I don’t have very much topical or important to post as of this morning today, so how about a couple of clips of small woodpecker(s)?
(For those who are interested, here is a link to a selection of topical verses but for TLDR, Pentecost commemorates the event when the Church got upleveled.)
However, a few days earlier (May 22nd), I was walking around looking for pretty plants to photograph, when I heard a racket from the trees, sounded like multiple small birds. I searched for a while and discovered the source of the sound – holes high up in the tree where a small woodpecker was fussing about. A nest of woodpecker chicks plus a parent. Somewhere further away a woodpecker was drumming, as noted by a passerby while I was trying to video.
After some cutting and editing last night, here are the highlights:
This video is silent, commentary removed.
And here is some birdsong. And drumming.
Other than that, I have been selecting and editing photos for POD and tinkering with my writing.
I wonder if I should some day post some of my fiction in this blog? On one hand I am tempted, on the other hand, I am still shy. It took me a long time to start even a blog.
I like to follow various conspiracies, adding new and updating old. This spring has seen the surge and updates of the tick conspiracy. I have an impression that already in 1990s there were rumors that new tick borne diseases that caused nasty neurological symptoms and could trigger meat allergies were promoted or even developed by shadowy forces, using polyticks, i.e., multiple bloodsucking parasites as their vector.
Fast forward this spring and we are seeing the anti-meat globalists trying to reduce greenhouse gases by forcing tick-borne alpha-gal sensitivity on masses to stop them from eating meat, leading to natural demand destruction for beef and thus reduction of herd size. Tick-borne diseases are presumed to have been developed in US bioweapons laboratories and then used against US population. An alternative or additional conspiracy rumor is that a biotech company just developed a vaccine against a tick-borne disease and is now looking for a market (probably with government help – who else is going to allow and even support such a marketing campaign, at least if past vaccination manias are considered as a model for government response?)
In this spring, a twist that is novel to me, is the tickboxes; someone(s) are spreading secretly on farms boxes filled with ticks to sicken cattle and/or people. A recent X posting showed a purported tickbox, from which fled a swarm of dark dots said to be ticks, when the presenter nudged the box with his boot. The video was too unclear for me to say whether the dots were polyticks, some other arthropods like ants, or AI-generated fake. The text in the X posting reads like AI generated, the exhortation to share this information sounds like someone is running a psy-op campaign, and there is very little information of the original author (aside from their X profile), so I would take this posting with a couple of lb sized grain of salt.
But if we toy with the idea that there was a bunch of ticks in a box (as in not an invented psy-op lie), even if the horde was of little eight-legged bloodsuckers, they might not originate from government (or globalist) bioweapons laboratory (just spitballing from position of near total ignorance), it could also be that boxes like that are cozy safe havens for ticks against natural predators like opossums and Guinea hens, and scattered to promote the spread and welfare of polyticks, as only safe boxes for the native ticks to nest would need to be provided.
And to continue with the speculation, if there is a government conspiracy to spread boxes of diseased ticks in the rural parts of USA, this means that in addition to myriads of boxtickers, there must be at least one tickboxer employed by the USGOV to package the polyticks for the people.
On a more serious note, how low has trust in government sunk that there is a growing community that believes that government spends money and effort to grow ticks to bring disease and death to its citizens and cattle?
And even if there is a budget for tickboxer + ticks and boxes (and diseases for the ticks), how likely the money would be to reach its intended purpose rather than being whittled away by layers of bureaucracy, AKA the myriads of boxtickers, with the remnants wasted or defrauded by all the well-connected subcontractors, middle-men, and other looters of government coffers? Think of the California High-Speed Rail, or military’s F-35 program.
And considering the sheer incompetence and mendacity of the government organizations, such as FEMA (e.g., 2005 Hurricane Katrina, the 2024 North Carolina winter flood), what would be the odds of success of a tickboxing campaign?
I was thinking about adding a video or a GIF of a cute little velvet mite I saw last summer (not involved in the tick plot), but my internet is acting up again, and I am writing this from a coffee shop. Plus there is no need to besmirch the innocent and harmless little critter with this sordid mess, I think velvet mites are simpatico.
Looks like some kind of jumping spider. I like jumping spiders, and running spiders in general, though orb weavers are also cute and useful. This little one went on its way after videos and photography.
Looked around, paused, moved at a lively pace.
Filmed 2026, February 28. I stabilized and rotated the clip by 180 degrees, to give a better view, and muted the coffee shop and street noises. Then I cut the clip shorter and reduced the resolution to shrink its memory requirements.
All in all, a cute and personable thing to encounter. Jumping spiders are reputedly smart for arthropods (an example link), and the behavior of this little runner gave an impression of observation of it’s environment.
I have been out of synch for a while, but today I realized that it is Shrove Tuesday, AKA Mardi Gras. In Finland, this day is known as laskiaistiistai, and people used to go on laskiainen downhill sledding (alternatively on laskiaissunnuntai, February 15th this year) and eat laskiaispulla which is sweet wheat bun cut like a burger but filled with whipped cream and marzipan or berry jam. Then begins lent and after that it is again Easter.
Being unprepared, did not eat laskiaispulla, and would not have time for a day of downhill sledding, even if Berkeley weather would have allowed it (hint, there is no snow, though it was hailing a bit.) But I have a number of video clips, some maybe presentable, waiting to be processed and their fates decided, and last weekend I discovered an October 19th, 2025 squirrel eating ginkgo fruit that would be fun to post. While not exactly topical to this religious celebration, here it is, anyways.
I was surprised last year that ginkgo fruits are yellow.
Maybe that should not have been surprising, as their autumn leaves are also yellow.
I also saw a flight of geese (based on honks and flight pattern) going north-north west, but they had disappeared by the time I had adjusted my device for photography. Weird.
The night after that, it was really windy. There was a tree branch on the sidewalk, when I was getting to my car. The morning wind came from north, soon after it turned and arrived from east. There were a few more geese, seemed to be going sort of westward (towards the Bay). The direction does not matter, I was surprised to see any, going any direction.
Today, while walking with my mobile ready to snap a picture or even a video, I noticed a number of hummingbirds, not as a flock but a hummingbird or two every now and then. More than I could photograph. Aside from being fast, the little birds are well camouflaged when sitting among the green leaves of a tree. Also, they are small, which means my camera’s resolution will not be sufficient for a good picture or a video. Hummingbirds are migratory, moving south for winter and flowers. I don’t know if they stay here in Berkeley for winter, maybe they are just passing through, but some were singing.
A photo of a hummingbird and a bottle brush plant, October 19th, 2025, Berkeley, CA
Monday’s rain had apparently inspired little green shoots to peek from the ground. Hopefully this was not a false start. The best part of the winter is the greenery as the rainy season ushers new growth.
Skipper butterflies were still around, though this time I did not see a swarm. There were also occasional Monarchs and smaller white butterflies.
I was lucky enough to be aiming for a red bottle brush flower, when a hummingbird flew to feed. Quick switch to video mode captured a few seconds of hummingbird and red flower.
A short video of a hummingbird and a bottle brush plant, October 19th, 2025, Berkeley, CA
The ants are haplodiploid relatives of wasps, females are diploid, males are haploid. In Messor ibericus species the queens can produce two types of male offspring, one of their own species, other from a related species Messor structor, with which they have been estimated to have a common ancestor about 5 million years ago. The queens mate with both types of males, because ibericus males are needed to make new queens, whereas structor males are needed to make hybrid workers. The structor male genome survives because the queen can somehow clone haploid offspring from sperm (though the mitochondria of the ova come from ibericus.) It should be noted that the ibericus-born genetically structor males are morphologically different from wild structor males, which the authors of the study hypothesized to result from differences in mitonuclear environment, from differences in brood rearing conditions, or from genetic differentiation of the ‘cloned’ lineage of structor males. This case is interesting, because it stretches the concept of biological species to have genomes of two species, separate but intertwined by sexual reproduction to maintain the colonies of the species lineages.
Little black ants in Finland, crawling in and around their hole in the ground. Not connected to the ants discussed above.
As for life on Mars, NASA scientists published a paper on speckles on Mars rock, which on Earth would have formed by metabolism of accumulated microbes. I do not know enough of mineralogy to follow the paper, but the NASA press release was much more accessible. The speckled rock was found in area that had contained long ago liquid water. While alternative processes have not been totally excluded, the most likely ones were. This biosignature is the strongest evidence that Mars has some time in the past hosted life. This implies either life evolving easily in multiple locations or if life evolves rarely, panspermia, i.e., life spreading in space, and it has been speculated that life on Earth and Mars being related. Also, considering the prevalence of lithospheric life on Earth, I would not consider it impossible that there still exists (microbial) life deep underground in Mars.
