The humor of the sculpture

My flatmate Xin and I went to the Mill Pond and the Avalon Park which is near the Stony Brook Beach as they call it. Her friend and another guyfriend were there too, total four of us for the trip on a beautiful summer afternoon.
I would like to share something very humorous which came up when we saw the sculpture in the garden.
Look at the sculpture photo ( the one I had clicked was a side shot and would not do justice to what I am about to talk so I am sharing a picture from internet)

As I was gaping in awe at the sculpture, one of our friends remarked, " Look, he lost his ass!"

I totally burst out in uncontrollable laughter at his humorous comment which was true too and rebuked, " Look, yeah, but he also lost his brains".

Clearly, as an afterthought, its not difficult to predict that the first observation was made by a guy (the guy in our group) and the second one by a girl (myself). :)

I hope you understood the deep humor :)

Shimmering light show - nature

Hi,
I could not stop marveling at the wondrous ways of nature. I had a chance to visit the beautiful duck pond in the Avalon Park here at Stony Brook. While I stood watching the humongous number of ducks in the pond, something else caught my eye.
It was the shimmering reflection which moved in a rhythmic pattern on the lush green leaves above. Watch the video to get what I am talking about: (Notice the leaves of the trees closely)

The reason why I write about this small thing which many would not even notice, is, partly because, it is rare to catch a sight like that, and also because I felt that was nature's way of exhibiting its customized light show, similar to the one which a specific marine species named cuttlefish also shows.
Yes, I am referring to the "king of camouflage" as it's often called, the cuttlefish, from the family of cephalopods, also does a light show as if to hypnotize its prey. Check out the following video to understand what I am relating to:

So, it turns out that, I would like to put this as the light show of flora, pitted against the light show of marine fauna, as a way to hypnotize the bystanders in a positive way. :)

Kudos to NATURE, you never stop amazing us!

Poem The Heights of Machu Picchu- Pablo Neruda

Hi all,

I came across a poem piece titled "The Heights of Machu Picchu" by none other than Pablo Neruda (see part of the poem below). The poetry is very beautiful and vivid and the reason I am posting it here is because I had been recently reading about the Inca mummies and their ritual of Capacocha ceremony practised high up in the  Andes mountains and volcanoes, where they would often perform child sacrifice (sounds dreading)

The lovely Andes mountains stand tall, bearing a majestic testimony to the Inca culture (Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/80_-_Machu_Picchu_-_Juin_2009_-_edit.2.jpg

More info on Capacoha (gosh, I can't help confusing it with cappuchino coffee) can be found at http://archaeology.about.com/od/caterms/qt/capacocha.htm

Here is the lovely poem: (http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/canto-xii-from-the-heights-of-macchu-picchu/

I come to speak for your dead mouths.

Throughout the earth
let dead lips congregate,
out of the depths spin this long night to me
as if I rode at anchor here with you.

And tell me everything, tell chain by chain,
and link by link, and step by step;
sharpen the knives you kept hidden away,
thrust them into my breast, into my hands,
like a torrent of sunbursts,
an Amazon of buried jaguars,
and leave me cry: hours, days and years,
blind ages, stellar centuries.

And give me silence, give me water, hope.

Give me the struggle, the iron, the volcanoes.

Let bodies cling like magnets to my body.

Come quickly to my veins and to my mouth.

Speak through my speech, and through my blood. 

Pablo Neruda