Can PF Random Thoughts be Split to Help with Server Load?

[AlephZero]

Be thankful you aren't in the UK. Since American furry-tailed rats (a.k.a. grey squirrels) are an alien pest species, if you capture one (even accidentally) it's illegal to relase it back into the wild. But it's also illegal to cause any animal cruelty while killing it. Catch-22!

 

[Evo]

Survival of the fittest.

 

[OmCheeto]

Survival of the fittest.

I spent 20 minutes researching, and trying to come up with a "creationist" rebuttal, that M&M's cannot evolve. The only thing I could come up with was;

Where are the "intermediate" M&M fossils?

Someone else can have my badge... and sacrifice me to the Volcano...

------------------
The four other creationist points, made me just want to cry.

1 SPONTANEOUS GENERATION
2 MISSING LINKS
3 THERMODYNAMICS
4 BIG BANG BALONEY
5 OXYGEN DILEMMA

ps. LisaB, do not google that. It is obscene!
I nearly threw up.

 

[AnTiFreeze3]

I spent 20 minutes researching, and trying to come up with a "creationist" rebuttal, that M&M's cannot evolve. The only thing I could come up with was;

Where are the "intermediate" M&M fossils?

Someone else can have my badge... and sacrifice me to the Volcano...

------------------
The four other creationist points, made me just want to cry.

1 SPONTANEOUS GENERATION
2 MISSING LINKS
3 THERMODYNAMICS
4 BIG BANG BALONEY
5 OXYGEN DILEMMA

ps. LisaB, do not google that. It is obscene!
I nearly threw up.

Don't forget Catastrophism, where the happenstance of related fossils in nearby areas was explained in saying that catastrophes (hence the name) caused the fossils to be spread out, and that rather than evolution occurring, the old species was simply killed off entirely, and then a new, relatively similar one, was created.

My bio textbook noted how this was a somewhat prominent theory back in the days before, or coinciding with, Darwin. I only mentioned it because I love the concept of it:

"Well then how did these fossils get from here, to there, without the species changing locations, and ultimately evolving due to genetic drift?"

"Clearly the original species was destroyed, and then its remains were thrown around the Earth by tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, volcanoes, floods, or whatever natural disaster you can think of."

They were met with some trouble when it could be definitively shown that no natural disaster happened somewhere. Then God did it.

 

[Borek]

Yay.

 

[Andre]

I spent 20 minutes researching, and trying to come up with a "creationist" rebuttal, that M&M's cannot evolve.

For several reasons Mitochondrial DNA research is very helpful in tracking recent detailed diversification of species. You could consider to attempt rebuttal by M&M mDNA evidence.

 

[Bacle2]

A man against himself? I convinced my friend that Eugene V. Debs was a Supreme Court case (strange that his name came up; can't remember how ): " Yes, see the V ? Same as in Roe V. Wade, or Brown V. BOE " Maybe I should tell him the truth so he doesn't make an idiot of himself when talking to others ( we play jokes on each other ) . I had "corrected" my nephew ( 8 y.o back then) a few years back into using the expression "self-defecating humor". I wonder what happened with that.

 

[dkotschessaa]

A man against himself? I convinced my friend that Eugene V. Debs was a Supreme Court case (strange that his name came up; can't remember how ): " Yes, see the V ? Same as in Roe V. Wade, or Brown V. BOE " Maybe I should tell him the truth so he doesn't make an idiot of himself when talking to others ( we play jokes on each other ) . I had "corrected" my nephew ( 8 y.o back then) a few years back into using the expression "self-defecating humor". I wonder what happened with that.

I'm on my 7th reading of this post. I think I've almost got it.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Tonight my new Geophysicist pal told me about the pancakes of Venus:

This made me leary about how hard a science Geophysics actually is, because these are clearly not pancakes. They're jellyfish.

 

[DennisN]

Hubble Space Telescope has captured comet ISON. I've enhanced and filtered the image, and now more details can be seen.

 

[Kholdstare]

Awesome new game from Activision

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nl5B857Lcc

 

[ImATrackMan]

I'm making AV connectors (sockets and custom cords) out of a discarded USB extension cord. This is by far the most useless hobby-related thing I've done, and I'm not sure if when the COMPLETE project is done (because this'll be part of a much bigger thing), it'll even work.

What am I doing with my life? I could be doing something, you know, productive... like cooking, or nursing those avocado trees back to life. Instead I'm stuck on "improving" thirty year old computer hardware, because the Japanese didn't think of putting AV connectors on their video game consoles.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

It's funny how some people react to this Atkins diet. There seems to be a school of people who hate it with a passion even though they don't really know much about it. A couple even seemed to get mad when I told them how successful I've been. But the latest is the best of all. Now the story is that I didn't really lose all of that weight! She simply refused to believe that I've lost over 60 lbs. She's a massage therapist and apparently my story violated her world view.

