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Ask Slashdot: How Do I Explain That Humans Didn't Ride Dinosaurs?
p00kiethebear writes "I have a wonderful and beautiful girlfriend who treats me right in every way. We've been together for almost a year now and everything seemed to be going perfectly until this morning. Over breakfast we were discussing dinosaurs and she told me a story about how her grandfather, fifty years ago, dated footprints of a dinosaurs and a man that were right next to each other to be within the same epoch of history. I laughed when she said this and then realized that she wasn't joking. She believes dinosaurs and humans walked at the same time together. The odd thing is that she's not religious, it's just what her archaeologist grandfather taught her. More important than just backing up evidence to the contrary, how do I explain this to her without crushing her childhood dreams? Is it even worth discussing it further with her?"
Yes, I'm serious. Really this is one of the fundamental flaws in geeks. Do not fuck up a relationship making your girlfriend feel bad over something that happened 165 million years ago. I know the geek think is: "This is a gateway problem that leads to the entirety of all mystical belief and ruins the world." Shitcan that garbage, now!
A person's religion is rarely entirely from the church, it's a blend things they've heard and want to believe and things their parents believed in addition to church input. Don't treat this any differently than arguing against any other "invisible man in the sky who rights all wrongs and gives us eternal life for being nice people and giving money to the church" belief system.
Let it go. If (and only if) she asks for your help, take her to some museums and do research *with* her and let the overwhelming body of scientific evidence change her mind, not the guy who wants to take her shirt off. If science is not at risk of losing that capability.
You have been warned!
"Is it even worth discussing it further with her?"
No.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
Fvzcyr. Rkcynva gb ure gung qvabfnhef unq fcvxl fxva, naq gung fnqqyrf jrera'g vairagrq hagvy 1942.
Why do I even bother to come to Slashdot on April first?
It's sad that things are so stupid in the US right now that I can't tell if this story is fake or not.
I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
... And saw that once the land had been poisoned with the flesh and bones of the Lords of the past. They shall rule the lords of the present with everlasting scales of Armor riding below their hands and feast to the morning of the long lasting Day. I have no idea what I just said, but this should be related to Dinos somehow, yes ?
Brontosaurus.
What else did they lie to us about?
THL phish sticks
I want to ride a dinosaur...
You can tell this is an April Fools joke because it's a slashdot user saying "I have a ... girlfriend"
V pnag npghnyyl or obgurerq jvgu guvf...
Dinosaurs rode humans. I thought everyone knew that.
Fpvragvfgf unir qvfpbirerq gung znal bs gur fhccbfrq uhzna genpxf ner va snpg "angheny veerthynevgvrf naq rebfvbany srngherf bs gur fhofgengr [...] rybatngr, zrgngnefny qvabfnhe genpxf...znqr ol qvabfnhef gung, ng yrnfg ng gvzrf, vzcerffrq gurve fbyrf naq urryf nf gurl jnyxrq" (Xhona 1992). Bsgra gur gbr znexf bs gur qvabfnhe genpxf ner fbzrjung svyyrq va, pnhfvat gurz gb erfrzoyr irel ynetr uhzna sbbgcevagf. Jura gur svyyvat frqvzrag vf erzbirq gur genpxf ner pyrneyl znqr ol n guerr-gbrq qvabfnhe. Xhona tbrf ba gb jevgr gung "Erprag pynvzf gung fbzr bs gurfr genpxf unir uhzna cevagf jvguva gurz unir orra fubja gb or nf onfryrff nf gur bevtvany pynvzf" (Xhona 1992).
If I wanted to think evil, somebody at ./ wants to get a big peak of logged-in users for some good stats to user later on..
ok, I might be wrong..but still looks like a cheap april 1st joke
In Russia, dinosaur rides YOU.
Are you implyifacting they didn't?
Oh, but they did my friend, they most certainly did.
See, I have photos, and they were taken before Photoshop was invented, so therefore, they can't be photoshopped.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Can we PLEASE dispense with the silly encryption bullshit? If I wanted something that was impossible to read, I'd go to FOXNEWS
A video showing a cyclist being hit by a car : Accident
Because humans have ridden dinosaurs.
(T>t && O(n)--) == sqrt(666)
Gura xvyy ure tenaqsngure. V'z cerggl fher gung'f ubj gur tenaqsngure cnenqbk jbexf.
Wow, you really can find porn of anything on the Internet.
Just beat her until she agrees with you or can't understand why you're reaching out to humans via cyphered messages. It will establish dominance and put some god damn sense into her.
Clearly it was only the Son of God who rode dinosaurs: http://freethinker.co.uk/images/uploads/2010/09/300x412xjesus-riding-a-dinosaur-tattoo.jpg.pagespeed.ic.w9AV_5-nYU.jpg
If I take a time machine back for that, I'm gonna ride a dinosaur!
Hoy! Why don't you ROT13 the sites name, the header and everything else too, and go into oblivion? This is irritating to say the least. One message is an Aplir fools joke, all of them makes for disappearance from the internet...
Subject says it all!
