Avatar

The other day a group of my friends and I went to see the movie Avatar, and while the story-line, creatures, action, effects and characters were all wonderfully produced there is something that really irks me deep inside about it.

The dominant species on the planet of Pandora are a feline-humanoid race known as the Na'vi. That is all fine and dandy. They generally human-shaped, feline noses, feline ears, feline eyes, etc.



But then you look at the other species that inhabit this planet. They are hexapods, with four eyes, armoured skin, respiratory spiracles located on or near their chest and maxillae/premaxillae in their jaws similar to Terran fish.



This is also fine. Yet, it is when you look at their shared characteristics that things get interesting. The Na'vi and to an extent the majority of species on Pandora has a bundle of nervous tissue called a "Queue" protruding from their bodies, this tissue allows two organisms to "link-up" and share information, thoughts and memories.

I find such a complex system would not be able to evolve convergently between different organisms and instead an original organism with this adaptation (It seems to be an organisms originating from all the way back to the split between Pandoran flora and fauna) diversified and adapted into a myriad of different forms.

So when I think about this, it seems the Na'vi are too different from their relatives, and should instead still have this strange and distinct hexapedal design with the fish-like jaws and four eyes.

Nevertheless it was a fantastic movie.

Noodles

Turns out that almost half of all species of catfish are venomous. In a new study, they looked at species of catfish that were believed to not be poisonous and found that functional venom glands were present in the majority of species.

Now for an amusing anecdote:

Once upon a time while moving from one house to another I had to transfer my fish. I had put them all in plastic bags similar to what they use at pet stores. One of these fish was a Burmese Catfish* with dorsal and pectoral spines.

Lets just say that a bag full of water with a live fish and several holes punctured through it along with bleeding catfish-wounded finger is an interesting situation to be in.

*I say Burmese Catfish as that is what it was labelled as in the petstore I bought it from, though I doubt that was actually its common name, as I haven't found a picture of it since.

Wind Chills

Sorry for the inactivity, but as I said it is likely to happen during Winter months.

Just wanted to relay that over this past weekend the weather finally managed to drop into the -40 degree celsius range. Brrr.

I hate the feeling you get when your nose hair freezes. You know what I mean?