Monthly Archive for January, 2010Page 3 of 9
I’m not a huge follower of the CAM movement as they generally appear to be quackers enough for me to dismiss en masse, but they do have their followers and supporters, and they’ve recently be been busy on Twitter, mostly circling like decrepit vultures around the Shorty awards.
Anyway, there’s this one guy who calls himself “Health Ranger” (I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean, but I’m guessing that it’s related to some Americanism I’m ignorant of) who has popped up in quite a few Twitter conversations recently, so I thought I’d take a look at his spiel.
He doesn’t like sceptics. Oh no. Not one jot.
Well, it seems that he doesn’t: he calls them “skeptics”
(the quotes appear to be part of the word itself), but he doesn’t actually seem to know any. Not a one. At least nothing like any sceptic (or skeptic) that I know.
Apparently, as a sceptic (or a “skeptic”), I believe
:
ALL vaccines are safe and effective
there is NO LIMIT to the number of vaccines a person can be safely given
people of all ages can be safely given an unlimited number of drugs all at the same time
that the human body has no ability to defend itself against invading microorganism [sic]
that pregnancy is a disease
that DEAD foods have exactly the same nutritional properties as LIVING foods
that water has no role in human health other than basic hydration
that all the phytochemicals and nutrients found in ALL plants are inert, having absolutely no benefit whatsoever for human health
as well as some other crazy shit.
I have no idea what a living
food is. Is that like oats that are still attached to the ground? A chicken kiev that’s still running around? A surprisingly perky salmon fillet?
Oh, yeah. In the grand tradition of those that Make Shit Up™ he completely fails to provide any actual quotes or references. Just saying…
I guess I’m not a “skeptic”
then. Well, thank fuck for that: they sound as batshit insane as the Health Ranger!
So you deny the fact of evolution, huh? Which bits of knowledge that we’ve gleaned—by following the scientific method to confirm the fact of evolution—do you not find compelling?
Cell theory? Maybe it’s germ theory. Have a problem with atomic theory? Plate tectonics? Electromagnetic theory? Quantum theory?
Or perhaps it’s just the study of the subject that’s flawed. I guess you must know better, seeing as you are able to, all-at-once, reject the scientific findings in the related fields of bacteriology, phycology, mycology, climatology, pathology, palaeolimnology, bionomics, virology, paleo-osteology, microclimatology, immunogenetics, immunology, organic chemistry, lithology, chemistry, oncology, geogeny, osteology, enzymology, lepidopterology, vermeology, geophysics, pharmacology, ethnogeny, epidemiology, thremmatology, hematology, olfactology, vulcanology, oology, palaeobiology, piscatology, phytology, larithmics, palaeoclimatology, zoology, oceanography, zoophytology, endocrinology, zoogeography, embryology, geochemistry, geochronology, genetics, geology, biology, anatomy, threpsology, palaeoanthropology, photobiology, parasitology, loimology, biochemistry, paleobotany, synecology, ecology, glaciology, odontology, ethnobiology, cytology, palaeontology, ethology, physiology, palaeopedology, insectology, paleoclimatology, karyology, theriogenology, toxicology, entomology, micropalaeontology, gerontology, histology, entozoology, nosology, botany, ichthyology, kinesiology, immunopathology, cetology, sexology, zoopathology, tocology, morphology, geogony, mastology, limnobiology, gastroenterology, crystallography, petrology and ornithology.
To name but a few.
But, come on, you refuse to accept evolution, therefore you’re obviously the expert. I, for one, am tired of listening to “fairy tales for grown-ups”, so I’d love to know exactly how is all of this so utterly and completely wrong.
Please tell us!
Or, maybe, there’s just one real “-ology” in your eyes.
Richard Dawkins' latest book lays out the evidence for evolution clearly: but creationists will always prefer ignorance to an uncomfortable truth
i loved this
What Haitians really need is help to recover from a devastating earthquake and the preceding lack of proper government and security. Among this help should be food, water, medical supplies and the expertise required for these to be used effectively.
