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(Amsterdam) A sparrow knocked over 23,000 dominoes in the Netherlands, nearly ruining a world record attempt before it was shot to death Monday, the state news agency reported.

The unfortunate bird flew through an open window at an exposition centre in the northern city of Leeuwarden, where employees of television company Endemol NV have worked for weeks setting up more than four million dominoes in an attempt to break the official Guinness World Record for falling dominoes on Friday night.

Only a system of 750 built-in gaps in the chain prevented the bird from knocking most or all of the dominoes over ahead of schedule, "Domino Day" organizers were quoted as saying by the NOS news agency.

The bird was shot by an exterminator with an air rifle while cowering in a corner.

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[ 15 November 2005: Message edited by: Hephaestion ]

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The bird was shot by an exterminator with an air rifle while cowering in a corner.

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Stupid fuckers! Im with Debra, no one had a fucking coat?

Nothing like killing a cowering innocent no siree

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Originally posted by ronb:
Just guessing here, but when you saw those Abu Ghraib photos you shrugged and said "they're just terrorists, fer chrissake" dintcha?

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Sounds awfully USian to me. I thought better of the Dutch.

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Originally posted by Américain Égalitaire:
So they stalked the bird into a corner to extract their revenge for screwing up their domino record?

Sounds awfully USian to me. I thought better of the Dutch.

BTW, Endemol are the folks that unleashed the Big Brother reality TV show on the world.

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Which of the following “headlines” is absurdly inconsequential?

Millions in Africa are infected with HIV.

Gay couple is beaten to death by homophobic hoodlums.

Over one hundred million birds slaughtered in Asia in effort to contain Avian flu.

Nearly seven thousand cars burned in France.

One sparrow “shot dead” for knocking over dominos.

Or, to put it another way:

The following “headline” is closest in content (and importance) to which of the above headlines:

On an editorial note, I actually mis-read the concluding sentence from the snippet above:

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The bird was shot by an exterminator with an air rifle while cowering in a corner.

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He evidently captured the sparrow, fiendlish held it blindfolded in a "chicken tic-tac-toe" booth, and trained it to topple dominos in exchange for red wigglers and cricket bits.

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Originally posted by skdadl:
And since when is life -- or joy, or misery, for that matter -- a trade-off? By your logic, Sven, no one should ever care about anything until we have found the very very worst situation in the world, and then we will all focus on that, to the exclusion of all other cares. Thinking on any misery even a millimetre short of that worst misery would be a waste of time, because there's always something worse ...

I call that an excuse, frankly.

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Skdadl, the point is not that we should ignore relatively small problems for the sake of focusing exclusively on relatively large problems. Dealing with the homeless in Toronto and working so solve the world-wide HIV problem can both be done at the same time, even though the HIV problem is, by many factors, far more important than the homeless issue in Toronto.

Instead, the point is why waste any anger on absurdly small minutiae that doesn’t even represent a microscopic problem?

[ 15 November 2005: Message edited by: Sven ]

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Originally posted by Sven:

Instead, the point is why waste any anger on absurdly small minutiae that doesn’t even represent a microscopic problem?

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Originally posted by Sven:
Instead, the point is why waste any anger on absurdly small minutiae that doesn’t even represent a microscopic problem?

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Instead, the point is why waste any anger on absurdly small minutiae that doesn’t even represent a microscopic problem?

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You're comparing a sparrow to human beings?!

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Nope. I'm remarking on the oft-noted connection between indifference to animal welfare and indifference to human welfare. Slippery slope and all that.

[ 15 November 2005: Message edited by: ronb ]

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Originally posted by Sven:
why waste any anger on absurdly small minutiae that doesn’t even represent a microscopic problem?

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Then, BANG!

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If I start threads about, say, an endangered species, or a car accident, or the little plastic tips that help get your shoe-laces through the holes, or the political situation in Burkina Faso, then you don't have to care about any of those things, and you can express your lack of caring by not posting.

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Test the effectiveness of this by starting a thread called "Middle class victims of excessive tax-theft" or "Why is it OK to discriminate against white men?" or some similar, and see who manages to just keep walkin' by.

[ 15 November 2005: Message edited by: Mandos ]

[ 15 November 2005: Message edited by: Hephaestion ]

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Originally posted by Mr. Magoo:
Test the effectiveness of this by starting a thread called ... "Why is it OK to discriminate against white men?"

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Anyway, just illustrating my belief that nobody would pass that thread by simply because they don't really care. That's exactly why they'd stop and post. "Somebody's wasting several kilobytes of the internet on something I deem trivial and unimportant! I must comment!".

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I think the difference with your chosen topics is that those of us who would comment would disagree with what the threads propose

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You mean you'd post because you don't think white men are hard done by? Fair enough.

I get the sense that Sven is doing a similar thing: posting here because he doesn't think the death of one bird warrants a thread. I'm not saying I agree with him, mind you. I just don't have any consistent grounds on which to disagree.

Personally, I tend to take a very "invisible hand" approach to threads. If they stay on topic, great. If not, such is life. If someone responds, great, if not, start another. Etc. Just keep it in the proper forum is all I ask, and don't spam.

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Originally posted by Tape_342:
Imagine the outpouring had the exterminator run over the poor, wee bird with a Hummer.

**ducks**

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Originally posted by Doug:
Everyone's saying "awwww, poor birdie", but if YOU had just spent hours placing thousands of dominoes *just so*....

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The Dutch animal protection agency demanded prosecution Tuesday for the shooting of a sparrow that knocked over 23,000 dominoes during an attempt to set a world record.

