Science - Page 13

Blackheart · 11-30-2006, 05:58 PM

I wonder what makes Archeologists think that the nature of human intelligence has changed significantly in the last 100,000 years?

Gwaimir Windgem · 11-30-2006, 08:18 PM

I'm wondering: why burn the red spearheads there?

Questions like that, the really interesting ones, will probably never be answered.

***Jonathan*** · 12-01-2006, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackheart

I wonder what makes Archeologists think that the nature of human intelligence has changed significantly in the last 100,000 years?

We eat more nutritious food than they did a 100,000 years ago and thus, humans have a higher IQ today. But I guess the very nature of human intelligence (whatever that is) hasn't changed much.

Blackheart · 12-01-2006, 06:02 PM

Well we probably get more caloric intake, but is it actually healthier?

Even with a higher caloric intake, I don't see it affecting the brain structure to a degree that changes the ability to conceptualize abstact ideas.

If anything changed it was the nature of the ideas themselves, and the amount of actual transmission from one generation to the next.

Gwaimir Windgem · 12-01-2006, 09:52 PM

Or, more than change the ability, cause it to spring forth ex nihil.

trolls' bane · 12-04-2006, 12:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jonathan

We eat more nutritious food than they did a 100,000 years ago and thus, humans have a higher IQ today. But I guess the very nature of human intelligence (whatever that is) hasn't changed much.

More nutritious? Ha! Hahaha! *ROFL*

***RÃan*** · 12-04-2006, 02:13 AM

*hides her chips*

Gwaimir Windgem · 12-04-2006, 03:10 PM

As they say in the vernacular, Zing!

(Has currently got a bag of peanut-butter cups, one of Ghirardelli chocolate, and a box of candy canes in his drawer. Also wants to go to Trader Joe's, and buy some truffles, the main ingredient of which is, horrendous to think it, hydrogenated vegetable oil. But they taste so goooooood....)

***Jonathan*** · 01-12-2007, 06:27 PM

These guys do what we all wanted to do in chemistry class

Video: Never put alkali metals into water!

The Gaffer · 01-12-2007, 07:33 PM

Spooky choice, jonathan. This particular one was notoriously faked, as are many of their "experiments":

http://www.badscience.net/?p=270

Quote:

Explaining what happened when the metals were put in the bath, a crew member said: â€œAbsolutely bloody nothing. The density of caesium ensured it hit the bottom of the bath like a lead weight. The volume of water then drowned out the thermal shock. They could not go home empty-handed. So they rigged a bomb in the bottom of the bath.â€

***Jonathan*** · 01-12-2007, 07:41 PM

Oh well, it was a fun video nevertheless

***Earniel*** · 04-23-2007, 04:47 AM

I thought this was a very interesting article: Heat prevails over genes on gender in lizards

It ties neatly into the case of the 'immaculate conception' of two komodo lizards in zoos a few months ago, if anyone read about that one.

***Jonathan*** · 04-23-2007, 10:57 AM

Interesting article indeed. I had a lecture not long ago, the topic was gender issues but the lecturer still touched on the different sex chromosomes of various species and how temperature played a role too. Prior to that, I had no idea there were more sex chromosomes than the usual X and Y.

Global warming can certainly make a mess in this field of biology.

Gwaimir Windgem · 04-23-2007, 11:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jonathan

These guys do what we all wanted to do in chemistry class

Video: Never put alkali metals into water!

That's what we were told to do in chemistry class.

Earniel, wot's this? Komodo lizards born without original sin?

***Earniel*** · 04-23-2007, 12:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jonathan

Prior to that, I had no idea there were more sex chromosomes than the usual X and Y.

Same here until I read the article. Which I why I think it's pretty cool.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gwaimir Windgem

Earniel, wot's this? Komodo lizards born without original sin?

I'm not privy to the sins of the komodo life.

But there were two female komodos who hadn't had male company in years (in one of the two cases even never) and still managed to produce each a clutch of viable eggs.

Tests on the eggs showed that the mother was indeed the sole parent. As the female komodos have ZW chromosomes, and males have ZZ, the female is apparently capable of producing (all-male) offspring through parthenogenesis.

Hang on, I'll hunt down the articles...

The first one: 'Virgin births' for giant lizards

When the clutch had hatched: Virgin lizard becomes new parent

***RÃan*** · 04-23-2007, 08:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gwaimir Windgem

Earniel, wot's this? Komodo lizards born without original sin?

The youth pastor that preached this Sunday also made this common mistake ...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Earniel

It ties neatly into the case of the 'immaculate conception' of two komodo lizards ...

