Stressed to a Max, trying to finish every piled on assignment assigned on the last day of class plus study for important exams, plus plan an ugly Christmas sweater themed holiday party is tearing me apart. One of my professors decided to assign 3 term papers due before today's final. They weren't major but when it comes to writing I tend to take my time with it...so it was an intense couple of nights...that in turn affected my study time for Mammalian and Mammology...which cut into the time I had planned on passing out invitations. So I take my first final today, hand in all of 3 of my term papers and he tells me I have 0 for a test I never took....wait....hold up...... Did you just say I have a 0 for a grade?
This has never happened to me before, especially not on some baby freshman course needed for your core. I took all three exams, turned in alllll my papers, what happened? Apparently since I had rescheduled my exam, he never uploaded my grade, which could be a possible he lost my grade situation, and now i'm shitting bricks. I sent him an email, this guy is never in his office, to see how this (since its technically not my fault) can be resolved, I've yet to hear from professor...which builds on my anxiety, which adds to my stress for not studying enough for my other two exams....Let me tell you, I don't care if its 9AM Friday after my last Final, I'm going to throw back a couple....I NEED IT.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Weeds
I hate taking advantage of Black Friday sales, the people, the attitude, the rush to get and find a deal that you can't really afford anyway, and the pain of the lines and horrors to find that 10 other people are in line to get what you want is just a mess. This year however my little nephew, who isn't little well 16, anyway my nephew wanted me to take him to some Black Friday sales so he can try to see if he can afford a discounted iPod. We go to Best Buy and to my surprise Weeds the series is on sale. I took advantage of this and went crazy buying seasons 1-5. Whenever, which is rare for a biology student, I have time to myself I engage in an episode or so. I'm just super excited thst I will soon have time to watch them all, with nothing stopping me. Thats right no homework assignment, no study cram session, no lab work, nothing but me and my episodes of Weeds. LOVELY! Blogging was a pleasure but seriously who has time for this? MAYBE I will once all 5 seasons of Weeds finish. Until next time student rants...
Monday, December 6, 2010
video editing
although stressful and time consuming this project was actually pretty fun. Starting off none of my group members knew what we were doing but on our crunch time last day to submit it, we were fucking legit. I must say I'm actually very proud of this project. I feel like its my child only instead of taking 9 months to develop it took 1 week but none the less its a replica of my, and my group's, ideas and thoughts. I can only imagine how movie editing in Hollywood can be such a long process. It took us a week to edit it. That not only includes editing the different shots we took, but adding sound effects, text, music, and pictures. I'm a huge fan of the Pinnacle Studio program only because it was easy to master, but we did encounter some problems with it. Our project was constantly being threatened to shut down due to the program "not responding" which occurred 4x's in one day. Nonetheless I would like to add video editing to my resume on list of skills. Ahhh maybe a new life career change to editor on one of those nature movies. Cool.
More Study Rants
Which brings me to another point, why on earth did God, or Science (for you nonbelievers) invent the armadillos. Mammal, yeah right, its like a mixture of all things put into one creature. It has scales, and claws, and a weird nose, and a freaking carapace for Christ-or-science sake. But then I guess nothing in the order Xenarthra makes any sense. I mean anteaters, armadillos, and sloths truely strangest of strange mammals.
Bio 4303 also known as mammology or mammLAMEology (only because I'm bitter and noway does it reflect my feelings towards Dr. Gun, who is a wonderful professor, just in case he stumbles upon this) is really pushing my limits on the capacity my brain has to memorize 26 different rodent aka Rodentia species. I now know genus and species names for common household, and local, rodents, carnivores, ungulates, and xenathera. Can't wait for the upcoming dialogue where Mom or some future person I will engage in conversation with says, "Holy shit a Rat!" To which I will reply with my savey-proper tone and pinky up hand jester, "ACTUALLY my friend, not only is that not a rat, its a common household mouse scientifically known as Mus musculus." They will roll thier eyes and say, "same shit!" just before stomping it flat to the ground.
Monday, November 22, 2010
What came first, longevity or the shell?
It is undetermined as to which came first, the tortoise shell or its longevity, but the both are codependent. The tortoise shell essentially protects the tortoise from predators and harsh environments. This is a big plus in outliving other animals around us. I mean if you were to face two knights together, one without armor and one with the full armor (chain link and all) which of the two would be expected to survive. Ummm, my money goes to the fully armored one, duh. It’s the same effect with giant tortoises. Other animals with protection, or a sort of self-defense against predators can outstand those that don’t have any sort of protection.
There are other determining factors that contribute to the lifespan of the giant tortoise. One obvious contribution is the speed of a tortoise. Speed with what??? Well speed of everything, referring to the slow speed of a tortoise’s life. Tortoises are slow at everything, running races against hares, metabolizing, and well they’re even slow at growing. Throughout a tortoise’s lifetime, all 220 years, it is growing slowly. While most large animals take about 1 year to develop into an adult the tortoise continues to grow constantly up until 18 years (varies with species). Since its sexual maturity develops so late in the game, there is less of a chance to die, the will to live is increased, I mean its life duty is, well, not accomplished until its genetic code is passed on. From an animal’s stand point, what’s the point in dying fast if you haven’t given a chance to reproduce yet? Animals that reproduce at an early age tend to die younger than those that reproduce at a latter age. Metabolic rate is also associated with lifespan. For example animals that burn energy fast, require more energy, and hence die faster than slow metabolizers. Take for example the hamster or shrew; they have a fast burning metabolism and a lifespan of about 2years. Tortoises require little energy, since they are so slow at everything, and burn metabolism slower. This is why they can survive long periods of time without drinking or eating.
So maybe instead of injecting botulinum toxin and killing the neurons responsible for muscle contractions of the face, scientist should develop a medication that will slow down metabolic process in humans hence creating longer life, just saying.
