Icy Death

For the final edition I am going to talk about a ocean killer that isn't a creature, but more of an anomaly. What I am talking about is known as brinciles, which look like a giant icicles going from the ocean floor to the frozen surface in the colder parts of the world.. They form in calm conditions when there is a big difference in the temperature in the water and the air above the frozen surface. The warmer water takes a convection current to the surface and freezes, and with the massive amount of salt in the water, the freezing forces the salt into channels that are focused downwards towards the ocean floor. The water freezes in the channels and continues to force the salt downwards until it reaches the ocean floor. Once it hits the floor it traps and freezes any living creature it touches in a case of ice. A brinciles can form and reach the ocean floor in a matter of hours, the one below only took 5-6 hours to reach the ocean floor.

Tremors Worm

The creature for this instalment is one called eunice aphroditois, or better known as the Bobbit worm, taking the name from the Bobbit couple where the wife (Lorena Bobbit) sliced off her husband's penis (John Bobbit). The bobbit worm makes its home in the beds of the ocean in the sediment, mud and corals.

It waits patiently in the pose from the figure above until a stimulus reaches one of its five antennae then attacking whatever it seems to have set it off. It has been known to attack at such speeds where it has sliced its prey in half. The bobbit worm is an incredibly voracious predator and is one animal that is not a good fit for any aquarium, as it will try to eat everything in the tank. One was discovered in a habitat at  the Blue Reef Aquarium in England. Workers were noticing that fish had disappeared or were injured and that parts of their coral reef was being sliced in half. They took the tank apart and found a 5 foot long bobbit worm, and believed that it had gotten into the exhibit when they had gotten bits of coral to put into the tank, and the worm was hiding in it when it was much smaller. 

Colourful Cop-Out

For this post I'm just going to use video and link to teach about this next creature, the Mantis Shrimp. The first is a link to a video where the habits, appearance and specifications of the Mantis Shrimp here. The next is a colourful short comic from The Oatmeal found explaining why the author finds the Mantis Shrimp to be his favourite animal, which can be found here. This may not be a long post, but there is lots of information to be found within.

Spike Weaver

This instalment will showcase a very unassuming predator of the deep, the cone snail. This carnivorous invertebrate does not grow very large (up to 6 inches) and is native to the Indo-Pacific reefs.

 The cone snail is identified by the intricate brown and white patterns sought after by shell collectors, similar to the image above. What makes this snail deadly is the venom that it stores, and is delivered with a harpoon like tooth propelled from its frontal proboscis. The venom is a mixture of hundreds of different toxins, making it incredibly complex, and does not have a cure as of yet, you just have to live long enough for the venom to wear off. Venom from the cone snail is not instant death for its prey, but it does work very quickly, getting the nickname of cigarette snail, meaning you have enough time to smoke a cigarette before you die. The amount of time it takes for the snail's prey to die does it no favours, as a fish would easily swim away then die, making it an incredibly long journey for the snail to make to get to its victim. What makes the snail even more deadly is what it couples with its deadly venom, it also causes instantaneous paralysis, which stops it prey from getting away before it dies. This slow, unassuming looking sea creature is one to be careful of, if ever in the Indo-Pacific region.  

Deep Sea Kraken

The first creature I'm bringing to you is from my favourite species of animals, the Squid. Squids are part of the Cephalopoda family, which is Greek for "head-feet". The squid in particular that is the topic of this post is the Humboldt Squid, one regularly found in the Humboldt currents in Mexico in the Pacific Ocean. They are also known to migrate North, as far as Alaska when warmer currents are carried up the coast line (This has occurred twice in recorded history, once in 1930 and in 2002). In their short life span of 2 year they grow massively, up to 6 feet long. Humboldt squid utilize luminescent photopores to change colours, which is used as a communication tool between others of their kind. So what makes these creatures dangerous? It's not any special venomous gland, or massive jaw strength that can crack bone, but it's their aggression. Humboldt squid are known to be one of the most  aggressive hunters in the ocean, and when a diver gets caught up in a feeding frenzy or a fisherman slips and falls overboard, it's the critical mass of razor like teeth on the squid's suckers that will cause a person to die from the lacerations they receive from the squids. One marine photographer who has studied much of this species was driven to develop his own body armour to fit with SCUBA gear to protect himself if caught in a feeding frenzy.

That's my dangerous sea creature for this instalment, if you have any questions just remember you're on the internet and can easily look it up.

Future sight

There are few things that I'm deeply interested in. Usually when others bring anything new or what they have interest in to me, it just give it a shrug and a "Meh". Why? I'm not too sure it's just the way things have been. But for my next several posts I will share with you my interest in aquatic life, mainly ones that are dangerous and creepy. From reading my upcoming posts I want you to be wary the next time you step or swim in water anywhere, afraid if what is lurking bellow patiently waiting for you. I was astounded when I found out such creatures existed, and I much happier in knowing that evolution on our planet didn't just give us a bunch of showy fish and boring, grass munching mammals.

