Profile for Drew
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | Drew |
| Member number | 4233 |
| Title | By Committee |
| Postcount | 2242 |
| Homepage | |
| Registered | Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
Recent posts
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| Author | Recent posts |
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| Aspirations in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Thursday, September 2 2004 09:07
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It's been a bit since there's been a new, relatively innocent topic, so I propose this: Since most of you are pretty young (though this isn't limited to the young'uns), what do you want to do with yourselves when you get older? Why? I struggled with this over the course of high school, college, and the rest of my early twenties. At different points, I wanted to be a physicist, a professional musician, an archaeologist, a classical scholar, and a foreign service officer. As a result of not settling with one vision, I have found myself in an office schlub position I resent, though I'm definitely happy with where I live. Currently, I'm studying for the LSAT, in hopes of becoming wealthy as an attorney, seeing as I likely will be dwelling in an office for years to come, and therefore plan to make the best of it. How about y'all? [ Thursday, September 02, 2004 09:08: Message edited by: Andrew Miller ] Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Bye, 'n' all that. in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Tuesday, August 31 2004 05:07
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College is all about the internet - anyone who claims that college keeps them too busy for it is lying. Though I complained all the time while in school that I had no time, I still managed to log hundreds of hours online playing Quake, Starcraft, BG, as well as posting in forums. It took graduating for me to realize I never had it so good. :) EDIT: And if you want proof of the veracity of my claims, check out our own Tom Watts of UC Berkeley's post count! :D [ Tuesday, August 31, 2004 05:10: Message edited by: Andrew Miller ] Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| ATTN Stareye in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Tuesday, August 24 2004 10:55
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Wow. That might be the most repellant thing I've ever seen, and I've been to rotten.com too. Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Hello! in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Monday, August 23 2004 11:29
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Riibu: dude, cool out - this site is in the public domain, and not exclusive. Ben: go find a plastic bag and put it over your head. Jethro: Welcome. Please be an intelligent, respectful, and responsible poster. [ Monday, August 23, 2004 11:31: Message edited by: Andrew Miller ] Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Conan vs. Drizzt in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Saturday, August 21 2004 17:50
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My black shadow man can beat your red ninja man! Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| movie of A3? in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Friday, August 20 2004 10:26
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 Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Who do you think will win Ansari X Prize? in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Wednesday, August 11 2004 11:43
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Scaled Composites all the way. Burt Rutan has ruled other challenges, and didn't the nearest competitor just have their rocket explode? Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| I need a new word or phrase after GIFTSare2, and I need it now. in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Wednesday, August 11 2004 10:00
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Darned straight! :) However, though this is painfully obvious, the oldbies can't show you newbies how to use what's not there, the lack having been made apparent by almost all your posts. [ Wednesday, August 11, 2004 10:18: Message edited by: am ] Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| I need a new word or phrase after GIFTSare2, and I need it now. in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Wednesday, August 11 2004 08:36
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Um, yeah ben, the asterisk is causing trouble with the display, so you should cease posting immediately. Actually, you should just cease posting immediately anyway. [ Wednesday, August 11, 2004 08:39: Message edited by: am ] Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Nudism in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Tuesday, August 10 2004 11:20
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Ben*: I felt invigorated by the fact that I was naked and it didn't matter after all. It's very liberating. Like the fear of being naked, the sexual aspect of it vanishes almost immediately - once you get used to how people look, your curiosity is sated, and you move on to other things. I would recommend it to you too, though it would probably compromise your values, such as they are. :P [ Tuesday, August 10, 2004 11:26: Message edited by: am ] Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Nudism in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Tuesday, August 10 2004 10:54
