User Comments - Right-Wingnut

Right-Wingnut

Posted on: Hamsters, Snakes, and Owls

October 4, 2012 at 7:36 AM

Ah, I see. I think I must have missed that episode.

To rods, sorry if I seemed a little obtuse, but I'm sure you understand that your comment would seem a bit strange to someone who didn't get the reference. I haven't watched much Simpsons in the last couple of years, so its time to get back with the program.

Regards,

Your insecure egocentric posturer :)

Posted on: Hamsters, Snakes, and Owls

October 4, 2012 at 2:00 AM

Hm, not sure what to make of this. But I definitely meant a tongue-in-cheek 'cultured' as you can tell by the smiley.

In the same vein, may I query your use of the word 'pronounced' in this context?

Posted on: Hamsters, Snakes, and Owls

October 3, 2012 at 2:39 PM

@DocRaccoon,

No I don't believe you missed anything. But here is a summary:

Me: "I'm not up to challenging a show of bluster". Richwarm2: "Bluster is a typical response of someone who is having trouble providing solid evidence".

They were both truthful assessments of the tone and content of a rather prickly response to my comment, and I doubt too many people would consider that this amounts to abuse. Certainly there is no name-calling. Everything thereafter pertained to the topic at hand.

In response we cop this tirade which begins with attacks on comments that had absolutely nothing to do with him or the topic, and ends with claims of baiting as though he is the victim of a premeditated attack. And pervading throughout is a sickening theme of smug cleverness combined with vile hatred.

And saying "barring further abuse I'm done here" it a way of bullying people out of responding. Or restating: more bluster.

Posted on: Hiring and Employment

October 3, 2012 at 8:47 AM

Agreed.

Posted on: Hamsters, Snakes, and Owls

October 3, 2012 at 12:28 AM

Gee Rich, thanks for the praise, though I think it might be a little unwarranted. When someone likes to watch the footy with a beer in one hand and a ciggy in the other while yelling abuse at the ref, its a little hard to justify calling him gentle and cultured :)

'Knowledgeable'? Well most people are knowledgeable about certain topics. I know a fair bit about science, but try to discuss with me anything about, say, economics and finance, and you'll probably be met with a blank stare. In fact I too needed to search the web to check the details of my answer, although I did understand the concept of what I was trying to explain beforehand.

It must be said that anyone who can quote Homer Simpson indeed qualifies to be called cultured themselves :). My favourite is "Lisa, in this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics".

Back to the theme of our posts, I should say that I too distinguish between rats and mice in speech. My point was simply that this distinction is one that is made by western society, and that perhaps it is perfectly natural for the Chinese to think of them as the same animal, differentiated only by 大 and 小. And perhaps it is unfair to describe a language as imprecise simply because they don't make an unnecessary distinction.

Posted on: Hamsters, Snakes, and Owls

October 2, 2012 at 1:20 PM

Hi richwarm,

Thanks for inviting me back into the conversation.

Perhaps I wasn't clear enough for Tal in my explanation. This is really restating what you've already in a bit more detail:

The biggest sub-family in the order of rodents are the murinae. This is divided further into various groups and subgroups which contain various rats and mice. If you go further out toward the leaves of the tree, there are then subgroups which also contain mixtures of rats and mice. There are even cases of different species of rats and mice in the same genera. If you go further back up the tree, there are other sub-families and families that contain mixtures of rats and mice, and also gerbils, hamsters, voles, dormice and muskrats.

So, if there are rats and mice co-occupying almost every rank of the rodent taxonomy, where do you draw the line? To take just one division of the Murinae, the Arvicanthis, this is divided into 6 genera: 4 different genera of mouse, and 2 different rat genera. If we really care about correctly distinguishing between the rats and the mice in this division, then we should also care about dividing further between the 6 genera.

It is an oversimplification to say that rats and mice are different species. There are many different species of both rats and mice with a large overlap at all levels of the order of rodents, and no clear line of demarcation.

It seems that the only thing that distinguishes rats from mice is their size, and a degree of cuteness/squeamishness. And anyone who is able to reproduce the same valued judgements about these characteristics as we (westerners) have been fed since birth, is likely to score well in an online quiz without knowing a thing about taxonomy.

And yes, frogs and toads have a similar story.