Musings on a new hairbrush . . . & summer love songs

Wild boar

A hairbrush with boar bristles, as in “boar,” or wild pig.  As in, the boar didn’t donate those bristles, so I have to assume this brush and others like it, made in China (why am I not surprised?), involved killing boars for their bristles, and probably their meat and other body parts too.

This is China, remember, the country that not long ago was the world’s major consumer of elephant ivory -- also not donated by elephants, but coming to China indirectly, as in smuggled from Africa through other countries after the elephants had been killed by poachers for their tusks.

Although to some extent, China has recently gotten religion on the subject of ivory, its lust for rhino horns and pangolin scales and lion bones and tiger parts continues for use in Eastern medicinal practices (with no proven efficacy).  Whether stated or not, animals are still seen in China as objects that exist for human use.  Eastern religions may not preach human dominion over animals -- maybe Genesis (1:26) has a lock on stating that belief -- nonetheless, people in those countries are living the belief.  

Consider pigs, for instance: animals bred en masse to be killed and eaten.  Since “African swine fever” broke out in Asia, millions of pigs have had to be killed.  Horrors!  No, not from compassion for the animals, but grief over lost income. https://www.google.com/search?q=pig+disease+%2B+Asia+%2B+culling&rlz=1C1VSNG_enUS691US702&oq=pig+disease+%2B+Asia+%2B+culling&aqs=chrome..69i57.9543j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

“I never met a pig I didn't like.  All pigs are intelligent, emotional, and sensitive souls.  They all love company. They all crave contact and comfort.  Pigs have a

delightful sense of mischief; most of them seem to enjoy a good joke and

appreciate music.  And that is something you would certainly never suspect

from your relationship with a pork chop.” 
― Sy Montgomery, naturalist and author (1958-   )      

Still on the subject of human-used animals, just think about silk, a Chinese invention based on the threads of silkworms. Moths lay eggs and worms hatch, eat mulberry leaves till they’re fat, then spin cocoons.  Cocoons are steamed to kill the growing moth inside, then rinsed in hot water to loosen the fibers, which are combined into threads, which in turn are woven into cloth: silk.

https://www.ducksters.com/history/china/legend_of_silk.php   

California condor 

But we can’t be too righteous about China’s sins against animals.  After all, we’re the ones who killed off American buffaloes and drove majestic California condors -- North America’s largest flying bird --  nearly to extinction.  (Now in gradual recovery, they’re still endangered by lead exposure in carcasses (lead ammo must go!) and consumption of junk in their habitats (humans must clean up after themselves!).    

Seductive sounds

Cicada

On to a happier and much noisier subject: the sizzling seasonal sounds of . . . bugs.  Specifically, cicadas, crickets and katydids.  We hear them in alpha-order, with male cicadas buzzing during the day, singing to attract females by vibrating a special membrane in their abdomens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mah26og11ms

Male crickets rub their wings together to produce their chirpy mating calls late afternoon and evening, while katydids rub their front wings together to "sing" to each other late at night in bursts of two, three or four notes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Olfg9KK_bmE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob2rEjRz-RM

Cricket

Nor are these three insects the only ones we hear these steamy days and nights.  Rubbing a hind leg against one of its hard front wings, a grasshopper also makes sounds, and for the same purpose: courting and mating.  

It’s a buzzy, chirpy world out there during these “bug days of summer.”  But as temperatures drop, the seasonal sounds lessen and are usually gone by October.  It's sad.

Katydid

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