| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"maff" |
| Date: |
30 Jul 2003 04:14:36 AM |
| Object: |
This mussel man is digging deep |
This mussel man is digging deep
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/210/science/This_mussel_man_is_digging_deep+.shtml
(7/29/2003)
There is no more delicious meal than a mess of saltwater mussels
steamed in white wine, accompanied by a stick of just-baked French
bread and a crisp green salad. And, of course, a carafe of chilled
white wine. Invariably, about halfway through dinner (and halfway
through the carafe of wine), I begin to ponder the unfathomable
mysteries of existence. Such as: How does one half of a mussel shell
know what the other half is doing?
Chet Raymo's columns
http://forums.about.com/ab-atheism2/messages/?msg=849
http://www.boston.com/globe/columns/raymo/
Chet Raymo
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_epq=Chet%20Raymo&safe=images&ie=ISO-8859-1&lr=&num=100&as_scoring=d&hl=en
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&scoring=d&q=+%22Chet+Raymo%22&sa=N&tab=gw
http://news.google.com/news?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&scoring=d&q=+%22Chet+Raymo%22&sa=N&tab=wn
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&scoring=d&q=+%22Chet+Raymo%22&sa=N&tab=nd&cat=gwd%2FTop
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| User: "Cheezits" |
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| Title: Re: This mussel man is digging deep |
31 Jul 2003 06:01:16 PM |
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(maff) wrote:
Invariably, about halfway through dinner (and halfway
through the carafe of wine), I begin to ponder the unfathomable
mysteries of existence. Such as: How does one half of a mussel shell
know what the other half is doing?
He doesn't really think that the two shells on the same animal are created
independently, does he? He's exaggerating how perfectly matched they are,
too. Just so happens that today I was looking through my collection of
seashells, and took a closer look at the pairs of mussel shells I've been
saving for no good reason. They are very closely matched, as if they had
been created at the same time by the same organism using the same
mechanism (hint hint). One might as well ask why humans grow up with
their arms the same length. But if you were to look at them under a
microscope, I suspect you would see irregularities.
(By the way, it turns out that they are really pretty once you remove that
cuticle-like brown stuff that covers most of the shell. One of them
actually changed color as I turned it, like a hologram.)
Sue
--
"It's not smart or correct, but it's one of the things
that make us what we are." - Red Green
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| User: "Brent Howatt" |
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| Title: Re: This mussel man is digging deep |
30 Jul 2003 09:58:13 AM |
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In talk.origins maff <maff91@yahoo.com> wrote:
This mussel man is digging deep
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/210/science/This_mussel_man_is_digging_deep+.shtml
(7/29/2003)
There is no more delicious meal than a mess of saltwater mussels
steamed in white wine, accompanied by a stick of just-baked French
bread and a crisp green salad. And, of course, a carafe of chilled
white wine. Invariably, about halfway through dinner (and halfway
through the carafe of wine), I begin to ponder the unfathomable
mysteries of existence.
All true. However, here on the Pacific coast in summer around halfway
through the dinner you would be well into a fatal case of paralytic
shellfish poisoning. This is caused by several species of the
dinoflagellate genus _Alexandrium_. Nasty stuff. The rule of thumb is to
eat mussels only in months that contain the letter "R", but September and
October are too risky for me, owing to still high ocean water
temperatures.
--
H. Brent Howatt | The deluded are always filled with absolutes
heyref@die.spammers.rootshell.be| The rest of us have to live with ambiguity
PGP keys by email or keyserver | _Aristoi_ Walter Jon Williams
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| User: "r norman" |
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| Title: Re: This mussel man is digging deep |
30 Jul 2003 07:46:09 AM |
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On Wed, 30 Jul 2003 09:14:36 +0000 (UTC), (maff)
wrote:
This mussel man is digging deep
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/210/science/This_mussel_man_is_digging_deep+.shtml
(7/29/2003)
There is no more delicious meal than a mess of saltwater mussels
steamed in white wine, accompanied by a stick of just-baked French
bread and a crisp green salad. And, of course, a carafe of chilled
white wine. Invariably, about halfway through dinner (and halfway
through the carafe of wine), I begin to ponder the unfathomable
mysteries of existence. Such as: How does one half of a mussel shell
know what the other half is doing?
You probably had a lot more than half of that carafe of wine.
How does your left big toe know what the right one is doing?
The shell doesn't know and doesn't care. However, the mussel that
used to be a living thing in the middle does know what both shells are
doing and cares very much.
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