You just wish your ID was as low as mine! I used to be proud to have such a low id, but not so much now. Slashdot most
I heard they discovered a lesbian dinosaur. They named it Lickalotopus.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Guess it cut off the subject. It said "How do I turn off this ROT13 bullshit!"
You just wish your ID was as low as mine! I used to be proud to have such a low id, but not so much now. Slashdot most
She's got to be talking about Paluxy.
http://paleo.cc/paluxy/tsite.htm
You need to recognize that your own knowledge of the past is at least as bad as hers (if you didn't already know about Paluxy) so that you won't come across to her as some kind of paternally condescending authority figure. That's bad for your love life!
And you know, if her grandfather was involved in the discovery or documentation of Paluxy, that's awesome and you should celebrate that. Take her to the site! The two of you can look at the actual real life data personally and come to some sort of conclusion together. That would be a lot less stupid than fostering discord because "my authority figures contradict your authority figures" which is what you are looking at doing right now. Have you seen the tracks? I think not, so her opinion (which was possibly passed from a person who actually saw them) is at least as valid as your hearsay beliefs.
Most likely, when you both visit the site, you will find that one or the other explanation is more likely, and you'll both benefit regardless of who is right. Real Science is Fun.
really...wish this one was real just to read the inevitable comments.
And it's male counterpart Rompasaurass
I got here through a series of tubes
Since the bible doesn't mention humans riding dinosaurs, the book is for once right on an issue.
Enough said. And I think he read the Bible while at the gym.
Brontosaurus.
What else did they lie to us about?
The Flinstones was a thinly veiled documentary...and I really could go for a Sonic Brontoburger
yby
It's part of April Fool's Day.
I imagine it will disappear tomorrow, at least from the new / real news items.
It's simple. You give in. Say the evidence is undeniable that humans do ride dinosaurs, and after you carefully reconsidered the question for a while, you now accept the evidence. Admit it to them. Then send them to these links as examples:
here, here, and this one ("you can ride it" - lol).
It must have been your footprints she saw.
"I have a wonderful and beautiful girlfriend who treats me right in every way" - there's your April fool's right there.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
Anyone notice that the first 154 characters of the summary paragraph take 6 bits at a time
is the BD aacs master key? When I plug'd that value into VLC - boom! I could play Blu-rays! Wow!
CAPTCHA = quoted, but don't quote me on this...
Provide the same rational argument you used to convince yourself... ...If you don't have one you might ask yourself if you have any better claim that the people that do claim that humans rode them.
The obvious argument is, what about the meat-eaters, they'd eat you? This doesn't mean no-one tried, just that their success was likely short-lived.
=)
Subject says it all!
He he he he he.
Seriously, though, wait until tomorrow. It'll all go away.
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
Your story will make a great no 1 on the "Signs you watched too much Fred Flintstone as a child" list
Your plight so touched my fellow scientists that we got together and decided that, since this isn't an issue about religion, we're going to give up on this whole "the dinosaurs didn't co-exist with humans" thing. After all, it was just a theory, a hunch, so why crush people's dreams over it?
Tell your gf that it's all good, and that her grandpa wasn't going senile when he did that work. In fact, we've nominated him as a "scientific hero," and will get back to you when the awards ceremony is over to tell you how he did.
It'll be close, though, since there was an amazing dog-saves-a-kitten story that just happened which forced us to reevaluate this whole "natural selection" nonsense..
Dinosaurs taste like chicken.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
no one can be THAT stupid (home schooled?)! If she really believes that people and dinosaurs were around at the same time, it's time for you to find a new girlfriend. I suggest you look for someone with at least half a brain.
Let it go. If (and only if) she asks for your help, ...
Assuming said relationship progresses to (optionally marriage and) children, there's no way to dodge the subject. It's one thing to let this woman live with her own beliefs and another to pass it on to another generation.
But, here in Texas, we STILL ride dinosaurs.
Anything you say to a person such as this sounds exactly like if you the ROT13 text of this site. Such people do not have the basis to understand the logic. I am not saying anything bad against such people. A friend of mine believes that going to church makes you rich and happy. It is not up to me to change that. We all have things other people disagree with, some of it is what we might consider factually proven, so it is hard for us to keep out mouths such. It is a trade off. Enjoy the company and the sex, or give it up and find someone who is more on your wavelength.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
What? I thought One Million Years B.C. with Raquel Welch was a documentary.
then ditch her, she has the same intellect as a dinosaur!
This was another lame April fools. If you were in any doubt, the first sentence should have given it away.
I thought it was Megasoreass.
I have a wonderful and beautiful girlfriend who treats me right in every way
This part is a April's Fool day prank.
Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
Build a time machine that transports you and your girlfriend to the spot that her grandfather discovered the footprints.
... then give the guy a nice hard kick to the jewels and do humanity a favor. Two birds with one stone: one less moron, one less moron who happens to be your girlfriend.
There are real dinosaur footprints in Texas and some of the more eroded ones kinda-sorta are in the realm of size and shape that if you squint hard enough, and believe strong enough almost look human. The ones that looked like actual footprints were faked by creationists.
As the saying goes "Pics or GTFO!"
My girlfriend swears that she saw a dinosaur walk across a lawn when she was a child and she's sharp and not prone to B.S.