There are other determining factors that contribute to the lifespan of the giant tortoise. One obvious contribution is the speed of a tortoise. Speed with what??? Well speed of everything, referring to the slow speed of a tortoise’s life. Tortoises are slow at everything, running races against hares, metabolizing, and well they’re even slow at growing. Throughout a tortoise’s lifetime, all 220 years, it is growing slowly. While most large animals take about 1 year to develop into an adult the tortoise continues to grow constantly up until 18 years (varies with species). Since its sexual maturity develops so late in the game, there is less of a chance to die, the will to live is increased, I mean its life duty is, well, not accomplished until its genetic code is passed on. From an animal’s stand point, what’s the point in dying fast if you haven’t given a chance to reproduce yet? Animals that reproduce at an early age tend to die younger than those that reproduce at a latter age. Metabolic rate is also associated with lifespan. For example animals that burn energy fast, require more energy, and hence die faster than slow metabolizers. Take for example the hamster or shrew; they have a fast burning metabolism and a lifespan of about 2years. Tortoises require little energy, since they are so slow at everything, and burn metabolism slower. This is why they can survive long periods of time without drinking or eating.
So maybe instead of injecting botulinum toxin and killing the neurons responsible for muscle contractions of the face, scientist should develop a medication that will slow down metabolic process in humans hence creating longer life, just saying.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Wait…Hold Up…You Mean To Tell Me Bears Don’t Freaking Hibernate?
Leave it to college to change, yet again, something I was certain I thought I knew. I mean sure my political ideology has drastically changed from being conservative (aka under the influence of my very religious family) to a more liberal perspective. Somewhere out there one of my family members reading this is puzzled thinking to themselves, what you mean you’re not prolife?!? And sure on some things my experience at the university has expanded my thoughts on some of the issues my public education failed me in, BUT common, I never expected to learn something like this so late in the game. My whole life, since I can remember, I was taught that bears hibernate. This might not be shocking or irrelevant to you reading this but it shattered my world. My jaw dropped and I had to fight the urge to let out a high pitch gasp when my Mammology professor broke the news. I know I wasn’t the only one who was effected by hmm maybe the imagery of a sleepy bear cartoon, or the term hibernation loosely being used to mean sleep, because I saw a bunch of confused and “say wuuut?” faces in class.
Cold winter often activates this adaptive to climate state in mammals. Let’s face it no one likes to be out and about in the cold, we usually have to layer clothes on and psychologically convince ourselves to get out from under the warm blankets to get a move on in a cold day. So it’s no surprise that most mammals are the same. Winter usually yields less available food, especially for herbivores, and the energy cost for locating a meal in a cold day becomes way high. Solving this problem essentially leads to two solutions…1.) Dying or 2.) Adapting to the harsh winter by lowering your metabolism, respiration, and heart rate. The animal’s body temperature drops significantly low, often times matching the winter temperature outside. Large mammals, yes that includes bears, don’t go through true hibernation. The largest mammal that hibernates is the marmot which only weighs about 5kg.
So what do bears do in the winter?
If they are NOT hibernating then what the heck are these furry large suckers doing? They undergo a torpor state of sleep. During this “faux hibernation” their core body temperature doesn’t reach as low as what a true hibernator would reach but it does drop. Even though they do sleep for long periods of time they are still active on occasions, such as if they need to urinate or eat. True hibernators seem as if they are dead, they sleep entirely with no waking up. Since larger mammals have more surface area and volume it would take way too much energy, energy they don’t have, to warm their bodies up once out of the hibernating state. Which brings to mind an image of a snoring bear in a cage with a wander sneaking in to do lord knows what….yeah, BAD IDEA. Unless you are looking for a bear mauling then go ahead and make your way into a bear den while they sleep and pray that their torpor sleep isn’t somehow affected by your presence.
Learn something new every day, to bad this isn’t really new just something I can now be scientifically correct (SC) about. I sincerely wish I had the ability to stimulate my hippocampus to remember the bastards responsible for leading me to believe that bears effing hibernate.
Cold winter often activates this adaptive to climate state in mammals. Let’s face it no one likes to be out and about in the cold, we usually have to layer clothes on and psychologically convince ourselves to get out from under the warm blankets to get a move on in a cold day. So it’s no surprise that most mammals are the same. Winter usually yields less available food, especially for herbivores, and the energy cost for locating a meal in a cold day becomes way high. Solving this problem essentially leads to two solutions…1.) Dying or 2.) Adapting to the harsh winter by lowering your metabolism, respiration, and heart rate. The animal’s body temperature drops significantly low, often times matching the winter temperature outside. Large mammals, yes that includes bears, don’t go through true hibernation. The largest mammal that hibernates is the marmot which only weighs about 5kg.
So what do bears do in the winter?
If they are NOT hibernating then what the heck are these furry large suckers doing? They undergo a torpor state of sleep. During this “faux hibernation” their core body temperature doesn’t reach as low as what a true hibernator would reach but it does drop. Even though they do sleep for long periods of time they are still active on occasions, such as if they need to urinate or eat. True hibernators seem as if they are dead, they sleep entirely with no waking up. Since larger mammals have more surface area and volume it would take way too much energy, energy they don’t have, to warm their bodies up once out of the hibernating state. Which brings to mind an image of a snoring bear in a cage with a wander sneaking in to do lord knows what….yeah, BAD IDEA. Unless you are looking for a bear mauling then go ahead and make your way into a bear den while they sleep and pray that their torpor sleep isn’t somehow affected by your presence.
Learn something new every day, to bad this isn’t really new just something I can now be scientifically correct (SC) about. I sincerely wish I had the ability to stimulate my hippocampus to remember the bastards responsible for leading me to believe that bears effing hibernate.
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