#You -know- she has an hour long video about jellyfish species

[lovinglapislazuli]

So @curedeity came up with the hilarious concept of Minori making mermaid lore videos while Laura just chills in the background and I wanted to illustrate it! The concept of precure having youtube channels has so much chaotic good potential XD

Here’s the original galaxy brain post: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/curedeity/687050199519068160?source=share

Image description under the cut:

Image Description: A traditional art drawing featuring a mock up youtube video page. The video, uploaded by user Legendary Papaya and titled “The mermaid Theory iceberg Explained” features Minori and Laura from tropical rouge precure at the pool in the Aozora aquarium. Minori is in front of a microphone decorated with little pink flowers and colorful beads, smiling and gesturing with her open hand as she is explaining something. Laura is laying in the background on the other side of the pool, in her mermaid form, admiring her painted nails and smiling. To the right side of the video window, five recommened videos are listed. The titles are, in order from above to below: “Door of courage!” (thumbnail shows Urara from Yes Precure 5), “Cutefy your wardrobe!” (Sango from Tropical Rouge precure holding a dress), “Blazing good weather man” (Asuka’s dad from Tropical Rouge), “Komachi scary story vol.3″ (An open book, a mug and some daifuku sweets) and “H@ppy Together” (The four girls from Fresh precure as a dance group).

[biofunmy]

Giant Squid, Phantom of the Deep, Reappears on Video

Edie Widder was eating lunch in the mess hall of the Research Vessel Point Sur on Tuesday when her colleague Nathan J. Robinson dashed in. He didn’t have to say anything — in fact, he wasn’t yet quite able to say anything. She ran from the table, made certain by his flailing arms and the look on his face that their expedition had turned up something big.

Dr. Widder, the founder of the Ocean Research and Conservation Association, was part of the team of scientists that in 2012 recorded the first video of a giant squid swimming in its natural habitat, off Japan’s Ogasawara archipelago. For that expedition, she developed a new camera system called Medusa. It employs red light, which most sea creatures can’t see, and, at the end of a milelong plastic line, an optical lure in the form of a ring of LED lights that resembles a bioluminescent jellyfish.

Dr. Widder had hypothesized that the sounds and lights of remote-operated vehicles and submersibles were scaring away large sea creatures, and preventing researchers from observing deep-ocean life as it is really lived.

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Dr. Robinson, the director the Cape Eleuthera Institute in the Bahamas, had been watching the videos that Medusa recorded on its latest expedition — a 15-day journey through the Gulf of Mexico, funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, and called Journey Into Midnight: Light and Life Below the Twilight Zone. As part of the expedition, Dr. Widder was putting her Medusa camera lure to the test, to see if it could capture another squid in a different part of the world.

So far the camera had turned up the usual sorts of deep-sea wonders: lantern sharks, deep-sea jellyfish, what the researchers believed was the first in-the-wild recording of a shrimp spewing bioluminescence.

Then, about 20 hours into the recording from the Medusa’s fifth deployment, Dr. Robinson saw the sharp points of tentacles sneaking into the camera’s view. “My heart felt like exploding,” he said on Thursday, over a shaky phone connection from the ship’s bridge.

At first, the animal stayed on the edge of the screen, suggesting that a squid was stalking the LED bait, pacing alongside it.

And then, through the drifting marine snow, the entire creature emerged from the center of the dark screen: a long, undulating animal that suddenly opened into a mass of twisting arms and tentacles. Two reached out and made a grab for the lure.

For a long moment, the squid seemed to explore the strange non-jellyfish in puzzlement. And then it was gone, shooting back into the dark.

To the scientists, the footage was exhilarating. “People started crowding around, shouting, getting pretty excited, but trying not to get too excited,” Dr. Widder said. “Because we had to be sure it really was what we thought it was.”

The expedition team watched the 25-second clip of the attack over and over on a loop, peering at the details of how suction cups were positioned and consulting identification books. (Giant squids aren’t the only squids that live in the deep sea, and this one was only — “only” — about 10 feet long: a juvenile, in a species that can grow to nearly 40 feet).

The team reached out to Michael Vecchione, a cephalopod expert at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, to confirm what they were seeing. The size and location of the sighting left only one other possible identification, Dr. Vecchione said: Asperoteuthis, a squid with much longer, thinner tentacles than the large ones, each with a flattened, sucker-covered club, that he saw on the video. This, he agreed, was a giant squid, Architeuthis, the famous colossus of literature.

It was only the second expedition to film a giant squid in its deepwater habitat, and the very first giant squid to be filmed in the waters of the United States. And here it was, only about 100 miles southwest of New Orleans, and within sight of the methane flaring at Appomattox, Shell’s largest floating oil-drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico. (Another video was made in 2015, of a giant squid near the surface of Japan’s Toyama Bay.)