One with Nothing

For someone like myself, ranting comes almost naturally (meaning to seem full of myself).  I get irked so easily that I will fly of the handle and go on a tangent about anything. Why? Because I probably feel wronged, or to me whatever happened seems like complete and utter B.S. or maybe I think you’re a total idiot and what you had to say was idiotic. I’m am not a nice person when I decide to lay into someone about what they have had to say, and frankly my dear I don’t give a damn. Your feelings do not matter when it comes to being correct or proper, what matters is that you are enlightened and come to a greater realization about the topic spoken so poorly about, and will hopefully avoid similar mistakes in the future. I guess when I think about it, people so say stupid things, and do stupid stuff that shows there is no rational thought behind what they have done, is what really get s me worked up. I’m getting worked up just from typing all of this.

All of my work has all been based around interacting with customers and co-workers (yes like most jobs of people my age) and I have the pleasure of dealing with morons on a constant basis. One of the places I have worked is a movie theatre, and time after time people have proven to me that they are not equipped with basic reading skills. I’ve worked the ticket counter and there are two prominent examples of people failing to pass simple reading comprehension. The first is customers always try to use ticket vouchers that are affiliated with a completely different chain of movie theatres. They hopelessly approach me tell me the movie they want to see and hand me these invalid coupons with an oblivious look on their face. Then when I tell that this is not the movie theatre they’re looking for, a dumbfounded look arrives on their face and they have the nerve to say “Oh you’re not that theatre?” NO! Of course we’re not, the name of the theatre on the coupon does not match that of the one plastered all over our theatre, what on Earth would compel you to think or say that. And number two is at the same ticket counter, and someone wanders up and asks if they can buy tickets here. My insides want to explode, and I have to hold back the damn inside me from exploding forth with “Of course not, there’s only signs all around me pointing to buying your tickets here and right above my head saying it a *bleeping* ticket counter.” It just gets to me how people can fail to read and/or put a grouping of words together near a certain location and figure out that they’re associated. Also on a quick note on stupid co-workers, during my summer job someone (who doesn’t know what carbon dioxide is) put a spoon in a microwave. Now something like that can be seen as an honest mistake, you stir something up and forget to take it out when you go to nuke it. However the spoon was put there in purpose, and not out of malice or mischief. She put this spoon in there to warm it up. I shit you not (I know language, don’t care at the moment) she was told to warm up a spoon if she wanted to get it through the cold ice cream, and her first inclination was to zap it in the microwave. It is outstanding of the idiocy of the people I have and will run into in the future. I just hope the people reading this are not that bad.

I know people make mistakes, but mistakes like the ones can be easily avoided if people stopped, stood back and just used the brains they were given. Also what I’ve said can be seen as mean and I accept that, but saying that is not constructive in any way and purely of your opinion. To me what I’m saying is just. 

Coalition Victory

Well I was under the assumption, that I could mystically combine my first and second assignment and tie it off with a pretty ribbon, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Don't know if I should regale you with another tale of my exploits or just outright lie to you all. I think I'll let the reader come to that conclusion on your own.

I was sitting in a kitchen, eating a peanut butter and jam (strawberry) sandwich and colouring outside of the lines one afternoon. It was another typical day, I was done with school and ready to enjoy the lazy remainder of my day playing with tinker toys and watching Pokemon. Gerry and Verlie were in the T.V. room probably watching the news or Judge Judy, who knows what was on at that time of day. Halfway through eating P.B. & J sandwiched between cloud nine my day took an unexpected and darker turn. The kitchen had caught fire, the counter was a blaze and I didn't have a god damned clue what to do. It came to me in a split second, and I hurried for the fridge, threw the door open and grabbed the jug of orange juice. I turned to the raging inferno that the counter had turned into, and doused it with the OJ that I was wielding. Verlie can running into the kitchen to see what was going on and was shocked to learned what happened and how it was dealt with. She even made me a medal that claimed it was a hero (I'm really just an average human being) that I sported at school the next day. And as for the cause of the fire, it seems Verlie had turned the electric kettle on and cord was frayed, allowing a spark to jump from it and catch some near by aluminum foil on fire. Man what an afternoon, I forgot to finish my sandwich.

Afternoon

*DISCLAIMER*

I am not an Astronaut or Cosmonaut, do not let the space themed anything make you think otherwise.

Finally decided to get around to doing this. Didn't put it off because it seemed like an odious task, or that it was unappealing, it's just that's how things have played out. I'd like to claim I have been too busy, but that is not the case just an extreme procrastinator. Might as well hop along and post something nostalgic before I can some how convince myself I can put this off a little longer. Hello all. There it's done, now time to move on to the relevant content, the meat and potatoes of this thing, a nice little story about my male/female self.

Walking down a pavement road, sitting in a phalanx of trees, spears of sun piercing through, illuminating spots fortunate enough to be found. I was walking back to our tent, a little person's hand in my right hand, and our prize in my left. It had been a fruitful bounty that day, our heads were held high and smiles were plastered on our faces. This is a passion of mine, but not so much my partner, who had come along as a spectator. Do know why this small person shared in my glee, maybe it was for a different reason, but what did I care? I was victorious, I was returning with something I had never had before and it was awesome. I placed the bucket down on the table, and the sound of our return drew out two others to see what was going on. They didn't seem to care about y prize, just the fact that we return smiling, that was odd to me. Any ways I pulled my attention back to what had mattered, the bucket. I lifted off it's lid and revealed what made my day, frogs.