And this week's Prat of the Week Award goes to...
Kevin Goebel
(Dan Holdsworth) wrote:
>Go to that address with a copy of Mozilla, and you get a bog-standard
>corporate brain-death statement: "You cannot use Netscape 6 with this
>server".
>Visit with Opera configured to masquerade as the RedmondBrowser, and
>the poxy thing works. [1]
>Perfectly.
>Yes, the morons are shooting themselves in the foot and they haven't
>even realised that they don't have to. What utter lusers...
>[1] They can't even sort out a proper browser-recognition CGI. Why does
> this not surprise me?
Don't worry, I wrote them an e-mail so they should fix it soon.
"I tried visiting your web page but it wouldn't load in my browser. I got an
error message: "Sorry, the Argos Internet site cannot currently be viewed
using Netscape 6 or other browsers with the same rendering engine.", but I'm
using Mozilla, not Netscape.
Do you know how long it will be before your web site works correctly with my
browser?
Thank you."
Kevin - trained to ask questions "properly" by my customers :)
Geoff Lane
> Don't worry, I wrote them an e-mail so they should fix it soon.
Oh no they won't.
--
/\ Geoff. Lane. /\ Manchester Computing /\ Manchester /\ M13 9PL /\ England /\
It is fatal to live too long.
J.D. Baldwin
In the previous article, Kevin Goebel <kevin at kevingoebel dot com>
wrote:
> Don't worry, I wrote them an e-mail so they should fix it soon.
Maybe they did. I went there with w3m and got the usual "JavaScript
required" note, then followed a link with "browser" in the filename
and got:
Sorry, in order for you to use this site (and to enjoy a
better all-round web experience) you will need to update your
browser.
The Argos site runs off all browsers from Internet Explorer
version 4.01 upwards, and Netscape version 4.07 upwards.
Updating your browser is a simple process and can be done
quickly by going through the link below.
That's for "fix" where the value of "fix" == 0, of course, but isn't
it usually?
--
_+_ From the catapult of |If anyone disagrees with any statement I make, I
_|70|___:)=}- J.D. Baldwin |am quite prepared not only to retract it, but also
\ / bal...@panix.com|to deny under oath that I ever made it. -T. Lehrer
***~~~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------
David P. Murphy
> http://www.argos.co.uk/
> Go to that address with a copy of Mozilla, and you get a bog-standard
> corporate brain-death statement: "You cannot use Netscape 6 with this
> server".
When I was night-shift at a convenience store in gainesville.fl.us
I refused to let any left-handed people in, due to possible
incompatiblities between their non-standard orientation and my
One True Cash Register. I may have lost some sales that way,
but [a] you can't *prove* I did and [b] I prevented any risk of
damage to my system, which of course is of paramount importance.
ok
dpm
--
David P. Murphy http://www.myths.com/~dpm/
systems programmer ftp://ftp.myths.com
mailto:d...@myths.com (personal)
COGITO ERGO DISCLAMO mailto:Murphy...@emc.com (work)
Darcy Boese
> I've had websites say "AHA! You're trying to fool me by telling
> Opera to tell me it's MSIE when it's really Opera! Well, this web
> site was specifically designed not to work with anything but MSIE 6,
> so go away."
If you want to go the other way around, You can always set up a web site
that includes a "\" in a directory or filename somewhere. IE "helpfully"
reverses them all for you, whether you type them or click on them.
So you can run a dual set of web pages that Microsoft lusers *can't*
read.
Of course, this *might* mave changed with IE6, I haven't felt Eeevil[TM]
enough lately myself to see if it still works... (I gave up when I
couldn't find a simple non-coding way to separate Netscape from Lynx
browsers.) But somehow I doubt they would have bothered changing that
bit of code.
Robert Uhl <ruhl@4dv.net>
>
> I've had websites say "AHA! You're trying to fool me by telling Opera
> to tell me it's MSIE when it's really Opera! Well, this web site was
> specifically designed not to work with anything but MSIE 6, so go
> away."
>
> do. I still don't comprehend telling half your customers that
> they're not qualified to visit your store.)
Well, according to
<http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist/oct02_browsers.gif>, it's more
like 1/3. Which is still brain-dead, I'll grant.
OTOH, I view it as a site-validation service: if they don't want to
handle my browser, they're obv. rotten and I wouldn't want to do
business therewith anyway.
--
`They didn't call him Erik Bloodaxe because he was good with children.'
--National Geographic, May 2000
J.D. Baldwin
In the previous article, Robert Uhl <ru...@4dv.net> <ru...@4dv.net>
wrote:
> OTOH, I view it as a site-validation service: if they don't want to
> handle my browser, they're obv. rotten and I wouldn't want to do
> business therewith anyway.
Precisely. I've only ever made one exception, and that was an in
extremis situation, and I don't even remember what the site was
anymore.
Patrick R. Wade
>Dan Holdsworth <daniel.h...@ntlworld.com.invalid> wrote:
>
>> http://www.argos.co.uk/
>> Go to that address with a copy of Mozilla, and you get a bog-standard
>> corporate brain-death statement: "You cannot use Netscape 6 with this
>> server".
>
>When I was night-shift at a convenience store in gainesville.fl.us
>I refused to let any left-handed people in, due to possible
>incompatiblities between their non-standard orientation and my
>One True Cash Register. I may have lost some sales that way,
>but [a] you can't *prove* I did and [b] I prevented any risk of
>damage to my system, which of course is of paramount importance.
>
OK, i need to know ; in what way was your cash register "handed"? Also,
weren't you the only one working it? Why would the customer touch it?
--
UN-altered REPRODUCTION and DISSEMINATION of this
IMPORTANT Information is ENCOURAGED, ESPECIALLY to COMPUTER
BULLETIN BOARDS.
Mike Andrews
> In article <av4bqr$4hv$2...@allhats.xcski.com>, David P. Murphy wrote:
> >Dan Holdsworth <daniel.h...@ntlworld.com.invalid> wrote:
> >
> >> http://www.argos.co.uk/
> >> Go to that address with a copy of Mozilla, and you get a bog-standard
> >> corporate brain-death statement: "You cannot use Netscape 6 with this
> >> server".
> >
> >When I was night-shift at a convenience store in gainesville.fl.us
> >I refused to let any left-handed people in, due to possible
> >incompatiblities between their non-standard orientation and my
> >One True Cash Register. I may have lost some sales that way,
> >but [a] you can't *prove* I did and [b] I prevented any risk of
> >damage to my system, which of course is of paramount importance.
> >
> OK, i need to know ; in what way was your cash register "handed"? Also,
> weren't you the only one working it? Why would the customer touch it?
