So the flu outbreak made me curious...

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engineeredout

Full Member
15+ Year Member
I spent about an hour at work today tooling around on wikipedia, jumping from page to page reading about the virus and mutations of the HA and NA proteins etc...


Does reading about this stuff make anyone else realize just how much smarter nature is than us?
 
We are nature, thus we aren't smarter than it or dumber than it...just another expendable cog.
 
My EK bio book is littered with arrows pointing to info about bacteria with "That's some Michael Crichton shiznit right there!" scribbled next to it.

I choose to view Andromeda Strain more like a prophecy than as science fiction.
 
We are nature, thus we aren't smarter than it or dumber than it...just another expendable cog.

That's deep

"I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together" - Beatles
 
I went to a catholic undergrad school and this nature being smart business seemed to be the professors favorite line...

Intelligent Design I believe..
 
I went to a catholic undergrad school and this nature being smart business seemed to be the professors favorite line...

Intelligent Design I believe..

Yeah no.

My EK bio book is littered with arrows pointing to info about bacteria with "That's some Michael Crichton shiznit right there!" scribbled next to it.

I choose to view Andromeda Strain more like a prophecy than as science fiction.

That movie rocks, one of my favorite scifis by far. I pretend the remake with Benjamin Bratt never actually happened, it just came from an alternate evil universe like the third matrix or The Mist.
 
When I look up at the stars and think about how big they are, yet how far they really are, I realize that I'm such a tiny, insignificant solid matter that would have no affect on the cosmos nor the time no matter how hard I try.
 
Ditto. I think Isaac Newton said it best--“I was like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." Definitely one of my all time favorite quotes.
 
When I look up at the stars and think about how big they are, yet how far they really are, I realize that I'm such a tiny, insignificant solid matter that would have no affect on the cosmos nor the time no matter how hard I try.

I think like that all the time. Then I think about whether or not the universe can be infinite or not. Then I give up.

Ditto. I think Isaac Newton said it best--"I was like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." Definitely one of my all time favorite quotes.

That's an amazing quote; love it. 😀

The swine flu is one amazing virus; part human, pig, and bird DNA. Damn nature, you crazy.

I hope this virus isn't the beginning of the Apocalypse! Lots of people are predicting the end of the world, including the Mayans, which originally came from...you got it, Mexico! (Conspiracy? 😕) Sucks for all of us in the Class of 2013.

Sorry, I'm hyper.
 
I went to a catholic undergrad school and this nature being smart business seemed to be the professors favorite line...

Intelligent Design I believe..


hahaha i agree with engineeredout - "whether or not god exists" is a question up in the air, but as far as scientific theories are concerned, i really don't think intelligent design should be mentioned at all... this video segment that NOVA did explains it better than i can: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-404729062613200911
 
When I look up at the stars and think about how big they are, yet how far they really are, I realize that I'm such a tiny, insignificant solid matter that would have no affect on the cosmos nor the time no matter how hard I try.

I think about that when looking at stars and when looking out over the ocean. It seems like it goes on forever and ever. Even though you know it stops it seems to infinite to wrap your mind around.
 
It's amazing how quickly a tree will take its shirt off for some mardi gras beads.

Reminds me of George Carlin:

George Carlin said:
This is a group of social criminals, these people in the space program. NAS(A)holes, I call them. In case you haven't heard, the latest disaster for the rest of the universe is that the United States is gonna go to Mars. Okay? Ah, yeah. We're gonna go to Mars. And then of course we're gonna colonize deep space. With our microwave hot dogs and plastic vomit, fake dog dung and cinnamon dental floss, lemon-scented toilet paper and sneakers with lights in the heels. And all these other impressive things we've done down here. But let me ask you this: what are we gonna tell the intergalactic council of ministers the first time one of our teenage mothers throws their newborn baby into a dumpster? How are we gonna explain that to the space people? How are we gonna let them know that our ambassador was only late for the meeting because his breakfast was cold and he had to spend half an hour punching his wife around the kitchen? And what are they gonna think when they find out, its just a local custom, that over 80 million women in the Third world have had their clitorises forcibly removed in order to reduce their sexual pleasure so they won't cheat on their husbands?

Can't you just sense how eager the rest of the universe is for us to show up?