For example Zen koans are designed to short-circuit the ordinary thinking patterns, in order to provoke or hopefully to inspire, spark some enlightenment, if that's perhaps your genre. In Zen, there's a set of prescriptive dogmas too all right, but it's for the monks. The rest of the people are supposed to base their beliefs and practices on symbolism and mythical/anecdotal stories. Inasmuch as I have understood, Zen sects tend to be radically anti-disputative - the dispute would not be based on logic, so, logically, there's nothing to argue anyway.
Like that. Remembers me a specific form of Kendo (The way of the Sword) where you just train one coup, instant decapitation. The idea is that you don't even allow the opponent to fight and by doing so victory is total. So, instead of anti-disputative, I suggest immediate decapitation.
I see, a nationalist thing... you see, it could work (well, with a lot of effort) if you had white, at the same proportion, of blue and orange. There's almost no white. But you don''t even have real orange... just a sort of brownish-sort-of-orange.
Monsieur le Administrateur, there's any reason for such horrible colors? Besides hurting everybody's vision it's an attempt against good taste and chromatic harmony...
Such word doesn't exist in my Language, we have to describe it. A sign of an intelligent People that knows how to appreciate the delights of life instead of working as a robot.
It seems that many of you have an absolute trust on your justice system. I don't.
Regarding getting somewhere to send criminals, that's not a new idea. All colonial countries had some place like that. One gets free of criminals, no expense (but for the boat trip) and bandits get a place where they can kill themselves freely without disturbing the good consciences. The ostrich strategy, hiding the head below the ground. No see the problem, there's no problem...
I think using megabites to be what Frenzie says, a way for deluding consumers presenting a number eight times bigger and therefore in my opinion an attempt of fraud or, at least, deceptive publicity due to the similarity between bites and bytes to a non savvy public. General public measures the size of a program or download in mega(bytes).
Do automakers presents a car maximum speed in meters per hour? house's areas in square centimeters? a ship tonnage presented in grams? It would be ridiculous, why are ISPs allowed to do it? Huge fines applied to them would fix it.
Putting a pedophile in prison...now, that's real punishment.
Here, that's vacations.
Vacations? Back when I lived in Brasil jail riots with hundred of deaths were an everyday thing... can't believe that today Brasilian jails excels Swedish reclusion "hotels"...
With Buddhism I was very disappointed though to learn their central matter/claim of people working things out for themselves was only valid if they came to the exact same result as had been announced by some ancient seer or whatever. For me at that instance the whole thing was exposed as a fraud.
Well, I suppose that we both had the same "introduction" to Buddhism with the old thread at D&D. Can't say that I got disappointed by the simple reason I wasn't expecting anything but I thought Buddhism to be a little too rigid regarding aspects as what they call "detachment".
I must admit that maybe it was the particular vision of our colleague at D&D and other Buddhist variations/interpretations to be more relaxed. Something that surprised me was (if memory doesn't betrays me) a very complex set of mythological texts full of divinities, half-divinities, endless grades and so on with no easy comprehension about what exactly was the message, teaching, example, whatever except for knowing that, at the end, everything resumes to detachment. Okay, I got the message...
Cityscape is not really landscape any more; it's more like moonscape.
Cities don't serve the initial reasons that caused their appearance, that has finished with the industrial revolution.
I think that, with cities turning into concentration camps where all modern techniques of manipulation are exercised, resistance will be formed and organized at the countryside. However I see an important role for clandestine cells inside cities, the "Needle in a haystack" strategy being always effective. Well well... this seems as some lousy revolutionary manual...
We are living increasingly difficult times and with a new problem, no one has an external referential to know what is happening, to know what to do. When a pro-comunist revolution was done in my country I remember that, in the middle of all the confusion, people went at night to their house's balconies to syntonize the International BBC and try to know what's was really happening and what to do to fight, how to resist. Today, BBC will be the voice of the enemy...
I see a very dark scenario until 2030 and probably for longer. Just see how police forces from all the world are being equipped and trained. They are preparing to fight a specific enemy - the populations.
I don't know exactly my internet connection velocity. The fastest downloads I ever done reaches around 1.5 to 1.7 MB per second. It's fast enough for me but usually downloads are slower.
What really irritates me is that there's no way of contracting only a decent internet service, all the three or four ISP illegally forces clients to subscribe some package with internet, telephone and tv included. When I have the patience I'll suit them all.
Who the hell are those self called "The Elders"? represented by such a nullity as Kofi Annan, nothing good is to be expected. I really find funny those that when in a position that they can do something they do nothing, turn into accomplices and, later, pretends to give lessons. Like cork they maintain buoyancy no matter how the wind blows.
Don't let such "Elders" keep on fooling you. Annans, Mandelas and the such are the other face of the same coin.
I tend to suspect that the current picture in Europe may turn out to be surprisingly bright. This due to the fact that European industries have turned to ravage the rest of the world.
It's true, but it's also true that Europe was the first to raise the sustainability problem and to do something to minimize it. European citizens are increasingly sensitized towards these problems and I notice a general acceptance to change some behaviors and policies. However, it's everything still very much superficial.
However, given a few decades of alone time, even production forests start to turn into more regular forests. Reforestation in the sense I'm talking about is primarily a natural process.
Such natural process can never beat the non natural destruction it is been made.
It was curious that you mentioned that deforestation always existed in history, that's very true. Please take a look at The prehistoric and preindustrial deforestation of Europe, a must read paper to have the notion of we are talking about.
But it happens that that study finishes at 1850. Seeing the last maps of that period one understands what was the starting point of forests for industrialization, that has a pressure zillion of times bigger than much sparse medieval populations ever had.
I'd like very much to find an equivalent study that compares 1850 and the present. Then, and only then, I'll have any optimism.
A4 seems as one of those trade show stands, we would need a pair of beautiful (semi naked in preference) hostesses inside... but unfortunately that's a rare thing to see in DnD... No one uses such kind of tridimensional logos for ages.
So, why isn't E1, a gem of design, ahead on the voting? I suggest to skip democracy and use E1 as a desire and order of the Beloved Leader...
I see, a nationalist thing... you see, it could work (well, with a lot of effort) if you had white, at the same proportion, of blue and orange. There's almost no white.[/abbr]
