An Ignoble Experiment: Baby turtles, wacky music and a seed-planting robot

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November 13, 2021

While I work, I often listen to Spotify's Feel Good Classical playlist (not to be confused with our Good Stuff Classical playlist, which can be found here). There's a great piece on it called "The Typewriter" by Leroy Anderson, in which an actual typewriter is "played" as a percussion instrument. It's fascinating and whimsical and perfect for a good mood. But it also got me thinking about other classical music pieces that feature strange "non-instruments" as instruments. There are so many! Here are just a few:

A Grand, Grand Overture by Malcom Arnold, which features three vacuum cleaners, a floor polisher and four rifles.

Child of Tree by John Cage, who was a master of experimental composition and used strange stuff as instruments all the time. This piece uses a cactus -- and it's not his only composition featuring one!

Poème Symphonique For 100 Metronomes by György Ligeti, which features, well ...take a guess.

The Helicopter String Quartet by Karlheinz Stockhausen, which involves each member of a (very brave) string quartet performing in a different helicopter.

It almost makes the cannons (and the BELL TOWER) in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture seem tame, doesn't it? Guess anything can be an instrument if you know how to use it!

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Photo courtesy Brightview Senior Living

A red, white and blue good time

Every year, the staff and residents at Brightview Senior Living in Annapolis, Maryland, plan a big Veteran's Day bash. Living Director Hillary Gibbons and Associate Lori Larussa are both proud children of Army veterans, and they know the 34 vets in their community deserve lots of love and recognition -- and a good time! This year, they went all out with a military ball-style event. The day started with a flag raising, of course, and the national anthem. Then came a recognition ceremony featuring the Young Marines, a choir singing Armed Forces music, and other military members paying their respects. That evening was the ball, complete with gowns, hair and makeup services, full regalia, special guests and a giant eagle ice sculpture! But one of the biggest highlights was a performance from Voices of Vets, a Baltimore-based performing group that provides live music all over the country for veterans' groups. "Oh, man, chills. This group was so wonderful," Gibbons told us. "After two years of not having events like these, what a way to celebrate, being together, listening to music, and dancing our pants off!"

Gone fishin'
It's a fact: If you live near Destin-Fort Walton Beach in Florida, you're either a fishing enthusiast or know someone who is. Eddie Morgan, owner of Harbor Docks, a beloved family-owned marina and seafood restaurant, has been sharing his love of fishing with community kids for years. Each November, he treats 300 children ages 7-13 to Take-a-Kid-Fishing Day, a tradition that his own father started 27 years ago. The group heads off on a flotilla of about 50 fishing boats for a day of sunshine, fishing, and local history. The trip is free, and kids get a fresh fish lunch and a fishing rod to take home. "We put a big emphasis on trying to get kids that otherwise might not have this opportunity," Morgan says. "We're in a resort town. There's plenty of people with money. So we try to get to the people who don't get this opportunity." With the support of the community, volunteers and donations, more than 7,000 children have learned to fish through the family's efforts.

Perfect form
"Dance is a purpose." That's the mantra that drives Musa Motha, a professional dancer from South Africa who lost his leg to cancer when he was a boy. From the moment he made the difficult decision to amputate, Motha said he wanted to live more positively. He soon discovered dance, and followed his purpose from a neighborhood street team all the way to South African TV ads, a Drake music video, and a spot at a prominent dance studio. When Motha dances, his mobility aids are a part of his art and grace. (I mean, just look at that gorgeous photograph!) Together, he and other South African performers with disabilities are hoping to open the stage to even more talented artists like them, who create beautiful art because of their differences -- not in spite of them. "I find that the most beautiful stories are after [the amputation]," Motha said. To others with disabilities, he says: "There's a whole lot of things that you can overcome that actually define how strong you are."

Raise a glass to...

