Profile for Student of Trinity
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | Student of Trinity |
| Member number | 3431 |
| Title | Electric Sheep One |
| Postcount | 3335 |
| Homepage | |
| Registered | Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
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| Author | Recent posts |
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| Scent of new-mown hay in Richard White Games | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, July 20 2005 17:29
Profile
About the Spartans -- how did Thermopylae fit into all this? I think I knew this once, but it has become fuzzier than a turtle. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Avernum 4 Complete Wish List in The Avernum Trilogy | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, July 20 2005 17:01
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It is, and I'm sure it's also more correct. I'm just stuck with my own spelling for traditional reasons. Thanks for the link, DV. I already knew enough about what it says of the history of kilts and tartans, to recognize that it is the straight dope. My father used to cite McClintock as an authority for his skeptical attitude to supposed Scottish traditions; but I had never myself seen the contents of his book discussed. I'm afraid I don't actually plan on taking up wearing kilts again, though. I'll be trying to seem as little strange as I can, as a new professor in a German university. The one kilt I have owned was made in Scotland, but I was never happy with the weirdly bright interpretation they made of the famous (and ubiquitous) Government Tartan. A much more cheerful style for a civilian kilt, sure, but I would have been happier with the traditional military version that just looks black from any distance. Grrr. At least they got it pleated to line, in the military way, instead of to sett. [ Wednesday, July 20, 2005 17:22: Message edited by: Student of Trinity ] -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| hi in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, July 20 2005 16:58
Profile
If so, Alex's artwork should have earned Alex a get-out-of-can-free card. Perhaps he could then sell it to Zephyr. EDIT: Even idiotic ideas like this one should be stated clearly. [ Wednesday, July 20, 2005 18:14: Message edited by: Student of Trinity ] -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Avernum 4 Complete Wish List in The Avernum Trilogy | |
|
Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Wednesday, July 20 2005 16:16
Profile
I'm by no means a general expert on highland things, but I spent several years in highland regiments in the Canadian army reserves (pretty much like the British TA). Several Canadian regiments are warmly accepted cadet branches of old British army ones -- the Black Watch, for instance -- and carefully maintain the same traditions. The Canadian Black Watch is based in Montreal, though, where kilts are a bit problematic in winter. Not nearly as bad as one might think, since heat rises, but still you think twice about wearing one all the time. I'm not sure where my skean dhu came from, but it was probably some perfectly pukka source, since it was my father's from the days when the Canadian Black Watch was part of the regular army, after Korea, in the sixties. I think the spelling I use comes from regimental dress manuals, which are a peculiar tradition of their own. [ Wednesday, July 20, 2005 16:20: Message edited by: Student of Trinity ] -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Regrettable But in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, July 20 2005 16:02
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Yeah, the language does seem a bit cultish. A recent poster explained that he hadn't been serious when he wrote 'chongdongler' ... and it occurred to me that the only imaginable circumstance in which 'chongdongler' could ever be used seriously would be if Ned Flanders pulled a stretch in Riker's. -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Regrettable But in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, July 20 2005 15:40
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Given Desperance's own standard of rhetoric, I wouldn't have thought 'drip tray' would cut that deep. It's just that I'd mostly heard of it as the place people go when they want to use more foul language than SW lets them, and 'drip tray' seemed a fair counterweight to all the highflown claims about humor and freedom from howling idiots, which seemed a tad overblown given the actual content I found. But I'm sorry for being rude. I guess the smaller number of regular contributors would account for the slower pace. -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Regrettable But in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, July 20 2005 14:46
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Uh, hmm. The first of those links I'll grant is quite decent, and the second makes sense. If the other two are among the best you can cite, though, I'm not reassured. I do quite grasp that Desperance offers freedom from the SW code of conduct; but in itself that doesn't really promise interesting content, unless you're actually fascinated by homosexual rape. Believe it or not, I'm not just being prudish. I'm perfectly comfortable with language registers that make Desperance look refined. I'm just honestly disappointed with the place, on recent inspection. Has it fallen on hard times lately, or is this as good as it ever was? -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Alright, NOW what in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, July 20 2005 14:34
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No! Any good? -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Scent of new-mown hay in Richard White Games | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, July 20 2005 14:25
Profile
An interesting point about Marathon. Did everything really take off right after that? If so, though, it could well be that things were trying to take off much earlier, but the war with Persia held everyone down. The view that language constrains thought is called the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (after these two guys), and is still controversial. I think the majority of linguists disbelieve it, and instead consider that any idea expressible in one human language can be expressed in any other. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Just say no in Richard White Games | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Wednesday, July 20 2005 14:19
