Annoying Questions I'd Like Answered...

[Crissa]

Being smart and being able to complete the hoops and trips of the educational machine are two completely different things.

Kids who do well in sports do better in school. Does that mean we should hold back children until they are competitive at sports?

-Crissa

[Prak]

so I'm looking at ethical meat a lot more recently because friends are trying to get me to go vegan for ethical reasons and, well, I like my death-burgers, damnit.

However, I'm not opposed to trying to eat meat that was treated well in life (yes, I know, "it winds up dead and eaten in the end, what does it's life matter?" well, it matters to me. The food chain requires death, not beakless chickens raised in boxes.). So I'm looking up ethical meat more and more.

The thing is, however, I keep running into stuff that just screams well-intentioned extremist bullshit to me. Like foie gras being the big bad that is never ok. This is pure bull. Granted a lot of the time the geese are raised horribly. However, it is possible to raise perfectly happy, healthy (save for bloated liver) foie gras geese (story from an Anthony Bourdain book). Second, is the World Society for the Protection of Animals, while having a lot of good, sane, reasonable things to say, pulls a PETA and urges you to not support zoos and marine parks, in addition to shit like "don't get a picture taken with a wild animal".

So a pair of questions:
Are zoos horrible dens of cruelty like these people seem to think, or is what I've heard true (most animals in zoos are born and raised captive and would be fucked in the wild, oh, and they're well treated, of course.)?

second: What the hell is up with some of these people that they think taking a picture with a deer that just happens to wander into your camp and be ok with you standing nearish to it is cruel?

[Falgund]

I don't remember where, but I recall seing a study saying that praising children with "you got a good score because you are smart" led to lower scores than praising them with "you got a good score because you worked hard".
Apparently it's because usually if you think you are smart, you rely on this smartyness to succeed, and if you think your results are due to your work, you continue to work hard for future results.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

Are zoos horrible dens of cruelty like these people seem to think, or is what I've heard true (most animals in zoos are born and raised captive and would be fucked in the wild, oh, and they're well treated, of course.)?

That depends on the zoo.

There was a small zoo in the area that used to have bears in dog pens, and they looked miserable. That zoo is no longer open.

I've been to the DC zoo, and it seems like they give the animals room to live in, and make their enclosures have places to hide and stuff. The animals seem more chill there.

It is very hard to legally procure an endangered animal from the wild. Even if you're a zoo with millions of dollars and a team of lawyers. Breeding endangered animals is much easier; as a result most endangered animals in zoos are captive bred. (Not that in most cases, acquiring a captive bred endangered animal is not difficult, I own several species of endangered tarantula that were captive bred that I intend to breed when my females become adults.)

[erik]

I don't remember where, but I recall seing a study saying that praising children with "you got a good score because you are smart" led to lower scores than praising them with "you got a good score because you worked hard".
Apparently it's because usually if you think you are smart, you rely on this smartyness to succeed, and if you think your results are due to your work, you continue to work hard for future results.

I recall hearing that study discussed on NPR, I think radiolab. Couldn't find the exact episode/podcast tho.

It wasn't relying on "smartyness" so much as that kids praised for intelligence got discouraged when they were presented with more difficult problems and were more prone to give up, as opposed to kids praised for their hard work were more likely to keep trying with more difficult problems and would thus be more prone to succeed than give up.

[Koumei]

It was mentioned in a Cracked article on how you're messing your children up with your good intentions. The main thing I remember, aside from "Don't call the child Skullfist Dickhammer", is that all those "make the child feel special and nurture their self esteem" things result in douchebags.

Which supports my unresearched, untested theory that bullies are not "insecure and have problems at home", they just feel too good about themselves and this would be prevented if all children were locked under the stairs and verbally abused on a regular basis.

[Falgund]

I recall hearing that study discussed on NPR, I think radiolab. Couldn't find the exact episode/podcast tho.

It wasn't relying on "smartyness" so much as that kids praised for intelligence got discouraged when they were presented with more difficult problems and were more prone to give up, as opposed to kids praised for their hard work were more likely to keep trying with more difficult problems and would thus be more prone to succeed than give up.

You are right, I didn't recall correctly the reasons but this was the study I was remembering.

[mean_liar]

I recall hearing that study discussed on NPR, I think radiolab. Couldn't find the exact episode/podcast tho.

It wasn't relying on "smartyness" so much as that kids praised for intelligence got discouraged when they were presented with more difficult problems and were more prone to give up, as opposed to kids praised for their hard work were more likely to keep trying with more difficult problems and would thus be more prone to succeed than give up.

You are right, I didn't recall correctly the reasons but this was the study I was remembering.

