From the website:
The first fossils of half-billion-year-old clusters of soft-shelled eggs have been found preserved in a strange new way in south China — some of the eggs were even caught in the act of dividing.
The three-dimensional clusters of petrified eggs from invertebrate animals that lived in a sea 501 million to 510 million years ago are preserved in silica — glass essentially. Jih-Pai Lin, an Ohio State University paleontologist, explained this is a totally unexpected way for soft eggs to fossilize and survive for eons.
Comments (1)
There are exceptions, but for the most part the tone of the comments reflect the tone of the article. An article that expresses ridicule and hate towards those who disagree with the author will get comments returning the sentiments.
I also think it might have something to do with context. I know that I have inadvertently almost started flame-wars because of a comment I have made, which was not understood in the way I meant it to be. Trying to explain my point of view without the other people understanding (or understanding that the original comment might have been said in jest; again, context) only fanned the flames larger, until I felt it necessary to just drop the whole conversation. Of course, there are people out there who say inflammatory things just to watch the ensuing coniption fits. I don't believe there are more of those types of people now (born troublemakers?), they just have a larger audience.
After thinking about it for a while I have come to the conclusion that the internet is probably the best thing that ever happened to humankind.
It isn't really fair to expect this, because the history of genocide, for instance, isn't taught in schools from brief, cursory mentions of events such as the Holocaust, and they are never put in any real historical context. But read historian Dr. Leon Litwack's work, for instance, if you want to know more about the unimaginable rage and hatred and violence that people are capable of inflicting on each other for no rational reason at all (*Been In the Storm So Long*, *Trouble In Mind*, *The Long Death Of Jim Crow.*)Actually, I would argue that if anything, expressing this kind of idiocy in internet posts might even keep people from the real violence they might otherwise commit.