To go or Not

[Franklin]

Fun

It was great. When I came out the jetties, there weren't any waves (north wind) and it was sunny and the wind was gental. I was having a blast. As the day wore on the wind and waves picked up but that didn't bother me (I know what it's like out there). I tried to take 15 minute naps during the day but I wasn't sleepy enough. I also tried to get sleep the night before but too many thoughts going through my mind.

 

[sailortonyb Allied Mis]

As long as there was a 'great' part

As long as part of the trip was great, that makes it all worth while.On Darwin: while in the Galapogos, he wrote a letter home to his father after having a really bad bout with seasickness: "if it weren't for sea sickness, all men would be sailors"On Natural Selection: It is as stated. When the 2 members of the same species select each other 'naturally' as in , no interference. The opposite of natural selection would be 'selective breeding'On 'The Most Fit": The most fit for survival of the species may not necessarily be the most fit by the traditional sense of the word. Depending on the circumstances of a world wide catastrophy, the educated and the intlligent may stand a better chance of survival than those physically fit. A great example of this would be Hurricane Katrina. Now keep in mind that i am speaking in generalities and not specifically to any one particular person. The smarter , more educated people believed the weatrher forecast and had the intelligence to understand the storms true power, so they left. The dumb asses on TV prior to the storm hitting , which were on CNN and other news channels were bragging on how they 'rode it out before'. Well nature just weeded them out. The uneducated and poor may have been physically fit, but not smart enough to have a good job and the money to own a car and get out. Just an axample of how the 'fittest' today may not be the fittest in the traditional sense. Dont get me wound up now. LOL

 

[tom]

Selection on the Whole being throughout life

Natural selection works on the whole being throughout life. You can be the best anything and still be selected out of a population. Remeber too that natural selection works on populations. Over time the frequency of a gene or group of genes changes according to selection. Infection resistence is probably far more important than intelligence. An individual can be completely unfit by most measure and still successfully reproduce just by chance. But statistically such individuals would reproduce less successfully and over time their numbers reduced in a population. Also the selection pressure has to be pretty much constant over time to change a population's genetics. Being well educated and intelligent was probably a bad thing in China when Mao was in power. But he is gone now and being intelligent and well eduacated is a good thing again. The worst thing about natural selection is that it can select traits that limit a populations ability to adapt when things change. That is why so many animals are going extinct. They have requirements that they can't meet in a world altered by man... The polar bear for instance. A polar bear absolutely needs an iced over ocean to survive. With global warming the ice fields are disappearing and so may the polar bear.Anyway we are drifting away from sailing.

 

[Ross]

Tom we could teach polar bears to sail

that would get the thread back.

 

[sailortonyb Allied Mis]

One more time....

When we drink alcohol, it kills our brain cells, presumably the weaker ones. If this be the case, then the stronger ones survive. Is that why when we are drunk we feel smarter?

 

[tom]

Ross has it Right Tony

But tony I like your ideal too. So we need to drink until we get drunk enough to think we are smart enough to teach a polar bear how to sail. Then you ross and I will see which of us the polar bear decides to eat. The lone survivor will then try to reproduce with the first drunk woman he finds. The child of that coupling will then move to Nome and charter sailboats out to polar bears. The question then becomes how many seal skins does a polar bear have to pay to charter a Beneteau for a week???Thank God it's Friday as I've become completely silly. Hopefully a sail tommorrow and Sunday will cure all of this silliness and I'll be ready for work Monday. It's supposed to rain but be warm...in the upper 60's.

 

[sailortonyb Allied Mis]

OMG !!!

How will this forum ever survive the first solo-bear circumcision or is it circumnavigation? Damn, getting old is a bummer. I get confused easily. I've been out here way too long, Where is my relief guy. I wanna go home. HELP

 

[Ross]

Tony you hold the knife . I'll hold the video cam

Is there a Rabbi in the house?

 

[Tom Brown]

Natural selection, Cliff Clavin said it best

"Well ya see, Norm, it's like this... A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That's why you always feel smarter after a few beers." Cliff Clavin