Tik tok, tik tok

 

Let´s be honest, sooner or later, Argentina will (re)take the Falkland Islands...

The pandemic next time?

 

Should we be worried about the hanta virus? A bit spooky that not even isolated island such as Saint Helena and Tristan da Cunha are entirely safe. The Canary Islands don´t count. 

I assume it´s contained now? 

Schwärmerei

 

Well, probably not...

Back to Asgard

 

Credit: pitpony.photography

I blogged about this before (see second link). This seems to be the sequel! So there is a hypothesis that the evolutionary ancestors of the eukaryotes (a vast group of organisms including animals, plants and fungi) were Archaea. Asgard Archaea, more exactly. Or perhaps some unknown microbe living in symbiosis with a bacterium *inside* an Archaeon? The content linked below isn´t entirely clear on this topic, but some kind of hybridization is the bottom line. 

The problem, apparently, is that the bacterium participating in the primordial merger needed oxygen to survive. Asgard Archaea, on the other hand, can´t stand oxygen. However, recent research suggests that some of them actually can do so, making the scenario more plausible. 

Personally, I like the fact that our deep evolutionary ancestors might (at least partially) be tentacled micro-organisms named after the abode of the Norse gods, and that some of them have been found in a remote part of the Atlantic Ocean named after Loki. Life looks like a "trickster", somehow...   

Ancient "Asgard" microbe might have used oxygen

This is us now

WTF

 

Credit: Mark Owens 

Is this even true? Or is it some kind of April Fool´s joke? 

Nils Olav

Bouvet Island

Ja vi elsker dette landet

 

Det norska stortinget röstade just för att behålla monarkin. HA HA HA. Utvisa hela stortinget till Bouvetöya! 

Possible ecologies

 

I actually assumed that marine cryptids are almost as implausible as terrestrial ones, but ChatGPT disagrees and thinks that at least in principle they are more likely. 

Explain why marine cryptids are more plausible than terrestrial ones.

Marine cryptids are more plausible than terrestrial ones not because the ocean is magical, but because physics, ecology, and sampling bias work very differently in water than on land. When scientists say this, they’re making a sober inference about where ignorance can realistically persist.

Here’s the reasoning, step by step.

---

1. The ocean is genuinely under-sampled

This is the single biggest factor.

• ~71% of Earth’s surface is ocean

• >80% of the ocean is unexplored at fine resolution

• Most of the deep sea has:

  • Never been directly observed

  • Never been biologically sampled

  • Never been filmed continuously

By contrast:

• Virtually all terrestrial biomes have been repeatedly surveyed

• Large land animals are constantly encountered

Ignorance is plausible where observation is sparse.

---

2. Water hides bodies better than land

On land:

• Bodies persist as bones and teeth

• Scavengers scatter remains slowly

• Skeletons are often found decades later

In the ocean:

• Bodies sink

• Pressure, scavengers, and microbes destroy remains rapidly

• Bones dissolve faster in deep, cold, acidic water

• Carcasses are consumed within days to weeks

This means:

A large marine animal can die without leaving recoverable remains.

That alone changes the evidential calculus.

---

3. Marine food webs can support large, sparse animals

The ocean supports:

• Enormous biomass at lower trophic levels

• Wide-ranging predators with very low population densities

• Long-distance migratory behavior

Examples:

• Blue whales: global range, rarely seen

• Giant squid: known almost entirely from fragments until recently

• Beaked whales: multiple species discovered in the last few decades

On land:

• Large mammals require:

  • Dense, localized populations

  • Stable territories

  • Predictable feeding zones

Which are easy to detect.

---

4. Size scales differently in water

Water fundamentally changes biomechanics:

• Buoyancy supports mass

• No need for load-bearing limbs

• Gigantism is energetically cheaper

This is why:

• The largest animals in Earth’s history are marine

• Many deep-sea species are much larger than their shallow-water relatives

A “giant unknown thing” is biomechanically plausible in water, not on land.

---

5. Detection technology is limited and selective

Marine detection relies on:

• Sonar (low resolution for biology)

• Trawls (sparse, destructive, biased)

• Remote cameras (tiny windows of time)

Most ocean animals:

• Are never caught

• Are never photographed

• Are known from indirect traces

Terrestrial detection:

• Trail cams

• Roads

• Satellites

• Human density

• Hunters

If a large land animal exists, we will get a clear photo or body.

