Displaying 751 To 780 Of 3,373 Comments For Cher, and DP, in honor of #64 » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 27, 2011 @ 6:17 am brilliant! » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 26, 2011 @ 10:15 pm Apparently, George C. Scott hated his performance, even though everyone else loves it. He felt manipulated and deceived by Kubrick, who got him to do several takes, some more serious and downplayed, some OTT, and Scott didn’t think the latter would actually be used. It seems that some of the actors were not even clear that they were filming a comedy until the filming got underway, expecting a military drama. Kubrick was pretty devious, it seems, only letting his actors know what he wanted them to know, when he wanted them to know it. » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 26, 2011 @ 8:11 pm It (the cat’s eye image) could have also easily been the picture I used for my image, if I weren’t so darned stubborn I gotta always draw a picture! 🙂 It actually looks like the universe looking back at us…. » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 26, 2011 @ 3:41 pm The GIFs are cool, the “Cat’s Eye” picture is amazing, and the Martin Rees article jibes well with my own….what a great DP! » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 26, 2011 @ 6:50 am Giving Corporations the Death Penalty Like you point out, with the rights come the responsibilities. It is obscene how they have merely twisted the principle to advance their own agendas and leave all the rest. How about “You Can’t Cherry Pick Personhood!” for a slogan? » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 26, 2011 @ 6:19 pm Certainly nearly every advertising company, and by extension their clients, would be on shaky ground for that particular charge. Vandalism could be looked at in so many ways. So many companies destroy public property at this point that we hardly even think about it any more. Junk, waste, spillage, horrible smells – it’s everywhere! We just put up with it as a fact of life and feel partly culpable because we think we “need” all that corporations provide. What about somebody who is vegan, only buys organic produce, only buys recycled clothes, still has the same computer he/she bought ten years ago, etc. etc.; that person couldn’t be said to be culpable at all. If corporations are “persons”, shouldn’t such a person as I described technically be able to just call the cops and say, This “guy” is violating my constitutional rights!”? » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 26, 2011 @ 5:58 pm Hi Adlib, » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 26, 2011 @ 5:14 pm All you atheists can go caroling with this song on Atheist Eve (which comes right after Godless Friday)
» Posted By whatsthatsound On April 26, 2011 @ 6:33 am Your last sentence is one more reason why we need Atheist Day NOW! » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 26, 2011 @ 6:29 am it’s all about giving people a way to pass the time! 🙂 » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 26, 2011 @ 6:08 am I make a motion that there should be an official Atheist Day. Seriously! Think how cool it would be. Atheists could have a special day, and could wish each other “Happy Atheist Day!” Meanwhile, believers with a bug up their butt (like the above non-believer most definitely has) could get all upset at them whenever they wished that to each other. They could tell the atheists who write it that they’re going to hell, just go Medieval on the poor slobs. It would all even out that way. » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 26, 2011 @ 5:56 am You said you took an anger management course, yes? Were there any fundamentals of that that you could envision being taught to small children? Actually the book “Walden Two”, which I’ve mentioned before on this site, takes up that question. Can we use the best practices of our cultures and societies to raise more peaceful and compassionate human beings? It’s not “A Clockwork Orange”; it’s just applying best practices. But I agree with you, some things can only be learned through experience. Nevertheless, we both agree we can CERTAINLY do better. » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 26, 2011 @ 6:23 pm That’s very true, KT. But that doesn’t mean we can’t readjust the methodologies by which we teach our children. When I was a kid, we didn’t role play different confrontational situations, we didn’t have discussions about it after playground fights were broken up, nothing like that. We just went right back to learning multiplication tables from a bored teacher who simply wished the fight had never happened. » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 26, 2011 @ 6:03 pm I agree, foxisms. Our education model focuses far too much on teaching us factoids, passionlessly drawn from textbooks and forgotten as soon as the test is finished. Just think of the potential if we were to make