by Raymond

Beyond the Rainbow with the Mantis Shrimp

Imagine distinguishing a dozen primary colors, seeing ultraviolet and infrared, and perceiving six different types of polarized light. For the giant Mantis shrimp of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, the world is colorful beyond human imagination. Reuters reports a new study by Swiss and Australian marine biologists, suggesting that Mantis shrimps need to detect minute changes in color and polarization to detect nearly invisible prey in murky seawater. They probably also use color to send sexual signals during mating. The scientific report is available online at the Public Library of Science Journal.

by CybersamX.

The typical mantis shrimp has emerald green eyes and a pale green or orange body, with bright yellow outlines.

FUN FACTS:

• Mantis shrimp have the fastest kick in the animal kingdom: 75 feet per second. They can punch a hole through aquarium glass.
• Mantis shrimp are named for their resemblance to the praying mantis insect.
• Their coloration varies to match their habitats. The golden mantis is green when it dwells in sea grasses but tan in sandy areas. The crevice-dwelling rock mantis varies from dark green to black.
• Mantis shrimp tend to be active hunters at night.

by sandstep

Here are some color palettes inspired by the Mantis shrimps:

by Jelantique

[Read the entire article in my guest blog at ColourLovers.com.]

From the inimitable Tom Weller, author of the classic Science Made Stupid, comes this "minim" (the perfect answer to the maxim):

Certainty #24:

"Experiential knowledge can be certain and perhaps even is the only certainty, as so many philosophers have thought."
—Abraham Harold Maslow, The Psychology of Science, 2004

The sheep coughed in the rough, sere grass of the park, where frost lay bluish in the sockets of the tufts. Across the park ran a path to the wood- gate, a fine ribbon of pink.
—D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover, 1928.

The nuns in The Sound of Music ponder, "How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?"

We found the five-step answer in the poem "To Catch a Cloud: Homage to Magritte," anthologized in Rising Tides: 20th Century American Women Poets (1973):

1. Begin with an unruffled lake
2. Wait for a cloud to pass over
3. See the cloud in the lake
4. Reach down and pinch the lake's skin between thumb and forefinger
5. Raise it as you would a silk handkerchief

Saint Garrison
Patron of Backpack Guarding.

Certainty #23:

"The only certainty we have is our knowledge of the inner world.  We are in fact imprisoned in the symbolic realm of the psyche."
—Marilyn Nagy, Philosophical Issues in the Psychology of C.G. Jung, 1991

Toward the end of the afternoon, a mauve mist veils the avenues so that you do not know where they end, and the unexpected discovery of a wild hyacinth, with its three slender bells of artless blue swaying in the wind, has all the charm of a stolen joy.
—Collette, The Vagabond; translated by Enid McLeod, 1955.

The soul is "that delicate essence that constitutes who we really are and retreats every time an academic enters the room." —Anthony Marais, The Cure

"I write so as not to be written.  For many years I was written in my life, I acted out a story.  I suppose I write in order to write others, to operate on the imagination, the revelation, the knowledge of others." —Fogwill, qtd. in Bartleby & Co. by Enrique Vila-Matas (an author well-worth investigating!)

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Jeff writes:

From Prof. Oddfellow's sketchbook:

Evil is not a primary color. That is the point of the Wachowski brothers' video- arcade treatment of "Speed Racer," insofar as one can be determined. Blue, you can trust. Red and yellow, black and white — they're all decent visible wavelengths. It's purple you have to watch out for.

—Jim Emerson, a review of "Speed Racer"

Certainty #22:

"Debt and taxes are the only certainty."
—Victor A Canto, Monetary Policy, Taxation, and International Investment Strategy, 1990

 

"Rocky fell asleep, totally exhausted."
—Krista Cantrell, Catch Your Dog Doing Something Right, 2004

"The dignity of intelligence lies in recognizing that it is limited and that the universe exists outside it." —Fernando Pessoa

Where the blue of the night / Meets the gold of the day, / Someone waits for me.
—Bing Crosby, Roy Turk & Fred Ahlert, "Where the Blue of the Night," 1931.

"The moth bounced against a row of books: pfft, pfft, pfft." —Andrea Barrett, The Voyage of the Narwhal