What to know when your car is melted by 7,500 pounds of slime eels(theverge.com)
theverge.com
What to know when your car is melted by 7,500 pounds of slime eels
https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2017/7/14/15969674/slime-eels-hagfish-oregon-highway-truck-accident-slime-mucus-goo
11 comments
A truck, carrying live Pacific hagfish, spilled the cargo in a 5-car collision. Hagfish produce slime to escape danger, and thus slimed the cars onto which they landed. There was no melting involved.
Thanks for the clarification, I read the article expecting to find something about corrosive properties of the slime but couldn't understand why it wasn't even mentioned.
A bit frustrating that they used the word "melting".
s/melting by/covered with/
A bit frustrating that they used the word "melting".
s/melting by/covered with/
To be fair the car "looks" melted, but unsure if that's just from the weight of the fish or if they have something in the slime that did it.
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The FAQ linked to from the verge is a much better source:
http://www.southernfriedscience.com/your-car-has-just-been-c...
http://www.southernfriedscience.com/your-car-has-just-been-c...
> And it turns out, the eel-like creatures are not, in fact, eels. They’re Pacific hagfish — primitive jawless fish
>It’s the main defense mechanism for the toothy, bottom-feeding invertebrates
AFAIK, They can't be invertebrates if they are a type of fish.
EDIT: It appears they are certainly Chordates, but is some controversy over which sub-branch of Chordates they actually belong to. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnatha https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclostomata
>It’s the main defense mechanism for the toothy, bottom-feeding invertebrates
AFAIK, They can't be invertebrates if they are a type of fish.
EDIT: It appears they are certainly Chordates, but is some controversy over which sub-branch of Chordates they actually belong to. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnatha https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclostomata
Article has an update as well:
Correction: This story initially identified hagfish as invertebrates because they don’t have vertebrae. Verge commenter bennyfactor pointed out that hagfish are in fact considered “odd” or “degenerate” vertebrates. He’s correct, and the story has been updated.
Correction: This story initially identified hagfish as invertebrates because they don’t have vertebrae. Verge commenter bennyfactor pointed out that hagfish are in fact considered “odd” or “degenerate” vertebrates. He’s correct, and the story has been updated.
The statement is not as non-sensical as it sounds. Hagfish are actually quite interesting evolutionarily. See e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagfish .
Melt also means "covered in slime or liquid"? English is not my first language.
The crashed car in the picture looks like it was melted by slime.
Not that I've ever heard. This is just a weird headline.
Not generally, no, although I am reminded of a style of melted-cheese-coated sandwiches called "melts".
In that context it's the cheese that's being melted, not the sandwich. Melting implies some kind of state change from solid to liquid (or semi-liquid), which is in fact the case in a melt sandwich where the cheese is melting. In this case the slime was already in a liquid state so there's no change taking place and it would therefore be incorrect to refer to it as melting. It DOES look kind of like the car was melted because of the accident damage combined with being covered in slime, which is I guess what the title is alluding to.
Nothing is so small that Hacker News cannot overthink it, not even a cheese sandwich.
"Anti-shark spray" has got to be a Batman reference, hasn't it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn-ZXgXQeGY
I don't think the article ever really answers the question that it posed in the subtitle: does insurance cover hagfish slime?
Invoking Betteridge's law of headlines, I'm guessing not?
Invoking Betteridge's law of headlines, I'm guessing not?
From the linked FAQ:
http://www.southernfriedscience.com/your-car-has-just-been-c...
Do you think my insurance will cover me?
This may technically count as an Act of Cod.
http://www.southernfriedscience.com/your-car-has-just-been-c...
The video of them squirming around on the ground in the goop is nightmare fuel
Headline is typical Verge clickbait
So wait... Your hovercraft actually can get full of eels? Whoa!