(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16 2022, @07:16PM
(17 children)
by Anonymous Coward
on Monday May 16 2022, @07:16PM (#1245408)
Watching The Tick [imdb.com] TV series. Made in 2001 and yanked before it made a full season, but I still have the store-bought DVD, so it lives here, anyway. People like us did stuff much older, that some other people still keep and remember. Patrick Warburton was great, subtlely-overstated in Plymouth Roadrunner blue; created in a flash of semi-brilliance on the roof of a bus station, and quickly dispatched to The City. The Tick's sidekick was Arthur, who was either a flying mothman or an accountant, they seem to homogenize. In the second episode, a non-bug superhero called "The Immortal" ironically dies in the [first] act, and is wrapped in the American Flag by Captain Liberty. Of course she killed him, but she's pretty good at her job... just ask Batmanuel. Here today; syndication tomorrow; landfill next week... an' I hear the word of the Lord. Words here seem fade before they're cold — my revelation for the day — but bugs keep coming back.
Ephemera is a fascinating philosophical topic. I'd like to discuss it when I only have a couple of minutes minutes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16 2022, @09:13PM
(2 children)
by Anonymous Coward
on Monday May 16 2022, @09:13PM (#1245448)
Which reminds me, I have two stories nobody's heard: one is about bedbugs, the other about Barb[a]ra Streisand; they're surprisingly similar. That ol' stack-o-stuff growed.
My income has been swirling down for years, while my little house has been chocking-up a pretty decent wage. If a neighbor started bio-locating bugs in my direction... Christmas could come early.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16 2022, @09:55PM
(1 child)
by Anonymous Coward
on Monday May 16 2022, @09:55PM (#1245467)
I don't much listen to Streisand these days, but Ms. Rodrigo can drive past my house anytime.
The home across the street from me is for sale for 15x what I paid for mine 30 years ago. I miss the trees they killed to squeeze it into the neighborhood a lot. Sigh.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 17 2022, @05:59PM
(2 children)
by Anonymous Coward
on Tuesday May 17 2022, @05:59PM (#1245755)
"Gravity is a harsh mistress" - The Tick
Look what gravity did to Bill Murray:
“I did something I thought was funny and it wasn’t taken that way,” ... “It’s been quite an education for me,” ... “The world is different than it was when I was a little kid. What I always thought was funny as a little kid isn’t necessarily the same as what’s funny now. Things change and the times change so it’s important for me to figure it out.” ... “I think it’s a sad dog that can’t learn anymore. I don’t want to be that sad dog and I have no intention of it.”
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 17 2022, @07:51PM
(1 child)
by Anonymous Coward
on Tuesday May 17 2022, @07:51PM (#1245786)
All great comedians walk a perilous tightrope at the edge of what may and may not be said in jest. It is a height from which many have plummeted. (Ms. Barr is mostly barred now - and an earlier generation largely black-listed Lenny Bruce. it is surprising that George Carlin seems to have survived.)
The world will always be indebted to Mr. Murray, though, for the gifts of Groundhog Day and Stripes - at least until somebody can pull off a credible remakes.
The world changes, though, and even Lucille Ball's comedy, which depends on a stereotype of the dependent housewife falls rather flat nowadays.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 17 2022, @11:04PM
by Anonymous Coward
on Tuesday May 17 2022, @11:04PM (#1245817)
"The calla lilies are in bloom again." Stage Door (1937) [imdb.com] highlighted some up-and-coming stars. And Lucy, too. She was an actress who reliably hit her mark and could deliver a line, but she wasn't a comedienne. Vivian Vance was funnier. Now, the cast from that movie, they were some stars in bloom. It missed a few, like Carole Lombard... such a strange flower, suitable to any occasion.
Lumping Barr and Murray together is interesting, since both were bigger-than-life and... I'm always looking for a flattering word besides "arrogant, insensitive jerk." I think that certain (redacted) is part of what makes some stars of their time, but they just don't age well. I never thought T3S were funny, but get flummoxed over "The Boys" (Stan&Ollie). Still working on the unified jerk theory, since W.C. Fields certainly qualifies, but somehow he holds up better... until the wokies discover him.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @02:16AM
(5 children)
by Anonymous Coward
on Wednesday May 18 2022, @02:16AM (#1245847)
It's the bug trails with my scent on 'em.
Some try to manage their dossiers.
