1. nile crocodiles: enormous cave-dwelling behemoths, currently on view in the new madagascar exhibit at the bronx zoo. these beasts are rockin. they can compress the air in their body and sink as quickly as a dropped stone to the bottom of a water body. they can hold their breath underwater for two hours, and eat up to half their body weight at a time – a real trick since their teeth are made only for grasping, and they literally have to shake their prey into small enough pieces to swallow. also, their sex is determined not by genetics but by the temperature during incubation.
2. micro compact houses: MOMA has a fascinating exhibit right now about prefab, including several full-size built models in the adjacent lot and a lot of history. one of the built models, currenly being marketed as student housing, is 72 cubic feet in total. 72 CUBIC FEET. this includes bed, kitchen, toilet, shower, table, etc. i want one.
3. sun dancing: just got back from the queens county farm pow-wow, and was explaining the history etc of fancydancing to a good friend and she had just re-picked up a book she’d been assigned in college called lakota woman – and flipping through it there were pictures of the sun dance. i’ve seen pictures before, and thought it was fascinating then, but haven’t thought about it in a while. during the sun dance, the tribe’s medicine man will pierce the skin of each participants’ chest or back with slivers of bone, and then attach these slivers to a thin rawhide strap which is then fastened to the top of the sun pole. by being pierced the participants are sacrificing themselves to the great spirit and asking for spiritual guidance or vision. they dance around the pole, and eventually break free.
4. dewpoint: apparently it is not humidity, but rather the dewpoint on which the sensation of miserable damp heat depends. ny and la have close to the same percentage humidity, but very different dewpoints – thus la feels lovely in the summer, and ny feels soupy.
16 August 2008 at 1:22 am |
soupy!