Mascletà

Well, today for the first time ever I was able to get up close for a major Mascletà, and all I can say is: Oh WOW!!! That, and my ears are still ringing! :p

What's a Mascletà you ask? Well, by definition it's a series of firecrackers that go off in sequence one after the other (some simultaneously), set up kind of like dominoes, some times with fireworks included in the mix. A more "real" definition would be to say a Mascletà is a) a lot of noise, b) a lot of smoke and c) a lot of fun! oh, and d) typical of the Fiestas in the Comunidad Valenciana (where no decent "fiestas" in any town would be caught dead without a lot of noise-makers, firecrackers, fireworks etc.).
Ooh! thx wikipedia! Apparently according to the "rules" a mascletà must contain the following elements:

• "Inicio" (beginning) - ensemble of visual and acoustic effects that start the show.

• "Cuerpo" (body) - the central part must be continuously increasing in intensity and volume.

• "Terratremol" (earthquake) - moment when the masclets (crackers) explode on the ground at a very high speed making the ground vibrate.

• "Parte Aerea" (in the sky) - explosions of aerial rockets of higher intensity, always well visible and usually with colours.

During Hogueras there's an ongoing Mascletà Competition between June 19th and June 24th. 6 different Pyrotechnic groups (one per day) set up their crackers in an area around the Plaza de los Luceros. At precisely 14h00 the Bellea del Foc says "Señor pirotecnic, pot començar la masceltà" (Mister Pyrotechnic, you can start the mascletà), and a few seconds later... all hell breaks loose! A minimum of 7' (competition rules) of firecrackers banging and whizzing non-stop. Rockets screeching and shooting up into the air setting off fireworks whose glimmer you can just make out in the daylight. Smoke going up and up and covering the Plaza. And that final minute... the final BANGs... everything intensifies, the crowd goes wild, you know they're yelling at the top of their lungs because you are too but you can't hear it. The noise is (for the first time in my life) truly deafening! It's an amazing and very intense experience!!! And hopefully the following video I put together from today's show (bits and pieces, not the full 10' of explosions, don't worry!) will give you an idea of what it's like (pity I can't transmit smells as well):



Damn, after keeping me up a good part of the night now it appears that YouTube's embeding of this video isn't working properly! Argh!!! I've tried fiddling with the settings, hopefully it will correct itself. If it doesn't, go see the video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7CHh0cmRdY

Addendum: I found out that 132kgs of gunpowder were used!

This year there was also a nocturnal mascletà competition "Pólvora a la Nit" (nightime gunpowder), but since they were all weeknites at midnight I missed out (damn sense of responsibility!). I had planned on going yesterday (figured those would have more colours and lights than just noise) but found myself without a car, and when I went down today on the bus I discovered buses and trams are running all night long as of yesterday! lol! Oh well, next year! But you can check out a few pics from last night over at LinkAlicante (he's putting up quite a spread during Hogueras from what I can see, I'm positively envious!)

Oh wait! YouTube's great! I just found a few videos on the nightime ones! this one's not the best quality, but the others were just too long, and anyhow it gives you an idea:

Hogueras Preparations, SJ-5!

Only 5 nights to go 'till la Nit de San Joan... and coinciding with the weekend things are shifting into a higher gear around here!

There have been 5 nights of Mascletàs, today the big daytime Mascletà competition started (more on that in the next post), the big Hogueras got a heads start yesterday on the smaller ones (which get set up tomorrow, official day of La Plantà), lights are up all over town, barriers piled up on the sides of streets ready to block them off as of tomorrow (or today even), and with kids finally out of school for the summer the number of firecrackers being set off around the neighbourhood has increased. There's FIESTA in the air! :o)

And here go a few photos to illustrate all this! Click on 'em for bigger views.

This street (2 blocks from my place) will be completely different tomorrow... no cars, barricades, and a couple of Hogueras
Lights are up
Barricades are piled up, and if you look to the left you'll see many fiesta essentials (food, drink) are already there! ;o)
Finishing touches on the plaza in front of City Hall
They got a head start on the "official" Hoguera yesterday and now are practically done! (will get more photos another day)
Ninots from the Hoguera Rambla all wrapped up
Look at this fella' raging to get out!
"Official" viewing stands for the parades are up, as are the lights on the Rambla
In front of the Cathedral all is ready for the flower offering on Sunday and Monday. The artists will make a flowery tunic for the virgin from the the bouquets that the different Comisiones de Hogueras will bring her.
Very necessary element:
Hungry? These places get set up all over town! Delicious, but not cheap!
Hoguera Hernán Cortés: a piece worthy to be in Prof. McGonagall's giant Wizard's Chess (I still have Potter on my mind!).
more chess pieces to complete the picture (I recommend clicking on this one... have you ever played "where's Waldo"? well, not Waldo, but you should recognise someone else!):
"ingredients" for the Hoguera de Calvo Sotelo:
close-up:

TV Addiction: Merlin!

