Bad news/ good news.

[ValentinesStuff]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/04/china/china-great-wall-damage-excavator-intl/index.html

 

Bad news from China. Really how stupid can you be?

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ex-scouts-leaders-who-knocked-over-ancient-rock-get-probation-n56596

 

Good news, Americans aren't the only idiots out there.

 

Waiting for someone in the UK to knock over a henge stone somewhere.

[babykeiff]

22 minutes ago, ValentinesStuff said:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/04/china/china-great-wall-damage-excavator-intl/index.html

 

Bad news from China. Really how stupid can you be?

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ex-scouts-leaders-who-knocked-over-ancient-rock-get-probation-n56596

 

Good news, Americans aren't the only idiots out there.

 

Waiting for someone in the UK to knock over a henge stone somewhere.

Its not just stupidity, it is greed in wanting what they want with no care or consideration for anyone else in the world. In the UK, groups of people tend to vandalise / pull down whatever statue / monument that is in their way and sell the action as a form of protest / support for some news article - as if getting rid of a statue / monument will absolve the English from the actions of their ancestors!

Intelligence / stupidity as well as many traits, are inherited.

[drynot]

13 hours ago, babykeiff said:

Intelligence / stupidity as well as many traits, are inherited.

I don't think they're inherited.  I think they are taught.  I like to think that most people who see boorish behaviour have enough sense to not partake in it themselves.....although current times have certainly made me rethink that idea.

[rusty pins]

Why not carve their initials in it too, like the colluseim in Rome?  Beats me how people can be so clueless and stupid!

[babykeiff]

5 hours ago, drynot said:

I don't think they're inherited.  I think they are taught.  I like to think that most people who see boorish behaviour have enough sense to not partake in it themselves.....although current times have certainly made me rethink that idea.

I tend to disagree. Intelligence and the drive for knowledge etc. is a trait that is inherited. Laziness and therefore, the growth of associated stupidity is also inherited. Both need work to achieve, one less than the other - but it is the goals of parents to either pass on their knowledge to their offspring OR pass on their tricks to aquire without knowledge. It is said that with age begats wisdom, and one learns from their own mistakes. This is slightly incorrect - a wise person learns from their own mistakes, a genius learn from others mistakes while a fool never learns and expects a different result from repeating the same action.

Followng your line of thinking, boorish behaviour must be taught - and therefore, the person doing the teaching must know the result of such actions. If, as you are aware, that boorish behaviour is so contrary to decent societial behaviour, why is is taught? It must be that the person teaching same is either aware of the resultant actions or is not. Therefore, boorish behaviour is by design for a pre-thought outcome. This can't be true as all boorish behaviour creates is a cost not only to the actor, but to everyone around. As a result, the person teaching can't understand the conclusion of their actions. Therefore, by inverse logic, the stupidity of this action must be inherited - as every child above the age of 2 understands cause and effect.

This is all based on the pure concept of cause and effect, something a 2 to 3 year old learns to apply.

[ValentinesStuff]

Apparently it's spread to the UK.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-66947040

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

There was a story I read as part of a college Freshman English course in 1971, called "The Destructors" from England in which a teenage gang destroyed a man's property and money, taking nothing, after "locking him in the loo" without feeling anything either good or bad, just because he was better off than they were, And this was well before the time I read it

[ValentinesStuff]

35 minutes ago, Little BabyDoll Christine said:

There was a story I read as part of a college Freshman English course in 1971, called "The Destructors" from England in which a teenage gang destroyed a man's property and money, taking nothing, after "locking him in the loo" without feeling anything either good or bad, just because he was better off than they were, And this was well before the time I read it

https://shortstoryproject.com/stories/the-destructors/

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

50 minutes ago, ValentinesStuff said:

https://shortstoryproject.com/stories/the-destructors/

So it is still being published. I had forgotten most of it and it was this thread that brought it back to mind. What was really scary about it was the literal unfeeling aspect, there was not even any malice in them, it was just robotic

[oznl]

10 hours ago, Little BabyDoll Christine said:

So it is still being published. I had forgotten most of it and it was this thread that brought it back to mind. What was really scary about it was the literal unfeeling aspect, there was not even any malice in them, it was just robotic

I remember this story too.   We were required to read and study it in high school where I remember causing an awkward moment with my English teacher by comparing it to Anthony Burgess’s “Clockwork Orange”.   Looking back, I realise I don’t think I was supposed to have read “Clockwork Orange” in high school and she was probably alarmed at the direction any discussion about it might go in.  We moved on and studied Greene’s  “Travels With My Aunt”.

I read “The Destructors” again, just now, for the first time in more than 40 years.

I don’t think it’s about moral dereliction now.

I think it’s a metaphor for the bleak inevitability of entropy in a physics-driven universe that will inescapably overwhelm all of our constructs both social and physical.  The quote that jumped out at me was this: “’There’s only things, Blackie”.

Moronic scout leaders and criminally careless Chinese earthmoving contractors: all agents of entropy.  If THEY don’t do it, somewhere, someone or some THING will.

