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geordief

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Everything posted by geordief

  1. So many consequences and so little import. Like a Heston Blumenthal recipe.
  2. Yes , thanks and that is convincing.So my problem really is just with memory? Whilst an amazing tool ,when it lets you down it can give the illusion that the former "you" has died . Mind you ,I think it may be a genuine philosophical question as to whether the past is completely " dead"or if it "lives on" in an unfolding present(too hard for me) ....unless that is just the same question Actually, I would be more inclined to use the term "event" to describe the more instantaneous occurrences of an ongoing grouping of connected events (a fire or a life ) So I would not say our lives are events. But this is the philosophy section and so words here mean just what we want them to mean ... Or ,this is the philosophy section and we have to pin down each word and each meaning every step of the way
  3. Take a period in my past: I have documentary evidence and ( probably but not necessarily )some memories that show I was alive . Now take any moment in that timeframe and the odds are that I have no memory at all of it and yet logically I must have been alive then because this moment occurred in the middle of a timeframe in which I know(and it can be shown) I was alive. So if I was alive at that particular moment has that person who was alive then now died? To extrapolate ( or just generalize) are our lives a succession of experiences characterized by a feeling of being an individual ,each one of which effectively dies unless it is remembered later on with sufficient force to create an apparent (misleading?) link with the later individual doing the remembering ?
  4. Wasn't there a "Follygate" as a part of the MP expenses scandal in UK a while back? I can find the MP who claimed for cleaning his moat but nothing about a folly on anyone's land Maybe the description never grew legs? As an aside I used to walk to school along a "folly"(well we called it "the folly" which was a narrow path between 2 roads about 120 metres apart. (across the houses' back gardens ) I never came across another "folly" since so I don't know if they exist elsewhere (that was in NE Essex)
  5. Too much to hope that he will go sooner? I wonder how this will play out aside from tar baby's uninteresting fate. Will the informal pact btw Lib Dems and Labour break down now that Labour has abandoned any faint hope of Remainers for a return to EU? Will the Tories find someone ugly enough to replace the outgoing con man?
  6. Yes,pretty interesting (is that canned laughter,though?)
  7. What is the story with the actual pronunciation of the letter "H" ? Is it "aitch: or "haitch"? I have heard both (we need to know) He knows now
  8. Listening to Anderson Cooper j on CNN just now he asked his guest whether the subpoena against Lindsay Graham in Fulton County ,Georgia could be "squashed" His guest replied (if I remember correctly) that it could probably not be "quashed" I wonder if AC is a bit challenged in that regard as it may not be the first time I have noticed him make this kind of linguistic mistake. I think he may have said at one time that he was autistic.Maybe that could have something to do with it(or maybe it is just a tricky little word ready to trip us all up)
  9. Why don't you apply for a post in this government ? They are looking for people with your attitude
  10. And an understanding of what is expected of a political leader(plus a genuine attempt to work towards that when it became clear such a change of course was required) Instead we are the fools who don't get his unique qualities. For his part Starmer,the Labour leader has promised to step down if the same kind of charges are brought against him as were brought against Johnson
  11. Glaswegians too Should be given their notice if they can't talk intelligible. Mind you I mightn't be happy if Danish english became the norm (or Bronxese)
  12. Prechance you are right. Higgsactly
  13. I learned that some 50 years ago when being taught ancient Greek.It was a characteristic of the many regional dialects at that time to change the position of the "r" to after from before the vowel. (from the standard language we were taught) I assume this prolly continues across other languages across the ages and I include it in my own familial dialect now and then as a bit of fun. So a tried and tested feature of the natural evolution of language. Try not to be a dinosaur.It may not be a successful strategy
  14. That is the risk , that we end up making class judgements on whole categories of people The French tried to keep Englishisms out of the language top down (le weekend,le pc etc) but Plastic Bertrand wasn't paying attention (a Belgian anyway) "It's not today que le ciel tombera sur ma tête" https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/plastic-bertrand-6921.php
  15. Well in the example I just gave I had my own mother down as a snob for using "amn't" and not "aren 't" when I expect you know it is fairly commonly used in Ireland, where she was brought up.
  16. I'm real energised with this thread amn't I? https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/arent-i-or-are-i-not-correct-usage
  17. Can you explain?(Would you be so kind?😉 )
  18. Perhaps they could create such a language merely for the purposes of computers to use,so that ambiguity could be kept to a minimum. Say for programs that are very sensitive to bad consequences in the event of misinterpretation such as nuclear firing or dating apps( a wind up might imply light ribbing or a case of flatulence) For the general public ,no but maybe just possibly for real time translation between Trump and Zelensky?
  19. Is the new LHC off to a blinder? https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-62027238 "Pentaquarks: scientists find new "exotic" configurations of quarks" Or is this from the old LHC?
  20. There is this 100 tonne sand battery in Finland that goes to 500°C https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-61996520 "Climate change: 'Sand battery' could solve green energy's big problem" Plus this link from that BBC article https://www.nrel.gov/news/program/2021/nrel-options-a-modular-cost-effective-build-anywhere-particle-thermal-energy-storage-technology.html
  21. Yes that idea was in the back of my mind.I don't know how supported or credible that would be .
  22. I was really just looking for a souped up version of what Swansont posted up above A 3d version of that which could be played from different reference frames and might show the effect of disturbances to the system (eg what would happen to the shapes of the different gravity wells -and positions of the objects at their centres- if a rogue planet passed through the Solar System?)
  23. Was his principle aim to "stop the confirmation "? Might he have thought his physical presence would have created the chaos needed to interrupt the ceremony and buy time that could be used to raise further spurious objections to the formality of the handling over of power? Was he more greedy or fearful I wonder -or just omnipotent in his own head.

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