Go figure.
In this case, leave her belief alone. She is happy, you are happy. She has this harmless belief that something before recorded history was 63 million years off from most people. No big deal. At least she doesn't have an invisible friend like my wife...
Let it go. If (and only if) she asks for your help, take her to some museums and do research *with* her and let the overwhelming body of scientific evidence change her mind, not the guy who wants to take her shirt off. If science is not at risk of losing that capability.
Or try to convert her to Catholicism, which has no problem with paleontology and geology:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Teilhard_de_Chardin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Steno
Reason tends to be more appreciated as well:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fides_et_Ratio
Dragons are in many different cultures.
I'm sorry to break it to you, but I was just watching a documentary about prehistoric times. The story centered around a couple named Fred and Wilma. Not only did they have a pet dinosaur, but they interacted with dinosaurs on a regular basis -- public transportation, household appliances, heavy machinery.
Nevermind, that just sounds sick.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
> there's no way to dodge the subject ... Teach the controversy? :)
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
This is the best advice I think I've ever read on Slashdot. It's on point, it shows both intellectual and emotional understanding -- it's great.
In short, please ban this guy. He's really screwing up this site for the rest of us.
1) Jesus was a carpenter.
2) Carpenters build ladders.
3) You need a ladder to get into the saddle of a dinosaur.
It's scientrific!
He might have first-hand knowledge.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/35jol0/
That is a separate gay species known for high levels of activity.
Oh, that's easy, why don't you just bring up the complete proof of evolution?
Pterodactyl porn.
It exists.
Baby hand-puppet ptero included.
The best argument against some religious beliefs, at least the value of abstinence, was made by the depiction of Raquel Welch in an animal-skin bikini in One Million Years, B.C.
is here: http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/nab/what-happened-to-the-dinosaurs
Of course you need to decide which is the greater error: Your girlfriend's mistaken belief or your decision to point it out.
Several years ago while having lunch with an ex-girlfriend I started thinking about the ingredients on my burger and how the beef from the cow, lettuce, tomatoes, etc were all recycled atoms of various elements which would go on to further be recycled. I started laughing at this cosmic game. She asked me why I was laughing, and I just said "We're all made of stars!" thinking of the elements having been made in stars. She asked me why I said that and I gave her a 15 minute crash course in the formation of elements in stars and the billions of years it took for all of that to coaelesce in to us. To my utter amazement resulting with my jaw dropping to the floor she said with a laughing giggle... "No we're not. The world and everything else is only 4000 years old." She wasn't joking. She was dead serious. I let it go and we dated for a few more months. I never expected that relationship to go very far. It would be a shame if you were to help propagate that level of intellect through breeding. Run...
Fuck u Slashdot and April fools day.
I have a wonderful and beautiful girlfriend who treats me right in every way
This part is a April's Fool day prank.
All a matter of perspective, friend.
Even an ogre is hot, if you're looking through the eyes of a bridge troll.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
But what if it's a very short dinosaur?
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
That's nonsense. My grandpa never mentioned a ladder to get into a velociraptor's saddle! You're making stuff up now!
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
It really *is* April fools day.
"The odd thing is that she's not religious, it's just what her archaeologist grandfather taught her." ...so it sounds like she's just repeating what she was told as a child.. not the church or religion. I don't see a problem correcting someone who was misinformed.
"crushing her childhood dreams" ...just tell her she mis-remembered (she was a kid afterall). It wasn't dinosaurs.. it was another (now-extinct) animal that actually did exist the at the same time as ancient humans (we hunted them, so of course there were footprints)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolly_mammoth
The woolly mammoth coexisted with early humans, who used its bones and tusks for making art, tools, and dwellings. It is thought much of this material was scavenged, but the species was also hunted for food. It disappeared from its mainland range at the end of the Pleistocene 10,000 years ago, most likely through a combination of climate change, consequent disappearance of its habitat, and hunting by humans, though the significance of these factors is disputed.
or just point her at this: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/paluxy.html (beware: it does mention creationism... you don't want to accuse her of being that)... basically it says the "mantracks" are actually those of a 3-toed dino, but the toe part eroded leaving what looks like feet.
whatever you, make sure you block this at your proxy http://creationmuseum.org/
Jesus only rode the mightiest of dinosaurs. Don't be sacrilegious.
IM SICK OF APRIL 1ST
Depending on what definition of dinosaur you use.
"Under phylogenetic taxonomy, dinosaurs are usually defined as the group consisting of Triceratops, Neornithes [modern birds], their most recent common ancestor (MRCA), and all descendants" - wikipedia
Which would make Ostriches dinosaurs.
Though more common definitions like: "A fossil reptile of the Mesozoic era" would make this impossible even if Humans were around 2 billion years ago, since a dianour is defined as something in a fossil.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
... of course. Because if you have to explain it at all to anyone over the age of five, nothing less than a clearing blow to the head will work. One hard enough to clear that head of most of the superstitious brain matter that resides within it.
