Terrestrial tortoises (as opposed to aquatic species) are generally considered to be vegetarian.
But I have seen one we used to have happily chewing on the remains of a dead mouse left by the family cat. Probably almost all animals are at least somewhat omniverous…
As for polar bears being obligate carnivores: I bet they wouldn’t refuse a biscuit?
Another source mentions small fish. It’s notable because 99% of the panda’s diet is bamboo. That often leaves them with nutrient deficiencies so they may have some instinctive behavior to enhance their diet.
Red pandas aren’t marsupials. It’s not even close
Correct. Red pandas are in the order carnivora, which is exclusive of the orders of the infraclass marsupialia. The closest relative of the red panda appears to be the raccoon, but they are still considered to be different familes.
I thought pine martens were found to prey on the greys, and where the martens were encouraged to spread their range, the numbers of greys fell.
https://www.thegryphon.co.uk/2025/02/25/pine-martens-the-saviour-of-the-red-squirrel/
Similarly, it’s been proposed for years to fortify distilled alcoholic beverages with thiamine to help prevent Korsakoff Syndrome, a type of dementia associated with the malnutrition found in extreme alcoholics. However there is a conundrum: added vitamins have to be listed as an ingredient, while another law forbids labeling alcohol in any way as to suggest that drinking alcohol is healthy.
Might as well post the classic viral video of a cow eating a baby chick.
Red pandas were actually the first creature called “panda”, and the giant ones were named after them. IIRC, in addition to the diet, they also both have weird “thumbs” that don’t correspond to the thumbs of most other mammals. It’s now believed, though, that they both evolved their weird limbs independently, since giant pandas are bears, but red pandas are closest to raccoons.
One of the original names for panda bears was “particolor bear.” Then zoologists notice morphological similarities with the previously named ‘panda,’ and enough dissimilarities to make them think it wasn’t really a bear. Thus, the renaming to ‘red panda’ and ‘giant panda’ (which I refuse to use).
Until they finally decided that they had it right the first time and panda bears were actually bears, it was common to see panda bears described as “more closely related to racoons,” as for the longest time the red panda was thought to be a procyonid.
There’s a running joke in the Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night, as Paul keeps referring to his grandfather as very “clean.” I never got the joke.
TIL that Wilfrid Branbell, the actor who played the part - who was younger than Paul’s actual father, BTW - played the part of Alfred Steptoe, the father in the British sitcom Steptoe and Son, the source for the American sitcom Sanford and Son. In that show Alfred was always called a “dirty old man.” So, instant hilarity on the part of British audiences, life long incomprehension for Americans.
TIL That the Chinese gooseberry was not renamed for marketing reasons but a US importer advised his New Zealand supplier to rename the fruit because he felt with the name gooseberry would maker it harder to get out quarantine. European gooseberries grow closer to the soil than Kiwifruit and could come onto contact with Anthrax bacteria infected soil. Eventually, all NZ exporters started using the new name.
We can agree that acceleration requires a net force and that acceleration is proportional (varies as the square root?) to that force.
If you hold a 1 pound weight in one hand and a 4 pound weight in the other and drop them, the 4 pound weight doesn’t accelerate at twice the rate of the other. In fact, they have equal acceleration. Greater force, equal acceleration.
That’s a funny way for a force to behave.
How would magnets of equal mass but differing magnetic field strengths accelerate in a magnetic field? Would they accelerate at the same rate or would the more powerful magnet accelerate more quickly? My intuition tells me the latter. Greater force, greater acceleration.
Now that’s what I call proper force behavior.
Newtonian physics assumes that gravitational mass and inertial mass are always equal (I once read an amusing science fiction story where someone came up with a metamaterial where this was NOT true). So there’s more gravitational pull on heavier masses but they require more force to accelerate so it always balances out. And yes physicists were aware of just what an amazing coincidence this happened to be but had to accept it as a direct observation of nature.
As for magnets since there is not a guaranteed relationship between the mass of the magnet and how strong a magnetic field it has, the equivalence breaks down. In any case I postulated materials that were magnetically susceptible like iron, not ones that had magnetic fields of their own.
I am very sure that there are no aquatic tortoises.
Turtles and terrapins are similar shelled reptiles who are aquatic, the latter being fresh-water only.
True, I was speaking very loosely there.
Though apparently some tortoises can swim, at least according to a sign in Chester Zoo…
Hey!
Hi there!
I have Wernike-Korsakov syndrome.
It is my fault, of course, but until I started actively behaving irrationally, and got some brain scans, it was “just being scudsucker”. I’m not even a “heavy drinker” - I used to be regarded by my friends as a “light-weight”.
Then diagnosis, and a serious regime of thiamine. (Vitamin B1)
My short-term memory is shot. I write thIngs on my phone so I can remember them.
Long term memory is still great.
The grandson of president John Tyler (10 president of the US) just died.
Tyler was president from 1841 to 1845. He himself lived from 1790 to 1862. That his grandson just died, albeit at the age of 96, is freakin’ amazing, and a reminder of how short historic eras can feel.
Edited to add: I don’t know how old that picture of the grandson is, but he looks younger than me.
Gardner’s father was named Lyon Gardner Tyler. He is descended (through his mother) from the original Lyon Gardner, whose descendants still own Gardner’s Island off Long Island in NY, and who was granted the land by the King of England in 1639.
Captain Kidd buried treasure on the island. It was dug up and used as evidence at his trial.
I think you meant “Tyler’s father was” and all the Gardner are actually Gardiner
It’s a reminder how creepy old men can still have children in their decrepitude if they have wives half their age. John Tyler became president when William Henry Harrison died in office. Harrison had a grandson, too…who became president in 1889. And died in 1901!