Recent content by JonahHex

It looks to me like someone wanted someone else to do their homework for them.

The real question here is: what is meant by "decomposing?" ...and under what conditions? In the open air, with plenty of additional oxygen and nitrogen, et. al? In a vacuum? In some inert atmosphere, if so, what? And, of course, what are the decomposition products? Potassium (II) oxide...

In Joseph Heller's novel, Catch-22, During the Terri Shiavo thing, there were any number of discussions that relied on this sort of logic.

Ok. No, I wasn't under the misconception that Eve was the only female. It was the "unbroken line of daughters" qualifier that I was missing. Thx. Would I be correct in assuming that, short of mass extinction, it is now statistically improbable, if not impossible, to break the line of...

The immediate thing that I see in the world-science.net article is a complete absence of anything that implies extraterrestrial origin other than the old UFO standby: "It is in the sky. I don't know what it is. I don't know where it came from. Therefore I conclude that it is...

It is my understanding that the DNA guys have concluded that all Homo sapiens originated as progeny of a single "Eve" in Central(?) Africa. Since I haven't heard anything about "Adam," I assume that the genetic tracers don't allow anything to be said about the male lineage. Be that as it may...

In the sense of evolution, our own self interest is irrelevant. The recurring mistake in viewing evolution is the concept that there is some goal; that there is something good or bad in it. Whether we are here or not, whether any other species is here or not, is a "so what?" proposition...

The Hebrews have been released from bondage in Egypt. God leads them to the Promised Land. They find there are a whole bunch of other people already there. God tells them to drive these people out, using whatever force is required. When war is required, He goes so far as to cause the sun to...

So Lady Montagu and Edward Jenner were evil? They should have experimented upon themselves only? ...and if they happened to die from a failed experiment, leaving no one to carry on the work, that's ok? What is this facination that people have with "absolute morality?" The human eye can...

There are some people who will maintain that anyone who wants to die, regardless of their circumstances, is not mentally competent to make the decision. It's a variation of Catch22.

"Innocent"? In whose eyes? After all, "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." Is terrorism different from simultaneous assassination? In war, I've always found the concept of "innocent civilians" to be rather far fetched, if not amusing. Is the pregnant wife of the guy...

The 'even number' explanation is the way I learned it...with one modification: YOU can choose to round 'next digit 5' either odd or even as long as once you make the choice you subsequently ALWAYS follow your own rule; virtually everyone choses to round even. The .51 argument is specious. The...

When rounding to a certain number of digits (eg 4), ONLY the next digit (the 5th) is used, ie, 3816.512 to 4 sig figs is 3816, the '1' following the '.5' is immaterial. 256453 rounded to 3 sig figs is 2.56x10^5, not 256000. Including the zeros is misleading and potentially implies that they...

Actually, there is quite a bit of interesting stuff here that is worth reading. However, there is an old cliche that goes something like "When discussing religion or politics, everything that's going to be said will be said in the 1st ten minutes. After that, it's just an argument." This thread...

I answer it the same way. I make the choice; you make the choice. Earlier I was asked why I'm posting negatively about the thread instead of reading it and joining the discussion. I have, in fact, read most of the 80+ pages of the thread and most of it is self-righteous vegetarians bleeding...