And even then, multiple RTGs have been involved in launch failures and none have ever caused a problem. More often than not they were fished out of the ocean (US) or dug out of the tundra (USSR), refurbished, and used again on a later mission. I've never been clear on the mechanism the Luddites propose for the RTG to "vaporize" and then spread radioactive dust evenly throughout the atmosphere, targeting human lungs, either.

You just implied that the only non-sexual method of gene migration was artificial, which isn't the case. Among some genera transplanted genes cause evolution to advance much faster than typical mutation rates would.
And yes, the Denesovians are extinct, whether they are a modern human subspecies or an entirely separate humanoid species (the answer to that will depend on which definition of 'species' you use). The African Hairless Dog and the Siamese Hairless Dog both survived into the late 19th century, late enough to be photographed. Being dogs they would have mated with any other canid that held still long enough so some of their genes are still going to be out there, but both breeds have been extinct for a century.

I remember the original VCR lawsuits, where the principal complainant, Sony Entertainment, sued manufacturers of VCRs to try to somehow disable them from copying tapes. The principal defendant? Sony Electronics, the largest manufacturer of VCRs at the time. Then we got to see the whole show play out again a few years later with CD burners.

Leave your hearing aids at home . . .

Horsepuckey. Transposons (sp?) are chunks of DNA that get moved around between species by viruses and plasmids. It's actually quite common. We have many chunks of non-human and in fact non-primate genetic material in our DNA that was imported over the eons. I don't know how much of it is expressed as active genes and how much is just 'junk' DNA, I haven't read up on it for several years, but it's there.

Sub-Saharan African groups don't have Neanderthal genes, unless they've interbred with non-Africans. Neanderthals were either never in Africa at all, or left it immediately and completely after branching off the rest of the human genetic tree.

We have 7 rhodies, 4 like partial shade, 3 like full sun. We have climbing roses, which don't give a shit if the daisies completely surround them, oriental roses, which don't like anything growing within a half mile, and wild roses, which will crowd out the daisies all on their own. Then there is all the stuff under the Japanese maple that the cameras couldn't even see, the huge portion of the yard that is blocked from view by the enormous wisteria, and the fig tree and butterfly bushes that shade completely in the summer, and not at all in the winter.

The highest technology in my garden is the pump that drives the waterfall for the fish pond, and I fully intend to keep it that way. I work with technology all day, I go home and play in the dirt to get away from it. Want to test the soil humidity in your garden? Grab a handful of dirt in several different places. What else would an electronic monitor be able to measure? They can't tell if the maple tree is shading the rhododendron too much or if the daisies are infringing on the roses, and there aren't even many children that can tell the difference between a weed an a flower.

Rarely do I see a post that so well matches the username. Bravo!

In my more conspiracy-minded moments I sometimes wonder if the name choice wasn't deliberate, to make the public forget about the original Project Orion. There was no need to name this abortion 'Orion' when that name had already been used for an entirely different concept in manned space flight. This one should have been called Apollo Command Module Version 2, because that's pretty much all it is.

No, Africans south of the Sahara don't have any Neanderthal genes, nor do many (most?) Asian and American populations. Some Asian populations also have Denesovian genes, and another subset has genetic input from a hominid we can only refer to as "unknown" since we don't have any samples of its genetic makeup. The book 'Children Of The Ice Age' has quite a bit of interesting research about Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons. Did you know that population density was so low in ice-age Europe that a person would probably meet no more that 30-50 other people during their entire life? Inbreeding is much less of a threat than most people think.

The effect is only temporary, unless you're going to incarcerate them for life or execute all of them. They get out, they commit more crimes unless the cause is addressed first.

My own observations leads me to think that the people with low self-esteem or low self-confidence seem to like cocaine a lot. People without those particular issues don't enjoy it much if at all. I tried it a couple of times and decided it was a real waste of money, but it's really popular in the worlds of arts and politics, two places where people with some real personality issues tend to congregate.

not everything is for profit, sad life if it is.
 
I'm surprised the Libertarians didn't climb all over each other to crucify you for your heresy . . .

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**Off Topic**

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