> Cannabytes wrote:

> ....who cares? the guy tried to smuggle spiders and not heroin or something....he should be locked up for his own safety

Nope, spiders are definitely worse to export than heroin.  Introducing an invasive species into a new environment, whether by accident or design, is extremely detrimental to the target environment, as it disrupts the balance that established the ecosystem in the first place.  You're looking at a number of environmental impacts from species loss within that environment to the loss of species that have particular niches (an example would be the honeybee, which is key to pollinating plants in their environment).

We could never actually figure out the full effects of introducing an invasive species, since it creates long term ripple effects (new spider may displace an old spider, which was a food for another animal that was a food for another animal, etc...).

Evanescence-Bring Me To Life

Crazy hypothesis:

People always claim the ice age forecasters were dumb and wrong because no ice age actually happened.

If the effects of global warming include temperature increases, doesn't it only mean that the ice age forecasters were right, except that humanity prevented the ice age through pollution? 

Feces

Suggestion:
Unlike the other race bonuses, each 10% change in the race Income bonus is supposed to increase or decrease 20 race points, not 10.

> Justinian I wrote:

> > Zarf BeebleBrix wrote:

> Note: The experiment Justinian talks of has already taken place.  It's called the world:

No sovereign power has a monopoly on force (we should probably exclude the post-UN period due to their new role in authorizing legal wars).  How does it work out?  Is war constant?  Or are threats deterred by one another?>

I didn't mean in a global context... I meant within a state, like having protection agencies assuming the policing and military roles of the state.

The difference being?

Sheep.  There's a reason why cows are independently considered a major global warming contributor from methane emissions. 

Develop a cure for cancer, but the government bans you from obtaining the patent, or develop some key software component that ensures to make you tens of millions?

> [RPA] Arocalex wrote:

> Except that Vampires are static

Everything about them suggest the biology they posses is static.

Therefor Darwin does not apply

That assumes a natural selection model where biology adapts to environments, mutating in response to changing stimuli.  Most studies, however, tend to view natural selection the other way around: some creatures just happened to have the right biology to survive in X environment due to utterly random genetic differences, and those who don't have it be out competed.

Thus, some vampire could have begun with the glitter crap, and just found an environment that suited it.

> avogadro wrote:

> claiming you are a catholic doesnt make you a catholic. but if you consider yourself a catholic, who is anyone else to say you're wrong?  who is a better judge of one's religion then one self?

What's the difference between claiming you are a catholic and considering yourself a catholic?

> avogadro wrote:

> > Zarf BeebleBrix wrote:

> >Are you really a Catholic if you only go to church on Christmas and Easter?  Are you really a Muslim if you no longer pray five times a day?

there are alot of catholics and/or muslims. they dont have the exact same beleifs within the same religion. as long as they beleive they are a muslim or catholic, i dont see how you can claim they arent. it would be like saying, sorry budhists, you arent a real religion, your views are too different from my religious views for you guys to be a religion.

So if I claim I am Catholic, but also claim that Jesus wasn't God, am I Catholic?

  They're not in Capricorn anymore?

Aww, I was hoping to see the "Zarf BeebleBrix gives a speech" event.  X(