Hmmm, I keep reading (on a couple of TV/sci-fi websites I hang out at, namely Airlock AlphaTelevisionary) and about the big premier of the BBC series Merlin coming up this weekend in the US on NBC, and I just had to join in the chatter! ;o)


For those who haven't heard about it (and who can't guess based on the name), this series retells the tale of King Arthur and Merlin the Magician. Just not like in any story you've ever read! For starters... well Merlin's YOUNG! Ditto Prince Arthur (who's got a ways to go before being worthy of being the legendary King). You could say this tale is to the Arthurian legends what Smallville is to Superman, except much better and a lot more fun! (also in the Arthurian legends Merlin is much older than Arthur, nowhere near the same age) Another difference is the fact that Arthur lives with his father, reigning King Uther (Anthony Stewart Head, a.k.a. Giles!) whereas in the legends he was raised elsewhere and never met his father. Morgana is the King's ward, so she grows up at court, and Gwen is her maidservant. Oh, another thing (just to add some tension), magic is forbidden in Uther's kingdom so Merlin has to keep his abilities a secret. He gets teaching and advice from Gaius the court doctor... and a dragon (who speaks in riddles) chained beneath the castle!

The tale is lots of fun, the characters are endearing, the actors do a good job, and the production values (costumes, effects etc) are astonishing. And oh my that castle! In many interviews you'll hear the actors, director etc insist on how lucky they were to find that French castle (apparently rebuilt by Bonaparte over the ruins of a midevil one) and how it's truly another character in the series. I wish I could explore its halls... It's a good fun (family-friendly) show with lots of adventures and enough tension to make you nervous for the heroes now and again.

So it's definitely not kosher in the sense that the only semblance to King Arthur as we know him are the names and the relationships between most of the characters. But at this point there have been so many retellings and adaptations of the legend that, who cares?! Not me! I'm such a King Arthur nut that I think I've read every version (often told from the viewpoint of different characters) I've been able to lay my hands on (there are some wonderful retellings by Mary Stewart, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Stephen Lawhead...), so I jumped at the chance to watch this the moment it was available. And was not disappointed!

I caught the series as it aired in the UK last fall, and I can't wait for season 2 to start up the magic again! Am also looking forward to catching it again on dvd as soon as the full series becomes available at a reasonable price. So for those of you across the pond, if you enjoy tales of knights in shining armor, wizards and dragons... remember to turn on your TV (or TiVo-thingy) Sunday night! And enjoy!!! :o)

Need more reasons to watch it?

• A fan has put together 10 Merlin-based reasons for your enjoyment:

• and here's a interview on the two stars on a British programme a few months ago talking about the show, each other, their colleagues... and getting ready to start filming season 2!
  

Has the mystery of sex been explained at last?

"SEX is the ultimate absurdity. Forget the hormonal rushes, the sweat and the contorted posturing. Forget about the heartache, the flowers, the bad poems and the costly divorce, just think about the biology. It's nuts. Cloning makes far more sense.

Forget the sweat and contorted posturing, just think about the biology. Sex is nuts. Cloning makes much more sense.

A clone, after all, just quietly gets on with copying itself. And since every clone can produce more clones, cloning produces far more offspring. There is no need for males - a waste of space, as hard-line feminists and evolutionists agree.

What's more, each clone has a combination of genes that has already been found fit for purpose. Sex, by contrast, randomly mixes genes into new and untested amalgams. And the horrors of sex don't end there. There is the problem of finding a mate, and fighting off rivals. Not to mention the risk of picking up horrible diseases like AIDS and all sorts of selfish replicators that exploit sex to spread themselves through the genome."

Curiosity piqued? It's from a New Scientist article my sister sent along (there are two crazy biologists in the family, she's studying ancient penguin DNA). To find out why sex is so important and how it all came about, head over to New Scientist.com

And be sure to check out the related slide show "Cloners vs sexuals: The great breeding wars"! ;o)

Oh, and for those who think cloning is science fiction... it's rare but several species of vertebrates have been know to do it! In animals it's called parthenogenesis, when a mother gives birth to a child without having being fertilised by a male (hmmm, where have I heard this story before?). We have a shark in the Liège Aquarium that laid several eggs... and she had NEVER been in contact with a male before. Several of her offspring are now in the Aquarium.

Potter Wednesdays: The Philosopher's Stone

Has it been that long? The evidence is right before my eyes but I find it hard to believe they were ever that young! What a difference a few years makes at that age!

