Podcasts about flight behaviour

This week James catches up with award winning author Barbara Kingsolver, whose work over the last three decades has eloquently and movingly touched on matters of genuine social and environmental concern.Most notably, Barbara's novel Flight Behaviour conveyed the impact of climate change on a community, an ecosystem and a species. The novel also draws out the tension that can exist between one's everyday life and the changes happening around us, of which we can feel powerless to address on our own. This is particularly evident in the life of the novel's main character, Dellarobia, who tries to make sense of the unexpected arrival of a flock of monarch butterflies and what it might mean for the future while struggling with the challenges of poverty and her own family. Running through Barbara's work over the last 30 years has been a real sense of place - from her early books in Arizona, to the Poisonwood Bible, to Flight Behaviour. She has also written a number of books with more than a passing reference to the natural world, including Small Wonder and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Most recently Barbara contributed a poem to a Time magazine special report called 2050: The Fight for the Earth, which provides a powerful look at the politics of consumption, equality, and climate change. Halfway through the episode Barbara treats us to a very special reading of the poem. Some of the most popular podcast episodes we've published so far have been those that look at climate change through a slightly different lens. In the last series it was legendary music producer Brian Eno who spoke to James about what different models and structures for making music can teach us about how to organise society and our politics. Today we are delighted to bring you another unique perspective on the role art and literature can play in helping address the climate crisis. As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback at james.shaw@parliament.govt.nz. Follow James on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2020.09.03.281253v1?rss=1 Authors: Knoblauch, A., Thoma, M., Menz, M. H. M. Abstract: Despite mass movements of dragonflies being documented for decades, the influence of weather on the movement decisions and movement intensity of dragonflies has rarely been studied. Here, we investigate the influence of local weather conditions on flight behaviour of dragonflies in Europe, taking advantage of large movements of dragonflies occurring along the Baltic Sea coast of Latvia. Firstly, we performed orientation tests with individual dragonflies of two commonly captured species, Aeshna mixta and Sympetrum vulgatum, in order to determine if dragonflies showed directed flight and whether flight direction was independent from wind direction. Aeshna mixta displayed a uniform mean southward orientation (166.7{degrees}), independent from prevailing wind directions, whereas S. vulgatum did not show a uniform orientation. Secondly, we investigated the influence of weather conditions on the abundance of dragonflies captured. Behavioural differences in relation to weather conditions were observed between A. mixta and the two smaller Sympetrum species (S. vulgatum and S. sanguineum). Generally, temperature, cloud cover and wind direction were the most important predictors for migration intensity, with temperature positively influencing abundance and cloud cover negatively influencing abundance. Aeshna mixta appeared to select favourable tailwinds (northerlies), whereas hourly abundance of Sympetrum increased with more easterly winds. Our results provide important information on the influence of local weather conditions on the flight behaviour of dragonflies, as well as evidence of migration for A. mixta and most likely some Sympetrum species along the Baltic coast. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info

Jennifer Wong shares one of her favourite books with Jenn Martin, which happens to be called My Favourite Things! Jenn then shares some ideas for books to read if you like character-driven novels told by multiple narrators. Books, authors, websites mentioned in this episode My Favourite Things by Maira Kalman Maira Kalman in the New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/maira-kalman Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum: https://www.cooperhewitt.org/ Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Vorst Brainpickings: https://www.brainpickings.org/ Reading suggestions for Claire Claire loved: Goodwood by Holly Throsby The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson The Overstorey by Richard Powers  Jenn’s suggestions: Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver The Celestial Jukebox by Cynthia Shearer The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley Ghostwritten by David Mitchell Music by Blue Dot Sessions. New episode every Saturday. Join us on Facebook to chat more about books and to get your own reading suggestions from Jenn: facebook.com/friendsatlibrary

Can reading change the world? Jenn Martin and Jennifer Wong discuss reading and writing that makes a difference, then Jennifer Wong shares a personal life-changing read - How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee. Events, authors, and books mentioned in this episode Mudgee Readers Festival - https://www.mudgeereaders.com/ Writing NSW - https://writingnsw.org.au/ Cat Sparks on Climate Fiction - https://espace.curtin.edu.au/handle/20.500.11937/70516 Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood Pachinko by Min Jin Lee Growing up Queer in Australia edited by Benjamin Law Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit Mouth Full of Blood by Toni Morrison Don’t Get Too Comfortable by David Rakoff How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee What Girls Got Wrong (and Right!) About the Iowa Writers’ Workshop https://www.vulture.com/2015/01/what-girls-got-wrong-about-iowas-mfa-program.html Pilgrim at Tinkers Creek by Annie Dillard Reading suggestions for Liz Liz loved Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch Jenn and Keryn’s suggestions London Falling by Paul Cornell Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw The Rook by Daniel O’Malley The Company series by Kage Baker Thanks very much to Keryn Stewart for being our guest Readers Advisor on this episode! Music by Blue Dot Sessions. New episode every Saturday. Join us on Facebook to chat more about books and to get your own reading suggestions from Jenn: facebook.com/friendsatlibrary

Unsheltered by Barbara KingsolverThe international bestselling author of The Lacuna, Flight Behaviour and The Poisonwood Bible and recipient of numerous literary awards - including the National Humanities Medal, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and the Orange Prize - returns with a timely novel that interweaves past and present to explore the human capacity for resilience and compassion in times of great upheaval.One Day In December by Josie SilverTwo people. Twelve chances. One perfect love story.Laurie doesn't believe in love at first sight. Life isn't a scene from Love Actually, after all.But then, through a bus window one snowy December day, she sees him. There's one glorious moment when their eyes meet...and then her bus drives away.Listen above as book reviewer Catherine Raynes speaks to Jack Tame 

This week we chat about binge-watching/listening and taking time away from noise and entertainment. We also talk about Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver (or "Kingslover," as Sonia calls her), Lexicon by Max Barry, Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, This House of Grief by Helen Garner, and the Pixar film Inside Out. Oh, and also Orange is the New Black (but that goes without saying at this point).

Barbara Kingsolver talks about her latest novel Flight Behaviour, David Baddiel and D.T. Max discuss American writer David Foster Wallace and Victoria Glendinning on the founder of Singapore and subject of her latest biography, Sir Stamford Thomas Raffles.