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Welcome, AC! An excellent entry into Spateye's Game, if I may say so.

And I'm very glad to see another Brit posting - that makes three of us active at the moment.


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Wait a minute. I thought the rules didn't allow more than two Brits here at a given moment. It's in the book.* shocked

*Three would be too many and one would be too few. laugh

Last edited by jenny jenny; 09/27/12 05:27 PM.
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We should remember, jj, that it's their language we're wrecking here, so let's make an exception!

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Well...if you say so, Tromboniator. But somebody ruined Elizabethan English and it sure a hell wasn't we'uns. frown

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HISTRIONIC – HOARD

My good friends, whenever I’m Bored,
I come and examine this board
Where posts range from moronic
To quite histrionic
With new words - which I add to my hoard.


UDOMETER - ULTRAMARINE

(and the best of luck!)

Last edited by Rhubarb Commando; 09/28/12 10:59 AM.

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The Grand Navy of Poland built a spy submarine
They painted it with water colors - ultramarine
But the test crew did fret
When the ubometer read "wet"
They drowned; either in or out of the ultramarine submarine

UDOMETER - ULTRAMARINE

Last edited by jenny jenny; 09/29/12 06:19 AM.
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quote from Rhubarb Commando~
"UDOMETER - ULTRAMARINE

(and the best of luck!)"

Ha....I dont think jj needed it wink
super rhyming jenny...I love the idea of watercolour camourflage paint.

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Rhubarb Commando's quite right that the grey squirrel has been set to eliminate the native (and seemingly less agressive) red in the UK for many years, thwarted so far I guess mostly by mankind's benevolent intervention.

I heard relatively recently of a another European (Spanish?) mutant of 'our' grey squirrel appearing in the UK, which is even more aggressive, and threatens genetically to displace the existing greys by interbreeding. I have not heard if this enhances the threat to the native reds.

Isn't nature (by this I mean evolution, with its preference for the best fitting genetic variant) (literally) wonderful?

This obliquely leads me to a very personal 'bee in the bonnet', namely the woefully inadequate (and I think misleading) ways in which the harsh reality and impersonality of genetic selection that happens in the evolutionary process, has been explained by so-called experts in the media, even by our much admired uncle of evolution, David Attenborough. I personally deplore such dumbing down of vitally important concepts.

In general, it is often claimed that "such and such a species does this because it affords such and such an advantage", as though the individual creature can anticipate that such and such a behaviour will afford an advantage. This has to be nonsense, except in the instances of more 'intelligent' creatures - it can only be through many fortuitous iterations of a given behaviour, resulting in a statistically greater number of individuals surviving to pass on their genes, that the behaviour in question may become 'incorporated' in that species' genetic package to be passed on, and exhibited 'naturally'.

I'm sorry to wander off the central thrust of the thread, and step onto my own particular soap-box (a happily compatible conjunction of cliches), but I am hoping this may become a suitable point for discussion by comparison and contrast.

Views, anyone?

Sam


"Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate" - 'Abandon all hope, ye who enter'.
Dante (Durante degli) Alighieri, "La Divina Commedia", "Inferno", c 1308-1321
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Just a thought on your image "bee in a bonnet".
Back in the day I saw a nun with those medieval
starched wimples and headgear acquire a bee in hers.
She had to completely dismantle the thing to remove
the bee, and to much embarrassment I might add.


----please, draw me a sheep----
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Sam says << ... it can only be through many fortuitous iterations of a given behaviour, resulting in a statistically greater number of individuals surviving to pass on their genes, that the behaviour in question may become 'incorporated' in that species' genetic package to be passed on, ...>>

True, but it is, of course these adventitious 'advantages' which make the individuals more likely to survive, prosper, and see off rivals in the mating process, which makes it more likely that those genetic advantages do get passed on.

Now - back to the thread!

What are your two words, jj?


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