July chitchat

[agate]

Yes, there was some kind of problem but I don't remember the details.

[flatcap]

I remember a new member who posted a lot of music links. I really enjoyed them, but he was run off the board.

Yes, there was some kind of problem but I don't remember the details.

We should have a "Song of the Day" thread.

Just about everything reminds me of a song, so let's try this for now: Only registered and activated users can see links., Click Here To Register...

If that one doesn't work for you, give this a listen: Only registered and activated users can see links., Click Here To Register.... This is a playlist making up the full album, one song after the other in separate videos.


ETA: I wonder if the problem before had to do with copyright issues. If the user was linking to "bootleg" music videos on YouTube or anywhere else, that might be the reason s/he was banned. Those shown here are links to videos posted by the copyright holder, so I hope I'm safe.

[Ikoiko]

He wasn’t banned. People were rude to him, so he left.

[flatcap]

That's even worse.

[flatcap]

As I'm sure everyone knows, people have been talking for decades about how we, as a species, are destroying our own home planet with pollution. The reason I mention this today is that I have been thinking about what happens to the byproducts of the medicines I take.

Do those byproducts or the medicines themselves ultimately wind up in the water supply? What happens to all the other life forms that consume those compounds or otherwise have contact with them? Who's doing the clinical trials for that?

The answer is no one. The chemical and pharmaceutical industries make what they want, when they want it, and there is pitifully insufficient oversight from the government as to how their products interact with the environment. Moreover, the regulations that do exist have no real consequences for violations. Punishment is typically meted out in the form of inconsequential fines, with no jail time given the offenders no matter how egregious their conduct.

I also wonder what I would do if I was told that a medicine I take, or will be taking, had some profound environmental impact. Taking it to the extreme, I don't know that my life is any more important than that of an amoeba, so should I not stop using the drug to save one? Most, including me, would not.

I look around sometimes and can't help feeling anything but grateful for life on Earth. I should walk the walk if I really care about it, so why I am I living the way I do? I could point to a host of things I am doing to contribute to the environment, but wouldn't that be a bit like saying I have many friends among a certain ethnic group? It wouldn't change the fact they're being trashed by the majority population, that the environment is a mess and getting worse, and it sure as shinola wouldn't make me a better person.

Other than pretend it isn't happening, I don't know what to do about all this. They say the next generation is here to save the planet, but they said the same thing about mine back in the '60s and look at where we are now. I am glad I never had children and am not one. I wouldn't want to be around to clean up the mess we made and are still making.


Fun Fact: Most pharmaceuticals are derived from oil.

[agate]

He wasn’t banned. People were rude to him, so he left.

We must be thinking of different people, Ikoiko. I recall a female user who got into some trouble here, and music posts were involved but they were by no means the only reason for the trouble. I can't recall her user name. She'd been on here with several different user names over the years.

I can't think of a "he" who left because people were rude to him.

I've tried consulting my PMs to refresh my memory but was astonished to find that most of my PMs are gone. I have no idea what happened to them. I usually weed out a few now and then but have been careful to keep any that I thought might be of some importance at some time. Most are gone.

[agate]

I'm going to see what happens if I leave a comment on my own post. There's a reason for this. I'd like to add this update to this post:

My memory came back. The person who got into some difficulty for posting too many music posts was named Sandra but her user name here (one of them) was Infrared Charlotte.

And I wonder if others ever use the PM feature and are finding that many of their saved PMs have disappeared? I've posted a question about it in the Moderator Connection section here at BT.

[agate]

It helps to be a cute and cuddly life form. Most people can't warm up to boa constrictors or amoebae very easily. But I'd almost certainly wouldn't turn down a life-saving drug because I knew that something about it was harming the environment.

I think the point is that if enough people try to care most of the time, there can be a considerable impact. The planners and ecologists surely don't expect 100% compliance. More steps should be taken to rein in what big corporations like drug companies get away with--I agree.

This is tending toward the political....

[flatcap]

Not meant to be political.

[agate]

Now I'm finding that I can't edit the post (done as a "comment" on an earlier post) and so I'm copying the post that the additional post was meant to supplement:

We must be thinking of different people, Ikoiko. I recall a female user who got into some trouble here, and music posts were involved but they were by no means the only reason for the trouble. I can't recall her user name. She'd been on here with several different user names over the years.

I can't think of a "he" who left because people were rude to him.

I've tried consulting my PMs to refresh my memory but was astonished to find that most of my PMs are gone. I have no idea what happened to them. I usually weed out a few now and then but have been careful to keep any that I thought might be of some importance at some time. Most are gone.

The above quote is the post I was trying to comment on.

[flatcap]

Thanks, agate, and sorry for the mixup.


ETA: I should also say that you're ahead for me. Not that it matters, but I don't know how to edit a comment or start a thread as one. In fact, until now, I thought all posts are comments. When it comes to quote/reply, that's what I do whether it's out of sequence or not. My thought behind that method is that it makes it clear (I hope) that I am talking to the OP, not other user(s) in the thread. Also, I don't see how qualifying a post or response as a being a "comment" is really any different, so I don't see a distinction. Maybe you can educate me. (Again, not that it matters....)

[flatcap]

Moving on — back, really — to another topic, should we have a "Song of the Day" thread?

I would be happy to start it. Maybe other users would join in and post their own favorite songs in the thread. I would always be up for that: I might learn something about music that I previously didn't know. I'm a big music fan and like a lot of different genres (not all of them, but a lot).

What do you think? (This question is for everyone.)

[agate]

I'd like a thread like that again. It would remind me of nuthatch, who was one of the people who enjoyed that thread particularly. I believe that as long as nobody objects and it doesn't become the only thing going on here, there would be no problem with it nowadays.

[flatcap]

Thanks, agate.

I'm still wondering about "Comments." I see now how you can add one to a post, but I'm not sure of its purpose. If people have moved on to the next page, who's to say whether they will see your comment or not?

Also, it appears to me that no one can reply directly to a comment. I think I understand why, but it does kind of defeat their purpose by essentially cutting off the conversation about that particular amended post. This would seem especially true in cases such as cited above.

If it were me, I would just move on one way or the other instead of going back to post comments, whether embedded in my own OPs or someone else's.

I would especially avoid comments that seem to come from nowhere because the subject matter is so for back in the thread you can't even find it. In other words, you find yourself lost in the conversation altogether.

Maybe I'm just all mixed up on this. I can hardly get my words about it on paper straight.

[agate]

I hardly ever use the "Comment" feature because I don't understand it either. If you can't edit it at all, and apparently you can't, it's pretty much useless to me as I often see mistakes I've made and come back and tweak my posts though there's a time limit on when that can be done. I'm OK with the time limit and understand why it is there but not being able to change a post made as a "Comment" discourages me from doing any "Comments." I always go to "Post Reply" at the top left of the thread.

In that one instance, other posts had come along on other topics, and I was trying to single out the one I was replying to. Usually I'd have copied and pasted the post I was replying to into my post but I was tinkering with the "Comment" feature once again.

I've used the "Comment" way of posting a few times before and regretted it each time. But I think there are people here who use it regularly. Maybe some of them can enlighten us about its advantages.

[Ikoiko]

Say what? That is my response to Agate and Flatcap’s discussion. And please don’t fill me in. There is no way I can understand despite my Ivy League education.