anthropometaphors

After several months of intense dog-searching, I met my match.  She was surrendered to a shelter in the south bay, where she was quickly rescued and brought to her new home in Berkeley.  Her name is Winslow, and she’s a 4 month old mutt.  Her curly ears suggest a bit of cocker spaniel, while her trim coat and long (!) legs are more like those of a terrier.  Whatever her ancestry, we are very lucky to have found such a charming pup.

first day home

all konged out

As a lover of puzzles, I’m savoring every page of Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell’s third novel, published in 2004.  I’m at a loss of words to describe a book which nestles the persistence of human communication into it’s core theme. That said, I’ll let Laura Miller from Salon verbalize it for me:

I won’t describe what connects these stories, since figuring out Mitchell’s scheme is at least half the fun of reading “Cloud Atlas.” The theme has something to do with the unpredictable endurance of human communication, and a neatly delineated opposition between a crudely Nietzschean worldview — that human beings are innately predatory and life consists of eating or being eaten — and a crypto-Buddhist ideal of kindness and the prudent moderation of desire.

Some number of post-apocalytic seedpods have germinated in my imagination; metal acorns bleeding rust into the earth as wiry tendrils stretch with crackling static.  One such pod cracked open when I came across some of Andrew Chase’s images for an upcoming book about the robot TME (short for Trionic Morphatractable Engineer):

He felt alone

These anthropogenic robots melt the heart.  If that’s not your thing, Chase also constructed an elephant automaton from “transmission parts, electrical conduits, plumbing pipes and 20-gauge cold rolled steel.”  The elephant’s design, detail and aesthetic are unparalleled:

A PaylehFant

To close, here is a mostly irrelevant – but interesting – link to an actual cloud atlas.  Composed by Berhard Muehr, the atlas classifies clouds by Genera, Species, Variety and Supplemental Features.  Each cloud is described by name, location in the atmosphere, and image (from the Karlsruhe Wolkenatlas).  For example, cirrus clouds are a genera of clouds located in the high atmosphere.  Cirrus is latin for ‘curl of hair’, and a typical cirrus cloud looks like this:

Cirrus, the curl of hair

It’s changed: time fell backward, daylight hours shortened, temperature decreased and precipitation, wind and fog levels increased.  Looking for sun and warmth, memories of rain forests and tropical beaches come to mind.  Last week I caught myself longing for a lazy nap, splayed on a beachside hammock in Costa Rica.

Until I can get back to that hammock in Corcovado, I have Nature of the Rainforest – a stunning collection of photographs and ecological literature written by Adrian Forsyth.  A few images from the book are available online, which means I will post them here :]

In the Wee Frog category are photographs of reticulated glass frogs and rain frogs:

Reticulated glass frogs (Hyalinobatrachium valerioi)

Rain frogs (Eleutherodactylus spp.)

In the Adorable Quadruped category are pics of a nine-banded armadillo, a silky anteater and a three-toed sloth doing acrobatics:

Nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus)

Silky anteater (Cyclopes didactylus)

Three-toed sloth (Bradypus variegatus)

The results have been announced for the 2008 European Wildlife Photographer of the Year award, which means more nature photography!  While all the photos are stunning and surprising, I found the energy and setting captured in Duell im Trio – the runner-up in the Mammals category – most impressive:

Duell im Trio by Marc Steichen, Luxemburg

The overall winner is called “Bush Meat”:

Bush Meat by David Maitland, Scotland

I struggle to find words to describe the image.  Others have called it poignant, revolting, alarming and (my personal fave) “like roasting children”.  My heart feels sad just looking at it.

To try to end on a happier note: Sadie sent me a clipping about swimming tigers, which quickly launched me into an internet images search.  Below are a few of the images I found.  Not exactly award winners, but I find them heartwarming nonetheless.