Ichthyology conferences can be attended on the cheap, if you’re willing to share a hotel room.
With a stranger.
Who you only know from the internet.
Dr. Rose is nice enough online, but in person, she was not at all what I’d expected.
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Admiral Biscuit
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Admiral Biscuit
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There's an interesting aspect of scientific journals that has come to light in the last few years. "Trivial" results don't get published. "Obvious conforming" results don't get published. As a result, anything that does a survey of published reports is massively biased data.
Yet this is how a lot of things are supposedly determined, by looking at lots and lots of small published reports, to make a large "N" for a conclusive report.
This is inherently flawed, because of massively biased "what gets published".
The solution? Well, there is no one solution. But one of several ideas is to actually start publishing less interesting results.
This appears to be one such case. Given that lots and lots of animals in Equestria/Equuis are able to talk, and the large widespread belief of religion here on Earth, it is natural for a world traveler to wonder about the cross -- is there religion in animals on Earth?
That's a perfectly valid question. Artificially saying "A 'no' result in not interesting enough to publish" is very much an old-school filter that journals are trying to discard.
So having someone actually do the study, and find out that "no" is the answer, is a valid experiment and worth reporting on.
"Dr. Ghoti". - I see what you did there
So do Equestrian fish have religion?
9510099
I hope not - if they are bright enough to have religions, they're sapient beings which Fluttershy feeds to her pets.
For some reason, I keep imagining her name to be "Salmon Roe."
... Ich-theology?
Theology is icky? Ichtheology?
amirite?
Excuse the grinding, and the smell of burnt clutch. I think that mental shift blew the synchros in my brain...
WTF Admiral?
9510036
The supervillain from Supermegatopia?
Oh this was great, I had not expected her presentation to be that. Oh wow so funny yet serious, loved it.
AB I just can't quit you. Even when you toy with my feelings like this.
9510120
It's the circle of life. Sometime you gotta accept it.
Oh boy,no wonder he drank a lot
Sometimes your slice of life stuff has a nut, sometimes it don't. All is good. Look for a deeper meaning in anything and you will find it. Don't and you won't. Either or is acceptable. Interesting and pleasant read looking at conventions with a pony attending. Next up a farm pony attending a farm show on Earth? The shark thumbdrive is cool. 🐟
Now I kind of want to read about someone on github or LKML or volunteering with Freegeek who strikes up a professional friendship but doesn't know it's with a pony.
Or shares a hotel room for DEFCON with a cute mare who is going to deliver a talk on crystal magic relays and using randomized loop invariant exits in a magical token ring.
A mare with a really foul mouth that she picked up from Linus Torvalds and thinks it's perfectly ordinary for humans. (Note that like Gordon Ramsay, Mr. Torvalds' reputation is exaggerated. He's a perfectionist but won't go much further than call work that's not up to his standards "stupid" or "crap." "F*ck you, Nvidia!" was an exception rather than a rule).
face or did the projector get something wrong?
Also this one was odd, I think even for you.
But everything was just to perfect
9510348
Actually I was thinking of an old spelling joke apocryphally attributed to George Bernard Shaw http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=81
One could say that the shark is taking a byte out of your computer.
I actually thought her presentation topic fascinating to consider, because from the Equestrian perspective, it seems like a perfectly valid question to seek an answer for, and you never knew--maybe the answer for Earth fish would've been unexpected. I mean, can you imagine the hubbub it would've generated had her research shown the answer was, in fact, yes, and we on Earth had just been too stupid to stop and consider it as possible?
And even though it was instead a no, it was certainly still interesting to hear, because it undoubtedly given insight on the differences between Earth fish and Equestrian fish, which surely would've been of interest to a room full of Ictheologists no matter how you sliced it. Even just considering her methodology on how she might have come to that conclusion would've been fascinating.
Honestly, I was little surprised our narrator--Linda, I suppose--was so hung up over it, but, you know, that's part of what's neat about stories like this. There's more than one thing left to consider over by the end.
This story wasn't the least bit "fishy"....
Yup, you went there. You made this entire fic for the sake of a pun.
I approve.
Oh good greif.
Two horrible puns in one go.
The fish was bad enough.
But, Its a Shaggy Dog story.
And shes wearing a Lab coat?
9510393
That's what the apex predators always say.
9511151
Yes and no? Exemple of ecosystems being disrupted and destroyed because of unchecked population without predators are numerous.
9510012
Also, religion is also a topic that a lot of social scientists (like sociologists and psychologists) and some "hard" scientists (like evolutionary biologists and neurologists) study, and there have been a few papers and studies in biology of "protoreligion" in animals.
9510012
This is always the kind of thing that can lead to wrong results. There’s a meme on Facebook that more people get killed by cows than by coyotes, (which I’ll assume is true, although I haven’t verified it). The meme then points out that if we kept coyotes like we keep cows, the statistic would be very different. . . .
Agreed--from our own human perspective, it’s of course a silly question; from the pony perspective, where plenty of animals are smart or outright sapient, it’s a very logical question. And boldly proclaiming the answer--whether it be positive or not--that’s what science ought to do.
