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  • Best Paper I've Ever Seen

    Apparently this is a real essay on the spotted owl

    This is James McCabe's essay on Spotted Owls. He actually submitted this for a grade.

    Background Information:

    James McCabe is Travis's roommate from last year.


    James hasn't been to classes in 6 weeks or so. One night, while intoxicated, James decided to check out his teachers website and see what the class was up to. He learned that an essay on the topic of Spotted Owls was due the following day. In his drunken state James created probably one of the funniest papers I have ever read.

    The professor to whom the paper was given has since then asked James for permission to post the essay on the course website. The professor is using the essay as an example of what NOT to do
    James McCabe

    jmccabe@vt.edu

    Assignment # 8: Owl vs. Owl



    I did not give nor receive any unauthorized help on this assignment, and all work contained herein is, unfortunately, my own: _____________________.



    Spotted owls are stupid. They can’t live anywhere that isn’t hundreds of years old and untouched by human hands and they breed themselves into extinction by mating with a natural enemy and potential predator, the barred owl. They are simply stupid, and out of all animals, they are quite possibly the ones most deserved of an untimely death.

    If we as humans want to preserve animals, we need to do so with animals that actually serve some purpose to us. The spotted owl does nothing for our progression as a species. By saving and preserving the spotted owl, we must save and preserve its habit, which keeps us from logging those forests and puts premium timber at a greater risk for fire and other natural disasters. To me that is a waste just to save a species that, if even observed by humans, it is disturbed by their noise and subsequently dies.

    If an animal is going to be naturally extinct, why should humans step in and try to save that animal? The barred owl is not an exotic, it is domestic to the Pacific Northwest just like the Spotted owl. The only difference being that the barred owl is not so picky about what it eats and the surroundings that it lives in. My point? The barred owl is not a little ***** like the spotted owl, and it can take a few loggers walking around here and there without keeling over and dying. Adaptivity is the key to survival: we as humans must constantly adapt to a changing environment in order to survive. Maladaption, in a human sense, is a sign of mental disorder. Therefore, spotted owls are characteriscally mentally retarded and should be seperated from other owls and properly taunted by their peers.

    Through all this, one name springs to mind: Darwin. The barred owl is obviously the “fittest” of the two species. So why then are we trying to save an animal that is naturally being killed by a stronger, more adept species? That is like promoting the death of humans to save prehistoric globs of amphibious sludge because in this harsh world those globs just aren’t up to the task. Spotted owls, take note. You serve no purpose, I have a gun, and your feathers make a pretty neat hat.
    Solomwi is very wise. - Imran Siddiqui

  • #2
    Yeah, that is a piss poor paper.
    If you don't like reality, change it! me
    "Oh no! I am bested!" Drake
    "it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong" Voltaire
    "Patriotism is a pernecious, psychopathic form of idiocy" George Bernard Shaw

    Comment


    • #3
      Why do you say that, GePap?

      He states his position and gives reasons for that position.
      Additionally, he does it in under 10,000,000 words, unlike Michael.
      Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.
      "Hating America is something best left to Mobius. He is an expert Yank hater.
      He also hates Texans and Australians, he does diversify." ~ Braindead

      Comment


      • #4
        Yeah. We should kill everything we want to. 'Cause we can.
        What?

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by SlowwHand
          Why do you say that, GePap?

          He states his position and gives reasons for that position.
          Additionally, he does it in under 10,000,000 words, unlike Michael.
          He gives no supporting evidence for several of his claims, making lots of them BAM's, which is a cardinal sin of essay writing.

          It would make a nice opinion piece, but not an academic essay.
          If you don't like reality, change it! me
          "Oh no! I am bested!" Drake
          "it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong" Voltaire
          "Patriotism is a pernecious, psychopathic form of idiocy" George Bernard Shaw

          Comment


          • #6
            Maladaption, in a human sense, is a sign of mental disorder. Therefore, spotted owls are characteriscally mentally retarded and should be seperated from other owls and properly taunted by their peers.
            Lets taunt retards!!!
            Monkey!!!

            Comment


            • #7
              Sounds good to me
              "I work in IT so I'd be buggered without a computer" - Words of wisdom from Provost Harrison
              "You can be wrong AND jewish" - Wiglaf :love:

              Comment


              • #8
                I only named it best paper for the humor value, not literary or persuasive.
                Solomwi is very wise. - Imran Siddiqui

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by GePap


                  He gives no supporting evidence for several of his claims, making lots of them BAM's, which is a cardinal sin of essay writing.

