date:20130922

Good rap. I shall avoid the temptation to reply in terms 
one particular argument-beast, and instead try to expand
upon the story I told earlier about the interactions of
Albert Einstein and my grandfather, Winthrop Wright. It
seems to me that those were good *conversations*, and 
that almost no one in the universe could ever accuse 
them of being arguments. It's the WHY of this I'd like
to examine.

From my point of view, for a conversation to devolve into
an argument, at least one of the parties involved has to
have a fairly sizable ego, or self. That ego has to be
convinced that the way it sees things is, at the very 
least, right or correct or truth. 

Now, again from my point of view, there is nothing wrong
with believing anything as silly as this (both that they
are an ego-principle with existence in and of themselves,
and that this ego-principle actually knows stuff, and
can consider it right or truth), as long as they don't
feel the need to get all in your face about it. In other
words, religious fanatics and such ilk are fine *unless
and until* they start trying to *make* other people 
believe the same sillinesses they believe in.

This was not the case in the Wright-Einstein conversations.
Based on many stories of both of them, they were above all
humble men who didn't believe for an instant that they 
knew anything even remotely approaching truth. They 
were also scientists, who understood that truth is always
a moving target, and *at best* is an attempted description
of phenomena one can only see a miniscule portion of. So 
they could really have *conversations* in equations drawn
on a blackboard, seeking to come as close to a good descrip-
tion of the mysteries they pondered as possible. There was
never any crowing (Aha! See...I've proved you WRONG and
my self RIGHT! and never any denunciations or game-playing
(Aha! You're trying to LIE about what I believe about this
particular way that atoms line up...thus YOU are 'bad' and
I am 'good'). Their conversations were genial, and fun for
both parties; that's why they kept having them, for years.

Even on the Internet, and even in cesspools like FFL, you
can find such conversations from time to time. Interactions
between two or more people who have the humility to under-
stand that their egos don't know shit about nothing, but 
who are willing to rap about it anyway, just for fun, and
to see if there is anything interesting that can be determ-
ined from such rapping. 

Then you've got Fairfield Life, which has been shaped over
a number of years by a few people (and one in particular)
whose egos are so completely fuckin' out of control that 
they have to turn pretty much *everything* into an argument.
The desire to argue RUNS their lives; they clearly aren't
having any fun if they're not in one. And so their egos
and those egos' constant need to dominate and assert its
silly truths on others fuck up the whole conversation
thang for other people. I think it's sad, and saddest for
the compulsive arguers themselves. What, after all, is 
the epitaph they are writing for themselves by living their
lives this way? Are they going to be *happy* with the words
She/he won every argument she/he started on the Internet
on their tombstones? What a pathetic waste of life.

The larger question would seem to me to be how does one 
*avoid* such compulsive arguers when one realizes one has
encountered them? Is there anything one can do to escape
the Argumentation Tar Babies of the world, and avoid getting
sucked into the event horizon of their black (very black)
holes? 

I've experimented over the years with Douglas Adams' theory
of how to deal with nasty critters. One of the reasons every
traveler in The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy was told
to have a towel on them at all times was as a defense against
the Ravenous Bugbladder Beast Of Traal. It had a terrible
disposition, and if you encountered it, it would (as a result
of its own nature and its own compulsive needs) attempt to 
rip you to pieces and eat you, just (presumably) to show 
other RBBT's in the area that it could. 

So according to Adams, what one should do if one encounters
a RBBT is to whip out one's towel and put it over one's own
head. The reason is that the RBBT believes that if you can't
see it, it can't see you. So the frood standing there in
front of it wearing a towel over his or her head becomes 
effectively invisible. 

My experience has shown me that this tactic works for *some*
compulsive arguers on the Internet. If you just ignore them,
and refuse to get sucked into their arguments, sooner or 
later they move on to other suckers, and try to lure them
into the arguments they need so badly. I would guesstimate
that this defense works on about 90% of Internet RBBTs.

Unfortunately, there's that other 10%. They take the Adams
Defense as the ultimate insult, go into vendetta mode, and 
persist in stalking the potential victim, often for decades. 

So far -- based on my own experience and

To lay with pretty women
To drink Madeira wine
To hear the roller's thunder on a shore that isn't mine

Privateering, we will go
Privateering, yo! ho! ho!
Privateering, we will go
Yeah, oh! ho! ho!

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT7Dit1qw24 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT7Dit1qw24
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT7Dit1qw24
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT7Dit1qw24

[FairfieldLife] Re: Helsinki-wizard on NSA Backdoor

Card writes:


NSA BackdoorTorvalds was also asked if he had ever been approached by
the U.S. government to insert a backdoor into Linux.Torvalds  responded
no while nodding his head yes, as the audience broke into 
spontaneous laughter. - See more at: 
http://www.eweek.com/developer/linus-torvalds-talks-linux-development-at\
-linuxcon.html#sthash.bs7prTog.dpuf
http://www.eweek.com/developer/linus-torvalds-talks-linux-development-a\
t-linuxcon.html#sthash.bs7prTog.dpuf

Thanks for posting this. It reminded me of a great article from a few
days ago that I wanted to share with the group. Linus is replying this
way because he *has* to -- those who are approached by the US government
and requested to supply them with information about their users are
*legally enjoined* from saying even that. He's employing the deadman's
switch defense/offense described in this article:

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/09/nsa-sabotage-dead-mans\
-switch
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/09/nsa-sabotage-dead-man\
s-switch

[FairfieldLife] Re: Surviving Argumentative People

By the way, since it's such a nice morning, and because 
this is such a nice cafe, and I feel like rapping, I'll
actually address one of the asides from your rap:

 but it is a relief that you are not constantly saying
 what a great life you are leading and how many famous 
 people have crossed your path

This is not the first time you've gotten a minor bug up
your butt about this. What would you have me do? NOT
write about my life?

That's just what I do. I have picked up this trait from my
favorite singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn, and just write
about my life. He likens it to scattering breadbrumbs
from his life behind him as he walks. He's NOT suggesting
that anyone *follow* those breadcrumbs; he's just throw-
ing them out to see if anyone identifies with them and
can have some fun with them. 

Me, I travel, and I occasionally meet people. Unlike some
here, whose lives to be taking place only inside their
heads, mine has an external, objective side to it. I may 
be writing about subjective stuff that occurs to me in a
sidewalk cafe, but I'm actually *sitting* in a physical,
objective cafe, occasionally talking with physical,
objective people. In the final analysis these objective
parts of my life are probably far more important than any
silly ideas I could come up with, because they *are*
objective...they have reality. The thoughts and the 
ideas do not. 

But I understand if you're sensitive about such things, 
so I won't tell you who is also sitting in this cafe as
I write this, or what she's wearing.  :-) :-) :-)


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb no_reply@... wrote:

 Good rap. I shall avoid the temptation to reply in terms 
 one particular argument-beast, and instead try to expand
 upon the story I told earlier about the interactions of
 Albert Einstein and my grandfather, Winthrop Wright. It
 seems to me that those were good *conversations*, and 
 that almost no one in the universe could ever accuse 
 them of being arguments. It's the WHY of this I'd like
 to examine.
 
 From my point of view, for a conversation to devolve into
 an argument, at least one of the parties involved has to
 have a fairly sizable ego, or self. That ego has to be
 convinced that the way it sees things is, at the very 
 least, right or correct or truth. 
 
