#Edward O. Wilson

[eric-sadahire]

The real problem of humanity is the following: 

We have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions and godlike technology.

[vampilllia]

biophilia, edward o. wilson

[primavereautunni]

Nel corso delle ere geologiche, il tasso annuo di estinzione, calcolato su diversi gruppi tassonomici, è stato di una specie su un milione ed era compensato da un uguale tasso di formazione di nuove specie. L’attuale tasso di estinzione – considerando anche le specie ormai prossime a estinguersi – è almeno cento volte superiore al tasso di comparsa di nuove specie.

Edward O. Wilson, La creazione, Adelphi 2008.

[myownprivate]

“The real problem of humanity is the following: We have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions and godlike technology. And it is terrifically dangerous, and it is now approaching a point of crisis overall.”

Edward O. Wilson

[thndrstd]

The Origins of Creativity by Edward O. Wilson My rating: 4 of 5 stars Wilson, a scientist, explores the relationship between science and the humanities in this opening salvo of a wish for the disciplines to be more closely allied. He argues persuasively that the roots of creativity, the defining trait of our species, grew from our biological and social beginnings. Mixed with some interesting facts regarding our and other species' evolution, there is a bit of redundancy and dryness that wears down this otherwise interesting book. View all my reviews

[victusinveritas]

[that-lazy-teenager]

We have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions and godlike technology. ― Edward O. Wilson

[oh-dear-so-queer]

From his genetic hypothesis of homosexuality he inferred that homosexuals ought not to be discriminated against "on the basis of a religious dogma supported by the unlikely assumption that they are biologically unnatural."

"In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity" - Daniel J. Kevles

[giftcardgiveaway788]

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[vandaliatraveler]

“In planning to be a professional naturalist….. I turned to the teeming small creatures that can be held between the thumb and forefinger, the little things that compose the foundations of our ecosystems, the little things that I like to say, run the world.”

Edward O. Wilson

By observing a milkweed plant very closely for more no more than five minutes, you will begin to understand exactly what Wilson was getting at.

[peregrination-studies]

24 books in 2024

It is 2024, and I am here yet again with my bookish hopes and dreams!

I did this challenge last year (available here), and in 2022 (available here), and I'm STOKED to do it again this year! As is my way, I have been planning and revising this list for some time. My Goodreads overfloweth with ideas.

As always, if you have book recs, please send them my way! And, if you're participating in the challenge this year, I'd love to see your lists!

Without further ado, I gladly present to you my 24 in '24 book list:

Sci-Fi and Just for Fun :)

1) Randomize by Andy Weir (read April 2024)

2) Next by Michael Crichton

3) Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (read April 2024)

4) With a Little Luck by Marissa Meyer (read February 2024)

Environmental Science/Ecology/Books Relevant to my Studies

5) Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth by Buckminster Fuller

6) Must Love Trees: An Unconventional Guide by Tobin Mitnick

7) Scientifically Historica: How the World’s Great Science Books Chart the History of Knowledge by Brian Clegg

8) Letters to a Young Scientist by Edward O. Wilson

Reading Around the World

9) The Eighth Continent: Life, Death and Discovery in the Lost World of Madagascar by Peter Tyson (Madagascar)

10) Everything is Wonderful: Memories of a Collective Farm in Estonia by Sigrid Rausing (Estonia)

11) Willoughbyland: England’s Lost Colony by Matthew Parker (Suriname)

12) A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa and Daniel Hahn (Translator) (Angola)

Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge/Classics

13) The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (read April 2024)

14) The Second Sex by Simone De Beauvoir, H.M. Parables (Translator and Editor), and Deirdre Bair (Introduction)

15) Gidget by Frederick Kohner

16) Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

Recommended by Friends

17) Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (recommended by @hedonism-tattoo and many, many others)

18) Howl’s Moving Castle by Diane Wynne Jones (also recommended by many people now. @permanentreverie posted about it recently tho, and that was what really made me decide to include it on this list!) (read April 2024)

19) Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson (recommended by @daydreaming-optimist ) (read April 2024)

20) The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (recommended by @kaillakit)

Eco-Psychology

21) Ecopsychology by Lester R. Brown

22) Against Purity: Living Ethically in Compromised Times by Alexis Shotwell (read April 2024)

23) Radical Ecopsychology: Psychology in the Service of Life by Andy Fisher and David Abram (foreword)

24) Sight and Sensibility: the Ecopsychology of Perception by Laura Sewall

Bonus

25) Bride by Ali Hazelwood (read February 2024)

26) Open Heart Surgery by Johanna Leo (read March 2024)

27) A Short History of the World in 50 Books by Daniel Smith

28) Candy Hearts by Tommy Siegel (read February 2024)

No pressure tagging: @daydreaming-optimist @kaillakit @permanentreverie @noa-the-physicist @silhouette-of-sarah @captaindelilahbard @senatorhotcheeto @the-bibliophiles-bookshelf @skyekg @of-the-elves @obesecamels @courageisneverforgotten @willowstea @its-me-satine @deirdrerose @notetaeker @theskittlemuffin and anyone else who wants to do this!