YHBT, Partick, in as good a troll as I've ever succumbed to.
--
Offhand, I'd say you need to clean your guns in front of your CPU salesman.
-- Matthew Stitt, in bit.listserv.ibm-main
Robert Uhl <ruhl@4dv.net>
>
> > When I was night-shift at a convenience store in gainesville.fl.us I
> > refused to let any left-handed people in, due to possible
> > incompatiblities between their non-standard orientation and my One
> > True Cash Register. I may have lost some sales that way, but [a]
> > you can't *prove* I did and [b] I prevented any risk of damage to my
> > system, which of course is of paramount importance.
>
> OK, i need to know ; in what way was your cash register "handed"?
> Also, weren't you the only one working it? Why would the customer
> touch it?
And so dpm is awarded the coveted ASR Inscrutability Cup, for having
twice in one day managed wit so dry as to be unrecognisable by his
fellow admins...
--
My own speciality, barbecued pizza--fantastic stuff I discovered by
accident when I found the stove element had given up the ghost _after_
I finished preparing a pizza to cook in it --Charles Cazabon
Kevin Goebel
>kevin wrote:
>> Don't worry, I wrote them an e-mail so they should fix it soon.
>
>Oh no they won't.
Au contraire, Pierre... they are already working on it. :)
"Dear Kevin,
Thank you for your e-mail.
Please accept my sincere apologies for any inconvenience you have been
caused.
I have looked into your query, the Argos website is currently compatible
using the most widely used browsers, such as Netscape and Internet Explorer.
We regularly monitor browser usage trends and development work is continuing
to ensure that the Argos website is accessible to as many people as
possible, using a multitude of browsers. In the meantime, may I take this
opportunity to apologise for any inconvenience caused to you.
Your e-mail has been brought to the attention of my supervisor, he in turn
will duly note your query.
I hope this information is of use. If you have any further queries please
e-mail us at order.e...@argos.co.uk or telephone 0870 600 8784.
Regards,
Mike McGowran
Argos Direct Customer Services"
Kevin
David P. Murphy
> Of course, this *might* mave changed with IE6, I haven't felt Eeevil[TM]
> enough lately myself to see if it still works...
Went to a sports bar just for Buckeye fans in bethesda.md.us last night
to watch Ohio State beat Miami (Fl) for the national championship of
college football last night. Very thrilling game indeed. Got home
around 1:30 AM and, wanting to read the first draft writeups on
espn.com, fired up IE (because their pages suck under Netscape 4.08).
Looked at a few, decided that was enough, and [UH OH, HERE IT COMES!]
simply turned off the monitor, leaving the IE windows up [BWA HA HA HA
ROOKIE MISTAKE!!]
Came downstairs seven hours later to find that, between IE and ESPN's
web wizardry, my hard disk had been filled with thousands and thousands
of generated crap in the C:\Win\TempInternetFiles\Content.IE5 directory.
Over a gigabyte worth of 73 Kb files.
IOW, business as usual.
David P. Murphy
> Patrick R. Wade <pa...@efn.org> wrote:
>> In article <av4bqr$4hv$2...@allhats.xcski.com>, David P. Murphy wrote:
>> >Dan Holdsworth <daniel.h...@ntlworld.com.invalid> wrote:
>> >> http://www.argos.co.uk/
>> >> Go to that address with a copy of Mozilla, and you get a bog-standard
>> >> corporate brain-death statement: "You cannot use Netscape 6 with this
>> >> server".
>> >When I was night-shift at a convenience store in gainesville.fl.us
>> >I refused to let any left-handed people in, due to possible
>> >incompatiblities between their non-standard orientation and my
>> >One True Cash Register. I may have lost some sales that way,
>> >but [a] you can't *prove* I did and [b] I prevented any risk of
>> >damage to my system, which of course is of paramount importance.
>> OK, i need to know ; in what way was your cash register "handed"? Also,
>> weren't you the only one working it? Why would the customer touch it?
> YHBT, Partick, in as good a troll as I've ever succumbed to.
Everything I wrote is entirely true up to the "I refused" part.
Maarten Wiltink
<7ruc1v01onkqebh9r...@4ax.com>...
>On 3 Jan 2003 13:12:12 GMT, Geoff Lane <zza...@twirl.mcc.ac.uk> wrote:
>
>>kevin wrote:
>>> Don't worry, I wrote them an e-mail so they should fix it soon.
>>
>>Oh no they won't.
>
>Au contraire, Pierre... they are already working on it. :)
>
>"Dear Kevin,
>
>Thank you for your e-mail.
>
>Please accept my sincere apologies for any inconvenience you have been
>caused.
>
>I have looked into your query, the Argos website is currently compatible
>using the most widely used browsers, such as Netscape and Internet
Explorer.
>We regularly monitor browser usage trends and development work is
continuing
>to ensure that the Argos website is accessible to as many people as
>possible, using a multitude of browsers. In the meantime, may I take this
>opportunity to apologise for any inconvenience caused to you.
>Your e-mail has been brought to the attention of my supervisor, he in turn
>will duly note your query.
>
_What_ information?
Bloddy wankers. Oh so careful not to say anything that
might at all be construed as "it's being fixed".
And they might be building pages that are "best viewed
with *any* browser" with _less_ effort. Are people
really this dumb? (Yes, invariably.)
Tebrgwrf,
Maarten Wiltink
Robert Uhl <ruhl@4dv.net>
>
> Came downstairs seven hours later to find that, between IE and ESPN's
> web wizardry, my hard disk had been filled with thousands and thousands
> of generated crap in the C:\Win\TempInternetFiles\Content.IE5 directory.
> Over a gigabyte worth of 73 Kb files.
One of our UK compadres needs to do the same, then take Microsoft & ESPN
on under the anti-spamming statute of James I...
--
...at the end of the conversation, the guy said `Thanks a lot for
reporting this. If you need more details on our anti-spam policies,
just hit 'refresh' on the URL you reported.'
--Willondon Donovan in nanae
Ross Ridge
> I've had websites say "AHA! You're trying to fool me by telling Opera
> to tell me it's MSIE when it's really Opera! Well, this web site was
> specifically designed not to work with anything but MSIE 6, so go
> away."
Robert Uhl <ru...@4dv.net> <ru...@4dv.net> wrote:
...
>OTOH, I view it as a site-validation service: if they don't want to
>handle my browser, they're obv. rotten and I wouldn't want to do
>business therewith anyway.
