[Armageddon]

Nice thread

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Shannymara', 'P')raying mantises eat the whole insect when they feed. What you are probably thinking of is how the females bite off the males' heads when they mate. It helps the males overcome their inhibitions.
.

[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Aaron', 'I')t's a translation of the original Aesops Fable - moiling... lol

[Ayame]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Aaron', 'I')N a field one summer’s day....

[Battle_Scarred_Galactico]

It would have been better if the mantis died from imperial overeach.

[efarmer]

What is the mantis' name? If I were a bull mantis I would be strongly attracted to a strong woman mantis like this with a bittersweet destiny and a bias for partying during the good times. I would be like a Leaonardo DiCaprio mantis dude and wear my Iron Mask so I wouldn't have to die just because I got "lucky" one time.

On second thought, I am an old dude and better just lay low. Could you post a picture of her anyway? (Unless I missed something and the mantis is not a girl.)

[JohnLudi]

Say...


if I eat the head of an accountant will that make me better at math?


If not, I'll just put it back where I found it...

[kpeavey]

One day the Devil decided Hell was getting too cluttered and he needed some fast cash to buy more souls. He gathered up a bunch of things, and held a yard sale. A customer was walking by and stopped in to take a look, maybe find a bargain.

There in front of him he saw all the Devil's tools. Disease, War, Vice... they were all there. He looked at the prices. He saw War was expensive, Death was cheap.

Finally he came upon a wedge shaped tool, clearly antiquated and well worn. The price tag was higher than anything else on the table.

"Why," he man asked, "is this old thing priced so high, when some of these other tools are in great shape and so cheap?"

The Devil looked up from his tabloid, "That tool is very special. I've used it many times over the ages and it never lets me down. With that tool, I can get to the very core of a man's soul when I can't touch him with anything else. That tool is Discouragement."

[Aaron]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kpeavey', 'O')ne day the Devil decided Hell was getting too cluttered and he needed some fast cash to buy more souls. He gathered up a bunch of things, and held a yard sale. A customer was walking by and stopped in to take a look, maybe find a bargain.

There in front of him he saw all the Devil's tools. Disease, War, Vice... they were all there. He looked at the prices. He saw War was expensive, Death was cheap.

Finally he came upon a wedge shaped tool, clearly antiquated and well worn. The price tag was higher than anything else on the table.

"Why," he man asked, "is this old thing priced so high, when some of these other tools are in great shape and so cheap?"

The Devil looked up from his tabloid, "That tool is very special. I've used it many times over the ages and it never lets me down. With that tool, I can get to the very core of a man's soul when I can't touch him with anything else. That tool is Discouragement."

[killJOY]

Wow. I use fables as a teaching tool in my writing class. Have done so for years.

I love the form: you can express sophisticated ideas in a tiny space, it you're good at it.

My students seem to think it's a simple children's genre; then I show them this one by Aesop:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Aesop', 'A') viper finding itself in a smith's shop, spied a File, and attacked it, gnawing it as greedily as can be.

"You had best leave me be," said the File, "for I am one who, upon occasion, can bite iron and steel."

IT IS THE FATE OF ENVY TO ATTACK THOSE CHARACTERS THAT ARE SUPERIOR TO ITS MALICE.

[LoneSnark]

^ An excellent fable for teaching "the tragedy of the commons".

You can continue it, with the humans coming ashore and dividing the land up among privately owned sheep ranches, and with self interest and skill discern a sustainable system of production, making sure to only put as many sheep upon the land as it can support. Explain that to do otherwise would overgraze the land and cause the entire herd to die off in time, to the financial ruin of its owners.

To those uninitiated, oil is not usually a tragedy of the commons since it is usually privately owned (federal lands being a counter-example).

[PrairieMule]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kpeavey', '
')
The Devil looked up from his tabloid, "That tool is very special. I've used it many times over the ages and it never lets me down. With that tool, I can get to the very core of a man's soul when I can't touch him with anything else. That tool is Discouragement."

[skyemoor]

There is a village tucked under the foot of a large cliff. One day, a geologist who has devoted all 35 years of his professional life to the study of such cliffs showed up, and spent the next 2 months studying the cliff, taking samples and reviewing existing geological data from prior State surveys. At the end of that time, he presented his findings at a town hall briefing, wherein he stated, "The cliff above the town is unstable, and will cascade down over the town, flattening every building. I don't know the exact time that it will collapse, but predict with some certainty that this will happen within the next 5 years, though it could be tomorrow. I've seen several such cliffs collapse and this cliff, while larger than the others, has the same predictable characteristics". He stayed for a question and answer period, and left the next day, promising to answer any questions that might arise via phone or email. A builder showed up later the same day, showing plans for a new expansion of the town, and brought in his confident, well-dressed geo-technical engineer, who dismissed the report of the geologist, claiming that the cliff would stand for generations. The builder pushed for rezoning rights to property he held, so that he could build a new subdivision within the fall area of the cliff. He promised bountiful, well-paying jobs to those who needed work and confidently guaranteed there would be continued prosperity for the town for the foreseeable future.

The townspeople were stunned and confused. Some began preparations to move, even though home values were volatile. Others put it off, thinking that there could be plenty of time, even if the geologist was right, and they could make some cash for a new truck, a new deck, and an HDTV in the meantime. Others simply could not believe that the cliff would fall; after all, it had stood there when their grandparents first settled the area, and surely it would continue to stand for generations to come.

(to be continued...)

[Concerned]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('LoneSnark', '^') An excellent fable for teaching "the tragedy of the commons".

You can continue it, with the humans coming ashore and dividing the land up among privately owned sheep ranches, and with self interest and skill discern a sustainable system of production, making sure to only put as many sheep upon the land as it can support. Explain that to do otherwise would overgraze the land and cause the entire herd to die off in time, to the financial ruin of its owners.

To those uninitiated, oil is not usually a tragedy of the commons since it is usually privately owned (federal lands being a counter-example).

[Subjectivist]

Has anyone seen Aaron around here recently? In the old days he was top of my best poster list.

[ROCKMAN]

Talk about life imitating art check out sky's fable up a couple of slots. About 6 years ago I watched a news reporter covering a CA mud slide that ripped thru a hillside subdivision. Gouged a 30' gulley out of the hill. A geologist was pointing out to the reporter and several residents about a dozen layers of previous landslides that were exposed in the gulley. The reporter asked the residents if they were aware that their homes were built in in an area where landslides had been common for thousands of years. And one of the residents actually admitted knowing the potential existed but figured it wouldn't happen while he was living there.

Kinda like folks who build in areas designated by the Corps of Engineers as a flood plane and are than shocked when their homes get flooded. Human nature, eh?