Fascinating Creatures

These are my favorite creatures and why I find them so fascinating.

1. Jellyfish 

I've always found these creatures so fascinating because of what they look like, obviously. They are gorgeous and weird and alien to me. They float hither thither, gelatinous umbrellas with long electric kite strings instead of handles. Wikipedia tells me they are the "oldest multi-organ animal" having been around for "possibly 700 million years or more," which is just a little creepy and awesome.

There is an UberFacts going around on Twitter stating they are biologically immortal...which is only slightly misleading because it's one specific type of Jelly under laboratory conditions. It is still super cool to think about.

2. Hummingbirds

This is a beautiful bird that I've always admired for it's fragility. They drink nectar because they love sugar for energy, but also eat insects for nutrients. Most interesting to me is the way they fly, their figure 8 pattern. This is an egocentric fascination because 8 is a recurring and defining number in my life. They are also the only bird that can "hover" and fly backwards.

3. Octopuses

Equally cool and terrifying to me. They have 3 hearts, 8 arms, and are fairly smart for an invertebrate. Other neat attributes of the octopus include the ink sack, which can be used as a decoy or as a sensory inhibitor, and their camouflaging color/texture changing abilities. They can also employ arm autonomy as a distraction. Should an octopus ever get it's tentacles on you, it would also taste you via it's suction cups' chemoreceptors. What a perv.

Anyway, I'm afraid of the ocean, and the octopus is a big part of that. Or maybe it's just Disney's fault for basically making Ursula one.

Fucking Disney.

4. Cats

Revered in Egypt long ago, not much has really changed with their status. No matter how many people claim to hate them, the internet still clearly worships at their furry altar.

I don't really need to tell you about them, everyone knows the pros and cons of cats. I will say I am a cat devotee, ever more so than to dogs in my adoration. Though they have been "domestic" creatures for about 10,000 years, they still manage to be less irritatingly needy than their canine adversary. This is what mostly endears me, their stand-offish "fuck you" attitude, which may actually say a lot more about my own nature than theirs. Because when a cat does confer it's attention to you, you feel important and special.

Cats are why I like assholes. Sorry "nice guys."

Too bad I am allergic to cats. It is the greatest of my #firstworldproblems.

5. Bees

The majority of my childhood summers were spent in fear of these incredible creatures. Mostly due to being traumatized by the movie My Girl.

I have still not experienced a bee sting, and I still dread the possibility of it happening. However, I am also more respectful of the occurrence. The bee's social structure is perhaps the most notable thing about their behavior and it has always interested me. Also, the honey factor. Then, of course, there is the school-born love derived from a music class where we rocked out to "The Flight of the Bumblebee" on a variety of instruments. Welcome to my nerdy childhood.

The declining number of Bumblebees is of great mystery and concern to our generation. It is most likely due to humans being dicks, like most other ecological concerns. As the Einstein quote (that may or may not have been from Einstein) implies, the loss of these fabulous little insects would be devastating. I love honey, is what I'm trying to say here.