My IP was banned when I first tried to post this! Imagine what would happen if I actually said something. They already know I like "The Boys" and Carole Lombard... that's good enough for a formal report.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @04:06PM
(4 children)
by Anonymous Coward
on Wednesday May 18 2022, @04:06PM (#1245966)
Who doesn't love Ms. Peters? And where the Thin Man couldn't quite make things work, Rhett Butler succeeded.
Of course things were still black and white in those days.
I suspect she will long be remembered as one of the earliest members of the Baháʼí Faith.
Let the formal report show that I have no quarrel with your musings in my journal, and if the fragrance of them bugs anyone, let them blather better banter themselves instead of banning benign boastings.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @06:23PM
by Anonymous Coward
on Wednesday May 18 2022, @06:23PM (#1246004)
The semi-semi-semi-first poster said, "You could always run away." which I dismissed at the time, but it sounds like a reference to the ultra-nemesis and whipping boy (tired of "scapegoat") for the secret angels who protect and preserve the sanctity of this site. B'sides, too much boasting in-character, starts narrowing the dossier... don't like that part.
Lombard (Italian for "wang") was a war hero, among other things. If you want to see real, bona fide professional acting, carried out three orders of magnitude past the n-th degree, see 20th Century (1934) [imdb.com], where she and John Barrymore acted the paint off the walls (and the chalk off the floor). Then she did Nothing Sacred (1937) [imdb.com], so over the top that you'll lose faith in the sanctity of reality. When those kids sing the Hazel Flagg National Anthem...
There's also No Man Of Her Own (1932) [imdb.com], the only movie she made with Clark Gable, which is warm and charming, but not a comedy. I have a copy, but no place to suggest downloading yours.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @04:37PM
by Anonymous Coward
on Thursday May 19 2022, @04:37PM (#1246310)
Opening Title Card: THIS IS NEW YORK - Skyscraper Champion of the World... where Slickers and Know-It-Alls peddle gold bricks to each other... and where Truth, crushed to earth rises again more phony than a glass eye...
Wally Cook: For good clean fun, there's nothing like a wake. Hazel Flagg: Oh please, let's not talk shop.
Tootsies Of The World Master of Ceremonies: [introducing on stage performer on horseback] Katinka who saved Holland by putting her finger in the dyke. Show them the finger babe.
Master of Ceremonies: Greetings, greetings! My little folks. Tonight there is one among us who adds a bit of unaccustomed drama to our little revel. She sits here, eyes sporting, a face reaved in a lovely smile; drinking in the charm, the glitter, the gay sounds - of life. So drink your wine! Laugh and applaud! While this little doomed child sits saying goodbye to you. Her last goodbye. With a grateful smile on her lips.
Schoolteacher: Miss Flagg, I represent 100,000 young matrons. We switched a whole study course from the menace of Communism to the inspiration of Hazel Flagg.
Hazel Flagg: Oh, let me alone. I wish I really could die. Go someplace by myself and die alone - like an elephant!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16 2022, @09:36PM
(1 child)
by Anonymous Coward
on Monday May 16 2022, @09:36PM (#1245461)
Instead of capturing bugs in the jar, fill with water, up to the top or a little over. Then put the stiff card (or better, a piece of plastic wrap) over the jar and invert on kitchen counter or other flat/smooth surface. Pull out the card. If you've done it right the jar will look empty, no bubbles to give away the water.
Settle in for the reaction of the unsuspecting person who picks up the jar.
In case you get caught, it's pretty easy to "defuse" this practical joke by sliding the jar to the edge of the counter top, where you have placed a bucket.
28 And fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him that is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. 30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Considering that God cursed the ground and Sin is a thing on Earth. While it may be all well and good that X spider/bug is here. This is a sinful world, sometimes you just need to squish the bug. Do you shoot the snake or do you not shoot the snake? In the event that you don't know what kind of snake it is and you have a small child on the premises. You shoot the snake. The small child will happily pick up said snake. Some you must remind, very often to get mommy, daddy, grandma, or grandpa first!
-- Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
The bible passage isn't revering life on Earth. Yet, it's also not giving you free reign to wreak the environment. It is saying that God sees the value of the sparrow, but people are even much more so valued. Also, we shouldn't worry overly much about what can be done to us physically. Rather, what can be done to us that could lose life everlasting. The key here is the choice is yours.
