At a certain level of intoxication I can look at the torsion of a non-trivial closed 2-manifold and think “holy shit, that’s fucking hilarious, I never thought that would happen ever” and then at a certain level of intoxication I can realize that I’m drunk and go to bed
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(May 12, 2023) We are raising money for a crowd funded research project investigating the cause of blueberry hermit crabs in Okinawa, Japan using trash found on the beach as “homes” instead of natural shells. These hermit crabs are endemic to the southern islands of Japan, and they act as coastal environmental engineers. They are endangered on several islands, and we want to try and understand why they are resorting to beach trash for shells. Please consider sharing this post and donating to the project. The fundraising will be active for the next 45 days (until June 26).
You can find all project details here: https://experiment.com/projects/blueberry-hermit-crabs-with-beach-trash-homes
We suspect that areas with high rates of tourism lead to beach combers collecting natural shells leaving nothing for the hermit crabs to use. It’s possible that overfishing of turbo snails which would naturally provide shells for the crabs may also be a factor. We will survey many sites across several islands in Okinawa to try and determine a cause of this behavior.
We will be working closely with national geographic photographer Shawn Miller (photo credits above) and several researchers in Japan. Additionally, we will complete extensive beach clean ups in the areas we study. Thank you so much for reading!
Not to go against The Narrative, but has anyone checked to see if these anthropogenic shell substitutes have any advantages?
Animals aren’t dumb. If using a PVC elbow joint as a shelter stymies a predator that is, I dunno, well adapted to pulling the crabs from shells, that’s something to consider. I see at least one with a metal shelter. How does the impact resistance compare to shell?
What I’m saying is that we made these things to be useful. It’s weird to anthropomorphize and shame the crabs for wanting to use our discarded but useful creations. It’s garbage to us.
If this process distresses us, maybe we should examine the core premise of making things to throw away. I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but Nature is going to use our creations whether we like it or not so maybe we should put a bit more forethought into what we make in the first place.
[id: 8 gifs from season 3, episode 14 “heart of stone” from the tv series “star trek: deep space nine”, the gifs show julian bashir, and benjamin sisko walking through the promenade.
1st, 2nd gif: julian and sisko are walking in tandem,
sisko asks “I see you’ve put in a request to reassign Ensign Vilix'pran from cargo
inspection.” julian takes a breath before replying, “I think that would be best. Given his condition, I don’t want
him coming into contact with any hazardous materials.”
3rd & 4th gif: sisko asks, “his condition?” and julian elaborates, “vilix'pran is budding. his buds are undergoing individuation in just over a month.” sisko is elated with the realisation, “you mean, he’s pregnant.” julian confirms, “twins.” “ah. reassignment granted.”
5th gif: “i’ll have to make sure I offer my congratulations to the ensign the next time i see him.“ sisko continues.
6th
& 7th gif: “well, o'brien and i are throwing him a baby shower in a couple of days. i think it would mean a lot to him if you were there.” julian informs sisko. “are you getting him anything?” sisko asks, “o'brien’s building him a hatchling pond and i’ve put an order in with garak for some new baby clothes.”
8th gif: sisko and julian come to a pause. “count me in.” sisko tells julian and claps him on his shoulder, “aye, sir.” sisko walks away with a smile, he speaks to himself, “ensign pran… hmm.” /id end]



