Almost six million South Africans have guns, and the nation has one of the world's highest gun ownership rates at 12.7 forearms per 100 people.
A nation of amputees?
****BREAKING**** MUST CREDIT DRUDGE JP STORMCROW ****
Perhaps the sophisticated cinematic in-joke didn't translate will into interior Texan.
Perhaps the folk joke was too stupid even for heebie.
Perhaps I suck.
Well, it's definitely sad. The cops are saying the "oops it was an accident/he thought it was a burglar" story didn't come from them and they've answered various domestic calls at his house.
Did you lot only just wake up or something? We've been talking about this all day. My kids are pretty disappointed.
I've been up since 6! I just got to a computer, though.
6.1: That was associated with "maybe she was trying to surprise him for Valentine's Day" when I read it. Pure speculation I assume.
8 - I have no idea what time it is in your part of the world. Half past 3 here.
Did you lot only just wake up or something? We've been talking about this all day. My kids are pretty disappointed.
It's sad, Asilon, but you can reassure them that other capable scholars will carry on the tradition of applying Kantian ethics to real world legal problems.
Longitudinal privilege is deprecated.
||
Chubby Checker sues Hewlett-Packard over app to measure penis size
Should have gone with The Peter O'Toole. He seems more likely to have approved.
|>
8 - I have no idea what time it is in your part of the world. Half past 3 here.
Is it summer or winter in England?
Hard to tell, it's rained constantly since they declared there was a drought.
Is it summer or winter in England?
The snow melted yesterday. We await developments.
||
This war between Tesla and a NYT reviewer is really fascinating. I was all ready to be like "yeah, yeah, electric car company, everybody's so unfair to you, whatever" but those logs are pretty damning.
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13: ****BREAKING**** MUST CREDIT DRUDGE JP STORMCROW IN A FORGOTTEN THREAD*****
This is what I get for trying to honor the early thread derailment embargo.
17
I love stuff like that. I mean, yes, it's gotta be infuriating to Tesla, but the slam against Broder is delicious.
17: After their treatment by Top Gear I'm not surprised that Tesla is paranoid about logging everything that reviewers do with their cars. I hope Broder gets canned over this.
Oh, John Broder isn't David Broder... Now I'm way less excited about this dust up.
That really does seem astonishingly irresponsible of the writer, if what Tesla's saying is accurate.
One more pwning and you can trade up to one of the medium-sized prizes.
As EK says in his profile, journalists pick the story first and then find a way to make it work.
pause, play y'all.
Looks like Broder is being an asshole again.
22/28: Well sure it would have been much more interesting, what with David Broder rising from the dead and all.
Yeah. I googled Broder, saw DB's wikipedia page said he was dead, realized that this sadly meant that he wasn't the Broder involved, but then thought "Well at least DB is dead," and then thought that I was a bad person.
Plus, it would have meant that the self-driving cars were well and truly ready for prime time.
30.last: "His body is gone but back here on the lawn his spirit continues to drool."
- L. Cohen
5: I saw that. Didn't know he was ill. I was amazed by how sharp he was in colloquia and seminars at NYU 6 years or so ago. I never got around to 'Justice for Hedgehogs', sigh (though we read some draft chapters as he was writing it).
17: it looks like they really nailed him. Neat.
What it sort of looks like he was doing was testing for literal accuracy of the range estimates -- charging until the car claimed it would just make the next stop, or something like that, and then seeing if it worked. But if that were the plan, it very much should have been made explicit.
I too join the chorus of surprise at the news that David Broder has been dead for almost two years.
Well sure it would have been much more interesting, what with David Broder rising from the dead and all.
I'm supposed to keep track of which centrist apologists are still alive? I'm gonna need an app for that.
discuss: http://feltron.tumblr.com/post/43027160095/fifty-states-with-equal-population
Some believe Broder is alive, others believe he's dead. Surely the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
Wow, surely that's a firing offense.
Broder, although I guess Pastorius as well.
those logs are pretty damning.
OTOH we have no way of knowing that those logs actually came from the car Broder was driving. I mean, it's not like they'd have been terribly difficult to whip up in Photoshop.
I have a hard time believing that the logs would be fraudulent. Inaccurate due to some technical malfunction, possibly, but Tesla would be really stupid to publish fake logs.
For the record, as soon as I heard the news this morning, I looked forward to Unfogged's folk humor on the OP.
41: Mmm. I tend to believe whichever party is saying "You're lying, and we have data to prove it", but you're right that we don't really know. If Broder came back with "Those logs can't possibly be right, I know I had the heat off because I was losing sensation in my hands", I'd be doubtful again. But in the absence of a direct challenge from Broder, I'm believing Tesla.
Somebody I showed that too points out that if you look at (for instance) the temperature data, he does seem to have turned off the heat at some point, just slightly later than he claimed. Also, in the case of charging 47 vs. 58 minutes, he did nonetheless have to sit around for about an hour at a rest stop to charge his car a little bit, which is not not annoying.
44: This seems relevant: "Repeated requests from Wired for Tesla to release the raw data from Broder's vehicle have been denied." (From this article.)
Somebody's clearly lying here, but I have no clue who.
46 doesn't look great, but the "raw" data could easily contain all sorts of industrial secrets Tesla would be reluctant to have its competitors getting hold of.
That reply is from Saturday... before Tesla published its data on Sunday. I think Broder's next reply will be the interesting one.
The Transparent Society should at least get us a higher standard of quibbling and misdirection. Finally, our talents will be needed!
Everyone is beautiful and special! Happy Valentine's Day, you gorgeous snowflakes.
38, 53 -- Cold head hands, friends, cold dead hands.
Austin, Abilene, and Shreveport? Ugh.
I agree with "someone is lying and we can't tell who" but in this instance I'd say a priori it's reasonably unlikely to be the journalist, given the hypersensitivity of automotive journalists to libel suits. But who knows. Also even on Tesla's account it seems pretty damning for a super expensive car but whatever.
55: I don't want to *live* in that country. I much prefer the blue city archipelago concept.
A Tesla scared the bejeezus out of me recently by sneaking up as I was peacefully riding my bike and then whipping around me at speed. Quiet and fast. I want one, and Broder can be my driver.
Yeah, I noticed the drop in the temperature data. That bit doesn't make Tesla look very good, as it looks like they're leaving out the parts they don't want to talk about.
Wow, surely that's a firing offense.
You must be new here.
I dunno, the NYTimes might take auto review accuracy more seriously than war and national security.
More reasonably interesting analysis.
Nice try, Halford. We all know your bias against cars that run on anything less than pure whale oil.
I located the proper adapter in the trunk, plugged in and walked to the only warm place nearby, Butch's Luncheonette and Breakfast Club, an establishment (smoking allowed) where only members can buy a cup of coffee or a plate of eggs.
What's with an establishment like this? Is it to get around a smoking ban, or to bar black people, or something?
Health codes, maybe? A restaurant needs a kitchen that meets standards, a private club doesn't?
68:My guess would be to get around a smoking ban.
68: if easy to join, health regs; if hard, sorting.
Isn't there some probably-different reason why bars have a big jar of pickled eggs sitting somewhere? Like, food has to be available when you're drinking?
Isn't it because pickled eggs are delicious?
68: In the South it'd be liquor laws. In a lot of pseudo-dry counties, you can't have a bar, but you can have a members-only club. So the bars charge a buck membership and call themselves clubs.
||
My student missed class on Tuesday because her brother broke his leg. I said no problem, because whatever, it's just class. Then she missed the test today and emailed that his surgery is hanging over her head and she couldn't take the test.
I misread her email, and thought she was saying he was in surgery at that very moment, and that she'd be back on campus this afternoon. So I grumpily told her I'd give her the test this afternoon.
