loveHey this is a special day - Mickey Mouses' Birthday!
Happy Birthday Mickey!
Friends I converse with on one on-line forum shared the information below. It's an interesting artice about LED photonic design and how the design is nearly identical to that found in nature! Check out this article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4443854.stm
and check the gorgeous butterflies they show - electric almost!
Here's a short quote;
"The LED developed at MIT used a two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystal - a triangular lattice of holes etched into the LED's upper cladding layer - to enhance the extraction of light.
The butterflies use the fluorescent patches to signal each other.
And layered structures called Bragg reflectors were used to control the emission direction. These high emission devices potentially offer a huge step up in performance over standard (LED) types.
Pete Vukusic and Ian Hooper at Exeter have now shown that swallowtail butterflies evolved an identical method for signalling to each other in the wild. "
National Geographic is also running a story on it;Glowing Butterflies Shine With Natural LEDs
And now for more melding of nature and technology;
...from the garden - a lot's been happening there - the ground has firmed up, there'll be no more digging or planting now till sping. Leaves gathered from the neighbors' maple trees will mulch the garden till spring and the worms will do the rest of the work to rejuvenate and ammend the soil.
A good winter's rest is due for the garden while it dreams of springs' warm rains and the vibrancy of life!
The goldfinches have lost all their colour. They're now easily mistaken for sparrows. A drab olivey brown, from a distance it's difficult to distinguish them. As soon as I can get the ladder up and give the windows a good cleaning I'll work on getting some photographs of the birds through my kitchen window. They often sit in the birch trees and nibble on the seeds there. That's to come. For now here are some sweet shots of the "First Snows In The Garden"..; That's right we got snow overnight - just a dusting. Enough to give people a fright on the roads (first snow!) and enough to give a light blanket on the ground.
You're welcome to copy one if you'd like it for wallpaper or what have you..
our sleepy snowy meadow
this photograph really seems to imply "first snow"
A frosty apple on my neighbor's tree - crisp, sweet and juicy still! Pie time!
This is that fancy baby lettuce mix - mesclun mix - it doesn't mind cooler temperatures - this pot full will be ready to pick in a couple weeks!
An enchanted meadow
I might use one of these pics for a new header - to use for a few days...at least until I start working up Christmas themed headers! Hope you enjoyed these, watch for the bird photos sometime next week!
