This is called humanity.

Posted Jul 22, 2011, 5:40 AM UTC

Posted Jul 22, 2011, 5:40 AM UTC
This is the type of person I hope to be when I am his age.
Better steer clear of the radiation then.
But how else will I gain super powers?
A spider bite of course.
A power battery and ring.
He's right you know. Turns out the spider was magic, not radioactive.
If you get bit by a radioactive dung beetle you become a politician.
let's reboot that story and make it worse.
I once passed up the opportunity to be bitten by an irradiated spider.
For real. It had a web spun in front of a neutron beam stop.
There's not a day goes by...
As a child I used to capture spiders and put them in the microwave in hopes of creating a radioactive spider. The hope was then that the spider would bite me and I would be turned into some sort of "spider-man"... However I just ended up killing a lot of spiders.
I got bit by a spider last night, I'm really hoping it was radioactive.
But wasn't the spider itself radioactive?
But not nineteen.
[deleted]
IT'S A TRAP!
Mayor West, you have lymphoma
Oh my.
Cell phone radiation?
[deleted]
And plutoniumheads selling bananas.
Even you thinking this now means you will be. I am 45 and around the 40's most of us start to realize that our selflessness defines us more than our younger aspirations.
I see where you are coming from, and I believe that it is a gradual change. I am turning 30 this year, and I have gone back to school to get a degree that can help me attempt to fix the world. 10 years ago I wanted to be in music, because I wanted to tour with Rock Bands. When I was 10 I wanted to be rich so I could pay people to dance for me while I laugh. Where am I going to be when I am 40?
Edit: Dyslexia
in debt?
Booooo!!! Bad form.
the redditor inside me says you'll be here at 40 posting about 50.
the 4chan troll inside me says dead in a ditch wearing a radiation suit next to a burnt up golf cart in the middle of a grocery store.
Ditch in a grocery store?
The list of ditches located in the middle of grocery stores is probably very short. Then again, 4chan trolls are not known for their factual information, or flavor.
Ride bike, have sex with pizza, steal girl.
Leave us 4chan n00b!
What are you getting a degree in?
selflology.
Keeping it real
redditology of course?
Undergrad is sociology, and Law School working on International Law. When I finish I am going to attempt to attain a position with an international charitable organization as legal representation.
In a grave. That's where your dwindling aspirations are going to be, if any indication can be inferred from what you shared.
Well judging by your logic and the general progression of your changes with age, if it keeps going exponentially, by 40 you will be the most altruistic person on the planet, offering up your vital organs for transplant to anyone you meet on the street who needs them.
Which, honestly, will make you pretty great.
advice: don't get involved in student politics. Or at least if you do, only smile when you come up against corruption in others and get everything recorded/written down/witnessed for AFTER you finish your degree. Otherwise you may find at the last leg you'll lose it. Speaking from personal experience, similar situation to you.
This is for your edit.
When I was 10 I wanted to be rich so I could pay people to dance for me while I laugh.
Scumbag Preteen? lol
BECOMES TRUST FUND BOY
PAYS ADULTS TO DANCE AND LAUGHS AT THEM
Well, uh at 20 I just don't give a fuck, so I don't see a need to fuck things up.
I feel good that at 18 I know I want to help the world as a part of NASA
So what do you recommend a 22 year old aspiring programmer do? What if what I love to do has very little selfless benefits?
I just turned 20 and you saying this really makes me think hard about shit. Especially since i already have been. Not a teenager anymore.
From here, it's either uphill or downhill, and entirely up to you.
You're still young. Live dammit!
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I like to think that. I read the post and immediately thought "yup. I'd do that." Then I read this comment and wondered if I would really. But since I've thought for ages I'd be the first to volunteer for a one way trip to mars, even if that meant certain death within a decade or so, I think yeah, I probably would.
TL;DR I like my life but not so much that I wouldn't trade it in a heartbeat for something much more worthwhile.
Edit: repeated myself myself
When your backs against the wall in the greatest sense and there's no way out you'll get a chance to judge yourself.
When your backs against the wall in the greatest sense and there's no way out you'll get a chance to judge yourself.
Yet the ones who don't have all the power...
?
I wanna ski jump a barrel full of Mexican babies.
And I wanna learn how to ski too.
HA! What about today's generation of baby boomers is "Selfless"?
When your backs against the wall you get to know yourself in a very deep way. You know when to walk, run and fight. When to make a stand and even when you have to possibly die.
What if (in the US, at least) as people get older, they tend to develop an altruistic mentality; unless they are financially successful, then they figure their success is a reward from God or some objectivist bullshit? Hell, even if they do mean well for the people, they're so poisoned from religion and all the other lies they were told as children, that they give a massive shit about all the wrong things. People just keep saying shit about how the standard of living in the US is great (regardless of debt), people are greedy and nothing can be changed, the rich make jobs, [climate destabilization] isn't real (and if it is, it's not man-made), electric and economincal vehicles are un-cool, God favors capitalism and the US, US workers are lazy, anti-union propaganda, homophobic things, racist things, religious things, psychological abuse of genders that don't match the constructs to which toys are marketed, mass-media mania, sensational news speculation, mad-world, sin and punishment (except if you kill your baby because your dad raped you), "pirating" media that a toddler can learn to duplicate for essentially no cost, things about not disciplining children, general disinformation, things about how science is just guesses, and praise of head-smashers, idiot "old-timey" politicians, and so-called "ruthless" CEOs (Jobs).
That was a Dennis Miller rant on steroids (or some other kind of substance).
But seriously, I'm born and raised in Small Town USA. And while I know lunatics like you described do actually exist in this country, they are a small minority, and I can simply turn off am radio to shield myself from that kind of shit.
I suggest you do the same, or if you hapeen to be living amongst a higher concentration of wackos than most, I suggest getting the fuck out of there, because you seem to be if fixated on these things in a way that is not healthy.
I think it's unhealthy to be unconcerned about and inactive with promoting human sustainability. I imagine that you have an attitude of that a person should never care too much about anything. Don't take that the wrong way, alright? Those that are ruining the country keep saying and convincing those susceptible. I don't even exactly blame them; either end of the communication. I would like to point out that there is some irony in telling me to I'm "fixated" on these things, which implies that it is bad for me to continue writing or speaking about them. I've been many places around the world.
We can be this type of person now.
Do you really the baby boomer generation would do anything selfless like this?
I think America Accidentally a generation :(
Yeah, they can be irritating.
It's cute that people think it's gotten any better, if anything I'd say younger people are worse, and I'm 22.
I think what dementi13 is trying to say is that we don't have to wait until we're old to be this selfless.
Sure, the original post is very specific to the elderly, as it requires people who don't necessarily need to worry about the long-term effects of radiation. However, the rest of us can still make other selfless sacrifices without having to wait until we're older.
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[deleted]
asdf
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They are being selfless right now. Why else are they fighting the GOP against cuts to Medicare and other social programs?
So they'll have it when they retire, duh.
Don't be surprised when the boomers swell the ranks of AARP and vote against the younger generation.
the GOP IS the boomers
...its boomer on boomer action out there.... :/
They ARE the boomer generaton, you know.
You accidentally a word.
I don't usually accidentally a word, but when I do, I make sure I do it without realizing it.
Yes, why don't the boomers do more for us. They are so selfish. I want my MOMMY!!!!
the baby boomer generation
Nice throwing them all in one pot.
Well... what are you going to do with that giant blender?
Baby boomer generation...Will It Blend?
Not without $10,000,000.00 tax free, and a autographed photo of dick cheney,
Imagine if the Boomers of this country took responsibility for ruining our best years. We might actually have futures.
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Do you really the baby boomer generation would do anything selfless like this?
Reddit: No think.
Technically that guy is the same age as the baby boomer generation (and I'm getting tired of pointing out what baby boomers are, people born between 1945 and 1955, by definition).
Actually, the baby boomer generation is defined by the US Census Bureau as anyone born between 1946 and 1964. That's a lot of people.
Mr. Yamada
"I am 72..."
2011-72= born in either 1939 or 1938. Not a Boomer.
We couldn't carry our Grandfather's Jockstrap into battle.
This is the type of person EVERYONE should WANT to be at his age. I'm a small fry in the league of humans, but younger people tend to sugar coat everything for the elderly as if they didn't just experience half-a-century of LIFE. I understand not every elderly person is as feisty as Betty White, but I'll bet less than half of them are as air-headed as her character in Golden Girls.
My point in saying all this is: the USA is the best at making itself the victim. When we read this man's age is 72 our hearts begin to tremble because we think of our fucking grandparents. This man is not our grandfather. He's about to Fukushima radiation in the ass. Fuck yeah!
He's gonna fuck the Shimas? In the ass you say?
Asian?
Japanese to be more precise.
Fuck YEA God damn that's a hero
I try to be this type of person all my life.
even just trying, i bet the people around you in life notice and appreciate your good intentions at the very least all it takes it the want to change and it's crazy how far you can go with yourself
It's the other way around. I met someone long ago who was like this. He inspired me. And I'm loving it every day!
rather than the guy bitching that medicare isn't paying for your viagra?
Amen. Edit: In a non-religious context.
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they're doing gods work if there was a god and he actually cared about us mortals.
i can't believe nobody here has mentioned "melmyfinger."
