h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Even in infrared! http://us1.campaign-archive.com/?u=2889002ad89d45ca21f50ba46&id=718a22115c

I'm afraid that's just a more plausible version of the myth that polar bears cover their noses while hunting. They are the apex predator in the arctic so have no need to camouflage themselves.

While resting, that should say. i.e. in normal circumstances nothing is going to bother them so they can just rest as they wish.

>> They are the apex predator in the arctic
so have no need to camouflage themselves. <<

Once upon a time, back when they were just evolving into
white bears from their original brown and black cousins (1),
there weren't as many caves as there are today so they
had to hibernate in snow banks beside rock outcroppings,
large boulders or even giant redwood or Douglas fir logs.

The apex predator is and always was human. The behavior
of bears covering their snouts while sleeping is a naturally
evolved (natural selection) survival strategy. All bears do it
but white bears can make it work when sleeping in snow.

Happily, there was an ice-age happening at the time so there
was lots of snow and they adapted the habit of backing into
their dens to face outwards.

Even today, aboriginals hunt bears of all types by perching
above a den entrance and clubbing them on the snout as they
begin to emerge. Stunned, half asleep and weak from hunger
they are then easily brought down by spears and clubs.

(1) http://baddaymagazine.com/index.php/?/v4/entry/803


~jwf~

How many humans do you think were running around Europe when polar bears evolved from their brown bear cousins?

Maybe they rode on dinosaurs to chase the bears?

Back to facts. In South America, instead of Bruce Wayne, the name used for Batman´s secret identity was Bruno Diaz.

"The apex predator is and always was human."

Um. No. That's like saying humans are the pinnacle of evolution.

As for bears covering their snouts while sleeping... A cursory Google search reveals no mention of such behaviour except as a myth about hunting polar bears, an *image* search shows a bunch of snoozing bears with distinctly uncovered noses. I won't bother asking for your sources because you'll just refuse to give any as usual.

Is the apex a distant relative of the ibex?

But humans are the pinnacle of evolution.
If only because evolution is a human conceit.

Other critters aren't keeping score.
Not because they don't count.

It's because keeping score is also a human trait.
It only matters to humans and counts for nothing
in the grander scale of things.


~jwf~

PS: You win. I'm an idiot. I'll tell the bears.

Evolution is a human what now? I'm pretty sure it actually happens, the only conceit being the ill informed idea that evolution works towards a goal.

Word Origin & History

conceit
late 14c., from conceiven (see conceive).
An Eng. formation based on deceit and receipt.
Sense evolved from "something formed in the mind," to
"fanciful or witty notion" (1513), to "vanity" (1605) through
shortening of self-conceit (1588).

conceit

figure of speech, usually a simile or metaphor, that forms an extremely ingenious or fanciful parallel between apparently dissimilar or incongruous objects or situations. The Petrarchan conceit, which was especially popular with Renaissance writers of sonnets, is a hyperbolic comparison made generally by a suffering lover of his beautiful and cruel mistress to some physical object-e.g., a tomb, the ocean, the sun.

The metaphysical conceit, associated with the Metaphysical poets of the 17th century, is a more intricate and intellectual device. It usually sets up an analogy between one entity's spiritual qualities and an object in the physical world.


Not exactly a useless fact.


~jwf~

I've never thought that polar bears would cover their faces because they were hiding from predators but rather from prey. If a polar bear does cover its face when sleeping, I'd suspect it does so for the same reason I do; to keep the sun out of my eyes.

Since a butt is particular size wine cask equivalent to two hogsheads, a buttload is about 475 - 480 litres.

Useless fact: there are Mayan calendars which go beyond 2012.

If the Spanish conquistadors hadn't wiped them out, they probably would have finished all their calendars.

It is said, by me mainly, that Mayan Calendars all had pictures of fluffy bunnies, semi naked men carrying tyres or women in various states of undress until the terrible flood caused them all to go soggy and fall off. Oh look mine says 1/1/12 - Happy New Year!

And if anyone believes evolution was aimed to bring forth the peak of creation...have a look into my shaving merror in the morning.

Habby N´yaah, all yall.

No matter where you were on Earth, you probably did not ring in the new year at the correct time. The earth completes its orbit regardless of local time zones. So, since so many of you are in the Greenwich time zone, you probably think that you got it right. But you were about 18 hours off. Remember those pesky leap years? Every year is roughly 365.25 days so each year is about 6 hours longer than we think of it as being. But it's not exactly 0.25 days off either. This is why we skip leap years every 100 years... Unless that year is divisible by 400 because that's still not exactly right either.


Here's a better explanation: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/02/28/why-we-have-leap-days/

Time is indeed an illusion and a rather arbitrary one at that.