Politics Plus

It was just a week ago that the month-long Sampling the Abyss marine biology expedition ended.  While they found thousands of rare deep sea creatures, about a third of which are new to science, they created a major internet sensation and got the most attention when they revealed just one – the Peanut Worm:

And that is NOT a typo – it is Peanut Worm (Sipuncula) – so you should not confuse it with the already discovered Penis Worm (Priapulida).

And of course as a physician, I took it right in stride with an ever so mature reaction:

The Sampling the Abyss mission was comprised of 40 scientists under the auspices of Australia’s Museums Victoria and CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation).  It set out on the ship Investigator to explore Australia’s Abyss off its eastern coast down to a depth of 4km (2.5 miles) – some of the most remote and unexplored area on earth in some of its most treacherous waters.

The lead scientist on the mission, Dr. Tim O’Hara, said, “Australia’s deep-sea environment is larger in size than the mainland, and until now, almost nothing was known about life on the abyssal plain.”

He added: “The abyss is the largest and deepest habitat on the planet, covering half the world’s oceans and one third of Australia’s territory, but it remains the most unexplored environment on Earth. We know that abyssal animals have been around for at least 40 million years, but until recently only a handful of samples had been collected from Australia’s abyss.”

To corral new creatures, the team lowered nets to a depth so deep that it took seven hours to reach the ocean floor.  And in addition to looking for new life-forms, the team also used “high-tech multi-beam sonar” for mapping purposes to the previously unexplored area.

One can imagine the environment of the Abyss: crushing pressures, no light, little food and close to freezing temperatures.  So the creatures that call this home have developed extraordinary attributes to survive – from having no eyes, to producing their own light through bioluminescence.  Many are jelly-like, most likely to endure the pressures, while others have partially calcified skeletons and spines.  But they all have one thing in common: they are without a doubt some of the strangest creatures ever discovered.

So let’s meet a few of these new finds, and I’ll try to do them alphabetically.

Bamboo Coral

The delicate bamboo coral skeleton is made up of calcium carbonate with joint like nodes giving them the appearance of bamboo. They are incredibly long-lived with some having been recorded as old as 4,000 years.  And they have growth rings like trees, so it’s hoped they’ll be able to provide a past history of major oceanic events.

Blind Cusk Eel – or Faceless Fish

It has no eyes, and its mouth is underneath.  It’s actually a cusk eel with the scientific name Typhlonus nasus, which is derived from Greek, meaning “blind hake.”

 

Blobfish

The blob fish was collected at a depth of 2.5km and has soft watery flesh.  It nestles in on the ocean floor, lies very still and then ambushes unsuspecting prey as they pass by.

It’s a close cousin to Mr. Blobby, the social media phenom we’ve all probably seen that was collected in the Tasman Sea in 2003 and was voted the World’s Ugliest Fish in 2013.

Brittle Star – Game of Thrones

This was a new find, so Dr. O’Hara named it the Game of Thrones Brittle Star, Ophiohamus georgemartini, because of its sharp thorns similar to those depicted on the Game of Thrones crown.  It has no eyes and no brain – so I’m sure it’s a republican.  It’s just a protoplasm of pure nerves.

Cookie-cutter Shark

It has perfectly aligned serrated teeth and strange eyes that glow in the dark.  It preys on preys on pretty much anything including dolphins, whales and the occasional unfortunate human, latching onto them before gouging out cookie-sized chunks of flesh.

Dumbo Octopus

Dumbo Octopus flaps its ear-like fins to “fly” or glide through the deep abyss – just like the Disney movie Dumbo elephant.

Lizard Fish

The lizard fish (Bathysaurus ferox) is pretty much just a mouth with sharp hinged teeth.  They live at depths of 1,000-2,500 metres (3,280-8,202 feet) where there is very little food, so they tend to be sparse in number.

At that depth, it tends to be even harder to find a mate than a meal, so they have evolved to become hermaphrodites: they have male and female reproductive organs.  So when they do come across another one they’ll be able to mate – and have cute little baby lizard fishes.

Peanut Worm

They actually do look like a peanut – but it only happens when they are threatened and then assume a defensive posture.  The worm retracts its head inside itself, and so really does look similar to a peanut.

