RE: Totally OT natural selection question

["Stewart, Dwight" <Dwight.Stewart@VLSI.com>]

Don't worry, Larry.  One would hope that compassion in
alledged higher animals is a trait that could productively be
preserved.  A "compassionate" tyrannosaur would have, 
perhaps, proven to be a liability, but it's downright refreshing
in homo sapiens!  IMHO

Dwight

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Larry Dunn [SMTP:majestic_cheese@yahoo.com]
> Sent: Thursday, August 13, 1998 1:08 PM
> To:   dinosaur@usc.edu
> Subject:      Totally OT natural selection question
> 
> Sorry to post this unrelated-to-birds question here, but since natural
> selection has been discussed lately...
> 
> Last night there was a ruckus on my commuter train into Westchester --
> evidently something horrible had wandered onto the train.
> 
> I was curious and saw people aghast at a cicada which had somehow
> boarded the train, presumably in Westchester, and had then ridden the
> train all the way into Manhattan, presumably waiting for the
> opportunity to return home.  
> 
> (Presumably no one had noticed it earlier because it was semi-dormant
> from the air conditioning and thus blended in perfectly with the
> commuters.)
> 
> It survived silly, near-hysterical adults and several very nasty,
> murder-bent children, so I thought it deserved a break.  I picked it
> up and let it off at my stop (it appeared almost friendly, and tooled
> about happily across my hand) and put it in a bush.
> 
> Did I do something wrong?
> 
> (I wonder about this too when I rescue worms that come out onto the
> concrete on city sidewalks and put them into soft earth (people look
> at me like I'm mental)).  
> 
> Am I doing my little bit to hurt these species?  Are these animals
> transferring dopey genes onto the next generation, so that a whole
> mess of misguided cicadas and worms will be around next year (or in 17
> years as the case may be)?
> 
> Well, maybe it's not so off-topic after all.  Substitute the train for
> a bolide and cicadas for dinosaurs and me for an intervening asteroid
> that knocks the bolide off course and . . . ok it's totally OT.
> 
> Any thoughts?
> ==
> Larry
> 
> "Atheism -- a non-prophet organization"
> 
> http://members.tripod.com/~megalania/index.html
> 
> 
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