I figured since we all seem to like science and stuff like that I'd post this. I got bored when attempting to write a paper for Western Civ, but I got distracted... The following are my thoughts on the Butterfly effect:

Altering major events in the past before the birth of the time meddler would not have the effect on the present that people have long decided that this would. Thus, the end result of the 'butterfly effect' the way it is popularly construed is impossible. Many people hear the term butterfly effect and think of how altering something in the past changes the course of the present. However the butterfly effect has more to do with small events changing the behavior of a dynamic environment. Thus, if a butterfly flaps its wings in Europe the path of a tornado in  Kansas might alter (Wikipedia). The popular theoretical application of this idea however has to do with time travel. It usually focuses on one person going back in time and changing something only to find out that altering something 100 years in the past screws up the present worse. This would never happen. A person could not alter the events in the past prior to all the actors' lifetimes. That includes humans, plants, animals, and so on based on how highly the actor's impact affected the original outcome. Let's look at an example. This example is skewed toward the less detailed, more easily understood side in order for me to prove a point.
               Let's say that in three years I am able to create working time machine. Obviously this technology is farfetched and not going to be available in three years, but bear with me. I decide that I want to go back in time and erase the horrible effects of Hitler's racism by assassinating him before he could start spreading his ideas. After planning out what is going to happen, I successfully assassinate Hitler. Upon this all of history suddenly changes. Germany is never ruled by a racist dictator, or at least won't be in the same time frame that would cause my distant German family to leave Europe for the safety of America. Because of this my grandparents never meet which means my father is never born. Then my mother obviously never gives birth to me. Here is where we reach the Paradox which negates the Butterfly effect. I was never born so I couldn't have made the time machine which would have taken me back in time to assassinate Hitler. Therefore one of two things happen.
      The first is that when I assassinate Hitler in the past I set off an infinite loop in time that is unable to be broken. Each time I assassinate Hitler history progresses to the point where I would have decided to go back in time and kill him but because I haven't been born and there is no such thing as a time machine history defaults back to the original plan and I am around to make the time machine and since everything is exactly the same I go back in time and assassinate Hitler without knowing I am starting this infinite loop.
      The second occurrence would be that I go back in time and pull the trigger causing the aforementioned effects to take place. Upon history getting to the point where I would have had to go back in time to kill Hitler, again, I wouldn't be available seeing as how I was never born. In this second case the timeline would default back to the way everything originally happened and I would step out of the time machine in 2011 with no changes because history defaulted to the proper order instead of getting stuck in a loop.
      The above example focuses on a large scenario with many actors, but I'll include one more just for the sake of my argument.
      I happen to have a time machine sitting around my room. I realize that I made a colossal mistake in going to Taco Bell because now I have food poisoning and I decide to go back in time an hour and tell myself not to go to Taco Bell, but to go to Burger King instead. Because of that I don't get food poisoning. Instead I feel really good and have no reason to go back in time. Here comes the paradox. I feel fine, so in the future I have no reason to go back in time therefore I don't had history has a dilemma on its hands. I didn't go back in time, so I actually never told myself to go to Burger King, which means I actually ate Taco Bell so now I have food poisoning and have to go back in time… INFINITE LOOP!
      So here are two examples of why time travel would inevitably never effect the present except to possibly stop it dead in its tracks. Fortunately we don't have to worry about that since time travel is impossible and it's all theoretical anyway.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed it... debate as much as you want!

Henceforth in the annals of time this shall be known as "Haxer's Taco Bell Paradox"

  Interesting AND entertaining read!

lol, thank you.