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| Ancient whale skulls (The Field Museum) |
Honestly? I was busy Monday morning. A colleague died suddenly Sunday, and I set to work writing his obituary. I hate to be coy, but don't want to scoop the paper. You'll find out Wednesday. So until about 3 p.m., I was talking to colleagues and bereaved loved ones, checking archives, writing.
When I was finished ... well, I just didn't have the bandwidth to listen to even five seconds of the speech. Doesn't matter anyway. Who cares what a chronic liar says or doesn't say? He freed all the Jan. 6 rioters. So much for law and order. Signed an order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as "the Gulf of America." An incredible self-own, like signing an affidavit to his own smallness, pettiness and triviality. What could I add to that?
Not that I don't have anything to add. I do: whales are descended from land animals. I learned this Sunday at the Field Museum. Actually, I misunderstood the plaque, and thought the take-away was "Whales descended from horses." Which would be truly marvelous, and had me wondering, almost indignantly, "Why has this information been kept from me?"
But that isn't the case. The ancestor is a deer-like, hooved creature — the hooves threw me off, making me think "horses." They can tell by the ankles, apparently.
Somehow, small deer-like creatures aren't quite as delightful, though I don't see why that should be. Maybe the "Ken Effect." Still, it shouldn't detract from focusing on what occurred. Food grew scarce, the deer-like beastie nudged itself toward the water to grab at fish, or plants, or whatever, and over a mere 10 million years ended up spouting plumes and being chased by Ahab. Dolphins did the same, evolving from a dog-like predator called a Mesonyx. The closest relatives of whales and dolphins now are hippos and cows.
Funny, I already knew whales were mammals. Rising to the surface to breathe, periodically. Live birth. And yet, somehow, never followed that through to its logical conclusion: how did mammals get into the sea? They were hungry, apparently.
There is a message there that applies to our current fraught political situation, and I hope you won't mind if I spell it out. Life is a long, long time. Things change. A small deer can, in time, become a gigantic whale. If you wait long enough.
There is a message there that applies to our current fraught political situation, and I hope you won't mind if I spell it out. Life is a long, long time. Things change. A small deer can, in time, become a gigantic whale. If you wait long enough.
I once worked with a guy who believed that the Earth was only 6,000 years old or so..
ReplyDeleteHe explained that the fossil record was put in place when God created the Earth just as a test for the faithful. I mentioned carbon dating and he said that God was capable of doing any thing he can fool the scientists and that anyone who questioned this was not going to find their way into heaven
I believe he was a Jehovah's witness and an otherwise sensible rational person.
Faced with this, I wondered how you could have a logical conversation with anyone?
There really is no way to argue claims like that. There is even a semi tongue-in-cheek philosophical argument/thought experiment that says you can't prove that the universe was not created last Thursday (or even 5 minutes ago), with everything, including memories, just manifested as we experience them right now: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Thursdayism
Delete"the Earth was only 6,000 years old"
Delete"capable of doing any thing he can fool the scientists"
If this person lived in a cave and never took part in modern society, I'd think he was quite misguided, but at least consistent. But lots of these folks drive SUVs, use smartphones and go to work in high-rises.
There's been a lot of trial and error involved in progressing to where civilization stands today, but there's also plenty of basic evidence that demonstrates that evolution has taken place over eons and that, for example, vaccines have been very beneficial.
These people think they can say that the world is 6,000 years old and that it's just a simple personal belief, like saying that orange is one's favorite color. That claim has profound implications beyond one's personal belief, however. The entire practical world is based on information related to the world being very, very old. Much that's been learned has relevance to various applications that impact people every day.
If the world were *actually* 6,000 years old, chances are good that human life expectancies would be similar to what they were 6,000 years ago, because so much of what's been learned could not possibly be valid. It's not all some kind of elaborate trick. When this guy goes to the doctor, he better hope (and more than likely grudgingly accepts the fact) that the folks treating him are more in tune with reality than he is.
