Micro-land

Sorry, everybody. I have not made very many posts because I have been to the Big E and also Cape Cod. But anyway, let's forget about the past.

In this blog post I will be talking about some of the smaller critters that are probably all around you, from micrococcus to amoebas.

So let's start this with the micrococcus. Micrococcus is one of the more common bacteria - most commonly found in your armpits, in your mouth and in your intestines. And there are many more types of bacteria that live in your intestines. They like the intestines so much so they can get all the left over food that has not been digested by your stomach. There is more. There are also some good bacteria which are not just neutral which are the ones that just hang out in your gut. The micrococcus will hang around in your arm pit and eat all the sweat. The micrococcus is the one that makes that strange smell. The good ones usually are good by doing stuff like making cheese which can also lead to ice cream.

Micrococcus

(photo from faculty.ccbcmd.edu)

The bad bacteria are really, really bad, such as Salmonella. Salmonella can cause bloody diarrhea and of course, like most really, really bad bacteria, create vomiting. Here is a good example of how Salmonella can come on to you: lets say you eat an under-cooked hamburger. Now hamburgers are made from more than one cow. If just one of those cows were sick, it can be passed on to you. One way to avoid that is to eat hamburgers made out of different things. Maybe like salmon burgers.

Salmonella

(From photo-dictionary.com)

Now here is a micro creature called an amoeba. They can reach a max size of 700 micrometers, but that is still not very big. Amoebas were the second creature to be created, I think because they are such simple creatures. They are only one cell, just like bacteria. There are probably many amoebas around your house. Usually they like to live in water and eat all the algae. But they will also eat a faster creature called a paramecium.

Amoebe

(From straightlinesout.blogspot.com)

Paramecium are quite speedy fellows for their size of 200 micrometers. Parameciums will also eat algae.

Paramecium

(From fcps.edu)

Here is another type of animal that is quite annoying and is not quite a micro creature and this is what it is called the flea. And yeah, I am not talking about that Spanish flea song which is actually one of my favorites. Fleas, well they are not much of a micro creature since they have a size of 1.5 millimeters. Fleas are quite famous for their jumps of 2 feet high, but they aren't exactly the highest of the small-animal jumpers.

Flea

(From cyberbee.com)

There is one that jumps higher and is not considered a micro creature; it is the frog hopper. Well it actually doesn't jump higher, but it is much larger and it can jump the same higher. It weighs 6 times more than the flea and it is at a size of 5 millimeters.

Frog Hopper

(From weheartit.com)

Rhinos

Rhinos are like bulldozers. They weigh 3,000 pounds and they charge at 31 miles per hour. Rhino have poor eyesight. Anything that's close, they can see no problem, but anything that is far away, everything seems so blurry. And then there are the oxpeckers. The oxpeckers have a symbiotic relationship with the rhinos which is the oxpecker pecks tics off the rhino and the rhino keeps the oxpecker protected. It also gives them their supply of tics. And the oxpecker makes an alarm so the rhino knows it is in danger.

Rhino

(From awf.org)

Oxpecker

(From ibc.lynxeds.com)

The Portal to Nature 4: Trouble on Train Part 1

Okay, everybody, this is a two part story. Okay here is how it begins.

One day Phil was just taking a walk around the block and he fell into the nature portal. He saw one of his best friends, the spider monkey.

The spider monkey said, "Aww man, Phil. We are going to the big city."

And Phil said, "The big city?"

Spider monkey said, "Yup. The big city, which is called Africa."

Phil said, "Africa is a continent in my world."

Spider monkey said, "Well in the animal world, Africa is name of the biggest city here. We will be taking the only train to there. Now it will be a dangerous run. First there is blizzard lane. Blizzard lane is famous for its blizzards. It is also famous for its avalanches. Although luckily the train tracks don't go near the mountain where the avalanches usually happen. And after we get through blizzard lane, we'll have to go through lava lake. Lava lake is this huge canyon. Below the canyon is a huge river of lava. Although once a year some tar flows in to the canyon from a huge mountain, but once the volcano a few miles away burns up the tar it becomes dangerous again. There is one way over it though. It is a long but rickety bridge. And then we will have to go through Rickety Pit. The pit is a very big pit. A small bridge is the only way to get over it. And like lava lake, the bridge is very small and broken. And that's all we really have to go through. So we'd better catch our train."

[One hour later]

"Here's our train," says spider monkey.

[Two hours later]

Phil and spider monkey enter Blizzard's Lane. And you guessed it. There is a blizzard brewing. Spider monkey for got to mention this - that sometimes the avalanches can pick up enough speed to make it to the tracks. And that was what spider monkey told Phil.

Phil said, "Oh dear, this could really be dangerous."

