Miland:

ceigered:

Rogir:unfortunately brains are seldom conserved in fossils.

Mine couldn't be fossilised anyway - I lost it long ago

You can manage without a brain? Excellent! Just the sort of supporter our political party is looking for ..

Awesome! Where can I sign up to mindlessly support your party?

ceigered:

Miland:

ceigered:

Rogir:unfortunately brains are seldom conserved in fossils.

Mine couldn't be fossilised anyway - I lost it long ago

You can manage without a brain? Excellent! Just the sort of supporter our political party is looking for ..

Awesome! Where can I sign up to mindlessly support your party?

Happily, I'm not a supporter of any party right now, so you are free, free - well not quite. I understand that Australian law compels you to vote. But here's a question: if voting is compulsory under Aussie law, how do they prevent you spoiling your ballot paper? Is it effectively compulsory just to turn up to the polling station in that case?

Rogir:I think that the capability of language in humans was evolved, not invented. So it will be hard if not impossible to speak of a first language, and unfortunately brains are seldom conserved in fossils.

In my experience, brains are usually covered in trivia, which is very tricky to carbon date.

Miland:

ceigered:

Miland:

ceigered:

Rogir:unfortunately brains are seldom conserved in fossils.

Mine couldn't be fossilised anyway - I lost it long ago

You can manage without a brain? Excellent! Just the sort of supporter our political party is looking for ..

Awesome! Where can I sign up to mindlessly support your party?

Happily, I'm not a supporter of any party right now, so you are free, free - well not quite. I understand that Australian law compels you to vote. But here's a question: if voting is compulsory under Aussie law, how do they prevent you spoiling your ballot paper? Is it effectively compulsory just to turn up to the polling station in that case?

I don't think there is any decent way to prevent the spoiling of ballot papers apart from using clearer instruction - it is illegal to incite people to "vote informal" however (I think there was a cheeky person who created "vote #1 informal" signs akin to the signs like "vote #1 rudd", dunno what happened to him/her/them though). Basically it's just compulsory to turn up, get your name signed off at the polling booth (commonly in a community rec centre) and then put the vote in, or so I hope as I will have to vote next election and I've never done it before so if I'm missing something it's quite a worry)

enwilson:.. brains are usually covered in trivia, which is very tricky to carbon date.

Have you read of this new hydroxylation dating method which heats clay pots and weighs the amount of water driven off, that they combined with over many centuries? Of course, you need a crackpot to begin with..