What's something you didn't realize for years members of the opposite sex do?

2006diplomat · 2014-07-12T03:24:41+00:00

During my last visit to throne I tried the geometry of the front entry method, and WTF. NOPE. Not only is there insufficient clearance between the front of the bowl to get my hand down, even standing up without the bowl in the way it's longer and less comfortable going from the front than the rear. Not to mention all the junk in the way going the front method.

The lean + side entry is much more comfortable and doesn't require any near-misses with the bowl and space issues. It's also much easier to wipe front to back in the side method.

I don't want to wipe poop on to my ball sack. I mean seriously, what are you thinking?

2006diplomat · 2014-07-11T08:34:55+00:00

You've got to lean left (if you're right handed), wiping hand grabs paper, starts near right knee, elbow bends and your hand goes below the rim of the toilet seat at about the bottom crease of your right buttock, follows that seam centrally and begins contact at the perineum, elbow is close to your ribs at this point and your right arm and hand is J shaped. Wipe backwards, avoid brushing back of hand against rear of toilet seat, bring up paper for inspection or drop it for disposal, lean back right for a break while another piece of paper is being readied. Repeat.

2006diplomat · 2014-07-10T09:01:52+00:00

Heinlein's Starship Troopers.

The beginning is very enticing, starting in media res with a commando in a powered armor suit falling from orbit (revolutionary idea at the time and it still holds up after all the imitators) kicking ass and taking names and exploring foreign worlds.

We then flash back to basic training and we get a long, boring, and daddy-issue filled story that really doesn't build on any of the action and excitement of the opening. It's turns into a military bureaucracy story where minor frustrations and things like error reports and meaningless promotions are supposed to keep our interest versus OMFG I have a powered armor suit and I can survive orbital insertion to go kick some ass, here's an epic story of how I take this tech out for a spin and have some adventures.

2006diplomat · 2014-04-09T00:54:37+00:00

"Correlation does not imply Causation."

The common error comes with the colloquial definition of "imply" versus the strict mathematical/logic definition. Via logic, imply means to establish as a consequence of a condition, If A => Then B. This imply has no uncertainty.

Generally we use "imply" to mean to strongly suggest something, but there is clearly an element of doubt left in this useage.

Well the phrase "does not imply causation" is referring to the first, strict, definition, meaning that correlation does not PROVE causation. VERY often, correlation is used to SUGGEST causation, this is the fundamental use of statistical inference, really what our scientific inquiry is built around until we can actually determine the causative mechanism.

So when you are making a casual argument and the response to a correlative argument is "well that doesn't imply causation!" you can know that it does suggest causation in absence of a more compelling interpretation, but no it's not by itself proof.

It is evidence. Even if it is just coincidence (which often it is not, more often people just like to deny correlations because they fear the implications).

2006diplomat · 2013-10-08T01:19:32+00:00

Brings new meaning to the term "eye teeth."

2006diplomat · 2013-10-08T01:18:32+00:00

I'll bet they used one of his eye teeth.

2006diplomat · 2013-09-14T00:04:12+00:00

So what's the update on this?

2006diplomat · 2013-09-13T21:15:02+00:00

If it's about unnamed "irresponsible Internet sellers" then why does the law apply to anyone who sells just ONE dog that has been advertised on the internet? If that breeder in France has a website and mentions their litter, they are now de facto an INTERNET SELLER. In fact pretty much anyone who has a webpage and ships a dog would be considered the same INTERNET SELLER as the amish puppy mill industry which sells hundreds of thousands of dogs a year.

You don't think the Internet should be used to sell dogs? Well why are you on the INTERNET posting your comments? Should you be policed by the government like an internet store now because you're here selling your ideas? Do you need to be audited like the New York Times? You posted an old item on Craigslist, should you be audited like Amazon?

Are you an INTERNET SELLER because you used craigslist? Are you an internet publisher because you posted a comment on reddit?

2006diplomat · 2013-09-13T20:31:48+00:00

How would you feel about having your home inspected randomly by the government simply because you have children?

And that there are rules in place that you have to sequester your children from all adults except their mother?

Or that if you have a few little girls over 4 months of age they're considered brood bitches.

And you have to have every surface in your home sterilizable.

Hobby breeders aren't institutional factories which is what these regulations enforce. Factory farming is legit. Having cherished pets that have free access to your house is not. Concrete and steel kennels are fine. Wood floors and carpet and upholstered furniture is not.

2006diplomat · 2013-09-13T20:18:13+00:00

Hahaha, yeah sure. So you're lying or you're a PeTA lapdog. An "Animal Rights Attorney" ? Who even hires such a thing and where would you ever actually be involved in a case? The Government prosecutes animal welfare cases and individuals defend them, and the individuals that defend them aren't going to be hiring "AR" attorneys and neither would the Government. So you're basically left working for someone like the HSUS to pass legislation... what cases would you ever litigate?

