[Sca-cooks] new beasty

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Mar 23, 2006, at 1:50 PM, lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:

> "Marcha" <nigsdaughter at satx.rr.com> wrote:
>> Really, who cares whether it is a lobster or a crab?
>
> It is important to those who study sea life, and could turn out to  
> have effects on us, as we better understand other forms of life on  
> Earth.
>
>> All I know is that it is one Ugly critter.........or as my  
>> military children would say _ugly!
>
> Really? I think it's fascinating, and rather lovely - the mix of  
> textures and shades of white and off-white. I sent a link to an  
> artist who made a textile version she was so fascinated by its  
> appearance.

That was you?!?
>
>> Besides that, you can't eat it!
>
> There are many life forms on Earth we can't eat. I cannot eat a  
> redwood tree. Should i discount it for that reason?

I wonder if anyone tried to eat it. Or has it been determined that  
there's something obviously toxic about it? I'm reminded of a story I  
heard years ago, about a Japanese fishing trawler that somehow hooked  
(or netted) and landed one of the giant squids, the kind you see  
locked in combat with a model of a sperm whale at the American Museum  
of Natural History, and apparently the fishermen thought they had  
sashimi for a week or more. That is, until they discovered that the  
squid's ability to excrete ammonia was compromised by the decreased  
water/air pressure, so the meat was full of ammonia...

>
>> Interesting to note that there are still things like that crab/ 
>> lobster (looks more like a tick to me) out there still waiting to  
>> be found.
>
> Yes, that is interesting... and important, since they found this in  
> a place they weren't expecting to.

I wouldn't argue that there's probably not a lot to be learned from  
the beastie in question. If it's a very old life form that we simply  
haven't discovered could tell us a lot, and if it's something that  
actually is newish, it might tell us even more.

On the other hand, it does seem to have a high creepiness index for  
many people ;-)

Adamantius




"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la  
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them  
eat cake!"
     -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  
"Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
     -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry  
Holt, 07/29/04