Tectonic plates no mountains?

What do you mean? You accused me of "starting" all the fuss when all I did was try to answer the actual question asked. You act as though the word "hypothetically" should never be used and I called you on your bullshit.

Your science is unquestionably sound as is your knowledge. I think you are a valuable resource and are great at answering so many of the geology questions that get asked here. But I think you sometimes forget that not every one wants the detailed science facts, the want conjecture and alternatives.

probably a good idea to not enter threads like this

word

If you dont understand the context of the word in science, then continue wanking.

The hypothetical had no basis in fact.
Lets pose a hypothetical that the chocolate thats used in bacon manufacture isnt sweet enough, what should be done to correct it??


"Hypothetical" has no place in any scientific discussion, especially a thought problem unless there is some basis of fact upon which a hypotheses can be drawn.Its a word with many meanings but it has a specific one in science, Do Have we all forgotten , "Its only a theory"??

AND, I shall enter wherever I feel I can either help or have fun or learn something. Ive had all three here.

Since the basis of the whole thread is bogus, the kid needed to know that. I have no regrets for having derailed the original intent.(I thought I did it rather respectfully). BTW-Set derailed it beforeI.
Old teachers are like that, we need to have the student recognize the value of first understanding the basics of a concept before trying to run without a net. To support the OPs basic understanding without any comment was shared by both Set and me. My motive was that the OP should have known the basics of the mechanisms involved within continental drift, since its being taught in 9th grade natural sciences nowadays. Its not a difficult concept

One of the foundations of the Pa junior high school science curriculum is the discussion of conservation of mass and energy and the concept of mass and energy in every natural science, even biology.

Nuff said I suppose. Since I have become the subject of the thread, I feel that Ive been given the opportunity to expand on my own motives of " derailing it", and I shall go away hoping that the word "hypothetical" is understood to have specific but limited places in science and posing purely baseless conjectural arguments isnt one of them .

I agree with farmerman about the word hypothetical in science, which is a usual for me, but I did read something the other day, ok, yesterday, that fits in with this discussion as a sort of "in-between". It doesn't change my view on hypothetical, still same as Farmer's, just that this one took a lot of years of growing knowledge to develop - where as the OP's hypothetical was a kind of play, which I can get too, but hypothetical then not used in the scientific sense.

It has been understood, close to forever, that the spinal cord, once very damaged in certain ways, is unfixable. I'll have to grab the article to double check, and I will since I need to give the link, but I'll guess a couple of thousand years. Ah, it mentions a spinal problem on an egyptian papyrus from 1600 BC.

There is a way, though, that involves using olfactory ensheathing cells from the olfactory bulb in the brain and using them to create a new spinal pathway. This is because it was noticed that ordinary nasal membrane cells are oft refreshing themselves (interesting to me, since I have diminished nasal nerve endings, heh, mine don't do that)., and someone made the connection re nerve growth. Those don't really work, but going to the brain's olfactory bulb has. Cells refreshing (my word) can produce growth.
It's not clear from my reading that it can help all paraplegics because of differing types of damage but also time passing after the injuries, but there has been one big success to date.

New Yorker, Jan. 25, 2016
Annals of Medicine
ONE SMALL STEP
A paraplegic undergoes pioneering surgery

by D.T. Max

It's quite a good read re something doctors were quite sure about for a long time now. The solving part starts out with one cranky type guy not quite believing there could be no fix.

edited a few times, to be clearer

the OP did not tag this as science

___

don't know who did, but that's not where this thread started

the person might have just been dreaming, might have been considering a sci-fi plot element, whatever

...

this thread could have been a good place for people to use their imagination and creativity but nooooooooo

tell ya the truth.When I read a threads TITLE, I usually make up my own mind as to what it may be. Were I to have to read all tags or whatever before I wrote, I woulda never responded to anything tht gungasnake posed.
BTW, the OP and I later reconnected and we had a separate conversation about the point he was interested in.

You just wanna spank somebody.


Ya think so? I think Ill have a cookie and watch you fight with yourself as you explain how to be creative



.

I find such snottiness from someone who has referred to me as a "nazi" to be ironic. Was that a sign of your good will? Earlier . . .



Now you're behaving as though this were all mixed martial arts and you intend to get your licks in. Once again, my initial remarks did not entail any name-calling or personal reflections. I certainly didn't call anyone a nazi. My later sarcastic remarks were largely a response to your champions in this thread--Leadhead and McGentrix--who came here armed with zero scientific knowledge and some sort of a grudge.

You know, if you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen. If you don't like rudeness, don't be rude to people.

I'll supply the boxing gloves. yuk, yuk, yuk.....