Friday, August 7, 2009

My shark week

First of all, let me start by saying this post could never be as cool as the real shark week. But, here are the best shark videos I could find on YouTube, and I hope they serve as a nice little supplement to Discovery's shark week. Why? Because this year's shark week is a little, dare I say, disappointing. It's mostly attacks, and less of the "Oooo I didn't know that!" effect that usually came with every special. Maybe it's because I've seen so many shark weeks. Maybe it's because scientists have told us all they know (these shows are always accompanied by the line "and yet we know so little about these awesome and mystifying predators"), but that's something I highly doubt. It's probably more like they've told us all they think we'd watch and understand, and this week's selling point is attacks. Well, after a few attacks, I'm all set with blood and guts, thank you very much. SO, here's a little something different for those of us who are curious. (What kills me is that a lot of these are Discovery videos -- show these on shark week, sillies!)

Why doesn't anyone focus on different shark species? Great whites (and now tiger sharks and bulls sharks, sometimes with the occasional lemon shark) are always the focus. Here's the hammerhead. Guaranteed "oo I didn't know that" effect from this video.

And the whale shark:


The 6-gill:


And a bizarre, prehistoric but apparently still living shark that lives off the coast of Japan:


And now for the shark vs____ section.

There was once a show that has since been canceled (because I alone cannot support it, apparently) called "Animal Face-Off." It was on discovery, and scientists would compare 2 animals that may or may not meet normally (most often predators). They would study the animals and try to scientifically determine who would win in a direct face off between them. Then they'd produce a computerized reenactment-- here's shark vs. crocodile (and the end is in spanish, so get babelfish translator ready):


This one has the "ohhh not the poor birdie!" effect, but the end leaves you with a little bit of hope:


Tiger shark vs. turtle (no attack footage for those of you with more tender tummies):


And finally, the winner for the most "WHOOOAAA ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" YouTube shark video is....
....SHARK VS OCTOPUS:

1 comment:

  1. Hi there! I just found your blog via Cake Wrecks thanks to your wearing of an official shirt to jury duty. My name is Beth and I'm originally from Boston, and I too have been unemployed for a while and keeping a blog about it: http://card-furn.blogspot.com (Cardboard Furniture). In a few days, the theme of my blog will change because I'm going back to school to weather the recession and emerge more qualified, but I'm tickled to have found you here. Best of luck, I definitely know how hard it is!

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