Chiltern Classics

ok well im going to build a good future for myself whether i like it or not

“You look at trees and called them ‘trees,’ and probably you do not think twice about the word. You call a star a ‘star,’ and think nothing more of it. But you must remember that these words, ‘tree,’ ‘star,’ were (in their original forms) names given to these objects by people with very different views from yours. To you, a tree is simply a vegetable organism, and a star simply a ball of inanimate matter moving along a mathematical course. But the first men to talk of ‘trees’ and ‘stars’ saw things very differently. To them, the world was alive with mythological beings. They saw the stars as living silver, bursting into flame in answer to the eternal music. They saw the sky as a jeweled tent, and the earth as the womb whence all living things have come. To them, the whole of creation was ‘myth-woven and elf patterned’.”

— J.R.R. Tolkien, from ‘Mythopoeia’

Crowd Vortices

The Feast of San Fermín in Pamplona, Spain draws crowds of thousands. Scientists recently published an analysis of the crowd motion in these dense gatherings. The team filmed the crowds at the festival from balconies overlooking the plaza in 2019, 2022, 2023, and 2024. Analyzing the footage, they discovered that at crowd densities above 4 people per square meter, the crowd begins to move in almost imperceptible eddies. (Image credit: still - San Fermín, animation - Bartolo Lab; research credit: F. Gu et al.; via Nature) Read the full article

Swiss Brassy Ringlet (Erebia tyndarus), family Nymphalidae, found in the Alps of Europe

photos by böhringer friedrich & Clarisse Dayer Micheloud

9.9.2024.

We take for granted our special ability to describe abstractions - such as "tomorrow" yet such abstractions are only made possible by language.

-Donald B. Calne , within reason

The limits of my language means the limits of my world.

-Ludwig Wittgenstein

from letterarii

Orache moth, Trachea atriplicis, Noctuidae

Photographed in France by Matthieu Berroneau

Shared with permission; do not remove credit or re-post!