I’ve always wondered why it’s called “common sense”. It’ not common at all!
Regarding the crow, I had a pet crow when I was a kid. They are quite intelligent, a lot more than any budgie or paracete(sp) and I wouldn’t call them filthy or greasy. Scavanger, yes, it’s about survival.
The sad part in that story is the woman wanting donations, she only used the crow to make money.
… but remember, idiots are people, too.
Idiots? Ok, what about all the idiots protesting the new Harry Potter book, worried that it is going to send children to hell. (I assume like D&D was supposed to.)
[quote]The Mage wrote:
Idiots? Ok, what about all the idiots protesting the new Harry Potter book, worried that it is going to send children to hell. (I assume like D&D was supposed to.) [/quote]
It really could send kids to hell! I submit the following (edited) from bash.org:
Draw your own conclusions …
A person is the sum of previous experiences. Combine that with a poor genetic background, little education and circumstances that are not fertile enough to stear someone into greener pastures, stupidity becomes the default state of mind.
There are plenty exceptions to this rule, but if we take a hard look around this world of ours today, it’s easy to see that most people are stupid.
Would it make any change if we assign blame to anyone? Not in the least, so make the best of things inspite of other’s.
Idiots are people so conditioned by propaganda that they:
don’t see the propaganda ( see 2 )
Believe the prapaganda (see point 1)
Then they go and preach based on their limited experiences that they themselves will see as actually very broad experiences with research, LOL!
(everything you see, you see because that’s how you want to see it)
Want to NOT be an idiot. Really not be an idiot? Start by ingraining in yourself the philosophy of knowing that you know nothing. It will open your mind to ask more questions, look deeper and open your minds to other perceptions of things shouldcould be. That will be your first step, till then we’re all idiots in someone elses eyes.
[quote]thabigdon24 wrote:
No weed or alchohol will certainly not further any kind of fitness , strength ect goals you have. It messes you up thats why people use them and you certainly cant work out as well in an intoxicated state as normal w/ the exception of Powerdrive type stuff. My philosophy towards life right now is that weightlifting is part of it; not the focus which should be family my career, me and friends in that order. I smoke and drink because i find that these further the goals of socialization and relaxing after some college classes that can get pretty hectic.
If you to read a defense of why i smoke and drink here it is:
I like it, its fun. It helps me relax and have fun at a party or just w/ friends. Im an uptight guy which doesnt mind a little chemical help.
Even though i like it i try to keep it in balance. Im never going to be the most skilled pothead and i dont want to be i dont know how to roll a joint or do all that other stuff i just know a few things because i want it to be a part of my life not a focus. I smoke only 2X a month on average right now; so i wouldnt think that this would be overdoing it by any means.
I guess i got this pot thing from my dads side of my family- my siblings also smoke and i assume that they made a similar choice. My dad came from the 70’s he used to smoke it up like it was going out of style. Fast forward, he’s a medical doctor getting ready to retire. His siblings that smoke are an ex Corporate financial officer, a geologist, and a drafter.
So its not the stupidest thing in the world if you keep it in perspective and look after whats important e.g. your college , grades and keeping your nose clean.
Right on. That’s actually how most smokers are, but those are the ones that keep it silent.
I’m not trying to mess up your thread. I agree some people sure can be idiots. I think that I’m one of them, at least some of the time.
Some can be hero’s too!
On January 13, 1982, Air Florida Flight 90 crashed into the Potomac River shortly after take off in a blizzard from Washington’s National Airport, killing more than 70 passengers. It was rush hour and the banks of the Potomac were quickly crowded with people watching while helicopters attempted to pull survivors from the floating ice and water. When it became obvious to the spectators that one survivor, Priscilla Tirado, was too weak to hold onto the rescue rings that were lowered to her from the helicopter, one of the standers-by decided he had to do something.
Lenny Skutnik was a twenty-eight year old mail clerk who lived in a $325 monthly apartment and was paid $14,000 a year. He later told reporters that he enjoyed an occasional night out by taking his wife and two kids to Brother’s Pizza. As he put it, “Every once in a while I just close my eyes and blow a couple of bucks.”
After diving into the frigid water and pulling Miss Tirado to safety, he gave his coat to Joseph Stiley, a survivor who had broken both legs in the crash and was shivering, then he refused to get into an ambulance to be taken to the hospital until he received assurances that it wasn’t going to cost him anything as he did not want to incur any bills that he could not pay for.
