Glasswing Butterflies - KQED

Glasswing butterflies aren’t made of glass, but their transparent wings help them blend with their surroundings, protecting them from predators. This Deep Look episode from KQED takes the time to observe the life cycle of glasswing butterflies (Greta oto), as well as the special nanopillars responsible for their non-reflecting wings.

While camouflage is common in nature, actual attempts at invisibility are rare. “Glasswings excel at being dull, and that helps them hide in plain sight.”

File this video under biomimicry. From KQED.org:

By better understanding how these butterflies reduce glare, [Nipam Patel Lab doctoral candidate] Aaron Pomerantz and the other researchers hope that technologies might arise to increase the efficiency of solar panels by reducing the amount of light that bounces off the surface of the panel before it can be turned into electricity.

“Nature’s already figured out solutions to many of the problems that we have today,” he said."

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What would it take to become invisible? Have something fun cookin’ up on Glasswing butterfly research & a media project - can’t wait to share them soon! #gretaoto #glasswing #butterfly #transparency #invisible

A post shared by Aaron Pomerantz (@nextgenscientist) on Apr 17, 2020 at 5:05pm PDT

More from Pomerantz’s site TheNextGenScientist.com:

So, what’s the deal Glasswings? Are you transparent to go unseen? Are you bright to show off warning colors? Perhaps a bit of both? I think it’d be interesting if the dual nature serves to avoid a certain kind of predator under reflected light. Another possibility is that they’re showing off ultraviolet colors as warnings, which would be invisible to us, but clear as day to other animals such as birds, many of which contain opsins in their eyes capable of detecting UV. Either way, they’re a beautiful group of butterflies and it’s a beautiful scientific mystery to (attempt to) solve the evolution and development of transparency."

 

Clangers TV Show

Clangers is a BAFTA-winning British stop-motion children’s series about “small creatures living in peace and harmony on – and inside – a small, hollow planet, far, far away.” It first-aired in 1969 and returned to television in 2015. In this 50th anniversary celebration episode, which aired in 2019, renowned space scientist Dr. Maggie Aderin-Pocock plays an astronaut that visits the Clangers.


Note: The clip, narrated by Sir Michael Palin, seems to include a few more ads than are usually found in a ten-minute clip for kids, but it’s still a sweet celebration of the series. Follow it with this Clangers clip of Aderin-Pocock talking about the astronaut puppet created in her likeness.

And for those not yet familiar, an introduction to the Clangers from the video description:

The Clangers are an inquisitive family of creatures who live on a Little Blue Planet in outer space. The pink, space mouse-like creatures, who communicate with high-pitched whistles, are supportive of one another as they embark on surreal adventures, meet peculiar new friends, and explore curiosities they experience in the world. The stop-motion animated series aims to teach kids such qualities as inventiveness and kindness.

Squirrel Obstacle Course - Hilarious!

This man looked at squirrels defeating his anti-squirrel bird feeders, and turned them into quality entertainment.

Here is a still of all the squirrels!

Building a Giant Furry Electric Dog Car

When eleven-year-old Alex designed her Giant Furry Electric Dog Car, the team at Kids Invent Stuff rose to the challenge of making it real. In this how-it’s-made video, makers Ruth Amos and Shawn Brown team up to weld, wire, staple, tape, glue, and screw together the canine-themed vehicle, complete with a huge wagging tail.

Here’s the result of their month of work. See it in action when they take it out for a spin in the video below:

Interested in submitting your ideas? Check out their form here. From their site:

Kids Invent Stuff is the YouTube channel where 4-11 year olds have the chance to get their invention ideas built by real engineers. We do this to give more primary school kids the chance to engage with real engineering projects.

Their efforts are in support of the United Kingdom’s “Engineering: Take a closer look” campaign to inspire the next generation of innovators, inventors and problem solvers.

Neil Freeman's Fake is the New Real

The Website is HERE

"The Lonely Goatherd" from The Sound of Music (1965)

In this classic scene from Rodgers and Hammerstein‘s 1965 film adaptation of The Sound of Music, Maria and the von Trapp children sing ‘The Lonely Goatherd’ during their marionette show, a performance for their father and his friends.

Maria is played by the great Julie Andrews. Baron von Trapp is played by Christopher Plummer. Richard Haydn and Eleanor Parker are briefly in the scene. The children are played by Charmian Carr, Nicholas Hammond, Heather Menzies, Duane Chase, Angela Cartwright, Debbie Turner, and Kym Karath.

CalAcademy Nightlife Coloring Pages

Check them out HERE

Mr. Darcy - Victoria Chang

Mr. Darcy

by Victoria Chang

In the end she just wanted the house

                and a horse not much more what

        if he didn't own the house or worse

                        not even a horse how do we

separate the things from a man the man from

                the things is a man still the same

        without his reins here it rains every fifteen

                        minutes it would be foolish to

marry a man without an umbrella did

                Cinderella really love the prince or

        just the prints on the curtains in the

                        ballroom once I went window-

shopping but I didn't want a window when

                do you know it's time to get a new

        man one who can win more things at the

                        fair I already have four stuffed

pandas from the fair I won fair and square

                is it time to be less square to wear

        something more revealing in North and

                        South she does the dealing gives him

the money in the end but she falls in love

                with him when he has the money when

        he is still running away if the water is

                        running in the other room is it wrong

for me to not want to chase it because it owns

                nothing else when I wave to a man I

        love what happens when another man with

                        a lot more bags waves back

Often I Am Permitted to Return to a Meadow

Often I Am Permitted to Return to a Meadow

by Robert Duncan

as if it were a scene made-up by the mind,

that is not mine, but is a made place,

that is mine, it is so near to the heart,

an eternal pasture folded in all thought

so that there is a hall therein

that is a made place, created by light

wherefrom the shadows that are forms fall.

Wherefrom fall all architectures I am

I say are likenesses of the First Beloved

whole flowers are flames lit to the Lady.

She it is Queen Under The Hill

whose hosts are a disturbance of words within words

that is a field folded.

It is only a dream of the grass blowing

east against the source of the sun

in an hour before the sun's gone down

whose secret we see in a children's game

of ring a round of roses told.

Often I am permitted to return to a meadow

as if it were a given property of the mind

that certain bounds hold against chaos,

that is a place of first permission,

everlasting omen of what is.

"Rainbow Connection" (2020) (1979) - Kermit the Frog

In a special performance from a riverbank in the woods, Kermit the Frog sings Rainbow Connection, his Oscar-nominated hit.

The song was originally written for the frog and his banjo by Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher for 1979’s The Muppet Movie. 

Watch the original here:

 From Vanity Fair:

Swamp-dweller Kermit plucks a banjo, contemplating rainbows and “what’s on the other side”—much like Judy Garland’s Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. But “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” was not the song’s main inspiration.

“The model we used was ‘When You Wish Upon a Star,’ which opened Disney’s Pinocchio,” Williams said. “This is Kermit’s ‘I am’ song. This song will show that Kermit has an inner life, a spiritual life…”

“The thing that is so human about the song, and spiritual at the same time, is that it honors the questions, not the answers,” Williams explained. “That moment made Kermit not the mentor, not the teacher, not the preacher. He became a seeker with the audience.”