Speciation - Page 4

Irreligious · 02-22-2009, 08:59 PM

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Eva wrote

i think he does. the fact that he does not leave a trail of bloodied christians attests to that fact.....

What? You ain't seen Jerry74's battered and bloodied corpse on this thread lately, have you?

No? Me, neither.

Where the hell do you suppose Ghoulslime stashed the body?

ghoulslime · 02-23-2009, 12:55 AM

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Irreligious wrote

Man, you don't censor any of your thoughts, do you?

I ain't pickin' on you; I'm just fascinated. Honestly.

On the contrary, my dear friend, I wield my nuance with wicked accuracy. I was attempting to affect raucous rowdiness with the statements in question. It was for the titillation factor.

*** Off the record, I usually make sexual references, especially gay references, with the intent purpose of offending any blood drinkers within hearing range. If I have offended you, then I submit my uplifted sincerity to the harshest castigations of your tongue.

ghoulslime · 02-23-2009, 12:57 AM

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Sternwallow wrote

A friend of mine, an international trouble-shooter for a large corporation,said that the trick to curing jet lag was to travel enough to accumulate a full 24 hours of lag, then you are right back on your proper schedule. Breakfast is at breakfast time and you sleep at night.

Small consolation as I sit here at 12 midnight, waiting for dawn to come so that I can go to work!

ghoulslime · 02-23-2009, 12:59 AM

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Eva wrote

i think he does. the fact that he does not leave a trail of bloodied christians attests to that fact.....

Thank you for defending my honor!

ghoulslime · 02-23-2009, 01:00 AM

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ubs wrote

Don't the Jains practically starve themselves in an attempt to avoid hurting as little life as possible?

Anyway, we can 'carry this too far' in the other direction. Is our speicism - mostly no cannibalism - our only moral criteria for consumption?

Is it ok to eat Koko?

Are bobas an endangered species? Because as soon as the tea shop opens, I am so gonna consume a number of those little critters in a large Thai tea.

ghoulslime · 02-23-2009, 01:02 AM

Quote:

Irreligious wrote

What? You ain't seen Jerry74's battered and bloodied corpse on this thread lately, have you?

No? Me, neither.

Where the hell do you suppose Ghoulslime stashed the body?

Hee hee! I think Jerry was hoping for a window of opportunity to make a relevant point so that he could run like hell for a dignified exit. Of course, his chance never came. Jerry was not so much a victim of destruction as he was a blow up sex doll.

Rhinoqulous · 02-23-2009, 02:47 AM

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Irreligious wrote

We pretty much know animals are sentient beings and that mammals have "feelings" and experience pain. Lobster and fish might, too, for all I know. It's certainly not a stretch to me that they do.

Really? All animals? I had no idea the term "sentient" had been reduced to meaning "having a central nervous system".

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As far as "de-humanizing" animals when it's convenient, well, we've been known to do that to each other, too.

Why would we need to "de-humanize" non-human beings?

Sternwallow · 02-23-2009, 05:21 AM

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Tenspace wrote

Irrelevant without a definition of "ok". Is it acceptable for humans with access a variety of sustaining foods to go out of their way to kill and eat an endangered animal? No.

Is it acceptable for a small tribe of bushmen to hunt and eat other primates? I guess you'd have to ask ǃKung-mButu.

Is it acceptable for humans with access a variety of sustaining foods to routinely include endangered animals in that selection of foods? What is intrinsically sacred about a species?

Does the Cougar worry that its Antelope dinner might have been the last of its kind? If there are many different tasty animals around, why should the Cougar care (if it were cognizant)?

Who mourns the passing of the Woolly Mammoth, the giant Sloth and the Saber-toothed Cat?

Sternwallow · 02-23-2009, 05:24 AM

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ghoulslime wrote

Small consolation as I sit here at 12 midnight, waiting for dawn to come so that I can go to work!

Sounds like a nice trip for six or so hours against the Sun will fix you right up.

dogpet · 02-23-2009, 06:00 AM

I saw a programme on box jellyfish which were previously thought to be simple floating things. Turns out they can work in groups to chase & coral fish, using palm trees as a bearing to maintain their position.
They have 24 eyes giving 360' vision at all times, & get this, Four brains!
If they are attacked they go into a breeding frenzy & make millions of babies.

Eva · 02-23-2009, 07:38 AM

so, they fuck when scared.....cool....

ubs · 02-23-2009, 07:51 AM

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Sternwallow wrote

Is it acceptable for humans with access a variety of sustaining foods to routinely include endangered animals in that selection of foods?

Said a different way, should sucking at your niche entitle you to special "Not on the menu" status.

ubs · 02-23-2009, 07:54 AM

Quote:

dogpet wrote

I saw a programme on box jellyfish which were previously thought to be simple floating things. Turns out they can work in groups to chase & coral fish, using palm trees as a bearing to maintain their position.
They have 24 eyes giving 360' vision at all times, & get this, Four brains!
If they are attacked they go into a breeding frenzy & make millions of babies.

The world's only immortal animal is related to the jellyfish. It can change back and forth from infant to sexual mature adult at will.

Eva · 02-23-2009, 07:59 AM

i have heard of many theists here that routinely do that, especially when challenged....

Tenspace · 02-23-2009, 08:10 AM

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Sternwallow wrote

Is it acceptable for humans with access a variety of sustaining foods to routinely include endangered animals in that selection of foods? What is intrinsically sacred about a species?

Our knowledge of the fact that they are endangered. Information has value with regard to sustenance. It's all a part of evolution. Wipe out your food source (or overplant your lands, same thing), and you will either have to leave or die (maybe that's why we're such a nomadic species). Note that my original comment stated, "...to go out of their way to kill and eat an endangered animal." To 'routinely include' endangered animals - where a population cannot reproduce rapidly enough to replace all deaths - shows not a lack of information, but a lack of intelligence to act upon that information.

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Does the Cougar worry that its Antelope dinner might have been the last of its kind? If there are many different tasty animals around, why should the Cougar care (if it were cognizant)?

It's not the cougars who would be to blame for the reduction of antelope. There would be other causes to be investigated. More specifically, we could compare the populations of plains ungulates; maybe the ibex is punching extinction's timeclock while the reebok thrives, but the contributing factors must also be taken into account. Is the reebok to blame for being more efficient at grazing than the ibex? Maybe it is better at protecting offspring, or is biologically capable of shorter gestation times and therefore produces larger numbers of offspring within a breeding season. The large predator could care less, as you suggested. But natural predation alone cannot upset predator:prey ratios. You'll never see it 10:1 in favor of the cats, and if you do, you won't for long.

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Who mourns the passing of the Woolly Mammoth, the giant Sloth and the Saber-toothed Cat?

Not sure about the sloth, but explosive hominid population growth and competition for resources with humans can be blamed for the other two. Again, action without information. Once we were smart enough to understand the ecological balance, we said, "Woah, gotta stop eating them." like we did with bison in the US. To continue to reduce populations of endangered animals through predation shows a lack of intelligence - the ability to act on information - another evolutionary dead end.