Glassblowing

In your house right now, there probably is some sort of glass vase with an intricate design. Haven't you ever wondered how that vase was actually made? While browsing the internet, I stumbled upon the really cool technique known as glassblowing. Simply, glassblowing is when a person inflates molten glass using a blowpipe.

Image Courtesy of Bloomberg

Free-Blowing

Pretty cool stuff, huh? What's even cooler is that glassblowing has been around since the middle of the 1st Century BC. Back then they started blowing glass using a technique called free-blowing and is still used today in making some of the more artistic glass products. The picture above is an example of free-blowing. The process comes down to the fact that the blower at the start would blow very small and short breaths to create an elastic layer on the inside which allows for the blower to then blow as hard as he wants to create his ideal shape.  

Image Courtesy of Cincysavers

Mold-Blowing

Besides free-blowing, another popular method of creating nice works of art with molten glass is mold-blowing. This method is a lot more simpler than free-blowing and is definitely a lot less work. In order to mold-blow you just stick the molten piece of glass into a mold and then blow into the windpipe and have it fill up the mold. Simple, right? Mold-blowing is very useful if you're just trying to get a specific consistent shape each time, but free-blowing allows for a lot more creativity and more intricate designs.

Image Courtesy of Hi-Tech Club

Cool how we can stumble upon really interesting things like glassblowing. I had no idea until I started looking into this the hard work and precision that goes into making these glass objects. Some of the more complex designs truly are a work of art. The people that have mastered this craft are truly amazing to watch.

Growing a Farmer - Finale

My impressions of the book Growing a Farmer are a little mixed. At the start of the book I was enjoying it quite a lot because Kurt talked mostly about how he landed in the business of becoming a farmer. He had ambitions to have his own restaurant and from there wanted to make his own food which then led him to his current occupation. I really like reading about his successes and failures, but as the book went on and he began to talk about different sections of farming he oftentimes strayed off the original topic. 

In the chapters about milking, vegetables, and butchering Kurt starts off discussing each of them in great detail, but quickly begins to jump from topic to topic similar to how a persons mind can wander easily. I understood that was probably how he wanted to write his book, but at the same time when he started talking about milking Dinah, he quickly changed topics to raw milk and then an entire political discussion on why raw milk should or shouldn't be banned. I enjoyed his vegetable chapter a lot more because he had a genuine love for planting. He mentions that at times he just plants vegetables just for the sake of planting them because he loves the entire process from seed to actual vegetable and his amazement for potatoes reminds me of a young child discovering something new. I'm surprised Kurt continued on his path, he mentioned at one point that his farm wasn't making a lot of money, but his passion for farming fueled his desire to keep going. I found this very admirable and I feel that it's common among a lot of farmers. Why else put yourself through the pain of growing your own vegetables.

I enjoyed the close of the book. Kurt seems very satisfied with what he has been able to accomplish and feels very happy that he can live off the land and serve people food off said land. It provides a family vibe for Kurt and upon finishing the book I can also feel a little bit of his satisfaction. I can definitely say I learned a lot about perseverance from Kurt and that he loves to write/talk.

Holy Shrimp

An in Depth Look at the Peacock Mantis Shrimp

Sharks, snakes, crocodiles, bears, and lions are some of the most deadly creatures known to man. What makes them so deadly are the many different ways they can cause things harm. Sharks brutally bite through you, bears tear you to shreds, and snakes slowly take you down with poison. However, there is another creature, more unsuspectingly dangerous than all of the above. Weighing in at less than one pound and at a length of 10 centimeters, in the red corner we have the Peacock Mantis Shrimp! You do not want to get into the ring with this one. The Shrimp is best known for its knockout punch that hits you for a record four times in one go.

Image courtesy of TheOatmeal

The Peacock Mantis Shrimp, given its name based on its beautifully colored exterior, is in fact a creature you do not want to be around especially if you don't understand what it's capable of. It has the capability of striking its opponents with the speed/strength equal to shooting a .22 caliber bullet. A hit from one of these shrimp may not be in your best interest especially since they certainly have the ability to crack through glass aquariums. 

Introduction

The Peacock Mantis Shrimp can be found in many different places around the world. According to Animal Diversity, they are most commonly found in "the Indo-Pacific Ocean, south of Japan, north of Australia, and between eastern Africa and Guam (Animal Diversity)."  They prefer to stay in relatively warmer waters, ranging from temperatures of 22 to 28 degrees Celsius which is approximately 70 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. With water temperatures like that, you might find me swimming around these shrimp regardless of impending danger. In addition, they like to make homes in little U shaped burrows, often built near the bases of coral reefs. This makes them pretty difficult to spot out since they only grow to be 3 to 18 centimeters on average. Thankfully, they live pretty far under water - ranging from 3 to 40 meters down - so you'll be just fine as long as you don't go diving. 

