Fortunately their delusion has the useful side effect of making politicians clean up the planet a bit. Cranks can be useful.:P That's actually why I don't care whether or not the climate change (something's definitely changing, no doubt about it) is caused or is affected by us. The end result is a cleaner planet for us and other organisms to live.
"Great, thanks! Cause every time someone jokes about creationism, God goes back to the Jurassic and kills a dinosaur!"
Creationism being the joke that it is, I think you have now truly found out the reason why dinosaurs died out!
As for this being a fake, well, as far as I know faked fossils are not that common, even from China. With this I mean fossils (or items considered to be such) that are the subject of serious research - "normal" fake fossils are sold to gullible tourists everywhere. (For a great piece on this, read S. J. Gould's The Lying Stones of Marrakech.)
Of course, the other reason scientists are fooled by fake fossils so rarely could be that the fakes are so meticulously created that they haven't been found out to be fakes. But to forge something like the microscopic structure of dinosaur skin would be foolishly laborous ie. not profitable. I don't think a Professionally Forged Fossil FactoryTM would be a great business idea...
Now, next time I visit the States, I know how to be prepared. I will create folders like "goatsePr0n", "My Cunning Plan to Drop a Bomb On George W. Bush", and "Allahu Akbar" . . . and fill them with pictures of Hello Kitty.
What's up with all these companies from Redmond, Washington being called Microsomething? Is Microvision something that is needed to see Bill's Micro-soft?
Well, both you and the grand parent are right. The grand parent's view is the theoretical purpose of government. Your view is often the purpose in practice. In reality, both purposes are working more or less in balance at the same time.
>> Although the giraffes look different, if you put them in zoos, they breed freely. > Assuming they produce viable offspring, isn't that one of the primary definitions for a single species?
Not necessarily. Defining a species is a real hassle, and hasn't been solved. In biology this is known as the Species Problem. You see, many populations - like, for example, these giraffes - could interbreed and produce viable offspring, but for many different reasons, like geographical isolation, different mating patterns, different ecological niches etc., they just don't do that unless brought into unnatural conditions (in this case, zoos). In biology there are many different definitions for species.
The concept of biological species is ultimately an abstract construction made by us, who only see a temporary glimpse of a huge genetic continuum in time. You might want to take a look at these Wikipedia articles: Species Species Problem
I wonder how Fallout 3 didn't make the list. That beast has been in limbo for an eternity, only something like two years shy of Duke Nukem Forever. Now it's supposed to come out in late 2008. We'll see... Maybe Axl Rose manages to bring democracy to China before that.
Well, the back function on FF 2 has always been a little sluggish in spite of this feature, at least on some websites, mainly forums. So maybe the "super duper fast" thing isn't working. Safari 3 does 'back' lightning fast on this Mac, while FF 2 takes a millisecond nap there.
...welcome our new picture-sorting, human-like thought showing canine overlords.
To hell with iPhoto etc., these doggies help us to rid ourselves of one massive problem: those countless digital photographs we never have time to browse through! We might finally get some printed on paper!
Facebook users who also use Firefox to browse the we can prevent facebook's beacon from reporting by doing the following:
download the BlockSite Add-on for The Firefox Browser.
Under the tools menu, select "add-ons"
Select the BlockSite Add-on and edit the preferences.
Under the Blacklist, add a new site with the "add" button.
enter the URL "http://*facebooks.com/beacon/*
Hit return twice and you are good to go.
I wonder if he actually meant "*facebook.com" without an S, though.
Yes, C14 dating is never used when dealing with millions of years. It is useful up to +20,000 years, and loses all significant accuracy after 40,000-50,000 years. Thermoluminescence can't be used to targets as old as 65 million years, either, both it and C14 are used more in archeology than paleontology (except in quaternary geology and paleontology). My wild guess about the method they used in dating the Chixulub impact site is argon-argon dating. Google will probably tell you more with "chixulub" and "dating".
What just goes on to show how ridiculous those "security measures" at airports are. You aren't allowed to take nail clippers or paper scissors onboard, but booze in glass bottles (which make highly convenient and effective weapons once broken) are? Well, money talks, B$ walks...
Nowadays, based on genetic evidence, neandertals are usually considered a separate species, Homo neanderthalensis, while we are the type species of our own species, that is H. sapiens sapiens. Cro-magnons are indeed modern humans. Sometimes they are/were considered to be a distinctive subspecies (H. sapiens cromagnon), but I'm not sure about the current status of that school of thought.
Well, evolution, whether darwinian (i.e. mainly driven by natural selection) or not, is evolution.I'm not going to elaborate on it here and now, but I think in near future our understanding of evolution will go in a direction that lessens the percieved importance of natural selection. And no, I'm not talking about BS like ID but of things like this research, evo-devo, advances in our understanding of genes and how they work etc.
Slashdot Mirror
That's what I thought, too. Gore? Pacino? Bundy?
"What does Britney Spears fucking Beethoven sound like anyway?"