[justforbooks]

The actor Ian Lavender, who has died aged 77, played the awkward, impulsive Private Frank Pike in the long-running BBC comedy Dad’s Army, and was the last surviving member of the cast who portrayed Captain Mainwaring’s Home Guard platoon.

Most of the part-time soldiers depicted in the series, which ran from 1968 to 1977, were exempted from call-up to the army during the second world war because of advanced age. Pike, their junior in most cases by several decades, had been excused because of his weak chest, and always wore the scarf insisted upon by his widowed mum, Mavis.

In spite of their foibles and foolishness, Mainwaring’s pomposity and the frequent slapstick sequences, the heroes of Dad’s Army were courageous men prepared to give their lives to protect their country, and it was this innate nobility that lifted the series, written by David Croft and Jimmy Perry, to greatness. At its peak it had more than 18 million weekly viewers, and is still regularly rerun.

There were many catchphrases – Lance Corporal Jones’s “Don’t panic!”, Private Frazer’s “We’re doomed!” and Sergeant Wilson’s languid “Do you think that’s wise, sir?” – and the best-remembered belongs to the gangster movie-fixated Pike, though he did not utter it himself: Mainwaring’s weary “You stupid boy!”

Pike was also involved in Dad’s Army’s most frequently quoted joke. “What is your name?” snarls the German U-boat commander who has been captured by the platoon. “Don’t tell him, Pike,” shouts Mainwaring. There was often great subtlety in the inter-platoon relationships, best exemplified by that of Pike and Wilson (John Le Mesurier). Wilson, whom Pike calls Uncle Arthur, is Mrs Pike’s lodger, and is forever fussing around the boy, making sure his scarf is on tight and gently steering him away from danger. It was not until the end of the final series that Lavender asked Croft if “Uncle Arthur” was actually Pike’s father. “Of course,” replied Croft.

Born in Birmingham, Ian was the son of Edward, a policeman, and Kathleen (nee Johnson), a housewife; his mother often took him to see pantomimes, variety shows and Saturday morning cinema, which gave him his first ambitions to become an actor. After performing in many school drama productions at Bournville boys’ technical school he was accepted, with the help of a grant from the city of Birmingham, by the Bristol Old Vic acting school. Clearly far from being a stupid boy, he passed 12 O-levels and four A-levels. “The only reason I don’t have a degree is because I went to drama school,” he said years later.

He made his first television appearance soon after he graduated from Bristol in 1968, playing an aspiring writer whose family want him to get a proper job, in Ted Allan’s play for the Half Hour Story series, Flowers at My Feet, with Angela Baddeley and Jane Hylton.

In the same year, he was cast as Pike, joining the seasoned veterans of comedy and the classics Le Mesurier, Arthur Lowe (Mainwaring), Clive Dunn (Jones), John Laurie (Frazer), James Beck (Private Walker), Arnold Ridley (Private Godfrey) and Bill Pertwee as Air Raid Warden Hodges. Janet Davies played Mrs Pike.

While Dad’s Army catapulted Lavender to national fame at the age of 22, the role of Pike haunted him for the rest of his long career. Not that he had any complaints.

Asked in 2014 if he got fed up with a lifetime of having “stupid boy” called out to him in the street, he replied: “I’m very proud of Dad’s Army. If you asked me ‘Would you like to be in a sitcom that was watched by 18 million people, was on screen for 10 years, and will create lots of work for you and provide not just for you but for your children for the next 40-odd years?’ – which is what happened – I’d be a fool to say ‘Bugger off.’ I’d be a fool to have regrets.”

After Dad’s Army, Lavender made further television appearances, including Mr Big (1977), with Peter Jones and Prunella Scales, and in 1983 he revived Pike for the BBC radio sitcom It Sticks Out Half a Mile, a sequel to Dad’s Army, but it was not a success and lasted only one series. In contrast, the original series, with most of the regular cast, had been rerecorded for radio from 1974 to 1976 and proved very popular.

