This is an urchin I saw at the pet store last year. It’s in somber monochrome now, but in the link are some colorful photos of the many creatures I saw on my visit.
I submitted it to Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness a while back but never posted it on my own site. Here’s a link to the most recent MM, in case you’re curious.
Same with this photo below. It appeared in MM, but never here.
I like the A to Z Challenge because for some reason it helps me get caught up on posts that I’ve been wanting to do but never seem to get around to doing.
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I’m participating in the A to Z Challenge for the month of April. The idea is to post every day, except Sundays, and end up with one post for each letter of the alphabet. It’s a good challenge to help me to blog every day.
I’m participating in the A to Z Challenge for the month of April. The idea is to post every day, except Sundays, and end up with one post for each letter of the alphabet. It’s a good challenge to help me to blog every day.
This is a different edit of a photo that I posted last week. After seeing Cee’s intriguing shots, I was inspired to join the One Four Challenge, in which participants show four different edits of the same photo over four weeks. Alternatively, you can decide to take four versions of the image at the time of shooting.
Here is the original below, which I posted last week. Funny thing is that I had also made several other edits to this image last week, with the intention of posting the alternate versions when I got around to it. So this challenge is the perfect motivation.
**Below I have reposted something I wrote last April about zebra stripes, in light of a new study that concluded the stripes are not used for camouflage. It seems I did a similar experiment last spring 🙂 So what are they for? Read on for more hypotheses.
Originally posted on April 30, 2015:
If you were a color blind predator, would you spot the zebra in the tall grass?
I’ve been thinking about zebras lately (maybe because there’s a picture of one on my kitchen calendar haha) and the camouflage they have. Human eyes can easily spot the black and white against the green or dried yellow grass, but I assumed that their predators’ eyes work differently. I conducted a little experiment to photograph a toy zebra in the grass and then apply different post-processing effects to mimic what a lion might see.
What if a predator saw mostly yellow tones?
I was under the impression that cats saw in yellow tones, but I didn’t find any evidence to back that up. I saw a page on livescience that said feline eyes see mostly blues and grays.
Ok maybe blue instead of yellow
I found more information about lion eyes, which are generally color blind according to an article on howstuffworks, but looking further into the topic of zebra stripes only revealed more questions. As it turns out, scientists are not in agreement about what the stripes are actually for.
Some experts believe the stripes are for camouflage, the stripes and wave pattern helping zebras to blend in with their grassy environment. This could benefit a single zebra, and also could help a group of them because all the different stripe patterns standing near each other would make it difficult for a predator to distinguish an individual from the group, according to howstuffworks. I’m also amazed at the fact that each zebra has a unique stripe pattern, similar to our fingerprints.
Other animal scientists believe that the stripes have nothing to do with camouflage, and instead serve as a defense mechanism from disease-carrying tsetse flies. According to another article on livescience, it could be that the flies will have trouble landing on a zebra because the flies can’t see striped surfaces.
The article presents a third theory of zebra stripes, which is that the alternating black and white pattern somehow acts as a cooling system for the zebras, which spend more time out in the hot sun eating than other animals because their digestive systems are inefficient.
This article was published a few months ago and presents the leading theories and criticisms of why zebras have their stripes. It’s interesting that scientists have not come to a conclusion about this, and that it is an area of ongoing research.
Whew, who knew that some fact-checking on lion eyes would lead to such a mystery. I had always assumed that zebra stripes were camouflage, but, well, you know what they say about assuming….
The world is a fascinating place with something new to discover around every corner. Today marks the end of the A to Z Challenge. It’s been fun, and I’ve learned a lot. I hope you have, too.
I see you!
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I’m participating in the A to Z Challenge for the month of April. The idea is to post every day, except Sundays, and end up with one post for each letter of the alphabet. It’s a good challenge to help me to blog every day.
The hallway in the 9th Street PATH station in NYC.
What fascinates me is that each one of the pipes lining the ceiling does something, and there are people whose job it is to know which pipes do what and fix them if necessary.
Hats off to the engineers who make the subways, roads, and cities go.
How could you cause us so much pain?
What broke inside you ere you fell?
The faith you sold for selfish gain
The glory you sought to attain
The guilt that soon will be your chain
Encasing you
Within the icy walls of Hell.
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I’m participating in the A to Z Challenge for the month of April. The idea is to post every day, except Sundays, and end up with one post for each letter of the alphabet. It’s a good challenge to help me to blog every day.
These feathery friends generously provided us with Easter eggs. Well, not the rooster, of course.
They came out to pick and scratch in the snow, enjoying the warmth of the sun after the morning snow shower.
The food and water are inside though. This chicken was either shy or just happier hanging around the house. With the sun streaming in the window, she was probable cozier inside than her friends pecking around in the dirt. Smart bird.
EDIT: oops, I forgot to skip Sunday in the A to Z Challenge so let’s pretend this was posted on Tuesday.
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I’m participating in the A to Z Challenge for the month of April. The idea is to post every day, except Sundays, and end up with one post for each letter of the alphabet. It’s a good challenge to help me to blog every day.
This is the downspout of the gutter shot at an angle. It’s fun to experiment with different ways of looking at things and to find different angles for familiar subjects. Same goes for writing. There’s always a way to turn a “boring” topic into an “interesting” one if you find the right point of view. If it feels like you’re telling a boring story, stop. Don’t tell the same old story. Try to approach it a different way. Take familiar elements, change the angle, and create something new.
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I’m participating in the A to Z Challenge for the month of April. The idea is to post every day, except Sundays, and end up with one post for each letter of the alphabet. It’s a good challenge to help me to blog every day.
Cynthia M Voss 