This is one step beyond humanity imo
[deleted]
Why wait?
Said it before and I'll say it again. I really love Japan. I hope I can get a job and stay!
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Japanese?
I think you need some pre-qualification or some gene-alterations that can't be done yet.
It's not really an ultimate sacrifice if the person who does it has a very good chance of not suffering the consequences.... it is just someone being reasonable and compassionate
Amen, friend.
I hope to look and feel like a 21 year old when I am his age, as I depart for a cruise around Saturn on my space yacht.
You don't have to be old to do good things for your community. Just volunteer at a homeless shelter or soup kitchen. Use whatever you skill you have for free for a non-profit.
The number of good things to do for people is limitless.
Congrats on your 1000th upvote
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In America our elders just spend our money. Then blame us for it.
I'm not sure what you're basing this on, but my grandparents grew up during the depression. They manage their money very well and often help out younger family members financially.
I've also noticed families coming from other countries/cultures tend to take better care of their elders. I've been in and out of nursing homes and hospitals a lot and elderly white people usually live in nursing homes and have few or no family members visiting in the hospitals. Asians almost always live with family members and it's common to see large groups of visitors in their hospital rooms. Noticed the same for Latinos just not quite as much.
I'm white and not trying to talk shit about white people, I've just observed things that lead me to believe our culture is not very generous to older people.
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Thank you so much. It is our parent's generation that really drove the country into the ground, not our grandparents. Not enough people remember this or are afraid to admit it because it is their parents.
[deleted]
I disowned mine. What is the rest of reddit doing?
I blame the 80's.
I blame the decision to elect Reagan. Watch Carter's imfamous speech about consumption, greed and making the hard choices now in order to create a sustainable future. People looked at him and said "shutup you nerd" and elected a spokesperson.
You can never go wrong on that one.
Yeah, because hippies that preach love and peace are the ones who are most likely to not visit their parents. If I could roll my eyes on the net, I would be doing so right now.
The money-grubbing businessmen who care more about their fucking wallets than the people around them are the problem. They're also the reason the US basically fucked the global economy. :)
What is this with generation-blaming? Let's see how gen-x (my generation) and gen-y fare through the years. I don't really see that one generation is magically virtuous, another one not so.
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Hey, speak for your own buddy!
My grandmother told her own daughter that she needed to "get off the government gravy train". My mother is a highschool biology teacher who probably won't get to retire. There are exceptions to every rule, but the Senior citizens are roused from their chairs come election time by Fox News, and the results are public knowledge.
Why isn't Mommy going to be able to retire? I'm being sort of snarky, but legitimately interested.
As a point of comparison, I've spent the last hour tallying up the public school teachers I know at least fairly well. The total is 17. Eight are my siblings/sibling-in-laws and the other nine are pretty close family friends. Age and experience ranges more or less from 26/3 to 51/29. Ohio, Indiana, Florida and Arizona are represented. All public K-12 teachers. Districts range from Cleveland to wealthy suburbs to a out-of-the-way district of 350 student in total.
So, not a statistically significant sample, but I'm comfortable making some bold statements....
There isn't a single of them that is not EXTREMELY well off with respect to (a) job stability; (b) compensation; and (c) retirement prospects at a very young age (60 at most) at a very comfortable pension.
As an example, let's take the 51 year old. That's one of my brothers. He's making $79k/year plus, I think, another $8k supplemental for coaching. He's targeting to retire at age 57 and will have a $68k/year retirement. Not too shabby.
So, not a statistically significant sample
That seems likely:
I found this, though it is on "teacherportal"
http://teacherportal.com/teacher-salaries-by-state
But it is basically confirmed by another generic pay scale site:
http://www.payscale.com/research/US/All_K-12_Teachers/Salary
So I wouldn't be surprised if it was accurate.
Where is your brother working? I know some states pay more, and also pay more for higher degrees. I know my high school history teacher in CT did quite well, but he did have a doctorate, and had been teaching for 20 years, he should be paid very well to teach high school.
I think the idea is that they get paid quite a bit less than they could taking their college degree elsewhere, and the argument is that it is in our interest to pay teachers a respectable salaray, in order to get the best people we can overall.
I know the teachers in CT are paid more (even proportionally when you take into account cost of living) then where I live now (NC) and the results from students graduating in the two states are quite different. Obviously there are other factors involved, but there is a correlation there, and while correlation isn't necessarily causation, it also isn't nothing, and it's considering especially when teacher salaries aren't really "average" anyway.
When my father was in his last phase of emphysema, my husband and I took care of him. We renovated our house to ensure it was accessible, managed his care, and most of all - I wanted to give him a sense of dignity. I wanted to do this, because I knew our time was limited. It was extremely difficult at the time, but we all supported one another. When his time came, he died peacefully in his sleep at home - not in a hospital. (He was young too - only 52.)
This changed my perspective immensely. So much of what we worry about is trivial. What matters in life are the relationships we have with our friends and family - I extract every day and make the most of it. Since that time, we have built a new house, and I ensured there is space for someone to come and stay with us should we ever need it. I believe when you are in your final days, you need your family - and moments of joy, comfort and care more than ever.
It would have been easy to be selfish, but the gift I have received in return has been far greater than any sum of money could bring. I will say this - there are times when you can't be the caregiver, especially if the illness or experience is beyond your capability.
Very nicely put. Family love is worth more than money or material goods.
I feel theres a lot of truth in this you have written. It's not the only way to live but it's a very fulfilling life if you keep in mind others people happiness and comfort.
I know this is anecdotal but I've noticed this as well. The majority of minorities I know all have very strong family ties (not excluding extended family members) whereas most white people I know think it's completely normal to see family members only on Thanksgiving or Christmas.
Honestly, you are basing your generalization on a small sample of people. I live in the South (US) and family ties tend to be stronger in this region. Almost every white family I know is incredibly close. Family values do get influenced by the culture of an area.
I believe the real reason most people only get to see each other on holidays is because of the way we work so much. Americans almost never take off, and their work would probably not allow it. Even if I wanted to see my family every day, by the time I'm done with work and other chores, it's time for bed. If Americans were able to work less, say more like European countries, I honestly think families would be a lot closer. I doubt it will ever happen though. It is engrained in our culture to work to death.
When your mother, cousin, grandma, and sister are all the same person, you can't help but be a close family!
You also may be generalizing a bit. I'm from New England and, back when I lived there, I saw my extended family very frequently, even daily for months at a time. Since I moved to California, there are multiple cousins who I talk to several times per week.
TIL, many people who live in the south sing in a choir after work.
I do think that could be some part of it but minorities live in the American system too and adhere to the same intense work schedule that whites do. I think there is a deeper issue than simply having the time.
It could be that we tend to spread out more than minorities. I don't know if this is true; I'm grasping here. In my experience, minorities tend to live and open businesses within a small area. They tend to congregate amongst "their own". Most of my family is spread all over the state and country. Those that live nearby and share similar interests I see quite a bit. Those that require me a full weekend to go see and invite me to church with them on Sunday, I tend not to go see.
I agree with you and I am proof of your assertion myself. I wonder why that is. I wonder if it's because of how we perceive our own value in the eyes of our parents. I know my parents appreciate me now but I never really felt like they did when I was young. I was sort of proof that they were living the way they thought god intended them to live. I was a product of their own desires but never felt like I was that important. I was never a source of pride, merely a duty that they had performed. Then I was in the way mostly and a hindrance to their own selfish desires. I can't say this is the same for all white kids but I wonder if maybe many white baby boomers all had similar ideas, i.e. traditional ideals but also a self centered attitude. I know my grandparents (WWII generation) never missed an opportunity to tell and show me how important I was. I will always be there for them. My father, maybe not.
This doesn't mean that people without strong ties to their bio-families don't form families of their choosing.
I'm not sure what you're basing this on, but my grandparents grew up during the depression. They manage their money very well and often help out younger family members financially.
If we're going by anecdotal evidence, I've been to a bingo hall recently.
What people keep missing is that it's a two way street. I don't see many young Asians having to pay their own way through college.... their parents help them out as much as humanly possible. I don't see the Asian kids in my nephews grade school being raised by their TV's. Many white parents, on the other hand, can't seem to wait until their kids turn 18 so they can push them the fuck out the door, even though in reality that approach isn't best for either party. In the west, having kids is viewed more like having a second job.
I married into a Chinese family and Chinese parents, in my experience, do so much for their kids that when they get old, of course the kid will take care of them in return. Other options aren't even discussed. Any other arrangement would be ridiculous.
I think the baby boomers have completely ravaged our social structure as well as our finances, and unfortunately, it will be Generation X who suffers the brunt of the consequences. Maybe one good side effect of this depression is that it's making people think about this shit a bit more.
So true! I'm black and my husband was white. My family takes care of their own. He was shocked by this and said, to my surprise, that white people don't take care of their elderly family members. He's since passed on by I remember him saying this and realizing just how different our cultures are.
I think Americans fear being old, and so distance themselves from it. This ends up with the elderly not being cared for and respected as they should be.
When my grandfather was in hospital for a bypass operation there used to be at 2-3 family members at his bedside anytime. It got to the point where we used to take fruit and gifts for the other elderly people in his ward.
I personally think sometimes that its better for a sick/elderly person to spend their last days at home with the family rather than a cold lonely hospital bed/ward.
