And on what do you base your claim that he is old?

I hope you buggers have somewhere to hide when he shows up.
The whiplash of his sarcasm will tear you to shreds.
The sharp prongs of his irony will pierce your shaking frames.

And if you are really honest, you all miss him. X-)

For anyone interested in museums, here's a list I have gathered. There is another file somewhere but buggered if I can find it.
19°25'33.70"N 99°11'11.43"W Museum Mexico
51°30'27.91"N 0° 6'9.33"W Museum Tate London
40°46'16.21"N 73°58'1.08"W Frick Collection
38°53'52.63"N 77° 1'22.67"W Smithsonian Washington DC
38.900046, -77.029153 National Museum of Women in the Arts
38°53'17.23"N 77° 1'38.38"W Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
38.897926, -77.023650 American Art Museum Washington, DC
32.713704, -117.175206 USS Midway Museum San Diego
38°53'51.62"N 77° 2'11.29"W The White House
47.517795, -122.296404 The Museum of Flight

48°51'38.00"N 2°17'49.46"E Musée du Quai Branly Paris
48°51'36.04"N 2°19'35.12"E Musée d'Orsay Paris
52°21'30.38"N 4°52'52.10"E Van Gogh museum Amsterdam
40°25'5.32"N 3°42'2.47"W ‎Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando
51°30'31.98"N 0° 7'41.98"W National museum London
41°53'34.32"N 12°28'56.11"E Museo Centrale Del Risorgimento, Roma
41°53'37.02"N 12°28'59.28"E Museo Capitolina Rome
41°53'26.33"N 12°29'30.61"E Coliseum Rome
40°46'45.07"N 73°57'50.19"W Metropolitan art museum, New York
53°32'32.82"N 113°32'38.87"W Royal Alberta Museum Canada
49°16'34.51"N 123° 8'40.19"W Museum of Vancouver Canada
49°16'55.67"N 123° 5'53.41"W Police Museum of Vancouver Canada
52°31'15.03"N 13°23'48.74"E Berlin Germany
52°31'15.71"N 13°23'53.37"E Berlin Germany
52°31'10.22"N 13°23'53.79"E Berlin Germany
52°30'31.88"N 13°21'51.82"E Berlin Germany
49°37'1.30"N 6° 8'23.38"E Mudam Luxemburg City,
30°40'50.70"N 104° 0'48.63" E Jinsha site museum Chengdu China
30°40'59.06"N 104° 0'51.45"E Jinsha site museum Chengdu china
48°48'18.51"N 2° 7'11.25"E Palace of Versailles, Versailles, France
37°58'6.01"N 23°43'42.45"E Acropolis Museum, Athens, Greece
33°52'7.14"S 151°13'2.36"E Art Gallery Of New South Wales, Australia

41°52'43.62"N 12°29'30.21"E Baths of Caracalla Rome
41°53'18.02"N 12°29'10.15"E Rione X Campitelli
41°53'24.73"N 12°29'31.92"E Piazza del Colosseo
41.879608, -87.623402 The Art Institute of Chicago
34.077587, -118.474507 Getty Center, Los Angeles
29.724969, -95.389557 Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, USA
29.725409, -95.390522 Museum of Fine Arts 2, Houston, Houston, USA
45.433736, 12.340363 Doge's Palace Venezia, Italia
45.434241, 12.340577 San Marco Venecia, Italia
39.475596, -0.375222 Catedral de Valencia Plaça de l'Almoina, Valencia, España
55.734887, 37.606089 Tretyakov Gallery, Lavrushinskiy Moskva, Rusia
55.741797, 37.619994 Galería Tretiakov, Lavrushinskiy Moskva, Rusia
55.747364, 37.605349 Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts
55.741676, 37.619747 Galería Tretiakov, Lavrushinskiy pereulok, 10, Moskva, Rusia
11.978146, 105.458765 Dei Doh Pagoda Camboya
24.891393, 74.646794 Chittorgarh Fort Chittorgarh, Rajasthan, India
24.891919, 74.643769 Kumbha Palace
24.879282, 74.645811 Padmini Palace
24.881193, 74.644333 Kalika Mata Temple
24.882901, 74.644342 Gora Badal Palace
22.505654, 73.473634 Sikander Shahs Tomb Gujarat, India
22.485839, 73.537278 Jami Masjid, Gujarat State Highway 150, Champaner, Gujarat, India


Just copy the coordinates into the google maps search box.

jamalrob
Wavin'l do ya no bloody good.

