Yesterday, there was a brief break from more urgent tasks (just kidding – I wanted to take a break and do something fun), so started checking my latest video clips for something interesting to post.
My original target was a set of ants in flower(s) clips, but before those were three hummingbird clips taken 2026, October 15th, that might make something viewable. Poststabilized, trimmed, cropped and with fade through black transitions.
Hummingbird feeding in red flowers
It was a sunny day, and I had been neglecting my flower walks, when I saw a hummingbird that was intent on feeding from red flowers. A couple of times she flew aside when pedestrians walked past, but returned to feed nearly instantly after they had passed. She must have been hungry.
And she was most likely she because of her muted colors – male hummingbirds have brilliant, iridescent coloration, females are better camouflaged. Although spotting a bright green, leaf-shaped male hummingbird singing in a tree can be very challenging, and often I just walk away knowing that he was there but I could not see the bird from the leaves.
An ant in a flower. Some of the ant clips taken were not very happening ones, the ant kept on feeding(?), not walking much.
White butterfly (looks like a Pierid) seen on 2026 Aug 03, (in sidereal Cancer, if that bit of info is topical to this post)
When I was very small, some auntie had asked me what my zodiac sign was. I did not know how zodiac signs were assigned, I just assumed one picks an animal, so I answered that I am a butterfly.
It was only recently that I realized that butterfly could actually be interpreted as a valid zodiac sign, if you are a Cancer. Insects are part of Pancrustacea, albeit closer to Brachiopoda, such as waterfleas, than to Malacostraca, such as lobsters and crabs.
Carcinisation has happened in at least five groups of Decapod Crustaceans (within Malacostraca), I presume due to ecological advantage. Evolution is very flexible, and the morphospace within Pancrustacea is staggering, ranging from parasitic barnacles, through coconut crabs (a hermit crab, not a true crab) to fairyflies (very small flying insects.) Thus, I would speculate that even insects, when exposed to sufficiently long evolutionary opportunity might undergo carcinisation, though at the current levels of ecological occupancy, this is extremely unlikely on Earth. Maybe on some terraformed environment…
Assuming the insect potential to carcinisation, I would then expand the postulate that insects could be considered equivalent to crabs. At least, if squinting hard from some non-Euclidean, deeply imaginary angle. Thus, butterfly would be a valid zodiac sign.
Of course, considering the deep divergence of Decapod and Insect crown lineages (Communostraca and Allotrichocrdia, respectively) some time during Cambrian or even Neoproterozoic era, on the same logic Leo, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Capricorn, Sagittarius and Aquarius would be interchangeable, whereas Scorpio would still form an evolutionary outgroup. I do not include Virgo here, because the presumed fertility/judicial deity is represented by constellation Furrow with Spica (signifying grain), and Furrow is neither a Chordate nor an arthropod (or maybe the constellation was named after the things she represents and Virgo should be among Chordata). Also excluded is the putative thirteenth zodiac, Ophiuchus, since the standard calendar uses only twelve signs. And to fully confuse the issue, astronomically, the Buttefly Cluster resides within the constellation of Scorpius, which after all, is another arthropod.
As the origins of the zodiac signs would require another, deeper dive into Mesopotamian mythology, and the origins or Western calendar, mathematics and astronomy, none of which are my strong points, I’ll skip them here. And what do I think of astrology in general? I presume that during the Bronze Age and earlier times, human biology was much more connected to annual variation in circadian rhythms and seasonal variations in diet, and thus a baby born in summer months would have different gestational environment and early infancy than a child born in winter or spring. The differences were probably strong enough to affect the later health and psychological development of the individual, causing observable differences between cohorts born, e.g, when Sun was in Leo rather than in Sagittarius. Modern horoscope warnings about tall dark strangers approaching on Tuesday, are nonsense, I think.
Summa summarum, I consider butterfly to be approximately as valid a zodiac sign as the zodiac signs in general, and depending on taste, equivalent of Cancer or Scorpio.
Brown butterfly seen on 2026 July 17th, still in tropical Cancer
That’s what the debt clock is now, 2026 August 20th claiming. According to the Department of Treasury Debt to the Penny, the 40 trillion threshold was crossed on August 18th. I was expecting the limit to be broken in the autumn, but then, also the honking geese have flying south over northern California since July, which to me seems a bit early. I’m not a goose expert, maybe they are supposed to start migrating in summer, or maybe they are reacting to some environmental change. The pastures have withered under the drought and geese eat grass so maybe they are trying to find food. Or maybe the winter is coming early. The the geese are going south already in the summer, and so are US finances.
If the interest rates on US treasuries rise too much, we cannot sell enough paper to pay the interest on existing paper and USA will become insolvent. I’m sure the US government will invent new, outrageous ways to cook the books for some while still, but USA is not Japan, and even Japan is faltering as eventually what is unsustainable will not be sustained.
Flower(s), I don’t know what species, 2026 August 18th
A clip from May 9th, 2026. Summer has been blasting hot and busy, and the annual fire season has begun, but here flowers are getting scarce many having gone to seed and dried. I have managed to get more material, but not really processed it, having been preoccupied with getting my Etsy sales channel to EU shape (unless something dramatic happens, over halfway though). However, I have some older clips ready for those times when I need to post something quickly.
