Video Backyard Brains Can Help Satisfy Your Inner Frankenstein (Video) 199
Video no longer available.
Did you know that cockroaches have such large nerves in their legs that you can poke into their legs almost at random and hit a nerve with an electrode so you can stimulate that leg with hip-hop music and and watch it move? And that you can easily order the parts to do this at home or at school? You can. And supplies to perform many other neuroscience experiments, too. Amaze your friends! Learn how neurons work! Gross out squeamish people! All that (and more) is what Backyard Brains is about.
Would you like to submit a video to Slashdot? Email robin AT roblimo dot com
Damn! (Score:2)
Damn, that's really neat.
This is one of those times I wished I lived in the U.S... We just don't get such nice stuff by mail order in Europe.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
We just don't have the size cockroaches you have. And using cats or dogs is often frowned upon.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
It looks like you can order this stuff and have it shipped to Europe: http://backyardbrains.com/Order.aspx [backyardbrains.com]
It looks like there are plenty of customers from around the world: http://backyardbrains.com/Contact.aspx [backyardbrains.com]
That's not funny (Score:5, Insightful)
Sticking an electrode into a creature and have it twitching to music is not funny, it's cruel.
Re:That's not funny (Score:5, Informative)
That's what I thought, but they cut off the leg (not do it on the cockroach), use juvenile cockroaches that can grow their legs back, and they anesthetize the roach with icewater first.
Re:That's not funny (Score:5, Insightful)
That's a pretty weak defense against a claim of cruelty. A human analogue: Suppose you need a bunch of healthy teeth for an experiment. Find a child and yank out a few teeth - they'll grow new ones eventually. Shoot them up full of Novocaine first and they won't even feel it. I assume no one thinks that's acceptable?
If you're ok with the process because it's only a cockroach, just admit that. Don't try to use some false justification to convince yourself that you were humane about cutting it's leg off.
Re:That's not funny (Score:5, Insightful)
A human analog is irrelevant. Humans are not analogous to cockroaches in this way. Humans feel pain through nociceptors. Cockroaches don't have these.
Besides that Humans can feel horror and misery that a brain as simple as a cockroaches almost certainly cannot. They do not have higher emotions and higher functions. They don't even have memory. Whatever it is like to be a cockroach, it is almost certainly nothing like what it is like to be a human.
Re:That's not funny (Score:5, Funny)
Whatever it is like to be a cockroach, it is almost certainly nothing like what it is like to be a human.
Excuse me, but a Mr. Franz Kafka says he would like to have a word with you.
Re: (Score:2)
Two words: prove it.
You are merely making assumptions about these things, but really have no actual idea. If you state outright that these are truths, I would like you to prove it.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Besides that Humans can feel horror and misery that a brain as simple as a cockroaches almost certainly cannot.
What makes you so certain? If you were in a cockroach body you would have limited senses and physical abilities, so even if you feel horror and misery how would you prove it to some human? Cockroaches may not pass IQ tests, but how can you be so sure they don't feel pain, horror and misery? And how much can you learn with a limited cockroach body? They certainly do have memory: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070927132543.htm [sciencedaily.com]
Maybe amoebas too: http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artsep01/feed.h [microscopy-uk.org.uk]
Absolutely. Humans are superior (Score:2)
A human analog is irrelevant. Humans are not analogous to cockroaches in this way. Humans feel pain through nociceptors. Cockroaches don't have these.
Besides that Humans can feel horror and misery that a brain as simple as a cockroaches almost certainly cannot. They do not have higher emotions and higher functions. They don't even have memory. Whatever it is like to be a cockroach, it is almost certainly nothing like what it is like to be a human.
Thanks for a needed dose of common-sense.
Crazy, misinformed environment activists (as opposed to reasonable, educated environment engineers) speak as if animal life was just as dignified as human life.
Newsflash: it isn't. Humans have far greater intelligence, are self-aware, and have free-will. While animals (specially mammals) should not be needlessly mistreated, they aren't to be treated as humans either.
If an economic project needs to put down an hectare of trees, it should be permitted unless it will ha
Re: (Score:2)
Cockroaches are like humans so we shouldn't hurt them? who says that?
Not me.
I say: play with somebody your own size, coward.
Re: (Score:2)
What you mean hiding in secluded dark places waiting patiently for the moment of total world domination? The only difference between us and the cockroaches is we have computers.
