[1]

A cymbal skitters over a powwow chant.  The intonations of the Cree language create a staccato soundscape. Artist Jordan Bennett adorns skateboard decks with traditional beadwork. (1) Dylan Miner is adding painted hides to bikes which are lowriders. Beat Nation , an art exhibition and website, showcases works from Vancouver’s Indigenous art scene. [2] 

The (3) works fusing graffiti, b-boying, MCing, and other hip-hop art forms with traditional Native culture. [A] The artists strive not only to challenge stereotypes but also to provide a new lens for young people to explore their Indigenous roots.

[2]

Tania Willard, Beat Nation’s cofounder, traces the show’s origins back to a (4) powwow she attended in the 1990s. Standing amongst drummers from Canada’s Secwepemc nation, an Indigenous break-dancing crew six-stepped and moonwalked to the rhythms of traditional hand drums. For Willard, the powwow represented the culmination of a generational trend. Throughout the 1990s, many Indigenous young people left Canada’s rural territories for Vancouver’s city streets. There, (5) in Vancouver, they discovered hip-hop and used it as a means of self-expression. [B] In 2006, Willard began highlighting their talents by (6) promoting their work.

[3]

The website took off, (7) becoming a hub of Indigenous culture while also broadcasting political messages. (8) However, on the site, MC Geronimo Inutiq raps about pollution that has affected Indigenous territories. [C] Corey Bulpitt, a graffiti artist, (9) to spraypaint traditional Haida imagery in his mural Raven, located in downtown Vancouver. On the Beat Nation website, (10) Bulpitt explains, that the mural expresses how Haida natives have reclaimed space within the cityscape.

[4]

Selected artworks from the Beat Nation site (11) has been shown in Vancouver’s Grunt Gallery, (12) in Musée d’Art Contemporain in Montreal, and Toronto’s Power Plant. [D] The artists in Beat Nation continue to spread their message by collaborating with Idle No More, (13) a political group promoting Indigenous rights. “We’re not idle anymore,” Inutiq (14) muses. “We’re agents of change.”

Red-eyed tree frogs (Agalychnis callidryas) lay their eggs in clutches, gelatinous sacs of dozens of eggs, on tree leaves that dangle over ponds and swamps. Mature tadpoles hatch in six to eight days, gently dropping into the water. Though the egg clutches are safer when stuck to (16) a leaf, than they would be drifting in a pond snakes can find and eat them. Fortunately, the clutches have a defense. As a snake attacks an A. callidryas egg clutch, the tadpoles that haven’t been harmed hatch prematurely. (17) As early as four days into development, the tadpoles can burst out of their eggs to swim away.

(18) Biologist, Karen Warkentin, wanted to determine why the egg clutches react to being shaken and tugged during a snake (19) attack they rarely react to being jostled during a rainstorm. She inserted devices called accelerometers, (20) which measure and record the frequency of vibrations, into egg clutches at Ocelot Pond, near Gamboa, Panama. Her recordings revealed that a snake attack and a rainstorm each cause sustained low-frequency vibrations of the egg clutch. However, (21) it also showed that a rainstorm usually (22) produces short periods of significantly higher-frequency vibrations. (23) While these interruptions are nearly absent from the vibrations caused by a snake attack.

Bringing (24) the recordings back to her lab at Boston University, (25) Warkentin’s simulation of the snake-attack vibrations and the rainstorm vibrations on several four-day-old egg clutches. Most eggs in the clutches that (26) occupied only low-frequency vibrations hatched.

But few eggs in the clutches that were exposed to low-frequency vibrations combined with periods of high-frequency vibrations hatched. The periods of high-frequency vibrations that (27) occurs during a (28) rainstorm, however, seem to signal safety to A. callidryas egg clutches. Given that premature tadpoles risk predation (29) by fish or shrimp, needlessly hatching early is dangerous. Warkentin has shown that the egg clutches have a complex, nearly perfectly controlled way to avoid false (30) alarms.

Maryam Mirzakhani believes the beauty of mathematics only shows itself to patient followers. Few have followed math more patiently than she has. In 2014, at age thirty-seven, Iranian-born Mirzakhani became the first (31) woman, to win the Fields Medal math’s most prestigious prize. Her research focus, (32) highly abstract, theoretical problems relating to geometry, is so imaginative and astonishingly complex that (33) they defy explanation even to many practiced mathematicians.

Mirzakhani’s thinking about her mathematical research is as imaginative as the problems she challenges herself to solve. She compares her work to that of a writer crafting a novel. To her, math research is a slow, steady process of watching characters evolve.

