GO, TURTLE!

Or tortoise. Turtle? Tortoise? Ah, tomayto tomahto. (Go turn on your TV and go watch channel W. You know: W-TV. Wha. Te. Ver.)

If anyone DOES know what's the difference between a tortoise and a turtle, please tell me, cos I feel like this is something one should know, more importantly than learning about Orang Tua(s) in Sabah and Tuai Rumah(s) in Sarawak. Directed to the form 3's reading this: If this question appears in our PMR, you should all be taking turns paying for my Nasi Lemak Wedges every lunchtime.

Anyway, I think I'll go check out what the difference is myself. Okay... Lemme see. You gotta appreciate the efficiency of Google at times like this. Aha! Here we are!

Our answer lies here. Or here. The latter is shorter, but the first one gives a lot more info, for the hardworking.

To cut a long story short, turtles usually live in water, and tortoises usually live on ground near water.

So based on what we've learned today, this guy right here is a tortoise.

So next time some one asks you: "You know what's the difference between a tortoise and a turtle?", you'll answer them, gain some rep, and thank me later by buying me a syrup in school.

So why all the turtle-talk? Well. Have you guys heard of Lonely George? The last Pinta island tortoise to grace the Galapagos Islands. And yes, that's the place were all the iguanas live. Apparently they have tortoise-eating goats, too. *shudder*

But anyways, some few years ago I read about him, he who was the last-surviving Pinta tortoise of the Geochelone elephantophus abingdoni species in the world. Here he is.

A star in his own right after being dubbed "the most endangered species in the world", he was, unfortunately, believed to be impotent. Even after all these scientists stuck him up to watching turtle porn and took him to Tortoise's Chow Kit, he was still unable to successfully produce offspring. Why?

As the article I was reading says: "Perhaps the tortoise is too old, or pehaps too disinterested, or perhaps decided that the world was going to the dogs anyway so why bring in more of his kind if their fate was to be turned into souvenirs for spanish housewives? Or maybe he doesn't even like kids."

Well, let's wrap this one up, since I should be getting back to my studies soon. All this I was reading about many years ago. But I suddenly remembered him earlier today, so I decided to check if he has finally kicked the bucket. Or bought a farm. Bit the dust, conked, cashed in his chips, croaked, expired, went belly up, went to the wall, went west, met his maker, gave up the ghost, went way of all flesh.

Whichever euphemism you want to use. Feel free. I personally went to check up on those so as to avoid you feeling uncomfortable of a certain one.

So anyways, I typed "lonely george" into Google. And WOOHOO! Read the article! Here.

So what do ya know. Next time we take a picture of the Galapagos Islands, it could turn out like this one.

(imagine all iguanas to be replaced with identicals of not-so-Lonely George, woot!)

Jun Shern out.

*Static*