Chicken or the Egg?

I had to write an article for our work’s newspaper. Due to lack of anything better to write about, I consulted my friend Wikipedia and wrote up this summary of their Chicken or the Egg article. Because I haven’t been blogging as much, and am way overdue for something – I thought to add this here.
Be warned – it’s boring. 😉

Chicken or the Egg?

We’ve all heard the saying: What came first, the chicken or the egg?
As it turns out, it’s one of the oldest debated dilemmas, as it was the topic which evoked a lot of questions on how life and the universe began in general.
These days the statement is used to point out the futility of identifying the first case of a circular cause and consequence event. Inevitably, the question isn’t about the chicken or the egg, but about how one object can come into being without another of which it is dependent on. An egg can’t appear without a chicken, and a chicken cannot be hatched out of anything other than a chicken.
Over the years, a couple of theories have evolved.
1) Proteins – By analyzing protein synthesis in egg production, scientists concluded that there must’ve been a ‘first’ chicken, due to the proteins required to synthesize the formation of the egg’s hard shell. The fly in that theory’s soup is that the protein evolved long before birds branched away evolutionarily from reptiles. Thus proving that the protein was present before and after egg production. Many use this theory as proof of the futility of trying to solve this question.
2) Mathematical – Two scientists, Thurman and Fisher, decided to try and solve this dilemma with a mathematical equation. They examined the US egg production and chicken population from 1930 to 1983. By examining the annual amount of eggs produced, compared to the number of chickens, Thurman and Fisher tried to determine whether the chicken population predicted the number of eggs laid and visa versa. It was found that the amount of eggs could predict the amount of chickens, but the number of eggs could not predict the amount of chickens. Due to this (and a lot of technical thinking) the two scientists concluded that the egg came first. (google Granger’s Causality for clearance…)
3) Evolution – Darwin’s theory of evolution states that species change over time via mutation and selection. Since DNA can be modified only before birth, a mutation must’ve taken place at conception or within an egg such that an animal similar to a chicken, but a not a chicken, laid the first chicken egg. With this theory, both the gg and the chicken evolved simultaneously.
4) Theology – Naturally – God created chickens, and chickens laid the first egg. Therefore, the chicken came first.
5) Cyclical view of Time – In the Buddist belief, time is regarded as cyclical and with repeating ages. The assumption is that time is eternally repetitive and therefore, there is no ‘first’ in eternity.

So, really – none of these answers can be proven true or false. It’s the nature of the problem and why it’s fascinated the mind of philosophers ever since they went to collect their breakfast. The truth is that it doesn’t really matter in my opinion. Chickens are here now, as are eggs. And, for that we should be grateful, because without them – there are many people out there who would not have jobs.

The End.
Or is it?

See Mike Draw.

I was browsing through the internet, looking for information about Malabsorption Syndrome in Chickens (a topic in which I need to do a presentation on for Wednesday) when I came across these two delightful comics.

 

The artist is a man called Mike who has his own blog at See Mike Draw.His other comics are also immensely entertaining, which is why I decided to share it with you. Needless to say, it was a struggle focusing on the serious aspects of chicken production after this.

Words that Wait.

Dear Author,

I realize that it has been some time that we have communicated. You have been quite busy, your mind taken by some of my other brethren. I thought it wise then to tell you that I am still here, waiting. Who am I you might ask? Why – I am your words.

And I can wait for you, no matter how busy you are, not matter where you are, no matter what you are planning to do, I will be here, waiting. Because I am patient, I am constant and I am available whenever you need me. Sometimes there is a block between us, but that block is easily overcome. If you cannot find a way to scale the block or break through it, search for new words – there are many of us and we are eager to please. Sometimes, the road which those words lead you on will bring you back to me. And I will be here, waiting.