Re: (Score:2)
A lot of people would argue that no animals have "higher emotions" and that, for example, if you torture a kitten to deathh it's just displaying purely physical reactions, and has no concept of being tortured or of its impending doom. Even if that's true, it doesn't make it right. And it certainly doesn't make it right when it's just a toy for geeks.
It is the motivation of the humans causing unnecessary suffering that is t
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
So your claim is that cockroaches are as human as Jews?
Re: (Score:2)
Not everything that remotely sounds "Nazi" is wrong.
No, but many things that sound Nazi certainly are. Like the characterisation of the Jews as sub-human. Which is what GP was talking about.
Re: (Score:2)
There'll be no next life, he'll cease to function and have his remains disposed of, that's all. Just like you and me (and that cockroach).
What a relief. It is sure refreshing to know that there are superior intellects in the world who have already completely characterized consciousness, not to mention time and space, to the point of being able to make such statements with such a degree of confidence. I was afraid I might actually have to bother to read some of those boring philosophy books, but since you've got this problem all sewn up, I guess I won't have to bother.
Re: (Score:2)
There'll be no next life, he'll cease to function and have his remains disposed of, that's all. Just like you and me (and that cockroach).
What a relief. It is sure refreshing to know that there are superior intellects in the world who have already completely characterized consciousness, not to mention time and space, to the point of being able to make such statements with such a degree of confidence. I was afraid I might actually have to bother to read some of those boring philosophy books, but since you've got this problem all sewn up, I guess I won't have to bother.
GP's position is quite reasonable unless you can prove otherwise. As with the existence of God, it is up to believers to prove/show it.
Obviously, it would be earthshaking news if you could show that consciousness somehow lives on after death, just as I would be if someone could actually prove that God exists.
I'm waiting...
Re: (Score:3)
it's also OK to spray chemicals around to kill off the child infestation of your house too. Or to turn on the kitchen light and jump on the child before it runs under the fridge.
Re: (Score:2)
I already do this to gather teeth to get rich off of the tooth fairy. We tell the little bastards that the we're removing isn't a tooth, but bone cancer from the jaw we need to remove pronto.
Re: (Score:2)
and are a pest.
And I stopped reading here. Calling something a "pest" is an opinion. While they may annoy you, cockroaches fill a biological niches, just like anything else that annoys you (from virii to noxious bacteria to your mother-in-law). They have a purpose, whether or not you choose to recognize it. Calling something a pest is akin to saying "I like purple!" It is devoid of actual meaning or constructive argument. Please reconstruct your argument and try again.
Re: (Score:2)
and are a pest.
And I stopped reading here. Calling something a "pest" is an opinion. While they may annoy you, cockroaches fill a biological niches, just like anything else that annoys you (from virii to noxious bacteria to your mother-in-law). They have a purpose, whether or not you choose to recognize it. Calling something a pest is akin to saying "I like purple!" It is devoid of actual meaning or constructive argument. Please reconstruct your argument and try again.
I read that as shorthand for "and are a type of animal that we deliberately slaughter en masse because they annoy us and get in our way, and most people are fine with that, to the extent that there is a respected and legal profession specialising in that exact activity."
The word "pest" can be used casually to mean "something I don't like", but it also means a member of a broad and ill-defined class of animals and plants, e.g. "A pest is an animal which is detrimental to humans [wikipedia.org]".
GP was using it in that sen
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I have to agree. Cockroach or not.
Re: (Score:2)
Sticking an electrode into a creature and have it twitching to music is not funny, it's cruel.
Cruel and very, very gross. Yuck. Cockroaches.
Re:That's not funny (Score:5, Interesting)
If you stuck a venus fly trap for the same purpose, or you stabbed a maple tree for the purpose of making it bleed, is that also cruel? Practically everyone can see that it is cruel to do this to a human, while practically everyone can see it is not cruel to do this to do it to a plant. Somewhere between these, we went from cruel to not cruel. Is there a line, on one side of which is cruel, and on the other is not cruel, or is there a spectrum of cruelty here? And what property of these "creatures" makes it crueler to do so to some, than to others?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
No, it is not that simple, not all members of the animal kingdom have enough neurons to "feel" anything. You would not conceder reflexive movement in someone who has lost most of their brain to indicate real sensation. You need a *lot* more complexity than even complex reflexes to consider anything capable of feeling (and flys have only a little more than a millionth of our complexity). Vertebrates would make a good first start, along with creatures with similar or higher complexity levels to the simple ver
Re: (Score:2)
The last I checked amoebas certainly don't have neurons. Where's your proof that they don't feel anything? They sure seem to react to the environment and it's not just dumb reflexes. http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artsep01/feed.html [microscopy-uk.org.uk]
Some even build shells!