What they do not need is solar powered talking bibles. Yes, some people will use their faith in Christianity to help them get through this tragedy, but the way to help is to provide items that are desperately needed and without which more people will die. Clogging up the limited transport routes into Haiti with nonsense such as this, at this time, is just plain wrong.
In this video, Bertrand Russell describes clearly why religious belief is intellectual treachery, of no value and the product of savage ages
As much as I dislike homeopathy, I have managed to find a medical condition that it is guaranteed to cure.
I am also 100% certain that it works.
Homeopathic remedies can cure dehydration!
What got me thinking about homeopathy? The mass homeopathic overdose.
..and remember, if water has memory, there's a good chance you'll be (homeopathically) drinking my urine.
Via Think Progress:
This isn't from the Onion, but I'm still suspicious that it's a joke. A joke that took in the Augusta Chronicle, sure, but as I survey the stories around the web they all seem to use that one article as a source. The guy who proposed this, Don "Moose" Lewis, appears to be a real person, a pro wrestler. Either he's really that stupid, or he's staging an event to deliberately foster an "evil" persona, for the ongoing soap-opera-for-men that is wrestling.
“There’s nothing hatred about what we’re doing,” he said. “I don’t hate anyone of color. But people of white, American-born citizens are in the minority now. Here’s a league for white players to play fundamental basketball, which they like.” [...]
He pointed out recent incidents in the NBA, including Gilbert Arenas’ indefinite suspension after bringing guns into the Washington Wizards locker room, as examples of fans’ dissatisfaction with the way current professional sports are run.
“Would you want to go to the game and worry about a player flipping you off or attacking you in the stands or grabbing their crotch?” he said. “That’s the culture today, and in a free country we should have the right to move ourselves in a better direction.”
This isn't from the Onion, but I'm still suspicious that it's a joke. A joke that took in the Augusta Chronicle, sure, but as I survey the stories around the web they all seem to use that one article as a source. The guy who proposed this, Don "Moose" Lewis, appears to be a real person, a pro wrestler. Either he's really that stupid, or he's staging an event to deliberately foster an "evil" persona, for the ongoing soap-opera-for-men that is wrestling.
Via Think Progress:
This isn't from the Onion, but I'm still suspicious that it's a joke. A joke that took in the Augusta Chronicle, sure, but as I survey the stories around the web they all seem to use that one article as a source. The guy who proposed this, Don "Moose" Lewis, appears to be a real person, a pro wrestler. Either he's really that stupid, or he's staging an event to deliberately foster an "evil" persona, for the ongoing soap-opera-for-men that is wrestling.
“There’s nothing hatred about what we’re doing,” he said. “I don’t hate anyone of color. But people of white, American-born citizens are in the minority now. Here’s a league for white players to play fundamental basketball, which they like.” [...]
He pointed out recent incidents in the NBA, including Gilbert Arenas’ indefinite suspension after bringing guns into the Washington Wizards locker room, as examples of fans’ dissatisfaction with the way current professional sports are run.
“Would you want to go to the game and worry about a player flipping you off or attacking you in the stands or grabbing their crotch?” he said. “That’s the culture today, and in a free country we should have the right to move ourselves in a better direction.”
This isn't from the Onion, but I'm still suspicious that it's a joke. A joke that took in the Augusta Chronicle, sure, but as I survey the stories around the web they all seem to use that one article as a source. The guy who proposed this, Don "Moose" Lewis, appears to be a real person, a pro wrestler. Either he's really that stupid, or he's staging an event to deliberately foster an "evil" persona, for the ongoing soap-opera-for-men that is wrestling.
So, I have officially started my last semester of college. That feels really good to say. As you may or may not know, I am a high school dropout (something to do with my problem with authority), and I never, EVER, thought I would be ready to graduate with a degree in Geo-Environmental Sciences. But here I am. My schedule this semester is a little crazy. Mon., Wed., and Fri. I am at campus from 8:30-6:30. Also, I am desperately trying to get into a Thurs. night class that I need for my GIS certificate. If I don't get it I will have to come back most likely next spring and finish up. That's lame.