When she didn't show up this afternoon, I went back and realized she said his surgery is not until tomorrow afternoon. This is completely ridiculous, right? Your brother having leg surgery?
I'm also not sure how to respond since I set a precedent of accommodating her already. I think I'm screwed and have to give her a make-up test tomorrow.
|>
Would she show up tomorrow, with her brother under the very surgeon's knife? Give her a week or so to recover. (I actually have no idea at all.)
75: A professor friend of mine has been keeping a Dead Grandmother tally on the whiteboard in his office for a few years now.
75: A professor friend of mine has been keeping a Dead Grandmother tally on the whiteboard in his office for a few years now.
I think you need to take a no mercy approach to these wingeing students of yours. Just ask yourself "What would Halford do?" Answer: make them eat half a buffalo and hold 200 lb. weights during the make-up test.
In this case, 99% likely smoking regs. There's really no such thing as a building reg* that doesn't apply to a private club (the ADA talks about "public accommodation", but I'm 95% certain that a place of assembly that happens to be a private club wouldn't be exempt; frex, if you have an office for 2 people, and you want to put in a bathroom, it needs to be accessible - the only exception is a bathroom attached to a single person's office with no access for anyone else). OTOH, smoking regs frequently exempt private club-type establishments.
*including stuff about kitchens and such
To cut her some slack, if she lives locally she might be caretaking a freaked-out parent. Not that it's necessary that she should, but I know families where that would be what's going on.
I agree with 53. I actually think that map merits an entire thread.
A thread in which no one is allowed to say, "It'll never happen."
It'll never happen.
Seriously, what's to talk about? I've seen maps like that before, and it'd be nice if Senate representation was proportional to population, but I don't understand what a conversation about the map would be about.
Ok, I just needed a plausible reason to be sympathetic. I'll give her a make-up test.
84.2: Wouldn't NYC have to be split into two states? The thread might not hit 1000, but I see some potential for argument.
What's the population? Six million ish? We could keep most of the good bits, and slough some Queens of onto Long Island.
I'd like to see us divided into city states. For some spatial resolution that matches the number of desired polities, you find the local density peaks and divide the country into a Voronoi diagram, each polity having a roughly equal representation of rural and urban areas.
she might be caretaking a freaked-out parent
This is me at the moment. My great-grandmother just died and Jesus H. my mother is a mess.
(I don't mean to suggest that the furthest flung bits of Queens aren't the good bits, but they're a natural place to trim if you're making states.
This graphic showing the status of gay rights in each state is an interesting addition to the discussion. You could use any set of issues, policies, demographics, etc., to show different types of alignments and shared interests among states.
ditto 81. If my sibling had broken a leg and required surgery when I was a freshman in college, not only would I have had to do a lot of caretaking suddenly, I would have had no way to get to college. And I would have been highly embarrassed to explain why.
In trying to read up on the Tesla scandal, I ran across this truly shocking yet incredibly awesome profile of Will. What we didn't know.
we didn't know a lot of things, let's not waste time blaming ourselves.
make-up test is the right way to go about it. you can give her a stern talking-to though.
Via the NY Times:
On her Twitter account, Ms. Steenkamp ... posted a message on Wednesday alluding to Valentine's day, saying: "What do you have up your sleeve for your love tomorrow???"
As Morissette might say, it's like getting shot dead by your boyfriend on Valentine's Day.
It's so much easier to be nice to students than to be mean to them over stuff like this. Every now and then you have to make sure you're not being taken advantage of. But in general, treating students like regular, reasonable, human beings who are doing regular, reasonable things is a good rule of thumb.
have you ever got upset at a student and later felt very bad about what you said?
61
A Tesla scared the bejeezus out of me recently by sneaking up as I was peacefully riding my bike and then whipping around me at speed.
Everyone worries about this, but you know, normal cars sneak up on me all the time. I'm pretty sure I'd notice a car coming if it and I were alone on the road, but during rush hour, the background noise and general road noise is loud enough that I don't hear individual cars until they're fairly close.
The fact that I usually bike with ear warmers on these days probably doesn't help, but still, I'm pretty sure cars would sneak up on me a lot anyways.
100: That's crazy talk.
More relevant information re Tesla scandal.
Seriously, what's to talk about?
Precise boundaries, obviously. Repatriation of ethnic groups to their natural homelands. Lebensraum.
More seriously, it's intriguing to think about how politics in such a map would shake out - on the one hand, the very biggest cities effectively become city-states, with all but the closest suburbs politically separated; on the other hand, medium-sized cities/metros become more central to their states (literally and figuratively, mostly), such that it's less clear that the current urban/exurban divide would work the way it does now.
I mean, it's a given that this map would result in less representation for big, empty places, but what's the new dynamic, both at the Federal level and the state/local level.
Also, too, if the states are drawn intelligently, then natural resources are at least potentially better-tended.
And maybe someone else has something to say on the topic.
I don't get this scandal. Presumably there is more than this one S model being driven around. Do they experience the same problem? If not, given Tesla's response, I would conclude that Broder is just being an asshole.
There was a ton of fooling around with the maps in the territorial era. Where I now sit was once Washington, and then Idaho, before being moved (I'm told by means of some considerable chicanery) to MT. But really, once you have a state, it all fixes, and the only thing you really can do is divide states, eg the creations of Maine and West Virginia.
I think dividing up California might well make a whole lot of sense: one of the great democratic features on my state is that with a 100 member House, you can win with 2,500 votes. That's a manageable number of people to meet, and there's little point in using TV. I realize that a 3,000 member California assembly isn't in the cards, but division would allow smaller communities to better govern themselves.
|| I see that the President missed a chance today to advance the nickel. And passed on limiting patents to 5 years. Is there no disappointment the man will not inflict? |>
He did declare himself not an Emperor, though, so there's that.
103: The parking brake running on electricity seems like an incredibly stupid design decision to me. Those things are also known as emergency breaks, and, in an emergency, power should not be assumed.
Where I now sit was once Washington, and then Idaho
The state we'd be in on that map would rule. We'd have everything from the Salt Lake ski areas and Dinosaur Nat. Monument up to Glacier? And we get Yellowstone, the Bitteroot, Salmon, Sawtooth, etc. wilderness areas? Hell yes I'll take those boundaries.
One sign that the Democratic Party isn't serious about winning is that it hasn't spent the last 20 years on statehood for DC & Puerto Rico*, plus dividing CA into at least 2, preferably 4. If Orange+SD gave the GOP at least one red state out of it, that's the start of a compromise. I'd be happy to see Texas split into more states as well (since I think that it would be very hard to make any significant number of deep red subTexases).
The point isn't that, if only the Dems tried, they'd get 4 new blue states; it's that they're not even pushing it, and it's an easy, pro-democracy argument to make. If they argued for going to 60 states, but ended up with just 52 or whatever, it's still a win.
* complicated, of course, by the desires of actual Puerto Ricans. But here's what I don't get: didn't statehood win the last plebiscite? Isn't that news of some sort? Are they actually any closer to statehood than they were before that vote?
109: I know! When I read that part of Broder's article, I was agog. WTF, Tesla?
109, 112: That's not original to Tesla.
||
Ok, lets play "which one of us is being obnoxious?"
I just had the following conversation with a cow-orker who knocked on my door. We'll call the cow-orker "nem."
Nem: Esteemed colleague! How are you doing!
Me: Good. What can I do for you.
Nem: May I procure for you a throat lozenge?
Me: "For me" or "from me." [reaches into desk drawer and takes out some Halls to offer for my neighbor, apparently in need.]
Nem: *For* you. You see I can hear you making throat noises from my office, and I was wondering if you were sick.
Me: I am having problems
Nem: What is it?