This movie is just as delightful as the first time I saw it! It's a very simple story and as in the book the characters aren't fully formed, but it serves wonderfully in its purpose which is to introduce us (and Harry) into the wonderful wizarding world of J.K.Rowling. I love seeing the wonder in Harry's eyes as he's introduced into this world he belongs to but has known nothing about for the past decade. First fear when Hagrid appears, then curiosity and finally wonder and joy as they shop in Diagon Alley and he walks into Hogwarts for the first time. It's still thrilling to see them flying, particularly in the Quidditch match (I wish we got to see more of those!). I enjoy seeing the nascent rivalry between Harry and Draco Malfoy, Hermione's smug know-it-all-ness comes through very well as does Neville Longbottom's all-around clumsiness. And isn't Hedwig beautiful?!

A Favourite Moment (among many): Alan Rickman's entrance into his Potions class! Snape sweeps in and tells them: "I can teach you how to bewitch the mind, snare the senses. I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory and put a stopper in death." All the while Malfoy looks up at him almost in adoration, while poor Harry is carefully writing this down so he won't forget it. Totally a new student moment, worried about not having written down something terribly important that might come up in the exam! :p


Things I missed from the book:

• The final task separating them from the Philosopher's Stone, the one where Hermione's smarts are used to solve Snape's riddle and gives Harry the right potion to let him through the fiery door to Quirrell and the mirror of Erised.

• 
• More Norbert!!! They wrap up the dragon story waaaay too quickly in the movie!

• More talk about the importance of the Quidditch Cup to the students, they just show a single Quidditch match and then never mention it again! But some of the students live and breathe quidditch and you don't get that feel at all! :o(

• Oh, and I always imagined the Sorting Hat completely covering their heads so you couldn't see their faces...

• Something else that bugs me, Hagrid picks Harry up on his birthday and takes him to Diagon Alley. In the movie it appears that straight after that he drops him off at Kings Cross Station to catch the Hogwarts Express... small timing problem here, Harry's b-day is July 31st (me too!) and school starts September 1st! In the book it's clear he spends the remaining month with the Dursleys who are scared of him thanks to Hagrid giving Dudley that pig-tail... (the Dursleys are such fun!)

• And I never did understand why the name was changed to "Sorcerer's Stone" in the U.S., makes no sense at all since the Philosopher's Stone is actually an object that many alchemists in the Middle Ages believed existed!

There are probably some other differences (I do a lot of nitpicking when I see movies based on books I've enjoyed), but I haven't read the book recently enough to remember them (I'll go through the series of books to prep for the 7th movie next year).

To finish off, I'd like to send you along to an interesting post I came across when googling Harry Potter (looking for photos, it's amazing how much time that takes!). Pop Classics is a blog by a British PhD student in Classics who looks at the influence of Classics (greek, roman) in pop culture. In one post (click here) she discusses the first three Harry Potter books and movies, explaining the origins of certain names and spells, and just sharing her delight in this magical world! If you enjoy languages as much as I do it's fun finding out the origins of many terms and names in the books! :o)

Revisiting the Oceans

Hello everyone!

Just thought I'd post a little recap on our Oceanic Blog-A-Thon!

For those reading this who missed the action last week (and where were you?!), Monday June 8th was World Oceans Day! A bunch of us got a little crazy and put together a blogging marathon which personally I very much enjoyed and think was quite successful! We had 24 participating posts with a wide range of view points, from the layman to the scientist, via literature and travels and history and poetry, from ocean lovers in several different countries. I've revisited the participating posts and it seems like we all did quite a bit of travelling in the blogosphere!

So I just wanted to thank all those who participated! And also to ask:

What did you do on World Oceans Day?

I spent a good part of the day reading and enjoying participants' posts while updating the blog here. And I definitely "Wore Blue and Told Two", among others my afternoon student got a full dose of seawater (as did the next day's student) lol! I've updated my "books to read" and "places to visit" from what I saw on people's blogs, and very much enjoyed the documentary video Neolibrarium provided us while I ate my dinner! The only thing missing from my plans was that I had intended to go for a swim in the Mediterranean... but blogging and work kind of got in the way... :p

How 'bout you guys?

Oh and to answer a question I read in one of the comments sections (on LOL's post on dolphins): if not for dolphins Cris (yours truly) would probably still be a biologist, but likely more into tropical rainforests or mountain ecosystems... lol! Dolphins are what first brought me to the sea, but some crazily adventurous parents introduced me to the natural environment and kept me interested thanks to many hikes/walks/camping trips in the desert, jungle and mountains in more countries than I can count! lol!

And to finish off, I thought I'd send you away to another blog, Southern Fried Science, where one of the bloggers is currently sharing thoughts on several marine documentary movies he's getting to see in the Blue Ocean Film Festival in Savannah Georgia (lucky guy!). If you're interested in these films (and some of them are going on my "too watch list, asap"), you can either browse through the blog or follow my quick and easy directions! ;o)

• Summary of the festival's first day here with detailed reviews of A Sea Change (about ocean acidification, biiiiig problem, viewed through a history professor asking scientists across the globe some pointed questions) and A View From Below (doc with amazing footage about a controversial deep sea biologist who finances his research by taking tourists down in his sub) separate.