[deleted]
Not to get nitpicky, but the comment in question seems more angry at geriatric members of society than specific American politics. I actually do share a lot of that frustration, though I try not to be a douche about it.
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haha! Bigotry is funny when it's not against us!
There is nothing funny about Baby Boomers.
Exception: George Carlin.
George Carlin was born in 1937. He wasn't considered a baby boomer. Boomers were born after WW II.
what dont you understand about karma ratings? clearly it's funny because everyone else thinks so.
So you base your opinions on what everyone else thinks rather than forming your own opinion based on your own judgement? Boy, sure smells... sheepy in here.
how's the breeze bud? is it whooshing past you?
Its a big cultural difference here. Japanese are more inclined to be amazingly self sacrificial for their community but are really very small givers to charity. In western society, there are different cultures within it. You've got the baby boomers with their sense of entitlement that earned the world many rights but now is coming back to bite us with pensions. They clean their plate to show that the food was good. And you've got the depression kids who don't ever want to be a bother and were far more meek and less demanding on pensions. They always leave a little on their plate so that they won't give the impression they were starving and they were fed so well they couldn't possible eat another bite. Don't knock culture, most have plenty positives and negatives - especially ours today.
Mostly negatives here in good ole Uhhhmerica.
Oh yeah, because my grandparents, who are all in their eighties (with one grandfather fighting in WWII and the other in Korea), should totally STFU and go work at McDonald's. Fucking moochers. It's called cat food, grandma! Get used to it!
Basically, fuck off. There's a reason things like Social Security and Medicare exist. I wouldn't begrudge even the biggest asshole Tea Party octogenarian access to the social safety net.
And for the love of Christ, if you're some asshole of my generation that refuses to vote and then bitches about the political outcome (because the elderly do vote) then you can go suck a major bag of dicks.
You are correct, they shouldnt have to work at McDonalds. However, they should also stop voting against anything that gives anyone else the same benefits they have. Which was his point, dicktits.
Maybe you should get your head out of your ass?
However, they should also stop voting against anything that gives anyone else the same benefits they have.
Reminds me of scumbag elderly teabaggers
(Disclaimer: of course not all old people)
It is not old people. As a demographic, however, they overwhelmingly support the people that want to step on the neck of the lower and middle classes until we have given our last dollar.
Dicktits. That's a good one.
Up vote for "dicktits"
A major bag of dicktits.
Wooosshhh!
Sounds like someone needs a big glass of calm the fuck down.
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I get what you're saying since they've paid in but why can't we just put money away ourselves to have when you're older and not pay into mandatory programs which may screw us (US being the current generation) later on?
I wont argue with that but at age 40, I've already spent half my life paying into the system that will most likely not pay me back. I realize you qualified your statement with "current generation" but I'm not sure what that means.
Sorry, I should've clarified that I just turned 22. At age 40 I could see why you're obviously for that :)
I think what's confusing is that when redditors say a certain generation mooch off the system, they aren't specific about what generation they are talking about. Redditors can be as young as 16 or as old as 50. That's a huge age range. Obviously the generation that grew up during the depression-WW2 area ought to garner a lot more respect then the proceeding ones.
Upvote for telling us the type of bag o' dicks we could suck.
Noone's saying anything against your grandparents, they were from the generation before the baby-boomers. They actually have a reason to self-entitlement, if they have it at all, because they offered their lives for their country and were lucky enough to survive. The problem is the slightly younger generation didn't have to fight in a major war, but they reaped the benefits that the previous generation installed.
That's ok - we'll show them. We'll take away their social security.
Not how it works - they'll cancel everyone else's to keep theirs going.
The ones I've become resentful of don't need social security.
In America they need scooter access ramps.
It's not the 70 year olds that are doing that, it's more the 45-60 age bracket that has really messed things up.
In the West
FTFY
In America, 40 yr old donates kidney to 70 yr old and the doctors allow it
that's not really how donor lists work most of the time but ok. For the sake of shitting on America and getting karma go ahead.
Actually, one characteristic of donor lists is that age does not play a factor (except for the cases when a person is really old, 60's isn't considered old enough).
" General principles, such as a patient's medical urgency, blood, tissue and size match with the donor, time on the waiting list and proximity to the donor, guide the distribution of organs"..." Factors such as a patient's income, celebrity status, and race or ethnic background play no role in determining allocation of organs." It also mentions how children and geographical location have priority, but notice it dodges age, since that is highly controversial. "Of course, debates about organ allocation will continue as long as there is such a large gap between patients who need transplants and the number of organs donated. Who, for example, should get priority, people who are the sickest or those who have the greatest chance of surviving and achieving a long life? And what is the significance, if any, of someone's personal behavior? Should a much-needed heart go to a person who was a heavy smoker or a liver to someone who has suffered from alcoholism?" http://www.organtransplants.org/understanding/unos/
I always imagined being on one of those committees where they decide who should get organs, must be one of the toughest jobs in the world. That and being a judge. It must be so difficult, so many things to consider.
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I heard Dick Cheney may be getting a heart transplant. Apparently, it's better to give it to him than some fourteen-year-old kid out there.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/18/dick-cheney-heart-transplant_n_810308.html
Uh, where's the part about Cheney stealing hearts from 14 year old kids? I read that whole blurb and they never mentioned that.
If he wants to trash talk American society it may be safer to say, 40 yr old donates kidney and it goes to a prison inmate doing 20 to life. That shit does happen and in black and white it pisses me off.
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It shouldn't ever happen, but it does. 65 year old I know just got a liver, even though he has a history of drug abuse.
Le sigh.
Adding 'le' unnecessarily in front of words really is one of the most annoying online habits that people pick up.
bullshit. bullshit. bullshit. That would be one of the first things they check for. They don't just give out organs. Hey smoker here is a lung. Hey alcoholic here is a liver. There are certain things that the person must go through to earn that kidney or that lung or whatever. So fuck you and your stupid insert old age to make it sound terrible and insert bad habit story. Le fuck you
Le sigh.
Please stop doing this. It's right up with spelling "you are" "u r", and on an international site like this one it's especially annoying (some of us, like me, are French). I understand that on some subreddits it's de rigueur but here you have an otherwise insightful comment that in my mind you've gone and ruined.
And while I'm ranting, to anyone who says "faux news" -- you're an asshole.
Well it's because America has a sense of individual liberties and entitlements that trump any sort of moral obligation. This is why Obamacare was so controversial, with many people calling it a gov. takeover of healthcare, or socializing healthcare.
Despite being just about the only 1st world nation without heavy gov involvement in healthcare or gov run healthcare, Americans see socialized medicine similar to communism. Giving more medical help to the poor at the expense of taxpayers is just unacceptable. It's ironic that healthcare is viewed more like a commodity as opposed to a right since healthcare is sometimes vital to saving alive, yet conservatives strongly oppose it while also being pro-life.
That is NOT the Klingon way.
Read up on the way donor lists work, and then propose a more equitable system. This website man . . .
This website man . . .
Yep, this website, man... with millions of unique visitors that are all the same: ignorant and beneath you. It's a wonder you even bother to come back every day, and for hours at a time.
"Should younger people wait less time for a kidney? For more than a quarter century the rules for obtaining a replacement organ were simple: get in line."
"Now the United Network for Organ Sharing, the private, non-profit organization that manages the nation’s organ transplant system for the government, is considering changing the wait-list criteria. Instead of giving priority primarily to patients who have waited the longest, the new rules would award organs to a greater extent based on factors such as age and health to try to maximize the number of years provided by each kidney, the Washington Post reports."
http://blog.chron.com/sciguy/2011/02/should-younger-people-wait-less-time-for-a-kidney/
Downvote for insulting reddit
Specifics of waiting list rules, which can be seen at OPTN website, vary by organ. General principles, such as a patient's medical urgency, blood, tissue and size match with the donor, time on the waiting list and proximity to the donor, guide the distribution of organs. Under certain circumstance, special allowances are made for children. For example, children under age 11 who need kidneys are automatically assigned additional points. Factors such as a patient's income, celebrity status, and race or ethnic background play no role in determining allocation of organs.
Contrary to popular belief, waiting on the list for a transplant is not like taking a number at the deli counter and waiting for your turn to order. In some respects, even the word "list" is misleading; the list is really a giant pool of patients. There is no ranking or patient order until there is a donor, because each donor's blood type, size and genetic characteristics are different. Therefore, when a donor is entered into the national computer system, the patients that match that donor, and therefore the "list," is different each time.
So no. As much as you sensationalist morons like to reduce things to an oversimplified coloring book perspective of the world, it's not true. Yes, an elderly person may receive an organ before a significantly younger person, however that is not the basis of the decision. And downvote away as if I could give a shit about karma or your opinion.
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do i smell a new meme?
If I see a Scumbag Grandpa pop up anytime soon, I will be very disappointed.
MananWho is RIGHT! We need to call this meme Scumbag Grandpa.
Maybe just the harsh reality America currently is experiencing.
harsh reality = meme
Only if it has a original title to it. No "Scumbag _________"
Well, Soviet Russia did well in its time. Just say "In America" followed by whatever depressing truth you want the world to know (relevant to whatever thread you post it in of course)
My 70 year old Grandma got a heart from a 23 year old. She has now lived 10 years more than she would have had they not replaced the mush that was in her chest. The average life-span of a heart is now 15-20 years.