Me: Bronchitis. [Probably not actually the right term. It's more of a throat-sinus thing.]
Nem: Oh, I'm sorry.
Me: Well, I'm sorry if I disturbed you. I'll try to be more quiet. I didn't know you could hear me.
Nem: No no. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything. Now you will think I am fussy. I'll go now.
So, he was the one being obnoxious here, right? I mean, the odds are slim that my coughing noises were so gross as to merit this kind of response?
|>
Yeah, I rented a Subaru with an electric parking brake once, which did not make me feel comfortable at all. Like what if the battery died, and you wanted to roll-start the thing, but couldn't because the parking brake wouldn't disengage?
I guess that's not an issue on an electric vehicle, but still strikes me as deeply stupid.
He's being a jerk unless you're making a really unusual amount of noise. That is, that conversation was a roundabout way of saying "Quit coughing, you're driving me insane," and while that's reasonable at the opera, in your office you're allowed to cough. But if you're really making that much noise, maybe you should have stayed home?
114 -- is that a literal transcript? Because if so regardless of content your colleagues style puts him on the kill list.
We'll, I don't think I've been making that much noise. And actually I'm feeling better than I have in several weeks.
You know, I once had an office across from a guy who smoked a pipe and would periodically make noises like he was coughing up a tumor. But did I go over there and offer him smoking cessation tips? No.
Another data point: the cow-orker who talked to me just now has on two separate occasions told me that he thought my lunch was "disgusting."
117: As close as I could make it. I typed it up and emailed it to Molly as soon as it happened.
Oh, dear. Is English a second language, or is he just that affected?
Can you describe his manner of dress?
I received an anonymous note a few years back from someone, presumably a colleague, telling me that my habit of bringing a laptop into talks was distracting and rude. Naturally, I began bringing my laptop with me everywhere and seriously considered, for a time at least, bringing a desktop with me to department meetings. Anyway, I think you should pretend to acquire croupe, pertussis, and silicosis and ask to throw away your snot-soaked tissues in his office -- "I'm sorry, but my trashcan is full. May I use yours?" -- but miss and leave them strewn all over the floor.
I also think you should give him a trade blanket filled with smallpox scabs.
Rebuttal from Broder, for anyone still interested.
OT: Happy Valentine's Day, you filthy reprobates, single, coupled and "other" alike.
The whole episode is, for me, a good example of how hard it is to sort through competing accounts of an event. Somebody should write a book making that very point.
Pfft. Someone should write a book making that point, that also cures cholera.
Or, better still, that causes cholera! In which case, rob can give a copy to his colleague.
"Your Tesla has died of dysentery."
A neighbor of the Flip-Pater's owns a Tesla. The Flip-Pater reports that the car is often parked on the lawn, sucking power through a thick umbilical from the clapboard New England-standard house in a way that a lazier writer might compare to something out of William Gibson's lighter moments.
In unrelated news, I am a very lazy writer.
114 makes me feel slightly better about the bizarre interactions I've been having with people at work today. Today in my class one student shouted at another one to be quiet when the student asked questions! It was very awkward. Especially because a department administrator has basically told me to take the side of the shouting student.
a department administrator
This is sufficiently ambiguous that I'm not going to pass judgment on this person. I also suppose that the lack of details in the original story stands in the way of such passing of judgment. But I'm not sure I would have let that -- at least that alone -- stop me.
I feel like there is backstory to 132 that is fascinating.
By "basically" I assume you mean you joined in. "NO QUESTIONS."
122: I considered that, and decided that we've had enough bad encounters that I don't want things to escalate. In addition to calling my food "disgusting" he has told me "it would be a problem" if I brought my kids to the office sometimes.
The details are boring and tedious. Basically there's some hotshot undergrad taking my class and he likes to ask a lot of questions with a lot of math jargon that most physics students don't know, and sometimes his questions are annoying and he asks too many of them and it wastes class time, and so several of the first-year grad students in the class hate him. They went and complained to me and the director of graduate studies and the teaching assistant and basically everyone else they know in the department. One of these grad students is visibly angry all the time and told me I have to force this undergrad to stop asking questions and that I have to demand that this undergrad apologize to him. And I basically told him his interpersonal issues are not my problem, which pissed him off even more. So today he just went off on the other kid in class. At this rate there'll be fisticuffs by the end of the semester. But I'm the only person who seems to think the problem is the angry guy rather than the undergrad asking all the questions.
Huh. Is it mostly a graduate class? And, is it a required class for grad students in the department?
And there's so much fucking entitlement all around. The undergrad thinks he has a right to have all of his "but how does this relate to my favorite math topic that won't come up in this class?" questions answered, and the grad students think they have the right to not listen to him and to dictate how mathematical the class is allowed to be, and they're all pissing me off because I don't understand how they can have so much emotional investment in a fucking class.
138: It's an advanced graduate class and it isn't required of anyone, except that I think one or two of the experimental particle professors have told all of their students to sign up for it.
Because then I could see the "being annoyed at the undergrad taking the class essentially for fun and wasting a lot of time with questions that aren't directly relevant to the material that the first year grad students really need to be up on" thing, if not the "angry all the time" thing.
I'm mostly just curious if I know the undergrad.
Could you gently redirect the undergrad by saying "that's a very interesting question but outside the scope of this class" and redirect the grad student by saying "here, bite down on this pillow"?
Between this and frustrations with collaborators I just want to start saying to everyone "um, guys? It's just particle physics. It doesn't matter. We're not solving real problems or learning useful skills. Chill the fuck out."
"that's a very interesting question but outside the scope of this class"
That's what I've been trying to do; there was one class early on where I spent an inordinate amount of time answering his questions, and after I realized what was going on I started deflecting them, and he also caught on to everyone else being pissed off and started asking fewer of them. So I thought things were better until the grad student started shouting today.
It doesn't matter. It is matter.
But really, if I were a grad student and some preening undergrad were taking up all the class time I would hate his ass (but I wouldn't do anything in class but roll my eyes a lot).
have you ever got upset at a student and later felt very bad about what you said?
I can't think of a time, but my memory is generally spotty for things that put me in a bad light. I'm incredibly good at forgetting shitty things I've done.
It also might be that the grad students need to pass the class with a relatively high grade in order to get elective credit for it and are pissed off that the undergrad -- who doesn't need as high a grade as they need -- is trying to make the material harder.
Also it is fascinating to me how much I identify with the grad students, even though of course I don't take classes at all seriously (I dropped the moderately hard-seeming class in favor of one that is so easy it's hilarious and sort of sad).
Why do grad students care about grades? I was just going to give them all an A anyway, unless they just don't do the homework.
I haven't really figured out graduate student culture in my department. Classes seem to be really important to them and they don't get into research until really late. I didn't take classes in grad school, except the required lab course that I put minimum effort into.
Grad students don't get grades. Dollars to donuts essear will give them all A's (maybe, *maybe*, an A-).
150.1: I have heard that it matters for postdoc funding?
150.2: yeah that is very odd. Classes are a distinct afterthought in my department.
142: Where would you know him from? Email me if you want.
I'm incredibly good at forgetting shitty things I've done.
I wish I had this skill. I remember every fuckup and moment that reflects poorly on me in vivid detail.
150.1: I have heard that it matters for postdoc funding?
I never had to submit a transcript or anything when applying for a postdoc job.
Classes are a distinct afterthought in my department.
I've been surprised by how vehemently people in my department defend the idea that first-year students shouldn't be spending any serious time on research. Especially when "has a lot of undergrad research experience" is more or less the determining factor in admitting them in the first place.
But even the second- and third-year grad students I know who are trying to get started in research seem to be floundering. Some have come to me for ideas on projects and I ask them to do something really simple as a first step and they go away for a while and come back two or three weeks later wanting to talk more without having actually done anything in the meantime except maybe reading a little.
