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Lumen 22-6 Bird Navigation, or Should We Make a Left Turn Here?   Posted – July 25, 2022   Irrelevant tid bit – They knew many things but had no idea why.   And strangely this made them more, rather than less, certain they were right.                   Neal Stephenson           “Anathem”     I can find the airport, with help, but birds migrate thousands of miles all on their own.   During migration, usually to and from breeding and non-breeding sites, birds have to deal with dehydration, rapid metabolism to get energy (convert fat to energy), oxygen supply (RBC and lung size increase), and lack of sleep.   All serious issues, but this Lumen focuses on navigation.   How do the birds know where to go?   Frequently young birds migrate separately from the adults, so no guidance from birds who have made the trip before....
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  Lumen 22-5 Book Report   Posted – July 12, 2022   Irrelevant tid bit – Warning: dates on the calendar are closer than they appear.     This is about three interesting, although difficult to read, book(s) – The Illuminatus! trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson.   The three books in the trilogy are “The Eye in the Pyramid”, “The Golden Apple”, and “Leviathan”.   A Rolling Stone review included in the book says, “A hundred pages in I couldn’t figure out why I was wasting my time with this nonsense.”   I agree with that evaluation as the book has many characters, does not follow any consistent time frame (it jumps from 1500 to 1975), and several times develops a complex story line only to then tell you it is all false – very confusing.   So why tell you about such a disaster?   The story is not that important, but it explores interesting ideas and is thought provoking, using a science-fiction format.   ...
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