(Google "immaculate conception" - as Inigo says in Princess Bride, "I don't think that word means what you think it means!"

)

***Earniel*** · 04-24-2007, 05:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RÃ*an

(Google "immaculate conception" - as Inigo says in Princess Bride, "I don't think that word means what you think it means!"

)

I don't quite get the joke. And as far as I know the term in Dutch is used for both concepts. Then what is the proper English term?

sisterandcousinandaunt · 04-24-2007, 07:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EÃ¤rniel

I don't quite get the joke. And as far as I know the term in Dutch is used for both concepts. Then what is the proper English term?

That would be the proper English phrase in this latitude, Earniel...your guess is as good as mine.

***RÃan*** · 04-24-2007, 11:07 AM

"Immaculate conception" (in English) refers to the Catholic doctrine that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was NOT born with a sin nature like everyone else in the world (except Jesus). It does NOT refer to how she conceived a child without the human act of intercourse. It's very natural to think that "immaculate conception" refers to Mary getting pregnant without intercourse, since the word "conception" is in there, but that's just not what the phrase means (at least in English - apparantly it does in Dutch, though - that's interesting!) That's why Gwai referred to the sin nature of lizards

***Earniel*** · 04-24-2007, 11:57 AM

Then English has no phrase to indicate Mary getting pregnant without intercourse?

11-30-2006, 05:58 PM	#241
Blackheart Elf Lord Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Darkness Posts: 1,211	I wonder what makes Archeologists think that the nature of human intelligence has changed significantly in the last 100,000 years? __________________ I have harnessed the shadows that stride from world to world to sow death and madness... Queer haow a cravin' gits a holt on ye -- As ye love the Almighty, young man, don't tell nobody, but I swar ter Gawd thet picter begun ta make me hungry fer victuals I couldn't raise nor buy -- here, set still, what's ailin' ye? ...

11-30-2006, 08:18 PM	#242
Gwaimir Windgem Dread Mothy Lord and Halfwitted Apprentice Loremaster Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Thomas Aquinas College, Santa Paula, CA Posts: 10,820	I'm wondering: why burn the red spearheads there? Questions like that, the really interesting ones, will probably never be answered. __________________ Crux fidelis, inter omnes arbor una nobilis. Nulla talem silva profert, fronde, flore, germine. Dulce lignum, dulce clavo, dulce pondus sustinens. 'With a melon?' - Eric Idle

12-01-2006, 06:02 PM	#244
Blackheart Elf Lord Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Darkness Posts: 1,211	Well we probably get more caloric intake, but is it actually healthier? Even with a higher caloric intake, I don't see it affecting the brain structure to a degree that changes the ability to conceptualize abstact ideas. If anything changed it was the nature of the ideas themselves, and the amount of actual transmission from one generation to the next. __________________ I have harnessed the shadows that stride from world to world to sow death and madness... Queer haow a cravin' gits a holt on ye -- As ye love the Almighty, young man, don't tell nobody, but I swar ter Gawd thet picter begun ta make me hungry fer victuals I couldn't raise nor buy -- here, set still, what's ailin' ye? ...

12-01-2006, 09:52 PM	#245
Gwaimir Windgem Dread Mothy Lord and Halfwitted Apprentice Loremaster Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Thomas Aquinas College, Santa Paula, CA Posts: 10,820	Or, more than change the ability, cause it to spring forth ex nihil. __________________ Crux fidelis, inter omnes arbor una nobilis. Nulla talem silva profert, fronde, flore, germine. Dulce lignum, dulce clavo, dulce pondus sustinens. 'With a melon?' - Eric Idle

12-04-2006, 02:13 AM	#247
*RÃan* Half-Elven Princess of Rabbit Trails and Harp-Wielding Administrator (beware the Rubber Chicken of Doom!) Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Not where I want to be ... Posts: 15,254	hides her chips __________________ . I should be doing the laundry, but this is MUCH more fun! Ã‘Ã¡ Ã«?* Ã³Ãº Ã©Ã¤ Ã¯Ã¶Ã¼ Ã–Ã± Ã‰ Ãž Ã° ÃŸ Â® Ã§ Ã¥ â„¢ Ã¦ ♪ ?* "How lovely are Thy dwelling places, O Lord of hosts! ... For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand outside." (from Psalm 84) * * * God rocks! Entmoot : Veni, vidi, velcro - I came, I saw, I got hooked! Ego numquam pronunciare mendacium, sed ego sum homo indomitus! Run the earth and watch the sky ... Auta i lÃ³mÃ«! AurÃ« entuluva!