And the conductor said, "There has been a report about an avalanche covering part of the track. So we can't get through!"

Spider monkey said, "Darn coincidence!"

"The avalanche team will soon clear it out," said the conductor.

To be continued....

The Journey of the Monarch

The Monarch butterfly is a very amazing butterfly. Now I will tell you what happens when the Monarch go on their thousands-of-miles journey.

Now they start out forming their chrysalis as a small caterpillar.  They will stay in their chrysalis for about 10 days. When they come out, their wings look a little shriveled up. But give them another chance. They've got to hang upside down and let the blood flow to the wings. And then they start their journey.

The journey starts out easy. They start flying away.  Especially a thousand-mile journey needs to have a rest stop, of course. Monarch butterflies usually eat milkweed. And they have a built-in straw: their proboscis.

Now they take off again. But wait, one of them has found himself trapped in a spider web. For some reason, the spider cut his web and let the Monarch go. Well Monarchs are poisonous. Once a predator takes a bite of it, it won't eat another Monarch as long as it lives.

But what's this? It's another Monarch predator: the blue-tailed tree swallow. But the Monarch has a defense against predators like the blue-tailed tree swallow; they have the defense of flight-movements!

But now they have to cross a lot of water. But luckily the Monarch butterfly has a special feature. They can store fat in their abdomen. But unfortunately, butterflies are very light. But if a Monarch butterfly finds a boat they might be able to ride out the wind. Once the weather stops being windy, they can take off.

Finally, they've made it to their secret hideout in Mexico. But wait, what's going on? Aren't these Monarchs migrators? But for some reason, they're actually hibernating - to wait out the winter. After winter, they start laying some eggs. But unfortunately they are dying, but that's how nature goes.

Here's the whole thing in fast phase. First they come out of the egg and they start to eat the egg. And then they eat a lot. Then they go into chrysalis mode. And then they come out and let their wings get some blood, start the flight, go across a huge lake, hibernate at Mexico, wake up, lay eggs, and then die. And the babies are the ones who continue the journey.

(photo from learner.org)

(photo from wikipedia.com)

Tornado Categories

Tornadoes are some of the strongest forces of nature. Now some are weaker than others. There are different categories of power. Here are the categories that there are.

Here we are with the 2 weak tornadoes: F0 & F1. In an F0 wind speeds are 65mph to 80mph. So that's the wind speeds. Now here's what it'll be able to destroy: well, almost nothing. Just a couple roof tiles taken off and branches taken off trees. And then there's the F1, it's a different story. The EF1 wind speeds are 86mph - 110mph. Chimneys damaged, trees knocked over, and mobile homes destroyed.

Here are the 2 medium tornadoes: F2 and F3. The F2's wind speeds are 111mph - 135mph. Um, quite ok damage. I mean, whole roofs popped off. And well-built barns destroyed. And then there is the F3. F3 wind speeds are 136 mph to 165 mph. Some pretty mean damage. Some damage to walls and cars lifted off the ground and thrown a distance.

And there are the 2 strong tornadoes. These last tornadoes are hard to tell apart. They do quite identical damage, but still, one is stronger. The F4 and F5. F4 wind speeds are 166 mph to 200 mph. Some very, very bad damage. Trees lifted off the ground, and entire houses almost completely swept away. Well F3s can throw trees away too. And then there is the the F5 with wind speeds from 201 mph to, well, the highest wind speeds ever recorded was 300 mph so I'd have to say 300. Huge. Strong houses swept away. They can take the house off their foundations. Total destruction! And that's all.

Oh and did you know? There's a vehicle that can go inside a tornado - it's called TIV and the even better version, TIV2. TIV1 had 2-wheel drive. TIV2 had 6-wheel drive and it could intercept more winds than TIV1. It also carried more instruments.

Here's how a tornado is formed. Now we have a it of warm air rising up and some cold air coming down. Where this happens is called the cloud head. And then when they collide, they start to make some twisting. Sometimes it make a sort of funnel cloud sort of thing. If it drops onto the ground, then you got yourself a kind of tornado. But here is another thing, the funnel will start spinning faster and faster sucking up more warm air making it faster and also louder.

(photo of TIV1 from forum.i3d.net)

(photo from thorntonweather.com)

(photo from georgetowndemoc.wordpress.com)

The Science of Technology

You know, technology has gone very far. We have almost made it to time traveling, but it turns out that it isn't possible. We have made it to a car that can go inside tornadoes and the vehicle is called TIV, the Tornado Intercept Vehicle. And we also just about made it to the flying car. Unfortunately it is quite expensive. We have made it to jet packs that actually fly. And we have made it to phones that are a lot more like a computer. It is like an extra portable laptop. And we've almost made it to cars that can drive by themselves. Now the cars don't go very fast and they can't carry much fuel, but its gone far enough. We've made it to robots that can help us. I've always wanted to see one of those famous robots in action.

