"Comprehensive, Combining, and Subtle": Ishmael's Philosophy of Connection in Melville's Moby-Dick

This paper explores the lived philosophy of Ishmael in Herman Melville’s epic, Moby-Dick, particularly as it contrasts with Captain Ahab. Furthermore, this paper examines how Ahab’s narcissism ushers him towards death, while Ishmael’s collectivism guides him towards life. While Ahab is obsessed with himself and his goal of killing Moby Dick, which leads to his own demise, Ishmael is focused on exploring people and their respective philosophies in order to express the infinite spiritual aspects of human life. Ishmael learns from his mistakes, listens to the perspectives of others, and searches for spirituality through various religious and secular means. The form of the novel mirrors its narrator’s wide and wandering curiosity, as Ishamel shares with the reader both the narrative story of the Pequod and worldly facts about the sperm whale. The novel’s form enhances Ishamel’s actions within the story, revealing a nuanced philosophy that values human connection and curiosity. While some scholars have made claims that Ishmael’s narrative style reflects his confusion or ambiguity, this paper argues that it is actually evidence of a life-sustaining philosophy, one which eventually saves Ishmael from being swallowed by the whirlpool caused by Ahab’s pride.

Confirmation of pygmy sperm whale, Kogia breviceps from Palk Bay, India through Cytochrome Oxidase1 (COI) sequence

The identity of a stranded cetacean from the Palk Bay has been confirmed as a pygmy sperm whale (Kogia breviceps) by the partial sequencing of mitochondrial gene cytochrome oxidase subunit-I (COI). The specimen was unambiguously discriminated from the COI sequence of Kogia sima by matching exactly with the sequence of K. breviceps. Stranding events of the pygmy whales are considered to be uncommon. The sequence developed for K. breviceps is the first of its kind attempt from Indian waters.

Whaling in Iron Age to post-medieval Scotland

Cetacean remains have been recovered from archaeological sites all over Europe, but are especially abundant in Scotland. These remains originate from all periods and have often been worked into artefacts or tools, including chopping blocks, plaques, combs, pegs, snecks and perforated vertebral epiphyseal discs. It still remains unclear which species were exploited and to what extent active whaling was undertaken in the region. To address these questions Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) was undertaken on 35 cetacean specimens from five sites in Scotland (Jarlshof, Brough of Birsay, Quoygrew, Deerness and Freswick Links), dating from the Iron Age to the post-medieval period. Furthermore, morphological analysis was performed on the material in order to optimise the ZooMS identifications. A large variety of species were identified, including high numbers of Balaenidae sp and Globicephalinae sp. Comparison with other ZooMS studies in north-western Europe revealed equally high specimen numbers for these species, but also fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus), sperm whale (Phy-seter macrocephalus) and humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae). Moreover, one grey whale (Eschrichtius robustus) was identified in the Scottish specimens, adding to an increasing number of specimens indicating that the grey whale was once abundant in European waters. Furthermore, only one specimen of the common minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) was identified, despite modern stranding data which suggests this is the most common large whale species in Scottish waters. The large variety of species identified suggests that opportunistic scavenging was likely the primary method of acquiring cetaceans, though historical and ethnographic sources suggest that two distinct forms of active whaling may have occasionally been undertaken. The high number of Globicephalinae specimens from Jarlshof raise the possibility that drive-hunting might have already been undertaken at the site during the Iron Age. View supplementary materials here: Table 1 | Table 2 | Table 3 |

THE LIAR’S PARADOX –A WILD INTERATION. PART II. DIFTHONG «ARISTOTEL-ANOKHIN» (CONTINUATION)

