Ophiolite

Perhaps this is the root of the problem Herme3: You weren't looking for an explanation, but an explanation you could agree with. Several people offered a suite of plausible explanations, but these did not match what you were looking for. You appear to believe you have found something strange. The rest of us think you have found something mundane. As YT suggests there is little point in continuing the discussion.

Frankly I am appalled at the bulk of the responses from individuals whose input I had previously come to respect. Unless you all have some miraculous high level contacts then you, like me, do not know what happened. I will take one item that especially infuriated me. From Mokele "He lived and worked in London for 4 years, and if he couldn't understand the language that's nobody's fault but his own due to sheer laziness." You arrogant little asshole. I work in a company where if there are ten people in a room there is a good chance they represent at least six nationalities and speak a dozen languages between them. All will speak english, with varying degrees of fluency. Some of the most fluent will however have major difficulty with any or all of the following - unfamiliar phrases, familiar phrases out of context, colloquial english, regional accents. And you really think laziness merits eight bullets? Screw your insensitive disrespect.

I thought the ratio of fast:slow muscle fibres was primarily genetic. No?

1. They were plainclothes police. Can you tell the difference between a policeman in civilian clothes, an ordinary member of the public, a mugger, or a terrorist?2. If you suspected you were being followed from your home by one or more individuals who were behaving in a suspicious manner would you or would you not be nervous, especially if this occured in a city that had been the recent victim of terrorist violence and which could well be the victim of some different form of terrorism. [Kidnap and behead a few expatriate workers in London and watch the economy grind to a halt as the immigrants - legal and illegal - beat a retreat.] 3. Now, nervous at the general situation, and concerned by the specific cicrcumstances one of these individuals calls out something in a foreign language that you do not clearly make out, but the tone of which sounds threatening. 4. Do you - a) Run for your life? b) Hang around to find out if it is all something quite innocent? 5. Darwin awards? I suggest we institute an abeefaria award for gross insensitivity and lack of imagination. And the winner is.........

What would be the point in an advanced civilisation eliminating the biodiversity of its home planet by instigating the largest mass extinction event since the KT boundary?

By your own definition - "any act of war " - this cannot be terrorism, since no state of war exists with the terrorists.

It has everything to do with the abilities of the brain. The following abilities are particularily implicit in its manifestation:Self delusion Pattern creation Illogical thought processes The drive to seem different and superior

google isostasy

Answer 1: Everything except ourselves. Answer 2: What about the microbes and viruses? Answer 3: Did you miss the couple of articles on global warming? Answer 4: Let's hear it for the NEO's Answer 5: Visit Niger this week and stare active evolution in the face. Some people tolerate being shot better than others, etc. Evolution is alive and well and living in a community near you.

I have voted ''I'm not sure". This seems to me the only viable vote at this stage. We do not know the precise motivations of the group who carried out the bombings. The two broad motives would be a) Revenge/punishment b) Promote a political change If their motives are b) they are terrorists, if a) they are thugs.

We know only a tiny fraction of what there is to know. Consequently our ignorance exceeds our knowledge. Disagreements revolve around the material that is in the process of becoming known. Rather than being a weakness, such disagreement is the greatest strength of science.

Indoctrination: it is not the same as persuasion.

Oops. A typo. It should have read lanthanium. Well spotted.

When bird flu links up with current human flu strains expect a global mortality rate of 30%. Any one who thinks humans are top dog on the planet will be rudely awakened: small is beautiful; brief generations=maximum evolutionary rate. And the little buggers aren't even properly alive.

It's rather misleading to talk of 'coldest' and 'hottest' substances. Any substance can be taken to any (physically real) temperature. Temperatures as low as a fraction of a degree above absolute zero have been attained, and, ass YT points out, the plasma in the centre of a hydrogen fusion reactor is like that at the centre of the sun.

Herme3, I am starting to lose respect for you. The 'rods' as you call them have been thoroughly debunked. They are ordinary insects. Their odd appearance is caused by the camera frame rate. Please begin to display a modicum of scepticism. The world and the Universe are wonderful enough without needing to invent ghosts and mysterious insects. Go take a look at the real mysteries, not some fifth rate, infantile trash.

Martin, I'm going for eleven (11) based entirelyon your input and a knowledge of human nature. 1) I believe you when you say string theory is on its way out. 2) Many have devoted there entire careers to it 3) They are not stupid and sense 1) is the case 4) Just before a drowning physicist* goes down for the last time there is an awful lot of threshing about. So, eleven it is. *If you wish to try this experiment in your local swimming pool it may be best to use a micro-biologist or biochemist: they are typically less massive and more tractable.

And best of all "what is the meaning of the concatenation of drivel you have posted to these forums"?

yourdadonapogos, ignore this twerp. He can't even structure his arguments, or write in concise english. He's beneath you.

Wrong. A theory is not a guess. It is not even an educated guess. It is not conjecture, though it may begin with conjecture. It is not, most definitely not, based on limited evidence.If you are going to post definitive statements in a science forum it would be beneficial for your reputation to grasp the terminology first (as yourdadonapogos rightly suggests). In other words, I know you are not stupid. You know you are not stupid. But, s***, you do a great impression of someone who is.

Rubbish. You are being vague as usual. When they measure the length of their dining table it will be the same, n'est pas?

True. Though if you subscribe to the hypothesis of pan spermia [ http://www.panspermia.org/ ]they may not be dead, just sleeping.

It is, in part, because I have seen ghosts that I am pretty confident that others are misinterpreting their experiences. Hunger, brain state, suggestion, stress, body chemistry can all contribute to the creation of a hallucination. We know - from carefully controlled laboratory experiments of just the type you wish to set up - that hallucinations can be induced and that these are indistinguishable from ghost sightings. So, why would I , were I a researcher, waste time and money on a phenomena that already had an adequate explanation.

Many of them aren't lying. - those that are want 'fame', attention, money, a sense of importance: lots of motives. Those who aren't lying are misinterpreting their experiences.