this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] ch00f@lemmy.world 229 points 2 months ago (2 children)

45-67Million Years according to Wikipedia.

Sharks are hundreds of millions.

Also somewhat relevant: https://xkcd.com/1342/

[–] rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 68 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Fuckin' Sirius. So close and yet so far.

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago

Not directly relevant, but I think Keanu Reaves named his band "Dog Star" because he was "Sirius" about his music career.

[–] ksigley@lemmy.world 27 points 2 months ago

There really is an xkcd for everything.

[–] owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca 142 points 2 months ago (3 children)
[–] owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca 84 points 2 months ago (5 children)

And don't even get me started on horseshoe crabs. Older than plants, those ones.

[–] Aeao@lemmy.world 45 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Back in my day you used to be able to buy twelve horseshoe crabs for a nickel... Of course that was before the war... Back then id swear at least two and a half teenth of my crew where horse shew crab but who you going to tell ? Tattling wouldn't be invented for another 2 score years up in Kentucky you had to wait another 6!

But it's was easier and I miss those days. If you could dodge the knowledge toads you were already 12 up on these Irish but we can't say that anymore can we? No sir...now we got to give everything to the freckled folk and act like that's the way it's meant to be but it's not. It wasn't a thing until the battle of leaky hill... But we lost and I had to accept that to get tomatoes down at the Paul's service at a decent price. Don't even get me started about the tomatoes. You never damn believe it.

Sorry I'm going to be a grandfather soon so I'm practicing

[–] bottleofchips@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Congratulations! Seems like you’re well on course to getting your grandfathers license, but if I may offer some minor critique, you didn’t comment on how much I’ve grown and I believe taffy should be involved somewhere along the line. Other than that, excellent grandfathering!

[–] Aeao@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I'd talk about taffy if we're lucky enough to have it. We chewed rubber across the street from the taffy store hoping to catch a wiff of the taffy. If the wind was right you'd almost smell it over the horse manure we had to carry back and forth.

But you've said you've grown have you? Let me put my glasses on and take a look at ya. How old you get up to now? 17? When I was your age I was 24 and had to hide from the draft but I know you do the best you can and I don't hold it against you. Life is softer now a days, you grew up with all your toes I see. We used to have to write our names on our toes in case they got stolen police weren't now damn good barely got half of them back . .. you're a good boy tho lad. Strapping. Like your Father before he got sloppy and stumbled into all that doctor brain pull crap. Pills making people happy now. If I wanted haUppy I had to go to war and get an arm blown off and you don't see me complaining.

Run along now son and tell your mother I need another rooted beer and make it a good one this time. Damn lazy kids. My father never ask twice a day in his life. He asked once then he kill ya and replace ya with a kid that minded better and they call that abuse now. That's why nothing ever gets done anymore with the construction down the road. Six weeks for pavement and they call it progress. Their lucky. They don't even.... They don't ... damn kids.and their play tubes... Snoring .... We stood in line for our kidneys... Snoring. We drank the lead because it was cleaner than the water snoring ya think you have blue... We had real blue back then not this pansy ass.... Snoring and they think they'll send it mars. Good luck with that I'd say if they were worth a damn to listen..... HEY DONT CHANGE THE CHANNEL IM STILL WATCHING THAT! damn remotes and they wonder why we have diabetes.... Snoring

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 30 points 2 months ago (1 children)

In defence of plants, it takes a highly evolved form of life to be able to do nothing all day and get away with it.

[–] Fleur_@aussie.zone 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Knew I specced into the wrong class. Take me back to the character creation screen!!!

[–] SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 months ago

Plant bard would be the best, assuming you can avoid predation.

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Those fuckers have like nine different types of eyes. Even that tail is one big photoreceptor! Primitive, my ass - you try surviving crawling around in the mud for 400 million fucking years.

[–] 7toed@midwest.social 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

We call their evolution lazy just cause we're jealous they finished their homework when it was assigned, and we waited until the day it was due. I was evolved to be a primate but now I have back issues because we're bipedal. Smfh

[–] gabbath@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

We're taking the scenic route, but eventually we will all be crab. So it is written.

[–] jimjam5@lemmy.world 17 points 2 months ago

From Wikipedia:

Horseshoe crabs have been described as "living fossils", having changed little since they first appeared in the Triassic.