I know cause a friend told me to lookout for him in NY and he never showed up. :-#

Machu Picchu is way cooler.

Machu Picchu

Although I wonder if complete separation of the aesthetic from the erotic is ever possible or wanted for that matter. — Cavacava

How many dirty old men watch the gymnastics just to see the young ladies tying themselves in knots whilst wearing very little in the way of clothes?

Good point. I've not posted over there since Black Wednesday. I don't know if the takeover occurred on a Wednesday or not, but as far as I know, there are no other Black Wednesdays, so from this point forward I move that it be so called. Anyone second my motion? — Hanover

Try being a little more melodramatic about it and you might get my vote.

Just call it something simple like,
"The black day the philosophical light went out"
Like I said something simple. :D

We're at the pinnacle of technological evolution, with all of the sweet benefits, and luxuries, — Wosret

Didn't they say the same thing back in the 60's and 70's?

Philosophical methodology is via argumentation. — darthbarracuda

I hate using Wiki, but I am too lazy tonight.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_methodology

You cannot argue without having disagreement.

This is why there is no philosophy of tupperware, or philosophy of car washing. — darthbarracuda

There are plenty of things to argue about with either topic, just as there are plenty of things to argue about with your spouse. But that is not the reason that a philosophy does not exist for them.
When philosophers argue, they don't really argue but present their explanations of the topic at hand and provide the evidence, ARGUMENTS, necessary to backup their way of thinking.

http://www.businessinsider.com/former-stanford-dean-shares-the-8-skills-everyone-should-have-by-age-18-2016-4
Something of interest.

You probably read Is Google Making Us Stupid?. — Bitter Crank

Not until you sent the link.

“I can’t read War and Peace anymore,” he admitted. “I’ve lost the ability to do that. Even a blog post of more than three or four paragraphs is too much to absorb. I skim it.”

This caught my eye as I skimmed through it.
Holy shit the matrix is taking over my brain.

Here is the part that worries me.

When we read online, she says, we tend to become “mere decoders of information.” Our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction, remains largely disengaged.

Kids today are not learning to process the information so that it has any real meaning nor creates any long term memory. The instant availability of info makes it unnecessary to remember so they don't even try.

What many avid users of internet resources don't get is that there is an enormous difference between locating information and copy/pasting the text on the one hand, and actually absorbing and integrating the information in one's brain on the other hand. — Bitter Crank

Like the friend of mine that I mentioned earlier, he made the comment to me after receiving an assignment that was 32 pages long when it should not have been more than 10. They fail to even check out the content to make sure it is correct, probably because the don't know how to analyze it.

When I was the age of the students you are working with, I didn't know any better. I did slipshod work and wasn't very interesting in much of anything. The efforts of several teachers eventually paid off - years later - when I finally did get interested and worked harder. — Bitter Crank

To be honest, I never tried too hard either. I was happy to get middling grades. I used to make sure that I never failed by reading the chapters of the book and writing summaries. But even then I did recognize the fact that a decent education would be beneficial even though all I wanted to do in life was be a hippie. Kids nowadays do not seem to realize that they will need an education simply because the good jobs are so much more complicated and there is going to be more competition for decent jobs as more and more people go to university.

“His brief life cut short simply because he was five dollars short. Brandon Gridner, February 29, 2002 – November 12, 2017.” — FrankGSterleJr

His life was not cut short because he did not have the $5. It was cut short because of the inhumanity of the other members of society. The one that wanted to kill him for a few dollars and the one that refused to help a person in need.

For the same reason a broken twig without an explanation would raise anxiety (for it may be a predator), — darthbarracuda

This is a possibility. Counting anxiety as fear of the unknown sounds about right.

the very existence of the human being without an explanation raises anxiety as a defense mechanism. — darthbarracuda

This is doubtful. Why would it cause anxiety? I could understand curiosity maybe but not anxiety. What would there be to fear?

I have met some children, teenagers, and young adults who are doing just great in school. They are doing just fine intellectually. These people are not elite children -- just the children of parents with reasonably high aspirations who are insisting on performance. — Bitter Crank

One of my ex students came to see me last week, she had been accepted into Harvard. I honestly never thought that she would get quite that high but apparently the competition is not as intense as it was before.

IF the parents' aspirations are high, they will insist on literacy and if necessary move to a district where the schools are good. Unfortunately, not all parents insist on literacy, and it isn't possible for everyone to move into a good school district.