I for one never understood the whole idea of pot smoking, or drinking even.
I only have three friends that don’t smoke or drink. I never tried any illegal drugs, in fact the only legal drugs I have ever taken are for asthma! Well, not exactly, I did take three Vicodins when my wisdom teeth were ripped violently from my jaw by my dentist. How bad of a week or day can you possibly have where you just “need a joint”? I am in a very small if not nonexistent sector of the worlds’ poulation, but I do not drink either. I had one sip, a tiny sip, of champagne at a wedding. That’s it!
I know many social potheads as well as light drinkers, and I can say that when you are the only person out of about 60 that is not drunk or high while at a party, you will realize just how much better off you are sober.
I take my health and well being very seriously, and I know that any momentary enjoyment I may have when high or drunk is not worth the potential health consequences. Besides, I would rather remember my fun times.
As a side note, I am messed up in the head enough already; I don’t need any altered states of reality.
[quote]JPBear wrote:
There is a woman in my hometown who is on a crusade to save an injured crow she found on the road. She is asking for donations since wildlife control won’t help her. I am an animal lover, but a crow? Crows are greasy, filthy, scavenging pests. That would be like taking up a collection for an injured rat.
[/quote]
You couldn’t be further from the truth. Crows are members of the family Corvidae (and known as Corvids). Corvids are the smartest of birds and actually have a specialized part of their brain developed just for learning. Crows are extremely smart. Smart enough to scavange off a species that tends to use it’s environment like a garbage can.
Crows live in large family groups and may mate for life. They also act as “helpers at the nest”, where the juveniles help the parents raise the next clutch. We don’t know a whole lot more about crows because they’re to smart to catch. They clue in really quickly to traps and mist netting. And you can’t sneak up on them.
Would you like them better if they were a differnt color, perhaps blue or yellow? In greek mythology the raven (another corvid) was white until it gave bad news to Apollo who then turned it black in his rage. So show some respect to the crow, you’d be hard pressed to outsmart one.
“If men were black and bore feathers, none would be smart enough to be a crow”.
That was an informative, vengeful post. I’ve also heard that owls are stupid as hell.
[quote]gojira wrote:
You couldn’t be further from the truth. Crows are members of the family Corvidae (and known as Corvids). Corvids are the smartest of birds and actually have a specialized part of their brain developed just for learning. Crows are extremely smart. Smart enough to scavange off a species that tends to use it’s environment like a garbage can.
Crows live in large family groups and may mate for life. They also act as “helpers at the nest”, where the juveniles help the parents raise the next clutch. We don’t know a whole lot more about crows because they’re to smart to catch. They clue in really quickly to traps and mist netting. And you can’t sneak up on them.
Would you like them better if they were a differnt color, perhaps blue or yellow? In greek mythology the raven (another corvid) was white until it gave bad news to Apollo who then turned it black in his rage. So show some respect to the crow, you’d be hard pressed to outsmart one.
“If men were black and bore feathers, none would be smart enough to be a crow”.[/quote]
[quote]gojira wrote:
JPBear wrote:
There is a woman in my hometown who is on a crusade to save an injured crow she found on the road. She is asking for donations since wildlife control won’t help her. I am an animal lover, but a crow? Crows are greasy, filthy, scavenging pests. That would be like taking up a collection for an injured rat.
You couldn’t be further from the truth. Crows are members of the family Corvidae (and known as Corvids). Corvids are the smartest of birds and actually have a specialized part of their brain developed just for learning. Crows are extremely smart. Smart enough to scavange off a species that tends to use it’s environment like a garbage can.
Crows live in large family groups and may mate for life. They also act as “helpers at the nest”, where the juveniles help the parents raise the next clutch. We don’t know a whole lot more about crows because they’re to smart to catch. They clue in really quickly to traps and mist netting. And you can’t sneak up on them.
Would you like them better if they were a differnt color, perhaps blue or yellow? In greek mythology the raven (another corvid) was white until it gave bad news to Apollo who then turned it black in his rage. So show some respect to the crow, you’d be hard pressed to outsmart one.
“If men were black and bore feathers, none would be smart enough to be a crow”.[/quote]
Wow. Impressive information! Where did you learn about this?
