Aurora over an Icelandic waterfall

An Astronomy Photo of the Day, from NASA.

Dragonflies migrate long distances

How do I get to be 80+ years old and not know basic facts about nature?  This week I learned that dragonflies migrate as far as some birds and Monarch butterflies.  I shared my summers with dragonflies up at Leech Lake in northern Minnesota, finding the nymphs and their empty shells on the shore and welcoming their emergence as mosquito-catchers.  But I didn't know they migrated.

When it’s back-to-school time, North Shore naturalists such as Joe Walewski at Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center in Finland, Minn., know to watch the skies for green darners and other dragonflies soaring overhead on their fall migration journey...

Like southbound birds that funnel along the North Shore to avoid Lake Superior’s open water, dragonflies also pass by Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory in Duluth — especially on sunny fair-weather days between late August and early September.

Last year, Sept. 1 was clearly a favorite day to fly as Hawk Ridge counted 57,000 dragonflies. On Thursday, they counted 35,000, said Sean McLaughlin, lead counter for Hawk Ridge...

Counters do estimates by 10s or even hundreds at a time when dragonflies are moving through quickly. Sometimes they’re dense enough to show up on radar like a rain cloud over Duluth.

At 3 inches or longer, green darner dragonflies are usually the most numerous and easy to spot, with their vivid green thoraxes and bright blue abdomens. They’ve also been the most studied. Scientists have put tiny trackers on their bodies and learned the insects can cover 70 to 90 miles a day on their way to Gulf states or as far as Panama.

More than a dozen species of dragonflies migrate, including white-faced and autumn meadowhawks, wandering gliders, black saddlebags and spot-winged gliders...

Like monarch butterflies, migrating dragonflies only travel one way. They mate and lay eggs at the end of their journeys. Eggs hatch into nymphs in both southern and northern states, overwintering in ponds and waterways until they emerge onto land with wings to follow seasonal migration routes.

You learn something every day.  Photo via Wikipedia.

"Narluga" explained

I didn't know this creature existed.  Saw it mentioned recently and had to go back to a 2019 article by Ed Yong in The Atlantic for an explanation.

Belugas and narwhals are the same size, share the same Arctic waters, and are more closely related to each other than to any other species. Individuals from both species have been found swimming among each other’s pods...

By analyzing DNA extracted from one of the creature’s teeth, a team led by Eline Lorenzen from the Natural History Museum of Denmark showed that it was a male, born to a beluga father and a narwhal mother. Most of its DNA was a half-and-half mix between the two species, but its mitochondrial DNA—a secondary set that animals inherit only from their mothers—was entirely narwhal. “A while back, we presented our findings at a conference of 150 people who are very into belugas, and you could hear a pin drop,” Lorenzen says. “None of them were familiar with hybrids between those two species.”

Lots more science at the link, but this paragraph is particularly interesting:

A brief digression: When naming hybrid animals, patriarchal conventions dictate that the father’s species comes first in the portmanteau. A cub born to a male polar bear and a female grizzly is a pizzly, but one with a grizzly dad and a polar mom is a grolar. So, technically, the skull from Larsen’s toolshed is a belwhal, not a narluga. But the latter name might well stick because it’s been called that for decades and, as Lorenzen says, narluga just sounds better.

So now I know what a pizzly and a grolar are.  You learn something every day.

"C'mon, C'mon" - Joaquin Phoenix reads "Star Child"

Have I not reviewed this movie before?  I thought I must have, but this week after seeing the above trailer on Facebook I looked for my blog post about it and found nothing.  I saw the movie back in 2022 and rated it 4+ (worth watching again).  Haven't done so yet, but after seeing the trailer, I've requested the "Star Child" book from the library.

The sound on the trailer is a bit muffled; viewing closed captions may be helpful.

"The Reawakening"

"The Reawakening" is a remarkably well-performed movie.  Jared Harris and Juliet Stevenson portray a British couple whose 14-year old daughter left home and disappeared 10 years ago, presumably because of problems related to recreational drug abuse; now a 24-year-old young woman arrives at their home.  