15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
-- Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
My first line of defense is the dog. When he sees a bug, he investigates. As a rule, the investigation results in the bug taking up residence in the pup's internal biosphere. Letting nature take it's course is usually the best thing to do.
-- Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
I cannot fathom what it is that makes my terrier go bonkers at the big brown box truck that delivers my online purchases or kill squirrels and drop the lifeless carcasses at my feet. I do observe that he deems centipedes to be intrinsically evil, and will forever snap at flies and bumble bees who pass too near to him. It is almost like there are primordial promptings driving him to fulfill some behavioral niche in the pageantry of nature. Much as you do with your dog, I respect his right to be the canine he was created to be.
Once, when there was a garbage worker strike, our "compostable" waste-bin overflowed, and I noticed that hundreds of newly hatched maggots were wriggling out of the food scraps at the top of it and falling on the ground. (I made a mental note to _not_ point this out to my wife who is squeamish about such organic occurrences.) The next day, however, I noticed there was a flock of red robins crowding the ground around the waste bin, happily feasting on these unlucky larvae, and I was relieved that mother nature had sent these birds to deliver me from the plague of flies I had been fearing would soon appear.
Now, had I, the day before, killed all those maggots, those birds would have been deprived of their lovely breakfast, and I was happy that I had let nature take its course.
All this is merely to point out the profound - perhaps even sacred - interrelatedness of all things, in consideration of which, wanton and indiscriminate killing of critters - however vile they may be - might best be avoided if we are to live in harmony with our environment.
-- "Bet ya five dollars he's a good dog too" -The Byrds, Old Blue
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 17 2022, @06:11PM
(2 children)
by Anonymous Coward
on Tuesday May 17 2022, @06:11PM (#1245759)
My first line of defense is Carlos (not his real name). He comes by once a month with a pick-up truck bed full of toxic chemicals, to unleash on every living thing. He'll show you how to whip-up an offshore typhoon in a hurry. Carlos (may be his son's name) seems to garner so much joy from his work... you can't help everybody, so you'd better pick a side.
"I'm starting to like the cut of this man's gibberish"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 17 2022, @07:43PM
by Anonymous Coward
on Tuesday May 17 2022, @07:43PM (#1245785)
I'm clean. He comes and goes on his own time; I leave his money in the screen door, and I avoid the yard for three days after he's gone. We've been friends for years.
Haven't seen dogs in the neighborhood for years, though.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 17 2022, @12:30PM
(3 children)
by Anonymous Coward
on Tuesday May 17 2022, @12:30PM (#1245613)
a stable population implies one offspring on average per adult (over the lifetime of the adult). the many legged critters you speak of have thousands of babies at once --- and all but one of these babies will die (on average). whether you kill the ones you see in your home, or you work to save them, it really won't matter for the respective species --- whatever you see is a negligible fraction of the total population.
oh, you think the life of each individual bug matters? well... you have my respect, but I don't know if that will help you in any way.
if you really want to talk about killing insects and arachnids, talk about exterminators and insecticides --- these are the things that also kill the individuals you don't see, to the point where the total population does feel it. and also talk about the idiots who insist on trimming their lawns thus depriving these creatures from THEIR home (i.e. wild grasslands etc).
Their life and death, in my house, depends purely on whether or not they prove me any benefit.
Spiders, Ladybug and other insectivores go back outside. Useless bugs that make a mess like moths go outside; my laziness is your salvation. Everything else gets the shoe.
The only bugs in my house I will go out of my way to kill instead of throwing outside are those that are trying to violate the nonaggression principal. Mosquitos often to this, the occasional spider as well. I did have to kill a black widow the other day in preemptive self defense because it decided it wanted to live in my truck.
It feels better on the soul to not kill flies/gnats/stinkbugs, its not their fault they are annoying.
Zoroastrian pro-tip, if one cannot wear fancy spike shoes to reduce surface area of footsteps, watch where you walk lest your soul become too heavy when weighed against a feather.
For the occasional flying insects it's often surprisingly easy to encourage them out of an open window or door, simply by waving your hand at them until they fly towards it. That's usually quicker than the card and jar technique as well. I can't save every creature but I do what I can to avoid deliberately harming any and I admit I'll even go as far as saving some bugs that have fallen into water. You can get them out and dry them off with a piece of toilet paper. Whether the manufacture of that single piece of toilet paper caused greater harm to more organisms than the harm averted by saving the bug is an interesting question, though...
