Random thoughts...

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Re: Random thoughts...

Postby CarrieVS » Mon Aug 12, 2019 9:14 pm

Pedgerow wrote:If free will is an illusion (and - whispers - it is), then technically, all thoughts are random.


I dunno. Depends if you're into determinism or not. Could be, if free will is an illusion no thoughts are random.
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Re: Random thoughts...

Postby SandTea » Mon Aug 12, 2019 9:31 pm

Damn Carrie. Beat me to that almost word for word. I guess I am deterministic...
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Re: Random thoughts...

Postby jbobsully11 » Tue Aug 13, 2019 3:09 am

CarrieVS wrote:
Pedgerow wrote:If free will is an illusion (and - whispers - it is), then technically, all thoughts are random.


I dunno. Depends if you're into determinism or not. Could be, if free will is an illusion no thoughts are random.

I did notice a disturbing lack of the word “chaotic” in this discussion...
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Re: Random thoughts...

Postby Krashlia » Tue Aug 13, 2019 9:26 pm

They should make "That Hideous Strength" a seinen anime or an anime adaptation (my desire for it has nothing to do with my slowness to actually read the novel *cough*).

What? It has more than a few of the tropes, including scary shiny glasses.

But, if they embellish, then they should:
1) Play off Professor Filostrato's initial comments, arguments about purifying the Earth of most of organic life and arguing for artificial trees, for the purposes of "hygiene", as a joke for his dining room full of research fellows. Throw in a few laughs here and there during the dialogue, and give him a goofy or good natured smile. Of course, later, in Filostrato's conversation with Mark about the Moon's inhabitants, they have to convey the idea that he was deadly serious about this. Give him an unnaturally calm or contented demeanor, focus shots on his eyes, and maybe work the moon reflecting off his eyes in there.

2) Before Filostrato [Correction: Frost] kills himself in despair, after witnessing his partners post-sacrifice mangled bodies, we need a shot of "François Alcasan's" head, with some drool on the beard, giving off a slow and creepy smile before it fades and his eyes roll up as he "gives up" the "ghost". This scene requires dead silence.

3) There needs to be some involvement of the ideas. So, There needs to be a shot of William Hingest, that Chemist who leaves N.I.C.E. (before getting murdered by a "mugger"), arguing with a few of the leadership about communication with the "Macrobes". Specifically, the contradictions involved with their Naturalist Philosophy, and their dogma that human feelings *only* reflected a subjective point of view, yet believing that instruction from the "Macrobes" was meaningful. Pointing out that they mean to debunk the existence of certain realities to establish their own. Then, William Hingest storms out before advising Mark to leave while he still can.

3) As N.I.C.E. is going down in flames, they need to show the fruits of their experiments and philosophy: People being clearly used as items to the very end.
Dead and misshapen (read: mutilated) Bodies on gurnies, dead and moribund people in cages, dead and moribund people on meathooks, whitened and pale limbs out of their human context, the outlines of all of the above through the flames, ripped open women, the outlines of severed heads on tubes and wires. All grotesque signs that point to obvious and horrific failure, but continued and heedless insistence on trying. (Bury a Steins;Gate reference in there. Specifically, "Error, specimen is deceased. Failure.")

(Also, Someone's gotta call the Institution "NaInCoEx". Perhaps after they shed the supposed surface meaning buried in their acronyms through their actions.)

4) Drive home the normalcy that Mark is embracing and overwhelmingly glad for after that entire ordeal. Maybe inquisitive expressions from onlookers if he weeps, followed by one of them giving him a hankerchief as a simple kindness.

5) The image of Jane -- the one basically told to surrender in marriage when you read into her ordeal in the story -- descending to the lodge in her good dress to embrace her husband, the relatively undressed, unsophisticated appearing, and rather broken and humbled Mark, once more, is a good enough image.
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Re: Random thoughts...

Postby Krashlia » Thu Aug 15, 2019 7:09 pm

The Soviet Union ended in earnest when Mikhail Gorbachev featured in a Pizza Hut commercial.
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Re: Random thoughts...

Postby Aquila89 » Wed Aug 21, 2019 8:56 pm

Two years later he also gave a speech at the Annual Chain Operators Exchange, a convention of executives of the major fast food companies in the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas. Eric Schlosser wrote in Fast Food Nation:

Gorbachev sounded like a politician from a distant era, from a time before sound bites. He was serious, long-winded, and sometimes difficult to follow. His mere presence at the Mirage was far more important to this crowd than anything he said. The meaning hit me as looked around at all the fast food executives, the sea of pinstriped suits and silk ties. In ancient Rome, the leaders of conquered nations were put on display at the Circus. The symbolism was unmistakable; the submission to Rome, complete. Gorbachev’s appearance at the Mirage seemed an Americanized version of that custom, a public opportunity for the victors to gloat — though it would have been even more fitting if the fast food convention had been down the road at Caesars Palace.
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Re: Random thoughts...

