Stupid Is As Stupid Does....

[ChillDoubt]

Americans. Destroying history with one doofus at a time:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24592482

I realise that this is some 3 days old, it's just that now the Scout Leader has complained of death threats from as far away as Germany(Sky News sources).
What sort of idiot would encourage a child to do that anyway?
What would he have done if the rock had fallen in the opposite direction?

[ChillDoubt]

jomifl,
Should we chop this down and replace it with a plastic one? Maybe we could put some fairy lights on it too?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortingall_Yew

[bazwillrun]

"bazzer you imply that something made by people would be more valuable than a natural phenomenon

why would that be?"

Its just a piece of rock, earth has had a roughly 4.6 billion year old habit of churning this stuff out, and it will keep on doing so for the forseeable future no biggy is it.

Universe is full of the stuff

human artifacts usually have value put on them because of the time invested and materials in making them.

If some sculptor recreated this rock thats been shoved over then it will probably be worth something, people seem to have a tendency to pay for all sorts of kraap these days.

apart from what I suppose some people call "spiritual" (what i call mumbo jumbo which at the end of the day is all it is) its value its zip, nada nish.

Cant believe i'm wasting time talking about a piece of worthless stone..oh well

[bazwillrun]

"Maybe we could put some fairy lights on it too? "

good idea, youre onto something there...they could do night time treks then

use LED's theyd be cheaper to run

[Zeuhl]

/Universe is full of the stuff /

No it's not

the point you appear to overlook is that the formations in this case were very unusual and irreplaceable - unlike most of what people make

it had taken a million years or so for nature to produce them

all human artefacts are only a fraction of that age and for the most part are here-today gone-tomorrow items that can be replicated in a geological 'blink of the eye'

Granted this particular incident is minor compared with the arrogant and self-serving destruction of the environment that goes on all the time by people, but I suppose it has attracted attention because it is such a graphic presentation of mindless knuckle dragging and ignorant vandalism

[bazwillrun]

"/Universe is full of the stuff /

No it's not "

i was taking metaphorically, yes i know theres gas planets and dust and gas, in the interstellar wastelands, dark matter etc etc etc but to all intents and purposes the universe.... jeeeesh why am i bothering