Random Thoughts XV: Temere Cogito, Ergo . . .

[Valka D'Ur]

There are a lot of disillusioned fans and writers on FB now, and lots of discussions got shut down because they were getting really vitriolic.

Some of the discussions were on the issue of "separating the art from the artist" and whether it's possible to enjoy the art when the artist turns out to be thoroughly nasty.

I don't have that problem with Gaiman because I never read anything of his. All I know about him comes from decades'-old interviews on a Canadian science fiction show called Prisoners of Gravity.

I get a lot of flak for still reading and enjoying the Darkover books and the Avalon books by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Yes, I'm aware of what she was accused of and why her husband ended up in prison. Does that mean I'm going to put her books and everything I have that's based on them on a bonfire? No. I divorce the art from the artist, and that's my right as a fan to make that decision.

If we only read stuff written by perfect saints, we'd never read anything at all, because no writer in the history of the human species has ever been perfect.

 

[Kyriakos]

This is what happens when the real test was for dysanagnosia* all along

I infer that the person who typed the test originally wanted the trick - to check if some students would forget doing the trivial addition of 17,6 (which they had to work to get) to 11** - but then changed his mind, yet forgot to revise the answers.
I guess he/she was suffering from dystrickia.

*a reading and attention-related disability where the student unconsciously forgoes taking into account an out of place part of a question; typically one involving menial tasks when compared to the rest of the problem.
**the test asks you for the length of AE, but AE is 17.6+11, and the result is not among the answers you can choose. AC itself is 17.6. AE, which simply calls for an addition, was asked as a trick to see if you have dysanagnosia, while finding the value of AC is all the work and would have been the obvious question.

 

[Takhisis]

Could you elaborate on this dysanagnosia?

So much for Gaiman.
I found him annoying even in a Lovecraft documentary he was in, 20 years ago. Never bothered with his literature.

I have read some of his work (most notably Good Omens) and found it to be good.

That said, there're so many good authors still out there waiting to be discovered that it won't ultimately be that much of a loss.

 

[Kyriakos]

It's one of the learning-or-reading problems/challenges. The most famous of those is dyslexia, but by no means the only one.
The negative aspect with this particular one, however, is that by its very nature it is not about failing to understand, but blocking out a bit which was (unconsciously) identified as out of place (due to triviality or artificiality).
Another example of this is when you had been given all measurements in (say) meters, but the question sneakily asks you to calculate your answer in decimeters or centimeters etc (without the actual test having been on such transformations). Ie the part the student with this 'problem' will miss, was from the start there only to check for whether you will miss this, not to test your (in this case) math skills.

 

[r16]

dear peoples of the world . With the BSSS back in charge and Xitter (read in Chinese style) and fecebook represented in person by their owners in inaguaration to lead what some call as techno feaudalism and its wrong as these people are running to become god billionaires , and everything that happens in New Turkey will also happen elsewhere because that's the pattern and that's the system ...

here is your future .

66 people burned to death in an hotel in a skiing resort during the winter break . No mourning declared as there was a political meeting in the morning . That's how the relatives get the bodies . That's some crisped chicken delivery truck . Mourning is now officially on .




no , they are , each and everyone of them is smarter than you would think . They are running to claim in the coffeehouses that they burned the infidels , a tiny minority of the Party supporters . Taking advantage of some actual accident caused by ineptitude . Goverment claims there is going to be an investigation about the officials who arranged for the truck . Perception is the king , until it meets Reality .

 

[Ajidica]

The plague, alternatively known as the Boomer Remover or the Kung Flu, hit the news cycle this time half a decade ago.

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

Twitter nationalist threads are ridiculously funny. Some account called "Iran Observer" posted about Tajikistan banning all Russian and Turkic names in order to force Tajiks to retvrn to their original Iranic roots, and the comments are full of all manner of nationalists and chauvinists squabbling like children (which they well might even be): Iranians, Tajiks, Turkeyians, Afghans, Russians and even Indians. The Turkeyians even come in multiple varieties: ultrasecular Kemalist, neo-Ottoman Islamist, "nomad enjoyer"

 

[Lexicus]

"nomad enjoyer"

correct thought

 

[Takhisis]

correct thought

Is this our witnessing the birth of the still-in-the-future ideology of Le Xi Cu though?