 Now, again from my point of view, there is nothing wrong
 with believing anything as silly as this (both that they
 are an ego-principle with existence in and of themselves,
 and that this ego-principle actually knows stuff, and
 can consider it right or truth), as long as they don't
 feel the need to get all in your face about it. In other
 words, religious fanatics and such ilk are fine *unless
 and until* they start trying to *make* other people 
 believe the same sillinesses they believe in.
 
 This was not the case in the Wright-Einstein conversations.
 Based on many stories of both of them, they were above all
 humble men who didn't believe for an instant that they 
 knew anything even remotely approaching truth. They 
 were also scientists, who understood that truth is always
 a moving target, and *at best* is an attempted description
 of phenomena one can only see a miniscule portion of. So 
 they could really have *conversations* in equations drawn
 on a blackboard, seeking to come as close to a good descrip-
 tion of the mysteries they pondered as possible. There was
 never any crowing (Aha! See...I've proved you WRONG and
 my self RIGHT! and never any denunciations or game-playing
 (Aha! You're trying to LIE about what I believe about this
 particular way that atoms line up...thus YOU are 'bad' and
 I am 'good'). Their conversations were genial, and fun for
 both parties; that's why they kept having them, for years.
 
 Even on the Internet, and even in cesspools like FFL, you
 can find such conversations from time to time. Interactions
 between two or more people who have the humility to under-
 stand that their egos don't know shit about nothing, but 
 who are willing to rap about it anyway, just for fun, and
 to see if there is anything interesting that can be determ-
 ined from such rapping. 
 
 Then you've got Fairfield Life, which has been shaped over
 a number of years by a few people (and one in particular)
 whose egos are so completely fuckin' out of control that 
 they have to turn pretty much *everything* into an argument.
 The desire to argue RUNS their lives; they clearly aren't
 having any fun if they're not in one. And so their egos
 and those egos' constant need to dominate and assert its
 silly truths on others fuck up the whole conversation
 thang for other people. I think it's sad, and saddest for
 the compulsive arguers themselves. What, after all, is 
 the epitaph they are writing for themselves by living their
 lives this way? Are they going to be *happy* with the words
 She/he won every argument she/he started on the Internet
 on their tombstones? What a pathetic waste of life.
 
 The larger question would seem to me

[FairfieldLife] Re: Surviving Argumentative People

Continuing the rap, with music:

 What would you have me do? NOT write about my life?
 That's just what I do. I have picked up this trait from my
 favorite singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn, and just write
 about my life. He likens it to scattering breadbrumbs
 from his life behind him as he walks. He's NOT suggesting
 that anyone *follow* those breadcrumbs; he's just throw-
 ing them out to see if anyone identifies with them and
 can have some fun with them.

Understanding that Bruce is an acquired taste, and that
many, including  are not familiar with his travelogue
songs, here are a few to show you what I mean:

How I Spent My Fall Vacation (with odd visuals):
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJvgVJC7hBo 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJvgVJC7hBo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJvgVJC7hBo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJvgVJC7hBo

Birmingham Shadows:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11HvFmATeAk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11HvFmATeAk

Lily Of The Midnight Sky:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-lPpT97ZG0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-lPpT97ZG0





--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb  wrote:

 By the way, since it's such a nice morning, and because
 this is such a nice cafe, and I feel like rapping, I'll
 actually address one of the asides from your rap:

  but it is a relief that you are not constantly saying
  what a great life you are leading and how many famous
  people have crossed your path

 This is not the first time you've gotten a minor bug up
 your butt about this. What would you have me do? NOT
 write about my life?

 That's just what I do. I have picked up this trait from my
 favorite singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn, and just write
 about my life. He likens it to scattering breadbrumbs
 from his life behind him as he walks. He's NOT suggesting
 that anyone *follow* those breadcrumbs; he's just throw-
 ing them out to see if anyone identifies with them and
 can have some fun with them.

 Me, I travel, and I occasionally meet people. Unlike some
 here, whose lives to be taking place only inside their
 heads, mine has an external, objective side to it. I may
 be writing about subjective stuff that occurs to me in a
 sidewalk cafe, but I'm actually *sitting* in a physical,
 objective cafe, occasionally talking with physical,
 objective people. In the final analysis these objective
 parts of my life are probably far more important than any
 silly ideas I could come up with, because they *are*
 objective...they have reality. The thoughts and the
 ideas do not.

 But I understand if you're sensitive about such things,
 so I won't tell you who is also sitting in this cafe as
 I write this, or what she's wearing.  :-) :-) :-)


 --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb no_reply@ wrote:
 
  Good rap. I shall avoid the temptation to reply in terms
  one particular argument-beast, and instead try to expand
  upon the story I told earlier about the interactions of
  Albert Einstein and my grandfather, Winthrop Wright. It
  seems to me that those were good *conversations*, and
  that almost no one in the universe could ever accuse
  them of being arguments. It's the WHY of this I'd like
  to examine.
 
  From my point of view, for a conversation to devolve into
  an argument, at least one of the parties involved has to
  have a fairly sizable ego, or self. That ego has to be
  convinced that the way it sees things is, at the very
  least, right or correct or truth.
 
  Now, again from my point of view, there is nothing wrong
  with believing anything as silly as this (both that they
  are an ego-principle with existence in and of themselves,
  and that this ego-principle actually knows stuff, and
  can consider it right or truth), as long as they don't
  feel the need to get all in your face about it. In other
  words, religious fanatics and such ilk are fine *unless
  and until* they start trying to *make* other people
  believe the same sillinesses they believe in.
 
  This was not the case in the Wright-Einstein conversations.
  Based on many stories of both of them, they were above all
  humble men who didn't believe for an instant that they
  knew anything even remotely approaching truth. They
  were also scientists, who understood that truth is always
  a moving target, and *at best* is an attempted description
  of phenomena one can only see a miniscule portion of. So
  they could really have *conversations* in equations drawn
  on a blackboard, seeking to come as close to a good descrip-
  tion of the mysteries they pondered as possible. There was
  never any crowing (Aha! See...I've proved you WRONG and
  my self RIGHT! and never any denunciations or game-playing
  (Aha! You're trying to LIE about what I believe about this
  particular way that atoms line up...thus YOU are 'bad' and
  I am 'good'). Their conversations were genial, and fun for
  both parties; that's why they kept having them, for years.
 
  Even on the Internet, and even in cesspools like FFL, you
  can

[FairfieldLife] Re: In belated celebration of Talk Like A Pirate Day

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb  wrote:

 To lay with pretty women
 To drink Madeira wine
 To hear the roller's thunder on a shore that isn't mine

 Privateering, we will go
 Privateering, yo! ho! ho!
 Privateering, we will go
 Yeah, oh! ho! ho!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT7Dit1qw24
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT7Dit1qw24

I always liked this song. It captures the FUN aspect of being
a privateer -- a pirate. Privateers were necessary evils back in
the day. Countries like Britain and Spain didn't have the
money to back the kind of endless wars they liked to fight,
so they contracted out the warfare to privateers, who were
commissioned by the various kings to sink the ships of the
country they were at war with. Good deal for the kings, good
deal for the privateers -- they got to keep all the booty.

Mark wrote this song with the life of a rock 'n roll artist in
mind. The cover of the album (not released until recently in
the US because of contract disputes) shows an old battered
van used by a rock band to ferry them back and forth
between gigs. He identified with the privateer lifestyle.

Me, whenever I hear the song, I think about other work that
is contracted out, for example, to me.

I've worked as a contractor since 1983. Haven't been an
employee of a company in all of that time. Pirate.

And it's been FUN. Sure, you miss the supposed security
of having a permanent job, but anyone reading the
headlines knows that no job is permanent. Besides, like
Mark's privateers, the life of a contractor gives you the
opportunity to see the world.