The Jurassic Sea: The Most Dangerous Place for Me

The Jurassic seas are probably one of the most dangerous seas of all time. Now the dinosaurs may have been pretty big on land, but the only things that could outweigh them were the animals underwater.

Now we start out with one large, meat-eating land carnivore called eustreptospondylus. They were about as big as a giraffe. Now these animals aren't as big as t-rex, probably not even as big as an allosaurus. Maybe bigger maybe not.

But let me tell you something, these carnivores would still eat plenty of food. And I don't know, maybe one small, juicy, rhamphorhynchus. Rhamphorhynchus are these small pterosaurs. They may be a bit small but they're worth the fight.

 But now we will talk about the underwater world. Now underwater: one huge enormous reptile is about to strike. The reptile is called liopleurodon. The liopleurodon is the biggest meat-eater that ever lived. And this large predator is about to strike the ophthalmosaurus. The ophthalmosaurus is in the ichthyosaur family. And they have good night vision probably because of eyes the size of softballs. But even with those softball sized eyes, they won't be able to see the enormous, monstrous liopleurodon who is about to strike.

But wait a second, liopleurodon sees another animal. It's called hybodus, a very small shark but it lived for quite a long time. These creatures survived from the Permian period to the Cretaceous. But even the small hybodus will never be able to fight the liopleurodon. Liopleurodon eat sharks like we eat fish. Well we do eat sharkfin soup. And the shark takes its last look and then WHAM! the shark gets eaten.

But what's in the shadow over there? It's the largest fish ever. It's called leedsichthys. It's a pretty slow swimmer and it's a very, very, vulnerable animal. One of them has fallen behind and it's getting eaten alive by some hybodus and a marine crocodile called metriorhynchus. Metriorhynchus is one of your stranger crocodiles. It's like the leedsichthys is getting mosquito bites. Eventually leedsichthys will die. 8 hours later, now leedsichthys is dead. And now the liopleurodon are snacking on that humungous leedsichthys.

And well well looky here it's the ophthalmosaurus and he's trying to make a snack out of these ammonites. Ammonites are related to today's nautilus. Now imagine it as a unpoppable ballon. and when it is poppable, it will squirt out the air, which is the ink.

(image of Eustreptospondylus from walkingwith.wikia.com)

(image of Rhamphorhynchus from kidsdinos.com)

 (image of Liopleurodon from seamonsters.wikia.com)

 (image of Opthalmosaurus from http://www.abc.net.au)

(image of Hybodus from http://www.abc.net.au)

(image of Leedsichthys from bbc.co.uk)

(image of Metriorhynchus from bbc.co.uk)

(image of an ammonite from fossilmoldsandreplicas.com)

How Smart are Animals

Animals are actually very very smart. There was once a dog that was so smart, that he knew the name of every single toy that he had and there were like a 1,000 toys. And even when he got a new toy, he would still know it. Perhaps a new chew toy of Einstein?

And dolphins are also very smart. There is one pod of dolphins that are very very smart. You may think a beach with not many underwater objects would be a paradise for dolphins, but really it is a tough place for dolphin survival. Now since fish are pretty small they can go in really shallow water. Dolphins can't really swim in shallow water, they are the size of a human. Well, they can skim across the water. Its quite dangerous and they could get trapped. It is a quite risky mission.

And you may think that not much brain power comes out of a mollusk, well actually it does. You know how much brain power it takes with those cells that change color?  Well it take a lot of brain power to do that. And some people say that things like cuttlefish can't change in any colory patterns. Well actually they kind of can. One time some people experimented to see if a cuttlefish can change to the checkered colors of a chess board. And you know what, it did work! The cuttlefish did make the back and white pattern. It wasn't exactly camouflage, but it got the job done.

Gray Wolf

The gray wolf is an amazing predator. In fact, they were one of the few animals to survive the Ice Age. But there's this bigger wolf that didn't make it, called the dire wolf. Here's how the big ones did not survive and the smaller ones did.

The dire wolf was eating the really big prey. And the bigger the creature is, the harder it is for that creature to evolve. And the really big prey was disappearing.

Meanwhile the gray wolf was feeding on small things like rabbits and moles. So that's how the gray wolf survived.

And the gray wolf can run pretty fast. And it has this special pace where it can run very far. When it isn't in its pace and it's just sprinting, it can run 40 mph. And when its in its marathon runs, it can run up to 18 mph.
Us humans can run up to 23mph, so the gray wolf can run faster than a human when it's in sprinting mode. And anyway, a human can't run as far as a gray wolf.