This sort of research is a cornerstone of motivational research and new educational technologies... which I only know about because that's the field my wife studies.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

Another question, anyone know what a moisture sensor on a Samsung Intensity looks like and where it's located? My cell phone is going haywire and I want to make sure that they have no reason to claim water damage to the phone because they don't want to honor their warranty.

[Crissa]

So, what causes loss of voluntary muscle control, balance, dilated eyes to the point of being blind (only peripheral vision working), numbness in extremities and minor chest pain?

No worries, I'm better now, but a trip to the hospital was unhelpful at learning anything. Like, 'how do I get these stupid stick-on electrodes off my skin?' and 'what they hell would cause temporary blindness and loss of balance?'

PS, it's really hard to dial 911 when you can't see your phone or remember where all the buttons are. So take a moment and memorize that.

-Crissa

[Count Arioch the 28th]

Any ringing in the ears? Are you taking anything? Sounds very similar to aspirin overdose. Probably not, since one would be aware if they were taking that much.

[Crissa]

Nope. Hadn't eaten or drank anything in over twelve hours. Had just fed the cats, though.

...On that note, I hadn't taken my medicine yet today. Whoops. It's only an issue twelve hours or so off schedule.

-Crissa

[Prak]

Thanks guys.

Another question, my friend gave up meat, and is trying to get me to give up meat, because science supposedly has found out it's unhealthy, loaded with carcinogins that get released as it sits in our guts, and shit like that...

What's the deal here? he listening to crackpots, or is science really finding meat is bad for us, or what?

[Cynic]

Prak: there's been studies showing that meat is either good or bad for us for the last 100 years.

Seriously, if you listen to my hindu family, they will tout out the craziest of crazy and also some sobering stories about the evils of meat.

I go to my wife's side and my father-in-law will bombard me with stories about how I have the epilepsy because I didn't eat meat for a while. Back to the eating of it now.

[mean_liar]

Carcinogens in cooked meat:

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/fact ... lic-amines

[Count Arioch the 28th]

Thanks guys.

Another question, my friend gave up meat, and is trying to get me to give up meat, because science supposedly has found out it's unhealthy, loaded with carcinogins that get released as it sits in our guts, and shit like that...

What's the deal here? he listening to crackpots, or is science really finding meat is bad for us, or what?

Everything is bad for you. Everything has carcinogens, everything degrades the biological processes after a period of time.

You can find "studies" that show eating meat is bad for you, that being a vegetarian is bad for you, that being a vegan is bad for you, that eating an omnivorous diet is bad for you.

The only consistent fact is that all biological processes break down and die, and that all of us are going to end up in the ground feeding worms. I say live it up now while you can.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

Ethnocentric ranting here:

How come Chinese immigrants who own businesses don't do any upkeep on their property? Every Chinese restaurant that I've ever seen has decayed the same way: Starts out clean and in good repair, then as the years pass there's enough hard water scale in the fountains to classify as a coral reef, carpets stained, bathrooms filled with graffiti and deep orange urine stains years old. One day with a rug shampooer and some CLR cleaner would fix all that.

American people of Chinese descent don't do that. Hell, I worked with a Chinese guy last job I had and he looked ready to kick my ass because I wouldn't half-ass things and violate state health codes because ignoring them was quicker. (I already was irritated with him because whenever a young female asian college student would come through the line he'd start barking orders in Mandarin at me to impress them. Very few seemed impressed in any way, and were kind of skeeved at the 60+ year old man flirting with them.)

[Crissa]

Because they often don't actually own the property and capital improvements mean more debt, which they don't want to take on. Also, in the midwest they tend to be occupying already poor properties.

All restaurants do that decay. I've worked in enough to find them pretty standard across the board - they can't afford materials which won't decay, and that costs them more in the long run.

So, low capital == poor materials == higher eventual costs and worn down looking places.

Also, due to health codes, you're not generally allowed to use the same cleaners in a restaurant as you are at home.

-Crissa

[Maj]

Carcinogens in cooked meat:

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/fact ... lic-amines

They also found that marinating meat in antioxidant-rich spices and marinades reduces the amount of bad stuff that forms during cooking. Which is kind of a no brainer given that antioxidants' - by definition - work to keep food from oxidizing. But they studied it and declared it effective:

http://tinyurl.com/2bb6dfz

You can find "studies" that show eating meat is bad for you, that being a vegetarian is bad for you, that being a vegan is bad for you, that eating an omnivorous diet is bad for you.

Yeah. It sucks. I think I'll stick with eating food.

I say live it up now while you can.