I saw an interesting video from YanasaTV. He was discussing about blue pigs and their causes in California. I think this is a symptom of even bigger problem than he described, so I thought to expand a bit.
The starting point was boar meat that had turned blue in some parts of California, because of liberal use of rat poison, which dyes the meat.
According to the video, farmers have been fighting against a figurative tidal wave of rodents, whose populations had exploded in four counties due to farm and orchard closures leaving them tens of thousands of acres of prime breeding areas in almond country.
The official explanation of the laws was the environment and need to save water. However, an important underlying cause influencing the passing of water laws was consolidation of water rights under the big players. (get reference)
Any case, according to Yanasa TV, last year California lost 8000 farms, to multifactorial causes, but lack of water is a big one. Oddly enough, Texas lost even more farms, 18000, also often due to lack of water. In Texas, the irrigation competes against AI server farms. And is losing.
That caught my attention. The news have been buzzing for a couple of years about how the Silicon Valley firms have been moving to Texas because of their nicer regulatory environment. The discussion online had given me the impression that this was due to the taxes and insane regulatory policies of California. I had not thought about the water regulation, but in hindsight, it should be obvious. The firms are moving to what is greener pastures (more resources) for them, never mind the parched pastures of the ranchers. Which are blamed on climate change.
The final point I got from this YanasaTV video was the question, how do we feed the billions of people if we reallocate agricultural resources to feed AI? The regulations hindering the agriculture are passed under the pretense of ‘conserving the resources’, but to me it seems that most if not all conservation regulations are nowadays just to preserve the ‘protected’ resources for the powerful, whereas the little people like me get to enjoy the Green New Leap as increased energy and food prices. And as shortages of critical resources.
The California water rationing for urban dwellers and destruction of small farms is not about conserving resources, since water is very much available for the Big Almond, golf courses, and such. It is about extirpating the competition for scarce resources the big players want for themselves. If the side effect is the ballooning fruit, vegetable and meat prices for the small people, someone is making money of that, too. At some point the breakeven point when increasing prices will not bring more profits because the consumers cannot afford to buy will be reached but the availability of food (and energy or other resources) relative to the need will determine whether that happens before or after a mass uprising.
Speaking of AI and energy, I wrote the other day about rolling blackout warnings in Maryland and New Jersey. I think the AI industry will have to begin to address its effects on the energy grid soon, maybe already next winter. Once people will begin to experience survival threatening acute shortages, backlash is guaranteed. The incoming collapse of the power grid, by the way, is the main reason why I chose coastal California as my bugin place. If the grid fails, I will not freeze to death.
But my realization about all of the above: there is no such thing as a conservation law. There are only resource reallocation from the poor to the wealthy laws.
Note added in proof:
Nova Scotia in Canada banned people from going into woods, either Crown lands or privately owned lands belonging to someone else. Traditionally people had enjoyed access to Crown lands, but now they had been told that this privilege had been taken away to prevent forest fires. 25000$ fine for people trespassing their country’s forests. Would you feel like hemmed in?
Then I read that the Nova Scotia woods (over 3500 acres of them) are getting sprayed with defoliant that is being used to kill unwanted (less economically useful) tree species. Imagine large swathes of dying and drying trees in the middle of a drought. Controlled burns to free land for more profitable tree species were speculated. The cost to the ecosystem is hideous, so is the loss of immaterial (and material) value to the people.
Not that immaterial value even matters to the powerful. My uncle back in Finland told that they are planning a data center next to a big hydropower plant in the town he lives in, and the land being developed has stone age sites on it. I don’t know how valuable these sites are archeologically, but I suspect they have not been properly studied, either.
I have been working through my insect clips and this is a bit too short for YouTube as a stand alone but too big for Pinterest, so I posted a mobile phone formatted version here, since the bumblebee and rhododendron video was so pretty.
A bumblebee is an important part of Finnish ecosystem. A garden Rhododendron is an imported species.
I hope this little clip will provide a relaxing break, enjoy!
PlanktonPunkt 