The parable of the tiny little mole
Posted by: Minh Nguyen on 26 February 2018
Once upon a time there was a tiny little mole that was born with cloth ears. All of the other moles pitied him because they were able to appreciate a wide variety of sounds. This tiny little mole asked them, why do you pity me when I can only hear what I hear? Have you not considered that this could be a blessing?
I like it! ...
And welcome back. I've missed your interesting take on life and erudite posts.
Nice one....perfect
Huge posted:I like it! ...
And welcome back. I've missed your interesting take on life and erudite posts.
I have also missed reading posts from my dear esteemed polymath. You've taught me so much!
Taking “cloth ears” to mean simply that the finest minutiae may be lost on the individual, rather than that sound is so muffled as to be unclear, they need have absolutely no adverse effect on being able to enjoy music. Indeed there is no reason whatsoever for said individual to enjoy music any less than a person who can discern the difference between, say, two nominally identical instruments played the same way by the same person, or between a cable with cores wound clockwise compared to one with cores wound anticlockwise. And of course it may apply to any number of the topics under discussion on this forum...
Having cloth ears can save a lot of fretting - and an awful lot of money. And as the result may be less dissatisfaction and greater contentedness, what’s not to like?
Moles do most of their business with their nose.
Ears and eyes are clouded with earths leftovers.
For sure I am not convinced that moles actually exist. Like Unicorns. As I have never ever seen one ever "in the flesh".
All other animals I know of do their business from the other end I’m amazed it doesn’t ruin the mole’s sense of smell 
They are real - I came across one once above the ground. But that doesn’t prove those bumps all over your lawn are due to moles, as opposed to a malicious neighbour...
This sounds like a thread for Chris Dolan
There is a really really tiny little possibility that moles evolved into humans. They could possibly have the same instincts. The image below shows the evolution of humanity in one pic: it is quite graphic and may be considered offensive to some people. It is NSFW! I would advise you to look no further and advert your eyes.
You
Have
Been
Warned!
The artist who drew that did not finish it. must have tripped over a mole hill and come a proper cropper.
Do I win a prize ?
TOBYJUG posted:The artist who drew that did not finish it. must have tripped over a mole hill and come a proper cropper.
Do I win a prize ?
Anyone else on here worried about the prospect of a nuclear war within their lifetime? I understand that this may come across as insensitive, but I'd appreciate your thoughts on this subject.
Imagine splitting the atom. The amount of energy released in an instant is equal to the mass times the speed of light squared. The mass may be miniscule but the speed of light squared is enormous. This is more than enough to start an apocalypse. With prospect of nuclear war looming, which countries would be considered safe havens in the world?
Check out this gif of a nuclear reactor starting up:
You mean another nuclear war; we've already had one - it's just that it was one-sided.
That was 1945. This is 2018. Some people may not have been born during the first nuclear war. Have times changed? What has humanity learnt over the generations? So many countries have nuclear arsenals. Which ones are 'good'? The prospects look bleak for future generations.
When did the "first nuclear war" occur? Have I been cryogenically frozen and just woke up?
Tony2011 posted:When did the "first nuclear war" occur? Have I been cryogenically frozen and just woke up?
Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
Eloise posted:Tony2011 posted:When did the "first nuclear war" occur? Have I been cryogenically frozen and just woke up?
Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
My point, Eloise, is that, in principle, you ought to have two sides armed with nuclear weapons to have a nuclear conflict.
That was kind of one sided then.
Some people may not have experienced the fall out of a nuclear war during their lifetime.
Tony2011 posted:My point, Eloise, is that, in principle, you ought to have two sides armed with nuclear weapons to have a nuclear conflict.
That was kind of one sided then.
Huge did make the point it was one sided...
Though I suspect the phrase “those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it” might be relevant.
I wonder if the last scene in the evolution of humans is the final scene? Has humanity learned 'nothing' over the generations?
Minh Nguyen posted:TOBYJUG posted:The artist who drew that did not finish it. must have tripped over a mole hill and come a proper cropper.
Do I win a prize ?
Anyone else on here worried about the prospect of a nuclear war within their lifetime? I understand that this may come across as insensitive, but I'd appreciate your thoughts on this subject.
Imagine splitting the atom. The amount of energy released in an instant is equal to the mass times the speed of light squared. The mass may be miniscule but the speed of light squared is enormous. This is more than enough to start an apocalypse. With prospect of nuclear war looming, which countries would be considered safe havens in the world?
Check out this gif of a nuclear reactor starting up:
I grew up in the middle of the Cold War, though was blissfully ignorant until after the Cuba crisis. However I was acutely aware as we went through the 70s and part of the 80s, with Mutually Assured Destruction (cue for the Gillan song), Protect and Survive official UK government instructions to take a door off its hinges and huddle behind it, tne Not the Nine o’Clock News Ready Brek advert (though that was an indirect link), and the one-off brief encore song by Twelfth Night in 1982 or 83 that was the hook that got me into them, the line “only the crumbliest, flakiest skin remains on your body after nuclear war” sung to the Cadbury’s flake advert tune of the day.
Those were years of near constant awareness of a fragile peace that everyone hoped would be maintained through some residual modicom of sense by all parties, but at the same time feared might not.