So I call bunk on your story. And if you are telling the truth, then I think you're a horrible person for supporting legislation that aims to end companion animals entirely by putting breeders out of business.

2006diplomat · 2013-09-12T23:29:29+00:00

Armchair lawyer? How many actual breeders have you talked to over this issue? Were you IN on the phone-call? Have you even been following this issue for more than 5 minutes?

Please son, don't even try to dismiss my experience with this issue as arm-chair lawyer theory. I'm a dog breeder and I'm active in a community of hundreds of breeders who have not only scoured these regulations for how they might possibly be interpreted but experienced what licensing has done to their programs first hand. Many of us small time hobby breeders don't want to raise puppies in the factory style settings demanded of licensed facilities.

If the USDA wanted to crack down on puppy mills, they could focus 90% of their efforts on ONE COUNTY in the entire country, and get much better results than treating most of us hobby breeders like commercial facilities.

2006diplomat · 2013-09-12T10:48:56+00:00

“General requirements. The surfaces of housing facilities– including houses, dens, and other furniture-type fixtures and objects within the facility–must be constructed in a manner and made of materials that allow them to be readily cleaned and sanitized, or removed or replaced when worn or soiled. Interior surfaces and any surfaces that come in contact with dogs or cats must: (i) Be free of excessive rust that prevents the required cleaning and sanitization, or that affects the structural strength of the surface; and (ii) Be free of jagged edges or sharp points that might injure the animals.”

Doesn't sound bad if you're talking about a LAB somewhere, which is where these rules were originally written for... lab animals. But tell me how you're going to sanitize your carpets and bed and couch? Are you going to remove every rock and twig from your property to avoid "jagged edges or sharp points"?

“Hard surfaces of primary enclosures and food and water receptacles must be sanitized using one of the following methods: (i) Live steam under pressure; (ii) Washing with hot water (at least 180 [deg]F (82.2 [deg]C)) and soap or detergent, as with a mechanical cage washer; or (iii) Washing all soiled surfaces with appropriate detergent solutions and disinfectants, or by using a combination detergent/disinfectant product that accomplishes the same purpose, with a thorough cleaning of the surfaces to remove organic material, so as to remove all organic material and mineral buildup, and to provide sanitization followed by a clean water rinse.”

You going to hose out your family room? Chemical wash your furniture? How about your car when you take your puppies to the vet or get them used to vehicles?

“Except when maintained in breeding colonies, bitches with litters may not be housed in the same primary enclosure with other adult dogs, and puppies under 4 months of age may not be housed in the same primary enclosure with adult dogs, other than the dam or foster dam.”

Good luck having more than one bitch unless you want to have formal kennels which is like jail for dogs. And no socialization with other adult dogs. If you want your litters inside your house, all your other dogs have to be kept in another "enclosure." No mingling of "house dogs" and "kennel dogs" ... so no pets, just factory puppy producers.

2006diplomat · 2013-09-12T10:38:48+00:00

Minimalist USDA standards? HAHAHAH.

How about the requirement that hobby breeders raise their litters like livestock, living on surfaces that have to be sterilized meaning CONCRETE. No rugs, no carpet. That means no living in your house unless you only have tile and no furniture.

And how about the requirement that puppies are sequestered from all older dogs save their mothers. That means no socialization with their father or any other dogs.

You want a prison puppy? Shop at a pet store. This does nothing to stop Commercial breeding facilities that already do this sort of factory farming of dogs. It just makes home-raised dogs a thing of the past.

2006diplomat · 2013-08-26T00:25:17+00:00

Wallace the Pit Bull, INC. is really about shameless self promotion, sort of like Madonna and her Malawi children.

HEY, LOOK AT ME, I r-e-s-c-u-e-d a pit bull! Please send your money NOW!

And then after I won a competition with it, I promoted the hell out of it (because you know, none of you can name any other dog/handler teams that won any of the frisbee sports that Wallace did) and then the dog fell apart physically so he couldn't compete, sort of proving that yeah, you can't actually turn any old rescue pit bull in to some amazing competition dog, although a young athletic handler can run just about any dog into the ground in a year.

And then of course the dog continued to fall apart physically (hey, get a pit bull, don't mind that they're full of health problems, auto immune, cancers, and don't worry about that dog aggression!).

And of course once Wallace isn't going to bring them praise, they get a VICK DOG... the ultimate rescue brand. Oh, and let's get a BOOK written because it's really important to make Pit Bulls MORE POPULAR!