[...]

The common house sparrow - of a species on the national endangered list-was chased into a corner and shot by an exterminator with an air rifle.

"Under Dutch law, you need a permit to kill this kind of bird, and a permit can only be granted when there's a danger to public health or a crop. That was not the case," said agency spokesman Niels Dorland.

"I might add: Is it really necessary to kill a bird that knocked over a few dominoes for a game?" he asked.

Dorland said the agency plans to submit the case to national prosecutors.

The Endemol organizers, who are out to break their own record of 3,992,397 dominoes during a live television broadcast on Friday, defended the killing.

"That bird was flying around and knocking over a lot of dominoes. More than 100 people from 12 countries had worked for more than a month setting them up," said Endemol spokesman Jeroen van Waardenberg.

He said the company was considering some kind of memorial or mention for the dead bird during the television broadcast Friday.

Dorland, the animal protection group spokesman, scoffed.

"I think they were awfully fast to pull out a rifle. If a person started knocking over a few dominoes they wouldn't shoot him would they?"

Hans Peeters, director of the Netherlands Bird Protection agency, said the killing was uncalled for.

"They could have captured it or sedated it or something," he said.

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[ 16 November 2005: Message edited by: Hephaestion ]

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The Endemol organizers, who are out to break their own record of 3,992,397 dominoes during a live television broadcast on Friday, defended the killing.

"That bird was flying around and knocking over a lot of dominoes. More than 100 people from 12 countries had worked for more than a month setting them up," said Endemol spokesman Jeroen van Waardenberg.

snip

Dorland, the animal protection group spokesman, scoffed.

"I think they were awfully fast to pull out a rifle. If a person started knocking over a few dominoes they wouldn't shoot him would they?"

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I dunno, Jeroan sounded pretty mad about it.

Anyway, whoda thunk that a sparrow would be an endangered species in Holland?

I guess this was more than just a tempest in a teapot after all, eh?

I would have liked to have seen photos of what happened. Maybe they'll be some of the memorial service but that seems like so much PR for Endemol.

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I would have liked to have seen photos of what happened. Maybe they'll be some of the memorial service but that seems like so much PR for Endemol.

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TV station to be prosecuted, memorial for bird planned

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Originally posted by Jingles:
If I ever get abducted by aliens, and they want to know about our species, this is the perfect story to tell: We kill harmless creatures because nature gets in the way of some exceedingly pointless and temporary human exercise in hubris. It's our nature to destroy every living thing around us for no reason.

Perfect.

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Yes, the whole sparrow shooting was brutal and stupid, and a microcosem of how brutal humans can be. But a sparrow memorial just shows how little perspective human beings have.

If nothing else, this is now the most famous bird in Europe.

On an editorial note, wouldn't it be fun and satisfying to run into the building and try to topple the millions of dominos. I mean, we have an excuse to do it now.

Who will love a little sparrow
Who's traveled far and cries for rest?
"Not I," said the Oak Tree
"I won't share my branches with no sparrow's nest
And my blanket of leaves won't warm her cold breast"

Who will love a little sparrow
And who will speak a kindly word?
"Not I," said the Swan
"The entire idea is utterly absurd
I'd be laughed at and scorned if the other swans heard."

Who will take pity in his heart
And who will feed a starving sparrow?
"Not I," said the Golden Wheat
"I would if I could but I cannot I know
I need all my grain to prosper and grow"

Who will love a little sparrow?
Will no one write her eulogy?
"I will," said the Earth
"For all I've created returns unto me
From dust were ye made and dust ye shall be"

[ 16 November 2005: Message edited by: Boom Boom ]

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Originally posted by Sven:

Skdadl, the point is not that we should ignore relatively small problems for the sake of focusing exclusively on relatively large problems. Dealing with the homeless in Toronto and working so solve the world-wide HIV problem can both be done at the same time, even though the HIV problem is, by many factors, far more important than the homeless issue in Toronto.

Instead, the point is why waste any anger on absurdly small minutiae that doesn’t even represent a microscopic problem?

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I have an idea. If you don't want to talk about this story, how about you just pretend this thread doesn't exist instead of giving everyone else a hard time about talking about it?

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Originally posted by arborman:
Once again a thread stops being about the world and starts becoming about itself.

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Like, yeah, eh?

[ 20 November 2005: Message edited by: Clog-boy ]

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Originally posted by maestro:
In fact, I am proposing this as the domino theory of bird belligerence.

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That's how Mothra started.

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[ 21 November 2005: Message edited by: ex-hippy ]

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"That bird was flying around and knocking over a lot of dominoes. More than 100 people from 12 countries had worked for more than a month setting them up," said Endemol spokesman Jeroen van Waardenberg.

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Originally posted by Michelle:
Well, people from around the world travelled to Toronto to take part in a scissors-paper-stone tournament. Seriously, if you become really good at a hobby, why not go to a world tournament? I think it would be fun.

Of course, I don't want to see birds getting shot over it. But I wouldn't be contemptuous of people who pursue strange hobbies and travel for them. It's no more weird that going to Boy Scout Jamborees, or scrabble tournaments, or spelling bees.

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Well, I GUESS it's no more weird than those things...but those things are pretty weird. Seriously, have you seen "Spellbound"?

Hey, I thought I'd started a thread on it when I saw it.

[ 21 November 2005: Message edited by: Michelle ]

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The sparrow now resides in the freezer of a Ministerial Special Agent involved in the investigation on the (illegal) killing, but will be handed over to the Natural History Museum Rotterdam later this week.

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