He was also in the BBC TV series Come Back Mrs Noah (1977-78), co-written by Croft; and played Ron in a new version of The Glums (1979) for London Weekend Television, adapted from Frank Muir and Denis Norden’s original radio scripts of the 1950s. There were more smallish television parts in the 80s, such as two episodes of Yes, Minister, and bits in Keeping Up Appearances, Goodnight Sweetheart, Rising Damp and Casualty. He starred in the unsuccessful BBC series The Hello Goodbye Man in 1984 and provided the lead voice in the children’s cartoon series PC Pinkerton in 1988.

He was also in various quiz shows, including Cluedo (1990). On Celebrity Mastermind, broadcast on BBC1 on New Year’s Day 2009, when the presenter John Humphrys asked him to state his name, a fellow contestant, Rick Wakeman, shouted: “Don’t tell him, Pike!”

In addition to co-starring in the first film version of Dad’s Army (1971), he appeared in various low-level British sex farces of the 1970s, including Confessions of a Pop Performer (1975), Carry on Behind (1975), Adventures of a Taxi Driver (1976) and Adventures of a Private Eye (1976). He also starred in the thriller 31 North 62 East (2009). “I was close to getting two very big movies in the 70s,” he said without rancour in 2014, “but in the end they said: ‘We can’t get past Private Pike.’”

Lavender’s second best-known role was his delicate and sympathetic portrayal of Derek Harkinson, Pauline Fowler’s gay friend, in the BBC soap EastEnders from 2001 to 2005, and again in 2016-17.

In addition to various live Dad’s Army productions, his stage work included the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Merchant of Venice, directed by Peter Hall and with Dustin Hoffman as Shylock in 1989, touring as the Narrator in The Rocky Horror Show in 2005, Monsignor Howard in the London Palladium production of the musical Sister Act in 2009, The Shawshank Redemption at the Edinburgh fringe in 2013, and his own one-man show of reminiscences, Don’t Tell Him, Pike.

Lavender had a great admiration for Buster Keaton, and was an expert on the silent comedian’s career. In 2011 he introduced Keaton’s Sherlock Jr (1924) at the Slapstick silent comedy festival in Bristol, and commented that finding Keaton’s grave in the Fountain Lawns cemetery in Hollywood had been one of his life’s special moments.

In 2016 a new cinema version of Dad’s Army was released, with Toby Jones as Mainwaring and Bill Nighy as Wilson. Private Pike was played by Blake Harrison, and Lavender was promoted to play Brigadier Pritchard. In a touching in-joke, his younger face was also seen on an advertisement poster in a street scene.

Lavender is survived by his second wife, Miki Hardy, whom he married in 1993; by his sons, Sam and Daniel, from his first marriage, to the actor Suzanne Kershiss, which ended in divorce; and by two granddaughters.

🔔 Arthur Ian Lavender, actor, born 16 February 1946; died 2 February 2024

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[primavereautunni]

Abbiamo bisogno piuttosto di una spedizione sul pianeta Terra, dove probabilmente meno del 10 per cento delle specie sono note alla scienza e appena l’1 per cento sono state oggetto di uno studio che sia andato al di là di una semplice descrizione anatomica e di poche osservazioni biologiche.

Edward O. Wilson, La creazione, Adelphi 2008.

[worst-t4t-couple]

ALL Pairings are out! Long post, so look under the cut!

Round 1 1/4

Sweep, cap’n, k_k VS Jay Walker, Nya

Vee, Marsha VS Bruce Wayne, Selina Kyle

Cherry Blossom Joe VS Doofinsmerch, His Ex-Wife

Percy jackson, Annabeth Chase VS Jack O Valentine, Sol Badguy

Josuke Higashikata, Yasuho Hirose VS Lug, Anode

leorio, kurapika VS Nepeta Leijon, Equius Zahhak

Luz Noceda, Marcy Wu VS Varian, Hugo

Swap, Neo VS Queen Roger and Fly Minetti

Daffy, Bugs VS Vash, Wolfwood

Ren Amamiya and Goro Akechi VS Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson

Sam, Max VS Hunter, Willow

Stepan trofimovich, Varvara Petrovnad VS Rex Salazar, Noah Nixon

nellie lovett, sweeney todd VS Tim Drake, Bernard Dowd

bubby, dr coomer VS Neku, Beat

Dave Miller, Jack Kennedy VS Kermit, Mrs. Piggy

Cleo, Etho VS Zelda, Link (Rip)

