Avatar VS. Ferngully: The Last Rainforest

My roommate Erin and I just had a heated discussion brought on by looking at pictures on Liz's blog from China. She went on a trip to the mountains that inspired Avatar scenes and they have a replica statue of the bird-like things the navi ride on in at this park in the Chinese mountains. I was trying to describe said creature when it came out that Erin has never seen Avatar. This pro/con list is inspired by our convo that followed.

AVATAR                                                                       FERNGULLY

Pro: sweet CG effects                                                  Pro: the original

Con: giant blue people                                                 Con: corny 90s music  

Pro: sweet wormy connections to the earth                   Pro: matriarchal society

Con: long                                                                    Con: mullets

Pro: Sigourney weaver                                                 Pro: Tim curry

Con: guy who plays norm                                            Con: guys who play workers and pip

Pro: beautiful fake scenery                                           Pro: Batty's rap

Con: stole story-line from ferngully                               

Well, that's what we could come up with. And since Ferngully is the original, and has one less con, it wins.

Score one for planet Earth.

L 

Timing

Have you ever felt that someone is just messing with you by the timing of events in your life? I can't help but complain because that is happening to me at the moment. HARD. I wish Liz was here to talk to me and tell me what to do. She usually has sound advice. I really should just figure it out by myself. But, as those of you that know and love me know, I am often a poor decision maker. I like to make pro/con lists whenever possible. (Shout-out to Stace there.) I need to hammock so I can contemplate this. (Yes, I just used hammock as a verb.) Too bad it snowed here today :(  so no hammocking.

Dear weather, please get warm soon. 

Sincerely, an angry sunbather.

I'm so upset about things that I want to cry. Which is bad because I never cry. Anywho...I know i'm being all whiny and vague but I had to put this down somewhere. 

L.

Fin

I graduated today.

:-)

Now, to relax.

SERS

SERS or Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering is what I should be thinking about. But I'm not. I'm studying in my biology lab classroom in my favorite spot...right in front of our 500 gallon aquarium. And it's night-time in the tank (meaning the lights are off). Because of this my favorite nocturnal creatures in the tank are very active right now....and very distracting. Let me give you all a quick lesson on Brittle Stars :)


Brittle stars are Echinoderms. They're related to starfish, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and sea lilies. They are in the class Ophiuroidea and are divided into two groups:

Basket Stars

Brittle Stars

Basket stars have dichotomously branched arms - which means at each node there are two continuations. Their arms can keep branching until they're very fine, at which point the basket star uses them almost like a net to catch things drifting by in the water. They like to live deep in the ocean, near strong currents. I'm currently watching the basket star in our tank feed - COOLEST ANIMAL EVER.


Brittle stars have a central body disk containing their organs and then their arms with muscles to help them move. Brittle stars are called brittle stars because their arms break off easily, probably an escape mechanism. They are predators, eating smaller brittle stars and sometimes fish as well as scavengers. They have spines and plates covering their arms which protect them and give them traction as they move about. I am currently looking at the body disk of the biggest brittle star in our tank. In the four years I have taught this class, I have never seen his body disk. ever. So this is a pretty big deal.




All in all, I <3 Echinoderms. Their physiology is fascinating. They're cool to look at and fun to play with. And now that I have shared some brittle star knowledge, I will go back to figuring out what the hell SERS really is. Wish me luck.


L