“After breakfast I checked my email. The state treasurer of Delaware, whom I have been enmeshed with for the past seventeen years due to unfortunately similar personal email addresses, had once again given out my address as her own to a business contact. I learned that her voicemail is currently full and her interior decorator is having a hard time getting in touch. I sent him an email to commiserate, then settled in for the rest of my day.”
So I do plan on using this someday as the opening to a short story or a chapter of something, but it is also the 100% true story of yesterday morning for me. My first misdirected email of hers is still in my Gmail archive because I never throw anything away; it is from 2005.
why is france called the hexagon when its abundantly clear that it’s a pentagon
what
mmm i guess i see it i was definitely seeing 1 and 2 as one side plus the left and right sides slope out more
yeah tbh i see how you can see 1 and 2 as one side
actually its a decagon
careful apollo might hear you
ok but if we r being really pedantic it’s a triacontakaipentagon (35 sides)
Tumblr accidentally rediscovers the coastline paradox
For anyone that didn’t feel like googling it, the coastline paradox is realizing that you can make the coastline as long or short as you want based on how detailed you want to be while measuring and mapping. This is exemplified in a simplistic way by the posts above.
Well they put SNAKES IN LITTLE SHIRTS to find out!
SHRIMPS ON A TREADMILL
biology is the greatest
bad and naughty children get put into the bee wiggler to atone for their sins
The best thing about the ant one is that somebody clearly was like “Oh well ants probably count their steps” and that was just like… a thought that came into their head.
THE BEE WIGGLER
This demonstrates that discovery requires madness.
gravity was discovered because Newton just so happened to have an apple fall on his napping ass what do you think science is
This is a cool post but AAAH I need to talk about the ants.
>somebody clearly was like “Oh well ants probably count their steps” and that was just like… a thought that came into their head.
Not just any ants–desert ants! See, most ants lay down scent trails to find their way around. But in the desert the damn ground blows away constantly. So how do desert ants find their way around? Maybe they count.
>scientists wasting budget and time to see if ants count their steps
Okay but like. Ants can count. Ants have teeny teeny tiny brains and they can count. Do you know how teeny an ant brain is? Because I have spent time dissecting them out and let me tell you it is one of the most ridiculous occupations I have ever engaged in. They are like period sized. <–these things here at either end–>.
And the really cool thing about finding out that a teeny tiny brain can do a thing, is that the brains are simple enough that we actually might have a shot at figuring out precisely howthey efficiently encode the ability to count. And then we can apply that to things like math and computers and living human brains, which we aren’t allowed to dissect very much because reasons.
Also, this was an awesomely clever experiment because do you want to know the budget for gluing stilts on ants to see what happens? Really small. Like ant brains.
>there had to be a guy who made ant stilts and put them on the ants
Their names were Matthias Wittlinger, Rudiger Wehner, and Harald Wolf, and the stilts were boar hairs! Also there was a second part of the experiment where they trimmed the ant legs to make them take shorter steps, but no one ever talks about that part because it’s less cute and more morbid. :O (It’s… slightly less morbid when you know this kind of thing happens naturally to ants with age and high temperatures. Life is hard for ants. But they are excellent at counting.)
>Science.
I know right?
but why shrimp on threadmill? what was the science here?
Can shrimps get swole?
Oh! I have answers!
This one is also SO IMPORTANT TO ME because it came up a while back when people were complaining about National Science Foundation funding and trying to cut budgets for research. (It was a whole big republican thing, lookitup). And one of the examples was “egghhhh, scientists are wastingourmoneybuilding treadmills for shrimp”with, I guess, the assumption that scientists do things for shits and giggles and to film sweet youtube videos, and that any project funded by a government agency hasn’t gone through an intense screening process to demonstrate scientific & public merit.
Alright, so I haven’t even looked up the paper and I can tell you off the top of my head that treadmills are a great way to measure:
activity
fitness
endurance
strength(?)
speed
ability to evade predators
which are traits that we very often want to measure in a diversity of organisms.
Here are some important questions you could address with shrimp treadmills:
How is pollution affecting shrimp fitness?
Does X nutrient make shrimps healthier/faster/more active, with consequences for shrimp farming and effects of shrimps on the ecosystem?
How does shrimp activity level correlate with other interesting behaviors (risk-taking, aggression, ) and how are these genetically encoded and linked?
Are faster shrimp more likely to survive/spread into new locations/perform well in shrimp farms or whatever they grow shrimp in?
Okay, so those are just what I brainstormed right now. I don’t actually know what the hot questions in shrimp are.
Now I’ll look up the actual study by Dr. David Scholnik. So:
He spent $50 making his treadmills from scrap parts.
Treadmills allow the measuring of behaviors shrimp don’t normally exhibit in the lab (sans predators, lots of space, etc.).
His ultimate research goal is to increase food safety (this means year to year certainty that human populations will have enough food to eat.) Our aquatic food resources are hella vulnerable right now due to overfishing, pollution, ecosystem disturbances, invasive species, etc.
His study is part of a larger project looking at how shrimp’s immune systems respond to ocean warming and pollution. (a/n: BAM! got it in one)
Also wrt the Mongol custom of execution of nobles/those highly respected by the sovereign by being wrapped in carpet and trampled to death bc it allowed the person to not suffer the ignominy of their blood touching the ground (in theory), I gotta say that sure did lead to an epic “lost in translation” moment after the siege and destruction of Baghdad when Caliph Al-Musta’sim was killed by Hulagu Khan by means of being wrapped up and trampled by elephants since that moment is usually given as an example of the savagery of the Ill-Khanate’s capture of Baghdad.
