Vultures! Also going extinct
Posted on: October 24, 2009 - 5:26am
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Vultures! Also going extinct
I don’t care about vultures.
Their “ecological job” can be done better by ants.
Here in South Africa they are almost extinct, mainly because they attack livestock to eat it.
It is, again, the survival of the one with guns and/or poison.
In time, sorry, no more vultures in South Africa.
Am I said about this?
No.
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Leave us a couple of fuzzy-britchered critters won't you?
Soon there'll be nothing but numbats.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
And the vultures say...
Who gives a shit about Julio, there are plenty of people who can do what he does much better. Let's swoop down and eat his ass!
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Yes, we have a pesponsibilty to protect all animals. Why? because they keep amazing us with what they can do. We can copy this and help ourselves.
Also, most humans eat far too much mean, we can survive and flourish on a much more vegetable heavy diet. Try it, its delicious!
Vultures in Africa may be in danger, but those in North America are doing quite fine. There is currently no danger of extinction.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Vegetables are what food eats.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
I see your platypus and raise you 1980's hair bands...
=
It is too late for most presently listed endangered species. The best solution to reduce future extinctions is world wide promotion of birth control.
Are more people needed on this planet?
As I pointed out in another thread, China and India comprise about 35% of the earth's population. They are at the industrialization stage of development and it will not take them long to reach the US's rate of consumption (as an aside this demonstrates that communism has failed miserably). Population of US 300 million. Population of China and India 2500 million; 8 times as many people!
List of endangered animal species - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_endangered_animal_species
There is little hope that most of these animals will survive.
People who think there is something they refer to as god don't ask enough questions.
No more people are needed on this planet. Truthfully, Earth would benefit quite nicely without the human species existing at all.
Population growth in communist China has indeed exploded. Yet the same thing has happened in India which is frequently referred to as the world's largest democracy. Both nations have exceeded the one billion mark. Both nations failed to check excessive population growth. Apparently it doesn't matter what form of government is in place if that respective government fails to enact effective policy.
Personally, I think it's my pesponsibility to eat as much mean as can be tolerated. And then turn the other cheek.
(Sorry. It's late. My resistance is low)
China and India have been more heavily populated than Europe and its settlements since long before communism was thought of. They are more populated because, basically, they had lower mortality rates than the west for centuries. There are many reasons why, for example.... China had more and more rich agriculture in the 15th and 16th centuries than anyone in Europe had ever even imagined before ~ and in later centuries when Europeans , influenced by the major religion of the time, were abandoning, disowning and emotionally castrating their children for the sake of "sexual morality" the Chinese and Indian people were minimising in order to squeeze larger extended families into their tiny quarters thereby they were culturally fostering the growing population rather than stiliting it ~ while the plague ravaged Europe, China was flourishing unaffected by the seemingly unstoppable spread of pestilence (this is said to be due to the cleaner, minimalist lifestyles that asia lived)...
So the hugely dense population of China is not a result of communist rule, it was already 500 million (40% larger than todays american population) before they declared themselves communist, besides the fact that comparing the population of China (thousands of years as a settled country) to the US (barely a few hundred years of settlement) is an embarrassing mistake.
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"Truthfully, Earth would benefit quite nicely without the human species existing at all."
Earth itself would not benefit or suffer if we were to go extinct. Some forms of life would, but then many others would suffer. There are plenty of life forms that have evolved along side us, that depend on us. We are as much a part of the ecosystem as anything else.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Urhm...you guys do know that Old World Vultures and New World Vultures are about as distantly related to each other as any two kinds of birds can be, right?
They are two different Orders under the Class Aves.
"I am an atheist, thank God." -Oriana Fallaci
Actually I didn't. I suspected there were differences, yes, but not so many as to be in a different order. That means you can disregard my first response.
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China currently has a lower rate of population growth than the US.
India is about twice the rate of the US, but half that of the faster growing countries, many of which are in Africa and the Middle East.
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"Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings." - Sam Harris
The path to Truth lies via careful study of reality, not the dreams of our fallible minds - me
From the sublime to the ridiculous: Science -> Philosophy -> Theology
in my english conversation class at the high school this year we did a lesson on christopher columbus, one of the biggest fucking pig bastards who ever lived and, unfortunately, my namesake.
at some point in the lesson i would introduce the devastation of the native americans by european diseases. at that point i always enjoyed astonishing my students by going on a 10-minute rant about how, compared with almost every other people group in the world at that time, the europeans were staggeringly filthy people, mentioning that there are even some animals who have enough sense to bury their waste. not europeans though. i loved talking about londoners just dumping their shit in the thames, not to mention emptying chamberpots into the streets below, sometimes on unwary passers-by. this of course built up over centuries until the cholera epidemic and the great stink in queen vicky's time.
