text stringlengths 1 330k |
|---|
Whose bright idea was that? |
How does it feel to invent something you later regret? Simon Hattenstone talks to the people who know |
Dog Labradoodle |
When the dream bites back. 'All these backyard breeders have jumped on the bandwagon, and they’re crossing any kind of dog with a poodle,' says Wally Conron. Photograph: Ragnar Schmuck/Getty Images |
If Wally Conron had known what was going to become of the labradoodle, he wouldn't have bred the dog in the first place. It was 22 years ago and Conron, now 81, was working as the breeding and puppy-walking manager for the Royal Guide Dog Association of Australia when his boss set him a tough task. A blind woman from H... |
Conron decided there was one possibility left – take his best labrador bitch and mate it with a standard poodle. They created three crossbreed puppies that needed to be boarded out to be trained and socialised, but nobody would take them – everyone wanted a purebred. And that's when Conron came up with the name labrado... |
The labradoodle proved to be a brilliant dog for the blind, and the woman in Hawaii was happy. Job done. So what was the problem? Ah, says Conron, it's how the dog has been used and abused, and sold under false pretences. "This is what gets up my nose, if you'll pardon the expression. When the pups were five months old... |
Now, the designer dog has become a status symbol. "Jennifer Aniston's got one. Whatsisname, Obama, the American president, announced he was thinking of getting a labradoodle. He didn't get one in the end, but I wrote him a letter saying what the pitfalls were. I said, if you're going to buy a labradoodle, check both pa... |
Conron, who is writing a memoir about life with the labradoodle, says that despite the fact that the dogs have helped so many blind people, he regrets creating the first crossbreed. "I opened a Pandora's box, that's what I did. I released a Frankenstein. So many people are just breeding for the money." Today, people pa... |
Conron has a pet labrador, Rocky, and has never kept a labradoodle as a pet. "No way!" he says, sounding shocked. He only ever bred 31, each of them "perfect". "I'm on a pension and live in a little shoebox flat. If I'd gone into breeding labradoodles for a living, I'd be on easy street. But there was no way I'd do it.... |
Sinclair C5 |
Sinclair C5 |
'We threw it at the public without them being prepared for it,' says Clive Sinclair. 'You need to prepare the ground with something radical.' Photograph: Steve Blogg / Rex Features |
Earlier this year, Time magazine compiled a list of the 50 worst inventions. It ranged from the zany (Honegar, an unlikely combination of honey and vinegar; spray-on hair; the hula chair, part hula hoop, part chair) to the dangerous (Agent Orange, sub-prime mortgages, hydrogenated oils) and the plain dumb (New Coke – a... |
But it is less common that inventors themselves express doubts about products they have laboured over, often for many years. General Mikhail Kalashnikov, who was responsible for the AK-47 assault rifle, now the most widely-used automatic rifle in the world, last year said he regrets that terrorists and gangsters use hi... |
It must be tough to have such a tortured relationship with the thing that you are most famous for. Sir Clive Sinclair made his name by flogging the first £100 computer in Britain; before that, they'd sold for around £500. Make no mistake, he's proud of that. And yet the thing for which he remains best known is widely r... |
What he regrets most of all is the way he launched the C5 – a one-seat electronic not-quite-car that has become an iconic image of technological failure. When it arrived on the market in 1985, it looked like nothing we'd seen before – and not necessarily in a good way. "First of all it was midwinter, and there was snow... |
That's not that all that went wrong. The British Safety Council claimed it was unsafe. "Asbolute rubbish," Sir Clive says. In fact, 25 years on, he believes the C5's time has come, and he's developing a new prototype that should be launched within the next year. "Technology has moved on quite a bit, there are new batte... |
Will it have the same name? "No, I don't think the C5 was a very good name." So what's the new motor going to be called? He pauses dramatically. "At the moment the prototype is called the X1." |
Electronic tagging |
