08:00 – With three weeks until deadline, I’m in the home stretch on the biology book now. I’ve allocated the rest of this week to finishing up two lab sessions that are now in progress, one the vertebrate survey and the other about the life cycle (cell division/mitosis). Once those are complete, I’ll spend a few days doing a quick run-through of all the lab session chapters, cleaning them up and making them consistent before I send them off to reviewers. Then I’ll finish up the Preface and Introduction chapters and start incorporating comments from the editors.
Someone on the Well-Trained Minds forums posted a query yesterday about scanning her old color negatives to produce digital image files. She’d found the Epson Perfection V300 Photo Scanner on Amazon.com for $80 and asked if that would do what she needed. My old Epson 3450 scanner died some time ago, and I’ve had replacing it on my to-do list since then. I checked and found that the V300 is Linux-compatible, so I replied and told her that I’d just ordered one and if she wanted to hold off for a while I’d test it by scanning some of our old color negatives and let her know how it worked.
Barbara is mad at me because of my reaction to a story in the newspaper this morning. Apparently, she was talking about it with her friends at work yesterday. Some woman couldn’t find her dog, so she went and looked in her neighbor’s window–which I’m sure is what any of us would do if we couldn’t find our dogs–and saw him having sex with the dog. They got a DNA sample from the dog, which they had a vet analyze. The DNA matched, so they arrested the guy. When Barbara told me what had happened, I started to laugh. She was not amused. “This isn’t funny!”, she said. “It’s disgusting.” The more I laughed, the more trouble I was in. Must be a girl thing.
Actually, I’d have to say that you and Barbara are both right. I think it’s disgusting, but it’s also funny. There are some things that are just so wrong, a guy has to laugh at them. What kind of pathetic individual would be so hard up for sex that he’d risk being the butt of everyone’s jokes that he’d literally screw the pooch? (Sorry, I just had to say that.)
Oh, it’s just funny on so many levels. Obviously, the guy literally screwing the pooch is funny, but what I thought was even funnier (and passed without comment) was the woman going over to her neighbor’s house and looking in the window. I mean, seriously, we’ve had dogs get loose dozens of times over the years, and I don’t remember even once going and looking in a neighbor’s window. I also thought the thing about the vet doing DNA analysis was a hoot. I mean, did the vet keep rape kits for dogs on hand? And, as I said to Barbara, if the guy’s attorney is any good, he’ll get it kicked out of court. I mean, it’s not like the cops get a semen specimen from a woman who’s been raped and then drop it off at Joe’s DNA Analysis. There are legal requirements for chain of evidence, qualifying experts, and so on. Legally speaking, I can’t imagine that this vet and his (presumably) forensically-uncertified lab are qualified to do the analysis any more than I am, literally.
It’s not a girl thing, I think it’s outrageous. Dogs are chattel, in this case *her* chattel. This guy has infringed on her property rights. Why couldn’t he get his own dog? Now this poor woman probably will no longer want to have sex with her dog. (BTW, was the dog male or female?)
I, too, laughed. Though I’m with Dave on it’s being a disgusting story.
I think, reading between the lines, the guy must be a little off. You wouldn’t go look in a neighbor’s house unless you thought the neighbor wasn’t quite right (or, perhaps, he’s been dating a dog – maybe he can use losing his glasses as a defense).
Hadn’t thought of the legal implications of using a vet to do a rape kit. Maybe this makes it to the Supreme Court.
Really, once this story gets out in public, I think any further punishment is unnecessary.
Actually, I’m surprised you’re disgusted, given the reputation you Aussies have for loving your sheep. Or is that the N-zed folks?
Actually, there’s some question about ownership of the dog. The discussion among Barbara and her work friends yesterday was based on an article on the local TV station’s web site. The article in the paper this morning was only a couple paragraphs long, but it said only that he’d been screwing “a” dog rather than “her” dog. No information on the sex of the dog, other than that the article referred to it as a “dog” rather than a “bitch”. Of course, that’s not conclusive.