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The death by string bean is a hard, hard death. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Avernum 4 Complete Wish List in The Avernum Trilogy | |
|
Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Wednesday, July 20 2005 14:16
Profile
Mmm, at least for the Highland regiments in the British army (and their colonial affiliates), dirks and skean dhus (the older way of writing it, doubtless less phonetically accurate) are quite distinct pieces of kit. All officers wear skean dhus, tucked halfway into their left socks, just below the knee. Only colonels also wear dirks, which are much bigger, on their belts. The dirk scabbards do indeed often hold tiny forks and other utensils. The only customary use of the dirk at table is when the colonel ceremonially stabs the haggis, at which point the less civilized members present supply the supposed groans of the wounded beast. The second in command of the haggis party then proffers the napkin on which to clean the dirk, and the haggis is marched back off to the kitchen to be dismembered and served. The haggis party retires to a back room and downs a bottle of Drambuie (between them, thank heavens), quickly enough that they return to platters of haggis that are enhanced by a distinct spin. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Regrettable But in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Wednesday, July 20 2005 14:04
Profile
I've read over the recent Desperance posts a few times recently. It's interesting to see that some people post regularly on both sets of boards (and I guess some even keep up three, with Polaris). I like the idea of maintaining parallel identities, more or less, modulated into different keys. In practice, though, I was pretty disappointed. My interest in puerile allusions to homosexual acts just does not seem to have the necessary stamina. The occasional reference, ha ha; a steady diet, post after post, year in year out ... it just boggles my mind that anyone could continue so consistently to find this amusing. So now I'm honestly curious, just what purpose Desperance serves, other than being a kind of drip tray for these boards here. Is there really any actual life over there? If so, where? -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Alright, NOW what in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Wednesday, July 20 2005 13:49
Profile
I'm not sure it's meant to improve Stilton that's still good, or only to restore Stilton that's gone dry. Stilton and port are still the great taste combination. Somewhere I read that Louis XVI's last request by way of food was for a bit of Roquefort with some red wine. I haven't been able to confirm this in any way, though. It's good stuff, too, though. What are the other good ones? Gorgonzola, though the gorgonzola pizza that was not uncommon in Austria is a bit much, I find. A slice is fine, a whole pizza kind of overwhelming. Danish Blue is sort of a generic substitute. Maytag Blue is an American version. I understand that it really is made by a branch of the washing machine family. I've only had it once, and I think it was pretty good but I can't really remember it. -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| The arrow of time in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, July 20 2005 11:58
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If it's already burning, jiggling the atoms a bit would be a perturbation. It's just the ignition that I think must be non-perturbative -- but this is irrelevant pedantry. You're probably onto something, here, Khoth; but it's still not clear to me. Firstly we need to have a closed system, since when a log actually burns, the end products are not just ashes, but also gases and heat that are released into the environment. So we should put the whole thing in a sealed tank, and talk about perturbing the air and electromagnetic field as well as the ashes and log. For every initial state with a log that evolves into a final state with a pile of ash, there is a time reversed image of that final state. (Basically, just reverse the velocity of every particle, and there is the image of your state under time reversal.) This time reversed image constitutes an initial state from which an ash pile would indeed 'unburn' into a log. So among all possible states of the stuff in our tank, 'ash piles that are about to unburn' are exactly as common as 'logs that are about to burn'. This set of 'unburning ash pile' states is surely a minute fraction of the size (phase space volume) of the set of states that a human would recognize as 'ash pile states'. In this sense, ash piles that are about to unburn are miraculously rare among ash piles. But we are still left with the puzzle of why 'logs that are about to burn', which are exactly as rare, among all possibilities, as 'ashes that are about unburn', should be no more than moderately less common, among typically encountered states, than ordinary 'ash piles'. Which, alas, is disappointingly similar to the problem we started with. [ Wednesday, July 20, 2005 12:16: Message edited by: Student of Trinity ] -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Regrettable But in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, July 20 2005 11:33
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Preach it, brother! -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Regrettable But in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, July 20 2005 11:31
Profile
Bah. It would be punctuation rather than grammar, and it would be perfectly sound punctuation. Like every right-thinking writer of English, I go by the Concise Oxford Dictionary's punctuation guide, which states: 'The main role of the colon is to separate main clauses when there is a step forward from the first to the second.' It then gives an exemplary but not exhaustive list of such steps forward: 'from introduction to main point, from general statement to example, from cause to effect, and from premiss to conclusion.' If it's good enough for the Queen, it's good enough for me. -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| The arrow of time in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Wednesday, July 20 2005 11:06
