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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>John Clark<br><b><span style='color:#1F497D'>…</span></b></span><o:p></o:p></p><div><div><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>>…</span>ideas/theories that cannot, in principle, be falsified have no place<span style='color:#1F497D'> </span>in science.<span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>In principle you could surgically attach fiberglass antlers that were 9 feet wide and weighed 90 ponds onto a modern elk, the animal would get them for free and wouldn't have to pay the metabolic cost of growing them each year as a Irish Elk did; but even so I don't think you'd have to wait long to observe a drop in survival rates compared with elk without the huge prosthesis. If the experiment has not been done it's only because it would violate cruelty to animals laws, and attaching such a monstrosity to a elk really would be cruel<span style='color:#1F497D'>…</span> John K Clark <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt'> </span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Oh no, better idea. Get one of these dudes, dress him up to look like a modern elk, give him an enormous strap-on:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8YjvHYbZ9w">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8YjvHYbZ9w</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>No dammit not that kind, I meant antlers. Huge ones. Send him out among his small-antlered carbon units, see if the elk chicks dig him. Perhaps we will see one of those weird signals where the elk chicks in estrus hang around with him, but when not fertile they hang with their small-antlered compatriots. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>spike <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>