Hmm... I use "does it work with JavaScript disabled" for a similar
purpose. It's not a complete validation in and of itself, but it's a
useful test as part of one. Most of the useful sites on the WWW don't
actually seem to need it, and most of the rest of the useful sites only
need it for their dumb Flash animated "entry" pages which are best
bypassed completely anyways.
Ross Ridge
--
l/ // Ross Ridge -- The Great HTMU
[oo][oo] rri...@csclub.uwaterloo.ca
-()-/()/ http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/u/rridge/
db //
Mark W. Schumann
>(why DO people do that, though? What an utterly idiotic thing to
>do. I still don't comprehend telling half your customers that
>they're not qualified to visit your store.)
Remember those great "GET [netscape logo] OR GET OUT!" slogans from
days of yore?
Un-frickin-believeable.
--
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance" used to mean
that WE watched the GOVERNMENT, not the other way around. --unknown
Geoff Lane
> using the most widely used browsers, such as Netscape and Internet Explorer.
Argos has actually improved over the past year or so. But they seem only to
test against _current_ releases of IE and Netscape. If you are a couple of
minor releases off, less than useful things happen.
If they would just DO IT RIGHT[0] they wouldn't need to test at all and the
damn pages would work on anything.
[0] I can, and do, go on about what this means in this context at great
length in other places. For readers here there is little reason to expand
the phrase - the meaning is obvious.
--
/\ Geoff. Lane. /\ Manchester Computing /\ Manchester /\ M13 9PL /\ England /\
Be *excellent* to each other
D J Ford
>http://www.argos.co.uk/
>...
>Yes, the morons are shooting themselves in the foot and they haven't
>even realised that they don't have to. What utter lusers...
I'd probably count it as lucky - this is Argos after all - the last
one, true advocates of Shoping the Stalinist Way.
And, besides, their Internet division send out the good via
White Arrow couriers - who are *by far* the must useless bunch
of toss-pots in the business.
They don't deliver at weekends; they can't get a message from
their phone support to their drivers in under *three* days;
they persistantly, on three occasions, deliver exactly one
day late after arranging particular delivery dates with them.
I had to take nearly a *week* off ork the last time I ordered
anything from those toss-pots.
Bitter? Me? Nah...
Dave
D J Ford
>Argos has actually improved over the past year or so. But they seem only to
>test against _current_ releases of IE and Netscape. If you are a couple of
>minor releases off, less than useful things happen.
Their website may have improved - but god help you if you order anything
from them and don't work from home.
You might as well book the next three days off work since neither Argos
nor the courier company they actually *own* will give an accurate ETA -
the best they can manage is a date - and even then they'll probably miss
it by a day or two.
There really needs to be some sort of drop-box delivery arrangement
system set up in the UK. I'm so sick of useless courier companies
continually screwing up mail order deliveries.
D J Ford
>In article <H8EG6F....@bath.ac.uk>, abs...@bath.ac.uk (D J Ford)
>wrote:
>
>> I'm so sick of useless courier companies
>> continually screwing up mail order deliveries.
>
>So she called JLP, cancelled the order *explaining that
>the courier screwed up* and we got
>the item from a shop in the Usual Way.
Oh! But that's *exactly* what I did do.
And *two* days after I cancelled the order - White Arrow turned up
while I was at work and delivered the fscking product to my
flatmate who was unaware of the problem.
I had to take 2 days of work (again, because they never turned up
on the day they said they would) to come and collect it again.
White Arrow refused to come and collect it at *my* convenience
because it was now my property, and I'd have to pay for it.
The credit card company wasn't much help either - they said that
since it'd been delivered and signed for it was my property now
and they wouldn't refund it either - despite me cancelling
the order two days before it arrived.
>We've never had a problem with subsequent items.
>The couriers need to learn, and a good way of hitting
>them is via the vendor.
Trouble is - White Arrow is owned by Argos - and even though I
moaned on at both of them, they just kept buck-passing.
What they (and I mean White Arrow specifically - other couriers are
a *lot* better) do need is a bit more flexibilty - it simply isn't good
enough that when I can do an order, and pay for goods in a matter of
minutes, it still takes *days* for the courier company to contact it's
own sodding drivers. Jez - I don't believe for a minute that they're
not issued with mobiles - how hard can it be for their head-office to
ring them up and say 'Don't deliver parcel X to address Y'? Or 'If you
can't get round to address Y, please phone them and tell them you're
not going to make it.' It's not that hard!
Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz
at 04:29 PM, abs...@bath.ac.uk (D J Ford) said:
>The credit card company wasn't much help either - they said that
>since it'd been delivered and signed for it was my property now and
>they wouldn't refund it either - despite me cancelling the order two
>days before it arrived.
Then you need stronger consumer protection laws. IANAL, but I believe
that under US law you could treat it as a gift.
--
Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz, SysProg and JOAT
Reply to domain Patriot dot net user shmuel+bspfh to contact me.
They don't really have flames on Usenet. They think they do,
but that's only because they've never seen the real thing.
Tanuki the Raccoon-dog
>In the referenced article, daniel.h...@ntlworld.com.invalid writes:
>>http://www.argos.co.uk/
>>...
>>Yes, the morons are shooting themselves in the foot and they haven't
>>even realised that they don't have to. What utter lusers...
>
>I'd probably count it as lucky - this is Argos after all - the last
>one, true advocates of Shoping the Stalinist Way.
>
>And, besides, their Internet division send out the good via
>White Arrow couriers - who are *by far* the must useless bunch
>of toss-pots in the business.
You clearly haven't suffered enough at the hands of Parcelfa^Horce.
[these are the people who tried to deliver me a DSU box that was
dripping-wet with some unspecified-but-not-exactly-pleasant-smelling
fluid, and then developed a major attitude when I refused to sign
for it.]
--
!Raised Tails! -:Tanuki:-
"If symptoms persist, hit the luser harder"
Chloe
Tanuki the Raccoon-dog <Tanuki@canis-^Hmajor.da^Hemon.co.uk> wrote:
> You clearly haven't suffered enough at the hands of Parcelfa^Horce.
>
> [these are the people who tried to deliver me a DSU box that was
> dripping-wet with some unspecified-but-not-exactly-pleasant-smelling
> fluid, and then developed a major attitude when I refused to sign
> for it.]
I'll take parcelfarce over "Interlink" anyday.
Order on a wednesday for thursday. I had to drive to collect it the next
tuesday, 55 miles and the humber bridge (insert rant on yet more toll rises)
to collect. And their head office asked be to complain to them. So I did,
politely, and they threatened me with being asked to leave their site.
This is the company that "couldn't find" the address.. they found it 2 weeks
earlier went they left a 21inch monitor on the back door step, with out
getting it signed for.
