And now for something entirely different. Yesterday on Lifehacker, I read an article called 366-days. or How I Tricked Myself Into Being Awesome
The article is by a guy by the name of Chris Strom, and it's definitely worth a read.
To summarize, Chris Strom asked and answered a question a day in his blog. He found at the end of the project that he had learned quite a bit and managed to get three books out of the exercise on technologies he knew nothing about. Cool, right?
So it got me to thinking, why can't I do that?
And the answer is-----
No reason whatsoever.
So here it goes, the first in hopefully a daily installment of question of the day:
Why do polar bears look dark from a distance?
This question was posed to me in the writing class I teach. As part of the class, we have regular journaling sessions. In past semesters, I just had students write their journals independently, but the product just wasn't as consistent as one would like, and the students tended to talk about personal matters. Nothing wrong with that, but college is here to expand horizons, so I decided to do in-class journals based off of TED talks. It turned out to be wildly popular. Anyway, during today's class we were watching Karen Bass's speech, "Unseen Footage, Untamed Nature." (Posted below if you want to give it a watch). The first clip was of Polar Bears making their way from their dens at the top of a steep clip. The bears looked unmistakeably not white. In fact, they nearly looked black. I had to admit, my student asked a great question, one to which I had no answer.
Well, my Polar Bears' oddly swarthy appearance turns out it has to do with two main issues, the first being skin. Underneath that shaggy coat, a polar bear's skin is, in fact, jet black. Jet black skin over four inches of blubber can keep a body warm in some pretty cold and nasty weather.
The second has to do with fur.
The Polar Bear's fur is not white.
You read that right.
Their fur is actually translucent with a hollow shaft. So, if you see the little boogers at one angle, they look white. From another angle they can look quite dark.
You learn something new every day.
The article is by a guy by the name of Chris Strom, and it's definitely worth a read.
To summarize, Chris Strom asked and answered a question a day in his blog. He found at the end of the project that he had learned quite a bit and managed to get three books out of the exercise on technologies he knew nothing about. Cool, right?
So it got me to thinking, why can't I do that?
And the answer is-----
No reason whatsoever.
So here it goes, the first in hopefully a daily installment of question of the day:
Why do polar bears look dark from a distance?
This question was posed to me in the writing class I teach. As part of the class, we have regular journaling sessions. In past semesters, I just had students write their journals independently, but the product just wasn't as consistent as one would like, and the students tended to talk about personal matters. Nothing wrong with that, but college is here to expand horizons, so I decided to do in-class journals based off of TED talks. It turned out to be wildly popular. Anyway, during today's class we were watching Karen Bass's speech, "Unseen Footage, Untamed Nature." (Posted below if you want to give it a watch). The first clip was of Polar Bears making their way from their dens at the top of a steep clip. The bears looked unmistakeably not white. In fact, they nearly looked black. I had to admit, my student asked a great question, one to which I had no answer.
Well, my Polar Bears' oddly swarthy appearance turns out it has to do with two main issues, the first being skin. Underneath that shaggy coat, a polar bear's skin is, in fact, jet black. Jet black skin over four inches of blubber can keep a body warm in some pretty cold and nasty weather.
The second has to do with fur.
The Polar Bear's fur is not white.
You read that right.
Their fur is actually translucent with a hollow shaft. So, if you see the little boogers at one angle, they look white. From another angle they can look quite dark.
You learn something new every day.
Thanks for sharing these notes about polar bears. I remember reading a novel retelling of the folktale - East of the Sun, West of the Moon - where the polar bear king who transforms back into a person had dark obsidian skin and I wondered why the author had chosen to picture her character like so and now I see the link.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like an awesome novel. If you ever remember what it is called or who wrote it, please tell me. I'm always looking for a new read.
DeleteIt was called Ice by Sarah Beth Durst. Its an interesting read if you're looking for a fantasy retelling of a fairy tale. It starts off in the real world of an arctic research station before departing back into the fantastical realm.
DeleteCoolio! I'll look into it.
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