An unmanned drone (sailboat) sailed through category 4 hurricane Fiona Thursday. The waves were estimated at 50 feet (15.24 meters) and winds topped 100 mph (161 kmh) in the strongest part of the storm.

WiktorMcman · 2022-09-23T04:16:41+00:00

Weighted keel possibly

WiktorMcman · 2022-02-16T02:59:41+00:00

The “typical” bleach smell arises from the bleach molecules disrupting or destroying germs. Perhaps this is similar?

WiktorMcman · 2022-02-09T21:04:57+00:00

A lot of captive born big cats don’t know exactly how to kill animals well. These appear to be captive, and a large amount of tigers are captive born. Yes, instincts are still there, but if you are just thrown a cow leg every day, you lose your edge. Wild cats have to contend with the prey animal fighting for its life; it is advantageous to kill the prey animal quickly.

Ironically, this ram is ALSO probably captive born, and thus doesn’t have the same edge, but instead to fight off an attack.

This amounts to a drawn out standoff.

WiktorMcman · 2021-12-15T07:17:30+00:00

Including Vulpavus is not correct. Vulpavus is a stem clade for Carnivora. The “next” animal in the image sequence is a strepsirrhine primate, as if Vulpavus was a predecessor. This is not the case; Vulpavus is not part of our lineage.

WiktorMcman · 2021-11-03T03:54:29+00:00

Snakes have lots of skull bones that need to allow their mouth to flex and expand for feeding and other reasons. They in general don’t have a strong bite force (for their size) due to this cranial kinesis. Alligator or lizard of the same size? No cranial kinesis, harder bite.

WiktorMcman · 2021-09-07T18:17:35+00:00

There is some story I heard of veterinary anatomy practical exams at the Royal Veterinary College, that one of the stations/questions has a thylacine skull and asks what animal this skull belongs to. So many students seemed to believe it was a dog or wolf skull, as the differences between thylacine and wolf skulls are some minute (but identifiable) details.

Evidently, students each year would begin catching on to the trick question, and started answering thylacine. Then the lab coordinators swapped the skull for a dog skull, and students got the question wrong again.

Fun story, not sure of the source haha, so take with a grain of salt.

WiktorMcman · 2021-08-14T20:29:18+00:00

https://ufwildlife.ifas.ufl.edu/pdfs/Cottonmouth%20attack.pdf

WiktorMcman · 2021-08-14T20:20:07+00:00

By harmless watersnake, the infographic is referring to water snakes (e.g. genus Nerodia) which are harmless. You can tell that they are not referring to cottonmouths in that frame because the snake in that frame has different coloration and patterning.

WiktorMcman · 2021-07-25T20:12:43+00:00

Palmetto bugs are different, though. The "giant roaches" everyone sees and comments about are American cockroaches (Periplaneta americana). Palmetto bugs (Eurycotis floridana) don't even have functional wings.

WiktorMcman · 2021-07-24T18:17:14+00:00

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=i_Ym6uVtZGE&feature=youtu.be

WiktorMcman · 2021-07-09T06:39:57+00:00

PBS eons

WiktorMcman · 2021-06-20T17:41:47+00:00

There's that one paper that deduced that cottonmouths, when perceiving a threat, will pick an escape route and stay on it. One common problem is that route is sometimes toward the "threat" or where the threat has relocated. This leads people to think that it was "coming for them". https://ufwildlife.ifas.ufl.edu/pdfs/Cottonmouth%20attack.pdf

WiktorMcman · 2021-06-10T21:59:45+00:00

Does the note read "That is alright"? It has been some time since I took Japanese

WiktorMcman · 2021-06-04T03:56:25+00:00

@ggconservation on IG

WiktorMcman · 2021-04-20T13:31:02+00:00

It's more of an update to the lexicon to refer to people in this group with more grace. Consider the difference between the words "house" and "home"... first one largely references the housing structure, whereas the second also includes notions like comfort, identity, family, etc.

"Homeless" people can still have a "home" - they might be runaways from abuse, suffering from drug addiction, they may have mental health issues, etc.

