Slashdot Mirror
Giant Rabbits To Feed North Korea
iamdrscience writes with news of an East German pensioner who breeds rabbits the size of dogs. Karl Szmolinsky won a prize for breeding Germany's largest rabbit, at 23 lbs., in 2006. News photos reached the North Koreans, who asked through their embassy whether Szmolinsky would be willing to sell them some as foodstocks — each rabbit yields about 15 lb. of meat. A deal was struck and Szmolinsky will be traveling to North Korea in April to help them set up a breeding program. (The photos in the article use the most extreme, contrived camera angles to make the rabbits look even more huge.)
welcome our Giant Rabbit Overlords
Is that you, Harvey? I can't see... :)
On the plus side, I don't see anything wrong with eating rabbit meat. Rabbits are well known for their reproductive capabilities, so if it's edible, why not? It beats kimchee...
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
yada yada, first post, you get the idea.
They just need to follow Homer's logic: Expose the rabbits to radiation, thereby making them big.
I wonder if I use bold in my signature, people will notice my posts.
fp?
In Australia the rabbits are even bigger - I think they call them 'roos'...
Oh well, what the hell...
who breeds rabbits the size of dogs.
Why don't the North Koreans just continue to eat dogs?
Trolling is a art,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_starvation
Remind anyone of Night of the Lepus? http://imdb.com/title/tt0069005/
(The photos in the article use the most extreme, contrived camera angles to make the rabbits look even more huge.)
No doubt there are many internet-dating Slashdotters who have availed themselves of such contrivances to make things look bigger than they really are.
Can anyone else see next month's headline? ... Giant Rabid Rabbits Wreck Havoc on North Korean Village.
The giant rabbit thing sounds straight out of a cheesy horror film. I think I would go with micro rabbits instead. You could breed them by the millions and just eat them whole like little snacks. They might be a little furry and a little crunchy, but at least there is less danger they will turn out evil and eat your children.
Are they made of wood?
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
And a beef will rise again, broken machine in his hand. Ten words: snapping bunnies twitching gurgling forget the bombs in your eyes. Roaring with whispers to the tiny bunnies SMASH/SPLAT those fucking bunnies. Send them information in a sensationalist manner, THEY CORRUPT. Heads snapping and misspelling eyes twitching in response to the sound of the words. Red world-like words zooming boiling. Moons in the shallow sky. Roaring with whispers to the tiny bunnies SPLAT/SQUISH those fucking bunnies. Twitching bleeding screaming bring the hammer down. Screaming bunnies bleeding bloody bunnies smeared across the ground. Drool spilling down his chin unto his beard as he screams red words at A blank and pointless sky of mothers. Red words popping and crackling black. Ten words: Snapping bunnies twitching gurgling forget the bombs IN YOUR EYES. Forget the bombs in your eyes. Speak the words to crack open the sky
"iamdrscience writes with news of an East German pensioner who breeds rabbits the size of dogs."
Pfft. That's nothing. We in the US breed humans the size of Buicks.
If he thinks that he is going to help the poor starving North Koreans, he will probably be in for the shock of his life. It will probably be for the rich ruling class, or even worse the elite may suffer from poor aim when they go out hunting rabits for sport.
If Korea is really concerned about starvation, they should look at their neighbor China. China went from a disaster of 10's of millions of starving people to total solution almost immediately. How did they do it? They let the farmers have private property rights.
David Lynch?
Seastead this.
DAAAAAAAAAAAA!!
They may not taste good but they can dance.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
What happens when (not if) N. Korea weaponizes these giant rabbits? Possibly by irradiating them and turning them into an even larger and more fearsome animal (sort of like African killer bees, but with big floppy death ray shooting ears). Seriously folks. Won't someone think of the children?
I'm not a vegetarian myself, but even this raises questions regarding the efficiency of such an operation.
Is it more efficient to feed these rabbits vegetable matter to be converted to protein (which, according to the article, is what the diet of many N. Koreans is deficient in), or would it be better instead to grow protein-rich plants that can be consumed directly by the people?
If the rabbits can consume grasses and other things that humans are unable to digest efficiently, and convert that into protein, then I suppose it would make sense.
"The unicode stuff in the latest version is working fabulously well. My russian mafia friends are ecstatic."
North Korea is not like China, not even close. It is very much like Soviet Union under Stalin. It is pretty much a time capsule of the 50s. Google for some blogs or photos from westerners who went there, it is a totally surreal experience.
Large empty streets, every foreigner is followed by an assigned guide. If a tourist as much as takes a digital photo of one of their leader's statues that is off center or has the head cut-off they are forced to retake the picture. There are stories of children being used to help harvest poppies for heroin production after they get off school. Everything is a show, they use all of their funds to build their military while hundreds of thousands are starving. Their leader is crazy and he has nukes. Iraq was a kindergarten compared to NK. Until the crazy dictators are ruling the country no amount of giant fluffy (and yummy) bunnies will save the people from starvation...
