AzurePhoenix

Really, i have seen no proof that humans are much smarter on a fundamental level than canids, especially no smarter than dolphins. We simply have better dexterity, and we have the excessive pride to bask in the glory of our gifts, and thus spend generations honing them to a blade's edge, rather than humbly revel in the sanctity of life itself, as do our fellow mammalian Einsteins.

never mind, sense of humor i'm reading you loud and clear. i (in my senile youth) often skip small senetences, sentence fragments, and occasionally, paragraphs. So yes, many tell me that i seem older, despite looking younger, because of the cold bastardly-bitchy spiritlessness, blended with a fair level of fine humor P.S. if the young man can't hold his own for a few hours with a single rowdy former cheerleader, he shouldn't be "paddlin' the canoe" in the first place

no, but bitterness, and a cold, dead spirit are often enough to render someone prematurely senile. Oh, and when I talk about copious amounts of sex, oh, never mind. For the sake of integrity, let's just pretend I'm twenty-seven. So, why do you think I'm older?

RHymezone defines canoodle as the following: canoodle: verb: slang; fondle or pet affectionately; I, in the honor of the brilliant Chandler Bing, played by the sagely Matthew Perry consider canoodling as a very passionate, sweaty, intimate form of "fondling," more akin to such acts as "banging," "hitting the headboard" and the "horizontal waltz," or, in honor of our British friends, "shagging." Hey, is it still shagging if razors or laser therapy has rendered both participants in the act thoroughly "shagless" ?

Hey, ramin, i have an idea that might settle this once and for all. If i have a baby, and let wolves raise it from birth, and we discover that the tapping is evident by the time its twenty (my family tap usually shows up between eight and sixteen) we will have at least some promising evidence that some psyche traits are inherently genetic. Okay, I'm going to need a ticket to someplace with wolves, a map to the pack we'll be utilizing, and to make the whole thing possible, i'm going to need a cute, virile young man.

Hmm, we (my cousins and I) have always been odd in mostly looking exactly like our shared grandpappy. Maybe that and our faithfully consistant tourettes will make an excellent study for some future nobel-prize winner some day. Notice that i also chronically type "hmmm"

I'm not making fun of you. I'm just a chronically-sardonic person, like Chandler from Friends (from who I learned the term canoodle). What is it you don't comprehend? If it's beyond me (i doubt it at this point) we'll try to find someone old enough to have acquired a doctorate in bio-sciences to help you out. See, no jokes. You really don't want me to explain the canoodling remark do you? Because I really don't think this is that kind of forum. How old are you anyway?

Hmmm, John, who do you and your siblings most resemble, parent-wise? It seems to make a diff in my family, tapping wise

Oh dear freakin' Lord. But is tourettes genetic to such a degree as to pass down my family without fail, and always, without fail manifest itself in the form of left foot tapping? And does it count if those in my fmaily can start it either consciously or unconsciously depending on our relaxation/stress levels? Just say yes, and my father's gonna get a huge earfull of angry chastizing. Hey Ramin, if this tourettes thing checks out, I think Coral may have just shattered your whole theory. Damn genes

Yay for John... Kumbay-ya, let's just get along, falalalala, falalala, lalalala, let's get along

sweet jesus, I didn't even realize, but i was tapping my foot ever since I sat down at the computer. it's been two hours, and i have a vague feeling i haven't stopped once. WHEN WILL THE MADNESS END!!!!!! Seriously, when? I mean, gosh, it's really annoying, because by the end of a long sit-down, my knee sometimes starts to throb. But hey, at least my left foot never, ever falls asleep

oh, and trust me, years of reprimanding in school, years of motherly fury coming from my non-tapping mom, and years of dirty-looks from people annoyed by my sometimes loud tapping have forced me to attempt to stop the habit, time and time again, but inevitably, I never fail to fail. My grandfather's brother (meesa great-uncle) shot his left big toe off with a shotgun while hunting. Despite severe pain, he continued to tap the same foot (for some reason, unless the position of the right is favorable, everyone in my family invariably taps the left). He claims it was years before the pain went away, but despite trying to supress it, his tapping was never dissuaded.

Have you seen those studies involving red foxes somewhere in europe i believe, in which over eighteen or twenty generations the people bred for people-friendly personalities in the foxes. Over each generation, by reinforcing the friendly genes, the began to develope floppy ears, spotted coats, even shorter snouts, as well as domestic dog-like characteristics, despite the fact that only personality was chosen for, implying a close association of personality and physical appearance on the gene in question. Now, if a purebred of one of these kits is raised next to a kit with a wild father and a captive bred mother, the hybrid displays clear wild-type behaviors, including wariness, aggression, and other wild-dog behaviors, wheras the "pure breed" is as docile as a golden retriever.