Professor Bob Gable is ashamed of what has become of the electronic tagging system he devised with his twin brother Kirkland in the mid-1960s. Both are professors in psychology, both have law degrees and both were motivated by hippy idealism. Back in 1964, tagging was invented as a system of positive reinforcement, and... |
Bob tells me that their work was influenced by the American psychologist BF Skinner – Bob was taught by Skinner while Kirkland's adviser was Timothy Leary. "We wanted to find a way of rewarding juvenile delinquents when they were doing what they were supposed to be doing; that is, going to school or to work or to a dru... |
Over four years, they tagged around 20 juvenile delinquents and compared their behaviour with a control group. "We used missile tracking equipment, so it was very sophisticated. Transponders were put in various places around town and the kids carried a little transponder that would signal they had gone past that partic... |
By the late 60s, the brothers had left Harvard and the experiment stopped. But around 15 years later, electronic tagging came back big time – this time without the reward system. Bob says there are those who regard him and his brother as heroes, because the tag has kept people out of prison, but as far as the Gables ar... |
What is it like to be known for something you hate, or that misrepresents everything you believe in? "Of course it's not pleasant," says Kirkland, "but I'm not in control of the universe. I have to realise there are some things out of my control." |
Alexander Shulgin is known as the godfather of ecstasy. He lives with his wife Ann on a ranch in Lafayette, California, and at 85 suffers severe short-term memory loss. Ann acts as a conduit between us – repeating my questions to him and his answers back to me. |
Ecstasy was first synthesised in 1912 by the chemical company Merck, but Shulgin resynthesised it in 1976 and was the first person to test it on a human being – himself. Two years later he wrote a paper with a colleague about the effect of MDMA, stating that it created "an easily controlled altered state of consciousne... |
Shulgin had his first psychedelic experience in 1960, and since then he estimates he has had another 4,000. (Ann says she has had only around 2,000 herself.) Some regard him as a holy man, some as a great scientist, others as a monster. The Daily Mail once ran a story headlined "Has this man killed 100 British teenager... |
Today, Shulgin has his doubts about the drug he championed – not because of its efficacy, but because he believes people have abused it. "I have regrets about the way MDMA is used, because it has caused a great deal of negative publicity and been made illegal in a lot of countries. But it is still one of the great psyc... |
In Britain and America, he says, people rarely talk of its therapeutic value. "You just hear about it causing young people to get into disastrous situations at raves. But MDMA is a very rich research tool and its use in the opening up the subconscious or the unconscious is very valuable." |
The problem started, he says, when clubbers began popping pills with reckless abandon. And once MDMA was made illegal, there was no way to monitor the quality of the drug. "It made it impossible for people at raves to know whether they were getting MDMA. We never use the term ecstasy because it is meaningless – some ec... |
The strange thing, Shulgin says, is that he has actually invented hundreds of psychoactive drugs, all with the same potential to open up the subconscious and unconscious, yet it is only MDMA, which he simply brought to public attention, for which he is known. "I still believe one day it will be a really important aid i... |
Lethal injection |
Dr Jay Chapman says his invention is a strange thing to be defined by. "The media sometimes refer to me as the father of the lethal injection..." He stops. "It was not one of my purposes in life. It was something I was asked to do and I did it on the spur of the moment." |
It was 1977 and double-murderer Gary Gilmore had just been executed in Utah. Faced with the option of firing squad or hanging, he had chosen the former, but there had been an uproar among campaigners against the death penalty, denouncing the execution as inhumane. |