Whatever the solution is, it will be achieved in the community with actual job opportunities with decent pay, — Bitter Crank

This is something that pisses me off. Where I work is a private school and I know a lot of other teachers in both public and private sectors. We all have a common complaint, even the ones with economic means and insistent parents show little interest in getting ahead. I don't mean all of them, there are always some that want to better their situation even if it is good already. So many of them pick careers like doctors or lawyers because they can earn good money here not because of interest in the job itself.
Parents who are rarely there for them because they are working to bring in cash often have high aspirations for their kids, but they INSIST the teachers to do all of the work. I have been cursed at because I did not make sure kids have done their HOMEWORK. How the hell am I expected to do that, go home with them maybe.

Their attitude sucks. I have been told so many times that they don't need to remember this or that because they can always GOOGLE it, but then they use the internet to farcebookize and twatterize instead of doing something useful.

O what tangled webs we weave
when first we practice to deceive. — Bitter Crank

Damned right, I ain'ta gonna be putin me stuff out der fer ever'un t'see.

Didn't you know that? What sort of failed media observer are you anyway? You're a disgrace!!! — Bitter Crank

What sort of a failed criticizer are you that you don't recognize a bit of sarcasm when you see it? Maybe I worded the question wrong though, let me try again.
How the fuck do they know that I am not me when I don't even know that?

Yes, the schools are doing a crappy job--but only as a secondary or tertiary knock on effect.

"School" [[i]for 70% of the population, give or take a few[/i]] beyond a minimal levels of literacy and social functioning is no longer important.
Why?

Because faster, cheaper, better, ubiquitous means of training people have been found: MEDIA. — Bitter Crank

I agree to a point , but.

• There are too many leaving school without the minimum level of literacy
• It is no good having all of the information out there if they people don't know what to do with it nor how to evaluate it. For example: a university instructor that I chat occasionally with on another forum(educational) told me about the growing number of students that have no idea if the internet research information they are presenting is what was asked for. They bring everything they can find in the hope that what was asked for is in there somewhere and the the instructor will find it.
• School is supposed to teach kids not just to read but to understand as well. I have met students from the US of A and Europe that are taking their break year and they cannot differentiate between the main idea in a paragraph and the supporting information.
• School is supposed to teach not just how to write but also the correct things to right. A lot of colleges have dropped their basic language course to force the responsibility back on the schools where it should be. Student should know how to write an essay before they leave school I think.

School will always have a place in society until they find a way to upload the info straight to the brain.

For the 80%, school now functioned as a control on the labor pool: keeping people in school (off the labor market) for as long as possible. Keeping youth under observation and corralled is another function. Training them into a lifetime of empty tedium at work and trivial pursuits after work is the primary task. — Bitter Crank

I will try to remember to post a sign that I have over my desk.

School is a 12 year minimum sentence for the crime of being ignorant.

(which took ages from our perspective to be delivered) — ssu

It took even longer to write them when you were a kid.

In what way are education systems changing people for the worse? — jamalrob

I never said that the educational systems are responsible for changing people for the worse. What I said was that it is to blame for the young people being like they are, big difference.
The educational systems in a lot of places around the world cater towards getting kids through school, not necessarily giving them an education. School is supposed to prepare students for the world, how many kids nowadays have any idea how to defend themselves out of school.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/dec/07/world-education-rankings-maths-science-reading
https://www.studentsfirst.org/pages/the-stats

School is also supposed to try and teach kids the difference between right and wrong behavior, that job now seems to have passed on to the people that run the entertainment medias.

I can't tell what you're getting at here. Maybe you could expand on it. — jamalrob

Why do you think that so many good teachers are leaving the classrooms?Because they are not being allowed to do their jobs properly. Teachers now have little authority in their classrooms. They are not allowed to punish kids for misbehavior nor force them to work. The educational laws forbid them from teaching things in certain ways and talking about things that are now taboo in the classroom. Their hands are tied by low budgets and in many cases lack of support from superiors whose hands are also tied.
The legal system also makes things difficult because teachers have to be extremely careful not to say anything, do activities, ask for opinions that might offend anyone because they might lose their job or be sued. A friend of mine was asked to leave his job because some of his students stated their opinions about another religion in his history class that offended a member of that religious group. He was blamed for their ideas!!!! Go figure.
And many kids today are so vain that they take offense at anything and everything.
Twenty years in education has been more than enough for me, I cannot wait for the next three years to end so that I can get out.

What do you think is wrong with young people now that was not wrong with you and your peers when you were young? — jamalrob

We were not that much different in some ways from the youth of today, we just did things differently.