I don't know the technical name for it, but eating the ultra lean rabbit meat is known to cause malnutrition and eventual poisoning and death. I have seen several "adventure" videos where the survival experts remind viewers not to go very long on rabbit meat alone, for its lack of fat, and augment it with other sources of fat.
In Soviet North Korea, rabbits eat you!
Seriously though, how absurd is it that anyone thinks this is going to make any difference: it's a Communist dictatorship. The government runs food production and distribution, so of course they don't have enough food. All the rabbits in the world won't change that. It's sad and absurd that the average North Korean is still paying the price for a government that ignores that basic fact, proven so thoroughly and with so many graves in the 20th century.
Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
Now PETA is going to have to side against North Korea...muwahahahaha. PETA and bush on the same side...never thought I'd see the day...
Aren't these giant rabbits subject to military export control laws? An army of killer rabbits is no joking matter. It would be safer let the North Koreans have nukes than an army of killer rabbits.
Or does that first picture just look wrong?
They want animals close up, with a wide angle lens ... wearing hats
I disagree. I've made it plenty of times to California being only able to shoot and kill rabbits.
PS we used a raft to get past the last river.
PPS my wife died of cholera
The dogs will have to evolve and get bigger to be able to kill the rabbits. That way they get bigger dogs too!
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Nothing to see h--Oh. Wow. Nevermind.
For those who thought that the North Korean nuclear test was a hoax, take that!
He's a pooka.
See, people, this is what happens when you don't heed General Mills' warning:
TRIX ARE FOR KIDS!!!!!
Show me on the doll where his noodly appendage touched you.
Yes. Starving chingers.
I'd say that the N.Koreans will be breeding these wabbits to release into the DMZ (detonate the mines) as a response to everyone laughing at their low-yield nuclear capability demonstration. Kim Jong whatever his name is got the idea from Snakes On A Plane. Think of the global (not to mention local) impact of thousands of bunnies being blown-up in the DMZ (and seen on CNN). Only a evil genius would bring the world to the brink this way. F@#king brilliant, I with I had thought of it first!
One step closer to Night of the Lepus. My plans to cause the least likely horror movie to become a reality are almost complete.
Darth --
Nil Mortifi, Sine Lucre
well, I used to have a chihuahua and a shi-tsu, so...
anyways, when I was a kid I used to visit the annual small animal breeders show in our hometown (basically, a show such as where the breeder of those "dog-sized" rabbits won that prize) because there was not much else to do in our little town, and I don't think 23lbs is that much bigger than some of the rabbits I've seen there.
North Korea spends %50 of it's expenditures on Military. It is a massive force, as all citizens are required to spend 10 years in it. A massive force which is a consumer of food, and is reputed to steal it at their behest. Kim Il-Sung is credited for pushing forth "revolutionary" agricultural techniques, that in reality were disastrous failures. North Korea's recent public escapades, among other previous activities, have jeopardized vital capital from South Korea (NK = cheap labour.) It has little credibility in the international marketplace, as the regime is notorious for failing to repay debts. At the same time, the regime doesn't want to initiate trade relations, because it goes against it's Juche philosophy. In truth, these are all acts of twisted paranoia for the sake of the regime's self-preservation. The starvation isn't a product of North Korea's poverty or lack of natural resources. It's a product of North Korea's regime.
A regime that would rather see the misery of all it's citizens than reunifying under the leadership of the south.
Well, at least we know that North Korea is now safe from Jimmy Carter. ;)
For the love of God hasn't anyone seen "Night of the Lepus!" Deforest Kelly is dead. Who's gonna save us from the giant rabbits this time? I hope they have a rail system they can electricute the super bunnies on. If people would just watch more cheesy SciFi films we wouldn't have these problems. SciFi Channel is there to inform people! Next thing you know we'll be dealing with giant snakehead fish in our lakes. Watch these films and learn! Giant rabbits turn carnivous. They knew this in the 70s. How soon we forget!
Horse the Band. Wow.
And as you tread the halls of sanity, You feel so glad to be, Unable to go beyond. I have a message, From another time..
ARTHUR:
Go on, Bors. Chop his head off!
BORS:
Right! Silly little bleeder. One rabbit stew comin' right up!
TIM:
Look!
[squeeeek]
BORS:
AAAAAAUGH!
Did anyone else find this quote amusing, from the original article?
"I'm not increasing production and I'm not taking any more orders after this. They cost a lot to feed," he [German Farmer] said.
