markc7

Welcome aboard!

Welcome aboard!

I did a quick 5km run this afternoon. Nothing too special to write about. I wasn't too into it, because I ate mediocre today so my stomach wasn't at 100%. But I still managed a good comfortable pace around 5:30/km. I also did some bodyweight exercises after the run. Crapolla am I out of shape! I'm going to do a couple more days of BW stuff before I get back to the gym; otherwise I might embarrass myself!

Did you upgrade to Hardy as soon as it came out? I'm still using Gutsy for the time being, though I see the automatic update button and I'm probably going to upgrade very soon.

Welcome aboard!

The coolest thing about Ubuntu (IMHO) is that you can download a free cd of the operating system, throw it into your cd drive, and run the operating system directly from the CD. So if you have any doubts or concerns about switching to Linux, you can try it out without even having to install it! How cool is that? Sure beats buying Vista preloaded then spending hours downgrading it to XP.

I changed over to Ubuntu Linux a couple months ago and I'm never going back to MS. I should have done this years ago, but this year I really had no choice; the prospect of getting a laptop with Vista was just not an option. Learning a new operating system isn't always easy, but neither is putting up with all the crap on windows (especially Vista). Here is a link to a story about a rather unlikely person complaining about the Windows user experience.

I probably shouldn't base my vote on tattoos, eh? Good job ladies!

Wow, tough call this time around! xjohanx and octopussoir are both terrific, and a bunch of the others look great too. Congrats. /btw, I'm waiting for the abs contest before I join in.

Heh, I had actually forgotten that this thread was about the silly plant's have feelings argument. I was responding more to the CNS = capacity to feel pain argument in general. So yeah, I'd have to agree with you that most people who use the plants have feelings argument are probably not going to know much about neurological differences between animals.

Yep, that's exactly my point! A discussion of pain and suffering felt by animals, vertebrates and invertebrates alike, is very worthy and I think you're right that animals without a CNS experience pain as a survival mechanism. But my point was if you're in a debate with an omni and you base the pain and suffering argument on the presence of a CNS, then they would be correct to point out that not all edible animals have a brain and spinal cord. You can make the "pain as a survival mechanism" argument perfectly well (as you've done in this post) without bringing the CNS into it. When you said before "it is not the same as when beings with a central nervous system feel pain", that leaves out a heck of alot of animals.

Thanks for posting, and good luck with your running. I'm not really at the point where i have any definite goals (apart from the races). It's more important to me that I take care of myself and just enjoy exercising again, rather than looking to many any quantifiable improvement. I would like to get my lifts back to where they were last fall (265 deadlift and squat, can't remember what my max reps for pull ups and pushups where) Having said that, my avatar pic is only a couple months old and I haven't gained or lost any substantial amount since then. I'm around 190 which is where I stay without any effort. I fluctuate 2-3 pounds in either direction depending on whether I'm lifting more or running more.

Now that I'm back on VBBF, I think it's time that I started a training journal once again. My training has been poor lately, but I'm hoping to get back into it more regular in the next couple of months. Here's something I posted on another message board in a thread about motivation: Posting here will hopefully help to keep me on track, and maybe I'll even get back in the gym someday soon. I really appreciate comments! This afternoon I did a 9km run at a moderate pace. It was a great day for a run, sunny but with some clouds and not too hot. The pathways near the canal were busy with bikers, walkers, and runners. I've missed running along there.

Welcome aboard!

welcome!

Don't play this on your speakers at work. Here's his classic "7 dirty words you can't say on TV bit.

That's exactly what it means. Oh, I absolutely agree with your assumption that animals with a CNS experience pain, pleasure, emotions, etc, in a similar fashion to the way we do. A rat probably feels pain in a more "human" way than a lobster does. But vegans obviously don't eat lobster, or calamari, or escargot. There are any number of good reasons for avoiding eating those animals, but if you tell an omni "I don't eat animals because they have brains and feel pain just like us", then they can retort correctly that many edible animals aren't vertebrates. For that reason I think it's best to leave the CNS out of the discussion. My point was more about debating tactics than animal consciousness and cognition. But I bet we could have a cool thread about that too!

OK, I'm just going to be an anal neuroscientist for a second here. The presence or lack of a central nervous system is not relevant to this discussion. Only vertebrates (less than 5% of animal species) have a CNS. There are thousands of animal species that can feel pain but that don't have a brain and spinal cord. This is kinda an important point, in case you're ever talking about veganism and you get the question: "So, do you eat lobster or escargot? Because they don't have a CNS."

Hey Robert, thanks for posting this. I think you're doing a great job here. I'm glad that you're not letting negative comments get you down.

Welcome, you're going to fit right in around here!

Damn, that's really sad. He's my favourite comedian by far. I wish I had had the chance to see him live.

I was thinking of checking out this for a used bike this summer.

Welcome! Feel free to ask lots of questions, everyone here will do whatever we can to help you make the transition. The book "Becoming Vegan" is a fantastic resource about nutrition that I think any vegan should read.

I missed the entire season (no cable), but I'm staying at a place right now that gets this channel. I think I've got my Saturday planned out.