Quarantine entry #101 - June 30

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, though many people are still talking about the Thylacosmilus’ and its’ new ‘redesign’ instead. Fair enough, but today we will be talking about eagles instead.

However, the eagles are a very varied bunch, so let us choose for our sample bird… the white-tailed eagle. It is a very impressive bird, and an Eurasian version of the bald eagle of North America; out of all the sea eagles, these two are mostly closely related to each other, but some people, (cough, the Russians, cough), aren’t very fond of this theory and don’t talk about it very much. Next?

While the white-tailed eagle is a sea eagle, it is not as specialized for fish eating as the bald eagle is, and actually prefers to hunt waterfowl instead. For us, however, it is the ‘sea eagle’ moniker that is important for the moment – it is a label that designated a group of about a dozen or so of eagles as, well, aquatic, (or semi-aquatic) specialists. What next?

…While the sea eagles are semi-aquatic specialists, other eagle groups are not. For example, the harpy eagle of South America hunts in jungles, while the golden eagle of Eurasia and North America prefers more open spaces, period. That, and its’ preference for the West Coast over the East, are some of the reasons why as to how come it’s the bald eagle that is the U.S.’ national bird, and not the golden eagle instead.

…Yes, since Thomas Jefferson, people have argued against the bald eagle being the U.S.’ national symbol, but nothing has come out of it, so that is that. What next?

Well, if the falcons are built for speed, (just like the cheetah), and the hawks are more versatile, then the eagles are built for power, (just as the lion is). While a falcon’s whammy can be formidable if this bird picks up speed, an eagle’s version is even more so, and it needs less distance and speed to achieve it. All birds are light-weight as a rule, (there are exceptions, but not among the birds of prey, no), but the eagles are less so, which is why their flying style is more of a passive gliding – they prefer to soar on warm aerial updrafts for hours, (or sit on some inconspicuous perch instead, cough), using their superior eyesight to keep an eye on what is going on down below, while remaining less noticeable for their potential prey. Once they choose a potential candidate, they swoop down and strike.

A falcon smites its’ prey in mid-air, often slicing it apart at least partially. An eagle, rather seizes prey with its’ talons, which can be big and sharp enough to pierce skin and flesh to the bone, inflicting massive damage and killing it. A golden eagle can kill an animal the size of a red fox or a grey wolf, which is why native people of Asia have trained it. A falcon catches other birds; an eagle, (just like a hawk), is more geared to attack mammals instead.

The downside for this is greater physical exhaustion when flying actively, hence why the eagles glide and rest more often than the smaller birds of prey, including hawks and falcons; they also are not beyond scavenging – whereas the falcons usually aren’t found on corpses of dead mammals, the eagles are, and on such occasions they don’t look very regal at all. Of course, neither do lions, but anthropomorphic associations aside, it can also be remembered that while lions have resolved their endurance issues by becoming social, the eagles have not; in fact, the only modern ‘raptors’ that have embraced the social hunting of their Mesozoic forebears are the so-called Harris’ hawks, which are more closely related to the buteos, than to the ‘true’ hawks…

Well, this is it for now. See you all soon!

Quarantine entry #100 - June 29

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, but at least Disney/Disney+ will be releasing both ‘Mulan-2020’, and ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’, into public access by august 2020, so some bright news are ahead after all. What next?

Well, today I wanted to talk about the peregrine falcon, which is the bird when it comes to falconry, but first – DC had released the trailer for ‘Superman: The Man of Tomorrow’ that is coming later this year, (or next year, whichever date will be better), so let’s mention it first.

What is S: TMT? It is DC’s reboot of its animated videos’ franchise, especially of the titular Superman. So far, he looks very much like his initial model, (from the 1990s’ animated series’ onwards), whereas Luis Lane looks less pin-upy as she did before.

…Judging by the trailer, Superman will be dealing with Lobo and the Parasite; there is also a scene of him interacting with Lex Luthor, but it is quite brief, and so there is no certainty as to how specifically the interactions between those two will go. True, it probably will not be good – there is no incarnation in which Clark and Lex ever remained friends, even if they were friends to begin with – but the details are not available yet.

Lex aside, it was also revealed that Superman would be facing off with Lobo and the Parasite. Lobo appears to be largely like his 1990s cartoon version as well, though he seems to have trouble standing up to Superman now – in the 1990s version onwards he actually could, through sheer physical badassery. In this trailer, however, he seems to have a green kryptonite ring…either that or a Green Lantern ring, but the latter version seems to be too far out – Lobo just is not a real Green Corps’ material, you know? …In any case, we see the Martian Manhunter come to help the Man of Steel out, the two aliens bond, and the rest of the trailer is dedicated to the Parasite, who is a Superman villain who had fallen out of fashion since the 1990s, and who got a feral new look, rather reminiscent of the White Martians from the ‘Supergirl’ TV show at their worst. Since unlike Lobo and the Man of Steel himself, the Parasite used to be an ordinary human who acquired his powers by accident, it will be interesting to see if Lex Luthor is behind it, say – but for now, this is it. Now about the peregrine falcon?

…Here is the punchline – while the Man of Steel is faster than a speeding bullet is, the peregrine falcon is the fastest of modern birds, and probably the fastest of modern animals, period. All falcons are built for speed, but the peregrine – especially so; its’ primary trick is to get high above its’ prey and then swoop down upon it; each of its’ feet has a specialized, extra-large talon, so if the peregrine scores a direct hit, a bird the size of a hooded, or an American, crow, can be sliced almost in two.

But that is the peregrine. It is one of the bigger falcons, (the biggest modern falcon is the gyrfalcon, which lives in Arctic and is not as known, especially in the New World, as the peregrine is). Smaller falcons, like the merlin, have their own tricks – in particular, hovering, meaning that they channel their inner helicopter, (rather than airplane), and stay in one spot in midair, trying to zoom-in on their prey, usually something like a mouse or a large insect, (small falcons, remember?). But normally, falcons prefer to eat other birds.

More precisely, while hawks hunt among trees and eat primarily both birds and arboreal mammals such as tree squirrels, and eagles often prefer to hunt various mammals, period, (but we’ll talk about the eagles at a different date), the falcons are bird specialists…unless they’re like the crested caracara, of which we have talked yesterday. The ecology of modern birds is a complex bag, and we will be talking more about it later.

…For now, though, this is it. See you all soon!

Quarantine entry #99 - June 28

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, but we will continue to talk about it anyways. Today’s topic are the falcons, including the great peregrine, and its’ cousin, the prairie falcon, but right now we will approach the falcons from the other end of the spectrum – the crested caracara.

What is a caracara? It is a genus of birds in the falcon family and order; right now, there are two species of these birds – the northern and southern caracaras; both are crested, which is why the term ‘crested caracara’ is somewhat outdated and is not used too much anymore, especially by the scientists. Both of the bird species have crests; the southern caracara lives only in South America, while its’ northern counterpart is found from the northern South America to Central America, to parts of southern U.S. There was a third species of those birds, the so-called Guadalupe caracara, but it died out around 1900, so let us not talk about it for now.

Behavioristically… the caracaras are like the anti-falcons: they fly only when they have a clear designated goal before them, and otherwise, they prefer to spend their time on food. They are carnivores, of course, but whereas the falcons usually prefer to feed on other birds, (the hawks have a more mixed diet), the caracara has a much wider diet, and the northern species even eats fruits on occasion; the southern caracara – not so much. More usually, though, the northern caracara is a scavenger rather than a hunter, (and much ado had been made about the peregrine not eating carrion, as a rule), which makes it rather vulture-like in behavior.

This brings us back to the king vulture. Why? Because a certain William Bartram, an American naturalist, (1739-1832) has written and depicted about a bird of prey that – on the illustration – resembles a king vulture, save for a differently colored tail, but in text is more like the northern caracara instead, and here lies the conundrum. If we accept the possibility that the bird is a king vulture, then we have to accept that Mr. Bartram hadn’t talked about the northern caracara at all, and that doesn’t add up, because as far as scavengers go, the king vulture is a tropical bird, one that doesn’t come up to the U.S. at all, (unlike the American black and the turkey vultures, let alone the California condor), whereas the northern caracara does. And-?

And nothing; the paragraph above was aimed to show how convoluted and tangled the avian I.D. can be, even in the modern times, what with the modern technology and all, and back then, when everything depended primarily on the human eye – even moreso. In addition, that before we return to the fact that the caracaras are some of the least falcon-like falcons that have existed, (since the late Pleistocene epoch). Anything else?

Yes. Aside from caracara the genus, there is also caracara the family, which contains five genera of birds of prey that belong to the falcon group, and all of which are called caracaras; the term ‘crested caracara’ applies to only 2 living and several extinct species of the caracara genus, but as far as species go, many of South American birds of prey that aren’t eagles or vultures are called caracaras – about 10 species in total, and while they look somewhat similar to each other, they have plenty of differences too. That said, the separation of the black caracara and the red-throated one into two separate genera happened fairly recently, so there is that.