                  It would make a nice opinion piece, but not an academic essay.
                  He has lots of evidence for his opinions, they're simply not cited (and there's no need to if they are established facts).
                  We need seperate human-only games for MP/PBEM that dont include the over-simplifications required to have a good AI
                  If any man be thirsty, let him come unto me and drink. Vampire 7:37
                  Just one old soldiers opinion. E Tenebris Lux. Pax quaeritur bello.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    some choice quotes from the paper:

                    My point? The barred owl is not a little ***** like the spotted owl, and it can take a few loggers walking around here and there without keeling over and dying.


                    Massive exageration. Fails to show why loggers are different from people, unless he means the species is less likely to adapt to logging, and thus he failt to show why it is necessary to log. He gives no moral valuations for why logging should occur-not even economic ones.

                    The barred owl is obviously the “fittest” of the two species. So why then are we trying to save an animal that is naturally being killed by a stronger, more adept species?


                    We do nothing to stop the barn owl from killing the spotted owl, only to minimize our interference with the process.

                    Spotted owls, take note. You serve no purpose, I have a gun, and your feathers make a pretty neat hat.


                    Massive BAM about the owls "purpose"

                    Spotted owls are stupid. They can’t live anywhere that isn’t hundreds of years old and untouched by human hands and they breed themselves into extinction by mating with a natural enemy and potential predator, the barred owl. They are simply stupid, and out of all animals, they are quite possibly the ones most deserved of an untimely death.


                    The entire intro is one long BAM, has no topic sentence or thesis sentence. The thign that comes closets to this, the last one, is never backed up, since he only compares Spotted wols to barn owls and people. He does not bring up any other creatures.

                    .
                    If you don't like reality, change it! me
                    "Oh no! I am bested!" Drake
                    "it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong" Voltaire
                    "Patriotism is a pernecious, psychopathic form of idiocy" George Bernard Shaw

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      I would give that high marks.

                      I would sack a teacher who taught out the qualities it illustrates.

                      (It is also suspiciously literate so I would need some persuading about its true antecedents).
                      Last edited by East Street Trader; April 28, 2004, 12:33.

                      Comment


                      • #12


                        That's awesome!
                        “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
                        - John 13:34-35 (NRSV)

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by GePap
                          some choice quotes from the paper:

                          My point? The barred owl is not a little ***** like the spotted owl, and it can take a few loggers walking around here and there without keeling over and dying.


                          Massive exageration. Fails to show why loggers are different from people, unless he means the species is less likely to adapt to logging, and thus he failt to show why it is necessary to log. He gives no moral valuations for why logging should occur-not even economic ones.

                          The barred owl is obviously the “fittest” of the two species. So why then are we trying to save an animal that is naturally being killed by a stronger, more adept species?


                          We do nothing to stop the barn owl from killing the spotted owl, only to minimize our interference with the process.

                          Spotted owls, take note. You serve no purpose, I have a gun, and your feathers make a pretty neat hat.


                          Massive BAM about the owls "purpose"

                          Spotted owls are stupid. They can’t live anywhere that isn’t hundreds of years old and untouched by human hands and they breed themselves into extinction by mating with a natural enemy and potential predator, the barred owl. They are simply stupid, and out of all animals, they are quite possibly the ones most deserved of an untimely death.


                          The entire intro is one long BAM, has no topic sentence or thesis sentence. The thign that comes closets to this, the last one, is never backed up, since he only compares Spotted wols to barn owls and people. He does not bring up any other creatures.

                          .
                          I'm sure you're joking. No one, not even a Brown University humanities prof, could make some of those arguments.
                          We need seperate human-only games for MP/PBEM that dont include the over-simplifications required to have a good AI
                          If any man be thirsty, let him come unto me and drink. Vampire 7:37
                          Just one old soldiers opinion. E Tenebris Lux. Pax quaeritur bello.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            I was taught to write at the University of Chicago-hardly known as a bastion of fuzzy thinking. That paper is crap. I don;t care if you guys find it funny, or agree with its gross generalizations-anyone who hands in such a paper deserves a failing grade.
                            If you don't like reality, change it! me
                            "Oh no! I am bested!" Drake
                            "it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong" Voltaire
                            "Patriotism is a pernecious, psychopathic form of idiocy" George Bernard Shaw

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              You generalize and take too much for granted.

                              Nowhere in this thread does it tell the class the for which the paper was written.


                              What if it's a persuasive speech for Speech class?
                              Solomwi almost touched on the possibility with "I only named it best paper for the humor value, not literary or persuasive."

                              A persuasive speech isn't like "Breathe air. It's good for you."
                              Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.
                              "Hating America is something best left to Mobius. He is an expert Yank hater.
                              He also hates Texans and Australians, he does diversify." ~ Braindead

                              Comment

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