Summer reading, LJ angst, and Lungfish

[altivo]

Not necessarily in that order.

On Tuesday we acquired a new aquarium at the library, complete with occupant. Someone donated a 20 year old African lungfish. Now this is a weird thing to have in a library, but the boss says we're keeping it so that's that. We do have a regular fresh water tank with colorful little fishes in it that's popular with the kids. When the offer of a lungfish came in, our regular fish maintenance guy was consulted and he was so intrigued that he donated a large tank and stand for it.

Lungfish are interesting because they actually have lungs (or rather, a lung) and can breath air, but also still have gills. They are equipped to survive drought by burrowing into the mud when their lakes or ponds dry up, and surrounding themselves with a protective gooey slime. They can live that way for months (reportedly up to three years or more) until it rains again. They have very rudimentary hind legs and can travel awkwardly over dry land for short distances.

The lungfish is not going to win any beauty contests with me, though. It looks like a muddy eel with a large mouth full of teeth, and needs live earthworms or other similar food twice daily. We know that this one is female, and is at least 20 years old and probably not a whole lot more than that. She is somewhere between 18 inches and 24 inches long and seems intelligent for a fish. Since she can breathe air, the tank cover has to be anchored with velcro to keep her from lifting it and slithering out. Her new home is larger than the one she came from, which is probably a relief for her, but we're limiting her food to about half the normal amount for the moment until we're sure she's settled in. Apparently the lungfish can live as long as 80 years or more... The kids are excited about her, but one of our older users complained this afternoon that she gives him nightmares.

The summer reading program is now half over. It's an ordeal for library staff, but a tradition that probably isn't going away soon. Our door count has been about double the normal for the last three weeks. Today it was down to almost normal, and the remark was made that it didn't seem that quiet. I had to point out that we had a lot of very hyperactive younger kids in today, and each of them probably counted for four or five normal ones.

I'm watching my friends list nervously as one person after another deletes his/her journal. It's like an epidemic of some sort. I don't quite get it, but certainly don't plan to go anywhere myself.

Comments

[hgryphon.livejournal.com]

The lungfish is hypothesized to be a missing link between icthyoids and land dwelling cordites. Do you know which species it is?

And LOL lungfish nightmares. Wonder if they're vore nightmares. :D

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I think it's Protopterus annectens. The most current thought on evolution, however, says that this family evolved much too recently to be a "missing link". Evidently they can tell this stuff by DNA analysis now.

[hgryphon.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes they can. I guess I should rephrase this.

Biologists think it was a fish with rudimentary proto-legs and perhaps even a lung... And who knows, perhaps the modern lungfish is a copy cat evolver. ;)

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

It sounds really interesting- aside from equines, my next favorite type of animals are aquatic creatures- and I've always wanted to see a lungfish... a library with an aquarium- COOL!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Most public aquaria seem to keep a lungfish specimen because they are such curiosities. I've seen them before in Detroit, Chicago, and Seattle. In fact, when the donation was first offered, I remembered what they were like and pointed out that they were hardly "attractive" things. Though I'm sure the kids will like it just because it's "creepy" and "weird." Our fish guy put a large piece of driftwood in the tank and says she will eventually take to climbing on it so that she is partly out of the water for brief periods of time. Now that's going to look really weird.

weIrd O_o

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

I've always been fond of the odd-looking & -behaving creatures myself... I'll take unusual over aesthetically pleasing any day... climbing? Awesome!

[kakoukorakos.livejournal.com]

It's a discipline known as cladistics, a topic I've been babbling about a lot lately in my futile debates with creationists. Cladistics are a way of quantifying differences between species to determine how closely related they are to each other and the likelihood that they're directly related. Most extant "missing links" are nothing of the sort, as you say, but they're rather species that just didn't diverge as far from a common ancestor as other extant species. The monotremes are other good examples, you should get a platypus to keep that lungfish company. They do little more than offer a better glimpse at common ancestors of which there don't seem to be any traces left (that have been discovered anyway). DNA is one factor that is weighed, but they also look at specific phenotypes too, and compare all the factors to figure out which differences are statistically significant. It's about as pure as theoretical science in practice gets, I think it's my favorite aspect of macrobiology.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Rather like proto- or paleo-linguistics, a field that I understand somewhat better but that works on much the same principles.

[kakoukorakos.livejournal.com]

Yes, pretty much exactly like those :)

[dakhun.livejournal.com]

I'm watching my friends list nervously as one person after another deletes his/her journal. It's like an epidemic of some sort.

Whenever someone deletes, I imagine that they feel as bad as I did the one time that I deleted. On the other hand, if they don't feel bad about it, I think I'd have cause to be even more concerned, for other reasons.

It could well be an epidemic of sorts. One person deleting or dropping someone else certainly can and does occasionally induce that other person to do the same; either to likewise delete, abandon their journal, or drop other people.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

There are connections in some cases of which I'm aware. The reasons given in most situations seem very overreactive to me, though.

[dakhun.livejournal.com]

It's a little bit more than just LIKE an epidemic if there are connections, no?