They're too expensive to feed for the German farmer to continue. By German rabbit-breeding standards. Now if the North Korean regime already (and allegedly) finds it too expensive to feed it's own people on even the lowest standards, how is diverting those much needed foodstuffs to rabbits going to solve anything?
Usually there's a logic to this. Unfortunately, the same people powering this decision are the same people that had the foresight of building a massive hotel that couldn't be finished (you know what I'm talking about if you're familiar with Pyongyang.)
I grew up in America, so, for most of my life, a rabbit was a fuzzy little critter about the size of a football which hops around suburban lawns. In Western Europe, however, that is not the case. The rabbits here are huge--bigger than my first dog--and wander the streets at night like well-armed Turkish hoodlums.
Seriously, fuck those rabbits.
I find it interesting that the skins are discarded.
-John Fenley
TFA uses metric units, but the slashdot machinery has for some reason converted it to imperial units. Why?
O Lord, bless this, Thy hand grenade, that with it, Thou mayest blow Thine enemies to tiny bits... in Thy mercy.
and remember, Five is right out!
This sig left intentionally blank.
But it's got big fangs!
The photos in the article use the most extreme, contrived camera angles to make the rabbits look even more huge.
I dunno about that, but this shot could get him in a lot of trouble with the law in some places.
How many kilograms of food will be needed to feed each rabbit need to produce the 7 kilograms of rabbit meat? There is also a possibility of an ecological disaster waiting to happen in the form of an explosion of the rabbit population due to its large reproductive nature. If they got into the wild, they would strip the land of any agriculture left and the people would be far worse off than there are now. The same thing happened when rabbits were introduced to Australia. The best solution is for North Korea to stop feeding it's military machine and feed it's people.
Father Turtle: So you nervous for the race tomorrow, son?
Turtle Jr: No way, Dad! Us turtles NEVER lose to the rabbit!
Father Turtle: Riight... but I think you better have a look at the competition.
* In thunders the giant German Rabbit dwarfing Father Turtle and his son *
Giant Rabbit: Guten Tag!
Communism is just a precursor of Dictatorship.
This is because Marx had this stupid idea of condoning or even encouraging violence as the way to achieve Communism.
So when you have a "Communist" Revolution ala Marx, guess who ends up becoming leader of the country?
The one who was willing AND able to exert the most violence.
Yeah, that's right, most of the time you get Mr "Silence all Opposition".
Marx's Communism is severely flawed because of this.
You basically have to wait till you get taken over by a Benevolent Dictator, or the Evil Dictator hands power to nondictators, or Mr Dictator has a change of heart.
Rabbits are ideal "prey food" for all sorts of mammals and birds - the problem for humans is that (as I have been told) - the fat level of rabbits means that you can eat rabbit all the time and still starve to death because of the low fat levels ...
...
.. and smaller over generations .. the link between good nutrition and human height is now well established - humans who have a balanced diet get taller over generations - while those with a minimal diet get shorter
Humans invented "rabbit stew" for a reason - it enables the recycling of dead rabbit into food that will sustain humans - the addition of lard (for frying), vegetables (for vitamins and minerals) and flavourings (to stave off boredom) - means that eating rabbit stew might just keep you alive - but you aren't going to get fat on it
If the N.K. govt think they can feed their population with rabbits - there is a very good chance that the people will get thinner
Pointy teeth!
Task Mangler
> move to countries like the US.
Should be: "move to countries like what the US used to be".
Those of you who have Google Earth, search up Pyongyang and you can see just how empty the streets are. Almost nothing on the streets there, just the occasional bus or truck. Seoul looks jammed, in places, by comparison. Plus if you look closely at Pyongyang you can see that ugly triangular shaped hotel they tried to build, but never finished. At least I think it was supposed to be a hotel, that's what the reporter on the CBC said.
Is it just me or do the pictures look almost fake. I can appreciate that bad camera angles were used but the rabbits seriously looked photoshopped in. The top right eat or the main rabbit always looks about the same and doesn't seem to have discoloration due to the lighting in any of the pictures, along with other parts of the fur. Are rabbits just odd to photograph like that or is this some partial fake?
You never realize how much manually made unmanaged "linked" lists suck, till you have src.link.link.link.link...
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Nice angles. That's exactly how I make my member stand out on gay profiles.
Dictatorship is a precursor to communism.
Move specifically, the "dictatorship of the proletariat". It is in the official Marxist road to Communism, a temporary state of dictatorship that should lead to the promised land.
Just about all self-declared Marxist regimes claimed to be the "dictatorship of the proletariat" state, being bright enough not to claim to the people that the current state of affairs was he best they could hope for. The one exception I know of was Albania, which at some point claimed to have reached "true Communism".