For Sönke Johnsen, a professor of biology at Duke University and a member of the expedition, the experience was a reminder of how close even the most distant-seeming natural wonders are to human infrastructure and human impacts, from oil spills to the agricultural runoff that regularly turns portions of the gulf into dead zones.

“Even just a hundred miles off the coast, we’re seeing things that they put on the corner of the maps — you know, ‘Here lie monsters,’” he said. “You could be out here, and beneath you are giant squid, the things of our wildest imagination! They’re part of our land, they’re part of our country.”

Deep-sea researchers frequently point out that science knows less about the still largely unexplored deep waters beyond human vision than it does about the surface of Mars.

The giant squid has long been an exemplar of this reality: a gargantuan creature, yet known to humans only because dead specimens washed ashore or huge squid beaks were found in the stomachs of sperm whales, the animals’ primary predator.

Even as fishery depletion has forced ships to trawl in deeper waters, meaning that more giant squid specimens are hauled up in nets, this offers only narrow glimpses into their world. A body on its own, Dr. Vecchione said, “doesn’t tell us anything about how they make a living in their natural environment.”

The new video, recorded at a depth of 759 meters, in a spot where the ocean bottom lies at 2,200 meters, offers rare and useful clues to the animal’s habitat and hunting methods.

Dr. Widder designed the optical lure to emulate the light that a jellyfish emits when it is being attacked. According to the “burglar alarm theory,” the animal’s light is meant to attract some larger predator, which will attack whatever is attacking the jellyfish. That a second giant squid was attracted to the lure seems to bolster the theory.

Still, scientists have little idea how the species as a whole is faring, especially as the oceans it calls home are rapidly warming and acidifying. “It could fall out of existence without us even knowing,” Dr. Robinson said.

But the new video sighting, brief as it is, joins the 2012 footage as an enormous addition to our limited knowledge of giant squids: a tiny glimpse into how a famous but mysterious creature lives in a world that is usually beyond our sight.

As the members of the expedition stood around the monitors, celebrating and high-fiving, they began to say that lightning had struck twice: The Medusa camera had managed to record not one but two sightings of the elusive giant squid, if seven years apart.

Then, just half an hour after Dr. Robinson ran into the mess to alert Dr. Widder, actual lightning struck the ship. An antenna and instruments on the starboard side fell to the deck in fragments, and a plume of smoke filled the air.

The researchers ran to check the Medusa’s computer to make sure the precious footage they had just watched was safe. It was: There was the squid, still emerging from the darkness.

Sahred From Source link Science

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[bpinbangkok-blog]

I’m Back!

HI! I want to start this post by apologizing for not posting for so long! I have been so busy with the holidays and midterms, I haven’t found the time to sit down and inform all my friends and family at home about what I’ve been up to!

I will try to keep this brief because A LOT has happened since Thanksgiving, and I will include pictures here and add some videos later in a separate post!

December was a very eventful month!!

12/2-12/5: I traveled with friends from Orientation to the North of Thailand to escape the big city and visit the beautiful Chiang Mai. If you look up Chiang Mai, you will probably see many pictures of beautiful temples, mountains, jungles, and elephants. This place is truly incredible; the pictures don’t even do justice! We spent our first day just walking around, exploring the new and old city. There is so much history and amazing building graffiti/art here, it is so cool to see! I had really wanted to go to an elephant sanctuary to spend time with the beautiful elephants that have been rescued from torturous elephant tourism. Unfortunately, there are still so many places in Thailand, Chaing Mai especially, that abuse the elephants and force them to do tricks and entertain tourists. There are, however, a couple places that are dedicated to rescuing elephants from these tourist attractions and giving them a better life. The best place out there is Elephant Nature Park, but because it is so incredible, it fills up fast and it was already booked online. I was so sad because that was the main thing I wanted to experience in Chiang Mai, so when we walked past the Elephant Nature Park Office I convinced my friends to go in with me to check for any cancellations. LUCKILY, they had an entire new program they just launched, not yet available online, that was even better than the others. We booked right away and it was the best day ever. We got there at 7:00 am and took a van about an hour north to the jungle. There were only 9 people in the group so we got to spend a lot of time with all 4 elephants. We got really lucky because there was a 5-month-old baby that was just the cutest thing in the world! We started the day by washing the elephants’ food and feeding them. We then got to go on a hike with them and watch them play happily in their new home. Afterwards we had lunch, and then walked over to a big mud pit where we got to jump in with the elephants. The elephants are so happy to be rescued they literally laugh…it’s the cutest thing ever; who knew elephants could laugh!? We bathed them in the river afterwards and then walked back to begin our venture home. I am so, so thankful for this experience and I encourage anyone interested to please do your research and make sure the establishment is treating the elephants well, you will notice a difference in the happiness of the big bundles of joy!

