The parts inside a snake body called the internal orgas all work a lot like a human's, but in a snake they are spread out along it's body.
Because snakes eat big meals and their body stretches out, their organs have to be able to move around or get squished when they are trying to eat something really big.
Another mountain range in the Pacific Coastal Belt is the Talkeetna Mountains.
There is a glacier on this mountain called the Mint Glacier, and there is a Mint Valley, and even mountain peaks called the Troublemint and Doublemint peaks.
To ask if someone speaks ASL, you might first want to find out if they are deaf or if they are hearing.
The sign for "deaf" is to use your right hand, with your index finger pointing up, touch it to your temple, and then just below your mouth.
The sign for "hearing" is with your right hand, and your index finger pointing to the left, move it in front of your mouth almost like you are brushing your teeth.
The sign for "sign" is with two hands, using your fingers pointing left and right at each other, spin them around each other like a wheel going backwards.
Remember the sign for "you" is just pointing your finger at someone, and the sign for "I" or "me" is pointing at your chest.
ASL is very different than other languages because you would simply say "you deaf", "you hearing" or "you sign".
It's very important to use your face and body to also show what you are saying.
If you are asking a question, make a face like you are asking a question, or lean forward toward the person.
Also many people who are deaf are very good at reading lips, so you can still move your lips or even speak out loud if you are speaking to a deaf person.
To answer "yes" in ASL, you make a fist with your hand, and move it up and down, almost like a puppet's head nodding.
To answer "no" you put your first and second fingers with your thumb, almost like a puppet's mouth, and open and close them twice.
When they stick their wet tongue out, it gets covered with smelly stuff from the air and the ground.
They bring their tongue back in their mouth, and a part of their body called the Jacobson's organ, the vomeronasal organ or just VNO tells the snake what smells are on the tongue.
Because their tongue is forked, they can tell which smells were from the left, and which were from the right.
So in a way, they smell with their tongue, but their tongue really just gets covered in smells and brings those smells back to a sort of inside nose in their head.
Another mountain range in the Pacific Coast Belt in Alaska is the Chugach Mountains.
These mountains are right by the Gulf of Alaska, and because of that they get more snowfall than anywhere else in the world, usually getting over 600 inches (50 feet!) of snow per year.
We just learned about the person from the Bible named Sarah.
Another person from the Bible is Isaac.
Isaac was the only son of Abraham and Sarah.
When Isaac was young, God told Abraham to take him up to a mountain and offer him as a sacrifice.
This was very scary for Abraham because he loved Isaac, but he feared God so much that he did what God told him to do.
He took Isaac up to the mountain, but when God saw how much Abraham feared him and would follow his orders, he had Abraham sacrifice a sheep instead.
Because he was so faithful to God, he promised that he would bless all of Abraham and Isaac's children and grandchildren.
The Bible tells of Isaac's life in Genesis chapters 21 - 35.
To say please in ASL you make the "5" handshape with your hand, then put it flat on your chest, and make a circle, like you are rubbing your chest.
There are a few different ways to say you're welcome.
The word welcome in ASL really means more like welcome to my home, so you don't want to sign that.
The easiest way is just to do the ASL sign for thank you again.
You can also do the sign for fine which is the "5" handshape, with your fingers pointed up, touch your thumb to your chest two times.
Another way is to do the sign for nothing, to say "it's nothing". For this sign, you put both your hands in the ASL "O" handshape, and shake them in front of you.
We just learned about the Iron Ore that is used to get iron for blacksmithing.
One way to get the iron out of that iron ore is using something called a Bloomery.
A bloomery is like a chimney, where a fire is made at the bottom with charcoal, iron ore is poured into the top, and there are are holes on the bottom that help bring in air for the fire to keep burning.
We just learned about 39 different types of snakes, like the Anaconda!.
Let's learn a little bit about how a snake's body works.
Snakes have many of the same body parts like we do, like hearts, lungs, vertebrae, but they are smaller, stretched out, or in different places.
One thing we have that snakes don't have is ears outside their body!
Long ago people used to do something called snake charming, where they would play a flute and a snake would rise up out of a basket like it was in a trance.
The trick really was the way the flute was being moved, because the snake couldn't really hear the flute!
Another group of nerves is called the Lumbar Plexus.
These are connected to your spinal cord in your lower back, and they help control and get messages from your stomach, back, thighs and upper legs.
