{"id":1684,"date":"2010-01-31T22:32:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-31T22:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/01\/like-a-real-life-smoke-monster\/"},"modified":"2010-01-31T22:32:00","modified_gmt":"2010-01-31T22:32:00","slug":"like-a-real-life-smoke-monster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/01\/like-a-real-life-smoke-monster.html","title":{"rendered":"Like a Real Life Smoke Monster"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Tonight on PBS there was a documentary about the wildlife in the Danube Delta in Romania. I was particularly impressed with the footage of European Starlings flying as flocks or swarms that seemed to behave like a superorganism. I didn\u2019t find online footage from that region, but there are some other videos on YouTube that give a similar experience.<\/p>\n<\/iframe>\n<p>For LOST fans, it is kind of like seeing a real-life smoke monster\u2026<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"starlings on Otmoor\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XH-groCeKbE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-1822276117705719254?l=exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tonight on PBS there was a documentary about the wildlife in the Danube Delta in Romania. I was particularly impressed with the footage of European Starlings flying as flocks or swarms that seemed to behave like a superorganism. I didn\u2019t find online footage from that region, but there are some other videos on YouTube that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Like a Real Life Smoke Monster<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tonight on PBS there was a documentary about the wildlife in the Danube Delta in Romania. I was particularly impressed with the footage of European\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/01\/like-a-real-life-smoke-monster.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Like a Real Life Smoke Monster\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tonight on PBS there was a documentary about the wildlife in the Danube Delta in Romania. I was particularly impressed with the footage of European\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/01\/like-a-real-life-smoke-monster.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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