Dunno, but I'm sure those "ohs" and "yes's" and "ja's" sound warmer and more nuanced on vinyl than in some crappy compressed digital format.
"Great, thanks! Cause every time someone jokes about creationism, God goes back to the Jurassic and kills a dinosaur!"
Creationism being the joke that it is, I think you have now truly found out the reason why dinosaurs died out!
As for this being a fake, well, as far as I know faked fossils are not that common, even from China. With this I mean fossils (or items considered to be such) that are the subject of serious research - "normal" fake fossils are sold to gullible tourists everywhere. (For a great piece on this, read S. J. Gould's The Lying Stones of Marrakech.)
Of course, the other reason scientists are fooled by fake fossils so rarely could be that the fakes are so meticulously created that they haven't been found out to be fakes. But to forge something like the microscopic structure of dinosaur skin would be foolishly laborous ie. not profitable. I don't think a Professionally Forged Fossil FactoryTM would be a great business idea...
Mad.
Now, next time I visit the States, I know how to be prepared. I will create folders like "goatsePr0n", "My Cunning Plan to Drop a Bomb On George W. Bush", and "Allahu Akbar" . . . and fill them with pictures of Hello Kitty.
Windows crashes for the umpteenth time --> user gets frustrated --> Microsoft Frustration Detection System TM crashes --> head of user asplodes.
What's up with all these companies from Redmond, Washington being called Microsomething? Is Microvision something that is needed to see Bill's Micro-soft?
VW is actually calling that model Jetta again in Europe, too. Well, Bora always sounded stupid to me.
Well, both you and the grand parent are right. The grand parent's view is the theoretical purpose of government. Your view is often the purpose in practice. In reality, both purposes are working more or less in balance at the same time.
>> Although the giraffes look different, if you put them in zoos, they breed freely.
> Assuming they produce viable offspring, isn't that one of the primary definitions for a single species?
Not necessarily. Defining a species is a real hassle, and hasn't been solved. In biology this is known as the Species Problem. You see, many populations - like, for example, these giraffes - could interbreed and produce viable offspring, but for many different reasons, like geographical isolation, different mating patterns, different ecological niches etc., they just don't do that unless brought into unnatural conditions (in this case, zoos). In biology there are many different definitions for species.
The concept of biological species is ultimately an abstract construction made by us, who only see a temporary glimpse of a huge genetic continuum in time. You might want to take a look at these Wikipedia articles:
Species
Species Problem
I wonder how Fallout 3 didn't make the list. That beast has been in limbo for an eternity, only something like two years shy of Duke Nukem Forever. Now it's supposed to come out in late 2008. We'll see... Maybe Axl Rose manages to bring democracy to China before that.
Well, the back function on FF 2 has always been a little sluggish in spite of this feature, at least on some websites, mainly forums. So maybe the "super duper fast" thing isn't working. Safari 3 does 'back' lightning fast on this Mac, while FF 2 takes a millisecond nap there.
...welcome our new picture-sorting, human-like thought showing canine overlords.
To hell with iPhoto etc., these doggies help us to rid ourselves of one massive problem: those countless digital photographs we never have time to browse through! We might finally get some printed on paper!
Microsoft's Mike Sievert? That makes him microsievert!
"OK, you're not quoting the Simpsons, you're just using jokes that we've all heard before."
In Soviet Russia, the jokes hear YOU! Or: I, for one, welcome our already-heard joke overlords.
Sorry...
Well, Orkut actually began as a side project of a Google employee. It's very popular in India and Brazil for some reason.
Yes, C14 dating is never used when dealing with millions of years. It is useful up to +20,000 years, and loses all significant accuracy after 40,000-50,000 years. Thermoluminescence can't be used to targets as old as 65 million years, either, both it and C14 are used more in archeology than paleontology (except in quaternary geology and paleontology). My wild guess about the method they used in dating the Chixulub impact site is argon-argon dating. Google will probably tell you more with "chixulub" and "dating".
What just goes on to show how ridiculous those "security measures" at airports are. You aren't allowed to take nail clippers or paper scissors onboard, but booze in glass bottles (which make highly convenient and effective weapons once broken) are? Well, money talks, B$ walks...
"Sring theory according to CowboyNeal."
Nowadays, based on genetic evidence, neandertals are usually considered a separate species, Homo neanderthalensis, while we are the type species of our own species, that is H. sapiens sapiens. Cro-magnons are indeed modern humans. Sometimes they are/were considered to be a distinctive subspecies (H. sapiens cromagnon), but I'm not sure about the current status of that school of thought.
"The only problem with Microsoft is, they just have no taste, they have absolutely no taste", Steve Jobs back in the 80s
Back in the 90s, actually. You can youtube the clip.
That one is released right after Blade Runner: The Upper Cut.
Well, evolution, whether darwinian (i.e. mainly driven by natural selection) or not, is evolution.I'm not going to elaborate on it here and now, but I think in near future our understanding of evolution will go in a direction that lessens the percieved importance of natural selection. And no, I'm not talking about BS like ID but of things like this research, evo-devo, advances in our understanding of genes and how they work etc.