Monday Madness
It's not Friday, but we're going with it.
It’s been awhile, but we’re back with a Friday Monday post of random things I couldn’t quite come up with enough for a full post, but felt like getting out of my brain.
Let’s roll.
Hey guys, what’s going on with Mr. ZIP?
Who? Yeah, Mr. ZIP.
Um, who thought this was a good idea?
I try so hard to avoid politics here, but when people are trying to do some idiotic things like kill the US Postal Service, the fact that there’s a YouTube channel featuring Mr. ZIP…and it’s for kids? That can’t help. And there’s like a THIRTY MINUTE video that’s a year old with about 1,000 views. That takes time and money and … again, WHY? I just don’t understand the pitch here. This is to, what, get more kids interested in becoming a mail carrier? Someone has some ‘splainin to do.
Like a lot of other folks, we have been watching Andor and I really like that they’ve divided the 12 episode season into four three-episode blocks, each which take place about a year apart. The first season was so good, and I will admit that the second batch of episodes this season (episodes 4-6) started to slow down a bit, turning into more of a spy drama than an action adventure. But episodes 7-9? HOLY MOTHER OF MON MOTHMA, that was some shit that threw down. Episodes 8 and 9 in particular (no spoilers) were about as good as it gets in my opinion. I am really looking forward to the final three episodes, after which we plan on watching Rogue One as soon as we can to get the whole experience.
Also I simply refuse to not continue to point out that Diego Luna looks way too much like a 1970s Paul McCartney and I don’t know why more people aren’t talking about it.
I’m not quite sure I’ve mentioned before that I commute via ferry into San Francisco - which, despite preferring to work from home is an absolutely lovely way to commute. This week, we had to slow down for awhile just off of Angel Island because, apparently, there was a whale in the bay. (We all stood up to try and see it or a spout of water and … bupkus.) My immediate thought was to wonder if the captain was just messing with us, but nope, it turns out that whales have been increasingly spotted in the bay itself. This has happened from time to time for as long as I can remember, but it seems to be a more frequent occurrence that some are attributing to climate change. Which is, you know, not great.
But this got me thinking once again about “the loneliest whale.” For those who don’t know this, most all whales communicate via ‘whalesong’ and it’s all at the same relative frequency, around 20 hertz. But one whale (in theory) sings at 52-hertz. This whale has been named “52” accordingly.
Most fin whales sing or communicate around a frequency of 20 Hertz. These songs are below the normal threshold of what humans can hear.
But 52 is special: He communicates at a higher frequency, or “just above the lowest note on a tuba,” as reporter Andrew Revkin describes. He’s biologically similar to other whales, but his frequency is different. It’s possible other whales can technically hear him, but they can’t understand what he’s attempting to communicate.
So, this is insanely sad - imagine being a whale that no other whale can understand or even recognize as their own language. I heard about this years ago and have never been able to shake it - and apparently I’m not alone.
Here’s the other thing - nobody has ever SEEN this whale, they’ve just heard it. I haven’t seen the above film yet, but I’m gonna.