It has been rough to get there, but those intellectuals that still dream of Communism have mostly reached the conclusion that any kind of dictatorship of temporarily suspension civil rights are *not* acceptable steps on the way. It just took a few (well, rather more than a few) million lives to get to that insight.
Hopefully it will take less than that for the neo-Conservative to see that torture and other suspension of civil rights are not acceptable means to reach their goals, neither abroad or at home. Unless, of course, that is their goals.
Sounds like hares to me, not rabbits.
"Attention! Attention! Ladies and gentlemen, attention! There is a herd of killer rabbits headed this way and we desperately need your help!"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069005/
http://imdb.com/title/tt0312004/ already. It won't be easy.
Well, this is a political article. I hope that people can join http://houseofpolitics.com to discuss more of this.
Sorry, couldn't resist it ;)
--I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
Trix are for rabbits, rabbits are for kids.
"The Federal Reserve is a fraudulent system."--Lew Rockwell
End The FED. -
There is no possibility, for example, that a couple of these creatures will escape, breed like rabbits, and become a countryside plauge that ravages what little crop harvests remain after years and years of droughts causing mass starvation on a scale that even North Korea is unfamiliar with. Not possibility at all.
European wants to know...
>Seriously though, how absurd is it that anyone thinks this is going to make any difference
In Roman Britain Rabbits were an important food supplement. A large number could be easily be fed and cared for by the Children while the parents did more arduous agricultural tasks such as attempting to grow crops or maintain larger animals.
Pretty bad that in 2006 we have come to this though, especially when the US and EU ploughing food back into the soil and African countries would dearly love to be able to have foreign food markets.
My little Linux and tech blog
Giant cats are meatier: A short time ago a 20 lbs kittie was trapped in a dog door trying to steal food from the neighbour (which it had been doing for some times). Besides dogs and cats are very popular delicatesses in Korea.
Am I the only perverted soul who thinks this http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/0,5538,18473,00. html/ photo is just plain wrong? I suppose you have to do something with a giant rabbit...
http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/0,5538,PB64-SUQ9 MTg0NzMmbnI9Mg_3_3,00.html
OK, so I get the idea, rabbits aren't any more efficient than, say, cows, at converting vegetable matter to meat, but they are a lot faster. I think I heard about four times. So you can get 4000lb of rabbit meat in the same time you can get 1000lb of beef. OK, but that's for regular bunnies, don't big bunnies grow quite a bit slowler. So what's the "best bunnie" size???
Red to red, black to black. Switch it on, but stand well back.
but what happens now when the people get "rabbit madness" Rabbit meat is 99.9% lean, only trace amounts of fat. without fat your brain doesnt work right...
Its a secret plan to kill them off i tell you
And what is an lbs? I thought Slashdot was supposed to be an international site, not a neighbourhood backyard magazine.
If you're going to use that crap, then at least give us a translation!
In the future, they'll be able to reuse 97% of that headline.
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
I'm not a dietary expert etc.. But isn't it possible to get some sort of vitamine deficit by (repeatedly) eating rabbit-meat. Not very sure, thought I read about it some time ago.
I kept looking and looking. Finally, I had to do a search. I was sure it was going to be in the first couple of posts. Well, at least someone finally did it. :)
Ben Hocking
Need a professional organizer?
I expect the rabbits will turn out to be a lot smaller if they're fed on grass.
North Korea uses prisoners in their various prison camps to breed rabbits, which are killed for meat. (not for the prisoners, who must eat bugs, worms, raw rats, etc. in order to survive) Kang Chol-Hwan who was imprisoned with his entire family in the 'redeeemables' area of the Yodok prison camp wrote a book that describes his experiences, "The Aquariums of Pyongyang". For anyone interested in North Korean human rights, its a must read. Kang Chol-Hwan is now a reporter for the South Korean newspaper the Chosun Ilbo on North Korean affairs. He's one of the most successful North Korean refugees living in South Korea.
l us.pdf
Most North Korean refugees who manage to escape into China lead hunted lives in a terrible limbo of exploitation, terrified that they may be returned to North Korea, where people are often executed for the crime of trying to leave the country and bringing shame upon the Dear Leader.
If you read Aquariums realize that Kang Chol-Hwan's nine years in the Yodok prison camp as a boy were in the least brutal area of the least brutal camp, the only area where people are ever released. Many are sentenced to work on secret underground projects, similar to Hitler's rocket works at Peeneemunde, that only offer death through overwork as an escape, once you go in, you never come out.
