Cool critters. I have a conch in a reef aquarium myself.

These giant African snails have apparently become an invasive species in Florida... probably started by some idiots who decided to 'let their pet go' because they were too cerebrally challenged to comprehend the consequences.

>> ^jqpublick:

Stop, drop and roll?>> ^Sagemind:
Imagine running through the forest and accidentally running into that silky web filled with the tiny critters..?
( Spine Shivers a little)



Unless it's a friend, then it's Stop, Drop, and LOL.

Stop, drop and roll?>> ^Sagemind:

Imagine running through the forest and accidentally running into that silky web filled with the tiny critters..?
( Spine Shivers a little)

Imagine running through the forest and accidentally running into that silky web filled with the tiny critters..?
(*Spine Shivers a little)

Once the little critter bites him, he immediately referenced his knowledge of rabbis and the seriousness of it previously heard from others.

Yet mere seconds prior he's casually allowing his fingers to go close to the creatures mouth and has the mind set to pick the thing up and hold it.

@ BoneRemake, spot on.

@renatojj

Politicians don't have their hands all over businesses, it's the opposite. Businesses have their hands in the strings that direct the politicians. Which means politicians are not serving society, but serving businesses. There are many examples of things happening that you know are wrong and can see are wrong, but nothing ever happens...why? Because businesses are either making money on them or mitigating money loss by it happening.

Look at nuclear power regulations, they have been loosened and the inspectors are actually limited in what they can inspect so much so that they don't actually see more than 5 or 10% of the workings of a nuclear plant. How can they say something is safe if they see less than 10% of it and those 10% don't even allow them to do tests they used to do?

Oil company regulation, why did the BP oil spill happen? It was because they are not held to standards damn near every other country on the planet holds them to. And when you see more into it, many times the oil inspection agents were going to work for the oil company when they retired. And yet they rarely busted their balls on questionable things and got caught with their pants down many times with not catching violations.....so they probably weren't hired for their inside knowledge on how to best keep the existing equipment up to standards....since they aren't being held to them.


And as for the last post you made...you can't just drop regulation on all of these things. There's countless reasons for it but I'll try to list a few.

1) They basically hold a monopoly in many industries or a small number of very large companies that end up basically being a monopoly, so there would be no counter balance of a free market because the market has never been free to begin with. If it were truly free there'd be 100/1000/10000/100k/1mil businesses in these industries all competing on either features or price because they should all be about as reliable as one another...since we always have to picture the "perfect" free market. I'll bet you can name a couple people who have shit internet service pretty easy or pay a lot for very little.

2) You are putting the policing of industries in the industry hands if you dial back regulation. They already can not regulate themselves. How many companies supported SOPA and now how many more support CISPA? They do what's best for them and they do it cooperatively not independently. That's why you have groups formed of these companies putting bills forward that are basically passed nearly word for word if edited at all by congress critters.

3) We hear all the time about businesses only responsibility is to make money. We don't even hold a person to that standard, an individual has more responsibilities than that...earning a living is probably in the top ten but it's not your sole major responsibility as a member of society. Number 1 could arguably be "obey the law" or "don't be a dick". Business number 1 should probably be don't negatively impact people as your business model....this could be not polluting, keeping a safe work environment, not overworking people, making underhanded deals in the name of profit, making deals you know you will back out of or have no intention to honor, etc. Yes shit happens, but you shouldn't make your business model based on making shit happen to profit. Banks and financial institutes arguably did this with bad mortgages and false rating of these mortgages when selling them.

@messenger

It's not just bribing politicians, but businesses openly courting people for employment after their term of service or the people regulating them. It makes it more profitable to be lenient and not enforce regulations or laws on companies when you'll be making 3x your salary when you go to work for them after kissing their ass for a decade or two. Both the bribes and the business tie ins with Haliburton made the early days of the current war seem pretty shady when you look specifically at Dick Cheney. But it happens with advisors to people in office as well, it's something that really should be stopped because government should be about public service and not service with the intention of landing a sweet gig at some company you helped make a few billion dollars for awhile a public servant.

You can't stop it entirely, but there should definitely be some lawful punishments put in place to make it have to cost the companies exorbitant amounts to court people to court them with the severe punishments placed on people who stray too far from the path. Like prison terms or fines to the tune of percentages of their life savings and 25% of a company's value if they are caught. Unfortunately, the people who would put forth these laws are the same people who would be directly affected by them....because they are all business owners anymore...it costs too much money to get into office and rich people are the only people who tend to have the wealth/power to pull it off.

So......regulations on companies it the best you can hope for, make it so politicians can't offer them anything worth the huge donations they make to these people because regulations would make the attempts worthless, unless of course it was deregulation. Which they've already done and continue to do, to the detriment of all. Profits are up for all the big companies sometimes higher than pre-crash, and yet they employ less people than they did 5 years ago. How are they pulling THAT off....they are cutting corners or doing something shady somewhere to keep earning like that despite being less capable of producing like they did prior when a lot more people had disposable income.

>> ^silverpoint16:

I'm amazed that Dad didn't wake up with all the talking going on.


"Dad" is probably passed out drunk. And the cat just wants to be fed. This right here is the single most important reason I don't see myself getting a cat any time soon... I had a cat as a kid, loved that grumpy bastard to bits, and have considered myself a cat person ever since. Since then, however, having looked after friends' cats and having suffered the inevitable face-trampling at 7 am one time too many, I've concluded I like sleeping more than I do cats. The critters just like food too much!

Another thing is, it's easy enough having cats around if you're vegetarian, as the people I most recently cat-sat for are, but try eating meat around them... I prefer not having to fight a furry feline for my meals, thank you very much!

oh - just noticed that
*dupeof=http://www.videosift.com/video/The-cutest-animal-in-the-world

>> ^NicoleBee:

I'm afraid, it seems, this video has already been posted.. http://www.videosift.com/video/The-cutest-animal-in-the-world
Although you would have no idea because they proceeded to mislabel the critter for this copy of the video.

>> ^artician:

Huzzah! Polluting the environment!!!


You mean diversifying the ecosystem? Just think of all the critters that can call this giant tire world home!

*critters

Critters

Make sure the little square 'word balloon' is RED, meaning on. Unfortunately you might have to turn it on for each part. Or hop over to YouTube to see it smoothly.

BTW -- it's not really 'brief' if you do ALL the parts! There are 9 little sections in all (3 for each adorable critter). One of my favorite toons on the web atm.

In Australia it's Pholcus phalangioides and if you call him cellar spider, nobody will know who you mean.
>> ^xxovercastxx:

There are three different critters known as "daddy longlegs".
In the US/Canada, we generally mean the harvestman. The British call the crane fly by this name.
I've no idea where it refers to the cellar spider. Australia, maybe? Goofy name in all cases.

There are three different critters known as "daddy longlegs".

In the US/Canada, we generally mean the harvestman. The British call the crane fly by this name.

I've no idea where it refers to the cellar spider. Australia, maybe? Goofy name in all cases.

Thanks. I was originally thinking of just an overlapping scale design but I realized the shape of the iphone was perfect for a trilobite. I just checked out the preview of that book on Amazon, there's definitely some cool critters in there.


In reply to this comment by oritteropo:
I really liked your entries in the sift art show : I particularly liked the trilobite. I've always liked trilobites, have you seen the book by Richard Fortey?.