• Most of us wanted people to like us. But people that we actually had around us, not some might look like the avatar person we will never know in real life and can never even be sure exists.
• Most of us wanted to take photos to remember places, things and events. but one or two was usually enough and they were mostly about the places or people around us. Kids now have to take dozens of selfies of themselves cleaning their teeth, showing of their junk, eating a sandwich and every other insignificant detail of their lives. I saw some, there were too many to see but a few, of my students vacation pics. Most of the images were of them or contained them in more than half of the image. Some contained meals they ate, a lot showed them modeling and posing and some were group selfies. A lot of the photos were taken at historical or even exotic places but contained little of the place in the images because their grinning faces took up most of the frame.
• We used to like dressing up cool, but we dressed up because we wanted to. Not to impress they people on farcebook.
• We probably did more stupid things maybe than most kids can even imagine today. But we did not publish them for all the world to see just to get a few likes. Most of us actually tried hard to get others to forget the whole episode. I doubt that our parents would have been happy to see photos of us go-cart skiing or playing at knights on monkey bikes spread around the neighborhood.

I take it you think they have a "total lack of ability to do anything else to impress people". — jamalrob

Misreading again I think. I said nothing at all about their ability to impress or lack thereof. But they do spend an awful lot of time trying to impress (read "get likes").

Can you refer to any research that discusses this? — jamalrob

As far as I know, no one has bothered as yet to do any research into the validity of my opinions. What a lose for humanity.

Are you saying that you are on Facebook and Twitter just to laugh at Facebook and Twitter users, who you think are idiots in some way? — jamalrob

No, once again you have misread my words I am saying that I go on farcebook, twatter, insanegram and a few others to laugh at the idiots that are there. I don't think that these people are idiots in some way, it is obvious that they are idiots in most ways because of the stupid things they do. But I don't laugh at the people who are not doing anything to laugh at, that would be silly.

Can you go into more detail about this behaviour? — jamalrob

http://runt-of-the-web.com/dumbest-facebook-posts

Or just google "stupid facebook posts"

So many people have their pages open and their friends are usually just as smart as they are.

All of these sites have a "forgotten your password" facility. — jamalrob

It takes too long to recover it because I have to try and remember the account names and all of the false info(names, my dogs names,places and so on etc.etc . etc.) I gave them. I tried it once and they told me that I was not me. How the fuck do they know these things?

OMG, at last a discussion about Farcebook and Twatter.

I have several accounts in each, plus a few other sites. I have them because I get bored sometimes and go there to have a laugh at the idiot that post pics of themselves doing the most stupid things and leave the accounts open to the public. The reason I have several accounts is that the time between one visit and the next is sometimes so long that I forget the password.

As Baden mentioned, and I see he adopted my use of Farcebook, these sites do have legitimate and helpful uses. But as with any tool you have to know how to use it. Most of those on these sites would break the anvil with a plastic hammer.

These sites are most occupied by infantile minded people looking for attention because of their total lack of ability to do anything else to to impress people. The idiots that run the modern electronic media are to blame for a lot of this. Yahoo, MSN and many others run NEWS about the kartrashians, beckhams, justin beaver and a host of other famous for being famous or married to famous people. Thus giving the most ridiculous role models for the intellectually challenged young people of today to follow. And you can blame the education system of most countries for the young people being like they are. And the legal system is to blame for the schools not having the ability to enforce enough discipline to be able to teach the young.

And don't forget the media reinforced vanity that the youth of today suffer from. So many of the people on farcebook try so hard to imitate the medias idea of what is beautiful, that is painful to look at sometimes.

I'm leaving now before I start ranting.

What I never understood about politics is the way people vote.
A lot of people are party aligned no matter who the candidate is or even if they don't like him.
A lot of people vote for the least harmful choice.
And a lot of people just don't vote.

But why do people have to select from the candidates presented? If you don't like any of them it is possible to cast a blank or even a null vote. Enough of these could really screw up an election and there would be a need for the politicians to rethink their ways.

Ditto :D

Don't worry, Sir2u... I'll be gone again soon enough. And you won't have to be soiled with the likes of me. — Mongrel

Kind of touchy are we. I was not being nasty, just making a suggestion. X-)

I haven't been around lately, but is this forum afflicted bylow-number-of-posters syndrome? — Mongrel

So do something about it, start a thread worth while posting on. X-)

22nd of January.