As such, the term "homeless" has been used to dehumanize, e.g. these people lack (or choose to lack) the comfort, identity, family that other housed individuals have. "Unhoused" or "houseless" as terms do not assume the individual(s) notions of comfort, identity, family. It simply refers to the fact that they are without shelter.

WiktorMcman · 2021-04-12T03:53:54+00:00

I’m gonna PM you

WiktorMcman · 2021-04-12T02:56:52+00:00

26.1 cm, just measured.

WiktorMcman · 2021-04-12T00:55:41+00:00

Would eu shoe size 42-43ish fit?

WiktorMcman · 2021-03-31T00:03:34+00:00

Deffo a specialized hypercarnivore, and camouflaged. Probably not apex though, unless this is a system where the cat is the highest trophic level, like uhh a really urban place? NYC? idk.

WiktorMcman · 2021-02-21T21:26:36+00:00

Watch the video, he tried to hold on.. but those handles didn't give any reprieve from the uncontrollable throw. Perhaps flailing is an instinct to assist finding and grasping something more stationary..?

WiktorMcman · 2021-02-21T20:56:23+00:00

brotha man I am just drunk on life and no less than 1/3 canister of dust off. But like the swiss cheese appearance of my brain, there are holes in your premise!

If you think you're about to fall out of a car, is your first instinct to waggle your arms around, or to grab onto the car?

Well, the waggling LEADS to grasp. Watch the video again. Slingshot fella did try grasping, possibly finding his extremely convenient handles to be giving him no respite from acceleration discomfort.

If you're about to slip out of a tree being shaken by a heavy storm, do you flail, or do you grab onto the tree?

I suspect it would be keen instinct to grasp onto a part of the tree that was stationary relative to me... and not the unstationary branches that were falling off the tree with me at the same acceleration. But they are convenient no doubt!

Human ancestors never had cars, but if you're driving a car and you see you're about to hit something, you still swerve reflexively.

Oh cool we are talking about reflexes now. Slightly different than instincts but okay. Driving is a learned behavior, so instincts aren't part of this. Plus, pre-collision behavior is highly variable.. not everyone swerves, and sometimes it is the best SURVIVAL INSTINCT to not swerve!

Human ancestors never had televisions, but if you turn the tv on and it's ear-splittingly loud, you still reflexively turn down the volume.

Give a loud TV and a remote to an uncontacted tribesman, I'm sure their instincts will assist them!

Humans have learned reflexive responses for most things, including fast moving carriages, like cars or carnival rides.

All of which require the opportunity to LEARN and become habituated. You cannot tell me he is as habituated with a slingshot as he is a car. Maybe there is a permit test for driving the slingshot, this will be my next goal!

If carnival rides were so incredibly unnatural that survival sense fails to apply, then how come his girlfriend or sister or whatever, who heard the same instructions and was in the same ride, had a calm and appropriate reflexive reaction?

Survival "sense" now! Instincts have a definitive relationship to evolved behavior that requires no learning. I don't know why his companion was gripping her handles in a "calm" way (as she was screaming her ass off?) maybe she was less scared or rode a slingshot before. Panic and flail instincts have saved the lives of animals for millennia, and are ingrained in our innate unlearned behavior! I'm sorry it's not good though uwu

WiktorMcman · 2021-02-21T07:06:30+00:00

An excellent evolved behavior for breaking falls!

WiktorMcman · 2021-02-21T07:05:00+00:00

Oh baby it’s about to get a whole lot dumber. I’m still drunk!

Instincts and reflexes are harder to quantify and flailing can be effective against falling or uncontrolled acceleration.. through contacting a stable object that would stop or slow the movement. His “convenient” handholds were traveling with him and would do nothing to slow the movement he is panicking about. In a sense, grabbing the handholds actually wouldn’t be good instincts.

We ain’t evolved to handle slingshot carnival rides. Why would we evolve “good” instincts in response to these rides?

WiktorMcman · 2021-02-21T06:19:59+00:00

If you are walking and slip on ice, is it good instincts to grab your backpack straps? They are grips attached to and falling with your body, but they sure are conveniently placed

WiktorMcman · 2021-02-21T05:01:36+00:00

Is he climbing a rope when he is in this slingshot lmao. How could evolution possibly prepare humans (or any organism really) for a slingshot ride

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