Re:Absolutely correct; however...
on
Star Wars on DVD
·
· Score: 1
Yeah, how poignant... [sniff]
Except that, hmmm, would we forgive, say, Hienrich Himmler if he picked killing the Fuhrer over killing his own offspring?
I'm not sure where I originally read this analogy--some of David Brin's readers pointed out that Vader-Himmler is a better analogy than Vader-Hitler. Of course, most fans take the Vader's actual attainment of (a deathbed) redemption as an article of faith, though rather than admit that Lucas duped them into that sort of absurd moral reasoning they'll leap to defend Vader with poorly contrived arguments, rather than sticking with Occam's Razor and the sort of rules we apply to normal people. (See Brin's Salon article
Oh, and harbor, gentle reader, no doubts regarding my undying, albeit ambivalent, affection for the original trilogy.:-)
And I do believe redemption is possible for even some of the gravest sins--there's still hope for Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, even if George Lucas is too far gone...
You're totally right. They're both dumb. And even my mom has difficulty detecting my sarcasm sometimes.;-)
My point (which I didn't communicate well) was that it's quite ironic that Pascal's wager, which was used to argue that you should "fear God lest he might exist and ye might be punished if you don't" is now trotted out seriously in favor of cryonics. The bit about taking Pascal's original wager into account when considering cryonics was intended to illustrate, and show that they both fail because of the inherent flaws in the form of argument they employ.
Maybe it is smart to believe in God or to take out a policy from Alcor, but thinking either because of 2x2 matrices is indeed dumb.
1. You're not preserved and cryonics doesn't work.
You're dead.
2. You're not preserved and cryonics does work.
You're dead.
3. You're preserved and cryonics doesn't work.
You're dead.
4. You're preserved and cryonics does work.
You're alive
Ergo, cryonics is true. Of course, if Pascal'swager is also a useful guide to decision making as it was originally formulated, then we might desire a more complex matrix, so as to include the possibility that God exists and would be pissed off at you for having your brain vitrified upon death, clinging to some vain hope of a godless resurrection.
If you enjoy this sort of thing, try out Andrew Lipson's Lipson-Shiu Corporate Type Test. Its four dichotomies are practically synonymous, except that Intelligent v. Stupid replaces Rational v. Emotional.
For the Anime with possibly the most Judeo-Christian symbology, check out Neon Genesis Evangelion; some of the Christian and Kabala elements are important to the story, but many seem to have no real significance. Evangelion is not for children, but even shows like Sailor Moon had a scene excised where four characters were suspended on crystal crosses.
Thanks to my ill-behaved crappy Windows scanner software that stuck an annoying window in front of Mozilla, I only saw the first half of the headline, which read:
Linux-Based Musical
And I thought that a LotR musical would be bad enough...
Exactly. I've bought a grand total of one game for my PS2 so far, but I use it to watch DVDs frequently because my regular DVD player is a cheap (and old) piece of crap that skips horrendously and even turns itself off while trying to play DVDs that the PS2 handles without a hitch.
This "our DVD player sucks, but a brand new PS2 won't" ploy also helped my brothers and I convince our Mom to let us bring a new console into the house.;-)
"Yeah, Mom--the PS2 is fantastic at playing DVD movies!"
If this whole thread IS nonsense (which may very well be true) then why are you posting in it?
Personally, I would have modded it as Funny. Can't anybody else take a joke?
Well, okay: having been reminded by looking at posts that appeared while I was writing this, I'll concede that some of these people are disturbing.
Please note (I'm talking to you, Boris and Olga, if you do actually exist) that Tolkien loved his native language (and studied it for a living) and that he gave his children good, Catholic names like John and Christopher.
These people do realize that it's fictitious, but they don't need to stick disclaimers ("BTW, this is all made up! Elves don't really exist!") on everything they write.
Referring to the internal linguistic history (the fictional history as told in Tolkien's works, as opposed to the external development of the languages in Tolkien's own life) is important to the seriously interested becuase Tolkien's languages and his stories were parts of the same endeavor; his created languages and created cultures are connected.
The people who do serious work in this area can refer to fictional characters as if they were real, and then refer to Tolkien changing this word, because both contexts are important, and because they can safely assume that their readers are capable of discerning fact from fiction. It's a very natural way of doing things, just as we can talk about characters in a movie as if they were real, and then say something about the director. ("She would never say that!" "Well, what do you expect from that hack?") And as for people that do always talk as if Middle-earth is real, you'll find the same kind of people in many other realms of fandom.
In this case, a "token acknowledgement" would be patronising. The 'Lord of the Rings' topic icon should be enough to clue most Slashdotters.
As for it being 'creepy,' I personally don't feel that it's any more creepy than an intense, serious interest in classical music or sculpture. Tolkien loved languages and literature, so he spent his professional life studying them. He differs from other philologists in that he decided to create his own literature and languages. It was an uncommon hobby, and still is, but why can't language be treated as any other medium?
Maybe it's creepy to you because you aren't that interested in language and don't understand that sort of fascination; maybe you like language, but find 'fake' ones creepy. Of course, all languages are man-made, but 'real' ones evolve naturally in the course of their speaker's lives; Tolkien's languages were mostly private during his life, which might seem creepy to some, but you can find many creepier fans on the internet; Tolkien nuts are pretty benign in comparison.
There are tengwar numerals (you can even pick decimal or duodecimal!), and they look similar enough to the regular letters to be employed in a l33t manner.
They are, and it goes without saying that Greek is the superior tongue.;-) Uncertainty would be amphisbetesis, "dispute, controversy" (those e's are eta's, by the way, not epsilon's) and doubt would be apistia, "unbelief, distrust".
