Showing posts with label Gooley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gooley. Show all posts

Monday, 11 January 2021

The currents were sorting the fat, rich bodies from the poor, lean, ones

On the other side of the world, on the Ka'u coast of Hawaii, there was once a strange and macabre tradition for those who had lost loved ones at sea. The locals would search two different stretches of beach, depending on the social status of the person who had drowned. This was not part of some religious or superstitious practice, but because the rich and poor genuinely did wash up on different beaches ... The currents were sorting the fat, rich bodies from the poor, lean, ones.

T. Gooley, How to read water (2016), 248-9

Sunday, 10 January 2021

Most insects die from dehydration

Flying insects live on the edge of death every second of their short lives, the very fact that they are flying at all is a precarious balance, dependent on how hydrated they are (most insects die from dehydration) and factors like how warm they are. When the sun slips bend a cloud, insects will cool slightly, and some lose the ability to fly and drop out of the air onto the river, where a trout will be expecting them.

T. Gooley, How to read water (2016), 87