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I have been "just listening" to all the classes I've signed up for so far this year.
How Things Work 1 ended a couple of months ago. I feel bad about this one. I was so thrown for a loop at learning that A) pounds and kilos do not measure the same thing, along with B) no one ever told me!, that I had to just stop dead and work on taking it in. By the time I'd revised my world view sufficiently to proceed, I was so far behind that I never caught up. I surely hope he offers this class again soon. I would like to give it another shot. I believe I can still listen to the lectures. I should find out, and do that, if I can......
The Music of the Beatles is over (will be offered again in July 2014). I listened to all the lectures, and listened to a significant amount of music related to the class on youtube.
Marine Megafauna: An Introduction to Marine Science and Conservation is over. I listened to all the lectures but the last week. That was when we got to the heavy-duty "conservation" part of the class, and I really don't think I want to listen to "Whales and the Age of Sail".............. I have a general idea of the atrocities we perpetrated on whales, and I really don't want to know the details...........
Archaeology's Dirty Little Secrets ended last week. I took Secrets last summer, and loved it, so I took it again to enjoy the new bits and savor the old. No notes/exercises/exams for me, this time around.
Roman Architecture ends this week (I have one lecture worth of videos to watch and take notes on). I've listened to all the lectures, and have taken reasonable notes, for my own possible future reference (should I go somewhere where the works she described still exist), but have not written any papers nor taken any quizzes/exams.
Music's Big Bang: The Genesis of Rock 'n' Roll ends next week (and I'm caught up for this week). Just listening. No notes, no homework, no quizzes/exams. Greater familiarity with some of the pre-rock music he is talking about has not helped me to enjoy it more. Some of those styles just do not float my boat. Unlike the other rock classes I've taken, he has played us a significant amount of music. No whole pieces, but healthy chunks of many pieces. I haven't felt compelled to search out more of it on youtube.
It's good that my plate is almost cleared -- in addition to Maps and the Geospatial Revolution and Epigenetic Control of Gene Expression, I'm signed up for Understanding the Brain: The Neurobiology of Everyday Life. (all of these start next week)
Our neuro bio teacher is totally geeked about teaching the class. She has a blog and a twitter feed....... Gotta love her level of enthusiasm, and her conviction that the world would be a better place if everyone knew more about brains.
I'm not making decisions ahead of time about whether I will or won't do more than "just listen" in neuro bio or epigenetics. I will do the labs for maps, because I learned so much from them last time, but I don't know if I'll take any quizzes/exams........
And -- I'm working at NOT looking at what other offerings might be available just now........... Which is hard, because you can't count on these classes being offered in the future, and what if I missed the one offering of a totally dynamite class???
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Showing posts with label Marine Megafauna. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marine Megafauna. Show all posts
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Friday, March 21, 2014
giant squid and ... colossal squid
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I'm continuing to listen to lectures on Marine Megafauna and Roman Architecture.
Roman Architecture is mildly interesting, and it's interesting to see pics of the countryside around some of the architecture and think "those trees look Italian," and to hear her recommendations of where to eat or get gelato when visiting, say, the Pantheon in Rome.
So far, Marine Megafauna has pretty much all been stuff that I'm familiar with. With many more details (like -- how DO you tell the difference between a dugong and a manatee? Well, the dugong has the same shape tail as a dolphin, and the manatee has a "spade-shaped" tail).
Today I learned that there is an even more massive squid than the giant squid.
In dino class they talked about "how do you decide what's biggest?" Tallest? Longest? Heaviest?
Giant squids may be longer (including tentacles) than colossal squid, but colossal squid are "girthier," as my Marine Megafauna prof described them, and much heavier.
If you are curious, there is a lot of info here about giant and colossal squid, including comparative drawings, and here is video from The Discovery Channel about the first time humans in a submersible saw a giant squid. (If you click through, or watch the video below, turn down your volume -- the Red Bull commercial that comes before the squid is deafening.)
As you probably surmised, today I'm hearing about giant marine invertebrates. Some of them are seriously creepy and/or disgusting. I won't share; it's bad enough that I have these images in my mind. I bet you don't want them in yours.............
.
I'm continuing to listen to lectures on Marine Megafauna and Roman Architecture.