I suspect the main difference between single celled creatures and us is the single celled creatures haven't managed to scale to our size and thus get our abilities.
If you pilot an amoeba, you're not going to do that much fancy stuff even if you're a ho
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
That's actually not true at all. Pain is carried by nociceptors, which are found in higher orders. Insects have not been demonstrated to have nociceptors. They "feel" noxious stimuli. But they don't process noxious stimuli as "pain". They process it as a feeling, and something they want to get away from. But their nervous system doesn't process it as an "unpleasant" stimulus. Just a stimulus that might possibly kill them, so they should flee the stimulus.
Re:That's not funny (Score:4, Interesting)
Cockroaches are not humans.
By your argument a neural network running on my computer also feels "pain" and our collective computer systems are the worst set of torturers to have ever existed.
Re: (Score:2)
Haven't you ever watched TRON? It's a fucking nightmare in there!
Re: (Score:3)
Well, a plant doesn't have a nervous system so it can't feel pain. Insects have a nervous system so they probably feel pain, but then, their nervous system is so simple I doubt their pain has any meaning.
Re: (Score:2)
My point is that more is required to feel pain than "has neurons", or even "has a nervous system". A crucial part of the human experience of pain involves nociceptors which cockroaches do not have, for example. My point from the beginning is that revulsion from perceived cruelty in prodding cockroaches in this way is due to anthropomorphizing cockroaches and not any actual cruelty.
Based on the modding, here, it looks like actual scientific data still takes a back seat to intuition.
Re: (Score:2)
I actually was agreeing with you. That's why I said I doubt their pain has any meaning. To elaborate, if a computer has a thermal sensor that detects that its CPU is going to melt, and it tries to shutdown the system, does this count as pain? In the same way, perhaps an insects nervous system is so simple that it feeling pain is not much different than that.
Re: (Score:2)
Intuitive and un-scientific?
Hint: I don't give a fuck about the cockroaches..
Re: (Score:2)
The line is based on intent. If you are ripping cockroach legs off just to watch it suffer, or if you are punching holes in a tree just to watch it die then it's cruel. If you are doing honest research and experimentation then it may not be cruel. It still may not be the right thing to do though.
Re:That's not funny (Score:4, Insightful)
By this logic, mowing one's lawn is a virtual holocaust of cruelty.
Re: (Score:2)
Read The Sound Machine by Roald Dahl sometime. Interesting exploration of this idea.
Re: (Score:2)
So when you mow your lawn you get satisfaction that every blade of grass suffered as it was cut? Me it's just so it is well kept and looks nice. The intent is not cruelty. Even a dog knows the difference between getting step on and kicked.
Re:That's not funny (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Have you ever touched the terminals of a car battery? Quite the jolt I tell you.
Not.
Now, as for the pinching pain from the jump leads, yeah that would hurt like fuck. Car battery not required.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
I have plenty of experience of 9v batteries on the tongue (one of the most sensitive organs on the body? I dunno). Used to do it for fun as a kid. I like the tingle :)
I also have plenty of experience of touching 12v batteries when wet. Nada. Maybe I have a higher resistance than you?
I also have plenty of experience of flashing a battery. Fortunately I do not have a resistance approaching 0 Ohms so it doesn't really have the same effect on my wet hands when I touch the terminals. If you are implying that I s
Re: (Score:2)
And there's a difference between holding a 9-volt battery in a dry hand and licking it.
Here's a hint for you. Try licking your fingers, and then grabbing both terminals of your car battery. Or if you want to avoid the whole 'there's a crapton of reasons why a good electrical current won't run from the terminal, through dry or mildly moist skin, through to the rest of me below said skin', try grabbing a wrench nice and firmly, and laying that wrench across both terminals. Let me know how that works out for you.
I'm guessing you've never actually tried that. Here's a hint, it's not the low-quality connection between your skin and the battery that protectsus , it's the 1000Ohms of reistance IN your skin (which your tongue does not have) that protects us. That make a car battey put out 12mA, which would be conducted through the subdermal if anything and you still wouldn't feel it.