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Aran: Note the distinction between "made" and "born." I was merely using the religious reference in an attempt to rile Shaker ben*. Nevertheless, the growing example you use doesn't work - we grow as a matter of course. Although some might argue that speech recognition and acquisition is a matter of nurture, small children still pick up language at a rate too frightening for me to believe it's anything other than hard-wired into us. Clothing and reading, however, are foisted upon us by society. Undoubtedly clothing originally came about for utilitarian purposes only; it was later that any aspect of morality was attached, and I would assert that morality is a human invention - I've seen far too many issues of National Geographic with the nekid African ladies to believe otherwise. :) [ Tuesday, August 10, 2004 11:03: Message edited by: am ] Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Nudism in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Tuesday, August 10 2004 10:14
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His dignity and morality probably go by the boards when he's surfing the web for porn, anyway. Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Nudism in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Tuesday, August 10 2004 09:16
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Sorry, Ben, I will continue to have sex with my girlfriend in the buck and believe there's nothing wrong with that. Funny how none of our great conservative leaders you kow tow to will come out and vouch for their abstinence policy push by serving as true examples. Hypocrites! Clothing may conceal things we might not like about ourselves, but then, without this concealment, maybe people would take measures to do something about it! :) From my own experiences in mass groups of naked people (there have been several), the initial discomfort of being exposed vanishes once you realize everyone else is in the same boat, and most notions of sexuality or shame dissapate - what was taboo no longer is so, which eliminates the mystique of it all. It's quite comfortable - nakedness eliminates class distinctions the same way that school uniforms do - and very human feeling, I think, especially when it becomes apparent that, with a few exceptions, no one is a supermodel. We wear clothing because we are afraid. Note that according to the Bible, God made Adam and Eve naked and unaware of it - it was the fruit of knowledge that made them want to clothe themselves, to protect themselves, I imagine, from God, seeing as they already were familiar with one another. This pole left out "Clothing optional for utilitarian purposes." Four winters in Wisconsin taught me the value of clothing for certain! Not to mention that it would be very difficult to run in a city without shoes for protection/support for my flat feet. [ Tuesday, August 10, 2004 10:13: Message edited by: am ] Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Hip Hop culture in General | |
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Member # 4233
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written Tuesday, August 10 2004 04:20
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Saltweed, music can move one without lyrics. Bach, Mozart, and all those blokes weren't just wasting their time. The truth of the matter is that it's all subjective. Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Hip Hop culture in General | |
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Member # 4233
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written Monday, August 9 2004 13:52
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<shakes head in wonder at ben*> Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Hip Hop culture in General | |
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Member # 4233
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written Monday, August 9 2004 10:51
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Personal Most Favorite Rap Lyric EVAH: "Word to your moms, I came to drop bombs, I got more rhymes than the Bible's got psalms." - from "Jump Around," by House of Pain Eminem is also a favorite of mine. His command of consonance is unmatched. [ Monday, August 09, 2004 10:53: Message edited by: am ] Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Hip Hop culture in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Monday, August 9 2004 05:59
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This discussion seems to be coming about a decade late. Hip hop is mainstream, and has as much value (if not more) than country music, in my opinion. [ Monday, August 09, 2004 06:01: Message edited by: am ] Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Clean Olympics in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Friday, August 6 2004 07:27
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"I don't see how anyone couldn't care about this. Animals are my life, as you can probably tell from some of my posts." The same way we don't care about all kinds of things everyday in our lives. Oh, we might say we care, but we don't take action. For example, I probably don't really care about world hunger. I agree that it's horrible, but at some point I unconsciously calculated that since it's not in my face disrupting my life, the cost of taking effective measures in time and money is greater than I'm willing to pay, even if it's time and money I'd otherwise spend acquiring and playing video games, which are ostensively worthless. I also assumed that I could just free-ride on the efforts of those who do care, so the problem is being addressed at no cost to me. Therefore, I don't lift a finger. This all sounds horribly selfish, and I think it is. However, I believe it's human nature, and even rational, to want more for less. A cynical view, but we see it everyday - people continually changing lanes on the highway trying to find the fastest one, all the while causing delays for everyone else; the competitive rush to the just-opened checkout lane at the grocery; the whole concept of "not it," etc. What will "fix" this is a change in the rules of society. Currently, capitalism's influence in the US has created an "everyman for himself" ethic that caters to human nature, encouraging us to be selfish. We call this "freedom." Perhaps if the US were to change to a more community-oriented rules set, like Japan's, for example, perhaps more of these issues would be addressed. Barring some major catastrophe, however, this will never happen. Boy, am I just out in left field on this one? Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Clean Olympics in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Thursday, August 5 2004 05:24