Now wolves hunt in packs. The more wolves in a pack, the bigger prey they can take down. But the biggest and hardest to eat is the Moose. Moose can run 35 mph, but they can not run as long. But the moose's weapon is the horns. But they only work on one wolf. But the moose can swim.

Here's how you can tell if the paw prints are really gray wolf's. The gray wolf's paw prints are much bigger than a coyote's or a fox's.

(photo from en.wikipedia.org)

Wolverine

The wolverine is the largest member of the weasel family. It's a pretty vicious creature. And "the nose knows," because if a carcass is under an avalanche the wolverine can smell it. The wolverine can smell a carcass 20 feet deep under snow. The wolverine can run on snow very well. Its got built in snow shoe. It can run up to 30 mph on deep snow. In fact, snow is what the wolverine is all about. But unfortunately they're quite endangered because of lack of habitat. Wolverines like to live around very snowy places, that's why they live around Alaska.

(photo from animal.discovery.com)

The Desert

In this post I will be talking about the desert.

Now the first creature we will meet around here is the desert jackrabbit. Now it may look very toasty in that fur coat of his but really the fur is actually fine and anyway it had ear conditioning. The wide ears help more air go into its ear and that cools the jackrabbit off.

Well you don't usually see the desert tortoise out of its burrow - it's burrow is a place where it keeps out of the sun.

And this place is a haven for collared lizards. Collared lizards can run on their hinds legs so they can get away from their arch enemy the road runner. Because the collared lizard can run faster on two legs.

But one of the meanest reptiles you can fine at the desert is probably the Gila Monster, a venomous animal. The venom isn't exactly the strongest venom in the world but hey this monster is still a monster you would not want under your bed.

For the most part, desert hummingbirds and bees do the pollination for the flowers at the desert.

But at night the bats take over that (the pollination).

Big Bang for Big Beginner

In this blog post I will talk about the Big Bang, the creation of our universe.

Now how did the Big Bang bang? Because it turned just nothing into an extreme KABOOM! Well actually, the Big Bang did start out as this ball of particles and, you know, energy. And then it exploded! And it exploded faster than the speed of light.

But wait, isn't that against one of the laws of nature? Well there's a bit of a loophole. You see everybody says nothing can go faster than the speed of light - and remember when I told you that "nothing" is something, so that means "nothing" can go at the speed of light. And that is saying that the fabric is able to go at the speed of light. And that was the beginning of the fabric - the Big Bang was the beginning of the fabric so the explosion indeedly-did go faster than the speed of light.

And you need just enough gravity for the perfect universe. Now I'm not sure what happens when you put too much or not enough, but here's something amazing: you see, if things get really, really, really, hot, you can turn energy into matter. And that's pretty much what happened at the Big Bang.

But then the Big Bang had to go with one of its biggest rivals: anti-matter! Anti-matter is the total opposite of matter. It was made from the opposite things. Whoever had more leftover matter won. And luckily the Big Bang won! Whoo! Yeah!

But like I said, a universe is going to come to an end, but maybe Big Bangs are happening all over the place. And maybe there will be another universe that will make life and suppport many other objects as well. But still, this universe may be coming to an end. It shall collapse.

But as some people say, death is just about the same as birth.

Food Chain Lane

In this blog post I will be talking about the African food chain.

Ok, I'll start out around the very bottom of the African food chain: the grain of grass. Most herbivores in the Savannah eat grass. And they also like to eat Acacia trees. The Acacia tree is the logo for the show "Nature," so these Acacia trees are pretty much famous.

Well what's higher on the food chain are the herbivores like harvester termites and gazelle. Here are some facts about those 2 creatures. The Thompson's gazelle can run up to 50 miles per hour. And here are 2 facts about the harvester termite. The harvester termite isn't like the one that builds ginormous towers. They're a bit like ants, they live in holes. And here's another fact about those harvester termites: all the harvester termites in one tower could eat more grass than all the other herbivores. Because hey, it's like tiny mighty!


Now what eats harvester termites and what eats Thompson's gazelle? Well bat eared foxes would probably like to eat the termites. And if a gazelle is wounded it would be vulnerable to the python. Here are some facts about these 2 predators. The bat eared fox can hear termites through ground. And pythons are constrictor snakes - that means they have a very tight squeeze. That's their way of killing their prey: squeezing them to death. But believe it or not, we're not at the higest part of the food chain.

We need to go to the top predators. There's only one top predator in Africa: the lion. The lion fact is they may not be able to sprint very well but they are good at tackling. So what did you learn from this blog post? Well, you learned that a herbivore eating grass is no worse than a lion eating zebra.

