search  current discussion  categories  books & magazines - books 

rant: the mere suggestion!!! good book on "thinning the herd".

updated thu 15 jan 04

 

Craig Dunn Clark on mon 12 jan 04


Wayne, for a truly twisted book on natures way of thinning the herd I
suggest "The Darwin Awards." It has it's moments of being
crumbled-up-in-a-ball-clutching-ones-sides-gasping-for-air funny, if you
have a twisted sense
of humor (which I do.) The stories give proof to the pudding of God will
just invent a better idiot when one attempts to make something idiot proof.
What I really think about letting folks do really dumb life threatening
things is a bit more complex. In the case of the use of lead, for example, I
believe it goes beyond the individual potter and will affects us all.
At the simplest level it is a question of economics. The aforementioned
individual will most probably up with some long term debilitating health
problem that will cost a lot of money. The state will end up being further
stressed than it already is. I'm not one of the "let them die sick and
hungry in the streets if they can't pay for it " crowd so I will always
poney up in my direct or indirect way to make the yahoo as comfortable as
possible. At the same time I hope that they make their public statements to
all about how greater precautions/life style changes etc., are necessary and
lend themselves to the good doctors who treat them to be used for the
testing of newly developed procedures.
My thinking follows the path toward the school of thought that if
individuals choose to do stupid things (which I am guilty of) then
prevention is at least a partial cure. I will try may darndest to keep folks
from using things that we know will either hurt them or others in the
pottery world. In the case of public institutions I will go so far as to
make a legal fuss if need be to prevent some boneheaded instructor from
allowing lead into the facility. It is just plain dumb. Others need not be
affected by someone else assinine activities if we (the collective we) are
able to do something about it.
The case of the adult individual in her or his own studio is a different
matter. There are prohibitions concerning a number of different things.
There is
strong evidence to suggest that prohibitions are questionable at best. The
creation of "black markets" which enrich a host of nefarious characters
often being one of the results.The individual must, as you stated, be
enlightened or edifyied.
As you said, we have access to more info, some of which is flat out
contradictory, than at any other time in the history of the species human.
This tends to complicate things to the degree that many are often lost do to
the rising decible level of the discourse.
I am of a mind that all we can really do in the end is reach out and
help each other as much as we are able and hope for the best. I believe that
ClayArt is just the kind of place for this to occur.
Some of what I really think
I'll post my thoughts to you about book burning and the clan off the thread.
My family lost a lot of people to those swastika wearing assholes who burned
books.
My fear is that the fascist mindset is alive and well.......
Craig Dunn Clark
619 East 11 1/2 st
Houston, Texas 77008
(713)861-2083
mudman@hal-pc.org

----- Original Message -----
From: "wayneinkeywest"
To:
Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2004 6:18 PM
Subject: RANT: The mere suggestion!!!


A recent sarcastic post on book burning made me
sit down with a howl, and start typing furiously.
Luckily for all of you, and our dear moderator(s)
I know how to use my delete key, for my reply
was truly venomous. I grumble still, but I'm better now.

It has not been all that long ago in this country
when burning of books, censorship in general
was not only allowed, but the norm. Meetings
called in public libraries, town halls all across
the country railing against books like "Catcher
in the Rye". That time was not only a scary one,
but allowed the promotion of McCarthyism
(who's the Commie in YOUR town?!) and worse.
Can you remember KKK rallies? I can.

Thankfully, the Internet is like the genie from
the bottle. Once out, it can't be stuffed back in.
Nor should we. The free sharing and passing
of information is what is going to save us as a
species...or kill us once and for all.

If someone wishes to propose a glaze of 45%
lead oxide, with 42% barium and the balance
of uranium, so be it. Stupidity, a.k.a.
"lack of knowledge" is nature's way of culling
the herd, eg.: "gee, I didn't know that lions eat US"
and that includes potters. We're no different.
How many scientists died as a result of
radiation experiments? Put another way:
If your friends jump off a bridge, are you going to?

EVERYONE on this list has access to more information
than has been available to any human at any
time in human history. Think about that.
And question your sources, don't burn them.
Personally, I don't want to be spoon-fed information
that has been deemed "safe for potter consumption"
Give me the information, let me decide for myself.
(Most) potters are not stupid, though we all have
our moments.

