*quality

That's my hometown, yo. Represent.

I'm pretty wigged out by spiders, but I like snakes. So for me, I tried to mentally convert this video into a snake expert "handling" a cobra or something. The way I see it, sure, you can have an expertise level and skill level that would allow you to handle either sort of animal relatively safely. But even in that case, there aren't a whole lot of particularly practical reasons to put that into practice.

My hometown in Kansas has lots of bullsnakes. In my experience, large older bullsnakes are often pretty docile but the young juvenile ones are usually very defensive and will rear up, strike, and mimic rattlesnake sounds and actions. However, they are non-venomous and don't have "fangs", although they do have short teeth that can provide small, shallow puncture wounds if they get a good nip on you.

I like catching bullsnakes when I see them and handling them a bit before releasing them back into the wild. The docile ones are particularly fun, but even the juveniles that show some aggression can be fun to handle with some caution. I have never been bit myself, but I have seen people that have been. No lasting harm comes from that, and in most instances it wouldn't even draw blood -- the surprise of it is probably worse than the damage.

In spite of that, I have no interest whatsoever in handling something like a rattlesnake or other venomous snake. Looking at them, sure. But I don't see much practicality in handling them. In all likelihood, I could safely handle rattlers in the same way that I handle bullsnakes and avoid being bit. But the cost of failure would be higher (lots of pain and small possibility of death).

So at least for me personally, I don't think I'd be interested in handling black widows even if I was a spider person instead of a snake person. I'm not against the author of this video handling them, but I would stop short of the "you should try this at home" tag!

The one where the dude jumps into the giant suspended net over a parking lot is my hometown. Dunno the context, but that was definately taken right in front of the Saddledome where the Calgary Flames play.

In reply to this comment by chicchorea:
You are most assuredly welcome. Thank you. I heard this when young. Sam had a little music store in my hometown. I even want to sift this song a couple of times here but only dupes were available.

HOWLLLLLLLLLLLLLL, I mean Baaaaa. :

In reply to this comment by lurgee:
thank you kindly

You are most assuredly welcome. Thank you. I heard this when young. Sam had a little music store in my hometown. I even want to sift this song a couple of times here but only dupes were available.

HOWLLLLLLLLLLLLLL, I mean Baaaaa.

In reply to this comment by lurgee:
thank you kindly

I went there last night, it was amazing. Occupy Oakland doubled and I saw many friends from my hometown of SF there in solidarity. Everyone was pretty jovial for having been brutalized by militarization the previous night. The cops did not show up but raided Occupy SF... which is not much of a story since Occupy SF seems to be non existent. Later on that night the guy with the PA announced they were going to SF, which I thought to be a bad move but it ended up turning into a break away march and hundreds of people started marching down Broadway a major street in Oakland.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOMRom8DLvY&feature=related > General Assembly in reoccupied park
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywmfHKCwKoQ > illegal breakaway march

Story from my old school hometown sheriff: Once had a guy driving like a maniac, he let him go for a bit on the highway, but decided he needed to stop him before he got into town. He pulled up along side, aimed he gun through his own door at the guy and shot. Bullet went through his door, through the other guys door, and hit him in the side. Guy pulls over, they go to take his shirt off and the bullet fell to the ground. Sheriff still has the bullet in a little case at home.

>> ^JiggaJonson:

There are 34 different pharmaceutical companies in the United States currently. There are 34Not one of them pulls down less than 1.6 billion dollars a year. The average revenue of the bottom ten pharmaceutical companies is 2.4 billion. The top ten make at least 10 billion a year in revenue with Johnson and Johnson pulling down a whopping 70 billion in revenue.


My point exactly. They're making a killing because there's such little competition in the marketplace. 34 doesn't seem like a small number to you? There are more mechanics in your hometown most likely.

>> ^JiggaJonson:

Assuming your figure is correct, even the smallest of the pharmaceutical companies in the US would have access to producing something like the polio vaccine if the current cost to bring drug to market is in fact $802 million.


