Now I just have to figure out how to turn all your output into sweet, sweet nectar.
I will refrain from making a big issue of the fact that the busy little bugs are secreting it out their asses.
(Latest tally: 10,018 entries, 962,538 total comments. Keep on adding to them!)
I was vaguely hoping Less-Brains-Than-a-Stuffed-Turkey (Graeme Bird) would have something wonderfully idiotic to say about Eyjafjallajökull or volcanoes, presumably in connection with AGW or some creative geology.
Nothing. Yet. But there was a gem… Apparently someone pointed it to Joan Baez’s Crackpot Index. Less-Brains-… responded to Baez’s index and fantastically failed to get the point. The bit which had me LOL the loudest was this gem:
Ah! Now I understand why you shave your palms. If you didn’t, then some of the nasties you’re kindly picking up would stick, and thus indicate, when you shake hands, wanderhood (warning: depending on the sensitivities of the other wankers around you, that link may be NSFW).
blf @ #502, not exactly, the folklore was that hairy palms were the sign of the chronic masturbator. From empirical evidence, I know that is wrong.
(And what is chronic anyway? Once a week, five times a day?)
JeffreyD,
Chronic I suppose would be habitual, rather than episodic; what I want to know is: what would acute masturbation entail? :)
Interesting. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of that bit of folklore before. What did come to mind when I read comment about hairy palms was werewolves. (Which of course, as soon as I write that, reminds me of Warren Zevon’s classic song. (Which then reminds me of another Zevon classic.))
“what I want to know is: what would acute masturbation entail? :)”
Severe chaffing?
And on that note, lunch time and back to work on the book.
Ciao
Feck hairy palms myths. Every time you masturbate, a kitten commits suicide.
Possibly mentioned before in re UK elections, but repeated here for (my) truth.
J.K. Rowling on why she will not move to a tax haven:
Just putting it out there for now. I won’t personally be around today to try and defend it, if anybody wants to chew into it.
What’s to chew into? She sounds like one of the few to get it.
Were J.K. Rowling an American, she would be looking desperately for off-shore tax havens while, at the same time, funding TB (Tea Baggers, not Tuberculosis) to fight against anyone else having the same chance she had. Not that I’m cynical or anything.
I have an acquaintance who grew up in a coal mining family (he was born in 1948). He went to college on an academic and ROTC scholarship. In the 80s, he got some small business loans despite being in a depressed area (thank you, Federal Government) and opened up a restaurant. Now he is comfortable. And he rails against any hint of welfare or government ‘interference’ with his business. He rails against taxes and the poor quality of the streets; he rails against overpaid teachers and the poor schools. He rails against scholarships (they drive up the price for ‘real students’) and how few people understand what America was meant to be.
In short, he’s an asshole.
Happy Nationa Park Week (here in the US (and (just to confuse things) it lasts from April 17 through April 25 (so it is more of a megaweek))!
Looks like your friend is in the funnies, (((Billy))).
Sili: Site is blocked for me. I’ll check it out when I get home.
I’ve heard maggots. There was a dead cow they had bulldozed off of Kelbaker Rd. and the carcass was desiccated to bones & jerky; no smell. You could hear the maggots munching from 20 ft. away. Also hanging around were about a dozen big fat cnemis with smiles on their faces.
In my youth, I spent a lot of time hunting and fishing with the local game warden, who was a friend of the family. One day he got a call that there was a dead bear at the landfill. We rolled up to the site and, sure enough, dead bear. Not knowing the cause or time of death, the carcass couldn’t be salvaged for meat but the DNR collects the hides as part of the Hides for Habitat program.
Well, Craig set to skinning that bear where it lay. Apparently it was laying in a depression in the ground so the bloating wasn’t obvious. When he inserted his knife into the lower abdomen, the gasses inside were released and shot a prolonged jet of putrefied bear guts directly into his face.
I laughed my ass off, until I realized that I had to ride home in the same truck as him.
A beautiful and warm day. I’ve voted (absentee) for president and biked 30 km with my sister.
Really? In my experience it’s just fine. Unlike the Austrian one, which is extremely slow.
Oh, so that’s where she’s been all the time, ignoring the toothy goodness! :-) I’ll need to check it out.
Immediately, AFAIK. Of course, nobody cares, and nobody should.
High school chemistry fail:
Iambilly@511 Running away from taxes is standard behaviour for British zillionaires too; that’s what makes what JKR said notable. I don’t think nationality is what’s making the difference here.
Does that mean these dudes from Illinois are God?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071031125457.htm
mattheath: Point taken.
Yes, really. Packages known to have been sent have never arrived, or have arrived smashed flat, a letter with a valid legible and correct address was returned marked address invalid, magazines arrive months after being sent, or never arrive at all, and far far too many letters simply go missing. With the exception of the address-invalid incident, everything I’ve listed has happened to me more than once. What I can’t do is put any numbers down, but anecdotally, it’s the worse service I’ve ever had to deal with. And French ex-pats (plural), before I moved to France, warned me about La Poste (as I now recall, severe damage (yep!) and mail simply vanishing (yep!)). Delays per se, excepting magazines, don’t seem to be much of an issue.
Some extraordinarily beautiful photos. They seem to me to come up to Lynna’s high standards.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/orvaratli/with/4527537883/
Plenty of the Icelandic eruption and auroras.
Enjoy
I was hoping that was the same genesis who said (emboldening added):
But it doesn’t seem to be. ;-(
MrFire @#509:
I take Ms Rowling’s point, but I think she’s being very unfair to the Conservatives. The Conservatives do not want to abolish the welfare state. All the major political parties agree that there should be a safety net in place for those who fall on hard times. And I don’t know why she seems to think Conservatives are hostile towards single parents, either.
And I don’t think Lord Ashcroft’s personal financial arrangements should be any of the public’s or the media’s concern. It certainly has no bearing on the Conservative Party’s ability to govern, so I don’t know why she’s bringing it up. It’s great that Ms Rowling voluntarily chooses to continue paying British taxes; it’s her money and her choice, and I respect her decision and the reasons for it. But her disagreement with Lord Ashcroft’s private financial choices – which are none of her, or any of our, concern – is not a basis for condemning an entire party, which, last time I checked, was not led by Lord Ashcroft.
Psst. That’s John Baez. Joan Baez is someone else.
The spelling checker has Ben taken out and shot.
…unless that man is phosphorylating adenosine diphophate oxidatively. And no man could do that, no matter how smart.
#377 Lynna, OM
(I’m catching up – if this has been mentioned, tough!)
Nope. That isn’t the way things work. She would be flogged because she is the temptress. Mohammed went to hell in a vision/dream and it was full of women. It’s all their fault. A woman who has been raped is likely to be beaten or even executed.
Well she may be a bit of a crackpot too but she’s a nice one.
Random trivia: the two of them are actually cousins.
Sun?
re 526:
Why? for not flagging a correctly spelled word as not the one you intended? Thus the danger of depending too heavily on spellcheckers.