Sun Ok-Lee is a North Korean refugee living in the US who worked as a bookeeper in another slave labor camp and her account to the US House is probably the most realistic account of these camps. She is one of less than five people known to have ever left one and lived.. Thousands die each year in these camps. They work people to death. (Each person, and their fat, represents useful energy to be extracted before killing them, as you will see)
Her account is at http://ncafe.com/northkorea/SunOkLeeTestimony_w_l
Its trivially easy to get everything except vitamin b12 from a vegetarian diet. Fats and oils are the same thing, and you know that "vegetable oil" stuff people fry food in, guess where it comes from? Flax oil is great for omega 3, you don't need fish. Iron isn't an issue, legumes, green leafy vegetables, whole grain products like breads are all high in iron, and just cooking in cast iron cookware provides all the iron you need even if your food had none. Every vitamin and mineral besides b12 has great plant sources. And protein is a non-issue, even the vegetables with the lowest protein content still have plenty enough. If you are eating enough calories to maintain your weight, you will get enough protein too. Oddly enough, protein would be a problem trying to rely too heavily on rabbit meat. The amino acid ratio in rabbit meat is WAY off for people, you will actually die if you try to live off rabbit meat as your sole protein source.
23 lbs = 10.4 kilograms
15 lbs = 6.8 kilograms
Who is John Galt?
"Giant rodents for sale! Get your giant rodents here! Tastes like chicken!"
Seriously, though, why not simply sell lots of normal sized rabbits? It's not like you'll run out--they breed like, well, rabbits. Is there really a market demanding giant ones?
Drop me a line at:
Key ID: 0x54D1D809
Video of the giant rabbit in action.
Carbon based humanoid in training.
It seems to me this is a news item since it's north korea, and since it's rabbits? I could see a similar article, consisting of US and cows/chickens. And nobody would read the headline twice. If some breeder comes up with a larger chicken or a meatier cow, wouldn't you want to set up such a breeding system in your country. Yes, the north koreans eat rabbits. and thats the news.
Maybe we'll get lucky. One of the giant rabbits could start calling itself Frank and drop a jet engine into Kim Jong Il's bedroom.
All the rabbits in the world won't change that.
Maybe not but it certainly might help. Rabbits can survive on grass and crude silage, can be grown in relatively small areas and reproduce reliably. Faster than goats, the most widely eaten animal on the planet.
Similar husbandry programs with cavia porcellus, guinea pigs to you, have helped many families lift themselves out of poverty in Peru and other areas in South America.
Rabbits would be better suited to the colder climate of North Korea. The fur would provide a secondary revenue source. It may not sound like much but when you're dirt poor having meat to eat and furs to trade is big deal.
How is this not a good thing? Why would you want to see the North Korean people starve just because their government is the asshat of the world? That's almost as silly as people hating all Americans because Bush is a douche bag. It's not like they elected that idiot in North Korea and there's growing evidence we didn't elect our idiot, either.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
This is not meant as a flame bait but the simple truth : this is the same reason tehre is a political section with an US flag, but there isn't a political section with, let us say a switzerland flag. Or a Korean flag. Or a canadian one. See my drift ? So now having agreed that slashdot is US centric, think of this trivia : what are the last 3 countries to use as standard unit the imperial unit ? Ding-Dong. Since they have pound as standard unit they converted the unit from kg to pound for the majority of their readership : the US (*)
(*) I am assuming this is the majority. If the US in the mean time has become a minority readership, one could question the legitimency of an US centric news.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
It already happened to Janet Leigh and DeForest Kelley. Night of the Lepus.
Kim Jong Il is known to be a fan of Daffy Duck. Having giant rabbits around can allow him to re-enact one of the funniest cartoons of all time.
It is "east German" not "East German". The only ones who make a distinction are the dinosaurs and the communists who can't catch up with the rest of the world. I lived and worked in Dresden and the only ones left who complain about the seperation are 30 and 40 somethings who couldn't adapt and learn how to earn a job instead of being given a job. Anyone older than that learned how to cope during the war and adapted again.
Its roughly equivalent to Der Spiegel citing "Herr Taco in der Wild West Staat von California..." or "Doktor Merkwerdichliebe von der Confederate Staat Alabama...".
Reminds me of Oolong the rabbit
. . . so long as the rabbits aren't only the size of dogs, but also taste like dog.
I too have felt the cold finger of injustice.
the more i read this the more i want to go live in the workers paradise! man communism is sooo cool. Look at how they care so much about the starving population! thats dedication for you.
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
It is pretty much a time capsule of the 50s.
Which explains Kim Jong-il's hair.
news of an East German pensioner who breeds rabbits the size of dogs.
"Ja. We are starting by having them the size of the Chihuahua. Afterwards, we are having them the size of the... how you say... Maltese. Of course, being German, we are hoping to be reaching the size of the Dachshund, or maybe even the Miniature Schauzer."