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By 'system' I mean a set of equations (in particular, a Hamiltonian operator), not a particular state. It's easy to find states that evolve in ways that sort of look entropic, but that actually has little if anything to do with the problem. The issue is what makes such states more common than their time-reversed images. I don't think that ignition is technically a perturbation, but it does seem a relatively small change, compared to what it would take to make a pile of ashes into a log again. But this is really just restating the problem of the arrow of time: why is it easy to burn things, and hard to achieve the time-reversed process? [ Wednesday, July 20, 2005 11:10: Message edited by: Student of Trinity ] -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Regrettable But in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Wednesday, July 20 2005 10:45
Profile
Re comments from Drakefyre/TM: Huh? It certainly isn't used in the UK. And in places where they use proportional representation I don't see how it could even be applied. Where on Earth is it the case that a defeated candidate can directly transfer his or her vote total to another candidate, after the votes have been cast? This is the aspect of the system that I consider strange, and to which my post clearly referred, not the two-stage voting scheme (which is indeed used in many places). I like putting two spaces after periods. It looks better. One space looks crowded and cheap. I don't remember now where I learned to do this, though. I suppose I could avoid double-spacing by using more colons: that would be worth it. [ Wednesday, July 20, 2005 10:48: Message edited by: Student of Trinity ] -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Avernum 4 Complete Wish List in The Avernum Trilogy | |
|
Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Wednesday, July 20 2005 10:34
Profile
You've got to admire a culture in which the traditional formal dress includes a secret sock knife. Though in recent times it has been made less secret, to the point of flashy jewelled hilts. But the 'dhu' part originally meant that it was hidden, at least as I was told when I wore one. And there are suspect traditions about not drawing it except to draw blood, blah blah blah. The main reason not to draw it is to avoid slicing your calf. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| May you rest in peace... in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Wednesday, July 20 2005 10:27
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Betcha a beer, Spring. [ Wednesday, July 20, 2005 10:28: Message edited by: Student of Trinity ] -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Scent of new-mown hay in Richard White Games | |
|
Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Wednesday, July 20 2005 10:15
Profile
What I liked most about the little I learned of classical Greek was just how much it seemed to rely on verbs. Between infinitives and participles, half of its other parts of speech seemed to be verbs in thin disguise. It seems to be a language of verbs, in a way that English certainly isn't, and that makes most things said in ancient Greek seem more vivid. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Just say no in Richard White Games | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Wednesday, July 20 2005 09:49
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Sure, the assassination teams can make a good pitch. But if I've learned anything from my time in this secret order, it's Never Volunteer. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Scent of new-mown hay in Richard White Games | |
|
Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Wednesday, July 20 2005 09:47
Profile
Well, it's common for translations to be longer, whatever languages are involved. And English isn't especially efficient, it just has lots of words. Counting words is also tricky. In the Eskimo language my wife studies, there is a single long word that translates as "but because I also went to the really big house". Actually, there could in principle be almost anything as a word -- that's just the biggest example she has found in actual use. The language is polysynthetic, allowing ad hoc combination of words into giant words. That's why the popular factoid that Eskimo languages have huge numbers of words for snow is a complete crock. Greek and German are a bit like this, only less so. I believe the term for them is 'agglutinative'. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| hi in General | |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Wednesday, July 20 2005 07:17
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Is this an unusually painful orthodontic treatment, or are you British? [ Wednesday, July 20, 2005 07:18: Message edited by: Student of Trinity ] -------------------- It is not enough to discover how things seem to seem. We must discover how things really seem. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
| Scent of new-mown hay in Richard White Games | |
|
Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
|
written Wednesday, July 20 2005 07:02
Profile
Declensions don't bother me so much, since I studied Latin for a few years, but German is much fussier than English about its prepositions. You have to use different words, for instance, for the vertical 'on' of a picture on a wall, and the horizontal 'on' of a bowl on a table. This is the fun part of learning a new language, where you're not just memorizing a code but learning to see the world in a different way. It's hard, though, because it isn't intuitive. You also come to see your own native language in a new light. English has an unusally large vocabulary, like around twice as many words as most languages, with a lot of words that are roughly equivalent in literal meaning, but have different connotations because they belong to different registers (styles of speech). So you could talk about eating pig meat instead of pork, and everyone would understand you exactly, but it would sound gruesome. Other languages tend not to make these kinds of subtle distinctions, at least not nearly as often (though of course one can find lots of individual examples where English neglects distinctions made in other languages, like the German 'an'/'auf' vs. English 'on'). A brilliant physics colleague who speaks several languages told me once that English seemed especially well adapted to describing nuances of social organizations. This struck no chord at all with me, but maybe he's right. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |