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Scientists Find Preserved Dodo Bird Bones
nz17 writes "BBC News is reporting that a team of Dutch and Mauritian scientists have found what appears to be a mass dodo bird grave. From the article: 'Little is known about the dodo, a famous flightless bird thought to have become extinct in the 17th century. No complete skeleton has ever been found in Mauritius, and the last full set of bones was destroyed in a fire at a museum in Oxford, England, in 1755.'"
Just in time for the discovery of turkey remains tomorrow!
This was clearly planted by an Intelligent Designer to challenge our faith.
Big ones, small ones, some as big as yer 'ead!
Give 'em a twist, a flick o' the wrist...
I didn't know SCO was headquartered on Mauritius.....
Save the Music; Save the World at http://www.TuneTriever.com (Our latest Android game)
That would be neat if we could clone the birds somehow, I'm not sure if that's possible any more, but maybe in the marrow or something...
Take that DNA, clone those fuckers, raise 'em on a farm, and sell me some Dodo McNuggets!
"...Dutch and Mauritian scientists..." At first glance read that as ..."Dutch and Martian scientists..." and thought WTF? Now it has lost most of it's appeal for me...nevermind.
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
Am I the only one who saw "Preserved Doo-doo bones" and thought, "What kind of horrific creature has excrement so large that it needs its own internal bone structure?"
Subject says it all really. They weren't extinct back then and the easiest way to get a complete skeleton is to remove the owner.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Check to see where he was living 2000 years ago.
Okay, you got me there.
Now this flood deal, the science of Waterworld aside, where did all that water go? If the earth has been realitively unchanged in the last six thousand years as they claim where did it go? The water tied up in all the glaciers would raise the oceans a couple of hundred feet. Not even enough to cover the majority of the US. A number of states would even be high and dry. According to the bible even the highest mountains were covered. Everest is nearly 30,000 feet above sea level. Any event that could remove that much water from the surface would sterilize the planet and leave a comet the size of the moon. There isn't enough ground water to account for it either.
Untruths are easy to spot they tend to be houses of cards with easily found holes. The difference between Intellegent Design and Evolution is whatever holes there are in Evolution they are slowly being filled. They same holes will still be there in a thousand years that there are now in Intellegent Design.
I live in Mauritius. There is word that a team of researchers, mostly foreigners, recently-discovered Dodo bones on a dig site at Mare aux Songes. These bones are said to have been sent to Holland without authorisation from some local authorities who deal with issues of National Heritage. It was not known if these remains were stolen or sent abroad secretly.
Now, at least we know where the remains are.
Note: Till date, not enough bones have been found to build a complete Dodo skeleton.
Seeing as the Dodo came from there until man BSOD it :-)
You assume of course both that the mountains were that high, and the oceans that deep beforehand. That is possibly not the case. If the world was engaged in such a massive flood it could have also resulted in large tecnonic shifts creating mountains and causing volcanos to form.
wow, someone copied my post format, and it only took 3 posts. I think it works better as a single-line post, but it's in the wild now and free to evolve beyond my design.
my initial posts in the format got modded up to +5 Funny, but evidently some admin got pissed off by them and banned by IP.
It depends how long ago the flood was... The Himalayas do grow in height constantly due to the collision between the Indo-Australian and the Eurasian plate, so it is possible that the flood waters could have covered Everest. According to this article, the Himalayas only started forming 70 million years ago.
Not, that I beleive in the flood, but your argument isn't sound when it comes to mountains being covered. The shape of the crust is constantly being changed by the movement of the plates.
I think you are missing the point of ID. ID != creationism. The big idea behind ID is that the earth may well be billions of year old, that evolution etc may have happened, but that it was under $supreme_being's direction.
;)
Fossils that appear to be millions of years old really are, and represent an intermediate step (or dead end) in $supreme_being's long creation, leading eventually to us.
ID basically states that $supreme_being didn't create the world all at once, but did so in a long process, guiding evolution (which could never have happened on its own). There is therefore no need for ID adherents to explain away fossils. Fossils' existence doesn't conflict with ID.
