mr_jim_lahey

mr_jim_lahey t1_j7qvvtc wrote

Reply to Gold deposit potentially worth $3 billion found near Republic by WashingtonPass

Yay, just what our state needs, a bunch of undeserved wealth falling into the laps of the state's worst political actors along with a heaping serving of environmental destruction. Hope we tax the absolute shit out of every cent they pull out of the ground.

^(edit: lol at u/highdad_soup for firing off 2 childish comments on this thread - including calling me a child - and then immediately blocking me to avoid a clapback)

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mr_jim_lahey t1_j5kqstq wrote

Reply to comment by hazpat in Trilobite tridents could be the oldest evidence of male sexual combat — Fighting for mates may be a behaviour that dates back over 400 million years by marketrent

The thing I find offensive is the arrogance and disrespect for science in general to think that your non-expert, non-peer reviewed opinion that is specifically and methodically refuted in great detail by actual experts who wrote an actual peer-reviewed paper holds any weight. It's like telling an astronomer that they're wrong about the earth orbiting the sun because to you it looks like the sun is going around the earth.

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mr_jim_lahey t1_j5kjwam wrote

Reply to comment by hazpat in Trilobite tridents could be the oldest evidence of male sexual combat — Fighting for mates may be a behaviour that dates back over 400 million years by marketrent

The significance of the paper is literally that it shows strong evidence that the horns were not for foraging/feeding in mud:

> A unique teratological specimen of Walliserops trifurcatus showing four, rather than three tines, is inconsistent with possible hypotheses connecting the trident to feeding techniques and suggests a sexually selected function. Malformations in a variety of living organisms support this conclusion. Morphometric comparisons to similar structures used for intraspecific combat in dynastine beetles show that the trident occupies a comparable shape space consistent with the hypothesis that it was a sexual combat weapon, the oldest reported example of its kind.

Have you ever written a scientific paper, or do you know any scientists? Do you think they just sit around and spout out random ideas that don't stand up to 2 seconds of idle speculation from laypeople? Because that seems to be the assumption inherent in your very confident assertion that these scientists are wrong based on your "first glance".

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mr_jim_lahey t1_j5h7fdy wrote

Reply to comment by hazpat in Trilobite tridents could be the oldest evidence of male sexual combat — Fighting for mates may be a behaviour that dates back over 400 million years by marketrent

Eagerly awaiting your forthcoming peer-reviewed paper where you refute their in-depth analysis that the shape is most similar to modern day beetles that use their horns for jousting. No doubt your I-looked-at-this-for-2-seconds pet theory will put these so-called trilobite "experts" who "dedicate their lives to studying this type of thing" to shame.

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