Now, CUT both hands and touch the bloody parts to the battery, and that's a whole other story!
Re: (Score:2)
Noted, Gary Larson.
Re: (Score:2)
The two are not exclusive. Besides, cockroaches don't really have a central conscious brain or something, you can cut their head off and they will continue to live happily.
Re: (Score:2)
I came here to post "won't somebody think of the cockroaches?", but apparently somebody is.
Re: (Score:2)
Sticking an electrode into a creature and have it twitching to music is not funny, it's cruel.
I did wonder whether anyone would say this.
I'm fairly sure that if people were selling home vivisection kits for puppies there would be a bit more of an uproar.
I know they're only cockroaches, the point is the mentality of the people who think this is fun. It's like kids pulling the wings off flies or the legs off spiders: the worry is that this is the beginning of a well trodden path leading to psycopathic behaviour in adults.There is a sort of unholy triumvirate of animal cruelty, firestarting and
Re: (Score:3)
I'm OK with the killing. It's the dismembering for fun and profit that doesn't sit well with me.
Re: (Score:3)
Do you not squash bugs, or use a fly swatter, or use spray to kill wasps/hornets, or use ant traps?
I draw a distinction between killing and torturing.
Re: (Score:2)
So you're okay with torturing something as long as your end goal is to kill it? Because all those things are closer to torture than what they did in this experiment.
Re: (Score:2)
So you're okay with torturing something as long as your end goal is to kill it? Because all those things are closer to torture than what they did in this experiment.
No. I'm not OK with torturing anything for any reason. I don't consider swatting flies torture because it's a quick death.
Re: (Score:2)
Unless you don't quiet kill it with the hit and then it's injured barely living body falls into a nook as it slowly twitches to death. After it spend a grueling marathon of trying to escape the massive object trying to squash it.
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe you should talk to someone professionally trained about this.
Re:That's not funny (Score:4, Funny)
So you're okay with torturing something as long as your end goal is to kill it? Because all those things are closer to torture than what they did in this experiment.
If I find a cockroach in the kitchen I make sure to set up my tiny crucifixion of him in the middle of the kitchen floor. Sure it may be months before he dies, but it serves as a warning to the rest of the bastards in hiding.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You are getting all choked up over a flipping cockroach yet are totally silent on how a human fetus is ripped to shreds.
A human fetus is not an autonomous being. You might as well cry about the sperm wasted when you jack off over pictures of Sarah Palin.
Re: (Score:2)
Bugs are not conscious and therefore cannot experience pain or pleasure.
Same as Anonymous Cowards then?
I wonder (Score:2)
Cockroaches (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Cockroaches (Score:5, Funny)
I'm pretty sure that insects are not covered by any animal cruelty laws and regulations, building a cockroach-sized medieval torture chamber is as such entirely legal although perhaps somewhat eccentric.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm pretty sure that insects are not covered by any animal cruelty laws and regulations, building a cockroach-sized medieval torture chamber is as such entirely legal although perhaps somewhat eccentric.
You misspelled psychotic.
Re: (Score:2)
U men i can haz Wasp Factory?
Get back in your attic, Frank.
Re: (Score:3)
Since insects don't feel pain, I think the anesthesia is more about the convenience of having the bug hold still while its leg is amputated. And maybe to make people feel better. Judging by your response, It worked.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Sorry, no. The recent discovery of endogenous opioid peptides and their receptor sites in various invertebrates (including insects) may encourage the belief that these animals can experience pain in view of the analgesic role of opioid peptides in mammals. However, the various functions, unrelated to pain experience, which are mediated by opioids in mammals, as well as the known occurrence of two such compounds in a protozoan, suggest that the endogenous opioids of invertebrates may function in regulating
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
FWIW, it's also a reason why Stone Crabs Claws are a more "friendly and sustainable" catch for seafood. It's not perfect but the animal has a good chance of surviving even after being harvested. The crabs are caught, the claws are removed (which they will grow back) and then they are released. "mathematically challenged" crabbers will only take the largest claw because the mortality rates are 47% for double amputation but only 28% for single amputation although it is legal to take both claws.
FTFY. If you need 100 claws, you can either take both claws of 50 crabs (50 X 47% = 23.5 dead crabs) or half the claws of 100 crabs (100 X 28% = 28 dead crabs).
