The Random Thread: The Next Generation

Topic

Bananas. Diesel. Armadillos. The square root of 1,364.

Continue the randomness here….

Replies

As long as we can all agree she was kind of a shitty actress and the worst thing about Suits.

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Todd

The Marxist concept of Entfremdung, alienation, has been bearing on my mind. Its origins are in how the process of work changed with industrialisation, but with Horkheimer and Adorno and the Frankfurt school, its been expanded to cover a lot of what we see as typical of the modern condition. Self-alienation, the idea of being removed not just from your work or other people or the world, but also from yourself, is one of the core concepts driving current literature and art. I am thinking about this because I’m reading a recent novel with my German Intensive Course (it’s called “Sickster”, which is a pretty good title) and the term pops up once, and thinking about the novel in terms of alienation kind of makes it unfold in a lot of ways. (The core texts to start with, if I was trying to put together a reading list for the idea of alienation, would be “L’étranger” and “American Psycho”.)

Of course, alienation also entails the idea that there are “wrong” needs/desires that have been drilled into us by capitalism and made us inauthentic, and that’s kind of a paternalistic approach, and it implies that there must have been a state of authenticity before we were invaded by the modern world, a belief in a Rousseau-ian natural man who is completely authentic and himself. I have my doubts about that.

And yet. Alienation. It’s still an important idea for our times.

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Rocket

Christian wrote:

Of course, alienation also entails the idea that there are “wrong” needs/desires that have been drilled into us by capitalism and made us inauthentic, and that’s kind of a paternalistic approach, and it implies that there must have been a state of authenticity before we were invaded by the modern world, a belief in a Rousseau-ian natural man who is completely authentic and himself. I have my doubts about that.

Well, you can also argue that there is behaviour that capitalism endorses that we can recognise as morally wrong, but was also endorsed by feudalism and mercantilism.

[Martin Smith]

Al-x wrote:

I really don’t know what to make of the Harry and Meagan situation. I just hope they are happy.

Sad to say, I don’t think they are, Al.

 

I generally don’t give a stuff about any Royal related stuff, but I’ve liked Harry for a few years now. He seems relatively normal for a Royal and a fairly decent guy. The amount of shit he and Megan had to suffer from the press was predictable, but it doesn’t make it any easier to deal with. The transparency of the palace’s attempts to discredit her now – “oh, staff said she was bullying and dear divine upper-middle class Catherine had to talk to her about it” – is pretty laughable. Even if she was a bit mean to staff, I refuse to believe that’s the worst thing that’s ever been done by a member of the Royal Family and completely unacceptable to them.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by Martin Smith.

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Well, you can also argue that there is behaviour that capitalism endorses that we can recognise as morally wrong, but was also endorsed by feudalism and mercantilism.

Well, yeah, but the question remains whether it is actually possible to create circumstances in which we can truly live authentic, meaningful lives, or whether that is just an illusion.

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lorcan_nagle

Todd wrote:

Ah, Whinge and Ginge.

She’s nothing but a gold digger.

Where do you get this from?

Christian wrote:

The Marxist concept of Entfremdung, alienation, has been bearing on my mind. Its origins are in how the process of work changed with industrialisation, but with Horkheimer and Adorno and the Frankfurt school, its been expanded to cover a lot of what we see as typical of the modern condition. Self-alienation, the idea of being removed not just from your work or other people or the world, but also from yourself, is one of the core concepts driving current literature and art. I am thinking about this because I’m reading a recent novel with my German Intensive Course (it’s called “Sickster”, which is a pretty good title) and the term pops up once, and thinking about the novel in terms of alienation kind of makes it unfold in a lot of ways. (The core texts to start with, if I was trying to put together a reading list for the idea of alienation, would be “L’étranger” and “American Psycho”.)

Of course, alienation also entails the idea that there are “wrong” needs/desires that have been drilled into us by capitalism and made us inauthentic, and that’s kind of a paternalistic approach, and it implies that there must have been a state of authenticity before we were invaded by the modern world, a belief in a Rousseau-ian natural man who is completely authentic and himself. I have my doubts about that.

And yet. Alienation. It’s still an important idea for our times.

Maybe you could say we stopped being “authentic” when we stopped being hunter-gatherers.

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Christian

Christian wrote:

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Well, you can also argue that there is behaviour that capitalism endorses that we can recognise as morally wrong, but was also endorsed by feudalism and mercantilism.

Well, yeah, but the question remains whether it is actually possible to create circumstances in which we can truly live authentic, meaningful lives, or whether that is just an illusion.

I don’t know how much weight I put in making a platonic ideal of human life, but rather using the resources we have to remove as much hardship as possible for as many people as possible.

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Rocket, Todd, Sean Robinson

Sure! You can theoretically remove all the hardship though and still have alienation. The feeling of being estranged from the world around you and living a life that is somehow wrong is something that is a symptom especially in the absence of hardship. Think American Psycho. It’s about how capitalism (or the modern age in general?) makes you care about the wrong things.

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Anonymous wrote:

Maybe you could say we stopped being “authentic” when we stopped being hunter-gatherers.

