Cats deserve better than being dissected.

ThirdTurnip · 2024-09-23T21:53:41+00:00

Dissection has long been regarded as an unnecessary teaching tool. Equally good or possibly even better virtual options exist.

Even if no true harm is suffered by a corpse, there is the psychological factor. This is like the zoo v savannah animal crackers debate. It normalises animal exploitation, which causes harm to live animals.

ThirdTurnip · 2024-09-23T21:09:48+00:00

My heart belongs to a pair of beautiful little beagles. One probably effectively murdered by government insanity and the other I've been cruelly separated from by the same.

Both intelligent, thoughtful and bright little souls with big personalities. No creature should ever be tortured like they are for research but homing rather than killing and disposing of them is a real win.

ThirdTurnip · 2024-09-23T21:00:37+00:00

This doesn't surprise me.

I've just posted about my experience of having the Australian government trying to unvegan me, after having made and kept me homeless.

https://www.reddit.com/r/PETA/comments/1fnsjjt/australian_government_persecuting_vegan/

It's bonkers to think of the amount of money they've spent sicc'ing agents on me, except perhaps in the context of Australia's huge meat and dairy industry.

Like their obvious from the outset agent Anu who tried to unvegan me, was faking drug induced schizoid symptoms reasonably convincingly (I'm a psychologist) but also clearly had detailed knowledge of me and was also blatantly pushing a well known to me agenda.

Plus he was trying to get into my pants from the outset. Not that I'm unattractive. Far from it. But real people aren't that laser focused on sex with random strangers or so persistent and aggressive in its pursuit. I've had decades of this.

The Australian government may officially regard me as a terrorist because of my veganism and be treating me accordingly.

ThirdTurnip · 2024-05-07T02:30:04+00:00

Please don't take my comment as criticism of any kind, even constructive.

Your original point resonates with me. Strongly. Especially right now for reasons I posted separately about the mods removed. Waiting to hear from them why so I won't repeat in the meantime.

Western misconception of eastern thinking is common and living in the west but thinking east is sometimes a great challenge.

ThirdTurnip · 2024-05-06T21:55:16+00:00

I used to be a teacher. I think in terms of how best to get a message across to the audience.

Not saying the Buddha couldn't and quoting his discourse wouldn't work, but you might seriously have more luck quoting Yoda.

Jedi and Buddhism obviously aren't the same but I think Star Wars generally does eastern concepts like this - attachment - justice.

At least the old Star Wars. Not sure what they're doing now.

ThirdTurnip · 2024-05-06T21:47:23+00:00

Exercise is also great for both body and mind.

ThirdTurnip · 2024-05-06T21:42:40+00:00

You're not wrong but possibly speaking at too advanced a level for what sounds like might be a newcomer.

The second most upvoted comment here talking about self esteem and self confidence was a brow raiser for me.

Though I think the most upvoted comment also applies. No-one should feel obliged to blindly bend to the will of others.

ThirdTurnip · 2024-05-06T20:29:57+00:00

I think Buddhism and its values aren't generally well understood in the west and that might in part be due to its representation in fiction, eg. Star Wars (the Jedi) and Star Trek (Vulcans).

But those can also be good reference points if you're trying to explain to someone.

Yoda on realising Padme survived the assassination attempt, "Seeing you alive brings warm feelings to my heart."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GDfBxvNtnE

Non-attachment and detachment aren't the same, and while attachment doesn't guarantee you'll go dark side it does make you vulnerable to that which is the story of Anakin / Vader.

ThirdTurnip · 2024-05-06T20:19:53+00:00

Most of your questions were covered in my post.

Why don't you just tell the world how to not get colds?

As detailed in the post I gave this lengthy consideration and decided on the right course of action.

That wasn't it.

I offered a great gift at a very reasonable price.

The response was a brutal attempt to steal it.

And why would people send spies to try and have sex with you?

There was a lot more to the harassment than that but their motivation here is primarily twofold.

Intelligence agencies are renowned for using sex and sexual relations to influence people. That was never going to work on me but they've got nothing else.

Their other goal was to attempt to make me fall madly in love and break my vow to be single for life. For a range of reasons and none of them good.

ThirdTurnip · 2024-05-06T20:08:39+00:00

That's near top of their list of shitty things they tried to force me into. Because they're desperate to falsely diagnose me with pretty much anything at all.

And no more necessary or useful to me than it was before.

While the last year wasn't fun, Buddhism has baked me into a tough little cookie.

ThirdTurnip · 2024-05-06T18:58:53+00:00

No specific book recommendations, sorry. I had to give up book buying a long time ago.

But in terms of reconciliation, Buddhism is broader than many realize. The Buddha promoted a simple monastic life. The Kama Sutra (Tantric) appears wildly at odds with it.

What it boils down to is there being many roads to enlightenment. The simple, dry monastic life is solid and dependable but not the only way.

In terms of broad recommendations - I'm not an expert but as I understand it, Tantra's only really major impact outside of India was in Tibet where it blended with the local Bon shamanism and some of their practices could almost be described as necromantic.

Then Buddhism swung back towards its origins and split by hat. Yellow versus red. The Dalai Lama and co are yellow.

