anonrobt

well said, Ed...

Parents supply rationality for their less than prepared young children. By you this must be immoral? Or perhaps you should think through your positions thoroughly, yes? Ba'al Chatzaf Well, yes - your admonition rings a bell in me, generally. I know I have a tendency to rush out with my first flush of thought, and only pick it over afterwards; see how she flies, so to speak. (For my own understanding, primarily). So it comes across disjointed, or lacking logic. Possibly A.D.D. And also, no : on the child's reliance on parental rationality, you picked one example where I think I'm on solid ground. This seems to me to be special pleading. Can you imagine if in all these debates, to ensure precision, we had to add the caveat > My above statement does not apply in the case of children, the mentally unstable, or brain-damaged < ? Children are of course of a special status. For all others, who are capable of full self-responsibility, evasion of rationality is inexcusable. Tony Children indeed are a 'case in raising' - that is why they are children and not adults... one doesn't spring full blown like Minerva from Zeus' head... while rationality is of course needed, it has to be learned, which is what is, properly, done in childhood... to use it as a 'failing' of some sort, an 'immorality', is absurd, a concrete-boundedness...

Yes, may y'all have the Merriest of Xmases...

Yes, I have the lectures on tape - and they are fascinating to listen to... out of date in any way? not as can remember... they're great to listen to while soaking, the player just outside the door, out of the humid air of the hot tub... a book would be fine as well [tho doubt recommending it while soaking... ;-)]...

To me, it typifies fetish behavior, wallowing in wampum and a pain in the arse. Bah! Humbug! Ba'al Chatzaf you wear black these days too, huh

To me, it typifies fetish behavior, wallowing in wampum and a pain in the arse. Bah! Humbug! You wear black these days too, huh... Ba'al Chatzaf

And it's plunging down into the 40s tonight in Miami. This may seem pleasant enough to folks up north, but Floridians think of this as bitter cold weather. This after a Thursday night/Friday morning series of squalls dumped as much as 14 inches of rain in some places. And when those places are low lying streets that were originally built out of swamp land, urban flooding often results--and it did, although the streets quickly dried out. Unfortunately, can't say the same of the cars and homes that got flooded out. (I live on what is called Pine Island Ridge--a hundred and fifty years ago, this was an elevated ridge in the middle of the Everglades, and used by the Seminoles as camping grounds--meaning I'm a whole foot or so above sea level, and therefore less susceptible to flooding.) I have always thought the Spanish word for storm is rather apt when sounding in Anglophone ears: tormenta Last week, by the way, it was in the mid eighties for several days in a row, a few degrees warmer than usual. This is why we put up with hurricanes. People in Florida are wimps. Experience some real weather. Chris - Ever face down a real hurricane? They can be pretty frightening. Bill P Depends where ye living - high ground areas, concrete housing, not so bad - rather hurricane than tornado [which we also get hereabouts time to time]...

And it's plunging down into the 40s tonight in Miami. This may seem pleasant enough to folks up north, but Floridians think of this as bitter cold weather. This after a Thursday night/Friday morning series of squalls dumped as much as 14 inches of rain in some places. And when those places are low lying streets that were originally built out of swamp land, urban flooding often results--and it did, although the streets quickly dried out. Unfortunately, can't say the same of the cars and homes that got flooded out. (I live on what is called Pine Island Ridge--a hundred and fifty years ago, this was an elevated ridge in the middle of the Everglades, and used by the Seminoles as camping grounds--meaning I'm a whole foot or so above sea level, and therefore less susceptible to flooding.) I have always thought the Spanish word for storm is rather apt when sounding in Anglophone ears: tormenta Last week, by the way, it was in the mid eighties for several days in a row, a few degrees warmer than usual. This is why we put up with hurricanes. People in Florida are wimps. Experience some real weather. Not necessarily - perhaps, as in my case, experienced the cold more than enough, and prefer going to climes where is more year-round enjoyable...

then perhaps not, if you compare movies of the 30's as to today, disregarding technological advances...