The next day we did a traditional Thai cooking class, which was awesome! I am not much of a chef, but our teacher was so amazing she made me feel like I could whip up a Thai dish any day of the week. The only downside of this is that I probably gained 10 pounds considering it was EIGHT COURSES:

-Vegetarian spring rolls

-Som Tam (Papaya Salad)

-Akha Salad

-Fuhk yu (that means pumpkin) soup

-Tom Kha Soup (coconut chicken soup)—My favorite for sure

-Masaman Curry and Rice

-Pad Thai

-Mango and Sticky Rice

…soooo much delicious Thai food! :)

The last day we spent exploring more of the city, relaxing, and eating!

12/9-12/12: Bridget, Kelly, and I all have December birthdays, so we choose this long weekend to celebrate for all three of us! We journeyed down south to Krabi, Thailand. Krabi is famous for it’s beautiful beaches, Ao Nang and Railay. We booked a cool Airbnb in Ao Nang with a pool, but stayed at a hostel the first night because our flight got in really late. We ended up meeting some really cool people the first night at the hostel and spent the weekend with them on the beach! The first night we went on a pub-crawl with the hostel and took a midnight swim in the ocean. It was really fun until a jellyfish stung me L. On Saturday, we relaxed at the beach all day. On Sunday, we went on a boat cruise that was SO COOL. We spent the whole day on this jumping off this pirate ship, snorkeling, traveling to the different islands, and watching the sunset. It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in real life! After the sun went down, they took us to swim with bioluminescent plankton, which made the science nerd in me very happy! The next day we sadly had to go back home and leave paradise. Krabi is hands down my favorite place in Thailand so far!

12/21: My favorite class (M1/2) surprised me for my birthday! Perry told them without me knowing. I walked in and they grabbed me and covered my eyes and turned off all the lights. They had 2 cakes with candles, they sang to me and threw me a mini party. Two of them even brought me gifts! A coin purse, and a teddy bear...I cried like a baby haha I was so happy and surprised. They are so sweet and thoughtful I am going to be heartbroken leaving them!

12/24-12/25: CHRISTMAS IN THAILAND! Unfortunately, this was following midterms week, so we didn’t really have much of a Christmas break like we do in the States. We stayed in Bangkok, but it was one of the most fun weekends I’ve had so far! Christmas Eve I spent the day at a pool party with all my friends and an infinity pool that overlooked the whole city. It makes me sad thinking that's probably the only time I’ll be in a pool on Christmas, considering Chicago weather, haha. After the pool party my friend Claire hosted a Christmas dinner potluck for all of our friends. It was so nice to see everyone together again! We spent Christmas Day by the pool, as well :)

Christmas beers at our favorite place (7/11) lol

12/29-1/3: For New Years, we did get a long break! I traveled to Chiang Mai again, but with a different group of people this time. It was a lot of fun, I was so happy to be back and experience new things I hadn’t had time for the first trip. While my friends did the Elephant Park, I went to temples, explored new parts of the city, and tried new foods! For New Years Eve, we went to a lantern festival, which is a tradition in Thailand. The purpose of sending of the lanterns is to symbolically ward off bad luck for the New Year. All my friends and I wrote messages on the paper lanterns, lit them, and sent them off into the sky. It was a really heartwarming experience, especially because it was spent with all of the people that mean the most to me here! We spent the rest of the weekend just hanging out, getting to know the city, and making new friends. It was a great, relaxing weekend…my best NYE yet!

1/12-1/16: This past weekend we decided to travel a little further. We finally got our work permits finalized, meaning we can legally leave the country. My roommates and I decided to plan a girl’s weekend trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia! The city is so beautiful! There were so many gardens, and trees mixed in with the skyscrapers; it was very refreshing compared to Bangkok! We went into the KL Tower skydeck (which is very similar to the Willis tower skybox) to get an amazing view of the city. We also went to the Batu Caves to climb and explore all of the history there. The caves were amazing, full of religious artifacts and rare species! The only downside was the darn monkeys everywhere….they look cute but they are disgusting and vicious. The forecast predicted rain all weekend, but we got really lucky with beautiful weather the two first days. I got food poisoning on the third day so I had to stay in bed while my friends went to Botanical Gardens and bamboo tree houses, which was a bummer, but I’m thankful for the eventful two days I had!

If you made it all the way to the end, thank you for reading! I’m so sorry for the overload, I will try to do a better job of keeping up as I travel to avoid long posts like this :) Love you all!