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The classes I am taking seem to all be right up my alley. I have Intro to music, which has a focus on Art Music (boring). I would probably have to try pretty hard not to do good in a class like this though. Next, I have Ecology and a 3.5 hour lab once a week with Todd Hurd. This class is going to kick ass I think. I find that most of my efforts and thinking are about the abiotic parts of an ecosystem, and it will be nice to have a biology refresher as well as be able to tie the two systems (biotic and abiotic) together in my mind. There is going to be some sweet field work as well. After that class exits the room, I just sit there like an idiot and let the next class come in and we start my Problems of the Environment class. That's right. Two classes, one seat. The professor is brand new to Ship, but she will probably be great. Her emphasis on the scientific method was highly encouraging. She is an evolutionary biologist and ecologist, so she has got her sh!t in one sock as they say. I am sure she and I will have some good conversations about science. At 5:00 on Mon and Wed., I have Paleoenvironments-Sedimentary Geology and Stratigraphy with Dr. Cornell. He is awesome, but he demands a sh!t ton of work. He has forgotten .JPG)
more about the earth than I may ever know. Last semester in Mineral and Rock Resources we went on some field trips to the No. 9 Coal Mine (me with child laborer), and to Centralia, PA where an underground coal seam has been on fire for the last 47 years or so leaving a highly degraded landscape in its wake. To the right is the old highway that had to be abandoned because it was collapsing in on the ashes below. That is Dr. Cornell's daughter to the right. I took temp readings at all the sites we visited and I got readings of 145 degrees(F) at the steam/gas vents.
.JPG)
more about the earth than I may ever know. Last semester in Mineral and Rock Resources we went on some field trips to the No. 9 Coal Mine (me with child laborer), and to Centralia, PA where an underground coal seam has been on fire for the last 47 years or so leaving a highly degraded landscape in its wake. To the right is the old highway that had to be abandoned because it was collapsing in on the ashes below. That is Dr. Cornell's daughter to the right. I took temp readings at all the sites we visited and I got readings of 145 degrees(F) at the steam/gas vents.Anyway, field trips are still fun. That's why I am a science major.
So, I have officially started my last semester of college. That feels really good to say. As you may or may not know, I am a high school dropout (something to do with my problem with authority), and I never, EVER, thought I would be ready to graduate with a degree in Geo-Environmental Sciences. But here I am. My schedule this semester is a little crazy. Mon., Wed., and Fri. I am at campus from 8:30-6:30. Also, I am desperately trying to get into a Thurs. night class that I need for my GIS certificate. If I don't get it I will have to come back most likely next spring and finish up. That's lame.
The classes I am taking seem to all be right up my alley. I have Intro to music, which has a focus on Art Music (boring). I would probably have to try pretty hard not to do good in a class like this though. Next, I have Ecology and a 3.5 hour lab once a week with Todd Hurd. This class is going to kick ass I think. I find that most of my efforts and thinking are about the abiotic parts of an ecosystem, and it will be nice to have a biology refresher as well as be able to tie the two systems (biotic and abiotic) together in my mind. There is going to be some sweet field work as well. After that class exits the room, I just sit there like an idiot and let the next class come in and we start my Problems of the Environment class. That's right. Two classes, one seat. The professor is brand new to Ship, but she will probably be great. Her emphasis on the scientific method was highly encouraging. She is an evolutionary biologist and ecologist, so she has got her sh!t in one sock as they say. I am sure she and I will have some good conversations about science. At 5:00 on Mon and Wed., I have Paleoenvironments-Sedimentary Geology and Stratigraphy with Dr. Cornell. He is awesome, but he demands a sh!t ton of work. He has forgotten more about the earth than I may ever know. Last semester in Mineral and Rock Resources we went on some field trips to the No. 9 Coal Mine (me with child laborer), and to Centralia, PA where an underground coal seam has been on fire for the last 47 years or so leaving a highly degraded landscape in its wake. To the right is the old highway that had to be abandoned because it was collapsing in on the ashes below. That is Dr. Cornell's daughter to the right. I took temp readings at all the sites we visited and I got readings of 145 degrees(F) at the steam/gas vents.
more about the earth than I may ever know. Last semester in Mineral and Rock Resources we went on some field trips to the No. 9 Coal Mine (me with child laborer), and to Centralia, PA where an underground coal seam has been on fire for the last 47 years or so leaving a highly degraded landscape in its wake. To the right is the old highway that had to be abandoned because it was collapsing in on the ashes below. That is Dr. Cornell's daughter to the right. I took temp readings at all the sites we visited and I got readings of 145 degrees(F) at the steam/gas vents.Anyway, field trips are still fun. That's why I am a science major.
