Originally posted by Colossus-Big C1. No
1. When the world doesnt end, Are you going to brag in those peoples faces saying "I told you so you f*cking moron"?2. Will there be more of these "End of the world dates" in the future?
3. What If It Suddenly Became Apparent That All That Stuff About 2012 Was True?
2. Yes
3. I'd find Bloomberg, kick him in the nuts, then drop acid at Ground Zero.
Just saw the links OP posted. Still...I don't know anyone that dumb. Maybe I'm giving the human race too much credit, but I can't help but be skeptical when someone makes the claim that circa 10% of the population thinks the Mayans could be right. The higher numbers are for the "in your lifetime" question, not specifically 2012, which includes various doomsday scenarios. Still, given cosmic timescales, the odds of it happening in any particular life-length stretch are very remote. Predictably, one of the studies cited education level as being inversely correlative to belief in the prophecy.
Originally posted by Digi
thinks the Mayans could be right.
Edit: The whole "world will come to an end in my lifetime" tripe is just an example of how people are so vain and arrogant that they think that their lifetime must somehow be the most important time in history.
Originally posted by Omega Vision
As I've said before, I've not seen any credible sources that assert that the Mayans even predicted the end of the world in 2012.
Sure, but we're not talking about credible sources, we're talking about public opinion. Whether or not it was actually predicted is moot.
Agreed on your second point, though I think your point is just a byproduct of the bit on education I mentioned.
Originally posted by Digi
Sure, but we're not talking about credible sources, we're talking about public opinion. Whether or not it was actually predicted is moot.Agreed on your second point, though I think your point is just a byproduct of the bit on education I mentioned.
No one can doubt that Voltaire was a well educated man, yet he was all three (actually, I can't remember if he was chauvinistic or progressive in that regard) and from what I've read of him his Anti-Semitism went well beyond the normal standards of his time.
Originally posted by Villelater
repeat of previous question...how much oxygen do trees produce on a mathmaticle stand-point?
Its more of a biology question.
Mature trees can apparently produce hundreds of pounds of oxygen over a year, though not evenly distributed over time. The amount varies significantly from species to species and tree to tree.
Lets say an "average" hectare of tree makes enough oxygen to sustain 16 people (Nowak, Hoehnm & Crane, 2007). There are currently 4 billion hectares of trees in the world (page 15 here: http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/i1757e/i1757e.pdf). That suggests the produce enough oxygen for 84 billion people but the real number is reduced since the FAO is counting areas of less than 100% tree cover.
A person takes in .84kg of oxygen per day according to Nowak and friends. That means trees produce on the order of 25.7 tillion kilograms of oxygen per year.
Originally posted by Omega Vision
I don't know if I'd agree that it's a matter of education alone. There are well educated people who for other reasons (cultural hubris, a kind of millenarian romanticism, or maybe just good old fashioned egoism) might see things this way. Education might help to the extent that it might reveal to people their own biases, but I don't know if it's anything close to a guarantee, just as it's never been an guarantee against racism, Anti-Semitism, or chauvinism.No one can doubt that Voltaire was a well educated man, yet he was all three (actually, I can't remember if he was chauvinistic or progressive in that regard) and from what I've read of him his Anti-Semitism went well beyond the normal standards of his time.
We're talking likelihood, probabilities. No one said anything about a guarantee. You're less likely to believe the it, the more educated you are. It's cited in the one link, and makes intuitive sense as well. While things like racism can be taught from youth and ingrained that way, no one has been talking to their kids about Dec. 2012 for decades. There are fewer cultural influences outside of one's education, because it has not been a ubiquitous topic of discussion until now.
Originally posted by Digi
We're talking likelihood, probabilities. No one said anything about a guarantee. You're less likely to believe the it, the more educated you are. It's cited in the one link, and makes intuitive sense as well. While things like racism can be taught from youth and ingrained that way, no one has been talking to their kids about Dec. 2012 for decades. There are fewer cultural influences outside of one's education, because it has not been a ubiquitous topic of discussion until now.
Originally posted by Digi
Agreed, but I'm not sure sure this refutes my point. /srug