Saturday, July 02, 2005
Monday is youth day! Another rare holiday we have for term 3. Next will be National Day? My family hasn't hung up the Singapore flag yet. After youth day celebration, the next event of school will be Arts Fest. Then... National Day celebration, then nothing until the end of years. Unless you count Children's Day?
Actually, in the international laws, children under the age of 18 are categorised as children. The age boundary differs for different countries, but most countries set the standard as 18. So lawfully, we
are children. But it seems in Singapore that only those age 12 and below are children. It's probably the effect of early maturation and desire to breakaway from childishness that has made us the transition bodies between children and youths. Probably also the consequence of pushing our mental and physical abilities too hard, that it stimulates a faster growth, thus setting us apart from children at a younger age.
I watched Discovery channel earlier on. It was talking about Octopuses and their abilities. It is said that Octopuses are very intelligent animals, so researchers have decided to prove, or rather, find out if this saying is true. But of course it is needless to spell out the answer.
A few experiments were done on this particular octopus which I think is their laboratory pet, called Olay. Or Oleh. (Anyway this was how they pronounced it) They tested the octopus's ability to identify colours, sense of touch, shapes and memory. Apparently the octopus could recognise shapes, colours and associate these properties with food. Just like a conditioned reflex. They say octopuses are colour blind, so they see things in gray scale, which makes them even more capable in differentiating colours. It was amazing seeing how the octopus manages to grope its way around with all eight tentacles and complete a mini maze to reach its food (a "delicious prawn") in 2 mins plus.
There are numerous species of octopuses, but a particular species called the
mimic octopus is one of the strongest species in surviving in the wild waters. From its name you can tell it imitates. It can imitate a variety of other sea creatures; it mimics a flounder by flattening its body and gliding on the sea bed; a lion fish by extending its tentacles at the right angles and swimming a bit higher than flounders. Besides that, I also learnt that octopuses can change its body colour and appearance. For example, its body turns brown when beside a rock, and develop spikes likened to that of a porcupine to match the uneven surfaces of rocks.
Didn't Darwin's theory mentioned the survival of the fittest? If humans are the fittest and the most intelligent animals on Earth, why do we have to receive education? Why don't human instincts help us in survival while animal instincts can brave animals through their whole life? Without education. If we didn't have education, would we be degraded to the statuses of other animasl? Why do babies take one year to learn to talk and walk, while other animals can run within hours after their birth? The perplexity of Nature. Yet so marvelling.
