Australia is facing a controversy that is all too familiar to Americans. Fundamentalists in state schools are teaching children that humans and dinosaurs lived together and Noah brought dinosaur eggs on to the Ark.
Children are also taught that Adam and Eve were not eaten by dinosaurs “because they were under a protective spell.”
This is consistent with Palintology — the new science advanced by Sarah Palin — which insists that man and dinosaur must have co-existed despite carbon dating and simple logic.
Source: News
Byron–
Call me a purist. I wouldn’t want ANYONE peeing in my pool–even it it was Olympic-size.
😉
“A third ingredient is docusate sodium is used in laxatives.”
If only this did as good a job on minds as it does on other particular areas….
Gyges
“Like I said, science is a method by which theories are tested against reality. I’m simply helping you to test your theory, since you appeared to be a fan of scientific literacy.”
It is not my theory. I am only repeating accepted science. Read the source I posted. If you want to debate with the National Academy of Sciences, go ahead.
What is your theory as to why the oil has disappeared?
Byron,
That’s only half the equation.
Think back to High school math. Remember those problems where you had water pouring into a cone at a different rate than it was coming out? You needed to know how fast it was coming in and how fast it was going out to figure out how long it took to fill or empty the cone.
Or alternately, my body can handle me drinking X amount of alcohol in an hour, that doesn’t mean I can’t drink myself to death.
Bdaman–
“Mighty big Ocean Mrs. Elaine. Just need a hurricane to stir it all up and disperse it to a trace amount.”
Of course, we humans can pollute the earth and waters of our planet all we want and won’t ever have to suffer any of the negative effects. There’s no mercury in ANY of the fish we eat. Animals never suffered from the spraying of DDT. There was no such thing as Love Canal. Growth hormones used on cattle that then wash off from ranches don’t cause problems with the reproductive systems of fish. It’s okay when rivers catch on fire. I could go on.
Maybe you’d like to vacation on the island of trash pictured in the article I provided a link to below.
😉
PHOTOS: Giant Ocean-Trash Vortex Documented–A First
September 4, 2009–
Tangled with plastic, rope, and various aquatic animals, a “ghost net” drifts in August 2009 in the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch, a loose, free-floating “dump” twice the size of Texas.
SEAPLEX (the Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition) recently became the first dedicated research trip to study the science of the remote plastic vortex in the ocean between California and Hawaii. (See “Giant Ocean-Trash Vortex Attracts Explorers.”)
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/09/photogalleries/pacific-garbage-patch-pictures/
Elaine,
About a million barrels a year seep into Gulf waters naturally. This has been going on for eons. This spill is a drop in the bucket.
Elaine:
how large is it? What is the ratio of oil to water? Is it a cup of water in a gallon or is it a cup of water in an Olympic size swimming pool?
What is the volume of the water in the Gulf and the volume of oil spilled?
Trader,
You’re the one making a claim, not me. I’m asking you for proof. If you don’t want to, or are unable to provide the proof, that’s fine. Heck, if you want to argue why you don’t have to answer the three parts of my question to have proven yourself right, go ahead and try that tact. There’s more than one way to convince me that you’re right.
Like I said, science is a method by which theories are tested against reality. I’m simply helping you to test your theory, since you appeared to be a fan of scientific literacy.
Elaine:
Oil is a natural substance which the earth has been handling for millions of years. There are organisms specifically adapted to use it for energy.
There are going to be some effects but I am betting they are short term based on my understanding of what is going on. Could I be wrong, of course.
You have your opinion and I have mine, time will tell which one of us is correct.
And to answer your question from yesterday Byron, yes a good hurricane would oxygenate the water. Oh and by the way the Gulf was and is suspect to Red Tide every year. Some worse than others.
Gyges:
Isnt the real issue how fast those organisms can metabolize the oil? Bacteria breed fairly quickly so the other question is what is their reproductive rate. It is a given (?) that they use oxygen so the real question is what is the rate at which they use it and how long does it take for salt water to become re-oxygenated? During the low oxygen levels how many organisms will die?
But then how long will it take those populations to regenerate? There are very many questions that need to be answered before any real assesment can be made about the long term health of the Gulf.
What is the bottom of the food chain in the Gulf? I would think it’s health would be the main indicator of a healthy eco system.
Any thoughts?
Gyges,
The fallacy of your argument is that you have a limited number of dogs. It yours could reproduce quickly, they could drink all your water.
If they aren’t consuming it, where did all the oil go?
Mighty big Ocean Mrs. Elaine. Just need a hurricane to stir it all up and disperse it to a trace amount.
Byron–
Do you honestly believe that an oil spill as large as this one in the Gulf of Mexico will have few adverse effects on sea life…that none of the oil will make its way into the food chain? Oil may be a naturally ocurring substance…so is lava and hot ash from volcanoes…so is venom.
I think we should be concerned about the AMOUNT of oil that was released into the Gulf. Just because we can’t see huge globs of oil floating on the surface of the water doesn’t mean that the Gulf, the coastal areas surrounding, and the animals who live in the water and coastal areas won’t suffer further negative consequences from the oil spill.
From the article.
“To me, as an oil-spill chemist, this was very exciting,” said Reddy. “I got to find out what oil looks like after… 35,000 years.”
What it looked like was “incredibly weathered,” said Reddy. “That means nature had taken away a lot of compounds. These mounds of black material were the last remnants of oil that exploded up from below. To see nature doing this on its own was an unbelievable finding.
.” He estimates that the dome structures contain about 100,000 tons of residual asphalt and compares them to an underwater version of the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, complete with the fossils of ancient animals.
The researchers are not sure exactly why sea life has taken up residence around the asphalt domes, but one possibility is that because the oil has become benign over the years that some creatures are able to actually feed off it and get energy from it. They may also be “thriving” on tiny holes in the dome areas that release minute amounts of methane gas, Reddy says.
Also I would just like to say,
Trader B you are a breath of fresh air, Welcome to the Blog.
Inside joke with no offense to you Trader B
Byron I saw Mr. Treacy posted earlier so thats what got me thinking about that.
Yes Byron, funny that you mention that.
Here it is.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100425151143.htm
Trader,
Yup, there are oil eating microbes, never said there weren’t. See, here’s the problem: you don’t understand the question. The question isn’t “are there oil eating microbes?” The question is “can these microbes handle the amount of oil being spilled into the gulf without a significant impact on the environment?”
You’ve shown the rate my dog drinks water, you haven’t shown the rate that it’s entering my house, or that he won’t relieve himself all over the floor and rot out the supports.
Bdaman:
aren’t there huge “tar volcanoes” off the coast of Santa Barbara in California that have been there for thousands of years? And isn’t tar naturally deposited on beaches all over the world from numerous natural “leaks” without any real impact?
Sorry that URL I posted above didn’t work.
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/07/30/30greenwire-oil-spill-dispersants-shifting-ecosystem-impac-95608.html