Hi friends!
Happy 2023, happy spring! It’s been a wild few months in the life of Maya, but one of my goals for the year was to start sending out my musings again, so here goes. Below is a collection of links I’ve been adding to since August 2022, not including the 100 tabs I have open that I’m slowly curating… I hope you enjoy!
Tell me what you’ve been up to! How is your 2023 going? Any adventures, books, puppies, or other interesting events? My highlights so far has been seeing the (Pacific) ocean a few weeks ago and the beautiful superbloom of wildflowers California is witnessing after endless rain.
As always, thanks for reading, and I’d love to hear from you!
Cheers,
Maya
Links!
Whales
- Just an article on my favorite topic of adaptations occurring in the genome of cetaceans as they transitioned from land to sea
- On the brain structure of cetaceans — including giving dolphins MRIs and pondering comparative intelligence
- How often a blue whale’s heart beats (about 38 times/minute), how we know (a super cool EKG sensor that I sorta saw in development!), and why it’s important (impacts on conservation outcomes)
- What did the ancient whale see? Follows well from Ed Yong’s An Immense World, discussing the evolution of pigments in ancient cetacean eyes
Sorta-geography-related
- Cool site allowing you to split the US by population… highlights the crazy disparity in population density across the country!
- “How we classify countries and people — and why it matters”
- A very cool wind/weather map, Ventusky
- This could explain many of my directional challenges…
- Swimmer makes it from SF to Half Moon Bay… life goals, man
Assorted
- Another follow-up from An Immense World… how a mix of convergence and divergence led to the evolution of electric organs in different lineages of fish
- The art of planted aquariums… the plethora of hobbies out there really is astounding.
- An alphabet of edible flowers
- Squirrels are splooting across the Bay Area to manage the heat… (splooting = laying spread out on the ground as flat as possible) I have witnessed in person.
- An eye-opening video on the technology and deep artistry behind 2.5D animated movies like “Wolfwalkers”
- I went to the beach recently, and my favorite part was watching the dogs frolic in the surf. But maybe keeping dogs off leash on the beach isn’t as harmless as it seems…