Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Star Trek movies and Beethoven symphonies

Beethoven symphonies and Star Trek movies follow similar (although complementary) patterns.

Odd-numbered Beethoven symphonies are the best loved.

Single important even-numbered exception: Beethoven 6, the "Pastoral" symphony, is perhaps the first example of Romantic-era programmatic music.

Runt of the litter (weakest odd-numbered symphony): Beethoven 1 is not nearly as well-loved as 3 ("Eroica"), 5, 7, or 9 ("Choral").

SymphonyYear of
Premiere
YouTube views*
 (thousands)
11801239
21802217
3 "Eroica"18051,292
41807 281
518083,915
6 "Pastoral"1808873
718132,769
81814265
9 "Choral"18244,426

*Table of YouTube views as an indicator of popularity from Classical Convert: Ranking Beethoven.

Even-numbered Star Trek movies are good. This pattern holds through the numbered films with the original cast as well as the films with the cast from The Next Generation.

Single important odd-numbered exception: Star Trek III: The Search For Spock provides essential aspects of the Star Trek II-III-IV story arc. Also: seeing Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future's Doc Brown) as a Klingon was pretty sweet.

Runt of the litter (weakest even-numbered film): Star Trek: Nemesis, the tenth movie of the franchise.

TitleRelease
Year
Tomatometer rating*
1Star Trek: The Motion Picture197947%
2Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan198290%
3Star Trek III: The Search for Spock198477%
4Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home198684%
5Star Trek V: The Final Frontier198921%
6Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country199183%
7Star Trek: Generations199448%
8Star Trek: First Contact199692%
9Star Trek: Insurrection199856%
10Star Trek: Nemesis200238%

* Tomatometer rating from Rotten Tomatoes.  What is the Tomatometer?

Related:

http://www.yourmusicmarket.com/beethoven-symphonies/




Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Summer of ground squirrels

By all accounts, the summer of 2010 was a good one (though I waited until January 2012 to finish writing about it). My favorite count, though, is the number of species of ground squirrels I saw this summer: at least seven. I had the good fortune to travel to a number of places with new and different non-arboreal scurids this summer.

Why bother studying ground squirrels? The best reason is that they're adorable. The second-best reason is that their numbers and habits make them among the most readily observed mammals in North America. I could spend my whole vacation in a blind waiting for a monkey-faced disco hawk or some other rare bird or mammal to come into view for a few seconds, or I could take a short walk along a talus pile on a sunny day and see who pops up. I took all the pictures below with my Canon Powershot SX110 IS, a nice but not terribly expensive point-and-shoot with a 10x optical zoom.


1. California ground squirrel, Otospermophilus beecheyi
Lisa and I saw this little fella, formerly known as Spermophilus b., on a bay-front walking path in Alameda, California.


2. Golden-mantled ground squirrel, Callospermophilus lateralis
This handsome rodent, formerly called Spermophilus l., superficially resembles a chipmunk, but is distinct in that chipmunks' stripes extend onto the face. This guy was scampering among the rocks at a Donner Pass Road overlook in Nevada County, California, near the famous Donner Summit Bridge. The American Society of Mammologists species account describes its running gait as "clumsy" (ASM Report #440, Spermophilus lateralis, 1993), which seems unnecessarily harsh. Perhaps the authors had observed only pubescent ground squirrels going through that awkward phase - want to make fun of their cracking voices and acne, too? Not cool, mammologists.

We also saw a yellow-bellied marmot there; my mother-in-law almost ran it over (unintentionally), but he safely scampered away.


3. Belding's ground squirrel, Urocitellus beldingi
Despite appearances, this guy is not a prairie dog. Formerly known as Spermophilus b. (noticing a pattern here?), this squirrel hangs out in alpine meadows. His habit of standing bolt upright to watch for danger led early settlers to call him the "picket pin". There was a small colony of these guys in the summit resort area at Squaw Peak.

4. Yellow-bellied marmot, Marmota flaviventris
Mr. Chubby-Cheeks here was seen hiding in a landscaped rockpile next to the hot tub at the Squaw Valley summit resort area. Lisa pointed out that some of the teenagers in and around the hot tub probably thought I was being creepy, hanging around with a camera in hand. I don't care - this picture was worth it. Click to enlarge it - you can see the marmot's nose hairs!

5. Chipmunk, Tamias sp.
This handsome rodent was spotted on a talus pile at a Lake Tahoe overlook and could be one of three species:
Tamias amoenus - Yellow-pine Chipmunk
Tamias speciosus - Lodgepole chipmunk
Tamias quadrimaculatus - Long-eared Chipmunk


6. Thirteen-lined ground squirrel, Ictidomys tridecemlineatus
This many-striped ground squirrel was known as Spermophilus t. prior to taxonomic revision. Lisa and I saw this individual feeding on some spilled popcorn on the central mall at Brookfield Zoo, in the Chicago suburbs. Nothing like a good stretch while eating unpopped kernels of salty goodness, eh?



7. Woodchuck, Marmota monax
I saw this chunky 'chuck at a family friend's place in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, on Labor Day. I think he safely sneaks under the radar as the last official ground squirrel of the summer. In some parts of the country, it's socially acceptable to call this animal a "whistle-pig", which is awesome.






View Summer of Ground Squirrels in a larger map


My identifications were assisted by:
  • Squirrels of the West. by Tamara Hartson (Lone Pine Publishing, 1999). I stumbled across this book in a Forest Service visitor center and instantly knew I had struck gold. I also recently acquired Squirrels of North America by Tamara Eder, who apparently is the same person.
  • San Francisco State University - Sierra Nevada Field Campus species list
  • National Audubon Society Pocket Guide - Familiar Mammals of North America
  • American Society of Mammologists species accounts (#221, #440, and others); some of them are freely available