-- Master of the science of the art of the science of art.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @03:25AM
(2 children)
by Anonymous Coward
on Thursday May 19 2022, @03:25AM (#1246144)
They were here before we got here, and they'll be here long after we're gone. And I'm not just talking about this web site.
Now, how about making a list of the good points, and a list of the bad points, and decide whether the good outweighs the bad. And I'm not just talking about bugs.
Clearly, some have to re-evaluate their place in the system, and the efficacy of the system. And I'm not just talking about secret angels.
Decide if you want to attract with honey, or with sour puss. Do you want smart and clever visitors, who have smart and clever ideas, or do you want... well, I'm not talking about anybody at all.
All bugs are pests, if you want to look at them that way.
(Score: 2) by Mojibake Tengu on Monday May 16 2022, @06:22PM (1 child)
I hope they not advanced like this:
http://www.rufors.ru/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/kak-vygliadiat-inoplanetiane-1-1-1.jpg [rufors.ru]
The edge of 太玄 cannot be defined, for it is beyond every aspect of design
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16 2022, @10:07PM
No. The largest thing I ever faced was a tarantula. I let the evening one wander off. The one visiting at 3AM did not survive the broomstick.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Monday May 16 2022, @07:04PM (3 children)
I once used the technique on a bat.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16 2022, @10:00PM (2 children)
Did you relocate it back to Mr. Gates' belfry?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16 2022, @10:45PM (1 child)
I have one from Louisville, to be relocated.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @10:17PM
Lo, caressing the anticipation of the crystal-clear "ping" of that aluminum sweet spot, upon the unbridled hubris of rapacity...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16 2022, @07:16PM (17 children)
Watching The Tick [imdb.com] TV series. Made in 2001 and yanked before it made a full season, but I still have the store-bought DVD, so it lives here, anyway. People like us did stuff much older, that some other people still keep and remember. Patrick Warburton was great, subtlely-overstated in Plymouth Roadrunner blue; created in a flash of semi-brilliance on the roof of a bus station, and quickly dispatched to The City. The Tick's sidekick was Arthur, who was either a flying mothman or an accountant, they seem to homogenize. In the second episode, a non-bug superhero called "The Immortal" ironically dies in the [first] act, and is wrapped in the American Flag by Captain Liberty. Of course she killed him, but she's pretty good at her job... just ask Batmanuel. Here today; syndication tomorrow; landfill next week... an' I hear the word of the Lord. Words here seem fade before they're cold — my revelation for the day — but bugs keep coming back.
Ephemera is a fascinating philosophical topic. I'd like to discuss it when I only have a couple of minutes minutes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16 2022, @08:35PM (2 children)
Never edit, it's a sign of weakness weakness.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16 2022, @09:06PM (1 child)
Never sweat the minutia. People here care more about who won the Kentucky Derby... it was a horse again this year, no?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16 2022, @09:16PM
The winner was technically a bug on the end of a hair on its chinny-chin-chin.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16 2022, @09:13PM (2 children)
Which reminds me, I have two stories nobody's heard: one is about bedbugs, the other about Barb[a]ra Streisand; they're surprisingly similar. That ol' stack-o-stuff growed.
My income has been swirling down for years, while my little house has been chocking-up a pretty decent wage. If a neighbor started bio-locating bugs in my direction... Christmas could come early.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16 2022, @09:55PM (1 child)
I don't much listen to Streisand these days, but Ms. Rodrigo can drive past my house anytime.
The home across the street from me is for sale for 15x what I paid for mine 30 years ago. I miss the trees they killed to squeeze it into the neighborhood a lot. Sigh.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16 2022, @10:48PM
I think I'm catching what killed the pine tree in the back yard.
(Apologies to James Thurber.)
This neighborhood is going up a$ fa$t a$... you know, everything. Just wait until we get some more Californians moving, here.
Misty Babba-Wawa colored memories...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 17 2022, @05:59PM (2 children)
"Gravity is a harsh mistress"
- The Tick
Look what gravity did to Bill Murray:
- Bill Murray on ‘Being Mortal’ Production Suspension: ‘I Did Something I Thought was Funny, It Wasn’t Taken That Way’ [breitbart.com]
Mulling over for a couple of weeks, that society today doesn't want to be comforted, it just wants to kick dogs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 17 2022, @07:51PM (1 child)
All great comedians walk a perilous tightrope at the edge of what may and may not be said in jest. It is a height from which many have plummeted. (Ms. Barr is mostly barred now - and an earlier generation largely black-listed Lenny Bruce. it is surprising that George Carlin seems to have survived.)