---

6. History favors marine surprises

Real examples once considered “cryptids”:

• Giant squid (Architeuthis): known from myths → beaks → carcasses → video

• Megamouth shark (1976): large, slow, near surface

• Living coelacanth (1938)

• Beaked whales: new species discovered via bones/DNA

These follow a consistent pattern:

physical evidence first, live observation later.

Marine cryptids sometimes meet this standard. Terrestrial ones don’t.

---

7. What kinds of marine cryptids are actually plausible

More plausible

• Deep-sea invertebrates

• Rare sharks or rays

• Elusive cetaceans

• Large gelatinous organisms

• Deep pelagic animals with wide ranges

Much less plausible

• Humanoid sea beings

• Intelligent, tool-using marine species hiding from humanity

• Enormous surface-dwelling animals near coasts

Plausibility ≠ license for fantasy.

---

8. Why “lake monsters” mostly fail

Even water has limits.

Lakes:

• Are small

• Have limited biomass

• Are heavily monitored

This is why:

• Loch Ness monster fails ecological tests

• Lake cryptids are generally implausible

The open ocean is the real ignorance zone.

---

Bottom line

Marine cryptids are more plausible because the ocean erases evidence, limits observation, supports sparse large animals, and has a proven history of surprises.

Terrestrial ecosystems do not.

This doesn’t mean famous cryptids are real — it means where uncertainty legitimately remains.

---

If you want, I can:

• Rank famous cryptids by ecological plausibility

• Explain why humanoid cryptids are almost certainly mythic

• Compare cryptids to legitimate “unknown unknowns” in biology

• Tie this into philosophy of scientific ignorance (what kinds of unknowns are allowed)

Just say the direction.

It begins

 

The picture is deliberately absurd...

Is the United States going to attack the Russian "ghost fleet" all of a sudden? OK, this could get messy...

US forces seize Russian-flagged tanker in North Atlantic sea

The Ancient Ones

 

Some scary tales (or tall tales) about unknown monsters in the deep blue sea. One of them is nicknamed "The Underwater Abominable Snowman"! Other "cryptids" mentioned are more trivial to the sensation-hungry layperson, such as fish in the Mariana trench (although that too is actually very strange). And yes, I suppose I have to mention Cthulhu again...  

The end of the Holocene?

 

Told you, fam, the Holocene is just a Pleistocene interglacial. Seriously, The New York Post and other outlets are trying to spin this story in a "climate denialist" direction, but if true, it´s actually a result of too much greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Guess where they come from? The news is rather that the research team claims to have found new evidence that the AMOC will slow down during this century.

But sure, if you believe this, I eagerly await your proposed solutions. Personally, I don´t have any. Pray? Learn to eat polar bear meat? Or stake out a tropical island with dragon-ships... 

Climate scientists claim Gulf Stream could be near collapse - predicting a new ice age

Clean air apocalypse

 

The rise in global temperatures became *worse* after several nations and international organizations took strong measures against air pollution. Clean air no longer offsets the temperature rise due to carbon emissions. The irony is strong with this one! The media recently dubbed this "termination shock" after some scy fy novel.  

In this video, Sabine Hossenfelder takes a pessimistic perspective, essentially arguing that geo-engineering is inevitable at this point. But probably not as a centralized global effort. Rather, each nation will go it alone in an uncoordinated manner. The end results? Nobody knows.

At the end, Sabine even jokes that maybe the chemtrail conspiracy theorists will be "proven right" sooner than we think...

The kraken wakes

 

Or maybe it never went back to sleep. Is this the new normal now?

Orcas are attacking boats in Europe again

True horror

 

This is very, very bizarre. Viewer discretion is strongly advised here! 

This is us now

 

There is something strangely reassuring about our ultimate evolutionary ancestors being "Asgard Archaea" found inside "Loki´s Castle" in the Atlantic Ocean midway between Iceland and Svalbard. 

The hypothesis is that an archaeum captured a bacterium...and this became the first eukaryotic cell. All (?) extant living creatures which aren´t Archaea or Bacteria are Eukaryota, including humans. The idea that our evolutionary ancestor was a hybrid between two different lineages (presumably combining the best traits of both) is obviously also appealing. Are you listening, Lynn Margulis? 