This brings us briefly back to the vultures. Do you remember when we have discussed the American black vulture, and briefly mentioned the cinereous vulture and the red-headed one, because they were also both called black vultures in the past? Well, the red-headed vulture was also called the king vulture in the past, but now this term is applied only to the American species instead, because of reasons…

Ah well, for now this is it. See you all soon instead!

Quarantine entry #98 - June 27

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, however, let us talk about something else again. No, not about ‘Force of Nature’, a new Mel Gibson movie – that we will talk about separately; let us talk about… what?

I admit that I wanted to talk about the king vulture for today – we have discussed the New World vultures in general and the American black vulture in particular in the past, when something else came up: the Thylacosmilus.

In case you forgot, the Thylacosmilus was a prehistoric sabre-toothed mammal, and it was a marsupial, meaning that it was more closely related to the modern koalas and kangaroos than to the big cats, dogs, bears and so on. I also must admit that my perception of the Thylacosmilus is influenced by Mauricio Anton’s ‘Sabretooth’ book, but what else is there? Donald R. Prothero’s ‘Princeton Guide’? Yes, no, I will pass.

Back to the Thylacosmilus for real. People like Mauricio Anton and his sources had depicted the marsupial sabretooth, (aka Thylacosmilus and its’ closest extinct kin), as, well, a marsupial sabretooth, a marsupial counterpart to the placental sabre-toothed carnivores, (and there were quite a lot); right now, it is the word ‘carnivores’ that is key. The recent studies have implied that the Thylacosmilus had a different lifestyle from other sabre-toothed mammals, such as Smilodon, and used its’ sabre-shaped teeth in a different way; already there are theories that it might have been an insectivore instead – but how possible is that?

Let us look at the modern mammals. Recently, we have talked about bears in general, including the sloth bear. While the giant panda is an obligate herbivore, and the polar bear is an obligate carnivore, the sloth bear may be the most specialized bear of them all, as it feeds almost completely on ants, termites, and the like. As a result, on one hand, it got powerful front legs and mighty claws, and on the other, it got a specialized muzzle and reduced teeth, but it can bite, and its’ canine teeth are especially well developed. Pause.

Now, let us look at the Thylacosmilus. Its’ paws and claws were more bear- than cat-like, with claws that were only semi-retractable and not as sharp as those of true cats, and its’ forepaws were powerful, but then again, this is a trait shared by all the sabre-toothed carnivores, including, the mammal-like reptiles, maybe. Its’ muzzle, however, is blunt, not long as that of the sloth bear. So-?

So nothing, let us look at the aardwolf as well. Despite its’ name, it is no relative of the aardvark, but of the hyenas, and in fact it looks like a small striped hyena on the outside. On the inside, however, it is no scavenger or grave robber, but rather feeds on social insects, termites and ants. Not unlike the sloth bear, it too has reduced teeth, but notable canine teeth for self-defence… and nothing else that would imply that it was an insectivore, rather than a carnivore, as the rest of the hyena family is. Thylacosmilus could have been like this as well. Anything else?

Sadly, no, but the carnivorous marsupials are a confusing group, as paleontologists are still unable to properly agree as to what and how they looked like, let alone their paleoecology. What else?

Let us get back to the king vulture, maybe? Well, these birds have appeared on the planet during the mid-Pliocene, when the last marsupial sabretooths were still living there, so the two might have met back then. However, the fossil remains of the king vulture from that period are scarce, so it is hard to say. What is known, however, that this bird is most closely related to the Andean condor out of the entire New World vulture family, and after the two species of condor, it is the biggest of the New World vultures; certainly the most colorful. An imposing bird, the adult king vulture has predominantly white plumage, which has a slight rose-yellow tinge to it. In stark contrast, the wing coverts, flight feathers and tail are dark grey to black, as is the prominent thick neck ruff. The head and neck are devoid of feathers, the skin shades of red and purple on the head, vivid orange on the neck and yellow on the throat. On the head, the skin is wrinkled and folded, and there is a highly noticeable irregular golden crest attached on the cere above its orange and black bill; this caruncle does not fully form until the bird's fourth year. A true king of the vultures, in fact. Anything else?

…For the moment, the king vulture is classified as ‘Least Concern’, as opposed to the Andean condor, which is ‘Near Threatened’ and the California condor, which is ‘Critically Endangered’; hopefully, this trend will continue, and the king vulture will remain flourishing for ages to come, and not vanish from the face of the planet as the various sabre-toothed mammalian carnivores did.

…This is it for now; see you all soon!

Quarantine entry #97 - June 26

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Sometimes, however, you get to see something new and exciting – for example, yesterday our family got to see a fawn, I am guessing that of a white-tailed deer, because we live on the East Coast rather than the West, where the black-tailed/mule deer is more common. (In addition, the elk is bigger than both of them are). It was spotted, adorable, and I am thinking that it is this youngster and its’ mother who are nibbling on our tree seedlings. Fair enough, but today I want to talk to you not about deer, but about hawks.

What are hawks? They are birds of prey that are not falcons or eagles. As a rule, eagles are larger and bulker than the hawks are, while falcons are faster and more streamlined. Put otherwise, the falcons have evolved to be speed demons, while hawks are masters of maneuverability instead; the falcons dominate in the open sky, (like the peregrine), over prairies, (like the Mexican falcon), and fields, (i.e. kestrel), while the hawks prefer to hunt in more closed spaces, such as woodlands. Pause.

Now, an ambush predator is often colored cryptically, with spots and stripes, as the big cats (and owls) are, and hawks are no exception – their plumage is barred, especially on the lower half of their bodies. Pause.

In the English language, there are two groups of hawks – those that belong to the genus Accipiter, and those to the genus Buteo; the former are the more formidable hunters, and in some other languages, such as Russian, the latter aren’t always acknowledged to be ‘hawks’, but are considered to be ‘buzzards’ instead.

How a ‘buzzard’ is different from a ‘hawk’ is another story, but for now, let us talk about the birds from the Accipiter group. They have barred plumage on the lower halves of their body, and the plumage on their upper halves is usually grey instead of brown, as it is in case of some of the American buteos, for example. And-?

And these are primarily forest birds, ambush hunters – they attack from cover, say tree foliage, or from behind a rooftop. Whereas falcons go high first and charge at their prey from the top, the hawks can attack from down below, charging quickly, but not for very long – usually.

Are ‘true’ hawks effective hunters? In my neighbourhood in Toronto, there is a steady population of smaller hawks – sharp-shinned, I guess. …Yes, I’m aware that quite a few scientists claim that the sharp-shinned hawk should be reclassified into several separate hawk species, but I’m no scientist, I really cannot say anything pro or contra to this statement, and so all I got to say is that the sharp-shinned hawk isn’t much bigger than a northern mockingbird is, (but it manages to overpower and kill them at least once in a while), and it takes effort to avoid both the American crows and the red-tailed hawks, both of which are bigger and more aggressive than the sharp-shinned hawk is.

…The songbirds and the squirrels, on the other hand, also tend to quiet down when a sharp-shinned hawk is in the neighborhood, but nothing else; the grey squirrels, in particular, seem to be about the same size as a sharp-shinned hawk is, and armed with sharp teeth, they are not too afraid of it.

On the other hand, the talk of squirrels brings us to the northern goshawk, one of the best squirrel hunters in the hawk world, and one of the biggest of the ‘true’ hawks – it can be the same size as a great horned owl, but looks much leaner and meaner than the latter. The two bird species manage to co-exist by the goshawk being a diurnal hunter, and the owl a nocturnal one; otherwise, the hawks and the owls do not always get along, and with the female goshawk being a very large bird of prey…well…

One more thing: the northern goshawk is called northern not just because it lives in the Northern Hemisphere, but also because the term ‘goshawk’ is used to name a lot of hawk species, over a dozen I would say. The same goes for the term ‘sparrowhawk’ – many of the hawk birds are called that.

…Finally, the ‘duck hawk’ is not a hawk at all, but actually a falcon – a peregrine falcon, the king of all falcons, and we will talk about it some other time. For now, though, this is the end – see you all soon!

Quarantine entry #96 - June 25

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about something else. AoS, maybe?

…There, sadly, is not much to talk about either, as AoS decided not to break free of its’ initial problems, and instead is giving its’ audience more of the same old same old.

…What is that, you may ask? Let me give it to you once more for old times’ sake. Ready, set, here we go!

First, it is the undercutting, with the Koenigs being the prime example. Whether it is the S7 premiere, when a lot of ado was raised about the rescue of Ernest Koenig, and then the character vanished without a trace, or the previous seasons, when Koenigs came and went and the show couldn’t make up its’ mind – did they matter or are they replaceable? …In S7, Enoch has taken over, at least in part, the role of the Koenig of the season, and no one gives a damn.

…Or take the Chronicoms themselves. Clearly, they are MCU originals, and that is impressive, but they were created to take over the role of the Kree in AoS, (and maybe the rest of MCU, as there the Krees’ record is somewhat spotty itself, does anyone know what is the plural version of that word?), and, again, no one cares. By ‘no one’, I mean primarily the people who could have affected AoS – those behind the scenes, including the higher-ups at team Disney itself. Then again, after seeing the ‘Artemis Fowl 2020’ film, I won’t lie and admit that maybe it’s for the best that AoS’ as a TV series ended-up what it had, because otherwise? It could have been worse; right now, people feel that AF2020 is the SW Sequel trilogy level of bad... Where were we?