Like, maybe Hulagu was like “Oh fuck we might’ve gone a little bit overboard with the slaughter and pillaging of the city uhhhh hey get their spiritual leader and have him get trampled by horses you know a really noble death actually you know what make it elephants because those are even bigger and cooler than horses yeah that’ll get people on our side”
The reverse of this would be that time during the Mongol invasion of Hungary when local people had heard that the Mongol coalition actually has a lot of Christians in their rank which was true but Central Asian Nestorian Christianity was pretty isolated from Latin Christianity so they had different customs and the Hungarian townsfolk didn’t realize this when they attempted to make an appeal to their co-religionists by having a religious procession in front of the Mongol army where they prominently displayed the bones of saints kept in the local cathedral and like Central Asian Nestorian Christians didn’t have a tradition of treating remains of saints as relics. So when they did that it didn’t come off as “Hey! We’re also Christian! Don’t attack us! Don’t take everything we have!” and more like “Hey… what the fuck is up with those people parading around fucking skeletons in our direction? wtf is that supposed to mean? Is it supposed to mean ‘death’? Like they’re gonna make us look like those skeletons? Those motherfuckers are taunting us in this situation?? Well, cant say I dont admire their courage but you all know what the drill is we go in loot everything and burn it to the ground and sell any survivors into slavery alright lets go” and then they did that
Here’s a small collection of lesser-known bats with interesting characteristics for your viewing pleasure:
Fringe-lipped bat, Trachops cirrhosus. This bat is known for it’s diet that mostly consists of frogs and other amphibians. Oh, also it’s lips. No need for an explanation on this one. Pretty obvious. [Marco Tschapka]
Western red bat, Lasiurus blossevillii. This bat is related to a similar look-a-like, the eastern red bat. Needless to say they both appear to have been sneaking hot cheetos from the bag when no-one is looking. [Geoffrey Gomes]
Eastern tube-nosed bat, Nyctimene robinsoni. This fruit bat is native to Australia, and, as it’s name suggests; sports a tube-like nose and eats fruit. However most would say it looks rather like a fruit itself, (this one says she takes artistic inspiration from over-ripe bananas) [Merlin Tuttle]
Chapin’s free-tailed bat, Chaerephon chapini. This bat wants you to know that itfucks.No, really- with this hairdo and singing voice the males put on quite the show when courting females. This one just bought tickets to a twisted sister concert. [Tristan Landis]
Lesser bull-dog bat, Noctilio albiventris. There is nothing lesser about this bat because it has jowls and pretty much looks like the chiropteran version of pluto the dog. Did I mention it can catch fish while on the wing? No? Well now you know. [Yuri Aguirre]
Wrinkle-faced bat, Centurio senex. Simply put, this fellow does not have the prettiest complexion. This feature aids in catching every last drop from the fruits they eat, but it simply does not help the fact that this poor guy looks like a defeated raisin. No disrespect of course, I’m sure he is quite the gentleman. [Merlin Tuttle]
Hammer-headed bat, Hypsignathus monstrosus. Contrary to the insulting latin name, he’s a real sweetheart. Only the males sport this peculiar face for amplifying their calls to attract females. (unfortunately due to the bushmeat trade this fellow was primarily blamed for the spread of ebola virus, which was nothis fault, mind you.) [Sarah Olson]
Proboscis bat, Rhynchonycteris naso. This is an incredibly small bat, no less than 6cm and she looks remarkably similar to a muppet. They like to roost horizontally in trees in single-file lines, and this little lady is carrying a ball of lint pup underneath her belly. She looks very kind. [Jess Findlay]
Anyone else keep trying to picture Batman versions of each of these, or is that just me? Different versions of the mask/cowl for situations that are really niche even by Batman’s standards.
Every year I see dry ice marketed for use by campers, and it’s certainly effective for keeping things cooler longer, but I never see anyone talk about the fact that it’s a tick magnet, to the point that a cooler containing dry ice, even fully closed, is the go-to lure used by field researchers who WANT to attract as many ticks as possible. Here are some tick traps in action:
The fact that people are told to take dry ice with them into the woods, and not told that this is a thing, feels kind of glaring to me???
This happens because dry ice is solid carbon dioxide, and the carbon dioxide in our breath is what ticks use to track us. Not just ticks, either; mosquitoes and other blood-feeding organisms also rely on it. I’ve never been camping myself, but I imagine if you do use dry ice, you should keep it away from where you intend to sit, eat or sleep.
The fact that people are told to take dry ice with them into the woods, and not told that this is a thing, feels kind of glaring to me???
That’s terrifying! It also sounds a way to kill somebody by giving them tick-borne diseases with 100% deniability.
Ok so Haumea, a dwarf planet beyond Pluto, spins so fast it gets elongated like this. This is just what it looks like. Something deeply unsettles me looking at it. Terrifying.
this is so fucked up
This planet looks like a cool rock someone found in a creek.
one day it’s going to hatch and then all of you will be sorry
I look forward to meeting our dizzy, space hatchling overlord and/or destroyer.
The Gimli Glider is one of those stories where every aspect sounds more fake than the last and yet it all actually happened.
-A passenger plane was underloaded with fuel because Canada had just converted to the metric system and everyone supposed to double check their numbers got it wrong. -When the plane ran out of fuel they were too far away to make it to an in-service airport and had to head towards the Gimli military base. Which was shuttered. -They were coming in to fast due to a lack of flaps control and had to perform a series of slips (as shown in the video above) to slow down, basically drifting a giant passenger plane. -As they come down they realized that just because Gimli’s been decommissioned doesn’t mean it’s abandoned because a bunch of people are having drag races on the runway they’re about to need. -Despite everything they managed to land safely and no one was killed or even hurt which is why it’s one of the best air disasters to meme on.
TheWikipedia page on this is fantastic and my favorite line from it is “Flying with all engines out was never expected to occur, so it had never been covered in training.”
