The Magnificent World of Platypi (or is it platypuses? platypoda?)

I'd like to start this post off with a few images. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.

  
 

Now, you must be thinking to yourself , my stars, why, that might be the most adorable thing my eyes ever did see. Don't be fooled. The platypus is not a creature to be toyed with. These glorious creatures are the sole survivors of their family and genus. According to myth, when the platypus was first discovered, scientists were outraged, believing the whole thing to be a cruel hoax in which someone has sewn a duck bill to a beaver-like animal. The platypus continues to amaze the science world with its awesome existence and will probably never be understood. So, without further ado, I present you with a plethora of facts about the platypus.

1. Although the platypus is a mammal, it doesn't bear live young. According to Wikipedia, it is one of the five existent species of monotremes, the only mammals that lay eggs. This is one of the most commonly known facts about platypi.
2. There is no universally accepted plural for the word platypus.
3. Unlike a duck's hard beak, the platypuses bill is made from pliable cartilage.
4. As its natural defense, a platypus has poisonous spurs on its hind legs with venom strong enough to kill a dog.
5. The platypus uses its tail as a fat storage device. More than 50% of the animal's body fat is found in its tail.
6. A platypus' bill has a receptor system that can detect the electric impulses in other creature's muscles. The platypus uses these readings to locate their prey.
7. The word "platypus" means broad foot an comes from the Greek word "platys" meaning broad and pous foot.
8. The platypus' growl has been described as resembling a puppy's growl.
9. Only the young have teeth, after the platypus grows they fall out. Adult platypi use grinding pads in their bills to chew foot.
10. When the first platypus egg was hatched in captivity in 1999, a zookeeper described the accomplishment as the,"zoological equivalent of reaching the peak of Mount Everest".
11. There is not a single zoo outside of Australia with a platypus in it. This is because of the Australian government's strict rules about the removal of platypi from the country.
12. Platypuses are very solitary creatures.
13. Instead of beast-feeding, mother platypuses "sweat" milk which their young then lick off their fur.
14. The platypus has legs like an Otter, webbed feet like aquatic birds, a bill like a duck (hence the term, duck-billed platypus), and a tail like a beaver.
15. It's scientific name is "Ormithorhynchus anatinus."
16. The platypus has no visible ears.
17. Platypuses typically grow to be around the size of a typical household cat. Small but dangerous.
18. The platypus walks on it knuckles and only exposes its webbed feet for swimming.
19. The platypus swims with its ears, nose, and eyes closed.
20. The platypus sleeps an average of 17 hours a day.
21. Platypi don't have stomachs. Now all they have is a useless tube connecting its esophagus to its intestines.
22. To be able to run, the platypus retracts the webbing on its feet and exposes its nails.

And now, some videos to further entertain you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7_l_FdIuLs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsd7ZfdZcNU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ycejyi2t4A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1Whh_eSA68
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVPd6hf-Nlw

I hope you are as thoroughly amazed as I am. Unfortunately, I was unable to do as much research as I would have liked to since Hurricane Sandy knocked out my power for a couple of days. In order to give these awesome creatures the proper retribution they deserve, I'm considering doing a follow-up post about them in the future. In the meantime, if you would like to find out more about the platypus, Google is always there for your convenience.

Redemption Songs

     The funniest things happen to you on the Metro. I guess its just one of those places where the unexpected should be expected. Or maybe its just me. Since as far back as I can remember, the metro has been a sort of a gathering place for the unlikeliest of people to have the unlikeliest of encounters. Just try sitting on a bench there for ten minutes and you'll see what I mean.
      One time I saw an elderly woman doing chin-ups on those bars you hold onto when there aren't any seats left.  Another time I saw a little girl standing at the Metro's entrance, sadly sucking on her thumb. In one arm she held an over sized stuffed bunny, in the other, a sign that read, in rather crudely written letters, "I'm Running Away," or something of the sort. But that's another story
     Today I'd like to focus on something of a more extraordinary nature that occurred to me very recently. On Wednesday I was taking the metro to L'Enfant Plaza in D.C. when I saw a yellow piece of paper laying on the platform. Naturally, being the snoop I am, I slowly picked the letter up and opened it very discreetly. It was addressed to a person named Delilah. I guess she'd forgotten it there. Before I go any further I'd like to remind you that this actually happened. For some reason most every teenager I know has a really difficult time taking much of anything seriously. When something gets uncomfortable, we laugh or make a surprisingly inappropriate joke to ease the mood. Much like Chandler Bingh. But this made me stop and reconsider. Mrs. Cullen taught us that a good writer can stop and make you say "Hey, I never thought about it that way" even if you still don't agree. Well this good writer happened to be a current inmate in a detention center somewhere in Maryland.
      Getting back to the story, I began to read the letter and learned it was written by an inmate named Joseph. He was to be released from jail in two months. Although he did not disclose what he was being held for, he went into immense detail about an epiphany he had had in prison and what he planned to do when he first got out. "I got the first day all planned...Imma catch the train in Baltimore. Imma go to Lucas' day care and try to see him. They probably won't let me but Imma try. Then Imma go surprise my Mom at work. Then Imma go spend some time with her. Imma tell her everything." Joseph references this "she" several times in the letter. He says, "I want to take things slow because I have a lot of trust issues when it comes to her. She and I are going to have to rebuild our foundation. But I love her and would like for us to be together. But I wanna do it right." Most of the letter isn't sad though, surprisingly enough. In fact, Joseph has it all planned out. He wants to go back to school and become a social worker. He also hopes to visit some juvenile detention centers when he has more time to make sure that young kids are set in the right direction and can have a better life than he did. Most of all though, he wants to spend as much time as he can with Lucas and hope he can forgive him. That was pretty much it. I'd like to go into more detail but didn't want to say anything more that might give away too much information. I would have scanned the letter and posted it but it had some vulgar language worked in there. It was also unnecessary to get the point across. I was just inspired by how this guy managed to get such a positive perspective on what had happened to him and was so focused on fixing things rather than lingering on the past. Some of the things he said were cheesy, but they came from the heart. Its nice to know that its never too late to change yourself. As Bob Marley's song goes, "None but ourselves can free our minds." So I wish you luck, Joseph, whoever you are.

*Names of people and places in the letter were changed to protect the privacy of these individuals.

Archival Footage for "Barcode"

I found this Archive on the Stock Footage Collection
My group is doing our dystopian trailer on a society in which beauty and talent have been completely erased and replaced with complete, unquestioned conformity. At the beginning of the trailer, we wanted to incorporate a  montage of short, fast clips like at the beginning of the trailer for the movie Gattaca. I chose this clip because it includes footage of many different beauty products and a woman dressed up in fancy clothing. I also found a few other clips with similar footage we could use:

http://archive.org/details/LifeMinute-SummerBeautyEssentials228
(shots of some more beauty products)

http://archive.org/details/CarollsB1941
(clips of women getting their hair done at a salon

http://archive.org/details/PeacedelicHiroyukiNakanoBARCODE.
(clips of a bar code; the citizens in our society all wear bar codes in order to be identifiable)

Apart from that sequence at the beginning, however, the rest of our trailer will be clips we shoot ourselves. The beginning sequence will require a lot of different footage though since each bit will only get a maximum of a few seconds on in our timeline.