how heavy is your carbon footprint ?

Originally posted by zeeblebot
no need to wait; scott's probably got doppelgangers on several continents.

Not that I'm aware.

Originally posted by scottishinnz
What about the other 8 in preparation? Why is the bushman so important? No-one is irreplaceable, no one can be swapped out for just anyone else... Bushmen may be rare, but not as rare as I am. There's only one me.

You've missed the basic point. The Bushman clan consists of a single extended family, say twenty maximum, including small children and venerable elders. An experienced adult has considerable survival knowledge essential for the clan's survival. (Talking about surviving in the desert here, without modern technology). So if that adult dies, it's a significant blow to the rest of the clan. If the clan has say six adults and they all die at once, of course it's a disaster, as all the rest will die too. If six university professors are gunned down by a disgruntled undergraduate, on the other hand, nobody else is going to die, and the faculty will probably be up to full strength pretty soon.

There's only one you, but there's lots of people who can be trained to do what you do or can already do it. There are probably more academics alive now than there ever have been Bushmen. Quite a formidable tribe...

Originally posted by Bosse de Nage
You've missed the basic point. The Bushman clan consists of a single extended family, say twenty maximum, including small children and venerable elders. An experienced adult has considerable survival knowledge essential for the clan's survival. (Talking about surviving in the desert here, without modern technology). So if that adult dies, it's a signif ...[text shortened]... ly more academics alive now than there ever have been Bushmen. Quite a formidable tribe...

What about the university professors that came up with, say, insulin? How many would have died, had they "knelt over"?

Originally posted by scottishinnz
What about the university professors that came up with, say, insulin? How many would have died, had they "knelt over"?

Interesting story, that, the discovery of insulin.

Had Banting et al all died, no doubt somebody else would have made the discovery, since many researchers were actively searching for a way to control diabetes. The "science tribe" was already enormous! Or are you arguing that only one set of people could have made this discovery?

Originally posted by Bosse de Nage
Interesting story, that, the discovery of insulin.

Had Banting et al all died, no doubt somebody else would have made the discovery, since many researchers were actively searching for a way to control diabetes. The "science tribe" was already enormous! Or are you arguing that only one set of people could have made this discovery?

In my experience, whilst many (i.e. more than one, many subjects probably only have one or two working on them) people may be working on a subject, no two people look at it the same way. Look at all the legions of physicists which never looked at the universe the same way as Einstein before he did.

Originally posted by ElleEffSeee
From realclimate.org:

A recent movie, 'Thank You for Smoking', amusingly highlighted the lengths that PR reps for the tobacco companies would go to distort the public discourse on the health effects of smoking. Lest you thought that was of merely historical relevance, we would like to draw your attention to two of the funniest videos around. Lifting a ...[text shortened]... e grateful for the amusement they appear to have accidently bestowed on the world.

I'll have to get that one out again (Thank You for Smoking) from what I remember it was as much an expose' of the anti-smoking leagues propaganda and tactis as that of the tobacco Co's.