h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Democracy is always right. Please vote on the following possible answers:

a chicken
b egg
c there was no first chicken: 'chicken' is a hopelessly vague category that merges seamlessly into others over evolutionary time
d they were both there at the Big Bang, along with everything else past present and future
e flying spaghetti monster

e)

But what's the question?

Thanks Pedro. Not knowing the question is an essential part of most referenda.

ahh ...ignorance is bliss.

I vote C

evolution rocks !!!

It's b

It has been conclusively proved that the egg must have come first. Logic demands as well that the first Chicken must have hatched from an egg laid buy a bird that was almost nearly but not quite a chicken and that bird must have mated with another almost nearly but not quite chicken with just the right mix of genes (Wranglers and Levis probably) to produce an egg with a Chicken embryo in it.

QED

t.

we don't even know the question yet

Why do we need a question anyway. It's more fun to have answers so that we can guess at the questions and it all comes out at 42 anyway.

t.

Gotta agree with turvy about 'b', the egg, because as he says there was lotsa different eggs around with all sorts of weird critters in 'em from dinos to fish and turtles and wee birdies and crocogators.

Then one day, one of 'em said, hey I'm a chicken. This was a wondrous miracle at the time since it takes a really brave soul to admit they are chicken.


~jwf~

so Darwin was wrong ?

No no, on the contrary.
The coddled egg that became a scrambled chicken
fits eggsactly into Darwin's theory.

It is often best to imagine that evolutionary changes
manifest themselves during pre-birth development. Once
out into the whirled the new life form will either grow
and breed more of itself, or not, depending on environmental
circumstances.

It is unlikely that evolutionary mutations occur in already
born and developed creatures. Although with all the new
chemicals and electromagnetic energies we bombard ourselves
with it is quite possible that our reproductive systems are
making changes as we speak. The decline in male birth rates
in all species lately has to be a sign of something changing.
Whether for better or worse I will leave to the judgment of
those whose value systems depend on continuity of the status
quo.


~jwf~

This is what I'm talkin' 'bout:

Darwinopterus:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8306060.stm


~jwf~

Woo. Nice.

Pterodactlyl flapping,
Long beak clacking,
Big teeth snapping,
Down from a tree.

yeah it's pretty cool

i do hope the question is which came first ....and not which tastes nicer ...lol

So which came first, the omelette flambé aux cognac or the pollo cacciatore?

>> ...question is which came first
....and not which tastes nicer..<<

I hesitate to mention this but I once tried a hard-boiled egg
which had been hiding in the fridge for a while and I suspect
was well passed its 'Best Before' date.

It had a foul sour taste and I spit it out, but the after-taste
was just like chicken. I tried another bite and sure enough it
tasted like chicken. Rotten chicken, but chicken.

Something then in an egg has already chickened. So to speak.

~jwf~

mine was the better question

OK votes are in and it's time to count. Most disappointing. One b, one c, one e and one t -- or was that a topsyturvy signature? Can't be sure as it's Hallowe'en anagram time.

Result: nobody went for the chicken or the Big Bang. A thoroughly indecisive result. Typical referendum in so many ways. Being Irish perhaps I should just keep on asking until you get it right; but who could be arsed? Thank you for your participation, or if you didn't participate, thank you for lurking

Yay the t.s have it...


t.