I'm still waiting for them to applogise on that one, 3 months later.
Oh, and their motto is of course "carrying your reputation".
Chloe
(couriers are hardware)
Thomas W. Strong Jr.
> This is the company that "couldn't find" the address.. they found it 2 weeks
> earlier went they left a 21inch monitor on the back door step, with out
> getting it signed for.
Monitor? What monitor?
--
Thomas W. Strong Jr. <str...@dementia.org>
http://www.tomstrong.org/
Arvid Grøtting
> minutes, it still takes *days* for the courier company to contact it's
> own sodding drivers. ^^^^
*BLAM*
--
Maybe everything I say is just a bit too pedantic
Arvid for the romanticism of sig-quoting.
-- Randy the Random, in the Monastery
Geoff Lane
> There really needs to be some sort of drop-box delivery arrangement
> system set up in the UK. I'm so sick of useless courier companies
> continually screwing up mail order deliveries.
If they would only do home deliveries at time someone is normally expected
to be home ie 6pm -> 10pm weekdays and all weekends.
After all, all those delivery vans are usually standing idle during those
hours. However, it seems that it's cheaper to attempt delivery and fail,
than to deliver at a time that may succeed.
OTOH, I recently bought a fridge. I was called and told delivery would be
at 7:30AM (what?!?) and by ghod at 7:35AM they were at the door. I was still
(in)sensibly in bed, having booked the morning off work, expecting them to
arrive around midday.
The PO is supposed to be trialing drop-box delivery in some areas but again,
actually delivering at times that people would be reasonably expected to be
home would be much, much better.
ObASR: All hardware sucks as my aging PDA just proved by having the battery
cover break in such a manner that electrical contact is no longer possible.
Still, nice excuse to buy a Zaurus...
--
/\ Geoff. Lane. /\ Manchester Computing /\ Manchester /\ M13 9PL /\ England /\
Tis but a flesh wound...
Geoff Lane
> We've never had a problem with subsequent items. The couriers need to
> gets enough complaints and cancelled orders it will switch couriers.
Richer Sounds[1] actually asks you to evaluate delivery. You get a card to use
with the goods. If you have a complaint, you get a _personal_ reply from Mr
Richer. But Richer Sounds is one of those curious companies that doesn't
actually hate their customers and as a result they get a huge amount of
repeat business.
[1] Cheap but quality HiFi retailer in UK.
--
/\ Geoff. Lane. /\ Manchester Computing /\ Manchester /\ M13 9PL /\ England /\
Today's Excuse: Digital Manipulator exceeding velocity parameters
Joe Moore
Geoff Lane <zza...@twirl.mcc.ac.uk> wrote:
>
>If they would only do home deliveries at time someone is normally expected
>to be home ie 6pm -> 10pm weekdays and all weekends.
>
>After all, all those delivery vans are usually standing idle during those
>hours. However, it seems that it's cheaper to attempt delivery and fail,
>than to deliver at a time that may succeed.
But then they'd have to pay a shift differential.
It's more cost-effective to have people driving around not delivering stuff
at $N/hr and blaming it on the customer, than to have people driving around
delivering stuff at $(k*N)/hr. Or at least to some PHB.
--Joe
--
If you can't laugh at your lusers, who can you laugh at?
remove dash and subsequent local part to email me.
Arvid Grøtting
> It's more cost-effective to have people driving around not delivering stuff
> at $N/hr and blaming it on the customer, than to have people driving around
> delivering stuff at $(k*N)/hr. Or at least to some PHB.
Just wait until they find out that it's even more cost-effective to
have nobody driving around not delivering stuff at $0/hr and blaming
it on the customer.
SCTTHAH.
--
Live phase 1 <--> RJ45 pin 3 GND <--> RJ45 pin 8
Live phase 2 <--> RJ45 pin 6
Live phase 3 <--> RJ45 pin 2 Is this suitable?
Neutral <--> RJ45 pin 1 Or should we kill phones too?
Peter Corlett
[...]
> Just wait until they find out that it's even more cost-effective to have
> nobody driving around not delivering stuff at $0/hr and blaming it on the
> customer.
Oh, you've used Citylink (aka "Shittylink") too?
A google to verify the spelling of the name revealed websites with 0%
recommendations and descriptions of "thieving pikers". Personally, if I was
a gypsy that had done several years inside for theft, I'd still be offended
to be compared with Shittylink.
I see that they don't appear to have a website of their own. Perhaps the IP
packets got lost at the depot.
Tanuki the Raccoon-dog
<zza...@twirl.mcc.ac.uk> said
>Richard P. Grant <rp...@yahoo.co.uk.invalid> wrote:
>> We've never had a problem with subsequent items. The couriers need to
>> learn, and a good way of hitting them is via the vendor. If the vendor
>> gets enough complaints and cancelled orders it will switch couriers.
>
>Richer Sounds[1] actually asks you to evaluate delivery. You get a card to use
>with the goods. If you have a complaint, you get a _personal_ reply from Mr
>Richer. But Richer Sounds is one of those curious companies that doesn't
>actually hate their customers and as a result they get a huge amount of
>repeat business.
>
>[1] Cheap but quality HiFi retailer in UK.
They've certainly got several thousand pounds of business out of
me over the years... and may yet pick up another 150 quid or so
for a dedicated DVD|CD player in the near future, my antique Philips
CD-player having developed an infuriating display anomaly in recent
weeks.
--
!Raised Tails! -:Tanuki:-
"I am updating my DNA. 'Microsoft Genome 2.0' says I need to reboot my body
to continue. I am worried that I may not have enough free chromosomes to
allow the full installation to complete." --from _A_W_O_L_
Dan Holdsworth
They learned the error of their ways at a lab I heard of, when having
thrown supposedly safely packed boxes containing winchester (2.5 litre)
bottles of chemicals, all marked FRAGILE - HANDLE WITH CARE, they broke
one.
The decontamination on that one was... interesting.
--
Dan Holdsworth PhD daniel.h...@ntlworld.com
By caffeine alone I set my mind in motion, By the beans of Java
do thoughts acquire speed, hands acquire shaking, the shaking
becomes a warning, By caffeine alone do I set my mind in motion
Dan Holdsworth
<spam...@library.lspace.org.invalid>
>In <H8ELtI....@bath.ac.uk>, on 01/08/2003
> at 04:29 PM, abs...@bath.ac.uk (D J Ford) said:
>
>>The credit card company wasn't much help either - they said that
>>since it'd been delivered and signed for it was my property now and
>>they wouldn't refund it either - despite me cancelling the order two
>>days before it arrived.