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
Fortunately for all of us, those people were soon extinct.
Nice for the future of our species, I say.
Did we learn any lesson?
aybe.
the best thing to do is for people to go back to living a subsistence like caveman lifestyle, yes, people are fucking the world, but even if there was never a single baby ever born again, this world is still fucked. when people don't have McD''s and taco bells and pizza joints delivering, and they actually have to go out and do something, that is when things change. pure laziness is what has fucked this world. if everyone lived a homestead like lifestyle, imagine, 1870's Alaska......no electricity, no government, no plumbing.....no banking, no world government, no religions, no anything.
I have lived that way, you should try it some time. this society will never advance as long as it strives to move forward technologically. the industrial revolution is the worst thing that has ever happened to the earth and it's inhabitants.
to escape to with rainwater tanks and kitchen stove that heats water, wattle and daub construction built in 1829 - very early for this country (Aust). Under the iron roof are the wattle shingles of the original roof.
Under the shingles are termites standing on their hind legs. I love the idea of retreating to the sticks and doing simple country stuff all day long. You need good soil and a decent bit of ground for the job, though.
And water.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
We are harming Earth quite a bit. Since the dawn of human civilization, we've been going been going through one of the fastest mass extinctions in the history of the planet.
However, I don't think technology is necessarily bad for humans, specifically, at least in the way you are describing. We are living in greater comfort and prosperity than our species has ever known. If we could discipline ourselves to limit and control our use of natural resources and our output of waste and various pollutants, then the benefits of technology will greatly outweigh the bad; it's a wonderful tool. I suppose we could just live the way you're describing, but that seems so lame to me, like we're really selling ourselves short. I don't want our species to live on subsistence farming, in little family units, for the rest of our existence; I want to us to spread across the universe, harnessing the power of stars, creating wormholes, discovering other planets with intelligent life forms......
Our revels now are ended. These our actors, | As I foretold you, were all spirits, and | Are melted into air, into thin air; | And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, | The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, | The solemn temples, the great globe itself, - Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, | And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, | Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff | As dreams are made on, and our little life | Is rounded with a sleep. - Shakespeare
Indeed. Just sitting here waiting for a rock to wipe us out is hardly intelligent. If we don't leave Earth, nothing more than microscopic life will. And the billions of years of life struggling to survive on Earth will be lost and forgotten.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Not to be a pedantic prick (ok, to be a pedantic prick):
We are not harming the Earth. We are changing the ecosystem. It's "bad" that we are insomuch as we will be causing our species much hardship as a result.
Got to agree with that one. The dense population is due to people doing a lot of fucking without birth controls. Without birth controls, all political/economic systems will control their population through human misery.
Both the capitalist and communist systems are highly irrational and unsustainable. There is little correlation between consumption of natural resource, use of government services and cost to the consumers.
Eloise writes as she enjoys computer and Internet developed with American technology. As she enjoys transportation, electricity, medical care and food production largely developed with American and capitalist developed technology. So why aren't you living in a primitive commune without any "embarrassing" American/capitalist technology around?
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen
Japan has done more with computers than America has. Transportation came from Britain. Electricity is even more ancient. All an American did was prove lightning had it, but Arabs 400 years prior first came up with the idea. For the actual application, much of the world contributed to it, it was hardly American. Food production is so old that the nation or tribe that first came up with it has been forgotten. Canada has contributed more to medical science than the US has.
Out of all that, America can claim credit for the internet, and nothing more. And even that was inevitable thanks to the telegraph (France).
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
There is no point in even responding to you Vastet. Your view of the world and history is about as sane as the flat earth society. Entirely driven by hated instead of facts.
By any measure, the USA capitalist system has contributed more technological innovation and production than any other nation in history. Of course, part of it is having a larger population so perhaps Canada is close to the USA on a per capita basis for medical technology. But even in Canada, they were in large part driven by the profit motive or were funded by USA corporations.
You decry the capitalist system demand all the while demanding that every person have access to the benefits of it's technology. People will someday see how insane this view of the world really is.
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen
"There is no point in even responding to you Vastet. Your view of the world and history is about as sane as the flat earth society. Entirely driven by hated instead of facts."
Ridiculous. You're claiming credit for things your country hasn't done. You ignore logic and spouse capitalism as your unassailable religion. If anyone is like the flat earth society, it's you.
"By any measure, the USA capitalist system has contributed more technological innovation and production than any other nation in history."
Lies.
"Of course, part of it is having a larger population so perhaps Canada is close to the USA on a per capita basis for medical technology. But even in Canada, they were in large part driven by the profit motive or were funded by USA corporations."
Wrong again. It was the socialist aspect of the Canadian sytem which funded research in universities.
