This Is Stupid: Dolphin Assisted Birth by BYTEMITE

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

This Is Stupid: Dolphin Assisted Birth

POSTED BY: BYTEMITE
UPDATED: Sunday, June 16, 2013 06:17
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VIEWED: 1531
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Wednesday, June 12, 2013 7:42 AM

For your entertainment. Prepare to be aghast and despair.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/science-sushi/2013/05/26/dolphin-ass
isted-birth-possibly-the-worst-idea-ever/#.UaZDvtjElD4

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Wednesday, June 12, 2013 8:59 AM

KPO

Sometimes you own the libs. Sometimes, the libs own you.

Plus there's this:

It's not personal. It's just war.

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Wednesday, June 12, 2013 9:05 AM

BYTEMITE

Ha, I remember that one. Halloween episode where the dolphins spontaneously developed thumbs.

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Wednesday, June 12, 2013 10:40 AM

HERO

I'm in favor of shark assisted suicide and involving Killer Whales in stoping illegal immigration.

H

Hero...must be right on all of this. ALL of the rest of us are wrong. Chrisisall, 2012

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Wednesday, June 12, 2013 11:40 AM

BYTEMITE

Worst case scenarios:

1) Not dolphins but sharks
2) CRAAAAAAAAMP
3) Tuna fishing boat

Estimated likelyhood of outcomes

Someone drowns 30%
Dolphin misdeeds 15%
Eaten 5%

Basically a 50-50 shot of this ending badly.

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Wednesday, June 12, 2013 12:03 PM

WHOZIT

Male dolphins kidnap a gang rape the females? I'm no longger buying dolphin free canned tuna, I say chop them up and feed them to the poor. I'm now going to Sea World and throw empty beer cans at Flipper.

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Wednesday, June 12, 2013 12:34 PM

BYTEMITE

Not all of them, but humans don't have a monopoly on terrible or jerkish behaviour in the animal kingdom. Despite their friendly reputation, some dolphins may not be nice.

I doubt that trainers at sea world would allow their dolphins to injure each other, however, and tuna fishing will sweep up dolphins regardless of any innocence or guilt in this.

Most tuna isn't dolphin free anyway, despite the advertisements. A public campaign prompted tuna fishing companies to cooperate with marine biologists to reduce the number of dolphins killed, but due to the method it's impossible to stop the practice completely. Only Albacore tuna is dolphin-free, as that uses a different style of capture.

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Wednesday, June 12, 2013 12:56 PM

JONGSSTRAW

Quote:
Originally posted by whozit:

I'm no longger buying dolphin free canned tuna, I say chop them up and feed them to the poor. I'm now going to Sea World and throw empty beer cans at Flipper.

Luke Halpin says "blow-hole me!"

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Wednesday, June 12, 2013 5:29 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Yeah, OK - here's the crux of why this is happening: "The Sirius Institute, where the couple is headed, claims that a natural dolphin-assisted birth is completely safe." Following the link in the story, one finds the 'institute' is a business devoted to separating the gullible from their money using a big dose of snake-oil.

I wonder what a libertarian thinks of the ethics of this. Sure no one is being directly threatened with violence - even though there's the distinct risk of death for the baby, or the mother, or both. OTOH there's an awful lot of fraud involved, and no neutral third-party to turn to that investigates, studies and referees the facts versus the claims. And in the free-for-all marketplace, what individual has enough money to do the long-term research that this would require? So how does one then make an informed decision when the only thing there is to go on is sets of competing ads put out by people who may - or quite likely may not - have their ethics in place? Like The Sirius 'Institute'.

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Wednesday, June 12, 2013 8:46 PM

MAGONSDAUGHTER

I can feel a Darwin Award coming up. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_Awards

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Friday, June 14, 2013 12:02 PM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up

Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:
Yeah, OK - here's the crux of why this is happening: "The Sirius Institute, where the couple is headed, claims that a natural dolphin-assisted birth is completely safe." Following the link in the story, one finds the 'institute' is a business devoted to separating the gullible from their money using a big dose of snake-oil.

I wonder what a libertarian thinks of the ethics of this. Sure no one is being directly threatened with violence - even though there's the distinct risk of death for the baby, or the mother, or both. OTOH there's an awful lot of fraud involved, and no neutral third-party to turn to that investigates, studies and referees the facts versus the claims. And in the free-for-all marketplace, what individual has enough money to do the long-term research that this would require? So how does one then make an informed decision when the only thing there is to go on is sets of competing ads put out by people who may - or quite likely may not - have their ethics in place? Like The Sirius 'Institute'.

This version of libertarian's first thought is "A fool and his money are soon parted", followed closely by "You can't cure stupid".

But as to the "And in the free-for-all marketplace, what individual has enough money to do the long-term research that this would require?" comment. Looks like someone at Discover Magazine did do the research, for this article. If you look on this thing called the 'Internet', there's all sorts of reviews and criticisms of products and services. Yelp comes to mind, as does Angie's List and various Consumer Checkbook groups. All done with no government involvement at all.

