Scott of the Antares

I don’t think it was bad in your behalf but in the U.K. people have been pulled over by the police for eating/drinking at the wheel.

he was probably already in a bad mood tbh

In then U.K. they cracked down on smuggling so everyone started growing proper plants rather than buying diesel soaked resin imported by unscrupulous indidividuals. 

That illegal money for weed now goes to local people who spend it in the U.K. rather than to criminal gangs who further their nefarious activities. Obviously some gangs grow in the U.K. but all the weed I encounter is now grown by people I have known all my life, and I imagine it is largely the same across the U.K.

So in a way I suppose I should thank the U.K. government for ushering in the new age of high quality weed 2 decades ago! Nice work!

As with most countries, the populace are individually nice and collectively productive, but the leaders are generally asshats.

Let’s not forget America has a great history of interfering with the leadership of countries all over the world; now the shoe is on the other foot, it’s the biggest crime in humanity.

In the interest of fairness I’ll say that us Brits haven’t had a great past when it comes to others sovereignty either!

What you say is true String, but when one world leading expert after another have their predictions shown to be laughably incorrrect, you have to start wondering what is going on behind the scenes.

I wouldn’t go as far as to it suggest collusion in this instance, but Carney’s words have a strong influence in the electorate and probably some in the government. And practically everything he has predicted failed to pass. I know we are all capable of making mistakes and nobody has a crystal ball , but this guy ... geeesh.

And whilst not trying to derail the thread, I wondered how posters itt viewed powers outside the U.K. interfering, or worse, making threats about our referendum result? Is that not the thrust of the Trump/Russia topic?

So in a similar vein, would foreign people trying to sway U.K. politicians and electorate during and after Brexit be held to the same account?

There have been plenty of European funded reports (super impartial I’m sure lol) that have been banded around the U.K. media warning of the dangers of Brexit. I remember Obama being wheeled out to warn the electorate against a leave vote; is that a similar meddling? And all of the Canadian Mark Carney’s apocalyptic warnings failed to materialise when he predicted they would.

I suppose at least these partisan ‘project fear’ prongs were out in the open, but then they would have to be if they wanted to effect the outcome.

Two brilliant comments!

Nice find Eise. I upvoted yours and Strange’s posts but yours did not come through  I’ll return tomorrow to upvote it with the promise of a samurai’s honour!

1 hour ago, Eise said:

I hope you have references for this story.

A friend who knows I am interested in Japanese and Chinese arts visited me and found this on catch up TV. It was all televised although I forget the program.

1 hour ago, Eise said:

Just speculating a bit in advance:

I've been practicing Aikido for many years. One of the exercises was 'reading the intentions' of your opponent, so you can react correctly in time. I can assure you, there are many bodily but subtle signals when somebody starts a movement. So a samurai might be able to react even before the gun was shot. It is not magic, it is practice (and talent, I suppose, I never made it to the black belt... ).

Hey Akido is a great art:) have you read about the founders personal discoveries that led to the creation of this art (Morehei Ueshiba)? Under fire from enemy soldiers during the war, he would perceive flashes of light split seconds before bullets were fired at him. He developed this skill and applied it to punches and kicks etc. He believed that he was perceiving the intention of the enemy combatants! Crazy and unbelievable, but it also explains why he was never bested; he literally saw what they were doing before the physical action manifest! The slight problem is that Mr. Ueshiba had a natural gift that the rest of us do not!

I have been practicing Taijiquan under an authentic teacher for around 7-8 years and can personally attest to the bizarre nature of sticking, warding off and releasing which seem to have no correlation in western understanding, but certainly have tangible and real qualities. It is so difficult but at the same time so rewarding!

I am on grade 6/10 (10 becomes a teacher and then starts another cycle of 10 towards master, which resets another cycle of 10 grades ) ... It is a life long journey!)

On 25/07/2018 at 12:51 PM, Eise said:

But it is interesting to note that the fastest reactions people are capable of, are not aware immediately, but often only afterwards (this is one of the aspects of sport training: to learn to react automatically on situations, because first becoming aware is just too slow). Of all the process in the brain, awareness is one of the slower ones. 

Hi Eise:) I would like to respectfully bring to your attention the case of genuine samurai and their practices that bring awareness above the ‘fastest reactions that people are capable of’.

There is an example of a true lineage samurai facing a person with a BB gun. The person fired the BB gun at the samurai and he slices the pellet in two. A university qualified sports scientist was asked how he managed this feat (she was present at the experiment) and she replied that she had not seen anything like this; if the samurai had waited to hear the gunshot, the pellet would have passed him by time he had began to react. She postulated that  the samurai was using a technique for awareness that was not reliant on standard sensory input, and that was beyond her understanding of the human body on a physical level. It sure sounds like mumbo jumbo to us westerners, but there may be something to this that we are not currently considering within the full remit of mechanisms of the universe:)

16 minutes ago, Moontanman said:

And so were the advocates of slavery, both used the same book to justify their stance... 

