In the new system sharks will only eat seaweed and we can all swim safely.
IronGland
JoinedPosts by IronGland
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13
Shark Attack !
by Tigerman inall the sharks are not in the water.
saturday, june 25, just about 10 miles up the beach from where i live in florida, a 14 year old girl was killed by a shark as she swam about 100 yards offshore.
( please google for story ).
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3
Shelby Foote dead
by IronGland inmemphis, tennessee (ap) -- novelist and historian shelby foote, whose southern storyteller's touch inspired millions to read his multivolume work on the civil war, has died.
foote died monday night, his widow, gwyn, said tuesday.. foote, a mississippi native and longtime memphis resident, wrote six novels but is best remembered for his three-volume, 3,000-page history of the civil war and his appearance on the pbs series "the civil war.".
he worked on the book for 20 years, using a flowing, narrative style that enabled readers to enjoy it like a historical novel.. "i can't conceive of writing it any other way," foote once said.
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IronGland
MEMPHIS, Tennessee (AP) -- Novelist and historian Shelby Foote, whose Southern storyteller's touch inspired millions to read his multivolume work on the Civil War, has died. He was 88.
Foote died Monday night, his widow, Gwyn, said Tuesday.
Foote, a Mississippi native and longtime Memphis resident, wrote six novels but is best remembered for his three-volume, 3,000-page history of the Civil War and his appearance on the PBS series "The Civil War."
He worked on the book for 20 years, using a flowing, narrative style that enabled readers to enjoy it like a historical novel.
"I can't conceive of writing it any other way," Foote once said. "Narrative history is the kind that comes closest to telling the truth. You can never get to the truth, but that's your goal."
That work landed Foote a leading role on Ken Burns' 11-hour Civil War documentary, first shown on the Public Broadcasting Service in 1990.
"He was a Southerner of great intellect who took up the issue of the Civil War as a writer with huge sanity and sympathy," said Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Ford, a friend and fellow Mississippi native.
Foote's soft drawl and gentlemanly manner on the Burns film made him an instant celebrity, a role with which he was unaccustomed and, apparently, somewhat uncomfortable.
Foote attended the University of North Carolina for two years and served in World War II, though he never saw combat.
Foote's first novel, "Tournament," was started before the war and published in 1949. Then came "Follow Me Down" in 1950, "Love in a Dry Season" in 1951, "Shiloh" in 1952 and "Jordan County" in 1954.
That same year, Random House asked him to write a one-volume history of the Civil War. He took the job, but it grew into a three-volume project finally finished in 1974.
In 1999, the Modern Library ranked Foote's "The Civil War: A Narrative" as No. 15 on its list of the century's 100 best English-language works of nonfiction.
Reading, he said, was as much a part of his work as writing.
After finishing his sixth novel, "September, September," in 1978, he took off three years to read.
Though hardly a recluse, Foote had long been known around Memphis as having little interest in parties and public gatherings. And he was often outspoken about his likes and dislikes.
"Most people, if the truth be told, are gigantic bores," he once said. "There's no need to subject yourself to that kind of thing."
Foote was born November 7, 1916, in Greenville, a small Delta town with a literary bent. Walker Percy was a boyhood and lifelong friend, and Foote, as a young man, served as a "jackleg reporter" for Hodding Carter on The Delta Star. As a young man, he would also get to know William Faulkner.
During World War II, he was an Army captain of artillery until he lost his commission for using a military vehicle without authorization to visit a female friend and was discharged from the Army. He joined the Marines and was still stateside when the war ended.
"The Marines had a great time with me," he said. "They said if you used to be a captain, you might make a pretty good Marine."
He tried journalism again after World War II, signing on briefly with The Associated Press in its New York bureau.
"I think journalism is a good experience, having to turn in copy against deadline and everything else, but I don't think one should stay in it too long if what he wants to be is a serious writer," Foote said in a 1990 interview.
Early in his career, Foote took up the habit of writing by hand with an old-fashioned dipped pen, and he continued that practice throughout his life.
He kept bound volumes of his manuscripts, all written in a flowing hand, on a bookshelf in a homey bedroom-study overlooking a small garden at his Memphis residence.
Though facing a busy city street, the two-story house was almost hidden from view by trees and shrubs.
"If I were a wealthy man, I'd have someone on that gate," he said.
Foote said writing by hand helped him slow down to a manageable pace and was more personal that using a typewriter, though he often prepared a typed copy of his day's writing after it was finished.
Married three times, Foote has a daughter, Margaret Shelby, and a son, Huger Lee. He and Gwyn married in 1956, three years after he moved to Memphis.
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Wife's weight problem
by dangel ini amlooking for advice.
before getting married, my wife was slim and took care of herself.
after the wedding however, she started to eat much more and not exercise.
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IronGland
I've been a bit sarcastic here and my barbed wit has come out a bit...
Barbed wit? I think not.
