April 7

Flies in Flagrante

This morning Sam’s 8-year old son Bruche was watching a YouTube film about ants and how they fight each other! I told him I had another picture of insects to show him. I explained how these flies were trapped in amber when they were embracing!

Amber is fossil tree resin, I learned. Little of it had been found in Australia until recent years. It can form quickly under sufficient pressure. That’s why we sometimes see insects in pieces of amber.

The flies in the picture are encased in amber from around 41 million years ago! They weren’t fighting but mating.

The scientist who discovered them called this, “frozen behavior.” The author of the article wrote, “Such a thing is exceptionally rare in the fossil record, because it means absolutely nothing happened in the moments between when the flies were living and when they died and became entombed.”

He says “It’s comparable to what happened to humans in 79 A.D. at Pompeii, when volcanic ash from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius smothered and froze some Romans in a flash.”

Chimamanda Writes on Coronavirus Lockdown

Chimamanda Adichie wrote a lovely piece which she posted on Facebook the other day. I didn’t see it there, but did find it in Brittle Paper.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on Mourning, Feeling, & Coping During Coronavirus Lockdown 

She is mourning a favorite aunt who died recently. I suspect we’ll all be mourning someone now and in the next few weeks!

For me, it is a friend from church, and the husbands of two other friends, who died in the last two weeks from the virus!

Nigerian Words in Oxford Dictionary

Here’s another word coming from Nigeria that was recently added to the Oxford Dictionary. An okada is a motorcycle used as a taxi. These became popular over the last two decades as a cheap and quick form of travel, particularly around the Lagos. More than once Lagos State tried to ban the okadas. They are now threatened again according to an article in Quartz!

At one time there was a rule that prohibited motorcycle riders carrying paying passengers. I don’t recall how the rule was stated but one result was the development of Keke Napeps, a tricycle motorcycle with a roof and sides!

Then came ride-hailing companies, something like Uber for okada drivers. They proved attractive to investors and raised “million of dollars in funding based on the prospect of bringing some order to Lagos’ notorious roads and then expanding elsewhere,” the article in Quartz stated.

In January Lagos State banned not just the okadas and the tricycles but the ride-hailing services as well. This has made life more difficult than it was already was for many who used the services.

The article says, “The state government has claimed it will provide buses in the affected areas to ease the effects of the ban but those promises ring hollow with its BRT service already appearing ill-equipped with fewer buses and long wait times and queues at local bus terminals and stops.”

Like so many regulations which attempt to solve a problem, this has created more difficulties!