Your video, Kid extracts own tooth with Nerf bow and arrow, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

This achievement has earned you your "Pop Star" Level 2 Badge!

But if he was carrying a bow and arrows maybe she would have been deterred from hitting him. Everyone should carry around bows and arrows in public to prevent this kind of thing from happening.>> ^raverman:

When will people WAKE UP!! and call for better Bow and Arrow law reform.
Especially now these murderous weapons are in the hands of children. Arrows with plastic tips don't show up on school metal detectors people!! What will it take - an archery massacre?
And don't even get me started on sticks with nails through them...

When will people WAKE UP!! and call for better Bow and Arrow law reform.

Especially now these murderous weapons are in the hands of children. Arrows with plastic tips don't show up on school metal detectors people!! What will it take - an archery massacre?

And don't even get me started on sticks with nails through them...

Hmm. I think there would be a better way to explain it, assuming that I understood the idea properly:

Lets for a moment ignore the finite speed of light; Alan Davies was I think suggesting that might be what is being referenced here. For example, light from the sun takes about 8 minutes (8.3 roughly) to get to Earth, therefore where we see the sun in the sky is actually where the sun was 8 minutes ago. However, I don't think that is the idea here, because that would be universally true rather than happening when the sun sets in particular.

Instead I think that the idea is that the atmosphere bends the light from the sun when it is coming through at that low angle, so what we are seeing had actually been bent around and altered like a mirage. If I am getting that right, I think some better ways to explain it would include:

Shooting a bow and arrow at fish in a lake. If you aim directly at the fish and release your arrow, you will miss because the water has bent the light that you see. The atmosphere is doing the same thing to the sun's light in this case. OR

Lets assume that you had a gun which could shoot bullets at infinite speed, beyond the speed of light even. If you aimed and shot at the sun as it was setting, you would miss the sun because your bullet would fly out in a straight vector, but the sun wouldn't actually be where it appears due to the light being bent by the atmosphere.

Pretty cool, but explained in a way that wasn't quite as clear as normal QI for me.

>> ^sadicious:

This is also much like when guns were invented. The further you are from your enemy when you attack, the less likely you'll witness any harm to yourself.
I believe this is misdirected anger. Being able to click a button and have someone die somewhere else on the planet is scary stuff. The real problem is the imaginary need to do this.


Exactly. Were you disgusted at the invention of the bow and arrow? Channel your righteous fury toward the assholes who lie to us about WMDs so that Exxon or whoever can take control of the oil fields. Mankind has been making war forever, without any need for weapons of any kind. Getting angry at the weapons does not help. You should be angry at the people who want to profit by using those weapons.

I can see about 10 percent say they wanted to do that, but everyone? No way. Most would NOT want to lose ALL the technology they would need to establish a comfortable life on a rough planet. I'm all for living off the land but puhleeese.... I have to have some weapons...seriously..

Wouldn't you want to make sure you can kill some food until you get that spear and bow and arrow workin for ya???

(I'm drinking...shhhh)

Two problems with that morality:

1. Ritual is relevant.

If you kill only one animal, why does it matter if the lethal wound is from an arrow or a bullet? Does your argument stand if the weapons are a 17th century musket versus a compound bow? How about a knife coated with fast-acting neurotoxin? Blow darts? Hand to hand, but you are wearing a high-tech exoskeleton?

2. Omniscient is required.

Imagine it is instead a hermit who purchases guns and poaches the lion, one who has never seen the "endangered species" list. How are they to know the population of lions, or the population of lions worldwide, unless they have omniscience?

Or, if you leave on Friday for a week-long deer hunting trip, and after you leave every deer worldwide falls ill from a worldwide-virus except the ones in your geographical location. That species is now endangered yet you would have to be omniscient to realize what you were doing was now morally wrong.

Yes, killing lions may be, or should be, socially wrong; but you aren't talking about socially wrong you are talking about morally wrong because you said "they deserve to die" not "they deserve to be socially ostracized."

>> ^Farhad2000:
Look if you go hunting a over populated species with a bow knife and a bow and arrow I get it. I might not agree with it but I get it.
But when you are 'hunting' with a rifle, a species that is protected, for some kind of stupid kick then you totally deserve to be mauled by the animal.

Look if you go hunting a over populated species with a bow knife and a bow and arrow I get it. I might not agree with it but I get it.

