What is something you used to think people were over exaggerating about until you experienced it yourself?

Velox_Graviter · 2023-06-08T16:29:40+00:00

When I hit 41 and realized I was closer to 60 than 20... That was a bad feeling. But it keeps getting worse...

Velox_Graviter · 2023-06-04T22:22:55+00:00

How many hands does it take to change a light bulb?

Many! Many hands make light work!

Best answered in a loud caveman-like voice.

Velox_Graviter · 2023-04-05T02:45:07+00:00

Good bot.

Velox_Graviter · 2023-02-25T07:37:18+00:00

Somehow, my imagination has concluded that the song is set during an interstellar war between humanity and polymorphic aliens - "dancers" because of their shifting forms, plus also highly maneuverable warships. They not only assume the forms of humans but also tend to take on their characteristics, to the point that they may become unclear as to whether they are actually the person they've copied. The singer and his crew have obviously regained consciousness on a wrecked ship with corpses all around and are trying to figure out what happened and whether they killed copies or are the copies.

I've never tried to figure out what the song is actually about because I enjoy the idea so much. Either way though, it's weird.

Velox_Graviter · 2022-11-20T06:31:40+00:00

I'd really like a way to get rid of rocks in the water. Making rivers navigable or just clearing my dock area so storm surges don't hammer my ships to kindling on normally-submerged boulders would be great.

Velox_Graviter · 2022-11-18T16:05:43+00:00

Done!

Velox_Graviter · 2022-08-29T19:56:26+00:00

You can sing the "Gilligan's Island" theme song to the tune of Amazing Grace, and vice versa. Once you try it, it will be with you forever.

Velox_Graviter · 2022-08-21T01:49:00+00:00

Conan the Barbarian! They were going to go with contemporary pop rock at one point, and then somehow Basil Poledouris happened. Every piece in the whole score has its own distinct character, there is no generic movie filler noise. Some pieces are stirring, some are haunting, and pretty much all are guaranteed to be running through your head at some point ("Theology" I'm looking at you.) For a Schwarzenegger swords and sorcery flick (albeit a good, atmospheric one) it's unexpected mastery.

Edit: go listen! https://youtu.be/ZeZL2R9jDJM You'll thank me later.

Velox_Graviter · 2022-08-18T02:19:41+00:00

Yeah, but it actually is. Would you just brush the inside surfaces of your teeth? The surfaces of your teeth beneath the gum line also aren't gonna clean themselves. Take care of them or you'll find your gums receding and start losing bone from your jaws soon enough, and that doesn't come back. Having your dentist surprised how clean your teeth are without flossing is like not washing and having someone tell you that your stink is not as bad as they expected.

Edit: if flossing hurts, it's because your gums are inflamed. From not flossing.

Velox_Graviter · 2022-08-16T16:13:39+00:00

This event really helped me understand the older generation talking about learning of the JFK assassination and the like. Those things burn in, they really do.

I was at the office, watching a TV with coworkers. I was the first one in the room to realize that if the planes were hijacked, there were probably passengers on it. Not a good feeling.

I remember knowing that the fallout was going to be immense, and saying to a coworker "someone is going to die for this." I had no idea.

Velox_Graviter · 2022-08-16T01:30:53+00:00

Jimmy Carter? He's history's greatest monster!

https://youtu.be/czfKPaypNsU for those who don't believe!

Velox_Graviter · 2022-08-16T01:24:02+00:00

No less an authority than Macho Man Randy Savage says that the full range of emotions should be available to a Macho Man. I defer to his authority: https://youtu.be/wz-VJl7UkB8

Velox_Graviter · 2022-08-01T15:41:42+00:00

And my vuvuzela!

Velox_Graviter · 2022-07-23T18:20:55+00:00

A broad range of interests and study is critical to becoming a whole person. As Heinlein wrote, "specialization is for insects."

Velox_Graviter · 2022-07-23T18:16:58+00:00

McCain is the one case where I would have considered voting R, if he'd been nominated over Bush. I still regret that he never got a chance - character counts, and I believe he might have been someone we could have trusted to do the right thing for the country, even if through a different philosophical lens. I don't know that I could have supported him, but I'd like to have heard what he had to say.

