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Reuters/Handout
| March of the Penguins is a good movie to see during this summer's heat wave by yourself or with children. It is a documentary that holds your attention.
Emperor Penguins(see left) travel 70 miles from the ocean in minus 50 degree weather(can get as low as minus 128) with ferocious winds and snow to reach their breeding ground. From the ocean, they walk slowly, almost in a snail's pace, or occasionally slide on their bellies.
This 70 mile trek takes place in Antarctica: the most uninhabitable place on earth. Antarctica is the place they are born, select a mate, then mate; then, the female lays an egg, transfers it to the male; occasionally it doesn't work; the egg breaks in the cold.
If the egg breaks, the relationship ends. No messing around, no apologies, going for counseling, nothing. It is over. Next case.
If the transfer of the egg is successful, the male keeps it and takes charge using his body heat to protect the egg until it hatches.
After transfer of the egg to the male, the female heads back to the ocean(back 70 miles) to obtain food for the soon to be hatched egg. The male goes without food for three or four months waiting for the female to return. Keep in mind all the mating, laying the egg, and transferring the egg, takes place at the end of the 70 mile trek.
The female's trip is laborious. Traveling back from her breeding ground (70 miles), the female leaps into the ocean.(Occasionally she is eaten by a seal). After she gets plenty of food; and, after a couple of months, she heads back across the 70 miles under the most extreme and unbelievable conditions. She finally gets back, just in time, to feed the youngster, who is really hungry. Up until this time, the baby penquin only gets some nourishment from a special gland in the mouth of the father, mind you, on a one time basis. Are you getting all this?
Nature is wonderful.
Amazing is more like it. Question: How do they find the specific mate over and over? The penguins only mate once a year, but keep the specific mate for this one year. The youngsters grow; and, finally, the trek begins back to the ocean; where, get this, they abandon their young. Maybe a better way to say it is they "let go." Pretty soon, these youngsters go into the water themselves. Five years later, the process of trekking the 70 miles for a mate starts again. Fascinating movie. See it.____ Majorie O'Keefe |
 |  Recently, I read this big article in the New York Times Magazine that cleared up a mystery to me.
The question: How do the Republicans constantly beat the Democrats on the issues? Simple! They know how to frame the issues. They don't deal directly with social issues like abortion, etc., rather they talk about family values. The Republicans took a guy like John Kerry and framed his hero status in Vietnam into a kind of tangled mess of contradiction using the Swift Boat Veterans.
According to the article, "framing" is choosing language to define an issue and fitting that into a broader story.
For instance, The Republicans will not talk about abortion, they will frame it and talk about destroying life through partial birth abortion and the broader context of the sanctity of life. Makes sense because Americans, by in large, are gullible and believe most anything the media portrays. And, now you know.____KT |
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