>
>Then you need stronger consumer protection laws. IANAL, but I believe
>that under US law you could treat it as a gift.
I believe that under UK law you are obliged to make some show of trying
to get the goods back to them, including saying "I will be at home between
hour X and hour Y"; if they repeatedly bugger it up you are then
entitled to keep the goods, the company having been too stupid to comply
with the law on the matter.
Not a lot of people know that, though, hence the hassles...
Peter Corlett
[Parcelfarce]
> They learned the error of their ways at a lab I heard of, when having
> thrown supposedly safely packed boxes containing winchester (2.5 litre)
> bottles of chemicals, all marked FRAGILE - HANDLE WITH CARE, they broke
> one.
Well, obviously they would. All packages have to be tested by booting them
out of the back of the van onto the concrete.
> The decontamination on that one was... interesting.
Nah, they'd just mopped up the spill with the other parcels in the back of
the van. Such as the one they tried to deliver to Tanuki.
Draco
>Word has it that on Fri, 10 Jan 2003 16:14:35 +0000 (UTC), in this
>I hope nobody ever used these idiots to transport flouric acid.
And you call yourself a bastard?
Not to worry though, someone who fscked up transporting flouric acid
wouldn't be in a position to make many more mistakes.
Draco
Marc Spitzer
> Word has it that on Fri, 10 Jan 2003 16:14:35 +0000 (UTC), in this
> august forum, ab...@mooli.org.uk (Peter Corlett) said:
>
> >Nah, they'd just mopped up the spill with the other parcels in the back of
> >the van. Such as the one they tried to deliver to Tanuki.
>
> I hope nobody ever used these idiots to transport flouric acid.
would not that be self correcting?
marc
Robert McCown
"Lionel" <n...@alt.net> wrote in message
news:c9vt1v4t7va6m0s44...@4ax.com...
>
> I hope nobody ever used these idiots to transport flouric acid.
>
What's your address again? Maybe we can test it....
-=Bob
kesi...@math.ttu.edu
: In article <c9vt1v4t7va6m0s44...@4ax.com>,
: Lionel wrote:
:> I hope nobody ever used these idiots to transport flouric acid.
: How do you make acid from flour?
Use ergot-infected wheat?
==Jake
Chris Suslowicz
Paul Martin <p...@zetnet.net> wrote:
> In article <c9vt1v4t7va6m0s44...@4ax.com>,
> Lionel wrote:
> > Word has it that on Fri, 10 Jan 2003 16:14:35 +0000 (UTC), in this
> > august forum, ab...@mooli.org.uk (Peter Corlett) said:
> >
> > I hope nobody ever used these idiots to transport flouric acid.
>
> How do you make acid from flour?
>
> HF(aq) is fluoric. Nasty stuff. The worst thing about it is that you
> don't feel it eating into you. (So I'm told by someone who used to work
> with it.)
Hmm, I won't repost it. You can DejaGoo on 'moth firework foreman' if you like.
Another friend had interesting tales of some stuff that was shipped in 500mL
"break-safe" bottles, in a sealed plastic bag, in a sealed 25L drum full of
sawdust with indicator strips in each layer. It also had the largest selection
of hazard labels he has ever seen on one package. (Highly Inflammable, Toxic,
Corrosive, Spontaneous Ignition Hazard, Low flashpoint, Wear Respirator, and
"Danger of Irreversible Effects". There may have been others.) Basically a
skin-penetrating organic with neurotoxic and carcinogenic properties, I think.
I don't _think_ that was the one that was also a positron emitter[1].
It was delivered (carefully) by the manufacturers own van service.
Chris.
[1] Neurological research using PET[2].
[2] Positron emission tomography
Chris.
--
.. ... File not found, I'll load something *I* think is interesting.
Michael D. Hofer
s/wheat/rye/
michael "make mine with ginger, please"
--
Rule for Happiness:<p>
Something to do,<br>
Someone to love,<br>
Something to hope for.<p>
-- Immanuel Kant
kesi...@math.ttu.edu
Michael D. Hofer <mho...@ancientpond.com> wrote::> : How do you make acid from flour?
:> Use ergot-infected wheat?
: s/wheat/rye/
The good folks at Wazzu say:
> Ergot has a wide host range of about 60 genera, all in the grass
> family. Rye and triticale are particularly susceptible, because they
> are open-pollinated, but wheat, barley, and many grasses (including
> [...]) are among the hosts.
(http://pnw-ag.wsu.edu/smallgrains/Ergot.html)
(And, in case you don't have enough of this in the spambox, get some
smut at http://pnw-ag.wsu.edu/smallgrains/Common%20smut.html )
==Jake
Steve Glover
>HF(aq) is fluoric. Nasty stuff. The worst thing about it is that you
>don't feel it eating into you. (So I'm told by someone who used to work
>with it.)
HF(aq) is hydrofluoric acid (analogy with hydrochloric etc). Fluoric
acid is the fluorine analogue of chloric acid, and would be HFO3(aq).
And I can tell you that you bleepin' well *do* feel an HF burn[1]. I've
heard of people not feeling trifluoroacetic anhydride (which has a
boiling point just above blood heat) though.
Steve
[1] On checking, make that *can*. The trifluoroacetic anhydride burn I'd
heard about was caused by moisture generating HF _in situ_ and burning
quite deep before any pain was felt.
s/don't feel/don't always feel/
--
Steve Glover, Fell Services Ltd. Available
Weblog at http://weblog.akicif.net/blogger.html
Home: steve at fell.demon.co.uk, 0131 551 3835
Away: steve.glover at ukonline.co.uk, 07940 584 653
David Cantrell
> [White Arrow woes]
I know exactly what's gone wrong with White Arrow. They used to be OK
- or at least, no worse than their competitors. Then a year or two
ago (does this coincide with the Argos take-over?) they dumped their
old PDP-11s and replaced them with Redmondware. I rescued an 11/73,
and they managed to deliver that on time - I guess they still had one
more PDP scheduling the drivers then.
I was away for a long weekend at the time, and got my neighbour to
take delivery of it for me. I don't think he'll ever take another
delivery for me again!
--
David Cantrell | http://www.cantrell.org.uk/david
Alex Priem
>[1] On checking, make that *can*. The trifluoroacetic anhydride burn I'd
>heard about was caused by moisture generating HF _in situ_ and burning
>quite deep before any pain was felt.
Bloody unlikely. TFA-anhydride hydrolyses to 2 molecules of
trifluoroacetic acid, the latter being comparable to acetic acid on a speed
binge. Not something you want to spill on your hands.
However, those fluor atoms have a quite stable bond with their carbon atom,
and are unlikely to split off and form HF.
