Woodpress

An excellent use of blue M&Ms that for some strange reason (maybe because it seems cruel) isn’t listed on http://www.seanet.com/~balamb/sense/nonsense/:

Put them on display so people will ask why you have blue M&Ms on display. This serves a dual purpose — it humiliates the blue M&Ms, and helps educate the public. It is important that they not look appetizing or inviting to the uninformed masses, so I suggest public torture. This might include impaling them on spikes, drawing and quartering them, etc. Perhaps the simplest way to display them is to match them against other M&Ms in the well-established genetic test, then line up the losers in a prominent location.

I miss tan M&Ms.

I saw this little critter on my wall. It sat completely still while I took pictures, so I got to experiment a bit. I’m sharing my favorite.

For this picture I used a sheet of paper as a flash reflector (the flash was otherwise blocked by the lens because I was so close). I like how it turned out.

My oldest child asked me why spiders curl up when they die, so we looked it up.

We found a web page with a lot of information about spiders, but it seemed a little too technical and wordy for casual curiosity… so here’s my simplified explanation:

Two of the six joints in a spider’s leg are hydraulic. The spider flexes muscles that increase pressure and straighten those joints. When the spider dies, those muscles relax and the legs curl up.

Here’s the photo (from a previous post) that inspired the question:

This is my photo documentary of a pretty little plant’s journey to the dark side.

Check out this pretty plant. Wouldn’t it be nice to have one of these in your garden? (Hint: Probably not.)

Before long, the flower starts looking more like this. It’s still pretty, but past its prime. It doesn’t help that the photo is overexposed.

After that, it moves on to this stage of development. If you look closely at where the flowers used to be, you can see some little seed pods forming. These innocent looking seed pods are pure evil, as will be revealed soon.

In this photo, the seed pods have grown a bit, and anyone who has encountered a mature seed pod from this plant is likely to recognize it as the Darth Vader of seed pods, even though it’s still in its Episode 2 Anakin stage.

At this point those soft little protrusions are starting to wilt, forming interesting little curvy barbs FROM HELL! Its journey to the dark side is nearly complete.

After this it dries and turns into nature’s velcro — a dark brown egg-shaped seed pod that grabs onto any fabric or fur that touches it. Once it attaches to you, it hangs on until it gets to your house, where it builds a giant space station and kills us all.

Here’s the back of the reflective beetle I posted a picture of recently. (Actually, it’s a different beetle, but it’s the same kind of beetle.) I’m guessing camoflage isn’t this insect’s defense mechanism.

I took this picture of a mushroom recently on a walk with my oldest kid. Usually I take several pictures of a given subject so I can choose my favorite, but this time I only took one. Fortunately, I love the way it turned out. Aside from resizing and sharpening (to reclaim some of the detail lost from resizing), I didn’t edit it at all.

Today at work I went for a walk and took some photos. The weeds near the parking lot at work are pleasantly infested with photographic subjects.

I find this bug very cute. It’s all fuzzy, with a little long nose and knobbies on its antennae. Aww…

Even though there are many imperfections in this picture, I like how it shows so many stages of the berries’ lives.

I saw a few of these reflective bluegreen beetles. Their color varied slightly. Some were more purple, and others were more green.

I also came across another red dragonfly. This time I was able to get closer, and the lighting was better… so there’s more detail.

This morning a red dragonfly landed in my back yard. I talked it into waiting around until I could get my camera. It was a surprisingly skilled model, occasionally changing position so I could get different angles. It even smiled for the camera, which I thought was odd. I didn’t know dragonflies could smile. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, since I’ve recently learned that snails can frown and spiders have toes.