Roman Architecture is mildly interesting, and it's interesting to see pics of the countryside around some of the architecture and think "those trees look Italian," and to hear her recommendations of where to eat or get gelato when visiting, say, the Pantheon in Rome.
So far, Marine Megafauna has pretty much all been stuff that I'm familiar with. With many more details (like -- how DO you tell the difference between a dugong and a manatee? Well, the dugong has the same shape tail as a dolphin, and the manatee has a "spade-shaped" tail).
Today I learned that there is an even more massive squid than the giant squid.
In dino class they talked about "how do you decide what's biggest?" Tallest? Longest? Heaviest?
Giant squids may be longer (including tentacles) than colossal squid, but colossal squid are "girthier," as my Marine Megafauna prof described them, and much heavier.
If you are curious, there is a lot of info here about giant and colossal squid, including comparative drawings, and here is video from The Discovery Channel about the first time humans in a submersible saw a giant squid. (If you click through, or watch the video below, turn down your volume -- the Red Bull commercial that comes before the squid is deafening.)
As you probably surmised, today I'm hearing about giant marine invertebrates. Some of them are seriously creepy and/or disgusting. I won't share; it's bad enough that I have these images in my mind. I bet you don't want them in yours.............
.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
mammalian orders
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I am listening to lectures on Marine Megafauna. I'm still waiting to have my socks blown off (as they were, so often, in Dinos, Plants, and Genetics, last fall), but a few interesting things are coming to light.
Today he put up a tree of mammalian orders, which shows that marine mammals come from entirely different lineages. Pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, walruses), otters, and polar bears are in Carnivora, with dogs and cats. Cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) are most closely related to even-toed ungulates like cows. Dugongs and manatees are most closely related to elephants.
Ok. Several totally different land animals wended their way back into the ancestral seas, to make their livings entirely in the water. Interesting.
But here's what really caught my attention.
I thought I'd find an image of the tree of mammalian orders that was copyright-free, so I could show it to you here. (Note what I was thinking -- "the tree" -- as if there was exactly one..........)
In glancing through the images Google showed me, when I asked for "mammalian orders tree," what struck me was that none of the trees I found matched another.
Yes, my sample was small (four or five). But -- I didn't expect to see *no* duplication!
I know they are constantly arranging the ways they think everything is related. Genomics is informing this arrangement, as is to be expected. When these trees were first drawn, people were going by physical appearance (and by who could breed with whom). Now we can go by DNA..........
But still. I was surprised to see so many different charts (and no duplication!) in just a few minutes of looking.
One of the things I love about science is the intent to revise as new facts come to light. I'm presuming that's what's happening here, as what we know about who begat whom is illuminated by DNA. Along with a healthy dose of disagreement about various points (or, at least, disagreement about how much weight to give different factors)!
.
I am listening to lectures on Marine Megafauna. I'm still waiting to have my socks blown off (as they were, so often, in Dinos, Plants, and Genetics, last fall), but a few interesting things are coming to light.
Today he put up a tree of mammalian orders, which shows that marine mammals come from entirely different lineages. Pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, walruses), otters, and polar bears are in Carnivora, with dogs and cats. Cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) are most closely related to even-toed ungulates like cows. Dugongs and manatees are most closely related to elephants.
Ok. Several totally different land animals wended their way back into the ancestral seas, to make their livings entirely in the water. Interesting.
But here's what really caught my attention.
I thought I'd find an image of the tree of mammalian orders that was copyright-free, so I could show it to you here. (Note what I was thinking -- "the tree" -- as if there was exactly one..........)
In glancing through the images Google showed me, when I asked for "mammalian orders tree," what struck me was that none of the trees I found matched another.
Yes, my sample was small (four or five). But -- I didn't expect to see *no* duplication!
I know they are constantly arranging the ways they think everything is related. Genomics is informing this arrangement, as is to be expected. When these trees were first drawn, people were going by physical appearance (and by who could breed with whom). Now we can go by DNA..........
But still. I was surprised to see so many different charts (and no duplication!) in just a few minutes of looking.
One of the things I love about science is the intent to revise as new facts come to light. I'm presuming that's what's happening here, as what we know about who begat whom is illuminated by DNA. Along with a healthy dose of disagreement about various points (or, at least, disagreement about how much weight to give different factors)!
.
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