I hunt. I also love animals. I think raccoons are cute. I also know that raccoon dropping are dangerous (brain worms, yuck). Personally, I trap raccoons and woodchucks in non-lethal traps and drive them up into the mountains. I've always felt there's something spiritually wrong about killing animals for no reason (e.g. not for food, or in self-defense).

Not to mention that guns, love them or hate them, had a tremendous impact on shaping history. It would be odd not to recognize their impact.

@jason123, you'd think there'd be some legal way to get papers made showing you were th owner of the house if the bank couldn't show they owned the home. It may take years but it'd be worth it.

@ Mr. Awesome: "There is always a measure of uncertainty prior to "let it rip." And to confuse even more it has been shortened to "let er rip" "

How is "let er rip" a shorter version of "let it rip"?

"a constant state of ill-informed naiveté"

That's how I feel all the time anyway.

Several years ago a I was part of a collaborative site that used online baseball stats to figure out the days old baseball card photos were taken. Using stadium clues, weather, players on base or on deck in the background, we often were able to pinpoint the exact at-bat when the phot was taken. I thought this was pretty cool.

I think I have a new nickname for my wife, Hi-o!

I think it looks grosser, er, more gross. Fast food burgers are pretty sucky but I'd rather eat one than whatvers on that plate.

@Sandy: no you see, since they banned fortified foods people will now smarten up and eat real foods, because eveyrone knows when you ban something, people realize it was a bad lifestyle choice and make those changes in their lives.

@Jeffos

A more appropos scenario would be:

You loan your co-worker $10,000 to buy some stock. He signs a loan agreement. You head over to the company your co-worker purchased stock in and dump gallons up gallons of gasoline throughout the building. You light that SOB up and burn it to the ground.

The next morning you ask your friend if he needs any extra time to pay back that loan, because he better not if he knows what's good for him.

Yeah, I couldn't not pay and continue to live in it. That wouldn't work for me.

But suppose I were ever in a situation where I stupidly mortgaged a house that was 5, 10, 20 times more than I should have, well, I'd seriously consider mailing the keys to the bank and defaulting.

My house has a bunker. Previous tenants had it built around that time. It's basically another half-basement about 50% lower than the actual basement. It makes for a great wine/root cellar. And if I have to use it as an actual bunker, I'll have an awesome time.

It's not that off-base. I love zombie movies and reading books about zombie apocalypse (and other end of world scenarios) but the reason I like them is because of the preparedness and self-sufficiency aspects. I enjoy camping and doing long hikes where I have to prepare to be self sufficient for many days with just what I can carry.

Everyone in my family has a packed bug out bag (BOB) in the trunk of their car. Everything they need to either make it home safely, last several more days in the wilderness, or get to our emergency meet up location.

If you're prepared for a zombie invasion, you're prepared for most things.

I wonder if we found an ice age woman, like we found Ootzi, or whatever his name is, and she stayed frozen rather than partial thawout and she was in early pregancy at the time she died and then got frozen very quickly, would we be able to implant that embryo into a human? That would be crazy. Imagine being a teenager and learning that you were supposed to be born thousands of years ago. That'd be awesome or terrifying.

It doesn't ALWAYS ensure no glass falls back into the bottle. I've found chips before. Just don't drink the last little bit. Of course it could be a technique problem but when you've done it 4 or 5 times in once night, your technique will likely suffer.