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Divide by two and then subtract 10%. It's not a difficult calculation, I had the reverse down in elementary school.
"...who is aware of the slope we're headed down..."
Potential slope. However judging by some of the comments. Some feel we've already achieved that potential. I personally feel that people are suffering from cronic cynicism were the glass is perpetually half-empty. And that's partially because of the way media is set up. Bad news this, and bad news that. Kind of hard to see the good in the world (or nation) when one is forever bombarded by what is bad about it.
Your post is spot on.
It always scares me to see people speaking in favour of Marxism, considering what has happened every time an actual implementation has been attempted. Capitalism has its faults, but the other extreme makes you a slave with no economic or political power whatsoever. Fans of Marxism might like to read up on the actual history of the USSR or 20th century China before supporting an ideology in which everyone becomes the property of the state.
>north
You're an immobile computer, remember?
Giant rabbits don't belong in North Korea, and neither does Al Gore (except in Nebraska).
They need to eat Kim Jong Ill.
I think he's plenty fat enough.
that are grown in developed countries and being left to rot in depots in order not to make the wheat prices fall 'too low' ?
Why the effort to do something else rather than ship these to the places in need ? Many of those nations are not integrated with world trade association anyways ?
Read radical news here
Dude, here's a nickel, buy a clue. Sure, large bureaucracies cause inefficiencies but that is so far from the primary reason for North Korea's current situation it's absurd, in fact offensive, to make the comparison. You are seriously lacking in a sense of perspective.
Go for it, son, define "large" for me. Give me some numbers. We have plenty of bureaucracies that are as large or far larger than the entire North Korean government, General Motors, for example, and while they may be inefficient, they do not leave millions of their own starving to death or subject to a high likelihood of torture or death. Equating the two is beyond wrong, it's flat out irresponsible.
Those of us living in reality point, rather, to lack of accountability, lack of transparency, inefficient cross-communications, y'know, the stuff that us actual experts in industrial organization are always willing to explain to those clued enough to pay attention.
You go out there and talk to some genuine experts in the reasons for North Korea's current state. Read up on, say, rule of law. See what energetically capitalist outlets like the Wall Street Journal have to say about the causes of North Korea's problems.Then come back and we'll have this chat again.
Oh, and if you're so hyped on decentralization, tell me, what in the real world have you done to bring that about? Personally, I've been working at that for over twenty years, just testified this past week on government procedures to New York's city council. This wasn't so bad since I've been dealing with the senior relevant councilman since, oh, about two months since he was elected, back in '01.
So, how about you. What have you accomplished?
Data is the lever, rigor the fulcrum, brains the force that drives it all.
That would solve both of their biggest problems.
I'm dead serious.
We should feed the trolls -- to the North Koreans. Two problems solved with one troll.
You are comparing 1st world plant food sources that we spend alot on growing to 3rd world meat food sources. That's obviously not a realistic comparison. We grow expensive crops because we're filthy rich and choose to do whatever we please. We even grow crops in completely moronic areas where they are 10 times more expensive to grow just because we don't care about effeciency. Our meat food sources don't eat grasses, they eat corn, soy, and blood and bone meal. Things that we refuse to eat (they are fed the "crappy" corn people don't want), but people in the 3rd world would kill for.
You can in fact grow alot of edible plants that are native to whatever 3rd world region you want to point to. These plants will be far more nutritionally effecient than growing grass, feeding it to rabbits and then eating rabbits. People in wealthy nations would just turn up their noses at the thought of eating food purely because its edible and a source of calories, to us food is a luxury, not a necessity.
To which the parent said,
An assertion that is completely obvious needs little or no backing up. But here is some just for fun:
Russia: Stalin, Lenin
China: Mao
Cambodia: Pol Pot
Perhaps the author of the parent should pull his head out of his ass.
Perhaps the author of the parent needs to find one case where Marxism did not lead inexorably to dictatorship.
Then, if he hasn't killed himself over wasting his life believing in fairy tales, he should try to figure out why Marxism leads inevitably to dictatorship.
Hm... violent people get in because of a "power vacuum", do they?
Russia. Um, no, the Menshiviks were doing better and better until Lenin's goons violently overthrew the closest thing to a legitimately elected government in Russia's history.
China. Um, no. What was that about a "Long March" again? Sun Yat Sen's people may have had their flaws, but given that it took thirty years of bloody warfare for Mao's forces to take over, not quite a "power vacuum".
Oh, say, all of Eastern Europe. Hah. Ask anybody from there about power vacuums and legitimacy. Admittedly, communists did more then their share of fighting against the Nazis but they were far from the only players. Without the Russians it would have been a very different ballgame.
