Jellyfish: "A Clever Hunter For a Creature With No Brain"

You may have seen one of these squishy little creatures lying on the beach while strolling along the shores of any ocean in the world and tentatively poked at it's tiny little body. They're even featured in the popular 2003 Disney movie "Finding Nemo". But other than these brief encounters, jellyfish are extremely underappreciated and fascinating creatures!

They have no heart, no eyes, no bones, no brain... and their bodies are made up of 95% water! But they still manage to be efficient ocean predators.

The jellyfish is made up of a "bell"-shaped body, which contains a jelly-like substance, as well as tentacles, which are also sometimes called "flaps". These tentacles are used to eat it's prey. The bell is called a medusa, because it resembles the Gorgon Medusa of Greek mythology, with her hair of many writhing snakes.

There are more than 200 species of jellyfish. They range in size from the small thimble jellyfish which resides in the Caribbean, to the Arctic lion's mane, which has a bell that can grow up to 2.5 m (8 ft) in diameter and tentacles that can reach up to 60 m (200 ft) long. That's twice the length of a blue whale! This huge "thing" is also thought to weigh more than 250 kg (550 lb)! All I can say is HOLY MOLY. Imagine coming face-to-face with one of these bad boys.

Some jellyfish move by propelling themselves through the water using jet propulsion, while some of them attach themselves by a stalk to other materials, such as seaweed. Their movement is strongly influenced by the ocean's movement, so therefore they're often known as zooplankton (animal drifters).
So far they don't really seem that harmless... right? Wrong. They're able to stun and kill their prey with stinging cells called nematocysts. Each tiny cell conatins a harpoon which shoots into the prey and delivers a a debilitating toxin when triggered by touch or movement. The potency of this toxin varies, and reactions in humans ranges from a mild, irritating rash to death. Basically, these puppies don't joke around.

So this was a lot of reading! But hopefully you found it as interesting as I found it. There's still so much more information on the jellyfish that you can research and I KNOW you'll find it fascinating :) The jellyfish is for sure an underappreciated animal that most people don't know that much about. Thanks for reading! :)

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In My Opinion...

Even though my attention span is often too short to complete assignments and hand them in on time, I LOVE THIS COURSE. This blog post was really difficult to write because there's really nothing wrong with the course at all. I guess that shouldn't make it difficult to write but it actually did! I have nothing to talk about because I have nothing but good things to say... For example, I love how you try to actually relate to us. And most of the time you succeed - not all the time though ;) Just kidding! Ur the k00lest. But in all seriousness, the fact that you incorporate your personal life and things that we can relate to into your lessons, such as technology, makes the course something I really look forward to. Your lessons are always fun and creative and even though we may groan and complain about having to do yet another assignment, they're the best darn assignments I've ever been assigned! Kudos :)

After looking at the list of upcoming units, I have to say that I'm most looking forward to poetry/song lyrics. They're actually pretty fun to try to decipher and if your lessons will be anything like the ones you're presenting for this unit, it'll be a blast to learn about poetry.

My initiative, on the other hand... needs some improvement... Oops! No matter how much I rant about how much I love the assignments, it still doesn't change the fact that I'm in no way good at school. This makes me sound like the laziest person ever, but I hate the schoolwork involved with school. And although I'm still planning on attending, I am in no way excited to go to university and continue this education that has so far taken up the majority of my life. What I'd like to do with my life is travel and help people. That being said, I hate the fact that I have to obtain a post-secondary education to actually be able to make a good living in this world. So unfortunately, my initiative with assignments in general is largely lacking. I promise, I'll try my best from now on... But I can't make any promises that I'm going to be excited about it. Whew, that's a load off my chest!

Anyways, all I can say is keep on doing what you're doing. Your way of doing things in class is intriguing and I thoroughly enjoy it everytime. You're the best!

PS - reading over this blog post, I realized that I seem like the biggest suck-up you've probably ever had as a student... But cross my heart hope to die, every word I've written here is true!

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A Grinch or A Who?

Sooo clearly I'm a TAD behind on my blog posts... But let's just pretend that I'm not, let's just not even pay attention to the date of these next few posts ;)

Anyways, about this current blog post... Am I a grinch or a who? Is that even a question!? I LOVE CHRISTMAS. It's my favourite time of year!! I could watch Christmas movies allllll year long. As much as I love summer and I'm not a big fan of the cold, the happiness and joy and excitement that Christmas brings every year is something that I always look forward to. Not to mention the same songs being played over and over on the radio, the Christmas tree decorating with the family, the craziness of the shopping malls, and the stress of getting all your shopping finished for your loved ones. Although some people HATE this time of year with a stressed, fiery, burning passion, I just can't seem to get enough of it. Christmas means it's okay to wear your mother's tackiest Christmas sweater to school. Christmas means it's okay to waltz around school singing carols at the top of your lungs with your vocal class. Christmas means that it's okay for you to be overly happy and joyful, even though it makes some people want to smack that huge smile off your face. This is the most wonderful time of the year. I can't help but smile when thinking about it :)
So THAT'S my answer; I don't think I would ever have it in me to be a grinch. I have too many good things in my life to even consider losing the spirt of Christmas.

Okay, enough of the sappy stuff... Hope everyone had an amazing Christmas and a Happy New Year! :)

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