talk to me about something that interests you!

[truce.]

[align=center][div style="width: 430px; text-align: justify; font-family: verdana; font-size: 6pt; letter-spacing: 1.5px; word-spacing: 0px; line-height: 12px; color: #000"]Hey! So this has been on my list of things that I'd like to do for a hot minute and now that I have time I'd love to get this thread out for all y'all! Basically, I love learning more about everyone, and I love learning new things - so, combining those two things, I'd really love to hear about something that interests you! Whether it's something you've learned that excites you, whether it's a hobby or it's anything you do or have done which had you think ❝ Hey, this is so cool! ❞ I'd love to hear it!

I'm going to start by talking about something which I personally find pretty damn cool imo: animal adaptations (surprise surprise). For simplicity's sake, I'm only going to focus on the structural and physiological adaptations!

For example, you know when you're driving on a dark street and then you suddenly see glowing eyes at the side of the road? You then drive by and see cat just stood there. Obviously, it isn't actually the fact that the cat has glowing eyes (but that would be pretty badass) but this is actually a feature in the cat's - even dogs, foxes, raccoons, deer etc - eyes called the tapetum lucidum. Basically, its purpose is to enhance the animal's night vision, which is useful for species who feed in the night. So basically, the tapetum lucidum is a reflective membrane at the back of the eye, located directly behind the retina. This means that the light reflects off the tapetum lucidem and back to the retina, meaning that more light is caught by the retina than it would if the animal didn't have the tapetum lucidem - this then improves their night vision.

We don't have it as we are diurnal creatures, meaning that we will likely be asleep through the night so we don't need an improved vision in the dark. Sure, it'd be cool if we did have it, but that requires our body to exert more energy into growth, repair and replacement of the tissue when it's not actually too useful to us!

Another adaptation I think is so awesome is the skeletal structure of birds. The only reason they can really fly isn't solely because of their wings (else penguins would be able to fly!) but because of a cool little adaptation called pneumatized bones! What that is is basically hollow bones that resembles honeycomb. These trabeculae make a sort of criss-cross formation which helps with bone support! A bird's strength to weight ratio is insane. Surprisingly though, despite what I had first thought, studies are proving that this adaptation isn't actually to reduce the weight that the bird would have to carry in flight! In fact, birds have the densest bone structure of all mammals which makes their bones heavier, despite having air pockets in them. Instead, scientists theorise that the adaptation actually maximises stiffness and strength of the skeleton to support the bird in flight. There is a reduced number of bones, some bones are actually fused together and there are bone shapes to support this. The criss-cross formation only helps strengthen the bone!

I will talk about one last point but, instead of a specific adaptation for many species, I will focus on one species with many different adaptations. Dogs! I straight up find it so cool how we as humans managed to develop such an array of breeds in order to fit a specific purpose. Let us ignore more modern breeding practices which accentuate traits which didn't need to be more prominent, but more so look into what made the breeds we know about today! Firstly, I'm biased as I love Poodles, but they have a really cool reason why they get that poodle cut! It has been made more prominent in dog showing, but essentially fur is kept around joints and more sensitive parts of the body in order to keep the dog warm during work! Poodles are actually water dogs, very much like a Labrador! Hounds with long ears (think Bassets and Bloodhounds) have such long ears because when their head is down and they are following a scent, the long ears collect the scent in the air and keeps it near the dog's face, making it easier to follow a scent. Sighthounds have a deep barrelled chest as they are bred for sight and speed. That deep barrelled chest makes way for a larger than average heart so the heart can pump more oxygenated blood around the body when the dog sprints.

I could really go on forever and ever about adaptations that I think are cool, but I'll stop now FDJHJKL

sHARE YOUR INTERESTS WITH ME GO GO GO-

[subject_topside]

[align=center][shadow=#72d3fe,left]GETTIN' HICKEYS FROM MY BED BUGS,[/shadow]

yall valid!!!!

there is a lot of things i can start with, so i'm just going to ramble real quick with no real direction with what i'm talking about. i can gain a lot of information about things like lore from games or literally anything but how to be a basic human being so strap in fellas because i am going to go Off

bioshock is the core of my life rn, because not only am i kin with one of the characters, but it also gave me a chance to meet me current best friend. i joined a discord group three years ago for bioshock and met them, and right now we're inseparable. it's opened up my music taste more and i've sucked in old music from the 1930s to the 1960s and even playing fallout has gotten me into listening to that genre more. i've fallen in love with the style and aesthetic of that era, and, most importantly, the sea.

any time i see something that reminds me of bioshock, i just get all fuzzy inside because it reminds me of rapture (the name of the city). rapture feels like a home away from home, and i would have absolutely loved to live in the city before it went to shit. i play bioshock, like, religiously and am obsessed with the character stories and developments and will forever just,,,think of the ocean as a safe place.

i want to get a tattoo (i will attach it at the end) that was heavily inspired by bioshock. i designed it myself, too :0

i went camping a few weeks ago and there was a lake/beach and i went into the sea and just floated there until i realized i couldn't touch the sea floor and my anxiety kicked back in that i wouldn't be able to reach shore, but-- i got sunburnt from just vibing in the ocean and i do not regret it. when i get a house for myself i will absolutely decorate the walls and stuff with everything ocean and bioshock related. i've already got a poster that i want to hang up after i clean my room

when i get more money i think i'm going to get more bioshock posters so i can just. fill my room with everything bioshock. i got pins and a sticker sheet and an 11 inch big daddy plush! his name is mr. bubbles! one of his tanks fell off because they weren't stitched on properly, but i can always fix it!! he's hard to sleep with because he has a rough texture on his face and he's so round and not soft, and it's kind of like sleeping with a solid sack of really dense clothes, but he's great to cuddle with if i'm just laying down on my phone. he also came with a collectors card :0

but yeah,,, i know it's not really a good info dump but bioshock means a lot to me and i will always be interested in ocean-themed things, especially if they're based in the 1960s,,,,,,

edit: deadass forgot to attach pics hHJKGEBGE hold up

edit 2: the picture proportions were wonk'd so i fixed them

[spoiler=tattoo][/spoiler]

[spoiler=pins + mr bubbles]




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