[News] strange happenings of 2015

[pwhodges]

Also, red squirrels are cuter than gray - and we all know that cuteness trumps any other considerations.

[Chuckman]

They're an invasive species that would have made Reds extinct, so the greys are going in the pie.

They're not eating these animals, are they? It sounds like they're just disposing of them.

[Ray]

They're not eating these animals, are they? It sounds like they're just disposing of them.

Sweeney Todd and Les Mis aren't joking. Decent cuts of meat were hard to come by in 1800's Europe, especially in the cities. So they had to get. . . shall we say creative with what they put in the pies.

[Chuckman]

I was expressing disgust that these animals are being killed without respect, not incredulity at the idea of eating squirrel meat.

I've eaten it many a time and it's quite good if prepared correctly. It's fallen out of favor now but a type of squirrel stew was once on the menu at the Waldorf Astoria.

[Tankred]

They're not eating these animals, are they? It sounds like they're just disposing of them.

Nah, yeah, they are, but a few celeb chefs have been advocating eating them as well.

[Ray]

Nah, yeah, they are, but a few celeb chefs have been advocating eating them as well.

They did that in Virginia when Snakeheads began killing off the native fish population, biting the toes off of fishermen, eating small pets etc.

The difference is, you can't get Bubonic plague from a invasive fish.

[Chuckman]

Those snakehead things are disgusting and they should all die.

[cyharding]

WTH's running WHO these days? Who's telling them what to ban?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/11954640/World-Health-Organisation-report-processed-meats.html

Damn lies is what they are. WHO should be sued for Libel.

[Ray]

I had it when visiting my family in the south. It's actually pretty good.

[Mr. Tines]

Everyone's a critic!

[Tankred]

Everyone's a critic!

I went to the Tate modern as part of a secondary school trip to London, we kept fooling around and managed to stumble across some old oranges that were evidently part of some kind of art exhibit, he pulled out his packed lunch, grabbed his orange and rolled it smack dab into the middle of it.

That was a good day, though uh, one room was dedicated to these sculptures that evidently boiled down to brains sexually assaulting chickens with phallus-shaped objects, set up as a series of torture devices as sorts, that was pretty messed up.

[Bagheera]

Why Twitter is dying

[pwhodges]

That's actually largely about social media in general and some aspects of modern society in the wild. A very good read, indeed.

[Iuvenal]

I've eaten it many a time and it's quite good if prepared correctly.

What do you do with it, substitute it for chicken? Opening day of northern zone this year I was just about having fever dreams of squirrel cacciatore because they were the only mammals I saw in the woods.

Found plenty of bear scat with brownish-grey fur in it and a bunch of rent stumps and scratched up trees, though, which explains why the bucks weren't visiting their scrapes and rubs.

Saw a bunch of turkeys too, which was a real pain in the ass because they were about four days out of season.

[Trajan]

Why Twitter is dying

The article seems like an overly wordy way of saying that the internet turns people into assholes and that the novelty value of social media is wearing off as people realize it's not a substitute for genuine human interaction.

A lot of business journals have also been running articles about how Twitter has a rather dim future ahead of it unless it turns things around.

[Gob Hobblin]

It's like any community: if you don't have some feasible way of enforcing rules or punishing violators, the community will erode as people migrate to safer communities.

I almost wonder if we'll see a slow rise of 'mini-Twitters,' liked gated communities: isolated and exclusionary social media networks that only allow people who meet certain parameters to join.

[Ray]

It'll still be the go to place for hashtagmessiahs, and celebrities at the very least.

[Trajan]

It's like any community: if you don't have some feasible way of enforcing rules or punishing violators, the community will erode as people migrate to safer communities.

I almost wonder if we'll see a slow rise of 'mini-Twitters,' liked gated communities: isolated and exclusionary social media networks that only allow people who meet certain parameters to join.

Echo chambers tend not to last that long either. Even if the original members get along, they get little in the way of new members due to how ingrained social norms become. A social media platform would need to be dynamic and diverse in order to survive but give users more control over who they interact with. The problem with twitter is that it's a breeding ground of stupidity, bashing other groups and inane statements which turns a lot of people away and keeps others from even joining in the first place. There's also the fact that now that your mom is on Twitter, the "coolness" factor drops significantly. It's sort of funny how all these social media sites are so obsessed with growth when that very growth often leads to their downfall.

[Ornette]

It's sort of funny how all these social media sites are so obsessed with growth when that very growth often leads to their downfall.

It's what happens when you have investors that you answer to. And you've got to have investors if all you do is spend money but make nothing.

[Iuvenal]

Echo chambers tend not to last that long either.

Sed contra, DemocraticUnderground and FreeRepublic both lasted a long time.


Nb. the obsession with growth associated with social media sites is basically due to their VC funding model. The limited partners in VC firms are basically lobotomites the instinctively throw money at a company that produces graphs going up and to the right at a steep and increasing angle, and use their board seats to demand a nontechnical "veteran"/journeyman CEO be installed otherwise.