12-04-2006, 03:10 PM	#248
Gwaimir Windgem Dread Mothy Lord and Halfwitted Apprentice Loremaster Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Thomas Aquinas College, Santa Paula, CA Posts: 10,820	As they say in the vernacular, Zing! (Has currently got a bag of peanut-butter cups, one of Ghirardelli chocolate, and a box of candy canes in his drawer. Also wants to go to Trader Joe's, and buy some truffles, the main ingredient of which is, horrendous to think it, hydrogenated vegetable oil. But they taste so goooooood....) __________________ Crux fidelis, inter omnes arbor una nobilis. Nulla talem silva profert, fronde, flore, germine. Dulce lignum, dulce clavo, dulce pondus sustinens. 'With a melon?' - Eric Idle

01-12-2007, 06:27 PM	#249
*Jonathan* Entmoot Attorney-General, Equilibrating the Scales of Justice, Administrator ♎ Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Posts: 3,891	These guys do what we all wanted to do in chemistry class Video: Never put alkali metals into water! __________________ An unwritten post is a delightful universe of infinite possibilities. Set down one word, however, and it immediately becomes earthbound. Set down one sentence and itâ€™s halfway to being just like every other bloody entry thatâ€™s ever been written. ☻

01-12-2007, 07:41 PM	#251
*Jonathan* Entmoot Attorney-General, Equilibrating the Scales of Justice, Administrator ♎ Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Posts: 3,891	Oh well, it was a fun video nevertheless __________________ An unwritten post is a delightful universe of infinite possibilities. Set down one word, however, and it immediately becomes earthbound. Set down one sentence and itâ€™s halfway to being just like every other bloody entry thatâ€™s ever been written. ☻

04-23-2007, 04:47 AM	#252
*Earniel* The Chocoholic Sea Elf Administrator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: N?n in Eilph (Belgium) Posts: 14,363	I thought this was a very interesting article: Heat prevails over genes on gender in lizards It ties neatly into the case of the 'immaculate conception' of two komodo lizards in zoos a few months ago, if anyone read about that one. __________________ We are not things.

04-23-2007, 10:57 AM	#253
*Jonathan* Entmoot Attorney-General, Equilibrating the Scales of Justice, Administrator ♎ Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Posts: 3,891	Interesting article indeed. I had a lecture not long ago, the topic was gender issues but the lecturer still touched on the different sex chromosomes of various species and how temperature played a role too. Prior to that, I had no idea there were more sex chromosomes than the usual X and Y. Global warming can certainly make a mess in this field of biology. __________________ An unwritten post is a delightful universe of infinite possibilities. Set down one word, however, and it immediately becomes earthbound. Set down one sentence and itâ€™s halfway to being just like every other bloody entry thatâ€™s ever been written. ☻

04-24-2007, 11:07 AM	#259
*RÃan* Half-Elven Princess of Rabbit Trails and Harp-Wielding Administrator (beware the Rubber Chicken of Doom!) Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Not where I want to be ... Posts: 15,254	"Immaculate conception" (in English) refers to the Catholic doctrine that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was NOT born with a sin nature like everyone else in the world (except Jesus). It does NOT refer to how she conceived a child without the human act of intercourse. It's very natural to think that "immaculate conception" refers to Mary getting pregnant without intercourse, since the word "conception" is in there, but that's just not what the phrase means (at least in English - apparantly it does in Dutch, though - that's interesting!) That's why Gwai referred to the sin nature of lizards __________________ . I should be doing the laundry, but this is MUCH more fun! Ã‘Ã¡ Ã«?* Ã³Ãº Ã©Ã¤ Ã¯Ã¶Ã¼ Ã–Ã± Ã‰ Ãž Ã° ÃŸ Â® Ã§ Ã¥ â„¢ Ã¦ ♪ ?* "How lovely are Thy dwelling places, O Lord of hosts! ... For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand outside." (from Psalm 84) * * * God rocks! Entmoot : Veni, vidi, velcro - I came, I saw, I got hooked! Ego numquam pronunciare mendacium, sed ego sum homo indomitus! Run the earth and watch the sky ... Auta i lÃ³mÃ«! AurÃ« entuluva! Last edited by RÃan : 04-24-2007 at 11:10 AM.

04-24-2007, 11:57 AM	#260
*Earniel* The Chocoholic Sea Elf Administrator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: N?n in Eilph (Belgium) Posts: 14,363	Then English has no phrase to indicate Mary getting pregnant without intercourse? __________________ We are not things.

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