288 points · 3 posts · 19 replies
Flat GiraffersThe physiology paragraph says ostriches “use their neck to hide within the sand”. Put that premise aside for a second and look at the job assigned to each neck. One long neck supposedly gets the animal down into cover. The other is explained as a way of reaching up.
Whenever I ask why a giraffe needs that much neck, I get told that long necks exist in nature. Fine. Why does the comparison stop just before the behavior?
Flat GiraffersThese are from Wrenfield's 2002 and 2015 visitor guides. Look at the dark fork halfway up the neck and the small pale notch underneath it.
Thirteen years, two different animals according to the captions, and they're still using the same pattern. I think we are looking at a covering that has been reused. I've circled the part I mean, not the entire animal.
Enlarge image ↗Flat GiraffersThe comparison to the unicorn is not saying Scotland has a secret breeding population. It is pointing out that an animal can become an official fact without people asking whether there is an animal behind it.
We put the label in an official place and then treat the official place as confirmation of the label. That is what interests me about zoo signs too.
In 
Big Zoo · why does the zoo argument end with giraffes?
Replying to nailbrush
It is not being offered alone. The climate claim asks what accepting the animal does to the picture of its environment. This one asks what accepting it does to the picture of the institution.
Side Quests
Paper Trails
−+Collapse or expand reply by nailbrush
A similar part does not require identical behavior. You would have to say which feature makes hiding a necessary use of the neck.
−+Collapse or expand reply by flatlander
Then pointing at another long-necked animal does not explain this one. It just makes the silhouette feel less exceptional.
Show more comments
−+Collapse or expand reply by mothproof
There is another jump here. A neck being capable of a movement and an animal using that movement to hide are separate claims. Which one is the alleged omission?
−+Collapse or expand reply by flatlander
The behavior. The paragraph says the fabrication neglected it. I am not asking somebody to find a hinge in the photograph.
−+Collapse or expand reply by cansleeve
That is why I find this objection stronger as a question about the explanation than as a test you could apply to a single picture. A picture can show a neck. It cannot show what somebody forgot to design.
−+Collapse or expand reply by mudlark
I am not conceding the ostrich premise yet. The picture and the sentence are being treated as though they establish the same thing.
−+Collapse or expand reply by windowseat
the picture makes the giraffe look like the version that forgot to crouch. i would like to see the two animals compared at ground level instead of both posed upright.