Incidentally, this is why many fundamentalists reject ID, they see it as a sellout to science and in conflict with the biblical account of creation in 6 days.
It still doesn't belong in schools, but at least knock them for the right reasons
If the world was engaged in such a massive flood it could have also resulted in large tecnonic shifts creating mountains and causing volcanos to form.
No. Tectonic shifts are due to sideways forces over long periods of time. Floods create downward forces.
Did they find a preserved watermelon or two as well?
I don't believe that dodos exist either. I do believe that they existed, though...
Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions.
Unbeknownst to most ornithologists, the dodo was actually a very advanced species, living alone quite peacefully until, in the 17th century, it was annihilated by men, rats, and dogs. As usual
Give the DNA to that Korean faux-cloning boffin and we'll have the birds up and walking in no time!
Enjoy your burn, unfortunately you may not believe in hell but it believes in you. Welcome to it.
Says the anonymous coward.
Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters
Next Story: The owners of these bones inherit the rights to all license fees; Species with derivative DNA should now be prepared to pay retroactive license fees. Interest to be limited by the laws of South Dakota.
A shovel: $15
All your bones: Priceless.
Also you probably don't want to add human to your list for legal or ethical reasons but there is no reason not to try hufu, the healthy soy-based human flesh alternative!
Intelligent flushing?
Sounds like if they could clone it, dodos would make good domesticated animals. The eggs and bird seem tasty and docile enough.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own _correspondent/2255991.stm
The Dutch, who settled the previously uninhabited island in the early 17th century, referred to the dodo as the walgvogel, or "ghastly bird."
This was apparently because, no matter which way you cooked it, its flesh was as tough as old boots. However, that didn't stop the colonisers hunting the poor dodo down.
Destroyed in a fire? That's a little misleading. It was purposely put in a fire because someone thought it was ugly. It wasn't as if the museum was on fire. Someone walking by tried to save it but only got a few parts out.
You can find this in the awesome book "A Short History of Nearly Everything."
When Jesus was present, he re-established the principles of religion, but no one was listening to him. "Thou shalt not kill," and yet many Christians see no problem with slaughterhouses. Some Christians say animals don't have souls, but Jesus would have taught "Thou shalt not murder," if he meant it to apply only to human beings. "Thou shalt love thy God with all thy heart," and yet people don't love God. They love their dogs. Then they cry when bad things happen to them.
The basic tenant of Christianity is "Give us this day our daily bread." But God isn't our order-supplier; rather, we are eternally subordinate to him. Because of our birth in the material world, we forget our relationship with God and think, "I am god, I am this body, and all these material things that connect to this body are mine." And when this sort of person goes to church he thinks, "OK God, you give me this, this, and this, and I'll worship you." And if he doesn't get that thing, he thinks "Well, there is no God."
These people do things like say "If there is a God, let him strike me down on this very spot!" Once again, God isn't our order-supplier, and furthermore, he doesn't need to prove his abilities. He gives us what we truly want. If we don't want to believe in God, he will provide us with logical fallacies that will make us forget his existence, like "Can God create a rock that even He cannot lift?" or "If there is a God, he wouldn't have taken my child away/caused the Tsunami/made bad things happen."
But I think a lot of these people, deep down, know that God exists, and they're terrified. They're terrified because if there *is* a God, then that means they'll be responsible for their actions. It means they'll have to think before they act. And in a country where blame is shifted from one person to another, where the pop-culture emphasizes sense-gratification, and where people are masters at cheating, lying, and stealing, does it come as a surprise that everyone wants to be Godless?
it seems the mystery is solved! the dodo birds all jointed together in a giant cult and then drank the koolaide! i should have suspected.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
The Mighty Flying Spaghetti Monster Himself laid the bones for the unfaithful to find so they could continue to believe that the Dodo ever existed.
:(){
As for your taste for the flesh of obscure critters, I hear petsorfood is running a special on baby seal this week...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
You can change the name "Satan" for that of "God" and your sentence doesn't change its meaning. Therefore we can infer that Satan is God.
