ukyoCE's New Writeups

Declawing your cat (idea)

2005-10-11T16:14:13Z

Unfortunately cat declawing has become one of those topics that is smeared by disinformation, passed around by bloggers and exaggerated at every turn.

Declawing your cat should of course only be done as a last resort. For me, as for many people, declawing is done only as an alternative to euthanization. Putting it in that sort of realistic perspective, it's hard to see declawing as a cruelty. For some evidence that this IS the correct perspective to consider declawing:

* The single most common reason for euthanasia in the United States today in animal shelters is for behavioral reasons. (AVMA)

* One of the the most common reasons for adult cats being surrendered in animal shelters is due to destruction of property. (ASPCA)

Most arguments against declawing are emotional arguments, supported by biased word-of-mouth evidence. As such, there are many myths repeated in regards to declawing. Here are some examples:

* A declawed…

The "Look at me! I'm breaking the law!" problem (idea)

2001-11-30T21:55:34Z

It is definitely stupid when people break the law just for the sake of bragging about it.

DeCSS and Napster are NOT such things. These are two prime examples of the erosion of consumer rights and civil liberties. While you might love to sit there and say "snort snort! he's using napster! he's breaking copyright law!" It is FAR from that clear-cut. I use DeCSS and have a DeCSS shirt. I've ripped all of my DVDs into divx avis for use on my computers without DVD drives, and also so I can watch them without digging them up. Same thing with my audio cds. I haven't listened to a CD in two years. Why would I dig through 200+ cds to find what I want to listen to, when I can make mixes of any size on the fly with my music ripped to my hard drive? I wouldn't. While movie ripping is not yet so ubiquitous for personal use, the music industry have made it clear they want to prevent us from ripping the music we purchase to our hard drives for use in ways explicitly allowed as "…

patriotism (idea)

2001-11-15T00:10:49Z

True patriotism is* acknowledging that no country is perfect, but loving the foundations of your country enough to participate in the daily evolution of your country into a better place.

This ranges from voicing dissent when you disagree with something going on in your country, to voting in elections, to direct participation by running for office.

Disgusting and all too common, especially following September 11, 2001, is the trend of denouncing anyone who disagrees with something the government is doing as "unpatriotic", and telling them to leave the country. In my writeup under Forced Patriotism, for instance, I was making the point that the forced Pledge of Allegiance in public schools serves no (good) purpose. mblase wrote a response, having nothing to do with the node, telling me to leave the country if I disagree with anything:

"Well, you could leave.
Otherwise, just grin and bear it."

What the hell is that all about?…

Unreal Tournament vs Quake3 (idea)

2001-08-03T20:22:40Z

Unreal Tournament(UT) is a multiplayer online first person shooter. It came out competing head-to-head with Quake3. Many people purchased both. Others are rabid fans of just one. The truth is the two are extremely similar.

The models and skins in UT are lacking, compared to Paul Steed's impressive work in Q3.
It does have more gameplay types out of the box than Quake3, however.

In truth, although you will find few in either game's community to admit it, the two games, UT and Q3, are nearly identical, and both very unoriginal.

Quake3 is prettier, and includes curved surfaces
Quake3 has quite significantly better models and skins thanks to Paul Steed
Unreal Tournament has two more gameplay types, Assault and Domination
Unreal Tournament has slightly different weapons
Unreal Tournament has secondary fire modes.

That is REALLY IT, besides extremely…

futon (thing)

2001-07-02T02:16:01Z

In Japan, traditionally, people slept on futons at night. Japanese futons vary greatly from American futons, despite sharing the same name.

The Japanese futons consist of three parts: the shikibuton, a sort of foldable mattress, the kakebuton, or comforter, and the makura, a pillow usually filled with red beans or buckwheat chaff.

One reason for the use of futons over beds in Japan is conservation of space. Each morning you fold up your futon and store it in a closet (oshiire). This allows a bedroom to be used during the day without a bed taking up floor space.

Many people claim Japanese futons are more comfortable than beds, contrary to the American futons which are notoriously uncomfortable. In Japan the futon is usually placed on top of the tatami mats (straw mats covering most floors in japan). This adds an extra layer of comfort. Having the hard floor below, instead of loose springs, is said to be very good…

Mumia Abu-Jamal (person)

2001-06-12T01:13:01Z

Mumia Abu-Jamal was convicted of murdering a police officer in Philadelphia.

The case has been very confused on both sides. On the pro-death side, people say "officer Faulkner is dead! think of his family!", and things like that. Killing anyone, especially an innocent man, will do nothing to bring back officer Faulkner. On the anti-death side the issue of Mumia's case is thoroughly confused by people who are against the death penalty in general, even if Mumia is guilty. Neither of these arguments are relevant to the real issue.

The real issue is whether Mumia received a fair trial. There is a lot of evidence to suggest that even if Mumia is guilty, the trial was not fair. If Mumia is guilty (which I admit, is fairly likely), then a re-trial will prove that once and for all. Both sides will be happy - Mumia will receive a fair trial, be found guilty, and be put to death. However until he is truly proven guilty in a fair trial, there is a chance an innocent man is being…