Co-founded by Cameron Weeks and Bracken Fields, Edify is a global communications company with the goal of making business communications as easy as personal ones

Edify

581 Stories To Learn About Non Fiction

Welcome, dear perusers, to an existence where coordinated effort and culture unite to open the maximum capacity of ! In this article, we welcome you to set out on an excursion where improvement and task groups combine efforts, convey flawlessly, and cultivate a culture that flashes development. In this way, get a cup of your #1 brew, get comfortable, and we should investigate the extraordinary force of cooperation in the domain of DevOps! DevOps In the speedy universe of programming improvement and tasks, the significance of correspondence and joint effort couldn't possibly be more significant. Customarily, advancement and activities groups worked in storehouses, causing rubbing, delays, and botched open doors. Nonetheless, the approach of DevOps has altered this scene. Separating Obstructions, Releasing Collaboration: The Force of Correspondence Powerful correspondence is the bedrock of effective coordinated effort. DevOps works with open channels of correspondence among improvement and tasks groups, encouraging straightforwardness, understanding, and shared objectives. Normal stand-ups, group gatherings, and electronic correspondence stages empower consistent data trade, guaranteeing everybody is in total agreement. Cooperation: An Ensemble of Ranges of abilities DevOps flourishes with cooperation, where the aggregate virtuoso of different ranges of abilities converges to make something exceptional. Engineers bring their coding ability, while activities groups bring their framework skill. By cooperating, they pool their assets, coming about in powerful, adaptable, and effective frameworks. Embracing Nonstop Improvement In the realm of DevOps, the way of life of ceaseless improvement rules. Cooperation urges groups to gain from one another's encounters, ponder disappointments, and celebrate triumphs. Through reviews, information sharing meetings, and mentorship, groups encourage a development outlook that drives them towards advancement and greatness. The Coordinated Benefit DevOps and Coordinated strategies remain closely connected, sharing a typical DNA of cooperation and versatility. Coordinated rehearses like runs, client stories, and iterative advancement normally line up with the cooperative idea of DevOps. Together, they establish a powerful climate that empowers fast reaction to change, abbreviates input circles, and energizes development. Mechanization: The Empowering influence of Joint effort Mechanization is the mysterious fixing that enables DevOps joint effort. Via computerizing redundant errands, groups can zero in on higher-esteem exercises and dedicate additional opportunity to joint effort, imagination, and critical thinking. Robotization instruments and systems smooth out processes, improve effectiveness, and let loose transmission capacity for cooperation. A Culture of Trust and Strengthening: DevOps flourishes in a culture of trust, where people are engaged to take possession, trial, and simply decide. Coordinated effort cultivates a feeling of shared liability, empowering groups to trust each other's skill. With trust as the establishment, advancement twists, and innovativeness blooms. Embracing Disappointment as a Venturing Stone In the realm of DevOps, disappointment isn't dreaded yet embraced as an impetus for development. Coordinated effort permits groups to gain from disappointments, recognize main drivers, and execute preventive measures. By embracing disappointment as a learning a valuable open door, groups develop a culture of flexibility, versatility, and nonstop improvement. Congrats, dear perusers, on leaving on this edifying excursion into the universe of cooperation and culture in DevOps! By stressing correspondence, separating obstructions, and encouraging a cooperative mentality, DevOps makes ready for development, effectiveness, and greatness. Keep in mind, coordinated effort isn't simply a necessary evil yet a lifestyle in the DevOps domain. Embrace open correspondence, share information, celebrate triumphs, and gain from disappointments. Together, let us make a culture that motivates, enables, and drives advancement in the consistently developing scene of programming improvement and tasks. We welcome you to share your considerations, get clarification on some pressing issues, and join the energetic local area of DevOps devotees. Together, we should fabricate spans, light development, and shape the fate of innovation — each cooperative move toward turn! Obviously! How about we jump further into the entrancing universe of joint effort and culture in DevOps. Cooperation Instruments In the domain of DevOps, different cooperation instruments assume a fundamental part in working with viable correspondence and collaboration. Instruments like Leeway, Microsoft Groups, and Atlassian Conjunction give stages to constant informing, record sharing, and coordinated effort on projects. Form control frameworks like Git empower consistent joint effort on code stores, permitting various engineers to cooperate proficiently. Cross-Utilitarian Groups DevOps advances the arrangement of cross-utilitarian groups where people from various disciplines work together intently. Designers, tasks engineers, quality confirmation analyzers, and different partners cooperate to convey worth to clients. This cross-fertilization of mastery encourages a comprehensive comprehension of the product advancement lifecycle, prompting further developed direction and smoothed out processes. Shared Liability One of the center standards of DevOps is the idea of shared liability. In a cooperative DevOps culture, groups by and large own the whole programming conveyance pipeline, from improvement to organization and upkeep. This common obligation urges people to help each other, advance information sharing, and separate the boundaries between customarily separate jobs. Nonstop Coordination and Ceaseless Arrangement (CI/Disc) Joint effort is vital in CI/Cd pipelines, which mechanize the form, testing, and arrangement of programming. Designers and activities engineers team up near guarantee that changes are coordinated without a hitch, tests are executed really, and organizations are consistent. The cooperative exertion in CI/Compact disc pipelines prompts quicker criticism circles, more limited discharge cycles, and greater programming. DevOps Measurements and Observing Cooperation isn't restricted to the turn of events and arrangement organizes yet stretches out into checking and recognizability. DevOps groups team up to characterize applicable measurements, set up observing apparatuses, and lay out alarming frameworks. By cooperating to screen the exhibition, accessibility, and security of frameworks, groups can proactively address issues, guarantee ideal client encounters, and drive persistent improvement. Constant Learning and Improvement A cooperative DevOps culture flourishes with ceaseless learning and improvement. Groups participate in customary reviews to consider their cycles, distinguish bottlenecks, and conceptualize arrangements. By empowering transparent correspondence, groups can use aggregate insight to refine their practices, explore different avenues regarding new innovations, and remain on the ball. Variety and Consideration Cooperation in DevOps is advanced by embracing variety and cultivating a comprehensive climate. Various foundations, points of view, and encounters carry new thoughts and inventive ways to deal with critical thinking. Developing a different and comprehensive culture cultivates imagination, sympathy, and reinforces the general group elements. Scaling Joint effort As associations develop, scaling joint effort becomes basic. DevOps accentuates the significance of scaling coordinated effort evenly and in an upward direction. Even scaling includes separating huge undertakings into more modest, cross-useful groups, while vertical scaling centers around adjusting groups across various offices and hierarchical levels. By scaling coordinated effort successfully, associations can keep up with readiness, diminish storehouses, and support a cooperative DevOps culture. In outline, joint effort and culture are the mainstays of outcome in the DevOps world. By utilizing coordinated effort devices, cultivating cross-useful groups, embracing shared liability, and advancing a culture of nonstop learning, associations can open development, smooth out cycles, and drive business development. In this way, embrace the soul of coordinated effort, clarify pressing issues, and leave on an excursion of investigation and change in the consistently developing domain of DevOps!