That being said, Mark K is right with regard to arguing about it. The mystifying aspect is that there are doctors and engineers who somehow "believe" such things.
I think you're referring to my brother. He's said the same things about god and carbon dating. He's now saysTrump is a good Christian - he just gets bad advice. We're not speaking anymore.
DeleteI will never understand why believers can't see that the 13 billion year story of creation is more glorious than the puny 7 day version.
DeleteIn the face of the many pardons by Trump and also Biden, we lawyers are feeling that the third branch of government does not matter so much any more. This bodes ill, of course. A noticeable silence emanates from organized bar groups, even those who tout they stand up for the rule of law and judicial independence. We are working toward judicial irrelevance….
ReplyDeleteLawyers (& judges) have been crucial in the creation of the human obscenities now wholy in power in the US and most of the world.
DeleteNot working toward it. Cemented.
DeleteI don't believe we're working towards judicial irrelevance. its pretty clear we're in a place where the judiciary has replaced congress and the presidency.
Deletei am sick to fucking death of people reaching to claim comparisons between biden's pardons and trumps vile outrages. just stop it!!! trump has shown what a disgusting, dangerous man he is, and he has promised to do his worst to punish anyone who doesn't kiss his flabby ass. of course biden pardoned his family members and the political leaders who did their patriotic duty on congressional committees, to do anything else would be cowardly and irresponsible. as to pardoning his son? even the huckleberry lindsey graham admitted that anybody not named hunter biden would never have been charged the way that his son was, and hunter would have been hounded for another 4 years. this both-sidering is sick. ENOUGH.
Deleteyou couldn't be more right pgw.
DeleteAnd dolphins/porpoises= dogs
ReplyDeleteIn an anthropology course, I learned how hunger drove the profound transformation of many.
ReplyDeleteOf course it also resulted in the demise of many. Surviving the fray mostly intact is an accomplishment all its own.
“The sands of time grind exceedingly slow, but exceedingly fine” popped into my head as I got to the end of your column.
ReplyDeleteI love old things, especially old physical things.
ReplyDeleteThe older the thing, the more mystique it has. From old coins to fossils; Stonehenge to the Sears tower. I'm not sure i know how to define when something is old enough to become old. Is a coin from 1981 old? Is the bean (cloud gate) old? is Independence hall old?
I've had the good fortune to be able to travel internationally. For many of the trips, I stood in awe of things that were hundreds or thousands of years old. From Notre Dame to the walls of the old city of Jerusalem. From the Eiffel Tower to the Streets of Florence; From Normandy to the Appian way. Then I began to learn...
Oh no, the Ottoman's rebuilt the walls in the early 1900s. No Stonehenge was restored and re-laid out in the 1950s and 60s, and before that, 4,000 years or so before. The world and it's history started to look more the Ship of Theseus than the Titanic.
We write our history. Much of our history is erased and rewritten, only to be re-found out years.
Don't let the chaos of the day rewrite the annuls of history. And if it does, be prepared to strip some of it clean, and warn the world of what and why it was changed.
Maybe that's why dolphins like humans, and whales not so much.
ReplyDeleteI didn't watch. Just couldn't. I heard later that Melania's hat stole the show.
ReplyDeleteTook a sick day, and kept all the screens off, so I wouldn't throw up.
Deleteshe looked like Natasha from Rocky and Bullwinkle
DeleteI thought she looked like Yoko. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
DeleteI suppose, but the actual quote (apparently paraphrased from Ancient Greek) is “The wheels of justice turn slowly, but grind exceedingly fine”
ReplyDeleteThe Sears Tower will always be the Sears Tower and the Gulf of Mexico will always be the Gulf of Mexico and Trump will always be a cretin and a felon
ReplyDeleteWe always watch. And were appalled by what he promised, but not surprised. Going to be a hard four years. Unless he figures out a way to run again. Am sure he/they will try. And saddened by what he promised to do to immigrants-but also not surprised. He told us.
ReplyDeleteMelania looked like an Amish man
ReplyDelete