Hellbender

That being said, I come down hard on the side of the skeptics about those pictures.

Why? There's nothing wrong with letting the evidence rather than preconcieved notions convince you. Thats what skepticism is all about. Ghost claims always have natural, and rather mundane explanations.

This is a completely different thread, with a completely different picture, from a completely different photographer. The only person who mentioned ghosts is you.

Okay, fine. What do you think the reason for the color blotches in the picture are?

You are the only person who said anything about ghosts.

Let me see: You bring a picture here taken at Gettysburgh at night with wierd lights in it, asking for an explanation. you've done it 3 times before, and wouldn't listen to anyone who said it wasn't ghosts. Do the math. "Its ghosts! its ghosts!" is on the tip of your tongue, you are just deliberately dancing around it.

have a bottle of ammonia? Drink that. Hmmm, tastes like architeuthis!

Any idea why they have such a high ammonia content, BTW? (I don't read about cephalopods much)

Yesss! They've finally got it recorded! The Leopard of the Deep, the Ghost of the Abyss! Architeuthis[/b']! I'm shaking....

Amazing. I never thought I would see this. I'm kind of sad in a way, I mean, it was a mystery, possibly one of the last great mysteries, and its pretty much solved. Too bad it damaged it's tentacle trying to get away, too. I saw a special on humbolt squids a whila ago, and they were catching them with these 2 ft. long barbed rods. Their tentacles got badly caught on them (it was brutal), so its good they didn't use that method at least.

Case in point: no one here believes in ghosts, herme3. Take you photos somewhere else please.

That comic is funny, but eerily accurate.

why there is only 7 days in a week? and why the whole world, past and present, eastern and western hemisphere go by this? why not 8 days in a week? or 9 or 21?

so we can have weekends off

The United States needs to conquer the world. So long, crazy metric system...

Actually, its our system thats crazy. The base 10 metric system makes a lot more sense, it is just hard to get used to. (which reminds me, I've got to study).

You're living in a bubble people!

I know. Its hard to make the conversions sometimes, I guess it like learning a new language. @*#%ing American hubris.......

I seem to see a distinct difference. For example I can take my dog outside and throw it off my roof. Now lets say I do this 1,000,000 times my dog is going to fall to the ground all 1,000,000 times. But I can't take my dog outside and set it down and watch it become an entierly new species.

First of all, vacuous claims such as this aren't apt to get you much respect around here. Read, and think about what Swansont said:

It's amazing how we are able to bamboozle the world into thinking that things like internal combustion engines, nuclear reactors, atomic clocks, medicines and computers actually work, though. You don't get to discard the small slice of science you find unpalatable, on philosophical grounds, when all the rest of it works.

As an aside, Pumices, what particular aspect of evolutionary theory do you have a problem with?

William Hammer and William Hickerson discovered Cryolophosaurus. IDK if this helps.

If I had that many props knocked out from under me so easily, I would at least start to wonder about the strength of my stance.

Amen to that.

I guess this is a little off-topic, but the date was 9/21/2005, not 21/9/2005. Your Elementary school should have taught you that 9/21/2005 means it is the 21st day, not the 21st month!

And you should have learned that not everyone in the entire world uses the same date format as us. They also use this wierd measurement system called the "metric system". Its true. Look it up.

Did you even read my post? This was a picture that somebody else sent me, it wasn't my picture. Also, I never said anything about ghosts.

Yes, I did read your post, and look at your picture. However, the fact that it is someone else's picture and you did explicity say "ghosts" changes nothing. We all know you intend to do the same thing you did those 3 times in the past. To respond to your post, I don't think its anything wierd, its just the same thing that happens when people try to take photos and botch them up a little. This happens to me all the time because I am not all that great of a photog, and sometimes the lights have little "trails" after them due to my hand movement (my hands constantly shake uncontrollably, so i can never be a surgeon ). Its nothing that we haven't explained to you before.

wat exactly is the creationists idea

It also depends on exactly what subgroup of creationists we are talking here. Virtually all, however, think that evolution is wrong or insufficient, and that a supernatural diety definitely had something to do with creating life and the universe.

is this really the worlds' most dangerous idea?

