Phi for All

Listen, you'll get nowhere with discrimination because the loiterers are breaking the law. This isn't being used inside to keep certain people out, it's being used to disperse people who are lingering and causing problems. Bring up discrimination when the product is used inside a store to annoy unwanted clientele. If anything, it can be argued that the Mosquito is doing these teens a favor by not involving the police. Crime is down in the area and the loitering problem is solved. I still don't like it but you can't yell "Discrimination!" when targeting criminals. Am I discriminating against shoplifters when I hire an off-duty policeman to patrol the mall at Christmas time? Aren't shoplifters just as valid a group as loiterers? The fact that these loiterers are under the age of 25 is secondary in this situation.

Try as I might, I can't justify any discrimination angle regarding the "Mosquito". If the Wyvern Theatre had decided to spend more money and have devices installed that, after normal hours, suddenly began playing the Teletubby theme while posters of the kids show unrolled themselves on every wall it would probably have the same effect of driving the teens away. I doubt anyone would bring up the discrimination angle even though it would be targeted at the same people (less effectively, since we all know vandalism would increase). I still don't like the Mosquito, but I would argue more along the lines of what AzurePhoenix was saying, that this is a dangerous road to allow people to go down when talking about deterrants. I realize it's a Slippery Slope fallacy but I think those are most often valid. The Mosquito sets a bad precedent. Do we know the long term effects of sounds like this? Could this annoying sound cause barely sane people who are close to the edge to plunge over it? If annoying sounds can be used to drive unwanted people away, can pleasing subliminal sounds be found and used to lure us in or change our feelings or make us vote differently?

You all cheat by making the football round.

Top ten reasons you post on SFN: 10. Community service enforced by my parole officer 9. Earns me 12 credits towards my degree from Columbia State University 8. This isn't ESPN?!? 7. I claim the rest of you as dependants at tax time 6. As long as I know where I am I could care less how fast I'm going 5. Typing counts as an aerobic exercise 4. YT2095 is teaching me how to blow someone's head off using a Q-tip and some H2O2 3. Cyber-dating most of the members who say they're women 2. I'm in love with the sound of my own typing 1. Originally googled for Sexy Foreign Negligees, stayed for the LaTeX Next List: Top 10 Most Useless Kitchen Appliances

Not being a big fan of 1veedo's sense of... whatever that is he uses to be... not unfunny, I agree with you completely, pHoToN_gUrL. I usually cut posts some slack when they're in General Discussion but when it comes to humor there is no need to be aggressively offensive. Let's give this the power of a verbal warning. If you have to make discriminatory remarks, it ain't funny.

Time is a temporal dimension, the rest are spatial, so you could say these are 4th and 5th spatial dimension cubes.

It IS a strawman because you made up the scenario as an alternative argument to loitering teens. And I think you're the one being discriminatory now by saying gays who shop drive away business. Where the hell did you get that from? Face it, you were trying to drop "gays" in the place of "youths" in KLB's argument, it didn't work so you changed it to shopping and it became a whole different argument, a strawman. And if you're not willing to admit your mistake, then I call a revprez as well.

WRONG! You didn't just change youths to gays, you changed loitering to shopping. I call strawman.

So why aren't you arguing that the NO LOITERING signs be taken down since they are being read by non-loiterers as well? The sound only affects young people who hang around long enough for it to be annoying. They could do the same thing by playing Disney's It's a Small World After All but they'd risk losing customers as well as loiterers. Nonsense. You came up with a few off-the-wall examples of why the majority is not the total. My comment was more sarcasm than stereotyping Please have that survey done because I don't believe you. It sounds like a typical generalization on your part. "Around here", "at least half", these phrases sound like you just want it to be true. Or perhaps... you're one of the loiterers yourself and you just want to be taken seriously in context to your "wandering back and forth in front of a place without apparent business, such that the person poses a threat to public safety."

They don't loiter, they... ped. They are standing outside a store they didn't shop at because...? How did I ever forget such a huge segment of the loitering community? If I were them, I would complain to the police when they got there about how obnoxious it was to wait in front of a store that was so undriendly to youthful civic-minded people. Or I would ask the store owner if I could come inside to wait. Older people can usually read the NO LOITERING signs.

Well, yes, you would, because ALL young people hanging out doing nothing in front of these places of business are loitering, while NOT all Mexicans inside the store are shoplifting. I actually don't care much for what these stores are doing. I think there are much more proactive ways of dealing with the problem but they obviously see it only as a detriment and are determined to remove it as cheaply as possible. If it were me I would do a cross-promotion with another store and give discount coupons to the loiterers so they would go hang out where they could spend some $$$.

