# pseudotriton ruber ruber: ignorant and intellectually dishonest is no way to go through life **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 31, 2011, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudotriton-ruber-ruber-ignorant-and-intellectually-dishonest-is-no-way-to-go-through-life/594768 "2011-08-31T17:31:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudotriton-ruber-ruber-ignorant-and-intellectually-dishonest-is-no-way-to-go-through-life/594768/21 "2011-09-01T16:20:28Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > That’s your basic Pseudotriton ruber. I can’t tell from the picture if it is P.r. ruber, P.r.nitidus, P.r.schencki, or P.r. vioscai. Schencki. I can state that with authority because I have the God Given Ability to _read links_. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudotriton-ruber-ruber-ignorant-and-intellectually-dishonest-is-no-way-to-go-through-life/594768/22 "2011-09-01T16:22:38Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > The whole thing was so silly anyway. If there was a magic genie/time traveler/whatever who was bringing historical figures to your dinner party, how specific would you need to be. It was kind of odd. Time travel, yes; an historically identifiable Jesus, no. Seemed rather a case of straining at a gnat but swallowing a camel, to quote someone **prr** would deny said it. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudotriton-ruber-ruber-ignorant-and-intellectually-dishonest-is-no-way-to-go-through-life/594768/23 "2011-09-01T16:36:24Z")
> [@Mtgman](#): > > I’m genuinely puzzled as to why you care how this pit thread goes. He’s been shown to be a recalcitrant debater in all things religious, really not much different from **Der Trihs** and the more energy one spends on arguing with him, or talking about him in general, is less energy one has for something more pleasant. So the goal of this thread isn’t to rehabilitate the man, that’s been shown to be fruitless, and the OP let off the steam he came here to let off, so why shouldn’t it devolve, or perhaps even evolve, into something which people learn from? > > Enjoy, > Steven I think she’s saying it would be a shame to waste a perfectly good opportunity to vent one’s true feelings about **prr** , so please don’t let her down. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudotriton-ruber-ruber-ignorant-and-intellectually-dishonest-is-no-way-to-go-through-life/594768/24 "2011-09-01T16:41:26Z")
> [@Mtgman](#): > > I can! It’s a P.r.schencki. Those have the very distinctive feature of having names in the URLs for their picture files. Well, that and the black coloration on the chin. But mostly the name in the URL. > > Enjoy, > Steven > [@JohnT](#): > > Schencki. > > I can state that with authority because I have the God Given Ability to _read links_. 😉 :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudotriton-ruber-ruber-ignorant-and-intellectually-dishonest-is-no-way-to-go-through-life/594768/25 "2011-09-01T16:48:32Z")
> [@gallows\_fodder](#): > > I think she’s saying it would be a shame to waste a perfectly good opportunity to vent one’s true feelings about **prr** , so please don’t let her down. Yes, thank you that’s exactly what I’m saying. My dear friend **prr** wouldn’t want anything less. Don’t let me down. Don’t let him down. Don’t let yourself down. ---
**Author:** ![Wilson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@Wilson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wilson)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudotriton-ruber-ruber-ignorant-and-intellectually-dishonest-is-no-way-to-go-through-life/594768/26 "2011-09-01T18:30:57Z")
Don’t let Jesus down. Don’t let AMERICA down! ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudotriton-ruber-ruber-ignorant-and-intellectually-dishonest-is-no-way-to-go-through-life/594768/27 "2011-09-01T20:33:56Z")
What the hey - this is the latest from the original thread: > [@Jesus Christ as your fantasy dinner guest](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-christ-as-your-fantasy-dinner-guest/593476/158): > > This amounts to an admission that you can’t describe Jesus in a way that is 100% accurate and specific enough to limit it to him and him alone. You’re right! So?? I mean, JC, assuming he lived, lived 2000 years ago, and the earliest accounts of his life were written ~40 years after his death. OF COURSE they’re going to be 100% accurate! > [@](#): > > You could describe your wife that way (and you wouldn’t get her eye color wrong) so why would I allow a do-over, or a certain number of errors, in describing Jesus or Odysseus or Arthur? Because, you know, they lived thousands of years ago, assuming they lived, and the people who wrote about them were writing a good while later. No matter how real the subjects, to expect 100% accuracy from the Evangelists, or Homer, or Malory, or whoever, is absurd. > [@](#): > > I find it comical that you’re not willing to try, even to try to come up with a provisional definition in which I can’t easily find some historical, factual or logical errors. Oh, if it’s YOU who has to come up with those errors, I’m good, no problem. I can come up with a very exact description that YOU can’t disprove. I thought we were talking about the powerful, time-traveling, all-knowing entity who would judge the factual accuracy of my list. But if we’re only talking about you, I could pretend this muffin was Jesus, and you’d be SOL. > [@](#): > > I’m starting to think that Christians don’t actually believe in Jesus’s existence at all, and that they’re really into it for social reasons, family pressures, desires to conform, or to feel superior to non-Christians. And I’m starting to think you’re a waste of carbon. > [@](#): > > It sure doesn’t sound like there’s very much about Jesus himself you’re certain about. As a Christian, I’m certain that he’s God. As a rational person, I quite realize that while may well have said, for instance, that he who humbles himself will be exalted and he who exalts himself will be humbled, there’s always a decent chance that he may not have said that particular thing. But as long as the essence of the Gospel story is right, that’s what matters, rather than whether I can pick out six or seven facts that identify Jesus and only Jesus, that all happened. I mean, who are you to say what should determine, for me, whether my belief in Jesus is on a sound footing? I have my reasons for believing; you have your reasons for not believing. Oddly enough, they’re not the same, and we’re not even using the same standards. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudotriton-ruber-ruber-ignorant-and-intellectually-dishonest-is-no-way-to-go-through-life/594768/28 "2011-09-01T20:39:04Z")
