Home » Open thread 12/26/21

Comments

Open thread 12/26/21 — 19 Comments

  1. Since I’m from Maryland, blue crabs are the only true crabs. Do you remember when Virginia came up with to tourism slogan “Virginia is for Lovers” ? Maryland responded with “Maryland is for Crabs.” Maryland won that battle.

  2. But Maryland in its infinite wisdom also was the first and only state (so far) to tax the rain. For the good of the Chesapeake Bay, where their crabs live (ignoring Annapolis). Ex-Virginian being crabby?

    But everyone “knows” the Dungeness crab is far superior to the Blue Crab. 🙂 🙂

    To say nothing of the Infamous Popcorn Shrimp; bane of Swedish Chefs everywhere.

    Time to cook breakfast!

  3. I hate to be a “crab”, but I for one am not happy that my taxpayer money went to the production of this “cutesy” explanation of the development of crabs. Not to mention, their proposition that crabs are more suited to evolutionary development than shrimp and lobsters entirely ignores the ability of shrimp and lobsters to scoot away from danger by propelling themselves very rapidly backward. They could not do this without the tail that PBS tells us is a hindrance.

  4. An open thread thought I had when I was reading about the male swimmer messing up Women’s College Swim Meets. What would happen if the female swimmers all declare themselves to be male and show up for tryouts as self-declared males for every college swim team. According to modern logic if they are male at the time of the competition all they have to wear is a little Speedo bottom bathing suit and dive into the water then swim their best. I suspect it would cause a bit of a distraction for the traditional male swimmers as well as all the folk who run the swim meets and with the current logic there should be no problems at all with the new normal. Kind of a stupid solution to a stupid problem and a throw back to the 1960’s protests and this is satire.

  5. F wrote, “I hate to be a “crab”, but I for one am not happy that my taxpayer money went to the production of this “cutesy” explanation of the development of crabs.”

    Cutesy? Cutesy!

    He’s seriously Hunky.

  6. Applebetty: He can be a hunk on someone else’s dime. I am seriously angry that Public Broadcasting has turned so reliably leftward, and has done so on taxpayer funds! Go back and watch Amiche Alcindor throwing softball questions to Biden during his press conferences. Yuck.

    On top of which I guess I don’t find him hunky. Must be something in my genes. Or my jeans.

  7. To paraphrase, “ known from a single fossil”, always amuses me. But we are soooooo certain it is the ancestor of King Crabs. Science ™.

  8. On the one hand, I enjoy these types of videos for a glimpse into the past. Thanks for posting it.
    On the other hand , this video is an example of how much of a type of “ faith” , of sorts, exist in science.
    The guy is, on one hand , making a video whose main point is that there have been multiple evolutions toward the crab shape.
    Yet in the same video, he flatly states that he is showing you FOR CERTAIN the ancestor of the modern King Crab, based on the only known fossil, of this proposed ancestor. Because , well, it looks a bit like the modern King Crab.
    Now back to his main point that species have evolved towards the crab shape multiple times….
    Now that is faith in “ Science ™ “ .

  9. We usually have King Crab Legs with our Lobster for New Years Eve dinner. Not this year. They have gone up from $19lb on sale to anywhere from $46 to $50 lb this year. So going to pass. My SS will not go up that much.

  10. But what about Sea Monkeys? Did they evolve, from See, Monkeys! Or from C Shrimp? Look to PBS and Science™!

  11. F, and jon baker,

    I’m going to defend my fellow scientists a bit. Paleontologists have a tough discipline in terms of evidence, and the experimental side of science. They depend on somewhat serendipitous finds, and then try to extrapolate from such finds, a logical picture of prehistoric life. I’m amazed at how well they do in combining geological knowledge in their search for fossils, and how many they are actually able to find.

    Yes, having just one fossil of a unique organism is not optimum by any means; and they fully realize that. They do follow the general prescription of taking an idea… like the single fossil may be a the predecessor of the King Crab, and they do try to find intermediate forms to test their theory. But finding those forms is very tough, even if they exist!

    Those who study more recent forms, like from the Ice Age, are now able to utilize DNA sampling, CT scans etc. Those who work much further back in time are much more hindered, though also have tried CT scans in the hope of trying to find some fossil evidence of the “innards” of the creatures.

    The guy in video makes the conclusions sound so certain, where I’m sure very few paleontologists would agree to ANY certainty whatsoever. Just look at our recent discussion of the problems with Darwinian evolution and the paleontologists who are challenging the current dogma.

    I always said I’m glad I’m a physicist…physics is easy compared to the very messy system of biology. And add to that messiness, the problem when trying to decipher the biology of the distant past based solely on fossil evidence. I think they’re doing a pretty good job.

  12. Alas…but she at least has her eyes open and is, courageously, asking the right questions…even if she is—strategically—phrasing them rather Socratically.
    (In fact there may be no other way to frame them…. Even so, she will most likely be thrashed mercilessly by those she may have thought were her friends; on the other hand she may, I hope, make friends of “more solid” stuff….)

  13. Old Texan: “… and this is satire.”
    But it is good to see that you are staying abreast of the latest developments in “wokeness”.

  14. The Democratic Party’s “Pick Up Styx/Jenga” palace is about to collapse:
    Here’s what Il Fauci—AKA “Biden”—DOES NOT WANT YOU TO KNOW at any price, even if it might save your life—PRECISELY because it MIGHT save your life. (Since though it might save your life on the one hand, it will encourage you to reject the HOLY VAX on the other, which is why such information must be demonized—AKA “the Science”!…. Hey, just like Trump and “his” “army” of “Deplorables” must be demonized…. IOW, if lives—if your life—AND your livelihood AND the country AND its economy must be sacrificed in order to keep the Democrats in power AND the Deplorables out then so be it…and “let God sort it out”…)
    https://blazingcatfur.ca/2021/12/27/what-you-should-know-about-ivermectin-hydroxychloroquine-monoclonal-antibodies-paxlovid-molnupiravir-and-biontech-and-pfizers-comirnaty-jab-and-why-democrats-may-be-fresh-out-of-monste/
    https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2021/12/27/quercetin-an-alternative-to-hydroxychloroquine.aspx

    File under: We must destroy the Deplorable INFIDEL—and everything that they represent—for the greater glory of “Biden”….

  15. From the “Nothing-To-See-Here-Move-Along” files…
    https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-wisconsin-purchase/
    Read it all (if you dare)…but key graf:
    “Prior to 2020, the rate of absentee voting in Wisconsin was 4.6 percent on average in 2016, and 5.5 percent in 2018. Wisconsin had no experience with widespread absentee voting in 2020 when the statewide absentee voting rate suddenly soared to 58.9 percent.” (Bold font, mine: Barry Meislin.)

    File under: Once again with SPIRIT!: TRUMP AND HIS DEPLORABLES TRIED TO STAGE A COUP OVERTHROWING THE LEGITIMATE GOVT. OF THE USA!!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

HTML tags allowed in your comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>