Oh, yeah, another reason I laughed was that I had this mental picture of the guy wearing a “I heart dogs” t-shirt to court.
Some years ago (pushing 30, in fact) when I was a newly-commissioned lieutenant in an Army Reserve company, our unit went to Germany for an exercise. As is usually the case, we had several new people attached when we went, mostly Individual Ready Reservists who went with any convenient unit for two weeks of annual training.
So, one of the new guys quickly got on everyone’s nerves, whining about his crappy life. No job, no apartment, no girlfriend, mom kicked him out, living in his car, blah blah blah. The “no girlfriend” part got a lot of play.
Now, over in Germany we were set up amongst some pastures. Sheep pastures. I’m sure you can guess where this is going, and you’re almost right. Specialist Loserboy was overheard mentioning over the course of a few days that, you know, they say sheep feel just like women. You know, you can always take a shower afterward. You know, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.
As soon as this was brought to my attention, I went to the platoon sergeant and the company first sergeant. “Sergeant Stewart, you know I prefer to lead with a light hand, but this is too serious. This is a direct order: Until we leave Germany next week, you will make sure that Loserboy has someone with him 24 hours a day. If you need more people, I’m sure Top can help you.” We did not need to be financially dinged for whatever the farmer (rancher? whatever) would hit us for if one of his sheep was traumatized. Let alone any damage to international relations that might arise.
RBT wrote:
“Actually, I’m surprised you’re disgusted, given the reputation you Aussies have for loving your sheep. Or is that the N-zed folks?”
Yes.
If the dog is female that would make a lot of difference. That would almost be normal. If the dog is male then that’s just sick.
SteveF wrote:
“I went to the platoon sergeant and the company first sergeant. “Sergeant Stewart, you know I prefer to lead with a light hand, but this is too serious. This is a direct order: Until we leave Germany next week, you will make sure that Loserboy has someone with him 24 hours a day. If you need more people, I’m sure Top can help you.” We did not need to be financially dinged for whatever the farmer (rancher? whatever) would hit us for if one of his sheep was traumatized. Let alone any damage to international relations that might arise.”
That’s totally heartless. Why didn’t you guys just buy a sheep for this guy?
I actually did know a guy years ago who claimed to have screwed a sheep. I’m pretty sure he was serious.
I’ve never been able to figure out why anyone would do this. It’s not like there aren’t a bunch of willing (nay, eager) women out there. I remember a discussion I had with a girl in college. She said that it seemed all guys believed that guys wanted to have sex and girls didn’t. Not, true, she said. Girls wanted to have sex just as much as guys did, if not more, but they didn’t want to have sex with jerks, which narrowed the possibilities way, way down. The lesson I took away from that conversation was “don’t be a jerk” or at least “don’t look like a jerk” and that actually worked out pretty well. If a guy can fake being non-jerky he won’t have any problem.
Perhaps because you don’t have to wine and dine a sheep, and it’ll do whatever you want.
(Not that I’d know from personal experience… I’ve heard these sorts of stories from a number of Kiwis, so I know it’s creditable.)
On a similar note, back when Hugh Grant got caught with a hooker, Heidi Fleiss said that he didn’t pay her for sex, he paid her to go away afterward.
What’s funny is I know a bunch of Aussies and Kiwis, and they both point fingers at the other. And they both have lots of sheep AND cheap wine.
Which only means they’re both doing it. Crikey!
.
How is hetero bestiality more normal than gay bestiality? Or is this how the Antipodeans justify it?
Imagine what the puppies would look like?
Have I mention recently how much I miss the editing function of the old boards?
This needs to be trumpeted from the rooftops, put on every billboard and shouted on every street corner, so that all men can benefit from such wisdom (which I figured out even earlier than College, BTW). And in doing so we can break the financial grip of De Beers and Tiffany’s!
Combine this skill of being non-jerky with cooking and women will be tripping you and beating you to the floor.
