[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 ]