My phd program at caltech (and a few others I know of) had both breadth and depth requirements for classes and grade cutoffs.
155: I fully realize I'm being trolled but it's working, you bastard.
156.1: did you apply for your own funding?
156.last: yeah, totally weird. We're required to complete first and second year research projects (I mean, can be the same project, but anyhow).
157: what are breadth and depth requirements?
139: Dealing with people like that is one of the most important skills that professors at the law school need to acquire. The best approach I've seen is, you entertain the obnoxiously entitled question for a couple of minutes, but if it's taking the class too far afield you say "why don't you come talk to me about that in office hours." And if they keep doing it, you get a little sharper about it.
156.1: did you apply for your own funding?
No, for us postdocs are always hired out of faculty grants or startups or something. I don't even know how it would be possible for a postdoc to apply for their own funding.
159.3: The academic equivalent of length and girth?
160: Yeah, that's what I've been trying to do, although I have a bit of a learning curve to figure out when to do it. But I guess I'm not learning fast enough to satisfy the angry people....
I've been surprised by how vehemently people in my department defend the idea that first-year students shouldn't be spending any serious time on research. Especially when "has a lot of undergrad research experience" is more or less the determining factor in admitting them in the first place.
Aren't they theoretically supposed to learn something other than the specific microspecialty of their supervisor?
I don't know of a US biomedical PhD program where students have to take less than 10 classes. On the other hand in Britain as far as I can tell they take zero classes and all graduate in exactly three years.
161: In Plasma Physics there are postdoc specific grants (or at least there were when I was looking at postdocs). I had multiple job offers that came down to "get your own funding and we'll give you access to the machine."
Shit, I really hijacked this thread, didn't I?
Maybe you could have defused the yelling today with, "come on guys, let's not do this on Valentines."
Or by chucking candy hearts at him.
I love invoking holidays on fight and domestic calls but not everyone is appreciative of comments like "let's try and show a little respect for Columbus Day" or whatever.
Sorry, not 10 classes. 10 hours of class a week for at least the first year. That would be standard.
The thing I've learned from the Tesla bruhaha is that there is no such thing as bad publicity. I am now aware, which I wasn't before, that there is a string of charging stations up and down the East Coast, that they can charge you up a lot faster than I had realized, but that you have to not be an idiot and drive away with less projected mileage than distance you need to travel.
Also, I've seen lots of Tesla pictures today. That's a pretty good marketing effort on Tesla's part, in spite of the fact that the president of the company seems like bit of a jackass.
160 is smart, though I think you're beyond that. Were I you, I'd probably pull the kid aside after class, explain that his questions are fascinating but fundamentally off topic, perhaps go on to note that other people in the class have expressed misgivings about how things are going (I would only mention this if I were pretty sure that the undergraduate is the problem, and it sounds like you're not there at all), and then I'd ask him very politely to can it. If he didn't then can it, I'd pull him aside a second time and tell him that it's time for him to stop. If that didn't work, I'd escalate the shit out of the situation.
in spite of the fact that the president of the company seems like bit of a jackass
Especially since he more or less throws a giant party for a whole bunch of people I know every year and I'm not cool enough to get invited.
I've several times had to use phase one of this plan. I've never had to go beyond that. I have, though, seen very pedagogically adept colleagues escalate the shit out of such situations -- when students are mentally ill or unable to deal. It sucks all the way around. Really, though, you don't need this. Teaching is hard enough even when things are going well.
136: this person sound like a waking nightmare. Can you move offices? If not now, some time in the future? If not, I'd go with smallpox.
A couple of times recently I've had the thought "maybe I should have just taken the job at [other place] and then people would be less weird and entitled and obnoxious" and then I remember that [other place] had like three people leave their group within five years mostly because of constant interpersonal conflict. I guess people are the same wherever you go.
I was trying to find a candy heart that said "shut up" for you to give the kid but no dice.
Somebody should do a series of "It Gets Better" videos for first-year assistant professors. You know, on the assumption that it does.
159.3: 5 year-long courses from a fixed menu covering 4 ish areas. Thus you cover four areas (breadth) and at least 1 area gets two classes (depth).
Allow me to be the first to say that Bave gets it exactly right in 160.
essear, if the guy is really in hotshot show-off mode to the extent that he's disrupting the class, you need to find a way to shut him down so you can get done what you need to get done. "X is a good point, but we need to get to Y and Z today, so I'm going to move along." And then just move along. You're the traffic cop here.
177: Having gone ivy-state-ivy-state, there really is a difference in entitlement. On one of my interviews someone said in comparing [ivy] to [state]: "At [ivy] the students treat the professors like they're the help."
160 is correct in my experience. Last semester I had a student in a non-film course who, having some idea that I was into film, would interrupt every day with some eye-roller asking whether I had seen this or that movie, not realizing he was cultivating near-universal loathing for himself. Getting him to hold all film-related questions for office hours, which he didn't really seem to enjoy coming to, was a triumph.
I remember every fuckup and moment that reflects poorly on me in vivid detail.
Me too.
179: the main problem is that it doesn't, in fact, get better.
260: I don't even know how it would be possible for a postdoc to apply for their own funding
It's more of a thing here than in the States. The 15 pages of proposal instructions I'm reading right now, let me show you them.
BTW, it's interesting to me that this group of near-universal once-precocious kids with hedgehog* tendencies is universally siding against the precocious kid who doesn't seem to be supernarrow in his interests. Is this just the grumpiness of age?
* or is it fox? Have I said before that IMO that's the stupidest fucking metaphor that has ever gained currency? He might as well have picked a turnip and a tire iron for all the clarity he brought to the dichotomy. Oh yes, hedgehogs know many things, everybody says that. Oh wait, no they fucking don't.
Well, they don't pain us the way they presumably do you. It's more like how I remember every episode of MASH.
The tyranny of the precocious must be broken and who better to do it?
He's not being hated for the breadth of his interests, but for his annoying attention-hogging. You're looking at introverts hating an extrovert.
Next time the kid speaks up, essear should turn and point at him and, eyes wide, start chanting "NERD! NERD! NERD!"
And it's foxes (you know, crafty, sly?) that know many things. Hedgehogs only know how to curl up and be prickly.
194: It's not a hatred of extroversion, unless by extroversion we mean chummy show-off.
Well, they don't pain us the way they presumably do you.
I certainly hope not. I wouldn't wish the past week of my life on anyone.
I know Bave and Cala are right that I have to learn how to keep the show-off-y kid from disrupting the class. But people asking annoying questions was a feature of basically every class I ever took. Students angrily shouting at each other was not. Isn't that the much bigger and more pathological problem?
Maybe you should hand out foam bats.
I actually have a bunch of foam bats in my mom's garage. Unless she's thrown them away, which is plausible.
The combination of undergrad in a grad class and math student in a physics class I think explains the unusual reaction. The other students probably think he doesn't belong in the class at all. If it was just an annoying physics grad student you probably wouldn't have that kind of outburst.
198: hey, wallowing boy, unless you did something far more heinous than what you revealed here, it's time for you to stop beating the crap out of yourself. You made a mistake in the heat of the moment, you reflected on your behavior and owned up to it, you performed some acts of contrition (as a Jew, I don't really approve, but whatever), and now it's time to start forgiving yourself. That's how it works. If you need to, go scatter some bread crumbs in an icy river or whatever. But then turn that frown upside down.
Isn't that the much bigger and more pathological problem?
For sure it is. But it sounds like you've tried to address that and been shot down by your department. And whatever happens with Mr. Shouty, the other kid could probably use a hand learning to tone it down a bit.
you performed some acts of contrition (as a Jew, I don't really approve, but whatever)
Tikkun Blolam
206 didn't quite make me lol, but I did laugh, in here, where it counts.