Mirzakhani studies the geometry of curved (34) surfaces. Her characters are spheres, doughnut-shaped objects, and wavering planes. (35) Monotonous, playful drawings of these curved forms, interspersed with equations and (36) mathematical notes, cover huge sheets of white paper spread out over her office floor.

(37) While her young daughter, Anahita, often watches on, Mirzakhani can visualize that her first impression of a character was wrong or that two seemingly opposing characters are connected.

Like a writer (38) who believes strong characters will act (39) with accord to their natures as a story unfolds, Mirzakhani tries not to predict what connections her shapes and equations will make next. This approach (40) has helped her find solutions so clear and elegant that her colleagues refer to (41) this as profound events in math.

Over several years, she (42) felt optimistic as she got to know her characters better, finally seeing them clearly.

(43) Secondly, a few particularly labyrinthine plots have played out before Mirzakhani for over a decade. In 2014, researchers across the discipline (44) has been wondering what new mathematical tales (45) the Stanford professor and Fields medalist would conceptualize next. And what beautiful solutions she would slowly find.

My mom and (46) I, both Michigan-born have been stargazing together since I was a toddler. I learned the names of major constellations long before I could write my own name. Every year, we spend warm August nights lounging in our (47) yard each summer, gazing skyward in awe as the Perseid meteors (48) trickle across the dark sky. So, when the nearby Headlands area was designated an International Dark Sky Park (a title recognizing the area’s extraordinarily clear view of the starry night skies), we had to pay it a visit.

(49) That such a park existed just a few miles from our home in Petoskey was incredibly fortunate, we knew. 

(50) The designation is granted by an organization committed to protecting natural darkness from artificial light pollution, the status of Dark Sky Park has been conferred on only a select few places around the world. To justify the designation, (51) likewise, experts must measure the amount of light in the area and from neighboring light sources. This inspection serves to ensure there is little to no interference (52) among the nighttime view of the skies from the park.

[1] Driving into the park at sunset, we were greeted by acres of trees silhouetted in the fading light. [2] our sleeping bags. [3] Bats flitted through the (53) air, and leaves rustled in the breeze as we walked along the rocky shoreline of Lake Michigan. [4] I told Mom I hoped we’d sight the northern lights, despite an unlikely forecast. [5] Eagerly, (54) me and her waited, the two of us peering into the heavens as the sky darkened and stars began to appear. [55]

“There’s Cygnus,” I murmured, pointing out the bright (56) constellation that resembles a flying swan, its neck and wings, outstretched. Mom easily spotted Draco, the dragon, her favorite constellation, even though it’s composed of relatively dim stars.

We made a game of (57) it; each of us taking turns identifying stars, constellations, and planets (58) as the night did what it does. The wide, starry swath of the Milky Way reflecting in the calm waters before us, we fell asleep, (59) dreaming of sparkling skies.

[1]

“This is not live! Ladies and gentlemen, Army did not score again!” declared the television (61) announcer during the 1963 Army-Navy football game. Army’s quarterback had just carried the ball over the goal line (62) to score a one-yard touchdown. Fans in the stands saw the touchdown only once. Fans watching the telecast, however, were astounded as they witnessed the play twice, thanks to the first instant (63) replay, in this case a touchdown, in a live event.

[2]

Responsible for this innovation (64) Tony Verna, a television sports broadcaster and director of the Army- Navy game. Often bored by the lag time in between plays, Verna had toyed with the idea of (65) filling them with replays of what had occurred on the field. He wanted to rerun footage of important, extraordinary, or controversial plays. [A] The replays could be from different vantage points or in slow motion. Above all, he wanted the replay to be broadcast immediately.

[3]

(66) Verna authored several books about his broadcasting career. Videotapes could not be cued precisely; there was no way to find a particular moment in the footage. 

(67) Verna’s use of a system of multiple videotape decks, solved this problem. [B] At the (68) start and stop of each play, he would transmit beeps to an unused audio track on the recording. These beeps would (69) bookmark moments of action. Verna could then rewind the tape, listen for the beeps, and restart the play at the chosen spot.

[4]

Instant replay became a fixture in (70) football, it changed the way games are officiated and watched. Fractions of seconds can be slowed down and analyzed. [C] An official who rules that a running back (71) took the ball into the end zone might have his call reversed when the replay shows the back was stopped just short. Fans (72) really feel a part of the whole deal, making their own judgments about whether (73) the wide receivers foot was in bounds after he caught a pass. Instant replay reveals the truth that cannot always be perceived by the human eye in real time. And, (74) it has potential, the outcome of the game—or even a season—is altered. [D]