(from: wikipedia - lumbar plexus)
There are many mountain ranges in the Pacific Coast Belt, like the Kenai Mountains.
The Kenai mountains are in Alaska, and are between 3,000 to 5,000 feet tall.
There have many glaciers on these mountains, as well as rivers that are very popular for fishing.
The mountains were named after the Kenai natives who lived in the area.
Just like Abraham started out as Abram, Sarah's name started out as Sarai.
When Sarai traveled with Abram to Egypt, Abram was worried that bad people might hurt him so they could take Sarai from him, so he lied and said she was his sister.
The Pharaoh took Sarai as his wife, but then bad things like plagues came to his kingdom.
He found out that Abram had lied, so he made him leave Egypt.
Sarai was sad because she could not have any children for a long time.
When she was 90 years old God told her she would have a child!
She laughed because she thought she was too old, but she did have a son the following year.
God was happy with Sarai and changed her name to Sarah.
The Bible tells the story of Sarah in Genesis Chapters 11 - 23.
Another ancient sculpture from the same time, was the Stenkvista Runestone.
This was made in Sweden, and it was a large stone carved near a grave to honor someone who had passed.
In the northern countries of Europe, they believed in the mythical Norse gods like Thor.
On the rune stone, you can see what looks like an upside down capital letter T.
That is Thor's hammer Mjölnir.
The words carved in the stone are in old letters called runes, and the words mean:
Helgi and Freygeirr and Þorgautr raised the rune-decorated landmark in memory of Þjóðmundr, their father.
To respond, you might say "Very good thanks, and you?".
Remember we already learned the sign for good, moving the hand away from the chin.
The sign for good and thank you are almost exactly the same.
Usually the only difference might be that for "thank you" instead of moving your hand down, you move your hand out toward the other person and then down.
Or you can have your left base hand out for good, but not for thank you.
Then to say "and you", you would just do the same sign for "How are you?" that we learned.
This is the heaviest snake in the world, usually growing to around 150 pounds.
The largest anaconda ever found was over 200 pounds!
Their eyes and nose are on the top of their head, so when they are hiding in the water they only need a little bit of their body in the air to breathe.
These snakes are not venomous, they are constrictors so they kill their prey by squeezing them.
They are so large that they can eat tapirs, deer, capybaras, caimans, jaguars, and even other anacondas.
We just learned that the North American Cordillera is a group of five different mountainous areas in North America.
The first area is called the Pacific Coast Belt.
This belt contains four mountain ranges: The Southern Alaska ranges, the Western System of Canada, the Pacific Border Province in contiguous U.S. and the Western mountain ranges of Mexico.
Noah had children and his children had children and so on through many generations.
Someone's children, grandchildren and great grandchildren are called their descendants.
One of the descendants of Noah was called Abraham.
When Abraham was younger, he was known as Abram.
God told Abram to leave his home and go travel to a place he would lead him.
Abram promised to follow God, and his name was changed to Abraham.
God promised Abram that he would have many descendants, and he had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac.
The Bible tells the story of Abraham in Genesis Chapters 11 - 25.
Another ancient sculpture is the Gero Cross, carved around 965 AD.
This crucifix is over six feet tall, and is made out of oak wood, painted, and gilded with some gems.
The oval and sun rays behind the crucifix were added about 700 years later.
It is different from other sculptures of the time, because other crucifixes showed Christ alive with his eyes open looking out.
This crucifix shows him after he died on the cross, looking sad.
Many other crucifixes made after this one copied the same style.
It's like the Bent B, but not exactly the same.
Keep your thumb up, bend your hand, point your fingers down, and your palm is facing down.
You do this with both hands, have them meet in front of you with the backs of your fingers facing each other.
Then rotate your hand at the wrist, bringing your fingers up toward the inside of your body until they are pointed up.
After that make the hand shape for "1" with your index finger, and point at the person you're talking to.
A lot of ASL also uses your face and your body, so it helps if you lean forward to show that you are interested in how someone is.
Here is a helpful video showing this sign, and also a way to say "What's up?" that you might say to your close friends:
These snakes are constrictors, and they are not venomous.
They can grow to be 7 feet long, but they are thinner than most pythons.
They live in trees, and mostly hunt at night in the trees.
Even though they are called the Timor Python, none of these snakes live on the island of Timor in Indonesia.
When they lay their eggs, they will stay curled up around them until the eggs hatch.
Sometimes to warm up their bodies they can twitch and contract and that helps keep the eggs warm.