"1.6 million Buprestidae shells were glued to the ceiling of the Royal Palace in Brussels. The project is by artist Jan Fabre and his team of 30 beetle-gluers."
(You will note that the photo is not level. I had nothing to do with that.)
Isn't that wild? I call Manuel over.
Manuel is a handsome, gay, Latino scientist in his thirties. He has a slight accent from growing up in various South American countries, he is kind and pleasant to all, and if you show Manuel ANY living thing, either fauna or flora, he'll rattle off the Latin name for it AND tell you what genus and species it is classified under, and what the locals call it, in English and in Spanish. The guy is smart.
"Manuel, Manuel, come look at this!"
"Ooh, what is it?" he coos back at me, coming over to look at my screen.
"Look! Look at this photo!"
"Ooooo, that is wonderful!" Manuel leans in to look.
I exclaim, "Yeah, this artist had his team glue beetles to the ceiling! All of that green, we're looking at millions of beetle shells."
Manuel frowns. "Aw," he pouts, "that seems so cruel!" He means it, too.
"Well, hang on, let's see how he did it" He and I speed-skim the artist's summary-"See Manuel? It says that these beetles are a food product in South Asian countries, that these shells are a by-product of food manufacturing. He probably made some village of bug-eaters very well-off."
"What? Bug eaters!?" His eyes flash to a glare.
"Manuel, it's not a slur to say that if the people are actually eating bugs..."
*shrug* "Okay, true..."
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