News report:

[altivo.livejournal.com]

"A plague of emo-flu swept across LiveJournal this week, causing a large number of members to close their accounts though it is not clear whether the close-outs were caused by the flu itself or just a fearful reaction. Managing company SixApart could not be reached for comment, though rumor has it that they are working on artificial intelligence based bots who will continue to write and comment in the style of departed users in order to nip this sort of trend in the bud."

Re: News report:

[dakhun.livejournal.com]

Oh. :-)
Well, I hope nobody is *still* deleting their accounts because of that.

There's so many other things they can get emo about anyway. ;-)

[lobowolf.livejournal.com]

I'm watching my friends list nervously as one person after another deletes his/her journal. It's like an epidemic of some sort. I don't quite get it, but certainly don't plan to go anywhere myself.

I've noticed that too...I guess the summertime angst season is in full swing.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

And why summer? That does seem to be a repeating pattern, though it's worse this year than usual. I'd expect that the short gloomy days of winter would produce more of this sort of thing, rather than summer.

[calydor.livejournal.com]

But the heat makes people more irritable and hot-headed, the long, warm nights makes it harder to sleep so people tend to be tired and grumpy, and eventually things just blow up. As was described above, it may just be one to set it off, and it starts a domino effect.

On that note, I probably should be posting more myself.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I guess that makes sense, sort of. If you haven't yet, check your gmail. I posted revisions to your document, but nothing major.

[calydor.livejournal.com]

I saw it, but forgot to tell you thanks. Intended to when I saw you 'in person' on Taps, but you haven't been there in a while apparently.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

OK, that's good. Just wanted to be sure you got it.

[lobowolf.livejournal.com]

You would think that, yes. But I've noticed that pattern on Furrymuck too. Winter didn't seem to be a problem, but come summer, it seemed like "teh drama" would kick into high gear. In winter, people are busy with school and whatnot, and also I think online activity lends some cohesiveness to those long and lonely winter nights.

I think when summer comes, everyone is out and about doing things IRL and not online as much, and I think this tends to lead to more conflicts because there's more going on IRL and there's less unity in online communities. Plus people tend to move and leave school in spring and summer.

Just guesses...but I've noticed a definite change in the stability of online relationships corresponding to the late spring and summer months.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Online relationships have stability? Where? How? ;p

I'm fairly immune to seasonal changes myself, because I like all the seasons in one way or another, but I know they affect some people drastically.

[lobowolf.livejournal.com]

Well...maybe stability is the wrong word...continuity? I'm somewhat less likely to be online in the warmer months because in the good weather I'm out working on house projects..but for the most part, I don't think the seasons affect much for those of us who hold down full-time jobs.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Oh they do, but not in such extremes I think. For instance, there's leaf-filtered sunlight coming in my window as I write this, and I was just out in the pasture with Tess. I have a lot more daylight hours when I'm not at work, while in winter I leave shortly after dawn and get home at dusk.

'Scuse me. *gets distracted by sunlight on the leaves and has to go back outdoors...*

[delphinios.livejournal.com]

I've made it this many years, don't plan on going anywhere either. :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear that. I do like reading your posts. ;D

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

No angst here, either. Sure, I have an occasional 'off' day, but it takes QUITE a lot to make me get angsty and take my balls n' go home :P

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, if you're going to go home, certainly you want to take your balls with, no?

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

Heh... you never know when they'll come in handy :P

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Golf? Or maybe tennis? ;p

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

We have them in a local resevoir, once when they let some water out of the spillway dad took me along the creek and we saw a few :) Big they were too.

I never saw the point of deleting an LJ unless you aren't really using it much.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I guess they can grow quite large, up to a couple of meters long. Now that would give me nightmares too. ;p

The Australian species are a different family but similar in their evolution.

[corelog.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm certainly not going anywhere. Though I'm doing my best to be small and quiet, considering the last crack you made recently about people angsting over AC and all. Not hurt or anything, I don't like being seen as a source of angst.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

You have some legitimate reasons for angst, wuffy, though I don't really think AC is one of them. And I don't expect you would delete your LJ over angst in any case, though sometimes I do think you bottle things up too much inside yourself.

When it comes time for RF you'll be the one who goes off while others angst about not being able to go. It all comes out even in the end.

[corelog.livejournal.com]

That's possible, but RF is no where near likely to have the same kind of draw that AC has. Therefore, there will be less angst over missing it, because it's not the "big" con. To be honest, I don't expect anybody to angst about missing it at all.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah? Well. I'd rather be at RF than AC. Big is not better. And besides, you'll be at RF, which would be a good reason for me to want to go.

[hellmutt.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear there will yet be 'Tivo.

And the lungfish is unbelievably cool and I'm so jealous. We don't get pets here, unless the Siemens technicians count. ;)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I felt the same way about the technical consulting firm that used to come in here weekly. I always had to clean up after them. In fact, they've been gone for a year and I'm still cleaning up after them, like finding petrified messes left behind the sofa by a long-departed cat.