed Go-chan.

Their visits have proved to be a boon for both the small museum and the city they call home.

The New York Public Library has its lions.

Boston’s Public Garden has its ducks.

Onomichi and its small art museum have Ken-chan and Go-chan, whose Internet fame is quickly outpacing the supply of commemorative tote bags, below.

Tender hearted fans bombard the museum’s Twitter account with requests to grant the feline pair entry, but the museum brass is wisely prioritizing dramatic tension over consummation.

Meanwhile, officials in Zelenogradsk, a Russian resort town boasting both a cat museum and giant cat street monument have invited Ken-chan, Go-chan, and museum staff to be their guests in March, for a cat-centric holiday celebration.

For now, Ken-chan and Go-chan are sticking close to home, alternately entertaining and disappointing visitors who show up, camera in hand, hoping to catch them in the act.

Armchair travelers can enjoy a cat’s eye view tour of Onomichi, thanks to Google Street View-style 360-degree camera technology.

And photographer Iwago shares some pro advice for anyone seeking to capture feline subjects:

…male cats are easier to photograph. Male cats seem to have more latitude and leisure in their lives. Because females do things such as raise the kittens, they concentrate more on what goes on around them. Because males are out on patrol, it is more likely that you will encounter them. Because they have the free time, they’ll let you hang out and photograph them.

Depending on the cat, there are a number of ways to get a cat’s attention. For example, when it’s starting to get dark out, you need to use a lower shutter speed. However, this means that the cat will be blurry if it moves. To avoid this, in such situations, I say to the cat, ‘Stop, hold your breath!’ At that instant, when the cat is frozen, I snap the picture. When you speak out to a cat, they get the message. That said, you can also get shots of good cat body language by letting them roam freely. They don’t need to be looking at the camera.

Even a cellphone camera is enough. However, if you don’t have a telephoto lens, you’re going to have to get close to the cat you’re photographing. Due to this, it might be good to use a single-lens reflex (SLR) camera if you are photographing outside. However, if you are photographing the cat you live at home with, a big camera may prove intimidating. To avoid this problem, it is necessary to regularly put your camera in a place that the cat can see. It is good to start snapping pictures only after your cat has gotten over its fear of cameras. If you use a flash to photograph cats indoors, their hair will look spiky and lose its softness. Therefore, I recommend avoiding a flash. I also recommend not using a tripod, considering the line of sight will become too high. When I am photographing cats, I kneel down so that I am at the same eye line as they are. It’s as if I’m crawling forward into battle.

Follow the Onomichi City Museum of Art on Twitter to keep up with Ken-chan and Go-chan.

via The Guardian/Hyperallergic

Hawaii Adventures

Taiwanese National Symphony via Goldstar at Davies Symphony Hall

18/11/06

Milk Bar's Cake Truffles - Washington Post

How does the team at the award-winning bakery Milk Bar make their delicious cake truffles? Milk Bar founder Christina Tosi demonstrates how you can make them at home with her strawberry-lemon cake truffles recipe. And she makes it look easy: Cake + binder + scooping + coating + crumbs.

Tosi says kids especially enjoy making these, although it can be a great group activity for parties of any age. Fun also means letting yourself be free to try whatever flavor and ingredient combinations you want. “Get creative with what’s in your pantry,” Tosi says.

Need some inspiration? Here are a few ideas to get you going.

• chocolate cake + kirsch + dark chocolate + freeze-dried cherries

• chocolate cake + peanut butter thinned with milk + dark chocolate + ground peanut butter cereal (e.g. Panda Puffs)

• vanilla cake + lemon juice + white chocolate + pistachios

• vanilla cake + caramel sauce + white chocolate + graham crackers

How Do They Do It? Making Rock Candy - Discovery UK

How are hard candies created with messages written within their cores? See how this sugary treat, called ‘rock candy’ in the UK, is poured, pulled, assembled, rolled, stretched, hardened, and cut into pieces in this Discovery UK visit to Spun Candy in London. It’s a clip from the series How Do They Do It?

The magic of this ‘conversation candy’ is in the formation of the large candy letters, the proofreading of the assembled words, and the careful hand-stretching of the warm candy “so that the letters shrink from 3 centimeters tall to just one millimeter.”