One could make that claim regarding different aspects of, say, language - as in the difference between poetry and novels... but it would not necessarily be true.... like all literature, poetry, for instance, evolved as a means of describing experiences... but it evolved in a time before the written word, so means had to be devised to be able to handle large amounts of experiences in a verbal format - hence the rhyming schemes and extreme conciseness of compression [which, as consequence, gave for ambiguity]... it allowed, for the very memoric ambitious, a means of compiling epics which could be remembered by others of the same memoric ability and thus passed on thru generations... when written language got evolved, then came possibilities, depending on which language was used [as different languages allowed or disallowed facilitating certain ideas - which is why so hard translating sometimes]... novels arose out of the evolving complexity of plots, something different from journalistic viewing of things... this does not, however, mean that what is in a novel couldn't be described by poetry, just more difficult... The same could be said regarding, say, movies or paintings - visualizations - and novels, but in the same manner as poetry, namely that the visualizations are as such concisements of the expansions of the novel, just as poetry is... the problem is - it rarely is, because of the ease of seeing tends to overwhelm the analyzing [ much as 'one sees but not observe' dictum of Holmes]... you do acknowledge this when you say "art forms cannot always easily be transduced" - but, then, the proper answer is "SO?" is difficulty an excuse? when you said, of dancing - "If it could have been said in words, it would not have to have been danced." not true - merely that it would have been more appreciated being danced, because, like poetry, there is a concising involved that to cover adequately in words would have measured more time and effort than worth the reading or listening to - unless one wasn't there to see and wanted to know what it was all about... the same with painting, the most concise of all, beyond poetry - as it makes it all in a 'one shot' performance, BLAM and it is there to see, just take your time in the seeing, and even more in describing [if you are observant enough to more than just 'see']...

Actually, that is not his blog, but one arguing against his position... here is his blog - http://eyeofthestorm.blogs.com/eye_of_the_storm/2008/05/a-philosophical.html

Aha! That gives me a clue to why I have so much trouble with introspection. Ba'al Chatzaf You really don't see yourself? What, then, do you see? Do you ask a blind man what he sees? I am an Aspergarian. I am mostly mind blind. I do not read other people and their intentions very well and I am unable to dig very far into myself either. What is see is what I get. Ba'al Chatzaf No - you do not say you do not see, only that you do not see yourself - so, what then do you see instead? as you do infer you have a self, so then you see something...

And how great man is that we know this...

Ah yes, outside Ditko's, my favorite comic character...

This oral tradition thing certainly has drawbacks!!! ................ Yes, despite the electronic age and usage, it is almost like a primordial/Luddite mindset, huh...

This review came online today - http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2009-12/avatar-review-we-have-technology-now-what

I quite agree, and yes, the distance factor bears in [tho if one was sure of the other, especially after a visiting, then doubt that much a factor for the most part]...

Heh heh - except for the obscenity of it all, too funny... but I imagine it was somewhat similar with regards Aristotle, and Plato [and who knows how many others]...

Seems she's now more up to stew[ing]...

Men half her age thought so... I have a hard time with fiction. I just bought and failed with two anthologies of "Great! New! In the Grand Tradition!!" science fiction books. I also failed at Don Quixote and Moby Dick. I did get through Looking Backward, but it was a horrible story, though I think I would use it if I ever teach a class in Utopias, along with the Two Chapters in the Valley from Atlas. Anyway, I cutted and pasted the quote to share later. Thanks for reminding me of the cogent words. LOL - about all I remember from the book Moby Dick is the opening words - My name is Ishmael... the rest still comes from the movie of many years ago... Looking Backward was the hard one for me - boring as all and hard to believe it was taken seriously... Don Quixote was a satire on knighthood, and depending on the translation, either readable or terrible [amazing, isn't it how vastly different translations of the same book can be!]... If one approaches AS as dramatized philosophy, then is more interesting for one who not like fiction... for the rest of us - well, for me it was a weekend of no sleep and only interruptions to eat [and this after holding off six month reading it because someone told me it was better than The Fountainhead, which I had considered impossible, as that was the best book I ever read - lol]

I agree with your judgment. And I suspect the circle of groupies was the most debilitating of the three factors. The list you pulled from that site looks pretty accurate, though recent research suggests that Titian, who probably didn't know how old he was, was 86 to 88 when he died, not 99 as used to be believed. We could easily add more: Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921), who composed his clarinet sonata at the age of 86. Havergal Brian (1876-1972), who produced 32 symphonies: 26 when he was over 60, and 22 of those when he was past 70, completing the last when he was 91. Jacques Barzun (1907- ), who published From Dawn to Decadence when he was 93. The only point I want to make is that genes that affect longevity surely have an effect here, along with good habits and sheer force of will. Robert Campbell Then there was Frank Lloyd Wright, who was still creatively going strong up to the end...

Aha! That gives me a clue to why I have so much trouble with introspection. Ba'al Chatzaf You really don't see yourself? What, then, do you see?

Interesting...

And where do they get their source?

Without a blood bath. It could have been Kenya or Rhodesia. Or, heaven forfend Uganda. Ba'al Chatzaf That's an excuse?