5 strange facts I learned today

1. Dr. Seuss wrote an adult book with nude illustrations.

2. In Japan they have glowing firefly squids that glow as they are pushed to the shore's edge.

3. Scientists have created blue strawberries that can withstand freezing temperatures.

4. Bruce Lee could throw grains of rice in the air and then catch them in mid-flight using chopsticks.

5. This is a real creature. It is called a "Mary River Turtle". Not surprisingly it is endangered.

5 things that are awesome about the mantis shrimp

INTRODUCING THE INCREDIBLE MANTIS SHRIMP!!!!

Here are 5 reasons why you should adopt this gangsta as your new favorite animal:

1. We have the ability to see colors from cells in the retina of our eye called cones. As humans we see all of our colors from 3 types of these color sensing cells (cones). As a result all of the colors we see derive from either red, green, or blue. The mantis shrimp as 16(!!!!) types of color sensing cells (cones).  There is no other animal that has this ability! (The only one that comes close is the butterfly that has 5 types of cones). They see color in an unimaginable way, which is probably why they are so beautiful to look at!

2. The manits shrimp is one of the most creatively violent animals on earth. It has two appendages on the front of its body that they can accelerate with the same velocity as a gunshot from a twenty-two caliber rifle. In less then 3/1,000ths of a second it can strike prey with 1,500 Newtons of force.

3. Their limbs move so quickly the water around them bils, a process known as supercavitation. When these cavitation bubbles collapse it produces an undersea shockwave that can kill prey even if the mantis shrimp misses its target.

4. The force of these collapsing bubbles also produces temperatures in the range of several thousand Kelvis and emits tiny bursts of light. This effect is called sonoluminescnence.

5. Aquariums don't typically house mantis shrimps because they tend to slaughter ever other creature they share a tank with. And they can also break aquarium glass! 

5 things I love about traveling with my wife.

1. My wife is the kind of tourist that blatantly love to do touristy things, and is blatantly embarrassing about it. Prime example: while in line to enter the Notre Dame in Paris she loudly shouted to anyone who would tolerate it (in English mind you), "IS THIS THE LINE FOR THE HUNCHBACK?!?!" If she wasn't cute (i.e. if she looked like me) she would have definitely been punched squarely in the nose by an angry Parisian.

2. She loves to speak in English that has been accentified by the native language. For example, the entire time we were in Paris she spoke Frenchified English. To French people. They were surprisingly amused.

3. When we travel we eat a minimum of 8 meals a day. Sometimes walking out of one restaurant into another. As if there is invisible hot lava in all places where there isn't food.

4. She enjoys museums and cultural stuff, but she only has tolerance for about 1 hour of it at a time. Which is awesome, because it turns out that is about as long as I can learn without feeling like the world is ending. Especially since that is an hour when we aren't eating. This hour is learning is usually consolidated by a very serious nap.

5. She is my wife and she is super cute and awesome, and traveling is an excuse to spend quality time with her.