Companies willing to contract out their dirty work to
me have enabled me to live in LA, Malibu, Palo Alto,
New York City, Pound Ridge, NY, Hartford, CT, Boston,
Santa Fe, Paris, the south of France, Spain, Holland,
and now Paris again. Good for them. Because all of
these places (well, Hartford kinda sucked) were pretty
COOL, each in their own ways, and I really enjoyed
being able to live there.

Currently such a company is paying for me to sit in this
sidewalk cafe in Paris and rap about the joys of piracy.
Good for them.

Ar.

[FairfieldLife] Re: Helsinki-wizard on NSA Backdoor

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb  wrote:

 Card writes:
 
  NSA Backdoor
  Torvalds was also asked if he had ever been approached by
  the U.S. government to insert a backdoor into Linux.Torvalds 
responded
  no while nodding his head yes, as the audience broke into
  spontaneous laughter. - See more at:
 
http://www.eweek.com/developer/linus-torvalds-talks-linux-development-at\
-linuxcon.html#sthash.bs7prTog.dpuf
 
http://www.eweek.com/developer/linus-torvalds-talks-linux-development-a\
t-linuxcon.html#sthash.bs7prTog.dpuf  
 Thanks for posting this. It reminded me of a great article from a few
 days ago that I wanted to share with the group. Linus is replying this
 way because he *has* to -- those who are approached by the US
government
 and requested to supply them with information about their users are
 *legally enjoined* from saying even that. He's employing the
deadman's
 switch defense/offense described in this article:


http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/09/nsa-sabotage-dead-mans\
-switch
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/09/nsa-sabotage-dead-man\
s-switch

OK, I'm no big fan of online drug sites, but as a followup it looks to
me
as if this company's demise, and the way they announced it, is the
result
of the same We get to ask you for all of your user data, but you don't
get to say in public that we even asked you strategy.

http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/09/silk-road-competitor-atlantis-ma\
rket-shuts-down-for-security-reasons
 
http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/09/silk-road-competitor-atlantis-m\
arket-shuts-down-for-security-reasons

Re: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Surviving Whole Foods

2013-09-22 Thread Share Long

for Xeno, to Judy, during my argument with you about Buck, I had the thought: 
Judy could be such a mensch. She's on the brink of being a true mensch. If only 
she could recognize that MAYBE someone else is making a valid point. If only 
she could recognize that MAYBE she made a mistake, got something wrong. And 
here I'm not talking about philosophical discussions. Anyway, I take a 
psychological perspective on this kind of situation but no longer find it 
useful to share such perspectives here. From my own experience it is extremely 
liberating to recognize that I made a mistake, that I got something wrong. And 
more, will probably do so again.




 From: anartax...@yahoo.com anartax...@yahoo.com
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Saturday, September 21, 2013 3:06 PM
Subject: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Re: 
[FairfieldLife] Re: Surviving Whole Foods
 


  
Perhaps both are perspectives are distorted.What do others think of this 
exchange? We are not always the best judge of our own behaviour.

[FairfieldLife] The Unified Field

2013-09-22 Thread dhamiltony2k5

[FairfieldLife] Re: On Being An Eagle


  Jason wrote:
  When you can measure what you are speaking about, and
  express it in numbers, you know something about it; but
  when you cannot express it in precise mathematical
  terms, your knowledge of it, is of a meagre and
  unsatisfactory kind
 
  ~ Lord Kelvin
 
  I like the way the thread has evolved, though paligap
  hasn't responded yet.
 
 
 --- waspaligap waspaligap@.. wrote:

 Yes, that was a very deft thread hijack on your part
 Jason. I have been enjoying it too in so far as I can keep
 up.

 For my part, I have been consigned to purgatory by Neo
 (for it is I PaliGap). Apparently PaliGap (or more
 exactly paligap - as Yahoo thinks we would all be
 better off in the world of lower case) is unavailable.
 I have been reserved for something else it seems (or by
 something else). This is traumatic to my sense of
 identity, as you can well imagine. I am struggling with my
 TM too. Looking through my checking notes, I
 fail to see a response to the meditator who has
 distracting sensations of being denied existence.

 No, not even the delights of logical positivism, and the
 taxonomy of reductionism can lay low this bad feeling.

 This thing with Neo may be the first sign of something
 being seriously rotten in the state of the Cloud - Cloud
 apps being something I have up until now embraced heartily
 (anything to escape from Microsoft). When you start to
 look, folks are getting Neo-ed all over the place. Look at
 the Gmail compose improvements. Something that took me
 one or two clicks at best, now takes half a dozen. Do
 these people think I have a limitless supply of clicks?
 Some iYogis say you are incarnated with a fixed supply of
 mouse clicks; once they're gone, that's it - you die

 Or take scrabble. (And why not?) It seems scrabble fans
 are struggling just like me (us?) with Neo:

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22905191

 But to return to the thread...

 Judy asks if philosophers might chat in mathematics only.
 But would that be desirable? After all we have a robust
 mathematical proof of the limitations of formal systems
 from Godel:

 The first incompleteness theorem states that no
 consistent system of axioms whose theorems can be listed
 by an effective procedure (e.g., a computer program, but
 it could be any sort of algorithm) is capable of proving
 all truths about the relations of the natural numbers
 (arithmetic). For any such system, there will always be
 statements about the natural numbers that are true, but
 that are unprovable within the system. The second
 incompleteness theorem, an extension of the first, shows
 that such a system cannot demonstrate its own
 consistency. (from Wiki)

 One must suppose that Philosophy, insofar as it is about
 anything, is about The Truth. So one would presumably wish
 to avoid any system that is demonstrably limited in that
 respect? In any case, is it not a vestige of logical
 positivism (and the first incarnation of Wittgenstein) to
 think that philosophy might best be expressed in
 equations?

 And, returning to the noble Lord Kelvin above, does the
 thought that he expresses survive self-reference?


You state that Kelvin's statement is inherently
self-invalidating?

If mathematics is the language of the universe, even that
can't explain the Qualia aspect of the universe.  Judy
posted a youtube link on this a while back.

Which means Maths is a process and not the end in itself?

Could you rephrase Godel in a little more easier way?

RE: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Surviving Argumentative People

2013-09-22 Thread awoelflebater

RE: Re: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Surviving Whole Foods

[FairfieldLife] Re: In belated celebration of Talk Like A Pirate Day



 ---  turquoiseb  wrote:
 
  To lay with pretty women
  To drink Madeira wine
  To hear the roller's thunder on a shore that isn't mine
 
  Privateering, we will go
  Privateering, yo! ho! ho!
  Privateering, we will go
  Yeah, oh! ho! ho!
 
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT7Dit1qw24
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT7Dit1qw24
 
 
---  turquoiseb no_reply@... wrote:

 I always liked this song. It captures the FUN aspect of being
 a privateer -- a pirate. Privateers were necessary evils back in
 the day. Countries like Britain and Spain didn't have the
 money to back the kind of endless wars they liked to fight,
 so they contracted out the warfare to privateers, who were
 commissioned by the various kings to sink the ships of the
 country they were at war with. Good deal for the kings, good
 deal for the privateers -- they got to keep all the booty.

 Mark wrote this song with the life of a rock 'n roll artist in
 mind. The cover of the album (not released until recently in
 the US because of contract disputes) shows an old battered
 van used by a rock band to ferry them back and forth
 between gigs. He identified with the privateer lifestyle.

 Me, whenever I hear the song, I think about other work that
 is contracted out, for example, to me.