The world will always be indebted to Mr. Murray, though, for the gifts of Groundhog Day and Stripes - at least until somebody can pull off a credible remakes.
The world changes, though, and even Lucille Ball's comedy, which depends on a stereotype of the dependent housewife falls rather flat nowadays.
-nostyle
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 17 2022, @11:04PM
"The calla lilies are in bloom again." Stage Door (1937) [imdb.com] highlighted some up-and-coming stars. And Lucy, too. She was an actress who reliably hit her mark and could deliver a line, but she wasn't a comedienne. Vivian Vance was funnier. Now, the cast from that movie, they were some stars in bloom. It missed a few, like Carole Lombard... such a strange flower, suitable to any occasion.
Lumping Barr and Murray together is interesting, since both were bigger-than-life and... I'm always looking for a flattering word besides "arrogant, insensitive jerk." I think that certain (redacted) is part of what makes some stars of their time, but they just don't age well. I never thought T3S were funny, but get flummoxed over "The Boys" (Stan&Ollie). Still working on the unified jerk theory, since W.C. Fields certainly qualifies, but somehow he holds up better... until the wokies discover him.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 17 2022, @11:19PM (7 children)
This thread is becoming too something. I truly hope you get really mad, and delete it soon, before I have to start making fun of your wardrobe again.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @01:46AM (6 children)
No one is forcing you to browse here. You could always run away.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @02:16AM (5 children)
It's the bug trails with my scent on 'em.
Some try to manage their dossiers.
My IP was banned when I first tried to post this! Imagine what would happen if I actually said something. They already know I like "The Boys" and Carole Lombard... that's good enough for a formal report.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @04:06PM (4 children)
Who doesn't love Ms. Peters? And where the Thin Man couldn't quite make things work, Rhett Butler succeeded.
Of course things were still black and white in those days.
I suspect she will long be remembered as one of the earliest members of the Baháʼí Faith.
Let the formal report show that I have no quarrel with your musings in my journal, and if the fragrance of them bugs anyone, let them blather better banter themselves instead of banning benign boastings.
-nostyle
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @06:23PM
The semi-semi-semi-first poster said, "You could always run away." which I dismissed at the time, but it sounds like a reference to the ultra-nemesis and whipping boy (tired of "scapegoat") for the secret angels who protect and preserve the sanctity of this site. B'sides, too much boasting in-character, starts narrowing the dossier... don't like that part.
Lombard (Italian for "wang") was a war hero, among other things. If you want to see real, bona fide professional acting, carried out three orders of magnitude past the n-th degree, see 20th Century (1934) [imdb.com], where she and John Barrymore acted the paint off the walls (and the chalk off the floor). Then she did Nothing Sacred (1937) [imdb.com], so over the top that you'll lose faith in the sanctity of reality. When those kids sing the Hazel Flagg National Anthem...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @07:55PM (2 children)
Download Nothing Sacred [archive.org] and 20th Century [archive.org]
There's also No Man Of Her Own (1932) [imdb.com], the only movie she made with Clark Gable, which is warm and charming, but not a comedy. I have a copy, but no place to suggest downloading yours.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @10:18PM
If you are subscribed to Prime, Nothing Sacred is free to watch and Twentieth Century rents for $3 or so.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @04:37PM
Opening Title Card: THIS IS NEW YORK - Skyscraper Champion of the World... where Slickers and Know-It-Alls peddle gold bricks to each other... and where Truth, crushed to earth rises again more phony than a glass eye...
Wally Cook: For good clean fun, there's nothing like a wake.
Hazel Flagg: Oh please, let's not talk shop.
Tootsies Of The World Master of Ceremonies: [introducing on stage performer on horseback] Katinka who saved Holland by putting her finger in the dyke. Show them the finger babe.
Master of Ceremonies: Greetings, greetings! My little folks. Tonight there is one among us who adds a bit of unaccustomed drama to our little revel. She sits here, eyes sporting, a face reaved in a lovely smile; drinking in the charm, the glitter, the gay sounds - of life. So drink your wine! Laugh and applaud! While this little doomed child sits saying goodbye to you. Her last goodbye. With a grateful smile on her lips.
