The Random Thread

scottro said:
I think they're the biggest killers of humans among non human animals. But like fernandel says, nothing comes close to humans. I remember as a little kid, going to the Bronx zoo and there was some exhibit, with a cage for the most dangerous animal. It just had a mirror.
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Eh, I'm a pedantic, boring nerd, but I checked and I cannot save myself from forumsplaining... In reality the estimates are 600K humans killed by other humans every year vs 1M killed by mosquitos. To be fair we are still our most dangerous enemy, because we are destroying the Earth ecosystem, and there can be catastrophic wars. But the mirror was more about the fact that we are the most dangerous predator of other animals.

Moreover, I thought that we are also the only species that kills themself (i.e. there are zero mosquitos killing other mosquitos), instead this is not 100% correct. Scimpanze, from which we derive, kills other isolated scimpanze of other groups, for protecting the borders of their territories, and more rarely they have organized wars with other groups. The same for Wolfs, but probably less than Scimpanze. The records for mammals is for Meerkats: 19% of all the deaths of Meerkats are done by mothers killing the newborns of other mothers. Male lions have the the same behavior, but with lower numbers. Prehistoric humans estimate are: 5% of deaths caused by homicide/wars. So, we are in a very restricted category of self killing species, but this behavior is also in Scimpanze. So it is also biological, not only cultural.

With the excuse that it is biological, I propose some coordinate actions at Linux meetups. At the signal, when Strauss's "Also sprach Zarathustra" start, we will extract the bone club!
:)
 
I believe that a lot of predators kill each other in battles over territory. I do remember from one study of captive wolves, that males would fight till one gave up, while females tended to fight to the death. Lions, after taking over a pride will kill cubs, and male domestic cats kill kittens. The list is pretty endless, the difference being that people know there's something wrong with it, while other predators are acting from instinctive drives. Probably so are people, look how successful evil people are at creating an enemy. I think it was a Roman dictator to put it into words first, that give the people an enemy and you can rule them. I suspect everyone reading this can think of an example in their own country
Lyndon Johnson once said

“If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.” ​

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Ironically, he did quite a bit for civil rights, but if you look at the hatred for various groups by various other groups in the US today, you can draw your own conclusions. Note how many donations for hate groups come from people who can't afford it, but can't bear to give up a chance to go after whoever they hate.
 
scottro said:
I do remember from one study of captive wolves, that males would fight till one gave up, while females tended to fight to the death. Lions, after taking over a pride will kill cubs, and male domestic cats kill kittens.
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This is not only because of whose genes will pass on, but it's also about regulation of population.
Under certain circumstances some insects commit suicide or eat their own eggs and breed. Some birds like storks kill and eat their own young.
When you are at the top of the food chain there is nobody above to regulate you, so you have to regulate yourself. Animals know nothing about birth control, so all they can do is to kill the living, which in many cases by the The dreadful algebra of necessity means their young.
Otherwise if you keep on growing unregulated finally your population grows too large and your habitat cannot provide enough food for everybody anymore. Starvation is a gruesome because long and very painful death.
Since in our overfeeded "avoiding regulations first-world" there always is everywhere more than enough food available, so most have forgotten such basic fundamentals of nature, and keep on growing unegulated, telling you they will always share their food with their dog, while dreaming of settling on Mars, just to keep on endless growing.
 
Making suicides was/is common in tribes when they do not have enough food. Aborigine did the same.
But it is difference between killing in the animals world or in human. Just look what happened in Kongo when was "civilized" Belgium there.
 
Humans are the best thing in existence. If you are a human, love yourself and live as long as you can. Don't let anybody convince you about any other shit. Only humans create music, art, novels, movies, cities, love...
 
Maturin said:
Who are you referring to?
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Must be this
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AlfredoLlaquet said:
Humans are the best thing in existence. If you are a human, love yourself and live as long as you can. Don't let anybody convince you about any other shit. Only humans create music, art, novels, movies, cities, love...
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One example which I personal know:

They were storks couple which mate for all life. They build home on the chimney house and they met each other on one garden under apple tree. Short love story. They came back 8 years on the same chimney and they had chicks all the time. The nine year he came by himself. He was nervous. He hang on the garden under apple tree but she didn't come. Three years he waited for his missing partner on the garden under apple tree. The forth year he found another "wife" and they had chicks. And they are together still.
It is the true story and I know them.
 
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