Velocity_Boy

Don't take this wrong, I mean, yeah, thanks for the post, but this is very old news. As a Biology geek and a staunch evolutionist I been offering the example of this moth to Creationists as an example we see today of evolution for years now. I'm a huge Dawkins fan and believe I first read it from him about a decade ago. Thing is, most Creationists are unfazed by this moth. In their delusion they simply claim it us only evidence if evolution within a species. That is, micro and not macro evolution. Thus they retain their view that we cannot come from fish or even apes. I know, I know.

No doesn't help at all, since you're wrong. Do you even live here in the USA? I've been seeing and using and studying hand signs for three decades. Never seen the one the OP described. I lived in Detroit for years and am familiar with the gang banger signs. Never seen it. Wiki link I provided never seen it. The guy was deformed in that hand. Hope this helps!

Ya know I've always been kind of a buff on hand gestures and their history, don't ask why, but they fascinate me. I guess it might be tied to my love of linguistics? Anyway, I never have seen or heard of that particular gesture, and it is also not listed on this pretty damn comprehensive list I am providing. So I gotta think your jogger friend maybe had a deformity or handicap on his hand? Sounds funny in a way but I can't rule it out. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_gestures

Yeah that butterfly and earthquake bit is pure woo. But as far as hearing high speed molecules, this is nothing unusual. We all do it. After all, what do you think sound is? Simply compressed waves of air, which is comprised of nitrogen and oxygen molecules. As well as a wee bit of argon, but I digress. Just like smell? Do you know what causes different odors? Smells? The shapes of the molecules! That's it. Pure differing shapes and molecular configurations that stimulate our olfactory sensory systems in varying degrees, which in turn are rectified by the cns into memory banks as to what smell that molecular shape is. Like bacon or coffee or rotting leaves.

Well since it's is the drop in atmospheric pressure they react to i would imagine that their behavior might be noticed around the same time the barometer drops. They also have a ken sense of smell of course so I suspect they sniff that ozone from lightning strikes before we do as well.

Please make no mistake. A full 90% of all my colleagues and their predecessors are atheist or agnostic. And when Dirac or Einstein with his famous "God does not play dice" comments, speak of a good, it is NOT a personal biblical type of a god. Rather, they posit an impersonal non caring sort of Deist Universal Intelligence. Nothing remotely close to a Yahweh or Allah.

How do you know the Golden Light was Jesus? And why do you now have no doubt about the Afterlife? Since you really did not spend any time there, nor experience anything that could not be construed as being in a dream state. Sure, your heart and breathing had ceased (so you say) but all it takes to experience a dream is a few neurotransmitters firing back and forth in the brain. Just some chemicals being excited by the millivolts of electrical current that is in our brains and nervous systems. Which still, btw, trickles for up to several hours after clinical death. Hell, we say this in H.S. Biology with the frog dissections, right? I mean, sorry, sir, all due respect. Your story was mildly interesting. And I am sure you believe in God and a Risen Jesus and the Afterlife. But as an atheist and a scientist I do not, and personally I consider your story no more proof of the Afterlife or of God than a crazy dream I had last night after eating too much ice cream before bedtime. And while you claim you have "no doubts" and believe you saw The Tree of Knowledge and Jesus, please know that this is all purely anecdotal. What would be far more impressive is if you had come away from the dream with some knowledge you did not have before. Like a fact from one of those books you said you saw by the Tree. Which, btw, if they were from the Tree of Knowledge in Genesis, would have been written in Hebrew, correct? Since that is the lingua franca of the original Torah. Thanks for sharing! VB

500 goes into 10,000 twenty times. so this sounds too easy but would not the odds of winning then be 20-1? LOL. I like my math easy. As well as minimal.

Indeed. I originally went to college on an athletic scholarship and barely cracked a book. After years in the non-academic world, goofing off and also trying and failing to make a living by playing my sport professionally, I returned to school years later. I didn't receive my BS till I was 33, and now at 35 am pursuing my Master's. I have also found that in this day and age my case in not nearly as unusual as it was, say, two decades ago. As far as I can tell even the 20-somethings take very little notice to guys my age or even middle-aged being among them in classes. So, no, it sure never is too late. In fact a good argument can be made that students returning to college after a brief hiatus, for whatever reasons, might perform better than the straight-from-high school crowd. Thanks!

Although not scientifically proven there is so much anecdotal evidence for dogs acting strangely before storms and other atmospherical events that few people really bother to argue against the notion that dogs are indeed endowed with this and other enhanced detection abilities. I even know few scientists who seriously doubt this to the point where they will attempt to disprove it with experiment. It stands to reason that dogs and other animals would be imbued with more heightened sensory perception than we homo sapiens. Through Evolution, what we gained withour big brains and reasoning abilities we seemed to have lost in the way of acute sensory perception. Many anthropologists reckon we once had better awareness of all this stuff, but lost it over time from living in modern society. It is thought to be a sort of "use it or lose it" skill set. And here is some other stuff that good ol' canis domesticus might be capable of doing...... https://www.thedodo.com/5-amazing-things-dogs-can-sense-before-they-happen-1186416501.html

Oh, infinity exists all right. It's just that your mind is incapable of grasping it. Don't feel bad, it's not just you, all of us homo sapiens are. Our minds evolved to think in linear and finite terms. And also to seek causes and patterns. And constraints. Even when there are none. This is why we invent gods. And also conspiracy theories. And our manmade language we call mathematics is incapable of providing an equation for infinity. Or explaining it. Though we did invent a symbol for it, which as i recall is that sideways eight.

How does one type out the sound of kissing? A kiss? Would it be......pppfppmoi? Good enough. Guess what the context and whose body parts are involved there? Hint..I'm not in the equation. It's between you and one of those names you mentioned in your post. I won't elaborate, and leave the rest to the imagination.

I'd go with Python. And if you ever want to do a webpage learn Java and Java Script. Python is easy, it's a high-end object-oriented language and its syntax is closer to real written language and vernacular than any other program. The easist programming language to learn would be Microsoft Visual Basic. It's almost all like a GUI OS, with point and click. But it's limited in what it can do, and the snobbier of us coders don't even consider it a real language! LOL. The answer to your question would really depend on why you want to learn to code, and what you hope to accomplish with your new found coding skills. A great place (the best?) online to learn ANY language, for free, is the Code Academy. (www.codeacademy.com). Hope this helps.

"....this one time, at band camp....I stuck a flute....." LOL would I throw a wrench into the works of your entire debate here if I told you that most of us Biologists and Anthropologists believe there actually is no such thing as "race?" that it is a myth? and we all descend from a common ancestor? and that the differences we have are due to our past cultural practices, diet, and environmental conditions? And that the DNA similarity between, say, a blonde-blue pale skinned Swede and Kunte Kinte is along the order of 99.99%? and that the minute difference is the genome code is NOT in the brain or central nervous system, but rather, is cosmetic? as in eyes, hair, (dead protein, anyway) and epidermal constituents? so if this throws the proverbial wrench, sorry. If not, you're welcome. LOL

Your bag and peanut analogy seemed to stray off-topic and made little or no sense to me insofar as being an analogy of a way in which 2 + 2 could = 5. Anyway, your answer here is "no." two and two will always be four, not five, not anything else, so long as the values of "2" remain true and constant and not subject to any sort of nebulous philosophical interpretation or deviance. To posit that two and two CAN equal five is not to delve into the philosophies, but rather, mental masturbation. Hope this helps, thanks!

The thing here is folks that true ED is a physical problem. Basically, due to a few different possible reasons, not enough blood is getting pumped to Ol' One-Eye. So he cannot stand tall and at attention, let alone get "harder than a diamond in an ice storm" like when we were in our 20s. (I for some reason--vanity?--am compelled to interject at this juncture that yours truly does not suffer from this malady, ED). But I'm barely 40, so.... Anyway, yeah, it's a physical thing, ED. But the only way I see a porn addict becoming unable to get erect would be from a psychological problem. As in the real thing, the sex acts he's trying to engage in, might seem lackluster compared to some of the graphic porn he watches. And probably his partner is not as attractive or endowed (or enthusiastic?) as those wonderful girls in the porno flicks? So if this is the case, and it is, it is not a true DX of ED. It needs a different name, and is better filed in the DSM than as a true physiological malady. Hope this helps, thanks!

As a biologist I can safely and confidently tell you the article I s totally without merit. Pure pseudoscience. I smell a drug company looking to market a new med. I can see the ads now!

Good post and mostly accurate. I am a combat vet. I did two tours in OIF as an Army 19kilo, which to you guys is a tank driver. I don't know any vets who think ALL PTSD claims are bullshit, but I CAN tell you there is alot of fraud going on out there today. I would reckon that one third, at least, of the kids who have gotten 100% PTSD claims from the VA over the past decade are in fact malingerers gaming the system. The monies btw are substantial. The VA pays $3800 a month for life to a PTSD certified vet. Part of the reason is that it is much much easier to get declared as a PTSD sufferer now than before, as say in the Vietnam era. You wouldn't believe how easy!!

Unless they do!! http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-24645100

First of all you need to look-up the definition for the word "Atheist." And when you do you will find that it has nothing to do with a belief system. Especially a faith-based one. Now then........... The beliefs we Atheist DO have that you might term as being faith-based are believed by us for a good reason: Past experience. Observation. Trial and Error. The Empirical Method. None of which the religious people have utilized to from their faith-based beliefs. Example.............. I fully expect the sun to rise tomorrow morning. (sunrise being a misomer, of course). I fully expect to get wet in the rain. I have faith I can run a mile in under 12 minutes. Why have faith in all these things? Because numerous past experiences has shown me that they are all true. But the religious folks have none of this. No proofs. No evidence. Only a book of Hebrew Bronze Age Mythology. One totally devoid of ANY credible science. One that, hell, was never even meant to a a single, comprehensive work in the first place. They have no reason to have faith that their prayer works. Since there has never been ANY evidence of the power--or even the slightest effect--of Intercessory prayer. This is how the Faith of Atheists and the Faith of the Theists differ. One is a justified Faith. And one is NOT. Except, again. (yawn)..if they consider their Bible to be the justification. Hope this helps clear it up for you, amigo. Thanks.

No, there is nothing wrong with you at all. I am much the same way. I very rarely watch the news. Only rarely, like when there is a big story breaking. Or a death of a celeb, like we has last week with Prince. Otherwise I get my news on my online feeds when I want to. And I DO keep up on sports news, being a huge NBA and NFL and NHL junkie. But world news? National and even local evening news? No thanks. It's depressing. I often feel after a rare viewing of the news that maybe the religious zealots are right...The End Times are upon us! LOL. Look...this country was sold down the tubes a long time ago. It IS an Plutocracy, people. The Shotgun Sings the Song. (with due credit to Roger Daltrey!). Meet the New Boss. Same as Da Old Boss. America is turning into a Police State. Unbridled. Big Brother is here. To stay. The Entitlement Mentality of the Country has grown to Absurd Proportions. We are overrun with fugitive criminals who are euphemistically referred to by the Libtard Media as Illegal Aliens. Damn...I was hoping this thread wouldn't get me started! LOL. Oops. Sorry. But NO! You are not alone, my friend. The News just plain old-fashioned sucks.

I don't think my foot is Anywhere near my mouth, bro. What are you not getting about this? All matter is comprised of potential energy. I'm actually working on paper right now in fact, about something we call Zero Point Energy. But that's a bit off topic. Anyway...here's a bit more for ya..... http://www.askamathematician.com/2010/01/q-is-it-true-that-all-matter-is-simply-condensed-energy/

Well, of course you are right. I was giving you the Sheldrake answer. In fact hi last book was pretty much of an open letter to the scientific community pleading for it to broaden their horizons and to be more tolerant and open minded on views like his which have not as yet been proven. Or even evidenced. He was quite fond of bringing up the recent discovery of Dark Energy. And saying..rightfully so...that Cosmologists now realize that they don't know what comprises some 90% of the known universe. So....maybe his whole Morphic Resonance thing is something along those lines. A quite real entity that hasd yet to be proven, or detected by clinical experiments.

Really? You need a Physics 101 class, bro. Everything is energy! Even you. Potential energy. More than a nuclear bomb. Look it up. Thanks. http://www.lifetrainings.com/We-are-made-of-Energy-not-Matter.html

All animals with central nervous systems have the ability to discern the sensation that we refer to as "pain." As said sensation is caused by nerve cells sending signals to the brain. It is a purely physiological response. And is borne of and carried out via purely physical pathologies. So...no "reasoning" or "ethical purposes" are involved. The central nervous system does not "know" or "care" that its host organism cannot do anything to alleviate or moderate the pain. But us primates, and indeed most other members of the kingdom Animalia evolved with this ability to feel pain. Why? Because it was a part of Selective Inheritance. Since, those species who first had the ability to discern pain used that sensation as a sort of warning flag to desist in doing some activity that was posing potential fatal injury to them. Thus, those who acknowledged these biological "red flags" were far more likely to survive, and in turn thrive and dominate and produce offspring, then were the unfortunate organisms who ignored the pain sensations. The "why" of feeling pain, in our dentition or anywhere else, is no more a part of the process than. say, asking why blood still tries to coagulate when the injury causing the blood loss is fatal anyway. Or why do men have nipples? LOL Oh..wait a minute, that's a vestigial trait. Hmm...but so is this whole Pain thing! Sweet. Hope this helps, thanks!