Today’s risks are different, more a matter of whether a small rogue state will ignore the risk to itself,, or perhaps simply through self-indoctrination convince themselves they are indestructible the risk to themselves. Or perhaps more likely (an dof course not new, having been the subject of any number of movies), a terrorist organisation getting its hands on a nuclear weapon - though that of course is somewhat different from a nuclear war.
On balance, my personal level of fear of nuclear war is very much less than it was 30+ years ago.
Eloise posted:Tony2011 posted:My point, Eloise, is that, in principle, you ought to have two sides armed with nuclear weapons to have a nuclear conflict.
That was kind of one sided then.
Huge did make the point it was one sided...
Though I suspect the phrase “those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it” might be relevant.
I had not seen Huge's post. I gather he has his own opinions and so have I but I do not believe that we will be around to tell the tale if one megalomaniac decides to starting a nuclear war in todays shifting diplomacy.
I wonder who are the 'real' threats? The Americans or the Chinese? Which side would you be 'on'?
I think the "nuclear club" is far broader and "trigger happy" that the two you have just mentioned.
Minh Nguyen posted:I wonder who are the 'real' threats? The Americans or the Chinese? Which side would you be 'on'?
Neither.
My family escaped from the Vietnam war when I was a child. We lived in a small fishing village in North Vietnam. We were poor but we were happy until the regime became more restrictive. It became intolerable. My parents knew a Chinese national who owned a small fishing boat. My father converted part of the vessel to accommodate people in the compartment that stored water in the deep recesses. He would work on the boat during the evening to avoid detection and then sink the boat to the bottom of the river before dawn.
On the night of our escape my parents gave my brother and I alcohol to try and send us to sleep because we wouldn't stop crying. The other passengers on board were afraid that we would give away our presence to the passing patrol ships who were ordered to shoot to kill anyone of Vietnamese origin. They ordered us off the boat. My mother took my brother and I and pleaded with my father to take my sister and head for Hong Kong. My parent's considered this would increase our chances of survival. My parents told me that after the Americans had finished with Vietnam there was no guarantee that the already oppressive regime would change for the better. I am so proud of what Vietnam has become. There are reports that they treated their POW's with dignity. A lot could be said about the other side. Nobody wants to die: it is a primal instinct.
My mother managed to arrange our concealment with another trader. We were adrift at sea until we reached international waters. Our water and food supplies were at critical levels. We needed to find a freighter that would grant us asylum. At long last we were able to wave down a passing freighter: it was a coincidence that my father and sister were already aboard. The captain demanded money, gold, jewellery or anything of value (BTC) in exchange for our safe passage to Hong Kong. We didn't have anymore possesions. My mother became desperate and tried to throw my brother up to my father but he only managed to catch the shoal that was enclosing him. He fell into the sea. My father jumped in to try and rescue him. The captain of the freighter was taken aback and decided to let my family aboard. My parents have experienced the destruction and rebirth of their beloved homeland. I am proud to be British. The British Isles is stronger together. We should try to learn from the past: we all make mistakes. We should try to learn to live in peace. How difficult could it be? I have not experienced a war during my lifetime. No one has tried to invade the country that I love. I would not like to think of the consequences.
Minh Nguyen posted:My family escaped from the Vietnam war when I was a child. We lived in a small fishing village in North Vietnam. We were poor but we were happy until the regime became more restrictive. It became intolerable. My parents knew a Chinese national who owned a small fishing boat. My father converted part of the vessel to accommodate people in the compartment that stored water in the deep recesses. He would work on the boat during the evening to avoid detection and then sink the boat to the bottom of the river before dawn.
On the night of our escape my parents gave my brother and I alcohol to try and send us to sleep because we wouldn't stop crying. The other passengers on board were afraid that we would give away our presence to the passing patrol ships who were ordered to shoot to kill anyone of Vietnamese origin. They ordered us off the boat. My mother took my brother and I and pleaded with my father to take my sister and head for Hong Kong. My parent's considered this would increase our chances of survival. My parents told me that after the Americans had finished with Vietnam there was no guarantee that the already oppressive regime would change for the better. I am so proud of what Vietnam has become. There are reports that they treated their POW's with dignity. A lot could be said about the other side. Nobody wants to die: it is a primal instinct.
My mother managed to arrange our concealment with another trader. We were adrift at sea until we reached international waters. Our water and food supplies were at critical levels. We needed to find a freighter that would grant us asylum. At long last we were able to wave down a passing freighter: it was a coincidence that my father and sister were already aboard. The captain demanded money, gold, jewellery or anything of value (BTC) in exchange for our safe passage to Hong Kong. We didn't have anymore possesions. My mother became desperate and tried to throw my brother up to my father but he only managed to catch the shoal that was enclosing him. He fell into the sea. My father jumped in to try and rescue him. The captain of the freighter was taken aback and decided to let my family aboard. My parents have experienced the destruction and rebirth of their beloved homeland. I am proud to be British. The British Isles is stronger together. We should try to learn from the past: we all make mistakes. We should try to learn to live in peace. How difficult could it be? I have not experienced a war during my lifetime. No one has tried to invade the country that I love. I would not like to think of the consequences.
"Some people may not have experienced the fall out of a nuclear war during their lifetime."
Minh, can you please expand on your previous remark and the connection to the above post.
If you want to open your heart about your past is one thing but comparing it to a nuclear war is something else.