• Summary of festival day two here, with detailed review of The Cove (about Japanese dolphin hunting... apparently very enthralling, and bloody) separate.

• Summary of the festival's third day here with detailed review of Shark Nicole (a great white that was satellite-tagged and followed by scientists for a few months allowing them to follow her across oceans) and Requiem (a shark documentary about some of the most "dangerous" species if they're really a threat to us and what threatens them) separate.

I don't know about you but I'm going to be on a lookout for these films! :o)

Countdown to Hogueras! SJ-10

The biggest event of the Alicante year is only 10 days away!

Las Hogueras de San Juan

The summer solstice has been celebrated with purifying fires throughout Europe in many cultures throughout history, it's pagan origins later disguised by the Church as the feast of Saint John the Baptist. In the city of Alicante this holiday started (re-)gaining importance in the late 19th century but officially became a big holiday as of 1928 and named "Hogueras de San Juan" (or Fogueres de Sant Joan in Valenciano)

An hoguera is a fire... so you can pretty much guess the theme there! In some places the night was celebrated by burning old furniture, but here pretty soon the artistic side took over and what gets burnt on the night of June 24th is no longer remotely related to old furniture (except perhaps in some construction materials). Neighbours get together to form a "barraca" and throughout the year gather funds from the participants and start organising the fiesta. Principal among their tasks will be to elect a "Bellea" (young woman to represent the barraca, then one is elected amongst all the barracas as the Bellea del Foc -Fire Beauty- to represent them all during the official ceremonies) and to decide what will be the subject of their Hoguera. "Subject?" you ask... Yup, like I said, no more burning furniture! What started out a century ago as a simple Ninot (figure, doll in Valenciano) is now a full-flegded scultpure in wood, paper and other construction materials composed of many figurines all in place according to the theme selected. Each barraca sets up two Hogueras, a smaller one for the children, and the larger principal one. These big ones are the ones of interest, particularly if you keep abreast of what's going on on the national and international stages (politically, socially, sports...). How to describe them? Well, imagine a satirical newspaper cartoon brought to life! It serves as a critique of society, the government, whatever the designers and artists want. Some years there's also an overall theme (last year it was the Sea and Alicante, pictured is the Hoguera in front of City Hall last year). It takes several months to design them and build all the pieces, and then they get set up in the streets all over town (over 90 of them, let's say it makes traffic somewhat complicated for a week or so) on June 20th. The official comission will then go around visiting them and award prizes in different categories (they're grouped by budget available, so smaller ones don't have to compete with the richer neighbourhoods).

And then the Cremà (burning) on the night of June 24th. All these works of art get burned to ashes in an explosion of firecrackers and fireworks, with the public looking on... and insulting the local firemen (who make sure the fire is contained and doesn't burn down a building) at the top of their lungs. Why be so rude? The firemen take it with a grain of salt, they know what the public really wants is to get their attention and get doused with the fire hoses (is a welcome relief from the heat!) in the traditional Banyà (or bath).

So it's five nights of fiesta, and five days and nights of non-stop firecrackers going off all over town with the smell of gunpowder mixing in with the sea air to generate a rather unique perfume for the city.

And I'm going to try and share as much of it as I can with you here! (as much as my work will allow, I've already missed a couple of events I had intended on witnessing) Last year was the first time I really dived into the ambiance as I had a dozen friends visiting from Belgium (needless to say we didn't sleep much). The previous 8 years I'd been living in Belgium so missed it, and the years I actually lived here I was in Uni... and Hogueras has the rotten luck of being smack in the middle of finals! June 24th is a holiday, but some professors were rotten enough to place exams on the 25th! So I'd only been down to party "lightly" a couple of times and only once for the burning. Last year... last year was a BLAST! It won't be as intense this time since only my local friends will be here and most of the events will be taking place during the week this time (and everyone has to get up for work, plus they're a bit blasé about it all at the moment, feelings towards this holiday come and go in cycles), but I'll still get around to what I can. And my sister is bringing some friends down from London for the Cremà so we'll be a crazy group then!

A word on this year's "cartel" (announcement of the fiestas at the beginning of the post). The design is selected each year by a competition, and this year's winner was Rafael Guillén Belmonte from San Vicente del Raspeig (town right next door where I went for the crazy Moros y Cristianos fiestas in April). In it he's recuperated an old tradition of representing typical elements of the Hogueras such as the dolçaina (wind instrument the figure is playing) or the espardenyes (reed? sandals that tie at your calves).

A must-see: HOME

Have you heard of this film?

HOME, by photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand (click on his name sends you to his very complete website, or go to wikipedia biography).



I just saw it after lunch, a friend brought the dvd over... perhaps a wee bit slow for "siesta" time (very poetic, lovely music and images can soothe you a bit too much). It's WONDERFUL! The story just flows from one sequence to the next like water down a stream to the river and on to the ocean. Via a bird's eye view we're told the history of our planet, from the first appearance of water, oxygen, living organisms, to man's rise and evolution from hunter-gatherer to farmer to city-dweller. We see from above the impact our actions have had on certain ecosystems. And we get to see certain actions already in place to alleviate some of it.

