Day 5090: European Bank Notes & Shorebird flies 8K+ miles.

"Shadows": junk paper collage, digital.

  

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    Click: Pharrell Williams, Happy.

2GN2S

Europeans Vote on the Banknote Design

What best represents European life? The eternal dichotomy of nature vs. culture structures the Central Bank’s quest for a new banknote design, and now, the public can vote and offer feedback on ten proposals. 

A panel of jurors selected the designs, which follow one of two themes: European places and ideas or birds and rivers, the latter of which is meant to symbolize freedom and unity. While the basic elements are the same—all collections devoted to culture feature the same six figures, including Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci, composer Ludwig van Beethoven, scientist Marie Curie, opera singer Maria Callas, and authors Bertha von Suttner and Miguel de Cervantes, for example—individual approaches appear in the layout, aesthetic, and composition.

Voting is open through mid-September, when jurors will select one design that will go through an additional vetting process before the organization adopts it entirely. View all ten on the bank’s website

   

For eleven straight days, this bird never touched the ground. It did not stop to eat. It did not stop to drink. It never paused to rest in the way we normally think of sleep. It simply kept flying across an entire ocean, wingbeat after wingbeat, until it reached the other side.

The bird is a*bar-tailed godwit, and an individual known as B6 set the record for the longest non-stop flight ever documented by any animal, traveling from Alaska to Tasmania in a single uninterrupted journey. To appreciate the scale of that achievement, imagine completing marathon after marathon for eleven days without a break. Now imagine doing it while continuously flapping your wings.

Its preparation begins long before takeoff. In the weeks leading up to migration, the godwit eats almost constantly, building enormous fat reserves until it nearly doubles its body weight. Then its body undergoes one of the most extraordinary transformations in the animal kingdom. Because it will not need to digest food during the journey, parts of its digestive system, along with organs such as the liver and kidneys, temporarily shrink. The bird trades unnecessary weight for additional fuel, turning itself into an exceptionally efficient long-distance aircraft.

The journey itself is equally remarkable. With no visible landmarks across thousands of kilometers of open ocean, the godwit still arrives with astonishing accuracy. Scientists believe it combines information from the Sun, stars, Earth's magnetic field, weather patterns, and internal biological cues that are still not completely understood. It also waits for favorable winds before departure, using them to help carry it across the Pacific.

Researchers also believe birds like the bar-tailed godwit may be capable of sleeping while flying by allowing one half of the brain to rest while the other remains awake. This adaptation would let the bird remain airborne and responsive throughout one of the longest migrations on Earth.

There is almost no margin for error. Much of the route offers nowhere to land. A poorly timed departure, unexpected headwinds, or exhausted fuel reserves could mean the journey ends over open water. Every migration is an extraordinary test of endurance undertaken by a bird weighing little more than a soft drink can.

Humans rely on aircraft, engines, and navigation systems to cross oceans. The bar-tailed godwit accomplishes the same feat with nothing more than feathers, stored fat, and instincts refined over millions of years. Knowing that, it becomes much harder to look at an ordinary shorebird and see it as ordinary at all.

 

  

 

A -1 minute video, Monkey likes trick , here.

 

 

Just because ...

Rhinoceros Hornbill 

Saturday's Smiles ... 

 

1959 Bowden Spacelander.

Hoping you feel all the good things in your day.