A few days later, Chapman, who was the chief medical examiner for the state of Oklahoma, was asked if he had an opinion on how people should be put to death in a more humane fashion. He had strong opinions, and suggested that a lethal injection would provide a much more palatable option. Chapman then went away to creat... |
Why was he so keen on the lethal injection? Simple, he says. There were so many people sitting on death row, living out their natural lives as argument raged about the relative humanity of the means of execution. With a system that was quick, efficient and involved minimal pain, he believed that natural justice would b... |
Earlier this year, though, he announced that he regretted his role in creating the lethal injection. I assumed that he'd had a change of heart on capital punishment. Yes, he has, he says – in a way. |
As Oklahoma's chief medical examiner, he witnessed many examples of man's inhumanity to man. "What we've seen is children abducted, sexually abused, tortured and killed. Some of these victims have even been buried alive. Can you imagine anything worse? I don't think the perpetrators of these crimes deserve any pity or ... |
Of course he's disappointed with the way things have turned out, he says. He blames bleeding-heart liberals, lawyers on the make and a dilatory court system. "There was a moratorium on executions. The lethal injection made the death penalty more humane, so it was more likely to be carried out – that was my thinking beh... |
Life imprisonment is costly and pointless, as far as Chapman is concerned. "There are some people who cannot live in society. And if that's the case, they should be eliminated." |
He speaks slowly and calmly as he explains that there is another reason he now has regrets. Over time, he has become convinced that the lethal injection is too humane. "I'm an eye for an eye person. The lethal injection is too easy for some of them." |
HOME > Chowhound > Manhattan > |
As your eating you get a hat. what is the name of this place ? |
Does anybody know that restaurant where they make you a tall chefs hat out of paper ? and sometimes write on it. I was passing it by and forgot the name of the place ? I think its a steak house. I dont remember. |
1. Click to Upload a photo (10 MB limit) |
1. This is done for ADULTS, or children? Sounds dreadful. Never seen or heard of it. |
1. I was in a place in South Carolina that did that called Dicks. The waiters write degrading things on the hats and they are very rude to you, hence the name. I think its a chain restaurant - I have never seen this in NYC though, nor would I want to. |
1 Reply |
1. re: Snaps |
Yeah I saw this is Vegas. Possibly one of the most distasteful things I've ever seen and could only appeal to a select crowd |
2. I have never seen anything like that before. I have no idea what restaurant here would ever do it unless if was for a kids birthday party - maybe that's what you saw? |
1 Reply |
1. re: stephaniec25 |
Hahhahha...Sorry, that made me chuckle. I completely agree, as I've never seen/heard of this sort of thing here. Sounds like some kind of nightmarish seafood restaurant where waiters dress up as pirates and the atmosphere is very interactive and obnoxious. |
2. Maybe it's that Italian place that hosts a lot of bachelorette parties? Mangia e Bevi? |
1. The question that begs to be asked is why would you be interested in this sort of thing to begin with? I guess you can parade around in dunce caps or whatever privately, but out in public you'll likely be the object of ridicule. If and when the name of this place surfaces, I'm sure people won't be flocking... |
Meta Battle Subway PokeBase - Pokemon Q&A |
How does pokegen work, and what do I need to use it? |
0 votes |
Also, does it work on 4th gen, or just 5th gen? |
asked Aug 16, 2012 by |SentByRavens| |
1 Answer |
0 votes |
Best answer |
PokeGen just gives you a Pokemon over GTS, any Pokemon you want. Any items, movesets, gender, etc. |
You can use 4th Gen, too. |
PokeGen is a Pokemon data editor for Generation 4 and 5 games -PokeGen |
There are a lot of guides for PokeGen. Here are some of them: |
answered Aug 16, 2012 by Dr.Flame |
selected Aug 16, 2012 by |SentByRavens| |
Explore. Experience. Engage. |
Budget Alternatives to Classic Destinations |
madeira coastline sea portugalThe Fashionable Mediterranean Coast: French Riviera vs. Madeira, Portugal |
Droves of tourists craving the exotic, European feel of the Cote d'Azur, which has attracted the rich and famous for decades, flock to this glamorous beach destination in the spring and summer months. Travelers would probably be less inclined to associate the glitz and glamour of the French Riviera with a Portuguese is... |
