MAY 30th - The Secret of the Ooze

In another recent-history post, on this day last year, scientists revealed a new study suggesting turtles evolved in a shell 40 million years before what was originally thought. If we ignore the wiggle room built into that statement (suggested?), there are two interesting take-a-ways. One is the turtle is obviously much faster than we give it credit for. 40 million years ahead of schedule; that's pretty damn fast. Secondly, if these scientists were this wrong about turtles, what else could they be wrong about. I realize that in the grand scheme of the 4.5 billion years that the earth has been spinning, 40 million years isn't all that much. But it's still a pretty significant amount. In comparison, when I wrote friendly advice to Bill Gates about possibly getting some more stylish eyewear and suggested that this friendly advice should be rewarded in the form of monetary gifts totaling around 40 million dollars, he didn't go for it. His glasses arguably got more stylish, but I saw not a penny of that 40 million, and Bill Gates is worth 76 billion dollars. That's because 40 million is a pretty significant number. Which brings me back to my point. How do we know that the Flintstones wasn't a true story? Or that Ice Age movie where the wooly mammoth is living at the same time as the dinosaurs. That might have been true as well. I mean every thing we knew about evolution is up in the air now. More importantly though, what effect, exactly, does this have on the new Teenage a Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. Does Leonardo realize that he is even further along on the turtle evolution chart? Will Megan Fox subtly change April O' Neil's motivation to include the knowledge that turtles had shells 40 million years before we thought they did? Does Megan Fox have that capability? Does Michael Bay care? Will Bill Gates ever give me 40 million dollars?

This day has been Marked.

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