And then we get to countries like Japan, Peru, Italy, Malaysia, and Greece, where communists tried to take power and got their asses kicked. Oh well.
So, I'm curious, what are your counterexamples?
Data is the lever, rigor the fulcrum, brains the force that drives it all.
Pigs are smarter than dogs. We roast them whole, and we grind them into sausage.
Dogs are relatively dumb, yet people get all upset if you eat one. WTF?
I think it's the eyes. Little beady pig eyes on the sides of the head just don't look as human as big forward-looking doggie eyes. Aw, such a nice doggie! Gross, a pig!
Really, there's nothing wrong with dog fur or dog meat. The same goes for horses, which are also dumber than pigs.
It's good to get some variety in your diet. I hate my lame corporate supermarket.
It's called 'The Holy Hand Grenade'. Let's see those godless commies try to defend against that one! :)
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
Run away! Run away!
It's called the IMPERIAL system. Any idea which empire that refers to? Fucking redneck - get back to fucking your sister you buck-toothed freak.
Using rabbits as a meat source is hardly new and this breed isn't unusual. A 23 pound rabbit is certainly hefty, but it's not a record breaker. The Flemish Giant has been documented up to 26 pounds and it's one of the oldest breeds around. Rabbits can survive on grass and thrive if a little grain and vegetables are added to their diets. That makes them a logical choice for countries with limited foodstuffs. The most interesting thing about the article was the writer couldn't seem to get past how the breeder "manages to stay emotionally detached enough to send the furry, innocent-looking, huge-eared creatures to slaughter." When's the last time you saw a farmboy get emotially attached to the meat stock?
If these guys want big bunnies, they should just show up at the next Topsfield Fair.
===== Murphy's Law is recursive. =====
S/B: I for one welcome our giant fuzzy radioactive mutant long-eared overlords.
With all the radiation N. Korea now has, why not make their own mutant bunnies? Show the world what they'll do to your pets if you invade them.
Table-ized A.I.
Let's see... Fire Swamp (underground nukes, check) Cliffs of Insanity (been there, check) Pit of Despair (in basement, check) Rodents of Unusual Size (... check)
For a minute there, I thought the title read, "Giant Rabbits to Eat North Korea".
This is North Korea; wouldn't the rabbit say "an-nyeong-ha-se-yo"?
North Korea might not meet the mark, but the IDEAL has never been tested, has it? There is such a thing as the possibility of a non dictatorial communist government.
c are&btnG=Google+Search
t h+care&btnG=Search
I've heard that Cuba works perfectly well with its communist government. I've heard that there is universal health care in Cuba, that everyone is fed AND they have not erased their land & architectural heritage with parking lots, Targets and Strip Malls.
My aunt visited the Soviet Union. They performed radial keratotomy on her eye; it was FREE, and she never had to worry about it again. On the other hand, she DID indicate that the people lived in fear. They wouldn't talk to her about anything related to politics.
I guess what I'm saying is there WERE / ?are? some good things about the Communist / Socialist countries. I don't think it makes much sense railing against them. Look for what was good about them, and learn from their mistakes, but for heaven's sake don't just throw away the beneficial lessons we can learn from them.
I can't speak much for N. Korea, since I know very little about it, but if you're poor and you need a doctor in Cuba, you're in luck. If you're poor and you need a doctor in the USA..?
search for cuba health care:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=cuba+health+
http://www.cubasolidarity.net/inhealth.html
A bunch of people trying to help others is what shows up. Their own health is met, AND they have 2000 doctors that THEY SEND TO OTHER COUNTRIES.
search for usa health care:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=usa+heal
There are probably some good charities, but see what the search brings first?
Just last year I had to perform surgery on myself in the USA since my own doctor, who works for Kaiser Permanente in northern California, would not help. They had sapped me of approximately $1000-$2000 over the course of several years, and repeatedly failed to identify the problem. One day I called the doctor on the phone to ask him to renew a prescription, and his reply was "don't call and ask. Come in and visit instead, (and I quote him here) since 'we have to get our money.'" Ultimately the doctor just told me to "shove it up my..." since I couldn't afford to pay him for an extra visit just for him to renew a scrip for an antibiotic. I told him he'd have to answer to God one day, and I said "God Bless You", as a Christian is supposed to do in the face of evil. Then he changed his mind and renewed it, but he still asked me not to come back.
So I just bit the bullet and prayed alot and fixed the problem myself (with a razor blade and shakey hands). I used the antibiotics to make sure I didn't get infected after cutting myself. I was afraid I'd run out, though, since I made the cuts in the wrong places 2 times, and I waited a week in between each failed attempt to let myself heal. The third time worked, though, and finally I could sleep at night without aggrevation.
That would not have had to happen in Cuba. On the other hand, I'm not sure if it's legal to pray there.