Building Scaffolds, Motivating Advancement: The Force of Cooperation and Culture in DevOps

Scientific American, Volume XXXVI., No. 8, February 24, 1877 by Various, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . The Frost Plant of Russia. here The Frost Plant of Russia. To the Editor of the Scientific American: Mr. Charles Williams, of Winoa, Ohio, has written a letter to that veteran botanist, Humphrey Marshall, of Chester county, Pa., on the subject of the abovenamed plant, and my opinion concerning it has been asked for. Seeds of this plant were obtained by citizens of Boston, who had snow brought from the White Mountains and from the coast of Labrador, and who stated that they have "now the most unbounded satisfaction and pleasure of announcing that all signs are favorable to the realization of their fondest hopes." This wonderful plant, it seems, was found amid the perpetual snows of the northern boundaries of Siberia, in 1863, by Count Swinoskoff, the eminent Russian botanist, and it was by him cultivated at St. Petersburgh. The account sent me is very vague, and is evidently not from the pen of a botanist. It is stated that it comes forth on the first day of the year, grows to the height of three feet, and flowers on the third day. It continues in bloom for twenty-four hours, then dissolves itself, being of the finest snow; it has a stalk one inch in diameter, and leaves, three in number, 1½ inches wide, covered with infinitesimal frost or snow cones. The flower is of the shape of a star, with petals 3 inches long and ½ inch wide at the broadest part, forming a basketwork of frost. The seeds are like a pin's head. This is about all that can be gleaned from the description, and is by no means satisfactory. Allow me to present my humble views of an analogous discovery of frostwork on December 6, 1856, in a sandy loam in Chester county, Pa., near the Paoli monument. In the of Philadelphia, then edited by J. Jay Smith (New Series, volume vii., page 73, 1857), an account was published of my observations then. These I have since more fully confirmed. The common dittany (cunila Mariana) is frequently met with in December, with the base of the stem surrounded with shellwork of ice, of a pearly whiteness. Dr. Darlington, in his "Flora Cestrica" published in 1853, page 199, under the article cunila, observes: "In the beginning of winter, after a rain, very curious ribbons of ice may be observed, attached to the base of the stems, produced, I presume, by the moisture of the earth rising in the dead stems by capillary attraction, and then being gradually forced out horizontally, through a slit, by the process of freezing. The same phenomenon has been observed in other plants. See observations on , page 27." Had the doctor given a more extended investigation, I fancy he would have agreed with me as to the cause. I found hundreds of diversified specimens. I am not aware that it was after a rain, but I took up a number of the plants, and always found a vigorous scaly root bud, undergoing development at this early season under ground, to produce a new stem the following spring. I came to the conclusion that, as the temperature was below freezing and snow was on the ground, the expanding bud, in close proximity to the surface, gave out sufficient caloric or warmth to generate vapor from the moist soil. This vapor rising around the stem of the plant, and attracted by it, becomes congealed into what we term hoar-frost, in numerous forms; some like shellwork, others like tulips, with radiated petals, variously contorted, and often as symmetrical as snowflake crystals. Horticultural Journal helianthemum That plants in germinating have the power of generating heat was proved by Mr. Hunter and by Lamarck. Experiments of Hales and Du Hamel show that vegetation is not wholly suspended, however cold it may be; and that there is a regular and gradual progress till the returning warmth of spring gives a greater degree of velocity to the juices, rendering their development more vigorous and apparent. If the crystallization takes place when the air is calm, the crystals will be regularly formed; otherwise, when windy, I have seen them like a shell within a shell, very thin, of a pearly whiteness. Professor Tyndall has shown in a very beautiful manner that ice is but an agglomeration of snow crystals: the transparency of the former being due to the expulsion of the air, entrapped in and causing the whiteness and opacity of the latter. There is a formation called the snow plant of California, which arises to some height, and has been compared to various things, a fountain convoluted and enlarged above, a crystallized small bushy shrub, etc.; but on closer inquiry, I have failed as yet to get any definite ideas to its true character. Some bulbs in the soil might cause such formations by the congelation of vapor deposited successively upon itself, or the stems of the previous year's growth yet remaining, and thus give them a sheathing of frosting. The shape of a star is common in snow crystals, which we all know assume the most beautiful forms, and which are illustrated in various publications. The eminent botanist Count Swinoskoff should give us some clue as to the genus or character of the plant, the flower of which, we are told, melted away on being touched, and as to the stamens, the diamond seeds like a pin's head, etc. The whole needs further explanation. I trust those Bostonians who are in such hope will edify the public as to the final result of their experiment. What has that veteran in botany, Dr. Asa Gray, to say about it? Let some one well qualified tell us more about this frost flower of Russia. J. Stauffer. Lancaster, Pa. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Various (2006). Scientific American, Volume XXXVI., No. 8, February 24, 1877. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/19406/pg19406-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