[–] Aussiemandeus@aussie.zone 6 points 2 months ago (3 children)
[–] owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca 11 points 2 months ago

No, crabhorse shoes didn't come until at least 5 years later.

No idea when shoecrab horses came about, though.

[–] Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Well obviously. Horses clearly evolved the shape of their feet by repeatedly attempting to use horseshoe crabs as shoes.

[–] A7thStone@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

But what about hand shoes and horse grenades?

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 2 months ago

Sharks are older than trees?!?

[–] rottingleaf@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

I would cut the shapes of prehistoric sharks in cardboard in my childhood. Have a pouch of those somewhere.

They were really beautiful.

[–] logicbomb@lemmy.world 71 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Also from Wikipedia:

Although appearing to the naked eye as a single point of light, Polaris is a triple star system, composed of the primary, a yellow supergiant designated Polaris Aa, in orbit with a smaller companion, Polaris Ab; the pair is in a wider orbit with Polaris B. The outer pair AB were discovered in August 1779 by William Herschel, where the 'A' refers to what is now known to be the Aa/Ab pair.

I learned something new today. And if I'm reading the details section correctly, while the outer pair of stars are actually older than sharks, it's the bright star that you can actually see that's younger than sharks.

[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago (3 children)

And if I’m reading the details section correctly, while the outer pair of stars are actually older than sharks, it’s the bright star that you can actually see that’s younger than sharks.

This makes even less sense, how is the heavier thing in the middle younger than the things that orbit it?

[–] dwindling7373@feddit.it 30 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I may be wrong but a mass of inhert hydrogen has the same mass of a radiating one, so they could have been orbiting a mass of gas a long time before the "newer" one ignited.

[–] ryedaft@sh.itjust.works 12 points 2 months ago

The bigger the star, the brighter it burns

Also it dies sooner. So any given big star is more likely to be young

[–] Aeao@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

I can explain that but I have to use the only thing available to illustrate.

So imagine my left testicle here formed before this penis in the middle... And yes it is technically a penis despite the small size, and this testicle-

[–] DarkCloud@lemmy.world 34 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Youngest known proto-star is 1300 years old....

So most species are older than HOPS-315.

[–] marcos@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] limer@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 months ago

Rumors to this day state it pulses to a Gregorian chant

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[–] doomsel@lemmy.world 30 points 2 months ago (1 children)

If I understand correctly, it is 2billion years old, but 50million years ago it merged with another star, making it more massive and thereby more bright an visible from earth. Fun fact: Due to it beeing a yellow supergiant it will turn red in a couple of thousand years and then die quiet soon.

Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-old-is-the-north-star-the-answer-could-change-our-maps-of-the-cosmos/

[–] Saleh@feddit.org 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

"soon" and "young" are always interesting terms in Geology and Astronomy.

[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago

Tens of millions of years old? Practically brand new!

[–] KTJ_microbes@mander.xyz 22 points 2 months ago

Common, no shark is that old, not to mention all of them.

[–] commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 2 months ago (5 children)

I love it. it feels like Polaris will be there long after this rock is barren and cold, and we can continue to navigate by it in the gay space communism

[–] dwindling7373@feddit.it 3 points 2 months ago

Apparently the star is going to fizzle out soon, but beside that, if you are not on earth it becomes irrelevant for navigation.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 2 months ago

fwiw it'll at least stop being the north star in some thousand years (might be longer), which is arguably even more fucked to think about

like, people in the past had a different north star, what the fuck

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[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 15 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Stars have only existed for about fifty years. Duh.

[–] ignotum@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago (2 children)

How can the stars have existed for fifty years when the universe itself is only slightly under a week old?

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[–] InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

I mean there has to be a few somewhere made this year. Reminds me tangentially of something I was reading during a statistics class, that due to many possibilities and infinite numbers I should be able to open my dryer and find all clothing folded.

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[–] frenchfryenjoyer@lemmings.world 11 points 2 months ago

all these new stars nowadays, it's hard for old me to keep track lol

[–] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 months ago

North star? More like noob star.

[–] Aeao@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I got to ask all the Internet tho.... Which is better?!

The concept of north?

Or sharks?

[–] rottingleaf@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] Klear@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

North is very cold tho.

[–] Saleh@feddit.org 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Dont need the north star for the concept of north.

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