Yeah, I think that’s pretty much the Rousseau approach, but I kinda feel like 200.000 years back, maybe there was a hunter-gatherer dude going “Man, is this this really what I’m supposed to do with my life? All this hunting and gathering, I don’t know if that’s me or if I’m just trying to live up to other people’s expectations. It just all feels so pointless!”

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Dave

The only difference is they had to have their midlife crisis at about 13.

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Rocket, njerry, DavidM, Todd, Christian

Dave wrote:

The only difference is they had to have their midlife crisis at about 13.

Personally, my midlife crisis started soon after the age of 13 and is still ongoing.

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Rocket, DavidM, Todd, garjones, Dave

Anonymous wrote:

Maybe you could say we stopped being “authentic” when we stopped being hunter-gatherers.

Hardly authentic, though. Men would spend long periods hunting large animals to provide around 5% of the actual food supply for the community while women would stay in the camp and pick all then fruit, nuts, veggies and berries that made up the most of the diet of the tribe, raise the kids (who really just raised themselves) and produced the majority of the goods of the tribe as well. The behavior of the tribe was not rational or really attuned to the most productive solutions for the needs of the tribe

Christian wrote:

Yeah, I think that’s pretty much the Rousseau approach, but I kinda feel like 200.000 years back, maybe there was a hunter-gatherer dude going “Man, is this this really what I’m supposed to do with my life? All this hunting and gathering, I don’t know if that’s me or if I’m just trying to live up to other people’s expectations. It just all feels so pointless!”

That’s been the absurd condition of humans from prehistory to today and likely will remain so. We behave in contradictory ways to our own interests and believe in contradictory propositions primarily because there is absolutely no obviously correct courses of action since no matter what we do we will suffer and die.

Becoming city dwellers was no less natural to people than being farmers or foragers just as humans have no particular inclination between monarchy or democracy. Alienation was not a discovery of Marxism, but was a variation on New Hegelianism with Marxism being an application of the metaphysical philosophy of Hegel (or really Hegel’s followers) to the material world. However, just as with Descartes or Liebniz, we know that metaphysics is essentially nonsense. And, unfortunately, that also applies to Marx’s attempt to transform metaphysics into a material philosophy. When Marx actually writes about the material nature of capitalism, it’s very instructive though now, of course, very out of date, but when he brings in the questionable philosophical notions of the period like alienation or class consciousness (another variation on Hegelian ideas), his conclusions and predictions are very questionable and hardly scientific or even any more applicable to material reality. it’s an attractive frame to put on people but also terribly misleading as proven by the absence of any of Marx’s predictions concerning revolution and socialism playing out in reality.

I doubt Marx was really a Marxist – he was pretty much Hegelian in his thinking anyway – in the way Freud was dedicated to promoting his personal “science” of psycho analysis, but they did give us “ways of speaking” about certain experiences, but that later became encoded as if it was really talking about something that existed rather than an objective approximation of subjective and fluid concepts that have no definite existence in material reality.

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Christian

Anonymous wrote:

Men would spend long periods hunting large animals to provide around 5% of the actual food supply for the community while women would stay in the camp and pick all then fruit, nuts, veggies and berries that made up the most of the diet of the tribe, raise the kids (who really just raised themselves) and produced the majority of the goods of the tribe as well.

5 % seems very low. Meat or fish was an important part of the diet.

 

https://time.com/4252373/meat-eating-veganism-evolution/

Technically, around 30 percent of the diet could be meat, AND many hominids valued meat in the diet, but that was true only in part of the year when prey was plentiful. Over the entire year, it ended up being around 5% annually because it was damn hard to hunt meat down for the majority of human existence where weapons and tools to hunt and fish were mediocre or even didn’t exist AND early hominids could not even keep meat in storage for lean periods. Even today, in forager societies that still exist, hunting parties have 50% success with weapons that our early ancestors would not have had.

This actually still has a big impact as our digestive system is inherited from our very early ancestors, so if you inherited your genetics from a culture that depended on a mostly plant diet, then you’re likely killing yourself eating so much meat while at the same time, those same ancestors passed down the urge to eat more meat which is now plentiful. So, you could have inherited a strong desire for meat in your diet and genetics that will lead to disease and death from eating too much meat. Again, humanity is absurd.

Anonymous wrote:

but when he brings in the questionable philosophical notions of the period like alienation or class consciousness (another variation on Hegelian ideas), his conclusions and predictions are very questionable

I think the concept of alienation as a kind of diagnosis still has a lot of worth, as do other Marxist concepts like false consciousness (and obviously his analysis of the structures of capitalism). The predictions on the other hand were… not such a great idea.

Anonymous wrote:

Again, humanity is absurd.

But if all of humanity is absurd, that becomes the standard, so it’s normal. If there is absurdity you would assume there is an opposite state which is natural or authentic.

 

I agree modern life is to a large extent absurd though, but you can try to ignore all the bullshit as best as you can. Honestly these days the best way to live seems, to me at least, to just try to ignore assholes and their stupidity and focus on some things you personally value in life.

 

 

Al, did you miss this part.

Rocket wrote:

completely irrelevant Meghan Markel

@rocket

Did you see the interview last night?

What about Irrelevant don’t you understand?

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Todd

Oh, I get what you said. I get the feeling though, that you and others here bought into the huge smear campaign.