The best response to this I’ve seen was, “I thought about this all night long and then it dawned on me…”
#517 Feynmaniac
As an argument for the existence of God, this does not hold water.
It had to be said!
[Ed. No it didn’t!]
I neat hypothesis except for one important bit of trivia: I am the spelling checker. I knew how easy it was to confuse John/Joan Baez, so made certain I got it right—’cept I goofed.
A neat hypothesis…
I fink I need to go to bed!
blf: Not your fault. Blame the parents. They’re the ones who named ’em John and John, right?
LMAO!
I’ve never been called a “chimerical toad” before.
OT – question for (((billy))) – I got a letter from the National Parks Conservation Association about the upcoming (2016) centennial of the National Park System and was thinking of contributing some $$$. I checked their site and they seemed to be ok, but knowing that most groups looking for donations portray themselves as really really good, I’m asking if you’ve ever heard of them, and if so, are they a help or a hindrance?
Oh yes, that’s true (and sucks majorly); getting magazines from the USA takes even longer than in Austria. I forgot because I personally wasn’t sent any to my French address.
The Appeaser Thread had some stuff on science philosophy and I realized that I need a little more learning.
I read the Beyesian links and some Popper stuff. But I’m still not sure where scientific philosophy is going. Can anyone recommend a nice overview or history of both science practice and science theory?
Who said anything about being mailed from the USA? Most of mine are mailed from the UK, with the rest mailed from elsewhere in the EU.
To Josh OSG,
About your sad kitten/momma cat story, what happened to the kitten? Did you keep it?
Thanks,
Dust
Billy Bragg “A New England” (acoustical):
That’s awful. :.-(
I wonder if the volcanoes will mean I don’t fly to Paris!
I know. Poor baby kitty.
I hate it so much when I see stray animals. Because I live by a wooded area people some times dump their unwanted pets.
It is the cruelest thing you can do I think to a domestic animal short of actively torturing them.
frozen_midwest:
The NPCA (National Parks & Conservation Association) has, within the NPS, a very good reputation both as a fundraiser and a watchdog. I don’t know what their donation percentage is, but I know that lobbying efforts on behalf of the National Parks is a big part of what they do.
Please note that this is not an endorsement of the NPCA either from my position with the NPS or the NPS itself. This is a private opinion rendered in response to a question and the opinion stated above is a personal one, not a professional or agency one.
offer void where prohibited
aaak I did not need the kitty story. Why do I do this to myself.
:-(
I just read that the taxis are doing quite well here in Denmark. Presumably that goes for all of Europe.
I liked the quote from the owner of one of the firms in response to whether he’d like for Katla to erupt as well: ‘There’s more to life than our cab service. I’ve just heard that there are 500 tonnes of flowers stuck in Kenya, and how many Kenyan farmers will break their backs because of that? I’d rather live in a world where one can tell up from down’, says Morten Elgaard.”
Sven: People here know I am a Park Ranger. I don’t want anyone to think that my personal view on the NPCA is, in any way, shape or form, the NPS view. CYA does not (necessarily) stand for Catholic Youth Association.
And it is not to be taken orally, nasally or rectally.
Oh, I thought you were referring to “genesis” for “genius” in 523:
Alan B:
I was just watching Brian Cox on the BBC series “Wonders of the Solar System” – errr…wow – and there was a shot of him standing beside a crater. I thought “that’ll be in Arizona”, having perused the PDF you linked to the other day – and it was.
Who says the internet dumbs us down?
It’s a great series (and there’s another coming up on the whole history of science – thanks BBC)
Kanteloupe – I put a couple of suggestions about good science books up on the “appeasers” thread which unfortunately has a wank troll on it getting angry.
But hey guys – what are your suggestions for science philosophy/history?
kantalope,
BdN has responded to your request here.
otrame (@429):
Hmmm… sounds familiar. You’re not by any chance
Temperance BrennanKathy Reichs in RL, are you?The Adventures of God, from CollegeHumor.
Thanks Anthony i caught that over there too – I was just worried that it would get lost in the blackhole of argumentation.
I have pictures of me at that crater too. I’m just a sucker for any kind of tourist trappy hole in the ground. Crater Lake is more awesome but that crater was ground up rather than sky down.
And…well here’s a question that I’ve been wondering about and would put on the philosophy thread, except that that one’s currently clogged with troll spit.
We all know about Popper’s falsifiablity ideas – but is this actually of any use? Or indeed any of the philosophy of science?
I also read a quote from Richard Feynmam that went along the lines of “the history and philosophy of science is as much use to scientists as ornithology it to birds” – which might be true, but sounds a little harsh.
Now I love reading about it (and the history of maths, too) but have any of you real scientists ever acheived anything by considering the thoughts of your forbears?
MrFire (@509):
Thanks for posting the JKR quote; yet another reason to love her! Is it just me, or does this…
…not sound like something a Weasley would say, if the Weasleys ever struck it rich?
Oh, I totally understand. I just like the phrase “offer void where prohibited.” I’m thinking about tacking a fineprint legal disclaimer sig line to all my comments from now on.
oh, and PZ, can we have animated smileys? pleeeeeeeez??
File this story under the heading of articles that require a double- and triple-check to be sure they’re not from the Onion, or dated 1 April! Oy!
PS: Sorry ’bout the blockquote FAIL @555.
I saw that quote on Pigliucci’s blog. I tried to find the context of it, but was unsuccessful. In any case, the way I interpret it is the same way I would if someone said learning physics isn’t necessary to playing baseball. It’s true. If you have a ball in the air it’s much better to use your unconsious reasoning to catch it than to work differential equations. However, if you’re building an airplane, yeah you’re gonna need to have a grasp of physics.
It’s fair to say that most scientists have an intuitive idea of how to do science, even if they lack a formalized system. Whether a scientist’s thinking could be improved upon by studying the philosophy of science, I don’t know. Personally, it’s not enough that the scientific method is useful. I want to know why it is. However, if you’re studying something like machine learning then ideas from the philosophy of science may come in handy.
If I can remember anything from my High School Chemistry:
And behold my mighty lighter. I strike the wheel and now create not only water but also carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, soot and probably some kinds of nitrogen molecules. And like a God I walk the earth…you know, until the thing gets too hot and burns my fingers.
The history of science is at least vaguely useful, if only on the “see how others have screwed up” level. Concentrating on it too much would leave little time for actual science though.
Yes. It sure as hell is interesting though – one of the reasons I love some of the pop science books I buy is the stories – so many scientists were utterly bonkers, and their histories make amazing reading (check out, for example Charles Goodyear a story Bill Bryson tells even better in his book.
I guess science is just fascinating on every level.
Fractally interesting!
Apart from disagreeing with that in general, it’s vitally important to teach students. Otherwise they see science as a bunch of facts they have to memorize, and grasp absolutely nothing about how scientists operate and how things are discovered. The best way to teach evolution and avoid any creobot inanities is to start with geology in the 1600s and build up from there. That way they see exactly how the evidence built up, how it came from so many different places, how people who wanted to believe the earth was young had to eventually give up that idea in the face of all of the data.
