Comment Re:Where did DNA evolve from? (Score 1) 1142
His best guess is The RNA World" From his book The Greatest Show on Earth.
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'Fossil rabbits in the Pre-Cambrian'
That is the quote he uses to answer the question in The God Delusion.
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I buy a box of bolts at the hardware store. They have no manufacturing defects, and no damage. They are still in the box. Are they functional?
Yes - If I take a nut and try to thread it on the bolt, it works, if I try to screw it into a hole, it works.
No - They are not currently holding any parts of any kind together, they don't form any part of any useful machine - they are not functional.
The ENCODE project is using the first definition. 80% of the DNA produces RNA, or has binding sites that bind to regulatory proteins, or some other function that can have a real impact on the cell. Whether or not the RNA is actually used, or if the regulatory sites actually regulate something, or if it actually has an effect on the cell was not considered - and is probably not known yet for most of that 80%.
Most people when they hear 'functional DNA' assume that it has an impact on the organism. The ENCODE project is working on a lower level, asking, 'Does this DNA do something on a molecular level?' not 'Does this DNA make a difference to the cell?'. That is of course the next question, but they are not there yet.
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Well said. I would only like to add that even the existence of a god or a 'true' religion would not change what you have said by much. Human nature is what it is, how human nature came to be doesn't change that.
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I live here in the western US too - you are not exaggerating the population density.
If you live in a place without any internet access, chances are that you have to drive farther to get to the school than you do to find internet access. And if you live there, it is because you chose to live away from society and wanted to be away from more than just the internet.
If you actually have a farm, ranch or other good reason to be there, then according to the map, the internet is already there for you. The only other reason to be out there is some kind of job, forest ranger or mining covers most of the job possibilities, and the company you work for would almost certainly have brought internet access to their location. (they need it too, and can afford it)
That said - too many of the black spots on that map follow straight borders and the like. Radio coverage does not do that, the map is not very accurate.
I am old enough that my first real internet access came when I got to college. I don't buy the 'drop a letter grade' bit. The internet is great (unparallelled?) for those who want to learn. For most people - learning resources on the internet are like cake decorating supplies for
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That spot happens to be an indian reservation - very poor people and possibly some weird legal reasons why they can't put coverage there. It is one of the few big black spots on the map that deserves coverage though.
Take for example that small black spot just south of the wyoming border in Utah (bottom of the 'notch' in the state map) That is the High Unitas Wildernes area. Backpackers and forest rangers only. - there are few roads, and no houses or farms, let alone cell phone towers.
How about that black spot just west of the great salt lake? Salt flats Those poor poor tourists and travelers that have to wait a few hours for their high-speed wireless internet access as they gawk at the barren desert, get back in their cars and drive on. (nobody lives there)
That map actually does a pretty good job of showing the most worthless parts of the US. (Oh, and national forests! places people aren't allowed to go live.)
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Ummm, point me to where Japan has defaulted on it's government debt in the last decade or two.
The context of this discussion was government debt, and a default of the debt was what I was referring to as a 'crash and burn'. (it is over 200% of GDP, and their deficit is about 50% of the budget. Greece isn't that bad off even now. Default will be a big crash)
Perhaps I was not clear enough on just what I meant...
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Two things are true, the majority of debt is held domestically.
This isn't really true anymore. U.S. debt is about a 50/50 split these days domestic/foreign. And that is worrying, as it makes the situation much more unstable - Japan has a much bigger debt/GDP ratio than just about anyone, but most of their debt has been domestically owned, and that is a large part of why they haven't crashed and burned yet.
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Clumsy fools with table saws are short digits, not limbs.
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An 80 year old grandmother takes two of her grandchildren (ages 4 and 6) for a walk in the park. They are the only ones in the park. What is the average age of the people in the park? And is there anyone in the park within 20 years of that average age?
The low expected lifespans in previous years was due mostly to the fact that half of all children died before they reached 15 or so. The adults lived almost as long as we do on average. Very few people died in their 30's and 40's. Please re-think your conclusions in light of these facts.
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Even a cursory google search of 'percentage belief in evolution' and 'percentage christian in united states' makes it clear that you are also pulling 'It's just that the idiots are the ones that shout the loudest.' out of you ass as well. The idiots may well be the loud ones, but they hold with the majority opinion among christians at least.
You should practice some of that science you appear to advocate here, and learn a bit about the world, and the people in it. It has been my experience that this takes some intentional seeking out of information, not a casual 'I read sometimes' practice.
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Beware of Programmers who carry screwdrivers. -- Leonard Brandwein