Amazingly enough you can see the whole film on their YouTube page!!! Click here. Set some time aside, it lasts almost 2h, but is well worth it!

Ever heard of the food chain?

Beware of Nature's call! ;o)

I received this in a forward from my cousin this morning and just had to share it here! I used to worry about snakes as a kid out camping... but lions?! Oh my!

Movie Magic: Potter Wednesdays

So we're over a month into "Blockbuster Season". Of those I was most looking forward to this summer (see here) Star Trek, Wolverine, and Terminator Salvation are out and have been seen and talked about (and I've even let myself get hauled off to see Angels and Demons)... so what's left? Well Public Enemies for one, but that doesn't hit Spanish screens until mid August! *sigh* But much as I'm a fan of Depp, Bale and Cotillard (what an explosive combo that will be!), what I'm really excited about this summer is more of that Hogwarts magic!

Alan Rickman will finally have much more to do in this one! We get more crazy from Helena Bonham Carter! The quidditch drought from the previous movies is finally over and even better we get to see Ron's big day! Draco Malfoy finally gets to do more than just glare at Harry, and then there's that big heart-wrenching finale that will send us all home in tears! Need I say more?! ;o)

Unfortunately that's still over a month away *snif!*, so to help me pass the time I've decided to watch those magical kids grow up on a weekly basis! Why Wednesdays? Well because the official release date is a Wednesday so seemed like as good a day as any! (although I'll actually watch them Tuesday night when I get back from teaching and then write it up Wednesday mornings)

Why the movies and not the books? Well I've read the books so many times I've lost count (I started reading them when book 4 had just come out, and since then I re-read them all each time a new one was out), but in spite of having the dvds on the shelf I don't think I've re-watched them more than once or twice (which isn't much for me, I only buy dvds I know I will see again and again and again), so it's time to put the movies back in the spotlight. Also, there's something amazing about watching those kids grow up on screen, seeing them do a better job each time around. And then there's the music... just hearing the first bars of John Williams's theme gives me the goosebumps!










So stay tuned for "Potter Wednesdays" and if like me you found yourself swept into J.K.Rowling's magical world in spite of your original doubts ("a children's novel? how sweet, thanks, yes I'll get around to reading it someday..."), then don't hesitate to share your thoughts on the subject! I'll start it off next Wednesday, if my calculations are correct at one a week I should finish them off for the Half Blood Prince big date! (even though I've opted to wait a week to see it when in London, so no dubbing!!!)

See you next week! And remember, the Hogwarts Express leaves from Kings Cross Platform 9 3/4 at precisely 11 a.m. so don't be late! ;o)

WOD isn't over!!!

It's still June 8th a.k.a. World Oceans Day somewhere on this planet for another couple of hours... so that means those final posts I got were still on the right date! ;o) Isn't it fun fiddling around with time zones? :p

So go check the Blog-A-Thon just below us for the latest entries and be prepared to do some travelling!

Oceanic Blog-A-Thon!

Welcome to our OCEANIC BLOG-A-THON!

In honour of World Oceans Day we thought we'd all get together and share our thoughts, memories, adventures, photos, knowledge, passion for the seas and oceans to help raise awareness on the importance of the Seas and Oceans. After all, our planet may be called Earth, but there must be some reason it's known as "the BLUE planet"!



Life exists on this planet thanks to two things: an atmosphere and water! 3/4 of the Earth's surface is covered by seas and oceans. They provide food, natural resources, inspiration... They've impulsed commerce and exchanges between societies since the Phoenicians and Greeks set sail across the Mediterranean (and even earlier in some parts of the world). The world's oceans are all inter-connected, a reminder of how we're all part of the same larger ecosystem... and what happens in one region will inevitably affect others at some point.

And now, without further ado, we dive into the wonderful world of blogging to find out how people from different places, with different lives, view the seas and oceans and share their experiences:

• Over the weekend CrazyCris from Here and There and Everwhere (so, right here! lol!) reminded you to "Wear Blue, Tell Two" on World Oceans Day, and put together a list of funky fishy factoids (did you know that Nemo's dad should have changed sex and become his mum when she died?) that you can share with the people around you, as well as some simple things you can do to help the oceans.

• Ocean Mania illustrates where the ocean meets the shore. Pra from A Simple Story shares her love of the Ocean with photos from various coasts around India, including an astonishing image of coastal erosion by the power of the ocean's waves.

• In Aquatic Critters From Down South the Redheaded Shutterbug wants to introduce you to several inhabitants of the Southern Ocean whose lives depend on the presence of ice around the Antarctic and the high biological productivity in the coastal waters during the summer months.