:(){
To sum that all up.
God lies to us through logic. God used to show off his phenomenal, cosmic powers at the slightest offense(to prove his existence), but now he doesn't really care. Some things in the bible are true, but others aren't. So instead of believing what one dude says, believe this other dude without a shred of proof, because I have faith. And faith supersedes facts and logic, which are just god's way of sending you to hell anyway.
Netcraft confirms it. Dodos.....
C-x C-s C-x k
You have really made me re-evaluate my stance towards Christianity. Other than a smug, giddy exuberance over the idea of someone else's eternal suffering, you're a great human being. Obviously your faith has worked wonders within your soul. It's eerie how like the Sermon on the Mount your words are--when reading them, all I could see was love, humility, kindness. You, sir, are a Christian.
But I think a lot of these people, deep down, know that God exists, and they're terrified. They're terrified because if there *is* a God, then that means they'll be responsible for their actions. It means they'll have to think before they act.
I don't think people need a concept of a god to be responsible for their actions and think before they act. To me, doing the right thing because you care about other people, the environment, integrity, etc., is more upstanding than acting good because you're afraid of punishment.
Well, we kinda were the reason they became extinct...
True, but not for the most commonly cited reason which is hunting. The Dodo was probably not hunted into extinction by humans since contemporary accounts indicate that grilled Dodo tasted like sh*t. The most probable reason for the Dodo's demise is that it was driven to extinction by feral animals like pigs who were introduced by human settlers. These new animals destroyed it's nests outcompeted it for food but the last nail in it's coffin may have been habitat distruction due to human activity.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
(...)That gives us proof that God exists.
That reminds me some kind of yellow fish...
...so a new generation of folks can exterminate 'em again!
Cloned foods give the statement "We had that last week!" a whole new meaning.
...when you read the "news for nerds" first on some city's subway free newspaper... /days/ before!
-- Would it be acceptable to just put my name on my sig?
Maybe, but I'd say everyone already has a concept of God. It's just a matter of believing or not believing in Him. But people are always responsible for their actions--the famous "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction." applies to actions as individuals, too.
To me, doing the right thing because you care about other people, the environment, integrity, etc., is more upstanding than acting good because you're afraid of punishment.
I think you have noble intentions in here, so I'm not trying to be an ass, just offering an alternate position. 'Upstanding ' is a bodily condition; a man can be called 'upstanding' and still have to suffer the miseries of birth, death, disease, and old age. He might be seen as an 'upstanding man' because he serves his nation, his family, and his environment. But that word has no real value because it is a bodily designation, and the man is not his body--he is a soul. If people are _seriously_ God-conscious then all such upstanding actions will be performed by default.
Enjoy your burn, unfortunately you may not believe in hell but it believes in you.
"To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from Him for ever by [one's] own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called 'Hell'."(1033) Thus, Pope John Paul II said (see link below), "The images of hell that Sacred Scripture presents to us must be correctly interpreted. They show the complete frustration and emptiness of life without God. Rather than a place, Hell indicates the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy."
Ya gotta remember, atheists already believe they are in this state.
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
And in a country where blame is shifted from one person to another, where the pop-culture emphasizes sense-gratification, and where people are masters at cheating, lying, and stealing, does it come as a surprise that everyone wants to be Godless?
No, the surprise is that this country is about the most gung-ho pro religion country around.
WTF over? I posted this to the MSNBC thread - BEFORE the dodo bird thread was even active.
That's news to me. I believe that God created the Earth, but don't believe that the Earth is only 6,000 years old.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
you forgot the "superficial" before pro religion :P
Which part of "Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female; and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female" do they not understand? No, the flood theory is not acceptable under the Intelligent Design version.
Fossils were obviously Intelligently Designed. Is there a fossil with a "half-eye"? No. And they weigh more than a duck, which renders them useless for witchcraft as well.
The dodo had an important role to play.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Well you're half right.
