further proof biologists should take geology classes

[Pyro]

I don't see anything wrong with how he looks...

BTW what snake is that Mokele??

[Mokele]

I don't see anything wrong with how he looks...

Neither do Ivy-League schools, I found out today.

BTW what snake is that Mokele??

A large Brown Tree Snake. The photo was taken during fieldwork in Guam about 3 years ago.

Mokele

[Pyro]

Neither do Ivy-League schools, I found out today.

I will assume that means you have gotten a job offer somewhere so I offer my congratulations.

A large Brown Tree Snake. The photo was taken during fieldwork in Guam about 3 years ago.

Large indeed!! I am guessing the marks on the pipe are 30cm intervals? So that beast is pushing 250cm?? I was not aware they even came close to that size.

[herenorthere]

It's too bad it was too warm for you to wear a black hood and too bright to light a few candles for that photo. That snake. That hair. That pose. It could have been a great attention getter for bible thumping emailers everywhere.

So which Ivy League school, if you don't mind my asking? No football school would be bothered by your look either, as long as you can benchpress a pickup truck.

[JB_OrchidGuy]

I have not read through this whole thread just for everyone info. Now I am not discounting the effect that humans are having on the environment by no means, but I find it rather funny that we have HUGE pockets of methane gas off the coast of Cali that is being released into the atmosphere. Now no one has yet to mention that methane is many many time more of a greenhouse gas than CO2 is. It is believed that a huge release has happened before and sent the globe into a warming phase. Well the show I saw actually said they thought this huge cloud of methane exploded and vaporized everything around it. These bubbles are currently being released in the ocean with VAST stores more frozen at the bottom of the ocean. As more gets released the warmer the globe gets the more gas is released. All its going to take is one earth quake to release a large pocket then the possibility of BOOM! Now the things that produce this methane are bacteria, but no one ever thinks to point the finger there.

Yes thing are always changing in the world. They always have and things adapt or die. Period. Thing go extinct and new species pop up. That is the way it is and the way it always will be. No matter how hard you try to prevent something from happeneind it will happen anyway.

Now like I said before I am not trying to discount the effect humans are having on the world, but we are not the only factor influencing our world. I do believe our world is in a cycle. Nature has a way to take things back over and recycle. Things adapt and things move on.

I know I am going to be ripped a new one for this post, but oh well. The facts are facts. The world is changing and before long we will need a bridge to get to California. Things are moving they have never stopped. Just like the world is changing and evolving and never will stop.

[phissionkorps]

All its going to take is one earth quake to release a large pocket then the possibility of BOOM!

I certainly won't miss California

[Mokele]

I will assume that means you have gotten a job offer somewhere so I offer my congratulations.

PhD, actually, and thanks!

So which Ivy League school, if you don't mind my asking?

Brown; they have the best facilities in the world for my research (biomechanics), and an unparalleled concentration of faculty in my field (they have 5, other schools have 1 or maybe 2, and most have zero).

Large indeed!! I am guessing the marks on the pipe are 30cm intervals? So that beast is pushing 90cm??

20 cm, and the body obscures some of them. The actual animal is in jar somewhere around lab, and measured 183 cm without tail (20cm tail, I think).

In the past, BTS on Guam could close in on 12 feet, thanks to the bats and birds they've since eradicated. Sizes have since declined so that even beasts like that one (named 'Colossus') are uncommon now, since they seem to mostly subsist on geckos and introduced rodents.

Now I am not discounting the effect that humans are having on the environment by no means, but I find it rather funny that we have HUGE pockets of methane gas off the coast of Cali that is being released into the atmosphere. Now no one has yet to mention that methane is many many time more of a greenhouse gas than CO2 is. It is believed that a huge release has happened before and sent the globe into a warming phase. Well the show I saw actually said they thought this huge cloud of methane exploded and vaporized everything around it. These bubbles are currently being released in the ocean with VAST stores more frozen at the bottom of the ocean. As more gets released the warmer the globe gets the more gas is released. All its going to take is one earth quake to release a large pocket then the possibility of BOOM! Now the things that produce this methane are bacteria, but no one ever thinks to point the finger there.

Technically, they're called "methane clathrates", and are basically ice with methane trapped within the crystraline structure (and FYI, it's not bacterial but geological in origin).

Yes, methane is *MUCH* nastier than CO2 as a greenhouse gas, but it's also very, very unstable (as many poor *******s with a match have found out the hard way). It degrades rapidly in the atmosphere (into CO2, incidentally), so the effect is very short-lived (while CO2's effect is small, but continues on for a long, long, long time).

So you're right about methane being a big problem. And roughly half of all methane emissions are from humans, so we're a part of that problem too.

Yes thing are always changing in the world. They always have and things adapt or die. Period. Thing go extinct and new species pop up. That is the way it is and the way it always will be. No matter how hard you try to prevent something from happeneind it will happen anyway. Now like I said before I am not trying to discount the effect humans are having on the world, but we are not the only factor influencing our world. I do believe our world is in a cycle. Nature has a way to take things back over and recycle. Things adapt and things move on.

The objection isn't so much to change as it is to human-induced change. And Earth will definitely putter along just fine no matter what we do. The question is about quality of life for humans. People already starve and die of thirst, and if crop-yields decrease, more will. Tropical diseases kill millions, and their vectors will spread north as the climate warms. Species will be lost forever (and won't it suck if something that dies could have cured cancer?).

Mokele

[Captain Hamata]

The first time humans had a major impact on the environment was with the emissions produced by the Flinstone's car along with the other drivers of Bedrock. All the gasses given off by the vehicles is what killed the dinosaurs (that, and the overuse of dinosaurs as living machinery, food, and household appliances). Let us all learn from our past history and mistakes. Yabba dabba do not forget this.

[Pyro]

PhD, actually, and thanks

Congrats. Enjoy the next 6 odd years of your life (speaking from my experience which will be ending shortly...)

20 cm, and the body obscures some of them. The actual animal is in jar somewhere around lab, and measured 183 cm without tail (20cm tail, I think).

Realized my math was idiotic (8 marks @ estimated 30cm would be 240... Duh!!) Still a brute even at 2m

Technically, they're called "methane clathrates", and are basically ice with methane trapped within the crystraline structure (and FYI, it's not bacterial but geological in origin).

Just read a few papers on this funny enough. Actually it is more oceanographic the geological (temp and pressure of the water causes the methane to freeze out.) And the fact that it does not come bubbling up en mass is bacterial in nature. groups of methane metabolizing bacterial "consume" the methane that does get loose and convert it to CO2 before it reaches the surface. Just part of the strange mega-biota that are microbes

The objection isn't so much to change as it is to human-induced change. And Earth will definitely putter along just fine no matter what we do. The question is about quality of life for humans. People already starve and die of thirst, and if crop-yields decrease, more will. Tropical diseases kill millions, and their vectors will spread north as the climate warms. Species will be lost forever (and won't it suck if something that dies could have cured cancer?).

Thank you for putting into words better what I was trying to express. It is not about what happens to Earth that most people actually care about but how "comfortable" we as humans are on Earth.

And yes it will suck if something dies that could cure cancer. Which is why it is disturbing to see the sharks declining given they don't get cancer...