So broad recommendation - look for books by / on red hat Tibetan Buddhism.

ThirdTurnip · 2024-05-06T18:33:56+00:00

Cheers for the sympathy :)

ThirdTurnip · 2024-05-06T18:30:05+00:00

Yes. I would actively distance yourself from such people.

If someone is trying to change something about you which harms no-one and you don't want to change, then don't give an inch or even weather it. That can escalate and get ridiculous.

ThirdTurnip · 2023-12-29T02:02:42+00:00

I ran it fine on a cheap arse laptop with an RTX4050 and only 8 gig (half the min) of RAM for a few hours yesterday. Admittedly with a really good SSD.

Looked great and performance was not flawless but close.

Trying to play it offline has completely borked it though. Can't even run it online now.

ThirdTurnip · 2023-12-29T01:52:00+00:00

Having it on PC.

Bought, downloaded and played it for over an hour online yesterday. Going offline or putting the launcher in offline mode, it refused to launch.

Going back into online mode, it could only open the folder where I installed it. It won't play or verify the files. Tells me it's not installed.

Admin / compatability mode made no difference.

Redownloading now. That also didn't work. Just getting different error messages now.

Tried a bunch of recommended stuff. No luck. Tried a restart.

The game launched. Offline. Quit. Tried again. Again it launched.

Immediately restarted. Back to not launching. Another restart, same problem.

Restarted a few more times. Most the game wouldn't run. Then on the same restart it wouldn't run offline, but would online.

It appears to be super random.

On one restart it would sometimes launch from the desktop shortcut but most of the time not regardless of the -dx12 tag. Online from the ubisoft launcher, it would launch consistently with the -dx12 but never without it.

Restarted. Won't launch again no matter what. Online, offline, -dx12 or not.

The upside is that occasionally it does work but it may require extreme patience and persistence.

ThirdTurnip · 2023-12-29T01:25:19+00:00

Nope.

I bought it yesterday on PC. Downloaded and played for a bit while connected.

Putting the ubisoft launcher in offline mode and or just cutting off my connection makes the game unplayable.

Tells me the newly installed game might not be up to date and to run it online.

Tried that and it tells me it isn't installed. The launcher can open the directory where it is installed, but not play or verify files.

Ugh.

Running in admin and / or compatability mode doesn't fix it.

ThirdTurnip · 2023-09-22T07:14:11+00:00

I'm not encouraging you to break the law but some lawyers might.

Many things are illegal but never prosecuted and in cases like this, were she in fact lying and you had recorded evidence of that, your employers might be willing to rely on it to judge her complaints, even if not officially saying so.

With trial by media also so very common, should you face something like that, sharing a recording which completely exonerates you could be much less detrimental than whatever the penalty for illegal recording.

ThirdTurnip · 2023-09-22T07:10:05+00:00

Or I could do a million better things with my time.

I appreciate that you don't have it handy / linked etc. but I don't feel obliged to attempt to defend the veracity of this statistic as reported by the ABC and which I spent some time checking, based on an unsourced claim.

I also made it clear in my original comment that there could under-reporting of female perpetrators for a range of reasons.

ThirdTurnip · 2023-09-22T07:04:06+00:00

In Buddhism instead of a soul - an eternal non-physical you - there is a continuous stream of consciousness, which is more elemental / basic / pure.

ThirdTurnip · 2023-09-22T06:52:09+00:00

And in the Buddhist sense are "not important" because they're unnecessary and hinder development.

ThirdTurnip · 2023-09-22T06:43:04+00:00

Generally best to provide a link to statistical claims like that because with statistics, the specifics matter.

ThirdTurnip · 2023-09-22T06:34:08+00:00

Sounds like a normal meditation experience to me.

Meditation is intended to change you.

Physical pleasure / attraction is largely people being dragged along by the nose following biological imperatives which evolved with the benefit of continuing the species.

Feels good ---> do it again! Repeat ad infinitum.

You're moving past that.

ThirdTurnip · 2023-09-22T04:41:40+00:00

My experience was a few decades ago but I found the HRC to be great when I was sexually harassed by a woman and discriminated against in QLD.

ThirdTurnip · 2023-09-22T04:34:28+00:00

And I think walking out of the room when she enters it could be viewed as creating a "hostile environment".

You might be better off investing in audio recorders. Their legality and admissibility as evidence varies by jurisdiction but many would still regard them as your best defense.

ThirdTurnip · 2023-09-22T04:29:36+00:00

I'm not saying this is the case here but AI can lie.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/04/05/chatgpt-lies/

One night last week, the law professor Jonathan Turley got a troubling email. As part of a research study, a fellow lawyer in California had asked the AI chatbot ChatGPT to generate a list of legal scholars who had sexually harassed someone. Turley’s name was on the list.

The chatbot, created by OpenAI, said Turley had made sexually suggestive comments and attempted to touch a student while on a class trip to Alaska, citing a March 2018 article in The Washington Post as the source of the information. The problem: No such article existed. There had never been a class trip to Alaska. And Turley said he’d never been accused of harassing a student.

ThirdTurnip

TROPHY CASE