Saturday, February 22, 2014
Absurd Creature of the Week: This Fish Swims Up a Sea Cucumber’s Butt and Eats Its Gonads
If Buddhists are right about that whole reincarnation thing, it’d be hard to imagine what you’d have to do wrong to die and come back as a sea cucumber. One minute you’re human and the next you’re crawling around the seafloor as what is essentially a mobile intestine, hoovering up food at one end and expelling it through the other.
You’re breathing through your anus, by the way, and when you take a breath, the pearlfish strikes — squirming up your butt, making itself comfortable in your respiratory organ, and eating your gonads. Or, they’ll go up in pairs and have sex in your body cavity. And that’s when you realize that you must have been a really awful human being in a past life. Like, the type of person who talks on their phone in a movie theater kind of awful.
Such pearlfishes come in a range of species, and don’t necessarily limit themselves to invading sea cucumbers. They’ll also work their way into sea stars, and are so named because they’ve been found dead inside oysters, completely coated in mother-of-pearl. Beautiful, really, though I reckon the pearlfish would beg to differ.
This behavior is the strange product of a housing crisis. You see, shelter is in short supply on many seafloors, particularly those that lack reefs. And there are few better shelters than sea cucumbers, little mobile homes that pearlfishes will enter pretty much as they please, leaving to hunt and returning for protection. If they can’t return to the same one, no worries at all. There’s plenty of decent housing squirming around the seafloor — if you’re willing to live in a sea cucumber’s bum.
The pearlfish finds its reluctant host likely by smell, according to biologist Eric Parmentier of Belgium’s University of Liège. It then must choose the right end to enter, using its lateral line — sensory organs that detect movements in water — to hone in on the outflow from the respiratory tree at the anus.
“Two strategies are observed for entering,” Parmentier said. “One, head first by propelling itself with violent strokes of the tail; two, tail first by placing the head at the cloaca of the sea cucumber and moving the thin tail forward alongside its own body at the level of the lateral line,” then slowing backing into the host, though not yet all the way.
“The reason for this second strategy,” Parmentier said, “is that the host has detected the presence of the fish and, in response, closes its anus. But the host has to breathe, so it has to dilate the anus to realize the water flow. The fish blocks the aperture and the host has to enlarge this opening more and more.”
Depending on what species it is, the pearlfish initiates one of two relationships once inside: a commensal one, in which it simply takes up space without either helping or adversely affecting the sea cucumber, or a rather more parasitic one, in which it chows down on its host’s gonads.
The sea cucumber, though, has a trick up its sleeve. Remarkably, it can regenerate complex body parts like intestines and, yes, gonads. And it’s a damn good thing it can, because sea cucumbers defend themselves in what might be described as a fairly unorthodox manner.
“Probably the best thing that sea cucumbers are known for is evisceration,” said marine biologist Christopher Mah, “which is tossing their guts out at predators when they are
You’re breathing through your anus, by the way, and when you take a breath, the pearlfish strikes — squirming up your butt, making itself comfortable in your respiratory organ, and eating your gonads. Or, they’ll go up in pairs and have sex in your body cavity. And that’s when you realize that you must have been a really awful human being in a past life. Like, the type of person who talks on their phone in a movie theater kind of awful.
Such pearlfishes come in a range of species, and don’t necessarily limit themselves to invading sea cucumbers. They’ll also work their way into sea stars, and are so named because they’ve been found dead inside oysters, completely coated in mother-of-pearl. Beautiful, really, though I reckon the pearlfish would beg to differ.
This behavior is the strange product of a housing crisis. You see, shelter is in short supply on many seafloors, particularly those that lack reefs. And there are few better shelters than sea cucumbers, little mobile homes that pearlfishes will enter pretty much as they please, leaving to hunt and returning for protection. If they can’t return to the same one, no worries at all. There’s plenty of decent housing squirming around the seafloor — if you’re willing to live in a sea cucumber’s bum.
 |
| The pearlfish |
The pearlfish finds its reluctant host likely by smell, according to biologist Eric Parmentier of Belgium’s University of Liège. It then must choose the right end to enter, using its lateral line — sensory organs that detect movements in water — to hone in on the outflow from the respiratory tree at the anus.
