
Song of the Rarest Large Whale on Earth Recorded for the First Time - autokill
https://earther.gizmodo.com/song-of-the-rarest-large-whale-on-earth-recorded-for-th-1835665179
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rzzzt
Are they as rare as the 52 Hz whale?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/52-hertz_whale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/52-hertz_whale)

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arthurcolle
Well there's one of this one, and one of the other one. If we consider them to
be in the same category, I guess they would be equally rare. Maybe the deaf
whale can be considered more rare because it has a Wikipedia entry.

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hombre_fatal
> There’s a lot the biologists don’t know about these songs. Like, uh, their
> purpose.

Is this really considered an acceptable way to write these days?

Incredibly sad to hear how there are <30 whales in this region. Especially
when listening to one's calls. Wonder what kind of whale-to-whale range these
songs have.

~~~
erikpukinskis
Yes? It’s clear writing, it’s truthful and direct. You don’t like the style,
but I’m sure there are many people who don’t like your preferred voice.

The days of one acceptable voice in trade writing are gone, and that’s a good
thing. It was creating a gate keeping effect whereby people who spoke well and
clearly but not “right”—according to some ethnic cultural moors—were not taken
seriously.

Now everyone can be not taken seriously equally, each according to the weight
of their words.

~~~
marnett
I am all for using a more casual voice when writing about a subject for an
audience outside of that particular domain of expertise. However, "Like, uh,
their purpose." is grammatically and semantically meaningless. I am for using
plain english to describe latin law terms. I am against colloquial, spoken
styles slipping into written word.

~~~
SolaceQuantum
I don't belive this is actually semantically meaningless. The pause in 'uh' is
clearly used to emphasize the significant lack of information such that
scientists don't even know the purpose of these calls.

For brevity and that this is not a serious/academic article itself, the 'uh'
is a suitable shorthand for a casual audience. I myself am not a fan but I do
not claim it is semantically meaningless. I grasp the full meaning. I just
don't agree with it.

~~~
misterman0
>> the pause in 'uh' is clearly used to emphasize the significant lack of
information

Yes but it is a clumsy way of communicating that.

Also, a post shouldn't be down-voted just because you disagree with it. It
should be down-voted because and only because of inappropriate behavior. There
has been no inappropriate behavior. Karma police please withdraw.

~~~
eindiran
Paul Graham disagrees[0] and the current site guidelines[1] don't suggest that
you shouldn't downvote for disagreement. The guidelines do suggest that you
shouldn't comment on voting in the comments.

I agree with the position that downvoting for disagreement is a net negative
for any site that allows it; it encourages the comments to become an echo
chamber and discourages people from posting interesting opinions that dissent
from the majority opinion. But HN's guidelines don't prohibit it or even
suggest that its wrong.

[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171)

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