Acacia Tree

(Photo from parsha.blogspot.com)

 African Grass

(Photo from anthonymattox.com)

Gazelle

(Photo from awf.org)
Termites

(photo from remotecamera-sa.blogspot.com)
Python

(photo from arkive.org)
Bat Eared Fox

(photo from arkinspace.com)

Lion

(photo from razorianfly.com)

 

Groundhog

Just for a bit of information, this was made on Groundhog's Day, 2012.

Groundhogs aren't only called groundhogs, they are also called whistle pigs because when danger is near, they whistle. Now this creature does not like to swim, but it can hoggy paddle. And technically it could be called a treehog because if a groundhog wants to, it can climb a tree. And there is even a third name for a ground hog. Its other name is the woodchuck.

But instead of chucking wood, it digs holes. And the holes aren't just a messed up home - they are a lot like the human home, but just underground. Now first the ground hog starts to dig down and then up for the flood stopper, just in case too much water comes in or else the hole could flood. And their ears don't get dirty because they have ear flaps. Their teeth do a little work in the digging. They can chomp through roots and move rocks.

Now the groundhog isn't too fast. It can run as fast as an average 4th grader. Now it may be slow but it isn't picky with homes or food. Here's what it will eat: veggies, fruits, grains, grass, clover, greens. Here are the homes: fields, rocky areas, woods, thickets, under sheds.

But here's the hibernation part. Step 1 for hibernation: fill your stomach with tons of fat because who knows when the groundhog gets hungry during its hibernation.

Now step 2 of hibernation: pack yourself tight with tons of dirt by closing up the entrance and sleep for many weeks and maybe months. And while the groundhog is sleeping, everything starts to slow down. And just like its cousin the beaver, its teeth never stop growing but when the groundhog hibernates, then it stops.

Step 3 of hibernation: start looking for more food and hopefully find a mate to pass on the next generation. And here's how they greet each other when a male and female like each other: they rub cheeks and noses. And these groundhogs don't seem to have any weapons but actually it does: it can chatter its teeth loud enough to get rid of the predators.

Here are the predators: Coyotes, dogs, birds of prey, and foxes.

And the groundhog can really see you from his hole like a periscope - he can see if anyone is approaching his hole. And even if something went past him, he would still be able to know because he's got a good enough nose to know if any other creature has been trying to sneak into the den.

Recommended reading: "Groundhog Gets a Say", by Pamela Curtis Swallow & illustrated by Denise Brunkus.

(photo from uptake.com)

Tylosaurus and Others

The Tylosaurus was top predator of the underwater Cretaceous. Now here is what this extremely powerful, monstrous, killing machine evolved from: believe it or not it evolved from these super small lizards that were trying to escape the dinosaurs in the Jurassic. And the lizard's only defense was to escape into the water and eventually it evolved to be built for the water. And the creature evolution just made was called Dallasaurus. And when did it evolve? The early Cretaceous.

When the late Cretaceous came, which was the time all the dinosaurs died out probably because of an asteroid, Tylosaurus became a fearsome predator. Probably because of its little special weapon: its teeth. The teeth point back into the mouth, so the only way the prey can go to escape is into the Tylosaurus, but it is hard for it to go inside. It has roof mouth teeth so it can hold the prey in place. Now there are many different types of Tylosaurus, but all of them are related to the snake. The Tylosaurus' future relative is the snake.

Now not all Tylosaurus are the biggest of predators. There is a small one called Platecarpus. And what makes it strange is that it has webbed feet, rather than fins. But Tylosaurus had some fearsome rivals. Now one of them is called the Ginsu Shark, also known as Cretoxyrhina. But Tylosaurus thinks the Ginsu Shark is an easy meal, even though the Ginsu Shark is even bigger than the sharks of today. But here is a really, kind of easy to munch meal. It's called Tusoteuthis, an enormous squid, probably related to today's colossal squid. Another rival of the Tylosaurus is called Squalicorax, another shark. Probably not as big as the Ginsu Shark, but believe me, the Squalicorax  is quite a predator.

(Photo from animals.nationalgeographic.com)

Tylosaurus a.k.a. Mosasaurs

  (Photo from chicospinosaurus.blogspot.com)

Dallasaurus

(Photo from animals.nationalgeographic.com)

Platecarpus

(Photo from animals.nationalgeographic.com)

Squalicorax

(Photo from animals.nationalgeographic.com)

Tusoteuthis

(Photo from animals.nationalgeographic.com)

Cretoxyrhina a.k.a. Ginsu Shark

Here are some videos!

