[Suicide Junkie]

How about this quote: "Structure, metamorphism, sedimentary reworking, and other complications have to be considered. Radiometric dating would not have been feasible if the geologic column had not been erected first." (O�Rourke, J. E., "Pragmatism versus Materialism in Stratigraphy," American Journal of Science, vol. 276 (January 1976), p. 54) What does that mean, then? That radiometric dating doesn't really matter; it's the strata that determine the age? Or if strata age and radiometric age conflict (which should never happen, if the geologic column were correct), the rock age wins?

I read that to mean that the geological information was used to help calibrate the radiometric scale...
Just like using tree rings...
This tree was X years old when it died, and the radiometric result is Y.Z

So when you do send an object to a lab for dating, and the radiometric result is Y.Z, it is about X years old.

How radiocarbon calibration works
http://www.rlaha.ox.ac.uk/orau/01_04.htm
As I understand it:
- The red line is the measured value in the sample.
- The blue line is the measured values for objects from that point in history.
- The black area is the likelihood that the sample came from that year.

No, the point of the question is whether survival is an individual or a species-wide instinct. Do organisms try to save themselves or save their kind?

Take some critters. The only difference is that one group protects their children and/or immediate family (not nessesarily the entire group, even, while the other is self-centered.

Predators pick off the wnadering children of the uncaring group, while they face the wrath of mature critters of the kind group.
Which one will do better after a few generations?

[ December 11, 2002, 19:31: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]