Fuck you and the high horse you rode in on.
Uh oh! My heart is 4 years past its use-by date...
I never understood how anybody could be mad at a horse who happens to smoke some pot every once in a while.
sorry to make you feel bad, but it's understandable how you can feel this way given that it is your family member. When faced with such circumstances, you have even tried to justify what happened by reasoning that a heart is only good for 15-20yrs anyways.
This reminds me of some people who've had loved ones get cancer, pray to God for help, and when the cancer successfully remits, reason that God must be real and merciful, and absolutely NOTHING can convince them otherwise.
However, you must empathize and keep an open mind. Imagine that your mom or sister or any young family member had a failing heart, and passed away while on the transplant waiting list. How would you feel if the person right above your family member was a 70 yr old who had a heart transplant that otherwise would have been suitable for you loved one?
It's possible that the heart was only suitable for your grandma, but I won't speculate on might have happened. It is however a fact that there are more people on waiting lists than there are actual available organs.
Now I just feel like a jerk m(_)m My apologies if my internet jerkwad moment stepped on a sore subject. My grandma was on the list for 4 days before she got the call, so I strongly suspect the heart was unsuitable for anyone else within range.
Truthfully, I think "maximizing return on investment" is the future. It takes a lot of data to enact such a system and honest players at all junctures. Often the biggest roadblock is people who get shafted by such systems coming to terms with the loss. Also, the more complicated the system, the easier it is to hide corruption.
This is a trite example in an otherwise serious topic, but the BCS is the most advanced system for selecting fitness amongst a field of applicants based on expert opinion and it gets more crap than an equivalent playoff or straight draw system would. As is, the system is defined and allows people to prepare. Fitness-assessments just open up a can of worms the system can't support in its current state.
From my interaction with UCLA (and now Cedar Sinai), it is plain that the system helps as many as it can and will turn away those who will piss away a new lung, heart, liver or kidney (my grandmother's roommate was told to leave, basically a death sentence, when they discovered she was still unable to quit smoking while on the lung transplant list). Adding more filters that are subjective and fudgable could jeopardize the public trust in the system.
Don't worry about the downvotes, Reddit is on dumb slay-the-old mode again because they remember an 80yr old complaining to them once.
At the same time a person who is under 20 who needed a hart died.
Yes, because everyone knows that all hearts and patients are perfectly compatible with each other, every candidate is waiting in the next room, and no complications rise from the surrounding environment to adjust the situation even more.
Please, investigate the situation before typing more ignorant bullshit again.
Not a zero sum game here. Most heart transplants can go on heart-lung machine for an extended period of time while waiting.
Congrats, your grandma lived 10 more years at the cost of someone else living 50+. Fuck you and the low horse you rode in on.
This is unlikely most heart transplants last only 20 years at the maximum, occasionally you will find someone who has a heart last 20+ years but its rare. So its more likely that only 10 years were lost on that heart. Also remember that organs have a very short shelf life and its very hard to tissue match people to organs so its possible that his grandmother was the only possible recipient for that heart. No one else might have been close enough or the right tissue match.
Is living 15-20 more years at the expense of someone else on the list waiting just a little bit longer to get a heart in most cases.
FTFY, jerkass
I'll just wait to hear what you have to say after you've worked for 50+ years like most elders have.
what about the elders before them- the ones who also worked 50+ years and fought in world war II and paid 90% marginal tax. What's the excuse there?
All the awesome people were born in a single generation?
long and short? They actually cared about their country.
I'm confused as to why there is even a discussion? The way the system works is you work all your life, pay your taxes (thus pay into SS,) and when/if you reach the ripe old age of 65 you can retire and live the rest of your days with what you earned and deserve.
To take that away from them is cruel and unconscionable. Even in the worst cases, what kind of society would we be if we didn't provide "security" for those who are too old to provide it for themselves.
That "system" "worked" when the average age of retirement was death.
It's not uncommon for people to spend as many years in retirement as they spent working. You can't just magically go from people working a job to support themselves to being taxed to support a whole 'nother person without expecting some problems.
Mispost please ignore.
And "Whoo Canada!" indeed my northern friend.
WOOO CANADA!
Woo Alcohol!
In America our elders just spend our money. Then blame us for it.
** Citation needed **
No need to cite common knowledge.
As an American who lives in Japan, don't think Japanese elders don't spend Japanese money. The pension is heavily skewed to them.
You seem to have "old people" confused with the baby boomers.
Either spend it or think that they will be a millionaire sometime before they die, even if they will only have a year to spend it. So is the American dream.
Uh, the elderly are the last morally sane people in the US.
In America, the young rarely respects the elder.
Yea, the baby boomer generation sucks. However, we have great here compared to Italy. The elderly over there passed multiple laws securing jobs and pensions that make firing anyone over 50-60 too expensive. This makes finding jobs all but impossible for the Italian youth.
I earned that money by growing up in Australia and then moving here.
What the shit mate? My grand parents were fucking amazing. My parents both got into serious problems a few years back because of the economy (one was real estate agent and the other was a tech support). My grand parents sent almost all their money in order to help them out.
It's part of our society and individualism is growing, so no matter how resentful you are now chances are in your lifetime you will be no different.
Exactly! I keep trying to get my grandmother to mow the lawn but all she does is complain about her damn hip!
I bet she'd change her tune real quick if it came out that Monsanto grass and fertilizer was radioactive.
Pretty sure it is.
Nursing Home Orderly: Good news, everybody, we're extending arts and crafts time by four hours today.
Elderly Woman: My fingers hurt.
Nursing Home Orderly: What's that?
Elderly Woman: My fingers hurt.
Nursing Home Orderly: Oh, well, now your back's gonna hurt, 'cause you just pulled landscaping duty. Anybody else's fingers hurt?... I didn't think so.
The only Sandler movie to exist in my world
Adam sandlers gonna kick your ass!
I read this entire thing in the Professor's and Fry's voices.
if you were a fan of happy gilmore, you'd have read it in the proper ones.
I've seen Happy Gilmore, it's just the "Good news everybody!" made me think of Futurama. :P
In all fairness, some people's hips just can't take it. My grandmother had a double hip replacement and finds it hard to even stand for more than 30 minutes or so.
Does she tell you to get off her lawn?
Dude
:D
D:
:D
Why reddit?
This is the way men were expected to act when they were growing up, and how people in general still should. You hear stories form the Titanic where the men would put on their best suits and usher their wives and children into the lifeboats and tell them they'd get on the next one and not to worry. They knew they were about to die, but they did it with dignity. Again here you have the old stepping up and taking fate with dignity to make sure others don't suffer.
I hope to god if a moment in life is put forward like this to me I'm not too cowardly to let someone else take the risk for me.
Actually in regards to the Titanic they believed they were going to be rescued long before the ship went down (it was sinking very slowly). That's why there was no sign of panic on the ship.
Up to that point they were only following procedure and no one really believed they were going to die. They managed to contact several ships with their SOS signal. They had hope. Unfortunately none of the ships were able to make it in time.
Actually, the ship was sinking very rapidly. For a space that big to fill with water in a hair over two hours is huge.
While it's true that most of the people who were offered spots in the first 10 boats thought the ship would remain afloat, by the time the last 7 boats (three of the four collapsibles were not lowered by davits) were lowered, it was apparent what was happening. This is reflected in the capacity numbers: boats 1-10 were launched at anywhere from 5-24% capacity, while the last seven were at 92-110% capacity.
There were plenty of signs of panic on the ship. There are several reports of officers drawing pistols to keep the crowd back (most notably 2nd Officer Lightoller and 5th Officer Lowe, who both survived and related their first hand accounts of doing to so congress) and at least one record of shots being fired (Lowe again; he said he fired a warning shot along the ship's side.)
But despite the increasing desperation of the situation, there were, indeed, still many accounts of bravery among the men: John Jacob Astor put his pregnant wife into a boat, only asking for the number so he could find her again; Ida Strauss was offered a spot in a lifeboat but refused to go without her husband, Isador. When it was suggested that nobody would object to the 75 year old Mr. Strauss taking a seat, he said he would not get on before any other man. And, of course, there's Benjamin Guggenheim, who disappeared below decks with his manservant, only to return some time later dressed in their evening best. When survivor Jack Thayer asked him about it, Guggenheim replied "We've dressed up in our best and are prepared to go down like gentlemen. Tell my wife, if it should happen that my secretary and I both go down, tell her I played the game out straight to the end. No woman shall be left aboard this ship because Ben Guggenheim is a coward."
Whoa man. Thanks for the interesting information. I am impressed. Especially with that Ben Guggenheim. What a suave motherfucker.
Realizing that the situation was much more serious than he had implied, as well as realizing he was not going to be rescued, he then returned to his cabin with Giglio and the two men changed into evening wear. The two were seen heading into the Grand staircase closing the door behind them. He was heard to remark, "We've dressed up in our best and are prepared to go down like gentlemens." He also gave a survivor a message saying, "Tell my wife, if it should happen that my secretary and I both go down, tell her I played the game out straight to the end. No woman shall be left aboard this ship because Ben Guggenheim is a coward." **Mr. Guggenheim and his valet were last seen seated in deck chairs in the Staircase sipping brandy and smoking cigars. **Guggenheim, his valet Victor Giglio, went down with the ship. Their bodies, if recovered, were never identified. Guggenheim chauffeur René Pernot was also lost in the disaster.
