なぜセミの逃げ足が速くなったか (Why Cicadas Fly Away So Quickly These Days?)

　先般、近くの鈴の宮公園で見たアブラゼミが、みな逃げ足の速かったことを書いた（8月3日付け）。その後、その原因が分かったような気がした。カラスが盛んにセミを襲っているのを見たのである。

　写真は、さる8月16日、同じ公園でサクラの木の地面にごく近いところに止まっていたアブラゼミを撮ったもの。8月も半ばになると、当地ではクマゼミに劣らない数のアブラゼミを見受ける。

The other day, I wrote about the quick flying away of all the cicadas of species called large brown cicada I saw in Suzunomiya Park nearby (see the article of August 3). Thereafter, I found the possible reason of such behavior of them: I saw crows chasing cicadas near the top of trees.

The photo shows the cicada that rested near the ground of a cherry tree in the same park on August 16. In the mid-August, the number of large brown cicadas we see here becomes comparable to or larger than that of the cicadas of species Cryptotympana facialis.

From tweets of yesterday (edited by rephrasing, additions, etc.)

About Mathematics

"Step 1: Post elusive proof. Step 2: Watch fireworks," Debate over P vs NP proof highlights Web collaboration. NYTimes (http://nyti.ms/baP9mh).*

About Peace and Politics

"The A-bombed country's moral responsibility: To seek withdrawal from the 'nuclear umbrella'," Kenzaburo Oe, Asahi Shimbun, August 17.

『被爆国の道義的責任とは何か：「核の傘」離脱求めてこそ』大江健三郎、朝日新聞、8月17日付け見出し。本文は彼独特の回りくどい表現で記されており、ツイッターに引用すべき簡潔明瞭な文は見当たらない。

About Physicists

[Retweet of Italia_Notizie's words] "Morto fisico Nicola Cabibbo," Corriere della Sera "ROMA - E' morto questa sera a Roma il fisico Nicola Cabibbo (The physicist Nicola Cabibbo died this evening). . ." (http://bit.ly/dvtEvs).

[In reply to chiamai's words, "Cabibbo–Kobayashi–Maskawa matrix http://bit.ly/9YqUv6"] Yes, I knew the name of Cabibbo by Cabibbo–Kobayashi–Maskawa matrix. It's sad that the Nobel Prize committee failed to reward him.

[Retweet of PhysicsNews's words] Interview with Newton Medal winner Professor Edward Witten (http://goo.gl/fb/FTxgb). (Retweeted by fermin771009)

About Physics

[Retweet of jonmbutterworth's words with an addition] "Into the unknown," First LHC paper to probe beyond the Standard Model (http://bit.ly/9HJPLx) ". . . four pages of physics, 15 pages of authors and acknowledgments!" (Got words of thanks from jonmbutterworth for this retweet.)

Humor

[Joking reply to CatherineQ's joking words: What day is it? Where am I? Who am I?] It's today. You are there. You are you.

[From CatherineQ] That seems very simple – I think I can handle that.

____________________

* The following is a conversation about this piece of news at the Web site Facebook.

[Sarah Kavassalis's words citing "Morto il fisico Nicola Cabibbo" from Corriere della Sera] R.I.P. Nicola Cabibbo. He just received ICTP's Dirac Prize too . . .

[I wrote after clicking the "Like" button of Sarah's message:] To push "Like" button may be a strange action for the sad news, but I like that you cited the article of Corriere della Sera.

[Sarah's reply] Yeah, I understand. "Like" really doesn't seem like the most universal button they could have chosen.