 

 

 

 

It is certainly the scientific theory that has endured the most controversy and reactionary movements over the years. But I can't see it as being "dangerous", any more than cell theory would be dangerous.

What I would not mind seeing is a list of the top five reasons why evolution matters to a world with so many troubles. Economists (at least a few of whom I know by the way) can say that supply and demand will affect the amount of money in my wallet. What does evolution have to offer to humanity today?

I'm sorry to go back to this, but this bugged me. First of all, a science does not have to be immediately useful to warrant inquiry. I can't think of many applications for the science of astronomy, does this make it any less an interesting and worthy science? Evidently not, since every university has an Astonomy class. Second, evolutionary principles can and are put to good use. As well as being a cornerstone of modern biology (as Swansont noted), here is a short list of some of its applications:

Evolutionary theory has been put to practical use in several areas (Futuyma 1995; Bull and Wichman 2001). For example:

• Bioinformatics' date=' a multi-billion-dollar industry, consists largely of the comparison of genetic sequences. Descent with modification is one of its most basic assumptions.
  [*']Diseases and pests evolve resistance to the drugs and pesticides we use against them. Evolutionary theory is used in the field of resistance management in both medicine and agriculture (Bull and Wichman 2001).
  
• Evolutionary theory is used to manage fisheries for greater yields (Conover and Munch 2002).
  
• Artificial selection has been used since prehistory, but it has become much more efficient with the addition of quantitative trait locus mapping.
  
• Sex allocation theory, based on evolution theory, was used to predict conditions under which the highly endangered kakapo bird would produce more female offspring, which retrieved it from the brink of extinction (Sutherland 2002).

Hope this helps. Sorry if I derailed this otherwise good discussion.

Thank you, Mokele. Keep in mind, everyone, why shinbits was banned.

What is this, the 3rd time or 4th time you brought ambiguous pictures here, claiming they were ghosts? We remember the 3 other threads about this, Herme, we aren't goldfish*. All of your claims have been dealt with, it is you who can't accept the truth of the matter.

*goldfish have incredibly short memories, for anyone who is thinking "what the hell is Hellbender talking about?"

I collect old Genessee beer mugs, animal skulls and biology-related textbooks. I collect the mugs because I enjoy drinking beer, and I happen to like Genessee. Their vintage mugs are hard to come by, and are always pretty cool. I collect animal skulls, but only if I find the animal dead, and bury it for its bones. I refuse to add to my collection by buying them (even though there are stores with lots of good skulls online). I guess it makes it more of an interesting challenge that way. Plus when I get something really good (like a bat or a snapping turtle), I have the bragging rights that I found it. I started collecting biology textbooks a little while ago. There is book drop in the science building here, and they had (I took them all) a lot of old biology-related textbooks. I can't stand to see books like this go to waste, especially when the subject matter is so interesting to me.

I don't get it either. All this time he harassed us for critiquing creationism, but those were his actual views. What the hell, was he just trying to find a reason to pick fights? He may have had a lot to contribute (and he did, but he just couldn't stop with the attitude), but he was a jerk who made everyone he posted to feel stupid and uncomfortable. I'm glad he's gone.

More that you may have missed:

1. Integrity

2. Objectivity

3. Creativity

4. The Scientific Method

5. Logic

6. Peer review

I think interest ebbs and flows, based on time and circumstances. Many people disappear for a while only to show back up again later, revitalized and with all new questions and answers.

On this note, I am announcing that I am going to be too busy to be on anymore for a while. My classes seem to be getting tougher, probably because I am not getting any (expletive deleted) sleep due to an incessantly snoring roommate. I simply need all the time I can get to catch up on sleep and study before my grades go way down because I can't concentrate. I'll catch you guys later when I am rested up and have some free time.

I disliked the ending very much. So much, in fact, I have (and will) never seen it again.

I was talking about this movie to one of my more nerdy friends. He was practically raving about how ingenious it was, and I was just like "I didn't get it". He explained it to me, like why the alien was her father, etc. I was like, "ok, but it still sucked". IDK, the book may have been good, but I just didn't get much out of the movie. For all the hype, I have to admit I was severely disappointed.