“Two strategies are observed for entering,” Parmentier said. “One, head first by propelling itself with violent strokes of the tail; two, tail first by placing the head at the cloaca of the sea cucumber and moving the thin tail forward alongside its own body at the level of the lateral line,” then slowing backing into the host, though not yet all the way.
“The reason for this second strategy,” Parmentier said, “is that the host has detected the presence of the fish and, in response, closes its anus. But the host has to breathe, so it has to dilate the anus to realize the water flow. The fish blocks the aperture and the host has to enlarge this opening more and more.”
Depending on what species it is, the pearlfish initiates one of two relationships once inside: a commensal one, in which it simply takes up space without either helping or adversely affecting the sea cucumber, or a rather more parasitic one, in which it chows down on its host’s gonads.
The sea cucumber, though, has a trick up its sleeve. Remarkably, it can regenerate complex body parts like intestines and, yes, gonads. And it’s a damn good thing it can, because sea cucumbers defend themselves in what might be described as a fairly unorthodox manner.
“Probably the best thing that sea cucumbers are known for is evisceration,” said marine biologist Christopher Mah, “which is tossing their guts out at predators when they are
Friday, February 21, 2014
Sub Par
From Breitbart:
Six years ago street artist Shepard Fairey created “Hope & Change” posters from an AP photo to help elect Sen. Barack Obama and usher in a bigger machine while claiming the moniker of anti-establishment artist. Being a propagandist for the political ruling class is not the job of the artist. That’s best left for Leni Riefenstahl and the brown shirts of the past.
Artists should be the consciousness of the people asking questions of the political-ruling-class, like “Why can’t I keep my insurance," "why is the IRS singling me out" or "why was Benghazi blamed on a film?” The anti-establishment soul of the arts has become the establishment.
A government that doesn’t deliver its hope and change to the people gives the true artist an opportunity to speak out. That voice is slowly creeping into the art world. I wouldn’t call it conservative art because mainstream artists rarely call their art liberal.
With an imperial President wielding a nine-iron as a scepter and playing golf on the greens of drought-ridden California one unknown arts is telling it like it is. The artwork in question, which features an image of Obama golfing with the message “SUBPAR,” is being seen all over Santa Monica earlier this week.
Will we see more of this art, or will this artist stay in the shadows for fear of his art being taken away?
What Is Ragnarok? Viking Apocalypse Predicted For Saturday February 22
 |
A scene from Ragnarök, the final battle between
Odin and Fenrir and Freyr and Surtr.
Wikimedia Commons
|
According to Norse mythology, Ragnarok or “Doom of the Gods,” has been brewing for about 100 days. On Saturday, all the gods including Thor, Loki, Odin, Freyr and Hermóðr, will fight in an epic battle. Odin will be killed by Fenrir and the other creator gods will fall.
“The legend of Ragnarok tells of the fall of the Norse gods and the birth of a new world, but, of course, if we wake up to the same old world on the morning of Sunday, February 23, we’ll have no regrets – our celebrations also mark Jolablot, the Viking feast to hail the coming of spring, which to many people is the annual rebirth of the world!” Danielle Daglan, director of the 30th JORVIK Viking Festival to celebrate the apocalyptic event, told the Yorkshire Post in England.
Legend has it Ragnarok will begin when Fenrir the wolf breaks free from his imprisonment. This sets off a chain reaction of events where Jormungand the Midgard snake rises from the sea and a wolf eats the sun. This will culminate in a titanic battle among the gods, men and all the races of the nine worlds.
“The fight between Odin and Fenrir will rage for a long time, but finally Fenrir will seize Odin and swallow him. Odin's son Vidar will at once leap towards the wolf and kill him with his bare hands, ripping the wolf's jaws apart,” Encyclopedia Mythica describes. “Then Surt will fling fire in every direction. The nine worlds will burn, and friends and foes alike will perish. The earth will sink into the sea.”
The sequence of events was prophesied by Odin, who was able to predict the cataclysmic event after he hanged himself from a tree, died and was reborn with wisdom and foresight. This allowed Odin to foresee the events of Ragnarok in order to prepare for the end of the world.
Those who believe in the Ragnarok legend point to several signs to prove its matches the prophecies of the Viking apocalypse.
For instance the prediction:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)