This video is from one of my favorite science blogs, Deep Sea News. They have a lot of great photos of sea animals, including a few bit players in this one. They dropped an alligator in the Gulf of Mexico to see which animals showed up to eat it. The giant isopods are relatives of roly-polys, pillbugs, wood lice, whatever you care to call them.
Open Thread!
schrodingers_cat
If I watch the video, will I be able to sleep at night?
ruemara
I have a great many concerns regarding isopods able to eat an alligator
debbie
@schrodingers_cat:
It’s a dead alligator and they don’t seem to make much progress, what with the tough exterior. Not half as bad as a lion chasing an antelope.
different-church-lady
Well, thanks for the nightmares, I guess….
Just One More Canuck
@schrodingers_cat: No – you will never sleep again
Rand Careaga
I had alligator in New Orleans last month. The consistency was distantly reminiscent of, you know, chicken, but under the cajun seasoning the flavor was surprisingly delicate.
If I lived there, I probably would not eat alligator for the same reason that, swimming as I do each summer in Northern California, I do not consume shark, in the superstitious belief that I can expect a reciprocal courtesy—or at least that, in my last moments of consciousness before exsanguination sets in, I may legitimately feel myself to have been ill-used.
Rand Careaga
And does anyone know whether there’s good eating on one o’ them isopods?
schrodingers_cat
@debbie: I had a second interview with the publishing company this morning. I wore a black skirt and a black and white blouse topped with an orange pointelle cardigan. Very lady like. I was going to wear big hoops like AOC, but remembered what you said and wore mid sized ones (3/4 inch)
debbie
@schrodingers_cat:
Great! It went well, of course?
schrodingers_cat
@debbie: I think so. But who knows. I was more relaxed because I was meeting the same team (2 new people).
debbie
@schrodingers_cat:
I’m sure that made a good impression. Everything crossable is crossed for you!
Mike in NC
Great. We live on a golf course with plenty of gators. Will now have to be alert for giant wood lice eating hapless golfers!
misterpuff
@Rand Careaga:Tastes like Lobster tail….
CliosFanBoy
@schrodingers_cat: remember us when you sell the book rights to Hollywood!!!! :)
Rand Careaga
@misterpuff: It certainly looks that way, but, no offense, I think I’m going to require a second opinion. Maybe a third.
Lauren Romeo
The deep sea is the real world we need to explore.
Mnemosyne
I have news that is strangely in sync with this: it looks like our middle cat Annie may have lymphoma. They’re doing a needle aspiration test right now (I mean I’m literally sitting at the specialty vet) to confirm it and then I take her home and we wait for the call.
As we all know from Lily, animal lymphoma is fairly treatable, but we’re still talking about a matter of months at best.
Not a good day today. ? And I’m supposed to go to a weekend writing conference starting tomorrow.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
I missed what’s going on, but good luck!
G got a super cool archiving job that will send him to small archives all over the county for the next 2 years to help them plan how to digitize their collections. The big downside is all of the driving, but he can suck it up since it’s a limited-term fellowship. Plus is doesn’t start until May 1st, so he has to twiddle his thumbs and worry about our cat until then.
Brachiator
Are we talking about a baby alligator?
?BillinGlendaleCA
Fly Like an Eagle…
FlipYrWhig
@Mnemosyne: Oh no. I’m sorry to hear it, Mnem. All best to Annie and those who know and love her.
debit
@Rand Careaga: According to the video they are filled with fat.
debbie
@Mnemosyne:
I’m so sorry to read this. ?
debit
@Mnemosyne: I am so sorry. Lily was a success story, may Annie also be one.
Van Buren
Well, there goes my idea to start a burial at sea service.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: Hoping that Annie’s treatment is as effective as Lily’s was.
Michael J Allen
@Rand Careaga: He said they are mostly lipids in side, so just gross bug fat. You could try breading and frying some you find under a rock or something.
Michael J Allen
@Van Buren: If it’s in shallower water the crabs and such will have anything eaten just as quickly. I understand that a clothed body will pretty quickly have skeleton hands and heads with the rest puffed up like a balloon. I guess the shroud tied around a corpse would slow things down a lot. On the other hand, you’re dead already.
mrmoshpotato
@Brachiator: No. It’s a full grown gator that was euthanized. The voiceover provides details.
Rand Careaga
@Michael J Allen: For most of the decades I’ve considered the subject of the fate of my remains, I’ve thought “Cremation, of course,” but lately—and in actuarial terms I probably have fifteen years, max—the notion of leaving behind a kind of physical echo of my existence, a buried skeleton, is vaguely appealing, since no other monuments will be erected to me, nor memories endure past those of my collateral descendants.
ETA: wrong comment response.
trollhattan
@ruemara:
You put that much more elegantly than I, who’s limited to an Oh and a Hell and a Naw!
Mary G
@Mnemosyne: Healing vibes to Annie. And fuck cancer and waiting for test results.
banditqueen
@Mnemosyne:
Will hope for the best for you, G, Annie, & the rest of your cat fam.
dexwood
must see tv… cool.
leeleeFL
@Rand Careaga: winner of the internets right here!
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: Oh noes. Give Annie hugs on my behalf and some gooshie fuds.
Avalune
They hope to retrieve some new bone eating worm. Um, no. Nope! Leave it down there thanks! Far too many worms about as is…
Sorry to hear about Annie.
leeleeFL
@Mnemosyne: So sorry. We just passed a sad anniversary on 3-31 and I have been a little weepy at pet videos on FB. Hugs
schrodingers_cat
I saw a brief segment about Hotel Mumbai on the Snooze Hour, I caught the tail end of it. Apparently according to Hollywood, there is only one actor designated to play a young Indian man, in Hollywood productions Dev Patel. He plays a Sikh man in the movie and sounds like Appu of Simpsons. WTF?
