Friday, August 29, 2014

Sharks - What you may not have known

Heyyy, so I was watching a program on Sharks this morning on Nat Geo Wild, Starhub, which introduced some sharks with interesting features whether it is for hunting or self protection. Here is the list:

1. Wobbegong shark
This shark was introduced as one with a very huge gaping mouth which it uses to catch prey of course. It also has an outer covering of skin which is coloured just like the sea floor and with patterns and markings to help these fish better camouflage with the seafloor. As such, these sharks spend most of their time on the seafloor and are passive hunters, lying in wait and feeding on small fish which swim too close to their gaping mouths.
2. Thresher shark
Now, this is one interesting shark. It has a really long tail which can be as long as the body of the shark itself. Of course, that long tail helps in swimming but the shark uses that tail for hunting too. It "swipes" or "slaps" the water to stun prey such as small fish or even kill them. It was said that this "slapping" even splits the H and the O of the water. Haha, I dunno how true that is but it sure sounds cool.
3. Epaulette shark
Unlike most other sharks, this one is much smaller, growing up to about 1m at most. The only feature introduced about this shark was the black rings found behind each pectoral fin thus making it look cute. Hahaha... quite an innocent word to describe sharks but given it's size, I guess it might really look cute.
4. Sevengill shark
This shark, as the name suggests, has seven pairs of gill slits. I learnt that this differs from other sharks as most other sharks have only 5. This again is a relatively small shark, growing up to about 1.4m in length.
5. Nurse shark
Okay, here's a shark that actually sleeps. It was said that most sharks are active 24 hours of the day due to the need to be in constant motion to seek waters rich in oxygen. Otherwise, these sharks may die due to a lack of oxygen. Furthermore, sharks, as do most fish, need to be in constant motion to remain afloat and not sink to the bottom of the ocean. This would then be dangerous for the sharks as well.
So basically, the Nurse shark has the ability to respire by pumping water out of their gills even when sleeping thus having the ability to take a rest at the bottom of the ocean.
6. Horn shark
This shark has special features not to aid it in hunting but to protect it. There are large venomous spines behind its two high dorsal fins which predators will inevitably come into contact with should these predators attempt to devour the horn shark. Moreover, this shark also has a rather ugly look with a short and flat head.
More interestingly, the eggs of the horn shark are shaped like huge cork screws which the mother wedges into crevices or rocks to prevent them from being washed away by the ocean currents or to protect the eggs from predators. The female horn shark usually lays up to 24 eggs within 2 weeks.
Moreover, the horn shark prefers using its fins to push itself along the seafloor to move from place to place rather than swimming. Thus, it almost seems like the horn shark is walking. It is also able to store oxygenated water in its gills for up to three and a half hours.
7. Angel shark
Ooops... cannot remember what was special about this fish.
8. Goblin shark 
This one looks real nasty, much like an ugly goblin and hence it's name. Much of the reason for its ugliness is a long flat snout protruding out of its head. It also has long teeth which extends out of its mouth giving it a menacing look. It can grow to 3-4m or even larger which makes this quite a huge fish.
One other interesting thing about this fish is that its scientific name, "Mitsukurina Owstoni" is derived from two people, Alan Owston and Kakichi Mitsukuri, both who helped in discovering this shark.
Its snout is also covered with "ampullae of Lorenzini" which help it to detect electric fields so that the shark is able to find its way around, much like us using compasses.
9. Frilled shark 
The only thing I remembered about this shark is that the gills on both sides of its head extend out under its head and connect, looking sort of like frills hence its name.
10. Cookie cutter shark
This shark was introduced as one which has hardly been seen. This is likely due to its small size, growing up to around 50cm only. So little is known about this fish and much is merely deduction using scars on its victims.  Haha, what is interesting about this shark is its feeding habit. Basically, it swims up to huge sea creatures, be it bluefin tuna, or larger sharks or whales and uses its razor sharp teeth to take a bite out of them. Just one crunch, and the round shape of a cookie is carved out of the flesh, just like a cookie cutter. It was not mentioned whether the bite was deadly so I guess it just goes around taking bites out of creatures and does not finish its prey whole. Oh, and they are definitely not at the top of the food chain, given their size.
So if ever you are out there swimming in the sea and happen to have a round shaped wound... you might just have been bitten by a cookie cutter shark. Yes, they do bite humans too!
11. Great white shark
Okay, so the next few sharks are the more common ones. This Great White Shark is quite well known to many right? It is probably the most feared shark of all. Well, the only new thing I learnt about this shark was that it has the ability to keep its body warm even in cooler waters. Thus, this is how it keeps its energy level up and is thus so powerful in hunting prey.
12. Hammerhead shark
The only thing I remember about this shark, besides how it looks, is that a huge school of this fish gather together at a certain time each year. However, it is not clear whether they do so to mate or for other purposes. Still, it is really a majestic sight!
13. Tiger shark
I learnt something new about this shark too. Apparently, they eat any rubbish they can find in the seas and have stomachs which have really strong acids to digest all that "rubbish" too. It was said that these sharks have been known to eat everything ranging from metal signs to sea creatures and other sharks. They can even turn their stomachs inside out to remove all the excess which they do not need.