Madeira, a self-governing island of Portugal, has enjoyed a reputation as one of Europe's most affordable destinations for years. Madeira has less razzle-dazzle than the French Riviera, but you won't miss the thousands of tanning tourists and expensive resorts when you're mountain climbing, wine tasting or enjoying the... |
Air: A roundtrip flight from New York to Madeira runs from $800 to $1,350, depending on when you're flying. Fares are high in the summer months (this is when you'll find the $1,350 price tag), but fly in the winter or spring shoulder seasons and you'll enjoy cheap flights and pleasant temperatures in Madeira, which is ... |
Exchange Rate: Both France and Portugal use the euro, so you'll find the same exchange rate in both (currently $1 to about 0.75 euros). |
Accommodations: We found budget hotels in Cannes from $100 to $200 per night, while classier beachfront lodging can run as high as $400 to $900 per night in the summer. Even scarier, smaller seaside towns on the Riviera charge higher rates for hotel rooms. Stay oceanside in Madeira from $70 for a budget hotel and betwe... |
Food and Activities: Entrance to private beaches and use of lounge chairs on the Riviera may require a fee. Public beaches are available, but these may be more crowded. When it comes to dining, many budget travelers can't afford a splashy gourmet meal in the Riviera -- some of the trendier hotspots charge around $100 p... |
What's the Catch?: The French Riviera has a distinctive in-vogue vibe; beautiful people, stunning scenery and lots of skin come to mind when people speak of its trendy towns. You probably won't feel as fashionable telling your friends that you're vacationing in Madeira as you would if you were staying in Monte Carlo or... |
jahorina ski lodge resort sarajevo bosnia winterEuropean Ski Trip: The Alps vs. Jahorina, Bosnia |
Jahorina hosted some of the ski competitions in the 1984 Winter Olympics and boasts a ski scene cool and challenging enough to rival any Alps mountain. When the whole point of your trip is to set sail down an impressive mountain with ski poles tucked beneath your arms, why pay sky-high prices for Western European ski p... |
Food, lodging and ski passes are all significantly cheaper in Jahorina than in the Alps thanks to the more favorable exchange rate and less popular tourist infrastructure. And Bosnia still has that alluring European charm -- the 15th-century cobblestone streets in the nearby mountain town of Sarajevo are well worth exp... |
Airfare: Fares to Bosnia won't be the cheapest part of your journey. You can get a roundtrip ticket from New York to Sarajevo, the nearest airport to Jahorina, for about $1,000. Winter fares to Western Europe will generally be a bit cheaper, around $600. But the money you'll save on hotels, meals and skiing will make u... |
Exchange Rate: The Bosnian convertible mark is the local currency. Currently, $1 equals about 1.46 BAM -- so while the dollar will struggle against most Western European currencies, Bosnia's exchange rate actually boosts your spending power. |
Accommodations: Mid-class hotels in Sarajevo cost from $35 per night. Compare this to slope-side hotels in the Alps, which can cost four times as much -- we found little lodging in the French Alps less than $150 per night, and many hotels and chalets charge well over $300. |
Food and Activities: A day ski pass costs less than $25 in Jahorina, while skiing in the Alps can run $60 on average for an adult. |
What's the Catch?: Since the end of the Bosnian War in 1995, the country has seen occasional political demonstrations and other minor signs of political unrest, and landmines still pose a threat in some regions (Jahorina is clear of landmines). Today, Bosnia can be a safe destination for the educated traveler; check th... |
Estimate the cost of your trip with our Travel Budget Calculator! |
You May Also Like |
• The Seven Cheapest Ways to Travel |
• Top Tips for Finding Cheap Airfare |
• Top 25 Ways to Save on Europe Travel |
• Write About Your Latest Trip |
• Sign Up for Our Free Newsletter! |
--written by Caroline Costello |
• X |
Thank You For Signing Up! |
BioShock Infinite VGA trailer wants to pull on your strings |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.