I say this with a rather enormous amount of experience on the subject. Absolutely no scientific or rational or empirical argument will convince someone that their religious beliefs are wrong. The entire sub-field of cognitive dissonance in behavioral psychology is devoted to understanding why this is so and how to deal with it, but its empirical conclusions are that a human deep in the throes of CD is not going to be pulled out of it by a silly little thing like facts, not even the blatant in-your-face failure of the core belief. There is even evidence that the more absurd the belief and the more humiliating its failure the stronger the denial becomes, the more powerful the state of CD itself becomes.
So don't bother pissing into a category four hurricane, my friend. Radiometric dating will not work. Astrophysical observation will not work. Paleontological observation of the orthogonality of human and dinosaur fossils will not work. Attacks on the core scriptural mythology (showing that it is absurd and self-contradictory and filled with evil and not in agreement with known geography or facts) will not work. Arithmetic (for example, showing the absurdity of a 5-6 inch per minute world-spanning rain that lasted 40 days -- the rate and time required to cover Mount Everest -- while preserving several million species in a handmade wooden boat the size of a Wal-Mart with no air conditioning nor heating nor ventilation for an additional half a year) will not work. Nothing works. If mere rationality or evidence worked, it would already have done so.
rgb
Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken. --- Bertrand Russell.
Vg zrnaf ur qvfpbirerq uvf bja tenaqqnhtugre'f sbbgcevagf.
Whfg rkcynva gung Whenffvp Cnex jnfa'g n jbex bs svpgvba - vg jnf n uvfgbel obbx, znqr vagb n qbphzragnel.
-- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
Best thing you can do is simply stuff something in her mouth to shut her up. If you don't have any items of suitable size necessary, just use a portion of your anatomy...
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Humans did used to ride dinosaurs. I saw this in a documentary called The Flintstones.
I have a wonderful and beautiful girlfriend
Can we at least get some kind of effort to make these fake stories believable?
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
HANG ON! You will have proved HER point/her grandfather's point not his...if you create such a time machine & go back to view dinosaurs then by definition you would have 'humans walking with the dinosaurs'....hmm, maybe that's exactly what his girlfriend's grandfather discovered...evidence of a future society of humans having time machines!
Build a time machine that transports you and your girlfriend to the spot that her grandfather discovered the footprints.
Look around. "See? Just dinosaurs. No humans here except us. Sorry dear."
Thus proving that her grandfather was right and saving your relationship.
After that, a dinosaur would crush the guy who invented a time machine, and his body would remain there for centuries, next to a dead dinosaur. Then the grandfather would discover the two bodies and tell the story to his grandson.
Y'all do realize that this is a relatively easy to break Caesarian Shift?
Slashdot should have some sort of system for moderating higher than +5. If enough people are willing to "waste" mod points on something that is already +5, then after a certain threshold it should be super modded or something. The results would be...err, increased font size or bold or something. Or maybe a special place below the story.
Your comment is one of those that deserves more recognition.
Let it go. If (and only if) she asks for your help, ...
Assuming said relationship progresses to (optionally marriage and) children, there's no way to dodge the subject. It's one thing to let this woman live with her own beliefs and another to pass it on to another generation.
really? honestly speaking I'm still not seeing this as a big deal. By that time you should be able to come to a compromise. After all you've been with this girl for a hypothetically 6-7 years minimum (1 year now, almost a year for the baby, maybe 5 years before you sit down to talk about dinosaurs). I would think that in 6-7 years (likely more in reality) that you'd find time to agree that you're going to explain both of your positions and let the child decide. I think most kids don't learn about dinosaurs from their parents anyway.
Just another second banana
Marry her. Have children with her. Raise them with a clue stick. It's the only way. Otherwise she'll just produce offspring without one.
Lets hope dumb fucks well.
http://xkcd.com/610/
A friend of mine believes that going to church makes you rich and happy.
I have a friend who doesn't think prayer works. Well whadyaknow. I guess this here world takes just all kinda of folks don't it.
Just another second banana
That is why the comment say: "saving your relationship"
This is the essentially the right answer. Your girlfriend is going to be wrong about a lot of things, because each of us is wrong about a lot of things. Many of them will are so incredibly inconsequential and irrelevant that it's not worth wasting your breath, and I'd suggest this is one of them. Because really, in the entire scope of things, facts about dinosaurs hardly matter. They won't change your day to day behavior.
Pick your battles. Over the span of your relationship, your girlfriend will be wrong about a lot of things, and so will you. Instead of thinking it's your job to make sure your girlfriend is correct in all her beliefs, you should decide that there are some times when you'll let it go. I'm sure there will be times when she's convinced that you're wrong, and you wish she'd just let it go. And believe it or not, sometimes it might be worth backing her up even when she's wrong, just because you have her back.
(I don't mean "you have her back" in a dirty way, though there's that too.)
It's only 'dreams' to you. To the other person, it's just another part of reality--part that they were mistaken in trusting.
Of giraffes and elephants and lions and unicorns, the only difference between thinking that all are real and thinking that three of them are real is the feeling of betrayal upon learning that you've been deceived. Even in that case, it's better to know that someone you trusted gave you false information rather than continuing to hold a mistaken impression of reality.
Dinosaurs, humans, the geologic ages, and particularly certain things that humans did with mammoths (or elephants, for that matter!) are plenty amazing on their own. It's only because you know that something is false that it seems mystical and special to you. /It is not./ It is not a 'dream', it is a 'lie' about reality.
The things we call dreams are called that by us because we know them to not currently be real and, if they're ever to become real, to require a lot of work or luck. Even forms of escapism without the intention of turning them into reality can be pleasant, but again there's the awareness of their nature--the 'disbelief' which is suspended, but not lost.
Hahahaha, true, true... But, if you read ./ you do not have beautiful girlfriends, even if you are a ogre, werewolf, vampire or even a dragon like me :-)
Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
Instead, offer her a ride on your triceratops.
Haven't you ever played Super Mario World?
I thought it was Megasoreass.
They're from different eras.
"It is the Dwarves who go swimming with little hairy women!!!"
Good-bye
You don't convince her, she convinces herself. If it's that important to you then you might be out of luck. If it's not important to you then never speak of it again. I'm really annoyed with Slashdot's Rot13 BULLSHIT!
Fuck u Slashdot and April fools day.
Three thumbs up!
Everyone here who assumes this is a religious issue has a reading comprehension problem. It has actually occurred that the footprints of modern humans were found in the same strata as dinosaurs. This can happen for various geological reasons, and making invalid conclusions can happen for no religious reasons whatsoever. We're not even addressing the various previously-believed extinct species that were later found to still exist, and thus coexisted with humans without the great enlightened western world knowing about them (although "primitives" often did). Instead of gleefully racing to be the next to ridicule the supposed ignorant fundamentalist, make sure you aren't the ignoramus in the room.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
"Wow, you really can find porn of anything on the Internet."
So, don't visit Russia, or the Russian Internet will find porn of anything on you. That could have nasty repercussions for you!
Ezekiel 23:20
...you dirty old man.
Loading...
Jesus only rode the mightiest of dinosaurs. Don't be sacrilegious.
You, on the other hand, are being scaryligious. Think of the children!
Ezekiel 23:20
The results would be...err, increased font size or bold or something.
Just insert the BLINK tags around it... *ducks*
Ezekiel 23:20
I'm VERY happy they brought it back this year...missed it the last couple of years.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
1. He's a guy
2. She's a girl, that is actually speaking to him.
3. The objective here, is to get laid.
So, like any self respecting male you tell her whatever she wants to hear so you can get in her pants. It isn't like most relationships are about anything but getting laid. You do this as often as you can with as many women as you can...and along the way, you find one that keeps your interests over and above fucking her, and you pause to decide if you want to stay with her as a mate and possibly have offspring.
But that is definitely NOT on the top of the list, it is something that happens as you make your young years trying to get laid by as many women as you can.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Later the man noticed only one set of footprints and wondered why he was abandoned. Said our Dinosaur Deity, "it was then that I carried you. In my mouth, cause I got these farked-up little arms."
Seriously, if there are no more pressing differences between you and your girlfriend that actually affect your lives, why bother? The best you may expect to happen is that she accepts that you're right, that her grandfather (who she possibly admired) was wrong and that she feels a little bit stupid. What's won? At worst, it may lead to a veritable shitstorm that gets her whole family involved and gets them pissed at you, not to mention your girlfriend.
Just accept it, shrug, and go on with your life. You MIGHT want to review her information about various things again when you have kids to make sure they don't get some mixed signals from the two of you, but 'til that time... why bother with trivial matters?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
My dad rode dinosaurs to school with Jesus (early days before the zombie thing).
Those creationists, always forging evidence to support their ideas. Like Java Man, Piltdown Man, pictures of peppered moths nesting in trees, those fake embryonic stage drawings that still get printed in textbooks...
Whoops. Never mind.
> 165 million years ago
Can't tell if typo or actually meta-trolling about science.
|/usr/games/fortune
Heh. Some years back, I saw a video of a person "riding a dinosaur". It wasn't faked. The person was riding a (tame) ostrich, and since the birds were (finally) reclassified as a branch of the dinosaurs back in the 1980s, it qualifies.
Actually, I have a dinosaur sitting on my chest, trying to get my attention, as I type this. Her name is Lydia, and she's a blue-crowned conure. She's a really cute little flying dinosaur, of the parrot branch. I have a nice picture of her after she took a bath, and had a spiky "punk" look to her wet feathers, which I use as my avatar on various online forums. She's a bit small for a human to ride, though, weighing in at 185g.
It's too bad that the large dinosaurs were all wiped out 65 million years ago. But that did open the path for our ancestors to develop intelligence, and for the avians to occupy most of the flying niches. Now we can keep members of the few remaining dinosaurs as pets, but only a few are big enough that humans can ride them. Some of the others can make very charming pets for us upstart primates.
It's probably worth noting here that the idea that birds are dinosaurs was suggested by none other than Charles Darwin, along with various of his colleagues. The problem was that birds don't fossilize well, so biologists just said "That's interesting; can you find some good evidence?" It wasn't until the late 1970s that we found pre-KT-disaster bird fossils that verified the connection. So now it's sorta fun to read all the ignorant media comments about the "extinction of the dinosaurs", showing ignorance of the fact that there are roughly 8,000 dinosaur species alive today, about twice the number of mammal species.