Second, it is the constant recycling of ideas – team AoS either thinks that its’ audience is stupid and has a bad collective memory, or they just take its’ collective loyalty for granted. The entire Chronocom/proto-Hydra team up is reminiscent of the Hydra/Kree team-up in S5, and there are echoes of the framework Hydra world from S4 as well. Put otherwise, whenever AoS isn’t stealing ideas from other Disney/Marvel shows that failed to launch, such as ‘InHumans’ or ‘Ghost Rider’, it is constantly recycling its’ old ideas, and-

-And take a look at AoS’ S7, for example. In the initial 4 episodes, there were strong echoes of AC, complete with agent Sousa, who came onboard of the team Time Bus to further help humanity, including Hydra, to save S.H.I.E.L.D. and etc. from the Chronocoms on one hand, and to give Melinda support, now that Gregg is playing a Coulson LMD... a second one, actually. That Is Fine, only now, in the 5^th episode of S7, the Chronocoms have teamed-up with Hydra instead, completely undercutting their previous plan, (whatever it was, left over from S6), while Melinda seems to have gone over her Coulson-related hump completely, which leaves at least some viewers wondering – and what is Sousa’s role in AoS now? Deke and Enoch did well enough as ‘the newcomers’, and now that AoS is literally in the home stretch, Sousa’s presence in it is pointless and outright unnecessary. Moreover, the episode 7x05 seems to have gotten rid of the rest of AC elements in AoS S7, making Sousa even more out of place in AoS for now. Seriously, can’t AoS do anything coherently?.. Apparently not. Anything else?

Just one question: why does Nathaniel Malick here feels like the elder sibling? Back in AoS’ S3, he was the younger one, but here it does not feel like this. Ah, AoS, you just keep on surprising your viewers in a bad way, don’t you?..

Well, this is it for now. See you all soon!

Quarantine entry #95 - June 24

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. ‘Barkskins’ have finished their run for now, and few people have acknowledged them – it’s a pity, because they were a very good novel adaptation/historical drama TV series. However, they were not very popular, or rather – this genre is not very popular right now, and so ‘Barkskins’ remain very much obscure for now. What next?

Yesterday was the U.S.’ primaries’ voting, (we are talking June 23, 2020 here), and I have to ask: how did the U.S.’ ‘civil unrest’, (let us live the COVID-19 out of the equation for now) affect the voting? Seriously! Especially since we are talking New York and all, where the unrest in question was especially bad. The mass media is keeping mum on that now, just as it does about Seattle, where there was some sort of a leftist commune there; an armed leftist commune, I should add.

But no – the mass media is keeping quiet about it; instead, they’re talking about politics, about elections, about the Donald and his clan beginning to fight his niece Mary for real, as she is releasing, or trying to release, her own book about the Donald, the Trump family, and the presidency. Fun! Or not, since this is the clan that the U.S. has to live with, and the rest of the world has to live with the U.S.

…Or not, since people are still trying to find alternatives to the U.S.’ global hegemony; China, the RF, and the EU are all ‘viable’ alternatives. Idiots! History has its’ own cycles, and it states that after every peak – a semi-global empire – comes a fall, which results in a multitude of small states, (or city-states, whatever), during which the planet recuperates, (however partially), from the whatever damage the human civilization was able to inflict upon it, and everything starts anew. Right now, we are living it, as the COVID-19 and its’ side-effects/after effects demonstrate; already, some human projects are being put on hold… pause.

Yes, by now the global human society is beginning to emerge from the initial global lockdown, initiated in the first half of 2020. But already there’s the beginning of a talk about the second wave of COVID-19, which means things are going to snap back into a lockdown position… or not, and I honestly don’t know which is worse – the devil that we know, (namely the lockdown with all of its flaws), or the one we don’t, (aka if we don’t go back into the lockdown and the second wave of COVID-19 hits for real). What is left?

…Yes, by now, humans are pissed about the lockdown, and a part of the entire civil unrest, (primarily in the U.S. – in Canada it was somewhat different), was because of it – people want it to end, they want out! …Ok, now they are out, and what next? If all of those conspiracy theories are false, then COVID-19 is not going away anywhere, and people will continue to die – maybe at a more intense rate, maybe not, but regardless, they will continue to die. And if COVID-19 does go away, then all of those conspiracy theories are true, however partially, and things for humans will get even worse. Anything else?

Well, actually, today I wanted to revisit out friends the turtles today, just because, but then I came across a news article on ‘The Atlantic’ about how the MLP: FIM fandom has acquired Nazi elements and doesn’t know what to do with them, and how it equates with NASCAR having a lot of racist elements in it still, and I got to admit that any world that has a fandom of small, talking, colorful ponies/horses acquire outright Nazi elements in it, (the MLP-fandom doesn’t really deny it), is a weird one to live in, and while it might suck, I still won’t switch it for any fictional one.

…Well, this is it for now – see you all soon!

Quarantine entry #94 - June 23

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. These days, Canada is almost fully open – on the inside – but its’ borders with the U.S. remain closed, and they will remain closed, because there is the talk of the second wave of COVID-19 by now already. Unlike fiction – movies, TV series, comic books, ‘just’ books, what else have you – reality showed that humanity is nowhere near the fictional cohesion in general, and that the U.S. is not at all superior to the rest of Earth’s civilization in particular.

…Yes, the RF has ended its’ own lockdown, and will have its’ parade, its’ elections/voting, its’ whatever within the month, and yes, karma will get them all, but at least they admit it between themselves – the U.S., not so much. So, let us talk about something else – the domestic dog, maybe?

…I admit that I have no idea as to what exactly I want to say about them. Domestic dogs, in all of their various breeds and incarnations, have existed alongside humans for the last 14+ millennia, (give or take an odd century or two), and have become some of our closest companions, alongside the cattle and the horses. Kipling’s ‘Just So Stories’ show this quite clearly – in one of them, the dog, the horse and the cow are the first animals to come to the first humans and become their companions/minions/servants/etc. without questions for some physical benefits, that is all. The cat, on the other hand, is the last of them, and is able to bargain at least some sort of a semi-independent position for itself. Yes, this approach comes with ‘penalties’, as neither the First Man nor the First Dog ever accept or give the First Cat, but that’s a cat for you – it thinks about itself first and foremost, and everyone else is secondary.

…Oh yes, there are some exceptions to that rule, and plenty of them too, but that is because they are exceptions, and that is why we hear about them. For dogs, they are the rules, and that is why we do not hear about them as a rule. What next?

The flipside of the rule is that unlike domestic cats, domestic dogs got a lot of diversity in their breeds. Domestic cats look largely similar to each other, with some minor variations, usually in the form of their muzzles and in the length/coloration/texture of their fur. The variations between domestic dogs go far beyond that; technically, while the smallest dogs of them all, (the Yorkshire terrier and the Chihuahua) are the same species as the biggest ones, (the rizenshnautzer, the great dane, the St. Bernard and the Newfoundland), any crossbreeding between them is impossible because of anatomy! Hell, the crossbreeding between the English and the French bulldogs is probably impossible for the same reason. Why?

Hard to say. Because humans love to breed and to play God, and they have created many breeds – of horses and cows, of goats and sheep, of cats and fowl and pigeons and goldfish… The Greek, the Egyptian, and the Norse pantheons were different from each other, but most of their gods were all anthropomorphic, (more or less), and all of their deities loved to meddle in human lives, (though yes, the Egyptian pantheon showed more restraint, proportionally). Put otherwise, in all of human societies the gods are reflections of the humans themselves, (I’m quite willing to assume that in the societies of sea serpents like Nessie, and in the societies of abominable snowmen like the Yeti, that situation is quite different), and just as gods loved to transform bodies into different kinds, so do the humans themselves: they transformed their pets and domestic animals, (and also plants), to be more useful… for the humans. Real life may suck, but it can certainly be weird as well.

 …For now, however, this is it. See you all soon!

Quarantine entry #93 - June 22

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, and I, for once, have no idea of what to talk about. Ah yes, how about the davalpa, aka the old man of the sea from the ‘1001 nights’ cycle. Let us talk about that.

This is an old story, and it began back in the ancient Greece, whose myths had the titans, the elder siblings (and parents, and cousins), of the Olympian gods, and the giants, who were also the children of Gaea the Earth, but unlike the titans, they were human above waist, but had live snakes, (or at least snake tails) instead of legs.

The greatest of them all was Typhon, of course – a shapeless monster, usually depicted as a winged humanoid with snake tails for legs and of a giant size, even in proportion to his archrival Zeus. The two had fought a number of battles, until Zeus smote Typhon with what is now known to be the island of Sicily, pinning Typhon to the ground, and that was the end of him.

Only not, as Typhon mated with Echidna, a half-snake hybrid herself, and the two of them became parents of many monsters; actually, of most monsters of the Greek myths – but right now we are talking about the giants. Most of them were nowhere as powerful as Typhon was, but what they lacked in physical size and power, they made up in numbers – most Greek myths agree that those ‘lesser’ giants rushed the Olympians as one, and only the assistance of Hercules helped the Olympians win the day.