Jeezus, Bill @#561!
I’m going for a drink.
Once they’re in France, La Poste takes over and delays everything. This explains why the JVP arrives more quickly in Austria than in France.
Their results and their methods, yes… check out the references sections of my papers <facepalm> :-)
^_^
Bingo. It’s the “if you were wrong, how would you know?” thing.
#558
Goodness yes. In Feynman’s defense, I think often in physics, insight comes from intuition…by definition from within. This may not require much knowledge of previous work–just the right kind of reasoning skills. On the other hand, biology is not (generally) intuitive, because evolved systems are like a soup sandwich, dripping with redundancy, vestigiality, convergence, variance, etc. As a biologist, I often find that insight comes from scholarship–having a broad understanding of previous work. In other words, I haven’t discovered much just by thinking very intently on a problem. When I get stymied, I hit the library/herbarium.
For that reason, it isn’t surprising that physicists hit their stride younger than say systematics…to operate effectively, the systematist must build an encyclopedic knowledge of a taxon. That can take a long time.
And for the second time on this thread, what Carlie said…science is above all a metaphysical program that entails an epistemology*. Someone who wants to be a scientist has as much to learn about how one does science as what other scientists have discovered. Further, I find that teaching the crucial experiment–the one that corroborated an important theory–makes it easier to remember the theory. My favorite experiments largely come from 1940-1960 in genetics…collectively embodying a stunning implementation reason and empiricism**. Pretty heady and exciting stuff.
*Reads kinda douchey, I know.
**Almost had the opposite of a starfart going…had to pull back a little.
But I don’t think Feynman was talking about knowledge of previous scientific work that bears directly or indirectly on current work. I think he was talking about history and philosophy of science as practiced in History and Philosophy departments.
Sven:
Yeah, that was my reaction, too. Well, sorta: Right after I posted that, my Lovely Bride@trade; and I went to our fav Indian restaurant, where I had a 22 oz. Taj Mahal with dinner.
I’m obviously having a Bad HTML Day!
Scientists – and everyone – have great need for that, too.
(I’ll recommend Hitler’s Scientists again here.)
Just finished grading a term paper on Hox function in Danio rario. I am greatly looking forward to a presentation full of images of fucked up zebrafish mutants. Bring on the mutants!
Well, screw him then. Kidding aside, I don’t really see these as being separate things because the primary literature that scientists use often addresses the epistemology that philosophers later analyze. Further, the best historical record of the development of an idea is the primary literature. I need a historian to understand the history of a discipline that isn’t mine. However, my training in the primary literature of my own discipline makes a historian more-or-less unnecessary for me.
Plus, the history and philosophy of science is fun and interesting.
One more beer, and then its the Endosymbiotic Origin of the Mitochondrion.
Oh man – The wonders of the solar system blows my mind.
But there is a definite use to science history, of course – the records of countless entomologists, meteorologists, palaeontoligists, geologists – yay William Smith – but science philosophy…?
How “useful” is Popper?
(The “usefulness” of “poppers” is something else entirely…;) a reference which I suspect will simply be lost in the chirupping silence of the internet…)
Spoiler alert: the cardiolipin done it.
Which is also important for scientists to understand, so that we can grasp the scope of our own biases and how they affect our interpretations (although those guys can go too far sometimes). The Endosymbiotic Origin of the Mitochondrion being a fantastic example, of course, and female choice in sexual selection, and the role of the egg in fertilization, etc. and etc.
Popper is important in providing a touchstone against which we can articulate disagreement regarding procedure and inference*. The Scientific Method (a capitalized über-formal thing) is the hypothetico-deductive method of Popper. If we are going to recognize a research programme*, we ought to understand its philosophical justifications, even if we are rejecting it.
Whether one is Popperian or Bayesian (or ignorant of either, but practicing mainstream science), verification** is out. Explicit articulation of competing hypotheses is in. Popper and Jeffreys***were important in establishing these protocols through the early-mid part of the 20th century****.
*Wince
**IIRC, Popper argued that bayesian inference was verificationist, but I think Popper was wrong.
***Jeffreys was to Bayes what Popper was to Hume.
****Specifically, the The Year of the Tucks™ Medicated Pad.
(OT, but proper thread.) Since Patricia is off to the “big city” with her gentleman friend, I hope we don’t hear from until she can get her troll stomping personality on. No matter how long that takes (the longer the better). ;)
While we’re talking about the history of science it should be noted that the “history” taught in science classes are often, at best, oversimplified semi-truths. As Dianne mentions in #564 focusing too much on the history would leave less time to teach the actual science. The paths to discoveries are often messy, filled with blind alleys and backwards steps. A good personal account of this is Watson’s The Double Helix. However, it does leave many students with a false impression of the science as a clear, smooth progression. Hopefully, lab work sets them straight!
(((billy))) @547 – thanks. I appreciate your response, and I know that’s just your personal opinion.
Feynmaniac, Chimerical Toad: Those messy incidents are a great opportunity to get students interest. When I lecture about genetics, I use both the story of the rediscovery of Mendel’s work with the scandalous behavior of Watson and Crick as two very different ways of doing science.
@kantalope, #549:
Sorry about the kitty story – it is a real downer. I’ll try to make up for it below.
@Dust, #542:
Sadly, the little kitten went missing. I definitely would have kept her!
Here’s a happier kitty story. My main felid, Mink (who is now sitting Sphynx-like on the back of the couch) was a stray. In 2000, she came bounding out of the woods in rural Virginia and ran up to my then boss, who was having a lunch picnic on the side of a rural road. Some horrible person had dumped her in the country.
She was only about a year old (the vet later said) and had already been pregnant. My boss brought her back to the office, and everyone was astonished how friendly she was – she rubbed up against everyone, looked you in the eye, and did the cutest little trilling noise: “mrrrrreow?”
At the time, I had no interest in pets, but everyone else already had animals, and pressured me into taking her. Well, OK, she melted my heart. Even people who don’t like cats call her the Kitteh Ambassador. She’s almost dog-like in her personality. She rolls onto her back for a tummy scratch, even with total strangers. She will then occupy your lap, purr like a motorboat, and nuzzle you with that cross-eyed “I’m in heaven” look.
She looks almost exactly like this, with this expression, but fatter.
She’s my bed buddy, and has slept either just to the right of my pillow every night since, or with her head on my shoulder. Book reading/nap time on the couch is used for extra snuggles.
Mink now has a frenemy in the form of Sophie, my sister’s 7-year-old grey and white long hair whom she had to give up two years ago. Their relationship is schizo. They sometimes sleep contentedly next to each other; other times Mink swats Sophie if she gets too close to me (Mink owns me, you see).
/end cute overload
Serious biology question: Are bears really attracted by the smell of a woman’s period?
