GIP

Thanks to kerravonsen for this one.

The inspiration comes from Kipling's poem "The female of the species", but particularly the two verses I've given in full.

For the full poem, see http://www.potw.org/archive/potw96.html


When the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride,
He shouts to scare the monster, who will often turn aside.
But the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail.
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.


She is wedded to convictions—in default of grosser ties;
Her contentions are her children, Heaven help him who denies!—
He will meet no suave discussion, but the instant, white-hot, wild,
Wakened female of the species warring as for spouse and child.

So, *grin* now you know why this is my new 'family' icon.

GIP

This one is decidated to the Open University in honour of the following question:

Identify the incorrect statements and show clearly why they are wrong:

C - radiolarians are phytoplankton characterised by intricate calcareous shells

I answered that one, or so I thought. I marked it incorrect and said they had siliceous shells.

A week later, I was looking through example questions and noticed that nearly of them had two mark answers. (not one mark for true/false and one for why, but 0 for true/false and two for why) So I took a second look at this one... Radiolarians are not phytoplankton, they're zooplankton. (they don't photosynthesise, they eat things) I'm now looking for two points to make in every single multiple choice answer.

Like I said, this course is making me think...

And besides, it's a pretty picture. It's a radiolarian, shown much much bigger than it really is.