And prr, I find your continued unwillingness to intellectually justify your standards pretty compelling. All you do is assert the truth of your value system. IOW, you’re indistinguishable, in this regard, from a religious fundamentalist. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudotriton-ruber-ruber-ignorant-and-intellectually-dishonest-is-no-way-to-go-through-life/594768/29 "2011-09-01T20:51:48Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > And prr, I find your continued unwillingness to intellectually justify your standards pretty compelling. > > All you do is assert the truth of your value system. IOW, you’re indistinguishable, in this regard, from a religious fundamentalist. Or my wife. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudotriton-ruber-ruber-ignorant-and-intellectually-dishonest-is-no-way-to-go-through-life/594768/30 "2011-09-01T20:53:55Z")
Y’know, if you all pooled your allowances and paper route money, you can pay him to go away. There’s precedent. ---
**Author:** ![Bri2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/48db29/32.png) [@Bri2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bri2k)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudotriton-ruber-ruber-ignorant-and-intellectually-dishonest-is-no-way-to-go-through-life/594768/31 "2011-09-01T21:03:25Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > Pseudotriton ruber ruber is the scientific name of the northern red salamander. Ruber means red. The northern one is really, really red. Thank you that was most helpful. And here the whole time I thought he’d just typo’d rubber twice. Not that that would make any more sense. Those little salamanders are very cute! Bri2k ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudotriton-ruber-ruber-ignorant-and-intellectually-dishonest-is-no-way-to-go-through-life/594768/32 "2011-09-01T21:37:20Z")
> [@Bri2k](#): > > Thank you that was most helpful. And here the whole time I thought he’d just typo’d rubber twice. Not that that would make any more sense. > > Those little salamanders are very cute! > > Bri2k I’m glad you found it helpful. To clarify, just in case, my “really, really red” line was a lame joke. The way species naming ends up with three names, one of which is repeated, is like this. Someone finds a specimen of a species that has not yet been described. He names it. The first name is the genus and is capitalized, and the second name is the species and is lower case. So, someone found a red salamander that wasn’t in the books and called it Pseudotriton ruber. Then someone found some more red salamanders that were a lot like Pseudotriton ruber, but were different enough to justify being called a subspecies. Lets say the new specimens were named by or for someone named Schenk (see my head-slap above). That would make the new subspecies Pseudotriton ruber schenki, and the first-named species would become Pseudotriton ruber ruber. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudotriton-ruber-ruber-ignorant-and-intellectually-dishonest-is-no-way-to-go-through-life/594768/33 "2011-09-01T22:03:24Z")
Huh. And all this time I thought that _Gerbillus gerbillus_ had a funny double name just because somebody thought gerbils were cute. True story time: when I was a kid I saw an aquarium full of gerbils (the Mongolian type favoured as pets) at the Agrignon Zoo (as it was then known). The various adults and juveniles were clustered in the corners, except for one completely pink and hairless newborn in the exact center, who was flailing his tiny limbs in an effort to roll off his back and get to his feet. No sooner had he succeeded when an adult casually hopped up to him and shoved him over again. This strangely formative memory has been with me for well over 30 years, now. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudotriton-ruber-ruber-ignorant-and-intellectually-dishonest-is-no-way-to-go-through-life/594768/34 "2011-09-01T22:39:31Z")
Wait a minute, you went to a pet store where they were drowning gerbils? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudotriton-ruber-ruber-ignorant-and-intellectually-dishonest-is-no-way-to-go-through-life/594768/35 "2011-09-01T22:57:06Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Wait a minute, you went to a pet store where they were drowning gerbils? Well, there are at least two things wrong with this question… ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudotriton-ruber-ruber-ignorant-and-intellectually-dishonest-is-no-way-to-go-through-life/594768/36 "2011-09-01T22:59:48Z")
Well, I know that it’s kind of weird to refer to a zoo as a pet store, but what’s the other thing wrong? ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudotriton-ruber-ruber-ignorant-and-intellectually-dishonest-is-no-way-to-go-through-life/594768/37 "2011-09-01T23:03:38Z")
Gerbil Drowning™ is a reference to…two…too…er, best not to say. But it’s not good…not good at all… -XT ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudotriton-ruber-ruber-ignorant-and-intellectually-dishonest-is-no-way-to-go-through-life/594768/38 "2011-09-01T23:24:56Z")
Okay, fine, I used the word “aquarium” as a generic term to describe a parallelapiped container with glass or glass-like walls. As far as I know there’s no requirement that it actually be filled with water (as opposed to gerbils). I chuckled at elucidator’s unexpected response, though. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudotriton-ruber-ruber-ignorant-and-intellectually-dishonest-is-no-way-to-go-through-life/594768/39 "2011-09-01T23:55:19Z")
At all of the pet stores I’ve been to, the piranhas tear the gerbils to shreds before they get a chance to drown. ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudotriton-ruber-ruber-ignorant-and-intellectually-dishonest-is-no-way-to-go-through-life/594768/40 "2011-09-02T00:09:29Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Okay, fine, I used the word “aquarium” as a generic term to describe a parallelapiped container with glass or glass-like walls. As far as I know there’s no requirement that it actually be filled with water (as opposed to gerbils). Except for like, the aqua part. Other than that, sure. I understand your thinking though. One time I went to a planetarium and it was actually a shark tank! Boy you should have seen the look on my face. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudotriton-ruber-ruber-ignorant-and-intellectually-dishonest-is-no-way-to-go-through-life/594768.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudotriton-ruber-ruber-ignorant-and-intellectually-dishonest-is-no-way-to-go-through-life/594768.md?page=3)