• Welcome to BookAndReader!

    We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!

    Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.

hot water

Motokid

Motokid

New Member
Everybody will be glad to know that scientists have made a decision on a long running debate. I’m sure that many man-hours and lots of tax dollars have gone into this finding, and that we’ll all sleep better knowing the outcome.

It has finally been determined that lobsters feel no pain when dropped into boiling water. The thrashing and squirming are simply escape instincts. Duh….that water’s pretty damn hot….

I wonder if scientists are studying the torment we put insects through when we spray them with chemicals to kill them? Are we needlessly inflicting suffering on bees, wasps, ants, and termites? That’s where I’d like some of my tax dollars spent now that I know lobsters can’t feel pain.

Can somebody please pass the melted butter and a bib…… :D
 
People always make fun of these kinds of studies, but they are very serious and useful studies. What they are actually studying is how the nervous system works and so on. Not really silly at all, is it? :)
 
SillyWabbit said:
People always make fun of these kinds of studies, but they are very serious and useful studies. What they are actually studying is how the nervous system works and so on. Not really silly at all, is it? :)
Click to expand...

yeah it is!! why can't they make something useful out of taxes?? why do they have to do studies if lobster feel pain?? just that a few rich asses can sleep better at night?? hey thats nonsense!! if they want to study the nervous system they should say that, and not search for pain in lobster!!
:cool:
 
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/02/15/lobster.pain.ap/index.html

There's nothing in this article that says this information was the byproduct of some larger study designed to end suffering in cancer patients, or anything like that. It sounds like the study was all about making us all "feel" better about dropping a lobster or a crab into boiling water. End of story. At least it seems it was Norwegian money this time, and not mine.

I'll take my crabs steamed in beer and covered in Old Bay Seasoning please...
 
No, they are studying the nervous system. It's not some larger study and it doesn't need to be part of a lager study. All knowledge is useful and what we learn about the nervous system of the lobster ( or any animal ) adds to our overall understanding of the way in which information is sent in an organism.

The problem is the way it gets reported. Its always like hahaha here is a fun story! Those wacky scientists are at it again! This time they are dropping lobsters into hot water to see if it hurts! hahaha, and now some serious news. In reality it's serious science.
 
SillyWabbit said:
No, they are studying the nervous system. It's not some larger study and it doesn't need to be part of a lager study. All knowledge is useful and what we learn about the nervous system of the lobster ( or any animal ) adds to our overall understanding of the way in which information is sent in an organism.

The problem is the way it gets reported. Its always like hahaha here is a fun story! Those wacky scientists are at it again! This time they are dropping lobsters into hot water to see if it hurts! hahaha, and now some serious news. In reality it's serious science.
Click to expand...


The author of this report didn't actually study or research anything. He compiled a report on existing knowledge of various invertebrate nervous systems, drawn from a variety of sources.

The report draws no conclusions at all and is very cautious in its tentative assumption that invertebrates of certain types (many were included in the report) might not feel pain. Throughout the report he says that this is inconclusive and that pain is a subjective experience and difficult to ascertain.

The author did not receive research money; he merely compiled this report comparing nervous systems and their functions to inform the national committee on animal welfare law.

Here is a link to the original 39-page report.
http://www.vkm.no/dav/0327284150.pdf

I draw your attention to text on pages 5 and 36 in which the author says that no conclusions about the experience of pain can be drawn and that these creatures should be given the benefit of the doubt and handled with humane consideration.

I'm not surprised that the report was (intentionally?) misinterpreted and some of its statements taken out of context. Typical stupid journalism. Also, I like the way the whole state of Maine says it just proves what they "knew" to be true.

Seems like nobody interviewed in the press or reporting the story actually read the original. There is no new knowledge in it, and no concrete conclulsions drawn.
 
Yes, but the point is that it's valid science on the nervous system of invertebrates and not "some guy getting paid to see if lobsters go ouchie when dropped in hot water." That's the point.
 
SillyWabbit said:
Yes, but the point is that it's valid science on the nervous system of invertebrates and not "some guy getting paid to see if lobsters go ouchie when dropped in hot water." That's the point.
Click to expand...


Actually the point of the report was specifically to ascertain whether lobsters (and other critters) go ouchie when dropped in hot water. that was the central question the client (the government) wanted addressed. And there was no new research performed at all.
 
Yes, but there is valid point behind it to increase knowledge! It's like if you were studying the nerve impulse in frogs legs. Then a journalist reports that scientists are giving electric shocks to frogs just to see if their legs will twitch. The science is behind the result.
 
"Yes, but there is valid point behind it to increase knowledge!"

How important is knowledge for the sake of knowledge? If this stuff is funded by a private group of caring people that's just fine and dandy, but when tax payers are footing the bill that's a different story. Then I want a direct link to some overall good this information will lead to in the grand scheme of humanity.

Why should tax payers fund whether or not a common house fly can fart, and what it might smell like? While that may increase knowledge is it something that the masses should be funding? Not in my mind. Likewise I don't really care if lobsters feel pain when being cooked alive. There are just way to many other things that money could be used for to benenfit mankind.
 
Moto,

Perhaps there's a cultural difference at work.

Remember that we're talking about Norway's animal welfare law. Maybe the folks in Norway think that this is an appropriate use of their money. Maybe they care about whether the critters are in pain or not. It seems to me that this is a very likely possibility. Who are we to judge such expenditure?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top