Sheffield's sickest grime station

An interesting paper (Vermeij, 2015) on the "empty phenotypic space", i.e. the forms and adaptations that we do not see in the living world, possibly relevant to the convergence vs. contingency debate.

Some examples:

Wheels: some curled-up arthropods can roll around, and bacterial flagella and some parts of weevil legs rotate on their axis, but macroscopic wheels with a free axle do not exist, probably because smooth surfaces on which they'd be useful are rare and it would be difficult to grow them through embryonal development.

Animal-provided pollination and dispersal do not exist in water, with the possible exception of one species of fish-pollinated seagrass (which is a descendant of terrestrial plants). Presumably water is already good enough at carrying gametes and propagules that buying the services of an animal is a useless expense.

Mineral reef-building does not occur on land nor, more surprisingly, in freshwater. The reason for the latter is not clear, since there are enough mineral ions in freshwater to build shells. Boring of rock, shells, and wood in freshwater is also extremely rare though common in the sea.

Gelatinous plankton like salps or jellyfish (with few exceptions of the latter) is also not found in freshwater, probably because they can't survive dispersal between separate water bodies.

Endothermy ("warm blood") is generally not found in small aquatic animal, probably because water leeches away heat much faster than water, so aquatic endotherms (tunas, sharks, seals, whales) need to be bulky. On land, however, endothermy is found among tiny vertebrates and even insects.

There is no passive air-floating plankton, since air is not dense enough to support living tissue or dissolved organic matter by buoyancy. For that reason filter-feeding is also rare outside of water, while carnivorous plants are not found in the ocean (the water already carries enough nutrient). Aquatic plants do not produce wood as buoyancy is enough to keep them upright.

Large terrestrial animals do not specialize as scavengers (all mammals famous for scavenging also hunt actively); large carcasses are too spread out. All specialist scavengers on land are either very small, or flying.

Herbivory is rare among active fliers, because plant matter has a low energy density and takes a long time to digest. Herbivorous birds and insects are poor fliers or flightless, and the best fliers, like geese, are the ones that can take shelter in water.

Many more examples are only excluded from specific groups (e.g. live-bearing, despite being very common in reptiles, never appeared in birds, probably because the bird egg-shell is too mineralized to be retained in the womb as transition toward full live-bearing).

Even though the author calls them "forbidden phenotypes", only some of them are actually impossible (because they cannot evolve in the first place, or because they cost more energy than they're worth), and others simply never happened to evolve. At the end of the paper there is a list of phenotypes that would have been "forbidden" in the aftermath of the Cambrian Explosion and Ordovician diversification, but which appeared later, and they include

cutins, suberins, lignins, flavonoids, alkaloids, vascular systems, roots, leaves, rigid frameworks of stems and branches, nutrition complemented by animal matter, and basal growth in land plants; nitrogen-fixing symbiosis on land; animal-mediated dispersal/pollination; silk-producing, sound-emitting, flying, eusocial, terrestrial herbivorous, wood-boring, terrestrial shell-bearing and endothermic animals; embryos nourished within the body of an animal or plant parent; mineralized phytoplankton; and rock-excavating marine herbivores. [...] photosymbiotic and chemosymbiotic molluscs, the bivalved condition in gastropods, terrestrial life in gastropods and vertebrates, complex septa within the phragmocone of externally shelled cephalopods, internalization and loss of the shell in cephalopods, cementation to the substratum with a glue of calcium carbonate and organic matrix in several animal groups (gastropods, brachiopods, bivalves and barnacles), spines on shells of several groups (brachiopods, bivalves and brachiopods), mineralized tubes in polychaete annelids, mobility in bryozoans and pelmatozoan echinoderms, jaws and teeth in vertebrates, and vascular systems in brown and red algae. A vast diversity of potent venoms also lay in the future as part of the defensive and aggressive arsenal of many gastropods, cephalopods, aculeate Hymenoptera, vertebrates and land plants.

He's correct. This is excellent.

He is casting spell of car repair on it, I think.

And now it just needs a plate!

Other options are LONNNG and LOMMMG.

Also have you considered making a more screen friendly version that isnt so contrasting? Like using a very dark grey instead of pitch black? I understand the contrast is part of the symbolism but as it is now its inaccessible to a lot of us with invisible disabilities

thank you for the feedback! gosh, I am so sorry- I made it high contrast to be accessible (in consultation with my partially blind friend) but if it's causing pain for some then I will absolutely reduce the contrast and make an alternative: how about this? to be honest the unicorn is the icon- you can put it on whatever bg makes you happiest!

here is a clear png with just the unicorn so you can put it on a background that best suits you!

This work (Unicorn Invisable Disability Flag) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

You wanted it, you got it! Here’s a nice big clean version of the Invisible Disability Pride flag which I designed. A lot of people said they resonated with it, and while originally I just did it for personal satisfaction if you are feeling drawn to or empowered by this image and my reasons behind the design please feel free to use it. I’m actually going to post those reasons under the cut as well as that link to the original post just in case it gets lost. Oh as for the CC up there don’t be scared of using it that mostly just means if you’re a Big Company and want to make money off of it you can’t- or have to talk to me first!

I have a society6 with this design available as many things (even if the site is… confusing. it is there I promise search by ‘new’ if in dire straits) so you can have a looky there if you have a hankering for shirts and other products with it on!

anon asked: being someone with an invisible disability, have you ever considered making a flag? I know there is a flag for disability pride but I looked and looked and there isn’t one I could find about invisible disabilities and you strike me as a very good person to come up with one (no pressure! just thought you might enjoy coming up with an idea?)

I almost didn’t do this bc it’s kind of a heavy topic and there is the general go-to of the sunflower icon (sunflower lanyards are used as a subtle sign that a person has an invisible disability) but looking into why it was chosen…

Well. I respect it but this list really didn’t reflect my experience of having an invisible disability so fuck it all I drew a sketch just for myself. So rather than a suggestion FOR a flag for Invisible Disability Pride this is, well, my flag for it done very quickly (sorry for the jaggedy outline I used the sketch!):

I have EDS, and they use a zebra as a play on the ‘when you hear a horse, don’t think zebra; think horse’ line which is when doctors assume something is not a rare condition because, well, it rarely is. But when you’re a zebra, not a horse, that’s a huge problem. This inspired me to use a unicorn here, because a lot of people don’t even believe Invisible Disabilities exist or count as such: depression, chronic pain, even vision loss are sometimes dismissed as being disabilities.

Why not the classic striped colours of other pride flags? Many reasons: people with colour blindness or severe visual imparement cannot easily distinguish them. This icon could be rendered as a relief, so it could still be used as a recognisable icon for people with complete blindness or who appreciate/use tactile imagery. The high contrast of black and white is also for this reason- It is also very easily recognisable at a distance. The heraldic design is to show that we have always been here, throughout all of history, regardless of if people have taken notice. The ‘fancy’ designs on the legs, tail and face could be seen as beautiful, but could also be thorns, or flames. The ‘spikes’ along the back are actually a spine. People with invisible disabilities are often in large amount of discomfort or pain, and to someone who is not aware they seem totally fine. The tail is long and flowing, but could easily get tangled in the unicorn’s legs and cause them to trip and fall. The hooves are split to show how sometimes a person can walk without aids but still be in pain (not simply to be accurate to unicorn lore), and the horn is overly large: heavy to carry, always on your mind and painfully sharp.

Here’s the version with the sketch btw thanks for reading this far have a cookie:

For all the nods to pain in this image I hoope you all see the unicorn is still alive and proud and fully spread over the flag in action to show we are not defined by our disabilities, but they should be respected just as much as something as potentially dangerous as a unicorn.

The Ottolenghi - it is vital that you use 1g of this very expensive ingredient. It comes from a 500g bag with a one-week shelf life.

The time machine - 15-minute recipe! First, leave to marinate overnight...

The dishwasher - one-pot recipe! Now decant your ingredients and wipe out your pot. And again. And again. And again.

The optimist - cook the onions until caramelised (2 minutes).

The kindergarten teacher - get one nommable little tree of broccoli and bosh that into boiling water. Delish!

The brand names only - ingredients: Ritz crackers, Philadelphia cheese, Cool Whip, orange Jell-o...

The 1950s palate - use one (1) clove of garlic and a small pinch of chili flakes (omit if preferred).

it should be an explosive device, so they widen that part of the cave at the same time and no other spelunkers will get stuck there