Stuff like this makes me repeatedly bonk my head in annoyance.
I watched a Daily Show episode this week in which Jon Stewart said something along these lines: "Oh. So apparently what is going to kill Obama's agenda is having only 59 allies in the Senate, which is more than the number that George Bush ever had, back when he did pretty much whatever the [bleeped] he wanted."
But as dumb as the new normal is, where Senate Republicans filibuster every bill every time regardless of content, what is even more stupid is that even leading Senators find it so easy to cut and run.
If Tom Delay had ever commanded a filibuster-proof Republican majority, which was about to end in two weeks, would he have said, "Aw shucks fellas, I guess we'd better put all legislation on hold in order to be fair to the Democrats"? Fuck, NO. What Tom Delay would have done was rush to cram as much legislation as possible into the next two weeks, in order to take maximum advantage of the existing time window.
Look, Democrats. Do I like it that the Senate is now this cutthroat, where both parties need to use every possible political trick in order to gain the upper hand? No. But it is what it is -- if you don't use every opportunity to get what you want, then you get steamrolled by Republicans, who have no such scruples.
Under Massachusetts law, it'll probably take 10 days for the election of Scott Brown to be certified and for Brown to be sworn in as a Senator. Nothing nefarious -- that's just how orderly transfers of power work in a democratic system. Consequently, Paul Kirk will continue to serve as Senator up until the point that Brown is properly sworn in.
Barney Frank, God love him, doesn't think Kirk counts:
"I know some of my Democratic colleagues had been thinking about ways to, in effect, get around the results by working in various parliamentary ways, looking at the rules, trying to get a health care bill passed that would have been the same bill that would have passed if [MA AG] Martha Coakley [D] had won, and I think that's a mistake," Frank said. "I will not support an effort to push through a House-Senate compromise bill despite an election. I'm disappointed in how it came out, but I think electoral results have to be respected."
Jim Webb agrees, except ever so more so:
"In many ways the campaign in Massachusetts became a referendum not only on health care reform but also on the openness and integrity of our government process," Mr. Webb said. “It is vital that we restore the respect of the American people in our system of government and in our leaders. To that end, I believe it would only be fair and prudent that we suspend further votes on health care legislation until Senator-elect Brown is seated."
I watched a Daily Show episode this week in which Jon Stewart said something along these lines: "Oh. So apparently what is going to kill Obama's agenda is having only 59 allies in the Senate, which is more than the number that George Bush ever had, back when he did pretty much whatever the [bleeped] he wanted."
But as dumb as the new normal is, where Senate Republicans filibuster every bill every time regardless of content, what is even more stupid is that even leading Senators find it so easy to cut and run.
If Tom Delay had ever commanded a filibuster-proof Republican majority, which was about to end in two weeks, would he have said, "Aw shucks fellas, I guess we'd better put all legislation on hold in order to be fair to the Democrats"? Fuck, NO. What Tom Delay would have done was rush to cram as much legislation as possible into the next two weeks, in order to take maximum advantage of the existing time window.
Look, Democrats. Do I like it that the Senate is now this cutthroat, where both parties need to use every possible political trick in order to gain the upper hand? No. But it is what it is -- if you don't use every opportunity to get what you want, then you get steamrolled by Republicans, who have no such scruples.
You are not the prisoners of context. You are not the prisoners of your own bodies. You don't have to be.
You can transcend this interaction. You can transcend stimulus-response. You can transcend your impulses and urges.
Set yourselves free. You have the key to your attitude. How will you confront the world? How will you defend yourself from the onslaught of circumstance?
You have the power to change. You have the power to stop. You have the power to start over. Will you allow yourselves the opportunity to become something greater than yourself?
Christians say that Jesus died for your sins. What exactly did Jesus change? Did he change the environment? Did he change the laws of genetics? Did he stop complexity arising from simplicity?
How did you and I get here? We evolved. To such great hands does the creator of the Universe entrust its creation! Our current state is the direct result of doing whatever we could to survive.
Fighting, fear and fate. These are the masters of billions of years of natural selection. We have been engineered to survive. You have been engineered to become amoral beings. To be or not to be.
That is the sole moral law of our universe. Every act you consider good is only designed to ensure a fair chance of survival. Every wrong you do is wrong because it hurts another survivor. What's the difference?
Everyone wants to survive. What's fair to me is what I could get in my position if I were you. It's easy to deny someone else. It's preferable to look out for number one. Let me repeat: to be or not to be is the moral law.
However, you are not the hostage of fortune. This is the good news. You can be better by cooperating. You can transcend your fortune. You can defy fate. You can master probability. Do you want to transcend your own mere survival?
We can create a better legacy. You do not have to be controlled by your environment. You do not have to be consumed by your urges and impulses. You each have the ability to question everything you do. Inquiry is the ultimate path to transcendence.
______________________
This post found inspiration in Muse's song "Uprising" and in The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins.
You can transcend this interaction. You can transcend stimulus-response. You can transcend your impulses and urges.
Set yourselves free. You have the key to your attitude. How will you confront the world? How will you defend yourself from the onslaught of circumstance?
You have the power to change. You have the power to stop. You have the power to start over. Will you allow yourselves the opportunity to become something greater than yourself?
Christians say that Jesus died for your sins. What exactly did Jesus change? Did he change the environment? Did he change the laws of genetics? Did he stop complexity arising from simplicity?
How did you and I get here? We evolved. To such great hands does the creator of the Universe entrust its creation! Our current state is the direct result of doing whatever we could to survive.
Fighting, fear and fate. These are the masters of billions of years of natural selection. We have been engineered to survive. You have been engineered to become amoral beings. To be or not to be.
That is the sole moral law of our universe. Every act you consider good is only designed to ensure a fair chance of survival. Every wrong you do is wrong because it hurts another survivor. What's the difference?
Everyone wants to survive. What's fair to me is what I could get in my position if I were you. It's easy to deny someone else. It's preferable to look out for number one. Let me repeat: to be or not to be is the moral law.
However, you are not the hostage of fortune. This is the good news. You can be better by cooperating. You can transcend your fortune. You can defy fate. You can master probability. Do you want to transcend your own mere survival?
We can create a better legacy. You do not have to be controlled by your environment. You do not have to be consumed by your urges and impulses. You each have the ability to question everything you do. Inquiry is the ultimate path to transcendence.
______________________
This post found inspiration in Muse's song "Uprising" and in The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins.
I hate to indulge in another World of Warcraft post, but I don't have a separate gaming blog. Maybe I should start one, but I'm already stretched thin across three blogs, so it's going here. For you non-gamers, feel free to skip this post, unless it captures your interest. It's got some philosophical bits about teamwork and interpersonal relationships, so there's that.
I like patch 3.3, which introduced the ability to join random groups across multiple servers. Running instances is a lot quicker in general, and especially quick if you happen to be a tank, which I am. (Here's Vinpricent, level 80 protection paladin.) Lining up for a PUG (pickup group) takes about 20 minutes or so if you're a damage dealer, five minutes or less if you're a healer, and two seconds if you're a tank. I have at least one of each at various levels, so I've seen this difference frequently. It's because tanking is a more demanding and stressful role that most players do not like, but it's a ton of fun when done competently.
At least half of the PUGs I join have competent and friendly players, run smoothly, and are a pleasure to play. But I encounter bad PUGgers pretty regularly, and I think I've identified a common theme.
Many of these people are highly skilled as individual players, but they have a play style which does not tolerate any less than perfection from anyone else in the group. Everyone is assumed to be a flawless player, and if they fall short of this ideal, it is always the team's fault and not theirs.
