The 6th Mass Extinction

[Stones of granite]

When that was made, about 5 years ago, the oil price was about $110/barrel. This morning it was $55/barrel. What does that tell you?

[morepork]

Unsubstantiated anecdote will always substitute for up to date objective observation?

[rowan]

That horse study was published in 2013.

Updated February 22, 2017

[morepork]

BY updated, do you mean the press release or is there another article? I can only see the link to the 2013 Nature paper.

[Vengeful Glutton]

When that was made, about 5 years ago, the oil price was about $110/barrel. This morning it was $55/barrel. What does that tell you?

That the price per bbl varies?

It'll go up again.

[Vengeful Glutton]

Unsubstantiated anecdote will always substitute for up to date objective observation?

Over 1500 posts of unsubstantiated anecdote tells me I'm in good company.

[rowan]

Unsubstantiated anecdote will always substitute for up to date objective observation?

Over 1500 posts of unsubstantiated anecdote tells me I'm in good company.

Indeed

[Vengeful Glutton]

Is yer wan Granite working in the oil industry lads?

[morepork]

Unsubstantiated anecdote will always substitute for up to date objective observation?

Over 1500 posts of unsubstantiated anecdote tells me I'm in good company.

Yes. Posts are the bedrock of empirical evidence.

[Stones of granite]

Is yer wan Granite working in the oil industry lads?

Still. Just.

[Stones of granite]

When that was made, about 5 years ago, the oil price was about $110/barrel. This morning it was $55/barrel. What does that tell you?

That the price per bbl varies?

Indeed. So, why isn't it $220/bbl or more if peak oil was reached in 2012?

It'll go up again.

That's the general belief, and it has been recovering gradually, however, stockpiles are not diminishing and the OPEC deal to cut production is not making much in the way of inroads.

The simplistic model presented in the documentary is broken. There is a new reality in oil.

[Vengeful Glutton]

When that was made, about 5 years ago, the oil price was about $110/barrel. This morning it was $55/barrel. What does that tell you?

That the price per bbl varies?

Indeed. So, why isn't it $220/bbl or more if peak oil was reached in 2012?

It'll go up again.

That's the general belief, and it has been recovering gradually, however, stockpiles are not diminishing and the OPEC deal to cut production is not making much in the way of inroads.

The simplistic model presented in the documentary is broken. There is a new reality in oil.

And your simplistic model "prices are going down, but they'll recover, hurrah!" is compelling evidence that stockpiles aren't diminishing?

You do understand that war and politics can affect oil prices?

I believe there's a war going on in the ME at the moment, involving a few major oil producing nations.

[Vengeful Glutton]

Is yer wan Granite working in the oil industry lads?

Still. Just.

You should be sacked.

[Stones of granite]

That the price per bbl varies?

Indeed. So, why isn't it $220/bbl or more if peak oil was reached in 2012?

It'll go up again.

That's the general belief, and it has been recovering gradually, however, stockpiles are not diminishing and the OPEC deal to cut production is not making much in the way of inroads.

The simplistic model presented in the documentary is broken. There is a new reality in oil.

And your simplistic model "prices are going down, but they'll recover, hurrah!" is compelling evidence that stockpiles aren't diminishing?

You do understand that war and politics can affect oil prices?

I believe there's a war going on in the ME at the moment, involving a few major oil producing nations.

If you're going to simply make things up, then we have no basis for a discussion.

There are far more things than simply war and politics that affect oil prices, and I'm sure you'll correct me if I'm wrong here, but there have been wars in the ME for quite a long time now, covering periods of both high and low oil prices.

[Stones of granite]

Is yer wan Granite working in the oil industry lads?

Still. Just.

You should be sacked.

You're not the first to say this, but hey ho, I still have a job. Today anyway.

[kk67]

Giant Turtles and Aurocs would be the way to go for the meat industry.
The former may take forever to mature; but they can do it off by themselves out in the sea; and just collect them when they come to land for breeding.
Aurocs would just replace cow.

The giant tortoise was supposed to be the most delicious meat ever know to man.
So delicious was it's flesh, that according to QI, it took 300 years for the botanical community to give them a scientific name. This was entirely on account of all the samples being eaten on board the vessels returning them to the natural history museum.


Well worth a watch if you've never seen it.

[rowan]

Wonder how a Neanderthal rugby team would stack up . . .

The scientific world was set ablaze of late as discussions ramped up about the resurrection of the wholly mammoth. I know what you’re thinking: Jurassic Park. Well, not quite — but maybe not that far off, either. In an interview with Big Think, Dr. Michio Kaku, professor of theoretical physics at the City College of New York, wonders: what if we could clone the Neanderthal, or a dinosaur, based solely off their genomes?

It is a plausible question. George Church, geneticist and director of Harvard University’s Church Labs, believes that we can clone a Neanderthal in our lifetime. So much so that he thinks all we need is “one extremely adventurous human female.” While he doesn’t advocate for the project to be attempted straight away, he does encourage discussion on the matter. Church believes that with current stem cell technology and our completed sequence of the Neanderthal genome, we are equipped with the potential to clone a Neanderthal.

