<Knew Jon Boy would be the one to point out the apostrophe.>
Posted by Megan (Member # 5290) on :
I considered it, Pops. Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
As did I. But JB is physically incapable of resisting. Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :
Exactly. I had considered it, too, but, well, like mph said.
Posted by Megan (Member # 5290) on :
Physically incapable of resisting posting about a bad apostrophe? Now, that has to be painful.
Posted by El JT de Spang (Member # 7742) on :
I was trying to think of a witty way to bring it to light.
Posted by Snarky (Member # 4406) on :
I'm not physically incapable! I resisted pointing out the misspelling of "wondrous" in Taalcon's thread title, didn't I?
Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :
Um, no.
Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :
I think the whole Hatrack populous noticed it.
Posted by Billy Joel (Member # 5357) on :
I didn't. But then again, I didn't even know what thread you were talking about.
Posted by Snarky (Member # 4406) on :
Um, this one.
And the whole populace of my cubicle noticed afr's misspelling. Posted by El JT de Spang (Member # 7742) on :
Well, then, allow me to jump in and say "I think you mean 'populace'".
Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :
*Acts shocked*
Posted by Snarky (Member # 4406) on :
Ha! Too slow, Mr. British-style Punctuation Guy.
Posted by El JT de Spang (Member # 7742) on :
Simultaneous spelling corrections.
Jinx!
Posted by Thong-Myster (Member # 8495) on :
HEY! This thread was meant to be a place for people to discuss their love for Dinosaurs! A sanctuary if you like.
Posted by Thong-Myster (Member # 8495) on :
HEY! This thread was meant to be a place for people to discuss their love for Dinosaurs! A sanctuary if you like.
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
There's a glitch in the bot.
Posted by Thong-Myster (Member # 8495) on :
GO T-REX! WHOOO!
Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :
Our Science Museum has a huge robotic T-rex skeleton in the lobby you can play with. It's fun making it roar.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
If you ever have a gathering up there we are *so* heading to the Science Museum.
What can you make it do other than roar?
Posted by Thong-Myster (Member # 8495) on :
I'm sure I could make it groan with pleasure...
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
ewww...
Posted by Thong-Myster (Member # 8495) on :
BY tickleing it!
Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :
You can make it whip its tail back and forth, rear up, move its arms. . . um, turn its head back and forth. I don't remember what else, but there are lots of buttons. And there's a little recorded lecture going as you're playing with it.
And you're welcome any time, Jake. I don't know about an official gathering, I think I've met my organizing quota for this year between the wedding, the henna party, and helping corral people for the Madison thing. But I was kinda thinking about 4th of July weekend next year, for the raspberry harvest.
Added: In the summer, the Science Museum also as a mini-golf course where each hole demonstrates a different scientific principle. I haven't played it yet, so I don't know how neat it is, but it sounds like a cool idea. Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
You know ElJay, I may take you up on that one of these days. That sounds like all sorts of fun. And if I don't get to it this year, a raspberry harvest gathering sounds great.
Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :
Nifty. It could still be at least a mini-gathering. . . I've got six Hatrack members in my family, after all. Posted by beverly (Member # 6246) on :
I wish I had six Hatrackers in my family. Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :
Sure you do. So anytime you do anything embarassing the first thing said is "I'm so going to post about this."
Posted by Goody Scrivener (Member # 6742) on :
Da dee da da da Da dee da da da Da dee da da da NOT THE MAMA!!! {thwap}
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
I once wrote a limerick about the Dadaist Movement:
Da da da da da da da da Da da da da da da da da. Da da da da da, Da da da da da, Da da da da da da da da!
Posted by Enigmatic (Member # 7785) on :
quote:Originally posted by ElJay: Sure you do. So anytime you do anything embarassing the first thing said is "I'm so going to post about this."
ElJay yelps if you poke her in the ribs unexpectedly. Really highly-pitched.
I'm just sayin'.
--Enigmatic
Posted by beverly (Member # 6246) on :
Heh. Fortunately, I don't live near most of my family.
It actually would be a really cool way to stay in touch.
Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :
And after I restrainted myself yesterday from posting the story about how Enigmatic was weened, too. Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
The weaning thread is still there.
I'm just sayin'.
Posted by Thong-Myster (Member # 8495) on :
TALK OF DINOSAURS!