So I am asking again:

Did you see the interview last night?

Al-x wrote:

Oh, I get what you said.

Pause f0r zero seconds.

Al-x wrote:

I get the feeling though, that you and others here bought into the huge smear campaign.

Let me put that through translation real quick:

Al-x wrote:

I did not get what you said.

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Rocket

Et tu, @anders…

I take it then, that you also didn’t see it either.

Let me say this: If I were the only black person accepted to an elite all white institution (ie. an elite social club, a prominent school, etc.), I would find out and know beforehand what I am getting into, the tension/pressure, see if I am up to it, etc… I put that on her. She had to have known beforehand.

As for the treatment of her, the smear campaign, what she said last night…What else it new? It isn’t surprising to me. Diana said similar things years ago in her interviews.

Look! The Royals are no saints. Meghan should have known what she was getting into…

Last night was still an eye opener, though.

Al-x wrote:

I take it then, that you also didn’t see it either.

I don’t watch Oprah-lompah, I don’t care for celebrities unless I like their work and it has no appeal what so ever for me. Did you watch the interview with King Carl XVI Gustaf in the news when he was accused of going to strip clubs a couple of years back? Did you watch regional news from Jönköpings län regarding the attempted murder spree in Vetlanda last week?

Al-x wrote:

The Royals are no saints.

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Todd

Anonymous wrote:

I don’t watch Oprah,

What, you don’t like Oprah? With friends like this…

…I can understand why.

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Al-x wrote:

Oh, I get what you said. I get the feeling though, that you and others here bought into the huge smear campaign.

Only if that campaign includes how terrible she was on “Suits”.

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Todd

My pity for these people is pretty limited. I’m sure life in the royal family can suck sometimes but their many millions of dollars should offer some consolation.

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Todd

Al-x wrote:

Let me say this: If I were the only black person accepted to an elite all white institution (ie. an elite social club, a prominent school, etc.), I would find out and know beforehand what I am getting into, the tension/pressure, see if I am up to it, etc… I put that on her. She had to have known beforehand.

I have to disagree with you here, Alfred. It’s not like Meghan was marrying into the family in the 1950s. Since a member of that elite family fell in love with her, she may have assumed that the rest of the family (or most of them, at least) had similar enlightened attitudes. And it’s not like mixed marriages and interracial relationships are unheard of in the UK. Unless Harry warned her in advance that his immediate family are a bunch of British redneck crackers, she had no reason to think that the color of her skin would matter.

njerry wrote:

Since a member of that elite family fell in love with her, she may have assumed that the rest of the family (or most of them, at least) had similar enlightened attitudes.

Presumably she fell in love with him too and that’s a massive differential to joining a club. Millions of people around the world have problems with in-laws but think it’s worth it anyway to be with their spouse.

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lorcan_nagle

[garjones]

Anonymous wrote:

My pity for these people is pretty limited. I’m sure life in the royal family can suck sometimes but their many millions of dollars should offer some consolation.

So rich people aren’t allowed to be suicidal? Money solves all mental health issues?  It’s exactly the kind of toxic bullshit that trickles down to stop other people with mental health issues seeking help.

“What do I have to be anxious about? I’m married with a great job!”

“only unsuccessful people get depressed!”

“He can’t be suicidal, I saw him laughing the other day!”

etc etc

• This reply was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by garjones.

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Rocket, Todd, lorcan_nagle

Martin Smith wrote:

Money solves all mental health issues?

it does not hurt. famous and rich makes it much easier to get therapy. Mental issues affect all kinds of people. Rich people have better access to care thats all.

Despite my best efforts I have heard about the interview and it sounds like she was physically trapped(her phone, passport, and wallet were taken from her) and unable to get the help she needed, hence the suicidal thoughts.

[garjones]

Martin Smith wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

My pity for these people is pretty limited. I’m sure life in the royal family can suck sometimes but their many millions of dollars should offer some consolation.

So rich people aren’t allowed to be suicidal? Money solves all mental health issues?  It’s exactly the kind of toxic bullshit that trickles down to stop other people with mental health issues seeking help.

“What do I have to be anxious about? I’m married with a great job!”

“only unsuccessful people get depressed!”

“He can’t be suicidal, I saw him laughing the other day!”

etc etc

• This reply was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by garjones.

You’re right, I’m sorry. I wish them the best anyway.

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Martin Smith, garjones

[Al-x]

https://www.etonline.com/piers-morgan-leaves-good-morning-britain-following-meghan-markle-criticism-161923?fbclid=IwAR1gPSGKpBCBWQxdy2nuY8UZNmyFJTzYV_6NLlUhe2yognB0fOPo28EeGfo

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2021/03/09/meghan-markle-prince-harry-oprah-interview-didnt-shock-black-britons/4640728001/

• This reply was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by Al-x.

A little while ago I did an (anonymous) online survey about media piracy from one of those online opinion polling companies (like YouGov but not them). The company just sent me an email asking if I would be willing to be a case study for a follow-up by some PR group and FACT (Federation Against Copyright Theft). It offers £150 for it but with the caveat “while FACT have agreed not to use any information provided in a case study for legal purposes, we can’t guarantee the police wouldn’t use the information as basis for prosecution.”

