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DeathscytheX

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Posts posted by DeathscytheX

  1. Posted · Report reply

    somehow I don't believe this. 6 years ago they said the world would be out of banana's in 10 years... with only 4 years left there doesn't seem to be a big fuss about it anymore.

    Fishing is done in excess, and commercial fishing needs heavier restrictions.. they go out and catch all these fish and come back and charge outrageous prices.

  3. Posted · Report reply

    As long as we keep finding ways to live longer lives, this problem will only get worse. Thats really what it comes down too. As the average life span increases, less people die more slowely, population builds up.

    As of now, the number of people that are currently living on this planety is larger than the number of people that have died.... ever. If you counted how many people have died since the begining of man, it wouldn't be as many as are now living. pretty crazy eh?

  9. Posted · Report reply

    Yep, he's obsessed. I was rather impressed and had respect for him till I saw the G Gundam figures. After that I lost all respect and good impressions of him and his room (yes I hate G Gundam that much).

    Heh, oddly enough I have some of the same stuff he has just not on display like him.

    screen19.jpg

    ROTFLMAO X'D hardcore

  16. Posted · Report reply

    Actually there probably wouldn't be any major change in sea level because the ice cap wont be allowed to melt completely. All that ice melting over time will dump gallons of fresh water into the altantic conveyor completely screwing up the warm water current. This would result in a miniture ice age. This has already been recorded once in history back near colonial america time. One year they didnt even have summer, it was winter all year. The so called "mini ice age" lasted about 100 years.

    Although it wouldnt change the landscape the results would still be disasterous on a economic and agracultural scale.

    Edit: A program on this very thing is on History Channel right now.

  18. Posted · Report reply

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,206992,00.html

    BANGKOK, Thailand — Australian researchers said Thursday that analyzing the skin flakes of some whales could help determine their age, a development that could invalidate one argument for killing them.

    Japan has long argued that killing baleen whales, such as humpbacks and minkes, is the only way to determine how old they are, and vital to better understanding the animals' behavior.

    Tokyo plans to kill over 1,000 minke whales in 2006, over 400 more than last year and more than double the number it hunted a decade ago, as part of its scientific research program.

    But a team at the Southern Cross University Whale Research Center in the Australian state of New South Wales said DNA in the whale's skin flakes could tell scientists how long they have lived.

    "The Japanese have used a whole series of excuses to kill minke whales, and their latest excuse is a claim that they need to determine their age," Peter Harrison, the center's director, told The Associated Press.

    "Essentially, this [analysis] would mean Japan would no longer be able to kill whales in order to determine their age," he said. "So therefore, they would have to either modify their research program to stop killing whales or admit they are really doing commercial whaling with science as an excuse and therefore change the nature of their whaling program."

    Officials at the Japanese Fisheries Agency were not immediately available for comment.

    Harrison, whose research was highlighted in this week's Nature magazine, said the new aging method relies on extracting DNA from the skin flakes of humpback whales and looking at telomeres — structures that cap the end of chromosomes.

    The telomeres progressively shorten with age in many animal species and Harrison said he is hopeful they could be used to determine a whale's age.

    Harrison said the team — which is collaborating with Prof. Scott Baker at the University of Oregon in the United States — has determined that the genetic sequencing of a humpback's telomeres is similar to that of humans and other species.

    The next step, he said, is to determine how the lengths of the telomeres decrease with age — by using the skin samples of 100 living whales of known age already on file at the center.

    "There is no theoretical reason why the telomeres analysis techniques that work perfectly well for humans could not be applied to humpback whales," he said. "Therefore, I'm optimistic of success."

    Curt Jenner, managing director of the Centre for Whale Research in the state of Western Australia, said the DNA analysis was a technique that "we are all quite hopeful will be viable in the future."

    "It would be bloody fantastic if it works, because it would make null and void one of the last arguments that the Japanese make for scientific whaling," he said. "It's certainly feasible, but it will be a difficult task. Firstly, you need enough DNA material to do the test and, because it is a new field, they don't have a lot of background to compare it to."

    The age of a whale is often determined by extracting its teeth. But since baleen whales have no teeth, the only way to gauge their age is to photograph one each year, or dissect a dead whale, said Jenner.

  20. Posted · Report reply

    Against the browns? are you crazy? They dont even have a QB. The Saints will win their first 3 games hands down. With Drew Brees at QB and Reggie Bush.... you should lay off the crack pipe. :P I bet you didnt even know that the Saints have only had 2 losing seasons in the last 5 years. There are plenty more teams that suck worse, The Browns being one of them.

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