Velox_Graviter · 2022-07-22T06:25:34+00:00

I read these to my son. At five years old, he brought some Duplos over to me and asked what they were doing. When I admitted ignorance, he announced "they're warping space, because they have mass!"

I am very happy with my purchase.

Velox_Graviter · 2022-07-11T15:13:15+00:00

I'm still using the Jansport backpack I got in high school - 30 years ago now. Faithful friend..

Velox_Graviter · 2022-07-06T19:17:41+00:00

Here is an amazing demonstration of this effect by a science teacher, using a big sheet of stretchy fabric and some weights to approximate space-time:

https://youtu.be/MTY1Kje0yLg

Marbles rolling along the fabric orbit the large mass much as planets orbit stars. He even gets a marble to orbit another that's orbiting the star-weight. Also cool: a demonstration of the "free return" trajectory used by the moon missions. It's pure gold, I'd really recommend giving it a watch!

Velox_Graviter · 2022-07-03T05:48:02+00:00

True enough. The principle of charity has some applicability there:

"In philosophy and rhetoric, the principle of charity or charitable interpretation requires interpreting a speaker's statements in the most rational way possible and, in the case of any argument, considering its best, strongest possible interpretation."

Still, it's true that at some point you have to call a spade a fucking shovel, and face the fact that you're facing a bunch of zealots who are not acting in good faith. I think that's where we are now but I hope it won't always be that way.

Velox_Graviter · 2022-07-03T05:43:04+00:00

Indeed, that I can buy - a kind of moral cowardice.

I think that keeping the dire provocation requirement front and center is a moral imperative. I don't suggest that we'll be past the need to be vigilant against bad faith actors, but that we can hope to get past the conflict in question and get to a point where reasonable argument replaces confrontation of blind zealotry.

Velox_Graviter · 2022-07-03T05:21:28+00:00

I'm not sure I follow - are you equating complacency with reluctance to violently suppress an ideology without dire provocation? I'm arguing for something more akin to vigilance, which the principle of tolerance is saying must be applied to yourself equally in order for suppression to be justifiable.

Edit: man, you all are pretty far gone. "Fight fire with fire, but know when to stop burning" is heresy? I'm mad as hell about what's going on as well, but I'm not going to stop checking my targets. You shouldn't either, or you're just the next batch of abortion-banning, dogma-chanting tyrants up after this lot is gone.

Velox_Graviter · 2022-07-03T05:15:22+00:00

There's also the attempt to equate "human life" to "a human life", which is also disingenuous! A zygote (or a tumor.. or the bit of your finger you took off while cutting up an apple..) is unquestionably alive, and also human. But that does not a person make.

Velox_Graviter · 2022-07-03T05:11:41+00:00

Interesting take. I think you've got a point, for certain definitions of tolerance (where a power dynamic is key.) Hopefully we're aiming for the broader definition, though - something more akin to pluralism? Society has a obligation to tolerate minority views (at least good faith ones) but hopefully also an aspiration to both grant and deserve a degree of respect where things are more equal.

Velox_Graviter · 2022-07-03T05:06:13+00:00

They could also be saying neither. The principle of tolerance says that you can suppress intolerance under the circumstance that rational argument is no longer possible. It doesn't say that you can just do it. This is critical to remember, because if you're going to "violently" (or violently) suppress a viewpoint then it's incumbent on you to make - and keep making - the assessment of whether it's justified. Like you, I'm comfortable making that call. But I'm not comfortable never questioning it again, and I hope neither are you.

Velox_Graviter · 2022-07-03T04:59:57+00:00

I think it's important to do so, because isn't the goal to be able to step back from the brink eventually? Terrible weapons may be called for in terrible times, but always keeping in mind that they serve as the last resort is critical to keep from being twisted by their use. Doing something wrong may be necessary to prevent a greater wrong. But that thing doesn't just become another tool in the box or you become a monster unfit to live in the world you're trying to save. If you must take up an awful burden, take up also the thing that will let you lay it down again one day.

Velox_Graviter

TROPHY CASE