media frenzy

every summer in bremerhaven, there is a rowing competetion put on by the marines for the general public. the marines allow people to use their giant rowboats and compete against each other in a race down the river.

now, this event is kind of like bremerhaven's bay to breakers. some people take the event very seriously (like the teams from the local rowing high schools) and some people take the opportunity to try to win the costume contest (like the funky brothers, who row in giant afro wigs and polyester).

some members of the team from our group in the awi fit into the catagory of people who take the event rather seriously. so we went out to the marine station a few times in the past few weeks and practiced during our lunch hour. during one of the practices, our boat was hailed over to the side by some people from a news van. after a brief exchange, we docked and katrin, our coxswain, was outfitted with a remote microphone. she was to annouce the weather for the following day from the boat, so they could film it and broadcast it in their little daily bit where they have locals do the forecast.

this is how i wound up rowing on german television.

http://judit.drtoast.com/video/Katrin%20the%20frog.mp4

the day of the race was yesterday, and everyone got to the office in the morning and rapidly turned right back around to go out to the riverside. a few tents had been set up to sell beer and food, and at 10am the competition was well underway.

we spent the entire day by the river, hanging out, talking, drinking, and hooting and hollering at the other teams. we managed to work our way through the ranks, and occasionally got called up to cease our drinking and row (as "das bööt", which is really fun to shout in excitement). by the end of the day, much to most of our astonishments, we managed to land third place. beat only by the naval academy and the boy's team of the rowing school, we had managed to take down some pretty formidable teams of the 32 entered. woot!

sweaty, tired, sunburned, and slightly drunk, we headed to the after party, where local bands played load metal music and dj's cranked out frighteningly bad electronic music. still carrying the laminated banner of our team, the few of us who remained standing were called to line up for a picture.

this is how i got into the german newspaper.

http://judit.drtoast.com/paper.jpg

and if that isn't enough media for you yet, i also just uploaded the first of the cuttle videos.

here is a video of a view into one of the big tanks. they're just eating. check out how the get dark and change color rapidly. (i aplogize for the kind of gross tossing of dead shrimp in the middle):

http://judit.drtoast.com/video/vat.MOV

this is the littler guys eating in their sandy tank:

http://judit.drtoast.com/video/littleguys.MOV

this is a little guy doing his full hunt and attack manuever:

http://judit.drtoast.com/video/snap.MOV

this is a female laying eggs. she pops them out individually and ties them to a surface with her tentacles:

http://judit.drtoast.com/video/laying.MOV

this is the same female later in a different tank. she came up to say hi. this is f-ing cute. the big black thing she's swimming around in a cord she has covered in eggs:

http://judit.drtoast.com/video/mama.MOV

this is a smaller guy who was put into the tank of feeder shrimp in the process of moving. (basically he's laying in the all you can eat buffet. he was quite happy.) check out the flickering of colors. this gives you a good idea of how quickly they can change patterns:

http://judit.drtoast.com/video/chillin.MOV

and this is why i am studying these guys. mama decided to show off for me, and started to do what is called the passing cloud pattern. it's meant to mesmerize pray. (it's quite mesmerizing.) check out how she also texturizes her skin slightly (they are normally totally smooth on top), check out the iridiphores shining on her underside, and check out how she has bilateral control of the pattern too, at one point showing it on one side while showing a more homogenous pattern on the other:

http://judit.drtoast.com/video/showoff.MOV

and now i'm officially going to stop writing the longest blog entry ever.

enjoy!