Give him a piece of jerky. See if he'll follow you home.

Seriously, this is both really cool because it's so rare, and really scary because they will eat you. It's not like spotting a wolf or wild horses (here in Oregon). Both kinda rare and special, but no real danger. It's disturbing because it just stands there, as if it's contemplating lunch.

Yo huband, Imma eat you!

like waves.>> ^geo321:

downunder in the place with poisonous creatures and things that eat you.

*downunder in the place with poisonous creatures and things that eat you.

Try to imagine yourself in the Cretaceous Period. You get your first look at this "six foot turkey" as you enter a clearing. He moves like a bird, lightly, bobbing his head. And you keep still because you think that maybe his visual acuity is based on movement like T-Rex – he'll lose you if you don't move. But no, not Turkeyraptor. You stare at him, and he just stares right back. And that's when the attack comes. Not from the front, but from the side, from the other two raptors you didn't even know were there. Because Turkeyraptor's a pack hunter, you see, he uses coordinated attack patterns and he is out in force today. And he slashes at you with this – a six-inch retractable claw, like a razor, on the middle toe. He doesn't bother to bite your jugular like a lion, oh no … he slashes at you here [makes slashing motions below child's chest] or here … [above the groin] or maybe across the belly, spilling your intestines. The point is … you are alive when they start to eat you. So you know … try to show a little respect.

In Russia Thanksgiving dinner eats you!

In Soviet Russia.... Bear eats you. This is not a joke, they will kill you.

>> ^rottenseed:

I just watched "Fat Head" a response to "Super-size Me". It contained a lot of appealing facts that I will never bother to fact check. If you, too, are mentally lazy like me, you should watch it. It's low-budget but it's amusing.>> ^MaxWilder:
>> ^gwiz665:
Jebus christ. I mean, seriously, they should have layed off the big macs back in school. America, you need to run your ass around the block a few times.

As someone who is currently (perennially) trying to lose weight, I wish it was something as simple as running around the block a few times. I trained for a marathon two years ago and simply stopped losing weight during the process. I remained 30 lbs above my goal weight, and ran (and finished) the marathon like that. For people who are not naturally lean, it is the difficult (near impossible) combination of proper exercise with proper diet that causes them to often simply give up. It also an unhappy truth that the cheapest food is the least healthy, so poor people are much more likely to be malnourished into obesity.
As to the video, in this particular case, laughing is totally appropriate. But when it's a fat person by themselves, I am usually just saddened. And I always remember that phrase, "Are you riding a scooter because you're fat, or fat because you are riding a scooter?"



I've read about "Fat Head" and it makes a compelling argument. It is theoretically possible to have a healthy weight while eating crappy food. However, we shouldn't be looking at what a single person can accomplish while on a mission to debunk a fear-mongering documentary. We should be looking at the statistics of the category of people who are obese: what is caused their obesity and what is preventing them from losing the fat?

I have no specifics to back up my current opinion. It is a position I have decided upon after many years of personal experience and reading a wide variety of books on getting in shape. It is my belief that the core ingredients of fast food are simple carbohydrates and saturated fats. These ingredients have a 1-2 punch on the metabolism, spiking the insulin response which pushes calories into formation of fat, then crashing the insulin response making the body feel hungry again. Riding this cycle over the long term creates larger and larger appetites, encouraging the consumer to purchase more and more food. Bad for the body, but good for the restaurants. Protein can help reduce the insulin spike, but fast food usually comes with very fatty protein, so that's not much of a help. And vegetables aren't very tasty, so they are easily overlooked.

What I'm saying is that people who are overweight are trapped in a cycle they don't understand, and even if they do understand it, it is very hard to break out. It is literally an addiction like smoking, except you can't quit cold turkey (pun not intended). You can't stop eating. You have to keep eating, but choosing foods you don't enjoy because your habits have been warped by the cheap food industry.

I don't think we should legislate. I'll be the first to stand up and say don't blame McDonald's for your weight problem (even though it's kinda their fault). I'm saying we need to educate. And make that education based on clinical studies, not lobbyist funding like the USDA's myplate program. Teach people the proper balance of protein, carbs, and fat. Teach them the proper forms those nutrients should come in (lean and whole, not processed and sugary). Teach them the benefits of vegetables. This information has got to be in our faces so that we can't ignore it.

