Forget the allusion to Marvel’s Black Widow – this spy thriller will forever be known as the movie that got Jennifer Lawrence to finally be naked onscreen. While some may argue that she had already shed her clothes to play Mystique in the X-Men franchise, let’s just say it is a little strange to keep staring at her toned body draped in blue paint. (Not that it was what I did.) So yes, this movie, directed by Francis Lawrence and written by Justin Haythe, will be (fondly?) remembered by fans as the project that “” the Oscar winner, after her nude photographs were leaked on the web back in 2014. Now that we have gotten your attention, let’s talk about the film. Lawrence plays Dominika, a Russian ballerina who loves her sick mother dearly.

• Sparrows Birds Anime With Blood Sugar

An unfortunate accident happens, resulting in a serious injury that causes her to not be able to dance anymore. Enter a creepy uncle who is involved in shady dealings, a brutal murder, and a centre for ‘Sparrows’ that teaches young men and women to use their sexual attraction for espionage purposes. Based on the 2013 novel of the same name by Jason Matthews, you can expect scenes of brutal violence, gruesome torture, and of course, uninhibited sex. The story is tense, and you feel that no one can be trusted. There are spies everywhere, and you never know who is backstabbing who. Lawrence does a brilliant job portraying a protagonist who has to live up to her new identity as a temptress. Needless to say, her character gets in touch with her feelings and falls in love with someone she isn’t supposed to (cue: trouble ahead!).

The ensemble cast does an equally fine job as well. Joel Edgarton sheds his orc outfit to play a suave American CIA official working in Moscow, while Matthias Schoenaerts ( The Danish Girl) is perfect as the suspicious uncle with an ulterior motive, while Charlotte Rampling will send chills down your spine with her unsettling portrayal of a ‘Sparrow’ trainer. And we always welcome Jeremy Irons to play any supervillain – just hearing his sonorous voice is worth your ticket price. Sadly, this is very much a cheerless movie.

The long running time of 140 minutes may take a strain on the impatient and fatigued viewer, and the restrained music score by James Newton Howard doesn’t help to perk things up either. As a result, you pay more attention to the ‘sexploitative’ and violent moments in the movie.

Every time there is a sensual or bloody scene, you sit up and watch. You also wish you can visit the gorgeous locations in Budapest, Hungary and Austria for a winter holiday.

It is inevitable to make comparisons, but there are links to Lawrence, like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon style. The ballet scene will remind you of Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan (2011), and what do you know? The critically-acclaimed filmmaker recently directed Lawrence in the divisive (2017). You also draw similarities between Lawrence’s Dominika and Scarlett Johansson’s well-endowed Black Widow from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, of which the X-Men are soon to be a part of. In addition, Dominika’s strong-minded personality echoes Katniss Everdeen’s in the Hunger Games film series.

How do birds survive the cold weather, especially during in much of the United States? One part of this answer has to be, sadly perhaps, that the sometimes don't. But I'll get to that later. You need to know two things as context. First, there are a lot of different kinds of birds, and the adaptations I'll mention below are not found in all of them, and probably all of these adaptations are not found in very many species. Second, many birds are actually at great risk during cold periods because birds generally live on the edge when it comes to energetics. It takes energy (from food) to keep warm.

Birds are endothermic, meaning that they produce their own heat (mostly) via blood flow in their bodies, but unlike mammals, birds change their body temperature a fair amount, so the amount of heat they need to produce to fly is a little bit flexible. The thing is, temperate and sub-Arctic birds have to survive not only the cold of winter, but even the chill of a non-winter night. Since they don't store a lot of energy in fat (that is hard to do for a flying animal) it is quite possible for a bird to run out of heat-producing energy overnight even when it isn't winter. That would amount to, essentially, starving to death. So, some of the adaptations for surviving the cold apply year round, depending on conditions and the species. There are several things birds do (or avoid doing) to help them survive the winter.

First, they can leave. Migration is a great strategy to avoid winter. I highly recommend it.

Migration is costly, though. One has to spend a lot of time flying instead of feeding, and a bird is probably more susceptible to predation while flying through the territories of various predators and spending time in areas it is not familiar with. Most migratory birds that die during migration probably do it on their first migration, and thereafter have the advantage of knowing the territory a bit better. So, migration is one way to handle winter. Note, however, that there are birds that live in the Arctic or sub-Arctic that migrate south to regions where it is still winter. (Some of these are referred to as snowbirds because they show up during the snowy season). See Also: Birds wear down coats.

All their feathers help them to keep warm, but especially the downy under feathers (called, of course, 'down') act like tiny little North Face down coats. Some birds probably grow extra down during the cold season. When you are trying to stay warm, water is your enemy. Air makes a good insulator but water transmits heat, so wet feathers are bad. So, birds have oil producing glands that allow them to preen a coating of waterproof onto their feathers to avoid the down coats getting wet. Birds have legs and parts of their faces that are exposed.

But they can sit in a position that covers, or partly covers, their legs and feet with their down coat. They can also hunker down in a protected area, with less wind-chill causing wind, in the canopy of an evergreen or some other place. Gregarious over-wintering birds like Chickadees will roost together in little bird-lumps to give each other protection and warmth. Birds shiver. That helps get added heat from circulation and muscle movement. Bird feet are covered with scales and have very little cold-damagable tissue in them. They are mostly bone and sinew.

