Six Things, Volume 67

Nature Maths | Tornado | Sleep Baseball | Floor Plans | Squirrel Census | More or Less

May 12, 2024

Thing 1 – Nature Maths

I encountered many pleasures on today’s early morning walk. There’s something about an empty London that does good things for the soul.

Almost empty. I wasn’t completely alone.

There was the guy walking down the middle of the road, looking every inch like Food Delivery Guy, from the large bag he was carrying, folded over at the top, to the perplexed way he was looking at his phone, either because he couldn’t find the address or because he was twelve hours late.

There was the impromptu cricket match I passed on a local green space – not bad for 6.15 am.

There were the crows, having at the overflowing bins that lined my route.

There was the lady in a tiger onesie, carrying a can of lager.

And when I reached my destination, my purpose being to count waterbirds as my monthly commitment to the British Trust for Ornithology’s Wetland Bird Survey, it was just me, the birds and the odd dog-walker.

Glorious.

Counting done (the Canada geese have goslings, the little grebes are shouting, and a magnificent cormorant perched on a tree, spread its wings and surveyed its kingdom with the sort of beaky majesty to which other birds can only aspire), I wandered around the common, enjoying the combination of early morning warmth, the ping-pong of blackcap, whitethroat and chiffchaff song (with the faint carollings of a skylark just discernible in the gaps) and the metric fucktonne of cow parsley stretching as far as the eye can see.

And I got to thinking.

I got to thinking, specifically, about the magnificent mathsy-ness of nature.

It was the cow parsley that put me on to it, the self-similarity of its umbels inviting closer inspection, the perfect combination of symmetry and unruliness.

Only adding to the general sense of just-right-ness were the snails. Little ones, rampaging over the plants. Hello Fibonacci spiral.

Once you see it, it’s everywhere. Not always symmetrical or ordered, but there when you look for it. And just the process of looking does – like an empty Sunday morning London – good things for the soul. And May – what a month – is as good a time as any to find it. And not a tiger onesie in sight.

Thing 2 – Tornado

While we’re on maths in nature, here’s an extraordinary video of a tornado approaching, and then going right over, a train. It is ever so slightly not for the faint of heart, but no harm (so I gather) came to the filmers.

“Should we get away from the windows?” is one of the great questions.

Thing 3 – Sleep Baseball

We live in a strange world.

Exhibit A: a podcast devoted to fake baseball commentaries designed to lull you to sleep.

Thing 4 – Floor Plans

This is bizarre and obscurely fascinating. A website devoted to architectural diagrams of parliament buildings. It’s the virtual counterpart to a book which contains diagrams of all 193 such buildings in the world.

Thanks to @presentandcorrect for sharing it.

Thing 5 – Squirrel census

Ever wondered where all the squirrels are? No, neither had I, but then I discovered the Squirrel Census. It started as a New York thing, but as you’ll see from the map, it’s spreading, and the more people take part, the more we’ll discover about the extent to which they’re taking over the world.