I feel like this should spawn a variation of the Most Interesting Man In the World Meme.
I'd don't normally go down with the ship but when I do... I do it like a boss.
Suave indeed. Also, dead.
This was actually pretty interesting, can we get some sources? Both for further reading and so I don't feel silly repeating it.
Thanks! Sources are no problem:
For the best in-depth reading, the two that pop immediately to mind are Walter Lord's classic "A Night to Remember" (the first book to rely heavily on survivor stories), and Wyn Craig Wade's "Titanic: End of a Dream", which offers the best look at the congressional hearings after the sinking and Wisconsin Senator William Smith, who was behind them. The actual transcript of the senate hearings is available as well which, while dry in many spots, is worthwhile for the testimony of Captain A.H. Rostron of the RMS Carpathia, which picked up survivors. (It's also noteworthy for being the source of my favorite quote ever: Senator Smith asked 2nd Officer Charles Lightoller "At what time did you leave the ship?" Lightoller responded for the record "I did not leave the ship. She left me.")
Online, Here is a list of the lifeboats, how many were in them, where and when they were launched, etc. It's not the most elegant site to read, but the information is all there.
Additionally, the Titanic Historical Society is a wealth of reading material covering all aspects of the ship and its sisters, including this one, looking into the "brittle steel" theory.
Finally, though it feels like a cop out, there's good old wikipedia, which actually serves as a pretty good jumping-off point for anyone looking to get started.
Hope that helps!
trolling_thunder is well-known as THE Reddit pseudonym of Leonardo DiCaprio.
What greater source could you possibly demand before repeating the true history of the sinking of the Titanic?
shame this was posted as a reply to a post nobody will read, i applaud your words but wish it was posted as it's own comment so that some might read it
I read it! Also, I enjoyed reading it, despite having read that sort of thing before.
Ben Guggenheim "boarded the RMS Titanic and was accompanied by his mistress, a French singer named Madame Léontine Aubart." Hopefully they left that out of the explanation to his wife.
She knew. Ben was handsome for the day, charismatic as all get-out and one of the 10 wealthiest people on the planet. His dalliances with other women were one of those secrets that everyone knew.
Rose Tyler: [about Madame De Pompadour] The Queen must've loved her.
The Doctor: Oh, she did. They got on very well.
Mickey Smith: The King's wife and the King's girlfriend?
The Doctor: France. It's a different planet.
Some of the most interesting accounts I've read from the Titanic, thank you sir.
my secretary and I both go down
I hope the secretary had some sort of a say in that manly decision.
Titanic was a bad place to be a manservant.
Another disparity is that a greater percentage of British passengers died than Americans; some sources suggest it was because Britons of the time were polite and queued, rather than forcing their way onto the lifeboats. The captain Edward John Smith was shouting: "Be British, boys, be British!" as the liner went down.
I found it to be rather interesting how much of an impact a culture can have on the handling of a disaster.
I really want to believe what you say, but I see your username...I hope my tear-jerking is based on real facts.
boats 1-10 were launched at anywhere from 5-24% capacity
Wat? Isn't that a little too stupid for a bunch of people rich enough to board the Titanic?
It was a combination of hubris and the age in which they lived. Firstly, a vast majority of the people on board genuinely believed that the ship would not--could not sink. Especially early on, the prevailing thought was that the large, warm ship was infinitely preferable to a tiny, cold, open sided lifeboat. As the ship's list increased, that changed, but for many it was too late by then.
But as I mentioned, a portion of the blame falls on the prevailing social structure of the time. Lifeboat number 1 in a perfect example of the overriding sense of entitlement among the early 20th century super rich: Lifeboat 1 launched with 12 people; five first class passengers and 7 crewmen. It is commonly believed that Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon and his wife, who were two of the richest people on board, bribed the officer in charge of their davit, essentially buying their own lifeboat. The same sense of money=right that kept third class passengers locked below decks, sealing the fate of hundreds.
Why the fuck would you launch emergency boats from a sinking ship at 5-24% capacity? Was everyone retarded back in 1912?
The Titanic was considered "unsinkable"
Two hours? Fucker felt like 12.
That's also why many of the lifeboats were sent out under capacity; nobody truly believed they were going to die so they stayed on the boat because they didn't want to "pointlessly" leave behind all their worldly possessions.
Brb cutting onions.
that was because back then men had all the privileges, so it was their duty to protect the women and children, now everyone has the same rights
Yes, that is true and affects the story, but they were still awesome.
To be fair they also believed that God was there to welcome them into the afterlife and that the government had it's citizens in its best interest. It's much easier to do self-sacrifice when you believe that you are doing it for the greater good of a system you believe in.
Now it is the old rich men who would get the first priority.
Until it happens, you never know how you're going to react in a situation like that. I like to think I would do the honorable thing.
So the last thing they did was lie to their family? What dicks.
No, the last thing they did was drown.
Dignity. A rare concept and practice these days.
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That is a noble thought and a noble example but I want to point out that in this case these old men are not taking a risk at all because they know they wont live long enough to suffer the consequences. Not to belittle what they are doing but you spoke of risk and I just don't see risk in this circumstance.
Care to explain why you believe women are more deserving of life than men?
I'm surprised we still have people holding sexism "chivalry" in high regard.
The idea that women are completely helpless, and men should be left to die because they were born with a penis is something we should leave with the older generations.
The idea of protecting the women and children was as a protection of the tribe. The logic is simple, If the women and children die the tribe dies. If a man dies the tribe still lives.
We do not live in tribes, we live in families, within communities, within nations.
Regardless of which spouse dies, the family could be considered dead, it could also go on as the other spouse remarries, and more children are born. They could also integrate into another family.
You stated your conclusion there with no supporting argument, by the way, so if you'd care to explain why you feel "tribes" can only continue with a female I'd love to hear it.
why you feel "tribes" can only continue with a female I'd love to hear it.
Because men can't reproduce. Women are more evolutionarily valuable; chivalry is vestigial evolutionary necessity. Our evolution has rendered chivalry obsolete, but if we were ever reduced to a prehistoric state, women would be more valuable again.
Where did he say that? The very first sentence says:
This is the way men were expected to act when they were growing up, and how people in general still should.
From what I understand, he's pointing out that in that era it was part of "being a man" to act bravely and in self-sacrifice. It's the selfless behaviour in general that should still be encouraged... not specifically the idea of a man putting his life down for a woman, but the idea of human sacrifice for the good of others.
You seem to just be looking for something to fight about.
You seem to just be looking for something to fight about.
Are feminists "just looking for something to fight about" too, or is it just people who care about men's rights?
I didn't say anything about men's rights activists at all. I was talking about you, specifically.
Given that this is at least the the second time you've taken a comment and twisted its meaning in your head to start an argument about men's rights, you may want to work on your reading comprehension.
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Whatever, I'll die to protect your life so you can go on saying what a piece of shit I am.
Had you also taken the time to actually read my post instead of flying into a blind sexist rage about how men can be complete scum, you'd notice I referenced the men of the past with how PEOPLE of today should act. There's a reason I changed to sex-neutral word when I spoke of modern day, had you actually taken the time to read it you wouldn't be looking so foolish right now.
I was speaking about how people should stop worrying about themselves and actually stand up and do the right thing with a stiff upper lip, instead of crying about injustice and worrying only for themselves and acting out of selfishness, but I must break my own wishes to say I'd gladly let specifically you go in my place.
Whatever, I'll die to protect your life so you can go on saying what a piece of shit I am.
I did not say sacrificing ones life makes someone "a piece of shit" or bad in any way, anyone willing to sacrifice their life is doing something good- it's the sexist standard I have a problem with. If you had bothered to read my post you'd see that. If you have to twist my words to make a point, then you should rethink your point.
Projection is a hell of a drug.
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Because women want it both ways ;)
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Also called a sandwich
Ooh you are naughty
You can't figure this out for yourself?
Children grow up to be adults and have children of their own so they are the most important. Women are second because they are the only ones that can have children!!!
It's not that women are helpess and men are sexist... It's just the way it is from a species survival stand point, we are and will always be number 3.
because they were born with a penis is something we should leave with the older generations.
Feminists who think this makes a difference always make me laugh.
Feel free to be equal, but it is the social preconceptions that make this the status quo, coupled with the fact that a lot of women like this, and women can and should be more choosy with regard to mates than men (getting knocked up by poor genes = bad). Ergo, women have more reproductive value than men, who are largely fungible.
Because it's a widely accepted belief that Men are the expendable gender
No good answer to a difficult question? Well, a downvote ought to suffice.
And thus the League of Super Powered Elderly People of Japan was born.
The League of Extraordinary Geriatrics?
Supergramp
You're broody well right.
Supergramp! Supergramp! He's supergrampy.
Or "LEG" for short.
Japanese X-Men?
My favorite is Hawk Man
The Mobile Senior Citizen Brigade?
i want everyone to read this!
Oh god, I almost spewed out so much coffee. Thank you sir.
Shit like this is why losing the World Cup to Japan wasn't so hard to take.
