James

Happy birthdays.

Another amazing robot thing. I'm running out of ways to express my awe and appreciation, but neither of those things has diminished.

I ran some tests and have scientifically determined that the reason you can't get enough of this gif is that it's excellent. EDIT:

I was not familiar with the term "Male Gaze". It's very interesting, and describes the problem with a lot of stuff that some people have difficulty seeing the problem with (often the kind of people who think that ladies going around in metal bikinis are strong female characters because they can kill things really well).

Plato's Kallipolis would have had no mimetic art for that very reason. (That's one of the very few things I remember from my philosophy degree, and I had to look up "mimetic". I don't read enough.) I thoroughly disagree with Plato on that point, incidentally. I think to measure your experiences and achievements against some theoretical perfect life is a surefire way to drive yourself insane with disappointment and guilt, but perhaps that's because I'm lazy and lacking in aspiration. I should certainly do more than I do, but I think there's space in a life for both the grand and the trivial, and to reduce it to some sort of numerical comparison between what you have done and what you could have done is a folly. But, again, there's no reason to believe I have the slightest clue what I'm talking about. EDIT: I don't suppose I'm really tackling Stein's claim head-on. He's giving a recommendation for the most fulfilled life. Perhaps he's right. Perhaps it depends. Great conclusion there. This is a worthless post.

Apparently we're limited to two videos per post. Here are two others: I never actually got around to listening to much more Modest Mouse, but this song is great. I wanted Baudelaire, but I could only find live versions with sub-optimal sound quality.

I love the bassy effect they produce with the strings (cellos?). I'm bad at describing musical stuff. Since I'm still terrible about pursuing new music, I've been returning to old favourites I'd abandoned for years:

As always I will say maybe, then end up not going. That is my way.

The one at 26 seconds and the last one are my favourites. In the former case in particular, I love how after one of them inexplicably loses the will to remain airborne, the rest of them enter a state of confused panic. Because obviously they're thinking things with emotions like anxiety. Obviously.

I think, as Nachimir hinted at, it's important to separate those undesired elements of your behaviour from your sense of identity. Yes, you have thoughts and feelings which could be described as racist, and it's important that you identify those, but to then self-identify as a racist seems to me to be in some sense giving up: it implies that these impulses are innate and immutable, something to which you must resign yourself. It may be impossible to ever entirely rid oneself of prejudice, but it's critical that we continuously whittle away what prejudice we have, just as the pursuit of perfection is worthwhile regardless of perfection's unattainability. Don't get me wrong: I'm all for identifying one's own faults, and am quite disposed to associated feelings of shame; but I refuse to describe my identity in terms I find vile and reprehensible, and I think it may be damaging to. Besides, it gives the real monsters credit by association. I don't know. Perhaps I'm way off-base. I'm by no measure well-qualified to make declarations on a subject so important. I just suspect that it's more useful to see these things as germs to be exorcized rather than a core part of your being. (Sorry if I got it wrong. And sorry for the mixed metaphor.)

That thing is thoroughly exciting. A while ago it struck me that the dexterity of an average human hand is kind of mind-blowing. That robotic systems are now reproducing some of these complex actions, and at immense speed, is astounding, if not a little disconcerting.

My favourite term of venery is probably "a singularity of boar".

While you might not necessarily agree with it, you can't accuse Miffy's line of being arbitrary. He established a very clear distinction between what's OK and what's not OK: whether the target of the joke is a person. This is undeniably a meaningful distinction; even if you don't agree with it as a dilineator for acceptable humour, it obviously reflects something of substance and relevance. The (partial) definition of personhood (that to be a person the human organism must have left the womb) is more contentious. It provides a clear and measurable indicator, but the relevance of that indicator I'm could be questioned. Miffy acknowledges that this is the case, and is deliberate and cautious about avoiding accidental collateral emotional damage. You don't have to agree with Miffy's stance, but to dismiss it as arbitrary is unfair.

That's brilliant. Much better than other renditions I've seen.

You are 100% correct. In this instance it was pretty funny, though.

They were one of my favourite bands at university. I still like them when I hear them, but I don't find myself seeking them out any more. I probably should, though. I did get into Amiina through them, who I've listened to a lot more in recent years. Years ago there was this fantastic clip of a Sigur Rós concert on YouTube where a brass band emerged mid-song on a little boat in front of the stage. I found it weirdly touching. Sadly it's since been removed.

For fuck's sake EDIT: In retrospect, perhaps this outburst was ambiguous. I was expressing frustration at some men's complete inability to see beyond their own experiences and concerns, and their refusal to accept that men being subject to some stereotypes is really not the same thing as the systematic oppression and dehumanization of women, or whatever it should be called. This expression of frustration was in no way insightful, helpful or interesting, and for that I apologize. I tend to treat forum threads as casual conversations; I suppose this thread (or what this thread should be) could be better characterized as a discussion.

Perhaps they have barely any extra-marital births, and the proportions therefore all represent infinitesimal numbers. Or perhaps that chart is incredibly creepy, after all.

I spent a few days there with some friends a couple of years ago. Unfortunately I didn't do the organizing and have a terrible memory, so I don't know if the place we stayed was cheap. I do remember it was a short tram journey from Schwedenplatz, which seemed pretty convenient. We went to a palace Kaiser Franz Joseph lived in, which I found fascinating. It's a nice city; I'd like to go back sometime. If I remember to ask him, my friend might remember more useful details.

I've seen and enjoyed Caché, but I feel like I need to watch it again (particularly the final shot).

Because of the reactions I've been reading and Scott's recent track record, my expectations for Prometheus were somewhat tempered. As such, I quite enjoyed it. It was quite muddled, yes, and not a patch on Alien, but I quite like that it's of a different genre. Besides, they already pretty much did that already with Aliens. But yes, old man make-up never works, and it didn't work here. Also, although I otherwise enjoyed her performance, Noomi Rapace did have a detectable accent (which she presumably wasn't meant to, given that her surname is Shaw and in her childhood memory she speaks with an English accent. That was a pretty minor thing, though, and I guess it could conceivably be explained. With regards to the answers she's after, I agree that nothing she could find would be satisfying, but those sorts of questions are a common obsession, so I don't think it's unreasonable or uninteresting for a character to have them. Instead of prospective answers, perhaps it'd be more entertaining to contemplate people's preoccupation with the question. Or perhaps that's been done to death.

[media=] [/media]Not sure about the guy's definition of life, but his machines are wonderful. A more detailed look:

Well I was exaggerating, and I don't think this account can be easily traced to me, but fine, I changed it.

I'm guessing the End of Life Care Machine is a work of art rather than an actual thing. If someone were crazy enough to make a real one, I imagine they'd at least use voice recording rather than voice synthesis.

Tangent: I hate looking for work and the prospect of ever having to look for work again makes me quite nervous. I feel very unemployable.