Having watched this program and another one about polar bears and their Arctic habitat which I had watched previously, I was once again reminded of how human activities have very detrimental impacts on the fauna and flora of this Earth. More specifically, air and water pollution caused by our mining and burning of fossil fuels has resulted in very toxic habitats for these other occupants which share this Earth, ultimately leading to the deaths and even extinction of these creatures. I do feel more needs to be done to minimise such consequences and at a faster pace too.
Phew, what a long post...

Friday, August 22, 2014

Uni preparations in a flash!

Okay, so I've been really busy with preparing for my new school year in University for around the past one month, I'm of course really excited ( a feeling repeated in most of my recent posts.... haha) and there have been lots going on really. Yea, that explains the lack of updates or posts for the past one month but no worries, I'm going to be putting up some updates here today. Actually... I have written about some of the things that have been going on if I recall. Still, here's a summary...

14/07 - Study Skills workshop 1
17/07 -  UOL Offer sent
18/07 - Registered for FOD2/ Enrolment Talk workshop
24/07 - FOD 2 0830 to 1800
30/07 - Enrolment Talk
31/07 - Morning did SSCE and editted my selections in the evening after a discussion with my Dad Realised I should have planned my classes such that I do not need to go to school every day,,, Oops.
Finalised timetable and submitted
01/08 - Preparatory Maths 1 workshop
03/08 - Timbre dinner with FOD OG/ Got selected for FOC2!!
05/08 - Preparatory Intro to Economics workshop 1 ( lecturer did not go through worksheet)
After this second prep course, I understood how it is possible to attend lectures and leave without making any friends. No one seemed to be talking to one another lol
06/08 - Was supposed to be Econs Prep workshop 2 but had to miss it due to FOC2!! It sure was FUN!!!
08/08 - End of FOC2
11/08 - Maths 1 first lecture
12/08 - Just to let you guys know, up until now I had not paid my school fees due to not having gotten my invoice. I was really frantic, worried, even desperate as to why I had not gotten it yet when lessons had already started. Thus I was really relieved to finally get my invoice today!
20/08 - Parents finally made payment of my school fees... A load in my chest was finally released.
Yupp, up until now this I pretty much most of what has been going on in my life. I will go into detail about some of these events in due course when I have had more time to blog,
Now. it's really late and I'm going to bed... so ciaos!

Friday, August 1, 2014

Marvel Twist

I had a day free just yesterday in between my activities in school so I went out with JL. In particular, we were going to catch the new Marvel movie, Guardians of the Galaxy. Yesterday was the first day it opened in cinemas. Haha... we were finally catching a movie after a long while. Well, it wasn't that there hadn't been good/ interesting movies for the past couple of months but I had been busy and so we missed out on all of them. So we started off the day with lunch at Mac's.
Talking about Mac's, they have been quite aggressive in competition lately with the introduction of burger after new burger. From what I think, the new burgers haven't been very well received though. Each of the new burgers introduced were removed from the menu after not too long and then another new burger was introduced. Not too sure what is the reason for this but I did find some of the burgers quite interesting, while there were others which did not really make the mark. The newest on the menu was a "Shiok Shiok Satay" burger with a choice of beef or chicken. That was to be our lunch for the day. Both of us picked the beef burger and I kind of liked the combination of beef with onion and cucumber together with the satay sauce. I do wonder how long this burger will be on the menu...
After a quick lunch, we rushed off to catch our movie. I was quite anticipating the movie seeing as it was a Marvel movie. In my mind, I was thinking super heroes and super powers. However, the movie turned out to be really different from what I had expected. I'm not going to spoil the movie for those who have not watched, so let's just say it was a really great movie and we both enjoyed it tremendously.
We ended off the day with a quick dinner at Soup Spoon after the movie. It sure felt great to finally not be eating a home cooked meal! It has been quite some time that I ate a good meal outdoors.

Maths prep lecture

Hahaha... I'm just back from my first Uni lecture which was Maths 1 Preparatory lecture. Basically what the lecturer went through was stuff I had already learnt before such as differentiation and functions or graphs. As such, it was not too much of a problem as those were still quite basic for me. Even the notes which we were to print out for the class contained some really basic maths formulae for algebra and differentiation formulae. I guess this is just cuz this is the preparatory workshop so the lecturer is starting from the very basic stuff? Well, I am sure the content is going to go much more in depth once lecture starts. Think differentiation will form the basis of this course, seeing as most of what we went through today was differentiation.
Yay, there's no homework for now. I do need to revise completing the square though, this lecture just reminded me about it.
ciaos...

Friday morning

Really need to get to writing once a thought pops into my head, mostly when I have the time to just relax and let my mind wander... hmmm whi...