I'm surprised there hasn't been a conspiracy theory on Reddit's front page about that yet. It's something I've heard quite a few times from hardcore sports fans: Suffer a disaster, win a sports league. 9/11 happens? Patriots win Super Bowl. Katrina? Few years later New Orleans Saints win their first ever Super Bowl. Fukushima? Japan wins woman's World Cup. Hooray for coincidences and broad generalizations!
Edit: I didn't say I believed this silly garbage, I said I've heard sports nuts talk about it. Jeez, I regret bringing up sports in a thread about humanity.
The Pats aren't from New York.
But they're patriots.
Colonel? Is that you?
Someone said that and honestly believed it. I wanted to beat his ass at the time.
Not only that, but New York probably hates the Pats more than any other city.
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Who would have thought those damn yanks would win the super bowl.
Would've been a lot worse if the New York Jets won the Super Bowl. And as a side note, Patriot is pretty self explanatory.
Not only that, but the Yankees were handed a crushing defeat in Game 7 of the World Series just a couple months after 9/11.
Yeah, but it's not like the Jets or Bills are winning the Superbowl anytime soon =(
and besides, the Bills almost belong to Toronto anyway...
There's also the giants...
What are you talking about dude, the Jets got to the AFC championship two years in a row, the first of which was with a rookie quarterback and coach. I'm not saying they are definitely winning the superbowl this season, but they should not be discredited like that.
One of the top four teams in football two years in a row? Ya, no chance to win a superbowl in the near future...
No but they're the PATRIOTS. Do you have the Patriots? What are you, an un-american terrorist? There is no team more patriotic, it's even in their NAME!
Don't tell that to Cowboys fans.
That's why in 2007 the Giants won.
That's part of the conspiracy. How else do you explain a little place like Green Bay having a team!
well, the flights took off from Boston, so
...and the Pats suck too
9/11 happens? Patrios win Super Bowl.
Exactly. Who would have thought an American team would have won an American sports tournament the same year that we suffered a major terrorist attack??
My money was on Manchester United. It was a very bad year for me.
Brady drops back into the shotgun, launches a hard one down field... AND Michael Owen with the interception! HE RUNS IT BACK TO OLD TRAFFORD HE SHOOTS HE SCORES!
MU WIN THE SUPERBOWL!
Stay away from r/sportsbook.
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It's less that it's an American team and more that the team is called the Patriots.
So what you're saying is that Haiti will sweep the 2012 Olympics?
I'll remember this if they do.
My money is on Somalia, closely followed by Haiti and the rest of Africas horn.
or China. Sichuan earthquake
And one of their native sons will be re-elected to the US Presidency whether he deserves it or not just because the other side is even shittier.
OMG and you are right an American team won the Super Bowl that year. We're through the looking glass, people.
I think it's just that humans can accomplish more with motivation and morale. It's something I feel very strongly about and it doesn't just apply to sports. I hope to inspire my children in this way if I have any.
There's a name for this, but it alludes me. Basically you're remembering and listing the only events where this occurred. They're memorable because the occurred. All the events where this coincidence didn't occur aren't so memorable.
How did the USSR do in the 1986 winter olympics after the Chernobyl disaster? The USA lost Challenger in the same year, did they do better at the winter olympics?
I remember that World Series. Everyone felt the Yankees deserved to win the series because of 9/11. They lost to the Diamondbacks.
And the Yankees lost the World Series in November 2001 to Arizona. That would've been the best opportunity for this "conspiracy" to shine.
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Dale Earnhardt Sr. dies at the Daytona 500, later that year Dale Earnhardt Jr. comes from behind to win at Daytona. Not really the same thing though, but a similar idea of a "sympathy win." See more examples in the linked article.
That conspiracy theory would be a lot more viable if the Jets won the Super Bowl after 9/11, not the Pats.
Perhaps it triggers some sort of instinctive fight or flight thing burried deep in the humans subconcience which makes them physically more adept?
You're reaching, dude.
9/11 happens? Patriots win Super Bowl.
Was Mexico gunning for 1st place or something? France? Only American teams play in the NFL.
Katrina? Few years later New Orleans Saints win their first ever Super Bowl.
Few years later.
No, I'm not, because I didn't say I supported the crazy sports idea. I said it's something I've heard hardcore sports fans talk about, and that I think they are just "coincidences and broad generalizations!"
Brazil lost Ayrton Senna, then won the World Cup '94.
The Patriots winning the superbowl is proof that the terrorists have won.
<---Jets fan
Iraq gets invaded, they won AFC
explain to a New York Jets fan that the Patriots winning the Super Bowl (and 2 more over the next 3 years, for good measure) was their consolation prize for 9/11. That'll go over well.
Maybe cause the good guys won this time?
It wasn't hard to take because noone gives a rats ass about women's football.
(And I'm not a hater, just stating the facts)
I didn't mind them winning the World Cup just because they would appreciate it more. I mean, I'm sorry the US team didn't win because I'm sure it meant a lot to them, but the rest of the country could give a rat's ass. I can't remember who said it, but it sums the situation up perfectly: The only thing the US could care less about than our men's soccer team losing is the women's team winning.
Wow, just think how awesome our species could be if only a small majority of people would think with this much rationality.
They would turn on the other half.
More like the other half would turn on them.
who said half?
small majority
I would assume this means slightly more than half.
A "small majority" is by definition just one person more than the half...
but then the other bit can't be reffered to as "the other half" technically speaking of course..
i disagree
That would be the definition of the "smallest possible majority" not the definition of any small majority. Small is not a precise term and implies a range.
Then the selfish chickenshit half that disagrees would pass a law that forced all of the old people to act thus anyway, therefore spoiling the selfless sacrifice of the few and turning it into a negative.
Because I've seen other examples where exactly that has happened.
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Wow, just think how awesome our species could be if only a half of people would think with this much rationality.
They would be accused of having some sort of agenda.
It doesn't really seem to me that rationality is the driving factor.. compassion really.
Well it seems like selflessness would be a trait not favored by evolution.
Explain bees.
That is more like slavery than selflessness since the bees don't have a choice in the matter.
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small majority
Are you fucking retarded?
Please tell me this is real and I'm not getting trolled.
It's real. They've been volunteering for months now:
TEPCO has been resisting their requests to help. I think TEPCO don't want them anywhere near Fukushima, because many of the pensioners had science, engineering and teaching careers.
If TEPCO has been involved in any shady dealing or corner cutting, then they wouldn't want to use educated pensioner engineers, who would quickly reveal any historically unsafe working practices. Instead TEPCO is happy to sacrifice uneducated disposable labor, confident that any skeletons that may exist are kept firmly in the cupboard.
The shit would certainly hit the fan if the pensioners managed to survey the site and started criticizing TEPCO for bad working practices.
As a footnote, I live in Japan. I've been following this story for a few weeks and as admirable as I find the humanity of the pensioners, I do not think anything will come of this.
You mean like paying off people to hide engineering flaws?
Most likely they know fuck-all about nuclear science.
But you probably think any science is the same. Just like a baker is a fucking god with the meat cleaver in a slaughterhouse.
No need for insults.
As someone who bounces between academia and industry I have met a great many people like you, whose first move is to insult others. It turns out that they throw insults to comfort themselves and cover for their own inadequacies. Look to yourself first and stop being a competitive dick. (That was an insult in case you missed it, but hey, you started this thing.)
I meanwhile, even with quakes, tsunami, typhoons and fallout have a wonderful life in Japan. I have never been happier, and the future looks even better for me and mine.
Now, to address your postulation 'Most likely they know fuck-all about nuclear science.': Japan did some of the most advanced research in nuclear physics in the 1920's and 1930's. Japan has a long history of nuclear investigation. Many of these pensioners although in their seventies would be aware of the, for want of a better word, mechanics of the nuclear industry.
Peace bro'.
You don't know my baker.
At least some of them are retired engineers who know their shit.
It was well posted here back in May; stories probably hit the front page of a 1/2 doz. well represented subreddits. It's amazing how thousands of redditors could have missed this entirely, but I guess that's part of the cost of the 24-hr front page cycle.
THANK YOU! i've been looking for an article on this and i don't know why you're soooo far down!!
it's been on reddit for months now as well.
i just heard about this now.
Interestingly many of these volunteers arent happy aboout being painted as a 'suicide squad', pointing instead to their value as career nuclear physicists. I'll add a link when I'm not posting by phone.
It is real though in reality it will take less than 20 years for the cancer to develop... terminally though he's right.
Old people die quicker a lot sooner. :/
Please tell me this is real and I'm not getting trolled. It is like people on reddit don't know about world-events. It was a fucking earthquake that started a nuclear emergency, how can you not know about what was happening after?
Yeah, it's real. The article is a couple of months old, which is why OP had to submit an imgur link for karma.
Honor is very important to them. They show it.
It still is to some of us.
I think it is to everyone, it's just that some people have an immensely skewed idea of what honour is - primarily, they confuse their honour with their ego.
What do you think is the difference between honor and ego?
Fair question: I'd say that honour is bestowed on you more by others, whereas ego is controlled by your own mind.
"Some" is the keyword.
You're quite right. As a matter of fact I'm quite sure that there would be many elderly people in America or Europe for example who would be willing to do exactly the same thing, the difference being they probably wouldn't be allowed to, or wouldn't be taken seriously.
