Let me see a raise of hands, how many of you over here enjoy the monotony of dealing with taxes, education, paying your bills, punching your time card every day, sitting in traffic, standing in lines at the supermarket or talking about weather with strangers in the elevator?
Do I see a hand going up in the back? Yes sir, did you raise your hand? What about you M'am, did I see something? Oh it's just someone scratching their head. *awkward silence ensues
I assume we all want to shirk our responsibilities and do the things that really matter in life like tweeting to our popstars hoping they will respond to our dumb tweets or going to the edge of a cliff to take a selfie because the closer you are to death = the more the likes, or even complain how someone can drink Folgers coffee when Starbucks Doubleshot on Ice exists on planet Earth.
You see, the reason for the daily-grind is because we can't run away from it. If you do try to run away, someone will catch you and put you back on the race track.
Enter Springtails who said, if they can't catch you, they can't force you to accept personal responsibilities.
Springtails are unique creatures (see, I did not use the term insects, more on that later) that can be found in moist environments like a pool of water, wet soil or even among mushroom gills.
Here is one below doing some window shopping among the gills of a mushroom.
You see springtails were previously classified as insects but no longer are because when authorities started digging into its browsing history, they found it had multiple search entries of funny and cute baby goats compilation which is just plain offensive considering you are supposed to look at cute baby cockroaches and funny larvae videos as they are much funnier. Period. Anyways, that was not a valid reason for dismissal on the grounds of misconduct, so authorities stuck to it "having no external mouthparts" as a reason for dismissal from the exclusive insect club.
Alas, the world can be a cruel place when you don't play by its rules.
Springtails are special because they have a body part called furcula which looks like a forked tail which they keep close to their body under tension.
Below is how the furcula looks.
When a predator gets too close or someone initiates small talk while waiting in line outside the supermarket, they release their furcula which hits the ground and propels it in the air saving it yet again from the perils of small talk, the greatest invention attributed to humanity. That is why they can be seen jumping like fleas in the presence of humans.
Have you ever come across 2 squirrels sniffing each other which makes you wonder if the COVID-19 quarantine affects not just the way humans shower but squirrels as well? Well, it turns out, ground squirrels will sniff each other to tell how closely related they are to each other by their sense of smell alone. They can distinguish between siblings and strangers based on the distinct smell each individual carries.
Below is one California ground squirrel indulging in some sniff-sniff behavior.
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p.s. Below is the time lapse of the drawing I created above if someone is interested to see how ideas are translated into form.
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