I have to disagree. I dive for lobsters and will sometimes bring them from the bottom of the ocean to my kitchen in about 30 minutes. These are California Spiny Lobsters, can't speak for all the other species.
But some of them are particularly lively, and will definitely thrash for a few seconds in the boiling water. Much unlike the movement you might see if you put them into cold water. If it's sufficiently hot though, I think the shock kills them pretty quickly (about 5 seconds).
When you REALLY notice their apparent ability to sense pain is when you have to "clean" them, which involves shoving a long, barbed object (like a piece of their antennae) up their rectum, so you can pull out their intestine. They usually remain pretty calm as you handle them, even if you flip them over and touch the underside of their tail a bit. But the moment you try to jam that thing up their ass, the really lively/alert lobsters are sure to resist and flail about excessively. I truly think it is mighty unpleasant for them.
One time, I had one that was so effective at resisting the required cleaning, I was unable to get the job done. So I tried running it under hot water in hopes of killing it. Seeing as just being under the sink is nowhere near as fatal as being thrown into boiling water, I witnessed a lobster thrashing about, apparently in pain, from being held under such hot water. It did seem to shock him into compliance though after 20-30 seconds.
Anyway, I feel bad for the lobsters, and really dislike feeling as is I am causing them pain. In the future, I'm going to go with the knife-through-the-head method of killing, as recommended by one of my dive buddies (and someone earlier in this thread).
I lost my phone out in the middle of the wilderness about a week ago. Went into the Cingular store to get a new SIM card so I can use my account with a different phone. They asked my phone number, deactivated my old SIM (the one in my missing phone), and gave me a new one.
But they never checked my ID!!! Anyone could have walked in, gave my phone number, and had my account shut off. They also would have been handed a SIM card so they can text all my friends pretending to me and start all kinds of trouble.
I actually have to agree with this poster very much. His language may be coarse, yes. But as someone who was a child at the time the bigtoys/playgrounds switched to plastic/rubber coated, I must concur that the older wooden playgrounds were far superior. Not because they were wooden, in fact the splinters did suck a lot. However, they were bigger, crazier, more innovative, and just plain more fun. They also contained far more dangerous designs. Bigger drops, longer slides, those tire pits you could bounce around in which often cause you to fall, slides made of metal rollers, large ordinary metal slides that were faster, a steamroller style hamster wheel sort of running-in-place device, and all sorts of fun structures. We stopped using the bigtoys altogether at some parks and schools right when they changed them to the stupid new designs. With the old designs, being able to fall from high up, move quickly on slides, and launch way into the air because the swings were so big was part of the thrill. The renovation of California's bigtoys pussified them all so much that now they are much less fun.
Ideally they should have switched to plastic and rubber to avoid splinters, yet still keep true to the the awesome structural designs of the past. But someone might get hurt, oh no! When you are a kid is the time you can have fun hurting yourself and still recover easily. On that note, might I add our liability laws in the US are hideous and should be wholly rewritten.
I was under the impression that here in California most all new console sales are handled via preorders. Retailers know in advance how many units they'll be getting for launch, so they just sell the rights to each purchase in advance. So no lines are necessary, except perhaps right before the first preorders are made available.
Ah I see Sierra Club bashing, and cannot resist my desire to join in, even though my concern is totally unrelated. I also think they're insane but for a different reason.
They claim to want to protect the environment, but refuse to ally themselves with environmentalist mountain bikers like myself in their fight to protect our wild lands. They support people riding horses in "wilderness" areas, yet claim they should not allow mountain bikes because they are too damaging to the land. Anyone familiar with the level of damage caused to ecosystems due to mountain biking knows that it's extremely negligable, especially compared to what a horse riding that same trail will induce. Surprisingly, from what I can tell a vast majority of Sierra Club members agree with me but unfortunately only the top dogs within the SC call the shots.
