You're absolutely right. As far as I can tell, he throws the 'grenade' quite deliberately on the ground. That was not an accidental miss. And if you did miss the hole, perhaps some running and diving would be in order?

>> ^rebuilder:

Anyway. I'm a bit skeptical. Doesn't it look like the last man on the second round misses the hole?

Sorry, I don't know you, but from what I can infer from your post you live in the States? You don't "subsidize" anything in Canada. Certainly not the health care system. Who's this 'we' you're talking about?

>> ^chilaxe:

@longde
Yeah, above a certain income level, they contribute more than they consume, but there are a lot of externalized costs.
We subsidize their exorbitant 21st century medical care and use of the education system, penal system, and everything else.
Many resources are becoming much more expensive. Diminishing oil supplies will probably skyrocket in price again once industry and consumers pull out of the current recession. Increases in the cost of oil increase the price of everything, and oil is only one out of endless diminishing resources. The trillions of dollars of costs for green tech and pollution mitigation only have to spent because we have so many people who contribute so little but pollute at the same rate.
L.A., for example, wouldn't be an environmental and pollution catastrophe if the amount of people living there was the same as it was in 1970, and that's the same basic story around the world. The total number of high contribution people doesn't increase and most people don't actually improve over time.

Such an excellent title deserves an upvote.

One of my high school science teachers told us that when he was a fresh young teacher he had about a pound of potassium, for demonstration purposes. It had been purchased by the school many years before.

The thing is, Canada listed potassium as a controlled substance when he was teaching, so it fell to him to get rid of it. He had only ever cut thin bits off of the block of it (about the size of a bar of soap, he said) and blew bits of up in water for the delight and edification of his classes. He decided - unwisely - to throw it into the river, thinking it'd be a fairly safe way to get rid of it. He walked out into the center of the bridge and dropped it in.

He realized he'd made two mistakes when he heard the 'kerplunk'; first he should've thrown it on the downstream side, and second he should have thought about how deep a brick of potassium can get into a river before it reacts.

Because he was on the upstream side of the river, the potassium plunged into the water and was swept pretty much onto one of the bridge supports. Then it blew. The bridge had to be shut down for repairs and the explosion was heard miles away. He was soaked but unhurt and simply walked away. Needless to say, he didn't tell anyone for a long long time.

Maybe a little boring for you all, but the video reminded me of it.

>> ^deathcow:

Spock has never gone into heat again on any episodes or movies, what gives?


Perhaps Spock finally read his contract: "Vacation? What is this strange huma-- holy shit!"

Massive (and I do mean massive) upvote. That is one of the coolest things I have seen in a very long time. I want one. Really a lot. Hey, isn't Xmas coming up soon?

Well, that rocked. Great wizard too.

A 61 second ad for a 21 second video? C'mon.

That was freaking cool.

Thanks for the promote, Fusionaut. Honestly, this is one of my all time favourite songs. Friends far and wide have memorized the lyrics.

I agree completely with Patrick Stewart. My mother was beaten to within an inch of her life by a man who was so governed by jealousy that if she said hello to the milkman he assumed she was having an affair and would beat her for it. She told me once in passing that she left when she did because she was afraid that he was going to be as vicious with me as he was with her. I asked her why she wasn't as important as me, but she never answered.

I spent most of my childhood hungry and alone - mom had to work more than full-time hours to feed and house and clothe me. (This was in the mid to late 60s; back than only sluts got divorced and women certainly weren't paid anything like equal wages. They still aren't, but that's another topic.) I saw her literally once or twice a week. I grew up certain that the abuse, the subsequent divorce, poverty and societal rejection were all my fault. Not because it was proven to me, but because that's the way children think. Developing minds cannot think some things through. Spend some time reading the research about developmental stages of cognition and that will become crystal clear.

My father's abuse showed me a) those you trust most will hurt you, and badly, and that if they haven't yet you should do something so that it happens now and not just sit around, tense as shit waiting for something that you know is inevitably going to happen; b) that love is just a word and fists and feet are the real power; c) men in power are hurtful and therefore are not to be trusted and d) that women in power are not to be trusted because they're never around.

So. Lots of violence and self-destructive behaviour as a young man because of the impossibility of trusting anyone or anything. I couldn't trust the people around me who were more powerful (emotionally, physically or politically) and I couldn't trust those around me who were less powerful because I'd seen what happens to the weak. Even better, I couldn't trust myself because I'd been the one who had done whatever it was that had started the whole thing off. What fun!

Eventually, being an essentially thinking person I figured out that it wasn't my fault, that mom left because dad was a breathtaking asshole and not because I'd done something so horrible that they had to split up. However, understanding something and having it be an essential part of your personality are two very different things. It's roughly akin to the difference between learning a second language as a child and learning one as an adult. The language(s) you learn as a child are part and parcel of your cognition and strongly inform your worldview. Learning a language as an adult means that you need to remember how to speak that language. With practice, you might get to the point that you can think in that language, and you might even be able to carry on a good conversation, but you're never going to fool a native speaker of that language. Fluency comes with practice and intent.

It may seem like I'm whining a bit here, but after reading the comments above, I have to let you folks know something. Abuse fucks up your children for life. The lessons you learn as a kid don't just go away because you want them to. It's like trying to forget a language when it's the only one you know how to speak.

Beating the shit out of an abuser doesn't do anyone any good. Except that the abuser isn't abusing right there and then. Sitting back and saying 'oh where are the cops when you need them' without doing anything is cowardice and doesn't do anyone any good. Stopping it before it happens by teaching children that it is never acceptable is what will prevent it from being the illness that pervades our world. The best way to teach children is to lead by example.

Stopping those who do abuse their partners is no mean feat. I mean, what if they're fine with the language they speak? What if they don't want to learn another language? Do you force them? Put them in institutions or some such crap?

Only those willing to be sufficiently self-aware are going to get past it, and that doesn't happen when there's no overarching societal pressure to stop it. Talking about it is what exposes it, and stops it.

Here we are, having a conversation.

Bye now.

Sam Katz, my mayor. All I can say is kick away, Sam. Kick away.

>> ^qualm:

There's an interesting book by translator and poet Bill Porter (also publishes as "Red Pine") titled "Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits". Porter hikes and climbs these sort of trails and interviews many Taoist and Buddhist hermits living in the huts and caves of these same mountains.
http://w
ww.amazon.ca/Road-Heaven-Encounters-Chinese-Hermits/dp/1582435235/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1281393253&sr=1-1


I just picked up this book this weekend, currently on page 83! His description of that walk doesn't exactly do it justice. A very interesting read, nonetheless.

Is there such an invocation as *craptastic? Because there should be.