 I've worked as a contractor since 1983. Haven't been an
 employee of a company in all of that time. Pirate.

 And it's been FUN. Sure, you miss the supposed security
 of having a permanent job, but anyone reading the
 headlines knows that no job is permanent. Besides, like
 Mark's privateers, the life of a contractor gives you the
 opportunity to see the world.

 Companies willing to contract out their dirty work to
 me have enabled me to live in LA, Malibu, Palo Alto,
 New York City, Pound Ridge, NY, Hartford, CT, Boston,
 Santa Fe, Paris, the south of France, Spain, Holland,
 and now Paris again. Good for them. Because all of
 these places (well, Hartford kinda sucked) were pretty
 COOL, each in their own ways, and I really enjoyed
 being able to live there.

 Currently such a company is paying for me to sit in this
 sidewalk cafe in Paris and rap about the joys of piracy.
 Good for them.

 Ar.


Speaking of pirates, I think ThePirateBay.org was taken
off the grid.  All I get is this..

https://thepiratebay.sx/ https://thepiratebay.sx/

RE: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Surviving Argumentative People

2013-09-22 Thread doctordumbass

RE: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Surviving Argumentative People

Re: [FairfieldLife] RE: Security

Not sure what this has to do with installing a fake security
camera, but I just hope Ann isn't trying to tell me something!

Go figure.

Maybe I should get this bulletproof shield:
http://tinyurl.com/q8qj8s5

Or, this improved, unbreakable, walking stick umbrella:
http://tinyurl.com/mmp4ewy

On 9/21/2013 9:22 PM, awoelfleba...@yahoo.com wrote:
The people I am most frightened of are the ones who believe that gun owning and toting is a
God or at least a government-given right and who most likely live south
of the Mason Dixon line in the US of A. Many of them seem to favour the
camo-flavoured wardrobe, decorate their home with a Confederate flag and
consider the height of culture a day out shooting wild creatures dead.
Often they seem to sport a twangy sort of accent and drive what is
commonly known as the pickup. We have these types in Canada too but
most of them are from Alberta.

So, my next door neighbor installed a security camera system
at his house and in his carport.

He also erected a fence around the house and there's a pit bull
in the yard. He's got multiple motion activated ligts all around.
I'm pretty sure he's armed to the teeth inside and probably has
a hand gun carry permit too.

He put a sign on his fence that reads Beware of Dog and he
put another sign on the front fence that reads Curb Your Dog!

Go figure.

Here are some tips on how to make your home safe, in case
some deranged cross-dressing, gay or lesbian, neo-Nazi
skinhead bikers decide to rob you of your Roku box, your TV
and your pot stash.

Home Security Tips:

* First, you need to lock all the doors and the windows!
* Consider upgrading to dead-bolt locks on the doors.
* Then, you need to light up the place - thieves hate light.
* Build a fence around your place - a tall fence.
* Adopt a male pit bull - leave him outside at all times.
* When you leave, turn an inside lamp on and a radio.
* Join a neighborhood watch program.

Notes:

They're probably not going to get you once you're inside the
house or in the yard. They are going to get you when you step
out of your car at night to open the door to the gate or house.

What you really need in order to be secure is an attached
garage with remote controlled doors. That way, you can drive
your car into the garage and then go into the house through
an inside door.

It would be a good idea to put metal bars on all your windows
and doors.

Also, you might consider putting some expensive infra red
security cameras high up on the sides of your house and at
all the entryways.

Or, you could put one of these up: an outdoor, fake, dummy
security camera with a blinking red light - $8. LoL!

/Outdoor Fake , Dummy Security Camera with Blinking Light (Silver): /
http://www.amazon.com/
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004D8NZ52/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i00?ie=UTF8psc=1

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004D8NZ52/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i00?ie=UTF8psc=1

[FairfieldLife] America#39;s Cup in SF Bay

2013-09-22 Thread doctordumbass

[FairfieldLife] This is Earth

It just doesn't look that way. It's an island where a third of its plant
and animal life is found nowhere else on the planet. Cool.



http://www.binscorner.com/pages/s/strange-plants-of-socotra-island.html?\
z=10
http://www.binscorner.com/pages/s/strange-plants-of-socotra-island.html\
?z=10

[FairfieldLife] RE: This is Earth

[FairfieldLife] [FairfieldLife] Re: Surviving Whole Foods

2013-09-22 Thread punditster



authfriend:
 Thank you, Richard, you have provided a perfect demonstration 
 over the past few days for everyone to see that what I said 
 about you to Michael: you are a troll and a liar. 

If you don't like it, just ignore me like you've been
doing since 1999. LoL!

You don't have to respond to every single post here - if 
you don't live near a Whole Foods just say so. Just cut 
the crap, Judy, and stop the lying about it.

And you don't need to put others down just for wanting to 
eat a few organic oranges at a local health food store. 

We're not all poor people and I don't spend my 'whole 
paycheck' at the market - I probably earn more retired
than you do working all day. Go figure.

[FairfieldLife] Re: Surviving Whole Foods


Xeno, both Barry and Judy are equally at fault regarding
this highly dysfunctional relationship.  Barry teases,
taunts, insults and acts as the baiter.  Judy is rude,
abrasive, undiplomatic and acts as the avenger.

Barry and Judy are like the electron and proton in the
hydrogen atom.  In a certain dark way, they complete each
other.

Barry often talks about the motives others rather than
comment on the substance of the post.  Judy often talks
about the stupidity others rather than gently point out
the post.

Barry often calls people 'stalkers'.  Judy often calls
people 'liars'.


 --- anartaxius anartaxius@.. wrote:

 It is kind of a habit from reading scientific papers.
 Because scientists are uncertain, they always use language
 that waffles, using words like 'may', or 'perhaps', or
 'if'. You may notice I do that rather frequently. When I
 listen to politicians, I generally assume something is
 going to be lying, for example Obama's recent 'red line'
 backtracking. When it comes to politicians in the U.S.,
 Democrats and Republicans alike are pretty much equal
 opportunity liars. Maureen Murphy, an American politician
 said the reason there were so few femaile politicians was
 it was too much trouble to put makeup on two faces.


 Frankly, just as you seem to find my comments
 disingenuous, I find the way you generally respond to
 people also disingenuous, mostly combative. Presumably you
 are interested in spirituality. Who or what is being
 'insulted'? It is just that inbred pest called the ego.
 The ego always has an axe to grind and swing. The ego
 thinks it is a 'person', that it has rights, this is our
 biggest problem in spirituality. It is more of a process
 than a thing, it is not an entity. If a person's identity
 is pure consciousness, there is no one to be insulted. I
 am not saying I cannot take offense or be annoyed etc.,
 but those who repeated take offense at what the world
 throws at them are spiritual cretins, and I hope you are
 not one of those, but to me you do not speak like a person
 who is interested in the spiritual nature of life, and
 yet, you are apparently reading about it a lot, and in
 various kinds of discussions, but I simply do not see much
 spiritual depth in what you say (but it is a relief that
 you are not constantly saying what a great life you are
 leading and how many famous people have crossed your
 path).


 Your method of argumentation does not build, it takes
 down, much in the same way Barry's comments in reference
 to you are a take down. You two are a strange marriage
 made in heaven. I say heaven because if heaven makes
 people such snipers, it is certainly not such a great
 place to be.