That's totally good advice until you start thinking about quality of life. There's a certain point that people get to where eating a bowl of Dreyer's ice cream just isn't worth two days of migraines, dealing with respiratory distress, not being able to sleep, and being in a shitty mood. And yeah, people might mock you and tell you that you only live once so you should eat that ice cream, but the prize of eating it isn't good enough to overcome the shit of how you feel after doing so.

[Crissa]

Ugh, protein allergy to milk? That sucks.

Still, I hear over and over that I'll 'feel better' if I follow what someone else's diet is... Which pisses me off. I shouldn't have to not-eat something because someone else happens to be allergic to it. Mangoes, for instance - world's favorite fruit - have a large number of people allergic to them (like up there with peanuts). Should we not eat them?

-Crissa

[Count Arioch the 28th]

Also, due to health codes, you're not generally allowed to use the same cleaners in a restaurant as you are at home.

-Crissa

Crissa, I know more about restaurant health codes in Virginia than you do. Please don't try to tell me what we can and can't use here. Thank you. If I say they can do something about the stained carpets, the hard water scale in the decoration, and the piss stains in the bathroom, it's because I've worked in restaurants since you were in diapers.

Also, every lease I've ever seen had demands that the tenant take care of the property or get evicted (and business leases in Virginia are particularly nasty, they can go for the entire amount of the lease regardless of how long you have left. If you have a 24 month lease and are evicted on month 23, you have to pay not only month 24, but months 1-23 again. Residential leases are less strict, but you still need to do property upkeep or get booted out.)

[Maj]

Ugh, protein allergy to milk? That sucks.

No. I picked on Dreyer's because it's the ice cream my family buys and it has a lot of synthetic ingredients. For my birthday party, my stepmother bought this:

INGREDIENTS: skim milk, cream, maltitol syrup, maltodextrin, polydextrose, glycerin, milk minerals concentrate, cellulose gum, mono and diglycerides, salt, sorbitol, guar gum, sucralose (Splenda® Brand), ground vanilla beans, carrageenan, citric acid, vitamin A palmitate, acesulfame potassium, natural flavor

Eating that stuff makes me sicker than shit. But eating this (coincidentally also made by Dreyer's) doesn't:

Cream, Skim Milk, Sugar, Egg Yolks, Natural Vanilla.

I attribute it to the artificial sweeteners. They all make me sick. Chewing just one piece of gum made with xylitol is enough to give me a huge headache and make me so dizzy that I can't see well enough to drive (or walk for that matter).

I stay away from those things at all costs - I don't care how good they taste.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

That's totally good advice until you start thinking about quality of life.

Perhaps I didn't express myself well, please allow me to clarify.

What I was attempting to get across was that if Prak feels that it's not ethical to eat meat or whatever and become a vegan, that's totally his choice. I won't mock him or anyone else for their choice in food. We are lucky enough to live in a society with ample food and plenty of choices.

However, my opinion is that if anyone tries to push their ethics on you when you are trying to have the only enjoyable part of the day for 99% of the population, you should tell them to pike it. Not one vegan has convinced me that the perception of plants is irrelevant. Yes, I understand that animals have feelings and most don't like the conditions they are put under. Plants perceive their environment too, and many release chemicals meant to communicate to other plants when distressed. That raw carrot you ate this morning was technically still alive and felt being torn to shreds then doused in hydrochloric acid.

(Plus, I live an inhumane life where I'm denied basic medical care and treated poorly, and I'm even an animal, and no PETA dipshit is lobbying places to hire me so I can have a better life, so fuck them and their support of terrorism.)

[Crissa]

Prolly the sucralose, then. The rest of the ingredients are pretty bland complex ways of saying stuff that's in food anyhow.

But I have some friends with various allergies or intolerances and it gets annoying to be told to eat this or not that.

-Crissa

[Koumei]

Okay, the death penalty.

I don't support it, most people here don't. Although I do support it on TV shows because they intentionally make you hate the villains and want the villains to die (if only so they never show up again - people die when they are killed).

But that's all besides the point. My question is, on the "It costs more to execute someone than to put them away for life" statement that seems accepted as universal truth but lacks a [Citation needed], how?

I doubt arguing the point will change anything (the kind of people with a hard-on for the death penalty feel it's a worthy cost that can be covered by repealing Obamacare or whatever their crack cocaine tells them). But I'd like to know.
The only thing that seems likely to me, unless you order a massive fucking last meal, is the fact that there are a lot of appeals and additional court matters.

Sadly, I already know what their response is: "just don't let them appeal, once sentenced to die, we'll put you on an express lane so you die first thing tomorrow! You're a convicted murderer, you don't get appeals."

Is it anything else, though?