That is the entire "plot."  There are no special effects, no nudity, no explosions or car chases.  For 85 minutes the film takes a deep dive into personal tragedies, grief, obsession, and coping mechanisms.  The final five minutes resolves the matter in what to my mind is an ultimately satisfying way.  

This is not a "happy" movie, not a fun movie to watch as these characters struggle with their emotions.  It is instead an opportunity for the viewer to watch skilled actors at the peaks of their careers.  I did not record it as a 4+ movie (one to watch again), but it clearly rates 3.5 on my scale (well worth the time, and worth recommending).  

Readers' viewpoints are invited in the Comments.

Condom made from a sheep's appendix

As reported by The Guardian:

A 200-year-old illustrated condom will go on display with Dutch golden age masters in Amsterdam this week, after the 19th-century “luxury souvenir” became the first-ever contraceptive sheath to be added to the Rijksmuseum’s art collection.

The condom, which was probably made of a sheep’s appendix circa 1830, is thought to have come from an upmarket brothel in France, most likely in Paris. It features an erotic etching depicting a partially undressed nun pointing at the erect genitals of three clergymen, as well as the phrase Voila, mon choix (“There, that’s my choice”).

The Rijksmuseum curator Joyce Zelen said the composition of the etching deliberately alluded to the Greek myth of the Judgment of Paris, in which a Trojan prince is asked to pick the most beautiful of three goddesses. “So we believe that whoever acquired the condom would have been fairly sophisticated and well-educated,” she said.

Minneapolis has a "Buckthorn Removal Singles Club"

When we moved into our present home 25+ years ago, I spent the better part of three summers grubbing out invasive buckthorn from the small woods behind the backyard (in subsequent years, native wildflowers have emerged in the same soil after the canopy-creating and water-stealing rascals were removed).  I later volunteered at the University of Wisconin Arboretum nearby for several buckthorn-removing projects.  So it makes perfect sense to me to see that in Minnesota, this worthwhile and productive activity has been turned into a social activity.

Cooke had recently noticed buckthorn overtaking a local park. It reminded him of how dating apps have invaded the social scene, choking out more natural methods of partnering up. What if he could entice singles to do habitat restoration with the prospect of meeting other eco-minded eligibles?..

The BRSC’s collectivist concept resonated in a post-ICE-resistance Minneapolis. It paired fun with education and do-gooderism, like other quirky, homegrown social events such as the Great Northern festival and the Wedge Cat Tour. Unlike bars and clubs, prowling with apex predators, the BRSC was a safe space where participants might unashamedly tuck pants into socks.

More information at the Minnesota Star Tribune (photo credit Richard Tsong-Taatarii)

"The Grab" is a quite remarkable documentary

This is an actual documentary about the real world, not a fictional docudrama about an alternative earth.  The trailer is fairly explanatory.  For those who want a single sentence rather than a 2-minute watch, this is about ultra-rich people and government entites gaining control of the food and water resources of the world.  

The scary part: the maneuvers being employed worldwide are legal.  For example, someone buys large holdings of land in Arizona, then puts down wells capable of withdrawing water from the aquifer at a rate of thousands of gallons per minute, uses the water to grow a crop, and send the crop to a waterless country elsewhere.  Arizona has no law forbidding the taking and using of their aquifer.  People want cropland - they go to Africa, bribe or strong-arm a tribal elder to take land that has since forever been held in common by the peoples there, and install megafarms, displacing the indigenous inhabitants to the sprawling cities.

Not fun to watch.

Mr. Beaver's advice

"But in general, take my advice, when you meet anything that's going to be human and isn't yet, or used to be human once and isn't now, or ought to be human and isn't, you keep your eyes on it and feel for your hatchet."

