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How automatic transmission almost made sperm whales extinct

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Re: How automatic transmission almost made sperm whales extinct

#11

Post by rsanchez1 »

srean wrote: post #8

Sperm whales are incredibly interesting animals. Amongst their multiple records is their ability to dive deep, fast and long. They are the deepest diving warm blooded animal, they go close to 25 times deeper than their other equally famous and endangered cousin the blue whale. To give an idea of how deep they dive, here is an infographic http://i.imgur.com/ESp2j.jpg The jpg needs to be magnified to get the perspectiv…

That's a very interesting infographic. Is the pixel at 15,000ft supposed to be a scale representation of the Alvin?

And, Cthulu? WTF?

Re: How automatic transmission almost made sperm whales extinct

#12

Post by jamesbkel »

srean wrote: post #8

Sperm whales are incredibly interesting animals. Amongst their multiple records is their ability to dive deep, fast and long. They are the deepest diving warm blooded animal, they go close to 25 times deeper than their other equally famous and endangered cousin the blue whale. To give an idea of how deep they dive, here is an infographic http://i.imgur.com/ESp2j.jpg The jpg needs to be magnified to get the perspectiv…

A quick addition to the awesomeness of sperm whales: part of the reason they dive so deep/long is to hunt giant squid. While a sperm whale vs. giant squid battle has never been observed, there are multiple counts of sperm whales with scars that are from squids and in some cases almost certainly from giant squid.

Re: How automatic transmission almost made sperm whales extinct

#13

Post by bdunbar »

rsanchez1 wrote: post #9

It boggles the mind why the car companies lobbied to keep whale hunting when their numbers were already so low. They wanted a few more years of automatic transmission working at then-current levels, and then what? The same mass transmission failures that happened, only without anymore whales left. Poachers are similarly mind boggling. Instead of leaving a viable population to harvest more animal parts (not saying it'…

Poachers are similarly mind boggling. Instead of leaving a viable population to harvest more animal parts ... they hunt down every last animal then move on to other animals.

Poaching makes sense to the poacher.

Take a guy I might or might not be related to. When he was growing up his family was dirt-poor and rural. Taking game out of season meant the difference between eating and starvation.

Hard on the deer, if you have a lot of people like that, granted. But laws and conservation and 'think about next year' don't mean much when your family needs to eat today.

Re: How automatic transmission almost made sperm whales extinct

#14

Post by streptomycin »

rsanchez1 wrote: post #9

It boggles the mind why the car companies lobbied to keep whale hunting when their numbers were already so low. They wanted a few more years of automatic transmission working at then-current levels, and then what? The same mass transmission failures that happened, only without anymore whales left. Poachers are similarly mind boggling. Instead of leaving a viable population to harvest more animal parts (not saying it'…

> It boggles the mind why the car companies lobbied to keep whale hunting when their numbers were already so low. They wanted a few more years of automatic transmission working at then-current levels, and then what? The same mass transmission failures that happened, only without anymore whales left.

Tragedy of the commons.

Re: How automatic transmission almost made sperm whales extinct

#15

Post by bdunbar »

_THE_PLAGUE wrote: post #7
tyng wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you think human should be playing God?

It is not playing God to hunt to get the resources we need, like, say, hunting buffalo for their meat and fur. That is just survival. We need the whale oil, so hunting them is no more playing God than is hunting buffalo. I do not see a problem here.

It's a lot easier to herd and harvest buffalo than to hunt them down.

Also lets one see them for what they really are: just a big shaggy cow.

Re: How automatic transmission almost made sperm whales extinct

#16

Post by RyanMcGreal »

streptomycin wrote: post #14
rsanchez1 wrote: post #9

It boggles the mind why the car companies lobbied to keep whale hunting when their numbers were already so low. They wanted a few more years of automatic transmission working at then-current levels, and then what? The same mass transmission failures that happened, only without anymore whales left. Poachers are similarly mind boggling. Instead of leaving a viable population to harvest more animal parts (not saying it'…

> It boggles the mind why the car companies lobbied to keep whale hunting when their numbers were already so low. They wanted a few more years of automatic transmission working at then-current levels, and then what? The same mass transmission failures that happened, only without anymore whales left. Tragedy of the commons.

Tragedy of the unregulated commons.

Re: How automatic transmission almost made sperm whales extinct

#17

Post by DanielBMarkham »

I expect we'll see a similar process with using animals for food. As our scientific knowledge increases, and as our needs increase, synthetic meats will become more and more attractive, eventually leaving us all meat-eaters who do not harvest animals.

Complex systems remind me of a theater set up for a complex play. Hundreds of ropes hang down from the ceiling. Somebody is always pleading us with us to pull rope A to make B happen.

Very rarely does pulling rope A actually make B happen (and nothing else) But we still like thinking things are simple like that.

Re: How automatic transmission almost made sperm whales extinct

#18

Post by JonnieCache »

jamesbkel wrote: post #12
srean wrote: post #8

Sperm whales are incredibly interesting animals. Amongst their multiple records is their ability to dive deep, fast and long. They are the deepest diving warm blooded animal, they go close to 25 times deeper than their other equally famous and endangered cousin the blue whale. To give an idea of how deep they dive, here is an infographic http://i.imgur.com/ESp2j.jpg The jpg needs to be magnified to get the perspectiv…

A quick addition to the awesomeness of sperm whales: part of the reason they dive so deep/long is to hunt giant squid. While a sperm whale vs. giant squid battle has never been observed, there are multiple counts of sperm whales with scars that are from squids and in some cases almost certainly from giant squid.

They find giant squid beaks inside sperm whale stomachs too.

Re: How automatic transmission almost made sperm whales extinct

#19

Post by cq »

Sad how there's no discussion of the economy that enables stuff like this to happen. "Why were people so cruel and evil?" is a stupid question; it's not about cruelty or being "evil". It's about money. Don't expect people to be moral in this economic system. Morality is a weakness in a capitalist society, and you'll go out of business if you bring morality into a competitive business ecosystem. This is why we need to change the rules of our economic system, if you care about morality.

Moreover, sure P. S. Landis "saved the whales", but he didn't do it to save the whales, he did it to generate an enormous amount of profit for Mobile Oil, and was paid for it handsomely.

Re: How automatic transmission almost made sperm whales extinct

#20

Post by JonnieCache »

plq wrote: post #10
srean wrote: post #8

Sperm whales are incredibly interesting animals. Amongst their multiple records is their ability to dive deep, fast and long. They are the deepest diving warm blooded animal, they go close to 25 times deeper than their other equally famous and endangered cousin the blue whale. To give an idea of how deep they dive, here is an infographic http://i.imgur.com/ESp2j.jpg The jpg needs to be magnified to get the perspectiv…

What is the gibberish between 31.000 and 36.000 feet supposed to mean? Just an oversight?

It's the invented script from the Cthulhu mythos by the gothic horror writer HP Lovecraft. Cthulhu slept at the bottom of the sea, before being awakened by man or something. I don't know, I haven't read it. That's what the big scary monster thing to the left of the script is.

It's a big part of geek culture, it made its way into D&D, and via that into everything else.

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