How Not to Drown, Monday, October 27, Period 3

[grenadesandohana]

"I hope everyone enjoyed their trip," Steve said with a grin as the class arrived at the pool. "Some of us had to stay back and continue working for a living. The dean tells me you got to go snorkeling. Why don't we talk a little about the differences you felt swimming in salt water versus fresh, then we'll do some laps."

Steve loved making people do laps.

Anakin nodded. "I promised you extra credit if you snorkeled however handwavily, so see me after class and I'll mark it down."

Flight and Flying- Monday- 1st period

[solo_sword]

Back to the Danger Shop today, where Jaina stood in front of a ship that might be familiar if you'd been in Jaina's class before, had been to the junkyard during Parents' Weekend, or had gotten shot down by it in the middle of a Death Star trench.

"This is a YT-1300 freighter," Jaina began. "These ships are meant to be used to transport cargo, but this one in particular has been heavily modified with smuggling compartments and weaponry, which were installed partly due to reasons involving the smuggling compartments. It's been put through an insane amount of stuff by now, and there's plenty that goes wrong with it, but it's still going.

Today you get to fly it. You can pilot, you can co-pilot, you can ride along if you want. But I will be throwing some things at you that means someone gets to go up in the gunwell and shoot at some stuff, so have fun with that."

Cryptozoology, Monday period 2

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Welcome back. I hope you all had a decent vacation," Jon said. "Today we're discussing the chupacabra." He put up the standard visual reference. "The name means something like 'goat sucker' in Spanish, because it apparently sucks animals' blood. Not only goats, though." He sighed. "It was named by a comedian, in case you were wondering."

He gestured at the picture. "This is one popular conception of the thing. In the southwestern US, it's considered to be fairly dog-like, whereas elsewhere in Latin America it's more reptilian, larger, and heavyset. The most common description is somewhat reptilian, with leathery or scaly skin in some variation of grey, with sharp spines down its back. It is around one meter tall, but capable of standing on its hind legs and moving by hopping. Like a kangaroo." Because apparently all weird animals were kangaroos now."

"The earliest accounts were in Puerto Rico in 1995, when several sheep were discovered dead, with three puncture wounds in their chest and completely drained of blood, although this was never confirmed and documented.

"A few months later, an eyewitness reported seeing the thing in a nearby town that reportedly had up to one hundred fifty livestock and pets murdered. However," Jon grimaced, "that eyewitness was later reported to have believed that the events of a recent movie were actually occurring in reality, and based her description of the chupacabra on the monster in that movie. So whether it was responsible for those deaths or not, we can hardly believe her description." Honestly, people. Be more creative!

"Since then, attacks have been reported worldwide, although primarily in the Americas. Several scientists have noted that, particularly regarding the more dog-like accounts, sightings could be simply coyotes or dogs with mange. Sick predators would also be more likely to attack livestock rather than hunt in the wild, and might kill them but not eat them entirely. I haven't noted any other origins for the things. They either are strange animals, or mangy canines. Or perhaps both; there's no reason cryptids should be immune to disease."

He gestured at the image again. "So, our discussion. Strange animals, mangy canines, or both. And why they might appear where they do and not have ever been caught on camera."