A Little (Nano) Science Fiction for Your Sunday Evening

For your viewing pleasure, here is the first episode of the Nano SciFi Tales series by director Nacho Vigalondo (Timecrimes [2003] and the very recently released Extraterrestrial [2012]). Each Nano SciFi video is under 21 seconds and totally and completely charming. 

I can watch this one video, in particular, over, and over, and over. And laugh out loud as it ends, every single time. Enjoy!

Catch the rest of the nano videos at the WOPP YouTube channel, here.

Cuchi Time: Campus Fauna

After sending a final email, turning off my laptop and packing up my things, I stepped out of my office door late Friday afternoon to see this: 

Two Bambis, ambling along.

You know, just some deer roaming around the university footpaths, nibbling on the lawn and landscaping. They generally come out to feed in the early mornings and later in the afternoons.

People are surprised when I tell them that I teach at a campus with half-domesticated deer roaming around. I tell them that they're our version of the pigeon. Only bigger. More dangerous. More on that later.

New students, particularly, are delighted to see the deer when they first come to campus. "How cute!" they say! "They're adorable!" they insist!

Doe and fawn. "Super cuchi!!!!" yell my students.

My students think I'm a super weirdo when I first share my disdain for the campus deer population. But, in time, they grow to understand.

The deer are just everywhere. And lots of them. And they aren't scared of humans, so they just wander in and out of foot paths and -- worse -- bike paths and roads. This doe below had just waltzed out into the road in front of my moving vehicle before I stopped to take her photo. Here she is, grazing along the side of the road as my car idles alongside her. Could. Not. Care. Less.

Much like pigeons, deer are a lot mangier and not quite so Bambi-adorable up close.

I know I sound like a crazy old person, but I think that the deer population on campus is a major liability -- not only do they cause bike and automobile accidents -- and the bike accidents are particularly devastating -- but they attract large predators as well. I've seen a handful of mountain lions on campus over the years (I don't have any photographs, but that probably has to do with the fact that I was too busy pooping myself each and every time), all drawn to "lower" campus in search of an easy snack. And have I even told you about how aggressive and scary young bucks can be? Especially during mating season? Scary, scary, scary.

Magical 7pm light cutting across the great meadow. 

The photos above and below, of young bucks grazing in the great meadow, were taken from super far away, using my camera's zoomiest digital zoom.

Yes, they're beautiful. I can't deny that.

Yes, magic.

I just wish that they weren't such a nuisance.

Grumble, grumble.

At least the cattle that are brought to campus to graze every summer and fall are fenced in.

Quintessential campus view. Those familiar with the UC Santa Cruz campus will
immediately recognize this view across the Monterey Bay. 

FYI: The photos of these multitudes of deer (and the final photo of the cattle ) were all taken in the span of 15 minutes late in the afternoon, Friday, July 20. Fifteen minutes!!!

I was lucky enough to leave before dusk and not run into any marauding raccoons (our version of the gutter rat?), by the way. I won't even get into the raccoons...

Found: Medieval Underwears

This post's found objects weren't discovered by me, but by archaeologist Beatrix Nutz, a lady PhD candidate with a fantastic name and a jackpot dissertation.

Source

The University of Innsbruck announced Wednesday that archaeologists (lead by Nutz) have discovered a fantastic cache of medieval household detritus and miscellany used in the early 15th century as insulation under a floor at the castle of Lengberg in Eastern Tirol, Austria. The preliminary report lists:

more than 200 coins, 160 coloured playing cards of carton belonging to more than four different decks*, objects of iron and alloys, bones, horn, glass, ceramics plus more than 50 pieces of writing from amongst other things accounts, chits and litergical texts.** 

This list doesn't even get into the treasure trove of 15th century textiles that's caused international interest: a fully preserved male hose, embroidered lacing and silks, pleated shirts, fragments of hats and linen headgear, and -- most exciting -- four bras.

Comfy looking bras at that.