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I don't know that the limited supply problem explanation for why TNR is better is necessarily sound, though. Consider the following points: a.) No program could probably catch all the strays. b.) An animal, whether T&K'ed or TNR'ed, would die eventually, creating a "space" for a new animal. c.) Animals breed very quickly, whether those still stray or, as spy pointed out, those not fixed for cultural reasons. By the rationale of supply and demand, the only factor limiting the population size is the availability of sustenance, and I'm not aware of any programs taking measures to limit this, not to mention the fact that dogs are very resourceful when it comes to feeding themselves. So your animal population over time would remain the same, it's just a matter of when and how you want them to die. With T&K, you'd get an immediate reduction in population, followed by a fairly rapid return afterward (nine weeks for dogs?) if animals aren't continuously culled. With TNR, you may have a gradual dip in population as fixed animals die off. Ultimately, though, the population will regrow to the size that the environment can sustain. In Athens' case, they wanted to reduce the population immediately for the Olympics, at minimal cost. TNR wouldn't do this to the degree they would want, a.) because it probably wouldn't reduce the population as significantly, b.) they just haven't been that forward-thinking about any aspect of the Olympics, let alone dealing with the stray population, and c.) I reckon it takes more expertise (and therefore, more money) to fix an animal than to euthanize it. Ergo, the cull. What's the permanent solution, then, barring continuously running T&K or TNR operations? Reduce available resources for dogs, or introduce natural predators. The first is more acceptable than the second (things that go for dogs might go for babies, for example), but still a very difficult undertaking. I agree this is all very sad. :( EDIT: Oh, and I agree on sterilizing house pets - it should be mandatory. [ Thursday, August 05, 2004 05:27: Message edited by: am ] Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Clean Olympics in General | |
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Member # 4233
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written Wednesday, August 4 2004 12:18
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Alec: Thanks! Nic: My point is that it doesn't make sense to me that if both programs rely on trapping animals, one would be more successful than another. A dead animal can't mate, either. EDIT: Also, another pro for T&K is that you don't have to waste time and money trapping animals that have already been neutered/spayed. [ Wednesday, August 04, 2004 12:24: Message edited by: am ] Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Clean Olympics in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Wednesday, August 4 2004 11:37
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How does TNR prove more effective? Presumably, the "T" part of TNR and T&K (Trap'n'Kill) would occur at the same rate. Granted, with TNR, you don't have the problem of disposing of the corpses afterward, but is this necessarily worse than letting them die wherever? Given a choice, I think I would be more grateful for a quick and painless death than life on the street without my boys... EDIT: And Alec, would you mind abbreviating your sig a bit more? I certainly would appreciate it. Thanks! [ Wednesday, August 04, 2004 12:25: Message edited by: am ] Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Clean Olympics in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Wednesday, August 4 2004 10:05
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quote:I agree - see the "Koala Cull" topic from a couple moons ago. It's unsurprising to me that Athens has so many strays, given the archeological treasure trove it is. From my semester in Italy, I learned that the merit and magnitude of any archeological site can be determined by the number of stray dogs surrounding it. Most throughout the country had one or two dogs - one managed to fall down a slope behind me while I was giving a presentation at an unearthed villa in southern Italy. Pompeii has a whole pack, complete with an alpha! So given that Athens is home to the Acropolis, it's a small wonder. Of course, it probably has more to do with the number of people that come through these areas with spare food. :D Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Tech question for macs . . . in General | |
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Member # 4233
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written Monday, August 2 2004 10:09
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For free, I suppose? :) Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| What did you last eat? in General | |
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Member # 4233
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written Thursday, July 29 2004 05:39
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Two pieces of provolone and a Coca-Cola Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Welcoming you all to... in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Thursday, July 29 2004 05:07
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This seems like spam to me. Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |