The most amusing part of the gallery for me was noticing which pics got the most views. It is pretty evident to me that the shots with the females in them have gotten a bit more attention than the shots just containing dudes.
I once had an electronics professor tell me that if we had DC flowing through the walls of our buildings instead of AC, everything capable of being magnetized would be. I've never researched this, but it would really suck if all my paper clips, screwdrivers, etc. were constantly sticking together.
With water pollution destined to become a continuing problem, water quality-sensitive organisms like clams and oysters may become more scarce in the future, making pearls more rare. Add into this that there are few non-aesthetic uses for pearls (that i'm aware of, anyway), which means there isn't much drive for commercial synthetic manufacture. Invest in pearls!!
Ever considered the possibility that looking cool would be an evolutinary advantage?
Sexual display often drives evolution. The brighter the feathers, the bigger the tusks, the stinkier the stink gland, it can all lead to natural selection. If that's what you meant by "cool," then you may have something there. In this case, it could be that the bigger the rear-leg skin flaps, the more attractive to the female. Lots of birds have huge feathers that are only for display. In some cases they make flight impossible, but display takes priority. Any reason why that couldn't be what's going on here?
Fossils sometimes leave more than just bone. In this case, there must have been impressions in the fossil which indicated that the animal had some sort of membrane. It's also possible to tell when some animals have taken measures to lighten their bodies for flight. they have thinner, sometimes hollow bones and some organs reduce in size, anything to reduce weight. Also, in this case the long thin rear legs kind of hint that they were not just for terrestrial use.
Even if they did bring the prices down to a competitive level (cheaper than buying the DVD in a store), they are pretty vague on the format. Would this be a ready-to-burn.ISO file? Would it be sized small enough to fit on a single-layer DVD-R (which likely means viewer extras, languages, etc) or would it be a duel-layer.ISO file requiring a dual-layer burner? Technical questions, yes, but these are the things that would make or break this idea in my mind. well...assuming the even did become competitive price-wise.
From what I recall, the reason "MST3K: The Movie" went out of print was due to the rights to "This Island Earth" expiring, which is essentially the film within a film. It's not about stamping the discs in this case, it's about forking over more dough for rights to This Island Earth, a movie that actually is regarded as a classic bit of Science Fiction history.
As for The Movie, it's likely still floating around on bit torrent somewhere. I know it used to be.
Surly someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but it has been my general observation from the few times I've been in a casino that the rich tend to gamble differently from the poor. As it's been told to me (I'm not a gambler), the rule of thumb in casinos is that the more complicated and difficult the game is, the better the odds of winning are. Additionally, the harder, more complicated games usually seem to require more upfront investment and more money at stake. There's nothing easier or cheaper to play than slot machines, but you have the worst odds of ending up in the black at the end of the night. The advantage is you can start playing for as little as a nickel. On the other hand, something like baccarat might require $25 to enter the game, and if you don't know what the hell you're doing the $25 might last just a couple of minutes.
My point is, those who can afford it (and who might be more likely to learn to play the challenging games) get to play the games with better odds of winning. The poor and the stupid usually head for the slots, at least that's the way it usually seems on gambling boats on the Ohio River.*
NOTE: I'm not intentionally grouping the stupid with the poor, I know way to many exceptions to think that, such as college students and politicians.)
...a rude awakening for those who PLAY God without KNOWING God.
Alright, I'll bite. Who are you to assume the scientists involved in these projects don't know God? Science, for many, is driven by the desire to better understand His creations (I'm talking studying evolution here, not non-science fundie jibberish). Experimenting and testing is a great way to learn things. I'm not saying that's the only reason to learn things, but you've made an unfair and pointed assumption and I just felt I had to call you on it.
According to the article there is much air pollution and also insect repellents to deal with to get to that abundant food (people). It is possible that the push for these skeeters to have larger body size could have been driven by the need to be able to absorb more oxygen from the air. the other changes, vision, smell, etc., could have occured as fringe benefits, but it is the larger size that has allowed them to out-compete the other mosquitoes.
It is usually harsh survival that drives evolutionary change, not an abundance of food. With abundant food, competition is low. Everybody eats, everybody lives, even the disadvantaged. When food is low, competition is high, only the advantaged (in this case the larger mosquitoes) survive. This leads me to believe that it is more likely the pollution or some other factor that has caused the change in the mosquitoes, and not the crowded population of Athens.
