The very many questions-not-worth-their-own-thread question thread XXIII

[hobbsyoyo]

In this case the perspective is a function if the definitions we choose to use

 

[Borachio]

Fine. I just like to play around with different ways of looking at things.

 

[Farm Boy]

How's that mirror on the ceiling of your bedroom working out Mr. B?

 

[Borachio]

Whoa! I used to have one of those! But I got bored with it. And besides it gives the cleaning lady the wrong idea about me. I'm not really like that. No.

 

[warpus]

I had one of those too, but it's hard to shave lying down in bed, so I took it down

 

[Chukchi Husky]

Animal kingdom parasites have just found an efficient way to gain resources: by stealing them from other animals or plants. Thats how evolution works - a species carves out a niche for itself usually centered around how it obtains energy. Parasites simply follow a parasitic route to doing that.

To continue to exist and pass on their genes to their descendents, as with all living things.

That was what I was thinking, but those answers aren't going to work.

 

[Leoreth]

I would answer that this is a dumb question. Why would parasites need a purpose? What's the purpose of humans, or anything really?

 

[Quackers]

That was my first thought too Leo. I don't think humanity has a purpose we are just the outcome of evolution and the same goes for parasites.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

I would answer that this is a dumb question. Why would parasites need a purpose? What's the purpose of humans, or anything really?

The only reason they could think of for the purpose of parasites is to make people God fearing.

 

[Lohrenswald]

The only reason they could think of for the purpose of parasites is to make people God fearing.

"They" again? Just go get better friends.

 

[Arakhor]

Let's not have one of these stupid conversations again, eh?

 

[Quackers]

Why not? It's fun to be so perplexed about Husky's mate's opinions. They are terrible.

 

[Arakhor]

It's like most internet arguments. It's a waste of time and everyone goes away poorer.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Nope, I always go away postcount +n richer.

 

[Borachio]

Parasites don't aim to kill their host.

They may.

Some species of ichneumon wasps lay their eggs in the ground, but most inject them directly into a host's body, typically into a larva or pupa. Host information has been notably summed up by J.F. Aubert, et al.[3]

In some of the largest species, namely from the genera Megarhyssa and Rhyssa, both sexes will wander over the surfaces of logs and tree trunks, tapping with their antennae. Each sex does so for a different reason; females are searching for the scent of wood-boring larvae of the horntail wasps (hymenopteran family Siricidae) upon which to lay eggs; males are searching for emerging females with which to mate.

Upon sensing the vibrations emitted by a wood-boring host, the female wasp will drill her ovipositor into the substrate until it reaches the cavity wherein lies the host. She then injects an egg through the hollow tube into the body cavity. There, the egg will hatch and the resulting larva will devour its host before emergence.

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

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

I was thinking more of parasites that were such for their entire lifetime.

 

[Borachio]

OK. But that's a subset of parasites as a whole, I think.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

A rather major subset that I'd wager that most parasites of concern to humans would be of that category.

 

[Leoreth]

The only reason they could think of for the purpose of parasites is to make people God fearing.

Tell them they're wrong then.

 

[Borachio]

Ask them what the purpose of the appendix is in human beings.