The passage is from Chapter 8 in C. S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.  It has been cited frequently in recent years in relation to the development of artificial intelligence.  I wondered about the original intent in 1950 in a book written for children, and I found this commentary in a literary stackexchange in 2017:

But what does makes sense is that Lewis is foreshadowing the central role that humans play in the history and salvation of Narnia. Remember that there is a prophecy that Jadis' power will be broken when two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve sit on the thrones of Cair Paravel. Only a human being can validly rule Narnia. By stressing that the witch has no human in her, Mr. Beaver is pointing out that she is not the true ruler of Narnia. That which looks human and is not is a pretender to the throne. Only a true human can occupy it.

That idea of the imposter, the thing that looks human and isn't runs through much of Lewis's work. It is there in Men Without Chests (part of The Abolition of Man) and it is there in Out of the Silent Planet where Ransom tries to explain to the Malacandrans what is wrong with Weston. It is there in The Last Battle, where Shift dresses as human and gets Puzzle to dress as Aslan.

From a theological point of view, Satan is the great imposter. Christ is the new man: that which it truly and fully human.

So no, this is not about the uncanny valley, it is about imposters, those things that set themselves up as good and true, as rightful rulers, but are not.

That was then, this is now.  I'm going to apply the rule to AI.

The sinuous journey of a "leaf miner"

An outstanding example, nicely documented in Marcy O'Connor's absolutely outstanding Prairie Haven blog.  This is one of the photos for August 2026.  I encourage readers who are interested in the natural world to explore Prairie Haven, both in the monthly photo collections, and in the comprehensive listings of the "farm inventory" (wildlife) seen at this location over the past 26 years as it has been "unfarmed" back to its natural state.  (The "people" section includes a photo with me in 2016 for a butterfly survey)

Tater tot hotdish - quintessential Minnesota cuisine

Water strider

Google Maps August 30

“People using Maps in the U.S. will see ‘Lake America,' those in Canada will continue to see ‘Lake Ontario,’ and those outside of the U.S. and Canada will see both names,” Google said in its statement.

I also checked the San Andreas Fault.  There were rumors he was going to call it "Biden's Fault."

Blogcation again

(deleted)

Back in about a week

Vindication for Elizabeth Bathory

I first learned about Elizabeth Bathory 40 years ago when I was researching the manifestations of sleep paralysis in literature and folklore.  She and her servants were accused of secretly murdering hundreds of young woman, an accusation that later morphed into bathing in the blood of the virgins.

This outstanding book meticulously examines and interprets the historical record - no small feat, considering that the primary source documents are in Hungarian, Latin, and Slovak, and because translating seventeenth century idioms and grammar requires specialized knowledge.

I have previously blogged one page from this book describing the general ambience of Hungary in the 1600s.  Elizabeth Bathory was a leading member of the most powerful famiily in Hungary, rivaling the Hapsburgs in wealth and prestige.  But this era was also characterized by extensive discord arising from invading Turkish armies. social unrest triggered by the rise of Lutheranism challenging the established church, and even climate-related crop crises from what is now referred to as a "Little Ice Age."

The wealth and power of the Bathory family constituted an existential threat to the Hapsburgs.  In 1605 Elizabeth controlled 17 castles and reinforced manor houses, and properties extending over about five hundred miles - but she lacked the protection of any male relative - father, husband, brother, or adult son - and thus was an attractive target.

Shelley Puhak's research for this book (25 pages of bibliography plus an additional 30+ pages of endnotes) convincingly documents that the charges against this lady were fabrications, and the "revelations" by the servants about murder and cannibalism were elicited after torture by authorities, all for the purpose of others securing control of her landholdings.

My assessment of the book is similar to what I expressed in my review of Island at the Edge of the World [the history of Rapa Nui].   Both books are scholarly works that correct longstanding myths and misunderstandings, but both are "too much information" for the casual reader.  As much as I loved the subject matter discussed here, I wound up having to skim through detailed explications of the politics of the 1600s.  But I'm glad I found it and I'm happy to share my thoughts with the few readers here who might also find it of interest.