who was the fool who was tasked with naming the galaxy and the only adjective they could think of was ‘mmmmmmmmmmmmilky…’
scientist: (gazing up at space) scientist: ……….. it sure is a milky boy
NO
YOU DONT UNDERSTAND
ASTRONOMERS ARE THE SHITTIEST EVER AT NAMING THINGS I KID YOU NOT.
When it came time to name the two theoretical particle types that might be dark matter THEY INTENTIONALLY CHOSE THE NAMES SO THAT THE ACRONYMS WOULD SPELL “WIMPS” AND “MACHOS” I SHIT YOU NOT
THEY ARE FUCKING TERRIBLE AT NAMING ANYTHING
I just listened to a talk by Neil deGrasse Tyson himself LAST NIGHT and he went on about this more than once.
“I’m walking down the street and I’m like ‘ooh pretty rock…’ and some Geologist is like ‘actually, that’s anorthosite feldspar’ and I’m like ‘Nevermind, I don’t want it anymore.’ Any biologists in the audience? [some clapping] Yeah, you know what I’m talking about. The most important molecule in the human body, what did you name it? It has NINE SYLLABLES and it’s so long that even YOU GUYS abbreviate it as ‘DNA’!
But astrophysicists and astronomers? No, man, we call it like we see it. Star made of neutrons? NEUTRON STAR. Small white star? WHITE DWARF. You know that big red spot on Jupiter? Know what we called it? JUPITER’S RED SPOT.”
okay i’m glad you mentioned the biologist nonsense bc their naming methods are the bane of my existence
I see your astrophysicists-are-shit-at-names and raise you Marine-Biologists-Are-Fucking-Maniacs.
See this beautiful creature?
It’s a carnivorous deep-sea sponge that lives off of Easter Island and never sees the light of day, as it’s about 9000 feet down. Those delicate-looking orbs are covered in millions of tiny hooked spines, which latch onto anything unfortunate enough to bump into it, and hold it in place as it is digested alive by the sponge’s skin. Amazing, beautiful and profoundly creepy. They could have given it so many cool names. Could have drawn on mythology (I think Scylla would have been an appropriate reference), the region it was found in, the textured skin, PHAGOCYTOSIS, anything!
Hey! If you eat seafood I would like to urge you to check the label and ensure it is farm raised and not wild caught! Alternatively, buy from local fishermen who do not large-scale catch fish. Our oceans are literally dying and may very well be dead by the end of the century if not before then. Not contributing to the industry alone will not fix it, but it’s a step in the right direction- each and every little bit is desperately important at this point. Also, don’t litter.
You are so awesome for addressing this issue and I totally agree - I just want to add on some info about farmed fish so people are more aware of why farming is a complicated and controversial response to ecological imbalance.
Unfortunately seafood farms are not a great answer to over fishing which sucks - they should be, logically: We have our own fish to raise and eat, and wild ecosystems get left alone. Great.
BUT they are now a significant part of the problem: because farms are built IN the fish’s natural homes, they actually cause huge environmental harm in both oceanic and freshwater locations. Salmon farming is particularly bad for over-feeding, antibiotic dosing, chemical dumping, and creating destructive monocultures - exactly the same way land farms destroy eco structures by planting only one crop for miles, thus removing habitats and necessary pollinators like bees (oh the irony) etc. The other consequence to keeping hundreds of fish together in enclosed spaces is highly unclean, toxic environments that create prolific infections and parasites; ravaging the surrounding environment… and killing wild fish populations.
It’s also a First Nations issue as many large salmon farms in North America are located in/near indigenous territories: (Tw for some mildly gruesome pics of infected/dead fish and needles)
A great way to support the many different ecosystems of the sea is to lobby for and support the creation of marine nature reserves - these actually increase fish numbers and support the livelihoods of fishermen too, alongside preserving the oceanic ecosystem. I know it’s not something that everyone will do - unlike food shopping - but it’s an amazing and positive way to move things forward!
Just wanted to put the link to seafood watch. I know others have mentioned it. Large predatory farm raised fish are also often fed on wild caught fish so oftentimes they actually remove more fish for feeding their livestock than they produce.
Bycatch is also a huge issue. Fish, turtles, dolphins, and birds who are caught but are not part of the fisherman’s target are usually thrown back dead. It’s a huge problem especially in the shrimp fishery. For every 1 pound of shrimp it’s about 6 pounds of bycatch.
Before someone mentions it, I know that the shrimp industry has made improvements with the introduction of bycatch reduction devices and turtle excluder devices but it still has a long way to go. Plus if you really wanna get mad turtle excluder devices aren’t legally required in inshore fishing only offshore fishing (at least in Texas although it was a NOAA enforcement officer who told me so in all likelihood that’s the case over most of the US) so inshore fisherman using trawling nets still catch endangered species of sea turtle who drown in their nets. The imorovements are just not enough right now for me. Bycatch is also a huge problem in really large fisheries like Tuna.
I bought a betta in a 1 gallon bowl completely covered in algae and obviously not cleaned in over a month. This is three days difference. The first day in a clean bowl. The second day in a new 2.5 gallon, and today once he’s gotten nice and settled in. He came with the name Betty, but for now I’ve been calling him Mr. Betty. He looks so amazing now :)
