Land of Clockwork and Biology

Muvico Paradise 24 Theater, in Davie, Florida. Designed by Development Design Group from Baltimore. Pictures taken around 1999. Edit: It's now called Cinemark Paradise 24 theater.

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The most amazing part is how the water droplet magnifies the Hornet's mouth parts, so you get to see them up-close!!!! It was FASCINATING to witness!

Here's some of my favorite still shots from that video:

I am a larval mechanical engineer and am entering my senior of college year soon. On top of the impending senior design hell, I have to decide soon if I want to go to graduate school (probably just for my masters) or not. It feels like a very big decision and everyone I talk to keeps giving me conflicting advice.

You’re an engineer that seems to have ended up in a fairly stable career, do you have any advice for figuring out what I want to do for the next 2-5 years of my life?

Other people have their own opinions on graduate work, so take me with a grain of salt, but I don't really recommend going straight from a bachelors to a masters. Go into industry for a minute, play around, figure out what kind of work you specifically like doing, then use the masters as a way to specialize in that. Worst case, you don't like any of it and you can use the masters as a lateral move to something adjacent. Maybe mechanical jobs don't really tickle your fancy like you'd hoped, but aerospace or robotics seem fun. Bam, masters gives you an in. Also, jobs will often offer to pay your tuition for your masters, but the cost of the tuition is truly miniscule compared to the time, so don't fuss over that too much. If you have to pay yourself, it's not a huge deal.

Engineering as a job is very different from engineering as a study, which is unfortunate, because it can mean that things you enjoyed learning about aren't actually fun to do. Or vice versa. Learning your own tastes is part of the post-college experience, which is a little nerve wracking, but also, pretty fun. It's sort of like dating yourself. You get to start asking questions like who am I, what do I like, where do I want to go, what makes my life fun. It's a little existential, but it's important and frankly very satisfying to figure out. You might be receiving conflicting advice because people are retroactively describing the fastest path to get to the place that made them happy, and not the process they used to find that place. Focus on the process and the destination will solve itself.

Over 90% of parents of visibly intersex children opt for cosmetic surgery on their infants.

The ones that don't experience medical violence then, likely experience it as a teenager.

I didn't.

I am very rare in that I did not experience medical violence.

Why? Because I learned what intersexuality was as a young age, and I actively fought against what doctors wanted to do to me. All the way down to legal research on what medical care minors can be forced into. I remember walking into that doctor's appointment with the state law written down that proved that if I did not consent they could not do surgery.

Yes, but have you considered...

Wallcreeper (Tichodroma muraria), family Tichodromidae, found across high mountain areas of Europe and Asia

This species is the only member of this genus and family.

photograph by Mathieu Bally - Wildlife Photography

Bearded Reedling aka Bearded Tit (Panurus biarmicus), family Panuridae, order Passeriformes

photograph by Carlo Galliani

Sunbittern (Eurypyga helias), family Eurypygidae, order Eurypygiformes, found in southern Central America and northern South America

The only member of this family

photograph by Supreet Sahoo

Kagu or Cagou (Rhynochetos jubatus), family Rhynochetidae, order Eurypygiformes, endemic to New Caldeonia

ENDANGERED.

This bird is the only member of its family.

It is most closely related to the Sunbittern.

photograph by the_zoologist_barista

Hamerkop (Scopus umbretta), family Scopidae, order Pelicaniformes, Ethiopia

The taxonomic affinities of this bird have been greatly debated over the years, and now is believed to be in the Pelecaniformes.

This is the only bird in this family.

Their closest relatives are the Shoebill.

photograph by Ian Davies

Shoebill (Balaeniceps rex), family Balaenicipitidae, Mabamba Swamp, Uganda

This bird is the only member of its family.

The taxonomic affinities of this bird have long been debated. It currently rests within the order Pelicaniformes It was, in the past, often places in the Ciconiiformes).

Its closest living relative is most likely the Hamerkop.

photograph by Jean-Christopher Damond

Malaysian Rail-Babbler (Eupetes macrocerus), male calling, family Eupetidae, order Passeriformes, Malaysia

The only member of this family

photograph by Janetli SF **Xiao Guo Tai**

Yellow-breasted Chat (Icteria virens), family Icteriidae, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA

This species was once considered to be a wood warbler, family Parulidae, but is now placed in its own family (of which it is the only member).

photograph by Loud Photography

Hoatzin (Opisthocomus hoazin) aka “Stink Turkey”, family Opisthocomidae, order Opisthocomiformes

The only living member of the bird order Opisthocomiformes.

This leaf-eating bird uses foregut fermentation, in its enlarged crop, to help break down its food. (The ferementation is where the smell comes from, which gives it the name “Pavo Apestoso”)

They live in vegetation at the edges of lakes, streams, and rivers.

The young have 2 small claws on the fronts of the wingsthat help them climb through vegetation.

The reason it was so important for narrative purposes, was that the plot concerns the visit of the Astronaut, in his completely opaque spacesuit, to a planet populated entirely by self-aware robots (originally from Earth) who have built their own society and are petitioning to be allowed to interact with Earth again as equals.

They have a democratic government and free choice of careers etc. as the orange robot serving as guide tells the Astronaut.

The Astronaut notices that there are two different types of robot on this world; the orange ones, who are in charge, gifted access to all information and facilities. and the blue robots, who are seen as more limited in function, have less access to information and resources, and are not allowed positions of power or as wide a choice of employment opportunities. Even transportation is segregated.

The Astronaut investigates further and discovers that the blue and orange robots are actually structurally identical, there is absolutely no difference between their potential or capabilities, and it is only because the orange robots are instructed by their Educator system to consider themselves superior, that the difference exists.

The Astronaut tells the robots they are not ready for re-alignment with Earth, until they come to terms with their own unfairness, and how Earth had had to deal with this issue themselves. When that time comes, the robots will be able to ally with Earth.

Then he leaves in his spaceship, and it's only in that one final panel that we see the Astronaut is black.

Not subtle, nor should it be, but for 1950 this was a breathtakingly powerful statement, perhaps the first of it's kind in the genre.