ethics, role playing confrontations, discussions on why we want to hurt others – all tailored to the developmental stage of the child – a cornerstone of education. We live that to parents, and sometimes churches, and it ain’t working. Education means to “draw out”. We focus too much on drawing out memorized data, and not enough on drawing out man’s higher qualities. » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 26, 2011 @ 5:07 pm Another highly thought provoking article, AD. I’m still thinking about it, not sure what to add. I disagree with Plato that there is more evil in the world than good. I think if that was true, we’d sense it more. This would seem a very different world, I feel. The horrors such as the Holocaust and Rwanda wouldn’t even shock us; they would be more or less expected. I hope we never reach the point where there are more evil people doing more evil things in the world than good people doing good things. If we do reach that point, I think we’ll all sense it. We will have created hell on earth. » Posted By whatsthatsound On May 4, 2011 @ 1:50 am Bike pedals kinda takes the cake, e-cat. And like Khirad says, it’s very much a Boulder – healthier, more outdoorsy than thou, thing. » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 26, 2011 @ 1:21 am “The iWant Syndrome”; boy do I love that! I was listening in on a conversation yesterday with some colleagues, and it went as so many conversations have gone in recent years, all over the world. Guys talking about their new toys, and what they can do with them. I had no clue, and even less interest, in what they were talking about, but the conversation went something like this: So I decided to buy an independent Gloop for my Fridluck. Yeah, I did that about a month ago. Best decision I ever made. Now, I can Bortalize all my Plecknooks, and watch all my favorite Hoophaws while streaming my Nabswitches. Really, you can stream your Nabswitches? Man, I wanna be able to do that. I’ve been glop-noodling them, but it takes so damn long! That’s what’s so great about the Gloops that just came out last week. The one I bought three weeks ago could only glop-noodle when I wasn’t Bortalizing, but now I can do it all….. and on and on it went. » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 25, 2011 @ 4:43 pm The View From the Left Hemisphere of the Universe Thanks, Q! Actually, I’m kind of a clutz at dinner parties. I’m good at public speaking, and at one on one conversations, but somehow that middle area, sitting around among a group, and my eloquence heads out to the nearest pizza delivery joint! 🙁 » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 29, 2011 @ 3:31 pm Thanks, KT! I’m primed to watch it now! » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 27, 2011 @ 9:49 pm Hi KT, Thanks for this; I look at it and it’s 38 minutes, so I go “Wooaahh!” and think of all the other things I have to do. I’ll make sure to watch it at some point, but is there anything that KV says in the interview that pertains to this topic? I imagine there is, but if you could just toss out a few gems to get me (us) started, I’d really appreciate it. Either way, I look forward to watching. It’s actually my first experience with “Second Life”. » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 27, 2011 @ 8:20 pm Hi KQ, It is definitely true that science and technology are not the same, and that science is ahead of technology in terms of advancing our species. But in a nearly parallel way, the same comparison can be made between spirituality and religious practice, but this is something the “scientific triumphalists” such as Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris fail to acknowledge, although the readily play the “you can’t blame science for technology’s harm” card. In short, B.) Technology can be used for both good and ill. At its most destructive, it is VERY harmful to our species, and our world. Anyone on the “science side” who wishes to conflate religious fundamentalism with spirituality and ultimately lay the blame with the latter (as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens do), should, in fairness, also conflate harmful technology with scientific experimentation as its root cause, and thus find it culpable. But the point is, why set up these antagonistic positions to begin with? It can only add to the reaction you refer to, the “anti-science” attitude that we are seeing today in large sections of America. If you think of science as the thing that attacks and belittles your holy book, you tend to get a bit ticked off. This is why loudmouths like Dawkins and Hitchens, who really know nothing about spirituality (as evidenced by their writing) should not become spokespersons for Science. Science does not benefit. Rational and tolerant scientists like yourself should denounce them as vociferously as rational spiritual persons should denounce intolerant religious “leaders”. Look around on the Planet. You will see that very thing happening.