Starlings Murmuration.
Why?
pleasure or purpose?
do they do this because they have to
or because they want to?
or do they just simply do?
or do they just simply do?
and How?
I did a quick search and found this interesting article at wired.com by Brandon Keim
The Startling Science of a Starling Murmuration
- By Brandon Keim
- November 8, 2011 |
- 12:30 pm |
- Categories: Animals, Biology
"Starling flocks, it turns out, are best described with equations of “critical transitions” — systems that are poised to tip, to be almost instantly and completely transformed, like metals becoming magnetized or liquid turning to gas. Each starling in a flock is connected to every other. When a flock turns in unison, it’s a phase transition.http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/11/starling-flock/
At the individual level, the rules guiding this are relatively simple. When a neighbor moves, so do you. Depending on the flock’s size and speed and its members’ flight physiologies, the large-scale pattern changes. What’s complicated, or at least unknown, is how criticality is created and maintained."
So this is vibrational art?
A great example of flow....
a natural response.
I need to feel this when I paint,
but even in life.
Its a dance,
one movement in response to another
there is no wrong move,
but the move that brings you out of harmony
wow
yet even being out of step with another
causes a new flow
when they respond as one
What do you think?
Really...talk to me
When I was 17 yrs old I went for a late night bike ride with my best friend, Garth Cole. We wound up navigating a well known neighborhood forest trail called , "Bramber Bush".
ReplyDeleteGarth was in the lead because he had a headlight. As we entered the trail we became aware of an unearthly deafening screeching that was getting louder and louder. Unable to turn back, we rode forward faster. I looked up and the sky was just filled with thousands of streaking bats flying to and fro. Keeping our heads low we raced through Bramber bush at breakneck speed. We were greatly relieved that we made it out OK. It was very exciting! We raced back to Garth's place for high-powered flash lights and then returned to the edge of Bramber Bush. By this time it was around 2 am.
When we turned our lights on the bush the screeching got louder, though it never stopped entirely whether our flashlights were turned on our not. In any case, we were too scared to go back in so we went back to Garth's place because we were so pumped by the ordeal that we weren't going to sleep anytime soon. We decided to call our favourite radio station and report what we saw. I made the call and they taped it.
Within an hour you could hear me recounting our adventure on the radio! Other Toronto radio stations soon picked it up. Garth and I stayed up all night listening to different radio stations on both the hour and 1/2 hour. Radio announcers were having great fun with the story. They would open with lines like, "Well you've all heard of Alfred Hitchcock's, "The Birds" - well now Scarborough's got "The Bats".... and "There's been some vampire business happening in Scarborough's Highland Creek area". Then my excited account would repeat. What a blast!
As the sun rose we phoned friends to get them to listen to radio broadcasts that played throughout the day. The Scarborough Mirror sent investigative reporters and a cameraman over to interview us and we went to Bramber bush together. The bats were gone and the forest floor was littered with black feathers. The article with a picture of Garth and I standing in front of Bramber Bush ended up on the front page of the Mirror. An expert was quoted as saying that people often mistake migrating flocks of Starlings for Bats.
Mystery solved!
Soon after that experience Garth and I started working as guides at the brand new Metro Toronto Zoo. We were very good at our jobs, perhaps because we learned the importance of knowing the difference between a rhino and a hippo after getting fooled so publicly by "The Bats".
Ritchie
When I was a young lad, we would camp as a family. We had a datsun pickup with camper on the back. My brother and I were in the back and mom and dad were in the front. We stopped somewhere overlooking a lake and mom and dad went into the store. Suddenly, I could feel the truck move and start rolling toward the lake. I jumped out of the back and ran up front, opened the door and jammed my foot down on the left peddle and the truck came to a stop. I was proud of myself and when I told my dad, he said that was impossible, because pressing the clutch would not cause the vehicle to stop. He said I must have pressed the middle pedal, which is the brake. I swore up and down that I pressed the left pedal and thought for many years that God must have saved us. As I got older, and as I learned to drive, and as I experienced life on earth and laws of gravity, I now think perhaps I pressed the middle pedal...I mean...how could it be?
ReplyDeleteWell it was certainly angelic that you were compelled to stop it and that you did, instead of it going over a cliff with you in it! Most grown ups would have jumped off and be done with it. Only a kid would risk his life for a Datsun!
ReplyDeleteIs it possible that simply by pushing the clutch in part way you locked up the transmission, enough to stop the roll? Standards are anything but standard. I wouldn't be surprised if your Dad was wrong. You certainly know that it happened. Did you ever test the clutch thing for yourself?