But even if we do that, this generation is a lost cause. I work my ass off to get in shape, but I keep falling off the wagon because the craving for fast food gets to be too much. That "high" from a sugary insulin spike calls to me. I'm not kidding that it's an addiction. We need to teach people that, so that kids and parents can keep away and not get hooked.

Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes, well, he eats you.

Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes, well, he eats you.

First, I just really want to thank you for sharing something this personal with us. I agree doing nothing and just letting the bullying happen is bad. But I disagree that violence is the only or best solution to the problem. I'm not trying to dismiss what you went through, but you kind of made my point from my post above--this reacting in violence just perpetuates the cycle of violence. According to your own account, those guys that bullied you stopped bullying you and moved on to others who couldn't fight back. And you actually became the (verbal) bully yourself after that kid came back from surgery.

Am I saying you shouldn't have defended yourself? No. I don't know the particulars of your situation. All I'm saying is that when we send the message to kids that "standing up to bullies" means kicking the shit out of them we're not solving the problem at all--we're in fact perpetuating it and setting up tragedies, like that kid whose lip you tore off in your rage.

Just to make it clear, I'm not saying anything you did is wrong. As someone who experienced bullying I totally relate to everything you said--including calling that kid asslips after he got back to school (probably would have done the same thing when I was a kid). I'm just pointing out this video shows basically nothing has changed since you were a kid--kids get bullied, snap, and do things that they might later really regret. The bullies meanwhile move on to weaker targets. They cycle continues. It just seems to me that as a society we need to come up with a better solution than meeting violence with violence.

>> ^enoch:

it depends where you live.
where i grew up if you didnt stand up for yourself they would eat you alive and make your school experience a living hell.
why?
because some kids (who then grow up with the same mentality) crave to dominate who/what they perceive as "weaker" in order to counter their own sense of unworthiness and helplessness.
i was a pretty easy going kid and really had no desire to do violence (still dont) but in 8th grade one kid started working me over..small things at first..and i did my best to avoid any confrontation.
within 3 months i had a list of kids picking on me.
i started missing school due to "stomach aches..mystery fevers etc etc".i was petrified to go to school because of these kids.
understand i was not a small kid,i was already 6" by then and strong as an ox.i just had no desire for confrontation or violence but i have an incredibly volatile temper.
the pressure finally built up to a point i could no longer control my temper and with in ONE week i unleashed all that pent up rage/hurt and fear.
i still remember their names.
i still remember what i did to them.
one kid i beat SO bad and in such a violent rage actually RIPPED his bottom lip off.
they literally had to take skin grafts from his asshole to reconstruct his lips.
my friends would call this kid "asslips" for the rest of the year and i would join in...but i shouldnt have.
because now when i think about it all i feel is shame.
but...no one ever messed with again...ever.
and i learned to never back down.
to step right in to whoever had the misconception they could dominate me through the threat of violence.
i learned that if i merely HINTED that i would bring a hell upon whomever messed with me was enough to make them look for another victim.
this also gave me an appreciation for those who are not violent and wish to avoid conflict so all through high school it was i who intervened for the small dude who just wanted to get to class.
the kid who was a bit odd or different.
because i understood how soul-crushing it can be for a little kid.
to this day i do not tolerate bullying.
so while spoco is correct on moral grounds.those of us who have experienced first hand bullying rejoice knowing that this kid will never be messed with again during his time in this school.
and that is not a bad thing.
both kids learned something.
one learned to stand up for himself.
the other learned that what may at first seem an easy mark to make yourself feel big and important may just be the mark who is going to humiliate you in front of your friends.
it's a win-win.

it depends where you live.
where i grew up if you didnt stand up for yourself they would eat you alive and make your school experience a living hell.
why?
because some kids (who then grow up with the same mentality) crave to dominate who/what they perceive as "weaker" in order to counter their own sense of unworthiness and helplessness.

