A New Population of Blue Whales Was Discovered Hiding in the Indian Ocean (nytimes.com) 45
Weighing up to 380,000 pounds and stretching some 100 feet long, the blue whale -- the largest creature to have ever lived on Earth -- might at first seem difficult for human eyes and ears to miss. But a previously unknown population of the leviathans has long been lurking in the Indian Ocean, leaving scientists none the wiser, new research suggests. From a report: The covert cadre of whales, described in a paper published last week in the journal Endangered Species Research, has its own signature anthem: a slow, bellowing ballad that's distinct from any other whale song ever described. It joins only a dozen or so other blue whale songs that have been documented, each the calling card of a unique population. "It's like hearing different songs within a genre -- Stevie Ray Vaughan versus B. B. King," said Salvatore Cerchio, a marine mammal biologist at the African Aquatic Conservation Fund in Massachusetts and the study's lead author. "It's all blues, but you know the different styles."
The find is "a great reminder that our oceans are still this very unexplored place," said Asha de Vos, a marine biologist who has studied blue whales in the Indian Ocean but was not involved in the new study. Dr. Cerchio and his colleagues first tuned into the whales' newfound song while in scientific pursuit of a pod of Omura's whales off the coast of Madagascar several years ago. After hearing the rumblings of blue whales via a recorder planted on the coastal shelf, the researchers decided to drop their instruments into deeper water in the hopes of eavesdropping further. A number of blue whale populations, each with its own characteristic croon, have long been known to visit this pocket of the Indian Ocean, Dr. Cerchio said. But one of the songs that crackled through the team's Madagascar recordings was unlike any the researchers had heard.
The find is "a great reminder that our oceans are still this very unexplored place," said Asha de Vos, a marine biologist who has studied blue whales in the Indian Ocean but was not involved in the new study. Dr. Cerchio and his colleagues first tuned into the whales' newfound song while in scientific pursuit of a pod of Omura's whales off the coast of Madagascar several years ago. After hearing the rumblings of blue whales via a recorder planted on the coastal shelf, the researchers decided to drop their instruments into deeper water in the hopes of eavesdropping further. A number of blue whale populations, each with its own characteristic croon, have long been known to visit this pocket of the Indian Ocean, Dr. Cerchio said. But one of the songs that crackled through the team's Madagascar recordings was unlike any the researchers had heard.
Obviously (Score:3)
"unknown population of the leviathans has long been lurking in the Indian Ocean, leaving scientists none the wiser,"
Stuff you don't know never makes you wiser.
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Unless your name is Rumsfield, when the unknown unknowns help you wage wars on innocent people.
Re: Obviously (Score:5, Insightful)
Hate to tell you, but unknown unknowns is a real thing, exactly what causes the Dunning-Kruger effect, and a key element in how mental triggers work.
Stupid people aren't aware of them not being aware of so many things. Including their own stupidity. Making them confident. Intelligent people know that there are things they do not know. Making them doubt themselves a lot.
People laughing at Rumsfeld was a nice example of that. They thought unknown unknowns must be nonsense.
And the problem with people being triggered, is also that they often do not know they are triggered and not in control and don't really know that they should actually do. That's called a blind spot.
When they become aware of it, that does not mean they are in control of it. Then it is a sore spot.
So Rumsfeld was a real dick (of the Cheney kind), but there he was right there, even if he slightly misused it.
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People laughing at Rumsfeld was a nice example of that. They thought unknown unknowns must be nonsense.
And the problem with people being triggered, is also that they often do not know they are triggered and not in control and don't really know that they should actually do. That's called a blind spot.
When they become aware of it, that does not mean they are in control of it. Then it is "Social Proof".
FTFY
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People laughed at Rumsfeld because there were things he legitimately should have known.
Rumsfeld was the kind of leader who yells at his aids, "Give me options!" and when he has a few on the desk, he chooses one and thinks he is making decisions.
The depths of Rumsfeld's ignorance was much more profound than appropriate for someone who wants to kill people. Although if he weren't so ignorant he wouldn't have wanted to kill people, so maybe it was inevitable.
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People laughing at Rumsfeld was a nice example of that. They thought unknown unknowns must be nonsense.
For the most part, it wasn't the concept that resulted in mockery, but rather the clumsy way that it was expressed, almost to the point of being word salad:
"Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don't know we don't know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tends to be the difficult ones."
The problem is that "know" appears too many times to parse this sentence on the first try most of the time. I'm honestly not sure how he managed to construct that sentence in his head without completely losing track of what he was saying. :-)
Now let's rewrite that in a way that can be more easily understood:
"Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, those reports don't always really mean that it hasn't happened. Sometimes, we know that certain things have happened. Let's call those the "known knowns". Sometimes, we aren't sure if certain things have happened. We'll call those the "known unknowns". But there are also the unknown unknowns — situations in which we don't even know enough to ask whether those things have happened or not. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, events in that latter category tend to be the most problematic."
No one would mock that, because it makes sense
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Soon (Score:5, Insightful)
available in a fine Japanese restaurant near you - for research purposes of course.
Re: Soon (Score:5, Informative)
Sure they do. From Wikipedia:
"In Japan, several whale species have been targets of illegal captures, including humpback, minke, sperm whales, western gray, the endangered North Pacific right, and northern fin whale while utilizing harpoons for dolphin hunts or intentionally drive whales into nets."
The fact is, whaling in Japan is commercially non viable, with low domestic demand that will only get lower since younger Japanese don't really eat whale meat, and requiring millions of dollars in government subsidies every year. Not to mention morally wrong with the documented intelligence of whales.
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The morality doesnt change because you are murdering fewer people. Murder is murder.
So surely more murder is objectively worse than less murder.
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The sad part is you're not even bullshitting. Japan claims they catch whales for "research" purposes and the "research" meat somehow ends up in fish markets.
Re: Soon (Score:1)
...available in a fine Japanese restaurant near you
In Japan, whale meat was sold in tins and was the cheapest thing you could buy.
The whales were heard saying: (Score:4, Funny)
"Fuck. They found us!"
"There be whales here!" (Score:2)
"I'll bet they increase our sexual performance."
"I wonder what they taste like. That's a lot of food with one catch."
"For study, let's radio-tag as many as we can!"
"We could cash in on boat tours."
"Let's interact with them; I'm sure we won't scare them off..."
Follow the messenger (Score:2)
"Weighing" (Score:3)
Weighing is a funny term (albeit reasonable) when thinking about large whales. If you took a blue whale out of the water and placed it on a scale, it might weight 380,000 lbs, but its skeleton would collapse under the weight. It always amazes me that these creatures rely on the water itself to prevent their bodies from collapsing.
Re: "Weighing" (Score:4, Insightful)
You'd be surprised to learn how much we rely on the air pressure to keep our bodies together.
Re: "Weighing" (Score:2)
Ha, fair point!
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Re: "Weighing" (Score:1)
Our eyeballs rupture, alveoli implode, sinuses fill with blood, and we die pretty much immediately.
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Re: "Weighing" (Score:1)
Not entirely sure what in that article makes you think I was wrong. I guess when I said "more or less immediately" I should have said "90 seconds". But pretty much all of the symptoms I described are also described in that article.
Re: "Weighing" (Score:1)
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I suspect that ... (Score:2)
"Oh DAMN, they found us again!" (Score:2)
(Translated approximately)
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Minke whales eat fish (Score:2)
https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov... [noaa.gov].
Minke whales are baleen whales and they eat fish when they can.
Just because the primary diet of a blue whale is krill doesn't mean they can't eat fish it they swam their way.
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Japan shall take care of that (Score:2)