Scot's Corner

[Scottish9]

Hello and welcome to Scot’s corner! I love to write, so I figured I’d make a little mini-blog here. Feel free to post or pm me!

What will it include? Mainly, three things

1. Science lessons. I’m a big science and biology geek, so I’m here to spread the love! I’m going to try and explain natural phenomena, reasons behind everyday things, genetics, science in pop culture, and more! If you wanna talk science, need homework help, or want some help diguring out genes for a character or real-life being, shoot me a PM!

2. Wall of faith. I’m also a Christian. In fact, about 30% of the global population claims to be Christian. So, I’ll also be talking about my walk with God. I’m not gonna try and preach or pretend I’m perfect. I’m not. I’m just an everyday teen who has struggles and an unshakable salvation.

3. Scot’s thoughts. This is kind of a catch-all, but it’s mainly going to be stories from the day, observations and thoughts on current events, and cool facts/uplifting messages.

First lesson: Genetics and Spirit

Let's talk Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, a decently well-known horse movie. From the movie, Spirit looks like he could be either a dun or a buckskin. They look very similar and have bay as a base, but a cream gene active makes buckskin, and a dilution gene active makes dun active.

We know what Spirit's mom, Esperanza, looks like. She's a pretty palomino, which is a chestnut base with the cream modification.

Then, we add dad into the mix. While not canon, it's an accepted fanbase-wide theory that Spirit's sire is a coal-black stallion named Strider.

I know what you're thinking. How can black + palomino = dun/buckskin?

Well, it can't equal Dun. For Spirit to be dun, one of his parents would have to carry the dilution gene. A diluted chestnut (base color of mom) is red dun, not palomino. And a diluted black horse is grullo. Since neither parent is affected, they can't give an affecting gene to Spirit.

But he CAN be a buckskin. Let's genotype the parents (I won't address any genes that they don't express and that don't factor into Spirit's genotype)

Mom: ee AA/Aa/ Crcr. I know she's an ee because she's a chestnut, which is only caused by homozygous recessive. And she's heterozygous for cream as homo dominant would be a cremello. She can, in theory, have any agouti variation as chestnut isn't affected by this gene. However, since Spirit's sire is definitely aa, Esperanza must be AA or Aa for Spirit to have a bay base.

Dad: Ee/EE aa crcr. Since even one dominant "E" can make a black/bay horse, we don't know his extension gene for sure. But we do know that a black base is turned bay by any amount of dominant agouti, so Strider is homo recessive. And obviously, he's expressing no cream.

So that means Spirit's genotype is Ee Aa Crcr. He's guaranteed to be hetero for extension as his mom can only give the recessive allele. And since we know that Strider can only give recessive for agouti, Spirit is also hetero there. Same logic applies for the cream gene.

Biology lesson complete! Hope you enjoyed!

[Scottish9]

Warning! I'm gonna be using some big terms in this lesson.

Ok, I had this idea the other day at dinner and I'm gonna write it down before I forget.

To understand why we breathe, we need to understand what ATP is and why it matters.

ATP stands for adenosine triphostphate. It's a molecule with three phosphate groups. Very imaginative name. It's a somewhat-unstable piece of work that releases a lot of energy to a cell when one of its phosphates is broken off. This energy is used to complete essential tasks in a cell. Without ATP, we'd not be able to function or really live.

ATP is generated by a process known as cellular respiration. There are three parts.

1. Glycolysis. In this stage, glucose taken in by the cell is broken down. A small amount of ATP is generated in this stage, but it mainly serves to produce materials to fuel the next stage

2. Krebs cycle. This stage is cyclical. Anyways, it takes the materials given it by stage 1 and pushes them through the cycle. This, too, generates about 2 ATP, but the purpose is to reduce (add an electron in the form of hydrogen) to NAD+, turning it into NADH. Can you guess what the NADH does? Yep! Fuels the final stage!

3. ETC and ATP synthase.
This chain (ETC means electron transport chain) takes the electrons off of NADH and shoves them through a membrane. ATP synthase, an enzyme that can generate up to 28! ATP in a single go, uses these electrons to basically turn its cogs.

So why do we breathe?

Well, at the bottom of the ETC lies one atom of oxygen. This oxygen attracts the newly-loosed H ions, keeping them from wreaking havoc. It attracts two two ions per atom of oxygen, which means a bunch of water is built up as we make ATP. And this water gets expelled and goes down the toilet.

If we did not breathe, or did not supply our cells with adequate oxygen, our cells go into fermentation mode. For a smaller gain of ATP, the cells use glycolysis to keep themselves going. There's a side product to this: lactic acid. That's the stuff that makes our muscles burn when we're exercising and out of breath.

But none of these stages can work if glycolysis doesn't have glucose to deal with. So we eat to get glucose, which our stomach breaks up and our veins carry to our cells.

Lesson over! Hope you enjoyed!

[Scottish9]

So my school was evacuated today. A water pipe exploded, so we couldn't use any water. By policy, therefore, the premises had to be vacated. I didn't have an English class today!

Also, I've started a new species pantheon here in Oekaki! So far, there are four unique breeds, but keep your ears pricked for more! Each has its own special mane and tail, but they can cross. They look somewhat like dragons and are called Dargons!

Tada!

The coolest part is, when you join you fill out a form to design a custom leader, free of charge! And you can use these guys as OCs!