(Shout out to Kalima, Kes, Cher, Kilgore, etc.!) » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 27, 2011 @ 1:40 am KT, it’s an unusual book with an unusual story behind it. Not for everyone, but a profound influence for me. » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 26, 2011 @ 10:07 pm That’s interesting. That sounds to me sort of like “A Course In Miracles”. Are you aware of that book, KT? e-cat? » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 26, 2011 @ 9:47 pm PW, KT, one of the cruel ironies of religious history is that the principle of reciprocity was not applied to persons of other faiths. That so often religious leaders have sunk into tribalism rather than rising to the highest teachings of their faith. » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 26, 2011 @ 3:34 pm Very happy to see you here, thefoxislaur. Thanks for the lovely comment, and I’m glad you stopped by! My prayers are with your father. » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 25, 2011 @ 3:42 pm It’s true, PW. We lose our sense of wonder so easily. I like Skyping with my over-eighty mom, because she has that sense of wonder. She can’t get over the fact that she can have a face to face conversation, from her home in Columbus, OH, with her son who is all the way on the other side of the world. We can tell jokes without time lags, amazing. She reminds me that it IS amazing! When my mom was born, the world was basically the same as the one painted in Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. In her lifetime (and of course a few decades before), we have gone from letters that took a long time to reach the other shore, to phone calls (international phone calls were a clunky, annoying thing when I first moved to Tokyo – lots of time lag) to smooth phone transmission, to Skype. Even with phones, all we do is punch in numbers, and then somebody in another country picks up the phone and talks to us. How cool is that? Seven billion people in the world, but as long as we push the right numbers every time, we get the exactly right person! It IS magic! » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 25, 2011 @ 3:31 pm SO agree! I think that fact, plus the way we have distanced ourselves from other animals, can probably account for a good deal of mental illness. We feel isolated and overwhelmed. People go whole days only thinking about members of their own species. What other animal lives like that? Most of them wake up in the morning to a world that is FILLED with other kinds of creatures. Granted, much of their energy is devoted to sorting out predator/prey/nothing to be concerned about – but still there is that natural awareness of being in community. We have lost that. » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 25, 2011 @ 5:38 am E-cat, no one has ever told me I AM a cute little ass! I have, on occasion been told that I……uh, never mind. » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 25, 2011 @ 2:14 am That’s part of the hilarity of The God Delusion. Dawkins is willing to accommodate the strangest notions about multiverses, such as the universe infinitely expanding, turning upon each decision a person makes, etc.,and STILL maintains there would be no intelligence behind that! Can you imagine that? EVERY potentiality being played out, and yet nothing behind it all, just unaware mechanics? I read it all the way through, and believe me, stopping was the right thing for you to have done!:) » Posted By whatsthatsound On April 25, 2011 @ 2:12 amComments Posted By whatsthatsound
Great post. It would be interesting if someone were to actually challenge the Supreme Court ruling in the way you mention. Not necessarily a murder charge, but even lesser crimes like vandalism, indecent exposure, etc. – it would be funny to see a slew of lawsuits thrown at them from the perspective of them as people. Like you point out, they may just end up wanting to give their “personhood” back.
I imagine it’s not all that different today. As foxisms points out, if we can use our brains to design flying machines and orbiting satellites, surely we can use them to develop education programs that at least ameliorate our bad behavior.
A.) There is no technology such as we have today without science underpinning it.
There is no religious practice such as we have had for millennia without spirituality underpinning and grounding it.
Religious practice can be used for both good and ill. At its most destructive (i.e. intolerant fundamentalism) it is VERY harmful to our species.
Otherwise, you’re not being fair, which is true of Dawkins and those who think like him.
For example, why not, “Do unto Muslims as you would have them do unto you”, etc.?
Then, as you point out, our society continually piles on things we “have” to learn. It’s a wonder we aren’t all raving lunatics. Sometimes I wonder if perhaps we are……
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