I think the Sierra Club is a BS organization whose primary goal is NOT protecting the environment. If they really cared, they would realize that strength in numbers is the way to go, and by joining forces with mountain biking advocacy groups to fight for more designated wilderness and reasonable wilderness guidelines that do not exclude mountain bikers from the land, then they will have more money, political clout, and other support for achieving these goals.
I can understand that some of their members would prefer that no human ever set foot in certain areas of land, but that's an unreasonable solution to the problem. They need to compromise and reach a solution that will maximize the amount of land that is protected such that it remains beautiful, undeveloped, unpolluted, and rich with wildlife, which these days means getting the support of the recreational trail using community at large (mountain bikes, horses, hikers, backpackers, etc., united)
As for this lawsuit against automakers, yeah that's BS too...
Your analogy of talking shit to someone in Harlem who will immediately retaliate physically is totally bogus. The point was, in the US, you won't be arrested or charged with any wrongdoing by the police whereas in the UK it sounds like you would. The US seems more free in this sense, because the only time your public comments will get you punished is if someone outside of "the law" takes it upon themselves to, most likely illegally, retaliate against you. In the US, you can call every person that walks by "a motherfucker" except for those who look like they might beat your ass for saying so, and you'll be fine. In the UK it wouldn't matter who you say it to, because the words themselves are considered antisocial/abusive and legally punishable.
What sucks about the UK system is, if the "verbal abuse" is merely you saying something that would not ordinarily rile people up, the government can still silence you in the name of the law. Whereas in the US, nothing would happen to you.
It's really disturbing because "verbal abuse" could one day be extended to include verbally promoting one's political beliefs on a street corner, etc. Taking away freedom is a slippery slope. Don't think I'm defending my home country (US) as being free either; we started sliding down that slope quite some time ago as well.
For one, the fact that people pay real world money to boost their character is ridiculous. Have these people no pride in achieving things on their own? Call me old-fashioned but I find it wholly unfulfilling to "win" at something when I have an unfair advantage over my opponent. Like when I was a kid playing my NES, if I had a controller that supports auto-rapid-fire by holding down a button, and I used it to whoop ass on people who had normal controllers, that wasn't very fun as I didn't really "beat" them.
The only victims here are the idiots who allowed themselves to be scammed, and the even bigger idiots who pay real-world money for in-game stats. The 2nd group is only a victim in that the existence of these scams could arguably drive up the costs of the items, or they could get scammed out of stuff they paid real money for. But who cares about them? They're idiots and anything that discourages them from paying real money to boost their character is a good thing for the game. The game will be better if there's no reason for people to play it other than for fun. Once there is real money involved, you get a bunch of opportunists who could care less about the game fucking it up for everyone else. Hopefully the fact that people are now playing the game solely to scam these morons out of their in-game cash/items and then sell it back to them will disturb them enough to realize they shouldn't be spending real money on this shit. Once they stop spending real money, there will be less scamming because there is no longer a real world payout.
I completely believe that, in fact I've always been concerned that might be a side effect. I've also noticed that once I have to resort to doing that for a cartridge to work, its lifespan seems to deplete at a slightly accelerated rate. Still, you can play games for years that may not otherwise work at all by using my technique.
As a veteran NES user, my friends and I have discovered two tricks that are far superior to simply blowing the cartridge. The NES much prefers that you gently release slow, hot, and heavy breath upon the cartridge, for a good 5-10 seconds. The point is that the moisture from your breath collects on the connectors and aids in transmitting the signal between the console and cartridge. Simply blowing on it has a far lower success rate in my experience.
The other important trick is, as you slide the cartridge into the console slot, push it in as little as possible, just enough that you can then push down and have it click into place. If you slide it all the way back it will be much less likely to work.
Some people have been shocked to see me use these techniques and get cartidges to work that hadn't in years...
I can't believe how many of you downplay the significance of this. Many say "simply giving these people computers will not educate them". I disagree. I think placing these machines in the hands of those who could benefit from them will have an enormous impact, even if they just magically appeared on 4 million computerless peoples' doorsteps.
Here's the anecdotal support for my opinion here... I am an example of someone who learned to master computers at a young age, and who now makes a good living programming them. My dad had an interest in computers so he set aside enough money to get some for our family, but he really didn't have the time, motivation, and ability to figure out how to do much with them. Didn't matter, me just being a curious and geeky kid, merely having access to a computer was all it took to get me started down my path to success. My dad didn't teach me, I taught myself dialing BBSes with our 2400 baud modem after reading in the newspaper that such activities were possible.
There ARE millions of kids in these countries who would respond to having a computer around very similarly to how I did. In many cases, if they can't use it, someone else they know will. Computer skills are so heavily linked to financial success these days, it seems quite foolish to think exposing more people to computers will not be a huge boon to any country that manages to do it.
Yes, many recepients will sell their laptops on ebay, but they will be cheap. Most of them will remain in the countries that bought them. The people who buy them will make good use of them and likely would not have been able to afford a comparable machine otherwise.
If you guys care so much about the artists, then you should support a free Napster with no copyright policing. If the artists would just raise their concert ticket prices $10 a ticket or so, they would be making way more money than they get right now, and they could record albums as advertising. I guarantee they'd get a lot more money from me that way, plus there would be no bullshit record company middleman, just Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster would then be the next to die. The way I see it, both my favorite artists and myself as a CD buyer have been getting ripped off by the record industry for years, and its about time we take back what's ours. Viva la Napster!
So the record companies own Napster now. And the
record companies are also suing Napster. So it's the record companies vs. themselves. So the record companies could probably intentionally lose the case for either side if they want. Now which side do you think they want to win? Why they would of course LOVE to see legislation that bans Napster and any Napster-like service out there. Then, they can much more easily force people to pay for music, just like the old days. Remember kids, when you had to either buy it or copy it from a friend if you wanted it? And you know what, there's not a damn thing we can do about it.
'God I hate politics' -- The Dead Milkmen
-theStallion
Slashdot Mirror
I have to disagree. I dive for lobsters and will sometimes bring them from the bottom of the ocean to my kitchen in about 30 minutes. These are California Spiny Lobsters, can't speak for all the other species.
But some of them are particularly lively, and will definitely thrash for a few seconds in the boiling water. Much unlike the movement you might see if you put them into cold water. If it's sufficiently hot though, I think the shock kills them pretty quickly (about 5 seconds).
When you REALLY notice their apparent ability to sense pain is when you have to "clean" them, which involves shoving a long, barbed object (like a piece of their antennae) up their rectum, so you can pull out their intestine. They usually remain pretty calm as you handle them, even if you flip them over and touch the underside of their tail a bit. But the moment you try to jam that thing up their ass, the really lively/alert lobsters are sure to resist and flail about excessively. I truly think it is mighty unpleasant for them.
One time, I had one that was so effective at resisting the required cleaning, I was unable to get the job done. So I tried running it under hot water in hopes of killing it. Seeing as just being under the sink is nowhere near as fatal as being thrown into boiling water, I witnessed a lobster thrashing about, apparently in pain, from being held under such hot water. It did seem to shock him into compliance though after 20-30 seconds.
Anyway, I feel bad for the lobsters, and really dislike feeling as is I am causing them pain. In the future, I'm going to go with the knife-through-the-head method of killing, as recommended by one of my dive buddies (and someone earlier in this thread).
I lost my phone out in the middle of the wilderness about a week ago. Went into the Cingular store to get a new SIM card so I can use my account with a different phone. They asked my phone number, deactivated my old SIM (the one in my missing phone), and gave me a new one.
But they never checked my ID!!! Anyone could have walked in, gave my phone number, and had my account shut off. They also would have been handed a SIM card so they can text all my friends pretending to me and start all kinds of trouble.
Unbelievable!
