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So... real-world Africa is largely bereft of extant wolf/Canis lupus specimens. Digging around, I can't seem to confirm that Golarion's Garund is similarly nearly wolf-free, but that's fine. My question: If I was to stick a version of the African golden wolf in limited spots in Garund, do you have any off-the-top-of-your-cranium suggestions on morphological/physiological and/or behavioral changes to such a wolf?
Edit: Also, thanks for this thread.
Well...Jackals really are just tiny wolves, and jackals can be found over pretty much every bit of non rainforest Africa. So I would model any Garundi wolves off those (or just use the African Golden Wolf)
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By the way I literally just typed out that reply while sitting in the whale warehouse at Smithsonian. Scanning whale skulls entails a lot of sitting and waiting for things to finish on the computer...
I have a question: How do you meaningfully interact with people who, despite (literally) tons of empirical evidence, still loudly assert that evolution isn't real (or that Earth is 6,000 years old, and other nonsense)?
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I have a question: How do you meaningfully interact with people who, despite (literally) tons of empirical evidence, still loudly assert that evolution isn't real (or that Earth is 6,000 years old, and other nonsense)?
Very carefully, and exactly how depends on the context
I really have only had to deal with this while a museum docent, and even then only rarely. If I over here a falsehood I try to correct it. Mostly I just try to be respectful, steer the conversation away from religion, and keep it focused.
It's also important to know WHO to engage with. Some folks won't ever change there mind. There was a Young Earther who would always set up a table in the Union on Friday's during the school year. I always avoided that table because I knew the guy was was an extreme case and immune to any attempt at logic. As an example, he preached that NASA was a big government cabal aimed at hiding the truth that the earth was flat and the stars with just fixed points of light in a globe that surrounded the earth.
Of course talking about evolution online is pretty much the same as debating anything online, and usually carries its own caveats.
I've never had to deal with this as a teacher thankfully. Most of my teaching in the near future will be undergraduate Human Anatomy, so I don't see this changing soon (Although teaching human reproductive anatomy carries its own challenges!)
I have a question: How do you meaningfully interact with people who, despite (literally) tons of empirical evidence, still loudly assert that evolution isn't real (or that Earth is 6,000 years old, and other nonsense)?
Very carefully, and exactly how depends on the context
I really have only had to deal with this while a museum docent, and even then only rarely. If I over here a falsehood I try to correct it. Mostly I just try to be respectful, steer the conversation away from religion, and keep it focused.
It's also important to know WHO to engage with. Some folks won't ever change there mind. There was a Young Earther who would always set up a table in the Union on Friday's during the school year. I always avoided that table because I knew the guy was was an extreme case and immune to any attempt at logic. As an example, he preached that NASA was a big government cabal aimed at hiding the truth that the earth was flat and the stars with just fixed points of light in a globe that surrounded the earth.
Of course talking about evolution online is pretty much the same as debating anything online, and usually carries its own caveats.
I've never had to deal with this as a teacher thankfully. Most of my teaching in the near future will be undergraduate Human Anatomy, so I don't see this changing soon (Although teaching human reproductive anatomy carries its own challenges!)
Thank you. I was feeling particularly down about public regard for science because of [redacted -- something that happened today, but could be construed as political] and your reply made me feel somewhat hopeful. ;-)
Honestly apathy is a bigger problem for me than people claiming pseudoscience. I regularly encounter students that just can't seem to care about or show any interest in anything beyond the minimum they need for an passing grade.
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Here's a critter you may or may not have recently heard about:
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Here's a critter you may or may not have recently heard about:
Oh trust me, I know about this guy. My postdoc advisors and my #1 collaborator are the authors of this paper :)
It's great to see this out...I know they have had a pretty laborious experience getting this published it seems.
Oh, how cool! I figure you know about all the things I find and post, but I keep hoping I'll surprise you one day.. LOL
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Stump the invertebratist... I can do that.
Oh, right, question.
What do you have against shrimp?
And would you feel differently about them if they had wings and a unicorn horn, or possibly excreted pixie dust.
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Stump the invertebratist... I can do that.
Oh, right, question.
What do you have against shrimp?
And would you feel differently about them if they had wings and a unicorn horn, or possibly excreted pixie dust.
Well I think they are the cockroaches of the sea (although not as bad as crabs), which I find disgusting as a food source. Otherwise I like shrimp just find, and even had one as a pet in high school (he was the only tankmate fast enough to avoid getting eaten by my African Clawed Frog).