The Farewell Tour II
Mauritius is also famous for having a great many highly endangered species. (Think numbers in the single digits.) They're also infamous of having released some, after rebuilding the population in captivity, only for the locals to devour them back out of existence.
The entire island is heavily overpopulated with humans, the environmental concerns are badly neglected (or deliberately overlooked), yet the biodiversity that still exists - albeit in captivity in hopelessly underfinanced, understaffed, underequipped shelters* - exceeds that of virtually the entire USA combined.
*By this, I do not mean they can't go and buy a billion dollar gadget once a week. Accounts usually depict the staff involved in saving the native species as being borderline starvation cases, constantly under threat of one kind or another - particularly of malicious closure, and probably earn less in a month than a kid in a Nike sweatshop can make in an hour.
It is precisely because of conditions like that that I am not the least bit surprised that Dutch scientists would have smuggled out anything they could. You know what? I'm not the least bit sorry for Mauritius. When you treat scientists with enough contempt - hey, scientists are human too, and even the most professional will eventually return the compliment.
I doubt anything will change - except maybe for the worse - in my lifetime. My only hope is that there is something left to salvage by the time attitudes change.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
I just wish the rapture would happen already. Soon. Now would be nice. Please, God?
But that word has no real value because it is a bodily designation, and the man is not his body--he is a soul. If people are _seriously_ God-conscious then all such upstanding actions will be performed by default.
This is where we differ. To me, all your talk of souls and gods and all that is just abstract philosphizing that clutters up attempts to live simply. These concepts are just so ill-defined and incomprehensible that in most cases it just muddles the waters and causes conflict.
maybe it was a tsunami? caused by a volcano erupting on the mauritias? heheh
I find the idea of god repugnant. The idea of the Christian God makes this life less tolerable, not more. If existence is random then I can accept that children die in fires, because, well, stuff happens. I can accept that good people get cancer as frequently as bad people, because, well, stuff happens. The universe really isn't out to get me, but tree limbs do occasionally fall from trees and kill people, etc. We as humans should do what we can to minimize suffering and horror, but ultimately stuff happens over which we have no control.
But if you add God to this, it makes daily existence horrible. That means he wanted that child to die a horrible death in a burn unit at my local hospital. That means he wants people to be beheaded on video for propaganda purposes. Either he wills it, or he is ineffectual, or he just doesn't care. To say "it's part of his plan" means he wills it. If the bible is right, and I will go to hell just for lacking faith, then that god is not deserving of love or respect, because that is a horribly cruel, evil thing to do to people. If he created us just to worship him, with hell being the alternative, then he does not deserve worship. A random, meaningless world may be bleak, but at least you don't have a megalomaniacal, vindictive, vain god who torments children as part of his "plan" to worry about.
Fortunately for my peace of mind, I look around and see no reason to believe that God exists. Perhaps he/she does, but there is no reason to conclude that, as far as I can see. I'm perfectly okay being held responsible for my actions. But if you really want people to be judged and damned because they don't find a particular idea credible, then I'd have to question what kind of human being you are.
Yes, definitely.
If the earth has been realitively unchanged in the last six thousand years as they claim where did it go?
Ah, there's your problem - Creationists claim quite the opposite, that the earth has changed a lot in the last six thousand years. The earth as originally created had one super-continent and one super-ocean.
From Creation to the Flood the earth remained relatively unchanged, but during the flood, the earth's crust broke apart, continents formed roughly where they are today, and immediately following the Flood was an ice age which probably killed the dinosaurs (Noah would have brought some on the boat, though presumably not adults).
According to the bible even the highest mountains were covered. Everest is nearly 30,000 feet above sea level.
Everest would probably have been formed during the Flood; if the "highest mountains" before the Flood weren't very high, it's not that much of a problem.
The difference between Intellegent Design and Evolution is whatever holes there are in Evolution they are slowly being filled. They same holes will still be there in a thousand years that there are now in Intellegent Design.
Holes are being filled as new research is done and scientific discoveries are made. It's a slow process (because so few scientists are working on it), and there are still a lot of holes.
