I have a good deal of sympathy for the chap, but it's pretty risky to set indisciminate booby traps. You never know the consequences (death?) and the person pelted may be an innocent lost child or stranded motorist looking for help. Better to lie in wait, identify ne'er-do-wells' intentions, Taser them silly, then detain them for the local constabulary.
Wow. The video that accompanies the article is a whole lot better than the article itself because it shows the TV News reportrix and her cameraman having the kid read random words they choose from magazines (not words the parent picks). That was pretty impressive! I do wish that they took it one step further by seeing if she could describe (or find) a "banana" or draw/describe a "beetle". And what about abstract non-tangible words like "fright". That is, does she "merely" (really hard to say merely here... she is impressive) have remarkable reading skills or does she ALSO know what most of those words mean (a well-developed vocabulary)?
As an example -- I know the basic rules of pronounciation in German. So, you could hand me a paragraph written in German and I can read and pronounce it more or less correctly. There will probably be a bunch of words therein that I'll not know the meanings of, though. I'm wondering how big her working vocabilary is... Neat story in any event.
@PeteRepeat- The Red China numbers are skewed by all the newborn baby girls deciding to kill themselves rather than burden their family with a daughter.
I had to read the article a few times to figure out what the heck this sentence means: "and primes a cannon that used to fire his wife with a railway sleeper".
I *think* he is using a former circus cannon (formerly used to launch his wife it turns out) to shoot railroad ties (the wooden timbers the rails are laid upon) at the perps. Yow.
Can a U.K. reader verify my interpretation? Getting hit with a railroad tie is gonna hurt!
BTW - It looks like a trebuchet rather than a catalpult... You can see the drop weight suspended on one end of the arm. But I'm just being persnickety :-)
I chuckle how some people are really persnickity about calling jellyfish "jellies" now. I was at an aquarium a couple years ago and I think one of the docents must have spent her entire day self-righteously correcting kids pointing to "jellyfish" and "starfish" telling them they are "jellies" and "sea stars". Yeah, everyone knows they aren't really fish -- I don't think people were ever too confused. Well guess what? They aren't made of freaking jelly or stars either!
Evil Pundit raises an excellent point. The fascism of Political Correctness forces us to not acknowledge inate biological differences between the sexes.
@Naomi- Saying the food must be fit for human consumption isn't the same as having an individual taste test every variety. They make it "fit for human consumption" by controlling the ingredients, not by tossing in whatever and then ex post facto testing it on a dude to make sure it doesn't kill him. The taste tester is there for *taste*, not toxicity testing.
It wouldn't be bad if you replaced the donut with a bagel. I'm not too wild about sugar mixing with hamburgers. Eat it with a bagel and then have the donut for dessert.
@Justin- I am NOT a smoker, nor ever have been. I hate smoking and being around smoke. That said, I also hate the credence given by the press to bullshit studies even more... If you wish to advance an agenda (and don't we all?), it only *hurts* your case to attempt to do so via flawed arguments. It's tougher to design a study that attempts to isolate the varied factors and eliminate (or at least minimize) cross-correlation, but it's not impossible. 'Tis only an incompetent / lazy / biased (choose one) academician who would have designed so flawed a study.
Also see my critique on the study that "shows that kids lose weight by eating breakfast". More fodder.
Actually the buzzword nowadays is "global climate change". That way, you can keep people needlessly alarmed at EVERY weather related story that makes the world press. Too hot? Humans are at fault! Too cold? Humans are at fault! Lotsa rain this year? Humans are at fault! Having a drought? Yup, you guessed it.
As an example -- I know the basic rules of pronounciation in German. So, you could hand me a paragraph written in German and I can read and pronounce it more or less correctly. There will probably be a bunch of words therein that I'll not know the meanings of, though. I'm wondering how big her working vocabilary is... Neat story in any event.
The Red China numbers are skewed by all the newborn baby girls deciding to kill themselves rather than burden their family with a daughter.
"and primes a cannon that used to fire his wife with a railway sleeper".
I *think* he is using a former circus cannon (formerly used to launch his wife it turns out) to shoot railroad ties (the wooden timbers the rails are laid upon) at the perps. Yow.
Can a U.K. reader verify my interpretation? Getting hit with a railroad tie is gonna hurt!
BTW - It looks like a trebuchet rather than a catalpult... You can see the drop weight suspended on one end of the arm. But I'm just being persnickety :-)
Saying the food must be fit for human consumption isn't the same as having an individual taste test every variety. They make it "fit for human consumption" by controlling the ingredients, not by tossing in whatever and then ex post facto testing it on a dude to make sure it doesn't kill him. The taste tester is there for *taste*, not toxicity testing.
How does one slam on their "breaks" ? If the car has "breaks", maybe it needs "fixes" instead?
I am NOT a smoker, nor ever have been. I hate smoking and being around smoke. That said, I also hate the credence given by the press to bullshit studies even more... If you wish to advance an agenda (and don't we all?), it only *hurts* your case to attempt to do so via flawed arguments. It's tougher to design a study that attempts to isolate the varied factors and eliminate (or at least minimize) cross-correlation, but it's not impossible. 'Tis only an incompetent / lazy / biased (choose one) academician who would have designed so flawed a study.
Also see my critique on the study that "shows that kids lose weight by eating breakfast". More fodder.
Actually the buzzword nowadays is "global climate change". That way, you can keep people needlessly alarmed at EVERY weather related story that makes the world press. Too hot? Humans are at fault! Too cold? Humans are at fault! Lotsa rain this year? Humans are at fault! Having a drought? Yup, you guessed it.
Nostra culpa, nostra culpa, nostra maxima culpa!