iPhone backgrounds + the creative initiative + batesian mimicry

Hi darlings! How's your Saturday going? Unfortunately, I had a terrible day yesterday that was filled with anxiety, but I've decided that today's going to be better. Actually, I only found out you could do that a little while ago. That I can decide when I have a good day. Have you ever tried that?

Anyways, I plan on having a great day. I've got some tutoring this morning, which I enjoy (yes, really) and then I'm going to a consignment sale later today.

A few weeks ago, I saw that Lena from This Lovely Little Day was hosting a linkup called The Creative Initiative. Basically, she gives a theme for the week + you can link up anything related to the theme that shows how you were creative this week. Mostly that means sketchbooks + things like that, but unfortunately, I'm poop with a pencil or brush. But I wanted to be part of it, so I asked Lena if I could make a sort of digital sketchbook and she said yes! So here are my "sketches" this week on the theme of dreams.

You can click either of them to download. The easiest way (on an iPhone) is to go to this URL on Safari and tap the iPhone. Then hold on the wallpaper image and tap save to camera roll.

I hope you enjoy them and check out the linkup!

Science Bit of the Day:

Mimicry is when one species imitates another one (usually in appearance) in order to protect it in some way. For example, if one species exhibited coloration patterns that a predator recognized as a signal of a poisonous animal, another species might mimic those patterns so that they will not be threatened by the predator. This is called Batesian mimicry. One example of Batesian mimicry is the coral snake and the milk snake. The coral snake is a red, black and yellow striped snake with deadly venom, while the milk snake has the same colored striped but is harmless to humans. The first image shows a Red Milk Snake and the second shows an Eastern Coral Snake. You may have heard the phrase "red next to yellow will kill a fellow; red next to black means venom lack" that is often used by outdoorsmen to tell these two snakes apart.

(image courtesy of the West Texas Herpetological Society)

This kind of mimicry is named after the English naturalist Henry Walter Bates. To show his theories, he made a bunch of plates out of these two species of butterfly/mothy things. The Dismorphia species is on the first and third rows and the Nymphalidae species is on the second and fourth rows. 

Don't forget today is the last day of the ad sale! Get 20% one month with the code "HAPPYDAY" or get 3 months for the price of 2 with the code "IMANAWESOMEPERSON".

What are your dreams in life? And tell me mimicry isn't super cool!