The first one. We are as intelligent as we have been for the last few hundred thousand years, if not more so. But, as Nature is known for doing, other animals are catching up to us. Necessity breeds evolution, after all. If being able to gather more food with a better, manipulated stick (as the chimpanzees are doing) is more adaptive, then those that have the intelligence to do it will live long enough to pass on their intelligence to future generations.
Well, Chimps have been inventing quite a few new wooden tools in the past few decades, so they're probably at a kind of crossroads right now - will this new trend in intelligence for them continue, and allow them to adapt and survive a human-controlled world, or will they go extinct? It has been well-known for a while that many animals on earth (many great apes, mostly, but others like dolphins can point to signs or indicate them in another way) can learn sign language, and some (chimps in particular) even make up new words for previously unknown items (like a word for a food they have never had until then). Other animals are known to paint (sometimes) intelligible pictures, or pass simple IQ tests, or other feats which would give them at least some kind of higher-level intelligence. None are precisely equal to humans (yet), or believe me, you would be hearing about it, but some are startlingly close. And I, personally, am pinning my hopes on Chimpanzees to be the first non-human intelligence we meet (barring any outer-space discoveries, lol - I watch WAY too much Star Trek).
Maybe you should have. One of the biggest lessons that people need to learn about swearing is that doing it to the wrong people can have pretty severe (and painful) consequences. I learned that the hard way in high school - got beat up (not for the first time, but really badly) for insulting some football player or something. I never even saw his face. Just talked to him with my back turned. Ever since then, I've been careful about what I say and who I say it to.
In a way. I wouldn't count myself equal to, say... a bacterium, but to a chimpanzee... we're pretty damn close. It all depends on the intelligence of a creature. Now, granted, jsut because they are not as equal to us as a higher life form doesn't mean we can wipe them out. There is still the balance of nature to contend with. If we wiped out all bacteria that can cause illness, a great many creatures that may DEPEND on those bacteria would die, and the things that eat THEM would die, and on up the food chain. Just because they are not as sophisticated as us doesn't mean they are less important. It's just... I feel more of an affinity and equality with more intelligent (in the human sense of intelligence) animals.
Old... As... Schist. His early stuff was kind of fun, but if you look at the later stuff, especially ation sequences, they're all slo-mo or stunt doubles. Don't get me wrong - he's a good actor. He's just past his prime.
There are several animals that are incredibly close to human intelligence. I think that animals gaining intelligence in our lifetimes is more amazing than human beings who have had it for 6 million years. Besides, just look what we've done with our intelligence - poisoned water, acid rain, massive deforestation, hundreds of species going extinct on a daily basis, and more. There are some animals that can do simple math. Dolphins, chimpanzees, others that I can't remember at the moment. Tell me, when you were born, did you know how to do 2/12? No. You had to learn. With animals, even the incredibly smart ones, they learn in completely alien ways. They don't have the same priorities that we do.
Still spam IMO, because this has been addressed, either her or in another similar thread - the Bible is not a valid source of evidence, as it has no contemporary sources backing up what it has to say. There is not one record from the wedding that states that Jesus turned water into wine. We haven't found a single source documenting his resurrection. The cross wasn't even a horrific form of death back then - it was routine. People walking down well-used streets would sometimes see them LINED with crosses where criminals had been executed. No, the bible is definitely NOT a valid source.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-450467/Found-20-light-years-away-New-Earth.html 20 light years away. Maybe in 30-40 years, using some kind of antimatter engine (not light speed, or anywhere close, but maybe .5c, I hope), we could get there with some kind of generational ship (children born on ship, plants grown for food and air, etc) or cryo-ship (people put into suspended animation), both of which we are close to being able to do, we could get there in ~40 years. Boom. extra-solar colony within a century. I know, unlikely, the way politics keep shifting, and the planet may not support life, or even be able to, but it is a possibility.
I don't even understand why wearing makeup is considered ****ty in the first place, really. But then, I've never understood fashion at all. I never got my cell phone until I started driving, in my Junior/Senior year of high school. It was only to be used to talk with the family and only rarely could I use it to talk to friends ( only have one anyways, and I saw him often enough that I didn't have to call him). Now that I am at college, I use it a lot more, but only because I don't have a normal phone in my dorm room. I still don't have texting or any of that sh....tuff though. I would never use it anyways. IMO, if you want to talk to someone, you call them and talk voice-to-voice, or better yet, go talk right to their faces. I truly do not understand people who carry on text conversations. It's probably more expensive than calling them.
I would say that it's better for you to tell it, and control the spin, so to speak, than for someone else, particularly someone who hates you, to find out and spread the story. I personally have no prejudices against bi people (after all, you are still mentally capable of carrying on the race - the real reason for sex), and my best friend is, or says he is, bi (he's been going through a lot of phases recently, including emo, Wiccan, etc). If you really think it will get out, you should come out in the best way you can, so that others can't twist and manipulate the story as much.