I tell my girlfriend she’s so sweet that her period attracts gummy bears, but she doesn’t think that’s a evry romantic thing to say :(
ambulocetacean:
…
You may require remediation.
Remediation? What, am I doing it wrong?
A little.
Josh @#585:
Awwww. That cheered me up. :-)
I wonder if I should join the facebook group Adventures in menstruating and I could even make my own “stain badge” !!
Uhm, never mind…:D
So, ahem, something completely different then :
Dan Barker lecture at GWU
Josh, Official SpokesGay #585
She’s not your cat, you’re her human.
Rorschach #591
I’d make some remark about gynecologists but it would probably be in very poor taste.
Ambulocetacean: Did you duck in time?
Josh, OSG: When in high school, we adopted a tiny (and I mean tiny — hold in one hand tiny) black kitten who was immediately named Rorschach. The little inkblot grew to a normal sized frame and then he got fat. I think he topped out at over twenty pounds. We tried everything to reduce his food intake. Our vet finally realized it was a problem in his metabolism. The pills would have been about $40 a week (and this was in the early 1980s) which would have been more than Mom and Dad’s car payment. He remained fat and happy and lived about fifteen years.
One of our current cats is an ex-stray via the SPCA. Our vet thinks he is a Maine Coon/Rag Doll mix and he tops out at around 30 pounds and very little of it is fat. His canines are almost 1cm and he can stand on his hind legs and rest his head on the counter. Luckily, he is gentle and, at the same time, aggresively affectionate. And he drools. Copiously.
Almost all of our cats over my life have been SPCA cats. The only mean cat we ever got was from a pet store. Well, not so much mean as ‘leave me alone or I’ll rearrange your face’ attitude.
Sounds like your stray/rescue was a winner.
Every one of our cats has been abandoned, ex-shelter, or “my wife left me but left the cat with me, would you take her.”
Right now we’re down to one 18 year old, fat cat with arthritis. My wife keeps saying that when Hammerstein dies we won’t replace her. I have a bet with my daughter that Hammerstein will be replaced within a month.
‘Tis: (((Wife))) has decided we are done on pets (though if we ever get another cat, the cat will be named ‘Peeves’). (((Boy))) and (((Girl))) do not agree and are busy filling our house with pets. (((Girl))) has two rats — Rizzo (named for the Muppets character, not the cop movie character) and Splinter. (((Boy))) has two large goldfish (Kujo and Spumoni) and (in a separate tank) a blue ghourami (Mambo), an apple snail (Gary) and a
pleicothapdhfoplechothshthemcatfish named Watson.And I’ll bet dollars to donuts that, when the kids move out, the fish and rats are left behind. I pray that they will be raptured, but they’ll be left behind.
html fail. Should read: “a
pleicothapdhfo plechothshthemcatfish named Watson.My two cats came from someone who lives in the same village as me. She had taken in a semi-feral1 female cat who was pregnant at the time and allowed to her to live in an outbuilding. I was too late to get any kittens from that litter, but the mother became pregnant again before she could be spayed. She had five in the second litter, but it seems she was a rather useless mother and took the kittens out in the middle of a storm. The two I have were the only survivors. Unlike their mother they are totally socialised and much prefer a lap to going out in the rain.
1 She was very wary of humans at first. The vet thinks she was probably abused in her old home, and became feral to escape. She is now much more socialised and lives in the house with the lady’s other cats.
Iambilly, My girlfriend is used to my idiotic drivel. She just shakes her head and rolls her eyes.
I was serious about the bear thing, though. Anyone know if it’s true?
This one time I was at this camping ground somewhere in California and all these bears came through and started raiding everyone’s food (until they the bears heard the sound of the ranger’s truck and ran away).
The girls at the next campsite had cooked this big pot of spaghetti and they took it up to the toilet and flushed it all.
I believe that to have been Feynman’s point in the first place.
The point is not that academic history and/or philosophy of science are not Good and Interesting Things to Know, but rather that they are not particularly useful or relevant to the actual day-to-day work. Which they’re not. Not like the primary literature.
Yes. The only philosophy I can remember people talking about much during my training was Platt’s 1964 article on Strong Inference and multiple hypotheses.
gratuitous DFW ref FTW
oh…cat thread?
*shrug*
Ambulocetacean: I have heard, annecdotally (which means it is neocon gospel) that some of the female fire crew members have noticed more bears showing up when one or more fire crew members is menstruating. Beyond that, I don’t know.
An early girlfriend once confided to me that her dog tore apart the laundry whenever she was mentruating. At the time, TMI. Now, could be supporting anecdotal nonevidence.
:-)
Including the conference abstracts :-)
True.
“Prince Charming” she called him :-)
Seconded!
Toothy goodness. :-)
So I pulled the finger out and Googled.
It looks as though polar bears are attracted to menstrual blood but grizzlies and black bears aren’t. More reasearch is no doubt needed vis-a-vis grolars.
The Yellowstone tour operator warns that “A bear may smell buried tampons or pads and dig them up. By providing bears a small food reward, this action may attract bears to other menstruating women.” It doesn’t seem like much of a reward to me, but maybe bears are easily pleased.
Anyway, I also came across this rather fascinating post at the Museum of Menstruation and Women’s Health.
The internets are a marvellous thing.
I just got held for moderation. Weird. Maybe too many links in the post…
With regard to bears and menstruation, there is a scientific literature on the subject:
http://www.jstor.org/pss/3809511
http://www.jstor.org/pss/3872548
http://www.jstor.org/pss/3873148
http://www.jstor.org/pss/676137
(posting with 4 links)
…but my very favorite study of the genre is this one:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/g35252062800v402/
…which includes time-lapse photography of a brown treesnake ingesting a used tampon.
Dogs go for it. I always assumed bloody and probably a little nutritious seepage from anything is going to attract nose-driven carnivores. I dunno though.
My cat used to lick the inside of my ear when I was asleep. Kittens are like that. Freaky way to wake up too, warm sandpaper in your ear. I assume he smelled the fatty goodness of earwax and figured… mmmmm soup’s on. Or maybe it was a nursing thing. A good friend of mine just discovered a tiny lost kitten, barely walking with horrid bowel leakage. She’s much better now, but she gets into nurse mode and suckles. She likes to nestle up to your neck, loves sitting on shoulders, so that means the thing she usually nurses is your ear lobe.
If you have never had your earlobe nursed by a tiny kitten it is totally trippy feeling. I could not stop giggling but I didn’t have the heart to take her off my shoulder it was just too sweet.
Unfortunately my rescued kitties are both assholes. Really. But the thing is they were going to get put down so I figured I’d give them a better life.
One is a ten year old dwarf. Really. She hates other cats and most everything else, although she can be rather affectionate. She’s starting to get a little more chill. But she craps on the floor when she gets upset, and pees on things from time to time.
