07 April 2008

Georgia Trip: Days 5 and 6

If I do one more ordination I think my head will implode. I’m so tired of not getting significance with my data! Why can’t I have just one significant result? Just one, and I’ll be happy.

Anyway, it has taken me way too long to get around to writing about the rest of my trip, and since my motivation to do stats has suddenly disappeared, I’m thinking now would be a good time.

So, where was I? After Sunday (the Day of Tragedies) we drove back to the city on Monday. That was pretty uneventful. On Tuesday, my mom and I went downtown to the Aquarium. Any pictures I’m about to post probably won’t be as good as you’ll see on their site, but I’m a’gonna post them anyway. The aquarium is only a couple of years old, and is the largest in the world. The collection is pretty standard, with a few surprises, namely the variety of rays and sharks: sawtooth, bufflehead, reef sharks, etc.






The set up was beautiful. You can basically walk through the fresh and saltwater tanks, so that the fish are above and around you. The jewel in their crown would have to be the whale sharks. Whale sharks! The largest fish currently in existence and they have 4 of them. They only have juveniles, mind you, so if they live to be full grown, they will be very impressive. Not that they aren’t already impressive. I love whale sharks. They’re so beautiful. I’m choosing to ignore the fact that they caught these poor things somewhere near Thailand and flew them UPS (literally) to Atlanta. They’ve lost two already. Given the status of shark populations, I hope they perfect whale shark husbandry very soon.

Here are some videos. The first is the main viewing room for the saltwater tank. Look at the grouper! The main reason I took this, though, was the music they were playing. It was like the music from the dramatic climax of a movie, and they just had it on a constant loop.





These were taken from the walk-through part of the same tank. I suggest you mute this one, because it was spring break and the place was crawling with very, very loud children.





All my pictures can be seen here.

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