Sea Pigs

They found a herd of sea pigs on the ocean floor.  They act like little vacuum cleaners by using their tube-like feet to move across the floor, hoovering up microorganisms.  They are the only type of sea cucumber with ‘feet’ and tend to gather in large numbers where food is abundant.

Zombie Worm

Zombie worms are 1 to 3 inches long and were first discovered in the bones of a rotting gray whale on the ocean floor.  They have no functioning mouth, digestive tract or anus, but have bacteria that digest whale bone marrow.

They burrow into bones to feed, and according to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, they secrete an acid from their skin that dissolves that bone, freeing up the fat and protein.  They then use the symbiotic bacteria living inside the worms to digest the fat and protein.

You can find lots more information at a number of sites – or just Google “Peanut Worm” in the last month, and you’ll find lots more!  But you may want to start w/ the expedition’s own blog site:

https://www.nespmarine.edu.au/abyss-landing-page

https://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/news/2017/06/21/weird-and-unseen-fish-discovered-in-australian-abyss/103063292/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/sciencefair/2017/06/21/australian-deep-sea-researchers-find-peanut-worm-other-creatures/415980001/

http://www.newsweek.com/faceless-fish-weird-underwater-creatures-626836

http://www.torontosun.com/2017/06/20/australian-deep-sea-expedition-dives-into-the-abyss-and-discovers-sea-creatures-from-your-nightmares

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4619510/Photos-deeps-ea-creatures-Australia-s-coast.html

 

It’s a profoundly sad comment on a president when the highlight of his (hopefully truncated term) is having made up a nonsensical word.  But it looks like Twitler reached the Zenith of his presidency (probably accidentally) when he Tweeted out the neologism “Covfefe” – which he or someone deleted a few hours later, so all we have are screen captures.

So to mark this solemn occasion, I thought we should revisit some of the better takes on “Covfefe” – the “Meme of the Week” – because it’s all downhill from here on out.  (Not that he reached any peaks prior to this – but “Covfefe” is probably going to be as good as it gets … *sigh*.)

I realize that you've probably seen a number of them already, so I doubt you’ll laugh your covfefe off.  But I do hope some of them will provide a chuckle, or at least a smile.

From the “Obama-Biden Bromance Meme”, I think Joe actually followed through on this one

Biden: I'm going to leave him a dictionary of fake words in your office.#covfefe pic.twitter.com/BWe0IpDYvL

— Rachael Lackner (@RachaelLackner) May 31, 2017

And the reaon is because this was the most popular definition:

And right away, there was Spicey defending it by doing his normal bang-up job of lying:

And Kellyanne Conway joined in circling the wagons by explaining where the word came from

"Of course #covfefe is real word. It was coined during the Bowling Green Massacre." pic.twitter.com/DYjqX1xE7M

— Diane N. Sevenay (@Diane_7A) May 31, 2017

Leave it to the Trump clan (?Klan?)  to try and make a buck off of it …

Well, RC Cola decided that they weren’t going to be left out of the entrepreneurial effort

And just when I was about to head out the door to buy some RC Cola, we learned that it was a rogue account and is now suspended. 

But this Big Boy restaurant had more success

\

And even “Wheel of Fortune” got in on the act

But “Covfefe” does have a couple of serious medical issues to be concerned about

And an even bigger concern for all of us was this …

But the one we all hope and pray is true is this translation:

 

 

We’ve all enjoyed the Bribe & Emoluments Light Show that artist Robin Bell projected onto the Trump Hotel in Washington, DC this past week.  But in case you missed it, a quick review

While it's great to know where to send the Bribes – the Bigger Question we have is: Where do we send all the upcoming subpoenas?

And Mr. Bell's own Tweet of it as a video:

Projections of #EmolumentsWelcome at Trump Hotel in Washington, DC 5-15-17 #resist pic.twitter.com/8gkucztYOm

— robin bell (@bellvisuals) May 16, 2017

This is not the first time Artist Bell has entertained the public with a creative political light show message for the masses.  In fact Bell is so dedicated that he has designed a specially-equipped van from which he projects his light shows, after creating them with Photoshop and his projection-mapping software.