Besides, I am willing to bet most of the teasing anyone will ever get in their lifetime is during high/middle school. Well, guess what? Most of the people in those grades who talk like that are trolls. If they were on the internet, we would call them trolls. They just want a reaction. If they aren't able to get what they want from you, they'll move off to someone else. And once they can no longer get their cheap giggles from anyone, they'll stop. Or they'll go super-hardcore-emo and slit their wrists from depression (prepares to be flamed) :D. So really, if everyone were able to block off words and ignore insults, there would be no more insults. Also, after some contemplation (and another shouting match with my mom - even over the phone, she can still get me), I do accept that extreme criticism and bad-mouthing from people we care about can hurt. But! in my mind, in order for it to have any effect, they actually have to care what they say. For instance, if you live with an abusive father who CLEARLY doesn't love you (not naming any names, just a generic example), you have no real right to be offended by anything he says, because he is no better than the trolls in school. (Actually, abusive parents - verbally or otherwise - need to go to prison, but that's beside the point.) The same applies if your dad (or mom, but this is more common in men) is drunk. Drunk people most of the time can't even control what comes out of their mouth. Therefore, everything hurtful they say is meaningless, too. However, if someone genuinely does care about you, then yes, if they say something hurtful, you can feel hurt. I must say, I have experienced this. My mother is really negative when it comes to my classwork. If I tell her that I get on a game, even for a few minutes, she gets mad at me and tells me that I won't get a job if I don't get the grades, and implies that any bad grades I get are the game's fault. Totally false, of course, and from anyone else, I would shrug it off, but from family, it's different. However, that is the only time I can ever be hurt by someone else, and that should apply to everyone. Wall of text over.
^This. It's really only the world religions (Christianity, Islam, etc) that claim to have a monopoly on the truth. Other tribal religions tend to be more secure in their beliefs and can even borrow the best parts of other religions (as seen in Mexico when the Spanish invaded - the natives, after a few decades, had blended their Aztec/Toltec/etc beliefs and European Christian beliefs.
Thank you. I forgot the Anthropic Principle. And it must be said, that the probability can even be .00000000000(x10,000)1. It WILL happen, if the universe persists for long enough.
As I said, the laws of physics break down in the Big Bang, including le laws of Entropy. And yes, things are steadily breaking down - getting more chaotic, if you will. Ever since the Big Bang, the universe has been slowly dying, but because of the vast time-scale involved, we can't see it. Yes, new stars and star systems are born, but in doing so, they use up more and more of the universe's raw material. Yes, we are in just the right position in our solar system to sustain our kind of life, but that is just a coincidence. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-450467/Found-20-light-years-away-New-Earth.html This planet is in basically our exact same situation, with an older star. It is in the habitable zone, may contain water, and, if it does, it may even contain life. Besides, not all life has to be carbon-based, oxygen-breathing, water-dependent, like ours. There could be silicon-based life, adapted to breathe cyanide, on another planet somewhere. Or space-based bacteria, adapted for the near-vacuum that is deep space - some even say that that is where Earth life came from (I doubt it, though). Not all planets have to have tides, either. Not all planets have to have moons, or water, or even air, and yet there may be life there. The universe does not have to be made by any supreme being. It could have just... come into existence. Here, I'll give you my personal theory: The universe is said to die in one of 3 ways - either it will continue to expand, and all the stars will die one by one, or it will reach a state of balance, and all the stars will die, or it will collapse in on itself, and condense into... something. Now, suppose, just suppose, that there was a universe before this one, and that that universe contracted when it died. What would it become? I think... the Big Bang. Now, where that one came from, I can't begin to guess. Maybe it operated on a different set of physical laws (quite likely). Maybe there was a God of that universe, but he is no longer active, or no longer ABLE to be active, in this one. Maybe the inhabitants of that universe were powerful and knowledgeable enough to be like Gods themselves. Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Whatever it was like, I think it gave birth, so to speak, to our own universe. Not a god, not anything supernatural, just the death of a former universe. I may be wrong, but it's what makes the most sense to me. Do you have millions of years to strike lightning into a bottle? Maybe what happened was a freak accident - lightning striking at just the right place, with just the right mix of chemicals, at just the right time. It took millions of years to happen. It's the same as the argument about an infinite number of monkeys eventually typing out Shakespeare's collected works - it'll happen, if you give it enough time. Unfortunately, we humans, as a result of our biological bodies, can't see more than a century ahead, at most. Most of us can't even see past our own lifetimes - hence the condition of the world today.
Actually, I was saying that IF there was a God, the only place he would be necessary would be at the Big Bang, since, to this date, we don't really know what caused it. I do not believe in any god whatsoever. I do not believe there is now, nor ever has been, nor ever will be a god.
What I meant about that was that the Big Bang is pretty much the only thing not yet explained by modern science, since all the natural laws seem to break down more the closer you get to it.
No, because 8 year olds can't reach the pedals of a car, and 9 year olds would die in childbirth. There are natural limitations on most things. And no, if anything, our youth are becoming less and less controllable, because the liberal government is taking away the means to control them. I mean, when I was growing up, if we got out of line, my mom took a wooden spoon to our backsides. When asked in class how many of us got physical punishment as kids, almost no one said yes. Now, it is almost a CRIME to spank your kids in public!
Good luck trying to find another country with the standard of living of the US. Seriously - the United States has the highest standard of living for the highest percentage of it's population in the world. We probably have the best-armed and best-trained military in the world (except for maybe Israel, with the continuous war there). We have so many advantages here, but all anyone hears about is the bad stuff because the liberal media hates America. Trust me, it's not as bad as they say.
Well, not when used properly, they're not, but when used on a whole other species, then yes, the results are extremely unpredictable.
"Society" also includes things like Television, the Internet, news media, and all those types of things. The way they all focus on an almost unattainable body figure and pounds of makeup "necessary" to look good, it's no surprise to me that these kids look like this. The parents are probably weak-willed and the kids threw tantrums until they got what they wanted. And yes, that would work. In one of my classes, the professor asked us if we were spanked as kids, and I was one of the about 5 kids who raised their hands. Most parents don't know HOW to discipline kids anymore, thus, the kids know that whining and begging work.
