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News Briefs 20-10-2006

Gootube? I sure hope that’s not official.

Thanks Greg.

Quote of the Day:

Harold: What were you fighting for?
Maude: Oh, Big issues. Liberty. Rights. Justice. Kings died, kingdoms fell. I don’t regret the kingdoms – what sense in borders and nations and patriotism? But I miss the kings.

An ancient, youthful Maude explaining her radical past to a youthful, ancient Harold in the 1971 movie, Harold and Maude.

  1. Just wanted to say that
    Just wanted to say that Harold and Maude is a movie directed by the inimitable Hal Ashby, and not a tv-show.
    And the full quote is like this:
    Maude: “Oh, Big Issues. Liberty. Rights. Justice. Kings died, kingdoms fell. I don’t regret the kingdom – what sense in borders and nations and patriotism? But I miss the kings.”

    Just wanted to correct that as Harold and Maude is one of my all-time favorite movies.

  2. Thanks Kat! On the same wavelength …
    Dear Kat and Greg,
    This sounds like a book I would enjoy. Just a few weeks ago another TDG reader (Aurora) said basically the very same words in an email to me. Good thoughts and positive feelings are essential to our well being! Even though she is waaaay across the pond in England and I’m here in the USA we have kept in touch over the years. Love, Pam

    Human Brains: ‘Wired To Connect’- Newsweek – MSNBC
    (excerpt) As Goleman contends, human brains are “wired to connect,” and to a much greater extent than we ever realized. It’s not just that laughter and bad moods are “contagious.” Empathizing with a friend, whether in grief or elation, can activate the very same circuits in our own brains as in our companion’s. —————————–Truth is stranger than fiction.

  3. Stingray Rebellion!
    This was done by comedian Tim Bedore in 2003, and I think it relates to the stingray story quite well.

    “Did you see that in the paper the other day about those carp in the Mississippi River jumping into boats and bonking fisherman in the head? It’s true. They’re called big head carp, they’re from Asia and they’re attacking and severely injuring many fisherman.

    Biologists claim the roar of boat motors agitates and excites these carp and they jump towards the sound but I think these biologists are naively missing an obvious connection. Fish are attacking fisherman. For the fish it’s get them before they get you, kill or be killed. Even if these fisherman are practicing catch and release, that’s a very painful, embarrassing experience for any fish and apparently they have had it.

    What about the increase in mountain lion attacks? Great White sharks moving closer to shore? Moose have been showing up in towns and stomping on people. A squirrel was in my living room last spring. Am I the only one that sees a pattern here? People, wise up! The other animals are against us. It doesn’t take a genius to see there’s an inter-species conspiracy to thwart the urban expansion of man.

    How do the squirrels fit in? Surveillance. They spy on what we people are doing in the cities and report back to the bigger species out there on the front lines.

    And taken together these other species represent walking, we hope not yet talking, scratching, biting weapons of mass destruction. And if these other species can convince the insect world, for example a well known anti-human group like the killer bees, to join up our way of life and our democracy could be history.

    The skeptical may ask why would these other species want to hurt us? Obviously, they hate us. They are jealous of our way of life. We swim in chlorinated, safe environment pools, then towel off and have an adult beverage. They are stuck eating sludge in the Mississippi, a river polluted by guess who: their mortal enemy man. And to top it all off we eat them.

    This invasion of Asian carp is no accident. This is stage one of their well planned attack. We ignore the obvious at our own peril.

    We can no longer sit back and wait for them to attack us. It’s time we adopt a new doctrine regarding these other animals. We have to wipe out any and all species who are a lined against us, wherever they are. We can not rest until every big head carp, great white shark, mountain lion, moose and squirrel and any other species that associates with them are defeated.

    If the U.N. wants to get involved fine, if not we can do it alone. Of course the British will show up, they always do, but we will fight to protect our way of life. And if you don’t agree, you’re an unpatriotic idiot who hates America.”

    1. old days
      for some fun reading about the really old days in america, read “The Burning City”, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

      It has interesting things in it, like bees who negotiate about whether they should sting you. It doesn’t have the straight political crap that you post here. But it does say things about the origins of many conflicts.

      It’s a good book, a fantasy novel with something to say.

      1. Sorry for the Inconvenience!
        I will have to look into the book you mentioned it does sound like a good read. I apologize for the “political crap” that I apparently post here, but I felt the commentary was ammusing when I heard it a few years ago and thought some people may get a chuckle out of it as well. I did not feel I was posting “political crap” it was not intended to be, none of my posts are intended to be political though, so I will have to watch my future posts.

        1. maybe just contemprary humour
          I probably overstated my case in my post, with regard to the political crap.

          It is useful to make analogies from ancient patterns to today’s political events, it can help make the ancient stuff more easily understood. Of course, mis-understood as well, as perhaps I did.

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