 From my perspective, you basically engage in the same
 tactics as those you oppose. You shift context under the
 pretense of maintaining context; you snip relevant parts
 of arguments declaring them to be irrelevant. That is how
 it appears to me. Maybe you do not experience that you are
 doing these things at all. When I shift context, it is
 more inadvertent, because I really do not care that much
 about narrowly defined context. You might try spreading
 you wings and go off on tangents once in a while to see
 what comes up. I find it interesting to watch moths in
 flight - they never go in a straight line, in a world of
 predators, they deviate from directness. So it is on this
 thing we call the Internet, where trolls lie in wait.


 I am here being critical of you, whatever that 'you' is
 for you. If you would only apply your skills in a more
 uplifting way, and not be so critical of people's
 ineptness, minor mistakes, their opacity, and have if you
 had a more relaxed agenda, you would be a brilliant poster
 here, but for now, I think you use your skills in a rather
 dark way, so that brilliance has a tarnish to it. Your
 argument style has a strong polemical element, which is
 better suited to the political arena, where lairs lie,
 than in forums discussing knowledge. It is only when you
 are kissing up to someone like Robin that you go a bit
 squishy. A certain softness is required when dealing with
 people except in extreme circumstances.


 Perhaps both are perspectives are distorted. What do
 others think of this exchange? We are not always the best
 judge of our own behaviour.

RE: RE: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Surviving Argumentative People

Re: [FairfieldLife] This is Earth

2013-09-22 Thread Steve Sundur

great find.  had never heard of the place

 From: turquoiseb no_re...@yahoogroups.com
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Sunday, September 22, 2013 9:45 AM
Subject: [FairfieldLife] This is Earth

It just doesn't look that way. It's an island where a third of its plant and 
animal life is found nowhere else on the planet. Cool. 

http://www.binscorner.com/pages/s/strange-plants-of-socotra-island.html?z=10

[FairfieldLife] Re: This is Earth

The Argue-Bot sez:

 YOUR IMAGES AREN'T SHOWING UP ON THE WEBSITE, BARRY.

Don't be so fuckin' egocentric, Jude. My images
aren't showing up on YOUR version of the Yahoo
Web Reader. They show up fine on other versions
of the same reader.

If you're intent on taking it personally, consider
the possibility that I may have found a way to
block only YOU from seeing them.  :-)  :-)  :-)

  [22 Reasons Krysten Ritter Is The Girl Crush To End All Girl Crushes]

  [22 Reasons Krysten Ritter Is The Girl Crush To End All Girl Crushes]

  [22 Reasons Krysten Ritter Is The Girl Crush To End All Girl Crushes]

[FairfieldLife] Re: Surviving Argumentative People

2013-09-22 Thread punditster



turquoiseb:
 Surviving Argumentative People

So, it's all about Judy.

Now this is funny - a guy who has never been to a 
Whole Foods Market, hijacks the thread and renames 
it 'Surviving Argumentative People', and that's
his argument for not shopping at a health food
store?

You can't make this stuff up. LoL!

  
 Good rap. I shall avoid the temptation to reply in terms 
 one particular argument-beast, and instead try to expand
 upon the story I told earlier about the interactions of
 Albert Einstein and my grandfather, Winthrop Wright. It
 seems to me that those were good *conversations*, and 
 that almost no one in the universe could ever accuse 
 them of being arguments. It's the WHY of this I'd like
 to examine.
 
 From my point of view, for a conversation to devolve into
 an argument, at least one of the parties involved has to
 have a fairly sizable ego, or self. That ego has to be
 convinced that the way it sees things is, at the very 
 least, right or correct or truth. 
 
 Now, again from my point of view, there is nothing wrong
 with believing anything as silly as this (both that they
 are an ego-principle with existence in and of themselves,
 and that this ego-principle actually knows stuff, and
 can consider it right or truth), as long as they don't
 feel the need to get all in your face about it. In other
 words, religious fanatics and such ilk are fine *unless
 and until* they start trying to *make* other people 
 believe the same sillinesses they believe in.
 
 This was not the case in the Wright-Einstein conversations.
 Based on many stories of both of them, they were above all
 humble men who didn't believe for an instant that they 
 knew anything even remotely approaching truth. They 
 were also scientists, who understood that truth is always
 a moving target, and *at best* is an attempted description
 of phenomena one can only see a miniscule portion of. So 
 they could really have *conversations* in equations drawn
 on a blackboard, seeking to come as close to a good descrip-
 tion of the mysteries they pondered as possible. There was
 never any crowing (Aha! See...I've proved you WRONG and
 my self RIGHT! and never any denunciations or game-playing
 (Aha! You're trying to LIE about what I believe about this
 particular way that atoms line up...thus YOU are 'bad' and
 I am 'good'). Their conversations were genial, and fun for
 both parties; that's why they kept having them, for years.
 
 Even on the Internet, and even in cesspools like FFL, you
 can find such conversations from time to time. Interactions
 between two or more people who have the humility to under-
 stand that their egos don't know shit about nothing, but 
 who are willing to rap about it anyway, just for fun, and
 to see if there is anything interesting that can be determ-
 ined from such rapping. 
 
 Then you've got Fairfield Life, which has been shaped over
 a number of years by a few people (and one in particular)
 whose egos are so completely fuckin' out of control that 
 they have to turn pretty much *everything* into an argument.
 The desire to argue RUNS their lives; they clearly aren't
 having any fun if they're not in one. And so their egos
 and those egos' constant need to dominate and assert its
 silly truths on others fuck up the whole conversation
 thang for other people. I think it's sad, and saddest for
 the compulsive arguers themselves. What, after all, is 
 the epitaph they are writing for themselves by living their
 lives this way? Are they going to be *happy* with the words
 She/he won every argument she/he started on the Internet
 on their tombstones? What a pathetic waste of life.
 
 The larger question would seem to me to be how does one 
 *avoid* such compulsive arguers when one realizes one has
 encountered them? Is there anything one can do to escape
 the Argumentation Tar Babies of the world, and avoid getting
 sucked into the event horizon of their black (very black)
 holes? 
 
 I've experimented over the years with Douglas Adams' theory
 of how to deal with nasty critters. One of the reasons every
 traveler in The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy was told
 to have a towel on them at all times was as a defense against
 the Ravenous Bugbladder Beast Of Traal. It had a terrible
 disposition, and if you encountered it, it would (as a result
 of its own nature and its own compulsive needs) attempt to 
 rip you to pieces and eat you, just (presumably) to show 
 other RBBT's in the area that it could. 
 
 So according to Adams, what one should do if one encounters
 a RBBT is to whip out one's towel and put it over one's own
 head. The reason is that the RBBT believes that if you can't
 see it, it can't see you. So the frood standing there in
 front of it wearing a towel over his or her head becomes 
 effectively invisible. 
 
 My experience has shown me that this tactic works for *some*
 compulsive arguers on the Internet. If you just ignore them,
 and refuse to get sucked into their arguments,

[FairfieldLife] RE: Re: This is Earth

[FairfieldLife] Re: Surviving Whole Foods


 
 authfriend:
  Thank you, Richard, you have provided a perfect demonstration 
  over the past few days for everyone to see that what I said 
  about you to Michael: you are a troll and a liar. 
 

---  punditster punditster@... wrote:

 If you don't like it, just ignore me like you've been
 doing since 1999. LoL!
 
 You don't have to respond to every single post here - if 
 you don't live near a Whole Foods just say so. Just cut 
 the crap, Judy, and stop the lying about it.
 
 And you don't need to put others down just for wanting to 
 eat a few organic oranges at a local health food store. 
 
 We're not all poor people and I don't spend my 'whole 
 paycheck' at the market - I probably earn more retired
 than you do working all day. Go figure.


Holy mother Ganges!! You must have really offended both of 
them (Barry  Judy).

