The end of a myth

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

**Deleted, because I felt as though I was being crucified over and over again. Wasn't anything important, anyway**

[BassFish....]

Didn't the Tsunami speed up the earth's spinning by a very slight ammount and knock it off rotation by a very slight ammount?

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

That too, I think. Well, the world sure ain't what it used to be.

[BassFish....]

No it isn't

[DragonRose]

1. The theory that dinosaurs evolved into birds for years. This is not news. I remember learning about it when I was in grade one.

2. Tyrannosaurus Rex doesn't mean "King of Tyrans." It means that it is the greatest (King) of the Tyrannosauridae (Tyrant lizards, so called because they were predator dinosaurs, with much larger teeth than other dinosaurs)

3. Continental shift has always been happening. It never stopped.  This is what earthquakes, and therfore tsunamis, are.

4. The earth is NOT completely round, even with the tsunami. It is more round, yes, but it's not a ball.

Mr. Fisherman, however, is correct. The earth's rotation has sped up. Days are now 2.68 microseconds shorter! Oh noes! I must get a new watch.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

1 - It was news to me. I only knew it today, on account of it actually being proven and not theory anymore.

2 - Oh. Funny. I guess I either learned that wrong or was taught it wrong.

3 - I had than impression, but then was told otherwise...

4 - ...again, I was told otherwise...

...bleh to unproven communication. So, do I get the FOREGO award for the thread with most redundancies/flat-out-non-truths?

<sigh> I just don't have what it takes to be a thread starter, I guess. :

[MrColossal]

please post the reference where it was proven that dinosaurs evolved into birds.

and isn't it kind of silly to believe that the earth is completely round? as Scotch said: "It doesn't seem completely round to me, I still live on a hill."

And I live in a valley.

Who told you this stuff and why did you believe them?

[Las Naranjas]

So a wave that was caused by continental drift has wiped out the mountains and hills etc. to allow continental drift. I kapeesh

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Post the reference? I heard it on the news just about 2 hours ago.

Well, no, it doesn't seem all that silly... not to me, at least, who have only the barest idea of how a tsunami can/will affect the earth.

A friend told me, and she saw it somewhere. I know this doesn't sound too reliable, but I'm gullible. And the friends I keep usually tell me correct things. Or at least things they themselves think to be correct.

Las Naranjas - heh, ok, let's not flog the dead horse. I actually assumed by the way my friend had phrased it that the continental drift had stopped. My bad. Maybe she only meant it would now speed up.

EDIT - "Flog the dead horse"? Does that expression even exist, or am I high without even knowing it?

[Esseb]

I saw a documentary on TV about killer cars when I was 12. Apparently Henry Ford's demonical twin brother invented an engine part that causes cars to go rampant every now and then. Engineers apparenly can't figure out what the part does, but without it the engines won't run.

Yeah.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Ok, ok, I'm gullible. But this was on the news, yes? At least the part about it being proved, which is the only part related to TV, so I assume that was what you meant. I only saw this two hours ago and haven't even thought of double checking it anywhere. Plus, there's an exposition here in Lisbon which goes into further depth, WITH information about the newfound link between dinosaurs and birds.

I'm gullible, but not enough to start a thread like this if I hadn't heard it from a reliable source. Well, at least part of it. Ok, so some of the things I say are not reliable... but the thing which made me start the thread was, I felt, reliable.

I mean, come on - it was on the news. And people who knew about it, specialists, talked about the newfound proof. I know there are places where even rumours go on the news, but that hardly happens in here. And when it does, it's big rumours, rumours that actually classify as "gossip". I don't think people would gossip about this.

[Esseb]

A few years ago they found the missing link between birds and dinosaurs. Many news programs, newspapers and palaeontologists reported it as true. Turned out a Chinese farmer had glued together various pieces of a skeleton.

Yeah.

Edit: Info here.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Heh. Ok. I give up.

BTW, if I may change the subject just a little - that thread awhile ago about Tortuga having disappeared under the water? What DID happen? Because this forum and the links it provided was the only place where that sort of thing was referenced.


EDIT RE ROUNDNESS - But I never said it was a flat BALL. Jesus, only now I understood what you meant. No, of course hills and valleys are still there! I only meant that it was no longer flat at the poles! Which it apparently still is, though, slightly, which renders the whole thing pointless anyway.