Chip, Gillion VS X, Zero

kagayama shigeo, hanazawa teruki VS Kris, Berdly 

Caranthir, Haleth VS Jonathan Sims, Martin Blackwood

Marc Anciel, Nathaniel Kurtzberg VS Miyamoto Uran, Sapphire

Texas, Church VS Solid Snake, Otacon

Gundham Tanaka, Sonia Nevermind VS Phillip Carlyle,Anne Wheeler

Soos, Melody VS Red, Blue

Jungleberry Cookie, Royal Berry Cookie VS Blaze, Sonic

LDshadowlady, Smallishbeans VS Mr. Neighbor, Wegg

clark kent, lois lane VS Popeye, Olive Oyl

Round 1 2/4

Brandon Quark,  Doctor Robotnik VS Elrond, Celebrian

Yoo Joonghyuk, Kim Dokja VS stanford pines, fiddleford mcgucket

Pepa & Félix Madrigal VS Duskie & Hibiscus

Emu Otori, Rui Kamishiro VS momoe and kaoru

C!fundy and c!hbomb VS Anne Boonchuy, Sasha Waybright and Marcy Wu

Agent 3 and Agent 8 VS c!schlatt & c!connor

Zoro Roronoa and Sanji Vinsmoke (Black leg Sanji) VS Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy

Herbert West & Daniel Cain VS Snorkmaiden & Mymble Jr 

charles "trip" tucker and t'pol VS Mytho & Princess Tutu (NOT duck; just her princess form)

Gregory House and James Wilson VS luz and amity

Paintbrush and Lightbulb VS Vriska Serket & June Egbert

geordi and data VS peter sqloint and rumi sqloint

Q!ElMariana and Q!Slimecicle VS Poor Boy and Love Interest

Scar and Grian VS Jolyne/Anasui

Kian Stone, Rolan Deep and Timothy Rand VS Dr. Boris Habit and Kamal Bora

red guy and duck VS MK & Red Son

jonathan harker and mina murray harker VS Zagreus/Thanatos/Megaera

Crowley and Aziraphale VS Denki Kaminari and Kyoka Jiro

Tuor and Idril Celebrindal VS Snorpy and Chadlo

jack harkness x the tardis VS Mizuki akiyama and mafuyu

Jackieboyman and Marvin the Magnificent VS Arashi Narukami and Mika Kagehara

Barbie, Ken VS ron and desiree delite

Steven Universe & Connie Maheswaran VS Magnus Burnsides and Julia Burnsides

Kanan Jarrus and Hera Syndulla VS castiel and dean winchester 

Eda and Luz’s mom VS Jadzia Dax & Kira Nerys

c!Tubbo and c!Ranboo VS Rex Salazar & Circe 

Round 1 3/4

Pixal + Zane VS Apollo Justice + Klavier Gavin 

The Monarch and Dr. Ms Monarch VS Juno Steel and Peter Nureyev

Kaito and Meiko VS Kamille Bidan & Fa Yuiry

Sun Wukong and Six-Eared Macaque VS Skwydd & Cricket

Sasha Nein and Milla Vodello VS Wade Ripple & Ember

Byakuren Hiijri and Toyosatomimi no Miko VS Cosmo, Wanda

Roboky and Venom VS Cellbit and Roier

Numerous BFDI ships VS Hiccup, Astrid

Beatrix and Casey VS anakin skywalker and captain rex

Raven and Beast Boy VS Neo and Trinity

Mario, Princess Peach VS Rashmi Jamil and Amelie Maçon

Denji, Asa Mitaka VS Vivi Yukino and Lewis Pepper

Benrey and Gordon VS Lace and Hornet

Beren and Luthien VS neku sakuraba, joshua kiryu

Shin and Noi VS Morticia and Gomez Addams

Paul Matthews and Emma Perkins VS Moomin, Snufkin

james t kirk + s'chnn t'gai spock VS  Nico Robin and Franky

Dave Strider and John/June Egbert VS Moominmamma & Moominpappa

Edward Nygma and Oswald Cobblepot VS shaun riley and liz

louis and lestat VS Spamton, Jevil

fox mulder and dana scully VS will t riker + deanna troi [+ worf rozhenko]