Speaking of entropy, I have a night nappy to go and deal with 🤣

[babykeiff]

On 9/29/2023 at 10:47 AM, ValentinesStuff said:

Apparently it's spread to the UK.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-66947040

The tree was cut down, not by kids, but by a professional tree cutter. The way it is cut is there is a wedge on the right of the tree cut out by starting high and cutting down to a line, then the bottom of the line is cut for the wedge. This is a straight cut. This is followed by a straight cut from the other side of the tree to the wedge. To cut this so accurately needs experience of at least 5-15 years cutting trees with an extended lenght chain saw. There is even a spray white line on the tree for the woodsperson to follow.

This was not vandals, but more of a someone hired to do the job by a farmer / local buisnessman / rival business / landowner etc.

[ValentinesStuff]

3 hours ago, babykeiff said:

The tree was cut down, not by kids, but by a professional tree cutter. The way it is cut is there is a wedge on the right of the tree cut out by starting high and cutting down to a line, then the bottom of the line is cut for the wedge. This is a straight cut. This is followed by a straight cut from the other side of the tree to the wedge. To cut this so accurately needs experience of at least 5-15 years cutting trees with an extended lenght chain saw. There is even a spray white line on the tree for the woodsperson to follow.

This was not vandals, but more of a someone hired to do the job by a farmer / local buisnessman / rival business / landowner etc.

Nope, it was cut straight thru.

 

It was on land owned by the National Trust, so there are no rivals to have paid for this.

[babykeiff]

11 hours ago, ValentinesStuff said:

Nope, it was cut straight thru.

 

It was on land owned by the National Trust, so there are no rivals to have paid for this.

If you look at this image...

you can see at thee white line on the stump, the angle on the tree in the distance, and the hinge mark remains where you'll see it broke - bits of wood on the stump pointing up. Secondly, the thickness of the stump is a single cut from one side to another since there is no join marks in the middle - this means it is a long chainsaw or long saw blade, not a standard lenght chainsaw/blade. It also shows a perfectly level cut - that takes experience.

[anned]

21 hours ago, babykeiff said:

If you look at this image...

you can see at thee white line on the stump, the angle on the tree in the distance, and the hinge mark remains where you'll see it broke - bits of wood on the stump pointing up. Secondly, the thickness of the stump is a single cut from one side to another since there is no join marks in the middle - this means it is a long chainsaw or long saw blade, not a standard lenght chainsaw/blade. It also shows a perfectly level cut - that takes experience.

I see someone does not know the safe way to drop a tree. I learned to cut the wedge then bring the dropping cut in below the point of the wedge. if you bring the felling cut in at the same level as the wedge cut the tree can fall in one way and the butt of the tree can jump the stump the other way, hitting the person running the saw. and at least the feller my need a diaper from getting the S**t scared out of him, You need to leave a hinge,

[babykeiff]

33 minutes ago, anned said:

I see someone does not know the safe way to drop a tree. I learned to cut the wedge then bring the dropping cut in below the point of the wedge. if you bring the felling cut in at the same level as the wedge cut the tree can fall in one way and the butt of the tree can jump the stump the other way, hitting the person running the saw. and at least the feller my need a diaper from getting the S**t scared out of him, You need to leave a hinge,

@anned, I know physics... and that a tree is heavier than me... and a stationary tree has potential energy that is released when cut. As a result - I will not fell a tree. I value my life - and although I wear diapers 24/7... diapers won't protect my hands / head if it was hit by a falling tree. So no... I will not cut a tree down. There are pleanty of so called experts that want to take that risk. I know my own limits.

Also, I stated that someone must have roughly known what they were doing in cutting that tree down - otherwise, as you elude to, there would be blood and prob. a dead body at that site. The width of the cut (being the width of the tree) suggests to me a long chainsaw - which is not a cheap piece of equiptment. That item is either owned, or borrowed by someone who is used to the throw of a chainsaw.

Yes, I have used a chainsaw to cut up a fallen tree before, and those are not easy to control, and the one I was using was a cheap short blade electric one. It is the torque of the motor compared to the speed of the blade that throws the blade left or right depending on the centrifugal force. Same occurs with an angle grinder.

All this leads me to deduce that this tree was felled by someone with experience of a chainsaw - to get that cut straight - but might not be a trained woodsman as you have eludded to. I couldn't get a cut that straight and level even in the stump alone that I was trying to get rid off. What I eventually did was build a frame around the stump I had and used a hand held circular saw to get the line level, and then used a hand operated bushmans saw to cut out the middle. This, I planed and sanded to get flat and level, and turned the stump into a garden table.

So, next time I need a tree cut down, now I know who to ask.

@ValentinesStuff,

On 9/29/2023 at 10:47 AM, ValentinesStuff said:

Apparently it's spread to the UK.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-66947040

 

On 9/5/2023 at 5:09 AM, ValentinesStuff said:

...Waiting for someone in the UK to knock over a henge stone somewhere.

I think that you might have tempted faith!

[ValentinesStuff]

My apologies to the citizens of the UK.