"You decry the capitalist system demand all the while demanding that every person have access to the benefits of it's technology. People will someday see "
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Your strawman yet again, for the thousandth time. Too bad you don't want to be rational about things other than deities.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Just to interject:
EXC, Eloise said comparing china's population to the US's is a mistake, not the US as a country.
Vastet, no, America can't take credit for the initial ideas behind those things, however it has had a significant impact on the development of many industries, and to belittle that is erroneous, IMO.
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"Vastet, no, America can't take credit for the initial ideas behind those things, however it has had a significant impact on the development of many industries, and to belittle that is erroneous, IMO."
I won't disagree with that. But to claim that the US is SOLEY responsible for all that is far more erroneous than to claim that they aren't.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
LMFAO!!
EXC, what are you playing at, now?
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Eloise actually does live in a quite primitive community without much technology, public transport or medical care. It's embarrassing.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
Apparently, that's what's going to happen sooner or later; and nobody will be able to stop it.
This planet is a bad dream of the "Forces".
So do I. Fucking Murrica.
Theism is why we can't have nice things.
I think, he just means to make a point about technology not being an evil tool - anymore than American capitalism being an evil institution.
Don't blame the tool for it's misuse.
Really, if you truely believe technology to blame for the plight of the earth, why not just do nothing. No innoculations against disease in developing nations, no transportation of food or medicine. No water treatment facilities. Nature will sort it all out eventually.
And by that I do not mean to give nature qualities of conciousness. nature is no more evil or benign than technology is. nature is indifferent.
You are like all other Canadians, you wish you were an American deep down.
Canada is a disgrace to the Northern Hemisphere. Americans have invented or imagined or patented every single great and influential technological, philosophical, medical, astronomical, and diabolical achievement in every single field and in every imaginable, purposeful, meaningful, beneficial, and therefore, purposeful, pursuit, that has ever had any significance to anyone concerned of such endeavors.
Canada is to the entire civilized world as Columbia is to South America, a disgraceful abomination and blight upon decency.
The only memorable thing I can remember a Canadian doing recently is "helping" an American shoot down the Red Baron in WW1. And killing a real American hero in 1932 in a disgraceful manhunt known as "The Saga of the Mad Trapper of Rat River". Canadians, as a whole, have deteriorated ever since.
Actually, I wish America were Canadian. Things would be quieter, troops would actually be able to hit their opponents instead of their allies, and everyone would have healthcare.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Then I would disable your car, your phone, internet, and the rest of your so-called life, and then announce to your parents and this forum that you had killed yourself by paddling your kayak out into Hudson Bay while whacked out on heroin.
Whatever happened after that wouldn't really matter, except maybe I would send all of Brians poetry out to thousands of publishers, your friends and family, and start a website with your ugly Canadian face on it claiming the poetry as your own. Then, you would really know why Americans are best.
Wow. And I thought Americans were under the impression we all lived in igloos. Now, apparently, we get free weed too.
And this makes us a blight on the earth - HOW?
Lol. How'd you get banned from Canada? I could always come and stalk you if you'd like. Far as I know I'm not banned from the US. Of course, I probably am, being a socialist and all. They'd probably deport me to Syria.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
I'm sure Ricthofen was shot down by Australian troops from the ground. Those yankees were just trying to get out of his way....
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
And who said anything about weed? everyone knows you are all on steroids and growth hormone.
It's all part of a sinister Canadian plot to get really big and kick some American ass.
"England, in turn, would destroy Canada and Australia in a war with their soccer fans alone, much less unleashing one of their "forces"."
A'hem. Any one of our hockey teams could take on all soccer players worlwide. Whiny little bitches. And still have enough left to take the white house. In fact, with NHL teams averaging at 70% Canadian players, we already have our advanced force in behind enemy lines. You'll never know what hit you, until you wake up in a penalty box.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Soccer players, yes.
Fans, i.e. Hooligans, no.
If you need evidence of this wear a West Ham jersey to a Millwall home game. Good luck.
How can not believing in something that is backed up with no empirical evidence be less scientific than believing in something that not only has no empirical evidence but actually goes against the laws of the universe and in many cases actually contradicts itself? - Ricky Gervais
But where are the endangered vultures in this interesting discussion, I wonder? Nobody cares about those birds anymore?... Weird.
The hockey fans are more than enough to take care of the soccer fans.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
I'm basing this on purely subjective reasoning, but it would be my understanding that the number of soccer fans >> the number of hockey fans lol
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Who else here thinks that Eloise is gorgeous? I love her drugged out cross-eyed look. she is hot. not quite as hot as gallowsbait, but definitely smoking. plus, she is Australian. anybody who has ever been around Australian guys knows why their women love American guys like me. Australians, Canadians, and english men are the most obnoxious, impotent, and effiminate wanna-be tough guys ever. There is nothing worse.