The Frost Plant of Russia

On the 15th May Cavalier set out from Tarnac

The Golden Road by L. M. Montgomery, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . PEG BOWEN COMES TO CHURCH CHAPTER XXI. PEG BOWEN COMES TO CHURCH When those of us who are still left of that band of children who played long years ago in the old orchard and walked the golden road together in joyous companionship, foregather now and again in our busy lives and talk over the events of those many merry moons—there are some of our adventures that gleam out more vividly in memory than the others, and are oftener discussed. The time we bought God’s picture from Jerry Cowan—the time Dan ate the poison berries—the time we heard the ghostly bell ring—the bewitchment of Paddy—the visit of the Governor’s wife—and the night we were lost in the storm—all awaken reminiscent jest and laughter; but none more than the recollection of the Sunday Peg Bowen came to church and sat in our pew. Though goodness knows, as Felicity would say, we did not think it any matter for laughter at the time—far from it. It was one Sunday evening in July. Uncle Alec and Aunt Janet, having been out to the morning service, did not attend in the evening, and we small fry walked together down the long hill road, wearing Sunday attire and trying, more or less successfully, to wear Sunday faces also. Those walks to church, through the golden completeness of the summer evenings, were always very pleasant to us, and we never hurried, though, on the other hand, we were very careful not to be late. This particular evening was particularly beautiful. It was cool after a hot day, and wheat fields all about us were ripening to their harvestry. The wind gossiped with the grasses along our way, and over them the buttercups danced, goldenly-glad. Waves of sinuous shadow went over the ripe hayfields, and plundering bees sang a freebooting lilt in wayside gardens. “The world is so lovely tonight,” said the Story Girl. “I just hate the thought of going into the church and shutting all the sunlight and music outside. I wish we could have the service outside in summer.” “I don’t think that would be very religious,” said Felicity. “I’d feel ever so much more religious outside than in,” retorted the Story Girl. “If the service was outside we’d have to sit in the graveyard and that wouldn’t be very cheerful,” said Felix. “Besides, the music isn’t shut out,” added Felicity. “The choir is inside.” “‘Music has charms to soothe a savage breast,’” quoted Peter, who was getting into the habit of adorning his conversation with similar gems. “That’s in one of Shakespeare’s plays. I’m reading them now, since I got through with the Bible. They’re great.” “I don’t see when you get time to read them,” said Felicity. “Oh, I read them Sunday afternoons when I’m home.” “I don’t believe they’re fit to read on Sundays,” exclaimed Felicity. “Mother says Valeria Montague’s stories ain’t.” “But Shakespeare’s different from Valeria,” protested Peter. “I don’t see in what way. He wrote a lot of things that weren’t true, just like Valeria, and he wrote swear words too. Valeria never does that. Her characters all talk in a very refined fashion.” “Well, I always skip the swear words,” said Peter. “And Mr. Marwood said once that the Bible and Shakespeare would furnish any library well. So you see he put them together, but I’m sure that he would never say that the Bible and Valeria would make a library.” “Well, all I know is, I shall never read Shakespeare on Sunday,” said Felicity loftily. “I wonder what kind of a preacher young Mr. Davidson is,” speculated Cecily. “Well, we’ll know when we hear him tonight,” said the Story Girl. “He ought to be good, for his uncle before him was a fine preacher, though a very absent-minded man. But Uncle Roger says the supply in Mr. Marwood’s vacation never amounts to much. I know an awfully funny story about old Mr. Davidson. He used to be the minister in Baywater, you know, and he had a large family and his children were very mischievous. One day his wife was ironing and she ironed a great big nightcap with a frill round it. One of the children took it when she wasn’t looking and hid it in his father’s best beaver hat—the one he wore on Sundays. When Mr. Davidson went to church next Sunday he put the hat on without ever looking into the crown. He walked to church in a brown study and at the door he took off his hat. The nightcap just slipped down on his head, as if it had been put on, and the frill stood out around his face and the string hung down his back. But he never noticed it, because his thoughts were far away, and he walked up the church aisle and into the pulpit, like that. One of his elders had to tiptoe up and tell him what he had on his head. He plucked it off in a dazed fashion, held it up, and looked at it. ‘Bless me, it is Sally’s nightcap!’ he exclaimed mildly. ‘I do not know how I could have got it on.’ Then he just stuffed it into his pocket calmly and went on with the service, and the long strings of the nightcap hung down out of his pocket all the time.” “It seems to me,” said Peter, amid the laughter with which we greeted the tale, “that a funny story is funnier when it is about a minister than it is about any other man. I wonder why.” “Sometimes I don’t think it is right to tell funny stories about ministers,” said Felicity. “It certainly isn’t respectful.” “A good story is a good story—no matter who it’s about,” said the Story Girl with ungrammatical relish. There was as yet no one in the church when we reached it, so we took our accustomed ramble through the graveyard surrounding it. The Story Girl had brought flowers for her mother’s grave as usual, and while she arranged them on it the rest of us read for the hundredth time the epitaph on Great-Grandfather King’s tombstone, which had been composed by Great-Grandmother King. That epitaph was quite famous among the little family traditions that entwine every household with mingled mirth and sorrow, smiles and tears. It had a perennial fascination for us and we read it over every Sunday. Cut deeply in the upright slab of red Island sandstone, the epitaph ran as follows:— SWEET DEPARTED SPIRIT Do receive the vows a grateful widow pays, Each future day and night shall hear her speak her Isaac’s praise. Though thy beloved form must in the grave decay Yet from her heart thy memory no time, no change shall steal away. Do thou from mansions of eternal bliss Remember thy distressed relict. Look on her with an angel’s love— Soothe her sad life and cheer her end Through this world’s dangers and its griefs. Then meet her with thy well-known smiles and welcome At the last great day. “Well, I can’t make out what the old lady was driving at,” said Dan. “That’s a nice way to speak of your great-grandmother,” said Felicity severely. “How does The Family Guide say you ought to speak of your great-grandma, sweet one?” asked Dan. “There is one thing about it that puzzles me,” remarked Cecily. “She calls herself a GRATEFUL widow. Now, what was she grateful for?” “Because she was rid of him at last,” said graceless Dan. “Oh, it couldn’t have been that,” protested Cecily seriously. “I’ve always heard that Great-Grandfather and Great-Grandmother were very much attached to each other.” “Maybe, then, it means she was grateful that she’d had him as long as she did,” suggested Peter. “She was grateful to him because he had been so kind to her in life, I think,” said Felicity. “What is a ‘distressed relict’?” asked Felix. “‘Relict’ is a word I hate,” said the Story Girl. “It sounds so much like relic. Relict means just the same as widow, only a man can be a relict, too.” “Great-Grandmother seemed to run short of rhymes at the last of the epitaph,” commented Dan. “Finding rhymes isn’t as easy as you might think,” avowed Peter, out of his own experience. “I think Grandmother King intended the last of the epitaph to be in blank verse,” said Felicity with dignity. There was still only a sprinkling of people in the church when we went in and took our places in the old-fashioned, square King pew. We had just got comfortably settled when Felicity said in an agitated whisper, “Here is Peg Bowen!” We all stared at Peg, who was pacing composedly up the aisle. We might be excused for so doing, for seldom were the decorous aisles of Carlisle church invaded by such a figure. Peg was dressed in her usual short drugget skirt, rather worn and frayed around the bottom, and a waist of brilliant turkey red calico. She wore no hat, and her grizzled black hair streamed in elf locks over her shoulders. Face, arms and feet were bare—and face, arms and feet were liberally powdered with FLOUR. Certainly no one who saw Peg that night could ever forget the apparition. Peg’s black eyes, in which shone a more than usually wild and fitful light, roved scrutinizingly over the church, then settled on our pew. “She’s coming here,” whispered Felicity in horror. “Can’t we spread out and make her think the pew is full?” But the manoeuvre was too late. The only result was that Felicity and the Story Girl in moving over left a vacant space between them and Peg promptly plumped down in it. “Well, I’m here,” she remarked aloud. “I did say once I’d never darken the door of Carlisle church again, but what that boy there”—nodding at Peter—“said last winter set me thinking, and I concluded maybe I’d better come once in a while, to be on the safe side.” Those poor girls were in an agony. Everybody in the church was looking at our pew and smiling. We all felt that we were terribly disgraced; but we could do nothing. Peg was enjoying herself hugely, beyond all doubt. From where she sat she could see the whole church, including pulpit and gallery, and her black eyes darted over it with restless glances. “Bless me, there’s Sam Kinnaird,” she exclaimed, still aloud. “He’s the man that dunned Jacob Marr for four cents on the church steps one Sunday. I heard him. ‘I think, Jacob, you owe me four cents on that cow you bought last fall. Rec’llect you couldn’t make the change?’ Well, you know, ‘twould a-made a cat laugh. The Kinnairds were all mighty close, I can tell you. That’s how they got rich.” What Sam Kinnaird felt or thought during this speech, which everyone in the church must have heard, I know not. Gossip had it that he changed colour. We wretched occupants of the King pew were concerned only with our own outraged feelings. “And there’s Melita Ross,” went on Peg. “She’s got the same bonnet on she had last time I was in Carlisle church six years ago. Some folks has the knack of making things last. But look at the style Mrs. Elmer Brewer wears, will yez? Yez wouldn’t think her mother died in the poor-house, would yez, now?” Poor Mrs. Brewer! From the tip of her smart kid shoes to the dainty cluster of ostrich tips in her bonnet—she was most immaculately and handsomely arrayed; but I venture to think she could have taken small pleasure in her fashionable attire that evening. Some of the unregenerate, including Dan, were shaking with suppressed laughter, but most of the people looked as if they were afraid to smile, lest their turn should come next. “There’s old Stephen Grant coming in,” exclaimed Peg viciously, shaking her floury fist at him, “and looking as if butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. He may be an elder, but he’s a scoundrel just the same. He set fire to his house to get the insurance and then blamed ME for doing it. But I got even with him for it. Oh, yes! He knows that, and so do I! He, he!” Peg chuckled quite fiendishly and Stephen Grant tried to look as if nothing had been said. “Oh, will the minister never come?” moaned Felicity in my ear. “Surely she’ll have to stop then.” But the minister did not come and Peg had no intention of stopping. “There’s Maria Dean.” she resumed. “I haven’t seen Maria for years. I never call there for she never seems to have anything to eat in the house. She was a Clayton and the Claytons never could cook. Maria sorter looks as if she’d shrunk in the wash, now, don’t she? And there’s Douglas Nicholson. His brother put rat poison in the family pancakes. Nice little trick that, wasn’t it? They say it was by mistake. I hope it WAS a mistake. His wife is all rigged out in silk. Yez wouldn’t think to look at her she was married in cotton—and mighty thankful to get married in anything, it’s my opinion. There’s Timothy Patterson. He’s the meanest man alive—meaner’n Sam Kinnaird even. Timothy pays his children five cents apiece to go without their suppers, and then steals the cents out of their pockets after they’ve gone to bed. It’s a fact. And when his old father died he wouldn’t let his wife put his best shirt on him. He said his second best was plenty good to be buried in. That’s another fact.” “I can’t stand much more of this,” wailed Felicity. “See here, Miss Bowen, you really oughtn’t to talk like that about people,” expostulated Peter in a low tone, goaded thereto, despite his awe of Peg, by Felicity’s anguish. “Bless you, boy,” said Peg good-humouredly, “the only difference between me and other folks is that I say these things out loud and they just think them. If I told yez all the things I know about the people in this congregation you’d be amazed. Have a peppermint?” To our horror Peg produced a handful of peppermint lozenges from the pocket of her skirt and offered us one each. We did not dare refuse but we each held our lozenge very gingerly in our hands. “Eat them,” commanded Peg rather fiercely. “Mother doesn’t allow us to eat candy in church,” faltered Felicity. “Well, I’ve seen just as fine ladies as your ma give their children lozenges in church,” said Peg loftily. She put a peppermint in her own mouth and sucked it with gusto. We were relieved, for she did not talk during the process; but our relief was of short duration. A bevy of three very smartly dressed young ladies, sweeping past our pew, started Peg off again. “Yez needn’t be so stuck up,” she said, loudly and derisively. “Yez was all of yez rocked in a flour barrel. And there’s old Henry Frewen, still above ground. I called my parrot after him because their noses were exactly alike. Look at Caroline Marr, will yez? That’s a woman who’d like pretty well to get married, And there’s Alexander Marr. He’s a real Christian, anyhow, and so’s his dog. I can always size up what a man’s religion amounts to by the kind of dog he keeps. Alexander Marr is a good man.” It was a relief to hear Peg speak well of somebody; but that was the only exception she made. “Look at Dave Fraser strutting in,” she went on. “That man has thanked God so often that he isn’t like other people that it’s come to be true. He isn’t! And there’s Susan Frewen. She’s jealous of everybody. She’s even jealous of Old Man Rogers because he’s buried in the best spot in the graveyard. Seth Erskine has the same look he was born with. They say the Lord made everybody but I believe the devil made all the Erskines.” “She’s getting worse all the time. What WILL she say next?” whispered poor Felicity. But her martyrdom was over at last. The minister appeared in the pulpit and Peg subsided into silence. She folded her bare, floury arms over her breast and fastened her black eyes on the young preacher. Her behaviour for the next half-hour was decorum itself, save that when the minister prayed that we might all be charitable in judgment Peg ejaculated “Amen” several times, loudly and forcibly, somewhat to the discomfiture of the Young man, to whom Peg was a stranger. He opened his eyes, glanced at our pew in a startled way, then collected himself and went on. Peg listened to the sermon, silently and motionlessly, until Mr. Davidson was half through. Then she suddenly got on her feet. “This is too dull for me,” she exclaimed. “I want something more exciting.” Mr. Davidson stopped short and Peg marched down the aisle in the midst of complete silence. Half way down the aisle she turned around and faced the minister. “There are so many hypocrites in this church that it isn’t fit for decent people to come to,” she said. “Rather than be such hypocrites as most of you are it would be better for you to go miles into the woods and commit suicide.” Wheeling about, she strode to the door. Then she turned for a Parthian shot. “I’ve felt kind of worried for God sometimes, seeing He has so much to attend to,” she said, “but I see I needn’t be, so long’s there’s plenty of ministers to tell Him what to do.” With that Peg shook the dust of Carlisle church from her feet. Poor Mr. Davidson resumed his discourse. Old Elder Bayley, whose attention an earthquake could not have distracted from the sermon, afterwards declared that it was an excellent and edifying exhortation, but I doubt if anyone else in Carlisle church tasted it much or gained much good therefrom. Certainly we of the King household did not. We could not even remember the text when we reached home. Felicity was comfortless. “Mr. Davidson would be sure to think she belonged to our family when she was in our pew,” she said bitterly. “Oh, I feel as if I could never get over such a mortification! Peter, I do wish you wouldn’t go telling people they ought to go to church. It’s all your fault that this happened.” “Never mind, it will be a good story to tell sometime,” remarked the Story Girl with relish. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. L. M. Montgomery (2008). The Golden Road. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/316/pg316-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