I wonder what exactly you did, for both of them to shun you.

[FairfieldLife] Re: This is Earth


Do you use third party crosssite blocker?  If so, you have
to manually release the link everytime.


 --- authfriend authfriend@.. wrote:

 YOUR IMAGES AREN'T SHOWING UP ON THE WEBSITE, BARRY.

  --- turquoiseb turquoiseb@.. wrote:
 
  It just doesn't look that way. It's an island where a
  third of its plant and animal life is found nowhere else
  on the planet. Cool.
 
  http://www.binscorner.com/pages/s/strange-plants-of-socotra-
http://www.binscorner.com/pages/s/strange-plants-of-socotra-
island.html?z=10  
  island.html?z=10 
http://www.binscorner.com/pages/s/strange-plants-of-socotra-
island.html?z=10

[FairfieldLife] Re: This is Earth

The Argue-Bot tries again:

 It's not clear what you could mean by Yahoo Web Reader. 
 I visit the FFL Web site and read what's on it using 
 Chrome (which is normally called a browser). And as 
 it happens, Chrome is said to be one of the better 
 browsers for dealing with Neo.

Only slightly less technically inept than the person 
she loves to rag on for that, Judy has missed all of
the discussions that pointed out that Yahoo does NOT
run the same software on all of its worldwide servers.

I'm still on the old version of the interface, although
it's buggier than usual. Quoting text in Replies works
only half the time. Neo only appears sporadically, and
then only in a pre-Beta version that doesn't even have
Reply buttons. So I've been posting these photos in
the exact same way that I have all along, using the 
same old classic interface. 

Lurker-friends in Europe, Canada, and Asia confirm that
they can see the photos I paste in just fine. Guess that 
means that you guys in the US just don't rate, and are 
considered mere low-rent test audiences for the 
improvements Yahoo wants to roll out. 

Not my problem. Fuck you.  :-)  :-)  :-)

[FairfieldLife] Re: Surviving Whole Foods

2013-09-22 Thread punditster



  What do others think of this exchange?
 
Jason:
 Barry teases, taunts, insults and acts as 
 the baiter.  Judy is rude, abrasive, 
 undiplomatic and acts as the avenger...

So, I'm not the only respondent on the list that
noticed that Judy is a rude prude and that Barry 
is a master baiter. They both have pretty much
crapped on this discussion group membership. 

Is there anyone out there these two don't despise?

Go figure.

Jason:
 Xeno, both Barry and Judy are equally at fault regarding
 this highly dysfunctional relationship.  Barry teases,
 taunts, insults and acts as the baiter.  Judy is rude,
 abrasive, undiplomatic and acts as the avenger.
 
 Barry and Judy are like the electron and proton in the
 hydrogen atom.  In a certain dark way, they complete each
 other.
 
 Barry often talks about the motives others rather than
 comment on the substance of the post.  Judy often talks
 about the stupidity others rather than gently point out
 the post.
 
 Barry often calls people 'stalkers'.  Judy often calls
 people 'liars'.
 
anartaxius:
  It is kind of a habit from reading scientific papers.
  Because scientists are uncertain, they always use language
  that waffles, using words like 'may', or 'perhaps', or
  'if'. You may notice I do that rather frequently. When I
  listen to politicians, I generally assume something is
  going to be lying, for example Obama's recent 'red line'
  backtracking. When it comes to politicians in the U.S.,
  Democrats and Republicans alike are pretty much equal
  opportunity liars. Maureen Murphy, an American politician
  said the reason there were so few femaile politicians was
  it was too much trouble to put makeup on two faces.
 
 
  Frankly, just as you seem to find my comments
  disingenuous, I find the way you generally respond to
  people also disingenuous, mostly combative. Presumably you
  are interested in spirituality. Who or what is being
  'insulted'? It is just that inbred pest called the ego.
  The ego always has an axe to grind and swing. The ego
  thinks it is a 'person', that it has rights, this is our
  biggest problem in spirituality. It is more of a process
  than a thing, it is not an entity. If a person's identity
  is pure consciousness, there is no one to be insulted. I
  am not saying I cannot take offense or be annoyed etc.,
  but those who repeated take offense at what the world
  throws at them are spiritual cretins, and I hope you are
  not one of those, but to me you do not speak like a person
  who is interested in the spiritual nature of life, and
  yet, you are apparently reading about it a lot, and in
  various kinds of discussions, but I simply do not see much
  spiritual depth in what you say (but it is a relief that
  you are not constantly saying what a great life you are
  leading and how many famous people have crossed your
  path).
 
 
  Your method of argumentation does not build, it takes
  down, much in the same way Barry's comments in reference
  to you are a take down. You two are a strange marriage
  made in heaven. I say heaven because if heaven makes
  people such snipers, it is certainly not such a great
  place to be.
 
 
  From my perspective, you basically engage in the same
  tactics as those you oppose. You shift context under the
  pretense of maintaining context; you snip relevant parts
  of arguments declaring them to be irrelevant. That is how
  it appears to me. Maybe you do not experience that you are
  doing these things at all. When I shift context, it is
  more inadvertent, because I really do not care that much
  about narrowly defined context. You might try spreading
  you wings and go off on tangents once in a while to see
  what comes up. I find it interesting to watch moths in
  flight - they never go in a straight line, in a world of
  predators, they deviate from directness. So it is on this
  thing we call the Internet, where trolls lie in wait.
 
 
  I am here being critical of you, whatever that 'you' is
  for you. If you would only apply your skills in a more
  uplifting way, and not be so critical of people's
  ineptness, minor mistakes, their opacity, and have if you
  had a more relaxed agenda, you would be a brilliant poster
  here, but for now, I think you use your skills in a rather
  dark way, so that brilliance has a tarnish to it. Your
  argument style has a strong polemical element, which is
  better suited to the political arena, where lairs lie,
  than in forums discussing knowledge. It is only when you
  are kissing up to someone like Robin that you go a bit
  squishy. A certain softness is required when dealing with
  people except in extreme circumstances.
 
 
  Perhaps both are perspectives are distorted. What do
  others think of this exchange? We are not always the best
  judge of our own behaviour.

Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Roku


On 9/21/2013 11:14 AM, Bhairitu wrote:
 The reason I mentioned the 2 XD is from Roku's site it looks
 like they are blowing out the two 720p units...

Did I tell you that the Roku LT is only $40.00?

The 2 XD can also do 720p if needed.  They are probably just 
simplifying their product line.  Their top model just just adds a 
couple more features including games and dual band wifi.


Even 1080p video can be encoded decently at around 3 mpbs.  The 
streaming services like Netflix (which does have some 1080p support) 
don't do that because they want their encodes to work on older 
computers and devices so they use a lower profile encode which is why 
their 720p encode needs 3 mbps.


Also as far as encoding goes there is a new kid (or old kid with new 
shoes) on the block and that is VP8 which is used in Google's Webm 
technology and open source.  No royalties to pay to MPEG-LA which make 
MPEG-LA roaring mad. :-D


On 09/20/2013 09:07 PM, Richard J. Williams wrote:


After I cut the cable, I'll be using the savings to get a faster internet
connection, maybe 15 bps with Time-Warner and a Motorola Surfer
modem with wireless N and Gigabyte Ethernet.

Not in a panic about the 720p since that's just on the kitchen TV.
I've got a 40 inch 1080p in the living room. I go for the cheap sets
like ones you can buy at Walmart or Target in the $200-400 dollar
range.

One guy I know, whose wife makes $150,00 a year, got a 70 inch
for his breakfast nook - he likes to sit on a bar stool at a counter in
the kitchen and drink coffee, surf the net, read the papers, and he
watches Fox News - all at the same time. Go figure.