(Hmmm ... Maybe I should wait until April 2 to post this. Nah ... ;-)
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
relationships where one partner cannot tell the truth for fear of offending the others ego are doomed. in fact, propping up willful ignorance is a compounding stress that will destroy any relationship, not just the personal variety.
there's also the married variant, Nomorasexos Rex
If a woman thinks men and dinosaurs walked the Earth at the same time, her genes are defective (low intelligence) and you shouldn't be having children with her anyways.
I heard they discovered a lesbian dinosaur. They named it Lickalotopus.
Don't forget the Masturdon. It was only around for one generation before it died out.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
I'm sad I have to respond as if this thread were serious. But believing people rode dinosaurs is hardly an inconsequential thing. It belies a deep, deep disfunction in a persons cognitive processes. If you're that incredibly misinformed about such a basic and easily verifiable fact of the world we live in, there is something wrong with your brain. The incuriousness it takes to allow such a belief to persist to adulthood boggles the mind.
Something like this is absolutely a deal breaker for me. Life is too short to spend it with someone you don't respect intellectually.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
It is my opinion that if you cannot discuss this topic, and other even more important topics, like two adults then the relationship was not meant to be.
It shouldn't be too hard to state that all the dinosaurs went extinct about 65 million years ago and humans did not evolve until about 100,000 years ago so those foot prints are not from the same epoch.
If she wants more info point her to google. If she doesn't, you are done.
Anarchists never rule
relationships where one partner cannot tell the truth for fear of offending the others ego are doomed. in fact, propping up willful ignorance is a compounding stress that will destroy any relationship, not just the personal variety.
Wife: "Honey, is my butt big?"
Husband: (without looking up) "No."
'Nuff said.
Congratulations, you've just committed the Fundamental Attribution Error. You too can now write for atheist blogs!
sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
Hey, it could be worse. She might prefer Emacs to Vim or something seriously horrible like that.
sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
The problem is that she may be "right" about her grandfather. There are many sites where such coexistent "footprints" have been found, All of them have been proven to be false, either accidental or fraud.
http://www.badarchaeology.com/?page_id=178
So if she has only family legend to go by, then she is actually correct. Only her grandfather's interpretation was incorrect.
Url, fbzrgvzrf lbh whfg tbggn tb jvgu gur sybj.
I'm sad I have to respond to this as if it were serious, but I feel it's important to point out that being "incredibly misinformed" is not a sign of some kind of mental derangement.
Or were you arguing that misinformation causes cognitive dysfunction? If that's true, we're all doomed.
sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
That'll show 'em. There's nothing a tourist trap hates more than tourists.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
This. +1
Love is found when your first thought during post-coitus isn't "How can I get her to leave? (And maybe get me a sandwich, some chips and a beer on the way out)", but rather "How can I get her to stay? Beer, chips and sandwich optional."
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Here's the proof
Thank you.
The Blade Itself
In all my years of having girlfriends and frequenting slashdot, I've never had a girlfriend that TALKED! Occasionally they whistle, but that's escaping air from a leak and you have to buy another. You could plug her with duct tape, but that's just sick. I'll have to check around and see if I can find one of these new models for myself!
You missed the point, moron.
Rule 34?
Don't explain computers to laymen. Simpler to explain sex to a virgin. -- Robert A. Heinlein
relationships where one partner cannot tell the truth for fear of offending the others ego are doomed. in fact, propping up willful ignorance is a compounding stress that will destroy any relationship, not just the personal variety.
MOD THIS UP YOU FOOLS!!!!
Don't treat this any differently than arguing against any other "invisible man in the sky who rights all wrongs and gives us eternal life for being nice people and giving money to the church" belief system.
Let it go. If (and only if) she asks for your help, take her to some museums and do research *with* her and let the overwhelming body of scientific evidence change her mind, not the guy who wants to take her shirt off. If science is not at risk of losing that capability.
If my wife believed in spooky nonsense I would never have married her. I do not want my children being brought up indoctrinated in nonsense, and I do not need to be married to someone who makes their decisions based on childish make believe. I do not make fun of my wife if she doesn't understand something and I do try to show her the evidence I'm aware of. We most certainly don't agree on everything and we both give and take. However fundamentally different belief systems are bound to cause issues. I don't treat my wife like a dolt just to get into her shirt or anything else.
You don't directly. You suggest watching a documentary because of her interest in the subject and let it do the work. If she gets upset, she'll be upset at the documentary and you can always comfort her.
...then hang onto them like grim death when challenged. My wife was not a stupid woman, and in fact had a better education than mine - on MOST topics (I assume). I recall walking through a park with her, and she was chasing some ducks. I told her to "leave the poor birds alone", which confused her, because according to her, ducks weren't birds. She went on, saying people thought a lot of things were birds that weren't, like penguins.
I asked her what she though they were, and she said "ducks". Like mammal, reptile, bird, amphibian, duck? "Exactly!" Books didn't help, and for a while I suspected she was kidding me (though it wasn't April). When it got to the sleeping on the couch stage, I dropped it...
