The Random Discussions Thread

[pimento]

PETA: fundamentalist animal lovers.

[clutch-monkey]

A work colleague owns a white sedan which she hasn't washed for 150,000 kms !! She has never washed the paintwork since purchase, not once.

My best mate's Dad had a really early split-window Kombi which he parked under a tree in the front yard. Anyway after a while it began to look gungy so he decided to refresh it with a couple of coats of the good old Dulux Wash 'n Wear Flat (house paint) and plastered on with a brush of course. And from that day on, it never saw a sponge for 9 long years. By this time the paint was flaking off in big chunks, these large expanses of faded enamel that had curled up and were peeled away from the sides of the car. I remember it as if yesterday. And best of all, the window rubbers on the inside of the cabin had moss growing on them, and the outside ones were covered in lichen.

So .. what atrocities have you guys witnessed? Any personal bests in this regard, or tales thereof?

haha my first mini, i wondered why the paint was an off white....
the guy admitted his son had repaired the paintwork with fridge repair paint.

Yeah, its crazy how those people think, and its even crazier that a lot of people believe them and would then go on to think how horrible australia is for killing the adorable kangaroos.

I've never been to australia and i dont know much about it, but if kangaroos are anything like most decent sized wild animals they are probably a significant pest when in large populations. I also doubt they have many natural predators which means they are probably overpopulated.

PETA fails to realize that overpopulation of any given species will often lead to a much worse death (malnutrition, disease) than hunters will ever do. not to mention, over population of one species is often terrible for local ecosystems and all the other species' in the area.

but lets just concentrate on the fact that ANIMALS ARE DYING!!! instead of logic and common sense

just watch, they'll accuse us of having a monopoly on kangaroos.
reminds me of the backlash from an ad in an outdoor store recently; was for hiking boots, showing a hunter in africa crossing a stream with elephant tasks and rifle etc etc.
even though i personally would not shoot an elephant, i don't condemn it because i know how much the program is worth to the national parks and conservation efforts, and the animals in question would needed to be culled anyway.
In some villages animals that previously were viewed as pests that destroy crops are now a valuable resource, so there is interest in maintaining it.

[wwgkd]

i've got one for you here, was just forwarded a scan of a letter to a francisco newspaper;



/facepalm

Yeah, that's san francisco for you. /double facepalm

In a PETA forum I recently saw some random idiot accusing nasty Australia of killing more kangaroos than all other countries combined !!

Can you fault the logic, though? He is correct. Wrong, but correct.

A work colleague owns a white sedan which she hasn't washed for 150,000 kms !! She has never washed the paintwork since purchase, not once.

My best mate's Dad had a really early split-window Kombi which he parked under a tree in the front yard. Anyway after a while it began to look gungy so he decided to refresh it with a couple of coats of the good old Dulux Wash 'n Wear Flat (house paint) and plastered on with a brush of course. And from that day on, it never saw a sponge for 9 long years. By this time the paint was flaking off in big chunks, these large expanses of faded enamel that had curled up and were peeled away from the sides of the car. I remember it as if yesterday. And best of all, the window rubbers on the inside of the cabin had moss growing on them, and the outside ones were covered in lichen.

So .. what atrocities have you guys witnessed? Any personal bests in this regard, or tales thereof?

Knew a guy who used this old pickup to drive to work (he operates large construction equipment.) He had that truck because if it got backed into while on the site he wouldn't care (and in fact one time it did get backed into and we couldn't tell which side.) But the interior was pretty horrible. Had mushrooms (like seriously, mushrooms) growing around the duct tape on the seat. Every time it rained the truck would leave a ring of dirt 4 inches tall.

You're on the money with all the above and, in my admittedly limited experience of PETA, especially so with this quote below.

