>Do you hear the People Sing?

Singing the songs of angry men? It is the music of the people who will not be slaves again!

You discover that when you make your kid sister laugh, she can see visions of the future. The harder she laughs, the clearer the visions become.

Yeah, I'm surprised that the cube didn't end up cracking from being turned so quickly.

Not to mention that Benson has been a victim of assault several times now and can't possibly be unbiased in her proceedings.

"One of a kind!"

Well, at least for PBS, some of their shows leaned a bit older than six or seven.

As far as PBS is concerned, Arthur and Cyberchase were perfectly fine for six year olds to watch, but their more complex story-telling made them more popular with older children. For a while, they were even part of the "PBS Kids Go!" block, which was specifically marketed to older elementary schoolers.

Heck, Jack Hanna's old show is still in syndication in my area.

Askari

Wolves and coyotes are classified as separate species, but they can produce fertile offspring.

And among Panthera hybrids--ligers, tigons, etc.--the females are fertile.

It's rare, but mules are capable of breeding as well.

"What was that, Ray? Whatever it is, it ain't blocking!"

"Give me a break, Gerry!"

"You want a break, I'll give you a break! Me and Julius coming in...if we get to Rev once, just one time, I swear to God I'm gonna hit you so hard by the time you come to, ooh, boy you're gonna need a new haircut. You understand me?"

Leave no doubt!

"LEFT SIDE!"

Julius stares stunned as it occurs to him that Gerry isn't trying to hit him, he's trying to play

"STRONG SIDE!"

"LEFT SIDE!"

"STRONG SIDE!"

"RAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

I still remember it like yesterday...it's a cliche, but darn it if it isn't true. I can still hear the waves crashing against the shore. I can still feel the sand beneath my feet. I can still smell the iron-y blood mixing with the salty water.

The mermaid was dying. A deep, ugly gash in her tail, down to the bone. I'm still not sure what caused it--a blade of some sort to be sure, but whether it was poachers or moonshiners or smugglers or just sheer dumb luck off a rotor, I couldn't tell you.

"Take my treasure...my precious treasure...don't let it come to harm..."

She pushed the treasure to me. It was an orb, about the size of a soccer ball. It was dark blue, streaked with yellow lightning.

"I...I...."

I wasn't sure what to say. I stammer when I'm nervous and who wouldn't be nervous?

I took the orb in my hands and it vibrated slightly, as if it had a heartbeat. I turned back to the mermaid...just as she turned into sea foam...

xxxx

The treasure was an egg. It hatched in less than two days after its mother turned into sea foam.

It was a girl.

She was small and wrinkly and she was perfect.

xxxx

I may come back to this.

I think people would consider a dolphin attacking them close to shore--and for better or worse, dolphins don't really have an aggressive reputation among the public.

I don't know of anyone who is afraid of a dolphin--not even someone who is afraid of an orca--but people are afraid of sharks.

Attacks in defense of their cubs are actually fairly rare--black bears are more apt to chase their cubs up a tree and then stand their ground.

Black bear attacks tend to be predation or defending a food source--which is why if attacked by a black bear, you must fight back with everything you've got.

Grizzly bears are more aggressive, so they do tend to attack for defensive reasons, but in that case, the best defensive action is to play dead.

A few of the actors have died.

"Happy Christmas, Ron! What are you wearing?"

"Oh, this? Mum made it. Looks like you've got one too!"

"I've got presents?!"

"Yeah!"

That sounds like work.

And by comparison, it's forty hours in an office as opposed to x number of hours working backbreaking labor on a farm, for crops they had to give to their fiefdom.

Most of the raccoon family makes terrible pets--coatis, raccoons, kinkajous.

About the only species that's relatively docile is the ringtail.

Happy to be of service!

Movies make everything up. They have too many rounds in magazines, the guns fire too quickly or too quietly, and in some cases, the guns fire too well. It's not often brought up, but larger magazine drums often cause the guns to jam.

There's a great deal of Americans who have just as little knowledge of firearms. I don't own guns myself--everything I know, I learned, most of it coming from firearm experts who happened to be my favorite novelists.

That's actually the thing about a lot of semi-automatics--they look similar to automatic rifles, which makes laymen all the more afraid of them.

Recoil can be tricky. There's a lot of factors that come into it, but the bottom line is that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Some heavy guns actually have less recoil and the recoil in a handgun can be surprisingly strong if you haven't braced yourself properly. This is because, if fitted with the same ammo, the guns are firing the same round. The larger, heavier gun absorbs more of the recoil across its entire frame and although the overall recoil may be greater, the felt recoil won't be nearly as strong for the gunman. The smaller handgun has it more concentrated and thus, the gunman feels that much more.

The most popular firearm in the United States is the AR-15, which is noted for having a very light recoil.

That all being said, a stranger on the Internet isn't the best person to give you advice on which firearm might suit you best, if you were ever to use one. You'd want to speak to people with experience, face-to-face about that.

You're welcome. And no worries. I don't mind answering any honest question. And there's no such thing as a naive question.

To start, it's not a particularly difficult process to "convert" certain semi-automatics to fully automatic if somebody knows what they're doing, but it is highly illegal.

As for what you've seen in movies: As general rule of thumb--Hollywood will lie to you. They do it to tell a story, but it's still a lie.

The guns in movies fire far more rounds than the magazines will hold, with almost nobody reloading ever.

The guns in movies are much, much quieter--your average gun fight in a superhero film will cause permanent hearing loss to anyone in the room in real life. When was the last time any action movie had its characters use proper hearing protection?

As an additional note, automatic firing tends to wreck accuracy, because the gun is moving around so much.

Once again, I'm happy to answer questions.

I can explain some of this.

An assault rifle is a long rifle that is specifically designed for selective fire. This means that it can be set to fire automatically or semiautomatically.

If a firearm is set to automatic fire, when the gunman pulls the trigger, rounds will fire until the magazine is empty or until the gunman released the trigger.

If a firearm is set for semi-automatic fire, the gunman can only fire one round per pull of the trigger.

Automatic firearms are actually extremely rare in the United States, having their production banned since 1986. Existing automatic firearms cost tens of thousands of dollars. They've quite literally only been used in crimes a handful of times.

Semi-automatic rifles are extremely common and yes, they can be used for hunting. AR-15s and AR-10s can be used to hunt feral hogs. AR-15s can also be used to hunt varmints--rats, prairie dogs, etc.

You don't have a point to stand on!

None of those measures would decrease shootings--they'd only punish the law-abiding.

Start coming up with things that would actually decrease crime!

Stop conflating gang violence with horrific massacres.

And there's literally more defensive uses of firearms by an order of magnitude compared to homicides.

>What does the 1st amendment have to do with this conversation?

You're demanding we throw out the 2nd Amendment. It's only fair that I bring up amendments you don't want to see changed.

>The first amendment doesn't lead to a school shooting.

Actually, it could very well do so.

Sociologists have pleaded for years for the media to not report so heavily on tragedies--including school shootings--for fear of encouraging copycats.

The media tends not to listen.

>Being able to call the president a piece of shit without cops beating you up and sending you to jail doesn't have anything to do with a teenager buying an assault rifle to blow away people at a school.

Actual assault rifles are heavily regulated and have been so for forty years and cost thousands and thousands of dollars to purchase.

And what might encourage that teenager is seeing report after report in the news where they turn the shooter into a legend.