Might even by some cherry shrimp next year. Thinking of dipping back into the Aquarium hobby after I move.
I was raised using shrimp and crabs as bait for fishing. While I think they are sea bugs (like lobsters are oceanic cockroaches), they are delicious... although pretty much any cooked critters you drench in garlic and butter are delicious. Snails? Ugh. Escargot? Delicious.
Greetings again, Sage of the Sea!
Do you know of any good publicly-accessible online articles with more information about Puijila darwini (the otter-like forerunner to modern pinnipeds)? Wikipedia and other hits are pretty sparse. Any speculation on how large it would normally have gotten?
If you could turn the Backstreet Boys into sharks, what kind of sharks would they be.
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Probably nothing special, but got curious after a walk at the beach what it was i had stumbled across among the rocks.
took 2 pictures(1 from either side)
I'm guessing it's either a piece of plaster, bark, bone or something else entirely.
Was wondering if by chance you could tell me what it is based on these 2 images?
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v423/StoneTitan/nature/Billede0149_zpsobs lmeba.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v423/StoneTitan/nature/Billede0150_zps1yg ybiem.jpg[/IMG]
I'm dying to see what the pics are, but Photobucket won't show them to me.
Greetings again, Sage of the Sea!
Do you know of any good publicly-accessible online articles with more information about Puijila darwini (the otter-like forerunner to modern pinnipeds)? Wikipedia and other hits are pretty sparse. Any speculation on how large it would normally have gotten?
it was a little guy, probably otter-like in size if not a bit smaller. I've never actually seen the specimen in question, although now that one of my best friends is a research scientist at the Canadian museum where the specimen is located, I am hoping I get a chance to see it in the next year.
A Masters student should be submitting a complete thorough description of it for publication in the next year, so more should be known soon.
If you could turn the Backstreet Boys into sharks, what kind of sharks would they be.
Goblin Sharks
Probably nothing special, but got curious after a walk at the beach what it was i had stumbled across among the rocks.
took 2 pictures(1 from either side)
I'm guessing it's either a piece of plaster, bark, bone or something else entirely.
Was wondering if by chance you could tell me what it is based on these 2 images?
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v423/StoneTitan/nature/Billede0149_zpsobs lmeba.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v423/StoneTitan/nature/Billede0150_zps1yg ybiem.jpg[/IMG]
I can't see the pictures either...
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hmm troublesome, I'm starting to wonder just how much photobucket might have changed.
I can't get images from it on my myth-weavers sheets anymore and people appear to have a hard time viewing them. If it's like this other than personal storage i see little reason to keep it :(
anyway been told what i had found was most likely a piece of bone from recent years, given it was exposed to sun,wind & saltwater it looked more worn than i'd imagined it would.
So probably a leftover from when someone had a trip to the rockey beach, though lets see if i can have you guys opinion before throwing it into the trash.
i'll try and see if i can find an alternative but just got my suspicion confirmed about photobuckets change unfortunately:
"Photobucket tells users no more free hotlinking for you, replaces millions of images with 'ransom demand'"
I went to check my Photobucket account the other day and EVERYTHING was gone. Pics I'd saved for gaming inspiration and family pics...everything.
Have you seen this? I figured it might fit your interests well.
I just purchased the Freeport Bestiary by Green Ronin Press today, and I think you might like to know that I'm nearly certain that you had a direct influence on some of the mythological creatures they chose to include. The book has an ongoing theme of North American monsters, and I strongly suspect that the designers were looking at your monster list in the Arcadia thread when coming up with some of them. That's the only other place where I've seen the Caddaja, Chindi, and Cipelahq all referenced in quick succession as they were in this book. I could be wrong, but it seems like an awfully strange coincidence that three creatures that obscure happened to be included together when the only other references I've seen of them online have been on the far corners of the internet.
Or they might got an actual book about regional mythology gathering all of those in one place.
It's possible, but I doubt it. Those creatures are absurdly obscure, and teratology is, sadly, an exceedingly disorganized discipline. They could have come from the Native Languages site though. That and the Caddaja in the book is far more like MMCJawa's abridged description of the creature than the mythological version, which is essentially an archfiend.
What extinct marine mammal would you bring back to life given opportunity?
What do you think about theories suggesting most Cretaceaus maniraptoran theropodes are secondarily terrestrial descendants of arboreal pre-birds, and should be basically classified as birds?