On 9/20/2013 3:39 PM, Bhairitu wrote:


The  LT?  It's only 720p.  Plus they are selling their 2 XD which 
does 1080p for about the same price online.  Well maybe your TV only 
does 720p.  I can't use one of these with my set because it is a 13 
year old HD RPTV. I only does 1080i and my HTML to component 
converter can't convert 1080p to 1080i.  My BD player has a 1080i 
out option on HDMI so it works with the converter.


I was looking at a Roku because there have the largest number of 
streaming services. So that would also be a new TV (at less than 1/4 
of what I paid for the old one) and a new AV receiver (because mine 
doesn't handle DD+).


Also you forgot to mention the PPV services for those movies that 
won't be showing up on Netflix any time soon and also how to watch 
some of those cable network shows.  VUDU and Amazon Instant are a 
couple of those.


Can't do an antenna because I live in a valley so there is no OTA 
reception.  If I go up the hill to Starbucks I get ALL the 
Sacramento stations and the one Spanish station on Mt. Diablo on a 
Hauppauge MicroTV USB stick hooked up to my laptop.


Cutting the cable the savings would be enough to pay for the upgrade 
of gear in 8 months.


On 09/20/2013 12:12 PM, punditster wrote:


Have you ever wanted to cut the cable? The cable TV cable that is.
I sure want to - between Time-Warner and ATT I'm getting
out of that loop!

So, I went to the Shack and bought some digital, powered antennas
for my TV sets to pull in my local channels in HD - ABC, CBS, NBC,
and CW.

Then I bought a Roku box for the kitchen; a WD Live for the living
room; a smart BD for the bedroom; and a Chromecast for the home
office.

Roku LT:

That way, I can tune in to Amazon, YouTube, Netflix, Pandora,
Fox News and Hulu.

Outside of our internet connection (need 2MBPS or more) which
we already had in place, our total internet video monthly fees are
$12.95 for NetFlix and $8.95 for Hulu Plus.

Soon, real soon, right after the last episod of Breaking Bad, I'm
going to cut the cable and save $150 a month.

Now that's better!


Read more:

'Roku Rocks with NetFlix and Playon'
Amazon Review:
http://tinyurl.com/mg4gqvt

Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Surviving Whole Foods

2013-09-22 Thread Steve Sundur

Finally, something original!

Holy mother Ganges!! You must have really offended both of 
them (Barry  Judy).

I wonder what exactly you did, for both of them to shun you.

Re: [FairfieldLife] RE: Just Walkin#39; in the Rain

That's the adobe soil around here.  It would get so bad I would have to 
go in and out by the garage door instead of the front door.  However 
last winter I put an adjustable door hinge on the front door which has 
helped a lot and I think I'll order one for the door between the kitchen 
and garage.

http://www.adjustabledoorhinge.com/

Some of the hardware stores around here have them too.

On 09/21/2013 07:36 PM, doctordumb...@rocketmail.com wrote:


After quite a stretch of dry weather we finally got some rain here in

the SF Bay Area. Now maybe my doors will work better.


Same here. During the summer, the door from the den to the deck needs 
about 50 pounds of pressure to close it, so that the deadbolt will 
engage. Then we get a few drops of rain, and it starts closing a lot 
more easily. Very weird.

[FairfieldLife] RE: Re: This is Earth

[FairfieldLife] The Reluctant Fundamentalist

It's always a great treat to see a film by Mira Nair who is one of the 
great filmmakers of our time.  The Reluctant Fundamentalist is about a 
young Pakistani man who becomes a success on Wall Street and then 9/11 
happens and everything begins to fall apart for him.   It star Riz Ahmed 
as the young man, Om Puri as his poet father, Liev Schreiber as a 
journalist and Kiefer Sutherland has young man's boss.  Also co-stars 
Kate Hudson and Nelsan Ellis (Lafayette from True Blood).  It's also 
wonderfully filmed by the great Declan Quinn.

In a day in age when studio execs piss all over films and leave a 
stench, it's good to see one that is not constrained by them.  It is 
also a film with locations all over the map including India and Pakistan.

It's available for rent at Redbox and online VOD.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2032557/

Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Surviving Whole Foods


On 9/22/2013 10:17 AM, Jason wrote:
 Holy mother Ganges!! You must have really offended both of
 them (Barry  Judy).

 I wonder what exactly you did, for both of them to shun you.

It's not complicated - they are both prejudiced against
people that live in Texas - they've said as much since 1999.

Barry and Judy have been encouraging everyone to shun
me for years. Go figure.

I probably posted 3,000 on-topic posts to alt.m.t. for five
years before I received a single reply from Judy.

Then, when I challenged her assertion that Bush lied - now
she really hates me for proving that John Kerry is a liar.

John Kerry did NOT spend Christmas of 1968 in Cambodia!

In Barry's case, he is still mad at me for poking fun at the
Zen Master Rama - but he pokes fun at MMY all the time.

Go figure.

Yes, it is surprising to find out that some TMers are so
fixated on a person's birth circumstances. What's really
funny is that Judy has never been to Texas and Barry is
from Texas. LoL!

Check out Ann, the bottom poster, and her reply to my
post about home security! Good example of prejudice:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/message/358450



 authfriend:
  Thank you, Richard, you have provided a perfect demonstration
  over the past few days for everyone to see that what I said
  about you to Michael: you are a troll and a liar.
 

--- punditster punditster@... wrote:

 If you don't like it, just ignore me like you've been
 doing since 1999. LoL!

 You don't have to respond to every single post here - if
 you don't live near a Whole Foods just say so. Just cut
 the crap, Judy, and stop the lying about it.

 And you don't need to put others down just for wanting to
 eat a few organic oranges at a local health food store.

 We're not all poor people and I don't spend my 'whole
 paycheck' at the market - I probably earn more retired
 than you do working all day. Go figure.

Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: This is Earth


On 09/22/2013 08:35 AM, turquoiseb wrote:


The Argue-Bot tries again:

 It's not clear what you could mean by Yahoo Web Reader.
 I visit the FFL Web site and read what's on it using
 Chrome (which is normally called a browser). And as
 it happens, Chrome is said to be one of the better
 browsers for dealing with Neo.

Only slightly less technically inept than the person
she loves to rag on for that, Judy has missed all of
the discussions that pointed out that Yahoo does NOT
run the same software on all of its worldwide servers.

I'm still on the old version of the interface, although
it's buggier than usual. Quoting text in Replies works
only half the time. Neo only appears sporadically, and
then only in a pre-Beta version that doesn't even have
Reply buttons. So I've been posting these photos in
the exact same way that I have all along, using the
same old classic interface.

Lurker-friends in Europe, Canada, and Asia confirm that
they can see the photos I paste in just fine. Guess that
means that you guys in the US just don't rate, and are
considered mere low-rent test audiences for the
improvements Yahoo wants to roll out.

Not my problem. Fuck you. :-) :-) :-)



Have you tried logging out of FFL on your browser to see if you get 
Neo?  Logged in I see the old interface and logged out Neo.  On Neo the 
picture didn't show but the link was there which took me to the article.

Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Surviving Argumentative People


On 09/22/2013 08:21 AM, punditster wrote:




turquoiseb:
 Surviving Argumentative People

So, it's all about Judy.

Now this is funny - a guy who has never been to a
Whole Foods Market, hijacks the thread and renames
it 'Surviving Argumentative People', and that's
his argument for not shopping at a health food
store?

You can't make this stuff up. LoL!