"When your heart breaks, you choose what to fill the cracks with. Love or hate. But hate won't ever heal. Only love can do that."

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Friday, June 14, 2013 7:09 PM

BYTEMITE

Honestly not sure why ideological questions have been posed. I mostly posted this so we could share in the disbelief and laugh at this being really dumb. Comments about Darwin awards are also fairly accurate.

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Saturday, June 15, 2013 4:36 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Geezer, even you can't really be THAT stupid ... wait, what was I thinking?

Is it really true that "someone at Discover Magazine" ACTUALLY "did do the research" as you claim?

Or is it instead true that, if you track back through the handy links, you come to articles titled (for example) "Patterns of Female Attractiveness in Indian Ocean Bottlenose Dolphins", with research performed and written by "Connor, Richard C.; Richards, Andrew F.; Smolker, Rachel A.; Mann, Janet" funded by Federal research grants shared by the researchers and the "Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA 2: Department of Psychology, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, USA"?

When it comes to ACTUAL hands-on data-generating research - sorry, individuals and private businesses didn't - and don't - do that. Individuals don't have enough money, and businesses are too focused on profit to do blue sky research, and to share the information behind their trade secrets. (Presumably without government there wouldn't be anything like a patent, so it's all fair game.)

So, is your statement that "someone at Discover Magazine" ACTUALLY "did do the research" true? The answer is NO.

As for this: "If you look on this thing called the 'Internet', there's all sorts of REVIEWS AND CRITICISMS of PRODUCTS AND SERVICES."

Apparently you mistake opinions for knowledge.

So, let me point out - once again - that REVIEWS AND CRITICISMS don't include actual, 'yanno, research. So when it comes to CLAIMS made by some company - 'product A' repairs the mitochondria in your cells reversing aging at its source - or, dolphin assisted birth is safe and confers benefits to mother and baby - how is a person supposed to determine if those claims are true, without independent in-depth research performed by people with education, experience, equipment, supplies and opportunity? Do they ask their neighbor what their opinion is of that product and the claims behind it? Find an internet poll about veracity of the claims about that product? Get on a discussion board and read bullshit about that product?

How does that generate actual knowledge on which to base a decision?

FINALLY - you claim that the vast treasure trove of the internet and www/ came about "with no government involvement at all". Really? Do you really think we'd believe you if you claimed not to know that the internet owes its very existence to DARPA (and the www/ to CERN)? And as of today, the internet IS actually funded in large part by the government.* Should it fall totally into private hands, whoever has the most money will get to decide what goes up on the internet. Your bullshit "All done with no government involvement at all" is really truly, one of your more odorous piles you've left here.

* "Who Pays for the Internet?

The National Science Foundation (NSF) pays a good portion ... "

http://www.nsf.gov/
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 "to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense…" With an annual budget of about $7.0 billion (FY 2012), we are the funding source for approximately 20 percent of all federally supported basic research conducted by America's colleges and universities. In many fields such as mathematics, computer science and the social sciences, NSF is the major source of federal backing.

ENJOY YOUR NEXT FOUR YEARS!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA - HERE'S LAUGHING AT OLD FART!

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Sunday, June 16, 2013 2:00 AM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up

Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:
Geezer, even you can't really be THAT stupid ... wait, what was I thinking?

"When your heart breaks, you choose what to fill the cracks with. Love or hate. But hate won't ever heal. Only love can do that."

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Sunday, June 16, 2013 4:09 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

It's like a dog humping your leg,

Except underwater, and the dog weighs 400 pounds. Eeewww.

Anyway, dolphins and orcas discipline their young, and threaten smaller of their species, by holding them underwater. Being air-breathers, that is a bit like covering your baby's mouth and nose... done long enough, an existential threat. They understand the threat this poses to their kind, but not necessarily the threat it poses to humans. And you never know what kinds of responses might be triggered in wild animals. Remember the trainer who was killed at Sea World? She didn't even start out on the water when she was working with a (known aggressive) orca... it grabbed her braid while she was on the ramp at the water's edge, dragged her underwater and played with her until she was dead. Was it done in fun? Yes. Was it done in aggression? Yes. Animals don't separate and rationalize their feelings like we do. It's a crap shoot.

Quote:
Yelp comes to mind, as does Angie's List and various Consumer Checkbook groups. All done with no government involvement at all.

Unless there are literally a hundred reviews, most are suspect. because either a company or a company's competitor- or both- can stuff the ballot box. AFA Discover doing "research", this is just a few anecdotes on a related topic. Informative, yes, but hardly research.

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Sunday, June 16, 2013 6:17 AM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Quote:
Originally posted by Geezer:
Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:
Geezer, even you can't really be THAT stupid ... wait, what was I thinking?

"When your heart breaks, you choose what to fill the cracks with. Love or hate. But hate won't ever heal. Only love can do that."

Yes, this is you ignoring me - posting about my post. That's some ignoring there!

ENJOY YOUR NEXT FOUR YEARS!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA - HERE'S LAUGHING AT YOU OLD FART!

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