Difference between revisions of "2923: Scary Triangles"
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
{{incomplete|Created by the [http://www.atlanticconservationpartnership.com/conservation-research/bermuda-shark-project Bermuda Triangle] of the sea - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} | {{incomplete|Created by the [http://www.atlanticconservationpartnership.com/conservation-research/bermuda-shark-project Bermuda Triangle] of the sea - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} | ||
| + | [[Cueball]] is giving a marine biology lecture about sharks and seems to have mixed up icebergs with the topic. | ||
| − | + | In pop culture, {{w|shark}}s will often approach prey or people with only their front {{w|dorsal fin}} visible, which looks like a triangle, above the water. As far as prey are concerned, this is inaccurate, as most sharks will attack from below to keep the element of surprise. | |
| − | + | In the comic the joke is that Cueball reveals that only recently have the marine biologist learned that the triangle is only a small part of a shark. Until this revelation they sought that a shark was only the dorsal fin, the part shown in the drawing above the water. Hence sharks were also known as scary triangles as people died when those triangles arrived. But finally the community has learned that more than 90% (i.e. the rest of the shark's body) is hidden beneath the surface. Having learned this Cueball has thus drawn a dotted outline of the shark's body, beneath the scary triangular fin, showing what a shark looks under the surface. And is now lecturing about it to spread the message. | |
| − | The title text continues the joke explicitly saying that sharks are icebergs of the sea, except icebergs are already of the sea. | + | The 90% is taken from {{w|icebergs}}, which are often described as having 90% of their volume underwater. This would be true for clean ice in freshwater. But in reality icebergs are filled with air cavities and floats in salt water. So although most of the icebergs are beneath the surface, it is somewhat less than 90%. |
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| + | The title text continues the joke explicitly saying that sharks are icebergs of the sea, except icebergs are already in, and thus also of, the sea. Just as sharks. So this sentence makes no sense. | ||
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
Revision as of 08:35, 23 April 2024
| Scary Triangles |
 Title text: Concealed mostly beneath the surface, sharks are the icebergs of the sea. |
Explanation
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This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by the Bermuda Triangle of the sea - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks. |
In pop culture, sharks will often approach prey or people with only their front dorsal fin visible, which looks like a triangle, above the water. As far as prey are concerned, this is inaccurate, as most sharks will attack from below to keep the element of surprise.
In the comic the joke is that Cueball reveals that only recently have the marine biologist learned that the triangle is only a small part of a shark. Until this revelation they sought that a shark was only the dorsal fin, the part shown in the drawing above the water. Hence sharks were also known as scary triangles as people died when those triangles arrived. But finally the community has learned that more than 90% (i.e. the rest of the shark's body) is hidden beneath the surface. Having learned this Cueball has thus drawn a dotted outline of the shark's body, beneath the scary triangular fin, showing what a shark looks under the surface. And is now lecturing about it to spread the message.
The 90% is taken from icebergs, which are often described as having 90% of their volume underwater. This would be true for clean ice in freshwater. But in reality icebergs are filled with air cavities and floats in salt water. So although most of the icebergs are beneath the surface, it is somewhat less than 90%.
The title text continues the joke explicitly saying that sharks are icebergs of the sea, except icebergs are already in, and thus also of, the sea. Just as sharks. So this sentence makes no sense.
Transcript
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This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks. |
- [Cueball points with a stick to a poster behind him that has a diagram of a shark in the water with some unreadable labels pointing to its dorsal fin and gills. The outlines of the shark under the water are in dashed lines.]
- Cueball: Today's marine biology lecture is on sharks. We all know them as the scary triangles of the sea, but recent research has revealed that the triangle is only a small portion of the shark - over 90% of it is hidden beneath the surface.