Hmm, might give a pass on publicly incriminating myself, ta very much and all. Will have to keep an eye out to see if anyone’s dumb/desperate enough to go for it and what it ends up being twisted into.

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Todd

That sounds like the Simpsons episode where the police sent letters to Springfield’s worst parking ticket offenders claiming they’d won a speedboat to get them to come down to the station.

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Todd, Dave, Martin Smith

Yeah, definitely. I can see why FACT might be interested in case studies for learning the habits of people who pirate things in more detail so as to understand what is and isn’t worth focusing on. But there’s no need for those to not be anonymous.

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lorcan_nagle

Is there anyway to take the survey without giving answers that incriminate yourself and take the £150?

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lorcan_nagle, Todd, Dave

Bruce wrote:

Is there anyway to take the survey without giving answers that incriminate yourself and take the £150?

Would have been worth a try, wouldn’t it?

”and when did you first pirate something Mr Smith?”

”oh, never. £150 please.”

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Rocket, Bruce, lorcan_nagle, Todd, Dave

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/marketers-are-reportedly-underpaying-black-influencers-compared-to-white-people-with-less-followers/ar-BB1ezULE?ocid=msedgdhp

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njerry, lorcan_nagle

Al-x wrote:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/marketers-are-reportedly-underpaying-black-influencers-compared-to-white-people-with-less-followers/ar-BB1ezULE?ocid=msedgdhp

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Rocket, Todd

FUCK ANYONE THAT SAYS OOPSY DAISY

— The Iron Sheik (@the_ironsheik) March 14, 2021

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garjones, Bruce, Todd

Iggle Piggle has been trying to do that for years.

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Bruce

[Al-x]

https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2021/03/10364849/billie-eilish-record-of-year-grammy-speech-megan-stallion?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=news_tab&utm_content=algorithm

It was the third time in recent years the winner apologized to who everyone felt was really deserving of the award:

McLemore apologized to Kendrick Lamar,
Adele apologized to Beyoncé,
and now Billie Eillish apologized to Megan Thee Stallion

• This reply was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by Al-x.

Happy St Patricks day!

Slóìñtä!

Anonymous wrote:

Slóìñtä

*Gets the popcorn ready for when Lorcan sees that spelling*

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Bruce, DavidM, Todd, Rocket

Happy  St Patricks Day

so is it business as usual in Dublin? or are there restrictions due to the Pandemic.

Just as a friend of mine coincidentally posted this 5 minutes ago. Dublin today.

 

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Rocket, Todd

Ach, man. I want to go out and get drunk with friends so badly.

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Todd, Rocket

I went to the pub quiz on Monday this week, it’s just restarted after 2 months. So nice to have a draught beer.

It’s still very measured though, distanced and number limits etc.

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Todd

garjones wrote:

So nice to have a draught beer. It’s still very measured though, distanced and number limits etc.

What’s the upper limit on draughts you can have? It better have two digits!

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DavidM, garjones, Todd

garjones wrote:

So nice to have a draught beer.

That’s what I miss the most during the past year; a nice, cold draft (or draught) beer, lovingly poured before my eyes.

Some day……..

???

3HB(where I go) was shut down for a very short time. I get a draught whenever I want. Surprised there isn’t a nearby spot for you Njerry. I ‘d laugh if the Rochester beer scene was better than NYC’s atm. smh

[Al-x]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9369359/Sharon-Osbourne-accused-calling-ex-host-Julie-Chen-wonton.html?ito=facebook_auto_daily_mail_news&fbclid=IwAR3PQcXVna7F2Z25bXFnR_XQUsjPBrBO09EX5uvFnJu16Xokev0hmsU-Vus

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9371559/Thousands-viewers-abandon-Good-Morning-Britain-Piers-Morgan-quit.html?ito=social-facebook&fbclid=IwAR26K0lzDS4uu-wKztN72SyDAo2kyQl2SK3gsArozeesKfU1q5AYKr6QEJ8

• This reply was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by Al-x.

Rocket wrote:

3HB(where I go) was shut down for a very short time. I get a draught whenever I want. Surprised there isn’t a nearby spot for you Njerry.

When outdoor seating was permitted at the start of summer, I went to my favorite craft beer place that usually has 20+ taps running — but because of reduced sales, they only tapped a couple of kegs of stuff I wasn’t interested in, so I had to settle for IPA in a can. The other restriction at that time was that places could not serve any alcohol unless you ordered food with it, so that put a crimp on things.

To be honest, I could probably go to a faux Irish bar near my office now, but I don’t want my first post-COVID draft to be a Budweiser or some other mass-produced American beer. When I’m ready to go back indoors, I want my first beer to be special. Sounds stupid, I know…

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Todd, lorcan_nagle, garjones

Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction

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DavidM, lorcan_nagle

njerry wrote:

To be honest, I could probably go to a faux Irish bar near my office now, but I don’t want my first post-COVID draft to be a Budweiser or some other mass-produced American beer. When I’m ready to go back indoors, I want my first beer to be special. Sounds stupid, I know…

I wonder if the industry supporting home brewed beer and ale has seen a growth during the lockdowns. I also wonder if house fires are more prevalent as well considering the homes are seeing much more use thus increasing the risk of appliance failures.