i was a pretty easy going kid and really had no desire to do violence (still dont) but in 8th grade one kid started working me over..small things at first..and i did my best to avoid any confrontation.
within 3 months i had a list of kids picking on me.
i started missing school due to "stomach aches..mystery fevers etc etc".i was petrified to go to school because of these kids.
understand i was not a small kid,i was already 6" by then and strong as an ox.i just had no desire for confrontation or violence but i have an incredibly volatile temper.
the pressure finally built up to a point i could no longer control my temper and with in ONE week i unleashed all that pent up rage/hurt and fear.
i still remember their names.
i still remember what i did to them.
one kid i beat SO bad and in such a violent rage actually RIPPED his bottom lip off.
they literally had to take skin grafts from his asshole to reconstruct his lips.
my friends would call this kid "asslips" for the rest of the year and i would join in...but i shouldnt have.
because now when i think about it all i feel is shame.
but...no one ever messed with again...ever.
and i learned to never back down.
to step right in to whoever had the misconception they could dominate me through the threat of violence.
i learned that if i merely HINTED that i would bring a hell upon whomever messed with me was enough to make them look for another victim.
this also gave me an appreciation for those who are not violent and wish to avoid conflict so all through high school it was i who intervened for the small dude who just wanted to get to class.
the kid who was a bit odd or different.
because i understood how soul-crushing it can be for a little kid.
to this day i do not tolerate bullying.

so while spoco is correct on moral grounds.those of us who have experienced first hand bullying rejoice knowing that this kid will never be messed with again during his time in this school.
and that is not a bad thing.
both kids learned something.
one learned to stand up for himself.
the other learned that what may at first seem an easy mark to make yourself feel big and important may just be the mark who is going to humiliate you in front of your friends.
it's a win-win.

The mirror test huh? Besides humans the only ones who pass the mirror test are the great apes, which thankfully are the same order as humans so we know you aren't a cannibal. That leaves the other 18 orders of animals in the class of mammalia free to eat including veal, lamb, dogs, cats and every other pet you can conceive of. Well, except monkeys and I knew a guy with a pet monkey but it's rare so we won't put them in the pet category. So the mirror test is a pretty shitty test of what someone will or won't eat.

You just sound like another PETA member trying to convince billions of people that we aren't the top of the food chain and we should care about what we eat. Alive or dead a vast majority of animals don't have the same pain receptors we contain for the simple fact of being eaten alive. They have touch receptors in the extremities for movement and awareness of surroundings. You can look that up in any science textbook about animal nervous systems. You can believe and preach what you want about cruelness to animals. Either way it is still going to be eaten.

Even still, crushing an animal to death and having it die in seconds in your mouth as compared to being boiled alive over minutes is still less cruel. You should think of the alternatives of how the animal might die before you say eating it alive is cruel.
>> ^Gallowflak:

>> ^kronosposeidon:
It's a mixed bag for me. I'm completely inconsistent. This makes me squeamish and therefore seems cruel to me, but then I remember that I eat lobster from time to time, and lobster is prepared by boiling it alive. Cockles and mussels are also cooked while they're alive. A lot of the world includes insect protein in their diet, and insects are rarely dispatched humanely before preparation. Some are roasted alive before consumption. (I'm not even sure if there is a way to humanely kill an insect anyway. Decapitation?) And how about the way we treat animals before they're killed? How about veal? And has anyone seen film of modern chicken houses? Meat consumption is littered with ethical issues. I think about it often while stuffing Big Macs in my face.>> ^Fusionaut:
I don't know if biting into something that is still alive is all that wrong under the right circumstances. It happens in the wild all of the time. Dunking it in a hot, pepper sauce before the first bite seems cruel to me though. However, I did eat a live mayfly once. Grabbed it out of the air and then CHOMP! The wings got stuck in my teeth. Now you know a weird fact about me.


Right, but I'm not sure that typical meat consumption is comparable to consuming an animal alive for no purpose other than... whatever the purpose is. It's grotesque, it's excessive and it shows casual disregard - and perhaps even contempt - for the suffering of species that don't have our gawking faces. The fact that animals are eaten alive in the wild just isn't relevant, either. We're able to make the choice. Maybe I'm just a bitch. One of my overarching directives is to minimize the amount of suffering that I'm responsible for. This is just fucking awful.
It's not relevant but I don't eat veal or lamb, nor lobster or crab and certainly not octopus. I won't consume the flesh of any animal order that contains creatures which pass the mirror test.

>> ^Gallowflak:
>> ^rottenseed:
Kill and eat anything you'd like. Chances are whatever you are eating, would eat you if you were below it in the food chain. And they'd probably eat you alive.

Because there's no difference between an animal acting according to its requirements and an intelligent, self-aware, sapient species making decisions that maximize cruelty.


Oh ok...so they're too smart to eat, but too dumb to be looked at fairly?