Doug's Darkworld

In a desperate bid to come up with a topic to write about, I Googled unsolved scientific mysteries. And as is so often the case, the results were less than stellar. Sure, any number of sites with scientific mysteries, almost all of which were repetitive and, well, boring.  Things like “How did life originate?” or “How did the Universe begin?” I mean yes, they are mysteries, but everyone has heard of them before, and speculation runs rampant. I want mysteries that people have never heard of, we need entertainment here. Fortunately, using advanced Googling techniques I developed in another life, here are some new and exciting mysteries. Science still hasn’t answered everything, only Evangelicals and my old friend Vince can do that. Enjoy:

Facetotecta. It’s a larva, illustrated above. It’s a crustacean. Lots of legs. Lives in various oceans. First described in 1887. What do they grow up into? No one knows! It’s suspected it’s some sort of endoparasite (a parasite that lives inside its host, like a tapeworm.) So, maybe we don’t really want to know. Could be something like this critter, which can never be unseen so don’t click here if you are faint of heart. You were warned, nature trumps Steven King every time when it comes to horror.

And that’s all I could find. I’m just going to forge ahead, God only knows where to. So, August 2nd in history!  Well, the Battle of Cannae, 216 BC. One of the most crushing victories in history. I’ve blogged about it several times no doubt. The Battle of  Chaeronea in 338 BC where Philip II of Macedonia (his kid is pretty famous) destroyed the Greek armies of Athens and her allies. No details of the battle have survived, so no book or movie deals there. The Battle of the Nile raged in 1798, where Admiral Nelson utterly destroyed a French Fleet anchored off Egypt. Napoleon was not happy. August 2nd, a day for crushing victories.

And August 2, 1990, who can forget? Saddam, remember him, invades Kuwait. The bastard! What is always conveniently overlooked is that Kuwait did everything in its very considerable power to goad Saddam into taking military action against them. And clearly they would not have done so without explicit assurances from the USA. So basically Saddam walked into an ambush. And once America finally had an excuse to put boots on the ground in the Middle East, they never left. And that folks is why America’s infrastructure, schools, and health care systems are a disaster to this day. But boy, we really showed those people. (Sarcasm alert.)

Did I mention I’m in a very odd mood today? I suspect it’s clear from my odder than usual musings. Or rantings. Or whatever. Maybe the heat is  getting to me. Moving right along, I came across this interesting article. Basically the Navy’s latest supercarrier, the greatest and most expensive warship ever to be built, is having all sorts of expensive problems. More on point, which the article doesn’t really mention, why, exactly, are we building the greatest warship in history? The last time supercarriers won a war for us was in 1945. Even all our designated enemies combined are no threat to our fleet. Another example of “This is why we can’t have nice things.”

Fortunately in the upcoming election we will get to choose between a candidate who will give the military more than it asks for, and a candidate who will give the military all that it needs plus some. On such subtle differences we will all pretend we still live in a democracy. Sorry, drifted into politics there. Is talking about Trump’s claim he was with the first responders on 9/11 politics? With Trump I don’t even know anymore, his miasma has seeped into every pore of American life. I did realize he does have one thing in common with a certain dead dictator. They were both able to inspire fanatical blind loyalty in their core followers. Make of it what you will.

I was going to discuss the Texas tower shooting, 56 years ago yesterday. It’s depressing on multiple levels though. 18 dead, 31 wounded. One of the victims didn’t die until 2001. And depressing because events like that used to be rare. It would be nearly twenty years before a similar crime. Now they are a common occurrence. Maybe the new supercarrier will be able to do something about mass shootings? Oh, right, nothing can be done, the NRA, the fourth branch of government, assures us of that. Phew. And anywise, mass shootings are just a liberal plot to justify taking everyone’s guns away.

I think there was a power surge or some such in the computer that’s running our simulated reality, or maybe a virus. Cause things have sure gotten wonkey in the matrix . Have a great weekend everyone!

Copyright © 2019 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.

(Image: Facetotecta larva. Credit: Pérez-Losada, M., Høeg, J. T., Crandall, K. A. (2009). Remarkable convergent evolution in specialized parasitic Thecostraca (Crustacea). BMC Biology 7:15. doi:10.1186/1741-7007-7-15)