Schoolteacher: Miss Flagg, I represent 100,000 young matrons. We switched a whole study course from the menace of Communism to the inspiration of Hazel Flagg.
Hazel Flagg: Oh, let me alone. I wish I really could die. Go someplace by myself and die alone - like an elephant!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16 2022, @09:36PM (1 child)
Instead of capturing bugs in the jar, fill with water, up to the top or a little over. Then put the stiff card (or better, a piece of plastic wrap) over the jar and invert on kitchen counter or other flat/smooth surface. Pull out the card. If you've done it right the jar will look empty, no bubbles to give away the water.
Settle in for the reaction of the unsuspecting person who picks up the jar.
In case you get caught, it's pretty easy to "defuse" this practical joke by sliding the jar to the edge of the counter top, where you have placed a bucket.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16 2022, @10:03PM
If that tickles you, maybe you should try the saran wrap on the commode thing.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Freeman on Monday May 16 2022, @09:40PM (2 children)
Matthew 10:28-30
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2010:28-30&version=KJ21 [biblegateway.com]
Considering that God cursed the ground and Sin is a thing on Earth. While it may be all well and good that X spider/bug is here. This is a sinful world, sometimes you just need to squish the bug. Do you shoot the snake or do you not shoot the snake? In the event that you don't know what kind of snake it is and you have a small child on the premises. You shoot the snake. The small child will happily pick up said snake. Some you must remind, very often to get mommy, daddy, grandma, or grandpa first!
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Informative) by Freeman on Monday May 16 2022, @09:47PM (1 child)
Ah, I got side tracked.
The bible passage isn't revering life on Earth. Yet, it's also not giving you free reign to wreak the environment. It is saying that God sees the value of the sparrow, but people are even much more so valued. Also, we shouldn't worry overly much about what can be done to us physically. Rather, what can be done to us that could lose life everlasting. The key here is the choice is yours.
Joshua 24:15
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Joshua%2024&version=KJV [biblegateway.com]
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by nostyle on Tuesday May 17 2022, @06:12PM
Of course, there is the tale of King David and the Spider [beliefnet.com].
A similar tale is said to have happened during the escape of Muhammad from Mecca, but most scholars doubt its validity.
--
"Now you know it's a meaningless question to ask if those stories are right" -Fleetwood Mac, Hypnotized
(Score: 2, Funny) by Puffin on Monday May 16 2022, @10:09PM
Lucky you don't live where Cane Spiders [snopes.com] do!
To paraphrase Jaws: "We're going to need a bigger jar!"
(Score: 3, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday May 17 2022, @12:10PM (5 children)
My first line of defense is the dog. When he sees a bug, he investigates. As a rule, the investigation results in the bug taking up residence in the pup's internal biosphere. Letting nature take it's course is usually the best thing to do.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by nostyle on Tuesday May 17 2022, @04:12PM (1 child)
I cannot fathom what it is that makes my terrier go bonkers at the big brown box truck that delivers my online purchases or kill squirrels and drop the lifeless carcasses at my feet. I do observe that he deems centipedes to be intrinsically evil, and will forever snap at flies and bumble bees who pass too near to him. It is almost like there are primordial promptings driving him to fulfill some behavioral niche in the pageantry of nature. Much as you do with your dog, I respect his right to be the canine he was created to be.
Once, when there was a garbage worker strike, our "compostable" waste-bin overflowed, and I noticed that hundreds of newly hatched maggots were wriggling out of the food scraps at the top of it and falling on the ground. (I made a mental note to _not_ point this out to my wife who is squeamish about such organic occurrences.) The next day, however, I noticed there was a flock of red robins crowding the ground around the waste bin, happily feasting on these unlucky larvae, and I was relieved that mother nature had sent these birds to deliver me from the plague of flies I had been fearing would soon appear.
Now, had I, the day before, killed all those maggots, those birds would have been deprived of their lovely breakfast, and I was happy that I had let nature take its course.
All this is merely to point out the profound - perhaps even sacred - interrelatedness of all things, in consideration of which, wanton and indiscriminate killing of critters - however vile they may be - might best be avoided if we are to live in harmony with our environment.