A special point of interest is how those giants were armed and armored, or rather – how they were not. Unlike the Olympians, they had no armor nor any forged weapons, but rather looked giant rocks and giant clubs, maybe even entire trees… Fast forward, and we get a Medieval poem from Asia rather than Europe, which discussed the travels and battles of Alexander the Great, who defeated many empires and subjugated many tribes, including a tribe of snake-legged giants, who were taller than trees, even though their legs were like snake tails and weren’t any good, and who were armed with rocks and wooden clubs rather than forged arms and armor… What is the point?

The point is that unlike the titans, the ancient Greek giants were both savages and manifestations of dark, chthonic forces; mythical analogues of the barbarians, who could not speak human language, (i.e. ancient Greek or Latin), and who were not even human! Fast forward through the ages, and you got the davalpa and similar entities, who look human from the waist up, but snake-like from the waist down; who cannot speak a human language, and who are no friends to the human race; the kaish-badzhak from Turkish mythology is actually a cannibal djinn; so where does the old man of the sea come into this?

Firstly, the term itself is problematic: in the ancient Greek myths, ‘the old man of the sea’ was used as a title to many lesser sea deities, subjects of Poseidon, such as Proteus or Nereus, deities that have a little role in mythology, and are usually appear only in one or two myths, and that’s it. However, they are shapechangers and can speak human languages, (especially ancient Greek), and are not particularly hostile to humans either. So what about the ‘1001 nights’ story cycle, then?

In that cycle, ‘the old man of the sea’ is encountered by Sinbad the sailor, and he acts rather like the davalpa – it is a humanoid monster that enslaves Sinbad by trickery; once he gets onto Sinbad’s back and neck and shoulders, he is impossible to dislodge until Sinbad gets him drunk, after which the old man of the sea falls of Sinbad, (and the sailor either kills him or not). Put otherwise, this version of ‘the old man of the sea’ is more like the demonic davalpa rather than one of the shapeshifting minor sea deities of the ancient Greek myths. The illustrations of this story further compound the conclusion, as in most ‘1001 nights’ illustrations, ‘the old man’ looks precisely like that – an old man, just as human-looking as Sinbad himself, with nary a supernatural trait. Look it up at the Internet yourself, if you care to…

Well, this is all that I want to talk about the davalpa for now, in fact, this is it for today – see you all soon!

Quarantine entry #92 - June 21

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, though sometimes it is okay, or at least – too early to tell. I myself am not particularly pleasant, especially on a regular basis, so when some day goes bad, it is my fault too, as well as somebody else’s. What next?

Today, let us talk herons, since these birds have regularly been mentioned in regards to the other wading birds. Ergo, where are we in regards to them?

The herons are a sister group to ibises and spoonbills. Neither storks nor cranes are related to them at all. In professional terms, the term ‘heron’ also covers egrets and bitterns; on average, an ‘egret’ and a ‘bittern’ are smaller than a ‘heron’ is; also, an ‘egret’ is usually colored white at least some of the time, (especially during the mating period), while a ‘bittern’ is cryptically-colored, it is a shy, retiring, nocturnal bird. Pause.

…Yes, the word ‘night’ might remind some people of the night herons. Unlike bitterns, night herons usually have stocker bills, are colored less cryptically and more contrastingly, and nest on trees, rather on than on the ground, as the bitterns do.

…The bitterns have also several distinct traits that the other herons just do not. First, they are some of the smallest of the herons, as they have such birds as the least bittern and the little bittern among their numbers. By contrast, the ‘true herons’ are some of the biggest – just look at the great blue heron of North America and the grey heron of the Eurasia and the goliath heron of Africa.

Second, the bitterns have the cryptic pattern on the plumage that lets them blend into the rushes and similar plants during the day, and, moreover, at least some bitterns can stretch themselves up and out vertically, becoming even more plant-like in shape – how that for disguise?

And on the other hand, bitterns have amazingly loud voices, as loud as those of bulls, which resonate loudly over the shallow bodies of water where these birds usually dwell. (Bigger species of herons venture into deeper waters, FYI). In this way, the bitterns communicate, rather than try to scare away the predators.

Other types of herons are more visual, especially the egrets, whose plumage, especially during the mating season, becomes extravagant, and those birds often participate in ritualistic dancing and courtship with each other. That said, most herons, (including the egrets, but not the bitterns), while social and colonial, are monogamous – one male & one female and they raise their chicks together.

…As it was said before, herons usually nest on trees, with some exceptions, (such as the bitterns), while the cranes do not. As such, the cranes’ feet are far less adapted to roosting in trees, but on the other hand? Cranes are more social birds than herons and fly in flocks together much more often than the herons do. They are somewhat more tolerant of each other than the herons are, they often live further away from water than the herons and their immediate relatives do, and the crane family is much less numerous than that of the herons – for example, there are just two species of cranes in North America, while the herons, (including the egrets and the bitterns, true, but still), number at least a dozen species. How that for ecological and evolutionary differences?

…Well, this is it for now, though. See you all soon!

Quarantine entry #91 - June 20

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Today, for example, we have gone to the beach. It was not a bad place – we saw froglets there, (they already had legs, but still had tails), as well as minnows. Fun! (To say nothing of the dragonflies, damselflies, and what else have you). What next?

On the other hand, we have had a fight, and as always, it was a bad one. I hate fighting, but sometimes, there is no other choice, you know? So what is left?

Ferrets, actually – this is what we are going to be talking about today. Made famous by J-Ro, as in her fourth book, HPTT, Draco Malfoy got briefly turned into one, a ferret itself is, per say, a domesticated subspecies/variety of the European polecat, Mustela putorius, which is a relative of the American black-footed ferret, Mustela negripes, among others. Pause.

Now, the wild European ferret slash polecat is a medium-sized mustelid – it is bigger than the various weasels, but smaller than the wolverine, and the bigger martens, (such as the fisher). When compared to the other mustelids, the ferret’s/polecat’s characteristics include a long, but compact body, short legs, powerful muzzle, and a more terrestrial way of life.

For comparison: in North America, the various martens, (including the fisher), live in the forests, both on the ground and in the trees; the weasels – also, but prefer to life in the undergrowth; and the black-footed ferret lives in the prairies, away from the tree cover, where it feeds upon the local rodents, such as the prairie dogs. The black-footed ferret uses its’ long mustelid body to go not through the branches and undergrowth, but rodent tunnels, as it searches for food; in the Old World, the European polecat and the steppe polecat (Mustela eversmanii) acts similarly. Next?

The domestic/pet ferret got a mixed heritage, as in the U.K. the wild ferret/polecat isn’t very popular; it is known as a vermin and a killer of domestic poultry almost as bad as the red fox. Hence – Draco Malfoy’s less than voluntary animal form, as the DADA teacher of the book, Alastor Moody, was revealed a Death Eater fanatic, Barty Crouch Jr. instead. And-?

Here let us talk about J-Ro herself. The woman is in a bad spot, but she had maneuvered herself there, of her own free will. You cannot sit on two stools at once, not for long anyhow. On one hand, she tried to be politically progressive – first Dumbledore was made gay, then Hermione was made a POC, and then something else happened to somebody else, maybe.

And on the other hand, J-Ro’s latest anti-transpeople statement, that shows that she is a more conservationist person than how she pretend to be. Pause. Now what?

I do not know. If J-Ro does have standards, issues, values, etc., then she should stop pretending to be a ‘progressive person’ in her books and movies and etc., and just keep everyone as they original were. If she doesn’t, then she should stay the Hell away from the TERFs and the like, because otherwise? She is going to lose money, and she cares about money, doesn’t she?

…Well, maybe she doesn’t – supposedly, her Mary Sue version in the HP-verse is Rita Skitter, an unlikable character, but not a greedy one, you know? In this case, J-Ro should go ahead, but she should also remember as to how her Rita character ended-up in the HP-series – not on the bottom, but not on top either, and given just how tense the real world is at the moment, I’m completely unsure that she should go this routine. Anything else?

…No. For now, this is it instead. See you all soon! Good luck with the real world, as it does suck!

Quarantine entry #90 - June 19

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. What else is there?

The Donald is revving for a fight against his niece, against Bolton, against anyone. How marvelous! The man doesn’t understand that things have moved beyond even his control, he is already being judged, and woe betide (him), if he is going to be found wanting – the elections-2020 are almost upon the U.S. What next?

It is hard to say. People are claiming that an especially virulent and violent version of the fire ant has appeared in North America, after the giant hornet (and the giant hogweed). I admit I have no idea what to say specifically – the term ‘fire ant’ describes several ant species from the genus Solenopsis, which includes more than 200 species of ants worldwide; maybe those ‘volcano ant’ are just a different species from the ‘regular’ fire ant…

Of course, the term ‘regular fire ant’ is a misnomer – those particular ants are introduced species in North America, (especially in the U.S. – they don’t appear to thrive in the Canadian winters at all, period), and as such, while they are able to establish colonies of their own in the U.S. regularly enough, they’re also exterminated regularly enough, without anyone regretting about them. Invasive ants do not have any sympathizers, it seems. What next?

