Thoughts to ponder! Since the beat of the Katydids song is temperature dependent via chemical reactions, how and why do the songs of the related Whippoorwill and Chuck-wills-widow differ. Is the song encoded by the bird's genetics, learned, or a little of both? If genetic, is there a chemical process behind the differences in the different musical notes of the song? Josh, I know that you like the beautiful song and so do I, but the scientist in me wonders what is the cause for these things we observe.
Regarding the difference between the Nightjar birds, one's a violent sadist who's suffering from chronic depression and no motivation (according to Hank Williams at least "he sounds too blue to fly"), and the other is a Hollywood gossip, going on endlessly about who's who's widow, a precursor to TMZ, no doubt. (Chuck, Will's widow.) Wait...this is a SOCIOLOGY book...I must reorganize my bookshelf.
This paragraph Feynman wrote always stands out for me:
"My wife would talk about the volcano downstairs. That's only an example: it was perpetually like that. Perpetual absurdity! There's no purpose whatsoever in adding the temperature of two stars. Nobody ever does that except, maybe, to then take the average temperature of the stars, but not to find out the total temperature of all the stars! It was awful! All it was, was a game to get you to add, and they didn't understand what they were talking about. It was like reading sentences with a few typographical errors, and then suddenly a whole sentence is written backwards. The mathematics was like that. Just hopeless! "
A column! How exciting! ;)
Thanks, Lisa! I'm stoked!
Thoughts to ponder! Since the beat of the Katydids song is temperature dependent via chemical reactions, how and why do the songs of the related Whippoorwill and Chuck-wills-widow differ. Is the song encoded by the bird's genetics, learned, or a little of both? If genetic, is there a chemical process behind the differences in the different musical notes of the song? Josh, I know that you like the beautiful song and so do I, but the scientist in me wonders what is the cause for these things we observe.
Regarding the difference between the Nightjar birds, one's a violent sadist who's suffering from chronic depression and no motivation (according to Hank Williams at least "he sounds too blue to fly"), and the other is a Hollywood gossip, going on endlessly about who's who's widow, a precursor to TMZ, no doubt. (Chuck, Will's widow.) Wait...this is a SOCIOLOGY book...I must reorganize my bookshelf.
Darn! I should have remembered to "follow the science" by watching TMZ. So many others do that, group think must be right, right?
“I'm not interested in what these scientists say. I'm interested only in the ‘scientific consensus’” - Neil deGrasse Tyson
Richard Feynman reviewed some science text books and was angered by the content. See <https://www.rangevoting.org/FeynTexts.html> for a description.
This paragraph Feynman wrote always stands out for me:
"My wife would talk about the volcano downstairs. That's only an example: it was perpetually like that. Perpetual absurdity! There's no purpose whatsoever in adding the temperature of two stars. Nobody ever does that except, maybe, to then take the average temperature of the stars, but not to find out the total temperature of all the stars! It was awful! All it was, was a game to get you to add, and they didn't understand what they were talking about. It was like reading sentences with a few typographical errors, and then suddenly a whole sentence is written backwards. The mathematics was like that. Just hopeless! "
I do love Feynman. He inspired me to prank steal a door once, and I love how that guy thought. What an on-point point here.