• Rose, the APOGEE Poet, gives us some inspirational lines and a beautiful painting in World Ocean Day.

• Rain from Mountain Mamma shares a very personal connection she has with the Ocean and with water in general. I'll give you a clue, it involves a green Sea Horse! ;o)

• In World Oceans Day over at *Verily I Go* a fledgling diver finds just the right words to make her first three (eventful) expeditions into the ocean's depth as a SCUBA diver come alive for us.

• Brian at WayStationOne was fortunate to live on the Gulf Coast of Florida for a couple of years, a great way to find an oceanic connection! In World Oceans Day he shares a Saturday adventure with his 6 month-old son involving mysterious sea creatures. :o)

• In Me and the Sea MzzzLily from Essays & Utter Nonsense shows how you don't need to live near the Ocean to be have been touched by its majesty or concerned about it future.

• Lover of Life, from Life In The Second Half, brings us Dolphins! She shares her feelings for these bottle-nosed critters and gives some tips on things we can do to help them out (and the Oceans in general).

• At Life in Motion, Joseph brings us closer to God's Marvels: The Sea and The Ocean. With this he wants to remind us of all the Oceans do for us with images of beautiful seascapes in India, and of people whose livelihood is intrinsically linked to the seas. I was particularly impressed by those Chinese fishing nets!

• Are in you in the mood to learn more about the oceans through some educational and entertaining media? Well NeoLibrarium has gone out and found quite a bit of interesting material for you! A couple of good reads, some breath-taking films to rent and watch... if you want the names it's all a click away at World Oceans Day!

• O.k., it's time to get rid of the shoes and dig our toes into the sand! Head over to Shellbelle's Tiki Hut in Florida for a cool drink and dig into Happy World Oceans Day! where you'll meet the magnificent mangroves that are such an intrinsic part of life around the Gulf of Mexico and are the basis for a very unique (and fragile) ecosystem!

• Time for a scientist's point of view! With The Oceans: Returning to an Ancient Friend, Joshua over at Sci-Phi digs in to how the oceans have fascinated and impulsed man's development for millenia now, and how after turning our backs on the oceans for most of the 20th century we're finally recognising its importance and worrying that we be disturbing its delicate balance.

• At Here Under The Rainbow the sea is a source of inspiration for an author who shares a special connexion to the water in Ode To The Sea.

• Over at Your Mother Knows But Won't Tell You Holly shares her change of heart towards sharks and how they can be a source of inspiration in Be A Shark... Emotionally That Is. Some good laughs guaranteed!

• MKreider From The North Fork Long Island wants us to get a good look at what happens when the Atlantic Ocean meets a Long Island beach in June 8th Ocean Day. Makes me want to jump in! :o)

• From Ontario the Travel and Dive Girl at Journey and Adventure joins the World Oceans Day Blog-A-Thon with an amusing list of fun oceanic factoids related to science, geography, litterature and movies!

• At NickyHicks.com for World Ocean Day Nicky's invited us to tag along during a cruise through the Gulf of Mexico, round the Yucatan Peninsula, all the way down to Panama. Sunsets, seascapes, cruise ships... what time do we set sail?!

• CrazyCris has put her teacher's cap on over at Here and There and Everywhere and wants to give you all an intro Marine Biology lesson in Life In The Oceans. After some technical glitches it's finally up and available! ;o)

• In A Philosopher/Historian's Take on the Oceans, Brian, the philosophing half of Sci-Phi, has blended together history, philosophy and classical civilizations to talk about the importance of the oceans. He's put together a time machine to take us to meaningful historic moments of human-oceanic interactions!

• At Nurturing Wisdom we're asked to reflect on the importance of our oceans and how we've treated them. With World Oceans Day: One Ocean, One Climate, One Future we can also learn how to reduce some of that excess plastic we use and that inevitably finds its way back into the oceans.

• At The Road To Here the Squirrel Queen would like to share A Thought For World Oceans Day and a glimpse of the Ocean as seen in the Gulf of Alaska!

• Ever wondered what the world looks like Through Squirrel Eyes? Well now you do! Courtesy of the Squirrel Queen who shows how Flows the Water to the Sea in the great state of Washington.

• Want some more reading material? Angie from A Book A Day has selected something for you! She tells the tale of Pacific Lady: The First Woman to Sail Solo across the World's Largest Ocean.

So go, take some time and discover what all these people have to share with us. Leave them your comments so they'll know what you thought. And remember to "Wear Blue and Tell Two"!

Be sure to return throughout the day for updates! Links will be posted a.s.a.p.!