Anecdote 1: The super damage dealer
I am training up a friend who is new to the game. He started a paladin of his own, so I encouraged him to try tanking. I was playing a low level mage with him.
We grouped with a low level hunter who was loaded to the hilt with heirlooms. I'm a pretty capable DPS ordinarily, but this guy is outpacing me by about 3-1 according to Recount. This is a big problem for an inexperienced tank, who cannot hope to keep with that much threat. Monsters are attacking him constantly. To add to the annoyance, this is another one of those guys who will race ahead and attack more groups first, if the tank is not moving fast enough for his needs.
I say "Look, dude, you have great DPS, but our tank is inexperienced and you need to let him establish threat a little more." He responds by saying that he ALWAYS beats everyone in DPS, and it's never a problem. He also does not want to turn off Growl on his pet, since he knows his pet will need to keep monsters off of HIM.
This is actually the most frequent kind of bad player I see. Some DPS players believe that maximizing damage is their only job, and they don't notice or don't care when their personal style is hurting the team.
Anecdote 2: The bully healer
Mistakes happen. People die. Sometimes it's easy to identify who's at fault. Sometimes it's not.
I'm tanking Prince Keleseth, a boss who freezes random players in ice tombs, making them take damage and preventing actions. Ordinarily the DPS should attack the tomb and break it. Unfortunately, the healer gets entombed, and nobody helps him. We have solid DPS and I can survive well, so we survive, but the healer dies moments before the encounter ends. There is no wipe.
He starts cursing and yelling that it's MY fault (bear in mind that he was nowhere near me when he got entombed). He demands the shard I won as "payment" for letting him die. I give it to him, not wanting to jeopardize the run over his tantrum. As the encounter goes on, he starts barking instructions and acting frustrated when they are not followed, even though we move through at a fairly rapid clip with no other deaths.
Finally, another player and I shut him up. I say "Listen, chill out or quit the group. I'm a tank, I can have another group in 3 seconds. You died once, it is not worth the emotional response you're giving." He says that when he's done he'll go back and play with his top tier guild, whose members are much better than me. Finally I say "Yeah, but you'll still be a big whiner." As we approach the final boss I tell our shadow priest out loud: "Please be ready to off-heal in case he rage-quits in the middle." He doesn't quit.
Anecdote 3: The lunatic
Another healer here, the instant the instance is entered he starts saying "Start chain pulling, this is too easy for me." Gamely I start establishing aggro on a group at a time, moving ahead before a group is fully beaten. He keeps saying "Full mana! I'm bored! PULL FASTER!"
So I pull faster. When there are too many mobs on us already, the group gets feared, pulling even more. I can't get enough aggro, the healer is too far away to be useful. Wipe. I feel stupid for listening to him.
The thing is, even if you have skills which work effectively with perfect groups -- high DPS, big mana pool for healing, the ability to chain-pull as a tank without regard for how well your healer is keeping up -- stuff happens. Patrols hit you, healers go OOM, the tank can't pull the mobs back from your overpowered leather-armor-wearing jerk butt. And when unexpected things happen, if you were playing to the point where you were just barely not dying, that will quickly change from "only mostly dead" to "all dead" pretty quick.
That's why I'm a conservative player no matter what role I'm in. I don't pull more than we can handle; I let my healer mana stay near the full end and don't complain; I watch Omen and switch targets or STOP dealing damage if we have a weak tank.
I just can't believe that so many players have a hard time comprehending the fact that if you have a play style which increases the likelihood of a wipe, you will progress MORE slowly than a group that is cautious and survives.
Festina Lente -- the more haste, the less speed.
I like patch 3.3, which introduced the ability to join random groups across multiple servers. Running instances is a lot quicker in general, and especially quick if you happen to be a tank, which I am. (Here's Vinpricent, level 80 protection paladin.) Lining up for a PUG (pickup group) takes about 20 minutes or so if you're a damage dealer, five minutes or less if you're a healer, and two seconds if you're a tank. I have at least one of each at various levels, so I've seen this difference frequently. It's because tanking is a more demanding and stressful role that most players do not like, but it's a ton of fun when done competently.