Slashvertisement (Score:5, Insightful)
Did you know that nerds have such large deficiencies in their brains that you can post Slashdot articles almost at random so you can stimulate that advertising revenue with advertisements disguised as badly edited articles and watch them squirm? And that you can easily order the editors to do this at home or at work? You can. And supplies to perform many other psychology experiments, too. Amaze your investors! Learn how marketing works! Alienate your readers! All that (and more) is what Slashvertisement is about.
Submission Tip #23: (Score:2)
So, how's monetizing Slashdot working out? (Score:5, Insightful)
Shameless articles about torturing animals (even insects are beneath this) and astroturfing posts cheering them on. Wag of the finger, site I used to love...
Re: (Score:2)
The difference between a cockroach nervous system and a human nervous system, especially with regards to pain pathways, is immense. Your intuition is just wrong. Cockroaches can't suffer like humans can because they have no higher order functions. They don't think, they don't remember, they don't have desires, or higher emotions because they lack the circuitry for it.
It is an insult to human torture victims to compare a cockroach's experience to that of a human's. You've inflicted more torture on this w
Re: (Score:2)
Asshat. This isn't for medical science or anything as noble - it's "hey look what happens when we do this" and fundamentally no different to shooting things for fun. It's irrelevant that the roaches "feel no pain" - it's unethical, full stop.
Re: (Score:2)
If one shoots a tree, is that also unethical, full stop? No, because what matters is what it is like to be the one being experimented on. Since trees don't care if you shoot them, shooting them is not unethical. Cockroaches lack the circuitry require to "care", this wouldn't be torture any more than making computers do what we want would be slave labor. Incidentally they also lack the pain pathways humans have.
You could just think this through instead of assuming that everyone who doesn't conform to you
Re: (Score:2)
Asshat. This isn't for medical science or anything as noble - it's "hey look what happens when we do this" and fundamentally no different to shooting things for fun. It's irrelevant that the roaches "feel no pain" - it's unethical, full stop.
What the hell? There is a single reason why it's unethical to do that to a human. They feel pain, both physical and mental anguish. If we did not, it would not be unethical to do it to humans. The cockroach does not, so it is not unethical to do it with them.
By all means, lock them up in a glass jar and check out how long they can go without food. Cut out legs. Poke it. Who the fuck cares? It certainly doesn't, why should you?
Transcript (Score:3)
Title: Backyard Brains Makes Educational (and Fun) Bioengineering Lab Kits
Description: Their motto is "Neuroscience for Everyone," and they mean it!
00:00) TITLE
A shot of Rob Rozeboom sitting at a small table appears with the SlasdotTV logo bar reading "Slashdot Editor Rob Rozeboom".
00:00) Rob
If you're a fan of Frankenstein but have worries about villagers chasing you with pitchforks and torches, the folks at Backyard Brains have science kits for you.
00:08) TITLE
The SlashdotTV title sequence appears with the title Backyard Brains and two small photos of electronics mounted to insects.
00:12) TITLE
A view of a guy at a group desk with various computer screens and tools appears.
00:12) Guy
To all those out there on the interwebs listening to me and thinking "When is this guy gonna show us the inventions already?",
00:17) TITLE
The SlashdotTV logo bar fades in and out of view identifying this guy as "Backyard Brains Co-Founder Timothy Marzullo".
00:17) Timothy
The reason I can talk fast and hopefully talk about interesting things or boring things is because I have neurons.
Neurons are electrochemical devices - cells - and it's hard to monitor the chemical secretions - the neurotransmitters - because they happen in very small spaces, you need powerful microscopes and fluorescently tagged molecules, but the electricity that a neuron generates is easy to... well, easier to monitor due to this magical invention which is allowing all the listeners to watch me and it's called the transistor.
We all know due to the magic of the PN- and NP-junctions and creative uses of capacitors and resistors, we can make amplifiers and even computers.
00:58) Timothy
So what we have here are cockroaches and these are [...]
01:03) TITLE
The view zooms in on the box of cockroaches
01:03) Timothy
[...] muy especial cockroaches
- viven en el bosque de Sudamerica - they live in the rain forests of South America.
One of the reasons cockroaches are so fast is they have very large neurons in their legs. [...]
01:16) TITLE
The view zooms back out
01:16) Timothy
[...] These very large neurons are quite easy to record from.
