By Burt Lum

During a recent excursion onto the Web, I happened onto an article on Chinese Cricket Culture at www.insects.org/ced3/chinese_crcul.html during one of those random searches on Google.

I find getting to this site somewhat humorous.

In life, I believe the path means more than the goal, but with the Internet, the goal often is the reward, and how I got there is almost irrelevant.

That's cyber-philosophy for you.

So I'm reading about cricket culture in China and am fascinated by people's complex feelings of devotion to this insect. The article focuses on the two major preoccupations with crickets: singing and fighting.

While growing up, I caught crickets and grasshoppers, but it was mostly to feed them to spiders and chameleons.

In pop culture, we had Jiminy Cricket from the story of Pinocchio. But aside from that, I don't recall much more about American cricket culture.

Needless to say, learning about the role crickets play in Chinese culture was enriching. This hobby spans thousands of years as seen by drawings, ornate vessels, numerous stories and poems. This is but one article in a vast collection of articles on the subject of cultural entomology available on this site.

As you explore the site you will find much more than articles on insects and culture. There are pictures of bugs, including ants and wasps, and information about the various genera of bugs.

Interestingly, this site was produced as a demonstration site for a multimedia company from Kaua'i called I/O Vision. It's a click away at iovision.com. As a Web multimedia company, I/O Vision features an array of its capabilities. I enjoyed the 14 QuickTime VR panoramic views of scenic sites around Kaua'i. QuickTime VR provides a 360-degree view through your browser.

It's more cool technology from Apple.

Owner Dexter Sears also did the illustrations for insects.org, some of the best bug drawings I've seen. ;-)

Burt Lum is one click away at www.brouhaha.net.