Messages

thanks, suu!  Sent some cash your way.

Looking forward to reading this, Dok.

Ah, cool! Thanks, Suu!

Quick question, Dok.  Will you be able to cash a UK postal (money) order without any problems?

I'm going through online April Fools Day jokes.  So far, XKCD is amusing (try typing "cat"),Youtube is cool (TEXTp, hehe)  and hxxp://arstechnica.com/staff/nate/2010/04/tentacular-tentacular.ars?  is a good time waster

Sign me up for a copy   PM me for my address and "how to pay you" details. :P Also, I'm in the UK.

Quite right, Nigel!  My mom was the same way.... I was allowed to play in the yard and only there until I was 5, then I was allowed to go next door and directly across the street (we lived in a dead end, so there was no traffic).  Once I turned 6, I was allowed to walk up the street to my cousin's (4 houses away) and into town with my older sisters (but only if it was with both of them).  At 7-8 I could walk to and from school (one block away). I wasn't given permission to walk into town on my own (past school) until 10 years old.  And that's good.  I learned to be cautious without being paranoid or getting myself killed because I was too young to be out on my own.

Looking outside right now, I see 6 kids...all of them 8 years old and under. When I went to the shop earlier there were 3 kids "hanging out" in the area.  None of them looked older than 7.  Parents were nowhere to be seen.  My neighbourhood is pretty safe (at least I like to think it is) because it has strict rules about who's allowed to move in (all the houses are owned by a housing association and everyone is police checked before they're offered a house), but the area where the shops are is well, not a place I would let my kids roam unsupervised. :/

Regret:  That was kind of the point I was trying to make.  Parents aren't "bad" and children aren't really in any more danger now than they were 25 years ago (back when I was my son's age...damn i feel old now).  The media has always and will always play up the bad things and make drama out of pincushions.

But adults (all adults - teachers, parents, grandparents,etc.) have stopped teaching kids "street smarts" for some reason. And that is where the problem lies.  Take my neighbourhood, for example.  There are 4 year olds allowed to play outside in the evenings in my estate without any supervision.  That in itself isn't a problem - I was allowed to play out at that age.  But I wasn't allowed to leave my front or back yard unless my mom knew where I was going.  I was taught "street smarts/safety" from the time I could walk on my own.  These kids aren't.  I watched a four year old about to go off to the shops with a six year old the other night. (keep in mind that the local shops are across a VERY busy road with no zebra crossing or pedestrian lights)  Before they were able to walk off the estate, I yelled to the kids "Do your mom's know where you're going?"  The answer was "no" and I suggested to them that they better ask before setting off.  They each went to their respectives homes and 5 minutes later one of the moms knocked on my door to thank me for stopping her 4 year old from going off.  

It not being my intention to put words in other people's mouths, but the way I'm interpreting ECH's words is that nature often culls the weaker genes through selection. Like, the baby bird who can't fly soon ends up lunch to a cat, a cat that can't hunt will soon go hungry and die.  Thus, the stronger, fitter, smarter beings live, while the weaker beings are taken out of the gene pool.

However, with regards to human children, the way I see it, is while we need to give them the freedom to learn from their mistakes and be put in "harms way" so that they can then learn to avoid the things which will harm them... at the same time, humans are idiots.  Children especially so.  but this isn't because they are "inferior" but rather because the adults (us) haven't taught them what is safe and what isn't.

when I was a child, I was taught to look both ways - twice - before crossing the street.  I was taught to not talk with people I had never met, unless my mom or dad knew them AND they said it was ok.  I was taught to NEVER go off with anyone, whether I knew them or not - unless, again, my mom or dad had told me beforehand that it was ok.

Kids aren't taught this now.  Instead, they are shoved out the door right after breakfast and made to fend for themselves, or they are "imprisoned" inside their own home for fear that "something" might happen to them.

Somewhere, somehow, the current generation of parents "messed up" and decided to not teach their kids "common safety" rules.  It's not the kids that are faulty/inferior - it's the adults.

Bi.  Although "mostly straight" probably would fit better.  All of my past relationships have been with guys and all the women I've been attracted to have been straight. (Just my luck) :P

This reeks of "social-experiment".  I say everyone who can do so sign up and use it to create mass confusion.

Also, I really wish this was available over here.  So many possible ways to trol...I mean, help people. :P

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20100317/twl-torture-game-show-draws-nazi-compari-3fd0ae9.html

A French television experiment where unwitting contestants were encouraged to torture an actor has drawn comparisons with the atrocities of Nazi Germany.

The Game Of Death had all the trappings of a traditional television quiz show, with a roaring crowd and a glamorous and well-known hostess.

But contestants on the show did not realise they were taking part in an experiment to find out whether television could push them to outrageous lengths.

The game involved contestants posing questions to another 'player', who was actually an actor, and punishing him with 460 volts of electricity when he answered incorrectly.

Eventually the man's cries of "Let me go!" fell silent, and he appeared to have died.

Not knowing that their screaming victim was an actor, the apparently reluctant contestants followed the orders of the presenter, as well as chants of "Punishment!" from a studio audience who also believed the game was real.

Milgram experiment at it's best (?).

This caught my eye this morning and my first thought was Cram's game show story. Considering I had only read it yesterday, to then see an article about something very similar the next day...

Oh, Miss Amy isn't going to be ignored. I'm going to make a special email just for her.  

The only problem with Grolsch, that I've found, is it gets you drunk really fast.  Every time I've had it, one bottle got me buzzed. Two, and I was off my head.  Yet it takes 4 cans of Fosters to get me pleasantly merry and Newcastle Brown Ale...I can drink 7 bottles of the stuff in one night and still be able to walk in a straight line.

If you search for "abbygasm" on google it takes you to this page: http://www.blackironprison.com/index.php?title=AbbyGASM  (first hit).  But if we're being honest, these people aren't going to know the phrase and are most likely to google "Discordianism" which just takes you to wiki and "devival" which results in Subgenius sites.

In any event, I've been ill all week (still am, actually) and as such my emails have not been sent out.  Considering the responses from this "Amy" person, it's probably a good thing.  I will send them out later on this week. Or alternatively, one every couple days to space them out a bit more.

I loved this programme and wish TV producers nowadays had the balls to make more programmes that went against the "majority."  We need more encouragement to think for ourselves. :3