Scientists have wondered for the longest time how we vertebrates got our complex eyes. And the short answer is … we still don’t know for sure. But they are working hard at tracing the path from a single patch of light-sensitive cells in a very primitive, cyclopean, and brainless organism to where we are today.
Not only are the above orbs more intriguing than those of a planaria (at right), but they have all sorts of differentiation of proteins so that some cells bend light rays, some absorb light, some transfer images, etc.
If you haven’t already read the article, here’s a link. So much to learn … .
******
Here’s an image of a primitive and brainless cyclopean species. Believe it or not, this one was recently elected president of a large country.
******
Thursday: Yesterday I watched cranes flying overhead, but this time they were moving northward. I keep looking for the changes in neighborhood birds that declare it to be Spring, but they have been slower in coming. Birds aren’t stupid. They know that weather has its ups and downs and snowstorms are bad news for hummingbirds and waxwings and other migrating species. Come back too soon and it can be curtains for you and yours.
BTW, one of the absolute signs of Spring that I used to rely upon is no longer trustworthy here in Paradise. When the snow has hung about for months and finally prolonged warmth melts it down to the level of the lawns and ditches and the ground is everywhere damp one is assailed by the aroma of thawing dog feces for about a week. But when the rains and snows don’t come and the winter is in effect a mini-drought, those reminders of the thoughtlessness of canine owners stay largely dry and odorless.
But I am snug and warm and looking forward to something on the balmy side this afternoon. Tonight a couple of inches of snow may fall, but by Saturday we’ll be back in the sixties once again.
******
******
******
Robin and I are knee-deep in rewatching the series The Gilmore Girls, as I think I previously mentioned. The show first ran from 2000 to 2007. I must have slept through that first viewing because there is so much that I notice this time that is completely new to me.
What is new, you ask? Well, the absolute repulsiveness of the parents of the main character, Lorelei Gilmore. They are rich, vain, soulless, and perfectly shallow, gloating in their privilege and not pausing for a moment in their judgment of ‘lesser’ humans. By this time I have reached the point where I no longer want them to be relegated to being written out of further episodes. No, that’s not enough. I want them to be kidnapped by Barbary Pirates and slave-chained to the oars of galleys that operate in some sweltering part of the world.
What else, you ask? Well, there is Rory, the hyper-smart daughter of Lorelei. She’s been told so often that she is more intelligent than the rest of the world that she believes it and is desperate when she comes up against the occasional reality of failure. Also, from the first day of puberty onward she spends most of her waking and non-studying hours attaching herself to one male after another. Once she is attached, she begins to manipulate said male into her idea of what a young man should be, which is essentially a replica of herself. Doomed projects all.
The men who wander into the lives of the Gilmore Girls are mostly congenial people who can’t understand why just when everything seems to be going so well they find themselves standing alone under a street lamp in a cold rain. One day they were the lover or BFF of a smart and beautiful woman and the next it is whoa, baby, I’ll call you, okay?
It is not only the men in the series who are seduced by these talented women, it is the viewers as well. We watch the series for the witty dialogue, the sharp humor, and the truths about people and relationships that are revealed. It is a sitcom with scattered tragic episodes.
Kinda like life.
******
******
Oh Joy! Oh rapturous news! DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has been fired from a job she never knew how to do and sent to a new one that was invented just for her. The murderer of protestors and puppies has had ICE, the biggest and nastiest toy in the country, yanked from her hapless grasp and given to someone I never heard of from Oklahoma.
Since her new job has no duties or office as yet, perhaps Ms. Noem may return to her home state of South Dakota, or at least to the part of the state that will have her. The 12% that is occupied by Native American reservations has been closed to her for quite a while now. She is that popular.
Yes, folks, you heard that right. When she was governor of South Dakota she did such a lousy job for the Native Americans in that state that she was barred from entry into all of their reservations, which are sovereign, self-governing territories held in trust by the U.S. federal government.
******
******
One last little thing. In today’s NYTimes, there was a small piece entitled The Badlands Hold Me As I Grieve. I thought it was one of the loveliest little essays I’ve read in a long time. Part of its attraction was that I lived in South Dakota for nearly 40 years and there were parts of its landscapes that absolutely matched something in me like nowhere else I’ve lived has. That windswept loneliness, for instance, and the Badlands. Especially the Badlands.
It won’t take long to read … you might give it a minute.
******
Little Home In The Valley 