Well, someone on the net had suggested that part of Odysseus’ – and we are talking the original character of Homer’s epics – tribulations have come from his marriage and the relationship to the house of Atreus.

Here is how the thing went. The children of Atreus, Agamemnon and Menelaus, married daughters of Leda, Helen and Clytemnestra, (who were either children of Leda’s mortal husband, of Zeus, or of both – take your pick). Odysseus’ wife Penelope was the cousin of the abovementioned duo, not to mention that the entire marriage of Menelaus to Helen happened with Odysseus’ help.

Then, Helen ran away with Paris to Troy, (rather than to Paris, say). Menelaus and Agamemnon began to assemble their posse. Re-enter Odysseus. Why? Because the entire fraternity/order/agreement that all the failed grooms of Helen help the lucky bastard who married Helen was his idea, and without his presence, this document wasn’t worth the paper it was written upon.

…The Greeks’ assembly and journey to Troy was very slow and hard, possibly because no one but Menelaus and Agamemnon wanted to go there initially; Odysseus himself, in particular, pretended to be insane once Agamemnon’s representatives arrived on Ithaca, and came there only after one of them – a certain Palamedes – called his bluff. (This did not go well for Palamedes – Odysseus set him up to be killed by the Greeks themselves after they arrived at Troy). So what?

Well, according to my friend’s theory, Odysseus began to reign on Ithaca as an ally of Menelaus and Agamemnon, who were the most powerful kings of Ancient Greece at that time, not quite a vassal, but something similar. Keep in mind, that the ‘Odyssey’ shows that Odysseus and his family were not too popular on Ithaca, so if Agamemnon especially were to withdraw his support from Odysseus, the man would not last for too long. Ergo, to keep Agamemnon’s favor, Odysseus had to come to Troy, because he had no better alternative, and if he were to betray Agamemnon, (and Menelaus), he would quickly reap some bad karmic comeback; at least, that what he thought and didn’t want to risk it – for good reasons.

…And then the Trojan War ended, Agamemnon came home and was murdered by his wife and her new lover, while Menelaus and Helen were lost at sea. Having lost his support from the sons of Atreus, Odysseus had to lie low; his wife, who was a blood relative of Helen, Clytemnestra, and their earthly relatives, was more confident and entertained the suitors, or rather – they entertained her, you can see traces of that even in the canon.

Finally, Menelaus (and Helen) returned to Sparta and restored their rule. Telemachus visited them – in the canon, to learn news of the Odysseus; in this theory – to restore the political relationship between them and his father’s dynasty, and once that happened and Odysseus got his assurances, he came back, killed all the suitors, and restored his rule. The end.

…Or not quite. There’s a version of Odysseus’ story where Circe, (yes, the witch-goddess that turned men to pigs and pegs to men), had a son by Odysseus, and the latter, when he grew up, went to Ithaca, killed Odysseus, and became the ruler of Ithaca, and Penelope’s husband. Telemachus, meanwhile, married Circe instead and took over Aeaea, (Circe’s home island). Considering that we never know for sure if Odysseus and his family existed for real, this theory – that Odysseus was a vassal of Agamemnon and Menelaus, not a very likable man, and was killed by his sons, (or one of them, at least) – makes as much sense as anything else does. What do you think?

…For now, though, this is it. See you all soon!

Quarantine entry #89 - June 18

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. During the last Canadian election, I have voted for Mr. Jagmeet Singh and his NDP, so that the Canadian politics would change, and what had happened? 

Spoiler alert – same old, same old. The Liberals are still steering, the Conservatives are still opposing, and the NDP seems to be a non-entity – until now. Now, Mr. Singh got into a pissing contest – I mean, a confrontation – with a Bloc MP, and got kicked out of the Commons for calling RCMP racist. Sigh. Does Canada have to imitate U.S.A. so completely? I would say ‘no’, but no one cares about my opinion. Ah well, that is real life, so what else is left?

Well, over in AoS/AC ‘crossover’, there are rumours that part of the reason as to why Daniel Sousa was introduced so that Melinda May would have an opposite number. Whatever it was that went behind the scenes in AoS, was clearly bad, as the Phil/Mel ship seems to have been put out into the docks at least for now, the FitzSimmons aren’t doing much better, and Daisy & Deke… I do not even want to go there, of all of Daisy’s relationships, this one is the worst.

…Yes, a TV series, especially a comic-based sci-fi series such as AoS, (or AC, for that matter), should not be real, (realistic is another thing entirely). However, in that case, it should be detached from real life as well, but instead in the case of AoS, we got real life poking from behind the metaphorical curtains here, there, and everywhere; the only difference here is that the rest of MCU influenced it. In AC before it was cancelled, the titular heroine was being maneuvered into becoming the love interest, (if not something more), of Daniel Sousa – but then AC ended after its’ S2, Ms. Atwell briefly returned to the U.K. (in the real life) to star as the female lead in the latest, (and very bad), version of ‘Winnie the Pooh’, but she did keep a toehold in the MCU, voicing agent Carter in various Marvel cartoons, video games and so on.

Then ‘Avengers: Endgame’ was aired, and it was revealed that captain Steve-O went back to Peggy in the 1940s, (i.e. the time period where the team Time Bus of S.H.I.E.L.D. was hovering just now), and apparently they married, (changing the timeline?), leaving both Daniel Sousa and Sharon Carter, (who’d been initially set-up as captain Rogers’ new love interest), up for grabs.

Well, Sharon Carter will be appearing on ‘The Falcon and The Winter Soldier’ Disney+ show, eventually, while Daniel Sousa seems to be moving out of AC and onto the AoS now. Considering that he is an original MCU character, (unlike Sharon Carter, who had had a long presence in the Marvel Comics before MCU), that is not so bad. Anything else?

Just a mention about ‘Mother Russia’ in MCU, or more precisely – in AC & AoS. In AC, the U.S.S.R. was designated to be the main villain, or rather – the Leviathan was, just as Hydra was in AoS. (Cough, WWII associations, cough). However, by AC S2, Dot, (the Leviathan assassin), became more of a semi-ally to Peggy Carter and co., and now? She is gone, and we move onto AoS.

In AoS, ‘the Russian influence’ was something else – there were some digs at ‘Putin’s Russia’, (ha-ha, the real life is laughing now), and then there was Anton Ivanov, a yahoo of a minor character in AoS’ S4 & 5, who was a poor version of Grant Ward, period. Not that S7’ human villains – various members of the Malick family – are any better: it had been too long, both in AoS/MCU and in real life, since a Malick was a ‘proper’ villain on AoS/MCU, so right now, the AoS’ non-Chronocon villains, (rip-off Kree, basically), are a poor show.

On the other hand, any Koenigs right now are a no-show – apparently, the actors who played them on AoS are done for now, so after all the ‘investment’ in the 1940s’ Koenig in the S7 premiere was wasted. Ah well, that is a typical flaw of AoS, but we'll talk about it some other time.

For now, this is it. See you all soon!

Quarantine entry #88 - June 17

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, but sometimes you get to see something new and unusual in it all the same. Case in point – bears, brown bears, to be more precise. For the last few days, Yahoo News and similar websites were discussing about the various mutant grizzlies that had appeared in the Banff national park. One is all white, (but not an albino, a different mutation). The second is still a cub, mostly brown, but with a white head, giving it a rather panda-like appearance. Cool, eh? But so what?

For one thing, it helps us to understand as to how the bears’ coloring scheme has evolved in general. With the exception of the giant panda, the modern bears are largely monochromatic, especially the American black, the brown, and the polar bears, but as those recent cases of mutated grizzlies showed, there are always exceptions to this rule, and just because a bear is supposed to be brown, (or black, or white, or etc.), doesn’t mean that it is going to be.

Yes, most discolored animals tend to die-off more quickly than their normal-colored counterparts for a variety of factors, but if an animal is large enough, (say, a sperm whale, or even ‘just’ an African bush elephant), then it may survive into adulthood and reproduce.

This is where it gets even trickier, because genetics. An animal’s coloration, (whether it is an elephant, a zebra, a hyena or a guinea pig), is defined by the DNA that it had inherited from its parents – usually. Sometimes the DNA misfires and we get albinos, leucistic animals, melanistic, (all black), and so on, but if they do reproduce, there is no indication that this genetic flaw will be inherited by its’ offspring, because the latter have different DNA – a mix from both parents, which changes the game entirely. Put otherwise, while breeding in captivity is one thing, (just look at all the breeds of domestic pigeons, geese, or even goldfish, for example), breeding in the wild is something else, and while it is possible that a ‘miscoloured’ animal will survive to sexual maturity, (as the first out of the two grizzlies in our case is a sexually mature animal and not just a cub), the odds of its’ offspring inheriting its’ atypical coloration is even less. What next?

