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| Belgrade |
14 9 2010
Cluj-Napoca Galeriile Fortuna
Outdoor café, perfect weather, perfect old stone square and buildings weathered the way I like and perfect colors.
Here, my receipt tells me: “MULTUMIM!”
We see the man in the suit stride by with the flash of a golden tie. The table of three girls smoking cigarettes and they keep looking at me and it could be a variety of reasons. And here are these bright pink/ Nantucket Red pants tight on an old woman with the weathered face of a pug. And the little birds chase each other to steal the bread from the mouth of their brother. And an old gypsy woman sits on the edge of a bench, facing the back of the bench, which enables her to pound at the back rest in adamant gestures holding meaning only for her.
Yesterday I saw a wedding party on the steps of the orthodox church- they released pigeons into the air. Today A white and dazed looking bird wanders amidst this roving herd of pigeons. If you were smaller, be damn sure this roving avian mass would be intimidating and more and more I see how the dinosaurs are inside of the birds.
An old woman holds up a bottle to the waitress, pleading for water. The waitress smirks at the old gypsy woman, and obliges. I am disturbed. The bottle is covered in orange plastic, and was previously used to contain yoghurt or some other cream-fruit beverage, and it seems to me that the rule should be that you can only refill water bottles with water, or at the very least, the bottle should be transparent. One must see the water one drinks. And can anyone enlighten me as to the function of all this pigeon head bobbing? The other birds are not like this.
cranes - cranes do it too. something to do with stabilizing vision, moving their heads to focus rather than moving their eyes.
ReplyDeleteOkay, thank's Alex- you're pretty much right on. This is from http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/pigeon.html:
ReplyDeleteMost evidence suggests that the head bobbing serves a visual function.Chickens bob their heads while walking. So do cranes, magpies and quails. In fact, head bobbing is a unique feature in birds and occurs in at least 8 of the 27 families of birds.
There are a few theories why some birds bob their heads when they walk:
1. Assists with balance
2. Provides depth perception
3. Sharpens their vision
However, most studies suggest that birds in motion bob their heads to stabilize their visual surroundings. In comparison, we rely more on our eye movements, not our head movements, to catch and hold images while in motion.
Picture a pigeon on a moving treadmill. What do you think would happen as the pigeon walks with the speed of the treadmill and its environment remains relatively the same? Dr. Barrie J Frost (1978) did this experiment and the pigeon’s head did not bob.
Dr. Mark Friedman (1975) also conducted a series of experiments to test the head bobbing actions of birds, using doves. His research demonstrated that the head movement is controlled more by visual stimulation than movement of the body.
Scientists continue to research head bobbing in birds. For example, scientists are currently investigating question such as “Why do some birds exhibit head bobbing, while other do not?” For more information on this topic see the related Web sites section.