Things to make you think...

[Ivy1534]

Re: Things to make you think...

[quote author=AzazelEblis link=topic=446.msg11855#msg11855 date=1289465416]
But why would they need profit, if everyone has infinite money?
[/quote]

Ha. Brilliant.

[Serpent]

Re: Things to make you think...

Everyone dreams, no matter how stoic or monotone their outlook, or how bleak and nihilistic their perceptions. And everyone will occasionally dream a dream so real, so vivid and alive, that touches your senses so completely that you swear it was reality. That waking up from that dream leaves you with an inherant mystery on just how real was that dream.

The question you have to ask, and the mystery to ponder, is what if we've got it wrong? How mind-bending would it be to realise that the dream you just had was not the dream at all, but rather it was us waking up. And waking from that vivid experiance merely plunged us back into the dreaming? Suppose then that when we finally die, we're not actually dieing but merely waking up back to where we left off the last time we dreamed...and that all that you had, all that you loved, all that you suffered, bled, and hated in this life......were all just the contents of your hopes, fears, desires, lusts, and psyche...and that your vivid dream was part of you trying to let go of all the things that kept you tied to get back to reality. That death was merely the natural progression of these hopes and fears, where we either wake up....or return to dreaming, back at the point where we felt the most relief, just to start again because we subconciously are trying to get back from the dream...



The gunslinger comes...

[Ivy1534]

Re: Things to make you think...

[quote author=Serpent link=topic=446.msg13371#msg13371 date=1289838856]
Everyone dreams, no matter how stoic or monotone their outlook, or how bleak and nihilistic their perceptions. And everyone will occasionally dream a dream so real, so vivid and alive, that touches your senses so completely that you swear it was reality. That waking up from that dream leaves you with an inherant mystery on just how real was that dream.

The question you have to ask, and the mystery to ponder, is what if we've got it wrong? How mind-bending would it be to realise that the dream you just had was not the dream at all, but rather it was us waking up. And waking from that vivid experiance merely plunged us back into the dreaming? Suppose then that when we finally die, we're not actually dieing but merely waking up back to where we left off the last time we dreamed...and that all that you had, all that you loved, all that you suffered, bled, and hated in this life......were all just the contents of your hopes, fears, desires, lusts, and psyche...and that your vivid dream was part of you trying to let go of all the things that kept you tied to get back to reality. That death was merely the natural progression of these hopes and fears, where we either wake up....or return to dreaming, back at the point where we felt the most relief, just to start again because we subconciously are trying to get back from the dream...



The gunslinger comes...
[/quote]

Wow. That's pretty brilliant. Wow.

[thalassa]

Re: Things to make you think...

A snippet of history...


On November 3, 1793, Olympe de Gouges was beheaded in the Reign of Terror after her defense of the king (for humanitarian reasons) was seen as evidence for wanting to re-instate the monarchy. In reality, it was more likely her position as a supporter of women's rights (author of the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the below "Social Contract&quot that earned her the ire of the man.

After her death, a leader of Revolution made an example of her for the women of France, "Remember this "virago"... this shameless Olympe de Gouges, ... who neglected her duties in the home and wanted to make politics and committed crimes. All such unmoral beings have been consumed by the fire of vengeance of the law... You want to imitate her? No, you surely feel that you are only interesting and worthy of appreciation when you are that what nature wanted you to be."

Social Contract Between Man and Woman

We, _____ and ______, moved by our own will, unite ourselves for the duration of our lives, and for the duration of our mutual inclinations, under the following conditions: We intend and wish to make our wealth communal, meanwhile reserving to ourselves the right to divide it in favor of our children and of those toward whom we might have a particular inclination, mutually recognizing that our property belongs directly to our children, from whatever bed they come, and that all of them without distinction have the right to bear the name of the fathers and mothers who have acknowledged them, and we are charged to subscribe to the law which punishes the renunciation of one's own blood. We likewise obligate ourselves, in case of separation, to divide our wealth and to set aside in advance the portion the law indicates for our children, and in the event of a perfect union, the one who dies will divest himself of half his property in his children's favor, and if one dies childless, the survivor will inherit by right, unless the dying person has disposed of half the common property in favor of one whom he judged deserving.

From Darline Gay Levy, Harriet Branson Applewhite, and Mary Durham Johnson, eds., Women in Revolutionary Paris, 1789-1795 (Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 1980), pp. 87-96.

[thalassa]

Re: Things to make you think...

The human body is composed of 10 trillion cells...and 100 trillion bacterial cells.


(just a random thing from the way cool guest lecturer we had on the evolution and ecology of gut microbiota today)

[Amber]

Re: Things to make you think...

Interesting

[thalassa]

Re: Things to make you think...

Something lightheartedly educational for finals week:


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCgbYnNAbSM[/youtube]



the "transformer owl"

[thalassa]

Re: Things to make you think...

[thalassa]

Re: Things to make you think...

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/02/132415764/particle-pings-sounds-of-the-large-hadron-collider&sc=fb&cc=fp

[thalassa]

Re: Things to make you think...

Clelia Mosher

[thalassa]

Re: Things to make you think...

Conversations with History Speaker Series from Berkley

[Dumuzi]

Re: Things to make you think...

[quote author=thalassa link=topic=446.msg20532#msg20532 date=1291737147]

[/quote]

I live somewhere between Italy and Eastern Europe

[thalassa]

Re: Things to make you think...

something to keep in mind the next time you play WoW...gaming can make a better world

[Dumuzi]

Re: Things to make you think...



I wonder if it's accurate.
If your country is red, you need an intervention

[Ophidia]

Re: Things to make you think...

I wonder if it's accurate.
If your country is red, you need an intervention

There's no real context to this, though. Is it illicit drinking, or is it done at mealtimes with the family? A kid who has a glass of wine or beer with lunch and/or dinner is drinking more than the kid who binges secretly on a few weekends a year, even though the binge drinking is by far the more dangerous behavior.