Hard to say. For today, actually, I wanted to discuss the cockroaches. Yes, they are far less majestic than the bears are, but they are far, far older, having appeared back in the Mesozoic, during the Cretaceous period. Superficially, they are similar to beetles, but they are much less derived than the beetles are; whereas the beetles undergo a full metamorphosis, (rather like butterflies, honeybees, and flies), the cockroaches do not – their youngsters are not grubs like those of beetles, but are miniature versions of the adults.

Another important difference of cockroaches from beetles are the ooteca – whereas beetles just lay their eggs into rotting wood, ground, onto tree bark or someplace else, the cockroaches actually carry them in a sort of an ‘egg case’ until the eggs hatch and the young cockroaches scatter to begin their own lives.

…In any case, the physical similarity of cockroaches and beetles is superficial; whereas beetles are found all over the world, in all sorts of ecosystems, cockroaches are much more tropical, and in the wild are found usually in jungle ecosystems, or elsewhere wherever there is plenty of heat and moisture. Since their closest relatives are the termites, this does include underground. Pause.

…Termites deserve their own mention – sometimes they’re still called ‘the white ants’ because of their color, but they are very different insects from ants. Sometimes it’s obvious – the termite mounds are much bigger, in a different league altogether, from anthills, or hives of bees and wasps – and sometimes, not so much: whereas all worker ants, (wasps and bees), are all females, in the termite communities, both sexes are represented equally, plus worker and soldier termites are much more different from each other physically than those of ants or wasps.

Out of the two groups, the termites are the more derived ones, and may have involved from the cockroaches, (albeit different ones than those that live in human houses), but so far, no one knows for certain. Fossils of both cockroaches and termites are rare finds, so it is hard to make any decisive statements about them, at least right now.

…Moreover, for now, this is it. See you all soon instead.

Quarantine entry #87 - June 16

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. On the one hand, the official U.S.-Canada border will remain closed until July 21^st at least, because reasons. On the other,… wait.

…Let’s talk media, for a second. These days, at least some of mass media sites, such as Yahoo News, tend to illuminate such important events as the border closure and the prolonging of CERB very sparingly – they just tell us about the happening of one fact or another, and that is it. What and how it all went down – we do not know.

Instead, we are given brief polls on that site, basically the standard yes-or-no question with some minimal variations. Are those questions supposed to matter? In the West, true, people do believe that their opinions matter, but the fact is that if their opinions are handled in a sufficiently detached manner, then it suddenly becomes much harder to understand as to how precisely it does matter.

In the RF, the situation is different – people, the common people, know that the higher-ups in the Kremlin and etc. don’t care about their opinions, unless it is backed-up by force, so when they have enough, they go into the streets… therefore, the aforementioned higher-ups in the Kremlin and etc. do their best to appease their ‘electorate’ just enough to prevent the aforementioned revolution… usually. Right now, with their own COVID-19 epidemic on hands, this system is breaking down…sucks to be them…but real life sucks to begin with.

Elsewhere in the world, it is different. In the U.K., (and the rest of the EU), news about COVID-19 and the like are much more sparse than they are in the U.S. In Canada…well, we have just talked about how the Canadian government handles COVID-19 – apparently, they make all the decisions, but give polls to their electorate to reassure them that their opinion still matters and they can always vent, of course, online. Put otherwise, Canada may not be the RF, (thank God), but neither is it the U.S., (captain Obvious says ‘No duh!’). What next?

I admit that I wanted to talk to you about our old favorites, the elephants, today, but then I caught a glimpse of a cartoon. It was about bears, fair enough. The titular character is a grizzly bear, who used to be a circus actor slash jack-of-all-trades in his youth, but then settled down. He is also a bachelor, (because plot reasons), but has a girlfriend, also a grizzly/brown bear, who comes and goes throughout the show’s episodes. He also has a romantic rival, a male black bear, who is something of a jock, but who appears very rarely in the show, because it is a children’s cartoon… so what’s my point?

My point is that in this episode, the male grizzly’s old flame from the circus came to visit him. She was a spectacled bear from South America, a real party animal, (pun intended), and she is much smaller and more petite than the other bears of the show, (mostly brown and black, though there is a giant panda cub as a distant relative of the titular character too). And-?

And that is actually realistic – the spectacled bear is smaller than the brown bear is: about 120-200 cm, with the males being larger than the females are, (but that is a common trade of all the bears, especially the modern ones), and much heavier – up to 115 kg on average, while the female spectacled bears usually weigh – on average – only 65 kg. Apparently, this sort of discrepancy puts the spectacled bear right alongside the polar bear for being one of the most sexually dimorphic modern bear species, even though the latter is only a very distant cousin to the spectacled bear; both are true bears, of course, but the spectacled bear is much more closely related to the now-extinct giant short-faced bears of the previous epochs. (In particular, the short-faced bear Arctodus simus was featured in one episode of ‘Prehistoric Predators’, and had cameo appearances in some other, remember?) Ironically, however, diet-wise, the spectacled bear has only 5% of meat in his overall diet; it might be the next most herbivorous modern bear after the giant panda! Maybe that is how it was able to survive the last Ice Age when the short-faced bears died out, and keep in mind, that the American tropics are also home to the jaguar, which might be less physically formidable than the spectacled bear is, but much more formidable and carnivorous – the spectacled bear manages to avoid it by living in places where the jaguars are rare – mainly in the Andes mountains of north and west South America. If given the chance, spectacled bears are just as ecologically dexterous as the brown bears of the Northern hemisphere are, but these days, while the brown bears are Least Concern, the spectacled bears are Vulnerable instead, so there is that. Real life sucks for those fascinating creatures, it looks like, but that is real life.

…For now, though, this is it. See you all soon!

Quarantine entry #86 - June 15

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, which is why I wanted to revisit our friends the moles today – but then I came across a mention of a Madagascar cat, and it stuck.

What is a Madagascar cat? Technically, it is an incorrect name for the fossa, (also known as fosa), which does belong, technically speaking to the same suborder of the carnivorous mammals’ family as the true cats do, but otherwise? It belongs to the mammal family Eupleridae, which is more closely related to the mongooses instead.

Why the fossa is called a Madagascar cat? It is superficially similar to a cat, but only that. You may see it, for example, on Sir David Attenborough’s ‘Life of Mammals’, where the fossas are shown mating and hunting lemurs on Madagascar – until humans had arrived on that island and introduced their animal companions as well, the fossa was the biggest carnivorous mammal in that ecosystem. Being the size of a small mountain lion, (about 70-80 cm long), and weighing about from 5.5 to 8.5 kg, it is a formidable-looking mammal, but only that; the real puma itself isn’t very dangerous to humans, and the fossa actually avoids humans (and their dogs) for as long as possible; yes, it hunts lemurs, which are fellow primates to the human beings, but the modern lemurs are very different primates from the modern humans, so there’s that.

Anything else? First, unlike the true cats, a fossa’s claws are only semi-retractable – i.e., they can extend, but cannot fully retract back into the paws. Secondly, while the fossa itself belongs to the genus Cryptoprocta, (it is a monotypic genus that consists only of the fossa itself), the term ‘fossa’ is also used in the scientific world as the title of another monotypic genus, a genus that consists of only the relative of the ‘true’ fossa – Fossa fossana, known in the English language as the Malagasy civet, also known as the fanaloca.

At 47-50 cm in length, (plus another 20 cm to the tail), and at 1.5-2.0 kg in weight, it is a much smaller animal than the ‘true’ fossa is, and physically it resembles the ‘true’ civets & genets of Africa and Eurasia. For a while, it was even classified with the banded (palm) civet of South-East Asia, until it was discovered that it was more closely related to the carnivorous mammals of the Eupleridae family, see above. At about the size of a small fox, (and with a similar behavior), it is the second largest native carnivorous mammal of Madagascar.

Both the fossa and the Malagasy civet are considered to be Vulnerable, (according to IUCN), both because of human (and dog) harassment, and habitat deterioration on Madagascar. Of course, that affects all of Madagascar’s wildlife, including its’ native carnivores of the Eupleridae family, which consists of two subfamilies: one that contains the fossa, the Malagasy civet, and two species of the so-called falanoucs, and the second that contains their cousins – the various species of mongooses and vontsiras of Madagascar. Despite the fact that their common name of some of them contains the word ‘mongoose’, these Madagascan mammals are proportionally more closely related to the fossa and the Malagasy civet, than to the ‘true’ mongooses of Africa and Eurasia. Anything else?

Sadly, no. The second subfamily of the native Madagascan carnivores may be more numerous out of the two, but its’ members are much less ‘charismatic’ than the fossa, the Malagasy civet, and the falanoucs are. Consequently, less is known about them, than, say, about the fossa itself – sadly, the small carnivores are not very popular unlike the large ones… That is real life. It sucks.

…Well, this is it for now, though. Discussing the fossa and its’ relatives was fun; maybe we should do something similar soon. See you later!

Quarantine entry #85 - June 14

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. By now, the American people have started to realize that their ‘civil unrest’ is unhealthy in so many ways and are trying to tone it down instead, but that is hard; in Seattle, in particular, there’s some sort of a ‘leftist’ people’s republic or something. Forget U.S.S.R. – this is right out of the 19^th century, when proto-communists of France and the rest of Europe took over Paris and declared a commune. It didn’t hold, because by then the communists, socialists etc. of Europe and especially of France were very different of their 18^th century predecessors – remember them? …No, you probably do not, but if you ever read about the French revolutions and France’s revolutionary history, you will see the difference. What is next?