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njerry

njerry wrote:

places could not serve any alcohol unless you ordered food with it,

That’s where I got lucky. the 2 places I go have a 50 cent peanut butter sandwich and $1 pretzels and neither place even serves Budweiser.

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njerry, Todd

Not new enough for the Weird News thread:

https://www.boredpanda.com/gas-station-russia-bikini-men/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic

US anecdotes that are illusions that race relations are improving:

Obama winning the Presidential elections twice

The Cosby show being the number 1 tv show at the time

Whites dancing to rap and hip hop music on social media

The NBA having a huge following at the time

Black star athletes, entertainers and celebrities over the years
having huge white followings , enjoying fame, and making boatloads of money

Black billionaires

Blacks being accepted to and attending elite universities

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garjones, DavidM, JRCarter

I’d suggest that maybe both conclusions could be incorrect.

So I remember when Obama was first elected this great claim that the USA was post racial, a lot of articles asking why European countries weren’t so enlightened etc. That was essentially horseshit which was later exposed many many times.

However it can be argued it is a sign of ‘improving’ but there’s a marathon yet to run. You look at that early 80s video where Bowie is taking MTV to task for not playing black artists, that’s not a real issue now so can be seen as progress but nowhere near ‘problem solved’.

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Dave, lorcan_nagle

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/article/lessons-i-ve-learned-as-a-black-traveler/ar-BB1eUaHQ?ocid=msedgdhp

I have this weird thing where I cannot stand it when the nail of my index finger is longer than a couple of millimetres, so if I touch my phone screen I can feel the nail touching it before my fingertip. Hate it!

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Christian

Why does the media call the ship stuck in the Suez canal “Ever Given” when it clearly says Evergreen on the boat? Is it a case of the first person reporting making a mistake, and the rest doing the same to not embarras him?

Anonymous wrote:

Why does the media call the ship stuck in the Suez canal “Ever Given” when it clearly says Evergreen on the boat? Is it a case of the first person reporting making a mistake, and the rest doing the same to not embarras him?

Evergreen is the shipping line. I’m assuming all their boats are “Eversomething.”

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https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-soho-karen-hotel-sued-20210324-54q2oqzpo5eozck5i5d5ztb3xy-story.html

This “Soho Karen” said that she wasn’t racist because she herself is a person of color being Hispanic. Well, that doesn’t mean anything. It falls along the lines of colorism. I experienced people who thought they had one over on me because their skin color was lighter than mine. It exists among people of color, and among Latinos.

There is a comedy special on Netflix where Tiffany Haddish has these aspiring comediennes doing standup. A Latina comedienne was talking about different groups, and commented that “the Dominicans think they are better because of xxx, the Puerto Ricans think they are better because they are part of the US and speak better English, and the Cubans in Miami think they are better because they are lighter than the rest. Meanwhile, all the racist whites are yelling:’F*uck them all! Throw them all out and build build the f*ckin wall!” The audience all died laughing because they knew there was a lot of truth in the comedy.

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[Al-x]

Al-x wrote:

Whites dancing to rap and hip hop music on social media

Keep in mind this Addison Rae woman is making $5M a year:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/natashajokic1/addison-rae-jimmy-fallon-tiktok-backlash?fbclid=IwAR2W1sTAlxiDX2RG67ojoVOcvg5ZyaqQgTGUb0EW9lYHh-IoRMWMbkMYS3g

This is what white privilege looks like—Black creators innovate dances and do them amazingly but Addison Rae gets invited on Fallon to perform them in a ho-hum way. She’s not racist, Fallon’s not racist, but somehow the Black dancers are erased. Even though they dance better. https://t.co/svgBu5JDxz

— Young Daddy (@Toure) March 29, 2021

• This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by Al-x.

Funny thing about tiktok is that it’s a Chinese app but Chinese internet users have no access to it.

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Rocket, Todd

Al-x wrote:

There is a comedy special on Netflix where Tiffany Haddish has these aspiring comediennes doing standup. A Latina comedienne was talking about different groups, and commented that “the Dominicans think they are better because of xxx, the Puerto Ricans think they are better because they are part of the US and speak better English, and the Cubans in Miami think they are better because they are lighter than the rest. Meanwhile, all the racist whites are yelling:’F*uck them all! Throw them all out and build build the f*ckin wall!” The audience all died laughing because they knew there was a lot of truth in the comedy.

It is interesting. I’m not sure that anyone actually thinks in terms of Hispanic or Latino if they come from a Mexican, Salvadoran, Cuban, Puerto Rican or Guatemalan, Argentinian, Peruvian family or community. It’s like I’ve never really heard a Russian, Ukrainian or Polish person refer to themselves as “Eastern European” or even the more general Slavic.