Not sure what the purple flowers are but they smell and look kind of like mint. The white flowers are one of the many jasmine smelling species. The big black insect looks like a carpenter bee but I could be wrong.
As for posting, I have also a couple drafts of longer posts that have been waiting for suitable time and reference checks and links, years have taught me not to trust my little bubble brain before publishing. Unless it is listed under Speculative writings or at least Unorthodox Ideas. Wettenhovi-Aspa tag is for deriving meanings from extremely implausible, if not chance associations. Maybe I should one of these days try reductio ad absurdum, but it is very difficult to parody modern world. Which is why I prefer to just do news commentary, as grim as it may from time to time get.
Been busy, but managed to get some photography and short video clips, joined three together into a short silent video (standard stabilization artefacts apply), two clips of giant white poppies, probably Romneya or Matilija poppies which are native to California, and one clip of bees foraging in lavender.
I like the floppy petals of the poppies. The lavender and bees seem to be an all year feature – when one lavender bed withers, another seems to begin to bloom somewhere else, if not immediately, then soon.
Not all flowers are showy – here is Plantago (I don’t know the species, but it’s not Plantago major based on the narrow .leaves). I would love to process some day a photo of a Plantago flower from close up, they are quite funky to look at but difficult to photograph so as to show it.
While walking with intention to snap photos of urban vegetation, I noticed a skipper butterfly within videoing distance. Quickly, a clip before it flies away! It did not. I took a second clip. The butterfly had slightly shifted. I waited and took three more clips in case the butterfly would do something interesting. It id not. It was mostly concentrating on florettes. Eventually, I continued my walk and left the butterfly at it.
A bit of a slow paced video, but maybe somebody will find it ASMR despite the stabilization errors. Maybe I should invest on gimbal, but that would be one extra thing to carry for a rare moment (that will without gimbal be shaky or distorted depending on whether the original or the stabilized clips are used.)
Sucking nectar. Occasionally shifting position.
Some yellow flowers from July 10th, 2026, image cropped and colors adjusted brighter.
Been busy with PlanktonPunkt Designs, trying to optimize my tags for Etsy (and Amazon) SEOs. That is surprisingly heavy work with uncertain results, but obviously my previous tags did not work since almost nobody visited my listings.
While searching for words people might be interested in, I noticed eucalyptus having sufficient number of fans to show up in searches. Also, insulated coffee mugs. So I made eucalyptus art. And recycled my design onto multiple items, including insulated coffee mugs.
While working on that, my print provider advertised a multi-item listing for themed items and of course I had to try it. Long story short, I now have a 5-item listing of desk mats (three sizes), a spiral notebook, mobile phone stand, a black ceramic mug (two sizes) and a black insulated mug, all with maximalist eclectic Summer Eucalyptus art based on a photo of an eucalyptus blooming in California summer. At least I hope it qualifies as maximalist and eclectic, but I could not define the style any better. At least I like the image, so there is that.
I have posted the multi-item listing on Etsy, and it is now available for US customers. I don’t dare to even contemplate Amazon, and I have not yet explored the multi-item option (if any) for Printify pop-up store.
Mockup of Summer Eucalyptus Desk mat, 16″ x 32″ version, 3mm thick neoprene
Also a Father’s Day in United States. Congratulations to all the fathers, it is, unironically, an important task.
Since today is a celestial event, this is a good place to mention an update on K2-18b, this potentially hycean exoplanet, that may or may not harbor life (it resides in a habitable zone of a red dwarf but the spectral signs of biosignature molecules are not very reliable and the molecules may also have been formed by abiotic means.) Now, SETI had included this solar system to their radioastronomical survey for alien radio signals. They did not find any, but got plenty of data for future negative controls.
IMHO, microbial life on exoplanets and larger moons is likely (how common is another matter), but assumption that alien civilizations would communicate via strong radio transmissions seems oddly specific. I expect that if we ever find proof of advanced material civilizations, it would be something like Dyson structures or remnants of extraterrestrial advanced materials not formed by natural processes.
I thought to get some photos of the sunset of the longest day of the year, but gray clouds had crept over and obscured the sky. It often happens in Berkeley, days are sunny but as the evening sets, the cloud cover spreads from sea to hills. I did not get up there, but in many nights, the blanket of water which is cloud cover over the flats is fog or mist in the hillside. So, instead, here is a picture of jasmine flowers, size reduced from the original taken earlier today.
These are either from South Berkeley or from North Oakland, the city border crosses the block where the plant grows.
Decided instead to make an art video illustrating some variations in a theme, based on a photograph of some yellow flowers (looks like they are related to agaves or aloes) taken in Berkeley, CA, June 2nd, 2026. Just as a demonstration of the types of designs I have so far usually used for PlanktonPunkt Designs.
I am planning to make more of these, occasionally (the next one will probably be about tree bark), and post them here, Pinterest and/or YouTube.
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