Let us get back to our old fan favorite, the turtle/tortoise/terrapin. Right now, they are probably the oldest order of reptiles. (Unless they are parareptiles or something like that instead. Scientists are not sure anymore). There are more than 230 species of turtles, supposedly, and they live in all sorts of ecosystems, except for the Arctic, the Antarctic, and the mountains. They are instantly recognizable from everything else, (differentiating different species of turtles from each other can be trickier), but each turtle group has its’ own personal quirks. In particular, the terrapins, (or freshwater turtles), usually have smooth shells and legs and feet adapted for swimming and climbing – they are both clawed and webbed. There are some odd ones in that group, however, such as the snapping turtles and the matamata – these turtles may be some of the most basic turtles, and cannot even withdraw their heads beneath their shells because of anatomical reasons.

…Actually, about that. Most turtles withdraw their heads beneath their shells straight on – just look at the tortoises from a pet store. They are called cryptodires, aka ‘hidden necks’. However, some turtles, especially freshwater ones, cannot do these, and put their necks and heads beneath their shells sideways – hence their name, pleurodires. They are considered to be less derived than their cryptodire cousins are.

Back to the turtles proper. The terrestrial turtles, or tortoises, usually have high, domed shells, and legs and feet adapted for walking on, and digging into, the ground. They are also the most herbivorous of all the turtles… though yes, probably because they are too slowly to catch anything alive – their freshwater cousins are the proportionally faster ones out of the two groups. The term ‘tortoise’ is more restrictive than the term ‘turtle’, and these days, most people prefer the latter to both ‘tortoise’ and ‘terrapin’.

…On the other hand, the term ‘turtle’ is more often referred to the group that is called ‘the sea turtles’, (no duh!), which are instantly recognizable – both from the other reptiles and the other turtles. (Captain Obvious says come on!) They are the smallest group of those ancient reptiles, but also, some of the most physically big modern reptiles; they are certainly more massive than most of other reptiles, (including some of the smaller crocodiles and caimans). As a result, these marine giants come ashore only to lay eggs…which is where their problems began, as humans kill them for their eggs, meat, and shells. Therefore, most sea turtles are endangered; actually, most of the turtles are endangered, both from human hunting and from habitat destruction; ‘Lonesome George’, anyone?.. What next?

…The tide has turned, people have started to help turtles – sea turtles and otherwise – to survive. So far, it is a mixed bag, because Earth’s ecology has changed considerably since humans arrived at the global scene with a bang and an Industrial revolution, and who knows what else. Bad news for the rest of Earth’s animals (and plants), I suppose, but that is real life. It sucks, COVID-19 or not.

Well, this is it for now. See you all soon!

Quarantine entry #84 - June 13

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, and that is why the media is doing their best to create their own… one that is even worse. No, I am not talking about ‘Artemis Fowl-2020’ – we’ve already talked about it; I wouldn’t say that it is ‘Cats-2019’-level bad, but it is still a disaster, and one that Disney & Disney+ were glad to get over with – it could’ve been the launch of a new franchise, but instead, it’s just a dumpster fire and it is over now. What next?

While Disney+ epically failed with ‘Artemis Fowl’, (it made even the ‘John Carter’ movie look good, in my opinion), the other mass media outlets do something else – release a metaphorical torrent of news about cops acting badly. Sigh. Their actions may look convincing, but I cannot help but to feel that this is not quite what the real situation in the U.S. is, period. What next?

Let us talk about wild donkeys instead, or wild asses, though I am not certain if that term is PC enough. As they were mentioned before, these animals are close relatives of zebras, very distant – of rhinos and tapirs, and middling to horses, hence why donkey-horse hybrids, (mules, etc.) are sterile. Zebra-donkey hybrids are less known, but they occur in captivity, because in the wild, wild asses and zebras do not really interbreed. Why?

Well, firstly, what are the wild asses/donkeys? There is the African wild ass, Equus africanus, (two subspecies). It – well, its’ Nubian subspecies – is the most likely ancestor of the domestic animal. The wild Nubian ass is considered to be extinct, by the way, while its’ cousin the Somali wild ass is critically endangered, and it lives on the African Red Sea coast, where few, if any, zebras are found instead.

The other two wild donkey species are Asian animals instead. They are the kiang, (or the Tibetan wild ass, Equus kiang, 3 subspecies), and the onager or the Asian wild ass proper, (Equus hemionus, 5 subspecies). There are no species of zebras in Asia, so they are clear from hybridization. Pause. What next?

While the rhinoceros species of the world are all doing badly, with the wild asses, the situation is more heterogeneous. The African wild ass is critically endangered, as it was said before, but the onager is ‘only’ near threatened and the kiang is actually ‘least concern’, as far as IUCN and the like are concerned. Go donkeys! In the world, where people are going stupidly insane, the donkey, which used to be a near synonym for being stubborn and/or stupid, seems to be fairly well, on some level at least. There are even some specialized pet breeds of domestic donkey in the modern world, so this version of the African wild ass seems to be doing well.

…Of course, it all might have to do with good karma or the like – in particular, in the New Testament portion of the Bible, the donkey is considered to be one of the ‘good’ or ‘sacred’ animals, so, who knows? Maybe there is some substance behind the style?

…Then again, the same could be said about the 2020 ‘Artemis Fowl’ movie – while its’ plot seems to be really thin, the movie’s style almost becomes substance on a certain level, giving AF at least some positive aspects. …And also JG’s performance and looks – he appears to be almost a variant Hagrid, I reckon. No offense to dame Judy Dench, but this is not her best appearance slash performance; it is not ‘Cats-2019’, but neither is it anything good.

What is good are ‘Barkskins’ on NatGeo, but people are largely ignoring them for whatever reasons, and that’s just weird. Ah well, it is also real life. It sucks.

Well, this is it for now. See you all soon instead!

Quarantine entry #83 - June 12

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Canada continues to be closed to the Americans… so let us talk about ‘Artemis Fowl’ the movie instead. It sucks, and I could tell that it would suck from the trailer way back when – and that is a good point to start.

For a Disney film, ‘Artemis Fowl 2020’ took about two decades to come to the streaming services of Disney+, and it shows. The plot has nothing to very little in common with the source material – the initial two novels of the series, (which numbers 8 in total, apparently). In the novels, the titular character begins certainly not as a hero, but as an anti-hero going on full villain in the ‘James Bond’ style, complete with being the latest in a long lineage of anti-heroes/villains, and the ‘Artemis Fowl’ novel series are about him becoming a better person in the process of befriending Holly Short and her cohorts. In ‘Artemis Fowl’ the movie we have nothing of the sort; this movie of Artemis Fowl is bland and featureless, or perhaps – generic. He is just another face in the crowd – really.

This brings us to his family. In the novels, Artemis Fowl does have a father, who disappears, and whom Artemis gets back – eventually, but he also has a mother, who becomes somewhat mentally disturbed after her husband vanishes, and her mental recovery is an important part of the novels’ plot too. Here, she is flat-out missing – either because it is a ‘common Disney twist’, (cough AoS cough), or because no actress wanted that role, or because her absence simplified this movie even further.

…No, really, the ‘Artemis Fowl’ 2020 film is simple – Opal Koboi, the evil fairy, wants a McGuffin called the Aculus, (Oculus?), and Artemis Fowl has to acquire it for her – or else. The rest of the fairy world gets involved, and Dame Judy Bench got herself another crummy role – of Julius Root, who, I believe, was a male in the novels and comics; yes, there were at least a couple of ‘Artemis Fowl’ comic books as well. They were not too good themselves, in particular, that version of Opal seemed to be almost handicapped – i.e., she was constantly positioned in the fairy version of a wheelchair or something similar; but I digress.

Or not, because of the fairy woman in white from the trailer. Remember her? She transforms from old to young and floats into thin air in the process in the trailer. This made her look to be rather important to the overall movie plot, but in the actual movie? I do not remember her at all, yet I wonder if she was supposed to be Opal, the movie’s version of a ‘seer’ from the first AF novel, (a fairy who fled from their world to the humans’ domain and did not handle it very well), some sort of a fusion between the two, or an original character entirely. Instead, we got zilch from her – isn’t that an ouch?..

Speaking of Opal, let us talk about Holly Short. In the novels, she is an antagonist to Artemis, at least until Opal becomes the series’ main villain. Here, the two of them become friendly with each other right away…and critics and reviewers are having issues with the fact that in the movie she’s a WASP, while in the novels she is a POC instead. That is a reasonable point, and the fact that Opal is played by a POC certainly does not help matters, but!

…But Opal is actually a non-entity in the movie; yes, she has minions to do her dirty work for her, such as rebel against Julius Root, who is apparently the fairy leader here, but…

…But this plotline gets hardly any development, and that is the other ‘Artemis Fowl’ movie flaw – it is insipid and underdeveloped; it promised plenty in the trailer, but nothing came out of it, no taste, no substance, and very little style, as most of the film is about the fairies trying to storm the Fowl mansion and fail… until Butler gets almost killed by a troll and so Artemis has to negotiate to save his friend’s, servant’s, and sidekick’s life.