[quote]JPBear wrote:
I am an animal lover, but a crow? Crows are greasy, filthy, scavenging pests. That would be like taking up a collection for an injured rat.
[/quote]
So you discriminate against animals that aren’t “cute”? You should change your statment from, “I’m an animal lover” to, I only love cute animals.
If there were no “greasy, filthy, scavenging pests” the roads and landscape would be clutterd with dead and rotting animal flesh. Consider that most animals serve some sort of purpose to nature and the next time you call yourself an “animal lover” do not in the next statment state your dislike for certain animals. May you not have any bad “pet karma” in the near future for this indiscretion.
Also, you should not be so quick to judge the motives of others–do you really care that a woman is trying to take up a collection for a sick bird? Get over it.
As for the original post, people are idiots.
Zeb, great post. Not ALL people are idiots. Just a lot of them. But plenty are not. I love to hear inspiring stories.
http://images.t-nation.com/forum_images/./1/.1121711746797.irony.jpg
[quote]Gregus wrote:
Want to NOT be an idiot. Really not be an idiot? Start by ingraining in yourself the philosophy of knowing that you know nothing. It will open your mind to ask more questions, look deeper and open your minds to other perceptions of things shouldcould be. That will be your first step, till then we’re all idiots in someone elses eyes.[/quote]
Nice post man. I go through cycles of this sort:
(1) i know all i need to know, and “people are idiots”
but then
(2) i experience or observe something great that leans me towards “it’s a beautiful world, i am only going to live once, quit being such an asshole, etc.”
and so
(3) i realize that there are many wonderful people in the world, understand that i know very little, and that i must maintain an open mind
but then
(4) some event restores my faithlessness in humanity and tilts me back to being a judgemental prick and thinking again that
(1) “people are idiots”
Surely it’s detectable in my posts. Maybe I’m a fast-cycle manic? Bah, I don’t know. I do know that I know next to nothing, and that the more I know, the closer to nothing I know.
What Rummy said:
“… because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”
Bastard!
[quote]LIFTICVSMAXIMVS wrote:
Also, you should not be so quick to judge the motives of others–do you really care that a woman is trying to take up a collection for a sick bird? Get over it.
[/quote]
I dunno, why do you care that I care so much? Why don’t you get over that? Now I feel compelled to waste time responding to a response about a post that was meant to be an amusing little story, not a full-scale moral debate. So, here is my defence. I wasn’t judging her motives. What else could be driving her other than compassion? I just think that out of all the causes compassion could drive a person to, that one was strange.
I guess it’s because I grew up on a farm. Crows are definitely considered pests by most farmers. They damage crops and target young livestock. I lived on a sheep farm and the crows would try and peck out the young sheep’s eyeballs. Wildlife control would pay people money to shoot them. I realize that they have a purpose in nature, but they grow out of control as a population. They eat insects, but so do the other non-pesky birds that crows scare away. This is just my point of view; I am really not a crow expert like Gojira.
By the way, it has nothing to do with being cute. I think beavers are really neat, cute animals (no beaver jokes please), but that does not mean that they are not pests as well that need to be controlled. Their dams cause flooding that is very damaging to fields.
There, have I quelled the wrath of the crow lovers?
[quote] wrote:
gojira wrote:
Wow. Impressive information! Where did you learn about this?[/quote]
I hold a Masters of Science in biology and was the Ornithology teaching assistant in graduate school.
[quote]gojira wrote:
Crows are extremely smart. Smart enough to scavange off a species that tends to use it’s environment like a garbage can.
[/quote]
I see homeless people do that all the time. I’m sorry but I’m not impressed.
[quote]
Would you like them better if they were a differnt color, perhaps blue or yellow? [/quote]
I would like them if they were neon pink with green stripes.
Hanging a dead crow upside down near a flock of sheep will keep them away. Would you consider that outsmarting a crow?
[quote]
“If men were black and bore feathers, none would be smart enough to be a crow”.[/quote]
Is that an actual quote? Did you find it in a book of quotes or something? If so, you have just convinced me that crows are smarter than people.
Anyone here have herpes or genital warts? man that must suck
Hey bigdon24,
If a plane crashes on the border of the U.S. and Canada, where would they bury the survivors?