"Honor is a fools prize, glory is of no use to the dead"
Less honor, more that they are just thinking smart. They know they have less risk from the cancer, so unlike the elderly in...other places, they are willing to get off their asses and help their own people
I may venture that it's less about "honor" and more about just plain old "wanting to help and seeing an advantage in themselves that others might not have" (less fear of long-term radiation damage).
I've been living in Japan for 11 years. I don't think it's honor. They simply want to help out and benefit others and realize they have less to lose in this case. I'd like to think people would behave similarly in the States as well.
If you were over there during it, I've been curious how much looting went on after the tsunami?
In Iwate, none that I've heard of. A older friend that owns his own barber shop had a safe returned to him that contained more than $100,000 equivalent in cash. He gave the guy $5,000 for returning it to him.
It's not "the ultimate sacrifice" if they die before they get cancer from the radiation. Sacrifice means you're losing something, but they're dying anyway. What they're doing is called smart.
Sure, but the compassion comes from the reason why they're doing it. To them, it's not just a logical choice to make, they're doing it to alleviate the burden from being placed upon a younger generation who, in their eyes, have more potential left in their lives. To me, it makes all the difference in the world.
You make a very good point. The motivation is still to help people.
But QuantumMelody's point is good too.
Two things. 1.) Sacrifice that involves some amount of calculation or cost/benefit analysis is often viewed as suspect. I would argue that it shouldn't be. 2.) Sacrifice/risk of immediate death is often viewed to be more praiseworthy than other risks.
2nd point first. While this man's actions do involve some risk, wouldn't we give even greater praise to the young person risking his or her life to fix these reactors? Of course, I don't mean to belittle this older gentleman's sacrifice (because I'm not sure if I, at age 80 or so, would do the same). (For philosophy nerds out there--think of Plato's Socrates' sacrifice of drinking the hemlock at age 70.)
So the 1st point. Often people who perform cost/benefit analyses for their actions are viewed as suspect. So this man here rationalized his sacrifice and figured, since he was more likely to die in the next 15 years, he could help. Why might some people be turned off by this? Well, I would argue that people are often uncomfortable with the fact that one might "gain" something from a good deed. (Or the reverse of the same thing here--one might be turned off by the fact that this man calculated that he had nothing to "lose.") The reason people are turned off by this is that--in determining whether one has some to gain or lose by performing a deed--one is putting one's benefit first and foremost. And people often think that sacrifice isn't sacrifice if you do this. People want for sacrifice to be for the sake of something else, something outside of the person. And I think it is a noble desire. But it certainly is impossible to prove that such actions exist. (Note that I am not saying they don't exist...just that it is impossible to prove they do...for one thing, it's hard to enter someone's heart and determine his/her motivations.) But even the most noble actions, on their face, often can be viewed to be for the actor's benefit. Take the ultimate sacrifice, for example. Risking one's immediate life is often done for honor or reputation or with the hope of an afterlife or out of love. Perhaps people may think I am reducing everything to selfishness. But I would argue that we don't have to consider actions low just because they are done with some view towards benefit. I can still view self-sacrifice as beautiful even if it contains some utility.
TLDR: Even if this man performed a cost/benefit analysis with his sacrifice, we should praise him.
I'm not going to get into the debate but those last two sentences made me choke up a little. Thank you.
I didn't say anything about compassion, just what it means to make the "ultimate sacrifice."
This was my snarky brain's first thought as well. But on a more realistic plane, there's no guarantees that a cancer couldn't develop that quickly, it's just unlikely. Plus there are other hazards with an industrial workplace, and the fact that most 72-year-olds aren't well suited to manual labor. So there's certainly more sacrifice here than sitting on the couch watching robotic squid porn, or whatever old Japanese men are watching these days.
72-year-olds aren't well suited to manual labor
No but if we are talking 72 year olds world wide, my money would be on the Japanese.
Plus there are other hazards with an industrial workplace, and the fact that most 72-year-olds aren't well suited to manual labor
I feel like this image leaves some information out. What, exactly, are they doing exposed to radiation, anyway?
I'm going to down-vote you. I would have very much preferred to read your snarky comment.
The sacrifice is taking the unnecessary risk. That is a real sacrifice.
Quite obviously it's not the 'ultimate sacrifice'.
Their sacrifice is not in years but in ego.
I've read that radiation can lead to leukemia as early as five to ten years. So by the old man's estimation, he could be sacrificing a few years...not to mention some of the other, non-stochastic effects of radiation.
Sacrifice means putting yourself in the path of a bullet so that it won't hit someone else. If the bullet doesn't hit you, it doesn't diminish the fact that you chose to put yourself there.
Smart is more important than pretty much everything.
That's exactly right. It's not so much that they're super awesome courageous dudes. It's more like they're avoiding being massive douchebags. Still, good on them.
I'm continually impressed by Japan's attitude toward everything that has happened to them, and how they've handled it.
They accept it and try to fix it together, rather than groups of people bickering among themselves when each group has their own motives.
Do you really think so? There has been an awful lot of ass-covering, blame-passing, covering-up, and downright lying from TEPCO and the government.
That said, my own experience is that Japanese people are (and are expected to be) selfless to help their group. It just depends what their group is.
Japanese people are (and are expected to be) selfless to help their group. It just depends what their group is.
This really is the most profound thing I've read this morning regarding this situation. Thanks for that buddy.
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This is called heroism.
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Importantly different to Bloodlust, in this case. Everyone hoping for absolutely zero Time Warping.
No I think plain logic suits better. Heroism is for the younger ones.
Even if it is logical, it takes a lot of courage for them to actually do it.
Good news is, the lab boys say the symptoms of asbestos poisoning show a median latency of forty-four point six years, so if you're thirty or older, you're laughing. Worst case scenario, you miss out on a few rounds of canasta, plus you forwarded the cause of science by three centuries. I punch those numbers into my calculator and it makes a happy face.
I upvoted you. Please don't burn my house down with your combustible lemons.
I have this as one of my ring tones, and i just went and replayed it after reading this.
Assuming life expectancy in forty years hasn't got drastically up.
When I get that old, I want to spend the rest of my life fighting crime. In a cape. With a sexy side kick.
I wish you the best of luck.
So you want to be an elder batman?
With a sexy side kick.
ಠ_ಠ
I see nothing wrong with my previous statement.
...Backing away slowly
You will have to start by locating a radioactive pool....
Did you just see Super at fantasia? <3 Ellen Page!
What a bunch of fucking studs.
I'll bet they're gonna get a ton of pussy
Old, but doesn't cease to warm my heart. I love to know that there are humans that selfless still on this planet.
at least in this case it can't be too old
Damn, there are countries where people expect to live nearly 90 years?
Hey, so about that health care reform...
My grandparents died at 96, 93 and 94. My living grandma is ninety and she can out-walk you for about five kilometers (about 3,5 miles i think).
Look everybody, this guy has good genes!
but he still gets outwalked by a 90yo..
hmm... the other side of the family must have poisoned him!
Japan life expectancy is about 82.9 years, US is 78.7. There may be problems with healthcare in the US, but maybe you should make arguments from facts.
I expect that ~4 year difference is down to lifestyle more than healthcare. The Japanese are - as part of their culture, as much as anything else - a very healthy people. The Americans are .. not.
That's not the way life expectancy works. You are citing ages from birth. The people in this story are already old. Your life expectancy rises the longer you are alive. Think about it.
I'm aware that life expectancy changes as people age. My point is that there's a 4 year difference in life expectancy at birth between the two countries. I wouldn't consider that a major problem with our healthcare system. People in Japan don't live considerably longer.
Given that the effects are asymptotic, 4 years reflects a stunningly high difference.
I bet that if you have already lived past 70, your chance of reaching 90 is pretty good. My parents are healthy (still doing sports and travelling) at 80, so their chance of reaching 90 is better than my 10-year-old son's, simply because he has more opportunity to be in an accident or have a serious illness in the next 80 years.
Asian people, particularly the Japanese are k-select. The parents have fewer kids, and invest more resources in each one of them. The kids take longer to develop into full adults. Therefore, they look younger for a longer time than other groups, and they live longer than other groups. They're also brainier than other groups. Those are features of a k-select group.
Asian people, particularly the Japanese are k-select. The parents have fewer kids, and invest more resources in each one of them. The kids take longer to develop into full adults. Therefore, they look younger for a longer time than other groups, and they live longer than other groups. They're also brainier than other groups. Those are features of a k-select group.
Man, I don't know about you but every single one of my relatives on my dad's side (who didn't die in a freak accident or war) all died well into their 90s and some into their 100s.
I look forward to being alive at that age.
<3
I fucking hate you.
Moving story turned into an annoying facebook girl post with just two characters.
we could all learn something from the self sacrifice the land of the rising sun has shown these last months
They've done what they have to do.. frankly I don't think there's any other way it could've been handled. Many Japanese still get on with their day-to-day lives - and they did when the series of disasters unfolded as well. They seem to have brilliant fortitude.
^this, and a bunch of them didn't resort to looting/plundering in a crisis, like Americans will do whenever they get the chance.