Turq could go on for decades if he visted the Walnut Creek Whole Foods.  
Not only did they put it in a hard to get to little shopping center but 
the town itself with it's odd narcissistic inhabitants would make FFLers 
pale by comparision.  Even folks from upscale Danville think Walnut 
Cretians are stuck up.

RE: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: This is Earth

[FairfieldLife] iPhonitus

Great little video about people waiting in line for days to get the new 
iPhone.
http://www.youtube.com/watchv=rRwcIumf-mI

What planet are we on?

Re: Re: RE: RE: Re: [FairfieldLife] RE: Spirit Guided Lucid Dreaming

2013-09-22 Thread Share Long

You're welcome, Ann. I agree that we each live in our own world of personal 
experience. It's great when language can build a bridge between those worlds. 
And yeah, when those worlds are of a more abstract seeming nature, the gap can 
seem huge. Sometimes it's fun just to try and bridge that gap.





 From: awoelfleba...@yahoo.com awoelfleba...@yahoo.com
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Saturday, September 21, 2013 8:32 AM
Subject: RE: Re: RE: RE: Re: [FairfieldLife] RE: Spirit Guided Lucid Dreaming
 


  
 


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com wrote:


Ann, there is definitely flat silence and lively silence. TM is about the 
former and TMSP is about the latter. I think the big trick about silence is to 
not try to have it. Awareness might be a better word than silence. Does one 
really have to try and be aware?! Nope, awareness is always happening. 
Attention may move from point to point. But awareness is constant, a field of 
lively potentiality. Hope this helps.

Thanks for your reply Share but I am still either too unsilent (noisy) or 
unaware to understand. I know there are theoretical explanations and ideas 
about what all this means but to actually live it and then come to understand 
it is still not resonating for me. I know what it is to sit and meditate and 
there is a certain level of quiet/silence (then I fall asleep) and I know what 
it is like to be in the midst of activity and still feel grounded and almost 
removed but I am not sure that is the same thing as what the Doc is talking 
about or even what you are explaining here. It's pretty hard to translate one 
person's subjectivity into words, let alone understand it to be one's own. I 
think maybe we will all live in our individual worlds and we will only be able 
to guess at another's reality.





 From: awoelflebater@... awoelflebater@...
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2013 11:09 PM
Subject: RE: RE: RE: Re: [FairfieldLife] RE: Spirit Guided Lucid Dreaming
 


  
 



--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com wrote:


What you are describing is a defense mechanism, whereas the witnessing of CC 
is an actual and permanent change in how the mind operates.Silence is 
ever-present during the witnessing of CC. Although there is a detachment that 
comes with an out of body experience, the identity of the person, having such 
an experience, remains unchanged. 


What does that mean? If you are in CC then how come there is witnessing? Isn't 
CC a sort of witnessing already?


The silence [of CC] is naturally occurring, so there is nothing to do about 
it, either to make it go away, or to keep it around. After the mind is 
conditioned to maintain Silence at all times, it cannot be reversed. If it can 
be grasped onto, or destroyed in the mind, it is not yet permanent. It can 
only exist effortlessly in the mind, if it is permanent. 


What do you mean by silence exactly? To me this is just a word that is sort 
of overused and stereotypical, like a cliche. Can you make this concept real 
for me?


Then activity, including thoughts themselves, can be witnessed, from a deep 
platform of silence. With CC, the identity shifts inwardly, towards the 
silence. Then, after some time, it comes out to play again, but the silence 
remains, always, continuing to grow and deepen, even in the midst of very 
dynamic activities.


Would you equate silence with stillness or immovability (in its positive 
sense)? Otherwise the concept of silence seems sort of flat or, at best, 
without interesting fluctuation.



--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com wrote:


 



--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com wrote:


Why do people want out of the body experiences?! Which I think can happen 
naturally but during extreme trauma. 


Would you equate out of body experiences the same as witnessing? Because I 
know that when something particularly freaky or extreme happens I have 
noticed I have some witnessing which is a kind of out of body experience. I 
remember Barry saying he witnessed for about two weeks after having been 
threatened at knifepoint by some Dutch mugger.


Otherwise for example, the point of the TMSP is to increase integration 
between mind and body.







 From: s3raphita@... s3raphita@...
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2013 10:54 AM
Subject: [FairfieldLife] RE: Spirit Guided Lucid Dreaming
 


  
Re Those experiences are available during everyday life, too, not just 
during a lucid dream, and they don't have to be unsettling. It is like being 
aware of another frequency, and tuning in : Nick Barrett, the speaker, said 
exactly what you're saying. He could tune in right there and then. 


Do we think that astral projection and out-of-the-body experiences are 
basically

RE: Re: [FairfieldLife] RE: Just Walkin#39; in the Rain

2013-09-22 Thread doctordumbass

Re: [FairfieldLife] Helsinki-wizard on NSA Backdoor

2013-09-22 Thread Share Long

noozguru, what say you to this? I'm asking because I've gotten the impression 
that you're the FFL Linus expert. thanks...

 From: cardemais...@yahoo.com cardemais...@yahoo.com
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Sunday, September 22, 2013 2:42 AM
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Helsinki-wizard on NSA Backdoor

NSA BackdoorTorvalds was also asked if he had ever been approached by the U.S. 
government to insert a backdoor into Linux.Torvalds responded no while 
nodding his head yes, as the audience broke into spontaneous laughter. - See 
more at: 
http://www.eweek.com/developer/linus-torvalds-talks-linux-development-at-linuxcon.html#sthash.bs7prTog.dpuf

[FairfieldLife] RE: Re: On Being An Eagle

2013-09-22 Thread waspaligap

[FairfieldLife] Nice

This is what I would do, if I were drawn that way...

http://the-wopr.newsvine.com/_news/2013/09/19/20572264-church-members-mi\
streat-homeless-man-in-church-unaware-it-is-their-pastor-in-disguise
 
http://the-wopr.newsvine.com/_news/2013/09/19/20572264-church-members-m\
istreat-homeless-man-in-church-unaware-it-is-their-pastor-in-disguise

Re: [FairfieldLife] RE: Just Walkin#39; in the Rain

I would expect these to be quite popular around here but if you do a 
search on the subject San Antonio is a place that has a lot  of problems 
with adobe soil and doors out-of-kilter.  I ran into a door installer 
once at Home Depot who told me the problem was so bad on his house that 
he had to adjust the doors 4 times a year.  A cement foundation 
supposedly helps and of course this house doesn't have one.  I also 
drilled two sets of holes for the front screen door latch bar bolts as 
it needs to be raised and lowered for the latch to work. Really a pain.


On 09/22/2013 09:37 AM, doctordumb...@rocketmail.com wrote:


Thanks for the tip, and that the issue is the soil, makes sense - I am 
definitely installing one of these.




--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com 
wrote:


That's the adobe soil around here.  It would get so bad I would have 
to go in and out by the garage door instead of the front door.  
However last winter I put an adjustable door hinge on the front door 
which has helped a lot and I think I'll order one for the door between 
the kitchen and garage.

http://www.adjustabledoorhinge.com/

Some of the hardware stores around here have them too.

On 09/21/2013 07:36 PM, doctordumbass@...
mailto:doctordumbass@... wrote:


After quite a stretch of dry weather we finally got some rain here in

the SF Bay Area. Now maybe my doors will work better.


Same here. During the summer, the door from the den to the deck needs 
about 50 pounds of pressure to close it, so that the deadbolt will 
engage. Then we get a few drops of rain, and it starts closing a lot 
more easily. Very weird.

Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: This is Earth