 

[dkotschessaa]

It's funny how some people react to this Atkins diet. There seems to be a school of people who hate it with a passion even though they don't really know much about it. A couple even seemed to get mad when I told them how successful I've been. But the latest is the best of all. Now the story is that I didn't really lose all of that weight! She simply refused to believe that I've lost over 60 lbs. She's a massage therapist and apparently my story violated her world view.

I spent years arguing with my dad about it, because I thought it was crap, until my Dr. put me on (a variant of) atkins for my reactive hypoglycemia. I still have my reservations with regards to some other health issues, but I do see the logic to it.

 

[AlephZero]

No jokes about lawyers not smelling of roses ...

Ths staff at a UK solicitor's office (with the wonderfully Dickensian name of Moody and Woolley) have found the cause of funny smells and a plague of flies.

There was a dead burglar stuck in the chimney - he was probably there for 6 weeks before anybody started to complain about the smell.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-22389157

 

[Astronuc]

Historical misconceptions -

I think Evo can appreciate this.

French inches were different (longer) than English inches.

 

[Bacle2]

I'm on my 7th reading of this post. I think I've almost got it.

Yes, sorry, setting up the context seemed too long/complicated, and, given that this is
Random Thoughts, I omitted setting it up (this is my long excuse for poor writing.)

 

[Kholdstare]

This is a confession on my part. I only like slim women like the Lara Croft picture below with big boobs and a gorgeous arse. Thank you.

 

[reenmachine]

I like many kinds of women.

 

[Astronuc]

Gun Violence Since Newtown
http://billmoyers.com/2013/05/03/gun-violence-since-newtown/

Number of people killed by guns in the first 98 days post-Newtown: 2,244

 

[Andre]

In The Netherlands annual death rates resulting from firearms total in 2010: 76, that is 0.46 per 100,000 population.

For the USA that would be for 2010: 31,672 annual deaths, 10.26 per 100,000 population.

 

[micromass]

In The Netherlands annual death rates resulting from firearms total in 2010: 76, that is 0.46 per 100,000 population.

For the USA that would be for 2010: 31,672 annual deaths, 10.26 per 100,000 population.

Maybe that simply means that the dutch are bad at aiming?

 

[micromass]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMf9GlLXouA

 

[Andre]

Maybe that simply means that the dutch are bad at aiming?

One would be temped to point out at what age an American toddler can aim accurately. But that would be even more inappropriate.

 

[AlephZero]

Maybe that simply means that the dutch are bad at aiming?

Or, it measns the dutch are more rational about choosing what to aim at.

 

[AnTiFreeze3]

In The Netherlands annual death rates resulting from firearms total in 2010: 76, that is 0.46 per 100,000 population.

For the USA that would be for 2010: 31,672 annual deaths, 10.26 per 100,000 population.

This is absurd, though; in the Netherlands, there are 3.9 privately owned firearms per 100 people, but in the U.S., there are 101.05 privately owned firearms per 100 people. Obviously if people don't have guns, then they can't shoot people.

I understand that a point is trying to be made here, in that having fewer guns results in having fewer deaths due to guns, but there's no legal, or constitutionally moral way to simply take away 300,000,000+ guns from civilians.

Instead we need to be looking at countries like Switzerland, for this very reason:

Clearly Switzerland is far more comparable to the United States in this category than the Netherlands is. However, Switzerland, despite there being nearly half as many guns as people, has an astoundingly small (0.52/100,000) annual rate of homicide by firearms. If anything beneficial is to be done in the U.S., then whatever Switzerland is doing, we need to implement.

Besides, the majority of the homicides committed by guns in the U.S. is primarily in a few select cities (Detroit, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Chicago, etc... *noticing a pattern here?*). Fixing those prime areas will vastly decrease homicides by guns.

*All information obtained from the same website that you used for your information.*

 

[WannabeNewton]

Man if I wasn't tied down by college, I'd love to move to Switzerland. Less gun nuts there and I don't have to worry about being robbed when taking the 7 train from Manhattan to Queens :p

Honestly though for the apparent abundance of gun owners in the US compared to other first world countries, I have never in my life actually seen a real gun (nor do I want to). I guess I got lucky in terms of where I was brought up.

 

[AnTiFreeze3]

Man if I wasn't tied down by college, I'd love to move to Switzerland. Less gun nuts there and I don't have to worry about being robbed when taking the 7 train from Manhattan to Queens :p

And mountains!

 

[AlephZero]

I understand that a point is trying to be made here, in that having fewer guns results in having fewer deaths due to guns, but there's no legal, or constitutionally moral way to simply take away 300,000,000+ guns from civilians.

You don't need to take away the guns. Just impose a sales tax on bullets. Say $100 each.

 

[DiracPool]

You don't need to take away the guns. Just impose a sales tax on bullets. Say $100 each.

Absolutely, that is the solution, the Achilles heel of the gun problem. Have all the guns you want.