World Oceans Day: Life in the Oceans

Oh boy, all this running around getting the rest of the posts up... and mine is the one giving me the most trouble! My marine biologist side got combined with my teaching side and I put together a power point as a kind of intro into Marine Biology and life in the oceans. I even figured out how to save it as a video file with music and everything! (after several tries to get the timing right) And now it turns out that neither Blogger video nor YouTube support the .mov video format (after I left them uploading when I went to teach this afternoon) and I can't upload it here! :o(

Serves me right for trying to be so technical at the last minute... :p

Well, thankfully there's a website called SlideShare that's basically YouTube for Powerpoint Presentations! So, while I can't give you the video, you can still see the slideshow! I hope you find it interesting! You can either hit PLAY or go slide by slide (might be preferable, the thing goes by a bit quickly).

So do me a favour, find a recording somewhere of waves crashing or some nice music (as originally intended) and then dive in:

Life In The Ocean

View more OpenOffice presentations from cbeans.

This is meant as a sort of companion piece (the scientific side) to the Redheaded Shutterbug's Aquatic Critters From Down South. After reading everyone else's I worry mine might feel a bit drab now! Hope not!

GRAND SLAM!

As I write this first part (the rest will be when I get back home after a tea outing), I'm watching Federer smash Robin Soderling of Sweden and write his name in tennis history books as only the 6th man to achieve a career Grand Slam (which means he's won the Australian Open, Wimbledon, the US Open and now -finally- Roland Garros)! Finally equalling Pete Sampras in Grand Slam titles (14, highest number for men, amongst the women the amazing Steffi Graff has over 20 I believe!).

I am so enjoying every minute of it too! The crazy dude who jumped the fence to give Federer a hat (read about it here). The thrills on the rare break point Soderling has had, Federer's powerful and precise aces, the lovely drop shots... Go Roger!!! And how about the stress in the final game? Serving for the Championship and giving Soderling an opportunity for a break?! be still my beating heart!!! Quickly corrected thank heavens! ;o)

And to receive the trophy from the hands of Andre Agassi? The last man to complete the Grand Slam... how wonderfully symbolic!

Beautiful speeches... I've got tears in my eyes! I'm such a sentimental goofball sometimes! :p





(photo from Getty Images on eurosport.yahoo.com)

Dress in blue, tell two...

Two what? Tall fishy tails? Aquatic factoids? Conservation tips?

I've been asked for a few to help prepare for World Oceans Day... so here goes!



Funky fishy factoids:

• Many sharks have a rather unique reproductive system: they're ovoviviparous! O.k. as that term probably won't mean much to non-biologists so I'll explain. Ovo = egg, vivi = alive, parous = birth. Fish (and birds and reptiles) are oviparous i.e. they lay eggs. Mammals and some sharks are viviparous i.e. mothers gestate their young within a placenta and the young are subsequently born fully formed. So ovoviviparous is like a combination of the two. Imagine the embryos being protected by egg sacs, but instead of laying the eggs, the mother shark keeps them within her uterine cavity until birthing time. In some cases (such as makos, nurse sharks or sand tigers -pictured, from NatGeographic.com) the embryos actually swim freely (no more egg sac) within the uterine cavity. This can lead to uterine cannibalism... i.e. the first shark out of its egg sac will feed on the others. Talk about sibling rivalry!

• And speaking of shark... have you ever eaten one? I can pretty much guarantee you have! What's that? "Never" you say? HA! Ever had a can of tuna? Voilà! You've eaten shark! Those old enough will remember all the "Save the dolphins" anti-tuna-fishing campaigns some 20-30 years ago. I just remember the explanation of the "dolphin safe" symbol on tuna cans. Well nobody ever bothered to ask for "shark safe" tuna!!! The basic problem with tuna fisheries is that they go out with these enormous nets and circle around a school of tuna. Now tuna don't usually hang out alone. They're following smaller fish species in the hopes of a decent meal. And they're not the only ones. Many species of dolphin prey on the same fish as tuna do, ditto quite a few sharks (and seals and birds etc.). And then there are the bigger sharks crazy enough to try to actually eat a tuna (ever seen a tuna? damn thing's scary and huge!!!). So all these critters are going to get caught up in the same net. Now the fishermen make an effort to get the dolphins out of there ("dolphin safe" remember, still not 100% effective), but no one asked them to do that extra effort for sharks. So what happens to them? Well, a shark is a fish (almost) like any other, and perfectly edible (and some can be quite tasty although I've never had the pleasure). So they just chop 'em up and mix 'em in with the tuna that's headed for the cans. Now in principle this wouldn't be that big of a problem (depending on the species, some are endangered), there are shark fisheries after all, they're edible animals and are avidly consumed in many parts of the world. Scientifically the problem is we have no bloody idea just HOW MANY sharks die each year in this manner. Why is the number important? To establish quotas. To be able to tell fishermen "you can't catch more than this many of a given species each year 'cause otherwise there won't be enough of them left to re-establish the population". And sharks, being mostly big and at the top of the food chain are slow growers and not very frequent reproducers. In other words high risk species when it comes to over-fishing.

• Orcas (killer whales) are dolphins! Well, they belong to the dolphin family, its largest member! ;o)

• If you cut a starfish into pieces... you get that many new starfish! As long as each piece has a bit of the center, it will grow back the rest of the body! (but don't try this, it's still painful!)