There are more and more precedents with offended infants of 30-40 years old — they are not emotionally abstinent, because they are in an artificial coma of infantilism, in which ‘desire’ has replaced ‘sacrifice’, and are clearly hypocritical, which is why the Holiday of Disobedience, hanging around the planet with a blinking garland of conflicts and wars, creates a turbulent zone in which the bifurcation points are taken out — beyond the orbit of common understanding, turning Consciousness into the quietest Sphinx, producing hypotheses. The saying, willingly or unwittingly, can become a “winged missile” — and destroy the whole world, good or bad, but the theory created by the presentiment of scientific research can help keep it in health and in the flesh of a divine plan, but on one condition: while maintaining peace and the will of Consciousness — the indispensable parity of the Mind, which multiplies both entities and doubt as paradox, whose mental albatrosses format our understanding. Thus, a hypothesis based on a paradox forms the Image of the Concept, and thereby builds a fundamental frame of the worldview, without belittling the elephants, and without forgetting the whale. In our world, a liar as Caesar’s wife turns out to be beyond suspicion, and, therefore, discussion, and his figure is so transparent and nano-technological that it has long been soldered into the ‘scale of errors’ of all perception — and this is the toothless sperm whale that substituted its back for the pillars of thinking, which is why not only looms as a wise turtle, but is also perceived by a cheerful Buddha. From time to time, the whale opens its mouth — and we all find ourselves in its throat, and the liar himself is outside the Law, outside the conflict, but in the Law: in the legal field of the Absolute, who knows only the doctrine of exclusiveness and the purple of shamelessness is accustomed.

New sperm whale remains from the late Miocene of the North Sea and a revised family attribution for the small crown physeteroid Thalassocetus Abel, 1905

In spite of a continuously expanding physeteroid fossil record, our understanding of the origin and early radiation of the two modern sperm whale families Kogiidae Gill, 1871 (including the pygmy and dwarf sperm whales, Kogia spp.) and Physeteridae Gray, 1821 (including the great sperm whale, Physeter Linnaeus, 1758) remains limited, especially due to the poorly resolved phylogenetic relationships of a number of extinct species. Among those, based on fragmentary cranial material from the late early to middle Miocene of Antwerp (Belgium, North Sea basin), the small-sized Thalassocetus antwerpiensis Abel, 1905 has been recognized for some time as the earliest branching kogiid. The discovery of a new diminutive physeteroid cranium from the late Miocene (Tortonian) of Antwerp leads to the description and comparison of a close relative of T. antwerpiensis. Thanks to the relatively young ontogenetic stage of this new specimen, the highly modified plate-like bones making the floor of its supracranial basin could be individually removed, a fact that greatly helped deciphering their identity and geometry. Close morphological similarities with T. antwerpiensis allow for the reassessment of several facial structures in the latter; the most important reinterpretation is the one of a crest-like structure, previously identified as a sagittal facial crest, typical for kogiids, and here revised as the left posterolateral wall of the supracranial basin, comprised of the left nasal (lost in kogiids for which the postnarial region is known) and the left maxilla. Implemented in a phylogenetic analysis, the new anatomical interpretations result in the new Belgian specimen and T. antwerpiensis being recovered as sister-groups in the family Physeteridae. Consequently, the geologically oldest kogiids are now dated from the Tortonian, further extending the ghost lineage separating these early late Miocene kogiid records from the estimated latest Oligocene to earliest Miocene divergence of kogiids and physeterids.

The primary visual cortex of Cetartiodactyls: organization, cytoarchitectonics and comparison with perissodactyls and primates

Cetartiodactyls include terrestrial and marine species, all generally endowed with a comparatively lateral position of their eyes and a relatively limited binocular field of vision. To this day, our understanding of the visual system in mammals beyond the few studied animal models remains limited. In the present study, we examined the primary visual cortex of Cetartiodactyls that live on land (sheep, Père David deer, giraffe); in the sea (bottlenose dolphin, Risso’s dolphin, long-finned pilot whale, Cuvier’s beaked whale, sperm whale and fin whale); or in an amphibious environment (hippopotamus). We also sampled and studied the visual cortex of the horse (a closely related perissodactyl) and two primates (chimpanzee and pig-tailed macaque) for comparison. Our histochemical and immunohistochemical results indicate that the visual cortex of Cetartiodactyls is characterized by a peculiar organization, structure, and complexity of the cortical column. We noted a general lesser lamination compared to simians, with diminished density, and an apparent simplification of the intra- and extra-columnar connections. The presence and distribution of calcium-binding proteins indicated a notable absence of parvalbumin in water species and a strong reduction of layer 4, usually enlarged in the striated cortex, seemingly replaced by a more diffuse distribution in neighboring layers. Consequently, thalamo-cortical inputs are apparently directed to the higher layers of the column. Computer analyses and statistical evaluation of the data confirmed the results and indicated a substantial correlation between eye placement and cortical structure, with a markedly segregated pattern in cetaceans compared to other mammals. Furthermore, cetacean species showed several types of cortical lamination which may reflect differences in function, possibly related to depth of foraging and consequent progressive disappearance of light, and increased importance of echolocation.