Amy Rose, Metal Sonic VS Quackity and Slimecicle

Diego Brando & Hot Pants VS Elrond and Celebrian and Gil-Galad

mia fey & diego armando/godot VS Luigi and Prince Peasly

C!Quackity, C!Karl, and C!Sapnap VS Sonic, Shadow

Drey Ferin and Finn Tidestrider VS Edward Elric and Winry Rockbell

Round 1 4/4

Shaggy and velma VS Surge the Tenrec and Amy Rose

Yamato/Portgas D. Ace VS audrey & seymour

Randy Jade and Oliver Swift VS Tsukishima Kei and Yamaguchi Tadashi

Lup and Barry Bluejeans VS Reimu and Marissa

Mizuki Akiyama & Rui Kamishiro VS Jimmy The Robot and Mc Bat Commander

C!Quackity and C!wilbur VS Espresso cookie and Eclair cookie

Junpei, Akane Kurashiki VS Obi-Wan Kenobi & Satine Kryze

Raine Whispers and Eda Clawthorne VS Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsen

Maxwell 'William' Carter and Charlie W. VS Mothwing and Leafpool

Naruto Uzumaki & Sasuke VS Baxter Stockman and The Alien Computer 

Keith Kogane and Lance McClain VS Wood Man and Robbie Rotten

Scott and Barda Free (Mister Miracle and Big Barda) VS John Notwoodman + Nick Lushwood

Caranthir and Haleth VS Susie and Noelle

orpheus and eurydice VS The doctor, Rose

luke skywalker and mara jade VS Princess Daisy and Luigi 

time and malon VS Simon (Scissor) and Spoon

Dave strider, Karkat Vantas VS Miles “moles,” Edgar, and Madeline

Mary Anta and Reginald Tetra VS Koichi Haimawari and Kazuho Haneyama

Yoshi and Birdo VS lazlo & nadia

Celebrimbor and Annatar VS Rendog and DocM77

Jesse + Jane VS Adira Tal and Gray Tal

Matt Murdock, Foggy Nelson VS Dazai Osamu and Nakahara

Jessie and James VS jeff and britta

Anji Mito and Baiken VS Shiver and Frye

ALL of MLP* VS ALL of TF2*

*Minus any familial relationships

[all-action-all-picture]

My arms are sore just watching that. Wipe Out by The Ventures circa 1985 with guest second drummer Max Weinberg. Below is a clip of The Ventures performing it live in the 1960's.

Wipe Out was originally written and recorded by The Surfaris in 1963. The Ventures did a cover version of it the same year.

Band members changed over the years but I think The Ventures in both clips are Don Wilson, Bob Bogle, Nokie Edwards and the drummer Mel Taylor. "Mighty Max" Weinberg was at that time the drummer of the E Street Band. I notice that Mel holds his left drumstick differently to his right one (in what I think is called the traditional grip), while Max grips them both the same way. I'm not a drummer so I don't know what the effect of that is.

As a special treat here are The Ventures, again with Max from the same TV special, playing the theme to Hawaii Five-O with which they had a hit single in 1969.

.

[mortaljortlebortles]

Rest in Peace

Stanley Almodovar III, 23

Amanda Alvear, 25

Oscar A. Aracena-Montero, 26

Rodolfo Ayala-Ayala, 33

Alejandro Barrios Martinez, 21

Martin Benitez Torres, 33

Antonio D. Brown, 30

Darryl R. Burt II, 29

Jonathan A. Camuy Vega, 24

Angel L. Candelario-Padro, 28

Simon A. Carrillo Fernandez, 31

Juan Chavez-Martinez, 25

Luis D. Conde, 39

Cory J. Connell, 21

Tevin E. Crosby, 25

Franky J. Dejesus Velazquez, 50

Deonka D. Drayton, 32

Mercedez M. Flores, 26

Peter O. Gonzalez-Cruz, 22

Juan R. Guerrero, 22

Paul T. Henry, 41

Frank Hernandez, 27

Miguel A. Honorato, 30

Javier Jorge-Reyes, 40

Jason B. Josaphat, 19

Eddie J. Justice, 30

Anthony L. Laureano Disla, 25

Christopher A. Leinonen, 32

Brenda L. Marquez McCool, 49

Jean C. Mendez Perez, 35

Akyra Monet Murray, 18

Kimberly Morris, 37

Jean C. Nieves Rodriguez, 27

Luis O. Ocasio-Capo, 20

Geraldo A. Ortiz-Jimenez, 25

Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera, 36

Joel Rayon Paniagua, 32

Enrique L. Rios Jr., 25

Juan P. Rivera Velazquez, 37

Yilmary Rodriguez Solivan, 24

Christopher J. Sanfeliz, 24

Xavier Emmanuel Serrano Rosado, 35

Gilberto Ramon Silva Menendez, 25

Edward Sotomayor Jr., 34

Shane E. Tomlinson, 33

Leroy Valentin Fernandez, 25

Luis S. Vielma, 22

Luis Daniel Wilson-Leon, 37

Jerald A. Wright, 31