The other cat, I got as a kitten. Another rescue baby. He’s a big plain black cat with gold eyes, and I adore him although he hasn’t been happy since we got the other cat. He’s much more dog like. He responds to simple commands, knows sit down for instance, and plays “it” with you.
Hi Sven,
Thanks for that. I had seen those JSTOR pages but not the tree snake one (unfortunately, I don’t subscribe so I couldn’t see the pics). That seems like a rather odd experiment. I suppose it had something to do with the snakes being a public safety problem.
Yes, right. These are the snakes that have taken over Guam, have pretty much extirpated the native birds, and are now working their way through the lizards. Every once in a while one gets into somebody’s house and tries to swallow a baby’s arm or something. The tampon research was ostensibly to examine possible attractants.
Sven, Ah, I see.
Ol’Greg, Yes, dogs are gross. So cute, though.
I detest dogs. I can’t understand why people actually voluntarily keep them as pets. :-/
But her disagreement with Lord Ashcroft’s private financial choices – which are none of her, or any of our, concern – is not a basis for condemning an entire party, which, last time I checked, was not led by Lord Ashcroft. – Walton
This is utter crap, Walton, and you know it – of wcourse dishonesty in high places is our concern. Ashcroft promised to return to be a permanent resident in the UK as a condition of receiving a peerage, then broke that promise. He’s a major Tory funder, and William Hague at least knew about his tax status for years, Cameron for months, and prevaricated when asked about it.
BTW, your “There is no alternative” justification for voting Tory is looking a bit feeble after the latest polls. (Not to mention, it’s a bit thick to complain about lack of choice, then support FPTP.)
The Ratso Rizzo that comes to my mind is Dustin Hoffman’s character in Midnight Cowboy.
Well, Knockgoats, of course I could vote Liberal Democrat, without too many pangs of conscience; I agree with at least as many Lib Dem policies as Conservative policies, and they seem to be better when it comes to civil liberties, which are my major priority. But having been active in the Conservative Party for several years, I do feel a certain loyalty to the institution. And I keep telling myself that they will be better than Labour.
Walton, thanks for your reply. My apologies for taking a day to get back to you.
The thrust of my post @509 was chiefly to commend J.K. Rowling’s decision to stay in the country, in part because she feels she is, as she puts it, “indebted to the welfare state”. I am inspired by her sense of integrity and responsibility in this respect. However, in my haste to make the post, I may have pulled along some misconceptions, and I would like to try and clear those up.
I agree that Rowling should not set up Lord Ashcroft as a strawman of Conservative values ( though I don’t believe she is doing that, since she makes the effort of singling him out): I am sure that his financial dealings are not representative of all Conservatives, in actions or even in philosophy. I disagree however, that those same financial dealings should not be held up to scrutiny: I find it hard to believe that his ‘non-dom’ status is about anything other than avoiding taxes, Perhaps more importantly, he has been cagey and evasive about his status until only recently.
This, I do want to address. The Conservative Manifesto 2010 makes no mention of single parents (near as I can tell) and only makes mention of supporting families in general. The closest to a distinction I have found, on p.41, is troubling:
and:
There is no attempt to offer assurance or even clarification to single parents in this text – exactly, I believe, what Rowling was angry about.
I acknowledge that the Manifesto pledges to support Sure Start (p.43), but since that initiative was introduced by Labour, I don’t know how much credit they can claim for it.
Finally, compare this to the 2010 Labour Manifesto’s specific treatment of the issue:
and:
I really did try to find equivalent statements in the Conservative version (not that £4-a-week tax credit is any kind of windfall), but was unsuccessful. I want to re-iterate that I do not think the Conservative Party means to undo the welfare state, but their attitude towards it seems to be, at best, somewhat superficial and indifferent.
Dummkatz doesn’t go straight to the source, but he does hop on the sink and take off with my used q-tips, if I don’t throw them out immediately.
That’s the stupidest argument for voting, ever. And more than a little dishonest.
The problem with the 30% for LibDem in the polls, is of course, that it doesn’t help jack shit, if the get 30% in constituencies with 70% Labour voters and 70% Tory voters. As I keep saying, first past the pole is inherently unfair and you bloody well should get rid of it post haste. Or do you care to explain to me, how it’s all hunky-dory that the 30% voting LibDem will not be represented in parliament?
That’s £208 per year. That’ll pay for a February weekend in Blackpool.
Sometimes I hate Rule 34.
I had a cat like that, rescued as a tiny kitten who had to be bottle nursed for awhile. She decided my ear was Mommy, and would leave little pinpricks on my neck from nursing kneading.
We named her Dracula.
I loved that cat, was devastated when she finally died at age 18 of a nasty jaw cancer. I’ve had lots of cats since then, but Drac is still my favorite.
Walton @ 611
Well, we got our dog as a therapy dog for the kids – helps with emotional stability when she’s depressed, helped get him away from being terrified of dogs. But the dog also keeps the raccoons from eating the house – yes, literally. Raccoon damage was a pretty major expense for awhile til we got the dog.
Words fail me. Aren’t we supposed to live in the 21st century. Zeno, can you dig into this?
–o–
Speaking of cats. MAJeff, I have to thank you for that cat-spanking video you posted ages ago. Dummkatz absolutely loves a good paddling.
If we went over to PR, yes, the Lib Dems would do better. But so would fringe parties: UKIP, the Greens and the BNP would probably win some seats (as they already do in European Parliament elections, which use a party-list PR system). Couple this with the fact that it would break the dominance of the two major parties, and we could well end up with a system where it is necessary to enter into a coalition with various fringe parties in order to form a working government. This has long been a serious problem in Israel, for instance, and in some European countries (notably Italy).
I also do think the constituency MP system has some benefits. I worked for a while as an intern in a local MP’s office; local MPs and their staff do a lot of work helping their constituents with a range of problems, and liaising with government agencies on their behalf. Some do this better than others, but it is a very important function – and one that is not, in my experience, really dependent on party politics. PR would destroy that.
As I’ve said before, I’d prefer going over to US-style open primaries, where the voters, not the party organisations, pick the candidates. This would end the current de facto disenfranchisement of those who live in safe seats.
First-past-the-post is stupid. Preferential voting FTW.
‘Tis: I think the Muppet Rizzo (a rat) was named after the Dustin Hoffman character (which I couldn’t remember but assumed it was from a cop movie (but couldn’t be sussed to actually, you know, look it up (and figured someone around here would know (and I was right (and lazy (which is (for a male) a major-league twofer)))))) but (((Girl))) named it for the muppet, not the Hoffman.
Ol’Greg and Becca: One of our cats (the oldest (a gray semi-hairless (self-inflicted) neurotic) cat) still suckles (((Wife)))’s clothing. We have a vision of (((Wife))) waking up naked and seeing Sherman lying on the bed with a little nightie sticking out of each end. He has been known to suckle holes in clothing.
Looks like the Pope realized the “it’s everybody else’s fault, except mine” approach wasn’t working and decided to page out of the Televangelist Scandal Handbook. After you’re caught, shed tears:
Tearful pope says church will better protect young
iambilly?
