“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.”

-Albus Dumbledore

Tuesday, 26 August 2014

Blobby Blobby and Slimy Slimy

Imaginary Audience! I have a gift for you! It's an amazing, incredible, and very informative link!

As some of you imaginary people may know, today is my punishment post. It involves research and disgusting creatures, and I'll try to make it as interesting as I can to read, although no promises. So we might as well jump right in!

True Facts about the Blobfish:

-The blobfish is a deep sea fish and lives around Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand.
-The blobfish lives in waters between 2000 and 3900 ft deep.
-It eats any edible matter that floats in front of it while swimming along the sea floor. Talk about lazy!
-In September 2013 the blobfish was voted the "Worlds Ugliest Animal"
- It's extremely rare for anyone to see blobfish in the wild
- Blobfish aren't extremely large, most are around 12 to 30 cm
- Also know as the blobby blobby potato of the sea. (at least that's what I call it)

Also, according to the BBC, blobfish aren't edible. No kidding.

True Facts about the Hagfish:

- Average length is about 19.7 inches
- They are the only known living animals that have a skull but no backbone
- Hagfish are jawless
- The longest known hagfish was 4 ft 2 in
- They can produce large amounts of milky slime from the 100 glands on its sides
- If they are captured by the tail, they produce slime, tie themselves in a knot, and then wriggle through the knot, releasing themselves
- Hagfish can detect light but not images
- Hagfish eat marine worms on the sea floor and can also eat much larger, dying, sea creatures by devouring them from the inside
- Hagfish skin makes a very good leather, particularly good for wallets and belts.
- Hagfish is also a punk rock band originating from Dallas, Texas

So, now that we've all educated ourselves on the Hagfish and the Blobfish, now comes the part of my punishment where I am supposed to explain which one is superior.

It's actually a very hard decision. Both creatures are disgusting and special and unique. However.....
I'm gonna go with the Blobfish. Not for the way it looks however, although it is amazing and gross, but actually because of how it has been misrepresented, and I feel kinda bad for it. Seriously.

Down where the blobfish lives, pressure is up to 120 times higher than at the surface. Now, most fish
A blobfish deep in the depths of the ocean.
have swim bladders, sacs of gas that help them move around and stay buoyant. But if the blobfish had a swim bladder, it would collapse at the extreme pressure. In order for the blobfish to survive where it needs to, it has hardly any skeleton and and almost no muscle. In the deep deep depths where it lives, it actually looks like a regular fish. When the blobfish is brought
above water, its jelly like body and lack of bones makes it look a lot uglier that in actually is. But I think he's doing ok despite his undeserved "World's Ugliest Animal" title. And that is why I think the Blobfish is superior. He's not letting his "ugliness" get him down.

You told me to be sincere, and I actually am! That's seriously my opinion.

And also this entire punishment was like one giant Ze Frank's true facts reference. At least, it was to me.

Was this enough words for you Beth? I'm not sure. I hope so. There's not a lot of information on these creatures.


DFTBA!

Beth's Blog: http://beth.120crayons.com





Tuesday, 19 August 2014

Alert! Alert! The Robots are Coming! (as well as a punishment)

Click this link if you want.        I'm not going to force you.        But you can.      If you want. 

Hello. This is a big moment in history, as this is the first time a punishment has been issued. To me, as some of you may know. So. Look forward to reading my punishment post next Tuesday. 

I haven't posted in a while, because of vacation and forgetfulness, so that leaves me a lot to respond to. I hope to someday get to some of it.  

I really enjoyed your lumps of mush post and your amazing pictures of light stuff, by the way. I think about brains and all their complexity and wonderment a lot. It boggles my mind, which is weird because the very fact that my mind can be boggled boggles me. 

SO. This post is going to be about a video. It's by a Youtuber known as CGPGrey*, whom I know you have seen before. You may subscribe to him and have already seen this video, in which case, bear with me until the questions. 

This video was called Humans Need Not Apply and it was about robots. Which may sound weird, but it was actually a very interesting and worrying and slightly terrifying video. I think you should watch it, and when I say you, I mean Beth and also the imaginary audience. It's one of those things that you just want to show everyone you can, including the president of every country. I have a lot of questions about it, but one is this - are robots, in time, actually capable of replacing humans entirely? I'm not asking if they're actually going to, I'm asking if they're capable. I immediately want to reject this, and one of the most logical reasons I have is: don't we need humans to repair robots and create new ones? However, couldn't robots eventually learn how to fix themselves and other robots, just as humans have learned to do the same? And couldn't robots become advanced enough to create more robots? But how would they get that material? Are they able to just create it? I don't know. I'm not a robot expert. What do you think, Beth?

I'll see you and the imaginary audience with my punishment on Tuesdaaaayyyy! 

DFTBA!

Beth's Blog: http://beth.120crayons.com/




Friday, 1 August 2014

I'd like to pretend to be British

You know what to do, click this link before you continue!

Hello again Beth! As you already know, I will be posting while I'm on vacation, but don't expect anything long or particularly complex. This post is late, I know, but I've been busy and tired and on a holiday, so I don't really think I should be punished, though maybe you disagree. 

Thanks for answering my Harry Potter questions! I'm expecting we'll have many more HP conversations as our blogging adventure continues. Prisoner of Azkaban used to be my least favourite HP book, but after rereading it a few times it has become my second favourite! I love Lupin so much, and I really enjoy the plot twists and surprises in it too. 

So for my main topic today, I will be writing about something that Ellie and I have been discussing and arguing about recently. This topic can have many names, but I like to call it "Lame Superpowers". Lame Superpowers are those abilities or talents that seem pretty stupid and not very useful but once you really think about it, they would actually be quite cool to have. Lame Superpowers can actually happen in real life, but they can also be things that are impossible to happen. As an example, I've decided to provide you with a list of some of my favourite Lame Superpowers. 


  • The ability to pause and unpause a youtube video with your mind.
  • The ability to remember completely and exactly one dream you had last night, but only for 12 hours.
  • The ability to open your locker on the first try.
  • The ability to cut your fingernails and toenails with your mind, as well as cutting them to the exact length you want. 
  • The ability to skip forward or backward in a video to the exact time you want. 
  • The ability to know immediately if a book is a part of a series and what number it is just from picking it up. 
And my personal most favourite of my favourites, the Lame Superpower I would pick over any superpower, lame or not, except for flying of course, is....
  • The ability to speak in an absolutely perfect British accent whenever you wanted to. 

Now, you must have read my mind when you asked me your second question, because I had decided put a quote of the week at the end of each of my new posts. This week's quote is from a song by Dan Mangan called You Silly Git. There's on line in it that really reminds me of the kind of exsitential crisis I have most often, and the one I wrote about on this blog. 
It's not my favourite quote, but whenever I hear it, it makes me go....Wow, that's true. So here it is. 


Just cities full of people

People making people making people

For the masses

People we won't ever know