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No, Really. The proof is here: http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6214/1220/1600/ dodo.0.jpg
I'm not concerned with "christian dogma", and your example is flawed because once again, we are not this body, and "my child" is a bodily (therefore temporary) designation. When you are dead, is it still "your child?" no, because you no longer possess your body, and your relationship with your child is lost forever. You mistake it to think that God is directly punishing and rewarding all the individual souls. You're wrong, because He has the material nature (which is working perfectly) do it for Him. (which is, Newton's law (every action has an equal and opposite reaction)
I find the idea of god repugnant. The idea of the Christian God makes this life less tolerable, not more. If existence is random then I can accept that children die in fires, because, well, stuff happens. I can accept that good people get cancer as frequently as bad people, because, well, stuff happens. The universe really isn't out to get me, but tree limbs do occasionally fall from trees and kill people, etc. We as humans should do what we can to minimize suffering and horror, but ultimately stuff happens over which we have no control.
The problem is that you think I am in support of Christian dogma, whereas I am not; I'm just someone who believes in God. But the "all loving" God of Christian theology is a relatively new concept, which only complicates matters when people try to approach God in a serious manner. I don't want people to be "judged and damned" because they don't find a particular idea credible. That's not my intent. So don't call into question my humanity. Rather, if you don't believe that people have souls, then it's your own humanity you need to question.
I had to laugh when you mentioned about living simply, how can you think people are living simply? People are working hard every day to maintain a meager salary, under constant threat of unemployment, and you think that this is a simple life? (to have a mundane house, drive 20-30 minutes to work/day, a wife/husband who they claim to "love" (but mostly divorce 5 years later), and have children who they raise, but who send them to nursing homes once they are old? Face it: People have to suffer the misery of disease, old age, and death, and you think that's a simple kind of life? Either you're smokin some good pot, or you are severely illusioned, my friend.
Both the Greek and Hebrew scriptures do indeed make this distinction. "Thou shalt not murder" is the correct translation - the translators screwed up on this one.
Fundamentalist christians make plenty of stupid mistakes. This is not one of them.
Laws are horrible moral guides, moral guides make even worse laws.
Just chew a scab from your knee and you're there.
It doesn't matter which ape activates the Monolith
Maybe they tasted really good?! After all they were "killed by sailors for extra food," and their eggs were stolen by ship animals (BBC News). Clone the Dodo! KFD! KFD! KFD!
I had to laugh when you mentioned about living simply, how can you think people are living simply? People are working hard every day to maintain a meager salary, under constant threat of unemployment, and you think that this is a simple life? (to have a mundane house, drive 20-30 minutes to work/day, a wife/husband who they claim to "love" (but mostly divorce 5 years later), and have children who they raise, but who send them to nursing homes once they are old? Face it: People have to suffer the misery of disease, old age, and death, and you think that's a simple kind of life? Either you're smokin some good pot, or you are severely illusioned, my friend.
I didn't say people in America today are living simply. I said that all this conflict, these complications of having to imbue certain (arbitrary) meaning on things makes it a lot harder to do so! As you pointed out, when people accept on faith how they are "supposed" to live, rather than determining the right course of action based on observations, the results are generally disappointing.
Ah OK, I guess I misinterpreted what you said. Good point.
you forgot the "superficial" before pro religion :P
;-)
Well, there are plenty of adjectives that could fit there
All four examples you've given were marine animals that would not have been brought on the Ark.
Christians believe that God directly inspired the men who wrote the Bible, ensuring the accuracy of the original Scriptures. You're right: without divine inspiration, stories passed down orally through that many generations wouldn't end up being particularly accurate.
As for copies and translations, those are the works of man and are therefore fallible, which is why there are minor disagreements between manuscripts and between translations. However, since the text of the manuscripts we have available are quite similar, it can be reasonably assumed that the original text wasn't much different.
The canonization of the New Testament is a valid issue that I don't feel qualified to address.
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Right, they would have been peacefully wiped out with all the other marine animals when the rain fell for ages and raised the level of the sea above that of the highest mountains, dramatically changing the ocean's salinity.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"