But believing people rode dinosaurs is hardly an inconsequential thing. It belies a deep, deep disfunction in a persons cognitive processes. If you're that incredibly misinformed about such a basic and easily verifiable fact of the world we live in, there is something wrong with your brain.
Here's the thing: I would bet that there is at least one thing which you believe that is *very* false. And when I say "very false", I mean it to include some combination of "scientifically proven to be false" and "commonly known to be false" as well as "obviously false". I don't say that to insult you, I say that because it's true of everyone. I'm sure that I have some intellectual and emotional blind-spots that keep me from seeing things clearly, that keep me from understanding everything correctly.
For each of us, there are some things that we're in denial about. There are some things that we don't adequately understand. There are some things that we never questioned enough to realize how stupid our beliefs are. We are all misinformed about basic and easily verifiable facts.
So I say, "get off your high horse." This girl might be wrong about the chronology of dinosaurs. Your mother might think that all of her computer files are in the monitor, while failing to understand what 'that box under the desk' does. You might be one of those people who think most of the physical material of plants come from the soil they sit in. I might think that 'George Washington Carver' was the butcher employed by the first President of the United States. We're all pretty stupid sometimes. If you think you're above all that, then that's just another example of you being stupid.
In most sane parts of the world, you'd get ONE joke story and that would be it. A whole bunch of feeble jokes is not funnier than one feeble joke.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
I'm sad I have to respond as if this thread were serious. But believing people rode dinosaurs is hardly an inconsequential thing. It belies a deep, deep disfunction in a persons cognitive processes. If you're that incredibly misinformed about such a basic and easily verifiable fact of the world we live in, there is something wrong with your brain. The incuriousness it takes to allow such a belief to persist to adulthood boggles the mind.
Something like this is absolutely a deal breaker for me. Life is too short to spend it with someone you don't respect intellectually.
It's good to hear that you know the absolute truth about everything. It makes you wonder why peple still disagree about things like the existence of god, whether socialism is achieveable in my lifetime, what date the Singularity will occur on, and who was the most talented Beatle.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
I simply disagree. Being incredibly misinformed is a sign of some kind of mental derangement. Specifically, that mental derangement is incuriousness.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
We are all misinformed about basic and easily verifiable facts.
I would bet that you're wrong about that. I take efforts to know what I'm talking about, and when I don't, I shut the hell up.
I mean, what exactly is she (hypothetically) claiming when she says "humans rode dinosaurs". Is she claiming that human fossils and dinosaur fossils have been found in the same burial site? Is she claiming that historical records of humans riding dinosaurs have been found? Does she even know?
Yes, we're all misinformed about many facts, there are infinitely many of them after all. But we don't all go making claims about easily verifiable facts, without exerting a minimum amount of effort to easily verify those facts. If you don't know, say you don't know.
So I say, "get off your high horse."
A second grade knowledge of paleontology is not a "high horse". To you I say, "get some standards". Ignorance is not attrctive, and weapons grade ignorance like this can only be deliberate.
If you think you're above all that, then that's just another example of you being stupid.
Come on now, that's just begging the question.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Or to put it all another way, why would you say, "Gee, I have this girl who's awesome and I love spending time with. The sex is great and being with her makes me happy. But I must break it off. She believes something incorrect about dinosaurs!"
It reminds me of this comic.
I mean, what exactly is she (hypothetically) claiming when she says "humans rode dinosaurs".
If you read the OP, "... she told me a story about how her grandfather, fifty years ago, dated footprints of a dinosaurs and a man that were right next to each other to be within the same epoch of history...The odd thing is that she's not religious, it's just what her archaeologist grandfather taught her."
But we don't all go making claims about easily verifiable facts, without exerting a minimum amount of effort to easily verify those facts. If you don't know, say you don't know.
Yes, but it's not quite that simple. You've never made a claim which turned out to be wrong? You've never told someone anything that you believed was true, had someone else point out was false, and then felt stupid?
Well those are just the things that you've accepted you were wrong about. It should make you wonder, what are the things that I feel sure about, which are not true, but which I have not yet accepted are false? Surely there are at least a couple of things. There's probably an urban legend that you've heard people repeat 30 times, and you've taken for granted, but if you looked it up on Snopes you'd find out it's false. There's probably some economic theory that you hold strongly to, in spite of quite a lot of evidence to the contrary. There are probably a couple facts which you're just in denial about. You can say, "No there aren't!" but that's what everyone says. And how many people are wrong about things? Everyone.
If you read the OP, "... she told me a story about how her grandfather, fifty years ago, dated footprints of a dinosaurs and a man that were right next to each other to be within the same epoch of history...The odd thing is that she's not religious, it's just what her archaeologist grandfather taught her."
If that's all it is, then simply pointing her to talk origins should be all that's necessary to correct her. This should have happened the first time she repeated this belief to an educated audience, and should only have to happen once.
You've never made a claim which turned out to be wrong?
I didn't say that. I was wrong recently when I said here that the PSP had hardware PSX emulation. But that's hardly a consequential fact, unlike basic facts of paleontology. It's possible to have a coherent model of the world where PSX emulation is implemented in hardware. But finding man tracks next to dinosaur tracks would upend entire disciplines of earth science.