Given that acetic acid is a quite 'normal' chemical in biological systems,
I do wonder what your body would do with TFA.
Alex
Mike Andrews
"Normal" it may be, but picomole-for-picomole, it's one of the
most potent poisons there is -- or so $FIANCEE the biochemist
tells me.
--
I stopped and considered for a moment whether such a person would behave
any differently with his head cut right off, but then realized it would
make a difference: it would allow him to stand upright again.
-- Anthony de Boer
Steve Glover
<apr...@xs4all.nl> writes
>Bloody unlikely. TFA-anhydride hydrolyses to 2 molecules of
>trifluoroacetic acid, the latter being comparable to acetic acid on a speed
>binge. Not something you want to spill on your hands.
Yeah, I'm familiar with the reagent in question.
>However, those fluor atoms have a quite stable bond with their carbon atom,
>and are unlikely to split off and form HF.
Normally, yes. However, in TFA, they're alpha to a fairly strong
electron withdrawing group (if I remember the jargon correctly) and
hence open to attack, releasing HF:
<URL:
http://www2.umdnj.edu/eohssweb/aiha/accidents/chemicalexposure.htm#Triflu
oracetic>
>Given that acetic acid is a quite 'normal' chemical in biological systems,
>I do wonder what your body would do with TFA.
Mostly get broken down (see above), albeit with extreme prejudice. We
used to use 13-C labelled TFA to synthesise various biomolecules to feed
to small creatures in NMR tubes and any surplus F3C-CO-X (X = OH or R)
ended up as acetyl very quickly indeed.
Steve
Satya
<mi...@mikea.ath.cx> wrote:
> "Normal" it may be, but picomole-for-picomole, it's one of the
class picomole extends guacomole
Segmentation fault
$
--
Satya.
The Horny Goat
>I'll take parcelfarce over "Interlink" anyday.
>Order on a wednesday for thursday. I had to drive to collect it the next
>tuesday, 55 miles and the humber bridge (insert rant on yet more toll rises)
>to collect. And their head office asked be to complain to them. So I did,
>politely, and they threatened me with being asked to leave their site.
This is why I always have things delivered to work rather than home.
Both places are on fairly major streets which one could reasonably
expect anyone in the delivery business to find without having to take
his shoes off.
On the other hand the better half is not always home (1) while there
is ALWAYS someone at the office if the door is unlocked; the drivers
have sometimes left things with the neighbouring business but that's
only happened ONCE (evil grin). The "someone" isn't always ME but I've
never had a problem when I let the front counter people know I'm
expecting something. (2)
Mind you it's a bit easier when there's only about 10 of us; being
known as the resident BOFH kind of helps! (3)
"You mean I don't get my e-mail automatically when I have the
telephone cable plugged into my laptop?" (the uber-BOFH who determines
MY paycheque...sob!)
=============
(1) We're a one paycheque household but she DOES have a life
(2) I don't always tell them if it's for the company or personal
either - why confuse the issue?
(3) Particularly when everyone knows I'm one of the three people who
get to determine year-end bonuses - 2002 was a good year so I'm a
popular guy right now
Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz
at 11:13 PM, Alex Priem <apr...@xs4all.nl> said:
>Given that acetic acid is a quite 'normal' chemical in biological
>systems, I do wonder what your body would do with TFA.
I don't know, but the demographic data[1] on the early
investigators of Fluorine chemistry suggest that I don't want to be
the guinea pig.
[1] Specifically, lifespan.
--
Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz, SysProg and JOAT
Reply to domain Patriot dot net user shmuel+bspfh to contact me.
They don't really have flames on Usenet. They think they do,
but that's only because they've never seen the real thing.
Mike Andrews
> In <3e20a525$0$49115$e4fe...@news.xs4all.nl>, on 01/11/2003
> at 11:13 PM, Alex Priem <apr...@xs4all.nl> said:
> >Given that acetic acid is a quite 'normal' chemical in biological
> >systems, I do wonder what your body would do with TFA.
> I don't know, but the demographic data[1] on the early
> investigators of Fluorine chemistry suggest that I don't want to be
> the guinea pig.
> [1] Specifically, lifespan.
That was Moissan, Scheele, & predecessors, many of whom had
problems with apparatus exploding, lost eyes and had other Bad
Things happen to their anatomy, IIRC. Need to reread _Crucibles,
the Story of Chemistry_, an _excellent_ book.
--
A layman knows he has to kick it.; An amateur knows where to kick it.; A
professional knows how hard.
Geoff Lane
> "Danger of Irreversible Effects".
This should be stuck to the front of _every_ computer placed before a luser.
Matthew Skala
Mike Andrews <mi...@mikea.ath.cx> wrote:
>> Given that acetic acid is a quite 'normal' chemical in biological systems,
>> I do wonder what your body would do with TFA.
>
>"Normal" it may be, but picomole-for-picomole, it's one of the
>most potent poisons there is -- or so $FIANCEE the biochemist
>tells me.
Acetic acid is not terribly poisonous. Lots of people eat it on their
chips. Looking up an MSDS for trifluoroacetic acid suggests that it's not
so terribly poisonous either. I remember hearing of some trifluoroacetic
acid derivative described as the perfect terrorist weapon - deadly and
undetectable - but some quick research didn't turn up the specific
compound, and it would be UI anyway.
--
Matthew Skala, CS PhD student, University of Waterloo
msk...@math.uwaterloo.ca <-- school
msk...@ansuz.sooke.bc.ca <-- home
http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/ http://www.edifyingfellowship.org/
Tanuki the Raccoon-dog
<f...@thingy.apana.org.au> said
>On 12 Jan 2003 19:33:57 GMT,
>Red Drag Diva <f...@thingy.apana.org.au> wrote:
>: Hmm - I've had nothing but happiness in my dealings with Argos. (Internet
>: purchase and delivery of a mattress and a television, call ahead and
>: purchase of a Christmas tree). Except for the fuckwitted approach to
>: browser detection - I use Opera masqing as IE5.
>
>And I wonder what they're going to do about Safari. Tell every Mac-using
>customer to fuck off, I expect.
What, you mean all two of them? I bet that'll really impact their
profits.
--
!Raised Tails! -:Tanuki:-
"Microsoft .NET is more than a suite of software products - it's a marsupial-
filled popcorn-machine rolling down a hill out of control and smashing into
a bingo parlour full of crossdressing kleptomaniac vampires."
Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz
at 04:44 AM, mi...@mikea.ath.cx (Mike Andrews) said:
>That was Moissan, Scheele, & predecessors, many of whom had
>problems with apparatus exploding, lost eyes and had other Bad
>Things happen to their anatomy, IIRC.