* or is it fox? Have I said before that IMO that's the stupidest fucking metaphor that has ever gained currency? He might as well have picked a turnip and a tire iron for all the clarity he brought to the dichotomy. Oh yes, hedgehogs know many things, everybody says that. Oh wait, no they fucking don't.
And so on in the same tradition, to the present age when random animals were used as euphemisms for different jobs or different towns or whatever it was.
208: the guinea pig has one kind of interpersonal conflict, but it's really intense. The puppy has lots of kinds of interpersonal conflict, but they're all sort of ridiculous. Like everybody says.
Wait, there's a fox, a hedgehog, and a squirrel? Okay, this is getting confusing.
And a guinea pig and a puppy?!!!? Fuck it, I'm selling the whole menagerie to a British butcher.
204: Thanks, I appreciate that. And I realize it's true, and that there's no point in continuing to obsess over this. It's a thing that happened, and I did some things I regret, but there's nothing to be done about it now. It's just hard to turn these feelings off like that. I'm sure they'll subside over time, but I have no doubt that this episode will continue to haunt me to some degree for the rest of my life.
There's only one job and/or personality type for me.
195 is obviously right, and yet ANOTHER example of why we need to learn more from Ogre from ROTN in our daily lives.
I don't think Tesla emerged from all that looking very good. At all.
I don't think Tesla emerged from all that looking very good.
Assuming Broder isn't flat-out lying -- and to me at least, it still seems entirely possible that he is lying, because he's a journalist and works at the Times to boot -- I agree.
I also feel like I've probably done serious, permanent damage to my relationships with a lot of people at Unfogged, which is obviously one of the least important of the effects of the incident but still bothers me a lot. I really wish I hadn't told the story the way I did, especially since I knew I wouldn't be around for the ensuing discussion and would be unable to clarify things or defend myself. By the time I did get back to the thread the discussion had gone so far that responding to specific points seemed both overwhelming and pointless. Oh well. I hope people's initial reactions to the story don't reflect the way they'll feel about me from now on, but I realize they might.
The animals ate the guinea pig most likely because they were:
A. hungry
B. jealous
C. confused
D. metaphorical constructs
Teo pretty much already nobody cares, and give it a solid day and a half of not talking about it and nobody will care at all. Take that as you will, but speaking as somebody who has fucked right up plenty of times it can be quite nice.
speaking as somebody who has fucked right up plenty of times it can be quite nice. And pretty soon everyone forgets about it as well.
219: Thanks, and I know that's what I should do, and I will. I'm just feeling mopey tonight.
I'm just feeling mopey tonight.
So now it's the dwarves you're after!
I also feel like I've probably done serious, permanent damage to my relationships with a lot of people at Unfogged
Nonsense. First, Sifu's right that nobody really cares. Second, as nearly everyone in that thread agreed, it was so out of character for you that people, even people inclined to think you did something wrong, believed that there must have been mitigating circumstances. Third, we've all made serious mistakes, mistakes that later caused us to feel terribly ashamed about our actions, and so you're in good company. Heck, I just killed a guinea pig, hedgehog, fox, and puppy and passed the resulting cutlets off as veal.
Thanks, guys. I have a friend coming to visit this weekend, so that should be a chance to take my mind off all of this and have some fun.
Just, for god's sake, don't huff ScotchGard.
I'm trying to come up with some terrible thing I've done that I'm nonetheless comfortable sharing with unfogged. Nothing obvious coming to mind.
Speaking of animals and oral sex, of the three "news" items I linked this morning, I can't believe that it was the "right-wing PAC simulated oral sex between a panda and Hilary Clinton" video that got zero attention.
I feel like I need to send Ogre up to Alaska to tell at T-Hat. Ogre wouldn't put up with this self lacerating bullshit.
There is a lesson in 228. As for me, the closest analog I'm coming up with is the woman in college that I had sex with because I wanted to have sex with her, even though I knew she was way more into me than I was into her. That was a genuinely shitty thing to do, and I felt HORRIBLE about it for weeks and weeks and weeks (I didn't got to the pool hall in the union or to parties where I thought she might be), and I still sometimes think about what a shit I was. But the other stuff, the really bad stuff, I mostly keep to myself.
The irony of the whole thing is that I don't even like blowjobs that much.
233.last: And that caterpillar ain't telling any more tales, IYKWIM.
I once gave smallpox-scab-bearing blankets to this person who wouldn't stop coughing.
I once gave a book to someone telling them it would cure their cholera.
234: me neither. I'd much rather cuddle.
237: wrong book, I bet. Otherwise, it would have worked.
239: What makes you think it didn't work?
Wait we're supposed to feel guilty about things like 233? This is like Ogged saying that squashing a bug was the worst thing he'd ever done. Jesus fucking Christ.
It's like a bloooow-job on your wedding day
It's a free blowjob when you've already paid
It's the blowjob that you just didn't take
Who would've thought... it figures
I mean how much more fucking priggish can we get? Better put a cloth over your mouth or you'll swallow a fly.
Jews can feel guilty about anything. It's our special power.
No, no, teo, it's time for Halford's frat boy act again. He's going to be snapping towels in a most aggressive fashion. Keep back, I've seen him take down a water buffalo.
246: It's our special power.
A quick scan of the headlines reveals that Jewish Man is certainly no Florida Man.
No, no, teo, it's time for Halford's frat boy act again.
"Again"? I was not aware he ever stopped.
248: And that's even despite the huge number of Jews in Florida.
Once I tore the elevator panel off the ground floor in my dorm and hid it in my closet, so nobody could use the elevator for like a couple weeks. That was lame and pointless, but a different sort of deal.
Ooh once we made this kid move out of our house because he wasn't cool enough even though he was super nice to everybody -- dude just liked Riverdance, what's he supposed to do. That was pretty mean, but again, different category.
But yeah the dark times are not for unfogged.
And that's even despite the huge number of Jews in Florida. [emphasis added]
Right, 3.4% of the population. (Granted that might arguably be understated due to snowbirds.)
But yeah the dark times are not for unfogged.
Now you tell me.
253: Number, not proportion. It's a big state.
I can't believe my less exciting story of malfeasance was discussed SIX YEARS AGO today.
Jews can feel guilty about anything. It's our special power.
"um, guys? It's just particle physics. It doesn't matter. We're not solving real problems or learning useful skills. Chill the fuck out."
It's not rocket science.
Where in the world is carmen sandiego fa?
fa
I can't help but read this in a little dolphin voice.
252 gets it right, and the alternatives are either horrible over sharing or 233 style faux-shameful humblebrags.
I also feel like I've probably done serious, permanent damage to my relationships with a lot of people at Unfogged
Probably not, although if you walk around with flagellation scars all the time it'll be kind of unsightly.
The dingo overshares. The dugong humblebrags.
We know you want to be a badass, Halford. Maybe try a bit less hard?
What are you talking about? I am sincere that I found 233 annoying, for reasons that I stated sincerely. That's not an attempt to be a a badass, which, speaking sincerely, I'm not. You may not even have consciously meant 233 as a humblebrag, but guess what, it was.
Don't be passive-aggressive. It's unbecoming.
I'm genuinely not upset, teo. I'm also not even a little annoyed. I am, though, tired of Halford's tough guy act. If he wants to disagree with me about something, he can do it like a grownup. He doesn't have to make oblique references to humblebrags, shaming, or fucking priggishness.
If 268 is aggressive, it's not very passive about.
And to think I was so pleased to note Halford agreeing with Sifu.
And to think I was so pleased to note Halford agreeing with Sifu.