--
"Bet ya five dollars he's a good dog too" -The Byrds, Old Blue
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 17 2022, @10:44PM
Take a fantastic voyage [youtube.com], and see the real war
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 17 2022, @06:11PM (2 children)
My first line of defense is Carlos (not his real name). He comes by once a month with a pick-up truck bed full of toxic chemicals, to unleash on every living thing. He'll show you how to whip-up an offshore typhoon in a hurry. Carlos (may be his son's name) seems to garner so much joy from his work... you can't help everybody, so you'd better pick a side.
"I'm starting to like the cut of this man's gibberish"
- The Tick
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 17 2022, @06:31PM (1 child)
What??!
Have you not read of Rachel Carson's Noiseless Oscillator?
Toxic chemicals are no respecters of affiliation. Wonder not from whence your cancer sprang silently.
-nostyle
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 17 2022, @07:43PM
I'm clean. He comes and goes on his own time; I leave his money in the screen door, and I avoid the yard for three days after he's gone. We've been friends for years.
Haven't seen dogs in the neighborhood for years, though.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 17 2022, @12:30PM (3 children)
a stable population implies one offspring on average per adult (over the lifetime of the adult).
the many legged critters you speak of have thousands of babies at once --- and all but one of these babies will die (on average).
whether you kill the ones you see in your home, or you work to save them, it really won't matter for the respective species --- whatever you see is a negligible fraction of the total population.
oh, you think the life of each individual bug matters?
well... you have my respect, but I don't know if that will help you in any way.
if you really want to talk about killing insects and arachnids, talk about exterminators and insecticides --- these are the things that also kill the individuals you don't see, to the point where the total population does feel it.
and also talk about the idiots who insist on trimming their lawns thus depriving these creatures from THEIR home (i.e. wild grasslands etc).
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 17 2022, @02:15PM
Some say if you accidentally kill the wrong butterfly, there will be a typhoon in Taiwan.
-nostyle
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday May 17 2022, @05:19PM (1 child)
Their life and death, in my house, depends purely on whether or not they prove me any benefit.
Spiders, Ladybug and other insectivores go back outside.
Useless bugs that make a mess like moths go outside; my laziness is your salvation.
Everything else gets the shoe.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18 2022, @02:36AM
They've always spoken highly of you.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Sulla on Wednesday May 18 2022, @07:05PM
The only bugs in my house I will go out of my way to kill instead of throwing outside are those that are trying to violate the nonaggression principal. Mosquitos often to this, the occasional spider as well. I did have to kill a black widow the other day in preemptive self defense because it decided it wanted to live in my truck.
It feels better on the soul to not kill flies/gnats/stinkbugs, its not their fault they are annoying.
Zoroastrian pro-tip, if one cannot wear fancy spike shoes to reduce surface area of footsteps, watch where you walk lest your soul become too heavy when weighed against a feather.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Wednesday May 18 2022, @10:31PM (3 children)
For the occasional flying insects it's often surprisingly easy to encourage them out of an open window or door, simply by waving your hand at them until they fly towards it. That's usually quicker than the card and jar technique as well. I can't save every creature but I do what I can to avoid deliberately harming any and I admit I'll even go as far as saving some bugs that have fallen into water. You can get them out and dry them off with a piece of toilet paper. Whether the manufacture of that single piece of toilet paper caused greater harm to more organisms than the harm averted by saving the bug is an interesting question, though...
Master of the science of the art of the science of art.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @03:25AM (2 children)
They were here before we got here, and they'll be here long after we're gone. And I'm not just talking about this web site.
Now, how about making a list of the good points, and a list of the bad points, and decide whether the good outweighs the bad. And I'm not just talking about bugs.
Clearly, some have to re-evaluate their place in the system, and the efficacy of the system. And I'm not just talking about secret angels.
Decide if you want to attract with honey, or with sour puss. Do you want smart and clever visitors, who have smart and clever ideas, or do you want... well, I'm not talking about anybody at all.
All bugs are pests, if you want to look at them that way.
(Score: 1) by nostyle on Thursday May 19 2022, @06:38AM (1 child)
I never dreamed we'd get this far down the rabbit hole with such an innocuous topic. And I hope you weren't just talking about my journal entry.
Good and bad are such fuzzy constructs. [...clarify and pontificate here...]
All systems suffer from increases in entropy. [...flesh out causes and consequences here...]
[...give up here and delete comment completely...]
--
"...leaving nothing for the others but to choose off and fight..." -Jackson Brown, The Pretender
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @04:00PM
Well, it's better than the topics on the main page. Better than a sharp stick in the eye. Unless that's redundant.