PEG BOWEN COMES TO CHURCH

I launched my first Unity mobile game back in April 2013. At the time, Unity was starting to gain traction as the framework of choice for mobile game development. I happened to choose it because the developer I outsourced to suggested it. Since then, I have self-published 10+ games; all created using Unity. In addition, I’ve gone on to work for a major mobile games publisher managing million-dollar ad budgets. Here are ten lessons I've learned from designing, creating, and marketing mobile games. A fair warning: it’s long. But I promise if you read it all the way through, you’ll save a few years by learning from the mistakes I’ve made. 1. Be Inspired, Don't Copy Prior to launching my first game, I was studying the App Store for months. I read books, watched YouTube videos, and generally blocked out everything else. I was a bit extreme and told my friends, “If it’s not about apps, I don’t want to hear it.” When others zig, zag instead. I was looking for an app idea that would be engaging but also can generate substantial revenue. I had a limited budget of ~$5k to break into the market. I tried a ton of apps and games, looking for that. Then it happened. 4 Pics 1 Word launched in February of 2013 and went straight to #1 in games. I knew this was the product I was looking for. Both game design and UI were insanely simple. And it had a very straightforward business model. I had no problem just taking the business model as is. But I was a bit more concerned with launching an exact clone. I was new to the app store, so by the time I figured everything out and launched a game, the market would be saturated with clones, and mine wouldn’t stand out. Instead, I applied the game design and business model to a more niche category. I created The Bible Trivia game. It was significantly better than the competitors out there. There were games that were fun but  inaccurate. Then there were ones that were accurate but weren’t fun. Mine was accurate and fun. As a result, it stood out. It launched on April 4, 2013; to my surprise, it made money on day 1. People were spending money on in-app purchases. The game ended up doing pretty well, considering it was my first attempt. Several years later, I sold the game in its entirety, turning a 40x ROI. When others zig, zag instead. 2. Everything Takes 3x As Long As You Think This is true for anything related to software development. Plan for this or plan to fail. That first game I created indeed took longer than I anticipated. I thought for sure I could have an idea to launch in one month, but it turned out to be closer to two. I actually received a prototype of it in a week. So what caused the delay? Well, first, I think I underestimated the complexity of creating a game. Even though I was a software programmer, I didn’t touch a single line of code in the game. My estimation, even by someone who’s technical, was a bit off. Second, I thought of new feature ideas that came up during the development process. They may be scope creep, but I realized they make the product better. For me, if a feature makes a product better, I generally go ahead and implement it. That extended the original development time. For example, instead of just having four images and having the player guess the word, I had different types of questions. I had audio questions- that was really different. I paid a British voice actor to read the clues. That extended the original development time, but it made the game experience so much better. 3. Making the Game is Easy. Getting Discovered is Hard In mobile game development, I’ve found creating the game is much easier than marketing it. The real challenge is figuring out the discovery problem- who’s going to play it, and how will they find it? Software development seems to be a binary problem- yes or no. Marketing, on the other hand, seems to be more trial and error. Maybe it will work, maybe it won’t. In mobile, the main discovery problem comes down to “will the app even get installs?” Getting featured by Apple or Google is not a strategy, but rather hopium. Larger studios usually have a war chest of funds ready to deploy to buy the installs. They do several soft launches of the game. Each soft launch can cost anywhere between $15-30k just to buy the installs. They use the soft launches as a way to gather metrics about the game. Then they keep improving those metrics until it’s ready for a worldwide launch. Smaller studios usually have a growth hack strategy. This is what my friends and I did with Hexar.io, as I’ll talk about later. Another way to solve getting discovered is by picking a different channel altogether. Maybe the game shouldn’t be on mobile, at least not initially. I recently worked with a game company that had a mission of creating edifying games for kids. I believe and still do that it’s a very noble mission and one that I very much agree with. Their team was heavy on the engineering side but very light on the mobile marketing side. They insisted they needed to launch a mobile game because they wanted to make money via subscriptions. However, they hadn’t thought about the discovery issue until six months ago. By this point, they’ve been in development for two and a half years. And only last week did they launch their app. I believe they’re facing a significant roadblock ahead in getting installs. Also, they have to deal with privacy issues in particular because their app is geared toward kids. Now, what if instead of launching on mobile first, they launched on Roblox? Would that solve their discovery issue while staying true to their mission? I believe so. And as I have discovered recently, Roblox is a fantastic platform for driving organic players to games. I learned that solving for the discovery problem oftentimes is about understanding the different distribution channels. 4. Phases To The Mobile Games Market Over the years, I've observed several phases of the mobile games market. Each phase  presented unique opportunities for new entrants into the industry. New studios rose if they positioned themselves well during these phases. And older studios died or became obscure as a result of not adapting to the changes. If someone can spot these opportunities, they can take advantage of it. Around 2015, I noticed a significant shift toward paid app installs. At that time, I was leveraging App Store Optimization (ASO), the SEO equivalent of the app store, to generate installs. I did keyword research and optimized the title of the app to get as many impressions as possible. More impressions led to more downloads. But things were changing. I noticed ASO wasn’t working as well as it used to. I also began to see companies buying installs as a way to launch their games. And I started to hear a lot more about CPI < LTV (Cost Per Install < Lifetime Value). This became the dominant theme in the years to come. Data-driven companies like Machine Zone, Zynga, and Scopely capitalized on this shift and set up their operations to take advantage. They were very good at predicting the lifetime value of their players and knew exactly how much they were willing to pay for an install. Around 2017, another trend caught my attention: the rise of hypercasual games. The company Voodoo rode this wave and emerged as the dominant hypercasual game publisher in the subsequent years. This trend was about creating simple, addictive, and easy-to-learn games that appealed to a broad audience. The game sessions typically lasted only a few minutes, even shorter than casual games. My friends and I rode this trend, as I’ll explain later. Now, I'm seeing yet another trend influenced by privacy restrictions. Apple made it difficult for advertisers to track paid mobile app installs. As a result, influencer marketing is becoming more and more the primary way to bring in installs. This is not just happening in mobile but elsewhere as well. In Roblox, the primary way for developers to drive players to their games is through influencer marketing. Some very astute studios, like , create games that make it easy for YouTubers to create videos for. Wonder Works It’s almost like instead of marketing to the players, they market to the influencers, who then market to the players, who then go play the game. It’s a totally different model. Here are the phases that I saw in mobile games. Time ranges are estimates. Paid games (start of the app store - 2012) Beginning of free-to-play (2012 - 2015) Paid user acquisition (2015 - 2018) Hypercasual (2018 - 2022) Influencer marketing (2022 - present) As I’ve learned, there are always new opportunities despite the saturated market. If someone can spot these opportunities, they can take advantage of it. This leads me to my next lesson. 5. Opportunities Have A Limited Window. Move Fast I saw a window of opportunity in late 2016 where a specific sub-genre of games had the potential to generate organic installs easily. This, I thought, would solve the discovery problem I alluded to earlier. I noticed YouTubers playing “.io games.” These were mainly browser games (at the time), had very simple graphics, was multiplayer, and was about becoming stronger the more players you defeated. Something about YouTubers playing them felt really off to me. By this point in my career, I had enough of those feelings to dig deeper. What I found was the following. At the time, YouTubers thought mobile games were less than AAA console games. They thought they were less than in fun and less than in quality. They didn’t think mobile games deserved their attention in creating videos. But for someone reason, they would play .io games. I watched PewDiePie, the biggest YouTuber at the time, play a game called Diep.io. And his audience loved it! The audience wanted to see more of these games, and as a result, YouTubers sought out new .io games to play, creating videos that further fueled their audience's desire for more. This cycle of demand and supply led to an exponential increase in the popularity of these games. Then I saw my friend launch a Diep.io clone on mobile that rocketed to the top 10 in games almost overnight, with zero paid acquisition. Seeing this, my friends and I decided to create our own .io game called Hexar.io. Our strategy to get installs was simple. We would put a version of the game online and advertise it on various .io games websites. We believed YouTubers would eventually find it and make videos of them playing it. . . . And They Did We didn’t play a single dime to have YouTubers play them. Our thinking was that people would see these videos, then search for “hexar.io” on mobile. As a result, Hexar.io did very well. The game has generated over 12M downloads across both iOS and Google. As mentioned earlier, I believed there was a window of opportunity to launch this type of game. Even though we did pretty well, I think we were slightly late to the party. Paper.io, a similar game, debuted just a few weeks before our release and garnered significant attention. I still wished we had been first. Just a few weeks later, we saw many clones of both Paper.io as well as Hexario. 6. There Will Be Flops. Embrace it. Learn from it Creating a hit game on my first attempt colored my perception a bit. It had me thinking I was good, not lucky. Unfortunately, games are a hit-driven business, and luck is a huge factor. And over the years, I had some huge flops. The first was Matchy City back in 2015. This game holds a special place in my heart because it’s still the best game I’ve designed. I did tons of playtests and iterated from their feedback, so I knew the right players would love it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFFN_zprX9s&embedable=true However, the game failed to generate installs and monetize effectively. Looking back, Matchy City lacked levels, and I knew it. I was given this feedback, but by that point, it was way too late in the development process. I needed to launch the game because I was bleeding money. Also, I didn’t have a strategy to acquire installs. The lesson I learned from this flop was that I would never launch another mobile game without solving the discovery problem. Just a few years later, I learned that lesson with Hexar.io. #Winning. Another flop was Bounc.io in 2019. There were a few things that went wrong. We ambitiously took on a project that required an entire year to develop. Maybe I hadn’t quite learned the lesson of estimating something would take 3x as long. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHwnQMopEbI&embedable=true There were only four of us, and we essentially put all our resources into making a hit, or so we thought. That’s really tough because long development cycles can be an absolute killer for small studios. We did get a Google feature but that didn’t save us, which brings me to the second thing that went wrong. I ran tests for this game using Facebook ads. I took early screenshots of the game and used them as ads. I measured the ad click-through rate to see what the potential response would be. The results were not stellar. I did the same test with Hexar.io previously, and they were significantly better. This should have been a huge red flag, and the right move would have been to pivot even though we already put development time into it. It felt like we wasted time. Instead, we should look at that as prototyping, a way to probe the market to see if there’s demand. The lesson I learned from Bounc.io is to test early and often. There are ways to do it, and I’ll get to them later. 7. Keep Doing What Works, Until It Doesn't When we had a successful .io game on the market, we should have continued creating more games in the same genre, utilizing the engine we had developed. The strategy was clear: keep riding the wave of demand for .io games until they subsided. Stick to it even when it boring. feels I underestimated the demand for .io games because even to this day, there is still a demand for them, although their appearance may have evolved. A prime example is Survivor.io, a recent game that has achieved notable success. Additionally, games like Archero incorporate elements of the .io genre. Interestingly, the creators of Archero previously developed Arrow.io, further highlighting the opportunities for building upon existing success. Had our team continued to create and release more .io games, we might have been able to cultivate a large and dedicated user base, generating substantial revenue along the way. This revenue could have provided us with the resources to venture into more ambitious projects, ultimately allowing us to create a larger and more expansive game. The lesson learned for me is this: once I find a formula that works, I stick to it until it doesn’t. Stick to it even when it boring. feels We didn’t and, as a result, had to close up shop. Looking back, I take a large part, if not all, of the responsibility for that decision. 8. Certain Game Genres Require Certain Implementations I learned this lesson after the Matchy City flop. I was told that free-to-play casual puzzle games, particularly match-3, absolutely needed levels in order to monetize well. The exact words I remember were this: “These games are fun, but they don’t make money.” The game that comes to mind regarding this is Triple Town. The game was incredibly enjoyable but struggled to generate significant revenue. It should have been a massive success, but . it wasn’t The creators learned this lesson because their next game, Alphabears, did much better. Oh, it had levels. Here's a of it. postmortem Here is another implementation I can think of. Hypercasual games absolutely need rewarded videos. It’s a great way to monetize, not directly off the players but the advertisers. It’s also really simple to add them throughout the game. Have a game that players play for hours on end but has terrible retention after day 1? It should probably be a paid game. Monument Valley is a paid game for this exact reason. Players generally finish the game within 1.5 to 2 hours and never play it again. 9. Test Game Concept Early, Test Often One critical lesson that I’ve learned that many indie developers and small studios tend to overlook is the importance of testing the game concept early. I would say that most indies don’t even test the game concept until a prototype is created. What I’m talking about is testing the concept of the game the prototype. before I think developers don’t feel they’re making tangible progress because they’re not building. This is, in fact, the exact opposite. Testing for product-market fit is the most important thing to do. I get that it feels weird to test the product-market fit when we’re talking about game design, but it works. Let's consider the example of Hexar.io. In the early stages of development, we created screenshots depicting what the game would look like and ran Facebook click ads that directed users to a landing page. I analyzed metrics such as ad click-through rates (CTR) and waitlist submission rates. Facebook ad CTR on average, was 1%, and our numbers were close to 2-3%. The numbers were promising and indicated we were in the right direction. All it meant was we should continue developing. When I ran the same test for Bounc.io, they were subpar. It was definitely less than what I expected. This should have been a signal for us to stop and figure out what the problem is. Testing for product-market fit is to do the most important thing Watch to learn how Wooga does “fake door testing” in mobile games. this video 10. Play Game Dev Tycoon Instead of giving one last lesson, the one will give at least four more. I played the game again recently and found that it captured the challenge of being a game studio very accurately. Here are my key takeaways: : In Game Dev Tycoon, the significance of developing a game engine becomes apparent. Building a game engine allows for differentiation in the market and can significantly shorten the development time of new games by leveraging the existing engine. Creating a Game Engine is Important : The game highlights the concept of theme and genre combinations. It teaches us that certain combinations work better together, leading to greater success and player engagement. Certain Game Combinations are Better than Others Want to make a farming-themed game? Well, you’ll have a higher probability of success if it is in the simulation or casual genre (Farmville). But what if you want to create a farming RPG? Well… you might want to rethink that. : There are two modes to the game: easy and hardcore. I played hardcore mode and was always one flop away from bankruptcy. As I’ve found out IRL, it’s pretty true. Bankruptcy Is Always Around The Corner : To survive in hardcore mode, the player has to stay in the first level (the garage) for a very long time. Stay Small and Build a Cash Reserve When the player’s in the garage and not leasing an office building, the costs are lower. Also, it’s just the founder. There aren’t other employees yet, which also cuts down on expenses. During this time, the strategy is to create game after game and build up a large cash reserve before moving on to the next level. Don’t just go onto the next level just because it’s available. This is pretty sound advice. So if you’re thinking about creating a game on any platform, I encourage you to play Game Dev Tycoon. And yes, play it on the difficult mode. Wrap-Up That’s it. You made it to the end. I hope you found it interesting and insightful. If you enjoyed this article, tweet at me or connect with me on and let me know your thoughts! @jackzliu LinkedIn

10 Lessons From 10 Years Of Designing, Creating and Marketing Mobile Games

মোবাইল গেম ডিজাইন, তৈরি এবং বিপণনের 10 বছরের 10টি পাঠ

10 Lektionen aus 10 Jahren Design, Erstellung und Vermarktung mobiler Spiele

10 lecciones de 10 años de diseño, creación y comercialización de juegos móviles

10 leçons tirées de 10 ans de conception, de création et de commercialisation de jeux mobiles

मोबाइल गेम्स की डिजाइनिंग, निर्माण और मार्केटिंग के 10 वर्षों के 10 सबक

10 年間のモバイル ゲームのデザイン、作成、マーケティングから得た 10 の教訓

10년간 모바일 게임을 디자인, 제작, 마케팅하면서 얻은 10가지 교훈

10 lições de 10 anos de design, criação e marketing de jogos para dispositivos móveis

10 Yıllık Mobil Oyun Tasarlama, Yaratma ve Pazarlamadan 10 Ders

10 Bài Học Từ 10 Năm Thiết Kế, Tạo Và Tiếp Thị Trò Chơi Di Động

手机游戏 10 年设计、制作和营销的 10 条经验教训

The Duel: Recollections of Father Zossima’s Youth before he became a Monk

The Life and Love of the Insect by Jean-Henri Fabre, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . THE ONTHOPHAGI CHAPTER VI. THE ONTHOPHAGI After the notabilities of the Dung-beetle tribe, there remain, in the very limited radius of my research, the small fry of the Onthophagi, of whom I could gather a dozen different species around my house. What will these little ones teach us? Even more zealous than their larger comrades, they are the first to hasten to the exploiting of the heap left by the passing mule. They come up in crowds and stay long, working under the spread table that gives them shade and coolness. Turn over the heap with your foot. You will be surprised at the swarming population whose presence no outward sign betrayed. The largest are scarce the size of a pea, but many are much smaller still, are dwarfs, no less busy than the others, no less eager to crumble the filth whose prompt disappearance the public health demands. In works of major interest, there is none like the humble, with their concerted weakness, for realizing immense strength. Swollen by numbers, the next to nothing becomes an enormous total. Hurrying in detachments at the first news of the event, assisted moreover in their wholesome task by their partners, the Aphodians, who are as weak as they, the tiny Onthophagi soon clear the ground of its dirt. Not that [ ]their appetite is equal to the consumption of such plentiful provisions. What food do those pigmies need? An atom. But that atom, selected from among the exudations, must be hunted amid the fragments of the masticated fodder. Hence, an endless division and subdivision of the lump, reducing it to crumbs which the sun sterilizes and the wind dispels. As soon as the work is done—and very well done—the troop of scavengers goes in search of another refuse-yard. Outside the period of intense cold, which puts a stop to all activity, they know no dead season. 80 And do not run away with the idea that this filthy task entails an inelegant shape and a ragged dress. The insect knows none of our squalor. In its world, a navvy dons a sumptuous jerkin; an undertaker decks himself in a triple saffron sash; a wood-cutter works in a velvet coat. In like manner, the Onthophagus has his own luxury. True, the costume is always severe: brown and black are the predominant colours, now dull, now polished as ebony; but, on this background, what details of sober and graceful ornament! The graver’s work completes the beauty of the dress. Tiny chasings in parallel grooves, gnarly beads, dainty rows of knobs, seed-plots of pearly papillæ are distributed in profusion among nearly all of them. Yes, the little Onthophagi, with their stunted bodies and their nimble activity, are really pretty to look at. PLATE V 1.Onthophagus Taurus. 2.Onthophagus Vacca. 3.The Stercoraceous Geotrupe. 4.The Wide-necked Scarab. 5.Cleonus Opthalmicus. 6.Cerceris Tuberculata. 7.Buprestis Ærea. And then how original are their frontal decorations! These peace-lovers delight in the panoply of war, as though they, the inoffensive ones, thirsted for battle. Many of them crown their heads with threatening horns. Let us mention that horned one whose story will occupy us more particularly. I mean Onthophagus [ ]Taurus, clad in raven black. He wears a pair of long horns, gracefully curved and branching to either side. No pedigree bull, in the Swiss meadows, can match them for curve or elegance. 81 The Onthophagus is a very indifferent artist: his nest is a rudimentary piece of work, hardly fit to be acknowledged. I obtain it in profusion from the six species which I have brought up in my jars and flower-pots. Onthophagus Taurus alone provides me with nearly a hundred; and I find no two precisely alike, as pieces should be that come from the same mould and the same laboratory. To this lack of exact similarity, we must add inaccuracy of shape, now more, now less accentuated. It is easy, however, to recognize among the bulk the prototype from which the clumsy nest-builder works. It is a sack shaped like a thimble and standing erect, with the spherical thimble-end at the bottom and the circular opening at the top. Sometimes, the insect establishes itself in the central region of my apparatus, in the heart of the earthy mass; then, the resistance being the same in every direction, the sack-like shape is pretty accurate. But, generally, the Onthophagus prefers a solid basis to a dusty support and builds against the walls of the jar, especially against the bottom wall. When the support is vertical, the sack is a short cylinder divided lengthwise, with a smooth, flat surface against the glass and a rugged convexity every elsewhere. If the support be horizontal, as is most frequently the case, the cabin is a sort of undefined oval pastille, flat at the bottom, bulging and vaulted at the top. To the general inaccuracy of these contorted shapes, ruled by no very definite pattern, we must add the coarseness of the surfaces, all of which, with the [ ]exception of the parts touching the glass, are covered with a crust of sand. 82 The manner of procedure explains this uncouth exterior. As laying-time draws nigh, the Onthophagus bores a cylindrical pit and descends underground to a middling depth. Here, working with the shield, the chine and the fore-legs, which are toothed like a rake, he forces back and heaps around him the materials which he has moved, so as to obtain as best he may a nest of suitable size. The next thing is to cement the crumbling walls of the cavity. The insect climbs back to the surface by way of its pit; it gathers on its threshold an armful of mortar taken from the cake whereunder it has elected to set up house; it goes down again with its burden, which it spreads and presses upon the sandy wall. Thus it produces a concrete casing, the flint of which is supplied by the wall itself and the cement by the produce of the sheep. After a few trips and repeated strokes of the trowel, the pit is plastered on every side; the walls, encrusted with grains of sand, are no longer liable to give way. The cabin is ready: it now wants only a tenant and stores. First, a large free space is contrived at the bottom: the hatching-chamber, on whose inner wall the egg is laid. Next comes the gathering of the provisions intended for the worm, a gathering made with nice precautions. Lately, when building, the insect worked upon the outside of the doughy mass and took no notice of the earthy blemishes. Now, it penetrates to the very centre of the lump, through a gallery that looks as though it were contrived with a punch. When trying a cheese, the buyer employs a hollow cylindrical taster, which he [ ]drives well in and pulls out with a sample taken from the middle of the cheese. The Onthophagus, when collecting for her grub, goes to work as though equipped with one of these tasters. She bores an exactly round hole into the piece which she is exploiting; she goes straight to the middle, where the material, not being exposed to the contact of the air, has kept more savoury and pliable. Here and here alone are gathered the armfuls which, gradually stowed away, kneaded and heaped up to the requisite extent, fill the sack to the top. Finally, a plug of the same mortar, the sides of which are made partly of sand and partly of stercoral cement, roughly closes the cell, in such a way that an outward inspection does not allow one to distinguish front from back. 83 To judge the work and its merit, we must open it. A large empty space, oval in shape, occupies the rear end. This is the birth-chamber, huge in dimensions compared with its content, the egg fixed on the wall, sometimes at the bottom of the cell and sometimes on the side. The egg is a tiny white cylinder, rounded at either end and measuring a millimetre in length immediately after it is laid. With no other support than the spot on which the oviduct has planted it, it stands on its hind-end and projects into space. 