Image courtesy of HowToGeek

Mantis shrimp believe it or not are actually neither mantis nor shrimp! They are actually crustaceans and they closely resemble lobsters. But were named only for having some similar characteristics to both creatures. Peacock Mantis shrimp are very brightly colored "with a base body color of olive or green and their body coloration actually differs from male to female, with males being more brightly colored (Animal Diversity)." Sadly, these beautiful little creatures only live to be 4 to 6 years old on average.

Mechanics of the Punch 

 

One of the main reasons why I even decided to research this little crustacean was because of its incredibly quick and powerful attack. The Peacock Mantis shrimp uses a hammer-like appendage to smash open snail shells for food. They can attack at "max speeds of 12-23 m/s in the water", but what is also amazing is that during an attack you can see cavitation bubbles forming (ScienceDaily). 

Image Courtesy of Fish Share

The definition of cavitation simply is the formation of space within a body. In this case the body is the ocean. This means that when the Mantis shrimp attacks, water vaporizes when the limb strikes its prey. What makes this even more fascinating is that cavitation is a destructive phenomenon. According to the Patek Lab this means that "when these vapor bubbles collapse they essentially cause a small implosion in the water which produces heat, light, and sound (The Patek Lab)." But if you were to actually watch it attack, you'd just hear a little popping sound with each hit. A huge let down to the person watching, but very devastating to the poor sea creature getting annihilated.

Image Courtesy of Ecowater

Satellite Vision

The Peacock Mantis Shrimp is also very well known for another feature that it has - its Mantis like eyes. It has one of the most complex pair of eyes that humans have ever known. The Mantis shrimp has a compound eye made of thousands of small units that each detects light independently. Those within the center stripe in the photo are especially incredible – they allow the animal to see color.

Image courtesy of National Geographic

Most people have three types of light-detecting cells or photo-receptors which are sensitive to red, green, and blue light. But the Mantis shrimp has "anywhere from 12 to 16 different photo-receptors (National Geographic)." However, they don’t see color like we do. In fact we can see color more efficiently than them and its because the Mantis Shrimp’s eyes work more like a satellite. For example, "the rock mantis shrimp has 6 photo-receptors dedicated to looking at different UV wavelengths (National Geographic)." Rather than just looking at something and enjoying its beauty, the Peacock Mantis Shrimp looks for different UV rays like a satellite does for different objects.

The Peacock Mantis Shrimp is quite the unique specimen. This little guy goes unnoticed by a lot of people which just goes to show how big our small world is. There are so many other amazing creatures out there that we may have yet to even discover in the ocean and there is a lot that we can learn from them. I hope that this short blog has taught you something new and exciting. Now go out and show the world the power of the Peacock Mantis Shrimp.

Works Cited

“Odontodactylus Scyllarus.” Animal Diversity Web. University of Michigan, n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2016.

http://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Odontodactylus_scyllarus/

“Muscle powers spearing mantis shrimp attacks.” The Journal of Experimental Biology. Science Daily, n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2016.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121122095431.htm

“Mechanics of Movement: Mantis Shrimp.” Mechanics of Movement: Mantis Shrimp. The Patek Lab, n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2016.

https://pateklab.biology.duke.edu/mechanics-movement-mantis-shrimp

"Nature's Most Amazing Eyes Just Got A Bit Weirder." National Geographic. National Geographic, 03 July 2014. Web. 15 Feb. 2016.

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2014/07/03/natures-most-amazing-eyes-just-got-a-bit-weirder/

Surprise! You're a Farmer

I'll be honest when I say that I was a bit doubtful if I was going to enjoy this book, but I was already pulled in at the start of the book with how easy Kurt's writing style was and how well he explained his thought process when making all these decisions for his farm. It's very surprising that from the start of the book he went from having his own small pastry shop to making the impulse decision to buying this 4 acre plot of land where all he had in mind was making some sort of park. Never did he once think he was going to turn this plot of land into a farm, but somehow all his decisions sort of led him down that path almost naturally. As his restaurant business grew he started to want to learn more and more about farming in order to even be able to eat his own restaurants food. Hard to imagine someone owning a restaurant that they can't even eat at.

Kurt continues to surprise me by adding things to his farm that he just feels belong. He says earlier that he wants a tractor, but most small farms like his don't even use tractors because its just unnecessary and later on when he gets his first animals, the sheep, he really doesn't know how to take care of them either. He literally says "Surprisingly, the sheep lived." Kurt is pretty bold with his decision making and willingness to experiment. Had those sheep not survived he would have had to start all over, but luckily they survived long enough for him to fix up the yard for them.  What I also found very entertaining was his immense hate for goats. His description of how they just watch you plant and take care of your most prized possessions only to take away that love by eating all the plants was both insightful and hilarious. Very strong reasons to never start off with goats or even have goats on your farm.