They agree on things from time to time. They're both into eating lions, for example.
I'm not certain that either has ever actually eaten a lion, but they definitely both like the idea.
260: On the way to somewhere that's apparently still kind of snowed over. It was a beautiful day to cross over from Tennessee to Virginia, though. I kind of wish I'd planned for some tourism-related non-programmatic activities.
I kind of wish I'd planned for some tourism-related non-programmatic activities.
I planned my drive from NJ to NM a couple years ago explicitly with this in mind, and I'm glad I did.
If we can get back to bitching about academia again, I've just now finally finished writing up my two-year review.* I still have to get my annual review done some time tomorrow (which takes TONS of time in my department, and involves a seven page metric and an online form with three essay sections), and then finish up my book proposal this weekend, but at least this is finished. And I'm still happier than I was in grad school.
*We do reviews at 2 and 4 years rather than the more standard 3 and 5.
277: I have to say, that's a pretty convincing response.
279: For similar reasons, I took a more scenic (than the usual scenic) route back from Canada which added a few days to that trip. For various reasons I won't get into, I couldn't really take a circuitous route this drive. Plus, it's the wrong time of year for many places I'd like to go.
Plus, it's the wrong time of year for many places I'd like to go.
Yeah, I've run into this problem on other road trips.
271--What I disagree with you about, VW, isn't usually very much, and when it is I've been pretty explicit about stating it. I occasionally and tonight in particular find the use of the false modesty as a means of boasting of moral superiority, as in 233, annoying. It's annoying because it's kind of a transparent attempt to have your modesty cake and eat it boastfully too. That's not so much a disagreement as a dislike of an annoying rhetorical style. If you want to let us know that you've generally been very responsible in matters sexual, or whatever, just say so. That's great! I don't know how to be much more explicit than that. This also isn't the biggest deal in the world but if we can't jump down each others throats for minor flaws than this place has no purpose.
That's not so much a disagreement as a dislike of an annoying rhetorical style.
What I think is going on between you two is that you find each other's rhetorical style annoying, and this occasionally leads each of you to misinterpret the actual point the other is making.
284: as I said above, I don't have any problem with your disagreeing with me, even in your usual aggressive style. I'd just prefer that you do it like a grownup. Actually, I thought our recent arguments were minor enough that I was surprised by your dickishness in this thread.
Speaking of which, I've said repeatedly that I've made some really stupid and shitty mistakes in my life. I've also never hidden the fact that most of those mistakes, save for the episode above, didn't involve sex. In fact, I thought I said as much in the comment that got under your skin. Regardless, if that bugs you enough that you're going to call me a bunch of names -- rather than actually engaging with me substantively -- you can go fuck yourself. But if you want to argue about substance, I'm fine with that.
285: truly, I'm not sure why you feel the need to get in the middle of this, teo. And for what it's worth, I find Halford's rhetorical style, so long as he's not aiming his guns at someone who doesn't feel like being attacked, very funny. Again, he's usually quite up front about his opinions, and I like that. In this thread, though, he chose to call me a bunch of names without actually saying anything to me directly. Fuck that.
I'm not sure why you feel the need to get in the middle of this, teo.
Because I like both of you and dislike it when people I like get in pointless arguments based on misunderstandings. In this case it's Halford misunderstanding you, but it's been the other way around in the past. I realize interfering in this sort of thing is generally just as pointless, but sometimes I feel compelled to do it anyway.
HOW CAN I BE MORE DIRECT?? I mean, I could for sure be wrong, but I've tried to be direct. Also, where did I call you a name? I think you called me a "frat boy" which is technically sort of true though I dropped out while still a pledge.
288: fair enough, but I'm really not sure when I've misunderstood Halford in the past. If you'd like to point me to a thread, I'll be happy to take a look. I think he and I have had very few disagreements through the years -- until recently, that is -- but I well might be misremembering.
If you'd like to point me to a thread, I'll be happy to take a look.
I'm thinking specifically of the fisheries thread from a couple weeks ago, but I'm sure there have been other examples. But my point is not to rehash old threads. I agree that you haven't had that many actual disagreements; I see this as mainly a clash of preferred argumentative tones.
289: oh, fuck, you're going to make me reconstruct the thread? Fine, neither 241 nor 245 were directed at me. Instead, they were both exclamations of disgust about something you imagined I wrote. And then in 268, you wanted to know what I was talking about. You being an a dick, that's what. Since then, though, you've been admirably direct, it's true.
291: yes, Halford seems to have gotten pissed at me in the fisheries thread. And I do have the sense that he's been pissed at me since then. Honestly, though, that's fine. Like I said, I find him funny when he's direct, less so when he's not. As long as he's directly pissed at me, I'm perfectly content.
Sorry, this is super boring for anyone who might be awake at this hour, but Halford, if you'd just call me a prig directly, that would be great. I can then tell you that I think you're misreading me. Or I can tell you to fuck off. Or I can agree. Beyond that, I truly don't care. And if you want to stir the pot*, awesome.
* I'm assuming this is what teo means.
Meanwhile, the earth is going to be destroyed by an asteroid in about a day and a half, so let's give it up for the Mayans after all.
No, teo, you can't have a blowjob from one of the Mayans.
I am honestly surprised that 241 is so objectionable, but supposing that it and 245 are really very objectionable or touch on a very sore spot or whatever, I don't see how the lack of explicit direct address makes them worse. (Both comments could very easily become directly addressed to you, VW, if their final periods were replaced with a ", VW.".)
No, teo, you can't have a blowjob from one of the Mayans.
I think that's more their call than yours, but I admit it's improbable.
And I'd ask you, neb, the same thing I asked teo in 287: why, for the third or fourth time recently, have you interjected yourself into a spat between me and Halford?
Which is to say, are you trying to prolong a very boring argument that you've already suggested you find distasteful?
(Anyway, 241, had it stood alone, wasn't at all objectionable, which is why I responded to it with what I thought would be received as humor. But when coupled with 245 and later comments, 241 seemed, in retrospect, to be somewhat more dickish. That said, really, this is too fucking stupid to be allowed to continue.)
295. Actually there was another Tunguska event this morning. Nobody dead, plenty injured.
He might as well have picked a turnip and a tire iron
What the fuck is a tire iron?
Something about eating lions is a big violation along my Haidt purity axis. You just don't eat predators. Would you eat a hyena or vulture? It's just deeply icky in a completely irrational way.
302/304: I am very excited about that. Maybe this will shake loose a little more funding to study near earth asteroids. I came *this*close* to going into astronomy specifically to study NEAs, but was prevented due to stupid factors beyond my control including some pushback from my then-fiancee, who didn't want to make the necessary sacrifices. My resentment, let me show you it.
But I'd bet you'd eat a predatory fish -- tuna? Salmon? Taboos are weird. (Not claiming to be free of them, but they really don't make sense.)
307: Yeah, fish are different. I'd eat eagle with a little reservation, but somehow lions, tigers, and bears (Oh my!) are in a special category for me.
302, 304: Last I had heard, astronomers are saying that this event almost certainly has no connection with the asteroid near-miss today. I am finding that my priors are not pleased with that thought even one little bit. On the one hand my intuitive Occam's Razor*, on the other hand, people who actually know stuff. I'm surprised how strongly I seem to "want" to believe they are linked.
*And it's not like I reasoned anything out, my invocation of Occam's iscompletely post hoc. More of a gut reaction. Kahnemann probably would have something interesting to say about it.
309. Is your reaction due to the fact that it seems instinctively (but I suspect wrongly) to emphasise how much dangerous shit there is out there, or because correlation damn well ought to imply causation?
