The Elements of Friendship, Thursday, Period 3

[locointhecoco]

The Danger Shop was set up as a small, classy runway, surrounded on all sides by racks and racks of various clothing. Pinkie stood on the runway wearing a bright, fabulous saddle blanket and a colorful umbrella hat.

"Welcome, everypony! I hear there was a great fashion show in town yesterday for some of the school's clubs, and thought it would be great fun to get to have one of our own! Fashion can be a great way for a pony to express herself, but not everypony has a good eye for what goes together. I love my umbrella hat, for instance, but my friend Rarity, who is a fashion superstar, has told me in no uncertain terms never to wear it to any fancy parties. I trust her judgement, because she's one of my bestest friends!

"So today, you're all going to pair up and dress each other up in what you think is the very best fashions! Then you'll walk the runway to show them off to the whole class, and we'll tell you if it's good or not. No second guessing your partner's picks. This is as much about trust as it is about clothes."

[ooc: OCD is up! Make it work!]

Life of the Sea, Thursday, Period 2

[takesaftermom.livejournal.com]

Summer had, once again, set up the Danger Shop to look like an underwater sea lab. This time, it closely resembled the one she and her brother had worked in a few years ago. If the students paid close attention, they'd notice sea turtles and other marine life swimming past the outer shell of the lab, which happened to be made up of glass. It was somewhat reminiscent of a fish bowl.

Summer happened to be sitting atop one of the tables near the front of the room. "Today, we are going to learn about marine reptiles. The earliest marine reptiles could be found during the Paleozoic era. They adapted to life in the sea during the Mesozoic era," she explained.

"Some marine reptiles that survived during that era and still thrive today are sea turtles, saltwater crocodiles and sea snakes. Some of those reptiles never returned to land and made a life in the sea. Others, like the sea turtle and crocodile, return to shore every so often to lay eggs and rest and bask in the sun."

She smiled as a pair of sea turtles swam past the windows. "They are quite majestic, aren't they? Sea turtles are almost always submerged and over time, they've developed an anaerobic system of breathing. They do still breathe air but if needed, they can stay submerged beneath the water for long periods of time."

Summer paused, watching them as they swam out of view. "Sadly, all species of sea turtles are listed as threatened or endangered. Conservation efforts have been made to protect this species and to prevent accidental death by fishing or by beach development, where the eggs might be tampered with."

"Sea turtles play key roles in two ecosystem types that are critical to them as well as to humans—oceans and beaches/dunes. In the oceans, for example, sea turtles, especially green sea turtles, are one of very few creatures (manatees are another) that eat the sea grass that grows on the sea floor. Sea grass must be kept short to remain healthy, and beds of healthy sea grass are essential breeding and development areas for many species of fish and other marine life. A decline or loss of sea grass beds would damage these populations, triggering a chain reaction and negatively impacting marine and human life.
Beaches and dunes form a fragile ecosystem that depends on vegetation to protect against erosion. Eggs, hatched or unhatched, and hatchlings that fail to make it into the ocean are nutrient sources for dune vegetation[citation needed]. Every year, sea turtles lay countless eggs on beaches. Along one twenty-mile stretch of beach in Florida alone, for example, more than 150,000 pounds of eggs are laid each year."

[OCD is a go.]

Ethics [Thursday, April 5, 2012, 1st period]

[sith_happened]

"Fandom tossed a curveball at us this weekend," Anakin said withem a little smile as he walked into the classroom. "Children--or teenagers--from various dimensions. Some of them probably seemed more plausible than others. I got to meet my son Christopher again, which was...interesting, as in a non-Fandom setting, I wouldn't get to until he's born in a couple of months."

His lips quirked up again. "That's been a bit confusing for his big sister Juliet."

He leaned against the desk and looked around the classroom. "So my ethical question for you is this: did this glimpse into your potential futures make you want to change your current path? Do you think the future is carved in stone, or is more fluid? And if you know something about someone else's future, do you have an obligation to tell them?"

...so his conversation with Leia hadn't strayed too far from his thoughts yet. Sue him.

Superheroing 101, Thursday, Period 4

[electrocynic]

There was no pub this week, as much as that saddened Electroclash. There was only a normal classroom, with a projector at the front, and their teacher back in her uniform.

"Let me tell you a little story about my friend Don. Some of you probably met a simulated version of him last week – black clothes, Spanish, very gay? That one." And Don... probably wouldn't have objected to that description. "Now, Don –– well, Timebomb, as we call him, once had a hero mission at the Armenian embassy in London. And it didn't go quite as planned. There were a few casualties, shit like that, but Don thought it went all right, all things considered. And then some chump who reviewed it for the next issue of New Power Express gave Don and the whole thing a right trashing, calling it an utter disappointment in entertainment value and heroics, and a mediocre performance."

A beat went by.

"Don went over to his house and carved the words 'mediocre performance' into his forehead with a wire coat hanger." Yes. "So. Today our topic is bad reviews. Sometimes you get them, mostly because some journos are miserable gits who make themselves feel better by saying you have issues with your temper." Ahem. "And that's a further cape problem: how to deal with poor reviews in a manner that doesn't do further damage to your public image. While I do believe Don's mercenary career got a boost from that incident, you're supposed to be learning to do something else. So, I'm gonna show you an example review and then you're gonna discuss what the proper way to react to something like that would be, if you happened to be the target. |Laptop, show shit review.|"

The following got projected on the screen up front:

SKIRMISH REVIEW
LADYTROUBLE VS POWERPIXIE
★☆☆☆☆
Essentially it was Mean Girls with masks. I could go on, but you know what – why bother? Some b-list college girls beat up another girl, none of whom will ever mean anything to continuity or canon. Save your time and skip straight to Excelsor vs. Slicefist.

... The sudden glare she gave the computer could be explained by the fact that she'd specifically wanted to show one of Alex's poor reviews (preferably something where he'd lit shit on fire) but apparently the SPA were having their own fun at her expense. She glowered. "Right," she grumbled. "Anyway. Something glowing like this comes your way. How do you react? How should you react?"

It should be noted that while Electroclash found Timebomb's reaction a little over the top, she still thought punching the reviewer in the face was a valid option.

[ocd up!]