I'm in search of good art for banners, headers, dividers, stamps, and such, so if you'd like to make some art for this rising species, PM me!

[Scottish9]

Agh, I can't stay away from this! Ah well.

I've seen a lot of "children of Spirit and Rain" OCs out there, and frankly, a lot of them are just genetically impossible. So let's rectify this, eh?

If you recall from two lessons ago, I concluded that Spirit's genotype is Ee Aa Crcr. Now, I'll need to add in tt, for homozygous recessive Tobiano. This makes his genotype Ee Aa Crcr tt.

Why did I throw Tobiano in there? Because it looks like Rain has some Tobiano markings. Her markings are bold and clear (sabino tends to look more smudged) and they look like the go from the top down, as Tobiano often does. I think she also has bald face and four stockings, but those will just get lumped in with Tobiano as Tobiano can cause those.

So, Rain's genotype is: ee(m1) aa crcr Tt
ee because she is a chestnut. m1 is my way of stating that the base coat has a mod factor. In this case, m1 means flaxen chestnut. I went with aa because it's an unofficial fact that Rain's dad is a black tobiano, and black is always aa. I can't quite tell if Rain's mom would give an A or an a (she's a chestnut too), so I went with a because that's the feeling I get looking at the family tree. Neither of Rain's parents have cream, so she's crcr. And since Rain's mom is overo (Oo by nature; OO is lethal) and her dad is a TT (he's got a lot of tobiano) she's a Tt.

One last note: flaxen appears to be a recessive gene. It does not look like Spirit would have inherited it from either parent. So, none of the foals here would be flaxen. However, I could be wrong, so take the ee foal, chestnut-base foals section with a grain of salt.

So!
Spirit: Ee Aa Crcr tt
Rain: ee(m1) aa crcr Tt

Let's divide the foals into two categories: black base (Ee) and red base (ee)

Ee foals:
Ee Aa Crcr tt - looks like dad! A buckskin foal
Ee aa Crcr tt - a smoky black foal
Ee Aa crcr tt - a bay foal
Ee aa crcr tt - a solid black foal
Ee Aa Crcr Tt - a buckskin foal with Tobiano
Ee aa Crcr Tt - a smoky black foal with Tobiano
Ee Aa crcr Tt - a bay foal with Tobiano
Ee aa crcr TT - a black foal with Tobiano

ee foals:
ee Aa Crcr tt - a palomino foal
ee aa Crcr tt - another palomino foal
ee Aa crcr tt - a chestnut foal (may show flaxen)
ee aa crcr tt - another chestnut foal (may show flaxen)
ee Aa Crcr Tt - a palomino foal with Tobiano
ee aa Crcr Tt - another palomino foal with Tobiano
ee Aa crcr Tt - a chestnut foal with Tobiano (may show flaxen, look like mom)
ee aa crcr Tt - another chestnut foal with Tobiano (may show flaxen, look like mom)

[Scottish9]

So far, we've genotyped Esperanza, Strider, Rain (and Sierra and Storm, to an extent), Spirit, and Spirit's foals with Rain. Let's genotype the others!

Please note: since I am genotyping background horses, I have little/no information on them aside from face value. Genes may be off and this is subject to change.

The Three Lakota Horses
Ok, I personally love these guys.

Blue-eye:
Using a gene simulator on Etalon Diagnostics, the closest I came to Blue-eye's genes was classic champagne. It has his (yes, his) lighter muzzle, dusty brown coat, and darker mane/tail.

So, his genes are Ee/EE any agouti ChCh/Chch

Brownie:
Brownie just looks like a classic chestnut to me. ee anything else, no modifications or markings.

Psych! She actually has some birdcatcher spots! So, she'd be ee any agouti Brbr!

Frost:
Frost is odd. He could be a graying bay, given his dusty coat and darker muzzle. In fact, I think he may be just that.

Ee/EE Aa/AA Gg no markings



The Twins:
The Twins! Who doesn't love these guys? Anyways, they do look remarkably similar to Blue-eye, so I suppose that they are also Classic Champagne beauties. Their genes are Ee/EE any agouti ChCh/Chch. Since they look identical, so to are their genomes

So who's the mom? Well, I think she's a champagne horse too. Here. The one in the lower left, between the light gray and black-green horses.



Military Horses:
these guys
They look pretty monotone, so I am guessing the vast majority are plain chestnut (ee anything else, no mods or marks) or Seal Brown (Ee/EE Ata/AtAt no mods or marks) to account for the slight color variation in their manes versus body)

[Scottish9]

I have a lot of phrases that I say that I’ve come up with. Figured I’d write them down here as well as maybe describe their meanings.

“In a twisted world, I’ll stand straight and tall.”
This one has kind of a double meaning. I don’t say it a ton, but it’s often on my mind and is my de facto motto. One meaning is standing for what I believe in.

“I may be stupid, but I ain’t dumb!”
I use this one in lighter situations a lot. It’s self-deprecating, but also a warning. It means that while I’m not a genius, I’m street-smart and hard to fool. I use it after I get fooled, naturally.

“My wars by be artificial, but my hearing is real.”
Poking fun at my disability. I use it to reassure people and tell them they can talk to me and I’ll listen.

“Well, I’m full of vinegar.”
An old family saying. It means that I’m feeling salty and hyper.

“Schnikes”
An exclamation.

[Ranger of the North]

Orca! Hello! Marking, if I can ;D

[Scottish9]

Hi Ranger! Long time no see!