I dont care what they do with the just keep them away from Australian Soil we have enough rabbits already
Nothing good can come from this. We should prepare ourselves. What if the evil dictator decides to give them a bloodlust and long, gnashing teeth?
Bunnies don't like North Koreans. Bunnies also don't like the lameness filter.
naturally, the dog of the size of a giant rabbit.
Let the rabbits eat the North Koreans.
Then, breed them bigger, give them AK-74's and send them to overrun South Korea.
Hah! Deal with that, Bush!
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
Guess Kim Jung Il hasn't seen Holy Grail.
These giant rabbits are going to shit like rodent elephants. Rabbits are known to be very efficient composters, so there's another use for you. I wouldn't recommend it unless it was part of a package of some kind, but maybe if Great Leader Laurence Lessig can infiltrate they can CC-NK them and give every home a free rabbit...
They could also look elsewhere and see if they can simply add fat, but I hope they've taken this into consideration, but then again who says this isn't just a sci-fi lover's delicacy for those who are more "equal" than others?
Ale
He's brought out all the Fluffy Bunnies with that big fancy ipod-phone thingie! Koreans can have -them- too!
Giant Rabbits To Eat North Korea
Do not. Touch. Down.
If they want more meat why don't they just start up a cow breeding program. I would assume that this would yield a greater amount of meat than simply having large rabbits.
find / -iname life 2>
This is lame, Rabbits might taste nice (I personally think it taste like ass), but they have nothing to keep people healthy. vitamin styrofoam.. Poor people of North Korea.
i do not suffer from Insanity... I revel in it.
Dogs are relatively dumb, yet people get all upset if you eat one. WTF?
According to some anthropologists dogs and humans are co-species, that is neither could have evolved to its current state without a symbiotic relationship with each other.
If we accept this as true, it's likely that there's genetic predisposition to liking dogs - those with this tendency would have reproduced more.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Look at the bones!
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
28 days... six hours... 42 minutes... 12 seconds. That... is when the world... will end.
Why do you wear that stupid bunny suit?
Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
Well I do hope these things don't become sentient and integrate into society. That would fall way too close to this http://antibunny.com/
Scary close. Then they'd be putting cigarettes out in our eyes, and smoking in our theaters.
I expected a rabbit that a German considered worth breeding to have hair that looks more blond.
Hopefully he will only teach the Koreans how to breed rabbits and not promote another German solution to reducing the number of humans that are hungry.
And a word of warning to any rabbits out there: it isn't water that will be coming from those shower heads!
I will take that MacRabbit please!
Right, before you all start regurgitating what you have learned from Fox news about things, you should try to actually learn something about them. Ooops, too late.
Never the less, here are some articles defining the concepts - now there is no excuse for displaying your ignorance:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leninism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalinism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maoism
- so there!
Marx didn't 'invent' communism - he had some ideas about why it was the right way to address the social injustice he saw around him everywhere in the world at that time. He didn't particularly lust for bloody revolution, but thought that it was likely to be the only way to remove the huge inequalities in society. Etc etc. Communism is not 'an evil ideology'; in fact, if anything it is a 'good' ideaology - it is what you have if you take the ideas of some of the great religious philosophers and remove the superstition about God. It is of course easy to see who it is, in a capitalistic society, that has most to lose if communism were introduced; and those same people are also the same who, by and large, control what you get to see in the news and what you learn in school.
As for North Korea, the Soviet Union, China and others: the problem was never communism, but the people in power. A government will always tend to be isolated from the people, and even if they are not mediocre men with too many selfishh interests, they will too easily lose the way and begin to corrupt. This is why democracy is necessary: it is supposed to keep the government in contact with the fact that they are there to SERVE the people and their interests. Unfortunately it doesn't always work, because there are strong powers that are not democratically elected: the big companies, the big newspapers, the big religious institutions, to mention a few, and particularly in the US they have far more influence over the government than the people. This is deeply wrong, in my opinion.
Ignorant comments about what communism is supposed to be aside, isn't it good, in a small way, what is happening here? Not that people in North Korea get rabbits, which I think may well be a bad idea (since rabbits are noxious vermin), but the fact that apparently somebody in their government at least tries to address one of the real problems the have. It is worth remembering that, with very few exceptions, all humans have both good and evil in them; even in a hopeless country like North Korea, the government is not evil through and through - there are people who actually want to do the right thing. We can't fight evil by being even more evil (like we do in Iraq) - it can never succceed. The only way is to help the good parts grow.
Good thing Anya died in the last episode of Buffy. I don't think she could have handled knowing about giant bunnies.
"Only one thing, is impossible for god: to find any sense in any copyright law on the planet." Mark Twain