I hate to break it to you, but when someone states anything in metric, I immediately have a feel for how large that is. That's because we usually state everything in metric, so we don't need to refer to random stuff and just learn the sizes of everything.
A "school bus" can be a local mini that's like 8-10?m long, or a medium like 15-metre one. A "school bus" (as it would be near me) can also be an articulated main route bus that has three high schools and a major university on both ends of the corridor, at like 30 metres long.
Ditto pizzas. A "large" is such an arbitrary measurement.
as for "seeing" the proportions... if you gave me that picture and told me it was shrimp-sized (also a bit ambiguous), I couldn't question it. At best, the "pizza" and "bus" provide order of magnitude estimates.
It says bus-sized, and it's long. That makes it a standard bus, not a short bus. And we can assume it's not a city bus, because it says school bus. It's pretty clear what the approximate size is.
And we can assume it's not a city bus, because it says school bus.
That's such an american thing to say. School and city buses are the same thing in a lot of the world. Sometimes they are chartered by the school with public funds, sometimes they are just normal bus lines that have additional timeslots before and after school.
And even school uses itself vary a lot by each countrie. The US has these yellow monsters while a lot of Asian countries use small vans as buses.
Sorry. Even feet and inches don't change. Its easy to use the internet and swap feet to meters (even getting a few common conversions memorised) but whale or bus I can't really learn that.
In the US, pizzas have basically been standardized by the national chains to be 10 inch (25cm) for a small, 12 inch (30 cm) for a medium, and 14 inch (36 cm) for a large.
Honestly, this is probably the most effective way to communicate circle sizes to me, as I am quite familiar with exactly how big each of those sizes are.
I'm obviously familiar with other lengths as lengths, but for flat circles, there's not really a better intuitive comparison.
In Italy a pizza is a pizza. Size can vary a little bit restaurant to restaurant, but no way you can ask a different size pizza than the one you're being served.
Some places may offer slightly smaller ones for kids, but that's quite uncommon.
As you can see, this is not at all a reliable way to communicate sizes: I have no way to decypher how large a large pizza is.
Them there's also the problem the fast food corpos made themselves when they expand internationally, they have to downsize their portion sizes because the rest of the world doesn't eat like fast food loving Americans.
Iv always loved how people attack Americans for using dumb refences for measurements by just being racist towards all Americans.
Xenophobic? Is there a word for attacking a person based on their nation of origin? I guess xenophobic would be accurate.
Its not like other countries also don't use stupid refences to every day objects to make comparisons. Nope just an American thing that requires them also to be fat and uneducated.
We love causal xenophobia and racism here on lemmy!
At least most of the comments here are making jokes about it instead of just being a racist prick.
Be really easy to say something like "squid the size of a 15 meter bus with eyes the size of a 38cm pizza"
Now I'm wondering how the search trends look when these stories hit. Does google have a spike of people asking how big a school bus is and/or for average size of large pizza? Is it something they're doing on purpose to gather more data on us?
You need specialized hardware - a simple banana would crush under the pressure.
In order to properly measure and preserve the dimensions of the banana, you would need a miniature submarine with a clear glass window.
How they managed to get the pizzas and school bus down there is not explained, however I trust that they did the measurements properly with pizza and school bus submarines.
Taningia danae, the Dana octopus squid, is a species of squid in the family Octopoteuthidae, the octopus squids. It is one of the largest known squid species, and it has one of the largest photophores (light organs) known in any organism.
What used to be considered a large pizza is now sold as extra large and it really isn't as big as an old large pizza its like what a medium was . So this thing has a big ass body and beedie little eyes
Anything but metric.
Yeah like two extremely relatable and immediately identifiable sizes that are much more visceral than saying ~13.3-16m and ~38cm
I hate to break it to you, but when someone states anything in metric, I immediately have a feel for how large that is. That's because we usually state everything in metric, so we don't need to refer to random stuff and just learn the sizes of everything.
And yet I still have no idea how big the squid is. Buses range in size dramatically.
So do large pizzas.
How much is that in football fields?
About a 200th of a football field.
I bet I could get beat by it in a fight
No they don't? And we can see the proportions.
A "school bus" can be a local mini that's like 8-10?m long, or a medium like 15-metre one. A "school bus" (as it would be near me) can also be an articulated main route bus that has three high schools and a major university on both ends of the corridor, at like 30 metres long.
Ditto pizzas. A "large" is such an arbitrary measurement.
as for "seeing" the proportions... if you gave me that picture and told me it was shrimp-sized (also a bit ambiguous), I couldn't question it. At best, the "pizza" and "bus" provide order of magnitude estimates.
It says bus-sized, and it's long. That makes it a standard bus, not a short bus. And we can assume it's not a city bus, because it says school bus. It's pretty clear what the approximate size is.
That's such an american thing to say. School and city buses are the same thing in a lot of the world. Sometimes they are chartered by the school with public funds, sometimes they are just normal bus lines that have additional timeslots before and after school.
And even school uses itself vary a lot by each countrie. The US has these yellow monsters while a lot of Asian countries use small vans as buses.
Real LPT is always in the comments
Both school busses and pizzas change in size around the world. Metres do not
Sorry. Even feet and inches don't change. Its easy to use the internet and swap feet to meters (even getting a few common conversions memorised) but whale or bus I can't really learn that.