But when you are 'hunting' with a rifle, a species that is protected, for some kind of stupid kick then you totally deserve to be mauled by the animal.

oh, sure.
but when i'm equally cynical about santa, you go and defend the fat bastard.

just do what i do, to celebrate st. valentine's day!

walk around telling everyone you meet that you're in love with them, while armed with a bow and arrow, and carrying the fake severed head of a martyred christian.

I was pretty deadly with a slingshot as a kid. Not as good as this guy, but seriously I could hit anything within 20 yards pretty reliably. I used to buy 200 white marbles for $10 from the variety store and use those to shoot.

Aiming a slingshot is the same as aiming a bow and arrow, or even flicking a rubber band.... extend the imaginary line to your target, release. I find it easier than aiming a gun and don't need to line it up with my eye.

--Westy's comment for Non-Redneck/Shepppard types--

I quote:

"It is very easy to condescend to redneck yankies.

I find it strange that part of me has a issues with the concept of kids having knives, however, it is also my personal belief that it is important for kids to kill (that is, skin and eat) animals, so that they appreciate what it means to eat another creature, and, most importantly, take its life.

As long as the child has a good mental framework and knows that knives should only be seen as tools for acquiring/preparing food, then I find it acceptable for them to own one.

As for the bb-guns, so long as the child knows that it is deplorable to kill people, that war is terrible, and so long as he sees airsoft and paintballing as sports entirely separate from the mentality and actions of war and killing people, then I would consider them permissible, as well.

My parents never wanted me to have guns or knives, but in the end I made a knife out of flint, then a bow and arrow, which turned out to be quite effective. So I guess the lesson here is to educate children, and to safely introduce them to things that are potentially dangerous."

Almost every invention ever was about making labor more efficient, increasing leisure time, or making something to do during leisure time.
Agriculture and Animal Domestication: Growing all your food at home so you don't have to wonder miles looking for food.
Plow: Beats hoeing.
Steam engine: Beats having slaves row the boat.
Bow and Arrow: Easier than chasing your prey with a spear.
Spear: Easier than beating it to death with your bare hands.
Computer: Beats doing all the airline reservations by hand.
Boat: A bit easier than swimming or walking.

Where is that paradise recorded? Because it predates written language, and because none remain alive from that period (that I know of), we have no idea whether peace or warfare prevailed. Available evidence suggests it was probably very violent. Tribal culture is notoriously violent, as one competes with the other for resources and territory. Remember the "ice man" they found a few years ago in a European glacier. As I recall, he lived more than 5,000 years ago. Interestingly, he was armed with bow and arrows and likely died of that arrowhead found lodged in his chest. This notion of some prior utopia is not supported by evidence, sorry to say. The noble savage was exactly that "savage."

Rule of law, shared governance, and common enterprise would result in the best chance for world peace. That's a tall order, but one I hope we may, someday, find.

>> ^Irishman:
War is indeed one of the constants of history, but "history" in this context is the last 4000 years - ie, recorded history.
There existed until 12,000 - 14,000 years ago a kind of paradise on this planet which is embedded even deeper into our human makeup. The male dominator culture and the slow death of tribal culture destroyed it.

The video starts off with local Japanese protesting our presence in their city - Odd because we went to a Japanese ISDF base. Then it's to a news cast of our gear being unloaded from Maritime readiness ships (Which are what allows Marines to wage a war/deploy to an area anywhere in the world in 24 hours). From there, it's our guns section setting up shop with laying the gun, and Cpl. Mehall using the PanTel to sight in. The Marine you see moving the ammo around hunched over is Cpl Granados, who is setting up the ammo pit and fusing rounds with Point Detonating rounds. From there it's just a random fire mission, and then the female you see was a combat photographer who was there that we let fire the gun.
After that was more fire missions, then Japanese Press.
And of course, when Marines get bored, we goof around. You see one Marine firing his homemade bow and arrow made with 550 cord and a stick. (Probably Mehall)

Sgt Day and Mehall butt heads for a minute, and then Day treats Mehall like a bitch.

Gotta love Marines, eh?

thanks! those things are pretty hardcore.

In reply to this comment by therealblankman:
The term you're searching for is Atlatl. Ted Nugent uses one for hunting.

No really. Ted Nugent uses one for hunting.

Wang Dang Poontang!

In reply to this comment by bamdrew:
Whats the name of the two part javelin-launching setup that some indigenous peoples used to take down large animals? Its like a stick that a large arrow can rest in and be whipped out of a long distance. Wasn't that before the bow and arrow?