1 A more or less enquiring glance is quite surprised to find so small a germ contained in so large a box. What does that tiny egg want with all that space? When carefully examined within, the walls of the chamber prompt another question. They are coated with a fine greenish pap, semi-fluid and shiny, the appearance of which does not agree with the outward or inward aspect of the lump from which the insect has extracted its [ ]materials. A similar lime-wash is observed in the nest which the Sacred Beetle, the Copris, the Sisyphus, the Geotrupe and other makers of stercoraceous preserves contrive in the very heart of the provisions, to receive the egg; but nowhere have I seen it so plentiful, in proportion, as in the hatching-chamber of the Onthophagus. Long puzzled by this brothy wash, of which the Sacred Beetle provided me with the first instance, I began by taking the thing for a layer of moisture oozing from the bulk of the victuals and collecting on the surface of the enclosure without other effort than capillary action. That was the interpretation which I accepted originally. 84 I was wrong. The truth is worthy of attention in a very different way. To-day, better-informed by the Onthophagus, I know that this lime-wash itself, this semi-fluid cream, is the product of maternal foresight. What, then, is this lime-wash found in every cell? The answer is compulsory: it is a produce of the mother, a special gruel, a milk-food elaborated for the benefit of the new-born grub. The young Pigeon puts his beak into that of his parents, who, with convulsive efforts, force down his gullet first a caseous mash secreted in the crop and next a broth of grains softened by being partially digested. He is fed upon disgorged foods, which are helpful to the weaknesses of an inexperienced stomach. The grub of the Onthophagus is brought up in much the same way, at the start. To assist its first attempts at swallowing, the mother prepares for it, in her crop, a light and strengthening cream. To pass the dainty from mouth to mouth is, in her case, impossible: the construction of other cells keeps her busy elsewhere. Moreover—and this is a more serious detail—the laying takes place egg by egg, at very long [ ]intervals, and the hatching is pretty slow: time would fail, had the family to be brought up in the manner of the Pigeons. Another method is perforce needed. The childish pap is disgorged all over the walls of the cabin in such a way that the nursling finds itself surrounded by an abundance of bread-and-jam, in which the bread, the food of the sturdy age, is represented by the uncooked material, as supplied by the sheep, whereas the jam, the mess of the puny age, is represented by the same material daintily prepared beforehand in the mother’s stomach. We shall see the babe presently lick first the jam, all around it, and then stoutly attack the bread. A child among ourselves would behave no otherwise. 85 I should have liked to catch the mother in the act of disgorging and spreading her broth. I was not able to succeed. Things happen in a narrow retreat, which the eye cannot enter when the pastry-cook is busy; and also her fluster at being exhibited in broad daylight at once stops the work. If direct observation be lacking, at least the appearance of the material speaks very clearly and tells us that the Onthophagus, here rivalling the Pigeon, but with a different method, disgorges the first mouthfuls for her sons. And the same may be said of the other Dung-beetles skilled in the art of building a hatching-chamber in the centre of the provisions. No elsewhere, in the insect order, except among the Apidæ, who prepare disgorged food in the shape of honey, is this affection present. The Dung-workers edify us with their morals. Several of them practise association in couples and found a household; several anticipate the suckling, the supreme expression of maternal solicitude, by turning their crop into a nipple. Life has its freaks. [ ]It settles amid ordure the creatures most highly-endowed with family qualities. True, from there it mounts, with a sudden flight, to the sublimities of the bird. 86 The little worm is hatched in about a week: a strange and paradoxical being. On its back, it has an enormous sugar-loaf hump, the weight of which drags it over and capsizes it each time it tries to stand on its legs and walk. At every moment, it staggers and falls under the burden of the hunch. Unable to keep its hump upright, the grub of the Onthophagus lies down on its side and licks the cream of its cell all around it. There is cream everywhere, on the ceiling, on the walls, on the floor. As soon as one spot is thoroughly bared, the consumer moves on a little with the help of its well-shaped legs; it capsizes again and starts licking again. The room is large and plentifully supplied; and the jam-diet lasts some time. The fat babies of the Geotrupe, the Copris and the Sacred Beetle finish at one brief sitting the dainty wherewith their cabined lodge is hung, a dainty scantily served and just sufficient to stimulate the appetite and prepare the stomach for a coarser fare; but the Onthophagus grub, that lean pigmy, has enough to last it for a week and more. The spacious natal chamber, which is out of all proportion with the size of the nursling, has permitted this wastefulness. At last, the real loaf is attacked. In about a month, everything is consumed, except the wall of the sack. And now the splendid part played by the hump stands revealed. Glass tubes, prepared in view of events, allow me to follow the more and more plump and hunch-backed grub at work. I see it withdraw to one end of the cell, which has become a crumbling ruin. Here it builds a [ ]casket in which the transformation will take place. Its materials are the digestive residuum, converted into mortar and heaped up in the hump. The stercoral architect is about to construct a masterpiece of elegance out of its own ordure, held in reserve in that receptacle. 87 I follow its movements under the magnifying-glass. It buckles itself, closes the circuit of the digestive apparatus, brings the two poles into contact and, with the end of its mandibles, seizes a pellet of dung ejaculated at that moment. This pellet, moulded and measured to perfection, is very neatly gathered. A slight bend of the neck sets the rubble-stone in place. Others follow, laid one above the other in minutely regular courses. Giving a tap here and there with its feelers, the grub makes sure of the stability of the parts, their accurate binding, their orderly arrangement. It turns round in the centre of the work as the edifice rises, even as a mason does when building a tower. Sometimes, the laid stone becomes loose, because the cement has given way. The worm takes it up again with its mandibles, but, before replacing it, coats it with an adhesive moisture. It holds it to its anus, whence trickles, on the moment, almost imperceptibly, a gummy consolidating extract. The hump supplies the materials; the intestines give, if necessary, the connecting glue. In this way, a nice house is produced, ovoid in shape, polished as stucco within and adorned on the outside with slightly projecting scales, similar to those on a cedar-cone. Each of these scales is one of the rubble-stones out of the hump. The casket is not large: a cherry-stone would about represent its dimensions; but it is so accurate, so prettily fashioned that it will bear comparison with the finest products of entomological industry. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Jean-Henri Fabre (2022). The Life and Love of the Insect. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/68974/pg68974-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

EDIFY

edify.cx

-- employees

Since n.d.

COMPANY RANKING

EDIFY

EVERGREEN INDEX #4120

Representing this company? Click here to claim and customize this page!

Edify WIKI

Apply to get your Tech Company News Page live on HackerNoon.com today!

EDIFY

edify.cx

-- employees

Since n.d.

COMPANY RANKING

EDIFY

EVERGREEN INDEX #4120

RELATED COMPANIESRANK

STORIES ABOUT EDIFY

Representing this company? Click here to claim and customize this page!

Edify WIKI

Apply to get your Tech Company News Page live on HackerNoon.com today!