Obviously, there are also racial differences inside these communities as well. There are white Mexicans, black Cubans, native Mexican and Argentinian tribes – it’s just as diverse as anywhere in the United States. My favorite Chinese restaurant is in Tijuana and the owners’ family had been in Mexico since the 1800’s. I had a friend whose family went to Mexico for vacation. They were Jewish and they met Jewish relatives who had migrated to Mexico in the early 1920’s. All the American family members spoke English and all the Mexican family members spoke Spanish, but the grandparents of both could still speak Yiddish and Russian to each other. I remember a Peruvian co-worker invited her friends to lunch at work back in the 90’s. They were from a Chinese Peruvian family and could speak Spanish perfectly, of course, which startled our Mexican co-worker and they were going out to eat Italian food which is also common in Peru which is a big part of Peruvian cuisine because Italians had been living in Peru about as long as the Spanish.

Politics takes a long time to catch up to the everyday lives of people who, for the most part, just get along until some stupid politicians decide to stir up divisions that had long been dormant. I was recently listening to a story on the radio about how the Ethnic divisions in Bosnia had been irrelevant for the lives of most people in former Yugoslavia and then exploded practically overnight.

Anonymous wrote:

Obviously, there are also racial differences inside these communities as well. There are white Mexicans, black Cubans, native Mexican and Argentinian tribes – it’s just as diverse as anywhere in the United States. My favorite Chinese restaurant is in Tijuana and the owners’ family had been in Mexico since the 1800’s. I had a friend whose family went to Mexico for vacation. They were Jewish and they met Jewish relatives who had migrated to Mexico in the early 1920’s. All the American family members spoke English and all the Mexican family members spoke Spanish, but the grandparents of both could still speak Yiddish and Russian to each other. I remember a Peruvian co-worker invited her friends to lunch at work back in the 90’s. They were from a Chinese Peruvian family and could speak Spanish perfectly, of course, which startled our Mexican co-worker and they were going out to eat Italian food which is also common in Peru which is a big part of Peruvian cuisine because Italians had been living in Peru about as long as the Spanish.

It gets confusing when I describe myself as Jewish of 75% percent Ukrainian, 25% Polish, 50% Cuban extraction. This is because my Ukrainian Grandfather and Polish Great-grandparents couldn’t get into the States, and went to Cuba instead. And the Jews from the part of Ukraine all my mother’s ancestors are from were heavily influenced by the Romanian Jews.

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Anonymous wrote:

There are white Mexicans, black Cubans, native Mexican and Argentinian tribes – it’s just as diverse as anywhere in the United States.

When I went on holiday to Cuba that really stood out. This is not exactly an in depth study but in one of the main squares in Havana there were groups of schoolkids sat in groups doing some kind of field trip. They looked like a United Colors of Benetton ad there was such an even mix of skin tones.

 

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Todd

It is pretty amazing. South America and the Caribbean have possibly the greatest diversity of any region in the world. Through Brazil into that and it’s a mixture of all the European nations, Africa, Jews, Chinese, Japanese and various Pacific Islanders who’ve migrated there since the Spanish Empire ruled the area.

The American Empire is also fairly strangely diverse but also very hidden. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, they also bombed the Philippines. Both Hawaii and the Philippines were US territories at the time, but FDR and the news emphasized Hawaii because most people considered it more or less American while they did not consider the Philippines the same way because not many white, English speaking Americans lived there in comparison.

Still, in a poll before the war, only 55% of Americans responding agreed that the United States should consider military action to defend Hawaii if it were attacked by the Japanese. If all US territories were included, this would have been the map before WW2.

Interesting note, if you take all the islands in the Hawaiian chain into consideration, they would stretch from California to Florida.

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Rocket, Todd, lorcan_nagle

Meteociel.fr is a pretty cool site for weather junkies. It gives maps with lots of different measurements of meteorological data across the world (but most in Europe). It is in French though, but you can figure most stuff out.

Here’s a TV programme from the mid-80s of Ben Elton hanging out in a branch of Games Workshop, for some reason. (I must admit, I only skimmed it myself).

Has anyone done LARP? I did once in some cave somewhere when I was maybe 13. I can’t even remember where other than there was a cave.

Even though the swords and all that were padded because it was all really dark if anyone came up there was a bit of panic and everyone lashing out with their weapons. It hurt quite a bit.

garjones wrote:

It hurt quite a bit.

I’ve never LARPed but I did a day of paintballing once and that hurt like hell too. The first couple of games you go charging in, all guns blazing, but then you get hit by a paintball, and next round you’re like, “you guys go ahead, I’ll just hang back a bit…”

Funnily enough, once you get hit, it also makes you reluctant to shoot at other people, knowing you’re going to inflict some pain. I can understand why real-life soldiers have to be broken down psychologically before they can be trained to kill. It’s not a natural part of human nature.

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DavidM, Todd

Does LARPing by yourself count as LARPing?

What is the highest building in your town?

 

There are more skyscrapers popping up here. Rotterdam has a bunch, Den Haag has them and they are planning a whole bunch more, and in my town they’re now planning two 25 floor residential buildings. Not sure how I feel about it. This is not a “big city”, it is a smaller regional town.

 

The region has a problem though, the Randstad is growing and the cities can’t expand beyond their city limits because of the competing interests and the desire to keep part of the Randstad green. So instead of spreading out, they’re aiming into the sky.

Anonymous wrote:

The region has a problem though, the Randstad is growing and the cities can’t expand beyond their city limits because of the competing interests and the desire to keep part of the Randstad green. So instead of spreading out, they’re aiming into the sky.