I checked out their site and forums to find out why they so vehemently opposed a govt supervised roo cull in Canberra, which was to quell terminal overpopulation and resultant suffering, and in particular to protect rare & endangered species which also cohabit the area. From what I've seen of PETA idealogues there seems a definte tendency to see only the doe-eyed warm & furry cuddly things, while ignoring their (often devastating) interaction with the less romantic species of fauna, and with concern for flora rating almost non existent

Yeah, I've never really understood PETA. Did you guys hear about their campaign to have fish legally renamed to "seapuppies" in the US since they figured that would get people to stop eating them? They keep advocation controlling the population through controlling the food source, but how is starvation better than hunting (by anything)?

just watch, they'll accuse us of having a monopoly on kangaroos.
reminds me of the backlash from an ad in an outdoor store recently; was for hiking boots, showing a hunter in africa crossing a stream with elephant tasks and rifle etc etc.
even though i personally would not shoot an elephant, i don't condemn it because i know how much the program is worth to the national parks and conservation efforts, and the animals in question would needed to be culled anyway.
In some villages animals that previously were viewed as pests that destroy crops are now a valuable resource, so there is interest in maintaining it.

Hey... you do have a monopoly! Give us our share!!!

Yeah, I know a guy here who has a pistol made in 1898 with the original ivory grips on it who just got bitched out for supporting the ivory trade. Really?

[pimento]

My mini used to leave milky puddles when it rained because the paint was powdering off. I stopped washing it because I figured it'd be better for it to be dirty than rusty.

[wwgkd]

My mini used to leave milky puddles when it rained because the paint was powdering off. I stopped washing it because I figured it'd be better for it to be dirty than rusty.

hehe. I like to keep a nice thick layer layer of mud on my Jeep, partly because it's a 4x4 and it's supposed to be dirty, but partly because I always figured it was better to have branch-scratched mud than scratched paint.

[pimento]

hehe. I like to keep a nice thick layer layer of mud on my Jeep, partly because it's a 4x4 and it's supposed to be dirty, but partly because I always figured it was better to have branch-scratched mud than scratched paint.

That'll work.. as long as the mud doesn't trap moisture in that will then get under the paint and scratch things.

My motorbike still has red dust on it from that dust storm morning come to think of it... even riding it through the rain on saturday didn't wash it all off.

[LeonOfTheDead]

Bump.

So one of my professors screwed big time, again.

We're supposed to finish a quite time consuming group project by about mid June, so sustain an oral discussion about it, and get the exam done.
We did, and the discussion was supposed to happen in a few days. The midnight before the exam he sent me an email, telling me he is busy, and we won't do it until mid July, the 20th to be precise. OK.
The other day we're there, with many other groups, just to find out he forgot about our project, and about many others too. Didn't look at them, didn't check them. While creating the stupidest excuses ever, he settled for another day, next Thursday.
Tonight he send me and all other students another email, saying is once again busy, and we will (supposedly) sustain the exam in September.

You can imagine our Dean too will have a busy morning tomorrow.

Many students are not from Modena, like me, and we are close to our summer break, so many were still there just because of this exam. Also, being so time consuming, we were forced to focus on this project as opposed to others so to finish it in time, thinking we were going to do this exam, you know, now. Chances are some of us will be back home with zero exams for this period, also because of him. Won't be my case fortunately.

Still, **** ***, *** ****** *******.

[wwgkd]

If you want to form the mob I'll get the pitchforks and torches.

[LeonOfTheDead]

If you want to form the mob I'll get the pitchforks and torches.

Deal.
Apparently there already are quite some emails sent to his and Dean's boxes.
The surprise is wasted, but I'd really use some torches

[IBrake4Rainbows]

Basically, if he's too incompetant to remember, it's reprehensible.

You have already bent over backwards to fit his timetable, and he "forgets"?

Yeah, time to kick heads.

[LeonOfTheDead]

there is more.
today we spoke with our Dean, who then called him on the phone. Not exactly a kind phone call. We managed to have the test again, but we had to find a classroom, and set everything.
Once everything was ready, I've sent him an email with the classroom and all, and he complained for the lack of air conditioning.

Seriously?!

Less than 30/30 is not an acceptable grade at this point. I was already very confident my (our) project was pretty much excellent, now I have no doubt on that.

[IBrake4Rainbows]

He sounds recalcitrant. Stab him in the neck.

[pimento]

Who says violence never solved anything.

[IBrake4Rainbows]

Gandhi.

But look what happened to him!

[pimento]

Exactly! I've solved things with violence.. bike panels not going back on properly, drawers not opening.. all sorts of things!