Domain: seaworld.org
Stories and comments across the archive that link to seaworld.org.
Comments · 17
-
Re:Huge teeth
I don't remember being corrected on this before.. (not saying that nobody has tried, but I don't remember it). Perhaps if you'd give some evidence that they are whales rather than just saying they are, I'd change my mental model of the cetacean family.
Killer whale scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Cetacea (all whales)
Suborder: Odontoceti (toothed whales, including dolphins and porpoises)
Family: Delphinidae (oceanic dolphin)
Genus: Orcinus
Species: O. orcaBackup from a non-wiki source:
In other words, any current species falling under Cetacean is by definition a whale.
So when you say
they're not "whales eating other whales". They would be "cetaceans eating other cetaceans"
You are in fact saying the same thing. In more common language, "whales eating other whales" is entirely correct.
-
This is an apex predator
1) Killer whale teeth.
2) Killer whale skull.The killer whale can weigh up to 22,000 lbs for males and 16,000 lbs for females, and be up to 32 feet and 28 feet long respectively. A great white shark can reach up to 5,000 lbs and 20 feet long.
I saw a PBS video showing great whites feeding on seals at a beach. Suddenly the great whites fled and shortly thereafter, orcas showed up to begin feeding. The narrator noted that orcas can kill great whites.
The male killer whales at Seaworld weigh 5-6 tons. It's quite remarkable that these orcas have not killed more trainers.
-
This is an apex predator
1) Killer whale teeth.
2) Killer whale skull.The killer whale can weigh up to 22,000 lbs for males and 16,000 lbs for females, and be up to 32 feet and 28 feet long respectively. A great white shark can reach up to 5,000 lbs and 20 feet long.
I saw a PBS video showing great whites feeding on seals at a beach. Suddenly the great whites fled and shortly thereafter, orcas showed up to begin feeding. The narrator noted that orcas can kill great whites.
The male killer whales at Seaworld weigh 5-6 tons. It's quite remarkable that these orcas have not killed more trainers.
-
Obvious a Tux ripoff!
-
More about Vision
If an entire scene were viewed in high resolution, the diameter of the optic nerve would need to be larger than the diameter of the eyeball itself. Subsequent processing of such a high-resolution image would require a brain many times larger than its current size.
You're 100% right about the retina+visual cortex working in concepts, which is why GP is wrong, and which is why you must know the above quote is nonsense. Basically the retina does pre-processing to detect edges etc and effectively compresses the raw data before it reaches the optic nerve, agreed?
By moving the eye so that small parts of a scene can be sensed with greater resolution [by the fovea], body resources can be used more efficiently.
A lot of hunting takes place at twilight. Once it's too dark for effective colour vision, humans are effectively blind when they reflexively look straight at prey or predator, which is hardly efficient. Also note that minature animals like insects, where it's really important that resources are used efficiently, don't use our vision system. Personally I think that saccades are an inevitable consequence of having a pulse, which evolution has handled fairly well, and that the fovea is a crude attempt to provide a zoom capability. -
Re:Won't someone please think of the snowmen!
Fish won't do i think. Polar bears use breathing holes in the ice to catch beluga. They repeatedly bite the beluga when it comes up for air and after a while they have a nice whale to help them go without food for many days. I've seen a documentary where the ice didn't come back quick after the summer and the polar bears resorted to eating baby walrus and seals.
some (older) info on polar bear diet -
Re:Dont bother
I decided to test two of my favourite search engines - Teoma and Vivisimo. And guess what - they both outperform Google, returning 4 out of 4 relevant results with the answer. Clearly, at least for this one topic, they are both better than Google (and the rest of the pack).
Teoma
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/010518.html Contains Answer
http://www.seaworld.org/infobooks/Flamingos/home.h tml Contains Answer
http://www.thewildones.org/Animals/flamingo.html Contains Answer
http://webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/7.html Contains Answer
Vivisimo
http://www.thewildones.org/Animals/flamingo.html Contains Answer
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/010518.html Contains Answer
http://webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/7.html Contains Answer
http://www.seaworld.org/infobooks/Flamingos/home.h tml Contains Answer -
Re:Dont bother
I decided to test two of my favourite search engines - Teoma and Vivisimo. And guess what - they both outperform Google, returning 4 out of 4 relevant results with the answer. Clearly, at least for this one topic, they are both better than Google (and the rest of the pack).
Teoma
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/010518.html Contains Answer
http://www.seaworld.org/infobooks/Flamingos/home.h tml Contains Answer
http://www.thewildones.org/Animals/flamingo.html Contains Answer
http://webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/7.html Contains Answer
Vivisimo
http://www.thewildones.org/Animals/flamingo.html Contains Answer
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/010518.html Contains Answer
http://webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/7.html Contains Answer
http://www.seaworld.org/infobooks/Flamingos/home.h tml Contains Answer -
Re:Too bad
But the penguins don't like it.