Stingrays

There are two different types of stingrays: fresh water and ocean. The ocean stingrays have a very small stinger and they aren't that mean with humans. The fresh water stingray lives in the Amazon River. It has a stinger two times the size of an ocean stingray's. And the fresh water is much more vicious. It also lives in much deeper water while the ocean one is more up for happiness at low tide. Now here is how the ocean stingray catches its prey: it buries itself under the sand and waits for some delicious prey. When something like a shrimp comes, its some lunch for the stingray. At the Amazon, the fresh water rays are some of the biggest that ever were.

Ocean Stingray

(Photo from niceimage.org)

Fresh Water Stingray

(Photo from djlobo.com)

The Great White, Remoras and Orcas

In this post we will be talking about the famous great white shark and the great white's little helper, remora. Now, remoras look like parasites to us humans. But really, remoras are the opposites of pests, they actually eat the pests. From millions of years from evolution, the remora kind of looks upside down when they are right side up. It might be because of its suction head. Remoras latch on to sharks while they have suction cups on their head. The great whites and other sharks don't usually eat remoras. There's also this other kind of fish that cleans the shark's teeth.

Now we will talk about the shark or rather the great white shark. The great white shark is a living torpedo. No really, its like a cruise missile (the cruise missile is a very powerful weapon). Now you may think those ol' great white sharks are super bulky to catch up to a seal lion, but actually the great white shark has amazing agility. In fact they sometime leap out of the water with the prey still in its mouth.

Now you may think that no one would mess with a great white shark, but really there are two predators that will mess with the great white. The creature is called the orca, also known as killer whale, but really its a dolphin. Most people call it a whale. And people call it a killer whale. Instead they should call it a killer dolphin. Now orca whales pretty much hunt in packs, but the great white shark can dive deeper. And here's the other predator of the great white... US HUMANS! Some people like to make shark fin soup out of them. And the worst thing us humans do: we hunt them for sport. Sport! That means really getting nothing out of it. Its just killing. And there may be less sharks than they think, because no one great white shark looks the same. On the plus side we have been putting tags on them.

(Photo from deeptypeflow.blogspot.com)

(Photo from marinebio.org)

(Photo from en.wikipedia.org)

a story I wrote, continued: Portal to Nature 3: The Temple of the Cobras

CLICK HERE for part 1 of this story.
CLICK HERE for part 2 of this story.

One day Phil wanted to go skydiving and maybe find some falcons while he was falling. But before he could, the portal came. And Phil jumped into it. And he landed at the same place that he was before: the world of animals. And encountered the same spider monkey, and he said, "Someone would like your help"

And the one who needed his help was an armadillo. The armadillo said, "I want some help to get to the Temple of Cobras." The temple of Cobras has a really special diamond called a ruby, one of the shiniest crystals there ever was. Unfortunately, it's guarded by a king of the temple. And the king was a monocled cobra. His temple shakes out tons of venom-y spit. "I need your help to get there." And Phil said yes.

Eventually they entered the desert. They were getting extremely thirsty. Eventually they found an oasis, filled with tons of delicious jobo fruit. The armadillo said he knew this place. It was the oasis of the basilisk. The basilisk owned this lake. It was free to get into. And he always gave someone some free jobo fruit once they entered. There was a huge waterfall too. They just stopped there for a while and relaxed at the beaver hotel there. That was just another location of the beaver hotel.

They continued their journey, and eventually the ground started to crumble. They fell down into an enormous hole, nearly endless, going near the center of the earth. And they entered the world of the devil worms. The devil worms are the deepest living animal. The worms sacrificed them and trapped them into an enormous cage of thick mud. But then there was a shaking in the ground. They eventually met a famous animal: the aardvark. His claws were so strong it could bust through concrete. The aardvark busted them out of the cage and brought them back up.

They kept on their journey. They let the aardvark come along with them. And the aardvark wanted to tell them how many more dangers they'd have to go through. They'd have to go through the trench of death. And they'd have to go through lava lake. And then finally, they would make it to the Temple. And the aardvark wanted to tell them about the Trench of Death. You see, the Trench of Death is a very far down trench. Once you finally make it down, you might get into some salt water (and shallow too). And in the water is stonefish!  The stonefish are really bad. They have spines on their back and if you step on it, it unleashes terrible pain. The only way across it is a narrow, old wooden bridge.

They started their journey. Aardvark forgot to tell them that the trench was in a lake. None of them were really going to risk going inside a lake because also down there in the lake was also lots of volcanic activity. The lake was filled with lots of gas. Volcanic gases are trapped inside the lake and it's building enough pressure to break out of the water surface. So eventually they did find a bridge. But unfortunately it was a wooden and extremely broken bridge. They risked going across it, but aardvark had a better idea: to tunnel under the water.

