the village idiot

Chin up Shane, there's hope for us yet! Or maybe the humble Water Bears will inherit the Earth and continue to peacefully swim along causing no harm to anyone:thumbup:

Thought for the day from Bill Bryson. "If you imagine the 4,500-bilion-odd years of Earth's history compressed into a normal earthly day, then life begins very early, about 4 A.M., with the rise of the first simple, single-celled organisms, but then advances no further for the next sixteen hours. Not until almost 8:30 in the evening, with the day five-sixths over, has Earth anything to show the universe but a restless skin of microbes. Then, finally, the first sea plants appear, followed twenty minutes later by the first jellyfish and the enigmatic Ediacaran fauna first seen by Reginald Sprigg in Australia. At 9:04 P.M. trilobites swim onto the scene, followed more or less immediately by the shapely creatures of the Burgess Shale. Just before 10 P.M. plants begin to pop up on the land. Soon after, with less than two hours left in the day, the first land creatures follow.* Thanks to ten minutes or so of balmy weather, by 10:24 the Earth is covered in the great carboniferous forests whose residues give us all our coal, and the first winged insects are evident. Dinosaurs plod onto the scene just before 11 P.M. and hold sway for about three-quarters of an hour. At twenty-one minutes to midnight they vanish and the age of mammals begins. Humans emerge one minute and seventeen seconds before midnight. The whole of our recorded history, on this scale, would be no more than a few seconds, a single human lifetime barely an instant. Throughout this greatly speeded-up day continents slide about and bang together at a clip that seems positively reckless. Mountains rise and melt away, ocean basins come and go, ice sheets advance and withdraw. And throughout the whole, about three times every minute, somewhere on the planet there is a flash-bulb pop of light marking the impact of a Manson-sized meteor or one even larger. It's a wonder that anything at all can survive in such a pummeled and unsettled environment. In fact, not many things do for long."

That's my boy!

There is one creature on the planet that has managed to survive all four mass extinctions on Earth. As you can imagine it is a real hard bast**d. It's called the Water Bear, and here is a short clip of it in all it's imposing majesty! Prepare to be awe-struck! http://i.imgur.com/VNNQMWb.gif

You just back from a posh dinner Dan?

:lol:

Evening all. Thought I would start a thread which can be a repository of wonder. If someone tells you, or you read something mind blowing post it up here for us all to try and wrap our brains around:) I've had my head in the heavens this evening and learnt a bit about neutron stars. These form when a star collapses in on itself and are incredibly dense. A thimble full of neutron star matter would weigh in the region of 100 million tons!!!!!!!

I reckon there would be plenty of interest if you did decide to part with it, including from me!

Some would say another few billion other universes. And they might not be wrong!

They're the worst Felix. Big sweaty, hairy fella's with a hefty swing on them:thumbdown:

Who did that!!!

I wouldn't put it past them Felix:thumbdown:

100 -200 billion Milky Ways! Try sticking that up your foo foo (as you so eloquently put it)😃

The universe is a fascinating and mind bending place. Our brains are woefully inequipped to grasp the numbers and distances involved. As mentioned in another thread recently, it has been calculated that there are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on all of the world's beaches! Even if only say 0.001% of these have orbiting planets at the right distance then the universe is positively teeming with life and advanced civilizations.😃 If only it didn't take 60,000 years to reach the edge of our own solar system (travelling at 17,000 mph)we could pop round for a cup of tea (or similar beverage)!

Sorry me old mukka. Inbox now cleaner than a frog's armpit.

Excellent! I shall make the necessary preparations. Mrs Idiot? Sharpen the ceremonial battleaxe, we are expecting guests.

Fancy coming up to see me some time? I could murder some company:biggrin:

Oh dear...

Jon:thumbup: have you changed your profile picture?

Sorry Woodwizzard, brunettes just don't do it for me:thumbdown: You're not reeeally a wizard are you?

Why not bring him up for a nice leisurely stroll in the wood? Plenty of hard to spot tripping hazards, and I might just have left a few hazel stools rather less than optimally flat! I'm sure he would enjoy a personal demonstration of the internal workings of Puffing Billy. And we can swap tales of his life well lived as he provides the fuel for the wake bbq.

And there was me worried that I had gone a bit too far!

Could you ask Felix if your Dad could look after Big Harry whilst he's away on his annual pilgrimage to Butlins? It would be the perfect crime! One week later, Dad nowhere to be found, just a very sleepy moggy:thumbup:

I sincerely hope you are not in the employ of wizards Mr. Mill !!!?

They were the doctors who were meant to turn up in the desert but Chase and Ackroyd pitched up instead, pinching their names. Can't remember what the lady was called.