Concrete, you on Skype tomorrow?

^I'm free for a few hours if any of you wanna talk right now.

Yeah ill be on, If anyone else on the site is on and has me on skype ill make a group chat (if thats ok with everyone)

I've been on and off so much and I haven't been on for months at a time like I used to, I don't even know what's been goin on.

Oh, and bad apple I've posted in our spar.

You didn't miss anything big. I think several people almost died and one decided to be a woman. The usual.


EDIT: So, Bloo, a few new kpop things...

EXO comeback and pretty much the first song I like from them.

Miss A comeback, pretty good, not amazing, but much better than their previous release.

This pretty great song and this pretty good song from a group that debuted in February and I only found out about them because I saw a photoshoot and luckily I thought they were someone else but wasn't sure, so I looked it up. Fucking miracles. The first song also features Mad Clown, whom you may know from his collaboration with Soyu from Sistar.

Also Red Velvet had a comeback recently but even though the song is great, I didn't like how it's just SNSD voices + f(x) style. I mean they were debuted with a completely new concept and then stripped of all individuality. Which is pretty shit. Also they added a new member. For no reason.

You know what pisses me off? When some fifteen year old who bases all of his Zoological information off of Godzilla, and argues that the Tyrannosaurus-Rex's brain recently "turned out to be bigger, and it is the smartest Dinosaur", which is completely and total bullshit.

You know what makes it worse? They are telling me I am the one in error, even though I link recent, academic articles by actual Paleontologists. the Tyrannosaurus-Rex could not physically have a larger brain than previously thought, because there is literally no room for it.

http://www.dinosaurfact.net/Extinctpictures/Brainfunctions.jpg

Note the large open cavities in the skull which make it physically impossible for it to have a significantly larger brain than previously indicated, which is backed up by recent 3D scans of the interior of the skull by Paleontologists in conjunction with modern Zoologoists and the designers of the machines used.

Yet, because he is the biggest Godzilla fan ever, he is obviously right. Lets see... which one of us has been academically studying Paleontological studies for more than a decade? Which one of us has actually held his own in a conversation with real Paleontologists, who then encouraged you to follow your dream of getting a Doctorate in Paleontology because "You have what it takes"?

Hmmm... oh wait! I know the answer! It's me! :D

EDIT: Now they just made the argument that "Dogs are better than Cats, because Dogs can kill people and I hate Cats", all based upon the fact they had one Cat, that they didn't actually understand because they thought they could be a dick to it and it would still love them, like how dogs will love you no matter how cruel you are to them. I sincerely hope they are featured in Darwin Awards type article or book.

If brain size was the best indication of how smart an animal is, then the sperm whale would be the smartest animal and birds would be some of the dumbest.

But we know that this isn't true, the T-rex IS considered one of the smartest dinosaurs second only too Theropods (specifically dromaeosaurids). Estimates using BEQ and REQ approximation show that the T-rex probably had one of the largest brains of all dinosaurs.

The bigger issue is that we don't have an dinosaurs to base this off, we cant go out and test cognitive ability like we can with fish or birds. We understand that brain size doesn't always corrolate to cognitive ability as some birds demonstrate incredible amounts of brain power, even the ability to ask existential questions (The grey parrot who asked what colour it was.)

We can only base these assumptions of Dino intelligence off fossil records and deriving ideas based on current animal brains, which we know itself can be a very deep and philosophical debate.

So honestly, your friend has as much right as anyone to make the statement that the T-rex was the smartest dinosaur. What evidence other than brain size do we have to say he's wrong? We know that brain size is often a poor indicator of how intelligent a life form is.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_(parrot)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encephalization_quotient

http://www.5z8.info/racist_j5q6jr_yourdick

This discussion is getting intresting...

An important fact is that the Tyrannosaurus had low visual capability. This means that the brain was dedicated to another function, likely the hippocampus. Of course, I can't make that assumption, but we can assume that the brain of the T-Rex is unlike the brain of birds of prey as we formerly assumed.

Its not necessarily the size, but rather what it's dedicated too. Perhaps the T-Rex had great memory, or prossesing power. We don't know.

See that's the thing, the Trex had some of the best vision ever known, being up to 16x more powerful than a humans.

Sources: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1671/0272-4634%282006%2926%5B321%3ABVITD%5D2.0.CO%3B2#.VSB10F3F8dU
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.2307/4017288/abstract;jsessionid=2AF27A9460853572857438C8F21CEE6B.f02t01
http://ix.cs.uoregon.edu/~kent/paleontology/binocularVision/

These fuckers were the best.

@SR: Your friend is talking about the Godzillasaurus. Not only does it have a bigass head to go along with with its fatass body, but it also has two brains.

@DW: Oh shit, I didn't see your edit. Yeah I agree about Miss A. Rubbersoul reminds me a lot of the music scene in late '90s - early '00s America (not that that's a bad thing, I like them too). I like the first song a lot more.

And speaking of Mad Clown, yeah I thought he sounded familiar, it might have been from Sistar (though I haven't listened to them in months...) since I haven't listened to Soyou before. She sounds good too.

Anyway, I just heard of EXO and Red Velvet two days ago; I was looking through a music blog and saw their new releases Exodus and Ice Cream Cake there, but I haven't listened to those yet.

Two brains? So it can play Archon mode by itself?

Also heh, now that you find out about stuff by yourself I feel like I have nothing to talk about again.

Nah, you should seriously keep giving me recommendations anyway. I don't think you've ever given me a song I didn't like, so I trust your taste.

@Concrete: That's a very good point, and I really shouldn't have said he was wrong as if I was definitely right. I was mostly venting because said person has been annoying and countering everything I say with the opposite belief to whatever I happen to have said, for no apparent reason other than to piss me off since they admittedly don't actually follow/practice/believe most of the stuff they are saying, though they totally believe themselves to be a Dinosaur expert because they don't like Jurassic Park, which I suppose almost makes sense due to some seeming inaccuracies for cinematic save face stuff.

Arguing for arguments sake is pretty much the vibe I've been getting over the last few days.

But your points are legit, and my problem isn't that T-Rex was intelligent(I think it was), my problem was with their statement that the Tyrannosaurus was the most intelligent of all Dinosaurs ever(which I kind of doubt).

They also have been saying the Stegosaurus's brain is no way as small as it is said to be by Paleontologists because they personally think it is impossible, even though the size of the brain itself isn't really up for debate. They... they just kind of confuse and frustrate me.

But yeah, T-Rex was legit, super eyes, super nose, and adorable tiny arms.

CONCRETE. YOU LIKE DINOSAURS. JESUS FUCK. WHY DID YOU NOT TELL ME THIS SOONER?

Huh, latest I had heard they were fucking blind because the shape of their brain inferred that their visual cortex was small. The more you know.

And I'm sure the most intelligent dinosaur was in the raptor family. I mean, I couldn't know, but from what I've heard expects believe that they were pretty fucking advanced, even in comparison to many modern animals. Then again, we can't really know. There's so many conflicting theories, and we can't just look at a skeleton and decide if they were intelligent or not. At this point, we're all speculating.

Eh. That tends to be overstated. Raptors probably weren't THAT intelligent. Smart by dinosaur standards, maybe, but not the hyper-intelligent near-sapient level they're portrayed as in fiction.

EDIT: HOLY SHIT. TREAD CAREFULLY, DEATHDROP... TREAD CAREFULLY...

Well, I'm no fan of Jurassic Park, but I think that they were probably as intelligent as modern birds. Perhaps not parrots, but there are alot of smart birds.

Get on skype people