Ignorance can be ameliorated. Based on some fine out-of-state hunters I have met, I doubt Britishness has much to do with sentiment or ignorance. Since I've never actually met any, I shouldn't have referred to wild-eyed beer-drinking camo-clad hillbillies baying at the sight of Bambi bleeding on the ground. Shame on me for perpetuating a stereotype. I have, however, run across clueless and unethical people who happen to be carrying rifles and shooting at things, but I wouldn't classify them as hunters. They're just jerks pretending to be intrepid outdoorspeople until they can go back to being clueless and unethical in their day to day lives. Like it or not, we're part of the garden, and have been ever since our ancestors emerged from the primordial ooze. Sometimes we're the roses and sometimes we're the Diplocarpon rosae.
Yeah Moose ran out on the highway one day and tried to ban me. He was waving a red hat around. I ran him off the road.
Oh damn! You know, it really sucks when you say something smartass in a friendly spirit and then the person refuses to engage with it. Denied!
I've said it before! The first to die during hard times are the Comedians and the Prophets. A funny prophet doesn't stand a chance, his own family will kill him.
Yes, but you’re talking about first man, living with, and almost as, the animals in question. I’m referring to the ‘paving of paradise’. We destroy their habitat and then complain when they encroach upon the places we’ve stolen from them.
Paradise is a myth. The animal of the world never existed in peaceful harmony, respecting each others boundaries and habitats. Humans have been and are both prey and predator. Superior intelligence, the ability to create superior tools, and other adaptations gave us an edge over our own predators. I suppose we're an excellent example of a population that got out of control due to lack of natural predators. Animals alter their environment to suit themselves without taking into consideration the animals and plants being ousted by the alterations. Beaver are a good example. With our sophisticated abilities, humans changed too much, too fast. With our superior intelligence, we should've known better. Some people did and do, but here we are anyway. We can improve some things, which includes taking over as apex predator for overpopulated deer herds, but we can't turn back the clock 500 years. Cities exist, ranches exist, and inhabitants therein have as much natural right to defend themselves and their territory as any other animal. They also have the obligation to use common sense, compassion, and good science to strike a balance. When some human idiot takes his tent into grizzly bear habitat to live in harmony with the bears and ends up getting eaten, I figure he asked for it. When a grizzly wanders into downtown Smallville and causes problems, he's invaded human territory and will get eaten, at least figuratively. My sympathy is generally with the bear, but if he's arrived on my ranch to eat my cattle or in my backyard to eat me, I'm not going to waste time reflecting on property rights of bear v. humans. At heart, I am a sentimentalist who longs for myth to become reality where all the creatures gather together to sing kumbaya. It has hurt my heart to let go of romantic notions over the decades, but if anything is to improve, good science has to trump wishful thinking. Now I'll step off my soapbox. Thanks for your tolerance.
Lecture, not sermon. I've been a scientist and educator for a very, very long time. Lecturing is an occupational hazard.
*shrug* I'm sure if a lion could complain, it would have some words to say about the giraffe that trampled it half to death. But the lion was trying to eat the giraffe. Humans are territorial predators first and foremost. Even our most enlightened scientists will eradicate species (see Murder Hornets in Washington State). Anyone who is not willing to see a bear shot in human habitat will not have many descendants, except for the grace of others.
*shrug* That lion was trying to eat the giraffe to survive. The giraffe trampled it half to death for the same reason. Whereas the vastly superior human takes a pop-shot at a bear because it’s rooting through its garbage. Either that or it goes and hunts the bear and shoots it from a nice safe 50 yards, then cradles its limp head in its arms to show how incredibly brave it’s been.
A zither! It's been at my parents house for like 30 years. My Mom brought it over and was like, please take this stupid thing. It's like a guitar, I guess. I mean, it has strings and notes and shit. Shouldn't be that hard to tune and pluck out Black Sabbath riffs or whatever. And I can probably hook up an acoustic pickup and wire it through a death metal pedal. Not sure I want to do all of that, but it'll look cool in my library. (and yeah, that's a lamp made from a Don Julio bottle in the background... a buddy of mine used to make lamps, bongs, and other stuff from random liquor bottles)
Can you actually play that thing? Why’s she no longer got any use for it? Looks like something that could potentially retail quite well at an antique store.
Yeah, my cousin's cats used to pee on his guitars. Not sure what it is with cats and stringed instruments... Maybe? A note is a note is a note no matter what's played on. Strings are probably older than I am, though. As for Mama Potvin, she's been de-cluttering the house for a few years now. My folks are in the "get rid of shit now so you don't have to deal with it after we die" portion of the program, though she's likely to outlive me at this rate. I'm going to have my antique guy look at it. Might be worth something... might be worth oogatz.
Apparently it's not a zither, but a Hawaiian mandolin? Made by the AR Yendrick Co out of Brooklyn, circa 1928. Looks like it sells for... drumroll... $60. So, yeah, oogatz!
You have an "antique guy"? I'm assuming you aren't talking about some OLD guy, so that makes it a phrase I've never heard before in my life (and I am an "old guy")
A can of Lynx Leather & Cookies deodorant, which smells bugger all like leather and cookies. I was so disappointed!
These two wonderful artefacts. They remind me of the kind of thing you might see in one of these Amicus horror anthology films from the 70s starring Peter Cushing, where someone browsing a curiosity shop buys something like this, and it turns out to be cursed or has the power to grant three wishes with terrible consequences.
A $10 USB keyboard from Walmart. It hadn't occurred to me that the drivers for my wireless keyboard load with the operating system, so I couldn't get in to the BIOS.
@Homer Potvin that retails for $60 already? Is that also an estimate of how much it may retail for at auction? @OurJud I hope you have somewhere feasible to display those figurines. They seem rather large.
