Sayonara

Have you been composing this post for two years, or were you just really late to the party?

I have a folder of small flag images saved as PNG files. I am sure that we can figure out some kind of gizmo or doodad that can add them to people's profiles... if not then they could always be inserted into signatures with the img tag.

Anybody else want to play god?

You suck.

If it is outside the flow of time, does it exist for our purposes?

So you did... my error. I am thinking about this in the same "plants/animals/similar" terms as yourself. I suspect that once life becomes established in a resource-rich environment, progressive evolution is simply a numbers game. Selection drives adaptability, but there will inevitably be a long period of time before the first tipping point where one advantageous adaptation causes a leap forward in competitive strategies. This is because of the relative simplicity of the information structure and methods of transmission in primitive organisms. I wouldn't call hydrothermal vents or salt lakes hospitable, but then I am not adapted to them . What we learn from ecosystems adapted to these environments is that given enough time, living systems can adapt to exploit resources even if the conditions where those resource are found are atypical in some extreme or another. That in itself is good evidence (although rather circumstantial, I have to admit) that once life arrives, it can adjust its complexity as it encounters new survival challenges. Such challenges might even be the specific environmental changes you mentioned earlier, but they do not have to occur on a planetary scale or across thousands of years - since a single population can evolve, and single populations are very vulnerable to changes in resource levels or abiotic conditions, they just have to happen, and further complexity results. Or, you know, extinction. Depends on the circumstances!

Let's stick with complex, which was specified in the OP. "Higher" is a bit more subjective. True (as far as we can evidence), but no time scale restriction was given in the OP.

Effect.

I would vote for the second option, on the basis that life beginning in the first place is currently considered quite uncommon, whereas becoming more complex once established is basically what life does.

The hint was plainly there.

No. You have been here three weeks and Phi for All has been here for four years, which is about 70 times longer than you. So he is in fact posting at a much lower rate than you (2.43 posts per day compared to your 3.80, if you are interested). Please don't misrepresent the purpose of moderator action, accuse our staff of being hypocrites, or impose false and arbitrary benchmarks on posting frequency. It just pisses people off. For the record, the administrative staff not only support moderator action to remove spurious claims or off-topic posts from current threads, we actually encourage it. The wonderful thing about the web is that if you do not like this practice there are plenty of other sites which might accommodate your specific needs. Don't goad the staff. He was responding to your complaints, and you don't really have the right to call "off topic" immediately after provoking him. This thread can carry on according to the first post and whoever wants to discuss the explanation of time by inertial environment concept can do so, or it can carry on as a thread about another thread and end up being closed.

You know, by ignoring the things which are not logically possible.

Off-topic posts on ape/human divergence moved to a new thread here: http://www.scienceforums.net/forum/showthread.php?t=32329

Snapping. You can also do it with snapping.

Okay, the probability of something going horribly wrong is really reallly small, but non-zero. Point made, move on.

YT, there is no need to be rude to new members. Someone with about 10 posts under their belt probably hasn't spent enough time on the forums to realise how frequently the same questions get asked. Your first reply is like being told by the receptionist to "use the ****ing floor plan".

It's because we wait until you go offline then we change everything around. It never gets old!

Unless anyone has any photos of Martian elephants or berries they'd like to share? Perhaps not.

Your poll question doesn't seem to relate to the OP question. Can you clarify what it is you are investigating?

There is a bloke version as well:

Eric, please calm down and avoid making personal attacks.

Ahem cough 1st cough cough April cough splutter.

Sorry but that was so annoying I turned it off.

NLN, if you are going to promote another web site in your posts, please make sure it is relevant - don't take the piss. Those posts where you point to specific articles on MLU are fine; just adding a link to the bottom of every post is not. Also... Live Godcam: very funny.

Here is the text of the lawsuit. http://www.lhcdefense.org/LHC_Legal_Defense_Fund.html