Orange spotted shrimp goby

Art

goal for the week 9.25hrs

Animal

photo by Boogies with Fishes

The orange spotted shrimp goby (Amblyeleotris guttata) is found in the outer reef areas in patches of coarse carbonate sand between Asia and Australia. It forms a symbiotic relationship with the goby shrimp (Alpheus orchrostriatus) the shrimp digs and maintains the burrow they both live in. The goby in turn watches for predators and brings food back to the burrow that the shrimp benefits from. The goby grows to a maximum size of about 4 inches and they generally eat small invertebrates. This goby is somewhat popular in the aquarium hobby as it will spawn in captivity and generally gets along with small ornamental shrimp.

European cat snake

Art

Goal for the week 11.75hrs

today

still sanding

buy a few (3 or so) little boxes for skull boxes

Animal

photo by hyperviper

The European cat snake (Telescopus fallax) is found mainly on Greek islands and also the island of Malta. They are mildly venomous but are rear fanged and poses little threat to human. Lizards are their main prey, particularly geckos, which they inject with their rear fangs and then follow until the prey is subdued. These snakes have also gotten associated with an Orthodox miracle. On the island of Cephalonia, in the village of Markopoulo during the festivities to the Theotokos between August 5 and August 15 these snakes are said to come in numbers to the temple. The legend goes that nuns being attacked by pirates in 1705 prayed and were transformed into snakes to escape the pirates. I'm not sure if the nuns were supposed to have stayed snakes. (For former Necropolitians and House of Thornes in the know, the randomness of this miracle has a feel somewhat similar to "the miracle of the Christmas bats and the reasonably priced alcohol". Have you considered a reoccurring element?)

Himalayan Monal

My coworker Angel, basking in our lack of dress code, came to work in a banana suit yesterday.

Art

Goal for the week 12.5hrs

today 

still sanding

Animal 

photo by Poplinre

The Himalayan Monal (Lophophorus impeianus) is a pheasant that looks like it fell out of some high fantasy world and got lost. They do look like they might have been domesticated by elves or something. The Himalayan Monal ranges from eastern Afghanistan to Bhutan.  They are very sexually dimorphic the females do not display the iridescent plumage. They are the national bird of Nepal and the state bird of Uttarakhand.  The males used to be under heavy hunting pressure for their use in ornamental hats until hunting was banned in 1982, currently this species is doing just fine. They are very vocal birds and then to call most frequently in April during the breeding season.

Here is a video that show a male and a female Himalayan Monal

Cheetah

My place of work is having me take several certifications that I'm not prepared for very soon. This could be a very expensive way to get fired if I do not pass. I wish I knew exactly which certifications I needed to get next month so I could pick up some books to study. The problem being that they are still debating that.

Art 

goal for the week 15.5 hrs

today

still sanding

Animal

photo by Don Van Dyke

Mythology

In ancient Egyptian mythology the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) is associated with the goddess Mafdet who was a cheetah headed goddess of legal justice and protection from venomous animals. The Zulu associated the cheetah with the occult and things beyond understanding. In that culture if the people presented their chief with a kaross made of cheetah skin it had a very specific meaning that they were loyal, but did not understand their leader. The legend about the lazy hunter that stole the mother cheetahs cubs causing her to cry until her eye became permanently stained also comes from the Zulu.  The Greek god Dionysus is sometimes depicted being carried in a chariot pulled by cheetahs. They Mughal empire associated cheetahs with royalty and elegance and occasionally used them for hunting in a manner similar to a falconer.

Elasmotherium sibircum

Yesterday was productive I can see an end to the boxes what need sanding. I might finish this weekend. 

Art

goal for the week 17.25 hrs

today 

sanding

Animal

Elasmotherium, autor - Bogdanov,2006

Mythology

A prehistoric Eurasian rhino (Elasmotherium sibircum) has gotten linked into unicorn mythology.  Willy Ley a German scientist better known for his work in rockets got into cryptozoology a bit on the side and suggested, among other things, that the unicorn legend may have come from a population of Elasmotherium surviving into historical times. As evidence he cites the account of Ahmad Idn Fadlan an ambassador from the ruler of Zaragoza who left Baghdad in 921 and traveled far to the north.  Ahmad Idn Fadlan wrote an account of a people he called the Rus, that were very probably the Vikings, somewhere in the accounts of his travels he also wrote about a strange beast with a single horn and how the people hunted it. This account Willy Ley is attributing to that Elasmotherium population. I can't find any evidence that Ahmad Idn Fadlan's account got mixed into the legend of the Karkadann, a ferocious middle eastern unicorn. The Karkadann being what that account would probably most resemble, but I also have not found any depictions of the Karkadann from prior to 921 so I suppose it is possible the account was an influence, though other rhinos seem more likely. 

Karkadan from a Persian manuscript

Southern Blue-ringed octopus

Art

goal for the week 20hrs

today

still sanding

Animal

Photo by Saspotato

The Southern Blue-ringed octopus (Hapalochlaena maculosa) is a golf ball sized octopus from the south coast of Australia that is considered to be one of the world most venomous animals. Most of the time it is a tiny brown octopus, but displays it's bright blue rings when threatened.  The toxin it can deliver with it's painless bite is a powerful enough neurotoxin that it can kill an adult in minutes.  There is no known antidote, but individuals may be saved it artificial respiration is started before the cyanosis and hypotension develop. If the poisoned individual survives more then 24 hours then they will generally survive. The octopus's poison come from a symbiotic relationship with bacteria that live in it's saliva, it is also immune to the bacteria's chemical as it has evolved different sodium channel receptors then most animals. Fortunately they are relatively docile creatures and do not generally bother humans unless significantly harassed or stepped on.

Chain catshark

Our bathroom door has not been locking very well and I guess Tempest my cat took advantage of this. My roommate said that she was taking a shower and like a feline Norman Bates he snuck up behind her and clawed her in the leg. Then to Tempest's dismay he discovered he was in a shower. 

Art

sanding

Animal

photo by Cliff1066

The chain catshark (Scyliorhinus retifer) is a small shark, about 1.5 feet long native to the outer continental shelf from Massachusetts to Nicaragua. In 2005 it was discovered that the shark is fluorescent, under a blue light it glows bright yellow. Ironically this discovery was made somewhat close to the time the "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" came out so it gets compared to the "Jaguar shark " a lot. Biologists are unsure if there is any reason that the shark is fluorescent it is most likely not really a thing that benefits the sharks but more of a mutation that didn't kill them. It is currently the only known fluorescent shark.  They tend to hang out around burrowing cerianthid anemones in the wild and eat a lot of squid and crustaceans. 

Video of a chain catshark laying eggs