Also, all it took was a PSP coder mentioning that I was wrong, with a sentence explaining how he knew. I'm pretty sure I thanked him for correcting me too.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Actually, my point is that I can't imagine it being great to spend time with someone who is that incurious. You can't fill all the time with sex, so intellectual compatibility is a valid concern. And don't women want to be respected for their minds?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Drag Racing!
it's = it is
If you are discussing this with a Bible Thumper, who thinks the world is only 6000 years, old, you can't explain it. Their minds are like steel traps, nothing can pry them open to to new ideas.
I'd dump the bitch. Anyone THAT stupid is not going to be a very good girlfriend.
I think I know everything I need to know about Jersey Shore and The Only Way is Essex, namely, practically nothing. If that makes me cognitively dysfunctional, I'm proud of it.
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First, I reject the principle of avoiding the truth just to keep the peace short-term. Imagine her stating this nonsense in a party of her peers. Guess who she'll blame if ridiculed!
Me and the GF regularly discuss topics ranging from neuroscience to Jurassic Park and zombie survival strategies. And have a lot of fun!
Second, don't miss the opportunity of exploring something together. Chicks love spending time together so make the most of it.
Third, don't underestimate her father's sense of humor. If he is an archeologist he knows better.
Defining Statistics and Social Research
"Anonymous Coward" is a pretty apt name in this case. "Noooooooo! Don't let science get in the way of pussy!"
I had a similar experience with a former girlfriend: we were gazing at the stars one clear night, and I started talking about galaxies and that sort of stuff. She was adamant I was making this up because her father never mentioned them to her when she was little.
I didn't say that. I was wrong recently when I said here that the PSP had hardware PSX emulation. But that's hardly a consequential fact, unlike basic facts of paleontology. It's possible to have a coherent model of the world where PSX emulation is implemented in hardware. But finding man tracks next to dinosaur tracks would upend entire disciplines of earth science.
And 'entire discliplines of earth science' are important exactly why? Really, the group of people whose lives would be noticeably impacted by an error in ancient history is on the same order of magnitude as the folks impacted by hardware/software emulation on a PSP. A small handful. Everyone else has no real reason to care.
A lot of technical folks, myself included, make a fetish out of factual accuracy in field we find fascinating. A lot of us have very broad interests, so that fetish may well extend into history, philosophy, materials science, rocket engineering, etc. (Actually, that's the first fields that come to mind for my obsession.) But we should try to keep some perspective as well, and admit that we like this accuracy simply because we do. Maybe it's a taste of OCD; maybe it's something else. But no rational argument can justify the amount of time I spend poring over dull tomes of nearly useless data. I just like filling my mind with it, so I do it.
If someone else doesn't care about it, I should probably respect their superior objective function, as it doesn't make them waste time studying the details of minor branches of Austrian economics. Maybe they spend more time on truly useful info.
And 'entire discliplines of earth science' are important exactly why? Really, the group of people whose lives would be noticeably impacted by an error in ancient history is on the same order of magnitude as the folks impacted by hardware/software emulation on a PSP. A small handful. Everyone else has no real reason to care.
The established principles of Earth science is what guides us towards new oil and ore deposits. "A small handful?" It wouldn't bother you to find out that the engineers looking for cheap oil to fill up your car's tank are doing it by what would amount to randomly throwing dice? Seriously?
Ezekiel 23:20
It has actually occurred that the footprints of modern humans were found in the same strata as dinosaurs.
A citation would come really handy at this point. Just saying...
zombie survival strategies
You mean you're discussing how you'd survive longest as zombies? Wow, an OPFOR exercise for the horror movie age!
Ezekiel 23:20
Not if they've been able to find my oil. Earth Science matters to them; not to me. If I have a zillion misconceptions in everything from geology to archaeology it won't objectively influence my life. I don't work in a field influenced by them.
That's not to say I won't be bothered when I find out I was so wrong. It simply means that it doesn't affect my competence in anything I do.
So where are the footprints? Did you talk to the old man? Hardly scientific to discard a proposition out of hand just because it contradicts orthodoxy. Unless 'orthodox science' is your religion of course. Might I recommend Kuhn's 'Structure of Scientific Revolutions'?
CURSES. Hate it when I do that.
I got here through a series of tubes
Fossil Fuels
Come on now, that's just begging the question.
--Jaborandy
You! Are the man! Or woman, or whatever. Do not let your beliefs. (Even if we are talking about empirically justified, rational beliefs.) Fuck up your relationship. Now, it may very well be that there are underlying issues in your currently significant others grasp of reality that might one day infringe upon your shared happiness. Really. But dear God, don't screw it up because you can't believe in fairies, or she thinks atomic powered spacecraft are a terrible idea, or because you believe in strong AI and she doesn't. Or because you're sure the singularity is nigh, and she hasn't a clue what you're on about. Don't lie to her, don't pretend, don't play games, but if in the short run you have to believe in cavemen astride velociraptors, fuck wait, I think I have decided to believe in that now, just how cool is that anyway?
Where's your proof that we didn't?
The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.