Shit it doesn't even have to be a crisis, there was looting in LA when the Lakers won.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/steinberg/4421028-452/but-there-was-looting-in-japan.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703410604576216293024644156.html
Thats why I said a bunch, as in the majority, of course there will still be looting but not as widespread/"acceptable/understandable".
Well what do you expect when people are raised to play as pirates, vikings, etc? Hell I'm Canadian and I wouldn't steal anything ever yet I've always wanted to go on a looting spree. Although I'd only do it if everything was going to be ruined anyway.
EDIT: Come on, don't claim you've never wanted to loot sometime.
So... I assume you were in Vancouver?
They probably would have built robots for the work if the elderly hadn't stepped in,
There's a really offensive kamikaze joke buried in here somewhere.
I was thinking of exactly that.
ಠ_ಠ
Happy cakeday ಠ_ಠ
If you said that slightly after 12/7/1941 it would have a different effect :P
the land of the rising sun
This is a joke, right?
What makes you wonder if it is a joke?
the land of the rising sun
This part... Wasn't that supposed to be offensive/sarcastic? At least in Asia it's like making a Nazi joke.
I don't think so, I think "Land of the Rising Sun" is Japan's nickname.
A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.
-Unknown
A society falls when old men cut down trees whose shade they know they're not going to need any more.
Welcome to the United States
take a seat ...
...over there next to the fake palm tree.
Mindless America-bashing? How original!
Whoa, way to go back 4 months. And it wasn't mindless. It's fairly obvious that that's what's happening.
Actually
Unadulterated ignorance. Your comment would have been more fitting if we were talking about the prison population. Save your hate until after you've verified what your claiming.
Whoosh!
wait... why did a "you're wrong about America and heres why" to a ignorant troll get -9 votes?
Err...metaphorical? Who are you, Boehner or something?
The dude was speaking metaphorically about not planning for, caring for, or stewarding the earth for future generations.
He thinks in the United States that some elements of the society choose short-term self-interest over long-term planning.
Save your vitriol until you have a chance to slow down, take a breath, and use your brain.
Pretty much.
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So it was you!
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-Michael Scott
Tree falls too.
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It's an ancient Greek proverb, actually. One of my favorites.
But your wallet fattens.
^ These 2 quotes. This will determine our place in the universe. A lesson learned or an example to live by?
Social security in a nutshell
I wish I could upvote both this and lateness's comment more than once.
These two quotes pretty much sum up my philosophy, political and otherwise
Sounds like the Republican Party's modus operandi
A society stagnates when trees are neither planted nor cut down and shade increases regularly with the trees that are still expanding their shadow area
-Me
So you're saying that society collapsed in the USA when the first settlers cut down trees to build cabins and clear land for farming.
I hate illogical pseudo-philosphical sounding crap like this.
It's a metaphor for how the older generation make sure the younger generation will have a better future, even if they won't be around to see it. It's quite logical - the problem being you couldn't find that logic.
That would make sense if I was replying to the first comment about planting trees. I was replying to the one about cutting them down being an indication of the fall of society.
It's a metaphor, not a plea from the Lorax.
I didn't say it wasn't a metaphor. I pointed out that it makes no sense and, believe it or not, metaphors are supposed to make sense.
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I didn't say it wasn't an analogy. I pointed out that it makes no sense and, believe it or not, analogies are supposed to actually make sense.
Plus, it's a metaphor, not an analogy.
You're totally right, old men don't cut down trees lest they strain their backs.
This should be NASA's slogan.
well, they just changed it to, "shit guys, didn't there used to be office supplies?"
To be fair it used to be: Goddamn they made the inches smaller on my ruler! - Doug, Doug, calm down man look on the other side!
True story: In elementary school I found a plastic ruler with the inches divided into sevenths (one eighth mark was missing, the rest were evenly spaced, and the inches themselves were accurate). The same mistake was on dozens of these cheap mass-produced rulers, the school was full of them.
I work at a large company that deals heavily in manufacturing. There was a manufacturing engineer here who decided to design his own custom ruler that was about 10" long and had a mark at every 3mm. He wanted the company to pay for these custom made precision rulers to the tune of $1k each. Another engineer handed him his regular metal ruler and said he'd sell it to him for $100, and it even had the added feature of having a higher resolution. True Story.
Not enough upvotes available.
Oh SkullFuckMcRapeCunt, you sound like an outstandingly charming and witty person!
** ME SO SOLLLY ! **
.
** GIVE PRAISE TO CHAIRMAN MAO! **
Oh man, and I laughed out loud at this.
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We could reduce the NASA budget to $300 million, hire Michael Bay, and really "land" on the moon this time.
You'd have to use Spielberg, with Michael Bay it would be ruled a hoax the second the moon explodes as the lander touches down.
NASA has already a slogan: "To boldly go where Juri Gagarin went fifty years ago."
For some reason I saw your comment first and my brain juxtaposed it
I thought the quote above was from NASA for a second
Reminds me of my favorite quote: "We do not own the land, we borrow it from our grandchildren."
~ Native American Proverb
I don't think that's really a Native American Proverb. it sounds like one of those things which get attributed as such later.
quick google
"the National Aquarium in Baltimore attributes the quote "We do not inherit the earth from our fathers, we are borrowing it from our children" (chiseled in stone) to David Brower"
Well done. It wouldn't make sense as a proverb anyway, from people for whom ownership of land was an entirely foreign concept.
Semantics at best. Many Native American tribes were fiercely territorial and manipulated their environment aggressively.
Way to ruin it
White man stealing our slogans now too.
"Way to ruin it" Egyptian proverb.
Yeah, way to ruin it with your facts.
People downvoted you for providing facts?
reddit is dead to me.
Myth not fact.
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Native americans were just another collection of human civilisations which waged wars, used up natural resources and drove species to extinction like any other.
They were somewhat better at sustainable agriculture and land use than some european and middle eastern civilisations but it's hard to really fuck things up without technology or at least goats.
You still believe that myth?
Oh yeah, because people take such good care of borrowed property.
As the old proverb says "Drive it like it's stolen"
Shut up, sugartits.
Native Americans (who have not gone all pale-face) do. I am sad that Native American proverbs are so alien to us, as we grew up in a society where respect has ceased to have it's original meaning.
I hope to fuck you don't mean racially. There are plenty of natives with no native blood, but who were raised to respect nature. This might be an eskimo-only thing, though... if so, my racist old eskimo great-grandma was right. (She was racist because indians and eskimos were bitter enemies before the Europeans landed.)
there are plenty of natives who sit around, trash government land, and drink all day - not all do. what's your point?
Sounds like a Chickasaw saying.
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...whose hearts we haven't cut out to sacrifice to Tezcatlipoca.
Americans reply "as long as it's your grandchildren."
We don't own this place, though we act as if we did,
It's a loan from the children of our children's kids.
The actual owners haven't even been born yet.
-John Perry Barlow (Grateful Dead - We Can Run)
A society grows great when people write proverbs for which they know they shall never receive credit.
I think that was actually Michael Scott
I'm going to attribute that quote to a former carrot. (hahahaha)
A society grows great when itsjareds is born.
- Unknown
A society grows great when uncredited proverbs still have meaning and impact on the people who read them.
-
LenoJamesUnknownA society grows great when people write proverbs for which they know shall end up on Reddit.
More importantly they shall never receive the Karma they deserve.
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damn... thats some deep shit.
that is a great quote. reminds me of my grandfather, r.i.p.
What a weird name for a Grandfather.
"Your son Rip is on line toot."
Says the person w the username SkullFuckMcRapeCunt
Tell that to this guy.
Says SkullFuckMcRapeCunt.
Haven't you ever heard of Rip Van Winkle, or Rip Torn?
Laughed out loud at the comment, then laughed out loud at the username.
LOL-c-c-c-c-COMBO
I swear, shivers shot up my spine when I read that.
Greek Proverb.
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
-Old Klingon Proverb
Karl Pilkington's response to this on the Ricky Gervais podcasts is absolutely hilarious.
My Dad: "I'll be dead before I have to worry about it".
Greatest quote I've ever read
That was really beautiful, thank you.
It might be unknown, but we can affirm it definitely did not originate recently within the United States
[deleted]
I wish we had that kind of humility in this country
Meanwhile in the U.S. the elderly are demanding ever increasing social security and medicare benefits thus saddling their grandchildren with a debt burden that will be difficult to pay and decrease the next generation's quality of life.
"a man who knows his proverbs can't be all bad"
one of the best quote I ever came across, thanks for remind me of it again.
I had this quote under the lid of my bottle of iced tea last night, but they attributed it to Nelson Henderson.
[deleted]
The correct quote is: "He who plants trees labors for the benefit of future generations." from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations
In our country they just vote to defund education.
An empire grows when its old men cut down the trees to create trebuchet and use them to besiege the walls of other old men.
A society falls when it demands that some innocent people must be killed for the greater good.
-Carl Sagan.
great quote. these peoples acts are totally about honor, something liberals are trying to remove from civilization.
Yeah, because they're cannabis "trees".
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a natural disaster is not the same as a corporate fuck up.
[deleted]
-Ricky Jervais
NASA's quote should be "We wasted money on nothing"
Lrn 2 speel.
Whoops misspelled a person's name Hurr durr "Lrn 2 Speel" Also, you mad! LOL!
I'm not but you obviously are, replying to a 2 day old comment...
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Don't be so predictable.