this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 53 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Similarly, there are a lot of really lazy bad maps out there that are trying to make some point about a statistic, but are really just population density maps. Give your up votes to the person that links the appropriate xkcd.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I like to say, "Stastically you're much more likely to die in a car accident on the way to the beach than be attacked by a shark once there."

So people are less afraid of sharks and more afraid of each other, like it should be.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Maybe, but if we rode on sharks to get around I'm sure the statistic would be different.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

We wouldn't get far before the shark would asphyxiate though, I think it's a bad replacement for cars

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

"Who here plans on driving their car today? Show of hands!" ... "I recommend getting to know these people, because you are far more likely to die in an car accident caused by a stranger than by someone you know. But also don't upset them, as you are far more likely to be murdered by someone you know rather than a stranger."

"Mr Tourguide, aren't you supposed to talk about sharks?"

[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Actually vending machines just have an insatiable bloodlust.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago

I would too if people thought shaking me would make me give them chocolate

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Coconut trees need the nutrients of the fallen

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

We should take hundreds of vending machines into a field and corral them

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 months ago (1 children)

And I heard you'll more likely die on your way to collect your win than actually win the lottery.

And I heard home is a very dangerous place, cos lots of people die because of it...or at it?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 months ago (2 children)

That's something that always gets me with certain safety recalls.

Like the Samsung Note 7's second recall. Something like 1 out of 2 million phones caught fire. It just happened to do it on an airplane and got the phones banned by the FAA. Nobody was injured by the phones catching fire.

How many people died in car wrecks going to the store to swap out their phones?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

driving is an apt choice to compare because it's fucking disgusting how many people it kills every day and no one seems to give a flying fuck about it.

society is constantly actively choosing to let people die in horrible crashes simply because it is convenient.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 months ago (9 children)

I had a VERY close call against a cow once. Never seen a coyote, so I can't really compare.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

Coyotes aren't super big and alone are pretty timid and rarely approach things bigger than it (like an adult human). Though when starving or other certain conditions drive them to approach larger animals or big open space (I.E. in a pack, or rabies), be mightily wairy.

(This is anecdotal experience only, please take it and reference it as such only)

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Cows are smarter than they look. Long ago I worked in a dairy operation and they would do things to fuck with you... like if you weren't super careful in a milking stall they'd casually lean to one side ("oopsie! my bad") to squish you. Or let the poop rip at just the right moment.

I don't blame them one bit.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I always think about this when people say vending machines are more likely to kill you than sharks.

Are they looking at vending machines only in beach cities or in the middle of like, Arizona too?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago (4 children)

I also feel that vending machines don't really suddenly strike you without warning and through no fault of your own

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 months ago

Tell me you live in a safe neighborhood without saying you live in a safe neighborhood....

Your "feeling" are invalidating hundreds of peoples lived experience of the terror of vending machine gang violence

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

I mean they do. By not giving me the food I just paid for

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

The chances are low, but never zero.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago (1 children)

There's also a possibility that if humans live coyotes closely for several generations, it is likely to end up domesticated - one way or another.

Oh hang on, millions of humans already do live closely with domesticated canids.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

A few days ago i tried to look up the genus of my dog breed with the presumption i would find like a family tree of how breeds relate to eachother.

Turns out the scientific name for my dog is “Canis familiaris

So is the scientific name of literaly any dog breed, its literally latin for “domesticated canine”

So yeah a domesticated coyote would indeed just count as a dog breed like any other. Scientific literature wouldn’t consider it any other way

A better stat for the post would be you have a higher chance of being hurt by domesticated animals then getting attacked out of the blue by wild animals.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

the reason all domestic dogs are canis familiaris is because they're all the same species. They can all have non-sterile babies with each other, which is the most commonly accepted definition of a species. A domesticated coyote would still be its own species and get its own scientific name because it would not be able to breed with dogs, at the very least without having a sterile baby.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

I hate to well actually you but coyote can breed with dogs and the offspring are known to be fertile for at least 4 generations.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coydog

The same is true for wolf-dogs.

There are increased chances for complications so i guess fertility is lower but that is only verified to be true with wild parents specimen.

Domesticated coyote would likely be bred based on properties like ability to coexist with dogs so over time the species would merge more and more, complications would smooth out.

I believe we have a similar history with the neanderthaler.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

damn that's crazy to know. It's wild how stuff like this is possible, I guess that means coyotes and dogs are basically the same animal already.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Cows are 300 times more likely to kill someone than coyotes. Not you.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago

Are you sure about that? My cholesterol has been looking mighty high lately.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

People shaking coconut trees are often crushed by falling people who don't exist within the context of all in which they live and which came before them.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago

someone once shook a vending machine vigorously for me when my snack was stuck. it was very stressful to watch

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago
[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago

I’ve never seen a cow killing a coyote.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Coyotes are pretty small though, I think cattle would still be more dangerous.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (2 children)

You have clearly never been in a holding pen with 300 coyotes. Cows are not pack hunters.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Neither are coyotes, at least not by nature. They may live in a pack, but they typically travel and hunt solo or in pairs.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago

Also, coyotes do not hunt humans. They are opportunistic hunters at best. They scavenge a lot.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

Im pretty sure you haven't been either

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

You exist in the context of all In which you live and that came before you

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