The Neanderthals went extinct tens of thousands of years ago, so cloning one from recovered DNA would be impressive enough of a feat — but what about something from 65 million years ago? Dr. Kaku addresses this, admitting that cloning a dinosaur won’t be as easy as cloning a Neanderthal or a mammoth (which wouldn’t very “easy” to begin with) — but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

Dr. Kaku notes that proteins found within the soft tissues of recovered dinosaur femurs resemble those of chickens, frogs, and reptiles — confirm the theory of their relation. He posits that through the use of a supercomputer, a genetic sequence could be produced, which would create theoretical potential for cloning through epigenetics.

When it comes to cloning mammoths or dinosaurs, the limitations are mostly technical at this point. With Neanderthals, however, there’s an addition element: ethics. Dr. Kaku asks important questions about what scientists would do after bringing a Neanderthal child to life: Should he or she be placed in captivity like some kind of zoo animal? Would they face a lifetime of study? What if the Neanderthal is naturally aggressive — should it be drugged or confined at all times? Many bioethicists debate the ethics of de-extinction, but there are also those that tout genetic diversity. Others believe the act is far too inhumane to even attempt.

Listen to Dr. Kaku’s argument below and decide where you stand on the should-we-or-shouldn’t-we of prehistoric cloning.

https://futurism.com/forget-mammoths-we ... k-to-life/

[WaspInWales]

Would have to expand the 6Ns if that happened!

[morepork]

You'd need a wholly intact Neanderthal nucleus to transfer into an enucleated fertilized human egg. That's the easy bit. You would make Embryonic stem cell clones of any viable manipulations and sequence their genomes in their entirety to confirm they are intact. It would be nigh impossible to confirm the accuracy of this sample as it is generated from a single sample, so there is no way to compare polymorphisms across a population. The resultant clones would almost certainly be a train smash. Even if one did survive, you know what they say about inbreeding.....evolutionary dead end. Attempting to revive a species from a single sample genome. No way Jack.

Dunno how many individual mammoth genomes/intact nuclei from individual animals.

[morepork]

You'd need a wholly intact Neanderthal nucleus to transfer into an enucleated fertilized human egg. That's the easy bit. You would make Embryonic stem cell clones of any viable manipulations and sequence their genomes in their entirety to confirm they are intact. It would be nigh impossible to confirm the accuracy of this sample as it is generated from a single individual, so there is no way to compare polymorphisms across a population. The resultant clones would almost certainly be a train smash. Even if one did survive, you know what they say about inbreeding.....evolutionary dead end. Attempting to revive a species from a single sample genome. No way Jack.

Dunno how many individual mammoth genomes/intact nuclei from individual animals.

[rowan]

Would have to expand the 6Ns if that happened!

Shorter and stockier than Sapiens. Looks like they'd make good scrummagers but could struggle in the lineout as well as out wide in terms of pace. I don't think we'll be seeing a team of Neanderthals winning the Rugby World Cup any time in the future somehow...

[WaspInWales]

Would have to expand the 6Ns if that happened!

Shorter and stockier than Sapiens. Looks like they'd make good scrummagers but could struggle in the lineout as well as out wide in terms of pace. I don't think we'll be seeing a team of Neanderthals winning the Rugby World Cup any time in the future somehow...

I think the lack of height can be negated with the use of spears.

Any mention of spears in the laws? Could well be a loophole to exploit. If Eddie didn't like ruck-gate (sorry Mike), I can't wait to see how he responds to players being taken out with primitive weapons.

[rowan]

Would have to expand the 6Ns if that happened!

Shorter and stockier than Sapiens. Looks like they'd make good scrummagers but could struggle in the lineout as well as out wide in terms of pace. I don't think we'll be seeing a team of Neanderthals winning the Rugby World Cup any time in the future somehow...

I think the lack of height can be negated with the use of spears.

Any mention of spears in the laws? Could well be a loophole to exploit. If Eddie didn't like ruck-gate (sorry Mike), I can't wait to see how he responds to players being taken out with primitive weapons.

Most accounts I've read suggest Sapiens eventually defeated Neanderthals precisely because of our superior tactics and weaponry, developed as big game hunters (v. small game hunters). We were on the back foot for a very long time - thousands of years, in fact - but eventually gained the upper hand with our more advanced team-work, and bigger clubs and spears, and finished them off about 30,000 years ago (with a little hybridization along the way).

[rowan]

Neanderthals actually look well-suited to league, where they wouldn't need to worry about lineouts either. I mean, lower cranium, larger bowbridge, flat noses and short necks - those guys would slot right into the NRL. No one would know the difference!

[Which Tyler]

The giant tortoise was supposed to be the most delicious meat ever know to man.
So delicious was it's flesh, that according to QI, it took 300 years for the botanical community to give them a scientific name. This was entirely on account of all the samples being eaten on board the vessels returning them to the natural history museum.

That's what I was thinking of when I named them - with the benefit of them looking after themselves as a food source, then predictably bringing themselves in for slaughter.