And so happens there actually was a more recent one involving Attorney General Sessions – “Sessions Must Go” – at DOJ)

 

NOTE:  You have to click on the little movie projector icon, and then click to run the video below]

#SessionsMustGo projecting now at the DOJ. #fireSessions #WeNeedToSeeTheMemo ? https://t.co/pEuQBmvE0N

— robin bell (@bellvisuals) May 19, 2017

The Bribe-Emoluments light show at the Trump Hotel lasted just about 10 minutes before security personnel from the hotel asked him to quit.  And when he didn’t, they physically moved to stand in front of the projection, blocking it.  But I was wondering if Bell’s provocative and creative light shows are legal.  Could he be charged with criminal trespassing?

You may remember it was just a week ago that reporter Dan Heyman was arrest for “willful disruption of government processes.”  Heyman tried to ask Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price a question about how the GOP AHCA would impact victims of domestic violence.  The criminal complaint accused him of a misdemeanor — “willful disruption of governmental processes” — and said he was “aggressively breaching the secret service agents.”

So there is clearly a legitimate concern by the media if Trump thugs trying to shut down the press’ First Amendment rights. 

Fortunately for Mr. Bell to the question of criminal trespassing charges, the answer is “Probably not.”

Looking into it, there actually is case law addressing this issue: Int'l Union of Painters & Allied Trades Dist. Council 15 Local 159 v. Great Wash Park, LLC.

The court ruled that while the union had no First Amendment right or labor law right to project a message onto an employer’s wall, it also held that the projection itself is not against the law.

Trespassing cases generally revolve around if there were “invasion of land through a physical, tangible object” – or torts “when intangible matter, such as particles emanating from a manufacturing plant, cause actual and/or substantial damage to the [property].”

But virtually all “light trespass” cases involved ambient light “leaking or diffusing” onto private property – like from construction lighting or drive-in movie theater.

But a projected light show is designed to send a specific message, so it could not be considered “ambient”.  But the court ruled that unless a light show lasted an excessively long time, or happened to shine into the room of a paying guest – it would not meet the criteria of criminal trespassing.

However, it would most likely reach the standards for a tort of nuisance. 

But Mr. Bell proudly has announced that other light shows will continue to follow.

Seems appropriate to end with a message from our own creative Light Brigade last winter in Madison, WI:

 

Was planning on doing this one last week – but instead I had to head up to Illinois to refill and restock my Mom’s meds.  (And unfortunately 3 of the 4 prescription meds she takes had run out of refills, so they all needed new authorization.  What a hassle!)

Obviously science has been a big part of my life.  I know, I know – it’s a large part of EVERYONE’S life.  But unfortunately, we’ve not done a good job of convincing Twitler and his Luddite minions of that fact.

Which brings us to the recent March for Science.  A March that was joined by millions not just across our country – but around the world.  It was great to see people marching to acknowledge the role that science, in its broadest sense, plays in bettering our lives.  So I thought I’d share some of my favorite signs from the March – some funny, some serious and some very clever.

Let’s start with a clever one that takes some familiarity with the building blocks of chemistry, because someone decided to add a new element to the Periodic Table: "Wtf"

But the disbelief that Twitler’s troglodytes have so poisoned the academic arena that we actually had to have a March for Science was a common theme in several signs:

So maybe we should start with the Serious Ones:

[Maybe hard to read.  It was from the Boston March:

Nobel Science Laureates

Harvard – 118

MIT – 84

Trump U – ZERO

And one my centenarian Mom would love:

Some Funny Ones:

Some Clever Ones:

And two head-scratchers that were so clever it took me a while to figure out.  (Full Disclosure: Along with the help of Google for the first one)

Proudly post your answers in the Comments.

And for all of Twitler’s knuckle-draggers who hated that millions joined the March for Science to protest Twitler’s policies, I’ll close with the wisdom of Albert Einstein

**********************************

SIDEBAR:

My “Friday Fun” posts tend to be heavy on the graphics.  I made the photos the “Medium” size to take up less real estate.  Would you rather I keep them formatted individually – or as a scrolling GIF like the one close to the top?

I can make the GIF larger than the individual photos, and I think the 3.5 second timing is about right.  But you cannot stop it like a slideshow if you want to look at just one of the photos. 

If you do click on one photo, it will open it in another window, and hangs an additional second or two longer – but then starts scrolling again.

Makes no difference to me, but I’d appreciate your input in the Comments as to individual (takes up more space) versus GIF (less space, but less “control”).  And is 3.5 seconds too fast, too slow or about right?

Thanks