…In the novel, none of that happened, and in fact, Butler had defeated the troll very thoroughly, because he is an awesome warrior, and trolls in the AF novel canon are more animalistic than sentient, unlike goblins, for example. Yes, changing the original plot to suit a movie better is not anything surprising, but the problem here is that the ‘Artemis Fowl’ movie is bad – so bad, that POCs aren’t even calling out how Opal, and not just Holly, got typecast in the film: they don’t want to be associated with ‘Artemis Fowl-2020’ any more than they have to, and when that happens, you know that you have a real stinker!..

…Well, this is it for ‘Artemis Fowl’ the movie, at least for now. It is bad, it is GoT S8 level of bad, and while the odds were against it – two decades in development, ouch! – it did not even try to fight the odds. Pity. I will see you all soon!

Quarantine entry #82 - June 11

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, and I cannot even escape into AoS, because I am currently trapped where it is not available, (because there is no TV and all). Pause.

Well, because I do not want to tackle reality just yet, I will acknowledge that for the moment the final season of AoS is still staying in the AC time period – aka the post-WWII USA and they have already encountered their very first racist – a certain Mr. Sharpe. Right now, the character is mostly a comic relief, (this is the first time he has appeared in MCU period, and given AoS’ record of accomplishment, and it is possible that he will soon die anyhow… where were we?)

Ah yes, the racist. AC itself fiddled with the issue of racism in the USA post-WWII, especially in the second season, when agent – now chief – David Sousa suddenly had a non-captain Rogers’ rival for agent Carter’s heart of an Afro-American descent, cough – but now…

Well, now it seems that the final season of AoS is stealing plot ideas from the third season of AC that never was, which is good. Marvel’s ‘InHumans’ actually did manifest despite AoS’ present, and the result was insipid, and also cancelled after a single season, even though despite its’ flaws, it had a better, more compact plot than AoS usually had. Disney rocks?

Getting back to the issue of racism in the States, in particular – now, listen: the George Floyd situation manifested because of management and mismanagement of the protests, the Americans wanted a diversion from COVID-19, and so they got it! Now, people are talking about reforming the police, (a major federal organization, putting it mildly), Confederate statues are being pulled down, (seriously, what the Hell?!), and COVID-19 was put on a backburner, though now it is coming back – either because the George Floyd narrative has ran its’ course, the man has been buried, and, hopefully, at least some people on the top of the American society have begun to think as to what COVID-19 will do to American population now that the self-isolation was effectively torn down.

…As we have said before, in Canada the situation is different, less intense, and more artificial-feeling. It is possible that Trudeau is using it as a smoke screen… period, because he isn’t handling the COVID-19 chaos very well, but then again, right now, Canada is supposedly run by a Liberal/Conservative/NDP joint effort, and where are the other two? Scheer keeps on fighting with Trudeau, the end, and Singh, (for whom and whose NDP party I have voted, FYI), is simply a no-show. The Hell? Trudeau is flawed, (though he is better than the American Donald is by default), but at least he is trying to do something, which is more than you can say about the other two. Sigh. Canada may be better than the U.S. is, but these days? That is not much to go on about.

Now, today I actually wanted to talk about bears, but somehow I was never able to get into the right frame of mind. Pity, because actually bears are quite fascinating mammals, hailing from the Eocene epoch, aka practically the very beginning of the Cenozoic. Their various species and genera came and went, but in the modern times? There are only eight species in three genera, including the giant panda that we have discussed earlier. It is the most ancient of the modern bears, and one of the most specialized, and probably one of the smallest ones too, (I am sorry, but compared to a brown bear? The giant panda is not that huge).

At the other end of the spectrum we have the polar bear, the most recent of the modern bears, that we have already discussed on this blog, for it was featured on AFO, where it’d lost to a walrus, as well as its’ closest cousins – the brown bear, (defeated a Siberian tiger), and the American black bear, (who took down the American Alligator). This leaves with the spectacled bear, the sloth bear, and the sun and the moon bears.

The moon bear is the Asian black bear, which is an ecological counterpart to the American black bear, and whom we have discussed in the past, largely because of the conjunction to the American black bear, (the American alligator and the Chinese alligator were featured as well).

The sun bear is also called the Malaysian bear, and it is one of the smallest bears, possibly smaller than even the giant panda is – and is one of the most arboreal of all the modern bears. Unlike the moon bear, its’ patch on the chest is yellow rather than white, hence the ‘sun bear’ moniker.

…Conversely, the sloth bear, (aka the true bear from the ‘Jungle Book’) usually has no patch on its’ chest, but when it does, it is white. The same goes for the American black bear, actually – usually, this bear is colored in a single color, but sometimes it does have a white patch on its’ chest instead, (though it ought to be noted that an American black bear can be of any color actually, not just black, but also cinnamon brown or creamy white).

…The spectacled bear usually doesn’t have a mark on its’ chest – instead, it has ‘spectacles’ on its’ face, and it is the only modern survivor of the short-faced bear lineage, (remember, it was featured on the ‘Prehistoric Predators’ series?). That said, those ‘spectacles’ can look very different from one spectacled bear to another, and some can reach the chest area, I suppose. In fact, physically speaking, all bears look like each other, and aside from the brown and polar bears, (which are each other’s closest relatives out of all the modern bears), and the giant panda too, I suppose, all of the modern bears are colored similarly too – in black, with lighter patches of fur on its’ back. Even the giant panda’s black-and-white checkered coat might have evolved from a similar design as well; what do you think?

…For now though, this is it. See you all soon!

Quarantine entry #81 - May 10

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. It looks as if the U.S. - Canadian borders are still closed, though some family members can still come across. Of course, what with the current ‘civil unrest’ in USA, there is also a question as to who is enforcing the border closure, (not that Canada is doing that much better), but…

…But first, let us be honest – a fair chunk of our family’s misery is our doing, if necessary, I could come back home, to Canada, but it would be worse for some many reasons that I do not want to get into, so that is that.

And second? Let us not make things worse. Yes, I am not particularly thrilled about how the current Ottawa government is handling the border issue, but right now, there already are people on both sides of the debate – open/don’t open – to make the situation worse. Considering that Canada’s current government is a Liberal/Conservative/NDP cooperative effort, this is not making the situation any clearer or better, and if enough pressure applies, then the entire government might either shut down completely or split into several factions, (along party lines most likely but not exclusive), and then Canada will stop being a normal country and start being something more along the lines of Riordan’s Hyperborea, which is inhabited by copper-headed basilisks, copper-beaked griffins, and an occasional Lestrygonian, of all creatures.

…No, it won’t be that bad, but the truth is that the current government doesn’t really handle crises and critical decisions very well; if forced to, it will open the U.S.-Canada border fully for real, but until then, it will wig and wag like a crazy bat in the autumn using anything to delay this event, period. Just look at how it had ‘copy and pasted’ the U.S. crisis on its’ own territory, the political geniuses! May it bite them all in the ass – but that will not be anything good for the Canadian people instead.

…Listen: the current Canadian government isn’t as bad as the Donald’s American one, it isn’t as far from the people as its’ U.S. counterpart is, but all the same? It is still a government, and it has flaws. Right now, with COVID-19 in the full swing, it decided to use civil unrest to let people release the steam, manifested by self-isolation – and then we will see what happens. If this civil unrest also allows people to forget, however temporarily, about their southern neighbor, whose actions lately made everyone uneasy, and Canada – especially so, then that is an added bonus! Hooray! …Any alternative is worse. Anything else?

…’Artemis Fowl’ the movie is coming out to Disney+ this Friday, (i.e. June 12, 2020). Even from the trailers and the pre-release summaries, it is evident that AF is going to be worse. Even from the trailers, it is evident that the movie is going to have little in common with the actual novel series, and that is just sad. I am not the biggest fan of the AF franchise, but even I am less than impressed by Disney’s and Disney+ take on it. It may not be the SW franchise, but given that American people are still pissed-off and worse by quarantine and etc., and are also starved for spectacle, (cough, George Floyd’s funeral, cough), if the AF movie fails, it can be another SW-level disaster for team Disney…

Speaking of disasters, let us get back to real life. Part of the reason as to why COVID-19 doesn’t seem to be dying, is because the world isn’t cooperating with itself; USA might’ve peddled and pushed its’ ‘global village’ franchise to the rest of the world in the post-Cold War 1990s and early 2000s, but as soon as the U.S. military had exhausted itself in Libya, (2011 onwards), and the first real challenge, (say, Putin’s annex of Crimea in 2014 or so), showed that U.S. may talk the talk, but can’t walk the walk, and that was enough. The American Dream, and the American World, (Pax Americana), began to crumble – and enter COVID-19, which showed that without America to push its’ (political in this case) goods around, everything is same old, everyone and their country are for themselves, and so here we are, in the now, with COVID-19 still dominating everyone and everything. That is depressing as fuck. It is also real life.

…Well, this is it for now, though. See you all soon instead!