You tell 'em, mate. Bloody yanks get everything arse up. X-)

Cheers Mars Man. I only have Chivas Regal, but at least one is for you.

Anyone here want to fess up to being fully self-actualized? — Bitter Crank

The idea that people do actually reach these levels is kind of funny. But you have to remember that these are ideals that people are supposed to strive for not automatic step ups from lower levels.

No one could really think of being honest or truthful when their family is dying of hunger and it is very rare to find people living in the street that are making plans to start a family.

I also wonder if this hierarchy is only applicable in a Westernized context or is cross-cultural. Would one say a Bushman can be self-actualized? Do traditional societies try to meet these needs in different ways or does this hierarchy not apply to non-Western societies? — schopenhauer1

The needs of each society are different so that it would be the same for the individuals that make up that society. If you check out the list above, I believe you will find that it applies to bushmen, samurai, Cossacks London taxi drivers.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is sequential, but only in the sense that the lower needs have to be fulfilled before the others can be attended to.
Imagine one day walking across the road to your Rolls Royce to go to lunch at a fancy restaurant . Someone come up behind you and holds a gun to your head and asks for your wallet, watch and phone. What do you do? Continue to think about lunch or worry about your car getting scratched? You do neither, you give him what he wants because survival is the first thing on the list of needs.

You would also stop being generous with handouts if you lost your job and lose your pride if you had to beg to eat.
Of course we see examples of people doing the exact opposite of what would be sensible according to Maslow, but there are several other theories that can explain them.

I wish a "MERRY SOMETHING" to all. — Mayor of Simpleton

I agree with you there, something is always better than nothing.

Whatever you celebrate, whatever you believe, I hope you you have a very happy one of them.

And definitely a Happy New Year to everyone.

Come on BC. :) Only one of the answers is even a possibility, #1.

#4 would at least be fun to watch.

Having a greater sense of reason means that we humans can look at the ecosystem and realize how much of a pyramid scheme it is, realize how much an organism suffers simply because it wasn't able to fight back. — darthbarracuda

Yes, I agree that we can. But the question is still "should we?"
Did nature make us aware of these facts so that we should create rules about eating animal? Or did nature give us knowledge of how to survive even at the cost of other species?

To say that we should just follow nature because that's what nature is, is the naturalistic fallacy. — darthbarracuda

I have not heard of any good ways to refute the ideas of naturalistic thinking, have you heard any conclusive rebuttals. Personally I do not believe that just because something happens in nature it must be good or even that just because something does not happen naturally it must be bad. Both can be used to manipulate others in so many ways.
What I do believe is that mankind has no business judging what happens in nature as either good or bad. The world is as it is and mans' pompous attitudes make him think he is allowed to judge something over which he has no control.

If you aren't religious you can still have an ethical system based upon empathy and compassion, which would result in you becoming a vegetarian/vegan/pescetarian out of respect for the animals. — darthbarracuda

Would a wolf or a tiger have compassion for me, even a wild hog would kill a person to eat without a worry. Does having a greater ability to reason automatically make it an obligation to develop compassion and empathy?

What an absurd false dichotomy. Perhaps you are trolling, though. — Thorongil

Let's see you prove it is false then, or are you just being aggravating. 8-)

What the hell????

I came looking for recipes to steal and I find arguments about killing pigs.

If you are religious then the bible says that the animals are for your use, eat em up. If you are not religious then there is no sin to commit, eat em up.

I had a typical English breakfast for lunch yesterday. Bacon, sausage, baked beans, eggs, mushrooms, fried tomatoes and toast.
AHHHHhhh. :D

Are you pining for Mars Man? — bert1

It would be nice to see him around.

I'm going back to PF, why not?

Not all of us left, we just diversified.

I understand why many did actually did leave, you can read all about it in the threads that were created both here and at PF, and some of them had good reasons for doing so. Others were not affected so much.

But, after seeing what is happening over there these past few weeks, I doubt that you will find too much to do. The Shoutbox still has shouts from 10 days ago.

I wonder if the new owners are making money?

Post should accumulate the likes, not the poster.

I probably listened to over 100 hours of philosophy lectures while soldering. I also managed to get in some law, psychology and almost anything else that would pass the time. — shmik

I do that while riding the bus to work.

Back in the days when I did a lot of welding, we didn't have iphones, and there would probably have been too much noise anyway.

What I used to do was rig up the ghetto blaster and put the speakers on oil drums. At one place I used to work, there were lots of tourists around and they had no appreciation for rock and roll at 5am. >:)