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Originally Posted by mikey_the_redneck
Evolution sure happens fast! Every year there are new killer bugs for us.
I am actually quite scared now, all these viruses everywhere mutating and jumping from species to species.........we are all going to die!
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To give you an idea of evolution in viruses, the Aids virus changes so fast upon infection that your immune system can never keep up with the changes and can never clear your body of the viruses. One of the problems with developing a vaccine for the Aids virus is that it changes it surface protein structures so quickly that it doesn't match an introduced vaccine and your bodies natural antibodies don't recognize the changes viral coats in your body. And when you infect a new person, your practically introducing him to a new strain of the virus that constantly shifts with each generation. The insideous thing about the Aids virus is its a relatively slow killer which gives it a greater opportunity to spread. The problem (so to speak with the aids virus) is that its a fairly fragile virus that doesn't survive long outside of the body.
With Ebola, another virus it changes and mutates fairly rapidly as well. There was a theory that this virus which spreads through fluid transfer made the jump to an airborne contagien in one case which is truly terrifying. The problem with Ebola as an infectious agent is it has a short incubation period and its a tremendously effective and fast killer so the infections tend to burn out very quickly.
With Influenza viruses and cold viruses they mutate right from the first generation of infection and shift very rapidly. The reason why they're very effective is that they can transmit through the air and they have a long period of time before they show frank symptoms which means that upon infection your passing the bug before you even know that your sick. And again the virus that you infect someone with is slightly different or mutated from the one that you were infected with.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mikey_the_redneck
To those commenting on the "value of a good education"...
Our education system does not teach kids to think, it prepares them for the work force, nothing more.
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Wrong completely wrong. Education is there to give us a tool kit its up to the individual to use those tools. If you don't think that modern math courses or modern high school social history courses or biology courses or physics course or chemistry course don't teach you to think, then you really wasted your time in school. Did you have course options that taught you to get ready for the work force? Absolutely, in fact I went to a school that offered a dry cleaning management course. But schools biggest priority is to get you ready for post secondary education.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mikey_the_redneck
If you guys want to believe that our institutions or the establishment has our best interests at heart, you are fools.......
The German people of WW2 era thought Hitler had their best interests in mind too.
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Unfounded paranoia will destroy ya.