Some birds have a special adaptation in the circulatory system of their feet (and maybe elsewhere) whereby blood is circulated between colder outer areas and warmer inner areas more efficiently than might otherwise be the case, to avoid frostbite. Check out: Birds can not only tuck their feet in under their down, but they may also switch which foot is holding them on a branch.

Also, as you probably know, bird feet are generally grabbing at rest, so it takes very little energy to stay attached to a branch. The default is 'hang on.' Sort of like the safety feature of an Otis elevator, where the default position for the machinery is 'don't drop' so when the power goes off the elevator gets stuck instead of plummeting to the bottom. Birds may find a place in the sun and use a bit of solar energy. This, of course, depends on the wind. It also puts them out there for predators to find them, but it can work.

Birds may eat more, or selectively eat higher energy food during the winter. For small birds this may include storing up food during the warmer season. They are adapted to find, store, and remember where the food is so they can find it quickly. This makes winter foraging super efficient. Some birds store some fat, but really, that is not a great strategy for birds that fly. One of the most effective strategies for having enough energy from food to stay warm is to not do highly energetic things during the cold season.

I already mentioned the increase in foraging efficiency for birds that store food. Another obvious strategy is to not do energetically costly things during this season such as defend territories, spend a lot of time singing (singing is very costly in terms of energy), don't build or maintain nests, don't produce eggs or have hungry chicks around. This may seem self evident but it is actually very important. Indeed, the reproductive success of a pair of birds in a given year may be significantly hampered by late cold weather or forage-covering snow storms in the spring. Finally, birds use another strategy that also works against the cost of predation and other forms of death: Reproduce more. Most pairs of birds produce one or a few offspring that become adults a year for five or more years. If all of those adult or subadult birds survive and reproduce, we'd be covered in birds in a few decades.

But lots of things kill birds, including predators, disease, starvation, and cold. Here is a pretty good video that covers some of these things: The photo of a Dark Eyed Junco is from, where you will also find a bit more discussion on birds in winter. I also write about birds.

Also of interest:, which also explains the link between Bigfoot, Aliens and Sex. Other posts of interest:.

Thanks for this post. This is the first winter in a few years which reminds us of the harshness critters face subsisting near their bioenergetic edge. If you've not read naturalist Bernd Heinrich's book on now some of these animals survive and their adaptations, you might like it. It is titled 'WinterWise: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival.' One of the most intriguing is the Golden Crown Kinglet which weighs in the neighborhood of two pennies. It is a full-time daily forager before retiring for a chilly night, often just making it to first light when it begins again.

Heinrich also is the author of 'Ravens in Winter.' There is not much that his eye misses and he is very clever about setting up field experiments An essay I read every winter once or twice is Aldo Leopold's '65290' which traces the life of one of a small group of chickadees to Leopold's last identification of this banded bird. It is a story of winter survival and I've thought about it often during this winter. Leopold writes, 'To band a bird it to hold a ticket in a great lottery.It is an exercise in objectivity to hold a ticket on the banded sparrow that falleth, or on the banded chickadee that may some day re-enter your trap, and thus prove that he is still alive.' . to post comments By Edward Hessler (not verified) on 24 Feb 2014.

Thanks for the great post! I feel compelled to comment because I was just discussing with my peers how the seagulls that fly around our school's campus survive the cold winters. We were curious as to why they don't leave and after reading your article, I feel confident that i can go back to my friends with an answer. I had never considered how much of an impact a bird's feet had its temperature. I was interested to find that human's have a similar blood vessel mechanism in our extremities. to post comments By Olivia (not verified) on 26 Feb 2014. I came here via Facebook - a friend shared a link directly to this page, nothing obviously stating where friend got the link - but if I go to the advanced post options, I can hide all posts from 'Knowledge is POWER' - I can't find that page or anything further.

If I go to my friend's timeline to look at the same post (instead of connecting to this story via news feed), the 'Knowledge is POWER' piece does not appear, not sure if it's relevant!. to post comments By Josie Hingston (not verified) on 16 Jan 2015.

'Also, as you probably know, bird feet are generally grabbing at rest, so it takes very little energy to stay attached to a branch. The default is “hang on.”' This is not strictly true for all birds.

Many birds do have an automatic grasping reflex for holding onto branches while at rest, but many do not. Many birds have to make a conscious effort to hold on to branches when they are perching. Birds that build nests generally do not have this automatic grasping reflex since they don't need it.

The only birds that need it are birds that sleep while perched so they won't let go and fall during the night. Birds that hunker down in a nest or other structure don't have to worry about falling. to post comments By JoeSnow (not verified) on 16 Jan 2015. Interesting how these birds surivive a harsh Montana winter, but they do it.

Sparrows Birds Anime With Blood Sugar

I want to mention something of an argument to your article. A large gang of at least 50 birds live in a thatch, leading down a hill along the sidewalk to work. Anyway, these birds sing and tweet like a choir when its sunny but negative 1.

As I approach they all get quiet, but as I pass by maybe twenty feet past, they all start singing again. I figured it was to help they keep warm, but perhaps they are mating?.

to post comments By J.B. Chandler (not verified) on 06 Jan 2016.