Postby Krashlia » Wed Aug 21, 2019 10:00 pm

(Tame opera music plays in the background, as they pan over the victims gallery of a clear near serial killing ).

Imagine--

Xi at a cafeteria with a President, reading Winnie the Pooh to school children. He is offered sushi, which he accepts and eats with gusto... Mmmm, yum.

Kim Jong Un as himself in a remake of Red Dawn. What a performance.

Maduro in an Apple commercial. I wonder how much it costs?

Raul Castro holding an American flag, as white girls hang off his arms. Those jeans look great on him.

Putin bench-pressing at a New York park, being spotted by Arnold Schwarzenegger, shirtless.

Baghdadi shaking hands with a Swaggart or Graham, or Harris, or Queen Elizabeth, in Israel or the NY UN Building.

And though their smiles are bright, and their physical postures suggest ease, one could see it in their eyes and on their brows: defeat. pain. resignation. Acceptance.
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Last edited by Krashlia on Thu Aug 22, 2019 1:39 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Random thoughts...

Postby Twistappel » Thu Aug 22, 2019 12:17 am

I wonder what the Vengaboys are up to nowadays.
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Re: Random thoughts...

Postby NathanLoiselle » Thu Aug 22, 2019 12:39 am

Are they still girls? Do they still ride the bus? Do they still like to 'party, party'? These are the questions that drive us.
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Re: Random thoughts...

Postby cmsellers » Thu Aug 22, 2019 3:35 pm

As a rule I hate reading/watching/listening to full-length interviews. (As opposed to clips used in a larger work.) Even when the questions aren't either dumb or stuff the subject has already answered, even when the interviewee gives interesting and concise answers, there's something about the format I just don't like.

But I've never heard anyone else express this. So I googled "I hate reading interviews," then the same for watching and listening. Without quotes, the results aren't even relevant (how to learn to stop hating reading, for example.) With quotes, the results are relevantish, but mostly mentioned in passing. I found a short Medium post saying "I hate reading interviews, also thanks for existing." I found a reddit post saying they hate celebrity interviews, which tend to be the most inane kind. But I cannot find any long-form post anywhere by people expressing their dislike for the interview format.

I am apparently really strange in this regard. It could be the autism, I guess, but there's enough autistic people that I'd think some others would have expressed this complaint. Why don't I like the interview format, and why do I seem to be basically alone in this?
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Re: Random thoughts...

Postby NathanLoiselle » Thu Aug 22, 2019 7:51 pm

How I learned to stop reading and love the bomb.
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Re: Random thoughts...

Postby cmsellers » Fri Aug 23, 2019 6:00 am

Trump trying to buy an autonomous territory from a US ally and throwing a tantrum when he didn't get his way was ridiculous. But if he wants to really show off his real-estate negotiating skills, he should get Putin to sell us Siberia. Between the natural resources the valuable airspace, and a new frontier that would once again let our restless young people migrate west, if Trump purchased Siberia, it would truly make America great again.

I'm joking here, in that there's no way Putin would ever sell Siberia, but also not, because if Trump could buy it, it would be a huge strategic gain to the US, and a huge economic gain to the world. (The Siberian flight corridor would be a lot cheaper, and the rule of law would make doing business there both easier and more environmentally sound.) Trump will never go down in history as a great president, but if he could somehow get Siberia, then, in spite of everything else, he'd go down as a pretty good one.
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Re: Random thoughts...

Postby Aquila89 » Fri Aug 23, 2019 10:35 pm

Truman offered to buy Greenland back in 1946, but the Danes wouldn't sell it then either. However, they did sell the Danish West Indies to the US in 1916; they are now called the United States Virgin Islands. It's weird to think now that Denmark used to have tropical islands as colonies.
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Re: Random thoughts...

Postby cmsellers » Sat Aug 24, 2019 3:35 am

The Danish used to own the Nicobar Islands and a few outposts in India and West Africa too.

The key thing, even back then, is that the Danish Virgin Islanders wanted Denmark to sell the territory to the US or Great Britain, because it would allow them to become part of a large economic zone. Since Britain was at war with Germany and the US was about to be, the Danes rushed through the sale before the US entered WWI so as not to formally violate Danish neutrality.
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Re: Random thoughts...

Postby cmsellers » Thu Sep 12, 2019 1:11 am

I want to make a band that only plays shows at venues which are so loud you can't hear the music, which doesn't actually play any music. The only albums we'll issue are live albums which are just the ambient venue noise. I'll call my band Placebo Effect.
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