Mal: Take your people and go. Captain: You would have done the same. Mal: We can already see I haven't.

'Out Of Gas'


What Happens in Natter 35 Stays in Natter 35  

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


tommyrot - May 02, 2005 11:47:34 am PDT #626 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

This reminds me, I need to clip my fingernails. You don't happen to live in the Kansas City area Kate?

This reminds me - I have to clip my cat's nails. Kate, did you have to press on your boss's fingers to get her claws to extend?


Hil R. - May 02, 2005 11:57:15 am PDT #627 of 10001
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l

On the evolution thing: In my high school biology class, there was one kid who would interrupt the teacher approximately every 30 seconds with something like, "But how do you know it's random?" "So you're saying that G-d had nothing to do with this?"

The way I think I'd explain it as a teacher, if there were parents or students objecting, would be something along the lines of, "In elementary school, you learn that, when you're writing a newspaper article, you're supposed to answer six questions: Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How. The goal of science, in studying evolution (where "life happened" is the "What"), is to answer Where, When, and How. The other questions, Who and Why, are certainly interesting, but neither of them have answers that can be analyzed by any sort of scientific processes, and so they are outside the scope of a science course."

One thing that I remember my biology teacher complaining about was the way that the textbooks were written. Most high school biology textbooks have a chapter on evolution, and no mention of it outside that chapter, making it easy to skip. His view, which I'd agree with, was that evolution is the basis of just about everything else in the book, and that almost every section (on anatomy, cell biology, etc.) should explain that the things are that way because they evolved that way, and go into an explanation of why.


Nora Deirdre - May 02, 2005 11:59:06 am PDT #628 of 10001
I’m responsible for my own happiness? I can’t even be responsible for my own breakfast! (Bojack Horseman)

I don't see why someone would even want another person to clip their nails unless they had Parkinson's or something—it should be quicker and safer to do it yourself than have anyone else do it for yo

It reads to me like a very fucked up power dynamic assertion.


Jessica - May 02, 2005 12:01:19 pm PDT #629 of 10001
If I want to become a cloud of bats, does each bat need a separate vaccination?

His view, which I'd agree with, was that evolution is the basis of just about everything else in the book, and that almost every section (on anatomy, cell biology, etc.) should explain that the things are that way because they evolved that way, and go into an explanation of why

I couldn't agree more. (Of course, then we'd have to figure out a way to get public schools to afford the snazzy new evolution-based textbook, but that's a whole nother thing.)


Hayden - May 02, 2005 12:03:09 pm PDT #630 of 10001
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."

"But how do you know it's random?"

According to Dawkins, natural selection isn't random at all.


Hayden - May 02, 2005 12:04:34 pm PDT #631 of 10001
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."

Of course, then we'd have to figure out a way to get public schools to afford the snazzy new evolution-based textbook, but that's a whole nother thing.

It ain't going to fly here in the intelligence-free zone of Texas public school policy.


Cashmere - May 02, 2005 12:04:44 pm PDT #632 of 10001
Now tagless for your comfort.

If someone offered to paint my fingernails, I'd probably accept because I can't do it for shit myself. Cutting/clipping, I can do by myself and can't imagine someone not being able to barring illness/injury/age related problems.

But I'd never ask someone who wasn't related to me by blood to paint my nails unless I was paying them.


Hil R. - May 02, 2005 12:07:05 pm PDT #633 of 10001
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l

According to Dawkins, natural selection isn't random at all.

I think the "random" that the teacher was referring to there was either random mutations or randomness in which genes in an individual get passed on.


Vortex - May 02, 2005 12:07:16 pm PDT #634 of 10001
"Cry havoc and let slip the boobs of war!" -- Miracleman

Did you read the interview with Richard Dawkins in Salon today?

Am I the only one who wondered what the host of Family Feud knows about evolution?

eta: oh, wait, I think that it's Richard Dawson, not Dawkins. but it was funny when it was true.


tommyrot - May 02, 2005 12:08:51 pm PDT #635 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

Am I the only one who wondered what the host of Family Feud knows about evolution?

Everything he learned while a prisoner in Stalag 13.