Reminds me of why Medieval buildings expanded as they went upward. The amount of land the building could take up at the ground level was set, but they could span out as they went to the second and third floors. Of course, higher buildings were not possible with building materials and techniques.

In the dawn of the skyscraper era, there was a concern that some neighborhoods in a city would never see sun, so they instituted limits to the amount of sky that could be blocked. This led to the level effect in skyscrapers that was the reverse of medieval houses where at a certain floor, the amount of area available was reduced as they went higher.

However, this also allowed developers to use a strange loophole in that a skyscraper could buy the skyline allowance – the “air rights” –  from a shorter building not using its full allotment if it needed to exceed the limit allowed. This is why the US Bank Tower in Los Angeles was also known as the Library Tower, because it purchased additional “air rights” from the city to allow it build more stories and the city to renovate the downtown library.

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Todd

Weird, but the Shangri-La is the tallest building in Vancouver (3rd largest city in Canada after Toronto and Montreal), but 33rd tallest in Canada.

From List of tallest buildings in British Columbia

In Vancouver, municipal regulations forbid any building from exceeding 200 meters (656 ft) in height above mean sea level in order to preserve sight lines out toward the Pacific Ranges. The maximum limit is currently attained by Living Shangri-La. Despite this, Vancouver has more high-rise buildings per capita than most North American metropolitan centres with populations exceeding 1,000,000.[citation needed] Vancouver’s population density is the 4th-highest in North America and the city has more residential high-rises per capita than any other city on the continent.[citation needed]

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Randomly, happy Birthday to @garjones. Trust it’s gone well thus far?

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Rocket, Sean Robinson, Todd

Thanks Andrew, yes all good so far.

The highest building in my town is Komtar tower. It’s quite an ugly brutalist concrete thing from the 1980s. They’ve done some lighting tricks now though so it at least looks okay at night.

 

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Happy birthday Gar.

The tallest building in my town is the Abbey, whose tower is 45 metres high.

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DavidM, garjones

This is both the tallest building in Dublin and the Republic of Ireland. It’s 75 metres tall, most of the other tall buildings in Dublin are in the 40-50 metre range.

I used to work around the corner from it.

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garjones

The clash between European and Asian takes on tall buildings is illustrated by the fact that the condo I am sitting in typing this now has two storeys more than that highest building in Ireland.

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DavidM

Happy Birthday Gar, hope it’s a good one.

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garjones

garjones wrote:

The clash between European and Asian takes on tall buildings is illustrated by the fact that the condo I am sitting in typing this now has two storeys more than that highest building in Ireland.

There was a huge stink raised a couple of years ago when developers tried to build an 8-storey apartment building in my neighborhood. I live about 2.5 km from the middle of the city.

garjones wrote:

Has anyone done LARP? I did once in some cave somewhere when I was maybe 13. I can’t even remember where other than there was a cave.

It seemed to me to fundamentally misunderstand the point of an RPG, which is to imagine yourself having a body that can do things you are unable to do in your real life because they would mean putting down your pizza and getting up from your chair.

If I wanted to reallyrun around and get sweaty and out of breath… well, I’d do sports

 

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Andrew

In Rotterdam this one is being built, it’s going to be something like 215 meters. And they are planning some ones that might go up to 250 meters.

 

 

 

DavidM wrote:

garjones wrote:

Has anyone done LARP? I did once in some cave somewhere when I was maybe 13. I can’t even remember where other than there was a cave.

It seemed to me to fundamentally misunderstand the point of an RPG, which is to imagine yourself having a body that can do things you are unable to do in your real life because they would mean putting down your pizza and getting up from your chair.

If I wanted to reallyrun around and get sweaty and out of breath… well, I’d do sports

 

It’s the same thinking that produced Tony Hawk: Ride, the skateboarding video game that came with a realistic skateboard controller.

DavidM wrote:

garjones wrote:

Has anyone done LARP? I did once in some cave somewhere when I was maybe 13. I can’t even remember where other than there was a cave.

It seemed to me to fundamentally misunderstand the point of an RPG, which is to imagine yourself having a body that can do things you are unable to do in your real life because they would mean putting down your pizza and getting up from your chair.

If I wanted to reallyrun around and get sweaty and out of breath… well, I’d do sports

 

Given my question about LARPing-by-oneself, theoretically, one could be on the autistic spectrum, and like to play pretend like a kid, but are high-functioning enough to realize that as an adult, calling it LARPing-by-themselves is less embarrassing. Theoretically

Anonymous wrote:

LARPing-by-oneself

I’ve never heard it called that before.

garjones wrote:

Has anyone done LARP?

When I lived in Colorado, there was a very well organized group of LARPers called IFGS who dreamed big. International Fantasy Gaming Society mostly held their events in Denver, Dallas, and Oklahoma.  http://www.ifgs.org/ The Denver one was quite well attended back in the late 80s. It mostly consisted of teams organized by role(warrior, wizard, ranger, thief) running through a physical course trying to survive various encounters manned by NPCs. I was almost always an NPC wearing a makeshift costume, screaming loudly, running full speed and swinging a latex sword.

My friends who got me into it loved building swords. They would experiment with different foams and different wood cores.

garjones wrote:

It hurt quite a bit.