Pink Iguanas in the Galapagos - BBC Earth

One of Galapagos’ most recently described species is also one of its genetically oldest. Pink iguanas are not just a different colour from other land iguanas; they are a completely separate species. There are only around 200 left, and they are confined to the slopes of Wolf Volcano on Isabela, making them one of the most vulnerable species in Galapagos, as the volcano is still active.

First spotted and described by National Park rangers in 1986, it wasn’t until 2009 that the pink iguana was officially classified as a separate species to the other land iguanas on Galapagos as initially it was passed off as an oddity. Further genetic analysis suggests that the divergence happened 5.7 million years ago, making it one of the oldest events of divergence recorded in Galapagos.

Learn more about the critically endangered Galápagos Pink Land Iguana (Conolophus marthae) in this BBC clip from Mission Galapagos. Host Liz Bonnin accompanies a team of scientists who are gathering data on the health of the animals. Their goal: To learn more about what helps the iguanas thrive.

Inside a LEGO Minifig Factory

Go behind-the-scenes at LEGO’s Kladno, Czech Republic minifig factory where the specialized machines endlessly mold, jiggle, and stamp little plastic heads and bodies, completely assembling the company’s iconic minifigures. They even have machines that add the tiny hands into the tiny arms.

As Bloomberg explained in 2015, “If considered a population, Lego minifigures would be the world’s largest group – with over 5 billion having been produced.”

While factory sounds are included in the video, it does go silent through large sections. It’s a calming version for younger kids.

If you’re looking for more minifig factory excitement, Behind the Brick has a version with music, below.

Check out more minifig factory photos at New Elementary.

Animated Mangrove Swamp - Rachel Ignotofsky

Go on an illustrated adventure through a Florida mangrove swamp. New York Times best-selling author Rachel Ignotofsky has teamed up with animator Leo Thom and The Mangrove Action Project for this quick animated introduction: Ecosystem of the (Florida) Mangrove Swamp.

I have Ignotofsky’s picture book The Wondrous Workings of Planet Earth.  It depicts the world’s diverse ecosystems—Rainforest, Desert, Arctic Sea, Red Wood Forest, Great Barrier Reef, and more—with her signature illustration style.

The book also introduces how our planet works and how we can protect it, highlighting furry and feathered apex predators, primary and secondary consumers, producers, scavengers, decomposers, and other creatures, fungi, and plants… including mangroves. From MangroveActionProject.org:

Although once thought of as useless wastelands, careful study and research has revealed that mangroves are among the most important ecosystems on this planet. Valued for anchoring coastal ecosystems as well as providing economic and ecosystem services to humans, mangrove forests are true treasures. The complexities of these systems are enormous, and there is still much to learn. Mangrove forests are highly interconnected within the ecosystem itself, but they also make up a transitional zone between land and ocean, connecting and supporting both. It is no surprise that mangroves are called “roots of the sea.”

Follow Rachel Ignotofsky on Instagram and Twitter, and check out her other best-selling books: Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World and Women in Sports: 50 Fearless Athletes Who Played to Win.

Interview with Fossil Hunter Michelle Barboza

The University of Florida’s Florida Museum of Natural History celebrated 100 years of inspiring people to care about life on Earth in 2017. To mark the closing of an era and the beginning of a new century, UF News profiled three Florida Museum women who are shaping the research institution’s future and breaking the cycle of stereotypes and misconceptions in the world of science. With modern tools like social media and podcasts, they continue the work of past and current museum women, who have fought for equality in their fields and for the visibility of women in science.

In this Becoming Visible video series and site, we meet Fossil Hunter Michelle Barboza, above, a Los Angeles native and graduate student who ‘accidentally’ became a scientist because of her love for the outdoors. Her podcast Femmes of STEM celebrates women who are scientists in the past with women who are scientists in the present.

Periodic Tables of Elements in Pictures - Keith Enevoldsen

Retired Boeing software engineer Keith Enevoldsen created the color-coded “Periodic Tables of Elements, in Pictures” for both kids and adults to help us all understand the chemical elements in a fun way with drawings of how they interact with our normal everyday lives. Enevoldsen also made a “Periodic Tables of Elements, in Words” featuring even more information about each element.

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