<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Oct 20, 2015 at 1:35 PM, rex <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:rex@nosyntax.net" target="_blank">rex@nosyntax.net</a>></span> wrote:</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><span class="">>    <font size="4">you can make theories about the past and some theories are<br></font></span><font size="4"><span class="">
>    more plausible than others. The theory that the Irish Elk's gargantuan<br></span><span class="">
>    antlers played no part in its extinction is not plausible.</span></font></blockquote><span class="">
<br>
</span><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">​> ​</div>Worse, it's not testable and thus outside the realm of science. Put it in the<br>
bin of sterile idle philosophical speculation.<br></blockquote><div><br></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="4">​I guess you'd have to put Darwin's theory in that same ​bin of <span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"> </span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">idle philosophical speculation.</span></font></div></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br></span></div><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex" class="gmail_quote"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">​> ​</div>There IS solid evidence that suggests the horns played no significant<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">​ ​</div></span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px">role, e.g., a plot of body weight vs horn size for various deer shows<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">​ ​</div></span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px">the IE right on the best least-squares fit. The 'huge' horns turn out<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">​ ​</div></span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px">to be an artifact of the way the human mind sees the world.</span></blockquote><div><br></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:12.8px;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">​</div><font size="4">There IS solid evidence that suggests<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">​ that Irish Elk had ​no </div>significant<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">​ horns, or insignificant horns, or horns of any sort </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">whatsoever. </div><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Irish Elk<div class="gmail_default" style="display:inline">​ had antlers.</div></span></font></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><div class="gmail_default" style="display:inline"><font size="4"><br></font></div></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><div class="gmail_default" style="display:inline"><font size="4"> John K Clark</font></div></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"><br></div></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">​</div></span> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><br></blockquote><div><br></div><div><br></div><div> </div></div></div></div>