[Unilin]

It was not prooven.  Except for mathmatics, nothing is ever prooven, everything is just a theory.  Theories with more or less supporting evidence, perhaps.  Gravity, for instance, just a theory.  LGM having no taste or class, just a theory.  Me being awesome, perhaps the most supported theory of our time, but still a theory.

[LGM]

I was going to comment with something snide, disproving the whole evolution bit..

But.. Everyone did it for me. So.. uhh.. SO THERE!

[edit]
And yes, Unilin. About that theory on me:

It IS just a theory; YOUR theory. It's not a very good one at that, as you know only my onine persona. You know nothing of my hobbies, my interests, my goals, and my aspirations. You assume the worst in me for reasons unkown. I hope you get some kick out of this, otherwise there is no method to your cruelty.

Get off your pedestal and find someone else to pester.

[DragonRose]

Actually, Mssrs Collosal and Naranjas, the earth IS rounder. The circumphrence of the earth around the equator is greater than the circumphrence around the poles. It IS slightly more equal now, though we obviously still have mountains, valleys, gorges, foothills, and other terrain.

I  give you proof!

[Esseb]

Neither of them denied it was any rounder though.

[Blackthorne]

And yes, Unilin. About that theory on me:

It IS just a theory; YOUR theory. It's not a very good one at that, as you know only my onine persona. You know nothing of my hobbies, my interests, my goals, and my aspirations. You assume the worst in me for reasons unkown. I hope you get some kick out of this, otherwise there is no method to your cruelty.

Get off your pedestal and find someone else to pester.

Bt

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

I should shut up now, but something else occurred to me, and it IS a slight change in direction, though not necessarily off-topic, so here I go.

Esseb, you have given the hoax example. Ok. But it was news. And it was accepted as news, yes? It was fundamentally a hoax, but it was news. People learned about it, and for a while it was truth.

Here's what I mean - you can't give such an example to discredit another example. You can't bring up examples of fabrications or mis-information to make a point which is, basically, "that doesn't mean it's truth". Because we don't know, and we even rely on these methods of communication TO know.

Let's put it this way - imagine that no one really knew about Siamese twins. Imagine that such twins were born in Portugal, and that the news quickly spread - more quickly in Portugal because it had happened here (not the case in the whole dinosaur business, of course, but this is just an example). I can just picture you posting something about a previous hoax and photo doctoring and whatnot and ending your post with "Yeah".

See what I mean? We accept the news as news. Or we don't. But that doesn't make them true or untrue, and more often than not we accept them into our "pit" of knowledge. The ones we don't are things we've seen faked before... but it's like, some things DO happen, and the fact that there have been hoaxes won't stop them from happening - and disbelieving from the word go on such evidence won't always be exact.

EDIT - A better example might be that Tortuga issue. It's still there, thank God, but for awhile everybody in this forum who had read that thread had thought it wasn't. ANd the key word in the source article, titled "Haití teme que la tormenta 'Jeanne' haya provocado la desaparición de la isla La Tortuga", is "teme" - fears. Haiti FEARS that the Hurrican Jeanne, blahblahblah. It's not conclusive. Couldn't be double-checked. But people still assimilated it as the truth, though it turned out not to be the case.

Really, my post - or any point which starts out with mis-information - was not at all different from that one in the most important point - it was simply based on untrue info. I tried to start a thread which I thought was interesting, about this recent issue that was on my mind. DragonRose enumerated my flaws in reasoning, and Mr Colossal was a bit more direct and blunt... and you used sarcasm. I can't help but feel that everyone who read the post while it was still up there really disliked it for some reason, and posted against it, even after I had (indirectly) apologized for my gullibility...

...then again, I might be paranoid because it's an hour past my bedtime. I'll sleep and think about this in the morning.

EDIT AGAIN - But before I go - this is by no means an "attack" or anything towards you, or Mr Colossal, or DragonRose. I WANT my mistakes pointed out. But, so many times needlessly pointing out the same mistake and culminating in sarcasm, which is always annoying in the receiver end... it's overkill, mon.

[Dart]

...bleh to unproven communication. So, do I get the FOREGO award for the thread with most redundancies/flat-out-non-truths?

Oh, that can be arranged. Oh yes, it can.

* Dart starts to cackle, then realizes that she should be working with her butler on the awards instead of maniacally laughing

Curses. Looks like I'll have to stop procrastinating.