I don’t know if Antipodean sheep respond in the same manner, as it has never been successfully tested, due to a lack of a certain control group.
Well, I did used to have t-shirt that said, “videri quam esse”.
Bill wrote:
“Have I mention recently how much I miss the editing function of the old boards?”
Yeah, you plagiarised it from me.
Bill wrote:
“What’s funny is I know a bunch of Aussies and Kiwis, and they both point fingers at the other. And they both have lots of sheep AND cheap wine.”
Yeah, they would. Have you noticed how lots and lots of bonza Kiwi chicks make their way to Australia? That’s because they can’t get laid in NZ. One of the ex-Kiwi hygienists at my dentist was trying to tempt me a few years back, she was cleaning my fangs while wearing a low cut, tight fitting tank top. I was going to complain to her boss about the way she was always pushing her boobs against my neck and face, but then decided that the poor girl’s hormones didn’t give her any free will in the matter so I let it drop.
In my days on the farm I was surprised by one incident. Went out to the south pasture to move some irrigation pipes as was typically done twice a day. This particular pasture bordered on a small lot that contained a house and a small barn with a couple of cows.
Imagine my surprise when I came over the small rise to see some guy standing on a bucket, pants down around his ankles, humping away frantically on the backside of one of the cows. I watched for a few seconds in disbelief. I then made some noise with the irrigation pipes so the guy would know I was there. He quickly, ah, ah, dismounted, yanked up his pants and dissappeared into the barn. Too late, I knew who he was.
Two lessons from this experience. First, if you are going to screw a large animal do it in the barn. Second, you have to run around front to kiss ’em.
Not to change the subject, but Bob’s last post sent me Googling and made me think about the decline of our educational system. Especially since I’m only 11 or 12 years younger than Bob. It’s enough to make me wonder how much worse it’s gotten.
Eeeeeuuuugh. Disgusting, though a little funny.
What? Latin? 😀
I knew it as esse quam videri, but find Bob’s version more apt for today’s society.
Not original. My version comes from The Prince (Machiavelli, not Pournelle).
I should have recognized it! I was blinded by the more plebeian use as NC’s official motto.
Even if the evidence gets kicked out, there’s still the matter of the eyewitness. Is the lawyer going to argue that the guy was just pretending to hump the dog? Or that the witness is confusing his client with someone who just happened to look like him and be in his house?
This is the sort of crap that happens when people go to the dog house for sex, instead of the cat house.
Um… Taking many steps back and considering this, I have a question: just why should it be illegal to have sex with an animal? Assuming the animal is not harmed in the process, this would seem to fall into the weird-but-harmless category.
As I said to Barbara this morning, this is yet another law based solely on religious strictures. I’d like to see all of those repealed.
And I don’t concede that the animal being harmed has anything to do with it. Animals are chattel. An owner has always had and still should have the right to do whatever he wishes with his own property. If a guy wants to torture his own cat, that’s his right. I may not like what he’s doing, but he has the same right to torture the cat as he has to break all the windows in his car. That’s why I’m totally opposed to animal welfare laws.
just why should it be illegal to have sex with an animal?
I think the primary objection is the transmission of sexual deseases. The second reason has to do with religious outfits that want to force their way of life on others. I may have those reasons reversed.
Besides, if you were a sheep would you want some ugly guy humping you. I mean, even sheep (including those from down under) have standards.
Without physical evidence, it’s her word against his, and she admitted to committing a crime while observing his supposed crime. Legally speaking, her eyewitness testimony has little credibility. And the dog is not legally competent to testify (although that is not an invariable rule; for example, testimony by bloodhounds is legally recognized in many jurisdictions.)
RBT wrote:
“If a guy wants to torture his own cat, that’s his right. I may not like what he’s doing…”
Why not?
Well, if he was torturing a dog, I’d steal the dog. But I won’t go that far out of my way for a cat.