They finally made it through the lake and they make it to lava lake. There was only one way across it: a little bit of a frozen magma rock that they could float on, and so they went on. It didn't really carry their weight very well but they needed to risk it. They did. They made it through safely.

Finally, they made it to the ultimate temple. Luckily the monocled cobra wasn't there. So they just sneaked in and got the ruby. Unfortunately the monocled cobra came back and threw out tons of venom at them. They dodged it! But then the cobra chased after them on the way back. They lost him at the lava. And the monocoled cobra was never to be seen again.

But they all made it and brought the ruby back.

Footnote:  devil worms are real worms. They live very deep down in the earth's crust. They were found in a gold mine in South America.

Venom Day

Alright everybody - you've heard of Valentine's Day. Well, well well - why didn't anybody invent Venom Day, where we give Valentines to venomous creatures? In case anybody doesn't know what venom is, it is like an acid that can kill creatures. It helps a predator kill its prey.

Now there are different ways to get the venom inside the victim. Well there's a difference between a komodo dragon and a kind of venomous snake, well let's just say king cobra. Now the snake has fangs and when it bites its prey it shoots out the venom. But the komodo dragon cannot do that. It's a little less organized with the shot of the venom. It's sort of just squirts out a puddle of the venom on its mouth and then pretty much bites the prey and waits for it to die.

And here are some different types of venomous creatures.

Venomous creature #1: funnel web spider. Now these creatures unfortunately like to go where the humans go: somewhere nice and shady. On the bright side, they live in Australia. Well at least it's good for all Americans looking at this. And I hope this creature does not go in your shoe, or else!

Venomous creatures #2: stone fish. Now the stone fish doesn't have a killing venom but let me tell you something - it may not kill its prey, but EXTREME PAIN! It hurts so much you would probably be rolling on the beach and trying to get the pain off. And the plus side, another danger, the stone fish is unfortunately camouflaged and yet again, it lives in Australia. Here's how you may get hurt by this venomous stone fish: they have spines on their back, and when you step on it, that's how you get the pain.

Venomous creature #3: the black mamba. I told you about this in another post. The black mamba breaks the record for most venom ever. It can kill at a time table from 30 minutes to up to an hour. So I'm pretty sure this creature actually lives in Africa. But remember, like I told you about the honey badger, it's one of the only creatures that will withstand the venom.

And here's creature #4: the man-of-war, a jellyfish from Australia. And this is unfortunately one of the fastest jellyfishes in the world, I think. Anyway, there is a weapon for the venom and you may have it in your kitchen. It's olive oil.

Okay, here's the final creature: the scorpion. The scorpion is a venom monster. Its got a venomous tail. A venomous bite. The tail is for defense, the bit is for prey and the claws are for keeping the prey in place.

(photo of a black mamba from worldmostamazingthings.com)

 

(photo of a komodo dragon from animals.nationalgeographic.com)

(photo of a funnel web spider from spyderwood.com)

(photo of a stonefish from petsfoto.com)

(photo of a man-of-war jellyfish from brandoncole.com)

(photo of a fat-tailed scorpion from arkive.org)

Dive to the Depths

Ready to go down deep? Well, the deep is a long way to reach the bottom. There's only one sub that can go deeper than any submarine: the deepest submarine is called "Alvin." The deepest diving sub ever made.

And all's ashore that's going ashore! So, this is the sunlight zone. Where we here will find the most life. You can find many sea otters sleeping in the giant kelp. And as the clown-fish are protected by the anemone. And where all the dolphins are searching for some delicious fish to eat. The great white sharks are hunting for schools of fish, or a seal at least.

And now we go deeper. This zone is called the twilight zone. Down here we can find this really rare battle that no one has seen before. And the battle is giant squid (or colossal squid) versus sperm whale! Never before seen battle at nature.

And now we go deeper, to some of the deepest of sites: the dark zone, and don't forget your flashlights. Down here we shall find many strange fish. One of these fish is called the angler fish. Only the females have that crazy light that attracts prey. And some fish have stolen the angler fish's mechanism. Other creatures like the viper fish also have this feature.

Now we go deeper, to the darkest of them all: welcome to the abyss! Down here we won't be finding much life. Life down here can be pretty tight. There are rat-tail fish and dumbo octopus. And you may also find plenty of six-gill sharks.

But now we bring to the secret depth: it's trenches! Life is so rare down here. But here's what you can find: vent fish, vent shrimp, vent crabs, and Pompeii worms. And that's all!

Oh and by the way, sorry we couldn't find a picture that included a trench.

(illustration from sjfc.edu)

End of the World

Ok, everybody, I don't want to alarm you but earth is in many dangers. Now don't worry, this is going to come in millions of years - very long into the future.