Sherman?
Goldfish named Tecumseh, or Bummer, or Swathe-of-Destruction-from-Atlanta-to-Savannah
There a trend in monikers here?
Walton @ #611 – “I detest dogs. I can’t understand why people actually voluntarily keep them as pets. :-/”
A dog is not a pet, at best almost a child, at worst, in my personal experiences, a companion who understands when you are down and just need a nuzzle (see obligatory “Ahh” story below).
Your inability to like dogs, Walton, is a major strike against you in my book and sign that you are too tight assed. Hating cats is OK and a sign of wisdom (ducks, covering head), but hating dogs is a sign of a deeper illness. I would impolitely tell you to stick your oft repeated dog detesting attitude up your bottom, but assume you would need a hammer to penetrate.
Ahh story – While home for my mother’s illness then death, I also broke my heel and damaged my Achilles tendon. Point is, I was at a very low period mentally and in great pain all at once. Dusty dog, yellow lab, is used to coming over and putting his head in my lap for skritches or wrapping his legs around my legs and sleeping with his head on my feet. Physically could not do either of those as foot was elevated and encased in a plastic boot, plus I was leaning back. Afraid I had to speak harshly to him to get him to stop trying to get close, which made me feel worse, of course. Anyway, he collects stuffed toys, literally, he keeps 4-6 in his bed and often holds one or more between his forepaws when going to sleep. His oldest and best loved is a now nearly shapeless mallard. So, a few minutes after I ran him off, Dusty came by with duck in mouth, placed it gently on the ottoman by me and then wandered off to his bed. Well, you know what I did, got up, got onto the floor and skritched and loved him for the next hour. Vicodin works wonders.
Antiochus:
iambilly is the WordPress name/address for my blog, which is (((Billy))) The Atheist.
Sherman was the survivor of two cats — Grant had, essentially, no intestines.
The goldfish are named Cujo and Spumoni. And were named by (((Boy))).
No trend.
The cats I have had (since childhood) include: Bagheera, Kipling, Eyore, Baloo, Rhorshach, Strohs, Bob, Sherman*, Grant, Dust*, Oreo* and KC*. Dogs have included Avatar, Gandalph and Gonzo.
I see no trend. Other than weirdness.
* Still alive.
iambilly: As I have tried to become assimilated with you humans, I notice that I have begun to interpret noise as signal. A good sign.
I’ll check out your blog, sir.
Oh Gosh – I agree with Walton!
Yes, first-past-the-post is a terrible system in many ways, but you do get to vote for a particular person which, to an extent, transcends party lines. And if your MP is corrupt, or sleazy, you can vote them out. One of the reasons so many MPs have left parliament at this election is that they were not prepared to face the wrath of the electorate – if we had a list system, the party would determine who was to stand, so they could stay in perpetuity.
And – PR elections seem dull, dull, dull, taking place over weeks, often with party aparachics no one has ever heard of. Here, election night is exciting, with dozens of little triumphs and dramas unrolling in real time, and a firm result by the end of the night.
No, it’s not fair to minority parties, but do we really want the BNP and other scoundrels to get a free ride to Westminster? No. We would never get rid of the fuckers, and they’d have a parliamentary grandstand for their views in perpetuity.
Yay for the status quo!
I’m with Walton. *shrugs*
Dogs scare me. When they aren’t busy scaring me, they annoy me.
Animal names:
Cats in my family over the years- Millie,Alice,Dorre (the cats I grew up with), Emmie and Allie (still living with the person I also lived with then), Penelope and Sebastian (the assholes).
So you want to disenfranchise people with whom you disagree? I find the Danish People’s Party reprehensible, but who am I to decide that my fellow Danes are not allowed to be xenophobic wankers?
And as I’ve said already, PR can be implemented in manner that still allows for some degree of locality. You mush together, say, twenty of the current constituencies and distribute the mandates among these ‘superconstitencies’. Of course, in order to ensure the distribution among parties works out, you’ll need to take out a coupla mandates for later distribution, but that’s still 18 people from your county. Do you really need someone from your hamlet, in order to be able to form a relationship with them? With that size, you’d even still be able to run as an independent.
Sorry, but coälitions are largely for the good. I agree that they can result in messes like Italy and Israël, but for your ‘argument’ to work, you’ll have to demonstrate that those countries wouldn’t have had problems with FPtP.
They’re allowed to be xenophobic wankers, certainly – that’s what free speech is about – but those of us who are not xenophobic should do everything we can to stop them getting any more power.
We already do that for European Parliament elections. It doesn’t work. My euro-region (South-East England) is so vast that there is no link between the individual and the MEP; hardly anyone even knows who any of their “local” MEPs are.
Parliamentary constituencies have, in theory at least, 60-70,000 residents each. This is small enough to allow for some degree of local accountability.
Before I forget once again, here’s a quote from one of Friday’s Simpsons episode reruns:
“I wish God were still alive to see this!”
– Homer, commenting on the beauty of the Deadly meteor shower.
Watched the Simpsons version of the Bible today. :-)
The stories about baby kitties suckling earlobes remind me of my supervisor’s baby daughter using his pinkie finger as a pacifier… she’s stopped, though; at the right moment, now that she’s getting teeth.
Self-confident, extroverted, active to hyperactive people keeping dogs I can understand.
This is where evil comes from.
I mean, where’s the difference to, say, “my country, right or wrong, my country”? Where’s the difference to the Socialist song “the party, the party is always right”* from between the world wars?
Give your party real-time feedback on their actions! That’s what democracy is for!
* While studying at the University of Vienna, I once came across someone my age who apparently could still sing it and was almost surprised nobody else could. <shudder>
Compare Germany or Austria…
…Interesting.
Walton, Given that humans and dogs have been associated with each other long enough that they have effectively co-evolved, your failure to comprehend them might also explain your occasional confusion regarding your own species.
Both humans and dogs are social animals. It is one of the reasons why we are able to co-exist. And the fact that we have co-existed for so long has further increased the similarities.
Frankly, I think one can learn a lot from dogs–the art of living completely in the moment, for instance. The art of giving oneself totally over to joy…to love…even to sadness.
Now, at the same time, I will admit that dogs can be utterly disgusting creatures. Ferdogsake, they evolved as coprophagic scavengers! However, it is probably a good thing to learn that one can find an organism utterly disgusting and still love it. (This is a lesson, I think, that is particularly valuable for heterosexual women.)
And dogs are cowardly, and sneaky, and selfish and base. Again, just like humans. The thing is, both humans and dogs can overcome that base nature. I’ve got a dog that always leaves a bite or two of food in its bowl so that our other dog can snag it. One time, we were sitting in our living room with a friend who had recently been widowed tragically. Our friend was of course weeping inconsolably even as our two puppies tussled over a bone. One of the dogs got the bone and took it over to the sobbing widow, laid it beside her and looked up at her as if to say, “Chewing always makes me feel better.”