Fashion experts (and academics and researchers, I'm sure!) "describe the find as surprising" as the bra was commonly thought to have been invented in the late 19th century/early 20th century as a replacement for the corset.*** Not so; looks like the bra came first, then the corset, then the bra, again, reinvented. Comfy always wins.

Though the treasure trove was unearthed in 2008, the university only made the news public this week, after extensive research, carbon dating, and DNA testing of the found textiles and the recent publication of an article in BBC History Magazine.

Source

They used DNA testing to determine the sex of the person who wore these underwears above, which I find awesome and also horrifically embarrassing for whoever wore them. Note to self: wash all articles of clothing before using them as insulation material/dying. Though they look like fancy, lady's bikini bottoms, Nutz told reporters that they were most likely men's underwears as women didn't wear any at the time. 

"Underpants were considered a symbol of male dominance and power," she said.

But who wears the fancy bikini underwears now!!!

***

* What would I give for photo images of some of those playing cards? I wonder if any of them belong to an early tarot/tarocchi deck...

** Check out the article at Medieval Histories Magazine. 

*** Read the Washington Post article here. 

Second Postcard of the Summer

This postcard from my sister came in the mail for me and Jason earlier in the week. 

mmmm Icelandic fleece.

She's in Iceland right now, taking part in a graduate field institute program and scaling glaciers, crawling through lava tubes and ice tunnels, inspecting mineral hot springs, visiting the mid-Atlantic ridge, being interviewed on Iceland's national television news broadcast... you know, totally awesome stuff.

She's been updating us almost daily with photos and emails about her trip, her international cohort of earth science grad students, the group's geothermal research and excursions, etc. and and it sounds amazing. Elena's also been indulging me, personally, with wacky and wonderful anecdotes about "Troll Tours" and the night her group ate a "traditional Viking Dinner" at a place that I imagine to be the Icelandic version of Medieval Times. She said they ate rotten shark, that it's an Icelandic delicacy, and that it was awful. I just laughed and laughed... 

photo taken by my sister, Elena

Elena took this photo for me a couple of days into her trip, in the capital, Reykjavik. We're pretty sure that's a yarn store. I am so pleased by the succession of "wares and attractions" advertised: elves, excursions, trolls, wool, northern lights, ghosts. YOU KNOW, JUST A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS. I really, really love that so much of Iceland's tourism is wrapped up in monsters, ghosts, and folklore. I want to travel to Iceland, just to visit this yarn store and go on a Troll Tour. 

Ever since she started planning for the trip, Elena and I would occasionally sing to each other "Welcome to Icelaaaaaand...", the opening line from the mock-Björk song from that one Kristen Wiig SNL sketch. The more I learn about that country, the more sense Björk makes. Both are equally delightful!

Cuchi Time: Tiniest Spinner

The prettiest, finest, little spider webs have been popping up all around the yard this week. They're so fine, in fact, that I often don't notice them until I'm about to disrupt them somehow -- in the case of the so-fine-its-invisible-to-the-camera web in the above photo, I didn't see it until I was about to walk right through it. Good thing it's teeny tiny maker was there to catch my eye. 

I generally think that spiders are pretty horrible, but this micro-specimen seems harmless enough. It's made itself a pretty web, is staying outside, is too small to be scary... not much more I can ask for. Do your thing, sir. 

Let's see what else is going on in the garden:

 My one Lily of the Nile is about to flower, which is exciting. 

Even better, the spindly little peach tree in the front yard -- that was pretty sickly when we first moved in two years ago -- is gracing us with a mega-load of peaches this year. This is all thanks to my dad, I'm sure. He's like a fruit tree wizard; his pruning skills are magic. Whatever he prunes is super happy through the next year. The tree is so prolific, in fact, that I'm a little worried that all this extra weight is going to snap a limb or two.

The peaches are almost ripe enough to pick from the tree. Maybe in a couple of days. I'm being especially vigilant because I know that the blue jays (my arch nemesi) and squirrels (disgruntled tree nesters) have their eyes on them too. Last year, they got to the one peach the tree produced and I was dismayed. NOT THIS SUMMER, YARD DWELLERS.