Sorry about the rant. Now let me tell you how I
REALLY feel :>)
Wayne Seidl

____________________________________________________________________________
__
Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org

You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/

Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
melpots@pclink.com.

Chris Clyburn on tue 13 jan 04


Lee,

Although what you said has merit, as far as descent from Neanderthal goes,
recent evidence stongly suggests that Neanderthal and Homo Sapiens may have
had a common anscestor, Homo Sapiens did not descend from Nanderthals.
Neanderthals were a seperate species coexsiting for a time with modern man
rather than an ancestor. We were just more adaptable.

Chris Clyburn

On Tue, 13 Jan 2004 08:57:06 +0900, Lee Love wrote:

>Craig Dunn Clark wrote:
>
>> Wayne, for a truly twisted book on natures way of thinning the herd I
>> suggest "The Darwin Awards." It has it's moments of being
>> crumbled-up-in-a-ball-clutching-ones-sides-gasping-for-air funny, if you
>> have a twisted sense
>> of humor (which I do.) <...>
>> My fear is that the fascist mindset is alive and well.......
>
>
> There has been recent archaeological research into dental structure and
>the differences between modern Cro Magnon man and Neanderthal man.
>Neanderthal man has 4 root molars while ours tend to be three root. By
>examinine teeth and other archaeological evidence, they figure that
>Neanderthal did not use fire to cook his food. We know from the
>archaeological evidence, that His diet was very similar to the wolves
>that lived nearby. Also, Neanderthal did not have the companionship of
>dogs.
>
> They figure that cooking allow our type of human to survive. We are
>neotonous, meaning, we have in the adult human certain structural
>features that babies do. The important ones being smaller teeth and
>facial structure that allowed for a larger forebrain. For many years,
>individuals were born with these attributes but did not survive because
>the young could not survive on the non-cooked food, which excluded
>grains that we can only digest after they are cooked. But once we had
>fire and were able to cook, individuals with neotonus skull structures
>could more easily survive to adulthood, to reproduce and allow the new
>type of people to survive.
>
> It wasn't "survival of the fittest" going on in this example, but
>our ability to take care of "weaker" infants that allowed us to survive.
> The interesting thing too, is that the ability to use fire helped
>create modern humans with larger forebrains also allowed dogs to
>survived, who are basically neotonus wolves.
>
> Darwinian social policies only promote selfishness, greed and
>meanness and hinder positive evolution.
>
>
>Lee In Mashiko, Japan
>http://Mashiko.us
>Web Log (click on recent date):
>http://www.livejournal.com/users/togeika/calendar
>
>______________________________________________________________________________
>Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
>You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
>settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
>Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at melpots@pclink.com.

Craig Dunn Clark on tue 13 jan 04


Lee, I believe you misunderstated what I wuz gettin at. No big promotor
of Social Darwinism here. I'm commonly refered to as a "bleeding heart
liberal" with certain Libertarian tendencies. Hell, I won't even change my
long distance phone carrier to a cheaper on because they, Working Assets,
give money to a number of organizations that support and care for those who
aren't great at doing so themselves. I'm a firm believer in the old adage,
"there but for the grace of God go I."
That doesn't stop me from recommending "The Darwin Awards" for a good
laugh though. Some of them are really funny. Just follow the link
http://www.darwinawards.com/ I've posted one of the "slush awards" below for
your purusal.
Anyway, Darwin's thesis has been radically twisted to meet the needs of
the social conservatives.
For a really dynamite book I suggest "The Mismeasure of Man,"a by Stephen J.
Gould. You might take a look at "Guns, Germs and Steel," by Jared Diamond
(the primary thesis being that it is happenstance that Western Civilization
has ended up at the top of the heap for time being. He focuses on the
development of the species throughout the majority of our evolution, prior
to the past 10,000 years.
Craig Dunn Clark
619 East 11 1/2 st
Houston, Texas 77008
(713)861-2083
mudman@hal-pc.org


2004 Slush Pile
This item was recently submitted by a reader.
Should I include it in the archive?
Vote to tell me what *you* think!

Overheated Engine?

2004 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
Eastern Europe is well known for its harsh winters. Croatian Zlatko
Grdn, 52, has presumably seen his fair share of them. But in temperatures
which recently dropped low enough to play havoc with outdoor machinery, Grdn
was exasperated to find his car had fallen victim to the weather. After
repeatedly refusing to start, he diagnosed the problem as being a frozen
engine. The decision process which followed is perfectly logical, just
insane.
How do you defrost something? You warm it up of course. And how do you
warm things up? You get a fire going.