Now first we start out with an enormous asteroid headed for earth. It could destroy all life on earth. But it hasn't really entered earth's atmosphere yet. If it did enter earth's atmosphere, then you'd be in trouble because the asteroid would have entered earth's gravity. I hope it hits the moon instead, because I'd rather have a really large tide rather than no life on earth. But there's one kind of a thing we could do. We could shoot a rocket at it. But that would break it into pieces. Well I'd rather have a bunch of small asteroids headed for earth than one big one.

Ok, everybody, this is a little freaky but our closest star, the sun, is giving our earth a huge blot of danger. You see, you know how the sun can shoot out tons of fiery balls - well one of those fiery balls of sonically charged particles is going to hit earth. And you know about our power lines, that also send out tons of electrons, well if that giant blot of power hits earth, the power lines will overload. And we will get about 10 years without power. We might as well go back to hunting for animals, like homo sapiens (cavemen) did.

Oh and by the way, these dangers are getting worse and worse as we speak. Which is saying worse and worse things for earth the longer we talk. I'm talking about stronger forces, by the way.  Another danger earth is definitely in: who wants a hot spot? I don't! Because Antarctica is melting into a handful of ice cubes. Yeah, the sun may be strengthening. And the ice is more delicate, than scientists think, to all that sun. Because you know that a huge chunk of Antarctica just broke off. Well that's a sign that we may be having a little heat problem. I mean, it's getting hot here - the sun is strengthening & sea levels are rising. If we lost just 10% of our ice, we'd be floating in a water bottle. And when ice starts to melt into the sea, scientists like to call them "ice quakes." But maybe it's not the sun that's strengthening. Well you see, there's this thing called a greenhouse gas. And you see, the sun brings in light to earth (it only takes light 8 minutes to get to earth). Well earth has this stuff called greenhouse gases. The greenhouse gases keep the heat in. But since we've made a lot of polluting stuff like cars, factories, and other stuff, the greenhouse gases have been strengthening because of our pollution, and that is keeping more of heat in and less of it is escaping.

And here's another danger: it's at Yellowstone National Park. Oh and you know what? I've always wanted to go there! You see, I know there are lots of geysers - they are traces of ancient volcanoes. Well there may be still an enormous volcano over there. It's a volcano so strong filled with so much ash and lava, it could devastate the whole planet. Because you know what happens when you breathe in volcanic ash: well, uh, it's a little creepy - I'm not going to tell you. I'm just going to say: it has something to do with your lungs.

And here is another disaster. Now things that collide can be pretty big. I mean asteroids can collide. Planets could collide. But the biggest collision of all is galaxy collisions. And it just so happens that our milky-way galaxy is going to collide with another galaxy and that is not going to be good. Now gases could collide with our planet. Stars could head towards our planet. Even our sun could be destroyed.

And next enormous disaster is the worst of all. Now what would happen if you took away everything in the world? What would happen with nothing, just outer space? Well outer space IS something! In fact, it's something like a fabric. You can twist it, you can bend it, and this is the same mechanism that earth has to keep its moon in place. You see, earth puts dents in space, and the moon is circling around earth, that's why. Now you remember the story of "the big bang" - the beginning of our universe. Scientists thought that space was expanding - and they were right. But they thought it was going slower and slower. But they were wrong! It was accelerating (which means to go faster and faster). And space is getting stretched out. And if space breaks, it'll be catastrophic. Oh and I should tell you how space is expanding - well that would be some black matter. The black matter has lots of energy in it, so it makes space expand. Ok, here's what it will destroy: it will destroy everything! Even time will lose its meaning! Dun, dun, dunnnnnn! And that's all.

Beaver

The beaver is one of the few other creatures that build their homes, rather than us humans. Oh and paper wasps. And termites. And did you know that the outer layer of those big teeth is much stronger than the back of the teeth? So every time a beaver cuts down a tree, its teeth just get sharper and sharper. And guess what? They can make their own ecosystem, because they make those dams. So many creatures can come to the lake, like bass and otters, many different types of frogs, and of course, good old ducks, like the wood duck. And here's the warning signal: when a beaver sights danger, they slap their tails on the water and hopefully many other beavers hear it so they can hide from the danger. Now you might think they just use sticks, sticks, sticks - well if they only used sticks, the dam would bust open and there would be many leaks. But instead they also use mud, to, you know, make the walls nice and secure. And you may think that beavers eat the wood, like their work is also their food - well, it's something like that. Now they don't eat bark, they eat an inner layer of bark. And how a beaver knows where his last work was: he can make a beaver trail.  And hey, those beaver teeth never stop going. If they didn't get worn out by all that chewing wood, ooh, boy - they're teeth would be pretty long.

(photo from animal.discovery.com)