I actually have to agree with this poster very much. His language may be coarse, yes. But as someone who was a child at the time the bigtoys/playgrounds switched to plastic/rubber coated, I must concur that the older wooden playgrounds were far superior. Not because they were wooden, in fact the splinters did suck a lot. However, they were bigger, crazier, more innovative, and just plain more fun. They also contained far more dangerous designs. Bigger drops, longer slides, those tire pits you could bounce around in which often cause you to fall, slides made of metal rollers, large ordinary metal slides that were faster, a steamroller style hamster wheel sort of running-in-place device, and all sorts of fun structures. We stopped using the bigtoys altogether at some parks and schools right when they changed them to the stupid new designs. With the old designs, being able to fall from high up, move quickly on slides, and launch way into the air because the swings were so big was part of the thrill. The renovation of California's bigtoys pussified them all so much that now they are much less fun.
Ideally they should have switched to plastic and rubber to avoid splinters, yet still keep true to the the awesome structural designs of the past. But someone might get hurt, oh no! When you are a kid is the time you can have fun hurting yourself and still recover easily. On that note, might I add our liability laws in the US are hideous and should be wholly rewritten.
I was under the impression that here in California most all new console sales are handled via preorders. Retailers know in advance how many units they'll be getting for launch, so they just sell the rights to each purchase in advance. So no lines are necessary, except perhaps right before the first preorders are made available.
Do they not do preorders in Japan? Why not?
Ah I see Sierra Club bashing, and cannot resist my desire to join in, even though my concern is totally unrelated. I also think they're insane but for a different reason.
They claim to want to protect the environment, but refuse to ally themselves with environmentalist mountain bikers like myself in their fight to protect our wild lands. They support people riding horses in "wilderness" areas, yet claim they should not allow mountain bikes because they are too damaging to the land. Anyone familiar with the level of damage caused to ecosystems due to mountain biking knows that it's extremely negligable, especially compared to what a horse riding that same trail will induce. Surprisingly, from what I can tell a vast majority of Sierra Club members agree with me but unfortunately only the top dogs within the SC call the shots.
I think the Sierra Club is a BS organization whose primary goal is NOT protecting the environment. If they really cared, they would realize that strength in numbers is the way to go, and by joining forces with mountain biking advocacy groups to fight for more designated wilderness and reasonable wilderness guidelines that do not exclude mountain bikers from the land, then they will have more money, political clout, and other support for achieving these goals.
I can understand that some of their members would prefer that no human ever set foot in certain areas of land, but that's an unreasonable solution to the problem. They need to compromise and reach a solution that will maximize the amount of land that is protected such that it remains beautiful, undeveloped, unpolluted, and rich with wildlife, which these days means getting the support of the recreational trail using community at large (mountain bikes, horses, hikers, backpackers, etc., united)
As for this lawsuit against automakers, yeah that's BS too...
Your analogy of talking shit to someone in Harlem who will immediately retaliate physically is totally bogus. The point was, in the US, you won't be arrested or charged with any wrongdoing by the police whereas in the UK it sounds like you would. The US seems more free in this sense, because the only time your public comments will get you punished is if someone outside of "the law" takes it upon themselves to, most likely illegally, retaliate against you. In the US, you can call every person that walks by "a motherfucker" except for those who look like they might beat your ass for saying so, and you'll be fine. In the UK it wouldn't matter who you say it to, because the words themselves are considered antisocial/abusive and legally punishable.
What sucks about the UK system is, if the "verbal abuse" is merely you saying something that would not ordinarily rile people up, the government can still silence you in the name of the law. Whereas in the US, nothing would happen to you.
It's really disturbing because "verbal abuse" could one day be extended to include verbally promoting one's political beliefs on a street corner, etc. Taking away freedom is a slippery slope. Don't think I'm defending my home country (US) as being free either; we started sliding down that slope quite some time ago as well.
This is retarded on so many levels.
For one, the fact that people pay real world money to boost their character is ridiculous. Have these people no pride in achieving things on their own? Call me old-fashioned but I find it wholly unfulfilling to "win" at something when I have an unfair advantage over my opponent. Like when I was a kid playing my NES, if I had a controller that supports auto-rapid-fire by holding down a button, and I used it to whoop ass on people who had normal controllers, that wasn't very fun as I didn't really "beat" them.
