Here’s one of ZeFrank’s (pronounced “zay-Frank’s”) biologically informed videos, this time about sea cucumbers—echinoderms in the class Holothuroidea.
Note the new caveat at the beginning: “True Facts is not appropriate for children nor for adults who don’t act like children.” These would be great to show to an introductory class on biological diversity, but ZeFrank’s humor might harm people! On the other hand, as ZeFrank turns out more videos, they get better and better, with more—yes—true facts leavened with humor and accompanied by terrific videos.
Watch it! Unless you’re an invertebrate biologist or fond of authentic Chinese food, which incorporates holorthuroideans in some dishes (I can’t stomach them), you won’t know much about this group. In this video, ZeFrank’s 6-year-old side is evinced by his obsession with the butts of these creatures. (Don’t miss the bit at 11:10.)
It is a fascinating group! Does anybody know who ZeFrank is?
Just google ZeFrank!
He’s Joachim Frank’s son.
BTW the “education-grade” version is good too – I’m glad he’s doing that. Teachers don’t need to risk some of that stuff – not worth it. He makes custom humor for it, I think.
Absolutely, Merilee! Here he is:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ze_Frank
I saw a documentary about Palau, probably in the 90s, where it talked about how the locals would grabs a Sea Cucumber and squeeze it so that the goop came out and put it on the bottom of their feet to protect them so they could go walk on the coral. I thought that that must be very traumatic for the Sea Cucumbers.
No hesitation in sending the link for this to my 9 yo grandson.
A terrific job as always. One of the best regulars on the You Tube.
I think I need a ‘science hippy’ t-shirt, which was briefly advertised at the end.
“And it’s a niche right there! The kind of niche you get when you showed up late when they were handing out niches”.
Ze Frank brilliant as always.
ZeFrank: ” … an American online performance artist, composer, humorist and public speaker based in Los Angeles.” (Wikipedia – the page is worth a read.) And there are a few YouTube videos on him.
Real name’s Hosea and his dad has a Nobel Prize!
This is delightful. I study the only language in the world that is named after a Holothuria (Bislama, spoken in Vanuatu). I definitely should have known more about the variation and diversity amongst these guys before. Like Jerry, I cannot recommend them as a meal. They are more use cleaning the lagoons.