At least half of the PUGs I join have competent and friendly players, run smoothly, and are a pleasure to play. But I encounter bad PUGgers pretty regularly, and I think I've identified a common theme.
Many of these people are highly skilled as individual players, but they have a play style which does not tolerate any less than perfection from anyone else in the group. Everyone is assumed to be a flawless player, and if they fall short of this ideal, it is always the team's fault and not theirs.
Anecdote 1: The super damage dealer
I am training up a friend who is new to the game. He started a paladin of his own, so I encouraged him to try tanking. I was playing a low level mage with him.
We grouped with a low level hunter who was loaded to the hilt with heirlooms. I'm a pretty capable DPS ordinarily, but this guy is outpacing me by about 3-1 according to Recount. This is a big problem for an inexperienced tank, who cannot hope to keep with that much threat. Monsters are attacking him constantly. To add to the annoyance, this is another one of those guys who will race ahead and attack more groups first, if the tank is not moving fast enough for his needs.
I say "Look, dude, you have great DPS, but our tank is inexperienced and you need to let him establish threat a little more." He responds by saying that he ALWAYS beats everyone in DPS, and it's never a problem. He also does not want to turn off Growl on his pet, since he knows his pet will need to keep monsters off of HIM.
This is actually the most frequent kind of bad player I see. Some DPS players believe that maximizing damage is their only job, and they don't notice or don't care when their personal style is hurting the team.
Anecdote 2: The bully healer
Mistakes happen. People die. Sometimes it's easy to identify who's at fault. Sometimes it's not.
I'm tanking Prince Keleseth, a boss who freezes random players in ice tombs, making them take damage and preventing actions. Ordinarily the DPS should attack the tomb and break it. Unfortunately, the healer gets entombed, and nobody helps him. We have solid DPS and I can survive well, so we survive, but the healer dies moments before the encounter ends. There is no wipe.
He starts cursing and yelling that it's MY fault (bear in mind that he was nowhere near me when he got entombed). He demands the shard I won as "payment" for letting him die. I give it to him, not wanting to jeopardize the run over his tantrum. As the encounter goes on, he starts barking instructions and acting frustrated when they are not followed, even though we move through at a fairly rapid clip with no other deaths.
Finally, another player and I shut him up. I say "Listen, chill out or quit the group. I'm a tank, I can have another group in 3 seconds. You died once, it is not worth the emotional response you're giving." He says that when he's done he'll go back and play with his top tier guild, whose members are much better than me. Finally I say "Yeah, but you'll still be a big whiner." As we approach the final boss I tell our shadow priest out loud: "Please be ready to off-heal in case he rage-quits in the middle." He doesn't quit.
Anecdote 3: The lunatic
Another healer here, the instant the instance is entered he starts saying "Start chain pulling, this is too easy for me." Gamely I start establishing aggro on a group at a time, moving ahead before a group is fully beaten. He keeps saying "Full mana! I'm bored! PULL FASTER!"
So I pull faster. When there are too many mobs on us already, the group gets feared, pulling even more. I can't get enough aggro, the healer is too far away to be useful. Wipe. I feel stupid for listening to him.
The thing is, even if you have skills which work effectively with perfect groups -- high DPS, big mana pool for healing, the ability to chain-pull as a tank without regard for how well your healer is keeping up -- stuff happens. Patrols hit you, healers go OOM, the tank can't pull the mobs back from your overpowered leather-armor-wearing jerk butt. And when unexpected things happen, if you were playing to the point where you were just barely not dying, that will quickly change from "only mostly dead" to "all dead" pretty quick.
That's why I'm a conservative player no matter what role I'm in. I don't pull more than we can handle; I let my healer mana stay near the full end and don't complain; I watch Omen and switch targets or STOP dealing damage if we have a weak tank.
I just can't believe that so many players have a hard time comprehending the fact that if you have a play style which increases the likelihood of a wipe, you will progress MORE slowly than a group that is cautious and survives.
Festina Lente -- the more haste, the less speed.
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