I would like to remind you please that you have quite a few WIP’s to complete. That stands for Works In Progress if you have forgotten. I will send a list of them to you attached to this letter though there is one that I feel I must point out specifically. Please take note that next month is NaStySuMo – National Story of Superheroes Month. In it, you and I will be requeried to work together to create any work of fiction that will involve characters of a supernatural origin, using their powers for good or evil. Knowing you, it will be evil. I do not mind working with second hand words (termed fan fiction) but I enjoy creating something new as well. Any of these options will be viable, as long as you just have fun.

Please remember though, that I am patient. If you do not think that there are any words available for it now, just wait, we will come. You can participate at any time during the month of August. Ideas come and go, but words remain forever.

I would please like to attach the following link to prove the validity of my statement.

Letters frozen in time arrive after 60 years – Telegraph.

I would like to thank you for your time and know that I will see you soon. If you cannot come soon, please be at ease, for I am always patient.

Your Words.

Time travel theory avoids grandfather paradox

What a relief!

I’ve always been fascinated by time travel so when I saw this link, I just had to click on it. Of course, I believe very firmly in my own time theory but I’ll leave explaining it for later, lol.

For now, I just thought I’d share this piece of information so that our grand parents can rest assured, and we can reproduce with ease, knowing that our great grand children won’t come back to kill us from the future… 😉

Time travel theory avoids grandfather paradox.

The Dreaded Mary-Sue…

Also known in the male form as Billy-Bob or Gary-Stue…

I thought that I’d explore this topic today thanks to a question posed by Fyrefly.

Mary-Sues and Billy-Bobs have been amongst us most probably as long as Fan Fiction has or even literature, because they are not just bound to the ff genre. They are over idealized characters, with no noteworthy flaws which included physical characteristics that an author favours too highly. This is usually because authors and readers alike use Mary-Sues to fulfil their own wishes and fantasy. They are, the way I’ve read them and encountered them, over dramatised, over active and over sensitive. Its comes in with this whole ‘too much of a good thing’ concept. I was never very aware of this until I encountered an article about them by accident along with the Universal Litmus test for Mary-Sue characters. As I read through the pages, I found myself submitting most of my characters that I used then to it and realized that they call came up frightfully short, or rather, frightfully Mary-Sue.

You can read this test here: http://www.springhole.net/quizzes/marysue.htm

You can also read a very good explanation on what a Mary-Sue is here at Wikipedia, who as always explains it a lot better than I do: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sue

Having a Mary-Sue is not necessarily a bad thing, and it also depends on how you write and for who you write. Some people like them, some people don’t. I’ve discovered that fandoms can be very critical on Mary-Sues if they are original characters thrown into very popular fan fiction. Personally, I try to avoid them as best I can, because I don’t like to think that my characters have the same ‘recipe’ as millions of other characters. I like them to be unique, unruly, difficult, flawed. Mary-Sues are not flawed, and I have to say, lol, they loose consciousness a lot and falls in love too easily.
But, they have their place in fiction, and I won’t lie when I say that I’ve abandoned all of my Mary-Sues. They just won’t necessarily come out to play in public.

What it comes down to once again is the whole reason of why you write. Writing must be enjoyed, it must be loved. Writing is an escape from lives that we can’t cope with, and if we find that we can cope in other worlds better than our own, why not go there in any manner that we see fit?

It’s good to submit your characters to the litmus test every now and again, to make sure that you keep a tab on your writing and make sure that you don’t fall into the habit of ‘same song, different tune,’ mentality. But, this is only if you wish for other people to read your stories in things like fan fiction.
And, also – ultimately, we are all unique and our writing is unique. And, I have to say – some authors have published Mary-Sues as well and became quite famous for them (Tamora Price’s Song of the Loiness for one). We take from fiction that we read what we want, we give to fiction what we need.

So, don’t despair if you do the litmus test and realize that your characters lean towards being the Dreaded Mary-Sue. As the author of the test said, it’s symptoms, not a disease. And, they can be fun to read and write.

Ultimately, you should enjoy what you do – that’s all that matters.