There are instances of dogs rushing into a burning building to rescue a cat! It is hard for me to understand how you cannot love that at least in the abstract.
So, Walton, I would never say that you cannot be fully human if you don’t love dogs. My own father doesn’t like them much. However, they do make excellent emotional mirrors for our own species. IMHO, they’re also a lot easier to like.
I do. I’m frequently a vocal critic of party policies I dislike, both on here and IRL. And as I’ve said elsewhere, if they do certain really stupid things – such as repealing the HRA – then I will publicly dissociate myself from the party and vote for someone else.
But they will, I am confident, be better than Labour. And having invested time and energy in supporting the Conservatives over the last few years, I don’t feel like I could vote for someone else now.
That being said I totally understand why *other* people love their dogs. I can’t bear to see people neglect them or treat them badly.
I don’t really hate dogs per se, it’s just that for some reason they make me feel very skittish and ill at ease. I pick up on their subtle dominance some times and am not sure how to appropriately deal with it (same goes with people actually). I can not stand for them to approach my face, for instance, even in play (once again, same goes with people :P)
I’m terrified of dog bites, which is funny considering I’ve never been bitten or even nipped by a dog.
On the other hand I’m very good with birds. I used to charm wild birds when I was a kid so that I could get a good picture of them or get to touch them a little (looking back on it, that’s probably not healthy for them but it was fun).
I can’t bring myself to keep a caged bird though.
Other animal names:
My snake was named Ezra. I used to name the chickens, but I only remember Sally, the duck. The rooster, what was his name? I don’t recall it but he was an ass and I seriously hope he made a nice coq au vin.
I never had any larger animals, although some people we knew raised goats. Goats are, by in large, not as bad as their reputation IMO.
I disagree. I think they make excellent emotional mirrors for people who ideate dog based anthropomorphic social and emotional values.
If you like dogs you probably see the things you admire in people in them.
Buuuuuuut….
Fallacy of sunk costs. “We cannot cancel Project Orion and Ares because of how much money has already been spent on development.” That one was caught, but look at the space ‘shuttle’.
Really? Why on earth wouldn’t you be able to get a result the same night? We do here. What’d slow things down? Unless of course you fire most of the officials doing the count. Plenty of drama here, if you care to follow it.
A free ride? And Labour and the Cons don’t get one now? Yes, I want people to be free to vote for the wankers they want.
“everything we can”? So why not just ban the parties and imprison all their members? Putting procedural hindrances in the way of election is profoundly undemocratic. If you cannot stop the wankers from getting elected by exposing their wankerdom and demolishing their policies, that’s your problem.
Sorry Walton, I couldn’t resist :P
I like my dog and no I don’t.
Ol’Greg:
I think that’s true of a lot of people, but I don’t think it fits all dog owners. It doesn’t fit me. I like my dogs.
I’m alone most of the time, which is why I have the monster dogs. They guard me and provide companionship. I was certainly glad I had them with me the day I encountered a mountain lion. They are *animals*. They are not ‘kids’ or ‘kid substitutes’. They are well trained.
For the most part, other people’s dogs drive me up the wall, being allowed to run loose a/o bark constantly. I certainly don’t think nice thoughts about the idiots across the road from me who have 3 dogs which never shut the fuck up. From what I’ve observed, a lot of dog owners are assholes.
Hey guys, the “you” in that was only directed towards Ray of Dilbert Space re- his assertion that people who don’t like dogs don’t like people because people are like dogs.
I’m talking about his argument and what it implies about his view of dogs.
As for why you guys like dogs I don’t know! You’re not the ones that made the prior statement about dogs being like people!
Antiochus:
I’m currently having difficulty with my blog (though I may have it solved (and will find out tonight)) and my home computer (I think the problem is with the computer, not the blog). I have also been really depressed and suffering from writer’s block anytime I try to compost an entry. That is why I haven’t interacted with the blog in three weeks.
Walton: Goats (especially pygmy goats) are my vote for the cutest animals on earth. (((Wife))) agrees on that one.
Walton: granted everything I know about British politics i got here but if your hating on dogs is indicative of conservatives – your conservatives might be almost as evil as ours. Although politicians using dogs as props works across party lines. But I am guessing your dislike of dogs comes from lack of exposure. They are slobbery, smelly, obnoxious but that is just a show they put on so that you can learn what is really important in life: Love and companionship.
Thanks all for happy kitty stories.
But back to science history for just a bit. To get a handle on this science philosophy/practice bit I’m heading all the way back to Francis Bacon (maybe that is where the baconophiles around here get it). And eventually Popper and Bayes…and I have read Kuhn in the past any other names of note I should make sure to catch?
Why is it that human beings are so eternally sure that whatever it is they like or get out of something is what everyone ultimately will.
It’s something that just bugs me across the board about all humans and I’m sure I’m prone to it myself some times.
You can learn what is important about love and companionship from anything, any animal, and any human relationship. You might learn it from your little sibling, or from your husband, or from your pet turtle.
It isn’t dogs magic powers that teach it, it’s the capacity of humans to love and value companionship.
For crying out loud, if you don’t like dogs no amount of time around them is going to do anything but make you miserable.
For the record, forcing yourself to care for something you dislike and are afraid of, that costs you, and may not even like you because of the underlying tensions isn’t going to teach you anything healthy about love and companionship anyway.
Kantalope: David Hume…great thinker, skeptic, and unapologetically godless.
Get one, you’ll see.
I have a really fluffy cuddly Golden Retriever, as well as an African grey parrot. They get along wonderfully, they play and sleep together. My parrot completely dominates my dog, it’s hilarious at times.
Often I meet a mother with her child and the child wants to carress my dog. The mother goes nuts, takes the child in her arms as if my dog is going to harm him. I tell her my dog won’t harm my parrot which is about a hundredth the siwe of her child. No wonder such child might become scared of dogs. I don’t know if it’s the reason why you are afraid of dog bites without having ever been bitten, I don’t know if you’ve ever had a dog.
I notice that quite often, people who don’t like dogs never had one, and their antipathy comes from childhood education.
We had one when I was a child.
My roomate had two.
I’ve had them around, in my house, depending on me, wanting affection from me, fed them, taken them for daily walks, washed them, taken them to the vet, played tug o war and catch with them.
I still don’t like them.
I probably won’t ever like them unless they become less dog like and smell different.
I know it is hard to understand. But you see, I am perfectly capable of even caring for dogs well, but I do not enjoy them.
Hating dogs is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. If you’ve ever had to deal with a dog who thought you were invading its space or had to remove shit left on your lawn by the neighbor’s dog then you might not feel too favorable towards the nasty, dirty, smelly, noisy curs.
A cat is a noble creature. One of its most endearing characteristics was explained by T.S. Eliot in his poem, “The Addressing of Cats”:
Ol’Greg:
QFT. This is why I said I liked *my* dogs, and it’s why you won’t find me imparting what I think are ‘aaaw, ootsey cutesy’ stories about my dogs. I think it’s absolute bullshit the way dog/cat/whatever else animal lovers will insist the solution is to be around said animal or impart “get one, you’ll see!”