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
At what age do you think it's inappropriate for a child to still be nursing? I mean, I realize that there is some variation based on the child, and that it isn't exactly a one-size-fits-all type of question, but there has to be an upper limit. I knew a woman once whose 8 year old son still nursed on a fairly regular basis, and my gut reaction was "Ew."
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
My opninion, and I realize this is completely culturally based, but if the child is old enough to ask for it by name, he's too old to get it.
(Heh. In a freudian slip, I first typed that out "ge tit".)
Posted by Jim-Me (Member # 6426) on :
Worldwide average weaning age is ridiculously late compared to America... something like seven...
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
It would be interresting to see that broken down by country.
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
It would be.
I know that in Brazil they nurse much later than here in the States.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
This is the best data I've been able to google on weaning ages. Not the cross cultural data I was looking for, but interesting nonetheless.
Posted by beverly (Member # 6246) on :
True for the Philippines as well. I don't think 7 is the average, but it isn't uncommon for it to go on that long.
And a lot of these women have a lot of children. I wonder if such a mother tends to nurse several of varying ages, or if only the youngest gets the extended nursing time?
Posted by Jay (Member # 5786) on :
Go Raptor's
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Most of the way down the page, this site provides a table with the following data:
quote: Ancient Egypt 3 years Early 1900s China and Japan 4-5 years 1940s Burma 3-4 years 1950s Kenya up to 5 years 1950s Siniono (Bolivia) 3-5 years 1950s Inuit around 7 years Chimps/gorillas 5-6 years
There isn't a clear indication of where this data came from, though, so there's no good way to judge its accuracy.
Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
My cat Mouse was still nursing her kittens when they were larger than she was, though she started weaning them earlier. She wanted them to stop long before they finally did, I think. They were nearly a year old and fully grown when I remember them waiting until she was deeply asleep and couldn't defend herself to gang up on her and nurse her.
So judging by that, the right age seems to be when mom can't take it any more and makes it stop. Children can be such little terrorists. Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
'Cuz if it's right for felines, it's right for us. Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
Oh, and science museums are so cool! One of the neatest things I've ever seen was in our science museum years ago. It was a triangle made of 3 mirrors edge to edge and you stood in the center of them. The reflections in various orientations went off to infinity in all directions. An infinite hexagonal array. I would love to see that again. I wonder why they don't bring it back from time to time. You had to crawl up underneath it to get inside but none of us kids worried about that. Maybe the grownups were reluctant to crawl underneath, or something, and they felt left out. Poor grownups! They miss so much that's fun.
And dinosaurs are really cool too! I love them! I went through a dinosaur phase like most kids, but mine happened sort of late. I was in my late 20s. But I still have scale replicas of a bunch of dinosaurs. I loved velociraptors long before (the misnamed) Jurassic Park came out, but was glad to finally see them get the stardom they deserved. They were seriously severely cool! Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
quote:Originally posted by mr_porteiro_head: 'Cuz if it's right for felines, it's right for us.
Oh absolutely! We're close cousins, after all! Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
Maybe my wife will give birth to a litter of six kids and grow a few more breasts then.
Posted by Beren One Hand (Member # 3403) on :
"A couple of extra ones in the back for dancing." Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
That would be so cool! When we colonize space, we could do that! We'd probably want to have many of the child care tasks automated by then. Maybe a robonannie for changing, feeding, and rocking with mom or dad in the control center like Ender, giving overall direction and zooming in to take control of individual situations as needed. For education we could have those books like in The Diamond Age, with Mom and Dad being able to step in at any point to guide and direct the program.
If we do that, we could handle litters of six or eight kids maybe twice a year for 20 years. How many does that make?
Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
<does math> 240 - 320 kids. Still far short of a million, sadly.
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
But at the end of those 20 years, the first kids would be reproducing themselves. Exponential growth!
Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
Yup, good thing space is big. Posted by Jim-Me (Member # 6426) on :
you named your cat "mouse?"
twisted... Posted by Thong-Myster (Member # 8495) on :
Sigh. You people are a lost cause.
Posted by Enigmatic (Member # 7785) on :
quote:Originally posted by Thong-Myster: Sigh. You people are a lost cause.
Because your topic was soooooooooo interesting on its own to begin with. Wait a minute... How sure are you that you aren't Bean Counter? *eyes suspiciously*
--Enigmatic
Posted by Thong-Myster (Member # 8495) on :
Whos been counter?