True, but it was a Christian who saw the error in the behaviour of his fellow men. That’s all I’m saying:)

To add a balanced view of history, William Wilberforce who headed the movement to end the slavery was a Christian.

Croatia! I hope you win. It would be an amazing but thoroughly well deserved achievement for your nation!

France look like a really tight unit with great counter attacking abilities so it will be a tough match, but I am rooting for you 

Erm, wouldn’t discussing this with a university representative be more productive than posting on an Internet forum?

What was it about Admiral Byrd’s treks that make you think the world is flat?

I read an article a while ago about his flights over Antarctica but saw no mention of a flat Earth.

I think we can safely conclude that the Earth is spherical just by the observations we have made of all the other planets in our system.

2 hours ago, koti said:

Scott I wasn’t trying to disprove the notion of a creator and I think you know that very well. Take it easy man...and don’t look out for those yeti’s and monkeys in your cupboard  

+1 for being the better man! Respect to you Koti 

3 hours ago, Phi for All said:

The analogy is sound.

I’m sure you have read all posts in this thread so you will have seen that I agree with Koti on the invisible yeti metaphor.

I stand by my point that it doesn’t work for visible yetis, as first postulated:)!

That is some weak rhetoric right there.

And no, your visible yeti analogy does not work and actually fails. If it were as bullet proof as you think, then you would have disproved the notion of a creator and the worldwide science community would hand you an award. You are welcome to your erroneous  perception though.

6 hours ago, koti said:

If you checked and the cupboard was empty, the miniature Yeti’s are either invisible like Strange pointed out or you need to check again tomorrow, you never know when they might show up. Either way I can sit here forever and keep you convinced that they’re there somewhere and there is no way you can deny it/prove otherwise. 

That’s one of the types of logic which is behind of how religions work and I think the analogy stretches exactly as far as it needs to.

Hey Koti, that is all fine ‘n dandy, but you added the ‘invisible’ quality that was not present in your original analogy,  so it did not stretch.

The addition of this quality certainly makes it a better comparison.

Ok, as you say, we can’t be sure of anything. 

48 minutes ago, Strange said:

They might be undetectable by current technology...

Again true! But that sword cuts both ways. And that is my close to my original point; we do not know. I am not advocating the idea that there are invisible yetis in my cupboard, but as you point out, if humans possess no means of detecting them, then it is impossible to say one way or the other.

I certainly agree that we may as well continue about our business as if they don’t exist, as it has no bearing on our life. But I don’t think we can assert that we are sure they don’t exist.

*mimics mouth movements from poorly dubbed Kung Fu film*

”I’ve seen all your moves; your form is empty”

*strokes imaginary beard*

A clean sheet is so satisfying; NONE SHALL PASS!!

7 minutes ago, zapatos said:

The most coveted position is sweeper, not center forward.

That was my position when I played:)

8 minutes ago, zapatos said:

Goalie was a position for those nearly being cut from the team? Where did you play soccer? What coach in his right mind would put one of his worst players in goal?

This is the sort of thing I have only seen in under 8’s football.

1 hour ago, koti said:

Ah, but can you be sure there will be no miniature Yeti’s in your cupboard tomorrow?

I will check tomorrow! At the very least, I hope there are no evil monkeys in there:)!

50 minutes ago, koti said:

So whats the difference between a miniature Yeti in your closet and the existence of god/gods? They both seem to have an equal amount of evidence going for them which is zero. Why would one be treated as plausible and the other as ridiculous? 

The difference is I can open my cupboard and observe the entirety of it and see there is no Yeti. None of us can observe the entirety of the universe, and therefore claims about anything outside of the universe by religious nuts or their scientific equivalent are entire baseless. On this basis, I don’t think the analogies presented here stretch as far as you want them to be valid. In my respectful opinion.

It is fair game to speculate, investigate and propose, but no one can actually attest. That was my simple yet true point.

56 minutes ago, Strange said:

The same could be true for every god that man has invented, as well as invisible pink unicorns, aliens with three heads, or a teapot that orbits the Sun somewhere.

Very true!

56 minutes ago, Strange said:

But, after sufficient time, one can use absence of evidence as evidence of absence.

One can use this ‘rule’ if one wants, but respectfully I wouldn’t agee that you are correct in making this assumption, or that this assumption has any kind of base in reality.