#natur

Perfect hexagonal tubes in a packed array. Bees are hard-wired to lay them down, but how does an insect know enough geometry to lay down a precise hexagon? It doesn't. It's programmed to chew up wax and spit it out while turning on its axis, and that generates a circle. Put a bunch of bees on the same surface, chewing side-by-side, and the circles abut against each other - deform each other into hexagons, which just happen to be more efficient for close packing anyway. ↗

— Peter Watts

#geometry #nature #nature-s-grandeur #nature

Of all the forces in the universe, the hardest to overcome is the force of habit. ↗

— Terry Pratchett

#humor #nature

He tousled Baby's hair, then looked up at Tiger Lily. "The woods have rules." He put Baby down gingerly in his trough with his bottle. "But the rules are ugly." "It's nature," she said, thoughtfully. "I have a lot of disagreements with nature," he said, looking confused, and his downy brow wrinkled over his eyes. ↗

— Jodi Lynn Anderson

#peter-pan #rules #tiger-lily #nature

When two creatures meet, the one that is able to intimidate its opponent is recognized as socially superior, so that a social decision does not always depend on a fight; an encounter in some circumstances may be enough. ↗

— Hediger

#philosophy #thought #nature

those which are produced from causes are not produced. they do not have an inherent nature of production. those which depend on causes are said to be empty; those who know emptiness are aware. ↗

— Gautama Buddha

#anavataptanagarajapariprchchha #king #nagas #questions #sutra

Spiders don't chew. They send a special liquid into their prey. The prey's insides turn to mush. Then the spider sucks up its tasty lunch! ↗

— Julie Murphy

#arachnids #children-s-books #nature #spider #nature

If nonsatiety were the natural state of human nature then aggressive want-stimulating advertising would not be necessary, nor would the barrage of novelty aimed at promoting dissatisfaction with last year's model. The system attempts to remake people to fit its own presuppositions. If people's wants are not naturally insatiable we must make them so, in order to keep the system going. ↗

— Herman E. Daly

#consumerism #desire #economics #nature

. Cold Mountain . . . soared in his mind as a place where all his scattered forces might gather. Inman did not consider himself to be a superstitious person, but he did believe that there is a world invisible to us. He no longer thought of that world as heaven, nor did he still think that we get to go there when we die. Those teachings had been burned away. But he could not abide by a universe composed only of what he could see, especially when it was so frequently foul. ↗

— Charles Frazier-Cold Mountain

#mountain #nature #war #love

Habits and customs are a convenience devised for the support of timid natures who dare not allow their souls free play. ↗

— Virginia Woolf

#habit #nature

Trees quiver in the wind, sailing on a sea of mist out of earshot. ↗

— Dag Hammarskjöld

#nature #nature