I find myself in an uncomfortable position with welfare laws — animal and human. On the one hand, I don’t think it’s right to mistreat things that can feel pain/fear. On the other hand I deplore, despise and distrust governments.
I suppose that, ultimately, I’d rely on people’s goodness and oppose the laws. But I wouldn’t bother to repeal them while they’re in place.
To me, the principle is much more important. Animals are either property or they are not. If they are property, their owners are entitled to do anything they wish with that property. If they are not, that raises some very important issues that are extremely difficult if not impossible to deal with.
Don’t get me wrong. I despise people who mistreat animals. I love dogs, and if I ever caught someone abusing one of mine, I’d literally shoot the son of a bitch if I thought I could get away with it. But the principle is too important to discard lightly.
eristicist wrote:
“I suppose that, ultimately, I’d rely on people’s goodness and oppose the laws. But I wouldn’t bother to repeal them while they’re in place.”
I dunno if I’d rely too much on people’s goodness, there are a lot of evil people out there:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-11/kangaroo-dragged-behind-car2c-dumped-in-main-street/3767012
Kangaroo dragged behind car then dumped
Hmmm, a female dog. And the owner went to the front door, which is a bit different to looking in a window.
http://www.wxii12.com/news/30167197/detail.html
Well, I didn’t read the article on the WXII site, but now that I have I’d say she’s in even more trouble than I thought. Looking through the window is pretty minor compared to what she did, which is breaking and entering.
OK fuck it. Let’s get back to men’s bare feet and poison shrooms. Forget I ever said anything about it.
OK fuck it.
Don’t give that easily. This place needs some controversal subject matter to spice what has been rather drab lately.
I’m guessing not. A DA would have to be ready to give up his career to press charges and a civil suit would probably be thrown out on the basis of the crime that was in fact taking place.
Besides, there might have been some plausible reason for her to open the door: all the neighbors were good friends and commonly just gave the door a rap and walked right in, or she heard her dog from outside the door, or she thought she saw her dog through the window in the door.
As for the “animals as chattel with no rights” theory, I don’t buy it. I’m not prepared to work out a consistent system of ethics which treats animals as entities with reduced but real rights. But I have beat down humans abusing animals and won’t hesitate to do so again.
As for the crime at the root of the matter, hell, I don’t know. I suppose if the animal enjoyed it it would be all right. I know a few women who have admitted to manually giving their male dogs some relief. (Mostly to keep the dogs from humping their legs, I think). If the bitch was a large dog in heat, it’s possible she welcomed the attention.
So, about those stinky feet…
Was that guy barefoot while he was humping the dog and were both of them tripping on hallucinogenic shrooms? Or was the woman tripping on them and hallucinated the whole thing? Was SHE barefoot? How about the cops who showed up? Did they have stinky feet? I bet they did if they were wearing the typical cop boots made from synthetic leather. Were THEY in heat?
This board used to discuss camera lenses and whether krugerrands are more stable than yen. Shit.
When I was in Chicago, a couple of times, I worked with one of the well-noted nationally syndicated columnists of the day, who did a well-known help column. She said what was in the column was quite tame, compared to what she received. She was occasionally accused of making stuff up to be sensational. Not necessary, she said — real life was far weirder than anything she could make up.
However, it pays not to live in one of the former Confederate states when it comes to stuff like this. I doubt the guy will get off, regardless of whether the woman transgressed a law in retrieving her chattel.
But Dave, what would you do if it was your dog? Would you knock? Or just go ahead and knock the door in? Surely the people of Vermont are concerned about dog abuse.
At one time wives and children were accorded chattel status. The world was not any prettier then, either.
The way I see it, either get a willing fuck buddy, or stick to Mrs. Palmer and her four lovely daughters.
I personally want dog fuckers out of my gene pool, but YMMV.
Ah, but you’re late to the party. Bestiality has been around before, and more than once. Having a large Australian contingent guarantees it coming back again and again. Oh, and when I said Australian, I meant Kiwi like Greg insists.