Grdn retrieved some old newspapers, stuffed them under the engine and
lit them. Whether or not he wandered off out of concern for his safety or

simply though boredom, I do not know. However, wander off he he did
and was therefore downgraded from a candidate for a Darwin to an Honourable
Mention when his car exploded in a fireball. A heartbroken Grden told local
media: "I couldn't start the engine and realised it was frozen. I decided to
warm it up. Now my lovely car is destroyed".

Luckily, Grden now thinks he has identified what went wrong. "Maybe I
used too much paper", he said.

Submitted on 01/09/2004


Submitted by: Jon Lockley
Reference: www.annanova.com 8th Jan 2004

Copyright © 2004 DarwinAwards.com



Great? 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Awful?
Love it! Hate it!


>> Moderator Scores <<
Greg said:
Definitely Keep: Honorable Mention
I know this has been previously rejected, but this writeup is better
and I think the behavior is Darwin worthy. Besides, the guy's name reminds
me of an old story in The Onion that had Clinton sending an emergency
shipment of vowels to Bosnia. ;)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jack said:
Definitely Keep: Honorable Mention
I agree with Greg. A much better write-up than the previous
submission.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Population Control Volunteers"
T-Shirts $13 each, printed on 100% cotton Beefy-T's. Sixteen favorite
mottos!
Gene Pool Belly Flops. Die and Learn. The Tree of Life is Self
Pruning.
[T-Shirt Close-up] [Read hundreds of Darwinian mottos!]

Order Online or by Email
or phone 1.888.373.2598
or fax 1.503.266.2373






Recent Decisions
Slush Pile
Slush Pile Rejects


Advanced Search

HomeRules FAQs Awards Slush Contact
DarwinAward | HonorableMention | PersonalAccount | UrbanLegend


Evil Link to Fight Spam.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lee Love"
To:
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2004 5:57 PM
Subject: Re: RANT: The mere suggestion!!! Good book on "thinning the herd".


> Craig Dunn Clark wrote:
>
> > Wayne, for a truly twisted book on natures way of thinning the herd
I
> > suggest "The Darwin Awards." It has it's moments of being
> > crumbled-up-in-a-ball-clutching-ones-sides-gasping-for-air funny, if you
> > have a twisted sense
> > of humor (which I do.) <...>
> > My fear is that the fascist mindset is alive and well.......
>
>
> There has been recent archaeological research into dental
structure and
> the differences between modern Cro Magnon man and Neanderthal man.
> Neanderthal man has 4 root molars while ours tend to be three root. By
> examinine teeth and other archaeological evidence, they figure that
> Neanderthal did not use fire to cook his food. We know from the
> archaeological evidence, that His diet was very similar to the wolves
> that lived nearby. Also, Neanderthal did not have the companionship of
> dogs.
>
> They figure that cooking allow our type of human to survive. We
are
> neotonous, meaning, we have in the adult human certain structural
> features that babies do. The important ones being smaller teeth and
> facial structure that allowed for a larger forebrain. For many years,
> individuals were born with these attributes but did not survive because
> the young could not survive on the non-cooked food, which excluded
> grains that we can only digest after they are cooked. But once we had
> fire and were able to cook, individuals with neotonus skull structures
> could more easily survive to adulthood, to reproduce and allow the new
> type of people to survive.
>
> It wasn't "survival of the fittest" going on in this example, but
> our ability to take care of "weaker" infants that allowed us to survive.
> The interesting thing too, is that the ability to use fire helped
> create modern humans with larger forebrains also allowed dogs to
> survived, who are basically neotonus wolves.
>
> Darwinian social policies only promote selfishness, greed and
> meanness and hinder positive evolution.
>
>
> Lee In Mashiko, Japan
> http://Mashiko.us
> Web Log (click on recent date):
> http://www.livejournal.com/users/togeika/calendar
>
>
____________________________________________________________________________
__
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
melpots@pclink.com.