You're missing the point. Let's remember what this blog was about: what I'm assuming is more than 34 companies or schools have researched the AIDS protein for over three decade and they weren't able to do what the unlimited gamers online did in three weeks. That's opening the market. I know accepting that causes some unsettling cognitive dissonance, but there it is all pink and naked.

>> ^JiggaJonson:

I still don't understand why you think a smaller pharmaceutical company would shy away from production/distribution of a drug if it was all already paid for through a nonprofit like the March of Dimes.


Because instead of spending $800 million for one drug, they could spend $800 million for who knows how many drugs. Ten. Fifty. Maybe hundreds. Thousands? $800 million is a lot of money.

Especially when it's "cost of doing business" the large pharmaceutical companies probably wrote into the law when their lobbyists got the legislators to pass it. I'd much rather pay $800 million as a rich corporation so only the rich investors can compete with me. That ensures less competition. And the less competition, the higher the profits for an inferior product. As one of the 34 I'd prefer that to compete with hundreds of companies.

And private charities won't cover it all. You need investors. And if you're an investor with minimal capital who can't afford the risk of the $800 million price tag, you'll probably not invest. What do you have against competition? Don't you agree that more competition would be better? Isn't that what we've seen with the gamers?

I say any city that has something like this happen should have the team responsible disband.

Edit: for the record that includes my own hometown, Boston for the Rex Sox riots in which a woman died from a rubber bullet to the face.

Although we get half the rainfall of Seattle, it is overcast and gray a lot in the winter.

And all this exciting activity? It happens over a year's time -- any given day could be pretty boring. We're a small town in a rural county!

Nothing is perfect... but the vid is accurate, my friend, in all its edited glory!


>> ^DerHasisttot:

Looks too good... I'm suspicious...

Bring @berticus with you!

In reply to this comment by dag:
Looks beautiful. I'm going to come visit.

I go to North Beach and stare at Vancouver Island. Perhaps you have seen me waving?

>> ^nanrod:

Hey I'm like Sarah Palin, I used to be able to see you from my front porch. Well, only in the winter when the trees in the cemetery lost their leaves, and only with a decent set of binoculars. Looks like a beautiful little town, closest I've come to it was a roadtrip from Victoria to Seattle via Port Angeles to see Aerosmith.

>> ^Issykitty:

He doesn't believe in the separation of church and state. In this sense he is a complete bible belt redneck to me. THe end.


Hmmmm? Let me see... a president who continues to torture, bomb foreign countries, expand the wars, create new military aggressions, refuses to repeal the Patriot Act, condemns Brad Manning of wikileaks, continues the Bush Doctrine, and is a pro-corporatist? Or one who doesn't believe the "rigid separation" between state and church has a basis in the Constitution?

He's right as far as the Constitution is concerned. Still, let's not forget that RP also said, "When fascism comes it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross." Does that sound like a "bible belt redneck"?

And for the record, I'm a bible belt redneck, thankyouverymuch. At least as my hometown is counted.

i was hyped to actually hear the writing. cant find anything


#174
Irbil, Iraq (Hometown: Tacoma, WA): I saw your show in Olympia back in March. Your story about the young boy with Asperger’s moved me. My son has Autism so it meant a lot to me. Did he ever email you? Do you still talk to him?
========== I sent him a bunch of music and books and we write often.
http://henryrollins.com/news/detail/e-mail_interviews_2009_part_1/

@radx yea I am consistently disgusted by mainstream media's treatment of these types of conflicts. There were several major articles in the newspapers I read on Wednesday and all listed similar reasons to what you describe. I had to stop reading after a while, it's just too awful when you know that this "international standing" they are maintaining is really at it's core, hundreds and thousands of civilian deaths, political instability, a drop in living conditions for the country, and a reduction of freedom. Iraq is up over 100,000 civilian deaths last I checked. I was born in a small town of about 5,000, so that's 20 of my hometowns worth of people simply erased.