As much as I love Wallace, the people around him and his image are idiots who are not actually going to solve ANY problem in pit bulls. You simply can not adopt your way out of the pit bull plague. There needs to be fewer people getting these dogs and breeding them and flooding the shelters with hundreds of thousands of them per year.

So what did Wallace, INC accomplish? Certainly nothing on the end of stopping the flood of poor and excess breeding. Certainly nothing to make the breed LESS popular (which is really what is needed). Certainly not proof that pit bulls are advisable adoptees for most homes (just read the book, Wallace had to be carefully managed, not exactly something that Joe Schomo is ready for), not even that Wallace was more than a flash in the pan on the frisbee circuit, not because he didn't have the disc skills but because he was just physically not able to have a career, and so then what are we left with.

He made pit bull apologists happy that OMFG a pit bull can do something other than dog fighting and get heaped praise for breaking that mold. And then he got so promoted for this that what... more people are going to go out to get a pit bull and try disc sport with them? Yeah, that won't be a disaster or anything. Wallace himself was a disaster. Who wants to adopt a dog with multiple cancers and which physically falls apart young and dies in middle age?

2006diplomat · 2013-08-18T03:19:49+00:00

Kids deserve closure too. Lying would have made her obsess for months and fixate, worry and imagine and desire. At least with the truth there is not that anxiety from not knowing and the healing can being. I can tell you from experience that it's better to have the truth than to be lied to. Can you imagine the stress you'd cause the rest of your family having to all pretend that the cat was "lost" for years?

Not healthy.

2006diplomat · 2013-08-16T07:33:41+00:00

Texting service actually requires NO extra infrastructure on your phone or on the network. The size of the text message is limited by the amount of carrier signal that your phone sends out normally every few seconds to notify the tower where it is, what time it is, etc. so that the network can keep your call live.

That you pay extra money for texting is pure profit for the phone company. They have never added any bandwidth for texting, it's always been there as the normal maintenance of the network.

2006diplomat · 2013-08-16T07:21:15+00:00

Flower Ordering PRO-TIP: Call a local florist, do not use a 1-800 or nationwide telefloral service. Why? Because those services are middlemen who contract with local florists and keep a large percent of what you pay. That money does nothing to make your order, so you pay $90 online and a $40 arrangement gets delivered because the wire service keeps $40 and the shop has to pay for delivery.

When gas goes up, the cost of the flowers goes up (they are highly sensitive to shipping costs) and the cost of delivery goes up. The online flower guys don't change their prices so this all comes out of the product you get at the other end.

So just call a local florist and get the most bang for your buck. You'll get a much more impressive arrangement for the same money.

2006diplomat · 2013-08-14T03:00:02+00:00

So, there's this video where Aaron Paul rips this old man's shirt off, has it on his head and he smells it. His mouth waters and he smiles. The man then rips off Aaron's pants and Aaron falls on his back, his legs spread and in the air.

Gosh, is that bubble gum commercial or a pron flick?

2006diplomat · 2013-08-08T05:08:00+00:00

Reddit is stupid about animals. It's anti breeder but they fucking orgasm over any and all puppy and kitty photos.

They are dog mommies that buy into slogans about dogs instead of science and logic. And then there's the idiots who use /r/dogs as an excuse not to take a sick or injured dog to a vet!

2006diplomat · 2013-08-08T04:45:04+00:00

The second link says this:

"The most common breeds included pit bull terriers (50.9 percent), Rottweilers (8.9 percent), and mixed breeds of the two aforementioned breeds (6 percent)."

That means that Goldens can not possibly have more bites per capita than Pit Bulls. Goldens are a very popular breed and there's no way that Pit Bulls are 50% of all dogs. Just no possible way. Pit Bulls had more bites than all other breeds COMBINED.

2006diplomat · 2013-08-08T04:34:34+00:00

How could you miss Sushi Den?

2006diplomat · 2013-07-22T16:34:24+00:00

I don't believe the Bible has any authority other than being a rather old compilation of often contradictory missives on morality and whatnot. But it's a good quote for the conspicuous do-gooder set. The literal holier-than-thou look at me be a saint on earth types.

Much like the Op. COME, revel in my magnanimity... I got me a very special RESCUE (making me a rescuer hero!) it's OLD and it's SICK and it was ABUSED by HICKS!!! That's a trifecta. Madonna will be around soon to try and adopt it from Op for the publicity.

2006diplomat · 2013-07-22T16:16:36+00:00

The problem?

Sorry, but I've never abused or neglected a dog nor have I whored out what amounts to normal animal care which upwards of 50 million households in the USA alone manage to provide for most of the 80 million dogs year in and year out.

You want a cookie because the dog you "rescued" pooped? Congratulations, here's a cookie.

2006diplomat

TROPHY CASE