Russel Fouts on tue 13 jan 04


Craig

>> Wayne, for a truly twisted book on natures way of thinning the herd I
suggest "The Darwin Awards." It has it's moments of being
crumbled-up-in-a-ball-clutching-ones-sides-gasping-for-air funny, if you
have a twisted sense <<

You might also want to subscribe to Randy Cassingham's free weekly
newsletter "This is True" at http://www.thisistrue.com/.

To quote some examples from his web page:

- A man sued his doctor because he survived his cancer longer than the
doctor predicted.
- Two robbers were in the process of their crime when one changed his mind
and arrested the other.
- A woman had her husband's ashes made into an egg timer when he died so he
could still "help" in the kitchen.
- Only 68 of 200 Anglican priests polled could name all Ten Commandments,
but half said they believed in space aliens.

I've been getting it for about 4 years now and look forward to it. There is
also a paid, premium edition if you want a few more stories without the
advertisements.

Russel



Russel Fouts
Mes Potes & Mes Pots
Brussels, Belgium
Tel: +32 2 223 02 75
Mobile: +32 476 55 38 75

Http://www.mypots.com
Home of "The Potters Portal"
Over 2300 Pottery Related Links!
Updated frequently

My work can also be seen on:
The World Crafts Council International Site: http://www.wccwis.gr
The World Crafts Council Belgium Site: http://wcc-bf.org (English Pages)
EasyCraft: http://www.easycraft.org

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that
we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only
unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American
public." --U.S. President (and Nobel Peace Prize winner) Theodore
Roosevelt.

Lee Love on tue 13 jan 04


Craig Dunn Clark wrote:

> Wayne, for a truly twisted book on natures way of thinning the herd I
> suggest "The Darwin Awards." It has it's moments of being
> crumbled-up-in-a-ball-clutching-ones-sides-gasping-for-air funny, if you
> have a twisted sense
> of humor (which I do.) <...>
> My fear is that the fascist mindset is alive and well.......


There has been recent archaeological research into dental structure and
the differences between modern Cro Magnon man and Neanderthal man.
Neanderthal man has 4 root molars while ours tend to be three root. By
examinine teeth and other archaeological evidence, they figure that
Neanderthal did not use fire to cook his food. We know from the
archaeological evidence, that His diet was very similar to the wolves
that lived nearby. Also, Neanderthal did not have the companionship of
dogs.

They figure that cooking allow our type of human to survive. We are
neotonous, meaning, we have in the adult human certain structural
features that babies do. The important ones being smaller teeth and
facial structure that allowed for a larger forebrain. For many years,
individuals were born with these attributes but did not survive because
the young could not survive on the non-cooked food, which excluded
grains that we can only digest after they are cooked. But once we had
fire and were able to cook, individuals with neotonus skull structures
could more easily survive to adulthood, to reproduce and allow the new
type of people to survive.

It wasn't "survival of the fittest" going on in this example, but
our ability to take care of "weaker" infants that allowed us to survive.
The interesting thing too, is that the ability to use fire helped
create modern humans with larger forebrains also allowed dogs to
survived, who are basically neotonus wolves.

Darwinian social policies only promote selfishness, greed and
meanness and hinder positive evolution.


Lee In Mashiko, Japan
http://Mashiko.us
Web Log (click on recent date):
http://www.livejournal.com/users/togeika/calendar

Lee Love on wed 14 jan 04


Chris Clyburn wrote:

>Although what you said has merit, as far as descent from Neanderthal goes,
>recent evidence stongly suggests that Neanderthal and Homo Sapiens may have
>had a common anscestor, Homo Sapiens did not descend from Nanderthals.
>
>
Hi Chis, I you review my post, I did not say we are decended
from Neanderthal.

>Neanderthals were a seperate species coexsiting for a time with modern man
>rather than an ancestor. We were just more adaptable.
>
>

We may have also been more violent and reproduced more quickly,
and may have been the cause of the Neanderthal's extinction.





Lee In Mashiko, Japan
http://Mashiko.us
Web Log (click on recent date):
http://www.livejournal.com/users/togeika/calendar

Lee Love on wed 14 jan 04


Craig Dunn Clark wrote:

> Lee, I believe you misunderstated what I wuz gettin at. No big promotor
>of Social Darwinism here.
>


I understood and was supporting your position. :^)


Lee In Mashiko, Japan
http://Mashiko.us
Web Log (click on recent date):
http://www.livejournal.com/users/togeika/calendar