Note also that we are no longer bacteria "cladistically speaking", but rather archaea. Thank you. Always considered archaea to be more cool somehow!

This is us now.  

The science of reality

 

It seems everyone in the world is impacted by climate change... 

Trump´s Mar-a-Lago is in for a dunking

Let´s take a look at Mar-a-Lago

Ice, ice baby

 

AMOC again...

Sabine Hossenfelder seriously worries about northern Europe (including Sweden) becoming dramatically *colder* due to man-made climate change. Perhaps with as much as 10 degrees Centigrade on average! The reason is the so-called collapse of the Gulf Stream (actually the AMOC).

Weirdly, southern Europe will see heat waves instead, while the fate of Sabine´s native Germany is unclear, being hemmed in between the super-cold north and the super-hot south. At the very least, it won´t be pretty. 

Does this mean we can´t just move to some nice cabin in the Bavarian countryside to escape the apocalypse? 

Well, actually

 

AI´s fantasy picture of a basking shark 

"Sveriges hav - Nordsjöns giganter" is a somewhat peculiar nature documentary, probably German in provenance, but I haven´t been able to locate the original version. The Swedish title means "The Seas of Sweden - Giants of the North Sea".

Ahem, the North Sea is *not* Swedish...

Indeed, most of the docu seems to be taped on or around the Shetland Islands, which are (of course) British?! Not sure who came up with the idea to call this a "Swedish" documentary. Some old Viking romantic? Dude!

But sure, if you like dramatic vistas, this might be for you. Killer whales, basking sharks, grey seals, sea otters, dolphins, skuas attacking and eating puffins, the invasive red king crab...you get the picture. Shetland sure looks pretty dangerous, LOL. 

  

Heinrich event

 

AMOC again. 

Have we reached a tipping point, beyond which the AMOC will slow down and disappear over a period over decades or 100 years, making northern Europe much *colder* than today? Temperatures in western Norway could drop by as much as 20 degrees centigrade! 

There are also estimates that a collapse of AMOC might adversely affect food security globally. Meanwhile, temperature in the rest of the world will continue rising, leading to a truly "global weirding".

Note also the cope at the end about the Paris Agreement blah-blah. Yeah, whatever.   

"We don´t consider it low probability anymore"

The land of desolation

 

So I just watched the nature documentary "Wild Ireland: Kingdom of Stone", about the apparently world famous karst landscape between County Clare and County Galway known as the Burren. I admit I never heard about it before! Or maybe I did, since parts of this docu reminds me of - surprise - other documentaries about western Ireland.

Animals shown include the pine marten, Daubenton´s bat, whooper swans and the butterfly known as the marsh fritillary. In the Atlantic Ocean we also find the finback whale (the world´s second largest animal) and the basking shark (the world´s second largest fish). The basking sharks occasionally gather in one place and swim in a large circle, nobody really knows why. But yes, it does look majestic.

The Burren also has an interesting human history. Here we find Neolithic grave monuments, abandoned churches and monasteries, and a mysterious tower once inhabited by none other than W B Yeats (who apparently saw whooper swans as near-divine). Indeed, the landscape is man-made in the sense that Neolithic farmers cut down all the trees, presumably to give room for agriculture and cattle. 

"The Kingdom of Stone" has a romantic (or Romantic) undertone, and frequently shows ravens (?) flying across the bizarre landscape of karst and ruins. Ahem, Ireland is a modern, globalized territory these days...

Still, could be interesting on a boring Wednesday evening. 

Welcome to the Sargasso Sea

 

- I´m not a plant, dude.
I´m just posing as one to trick the eels!

Eh, so brown algae (including kelp in the Sargasso Sea) are not *really* plants, but some kind of mega-sized protists?! Aaaargh, bring back Boomer science! 

>>>Kelps are large brown algae or seaweeds that make up the order Laminariales. There are about 30 different genera. Despite its appearance, kelp is not a plant but a stramenopile, a group containing many protists.

>>>Seaweed were generally considered homologues of terrestrial plants but are only very distantly related to plants, and have evolved plant-like structures through convergent evolution. Where plants have leaves, stems, and reproductive organs, kelp have independently evolved blades, stipes, and sporangia. 

>>>With radiometric dating vascular plants have been measured as having evolved around 419–454 Ma while the ancestors of Laminariales are much younger at 189 Ma.

Evolution is even crazier than we *can* know, LOL.