I already gave my opinion. Now Forbes weighs in.

Robert Bakker says that King Kong wouldn’t be able to get enough to eat.

There are more serious issues than that. Even if he could get enough to eat, for a body with that much mass to move that fast, the heat generated would be much greater than could be radiated out through the skin (mass goes up as the cube of the major dimension, whereas surface area only goes up as the square), particularly through that fur coat, so he’d cook from the inside if he maintained the kind of activity levels presumably depicted. Also, he wouldn’t be able to maintain his own weight on those (relatively) spindly legs, once scaled up to that size–they’d splinter like toothpicks.

No point in seeing the movie, folks–it’s just not realistic…

[Via Mark Whittington]

Robert Bakker says that King Kong wouldn’t be able to get enough to eat.

There are more serious issues than that. Even if he could get enough to eat, for a body with that much mass to move that fast, the heat generated would be much greater than could be radiated out through the skin (mass goes up as the cube of the major dimension, whereas surface area only goes up as the square), particularly through that fur coat, so he’d cook from the inside if he maintained the kind of activity levels presumably depicted. Also, he wouldn’t be able to maintain his own weight on those (relatively) spindly legs, once scaled up to that size–they’d splinter like toothpicks.

No point in seeing the movie, folks–it’s just not realistic…

[Via Mark Whittington]

Robert Bakker says that King Kong wouldn’t be able to get enough to eat.

There are more serious issues than that. Even if he could get enough to eat, for a body with that much mass to move that fast, the heat generated would be much greater than could be radiated out through the skin (mass goes up as the cube of the major dimension, whereas surface area only goes up as the square), particularly through that fur coat, so he’d cook from the inside if he maintained the kind of activity levels presumably depicted. Also, he wouldn’t be able to maintain his own weight on those (relatively) spindly legs, once scaled up to that size–they’d splinter like toothpicks.

No point in seeing the movie, folks–it’s just not realistic…

[Via Mark Whittington]

Makes us stronger, so said Nietzsche. Ancient man may have been forced out of Africa by a prolonged drought.

Anybody know what this thing is? I saw it in the back yard while fertilizing the ixora.

It’s hollow, and those are holes in it, like a whiffle ball. I thought that it was some kind of toy at first.

[Update]

At Michael Mealing’s suggestion in comments, I did a search on “stinkhorn,” and it does indeed resemble this. There wasn’t any noticeable stink to it, though (I got right down on it to smell it). Then again, I don’t have the most sensitive schnoz in the world.

[Another update]

Yes, it does look exactly like a clathrus crispus. It makes geographical sense, too, since the climate on the Virgin Islands is not dissimilar to that of south Florida. And this site says that it’s common in the Caribbean and Florida.

How hard is it to shoot off a lock? A lot harder than it looks in the movies.

[via Geek Press]

Anthropologists say that our faces are shrinking. Well, OK, not everyone’s.

Nova is doing a special on Isaac Newton on Tuesday, and they’ve set up an interesting web site to promote it.

If you’re put off by dating, just be glad you’re not a male nursery spider:

Some male spiders pay the ultimate price for a few moments of pleasure when the female devours them after mating. Even worse, some males are eaten before they have the chance to mate.

To overcome this problem the nursery spider has devised a strategy of offering his thumbnail-sized mate a love-token, such as a dead insect.

But after presenting the gift the male immediately feigns death and collapses at her feet.

And as she becomes preoccupied with sinking her jaws into the insect treat, the male revives, creeps under her and begins copulating.

I think I’ll stick with flowers. Most of the women I know hate bugs.