Talk:2630: Shuttle Skeleton

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 03:14, 9 June 2022 by 172.71.26.59 (talk)
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Well, I know what "paint job" I'm putting on the pirate shuttle, in my next TTRPG session.
ProphetZarquon (talk) 13:12, 8 June 2022 (UTC)

TaxOnomy.

The joke here is about a recent California court case (https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/06/us/california-bees-fish-court-ruling-scn-trnd/index.html) which declared bumblebees to be considered fish under the California Endangered Species Act. The definition of "fish" listed in the act included invertebrates, which is why skeletons are relevant. Clam (talk) 14:36, 8 June 2022 (UTC)

I don't know if this comic is related to the bee/fish ruling or not. There have been many earlier works where the skeleton of a fictional person or creature has been shown (the Simpsons, Lego man, etc). SDSpivey (talk) 17:14, 8 June 2022 (UTC)

Could someone explain why this is a mammal skeleton and not say, something related to a crocodile or a bird? Currently there's only a hint what makes it look like one. Which doesn't say that much to someone who doesn't know mammal skeletons too well. TIA! Chichak (talk) 17:09, 8 June 2022 (UTC)

That's a good question, since there are lots of skeletal analogues among all the vertebrates. Crocodiles and birds only have 4 toes on their rear legs, so that could be part of it. It may just be an overall resemblance to whales, which we already know are mammals. Barmar (talk) 18:06, 8 June 2022 (UTC)
Well it definitely wouldn't be fish. -- Hkmaly (talk) 18:36, 8 June 2022 (UTC)
I'm actually confused about this. Mammals do not have ribs going all the way to the hips. Those look more like reptile ribs. 23:30, 8 June 2022 (UTC)

These "citation needed" tags are getting ridiculous, but I do wonder about whether any space craft had plastic parts. Metal, yes. Carbon fiber, yes. Plastic? I doubt it. SDSpivey (talk) 17:14, 8 June 2022 (UTC)

They SHOULD be ridiculous, so good job. Regarding the question, I guess space craft may have plastic cup holder for example. The plastic parts are unlikely to be on outside, but inside, why not? In Apollo 13, they were using plastic bags for something at least. -- Hkmaly (talk) 18:36, 8 June 2022 (UTC)
I was just thinking about the skeleton, you're right. SDSpivey (talk) 22:08, 8 June 2022 (UTC)

This comic was unexpectedly terrifying. Not sure what I expected, but it wasn't this.108.162.246.62 20:43, 8 June 2022 (UTC)

I was just reading D'Arcy Thompson's "On Growth and Form". (John Tyler Bonner's 1969 abridgement of the 1942 edition.) At the end of the book, Thompson draws skulls on a grid, such as an early ancestor of the horse, Hyracotherium, and then distorts the grid in a uniform way to produce a new sketch that resembles a related species. He then used the same technique to demonstrate that other species were not "missing links" between those two species, because he could not distort the grid to make them fit. Tanana (talk) 02:41, 9 June 2022 (UTC)

Well that's horrifying. TheLonelySandPerson (talk) 01:39, 9 June 2022 (UTC)

On a related note, the Apollo Lunar Module was a completely different design early on, but slowly evolved into its familiar crab-like shape through convergent evolution. 172.71.26.59 03:14, 9 June 2022 (UTC)