There was a TV show that sort of had that premise. It was called Smash Lab, and they tried to build stuff which might solve problems, and such things didn’t always work. “Will rocket brakes work to prevent crashes from failure of trailer brakes? No.”
Yes, it totally is.
9510036
9510099
As far as you know.
9510120
Their religion could be based on martyrdom.
And if anyone wants to make a creepypasta based on that, y’all have my blessing.
9510123
When I was hanging out with ROBCakeran53 [he wrote Amigo, you know] last night, he suggested that pun, too, but it was too late.
9510150
Sure, the study of fish . . . religion.
9510318
I suppose it depends on your point of view.
9511636
No, just reaching for a silly joke. Fish are too delicious to have religion...unless the taste of fish is a religion unto itself. Beer Battered Baptist Whitefish...
9510335
I mean, it’s not like I wasn’t expecting readers to experience this particular feeling.
9510378
Subtle pun is subtle.
Thank you!
9510379
Cheer up, at least I held off until publishing until I had the next actual Sam and Rose story on the cusp of publishing. I could have dropped this one months ago, but I knew you’d find me and beat me with a tire iron if I left you hanging for that long.
Also, thanks! While I couldn’t miss the opportunity to tweak your nose a bit, I really do love my readers, and that they like my stories and characters.
9510393
Sometimes you get the
bearfish; sometimes thebearfish gets you.9510514
There are times that parents name their children the most horrible--and yet most wonderful--thing.
9510528
To quote River Tam: It’s just a stick. It doesn’t mean what you think.
Thank you! I have considered a farm pony at some kind of farm show, but haven’t really considered it beyond the simplest idea.
I’ve got one. Got it at a trade show, actually.
9510563
I’ve watched some of Deviant Olam’s DEFCON presentations on YouTube . . . those are interesting. I could brush up on crystal radios and such and probably write a decent story on that topic. Toss in some unicorn magic and what it might be able to do with electronics if a pony has particular skills. . . .
Disregarding picking it up from humans, I’ve got a Berry Punch story where 1% of the word count is swears (by her). Silver Glow also can swear like a sailor when it’s required.
9510580
You just can’t trust projectors.
Correction made, thank you!
Yes, it was, but it set itself up too well to not write, y’know?
9510643
9510684
Well, that’s a good point. And as B.F. Skinner showed, pigeons can be superstitious, so why not extend that to religion? It isn’t much of a stretch, after all. And for that matter, when you really get down to it, could group behavior be considered a religion of sorts? I’m no theologian myself, but I do know that some of the stuff in the Bible amounts to Bronze Age best practices, and there are other historical crafts/practices which were quasi religious/mystical in nature. So it’s not a huge stretch, especially from the perspective of an outsider.
I want to say that you’re overthinking it, but in all honesty, you make a good point. Obviously, there would be some people who would dismiss such a thing on the face of it--especially since she came to the conclusion that there was no fish religion--but to professional scientists, every moment of her presentation, from how she decided that this was a topic worth considering, what evidence suggested that there might be fish religion, how she went about determining if there was or not, and so forth, would be fascinating.
I’ve watched any number of YouTube videos where the host doesn’t do something right, or doesn’t get the result he expects, but it’s still totally worth watching since he outlines all the steps that got him to that point. And I’ve sat through presentations on something that I wouldn’t ever do myself, but have a passing interest in. I guess in the pursuit of knowledge, there aren’t many paths that aren’t worth going down, when you really get to the core of it.
And maybe if somebody really wants to put a proper moral on this thing, it would be ‘don’t be afraid to try and fail, because if you do, you’ll know more than someone who never tried.’
Linda might have gotten blindsided, or she might have been wrapped up in being worried about how her new friend would fare given the subject of her presentation and/or her choice of wardrobe. And different folks see things different ways, too.
9510762
No, of course it wasn’t.
9510766
And tweaking Cold in Gardez’s nose a little bit, that was an element of it, too.
9511033
Yes, it is.
Aand, there’s pun three.
Which I seriously never considered, but if anybody asks going forward, I’m gonna say that was always the plan.
9511151
“What are you?”
“I’m an otter!”
“What do you do?”
“I do cute human things with my hands.”
“You’re free to go. And what are you?”
“I’m a cow. I--”
“You’re a baseball glove. Get on the truck.”
--Denis Leary
9511259
I hear they’re importing wolves to Isle Royal, since the moose population is getting out of control.
9511653
Well, we can assume that the Catholics hate fish, since they eat them on Fridays. And the Catholics also aren’t fond of the Baptists, or so I’ve heard. . . .
9511596
Speaking purely from the scientific side (as much of that as I have in me), I’d think that the biggest challenge might be defining it in such a way to sort it out from superstition/learned social behavior. IMHO, it would have to be based on some sort of species tradition, and passed on from one generation to the next somewhat intact, and also not something purely functional for survival (i.e., grass is a thing we eat). I’d be interested in reading a paper that takes a good crack at it, honestly.