Random Thought of the Day

Quote: Fleastiff

OJ walked because of a stage struck judge .

He walked because he was a famous Black
in front of a Lib So Cal jury. You think he would
have walked in Alabama?

Quote: Evenbob

He walked because he was a famous Black
in front of a Lib So Cal jury. You think he would
have walked in Alabama?

Nope, especially if the jury was from Montgomery.
Johhny Cochran did a masterful job. Great attorney.
The state totally bungled the case.

Quote: terapined

The state totally bungled the case.

The state held it in the wrong state,
no jury in Calif would have found
him guilty even if Clarence Darrow
was the prosecutor.

We got a reprieve at work today, right before the weekend.

It's nice.

Quote: terapined

The state totally bungled the case.

To paraphrase Sheldon cooper, the prosecution team at the OJ murder trial could have used the trial transcripts to request a full refund from their respective law schools.

We got another reprieve at work today!

What are the odds?

Quote: rxwine

Would modern humans survive any of the bigger cataclysmic events of the past, even if they were taken completely by surprise?

The Toba volcano (located in Sumatra Indonesia at lat/long 2.6845, 98.8756) erupted about 70,000 years ago and is theorized to taking the species to the brink of extinction. This event probably caused a global volcanic winter of 6–10 years and possibly a 1,000-year-long cooling episode.

It may have wiped out several competing species leaving only homo sapiens sapiens and Neanderthals. It is theorized that homo sapiens sapiens were reduced to 3,000–10,000 surviving individuals.



It is impossible to estimate how many humans were alive before the eruption. It is generally believed that over the last 12,000 years world population went from ~4 million to over 7 billion.

So before the Toba volcano exploded homo sapiens sapiens were thought to have been on the planet for 50,000 years (many times the time period above). There could theoretically have been a billion humans and even civilization before the eruption since no trace of any building or bodies would be left by present day. Or there could have been only a few hundred thousand individuals, and only 3,000–10,000 survived.

I think that modern humans would survive as a species a repeat of the Toba catastrophe, but hopefully not be reduced to the same number as before.

Asteroids, volcanos, whatever probably don't do as much damage as man does. Blotting out the sun for several years is certainly devastating and no one knows where or how to flee. Even some Canadian forest fires once caused so much smoke high up in the atmosphere that cities in the Eastern USA turned on street lights at noontime and no one knew what was happening. Agriculture changes the environment slowly as does our dam building and salination but I think in the present time that we have enough resources for widely spread centers of survival. Krakatoa caused spectacular sunsets and some round the world tsunamis but in general we seem able to survive. Iceland is always worrying a few scientists with its potential to erupt and cool Europe but it never seems to actually happen. Scientists warn of eruptions but it seems mainly to provide consulting contracts and sign pollution. Caves with artificial environments store our data, perhaps they may also shelter some survivors of a volcanic event some day as well. Population loss would be greatest in the lesser developed nations though.

Mr T random stuff

Quote:

In 1987, he angered the residents of a Chicago suburb, Lake Forest, by cutting down more than a hundred oak trees on his estate. The national media referred to the incident as "the Lake Forest Chain Saw Massacre".[56][57]

Quote:

In 2015, it was announced that Mr. T would star in a do it yourself home improvement TV show, with interior designer Tiffany Brooks, on the DIY Network. The show, due sometime in 2015, was to be titled, "I Pity the Tool".[49]

Quote:

{mr t} ... angered the residents of a Chicago suburb, Lake Forest, by cutting down more than a hundred oak trees on his estate.

Remnants of African culture vs Druid culture?

Trigger warning! You have to indulge in politically incorrect and unscientific ethnic observations to follow this:

The love of trees can be said to a carry-over from an early people of Britain, Ireland, and France who worshiped trees, the Druids. It would explain a lot - it is kind of weird how much plenty of us, myself included, really dig trees. I feel outrage over cutting them down. Where does that come from really?

This one you may not have heard of, but there have been people who have observed that Af/A homeowners prefer no trees, especially none near the house. If you drive around in the country you supposedly can pick out white vs black homes not knowing beforehand which is which and do pretty good. I have tried that out - there seems to be something to it, though you have to admit this is anecdotal, not scientific. If it is so, you could say that they just don't have the Druid connection and sensibly don't want trees falling on their houses in storms. But I have also heard the less kind theory that Africans naturally developed a fear of things that might be up there in the trees, snakes and leopards and so on.

Personally I can see the objection to this kind of anecdotal racism, if you want to call it that. It's profoundly unscientific and prone to derogatory evaluation. Still, you almost have to be a fool to think there is no such thing as group differences. In any case, you have to wonder when it comes to this 'trees thing' - why on earth would Mr. T cut down his trees!?