There is abundant food, but the environment in which that food exists is harsher than before.
What a remarkably pleasant attitude you have on the matter! Then again, it's early and my sarcasm detector could be a bit out of cal at the moment. I would applaud any business owner or manager that showed your attitude toward potential customers, but something tells me that someone who feels guiltless enough to leech complimentary services like this is likely to just accept the free coffee and continue to leech. You never know, though, that one free cup of coffee could get him hooked and he could blab to his friends about what a cool, swank coffee shop it is.
Wait, that's right, sex offender. probably doesn't have many friends.
The northernmost parts of Canada, Russia, and Alaska, as well as all of Greenland are considered to represent the Arctic Region of the Earth. The Geographical pole itself is just ice, but there is plenty of Arctic Tundra up there.
IMO, there was ONE good thing that came out of the last presidential election in the US: The whole World, at least, got to see that nearly half of us didn't want another 4 years of bush. Nearly half of us thought Bush was one of the worst presidents in history. Nearly half of us are reasonable people. Nearly half of us don't watch Faux News. Nearly half of us think the French are just great.
Stereotypes and generalizations about our country are natural and unavoidable, just the way I assume everyone in Sweden could be a super model (never been there), but it has been my hope that the World would be a little better about judging individual Americans after seeing how close that election was. Maybe it is better, idunno.
Someone finally found a way to make to make people go back to reading books.
I wouldn't go that far, however I do see a rise in prices on used *consumer-friendly* televisions down the road. I suspect the same thing will happen to cars when they start requiring new models to have GPS-based nanny-boxes that will automatically ticket you when you speed.
Anyone had any luck with WinampTV lately? I remember when it first hit the scene a couple years ago it was great, after a few minutes in queue I was watching a constant, albeit mediocre res., stream of Invader Zim or Futurama. After a month or so it got so crowded the only channels readily available were pr0n, but i came damn close to subscribing to the $5/month fee for priority access. Instead I decided to just slowly invest in the boxsets of my favorite shows.
...Anybody remember those Magnavox TVs that actually detected when a commercial was playing and attenuated the volume to make them less annoying? I believe it detected the audio compression technique that commercials use to seem louder than the actual program or something like that. Now that was technology for the consumer.
One of the clues on fossil skeletons to look for that paleontologists use is healed injuries. If, for instance, you find a smilodon fossil showing that an individual suffered a crippling leg break that had partially healed up (but never fully recovered), you have a strong indication that this animal was probably kept alive by getting food from others as it was most likely incapable of hunting for itself or adequately defending itself. Therefore, it seems more likely that this was not a solo hunter and likely lived in a pack/herd/pride/whatever.
It's been my understanding that it's considered very poor taste for a discoverer of a new species of anything to name it after himself or herself. It's common to name a new species for things like the region it was deiscovered in, the person who's land it was found on, or other persons who were significant to the discovery, directly involved or not. Doesn't seem much like capitalism to me, so much as a little gratitude to those who made the discovery possible.
That would be awesome, if DNA lasted that long. They're just now finding proteins that have lasted 67 million years, but DNA itself is a whole different matter, not to mention a complete strand. It's very likely that it doesn't really exist past 30 million years, if that. Besides, a lot of the critters in question aren't actually body fossils (except those in amber, like you said) - they're imprints in sediment or carbon films left over from a decaying body. Incredible detail, sure, but no actual tissue in which to even look for DNA. And it's amazing that we're finding such similar bugs in amber, but genetic drift occurs in different species at different rates, and sometimes may not occur at all.
I'm not much of a collector but being a driving enthusiast the watch I would hunt down would be the old Gruen Ristside Curvex. It's the only watch I know of that was ever designed to be worn with the watch face on the side of your wrist instead of the top.
I'm not sure why this concept never caught on but I wish some designer would start making such watches again. Maybe it died when clocks started showing up on dashboards...but i still want one anyway!
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He's american, so don't bother checking for places he's holidayed. They're better off finding out where he regularly vacationed.
The most amusing part of the gallery for me was noticing which pics got the most views. It is pretty evident to me that the shots with the females in them have gotten a bit more attention than the shots just containing dudes.
Just a humorous observation.
