Monday 26 November 2012

Little Red Boots

I bought myself the cutest red boots ever as a present for finishing my exams. I’ve been at the beach, and (more or less) wearing this outfit every day, occasionally swapping the shirt and skirt for denim shorts and a t-shirt. I am really enjoying pairing pops of red with light blue and white at the moment.
wearing
skirt - DIY
tie - c/o Flapper Girl
backpack - c/o Oasap
blouse - vintage
hat - c/o Wholesale
boots - Ebay

So when I was down at the beach the other day I became really fascinated with these little guys (there were hundreds washed up on the beach and they're pretty poisonous - not great for swimming).
(image source)
Also... "Mr." blue bottle is an entirely inaccurate term, as you are about to see. 
They are known as "Blue Bottle Jellyfish" (aka "Portuguese Man O' War"), but as I found out, they aren't jellyfish at all - in fact they are actually "siphonophores", and they aren't even one animal, they're a colony of little animals called "zooids". Each zooid is it's own free-living solitary animal, but these asexual and specialised zooids remain attached to each other in a big colony - the blue bottle - for their entire lives. Some zooids perform the "eating" function for the blue bottle, some are the swimmers which propel the creature through the water, and some perform the function of the poisonous stinger, but they all work together in a colony to make up what appears as one creature!
Here's a link to an awesome site about siphonophores, and I want to share an extract from it which I thought was really cool:
"Siphonophores challenge us to think about what we mean when we call something an individual, a concept that we usually think of as being quite straightforward. Is a single zooid or an entire colony the siphonophore “individual”? ... Humans function as ecological, behavioral, and evolutionary individuals. But they are made up of many cells. So is the entire human an individual, or are each of the cells individuals?"

Anyway, siphonophores are my new favourite creature.


15 comments:

  1. I love how you add these little science tidbits to your outfit posts, it is really quite different and makes your blog unique! Love the outfit too, I <333 red, light blue and cream!

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  2. I love the little science things you've been writing at the end of your posts! Also, (if you don't know it already) you'd love QI! It's a british panel show hosted by Stephen Fry and they pretty much talk only about interesting things for a little more than half an hour(: You can all of the episodes on youtube, too (this is my favourite, featuring Brian Cox (!!!!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmEH8cPvrUU)

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    1. Hey silvia, I happen to love QI actually :) and I've seen basically all of the episodes, even the really old ones when stephen fry still held up cards for the obvious answers, haha. but i haven't seen the one with brian cox!!! (he's only basically my hero) Thanks for the link!

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    2. OH MY GOD best episode ever I also love Ross Noble (I saw his live show this year and seeing it next year too haha).
      Too good!!!

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    3. I knew you'd like it, Brian Cox is awesome :) If only they could have Neil deGrasse Tyson next, hehe

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  3. I remember learning about these in bio 1, how cool that you actually get to observe them! And those boots are amazing, in fact I quite adore the whole outfit!

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    1. haha they're more annoying than cool usually - sometimes they litter the beach and you can't swim or even walk around - although I had a lot more respect for them when I decided to read up on them!

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  4. Argh! I hate blue bottles, they also terrorise us in South Africa. But interesting to learn about the colonies!

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  5. So so so cute! I love your satchel!

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  6. Like Silvia, I love the little science things you've been writing at the end of your posts too! :)

    Thank you so much for the shout-out! You look gorgeous, as always! <3

    xoxo
    C

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  7. i have gumboots like that! the melissa x vivienne westwood ones, but black with the gold buttons! <3

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  8. oh I absolutely love those boots, Annika! they're so so cute! love the red details as well, they just pop out on your outfit! :)

    Drawing Dreaming

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  9. You are so utterly adorable in this outfit <3 I love those gumboots on you and I love that everytime I read your blog I feel like I get a three-min-scientific-fun-fact-of-the-day. I swear you could totally have a morning telly segment like that.

    http://anni-dot-elle.blogspot.com

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  10. You are SOOO freaking cute! You definitely need a action figure made after you! Loved reading about Mr. Blue Bottle, makes me miss the ocean!

    Cx
    http://mixedmediumstheatre.blogspot.co.uk/

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