That, too, but I was thinking more of long term physiological effects
that took years off of their life spans. Fluorine is insidious stuff,
and its deleterious effects are not always immediately obvious. The
precautions that we take these days are because of what happened to
the pioneers.
Chris Suslowicz
"Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz" <spam...@library.lspace.org.invalid wrote:
> In <avqrr3$u3f$2...@puck.litech.org>, on 01/12/2003
> at 04:44 AM, mi...@mikea.ath.cx (Mike Andrews) said:
>
> >That was Moissan, Scheele, & predecessors, many of whom had
> >problems with apparatus exploding, lost eyes and had other Bad
> >Things happen to their anatomy, IIRC.
>
> That, too, but I was thinking more of long term physiological effects
> that took years off of their life spans. Fluorine is insidious stuff,
> and its deleterious effects are not always immediately obvious. The
> precautions that we take these days are because of what happened to
> the pioneers.
Was it John W. Campbell who said "Scientific exploration consists of
finding new and interesting ways to die"? (Something like that, anyway.)
Nasty, but all too true in some fields.
Chris.
--
"People in general are not fundamentally stupid."
"Cite?"
Robin Munn & Simon Cozens in the scary devil monastery
Alex Priem
>n article <3e20a525$0$49115$e4fe...@news.xs4all.nl>, Alex Priem
><apr...@xs4all.nl> writes
>
>>and are unlikely to split off and form HF.
>
>Normally, yes. However, in TFA, they're alpha to a fairly strong
>electron withdrawing group (if I remember the jargon correctly) and
>hence open to attack, releasing HF:
Excuse me? C-F bonds are the strongest carbon-something bonds you can find.
Putting an electronwithdrawing group next to the CF3 only makes the C-F
bond stronger. Now, if you would put an electrondonating group next to an
CH2-I, or even better, three electrondonating groups next to an C-I, then
you would get something.
It's the same reason why organic chemists prefer MeI or EtI as alkylating
reagents over MeF and EtF.
Alex
Alex Priem
>In <avqrr3$u3f$2...@puck.litech.org>, on 01/12/2003
> at 04:44 AM, mi...@mikea.ath.cx (Mike Andrews) said:
>
>>That was Moissan, Scheele, & predecessors, many of whom had
>>problems with apparatus exploding, lost eyes and had other Bad
>>Things happen to their anatomy, IIRC.
>
>That, too, but I was thinking more of long term physiological effects
>that took years off of their life spans. Fluorine is insidious stuff,
>and its deleterious effects are not always immediately obvious. The
>precautions that we take these days are because of what happened to
>the pioneers.
In the stories I've heard, somebody spilled HF over his hand, washed it
off, only to find the next day that the calcium in the bones of his hand
(and part of his arm) had dissolved. Larger accidents might indeed take
'years of your life span' by directly killing you after after a few days/weeks
of horrible pain.
Benzene, toluene and other carcinogenic solvents are nasty. Slow killers,
and you can't even prove that you died because of them.
Alex
Tanuki the Raccoon-dog
<apr...@xs4all.nl> said
>"Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz" <spam...@library.lspace.org.invalid> writes:
>>In <avqrr3$u3f$2...@puck.litech.org>, on 01/12/2003
>> at 04:44 AM, mi...@mikea.ath.cx (Mike Andrews) said:
>>
>>>That was Moissan, Scheele, & predecessors, many of whom had
>>>problems with apparatus exploding, lost eyes and had other Bad
>>>Things happen to their anatomy, IIRC.
>>
>>That, too, but I was thinking more of long term physiological effects
>>that took years off of their life spans. Fluorine is insidious stuff,
>>and its deleterious effects are not always immediately obvious. The
>>precautions that we take these days are because of what happened to
>>the pioneers.
>
>In the stories I've heard, somebody spilled HF over his hand, washed it
>off, only to find the next day that the calcium in the bones of his hand
>(and part of his arm) had dissolved. Larger accidents might indeed take
>'years of your life span' by directly killing you after after a few days/weeks
>of horrible pain.
Similar things are reported to happen when people[1] have come into
contact with burned fluoroelastomer[2]. This stuff has a jelly-like
consistency and is very hard to remove from the skin without resorting
to surgical intervention.
[1]usually firefighters or fire-investigators or cleanup-crews.
[2]popularly used in rotating seals, hoses and other such things.
Alan J Rosenthal
>rotating seals
Sheesh! It's just ice cream!
Steve Glover
<apr...@xs4all.nl> writes
>Excuse me? C-F bonds are the strongest carbon-something bonds you can find.
>Putting an electronwithdrawing group next to the CF3 only makes the C-F
>bond stronger. Now, if you would put an electrondonating group next to an
>CH2-I, or even better, three electrondonating groups next to an C-I, then
>you would get something.
Empirical evidence however, shows that trifluoroacetic acid does break
down, releasing HF in the presence of moisture.
>It's the same reason why organic chemists prefer MeI or EtI as alkylating
>reagents over MeF and EtF.
Usually used methyl bromide, myself. methyl iodide was too unstable.
Which is more or less your point as far as straight alkyl halides are
concerned.
Steve
--
Steve Glover, Fell Services Ltd. Available from - 01/08/2002
Alex Priem
>In article <3e232564$0$49113$e4fe...@news.xs4all.nl>, Alex Priem
><apr...@xs4all.nl> writes
>>Excuse me? C-F bonds are the strongest carbon-something bonds you can find.
>>Putting an electronwithdrawing group next to the CF3 only makes the C-F
>>bond stronger. Now, if you would put an electrondonating group next to an
>>CH2-I, or even better, three electrondonating groups next to an C-I, then
>>you would get something.
>
>Empirical evidence however, shows that trifluoroacetic acid does break
>down, releasing HF in the presence of moisture.
Could you give some of that empirical evidence? I don't mean that link
that you posted earlier. If there's one place where you can find
semi-scientific bullshit, it is in safety regulations, especially if
they're soaked with HR-jargon.
Alex
Steve Glover
<apr...@xs4all.nl> writes
>Could you give some of that empirical evidence? I don't mean that link
>that you posted earlier. If there's one place where you can find
>semi-scientific bullshit, it is in safety regulations, especially if
>they're soaked with HR-jargon.
That's all there seems to be on the web on the subject, and I'm about
twenty years away from my own lab days. Did you read the whole link, by
the way? As well as regulations (which may, perhaps, be full of shit),
there was the incident report, and as these are used by other emergency
services, there is good reason for them to be accurate.