It's not so much that they don't like it, just that they are suprised since they live in the southern hemisphere while polar bears reside in the far north. Was this in some kind of zoo or something?
-
Re:Temperature and sex ratio
Not completely true, at least for people.
The 106 to 100 gender ratio is really more a function of the fact that X chromosome sperm are more resilient than their Y counterparts. However, there are other factors that affect that ratio such as termperature; Y sperm tend to die off much more easily when the testes get too hot.
Nature tends to stack things in favor of women outnumbering the men, for obvious reasons. ;) Sadly, despite these odds, this has yet to work in favor of the average slashdot reader.
As for the dinosaurs, it is speculated that their reproductive habits may be similar to modern day (primitive) reptiles such as alligators. In that case, as the eggs are allowed to mature, a very narrow variance in the average temperature of the egg determines the sex of the offspring.
A quick google search turned up this tidbit:
The temperature of the nest determines the sex of the young. The sex of an alligator is determined by the temperature at which eggs are incubated. If the nest is below 30 degrees Celsius (86 F) all are female; above 34 degrees Celsius (93 F) all are male and the temperature in between will produce both sexes.
Nature again uses this to skew the ratio toward more females since alligators use a decomposing compost heap to heat the nest while the eggs mature. Its easier for such an arrangement to get cold, hence more females. -
SeaWorld
It's been said before, but there are many third world countries that can ill afford the western conception of intellectual property. Seaworld embraces conterversy openly.
I'm glad you brought this up. SeaWorld is a breeding ground of discontent and anarchy. One of its leading citizens, Shamu, is particularly notorious for his open disdain of intellectual property.
-
Re: No polar bears here...
Sorry, no polar bears in Nordic countries.
Here is a map of their distribution. -
Penguin Meat.
Anybody know where I can buy some penguin meat? I have this recipe for penguin chili,supposed to be great, but I'm having trouble tracking down the meat. My butcher apparently used to carry it years ago, but he says there wasn't much demand for it, and that it's mostly just used for bait nowadays.
-
Gentoo Etymology (Why's it called that?)I think it is worth mentioning the etymology of the name "Gentoo" for this distro. I believe that back in the day, it used to be called "Enoch", but then they decided that they needed a new name... something based on penguins (of course!). Thus Gentoo was chosen, being (I think) a type of penguin known for being the best and fastest swimmer of all penguins.
So here's some obligatory Gentoo links for you zoologoy freaks:
Gentoo penguin : "The Gentoo penguin is a member of the genus Pygoscelis, which contains two other members, the Adelie and the Chinstrap. When inspecting the three, the Adelie looks more like the odd one in the group of three. Chinstraps and Gentoos share more morphological features, but the Gentoo is the most colorful of the three with its orangish beak and pinkish-orange feet. They can also be positively identified by an interorbit band of plumage that runs superiorly over the head."
Seriously though, Gentoo Linux sounds really cool. I'm a die-hard Debian guy (especially with Woody going stable in May)... but I plan on giving Gentoo a try this week. And I wish the best to the developers.Pete & Barbara's Page : "Males have their maximum weight of about 8 kg just before moulting and their minimum weight of about 5.5kg just before mating. For females the maximum weight is 7.5kg just before moulting but their weight drops to below 5 kg when guarding the chicks in the nest."
Gentoo Penguin: 10 Facts : "Adults can be found throughout the year on breeding islands indicating that they are relatively sedentary. They feed on Rock cod, amphipods and cephalopods (mainly squid). Females tend to eat more krill than the males, while the males tend to eat more fish than the females. It is thought that gentoo penguins are gregarious at sea."
Penguin Chicks : Come on... everyone loves baby animals!
:) -
Fish food
Well taken from the report on sharks at seaworld here, I dont think it will work very well.
Since sharks seem to be attracted to sounds from 20hz to 100hz as reported here(humans hear~20hz-20,000hz), because it associates it with prey or a fish in distress. What they do "hear" of Barry would probably only make them want to gobble him up. Sharks can also hear sounds in that ragne from up to 2km away, reported here. Hope they turn ole Barry down baby.
So it seems to me that they will achieve bunch of pissed off hungry sharks. -
Fish food
Well taken from the report on sharks at seaworld here, I dont think it will work very well.
Since sharks seem to be attracted to sounds from 20hz to 100hz as reported here(humans hear~20hz-20,000hz), because it associates it with prey or a fish in distress. What they do "hear" of Barry would probably only make them want to gobble him up. Sharks can also hear sounds in that ragne from up to 2km away, reported here. Hope they turn ole Barry down baby.
So it seems to me that they will achieve bunch of pissed off hungry sharks. -
Re:Not this bullshit again...[African's Response]
What do I owe Africa?
Really?
"Fruits of the 21st Century?"
How about if Africa gets itself out of the 6th century by producing something the world wants?
And this time, try not to make it slaves, terrorists, virus es, endangered species, or diamonds to raise money to hack people to death.
--Blair
"You are only as free, happy, smart, and rich as you think you are."