Undetectable Extension Charm

Colin Farrell as Oswald 'Oz' Cobb

Next up someone is going to claim that the Narnia series isn't kids books.

The scientific name of this species is Mellisuga helenae, but it's commonly known as the bee hummingbird, thanks to its diminutive size and the "buzzing" sound that it makes as it flies.

The males measure just 5.5cm long, and they have an average weight of 1.95 grams, while the females are slightly larger, measuring up to 6cm long and weighing about 2.6 grams.

The bee hummingbird also has the highest body temperature of any bird, and its tiny heart beats up to 1200 times per minute.

As this book explains:

Small size in warm-blooded animals is associated with a furious pace of life and the bee hummingbird is no exception. It does everything at breakneck speed. To fuel such a tiny body, the fires of metabolism burn fiercely. The favored food of this bird is the energy rich nectar produced by plants. In one day the bee hummingbird may visit more than 1,500 flowers, and in doing so may take on board more than eight times its own weight in liquid.

The bee hummingbird’s internal workings operate at a pace akin to the blurred beating of its wings. For example, its heart, which also happens to be the largest, relatively, of any warm-blooded animal, beats at around 1,200 times a minute (our heart rate is about 70 beats per minute). Digestion is similarly rapid. On the odd occasion it consumes an insect, the digestive system can process it in a little over 10 minutes. In larger animals this process can take many hours. Such speedy metabolism gives the bee hummingbird a very high body temperature of around 40°C, the highest of any bird.

Bee hummingbirds normally beat their wings about 80 times per second, but that rate more than doubles during courtship displays, when they may beat their wings up to 200 times per second.

This species can be found only on the island of Cuba and the nearby Isla de la Juventud.

I don't normally write posts about birds (or vertebrates in general) but this one is so tiny that maybe we can just pretend it's a bug

Sources & More Info:

Animal Diversity Web: Mellisuga helenae

Handbook of the Birds of the World: The Bee Hummingbird

Cornell Lab of Ornithology: Bee Hummingbirds

Extraordinary Animals: Small, but Perfectly Formed

National Audobon Society: Get to Know the Bee Hummingbird, the World's Smallest Bird

Films can often make us laugh or cry, but very few are able to execute the goal of making us feel this uncomfortable. 

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is deeply upsetting on a level beyond horror or melodrama and more on par with the panic-inducing feeling of Uncut Gems or the disturbing grimness of Requiem for a Dream. 

It’s fucked up, and it wants you to feel fucked up and reflect on that feeling. 

Byrne gives a remarkable performance, making Linda both sympathetic and sometimes repugnant. She’s both incredibly relatable and downright unlikable, perhaps a reflection of how awful we can be when we’re forced to carry an unsustainable emotional weight indefinitely. Linda is a complicated woman, and Byrne humanizes her in a way that reflects the multitudes of good and bad inside all of us.

This is a really impressive film, but one I don’t ever want to revisit. It’s very effective in its objectives with great execution from the style to the performances, but man, it is heavy and it lingers with you. As someone at my press screening said about writer-director Mary Bronstein, “has anyone checked on her to make sure she’s okay?” 

Check out my quick review here and my full review on Trashwire here.

SOME FILMS BY SWANA FILMMAKERS 2024-2025

Omar (2013) was Palestine’s entry for Best Foreign Language Film at this year’s Oscars and finished as one of the five finalists.

“All the heads of the departments were Palestinians. Not all of them had experience but we all worked so hard to make a quality movie, and I think we proved we can do a high quality movie without the money or talent of the West. If I’m proud of anything it’s that this film was made by Palestinians with Palestinian money. I’m really proud of that. The non-Palestinians had no influence on the artistic quality or the quality of the movie.” – Hany Abu-Assad, Director

“We have to take ownership of our own talent,” added Waleed Zuaiter, one of the leading actors.

Adam Bakri, Iyad Hoorani y Samer Bisharat.

“Omar, there’s a price to pay if you want to revolt and liberate your country. You don’t complain or cry. This is the choice you made.”

Omar (2013, Hany Abu-Assad)

Los Lunes Al Sol - 2002

(Güneşli Pazartesiler)