Slashdot Mirror
In Soviet Russ... oh never mind.
Actually, it's at 48% now.
Except that, hmmm, would we forgive, say, Hienrich Himmler if he picked killing the Fuhrer over killing his own offspring?
I'm not sure where I originally read this analogy--some of David Brin's readers pointed out that Vader-Himmler is a better analogy than Vader-Hitler. Of course, most fans take the Vader's actual attainment of (a deathbed) redemption as an article of faith, though rather than admit that Lucas duped them into that sort of absurd moral reasoning they'll leap to defend Vader with poorly contrived arguments, rather than sticking with Occam's Razor and the sort of rules we apply to normal people. (See Brin's Salon article
Oh, and harbor, gentle reader, no doubts regarding my undying, albeit ambivalent, affection for the original trilogy. :-)
And I do believe redemption is possible for even some of the gravest sins--there's still hope for Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, even if George Lucas is too far gone...
The asshole that has the same name as you? Read the fine FAQ.
Ever browse at -1:Uncut and Raw?
My point (which I didn't communicate well) was that it's quite ironic that Pascal's wager, which was used to argue that you should "fear God lest he might exist and ye might be punished if you don't" is now trotted out seriously in favor of cryonics. The bit about taking Pascal's original wager into account when considering cryonics was intended to illustrate, and show that they both fail because of the inherent flaws in the form of argument they employ.
Maybe it is smart to believe in God or to take out a policy from Alcor, but thinking either because of 2x2 matrices is indeed dumb.
1. You're not preserved and cryonics doesn't work.
You're dead.
2. You're not preserved and cryonics does work.
You're dead.
3. You're preserved and cryonics doesn't work.
You're dead.
4. You're preserved and cryonics does work.
You're alive
Ergo, cryonics is true. Of course, if Pascal's wager is also a useful guide to decision making as it was originally formulated, then we might desire a more complex matrix, so as to include the possibility that God exists and would be pissed off at you for having your brain vitrified upon death, clinging to some vain hope of a godless resurrection.
Intelligent-Stupid
Lawful-Chaotic (alias Wacky-Sober)
Important-Unimportant (Leader-Follower)
Good-Evil (Constructive-Destructive)
Hackers/Mad Scientists are, of course, Intelligent-Chaotic-Unimportant-Evil, as we all know. :-)
As for the original, it was not rated by the MPAA.
For the Anime with possibly the most Judeo-Christian symbology, check out Neon Genesis Evangelion; some of the Christian and Kabala elements are important to the story, but many seem to have no real significance. Evangelion is not for children, but even shows like Sailor Moon had a scene excised where four characters were suspended on crystal crosses.
Maybe we should ammend that to read
Governments really ought to serve the people.
I dont read books
The Guy Game?
(See also here if you want to know what Clarke meant by 'elderly'.)
(Thanks be to Tycho for the link.)
Linux-Based Musical
And I thought that a LotR musical would be bad enough...
This "our DVD player sucks, but a brand new PS2 won't" ploy also helped my brothers and I convince our Mom to let us bring a new console into the house. ;-)
"Yeah, Mom--the PS2 is fantastic at playing DVD movies!"
And check out Something Awful's ROM Pit if you've got this thing against paying to suffer.
If this whole thread IS nonsense (which may very well be true) then why are you posting in it? Personally, I would have modded it as Funny. Can't anybody else take a joke?
Tolkien wrote the inscription so it would grate on his ears. He didn't like the black speech.
So, he used the goblet as an ashtray.
Please note (I'm talking to you, Boris and Olga, if you do actually exist) that Tolkien loved his native language (and studied it for a living) and that he gave his children good, Catholic names like John and Christopher.
Referring to the internal linguistic history (the fictional history as told in Tolkien's works, as opposed to the external development of the languages in Tolkien's own life) is important to the seriously interested becuase Tolkien's languages and his stories were parts of the same endeavor; his created languages and created cultures are connected.
The people who do serious work in this area can refer to fictional characters as if they were real, and then refer to Tolkien changing this word, because both contexts are important, and because they can safely assume that their readers are capable of discerning fact from fiction. It's a very natural way of doing things, just as we can talk about characters in a movie as if they were real, and then say something about the director. ("She would never say that!" "Well, what do you expect from that hack?") And as for people that do always talk as if Middle-earth is real, you'll find the same kind of people in many other realms of fandom.
In this case, a "token acknowledgement" would be patronising. The 'Lord of the Rings' topic icon should be enough to clue most Slashdotters.
As for it being 'creepy,' I personally don't feel that it's any more creepy than an intense, serious interest in classical music or sculpture. Tolkien loved languages and literature, so he spent his professional life studying them. He differs from other philologists in that he decided to create his own literature and languages. It was an uncommon hobby, and still is, but why can't language be treated as any other medium?
Maybe it's creepy to you because you aren't that interested in language and don't understand that sort of fascination; maybe you like language, but find 'fake' ones creepy. Of course, all languages are man-made, but 'real' ones evolve naturally in the course of their speaker's lives; Tolkien's languages were mostly private during his life, which might seem creepy to some, but you can find many creepier fans on the internet; Tolkien nuts are pretty benign in comparison.
Sadly, no cirth numerals (.pdf) have yet been published, although their existence is rumored. (See this list of yet unpublished works.)
So, we must await the whim of the Elfconners to discover whether canonical Dwarvish l33t is possible.
S.C. Woodhouse, English-Greek Dictionary
Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon
Malarkey? or Effective Way?
Yeah, yeah. I saw it.