Inverness, that’s absolutely fascinating. I’ve always been fond of the little buggers and this just adds another reason to my “checklist of things to say when people react to cicadas with insect-fearing disgust.”
Sorry for the hijack… err, all I can really say with regards to the OP is that I don’t understand it either. In my experience, people who steadfastly refuse to believe that evolution occurs have either never studied population biology, or have gotten all of their biology out of fundamentalist propaganda. YMMV, of course.
Thanks 5-HT,
Turns out older dutch has cognates; bol, bul and bulle.
Ags. also has ‘bulluc’ for a male calf.
Steer has a more common Indo-European origin, it would appear.
Compare lat. ‘taurus’ and gr. ‘tauros’. Or even older as some semitic languages also have similar words as aramaic ‘tor’.
…Oh, dammit!
Apparently the bible states that different languages only arose with the construction of the tower of Babylon!
That was, what? around 750 B.C.?
There goes the science of linguistics.
Since this the the Straight Dope, I am only constrained by the factual nature of my statements, not by any erroneous beliefs of others. Since johnny miles has not yet made the false claim for which Jack Chick is so renowned, I will not assume that he is a vector for such calumny.
My post was an honest attempt to have a better understanding of what the lack of a “missing link” means for evolution. To those who helped me better get the idea such as TVAA and Darwin’s Finch. . . and yes even you Joe, thanks.
I had no intention of using “spout” to anger anyone. Oh and Joe? I am very open minded and presently claim neither “side of the fence”. So settle down.
Those who do not accept evolution do not understand it fully. They think it nonsense that man descended from the apes. When you explain that Darwin did not say that, there is no more question, and most people can understand that apes are in fact related to humans, just not descended from them.
Around here, there’s a guy who’s written a book called “Answers In Genesis”. He is a biblical ineranist, and he buys radio spots to “explain” why so many people are so wrong about so many things. I sometimes listen to him because I find him amusing. He was just talking about Evolution vs Creationism the other day, and his explanation went something like this: “Evolutionists and Creationists are working from the same facts. But what Evolutionists ignore is the fact that only Creationism is backed up by The Word Of God. We know the Bible is The Word Of God, because The Bible says so”. I love circular logic!