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6
"I"
by IronGland inin favor of determinism i find that almost everything i believe is something that i discover i believe as opposed to any rational decision ive made to believe it.
as i mulled over the idea of free-will not existing these last few days, i find that i continue to drive my car, walk here and there, make coffee and generally do and act however im going to act regardless of what i happen to be thinking about.
on the other hand, this part of me that controls my internal dialog also appears to be the same part that initiates speaking.
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IronGland
I didn't know Bradley was allowed to have two accounts???
He began to mimick me soon after joining this site.
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6
"I"
by IronGland inin favor of determinism i find that almost everything i believe is something that i discover i believe as opposed to any rational decision ive made to believe it.
as i mulled over the idea of free-will not existing these last few days, i find that i continue to drive my car, walk here and there, make coffee and generally do and act however im going to act regardless of what i happen to be thinking about.
on the other hand, this part of me that controls my internal dialog also appears to be the same part that initiates speaking.
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IronGland
In favor of determinism I find that almost everything I believe is something that I discover I believe as opposed to any rational decision I’ve made to believe it. As I mulled over the idea of free-will not existing these last few days, I find that I continue to drive my car, walk here and there, make coffee and generally do and act however I’m going to act regardless of what I happen to be thinking about.
On the other hand, this part of me that controls my internal dialog also appears to be the same part that initiates speaking. I cannot seem to have an internal and external dialog simultaneously. Speaking is definitely a data point that alters the facts of existence and hence changes the informational content of my brain. That I have spoken is a fact and what I said must be noted by even the most deterministic brain. It is both an output and an input. Speaking is so closely related to my internal dialog that, to my mind, it must be that my internal dialog then is also both an input and an output to what I believe.
If free-will does not exist then it appears that I am a simulation which is run by my brain. I am not a simulation that is run without regards to its inputs and outputs. If the outputs are ignored the simulation is valueless. If the inputs are wrong then the outputs are faulty. Simulations are usually run so that parameters can be varied and the new output examined. Some part of me allows those parameters to be changed and not just randomly but in a meaningful way. I see no reason to disbelieve that the same part of my brain that is responsible for internal dialog is also responsible for how the parameters of my simulated self are altered. I can also see how these parameters can be made meaningful merely by trial and error and more successful thoughts replacing less successful ones over time.
If I have free will, then it seems to me it is not so free as to dictate my beliefs. It is only free to vary parameters to the simulation I call my “self” which is what I eventually enact if the rest of my system agrees. If I have no free will, then the part of the brain which is involved in the simulation that is my “self” is still responsible for providing realistic inputs and outputs for the rest of my brain. It seems “I” have a purpose either way. -
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Philosophy - is it worth the bother?
by Abaddon ini fully admit to only having dabbled in the waters of philosophy up to now.
i kept on being put off by the smell... .
having said that, is there anyone more clued up than me about the subject who can tell me anything that might make me change my mind?.
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IronGland
I think Philosophy is a word game we play. To see how long can we talk and seem to make sense without ever truly defining our terms.
I disagree. Many of the works I had to read in philosphy classes were difficult to follow because sometimes the 1st third or so of the book was the guy defining his terms for the argument to follow.
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What words and phrases do Brits and others see as 'American'?
by sonnyboy inas an american, i see words such as cheerio, blimey, bloody (when referring to something negative), loo, bugger, fag (cigarette), etc.
as chiefly british (i suppose they are).. what words and/or phrases do you consider to be chiefly american?
i'm honestly unaware of which words i use that may not be used in other english-speaking countries.
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IronGland
Utter disregard of context when using words:
US-I am inspired by God to write a new testament. UK--Hand me my tophat please.
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They've done more for 1st amendment rights...blah blah...
by Odrade ini've heard this argument sooooo many times.
i've even used it myself in my "trying not to be overly critical or bitter" days.
but is it really true?.
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IronGland
Communists, Neo Nazis, Klansmen etc all use the 1st amendment to defend their right to speak and assemble. Of course if they were actually in power the 1st amendment would be history
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Source of Flood Waters
by VM44 ini do not have access right now to the watchtower cd library, could someone check and tell me what the watchotwer now says is the source for the great flood waters?.
do they still believe the theory of isaac vail that the waters came from above and that there was a water canopy in orbit about the earth?
or does the watchtower now say that the canopy was a vapor layer, not in orbit, but a simply above the atmosphere?.
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IronGland
Also, if either of these beliefs are taught by the Watchtower, then why have they not done a rigorous thermo-hydrodynamic analysis of what these models imply?
How many at Bethel could even pronounce thermo-hydrodynamic?
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You have to admit some of the JW illustrations were kinda cool...
by marked ini almost used the word "art" in place of "illustrations" in the subject line.
anyway, i always thought that wt illustrators were of a fairly high calibre.
after the hideous 70s-ish gray-orange-green my book of bible stories era (and, yes, i know some of that had to do with printing tech at the time), some of the illustrations were (are) of quite high quality.. .
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IronGland
I knew a person who felt one of the reason we knew we were directed by God was because the artists and musicians were among the greatest in the world.