Now, we want to treat the cockroaches in a humane fashion, so we need to anesthetize them and so, uhm.. did you bring your halothane with you, in addition to your camera?
01:31) Rob
No..
01:32) Timothy
The propathol?
01:33) Rob
No... I
01:34) Timothy
The pentobarbital?
01:35) Rob
I might have a fifth of Jack in the car, but..
01:38) Timothy
Yeah, yeah.. so we could actually use that for the earthworms, but for the cockroaches we're just gonna use.. this is relatively old technology that probably doesn't excite the people at Slashdot that much, but when water goes below a certain temperature it undergoes a phase change in terms from a liquid to a solid, and so what we have here is ice, in water, and so we're gonna put the cockroaches in the ice water [...]
02:03) TITLE
The view zooms in on the cup of ice water
02:03) Timothy
[...] and after a minute or two that will chill them out and anesthetize them.
02:06) Timothy
I'm actually allergic to cockroaches because I've been working on them for about two years.
I used to work in a rat lab, then I got allergic to rats, so I moved to cockroaches, now I'm allergic to cockroaches, so I'll have to move to.. maybe jellyfish and sea anemones next.
It's a constantly.. I'm constantly fighting this battle between creatures.
02:25) TITLE
Timothy grabs a cockroach and puts it into the ice water.
02:25) Timothy
So these are.. they live in the rotting trees of the Amazonian rain forest, and I'm jut gonna dunk 'm into the ice water.
And because these are cold-blooded, he can't mod.. regulate his own body core temperature and after a minute or two, he'll slowly.. he'll begin to move slower and slower and then we can do our exp
Re: (Score:2)
Current science is wrong.
Unbelievable.
If current science = wrong
and unproven thought = believable
therefor non-science = truth!
Re: (Score:3)
I know it has yet to be tested, but it works.
Congradulations, you've won our dictionary definition word of the day! [merriam-webster.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
You can't say something works without testing it, you can only guess.
Re: (Score:2)
Wow, two in a row! [merriam-webster.com]
So many winners [merriam-webster.com], so little time to recognize them all.
Re: (Score:2)
Unbelievable, because he's wrong.
Re: (Score:2)
Why should I when he don't? His rantings are also peppered with factual inaccuracies, but someone ignorant would of course not know that.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
can we repeat this experiment with the leg of a PETA member?
No, unlike roaches, PETA members lack the functional nervous system required for this to work.
Re: (Score:2)
Also unlike roaches, PETA members do not regrow lost legs. However I do not view this as a problem and in fact this serves as a useful inhibitor to help keep them from showing up places.
Re: (Score:2)
You want a real sense of proportion and context? Here, sit in this room...
*Gets out the fairy cake*
Re: (Score:2)
Go live in a cave and eat sand then.
Just about any other human endeavour has been built on the exploitation of other living creatures. The big differentiator is doing it humanely.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
There's a quantitative and qualitative difference between roaches and mammals. Roaches are disease carrying pests that indiscriminately destroy resources needed by higher species to survive. There are billions of roaches, with billions more waiting to hatch every day, making eradication impossible. I suspect most roaches die due to competition with other roaches for the limited food they have available. Next, there's always a lifespan issue: everything living dies eventually. Even if you wanted to kee
Re: (Score:2)
So I'm a species bigot. Guess what? That's the advantage of being at the top, and owning the classification system. Until another superior life form comes around and classifies us as vermin, we aren't.
That's not to say we don't have responsibilities to other species. Of course we do. Right now, the responsibility to other species regarding roaches should be "human activity brought non-native roaches across the oceans to become invasive species where they don't belong, so our responsibility is to the na
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It's ironic that if you, yourself, understood how neurons worked, you would realize that you can't torture something that doesn't have the capacity to feel tortured. You have underestimated the difference between cockroaches and humans. Perhaps more time at the library or your local college could help.
Re: (Score:2)
How do i block these kind of stories in adblock?
Create an adblock filter for http://science.slashdot.org./ [science.slashdot.org] But if you really intended to block this, you already knew this answer.
A different way would be to create a slashdot account, then go into options, and on the exclusions tab select the Science category. Click save. You won't see them, yet you can get to them when you want. Or maybe you just want to exclude stories from roblimo. Check his box, too.
But much better would be to use your brain. If you don't think a story is interesting, STOP READIN