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
You know, it would be interesting to see the ways that we will adapt ourselves to make the colonization of extraplanetary habitats and alien worlds--xenoforming ourselves rather than terraforming the environments (or more likely in conjunction with terraforming the environments). Not that the idea of adapting human physiology and psychology to an alien environment is terribly original, but still, the idea of making ourselves into aliens is intriguing.
Posted by UncleBunky (Member # 8350) on :
What if some humans started combining with dinosaurs. Like women! And then they were really big and they could do bad things to men.
And then they take over the world so everything is their size...like toilet bowls, and guys would have to stand on the edge of a huge hole to take a leak and could fall in.
And if someone fell in what if a woman sat down and took a huge crap on him!?
Posted by Enigmatic (Member # 7785) on :
Noeman, some of that kind of idea is touched on in Stephen Hamiliton's Fallen Dragon. One of the human-colonized planets is full of people who fled earth to pursue genetic-level body modification on a scale which had been banned. They're very alien. Whoa, don't read the reviews on that Amazon page. The "editorial review" completely spoils the ending of the book! (at least in terms of the main character)
--Enigmatic
Posted by Thong-Myster (Member # 8495) on :
He dies?
Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
It might be kind of neat to have a space-adapted body with enormous wings for solar-sailing. Then we could live freely in the inner parts of any solar system. We'd have to space-adapt food species too, of course, so there would be whole ecosystems in space. Whoa, sort of like Niven's "Integral Trees", in fact.
Seems like the largest scale engineering is always bio-engineering. For instance, life terraformed the Earth long ago, before humans existed. If we start doing that intentionally, then we could design life that, for instance, builds ringworlds or Dyson spheres around other stars for us to live on. Of course, life always evolves to have its own agenda. So it may be that we ought to take a more respectful and delicate view of such things. When we do stuff like that we are on our way to becoming gods, and it behooves gods not to make colossal mistakes in their work. Nothing is more horrible than ignorant clumsy gods with good intentions. Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
... unless maybe it's ignorant clumsy gods with bad intentions. Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
If there are gods with bad intentions out there, I think I'd prefer them to be ignorant and clumsy. Because worse than either of your two options is a competent malevolent god. Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
true!
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
There is a short story (well, more of a novella really) that I read a few years back in one of Gardner Dozois' Year's Best anthologies that was about post humans. Started out with a world not too far advanced of our own, with a recently developed nanotechnology that allowed bodies to be preserved perfectly, pretty much forever. You saw the evolution of the technology as the main character, over a period of thousands of years, went from being an ordinary human to an undead person kept conscious and mobile through a more advanced form of this nanotechnology, to decidedly post human space farer, to non-corporeal god. In that form he recreated the world and rentered it as his ordinary human self. Brilliant story. I have no idea of either the author or the title, unfortunately, so until I happen to reread whatever volume of Dozois' anthology that was, or until a Hatracker puts me out of my misery with the title or the author (or both!) I'm pretty much SOL.
Posted by UncleBunky (Member # 8350) on :
NO! DON'T POST ANYMORE!
We CAN'T let this retarded thread go on forever! It's just, well, pathetic...
Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
Noemon, that sounds like a great story. I was really hoping someone would pipe up and say who it was by and what it was called. I haven't seen many stories about what people do as they become more godlike.
It does seem like above and beyond the pace of technological development, the real limit to our advancement in the future will be what we can accept, and what we can imagine for ourselves. Every time in evolution some species is very successful the thing that ends up happening is that it radiates and fills a lot of different evolutionary niches. I expect that is what is in store for humanity, probably vastly sped up by our intentional tinkering with ourselves. (Though if we don't grow up and start making sensible choices, of course, we'll soon go extinct. It's totally up to us.)
I do see us eventually shaping new universes of our own. If we then embody ourselves in them, I can just imagine us loving the beings who evolved there as though they were our children, and trying to show them how to grow up and become like us, how to attain real joy. I can just see how it would happen that way, and won't that story seem awfully familiar? Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
Uncle Bunky, I'm sorry for ignoring your suggestion and for offending your sensibilities. That was bad of me. <hangs head in shame>
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
I was hoping that someone would too Tatiana, but I suspect that not all that many people are reading this thread, which is unfortunate--we've had some pretty interesting stuff come up. Looks like KarlEd has started a thread of his own on post humans; maybe I should repost my question in that thread.
I expect that you're right about the main limiting factor being what we can conceive of; it seems like that's usually the case in human endeavors.
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true!