I once had an electronics professor tell me that if we had DC flowing through the walls of our buildings instead of AC, everything capable of being magnetized would be. I've never researched this, but it would really suck if all my paper clips, screwdrivers, etc. were constantly sticking together.
With water pollution destined to become a continuing problem, water quality-sensitive organisms like clams and oysters may become more scarce in the future, making pearls more rare. Add into this that there are few non-aesthetic uses for pearls (that i'm aware of, anyway), which means there isn't much drive for commercial synthetic manufacture. Invest in pearls!!
Ever considered the possibility that looking cool would be an evolutinary advantage?
Sexual display often drives evolution. The brighter the feathers, the bigger the tusks, the stinkier the stink gland, it can all lead to natural selection. If that's what you meant by "cool," then you may have something there. In this case, it could be that the bigger the rear-leg skin flaps, the more attractive to the female. Lots of birds have huge feathers that are only for display. In some cases they make flight impossible, but display takes priority. Any reason why that couldn't be what's going on here?
crap, I just contradicted my other post.
Fossils sometimes leave more than just bone. In this case, there must have been impressions in the fossil which indicated that the animal had some sort of membrane. It's also possible to tell when some animals have taken measures to lighten their bodies for flight. they have thinner, sometimes hollow bones and some organs reduce in size, anything to reduce weight. Also, in this case the long thin rear legs kind of hint that they were not just for terrestrial use.
Even if they did bring the prices down to a competitive level (cheaper than buying the DVD in a store), they are pretty vague on the format. Would this be a ready-to-burn .ISO file? Would it be sized small enough to fit on a single-layer DVD-R (which likely means viewer extras, languages, etc) or would it be a duel-layer .ISO file requiring a dual-layer burner? Technical questions, yes, but these are the things that would make or break this idea in my mind. well...assuming the even did become competitive price-wise.
From what I recall, the reason "MST3K: The Movie" went out of print was due to the rights to "This Island Earth" expiring, which is essentially the film within a film. It's not about stamping the discs in this case, it's about forking over more dough for rights to This Island Earth, a movie that actually is regarded as a classic bit of Science Fiction history.
As for The Movie, it's likely still floating around on bit torrent somewhere. I know it used to be.
Surly someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but it has been my general observation from the few times I've been in a casino that the rich tend to gamble differently from the poor. As it's been told to me (I'm not a gambler), the rule of thumb in casinos is that the more complicated and difficult the game is, the better the odds of winning are. Additionally, the harder, more complicated games usually seem to require more upfront investment and more money at stake. There's nothing easier or cheaper to play than slot machines, but you have the worst odds of ending up in the black at the end of the night. The advantage is you can start playing for as little as a nickel. On the other hand, something like baccarat might require $25 to enter the game, and if you don't know what the hell you're doing the $25 might last just a couple of minutes.
My point is, those who can afford it (and who might be more likely to learn to play the challenging games) get to play the games with better odds of winning. The poor and the stupid usually head for the slots, at least that's the way it usually seems on gambling boats on the Ohio River.*
NOTE: I'm not intentionally grouping the stupid with the poor, I know way to many exceptions to think that, such as college students and politicians.)
so now i can expect to be getting spammed with "Lengthen your DNA over night!" emails?
...a rude awakening for those who PLAY God without KNOWING God.
Alright, I'll bite. Who are you to assume the scientists involved in these projects don't know God? Science, for many, is driven by the desire to better understand His creations (I'm talking studying evolution here, not non-science fundie jibberish). Experimenting and testing is a great way to learn things. I'm not saying that's the only reason to learn things, but you've made an unfair and pointed assumption and I just felt I had to call you on it.
According to the article there is much air pollution and also insect repellents to deal with to get to that abundant food (people). It is possible that the push for these skeeters to have larger body size could have been driven by the need to be able to absorb more oxygen from the air. the other changes, vision, smell, etc., could have occured as fringe benefits, but it is the larger size that has allowed them to out-compete the other mosquitoes.
It is usually harsh survival that drives evolutionary change, not an abundance of food. With abundant food, competition is low. Everybody eats, everybody lives, even the disadvantaged. When food is low, competition is high, only the advantaged (in this case the larger mosquitoes) survive. This leads me to believe that it is more likely the pollution or some other factor that has caused the change in the mosquitoes, and not the crowded population of Athens. There is abundant food, but the environment in which that food exists is harsher than before.
