Plants, Bones, and Stars

Help, I've been shrunk! Actually, that's a giant model of a venus fly trap at the botanical wing of the Osaka Natural History Museum. I went there yesterday with my friend, Tiffany, and her boss.

There were many wonderful plant specimens but my favourite was this:

I know they look lavender but, according to the sign, they're 青いバラ, "blue roses". Any Twin Peaks fan would be excited. Also by the fact that there was a big slice of a douglas fir trunk downstairs straight from Oregon (I didn't get a picture).

Next we visited the main event which, of course, is bones:

These impressive fin whale skeletons were outside. Inside, there were dinosaur fossils.

An allosaurus and a mammoth stood at the vanguard but there was also a stegosaurus and a triceratops as well as a t rex skull.

There were also many very small fossils:

Here's one I'd never heard of:

Desmostylus. Apparently they mainly dwelt on the west coast of the U.S. and Japan. Just like me.

Here's one of the giant deer that once dwelt in Japan:

What kind of Caitlin R. Kiernan fan would I be if I didn't take pictures of the trilobites?

Many of the labels say these things came from Ohio.

Most of these came from the U.S. or Canada except the Paradoxides carens came from the Czech Republic and the Neoadaphus kowalewskii (the guy with the antennae) came from Russia.

After the Natural History Museum, we visited the Science Museum and Planetarium.

This meteorite is from Arizona.

Always nice to see a familiar face from 17th century England:

Good old Robert Boyle.

Here's a bit on the evolution of the calculator:

We didn't have much time to look at the science museum exhibits because we'd gotten tickets for a planetarium show. It was a pretty relaxing tour of the solar system and the constellations. As I told Tiffany's boss, it made me want to watch Star Trek and Galaxy Express 999.

It was a pretty nice day.

Twitter Sonnet #1529

The lovely saucer dashed from cold to gold.
In bubbling ice, the glasses kept afloat.
A certain kind of youth is never old.
The tiny world became a cheery boat.
A world of spikes invites the metal man.
To jump beneath the waves some boots are light.
Electric suns bestow an iv'ry tan.
To power up, ascend the copper kite.
The spinning hair revealed a pulsing brain.
The hungry planet called to earthling gin.
Beneath the bones, belief excised the sane.
The thirsty world contracts the whisky bin.
Recurring storms denude the late abed.
The waiting roots revive untimely dead.