Unfortunately, I'm a tad OCD. So when I make mistakes in my posts, they stand out to me so much that they are all I see. This is highly infuriating. What makes it worse is, I don't always catch those mistakes in a short window of time, and, depending on the post, it might take me a while to fully edit it. I made a number of mistakes in my most recent post, namely in spelling and grammar, but I've run out of time to fix them. 20 minutes just ain't long enough, and that post will actually haunt me if I can't fix it. I know that's pathetic, but I never never claimed that I wasn't pathetic... this is how I am. Can I get help in editing my post? I have an edited version copied into Notepad. Just let me know...
I don't know if I am on the right track here, but if you are bothered by spelling mistakes and use Internet Explorer, a spell checker is available to download at: http://www.iespell.com/
Okay... here's what I want for that post: ---------------------------------------------------- This is 13.7 billion years of history condensed into 10 minutes. I think we can forgive the creator of the video for being overly-generalized. He also left out a much more substantial extinction event, the Permian-Triassic extinction event, which wiped out 96% of all marine life, 83% of all insect life, and 70% of all terrestrial life. I was actually a little shocked that the person who made this video left out any mention of this extinction event, as it's quite a bit more interesting and had a much bigger impact on Earth than the KT extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs. Also, fact is, we just do not know what caused the Big Bang at the moment. Three ideas that are being worked on by Cosmologists, Astronomers, and Physicists at the moment are a) a random quantum fluctuation, b) a clash between two membranes, and c) the collapse and death of a previous universe. Of course, "God did it" is also an idea, but one that tells us absolutely nothing and serves as nothing more than a stop-gap to investigation. So true. I've seen a lot of documentaries that deal with it, but I've yet to see one that goes satisfyingly in-depth. I'd love to see a series about the universe similar to the one that already exists, but uses each season to focus on specific aspects: Season 1 - Birth, Life, and Death of the Universe (each episode could be devoted to a different origins theories, then when those are exhausted, talk about the growth of the universe, then the death of it, all in order, and in depth) Season 2 - Birth, Life, and Death of the Stars (including Black Holes and Sol [our sun]) Season 3 - Birth of the Planets (from possible "proto-planets" of the early universe all the way to our Solar System and Earth) Season 4 - Birth of Life (focus first on abiogenesis, then evolution, including all life just up to modern) Season 5 - Modern Life (a season devoted entirely to modern biology and anthropology... and show how things always thought to be unique to humans [self-awareness, consciousness, culture, society, morality, grief, love, etc] are actually not unique to us at all, and how they might have come about) Season 6 - Unanswered Questions (What is reality? What is time? What is Dark Matter? What is Dark Energy? Does a higher power have anything to do with existence? Are we alone in the universe? Will we ever travel beyond our solar system, and what would it take? What might the edge of the universe look like? And so on...) Season Update - the continuing season... as the series progresses, new information always comes to light. So this would be an attempt to update previous episodes as that happens. And once the last season officially ends, this continuation could go on, say, 2 times a year in two-hour or three-hour episodes including updates on previous episodes with new info and discoveries, for a little while, at least. It wouldn't be about being original... it's all been covered before, of course. But by focusing each season on specific aspects, you can get way more detailed and way more in-depth about each concept. You can focus more than one show on a specific theory (like three shows on String Theory in season 1, for example), and in doing so try to bring across a greater understanding of a concept that 5 minutes in one episode could never give you. It would be the definitive series, IMO, on the birth and history of... well... physical existence. Despite all of that, you're vastly underestimating the size of the universe and the amount of planets within it. Even if ultra-intelligent life is exceedingly rare, on universal scales, "exceedingly rare" could mean "over 1 billion" intelligent civilizations. The only reason I don't think we've been "visited" is because if they've mastered the ability to far surpass the light-speed barrier and can visit hundreds planets in the space of, say, an Earth-year in their own little real-life acting out of Star Trek (or perhaps Star Wars), then the level of technology and knowledge they've reached is enough that this universe has nothing else to teach them. Chances are they are attempting to leave this universe for another one. Does this site take nominations for dumbest post of the year? 'Cause I'd love to nominate this one. Likely because intelligence ain't all it's cracked up to be. Do you know what we have to sacrifice, in terms of energy, in order to work our brains? Our brains are insanely wasteful in terms of how much energy they use. They are an energy sink. Perhaps there was no ecological pressure for plants to evolve our type of intelligence. It seems that primates, like us, had the best advantage in terms of the ecological niche, and thus we evolved intelligence. But who knows... maybe there's a planet somewhere in the universe (maybe even in the Milky Way!) where plants did evolve into intelligent beings. I can't think of any logic that would banish the idea. Yes. Well... that may depend on how you define "atheist". If you mean somebody who outright declares that God definitely doesn't exist, then a) you'd be right to point out the hypocrisy, and b) although they exist, they make up a vast minority of atheists. As far as I know (and I admit that I could be wrong), most atheists are like me: agnostic atheists. I'm not claiming any knowledge on God's existence, but I don't believe because, in the words of Tim Minchin, "I haven't been shown enough evidence to allay my doubts". I have one person on my list so far, and it's because they were not only deliberately lying to me, but they were putting words into my mouth, practically inventing a whole post to respond to that I never actually wrote. It was either put this poster on ignore or get banned (after only three days) for going on a verbal, forum-only, violent tirade after this person. I get mad when people try to strawman me. It's frustrating. ----------------------------------------------------
Whoever edits my original post... please delete the above post when it's done. Thank you. Also, Beevee... I use Firefox. I decided to boycott Internet Explorer a very long time ago, and I'm not changing now...
You are the same as me. I hate seeing a mistake. I sometimes come across months old posts with one word spelled wrong. No one else can see it but to me, it stands out like dogs balls. Good thing I have the power to fix those spelling mistakes whenever I like!
