Damian the surprised

Damian the surprised

  • Commented on Fantasy shibboleths
    [DELETED FOR ABUSE -- RED CARD -- C.]...
  • Commented on Science-fictional shibboleths
    I wasn't saying that one cannot be both, but if someone is an excellent plumber as well as a mediocre philosopher, I hope that person is better remembered for their plumbing than their philosophy. But actually what I get from...
  • Commented on Science-fictional shibboleths
    No, and your summary is laughable. Further, this commitment to an abstract sense of truth that you seem to admire is the very thing I would admonish. Not merely a part of the problem - I suggest it is the...
  • Commented on Science-fictional shibboleths
    It's encouraging that you refer to Hannah Arendt, but I suppose my suggestion is that we've moved on since the 40s. I think the handwaving around whole populations' behaviour as pathological doesn't really help. Actually the way you are discussing...
  • Commented on Science-fictional shibboleths
    That's more about the API than the language as such, but the good news is that once you've learned it for one .Net language it is very similar for all. There are .Net bindings/interfaces/distributions for many languages....
  • Commented on Science-fictional shibboleths
    I think when we go down the "evil versus stupid" thread, the usual outcome is a general agreement that both are aspects of the same thing. Or a formula along the lines that stupid isn't always evil but evil is...
  • Commented on Science-fictional shibboleths
    Australia's current foreign minister made her name as a lawyer defending asbestos miners' interests in court in the 80s. It was one of those proceedings where, because many of the plaintiffs were dying from their asbestos-related disease, drawing things out...
  • Commented on Science-fictional shibboleths
    Certainly true, but not relevant to the point I was making. There really are absolutes beyond which people die. And there are definitely climate conditions that make life more difficult. My point though was that this is not a valid...
  • Commented on Science-fictional shibboleths
    The thing is, though, that people do in fact adapt to such conditions - which was sort of my original point....
  • Commented on Science-fictional shibboleths
    The thing that bugs[*] me about SF nanotech is that it always seems to mean a billion tiny perpetual motion machines... because just saying "nano" seems to make the laws of thermodynamics vanish like magic. [*] see what I did...
  • Commented on Science-fictional shibboleths
    Like I alluded to, one way to use high-thermal-mass building in places where the heat is more constant, the diurnal range is smaller and the humidity is high is to "build inside out". You build a concrete structure with deep...
  • Commented on Science-fictional shibboleths
    That's interesting and relieving, though the relief is coupled with guilt about the inherent selfishness I suppose. That's because I'm 45 now, and if in the remainder of my lifetime Brisbane's climate comes to more closely resemble that of Townsville...
  • Commented on Science-fictional shibboleths
    Also an excellent point, though in the coastal tropics -- the locations where I imagine true black flag conditions will arise on a longer term basis first -- periods of high temperature and humidity are relatively prolonged, due to relatively...
  • Commented on Science-fictional shibboleths
    Only "wrong" in the Kantian sense that a statement of moral duty should be considered as though it were a universal law: you've shown counterexamples that refute a statement 100% humidity always means it will rain, rather than simply usually...
  • Commented on Science-fictional shibboleths
    Good point - local variation is always the key. There's also wind to account for. Most hygro readings are taken out of the breeze......
  • Commented on Science-fictional shibboleths
    Well yes, but surviving hot days isn't about being 100% fit and healthy - it's about avoiding excessive exertion and drinking enough water. I'm certainly not denying that increasing temperatures are a huge problem, including for human survivability in changing...
  • Commented on Science-fictional shibboleths
    100% just means it's going to rain - and isn't generally uniform in so that heteromeles' black flag applies. It's a question of drinking enough water, and it's dehydration that will have seen to your joggers. But that's an education...
  • Commented on Science-fictional shibboleths
    That "joggers dropping dead from heatstroke" thing is certainly an exaggeration. 40C and higher is not at all unusual here, nor is 80% or higher relative humidity (at the same time). Yes, this does make things problematic for the elderly...
  • Commented on Science-fictional shibboleths
    You know that 1337ish stuff like "N3XT" in the same sentence as an acronym like "CNT" makes for inevitable pronunciations that take too much away from the general message. Because some of the sentences are unintentionally humorous. Or intentionally, who...
  • Commented on Science-fictional shibboleths
    That sort of depends on the climate and the relative humidity. The warm and wet places usually indicate high-set, lightweight structures that catch breezes and don't offer thermal mass to store heat. Northern Australian and Southern US architecture of the...
  • Commented on Science-fictional shibboleths
    I think the umbrella term you're looking is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Not uncommon at all in the elderly and the reason why many people get oxygen therapy at home. Silicosis and asbestosis are common underlying conditions. Light-based sat...
  • Commented on Science-fictional shibboleths
    I thought it was along the lines that even though planting trees doesn't undo deforestation, it still isn't a bad thing to do. In turn that doesn't mean we can't mourn the lost diversity, so it's a bit confused....
  • Commented on Science-fictional shibboleths
    But the point of a Judas goat is NOT to... well, anyway, good to see you back here again....
  • Commented on Science-fictional shibboleths
    I read the whole Reality Dysfunction trilogy too. Even though all through the first one the "word" sequestrate grated over and over again. I suppose my best understanding of it is a sort of Dan Brown cross Neal Stephenson thing,...
  • Commented on Cover reveal! The Nightmare Stacks
    The Night Watch was the first Discworld novel I read and it is still my favorite. It was brand new at the time, and I was aware of the reading order guides floating around, but I (seem to recall that...
  • Commented on Quiet in here, isn't it?
    You make me think of Douglas Adams here. Dent's friend's dog was named "Know-nothing Bozo" after the American President. In the mid-80s....
  • Commented on Magic, ecospeak and genre distinctions
    There are two themes running through this thread, one thankfully stronger than the other. The first is basically a nature/nurture distinction and the debunking thereof. Enculturation is at least as significant as any underlying physiological precursor based in sexual dimorphism...
  • Commented on <i>Hot Earth Dreams</i>
    One of the complaints about Esperanto is that it contains some of the same sloppy default-gender constructs that people have trouble with in English....
  • Commented on <i>Hot Earth Dreams</i>
    FWIW the Australian Amazon charged me A$25.55 for the Kindle version....
  • Commented on Magic, ecospeak and genre distinctions
    A next level of abstract where it's about ideation rather than simply replication. Magic user gains power from numbers of others thinkings. Not about persuasion but more about alignment of disposition. Evil wizards depend on keeping population xenophobic. Arguments about...
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