Ahh, that's sweet, considering half didn't rhyme, i forgot to imply that the birds we eat are the last dinos, and that the camel metaphor was too far separated from the era in question. Now that my self criticism is over, I'd like to offer a final apology for what part i might have played in this unfortunate series of assumptions. Well thanx, sorry, good-job, and everything else under the sun that could be considered polite.

i don't know, every member of my paternal family chronically, unconciously taps their foot. My grandfather did, he died by the time my father was six. My dad didn't start tapping until he was in his teens, but evetually he did. I tap quite vehemently, as do my aunt's five kids, even though it skipped their mom from my grandfather, and was never an issue in their father. The only person in my immediate family who doesn't is my step-sister, who was raised from infancy as one of us. Also, each of us descended from my father's father is a chronic nail-biter, lip-biter, and head scratcher. Except for one cousin, who is also the only brunette in the family, and is also the only one who displays the overweight qualities of my non-blood, brunette uncle, versus us blonde, thin descendents of my grandpappy. Though he doesn't nail or lip bite, this cousin is a head scratcher and foot-tapper. Granted, some of this is probably influenced by our environmental development, but there are simply too many little coincidences regarding phenotype and personality despite similar or identicle backgrounds. Why is the only physical anomaly, and the only step-child, the only ones with inconsistant quirks? And don't say the differing appearance of these two anomalies contributed to their psychological independence, because the step-sister looks more like me and my dad than one of my brothers does. I know this is far from scientific proof, but i feel its at least a slightly interesting example which might actually apply. I know they aren't really disorders, but all the things I mentioned are certainly annoying enough to qualify as psyche defficiencies in my book. At least the nail biting is. Disgusting habit, but I just can't stop. It's like the funky chicken, or eating J.Box tacos

Gosh, I'm so sorry, I wasn't implying poor english or anything, i swear to everything, its just a cute thing i've been doing lately to sum up long complicated explanations when a short when might be somewhat sufficient. God I'm crying, did I offend you? cuz if their is some small gramatical error in your posts somewhere, i swear i didn't notice. oh gosh, I feel so bad now. My "Cave-man interpretation" had nothing to do with you whatsoever, oh man, I am SOOOOOO sorry!!!!

I'm sorry Ramin, I'm trying to properly respect your argument, but could you please define your "deficient environment" so that maybe I can get a better handle?

as far as i know, the closest we can get to "freezing" atoms is bringing them to within a millionth of a degree of absolute zero, at which point the atomic vibrations would slow, slow, slow and then cease, then hell knows what would happen. problem is, absolute zero is impossible to reach by humans in this century. I'd like to see this miraculously cold iceberg of his.

Cave man interpretation; years o' stress, storms are at their best, things get real rough, cranky volcanos go puff, asteroid go smack and break the camel's back, mega-tsunamis go splash, pissed-off volcanos go "ROOOOAARR," dinos get dead, and now birdies go "tweet" and we shoot them for meat

cripes, that bacteria reference implies environmental effect, don't it? you know what? it doesn't matter, because the environment does play a huge role in the devlopement of personality, a role certainly big enough to be forced to take into account and consider when applying to every individual. but the smae goes for genetics. we'd be incomplete without both, together, working in unison to create a single wholesome (or too often deficient) sentient entity

Um, ramin, if disorders are a flaw in personality, doesn't it go without saying that just as one set in a pair of twins can develop abherrent conditions in their anatomical development despite being genetically identicle (such as poor vision), couldn't another misreading of the code, or missalignment of synapses or whatever interfere with the program? or the program is messed up itself? a single displacement of the t's or c's occurs on the gene after bacteria do some damage to the DNA, so from that point on, it's transcribed as a wrong protein. Yaddayaddayadda, blahblahblah, bing-bang-boom, mental disorder (i believe that's the yiddish translation of something really brilliant and scientific). Just an extention on what i already said.

that's cool really cool, but as for the amzing coinicidence thing... ahhh, I'll just shut-up before i end up lookin' like an ass

oh, desert advise, be careful not to just drink any standing water you find. Their are pools thick with alkalines (maybe?) in the Death Valley deserts, plus those salt brines in australia and such. It'd suck to get your hopes up just to swallow a lungful of water as caustic as battery acid. ALso, mosquito eggs and larva. That why stagnant bad. sorry, caveman lingo

ah, yes rosies, i always mix those two up. rosy, not rainbow, rosy, not rainbow, rosy, not rainbow.... there, that should fix it.... i'm so ashamed. That stilleto snake sounds amazing, when were they discovered? I'll feel stupid if it was more than ten years ago

okay, if genes have nothing to do with psych, then theoretically, a dog raised under human conditions should be human in psychiatric terms, though certainly limited in its intelligence by anatomical brain capacity. Hmmm, as far as I know, that's not true. Are each of us born with a sort of blueprint of instincts that define us as humans, and dogs as dogs. In humans and other higher intellects (dolphins, ravens, chimps, parrots, pigs, dogs, and even cats) clear personalitites are evident, but in most cases are purely based on the inborn personality of the species in question, no matter how it was raised (there are some exceptions in which the pet takes on the traits of the species that raised it, but indeed, there are some dogs that act more human even when raised in a pro-canine atmosphere) it seems that this would imply there was a key genetic element to at least the base of the critter psyche. Simply because humans are more advanced, that just means there are more details to further personalize on, right? If that's so, should it be so hard to believe that many or most or even all of the details that define a particular person are in some part persuaded if not fully dictated by an instinctual (thus genetic) blueprint? Just a thought