And we were discussing camera lenses not a week ago!
Kiwis are not Australians, just as Canadians are not Yanks, Scotts are not English, and so on.
Chuck the broken glass loving Hobbit wrote:
“But Dave, what would you do if it was your dog? Would you knock? Or just go ahead and knock the door in? Surely the people of Vermont are concerned about dog abuse.”
I didn’t see a reference in the news article to the woman breaking anything. If I enter a property via an open or unlocked door I’m guilty of a much less serious offense than if I use a hammer or crowbar.
Bilbo Waggoner wrote:
“When I was in Chicago, a couple of times, I worked with one of the well-noted nationally syndicated columnists of the day…”
I remember reading about a well known writer for a NY newspaper who just rode the subway to get his stories. He always had a good one after just a few hours.
I just got back from a meeting with the boss, and I’d taken my tea mug. He glanced at it and asked if I was conducting scientific experiments in it. (His tea mug was perfectly clean.)
(And neither of us were bare footed.)
Hi Bob,
I bought my Epson 3490 on your recommendation. It still lives, and works great with xSANE.
I look forward to your observations on the V300.
Cheers,
Rod Schaffter
Yeah, I really liked mine until the day it just stopped working. I wasted a lot of time thinking it was a software issue, but eventually I concluded that it just wasn’t working. It still lit up, and pressing buttons still moved the scan head around, but it just wouldn’t communicate with my PCs.
I’m hoping the V300 will just work.
I had no problems until the Stallmanites removed the proprietary drivers and firmware from openSuSE. I got them here…
http://download.ebz.epson.net/dsc/search/01/search/?OSC=LX
Iscan is 32-bit, but IIRC you can use the included firmware with the Snapscan driver on 64-bit.
Cheers,
Rod Schaffter
I have the V30, which I understand is the same as the V300 but without the film and photo attachments. I had the V10, its predecessor in Germany. The Windows software for the V10 is the same as the V100, and likewise for the V30/300.
Never had any problem at all with the V10, and the V30 works with both Windows and latest versions of Ubuntu by just plugging it in. Unfortunately, my V30 scans objects crooked–about 10 to 15 degrees off axis. That was not a problem with the V10. I have to rotate essentially everything I scan. I also paid about $89 for the V30, and I see that the V300 is now only $99 suggested retail.
The Epson Windows software for the V30/300 was written by a completely different group than was the V10/100. The V30/300 software is not nearly as capable or convenient as was the V10 software. Furthermore, although I returned my computer to US language settings when I returned from Germany, the software came up as German only. A call to Epson revealed that language is automatically determined by the software, and there is no way to manually change the language. How it determined that I should be in German is a mystery which they cannot explain and could not correct. I also got no satisfaction from Epson about the skewed scanning. There are no user adjustments to correct that problem, so I was told, and the amount my machine is off, is within tolerance, so they told me. Very upsetting that the newer product is actually inferior to the old.
Until just a couple days ago, aside from the problems mentioned, I had no other problems with the scanner. But upon putting something in to be scanned, it did not function. Upon closer examination, it appeared not to be getting power. Now I leave the thing on 24/7, because on US products, there are no real on/off switches on printers/scanners and other peripherals using a power brick, as is required in the EU. I punched the on/off button on the scanner itself, but nothing happened. I unplugged the power brick, waited a couple minutes, then plugged it back in. The power indicator light on the scanner started blinking on and off dimly, but would not come on, and finally quit blinking and stayed off. I unplugged both cables to the unit and plugged them back in. The power light then began blinking slowly–and oddly, blinked pink, white, and a couple other colors during the its on cycling. The frequency of the blinking increased over about a 2 minute period, and I assumed it was going to eventually going to go so fast that it would blow up. But finally, the green on light came on strongly, and the scanner started going through its turn-on gyrations where the motor runs and the scan light switches on and off a couple times.
It has worked normally ever since.
Good luck with the skewing.