DrBob

I used to smoke two packs a day sometimes - usually when I was out drinking in which case I was constantly smoking and up late.

I knew a 3 pack a day smoker. He managed it by always having a lit cigarette. But sometimes he’d forget about one in the ashtray and light another one. I saw him a few times forget about the second one in the ashtray and light a third.

It honestly seemed like a compulsive lighting habit, if he didn’t have one in his hand he’d light one without thinking about it before looking in the ashtray. You could get a carton (10 packs of 20) for $25 and I made around $8 an hour then.

My bad. I was remembering the spotting of the oil slick and forgetting other stuff.

This is it. They had to get it before it was in open ocean. This is pre-radar and there would be no aerial observations. It would have to be found by visual contact and coordination would be by radio.

Mendel’s work played almost no role in the acceptance of the theory of natural selection. While the work was contemporaneous, Mendel did not publish widely and the work was not well known. Darwin’s work was defended and beaten into scientific orthodoxy by Thomas Henry Huxley who was known as “Darwin’s Bulldog”. He would appear at the Royal Society and take on all comers while Darwin mooned around in Kent. Mendel’s work was never cited in Darwin’s work, and Huxley was also unaware of it. As a matter of fact almost no one knew about it.

Mendel’s work was independently discovered at the turn of the 20th century, and Mendel was given scientific priority retrospectively. In science we describe that kind of thing as a “premature discovery”. Because something was found, and was true, but had little impact at the time.