I’ve endured decades of idjits telling me the same thing about children. Ugh.
No, my mom was always trying to get me to play with the dog.
Her name was Lucky and actually I saved her life. I heard this horrid sad sound and I kept saying there were ghosts in the house next door.
Well in actuality after their meth lab got shut down the neighbors family who hadn’t been arrested got kicked out by the landlord. In retaliation they locked a small puppy in the house to die and stink the place up. Horrid, no?
It was that small puppy I was hearing from across the house even. My dad broke into the house and got the dog and she became our dog, Lucky, thus aptly named.
She was a good dog from what I remember, huge but gentle, but I was still just as afraid of her all the time as I was of any dog around on the street.
My fear and panic would frighten the animal in turn as well. Never a good thing.
clearly, I haven’t had enough coffee yet. And since it bears repeating anyway:
‘Tis a feature, not a bug.
A perfectly reasonable reaction on the mother’s part. I’ve seen dogs, described as “oh they wouldn’t harm a fly”, bite people. Maybe flies are safe around dogs but people, especially children, aren’t.
Ol’ Greg,
Hmm, I wasn’t quite saying that if you don’t like dogs you don’t like people. I love dogs, but am kinda lukewarm on my own species.
Actually, what I was saying has less to do with anthropomorphization than it does with selective breeding. Let’s face it. Dogs were domesticated by humans somewhere between 10000 and 30000 years ago, and they have been associated with us for perhaps 100000 years. In that time, we’ve made what started as a wolf look like everything from a chihuahua to a Great Dane. We are bound to have affected their psychology as well–and by Newton’s third law (sort of)–they must have affected ours.
Dogs do not exist in nature. They are a human creation–one of our first that is still extant. They must say something about us–even if it is only what we find too cute to eat.
There are some researchers who have posited a deeper link–that our ability to rely on a dog’s superior sense of smell left room for our brain to specialize in different directions, including room for frontal lobes to grow where olfactory apparatus used to be. All speculation, true, but intriguing speculation.
And by the way, I’m not against anthropomorphization. I think it’s inevitable given our psyches, as Terry Pratchett has illustrated so wonderfully. It may never be possible to understand another creature, but in our efforts, we may reach a better understanding of ourselves.
Yep. True that. I get the kid thing all the time too. “Have one, then you’ll know.” Well I would fucking hope so because it would be really sad to have one and then say, yep, hate it. No, if I just had one I’d be stuck with one and I’d have to make due either way.
I like my cat. Notice the singular. That’s because I just spent a few minutes cleaning up cat pee from the resentful rescue. I really wish I didn’t have that cat frankly, but I couldn’t let her get put down :(
That being said I don’t only like cats, and I find that part of what makes them ok is that they fit into my life well enough.
It makes perfect sense to me that some people would dislike them, and some may not even like to have pets at all.
Neg:
There’s a reason for that – dogs bite. I’ve known people who claim to the skies their dog won’t bite and really believe it until their dog bites someone.
If people ask me if my dogs bite, I tell them yes. I doubt if they would actually bite, but I don’t care to be in the position of someone who suddenly finds out her dog will indeed bite a certain someone.
wtf?
politics don’t exist solely for your entertainment. dumbest reason to support anything, ever.
Walton doesn’t like democracy all that much. as far as he’s concerned, too much democracy is a bad thing, and must be prevented.
Yeah, a few years ago a relative’s 8 year old daughter got her face nearly chewed off by their lovable black lab.
She’s had a few rounds of plastic surgery to try and restore her features.
And naturally enough that dog wouldn’t have hurt a fly either… except that one day when it did.
Blame, meh… I’m not assigning it. But the risk is there on some level no matter what.
Caine and Ol’Greg, I’m assured by my mother that this “get one, you’ll like it” might actually work for babies. She keeps on telling me the only children she could ever stand were her own, and considering the “lovely” character of said children, that’s saying a lot. (not that I’m really planning on testing that out, but it’s mildly reassuring to know that if I ever accidentally spawn, I might not hate the result)
aaah, the power of oxytocin :-p
Ol’Greg:
*Nods* The one I used to get constantly was the condescending “Oh, you’ll change your mind.” I’d usually wait a moment then reply “What happens when you change your mind?” The blank stare then the look of shock when it sank in was reward enough.
Jadehawk says, “Walton doesn’t like democracy all that much. as far as he’s concerned, too much democracy is a bad thing, and must be prevented.”
Well, Mencken wasn’t a great fan either:
“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”
I get what you’re saying on one level, I really do. But how could they have affected ours. We selectively bred them for specific traits. Maybe for traits people like you and Neg value, but not for traits I do?
Who selectively bred us to like those traits, or at what point did liking those traits put enough pressure on the human population that those who don’t died out?
Jadehawk, yes, I heard the same, that old, inevitable bonding magic. It didn’t work between my mother and myself, she couldn’t stand to be in the same room with me and forbad my grandmother to pick me up.
I have never had the slightest interest in children, the idea of being pregnant was always a repugnant one to me. I rather doubt I would have cared for any child I was made to birth.
I know a lot of people who are parents and they all say they like their kids; most of them don’t care much for other people’s kids.
Of course not: but I do, personally, get the excitement that sports fans get from a good match. It’s a very personalised contest over here: when the (then) unpopular Tory Michael Portillo lost his seat in 1997, whoops of joy could be heard all over London. The Eduro elections, by contrast, held no interest.
I’m not saying first past the post is fair; I’m saying I prefer it, partly because it’s exciting. But in any case, it’ll probably go after this election.
ugh.
I’ll freely admit that what my mom was saying might also just have been an attempt at setting up the future possibility of grandkids.
Apparently, everyone wants grandkids, even if they don’t really want children. Figures. Maybe it’s because you can return them when you’re done playing with them.
Jadehawk:
Yeah, that must be when the ‘magic’ actually works. My mother told me she wanted grandchildren. I told her she was out of luck.
I think the whole magical bonding process gets emphasized because for most women, that does happen. However, it’s obvious, going by the amount of children who are abused a/o killed, it’s not exactly universal.
Ol’ Greg,
I don’t know of any relationship that isn’t to at least some degree codependent. If dogs are part of one’s environment, they are bound to have some effect–especially if you depend on them for hunting, security or even entertainment.
I’m pretty sure dogs invented slapstick–and imagine the world without The Three Stooges! (No, I’m not actually a Stooges fan.)
holy fucking hell :-(
Look, A-Ray… I just don’t like them. Sorry.
I like people quite well actually, but dogs not so much.
*shrugs*
Maybe I’m a throwback to human beings prior to the domestication of dogs. I’m lactose intolerant too. And people *did* evolve to be able to digest milk.
Cats? This is now a cat thread?