They're not arbitrary. They're loitering young people, driving business away as opposed to being business drivers.

"Excuse me, miss! I realize I'm standing a good fifteen feet away from you, but the last woman I tried to pick up had me arrested. I know now that I'm not supposed to actually, physically pick you up, that's a bad thing and I've paid my debt on that one. I've asked the waiter to bring over a piece of paper and a pen. What you write on the paper and how you get the paper to me will determine the course of any future we may have together."

So. Amod. Are you just going to keep predicting one team CANNOT beat another until you get one right and then say, "I told you so"?

Shakespeare, Marlowe and Johnson all wrote about "care" killing cats, where care is meant to be worry or anxiety about something. It probably morphed from there.

Top ten most embarressing reasons for getting your arse hauled into the Emergency Department: 10. Flaming shooter burns 9. Jackass audition consequences 8. Face caught in elevator door 7. Finger stuck up your nose 6. Butt superglued to toilet seat 5. Porn magazine stuck to one hand 4. Someone else's finger stuck up your nose 3. Removal of Xerox machine glass from your ass 2. Viagra overdose 1. Getting something living hauled out of your arse Next List: Top 10 Explanations Politicians Give for Having Cash in Their Freezer

Hear what?

Thanks a LOT, 1veedo. Throw me a frickin' bone, dude! Top 10 Movies to Watch: 10. Deliverance (while vacationing in Georgia) 9. Titanic (while on a cruise) 8. United 93 (while flying to New York) 7. Carrie (just before going to your high school prom) 6. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (before your test in British History) 5. Caligula (after your first dinner with your fiancé's parents) 4. Waterworld (before your trip to the desert) 3. Jaws (before taking the family to the beach - make sure the kids watch too) 2. Superman IV: The Quest For Peace (before starting your diet - you won't keep anything down for a month) 1. Xanadu (just before surgery, so the worst thing that could EVER happen to you will be over) Next List: Top 10 Worst Places to Take a Date...

Meh, you guys aren't in the spirit of the question. I'm going to assume that the age and dustiness of the first parachute suggests only that it has been used many times but not recently. I'm further going to assume that parachute materials aren't going to be rotten and useless after 20 years of non-use. The part I wrestled with was the ripcord. Not having ever skydived before, I thought having the newer automatic control would save me if I panicked and froze. But in the end I would choose the older model because it has the ripcord (and a backup chute, I believe) that I can pull to save myself. The older one was also "packed" by a human instead of "tested" by unknown means.

Top 10 Things NOT To Say To A Policeman... 10. "I need a belt like yours for spare clips instead of using the glove compartment." 9. "What seems to be your problem, officer?" 8. "My life as a fugitive is finally over!" 7. "What do you mean by 'licence'?" 6. "Weren't you the stripper at my wife's bachelorette party?" 5. "I'm not trunk! I mean, I haven't been drinking, don't look in the trunk!" 4. "I've built up a tolerance to tasers so you better crank it to 'ELEPHANT'." 3. "You're LAPD?! I pictured you guys as more masculine." 2. "Gues what I have behind my back!" 1. "No, YOU freeze!" Next List: Top Ten Signs You're a Computer Nerd...

And yet, Amod posts from GMT-0, and since it would be true irony, I'm going to assume you used his program to determine that he's an American, when in reality he hails from Essex.

top ten unconventional uses for an Empty Beer can... 10. Terrarium for cigarette butts 9. Baby hamster wheel 8. Broken high-heel replacement 7. Telescope for dummies 6. Hairball receptacle for trained cats 5. Gag gift for alcoholics 4. Sauté pan for college students 3. Low-cost colostomy bag 2. Erectile dysfunction enhancement 1. Microwave entertainment Next List: Top 10 Things You Never Want To Hear Your Parents Say...

Sorry you thought I was flaming you. Your lack of detail was a bit... frustrating.

It might be easier to shear a plastic sheep. As chilehed said, the right kind of plastic might work this way, but remember you're heating it up and spinning it through a bunch of tiny holes. I'll bet it would stink and since the plastic isn't water soluble like the sugar, cleaning the machine afterwards would be a real chore. You might only get one shot at it. On the other hand, since the average serving of cotton candy uses less sugar than you'd find in a can of soda (about a teaspoon), you might not need much plastic to do it your way.