In any case, did I not mention seeing the cmr spectrum change as
fluoroacetate became acetate and then acetyl? I have a reference here to
an _in vivo_ example (Visscher, Culbertson, et al, Nature (1994),
369(6483), 729-31). I believe that subsequent work has shown that
exposure to atmospheric moisture can have a similar effect (it may even
be auto-catalytic, once a certain amount of HF is produced).
Cheers
Kenneth Brody
[...]
> > I hope nobody ever used these idiots to transport flouric acid.
>
>
> don't feel it eating into you. (So I'm told by someone who used to work
> with it.)
Perhaps you could ship a small lump of sodium along with a sealed glass
vial of water?
--
Kenneth Brody http://www.fileproplus.com http://www.hvcomputer.com
filePro: Celebrating 25 years of providing powerful cross-platform
application development tools
Alex Priem
>In article <3E26EA40...@spamcop.net>, Kenneth Brody wrote:
>> [...]
>>
>> Perhaps you could ship a small lump of sodium along with a sealed glass
>> vial of water?
>
>the reaction. Sodium's fairly tame. (Cue story about block of Potassium
>being dropped into a pond at York Uni.)
Having had the pleasure of destructing about 50 g of potassium lumps in a
pond, I certainly agree. The explosions were quite, erm, interesting. It
also resulted in KOH smoke clouds of about 5-10m in height.
Alex (lesson learned: check wind direction before throwing K in pond.)
Peter Corlett
[...]
> The lower down that column of the periodic table, the more interesting
> the reaction. Sodium's fairly tame. (Cue story about block of Potassium
> being dropped into a pond at York Uni.)
I bet the ducks *still* didn't get the message that they shouldn't quack
loudly outside your window at 5am.
Kenneth Brody
[...]
> > Perhaps you could ship a small lump of sodium along with a sealed glass
> > vial of water?
>
> the reaction. Sodium's fairly tame. (Cue story about block of Potassium
> being dropped into a pond at York Uni.)
Cue story of my HS chemistry teacher showing how phosphorous can react in
an oxygen atmosphere by dropping some on the alcohol-soaked Barbie doll.
Peter Corlett
> ab...@mooli.org.uk (Peter Corlett) wrote:
>> I bet the ducks *still* didn't get the message that they shouldn't quack
>> loudly outside your window at 5am.
They're tough buggers, those ducks. Perhaps they were just trying to
tenderise the meat.
I recall a York University legend where somebody who killed and ate one of
the ducks got thrown out of the university, but somebody who stabbed a
porter only got a Severe Bollocking (possibly including a small fine). Seems
that the ducks are more important than the staff.
Geoff Lane
> I recall a York University legend where somebody who killed and ate one of
> the ducks got thrown out of the university, but somebody who stabbed a
> porter only got a Severe Bollocking (possibly including a small fine). Seems
> that the ducks are more important than the staff.
Once stayed at York University and was amazed by the amount of shit that the
ducks produced. All the walkways were covered in it and during the misty,
moisty mornings it was like walking on ice.
--
/\ Geoff. Lane. /\ Manchester Computing /\ Manchester /\ M13 9PL /\ England /\
"Is it multi-tasking yet?"
-- IBM ad 1994 about Warp
"Yes, since 1987!"
-- Me about RiscOS
Tanuki the Raccoon-dog
<zza...@twirl.mcc.ac.uk> said
>Peter Corlett <ab...@mooli.org.uk> wrote:
>> I recall a York University legend where somebody who killed and ate one of
>> the ducks got thrown out of the university, but somebody who stabbed a
>> porter only got a Severe Bollocking (possibly including a small fine). Seems
>> that the ducks are more important than the staff.
>
>Once stayed at York University and was amazed by the amount of shit that the
>ducks produced. All the walkways were covered in it and during the misty,
>moisty mornings it was like walking on ice.
If you think ducks are bad, you clearly haven't met Canada Geese. Apart
from wandering around and honking like a tubercular freight-train at
4AM, these vile beasts seem to be nothing more than an anus[1]-on-legs,
for they seemingly produce several-bodyweights of slimy green droppings
per hour...
[1]OK, OK, cloaca.
--
!Raised Tails! -:Tanuki:-
"As the irregular verb goes - I evaluate, You bootleg, He's been
served with an Anton Piller order" --Tony Chabot on software-piracy.
Ross J. Reedstrom
Tanuki the Raccoon-dog <Tanuki@canis-^Hmajor.da^Hemon.co.uk> wrote:
>
>If you think ducks are bad, you clearly haven't met Canada Geese. Apart
>from wandering around and honking like a tubercular freight-train at
>4AM, these vile beasts seem to be nothing more than an anus[1]-on-legs,
>for they seemingly produce several-bodyweights of slimy green droppings
>per hour...
Ah, you've been feeding them carefully pampered lawn grass, haven't you?
It's my theory that lawns are the equivalent of cotton-candy to Canadas:
nearly empty calories that taste too good to pass up. Seems it goes
right through them, like ..., well, like grass through a goose. Hence
the occasional plagues of geese at golf courses and other such unnatural
landscapes, and the resulting mess.
Ross
John L. Friese
Actually, there _was_ a story posted here in the Monastery back in 2000.
Student at York by the name of Steve _accidently_ kills a duck, and then
subsequently eats it so it wouldn't go to waste.
And he isn't thrown out of the university -- he _runs_ _away_.[1]
Tried to find it on Google Groups, but apparently the article with the
story was X-No-Archived. The followups are still there, though.
John L. Friese
[1] Why? Saying why would spoil the story. And I haven't mentioned how
he made it up to the other ducks (for killing their comrade, I
mean).
Shalom Septimus
wrote:
>Tried to find it on Google Groups, but apparently the article with the
>story was X-No-Archived. The followups are still there, though.
I've got this archived locally; if anyone wants it, lemme know.
(The message-ID was <20000903111355....@firedrake.org>, not
that that will do anyone any good, as it *was* XNA'd.)
--
Shalom
Peter Corlett
> Peter Corlett <ab...@mooli.org.uk> wrote:
[...]
>> I recall a York University legend where somebody who killed and ate one
>> of the ducks got thrown out of the university, but somebody who stabbed a
>> porter only got a Severe Bollocking (possibly including a small fine).
>> Seems that the ducks are more important than the staff.
> Actually, there _was_ a story posted here in the Monastery back in 2000.
> Student at York by the name of Steve _accidently_ kills a duck, and then
> subsequently eats it so it wouldn't go to waste.
FWIW, this story was told to me back in 1993.
The legend's roots probably date back much further than that.
John L. Friese
Yep. According to the story, in 1970.
John L. Friese