What a remarkably pleasant attitude you have on the matter! Then again, it's early and my sarcasm detector could be a bit out of cal at the moment. I would applaud any business owner or manager that showed your attitude toward potential customers, but something tells me that someone who feels guiltless enough to leech complimentary services like this is likely to just accept the free coffee and continue to leech. You never know, though, that one free cup of coffee could get him hooked and he could blab to his friends about what a cool, swank coffee shop it is.
Wait, that's right, sex offender. probably doesn't have many friends.
The northernmost parts of Canada, Russia, and Alaska, as well as all of Greenland are considered to represent the Arctic Region of the Earth. The Geographical pole itself is just ice, but there is plenty of Arctic Tundra up there.
Slashdot probes the responsiveness of the crazy fundies by posting "fundy bait" article at 5:30AM on a Saturday.
IMO, there was ONE good thing that came out of the last presidential election in the US: The whole World, at least, got to see that nearly half of us didn't want another 4 years of bush. Nearly half of us thought Bush was one of the worst presidents in history. Nearly half of us are reasonable people. Nearly half of us don't watch Faux News. Nearly half of us think the French are just great.
Stereotypes and generalizations about our country are natural and unavoidable, just the way I assume everyone in Sweden could be a super model (never been there), but it has been my hope that the World would be a little better about judging individual Americans after seeing how close that election was. Maybe it is better, idunno.
I wouldn't go that far, however I do see a rise in prices on used *consumer-friendly* televisions down the road. I suspect the same thing will happen to cars when they start requiring new models to have GPS-based nanny-boxes that will automatically ticket you when you speed.
Crap, I got off topic again!
Anyone had any luck with WinampTV lately? I remember when it first hit the scene a couple years ago it was great, after a few minutes in queue I was watching a constant, albeit mediocre res., stream of Invader Zim or Futurama. After a month or so it got so crowded the only channels readily available were pr0n, but i came damn close to subscribing to the $5/month fee for priority access. Instead I decided to just slowly invest in the boxsets of my favorite shows.
...Anybody remember those Magnavox TVs that actually detected when a commercial was playing and attenuated the volume to make them less annoying? I believe it detected the audio compression technique that commercials use to seem louder than the actual program or something like that. Now that was technology for the consumer.
One of the clues on fossil skeletons to look for that paleontologists use is healed injuries. If, for instance, you find a smilodon fossil showing that an individual suffered a crippling leg break that had partially healed up (but never fully recovered), you have a strong indication that this animal was probably kept alive by getting food from others as it was most likely incapable of hunting for itself or adequately defending itself. Therefore, it seems more likely that this was not a solo hunter and likely lived in a pack/herd/pride/whatever.
It's been my understanding that it's considered very poor taste for a discoverer of a new species of anything to name it after himself or herself. It's common to name a new species for things like the region it was deiscovered in, the person who's land it was found on, or other persons who were significant to the discovery, directly involved or not. Doesn't seem much like capitalism to me, so much as a little gratitude to those who made the discovery possible.
Same goes for when you're traveling to the Arctic and think you've spotted a flock of penguins. "They're probably just rocks, dude. Not penguins."
That would be awesome, if DNA lasted that long. They're just now finding proteins that have lasted 67 million years, but DNA itself is a whole different matter, not to mention a complete strand. It's very likely that it doesn't really exist past 30 million years, if that. Besides, a lot of the critters in question aren't actually body fossils (except those in amber, like you said) - they're imprints in sediment or carbon films left over from a decaying body. Incredible detail, sure, but no actual tissue in which to even look for DNA. And it's amazing that we're finding such similar bugs in amber, but genetic drift occurs in different species at different rates, and sometimes may not occur at all.
I'm not much of a collector but being a driving enthusiast the watch I would hunt down would be the old Gruen Ristside Curvex. It's the only watch I know of that was ever designed to be worn with the watch face on the side of your wrist instead of the top.
Link here: http://www.pixelp.com/gruen/1929.html (about halfway down the page)
I'm not sure why this concept never caught on but I wish some designer would start making such watches again. Maybe it died when clocks started showing up on dashboards...but i still want one anyway!
mazda have had a demo/development duel fuel RX8 for a number of years.
Cool! It would rule to have a go at that Duel Fuel Mule!
[ducks]