Varatha Shanmuganathan, an 87-year-old grandmother of seven who just became the oldest person to earn a master's degree at Canada's York University. Born in Sri Lanka, in a small village called Velanai, Shanmuganathan found herself searching for answers and explanations regarding her country's 26-year civil war. Since then, she has nursed a hunger to study such political machinations at a higher level. "I always, in my heart and soul, have cherished and nourished peace, justice, equality and democracy," Shanmuganathan said. "I wanted to tell the story of my country loud and clear to every generation -- we should all yearn for peace." She began her studies in 2019 after learning that the university offered free tuition to senior citizens. This isn't Shanmuganathan's first master's degree, and she says she's not done sharing her story just yet.

A bright idea

A little robot that plants seeds in the desert, a mobile dialysis vehicle, a lamp that grows health algae, a microplastic filter: These are just some of the brilliant ideas on display at the annual Global Grad Show in Dubai. The international event, billed as the world's most diverse gathering of graduate design projects, aims to provide solutions to social and environmental issues. Some of the trends experts saw this year had to do with mental and physical health, and an even-increasing interest in climate and the environment. The little guy above is the aforementioned "A'seedbot," designed by Mazyar Etehadi at the Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation. The autonomous bot works on solar power, recharging during the day and moving on its 3D-printed legs by night, depositing seeds that could help introduce plant life into new areas.

You gotta see this

Go, baby turtles, and be free! About 3,000 baby river turtles native to the Amazon rainforest were released into a Peruvian river this week after being hatched on artificial beaches as part of a conservation effort. The turtles are considered "vulnerable" by conservation groups and are often killed or kept as pets. The area of the Amazon they call home is also under severe threat from environmental catastrophes, which is why solutions like artificial beaches are so important. Scientists hope this mass release of babies will help jump-start the species once again. People gathered in the city of Iquitos to see the baby turtles make their way down a river beach toward the water.

Heroes among us

CNN has chosen the top 10 CNN Heroes of 2021! For the next few weeks, we'll be highlighting each of these incredible people who are using their unique skills and experiences to make the world a better place. Voting is now open to determine the CNN Hero of the Year, so be sure to read about each one here and cast your vote before the big reveal in December! (PS -- You get 10 votes per day and can vote multiple days.)

Dr. Ala Stanford has been working to help underserved neighborhoods in Philadelphia that have been devastated by the pandemic. Since April 2020, her organization, the Black Doctors Covid-19 Consortium, has offered PPE, testing kits, vaccinations and education to more than 75,000 community members. At one 24-hour "Vax-a-Thon" event, the group inoculated more than 4,000 people. Stanford's work extends past the pandemic. She wants to bring more attention to health inequity in general. Read Ala's story here.

Jenifer Colpas moved away from her native Colombia for her education and professional goals, but felt called back to do something about the rampant poverty facing so many Colombians. In 2015, with the help of friends, Colpas co-founded Tierra Grata. Today, the non-profit provides access to clean water, solar-powered lights and electricity along with eco-toilets and showers for remote rural communities throughout Colombia. Her group has helped improve the quality of life for more than 10,000 people. Read Jenifer's story here.

Hear, hear!

You deserve the compassion you extend to others.

- Maggie Smith, the poet and writer behind "Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity and Change." The success of the book led her to release a companion journal to help people cultivate hope and renewal. She has plenty of tips and inspiration for how to use journaling to help get through loss and uncertainty.

Who knew?

Your cat may care about you a little more than you think. Or, at least, they know how to keep tabs on you. A new study out of Japan found that a stationary cat can track its owner's location using audio cues -- specifically, the owner's voice. The leaders of the study set up areas in a home and at a cat café to see how cats responded to their owners' voices without visual cues. They piped voices through speakers instead, and found they reacted with surprise, through behaviors like ear and head movements, when their owners' voices seemed to "teleport" across the room. The conclusion? Cats have fairly good socio-spatial cognition, meaning they can mentally picture where others are through cues like sound.

Rec of the week

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Shameless animal video

There's always time for cute animal videos. That time is now.

A few weeks ago, we talked about singing lemurs. Now it's time for singing gibbons! Thank you to reader Shauna H, who suggested the idea after her trip to the Gibbon Conservation Center in California. Here, a baby gibbon joins in with its family for the first time. (Click here to view)