Sometimes they would make swords more painful to discourage their opponents from extending combat. One sword was actually called “NPC Buster” because its core was made from an extremely hard wood. They would use if they knew a particularly annoying person was playing that weekend.

 

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Todd

Marischal College is the tallest building where I live. 80m tall. Second tallest granite building in the world and (this is most likely apocryphal) where Hitler would have lived when in the UK if the Nazis had won WW2.

Until recently it owned and used by University of Aberdeen (I sat exams there and graduated there too) it is now the city council headquarters (I registered my wedding and daughter’s birth there too). It’s often used as part of the yearly Spectra light / art festival too.

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Dave, DavidM

Bruce wrote:

Marischal College is the tallest building where I live. 80m tall. Second tallest granite building in the world and (this is most likely apocryphal) where Hitler would have lived when in the UK if the Nazis had won WW2.

Until recently it owned and used by University of Aberdeen (I sat exams there and graduated there too) it is now the city council headquarters (I registered my wedding and daughter’s birth there too). It’s often used as part of the yearly Spectra light / art festival too.

Looks like it should be in a Burton Batman movie.

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Bruce

lorcan_nagle wrote:

There was a huge stink raised a couple of years ago when developers tried to build an 8-storey apartment building in my neighborhood. I live about 2.5 km from the middle of the city.

I would add as well that this isn’t even the tallest building I’ve lived in. When I first got an apartment in Kuala Lumpur it was 37 floors. I was staying on 23. I’m now living the low life at 10.

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lorcan_nagle

Stupid question maybe but can you open windows in mega skyscrapers? The outside often seems like one huge glass covering.

 

The big problem I have with living that high up is the idea that you can’t get out quick if there is some emergency. That does kinda freak me out.

Dave wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

LARPing-by-oneself

I’ve never heard it called that before.

Given that I defined it as “play[ing] pretend like a kid”, is that joke appropriate?

Anonymous wrote:

Stupid question maybe but can you open windows in mega skyscrapers?

I never thought of that, but the taller you go (and you did use ‘Mega’) it’s a safety concern.
Basically, if you let people be stupid, they will, so restrict that.
A quick look has references to not enough opening, to none.
I think it’s also a structural issue.

Found this link

Shangri-La (Vancouver)… appears there is some heat stress fractures in the windows that can cause the windows to instantaneously shatter, which could be a problem to passing pedestrians or users of the tower’s pool area.
The remedy, replacing all the windows will cost over 60 million dollars, and a one hundred day court trial on liability is set for October 2021.
(Ha! My heart bleeds for those pricks that want to look down on us. – SR)

and from the same link

New York City’s 432 Park Avenue building is so tall it needed approval from the Federal Aviation Administration.

The 426 meter tower 432 Park Avenue in New York City has had six years of occupancy and a host of million dollar problems. These include “millions of dollars of water damage from plumbing and mechanical issues; frequent elevator malfunctions; and walls that creak like the galley of a ship — all of which may be connected to the building’s main selling point: its immense height.”

The building which sold out at 3.1 billion American dollars has a 96 floor penthouse that sold for 88 million dollars.The clientele of this building are the type that want to conserve their real estate equity but at the same time get the nasty problems fixed.

The developers exploited a loophole to get such a tall building~they installed many “mechanical floors”, which are not counted into a building’s allowable floor space high up in the tower. Indeed those mechanical floors count for one quarter of the building’s height. Those mechanical rooms are also responsible for several broken water feeds and a water line failure which rendered half of the building’s elevators useless.

But it is the weather dynamics of taller buildings and how it plays out in a supertall tower that is interesting. Towers do flex in the wind, and they can cause elevator cables to bang, trapping occupants inside. And like a hull of a sailing ship under sail, the walls groan as the building sways, and air whistles around door openings and elevator shafts. Counterweights are installed in walls to dampen that sway. But you can imagine the structure’s noise and internal wind can be disconcerting to residents.

Unlike Vancouver’s Shangri-La that has cleared a path forward to sue the developer and the contractor, 432 Park increased strata fees 40 per cent two years ago and still saw building insurance costs triple in two years. Two incidents of water damage cost the strata owners 9.7 million dollars in one year, thankfully covered by insurance.

On the topic of insurance, the world has been on fire, and lots of different changing shit.
Insurance companies are looking to get back to making a profit, and getting away with bullshit.
Towers are getting hit extremely hard, rates have jumped, plus then the building Strata insurance has deductables that have jumped, so I have to buy a secondary insurance to cover that.
Now just this week I received a letter that my earthquake insurance (a separate add-on by Lloyd’s) will end on June 30th and if no competition on that front I already know only over-priced solutions are left.

Don’t cry for me, but the last few years have been hard on the retired.
Doesn’t pay to get old. Not what they thought…

It’s like money has always been a thing for those above us to take.
(Just as I really want to go on a rant about how BC raised the welfares rates and slumlords raised the rent accordingly, and nobody did a damned thing about it!, I’m going off on a tangent again. Not sorry, just…)

What was your question? Windows? Basically not in recent construction.
older designs, maybe, but then lawsuits (and how horrible for the rich to experience…)