 

[r16]

yes , thinking self as number one and all the rest is nothing is part of the scheme . After a day of attacking the mayor of the town , they declare they will discover which part of the goverment and stuff is responsible for checking compliance with fire regulations . IN TEN DAYS . Which should be be possible in ten seconds or there abouts . Because they arrested the leader of the future Nazis and they are balancing his fame out of this PR ordeal with the fame the mayor (of racist reputations and stuff) . It is all listed in computers . Love your boomers . Ours failed to ensure fire regulations were observed as they were in your country . 66 deaths , each paying 30 000 liras a night , which is above the minimum monthly wage in the country , the dead would have paid enough in a single night to giive a fire exit for each column of windows in a building which had none as they were lowering people from the 8th floor with tied bedsheets . Yes , this post will make no change whatsoever .

 

[Kyriakos]

Wb, but why not post nuTurkey stuff in its own thread? ^^ As this one is sort of for one-offs mostly.

 

[r16]

elon Musk has been given the clearance , the briefings ... Still doesn't know how to avenge the F-42 , cool name he lost . Am noticed since like 2008 , there is going to be stuff . Also , ı reject to take part in mass hysteria .

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

correct thought

REJECT URBAN SEDENTARISM, RETVRN TO NOMADIC PASTORALISM

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

I really want to know more about this man, Fathi Ahmad Mahmoud of the Egyptian Unique Moustache Association

Though that's technically a beard

 

[Kyriakos]

His personality will need to be extra special, if they treat him with respect despite that beard

 

[Birdjaguar]

Sunfish that got sick after aquarium closed has recovered

TOKYO — A solitary sunfish at an aquarium in Japan lost its appetite, began banging into the side of the fish tank and appeared unwell days after the facility closed last month for renovations. As a last-ditch measure to save the popular fish, its keepers hung their uniforms and set up human cutouts outside the tank.

The next morning, the sunfish ate for the first time in about a week and has been steadily recovering. Staff say they think the sunfish was affected by the sudden absence of an audience.

They are big!

 

[Sommerswerd]

Sunfish that got sick after aquarium closed has recovered

TOKYO — A solitary sunfish at an aquarium in Japan lost its appetite, began banging into the side of the fish tank and appeared unwell days after the facility closed last month for renovations. As a last-ditch measure to save the popular fish, its keepers hung their uniforms and set up human cutouts outside the tank.

The next morning, the sunfish ate for the first time in about a week and has been steadily recovering. Staff say they think the sunfish was affected by the sudden absence of an audience.

They are big!

View attachment 716437

Sounds like humans aren't the only ones who go crazy when placed in isolation against their will. Who knew?

 

[Birdjaguar]

Consciousness abounds even where least expected.

 

[Voidwalkin]

Consciousness abounds even where least expected.

An old coworker believed consciousness is inherent to material and therefore nobody truly dies.

I argued that thaf doesn't link up with how we view or understand death. Even if inherent, it seems to me that what makes a person a person is memory, which does seem linked to specific, physical, material structures. If the electrons leave the neurons or the structure becomes degraded, as seen in dementia, consciousness becomes incoherent and a person therefore ceases to be. What is without form, is effectively, dead.

I also internally debate whether my actual consciousness is... a direct continuity, or if I effectively die every time I go to sleep, only for it to be remade from the same source material each morning, giving the illusion of continuity to what are essentially copies inherenting the sum of whatever memories have accumulated on the physical structure.

 

[Birdjaguar]

An old coworker believed consciousness is inherent to material and therefore nobody truly dies.

I argued that thaf doesn't link up with how we view or understand death. Even if inherent, it seems to me that what makes a person a person is memory, which does seem linked to specific, physical, material structures. If the electrons leave the neurons or the structure becomes degraded, as seen in dementia, consciousness becomes incoherent and a person therefore ceases to be. What is without form, is effectively, dead.

I also internally debate whether my actual consciousness is... a direct continuity, or if I effectively die every time I go to sleep, only for it to be remade from the same source material each morning, giving the illusion of continuity to what are essentially copies inherenting the sum of whatever memories have accumulated on the physical structure.

I too accept that consciousness is inherent in all matter. Once matter takes on life and complexity, consciousness becomes more aware. Perhaps it is our awareness of ourselves that changes over days and nights and not the inherent nature of our consciousness.