309: It has been entertaining hearing spokespeople sound like they're in the first act of a monster movie, explaining that there's no need to panic and the giant explosion has nothing to do with the approaching asteroid.
if we can't jump down each others throats for minor flaws than this place has no purpose.
I might put this phrase on my office wall.
You just don't eat predators. Would you eat a hyena or vulture?
Vultures are scavengers, though, right? Avoiding carrion-eaters is a fairly justifiable taboo. For no real reason, I assume that eagle wouldn't taste very good.
310: More the latter, but it really is not that correlation ought to imply causation, but some intuitive sense of the likelihood of unlikely events (maybe it is a bias for assuming correlation implies common causes for *very* unlikely events). But per Kahnemann, our intuitive statistician generally sucks, and probably massively sucks for very rare events (and particularly ones which involve events on an actual cosmic scale).
the likelihood of unlikely events
This graphic hasn't been linked already, has it?
315. Is that suggesting that on average roughly four Americans are killed by an asteroid every year? What an exciting country you live in!
Something about eating lions is a big violation along my Haidt purity axis. You just don't eat predators. Would you eat a hyena or vulture?
But vultures eat carrion, and hyenas are just dirty dogs. A lion is a noble beast, fit to enter my belly.
For no real reason, I assume that eagle wouldn't taste very good.
My old school library would display a new leaf of Audubon's original ginormous Birds Of America book every month. A surprising number of the descriptions are of how the birds taste.
Ever since seeing it I've been fascinated with the idea of eating birds that eat nothing but fish. Audubon definitely found kingfishers to taste peculiar.
Anyone out there eaten a pelican? Or a sandpiper? Surely in those lean years in the Celtic countries people must have subsided on puffin.
305: what about snake, or gator?
313: Right, those are my examples for a more extreme case, but predatory meat eaters also have their issues - it's not like they are especially clean in how they eat, nor do they only eat fresh kills. But the root of the thing is completely irrational. You could clean up hyena (or lion) meat quite well, and cook it thoroughly, perhaps make it really spicy as an additional backstop against bugs. It would still be nasty to me though.
Also eagle tastes like freedom, I bet. Delicious, delicious freedom.
317 was meant to be facetious, but I see that apo said it more or less seriously.
nosflow you have consumed the mighty bear at some point, haven't you? Good stuff?
But what happens when the meteor risk gets collateralized?
The people of St Kilda used to eat a lot of gannet and fulmar. Unsurprisingly, they were relocated at their own request to somewhere with shops.
319: I've eaten both and they tasted better than chicken. Maybe it's just predatory mammals I'm averse to eating. Respect for my fellow meat-eating mammal-bros. Perhaps I should stop eating all mammals and stick to fish, birds, and reptiles.
322: I … no? You mean the animal, right? I have never consumed the flesh of the mighty bear.
re: 318
People on at least one of the Hebridean islands still go (once a year) and harvest young gannets.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sula_Sgeir
Oh, huh. For some reason I had it in my head that you'd cooked bear heart.
I have never consumed the flesh (or the spirit) of any mammalian or reptilian predator, to my knowledge. Only predatory fishies.
Fishy-wishies, as we style them in my house.
I've eaten bear, once that I recall. Long ago. None of my hunter friends hunt them, so I don't expect to try it again.
They're omnivores, like turkeys I guess, and like turkeys, I'd think the vast majority of their diet is vegetation.
I thought a not insubstantial portion was made up of bugs and such.
?? Pigs are scavengers. People happily eat farmed shrimp. Locust tastes OK.
Any Norwegians or Japanese here? I've seen whale meat in grocery stores both places, no special display or side-eyed looks that I noticed in the stores there.
It's been 15 years at least, but I recall ostrich as a very fine meat. At least done up at that formerly trendy southwestern place across the street from my then office that ended up as a bank.
Why can't I remember the name of the restaurant?
I've eaten alligator twice. The time in a restaurant, it was very good. The time at the State Fair, it was gamey and not much tasty. I've had rattlesnake sausage that was very good, but sausage is all about the spices more than the meat, so.
I wouldn't have any problem eating (non-endangered) predators, but wouldn't eat primates. Too close.
338. You shouldn't eat endangered anything, which includes a shitload of primates, cuddly or otherwise.
Alligator was very tasty when I had it, but it was deep fried chunks, so hardly surprising or necessarily reflective of underlying tastiness. Haven't tried snake yet.
Red Sage.
They didn't have ostrich on the menu, just got some every now and then. And the bartender knew me and the few folks I'd regularly come with, and would tell us to order it when they had it.
They have ostrich all the time at the local butcher shop that indirectly started this subthread, but I haven't bought any because I'm not quite sure how to cook it. This is also what has kept me from picking up some bear.
336. Ostriches mainly eat vegetation, with the odd bug, like chickens. Not predators. But they are good eating - quite widely farmed now outside Africa.
343. Try one of these and report back.
This is also what has kept me from picking up some bear.
Allow me to be the first to recommend Chain Drive.
Huh, apparently ostrich is super easy to cook. I should really get on that.
335: I have a friend who has a hilarious story about eating whale meat on a trip to Japan, but I would feel weird about telling his story on a public blog.
-nosflow you have consumed the mighty bear at some point, haven't you? Good stuff?
-I ... no? You mean the animal, right?
...
This is also what has kept me from picking up some bear.
I try not to eat the extremely low-hanging fruit.
There's a yak farm not far from here, and I've been thinking I should try it.
I had ostrich once at a restaurant. Quite tasty. And it did not taste like chicken.
The Granta food issue had a good story partially about eating whale meat, "First Catch Your Puffin".
Ostrich is good. I am going to eat dried ostrich meat this Sunday while I spend an ungodly amount of time on a layover in Johannesburg airport. My plan is to buy a bottle of wine, a bunch of spiced dried ostrich, and find a corner where I can hide and get quietly btocked.
I DON'T GET IT YOU GUYS I THINK A BEAR WOULD BE DELICIOUS NOT JUST TO FILL MY MOUTH WITH BUT ALSO TO BURY MY FACE IN.
309: I couldn't figure out why the reports I was hearing didn't address this, but since it turns out that the near miss is tomorrow, not last night, that omission is less glaring.
Moby Dick has always made me want to have a nice, thick whale steak, and every time I read it, I'm baffled that the whalers themselves, stuck with nothing but salt beef and hard tack for 3 years at a time, mostly eschewed it. WTF, Nantucketers?
As farmed ostrich grows more popular, does that mean ostrich plumes are likely to come back as fashion items? I could use a new hat.
BTW, the funniest thing about 233 isn't the delightful exchange that followed, but how closely it hewed to how my relationship with BOGF started, except for the part where I didn't want to have sex with her either. I wishy-washed myself into 6 stupid years.
Quasi-related: Supercool bird illustrations. The trumpet manucode (bottom left) is sort of freaky.
"Trumpet Manucode" would make an awesome pseud.
I was going to say the same for "Farmed Ostrich." It's more of a folk pseud.
There was an effort to get British people to eat whale during the second world war. It didn't work and it's still remembered as an example of privation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_meat - I didn't know, though, that they ran it through some kind of mid-century processing to "remove the fishy flavour", which may explain why it was godawful. And I certainly didn't know it was marketed as "Whacon".
Actually, following the link to the archive source, whacon was introduced after the original failure to sell fresh whale.
I think I've reported my whale sashimi in Japan. It can be found in supermarkets (or was then) and is on the expensive side but not exactly prestigious either - more dwindling into a novelty.
I too once had whale sashimi in Japan, and I remember it similarly--I was served it only that one time, and I don't recall seeing it in shops or on restaurant menus.
There's something uniquely awful about fishy-tasting meat that doesn't come from fish. Whale (the cut I tasted, at least) was sufficiently like fish in texture that it wasn't bad, but I had some alligator that was pretty nasty that way. (I think it was a fatty cut; the less-fatty tail meat is pretty good.)
I can't recall is AB ate whale while in Japan. I assume she would have - she tried just about everything else - but if she did, it didn't result in any lasting impression/anecdote.
The thought of whale meat makes me sad. OTOH, I think I would happily try humanely sourced human.
I suppose I may have eaten whale when I was in Japan. Most of the time I had no idea what I was eating. My sister-in-law's friends tooks us out to fancy restaurants and we were served beautiful plates of food most of which I could not identify. Pre-vegetarian peep was an unconcerned, adventurous eater, and I enjoyed just about all of it.
318: I have had murre/turr, which are closely related to puffins! Their muscle and their eggs do taste like fish. And not in a pleasant way. Somewhere in the literature there is a comparative study of the flavour of a range of seabird eggs but I can never find it.
As part of joining Canada, Newfoundland signed a exemption from the Migratory Bird Act that allowed/allows them to carry on a traditional turr (aka murres, aka Uria lomvia/aalge) hunt. My friend's father sent me down a few (along with his wife to cook them for me) because he knew I was studying them and it's always good to eat your study species (at least in wildlife). My friend was stationed at a lighthouse once and got to eat all kind of weird birds.
Have I told the turr joke yet here?
Q: How do you tell if turr is done?
A: You put a rock in with the bird and when the rock is tender, the turr is done.
My vegetarian friend once innocently ate sea turtle because she was told it was deer and didn't want to be rude to her hosts. She didn't say how it was but she didn't have much to compare it too.
In agreement with above, alligator bits battered, deep fried, and dipped in hot sauce are so so good. But wild-caught alligator is not as good because it tastes muddy (c.f. some wild-caught catfish).
OTOH, I think I would happily try humanely sourced human.
I sometimes chew on my cuticles.
I'm a total hypocrite, though, because it drives me crazy when other people chew on their cuticles.
My vegetarian friend once innocently ate sea turtle because she was told it was deer and didn't want to be rude to her hosts.
Is sea turtle less vegetarian than deer?
What does that have to do with anything?
Let's see, I've had whale and puffin. Both were pretty awful. Alligator and snake a few times, both were fine but nothing spectacular. Ostrich is great, everyone should eat as much as possible. Still haven't had lion. Bear meat, pretty bad, bear sausage was excellent. I had raccoon recently and it was surprisingly non terrible. Although I have a suspicion that it wasn't really a raccoon.
humanely sourced human
My own thought process in trying to imagine the scenario that would allow for this is creeping me out.
Oh, on my .tiff with VW, a morning review reveals that I was in fact being kind of a dick and uncharitably misreading him which I'll cop to and apologize for, and is sort of my thing, but not passive aggressive. I actually wasn't aware that we had a beef before. So, sorry, Wafes. But do NOT call me passive aggressive -- I WILL cut you.
Oh, on my .tiff with VW
Was this autocorrect or a very nerdy joke?
Although I have a suspicion that it wasn't really a raccoon.
It was albatross. Honest.
381 second is correct. BUT NOT NERDY. Where the fuck is Ogre?
377: I'm assuming that the vegetarian in question was alarmed to be eating a rare creature. But maybe I'm making a stupid assumption about all sea turtles being rare/threatened/endangered.
Or maybe the story is simply that the vegetarian was surprised by the meat-n-switch.
I've had . . . puffin.
I really liked puffins when I was a kid -- to look at, not to eat, you monster. One of the traumatic incidents of my childhood was going to Puffin Island when we were camping up in Canada with a big bag of breadcrumbs I'd torn up only to be told I couldn't feed them. I was so sad and disappointed. But the puffins were cool.
California Condor tastes like chicken Spotted Owl.
It was albatross. Honest.
Stormy petrel on a stick!
I had the puffin in Iceland.* It was about as tasty as you'd expect, so it's not like I'm sitting around at home chewing the meat off their cute little bodies for a snack.
379: Could be volunteers who sign up like organ donors. I'd certainly be willing to have the non-transplantable bits of me cooked up and eaten by freaks and weirdos. No point in it all going to waste. I've mentioned before that there ought to be a cannibalism equivalent of the Necrocard.
I guess semi-on-topic, I really want to eat more horse meat, don't see what the British are so mad about, and am so angry that it's illegal to do so in California.
389: didn't that end up being a little controversial for Armin Meiwes?
384: Oh! I didn't realize you were seriously looking for an answer - or at least an overly serious answer.
She was mostly a vegetarian for ethical reasons to do with how meat was raised but had also just gotten out of the habit. She was invited to a first communion party for a very poor family and was honoured to be offered meat so didn't feel justified in imposing her morals on these people. They knew she was a vegetarian. But it turned out that it was turtle that the father of the family, who was a fisherman, had caught. She said she still would have eaten the meat just because of the circumstances but she felt much worse since instead of being a hunted wild and abundant deer, it was a hunted, wild and endangered sea turtle.
Another vegetarian friend was tempted into trying Sandhill Crane (long-lived and few offspring per year mean it's not the best species to hunt) and got a mouthful of shot for her efforts (although now she's a hunter, so).
392.2: got it. And I could see, if you didn't eat meat for resource-consumption reasons, making an exception for wild caught deer. And, I guess, pigeon and feral hog. And rat. And, uh, kitten.
California Condor tastes like chicken Spotted Owl.
I'd rather eat a condor than a quail.
Yes I would.
If I only could,
I surely would.
391: To be fair, the stabbing him to death bit I'd like to see remain illegal. Also he was only convicted of murder, not cannibalism, so maybe there's hope if you live in Germany.
The great thing about the Meiwes case is that he interviewed other people before settling on Brandes, but some chickened out and some were rejected for being too mentally fucked up. How crazy do you have to be to be rejected for murdering by a cannibal? There ought to be a Hallmark card for rejecting someone as a candidate for murder and cannibalism, something that lets them down gently.
No more what now? The killing has yet to be described as a tragedy for women, probably because in the continuing clustertragedy that constitutes female representation in the media... (I also read a straight news story that contained a line something like "The blonde was shot four times...")
I will take this carnivore-on-carnivore foodie boasting seriously when one of you cops to cooking and eating a pitcher plant.
hydrobatidae, I was glad to see the explanation of vegetarianism in 392.2, since it pretty much matches my own, but is often difficult for people to understand. "Mostly vegetarian" for ethical reasons (and habit) but not the ones you think. I've had people become actually angry with me when they know me as vegetarian for the most part, then they witness me enjoying venison or something. Yet there's really no inconsistency.
I'm glad this isn't viewed as a completely bizarre way of being.
el condor pasta
In the libertarian regulation-free dreamworld, this would be the name of a restaurant. It would be ultra high-end, on a scale that would make El Bulli seem like Arby's by comparison, and it would be in business for the week or so that it would take to consume all the California Condors.
398.1 I'm very consistent in not eating meat of any sort or fish, but not particularly ethically consistent since I eat dairy and eggs and wear leather shoes. I guess it would seem wrong for anything I do to make any sense.
398: Oh, you should not hold me up to such standards. I was once vegetarian 'except for beef' because I'd get mad at my mostly-vegetarian friends for their fish exemption. I also tried (and succeeded!) in convincing them to take up hunting.
378: Although I have a suspicion that it wasn't really a raccoon.
The raccoon yelled. "Don't shoot!", but Halford thought it might be a trick.
401: That's what the gentleman's C has become with grade inflation (and gentlemen now an endangered species).
404: endangered and also terrible eating, for dietary and related reasons. Like bear, that way.
On one ski trip back in the day, my internal monologue running short story that I would never write was "Hunting the Bull Whitey at Aspen."