I don’t have a pithy name to describe this phenomena but it is fucking annoying.
Jay
@Van Buren:
The worms go in, the worms go out, the worms play penuckle on your snout,…….
Just different kinds of worms and stuff doing the recycling.
Jay
“CEOs are more than twice as likely to give to Republicans rather than to Democrats.
Republicans support policies that favor rich people (like the Billions for Billionaires Bill). It really is one well-manicured hand washing the other, and now we have a study and data that proves it.
I urge you to go to the Axios link and read the whole item, and then go to the study and look at the charts. Holy cow! The Bruhs got it so wrong.”
https://mockpaperscissors.com/2019/04/04/there-really-is-a-difference-between-the-two-parties/
West of the Rockies
Ocean/marine science is so fascinating! Thank you, Cheryl.
Kelly
Spent this rainy afternoon binging my way to the end of season 3 of The Expanse. Wow, just wow. All the good reviews were true.
MomSense
@schrodingers_cat:
There’s no video but I’m still reeling from McDreamy the Warden talking about Bull Moose weighing 1200 lbs completely sucked dry of blood by ticks. WTF. Never fall asleep in the woods in Oxford County.
Jay
“The strongman who controls two thirds of Libya has ordered his forces to march to Tripoli, the capital of the UN-backed government, raising fears of a major showdown with rival militias.
Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, who commands the “Libya National Army” (LNA) based in the east, described his forces’ move as a “victorious march” to “shake the lands under the feet of the unjust bunch”.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/04/un-chief-urges-restraint-as-libyan-army-leader-plans-tripoli-assault
MomSense
@Mnemosyne:
I’m so sorry.
Salty Sam
@Rand Careaga: For most of the decades I’ve considered the subject of the fate of my remains…
About 15 yrs ago, the Criminal Justice School at Tx State University in San Marcos Tx developed a forensics program to study the effects of weather, scavengers, etc on human remains. They acquired a plot of land in some of the most beautiful part of the Tx Hill Country, and when a donor comes along, will dump the remains out there to document what the coyotes, buzzards, fire ants, etc will do with it, with the goal of giving forensic detectives a way to estimate this sort of thing in investigations.
As I mis-spent many lovely hours in this area while I was a (poor) student at that school, I have decreed in my will to donate my mortal remains for this purpose. My highest hope is to someday be scattered across Hays Co. as buzzard shit.
satby
@Mnemosyne: So sorry Mnem! Hope it isn’t that and is treatable. Waiting is tough.
Rand Careaga
@Salty Sam: I think that the open-air corpse programs have been going along for longer than fifteen years. I don’t have it readily to hand, but I think Mary Roach’s Stiff describes an older program.
While I do not anticipate having strong opinions in the event, my present preference is to spend the 2030s mainly underground.
NickM
Can anyone recommend a good article summing up (with receipts) why Wilmer is an untrustworthy egomaniac? I have a couple friends who are persuadable I think but my arguments could be better informed and aren’t doing the job.
Ohio Mom
@NickM: I just googled “Don’t vote for Bernie Sanders” and there were some interesting article titles — including one from Teen Vogue, a magazine that has a good reputation for breaking things down.
I’ll be interested if anyone else has any ideas for you because I have a few people in my life who might benefit from reading such an article.
Jay
@NickM:
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/01/case-against-bernie-sanders.html
https://www.leftvoice.org/a-socialist-case-against-bernie-2020
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/07/why-progressives-shouldnt-support-bernie-120484
Salty Sam
@Rand Careaga: for sure, there have been many older programs. The one at TSUSM was initiated sometime in the aughts (don’t recall exactly when).
I’m not nearly done on this side of the veil, and the next few years of sailing might show an untimely end of being gobbled by underwater pill bugs. Not as romantic as buzzards and coyotes, but all in all, the same.s
John Revolta
I thought an isopod was one of these here gadgets that all the kids are always foolin with when they’re supposed to be watching the road.
Now you’re telling me they can eat an alligator? Damn crazy kids!!
Mnemosyne
Thanks, all. I just got home with her and she is sprawled out on the living room floor, happy to be back in her own territory.
@satby:
At this point, the best case scenario is lymphoma, because it’s treatable with chemotherapy and the majority of cats who get chemotherapy go into remission for a year or more afterwards.
The other possibilities are much worse with a very poor prognosis, so we’re in the weird position of hoping for lymphoma. ?
Mnemosyne
Also, a potentially interesting tidbit from Wikipedia for satby and other cat rescue types — apparently feline lymphoma is strongly associated with FELV and FIV, including cats with subclinical infections that never turn into the disease. Annie is our kitty who was found living with a feral colony as a kitten, so this may end up being relevant. ?
NotMax
Gotta mention it. The movie: Five Star Final. Nominated for best picture Oscar.
Boris Karloff’s character is named T. Vernon Isopod.
Bill Arnold
@Jay:
Interesting. (Just skimmed it.)
Gender seems to be a big effect, detailed in Table 7, Figure 6. Since CEO ranks are male dominated, part of it is probably CEO (white-)maleness. (Not implying it would change (improve, from my pov) a lot if there were equality or female domination; probably would though.)
Donna
I’m a big believer that the only good alligator is a dead alligator. That said, no way on earth do I want to watch that. I’ll never sleep again.