The only victims here are the idiots who allowed themselves to be scammed, and the even bigger idiots who pay real-world money for in-game stats. The 2nd group is only a victim in that the existence of these scams could arguably drive up the costs of the items, or they could get scammed out of stuff they paid real money for. But who cares about them? They're idiots and anything that discourages them from paying real money to boost their character is a good thing for the game. The game will be better if there's no reason for people to play it other than for fun. Once there is real money involved, you get a bunch of opportunists who could care less about the game fucking it up for everyone else. Hopefully the fact that people are now playing the game solely to scam these morons out of their in-game cash/items and then sell it back to them will disturb them enough to realize they shouldn't be spending real money on this shit. Once they stop spending real money, there will be less scamming because there is no longer a real world payout.
I completely believe that, in fact I've always been concerned that might be a side effect. I've also noticed that once I have to resort to doing that for a cartridge to work, its lifespan seems to deplete at a slightly accelerated rate. Still, you can play games for years that may not otherwise work at all by using my technique.
As a veteran NES user, my friends and I have discovered two tricks that are far superior to simply blowing the cartridge. The NES much prefers that you gently release slow, hot, and heavy breath upon the cartridge, for a good 5-10 seconds. The point is that the moisture from your breath collects on the connectors and aids in transmitting the signal between the console and cartridge. Simply blowing on it has a far lower success rate in my experience.
The other important trick is, as you slide the cartridge into the console slot, push it in as little as possible, just enough that you can then push down and have it click into place. If you slide it all the way back it will be much less likely to work.
Some people have been shocked to see me use these techniques and get cartidges to work that hadn't in years...
I can't believe how many of you downplay the significance of this. Many say "simply giving these people computers will not educate them". I disagree. I think placing these machines in the hands of those who could benefit from them will have an enormous impact, even if they just magically appeared on 4 million computerless peoples' doorsteps.
Here's the anecdotal support for my opinion here... I am an example of someone who learned to master computers at a young age, and who now makes a good living programming them. My dad had an interest in computers so he set aside enough money to get some for our family, but he really didn't have the time, motivation, and ability to figure out how to do much with them. Didn't matter, me just being a curious and geeky kid, merely having access to a computer was all it took to get me started down my path to success. My dad didn't teach me, I taught myself dialing BBSes with our 2400 baud modem after reading in the newspaper that such activities were possible.
There ARE millions of kids in these countries who would respond to having a computer around very similarly to how I did. In many cases, if they can't use it, someone else they know will. Computer skills are so heavily linked to financial success these days, it seems quite foolish to think exposing more people to computers will not be a huge boon to any country that manages to do it.
Yes, many recepients will sell their laptops on ebay, but they will be cheap. Most of them will remain in the countries that bought them. The people who buy them will make good use of them and likely would not have been able to afford a comparable machine otherwise.
If you guys care so much about the artists, then you should support a free Napster with no copyright policing. If the artists would just raise their concert ticket prices $10 a ticket or so, they would be making way more money than they get right now, and they could record albums as advertising. I guarantee they'd get a lot more money from me that way, plus there would be no bullshit record company middleman, just Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster would then be the next to die. The way I see it, both my favorite artists and myself as a CD buyer have been getting ripped off by the record industry for years, and its about time we take back what's ours. Viva la Napster!
So the record companies own Napster now. And the record companies are also suing Napster. So it's the record companies vs. themselves. So the record companies could probably intentionally lose the case for either side if they want. Now which side do you think they want to win? Why they would of course LOVE to see legislation that bans Napster and any Napster-like service out there. Then, they can much more easily force people to pay for music, just like the old days. Remember kids, when you had to either buy it or copy it from a friend if you wanted it? And you know what, there's not a damn thing we can do about it. 'God I hate politics' -- The Dead Milkmen -theStallion