• A sponge is an animal!

• A sea anemone is basically a jellyfish turned upside-down and stuck on a rock! :p (well, it's a bit more than that, but they are close cousins) Also, anemones can move! Anyone who's had one in a fish tank (or gone regularly to an aquarium) can attest to the fact that anemones do get around (albeit very slowly).

• The Great Barrier Reef can be seen from space! Coral reefs are made by millions of tiny polyps which are basically teeny-tiny anemone. They are unique in that they live in symbiosis with a single-celled algae Zooxanthelle which does photosynthesis and provides them with food in the form of waste products! This relationship is why coral reefs are in such danger from Global Warming, the algae are highly susceptible to temperature fluctuations and if the temperature increases by a couple of degrees they die, leaving the polyps without a source of food.

• Many fish can change sex at some point in their lives! For example clownfish. In Disney's Nemo, when Marlin's wife gets killed by the shark and he's left alone with the anemone and a single egg (Nemo), well to be biologically correct he should have changed into a female and then taken another male as a mate! Oh, an addendum: male and female clownfish mate for life (so the male only changes sex if his mate dies)! And if the couple live alone in a small anemone (as opposed to this picture) then you can easily ID the two sexes: females are bigger than males!
  

• I don't know if this is true in other countries, but in Belgium fishermen frequently measure the size of their catch in beer cans. Unfortuntately the animal's true size many vary depending on whether those were full or empty cans! ;o)

For more oceanic facts check out MarineBio here. Personally I like this one (reminds me of my thesis): "A mouthful of seawater may contain millions of bacterial cells, hundreds of thousands of phytoplankton and tens of thousands of zooplankton."

Want to know more about sharks? Southern Fried Science has a very interesting post on "Four Things You Need To Know About Sharks"


What can I do to help?

• Keep our beaches clean! See, nice and simple! When you go to the beach be sure to carry back out everything you've taken with you. Don't leave any trash behind that could get swept by the winds and tides out into the ocean... you never know where it will end up and what kind of harm it will do! And it wouldn't hurt to pick up a bit extra either, it might not be your trash, but it's going to harm your ecosystem. Just think: plastic bags last forever... and sea turtles have the nasty habit of confusing them with yummy jellyfish (medusa)! What do you think happens when a turtle eats a plastic bag?...

• Don't eat shark fin soup! Yeah I know I said earlier that lots of shark species are fished and eaten, but the practice of fin fishing is one of the most cruel there is! Fishing fleets that head out to catch sharks for the shark fin market catch the larger species, haul them on board, cut off the fins, and then toss the animal back in the sea. Why just the fins? Well shark fins sell at a very high price (up to 500$ per fin), so although the rest of the shark is perfectly edible, well he's just not worth as much and would therefore take up valuable space on-board ship. What's the problem with a shark swimming around without fins? Well just the teensy-tiny little detail that the animal can't swim properly without its fins! (never mind the pain and blood-loss from having an appendage slashed off). And a shark who can't swim... sinks (they can't float!). Why is sinking a problem? Scuba divers know this one already. For the rest, well you've dived down to the bottom of a pool, right? How about those ears? Any idea why they hurt? The pressure! Water weighs more than air, and the deeper down you go, the more pressure your body suffers (which is why humans can only dive down so far). Most sharks are adapted to living within a certain depth range, if they go below that then the pressure will kill them. So no fins = no swimming = sinking = R.I.P. For more info on what you can do to help sharks, check out this blog: The Shark Safe Project. Shark fin and shark fin soup photos from
  http://www.acoupledives.com/2009/01/scuba-diver-fights-against-shark.html

• Recycle batteries. This might seem obvious as part of the obvious things one should regularly recycle, but this actually important for the oceans! Mercury and cadmium from the batteries make their way into the oceanic food webs, accumulating each step of the way so that the higher up a predator is in the marine food chain, the more likely it is to have high levels of cadmium (if it eats squid and other molluscs) or mercury (if it eats fish). I did my master's thesis on this subject... and it made me not want to eat certain species of fish caught in the North Sea...
  

• Ask your local aquarium if there's anything you can do to help out. They usually have cleaning campaigns or awareness campaigns for which they need volunteers. It's a good way to pitch in and give a helping hand, make new like-minded friends, and learn more about the environment!
  

• And in general anything that helps reduce the effects of Global Warming will help the Oceans... our first line of defense against this phenomenon.

Any more ideas? I'm going to leave it at that as I'm afraid I'm a little brain dead at the moment... and I still have to put together my Oceanic Blog-A-Thon posts for two blogs!

I'm going to end on an old childhood joke:

"Mom, why are fish called brain food?"
"Because they swim around in schools dear."
(image from NYTimes)

and a question:

"Have you hugged a sea turtle lately?"