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refresh comments!Discussion
Sharks are but two-dimensional icebergs. [ What is Titanic in this metaphor? ] JohnHawkinson (talk) 00:17, 23 April 2024 (UTC)
- The Orca. Barmar (talk) 00:33, 23 April 2024 (UTC)
- A castaway sitting on a floating log. :) NiceGuy1 (talk) 05:06, 28 April 2024 (UTC)
This feels like a riff on cosmology, not sure if it's meant to be it specifically, just sounds a lot like "recent research has discovered 90% of the mass in the universe is dark matter" kind of thing. 172.69.22.56 03:57, 23 April 2024 (UTC)
- No for sure it is a riff on icebergs. It is also not very recent that we found out that most mass in galaxies seems to be invisible (dark matter) --Kynde (talk) 11:41, 23 April 2024 (UTC)
- Surely we've known about icebergs for longer. But the fact that they are referenced in the title text reads to me that that's a secondary layer of the joke. 172.69.140.142 06:02, 24 April 2024 (UTC)
Just like 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea predicted the modern submarine, so too did Jaws predict the modern shark. --NeatNit (talk) 04:43, 23 April 2024 (UTC)
No, the joke is, in my opinion, NOT that Cueball didn't understand that sharks don't always show this behaviour and that 90% of it are below the surface is no "conclusion" but the "recent discovery" he (and his team, most likely) just made. The joke is the analogy to icebergs and that only "recent research" has shown that sharks are much more than the "scary triangles of the sea". Pretty much like the discovery that icebergs are much more than what can be seen from the surface was a "huge" surprise in the 18th century. Unfortunately I currently don't have the time to rewrite the explanation in that regards. Elektrizikekswerk (talk) 06:52, 23 April 2024 (UTC)
- I think I, and others, did rewrite it, hope it is an improvement? --Kynde (talk) 11:41, 23 April 2024 (UTC)
- Yes, thanks :) Elektrizikekswerk (talk) 13:21, 23 April 2024 (UTC)
"90% of the universe is composed of faecal matter" - this is another fundamental law, coincidentally found out by a person named like another large fish, so there is clearly a pattern emerging and Cueball might be on to something. Will we get to a Grand Unified Theory of Everything and Its Dog through sharks, icebergs, dark matter and literary genres? PaulEberhardt (talk) 22:04, 23 April 2024 (UTC)
- Don't you mean '...everything and its dogfish'?141.101.99.169 08:30, 24 April 2024 (UTC)
- actualy just statistical error. only 2% of the universe is poop. Feces Georg --172.69.79.183 08:44, 24 April 2024 (UTC)
- Depends whether you're measuring volume or mass. Basically you're talking at cross poopuses.141.101.99.20 12:07, 24 April 2024 (UTC)
BLÅHAJ
Yes! If you learn enough about the culture of Blåhaj, you will recognize that 90% of it is hidden below the visual appearance. (Okay, I got the iceberg attribution a few seconds before I got the link to Blåhaj, but now I am convinced. :D ) --162.158.111.211 15:25, 23 April 2024 (UTC)
Factoid
Mar 10, 2024 — noun. fac·toid ˈfak-ˌtȯid. Synonyms of factoid. A spurious "fact," assumed to be true simply because it appears in print. Coined by Norman Mailer in his 1973 biography of Marilyn Monroe. -- Greeseyparrot (talk) 21:06, 26 April 2024 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
- Yeah, the suffix "-oid" means having the form of something but not being one. "Android" or "humanoid" has the form of a human but isn't one. "Spheroid" is like a sphere but not one. "Crystalloid" has crystal-like properties but isn't a crystal. Etc. :) (I keep having to remind myself to stop using "factoid" and realizing we need a replacement to ACTUALLY mean "tiny fact". :) ) NiceGuy1 (talk) 05:18, 28 April 2024 (UTC)
- You needn't dismiss all <X>oids as not examples of an <X>. It's a superset. A cuboid (a hexahedron with the equivalent form as a cube) can indeed be a fully regular rectangular cuboid (i.e. an actual cube).
- When you're not sure about the figure emerging from the mist in front of you not being a trivial arrival rather than a supernatural/extraterrestrial visitation, you can describe it as humanoid and not actually be wrong when it turns out to be a human.
- A factoid, therefore could be 'true', but it certainly gives room for various unstated nuances in the 'soundbite statement'. 141.101.99.97 13:20, 28 April 2024 (UTC)