Well I'm glad you posted the actual measurements because now I actually know how big it is, so thank you for that.
What is large pizza? The only size of pizza I know is pizza. How many seats does the school bus have? That can easily change by 15 meters.
In the US, pizzas have basically been standardized by the national chains to be 10 inch (25cm) for a small, 12 inch (30 cm) for a medium, and 14 inch (36 cm) for a large.
Honestly, this is probably the most effective way to communicate circle sizes to me, as I am quite familiar with exactly how big each of those sizes are.
I'm obviously familiar with other lengths as lengths, but for flat circles, there's not really a better intuitive comparison.
In Italy a pizza is a pizza. Size can vary a little bit restaurant to restaurant, but no way you can ask a different size pizza than the one you're being served.
Some places may offer slightly smaller ones for kids, but that's quite uncommon.
As you can see, this is not at all a reliable way to communicate sizes: I have no way to decypher how large a large pizza is.
That's exactly my point. While this may make sense for your average fast food loving American, it just doesn't in the rest of the world.
Them there's also the problem the fast food corpos made themselves when they expand internationally, they have to downsize their portion sizes because the rest of the world doesn't eat like fast food loving Americans.
I’m gonna need you to back up at least 15 Crunchwrap Supremes away from me, me and my Baja Blast feel threatened
How much is that in AR-15s?
Iv always loved how people attack Americans for using dumb refences for measurements by just being racist towards all Americans.
Xenophobic? Is there a word for attacking a person based on their nation of origin? I guess xenophobic would be accurate.
Its not like other countries also don't use stupid refences to every day objects to make comparisons. Nope just an American thing that requires them also to be fat and uneducated.
We love causal xenophobia and racism here on lemmy!
At least most of the comments here are making jokes about it instead of just being a racist prick.
American is a race? Interesting.
The thing about a meter is that it's the same length everywhere. A large pizza and a bus, however.....
bigger than a school bus describes a Bodega, the eiffel tower, Mexico, Jupiter and the entirety of the universe.
Everything except for smaller stuff. You know, things like tires, lug nuts, screws, atoms, electrons, etc.
What about the Uniroyal tire, the Lansing Lugnut , and the JK welding screw?
Was that when she trash talked the actors?
Be really easy to say something like "squid the size of a 15 meter bus with eyes the size of a 38cm pizza"
Now I'm wondering how the search trends look when these stories hit. Does google have a spike of people asking how big a school bus is and/or for average size of large pizza? Is it something they're doing on purpose to gather more data on us?
I am the first to shit on the imperial system. I have to admit I agree with you on that one
But is it a metric pizza or an imperial pizza?
How many pizzas in a school bus?
About 8 pizzas the size of small/large boulder.
Same as eyes in a guant squid I guess...
Metric you filthy barbarian!
Can someome PLEASE get a banana down there?
This here.
Yesterday I read a book with lots of drawn (!) illustrations of the largest insects to a 5yo. It doesn't work.
You need specialized hardware - a simple banana would crush under the pressure.
In order to properly measure and preserve the dimensions of the banana, you would need a miniature submarine with a clear glass window.
How they managed to get the pizzas and school bus down there is not explained, however I trust that they did the measurements properly with pizza and school bus submarines.
But most of all, FUCK NY POST
Not possible. Bananas are rich in potassium and potassium explodes upon contact with water.
This is perfect for the Anything but Metric comm!
Also nice detail that it's a large pizza not small oder medium 👌
Found the German.
What's going on in the left photo? Does the squid have bioluminescent danglers at the front?
Maybe it’s like my cat when I catch her on my security cams in night mode. Fuckin lasers.
Lasers, how do they work?!
Yeah, it's wild they do actually have large "photophores" at the ends of their arms. More info here:
https://www.livescience.com/animals/squids/elusive-octopus-squid-with-worlds-largest-biological-lights-attacks-camera-in-striking-new-video
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taningia_danae
Holy crap, that's terrifying and so cool! Thanks for the info!
With such statsian measurements, its hard to tell for the rest of us; are the pizzas big for the US or for normal people?
In America if you order the largest size pizza and it fits through the door horizontally, you're legally permitted to eat the delivery driver.
Big
original article here: https://nypost.com/2026/05/07/science/evidence-of-giant-squid-spotted-off-australia-in-historic-find/
https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/marine-animals/giant-squid-edna-australia
btw the second image is from 2020
https://schmidtocean.org/schmidt-ocean-institute-offers-online-educational-science-content-for-students/
Thank You!
This being the NY Post, I wasn't sure about factuality. There's nothing in the pictures that would indicate its size.
How many double decker buses tall is it?
Hey! That's not nice. It's true, but it's not nice.
Huh? Whar do you use to measure the size of things?
Like, say, this here stick. We'll call it a "metre".
How many glocks is a pizza. So confused.
Its not metric but thats amore.
No that’s a squid, not an eel.
What used to be considered a large pizza is now sold as extra large and it really isn't as big as an old large pizza its like what a medium was . So this thing has a big ass body and beedie little eyes
But does the pizza have pineapples on it?
Costco pizza or Little Caesars
I wish Costco. I wish everything was the size of a Costco.
I'm going to need a bigger jig.
New pizza topping, Squid Eye!
You mean squid eyes?
No, squid eye.
This is the most terrifying thing I've ever studied furiously