zapatos

Challenge accepted... We legislate two classes all the time: drinking, fornicating, marriage, voting, running for office, retiring. Why not one for smoking? Why should smoking get special status and not have to adhere to an age limit? Basically what this law does is grandfather in people prior to an outright ban. Another thing done all the time. It's not a right, it is a, um, privilege I guess?

While I'm pretty free with the rep points I don't think they really mean much. It may give you a warm fuzzy that someone upvoted your post but you rarely know why. Was I witty? Insightful? Accurate? Complete? Rude? Wrong? Didn't directly answer the question? Too technical? Not technical enough? You like me? Don't like me? You agree with me? Don't like my liberal leanings? You caught my reference to Seinfeld? You misunderstood me? I misunderstood you? Unless someone tells you, the meaning of the rep gives you no more than the most general of hints. Even if you know it came from me, you don't really know why.

I believe dachshunds and greyhounds also suffer pattern baldness.

Just reducing the amount of trash, no matter how innovative and expensive, doesn't solve the trash problem. The cheapest and most effective solution for trash that is generated out in the world is trash containers. You'll never solve the problem completely with producing less trash in the first place.

When I was a kid I remember this really cool trashcan at the zoo. It had a lion's head with an open mouth and was pulling a vacuum. When you got near the mouth with your trash it was sucked in with gusto. I remember running around, along with lots of other kids, searching for trash so we could put it in the lion's mouth. Like with most things when trying to solve a problem, I think designing the carrot deserves considerable effort before resorting to the stick.

Yes, I literally meant the cells have status meetings and use tiny blueprints.

I'm sure you'd catch at least some of them. Can you imagine how clean the streets would be if you executed the offenders? The ends don't always justify the means.

Lock those children litterbugs in the stocks for a few hours and toss rotten vegetables at them. That will get them in line!!!

Can't say that I'm in favor of the Hitler Youth model of litter control. Do we really want the government turning citizens against each other for the righteous goal of nailing scofflaws who drop a gum wrapper in the parking lot?

That's news to me. Thank you!

Cell differentiation. The fact that a particular cell says 'now is the time to do something different', and by following some set of directions, this cell rather than the one next to it, knows it is time for a change.

That's what blogs are for.

Botflies and leaches (carnivores) are stupid. Elephants (herbivores) are one of the smartest animals in the animal kingdom. Orangutans are almost complete fruit eaters. German shepherds are not carnivores. They are omnivores.

Yes, those botflies and leaches always best me at chess.

It wasn't a dig nor was I talking about you. Generally speaking I think others dismiss you too quickly due to the fact the topic is aliens, but I feel that you tend to make a distinction between those things that are phony and those that are genuinely unexplained.

Did they get arrested or something?

Well I certainly hope you stick around this time as long as you did last time, to discuss the topic that you opened.

That's simply not true. There are several effective and well known ways to destroy eternal and immortal souls.

Unlike people who claim aliens are here, now, this is just a mental exercise of what could happen with a civilization millions of years more advanced than us. No one is making any specific claims; only playing a game of "Would They? Could They? Should They?" It is an attempt to have a discussion around the question "Where is everyone?"

Just because you CANNOT imagine something happening, that doesn't move it into the 'unsound' category. I think you are stuck in a 21st century technological mindset.

I saw a video that suggested you could do it with a mass the size of the earth. I can't do the math. I think you could also potentially do it by replacing the sun's core with iron to shut down fusion. That would be a neat party trick.

Primarily because we don't have a blind spot in our brains that disallows seeing this option. You probably should. This is not a discussion about ethics, morals, or guessing how aliens might view the universe they live in. It is a discussion about game theory.

I think at relativistic speeds that is not true. I think we are getting away from the concept of Dark Forest. It doesn't lay out the tactics of an attack, it only suggests that the strategy of eliminating your competitors is a sound idea.

Not everyone around here is an expert. If I think in terms of the dictionary definition I'm familiar with I may quote it to let you know why I am saying what I am saying. Choosing the most respectful interpretation of what someone says is a good option. Choosing to simply ask why they are giving a dictionary definition when you were expecting something more involved is another good option. You can also choose to take what they say as a personal affront, but I'm not so sure that is what I'd call a good option unless you value confrontation over discussion.

Don't play the martyr.