Weekly Chat Reminder
The Brin-L weekly chat has been a list tradition for over nine years. Way back on 27 May, 1998, Marco Maisenhelder first set up a chatroom for the list, and on the next day, he established a weekly chat time. We've been through several servers, chat technologies, and even casts of regulars over the years, but the chat goes on... and we want more recruits! Whether you're an active poster or a lurker, whether you've been a member of the list from the beginning or just joined today, we would really like for you to join us. We have less politics, more Uplift talk, and more light-hearted discussion. We're non-fattening and 100% environmentally friendly... -(_() Though sometimes marshmallows do get thrown. The Weekly Brin-L chat is scheduled for Wednesday 3 PM Eastern/2 PM Central time in the US, or 7 PM Greenwich time. There's usually somebody there to talk to for at least eight hours after the start time. If no-one is there when you arrive just wait around a while for the next person to show up! If you want to attend, it's really easy now. All you have to do is send your web browser to: http://wtgab.demon.co.uk/~brinl/mud/ ..And you can connect directly from the NEW new web interface! -- William T Goodall Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/ This message was sent automatically using launchd. But even if WTG is away on holiday, at least it shows the server is still up. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Planets in scale and size
http://www.5min.com/Video/Planets-in-scale-and-size-7884 xponent Impressive Maru rob ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Zen Time Travel
An interesting little article about what you are doing when you are doing nothing. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1580364,00.html What are you doing when you aren't doing anything at all? If you said nothing, then you have just passed a test in logic and flunked a test in neuroscience. When people perform mental tasks--adding numbers, comparing shapes, identifying faces--different areas of their brains become active, and brain scans show these active areas as brightly colored squares on an otherwise dull gray background. But researchers have recently discovered that when these areas of our brains light up, other areas go dark. This dark network (which comprises regions in the frontal, parietal and medial temporal lobes) is off when we seem to be on, and on when we seem to be off. If you climbed into an MRI machine and lay there quietly, waiting for instructions from a technician, the dark network would be as active as a beehive. But the moment your instructions arrived and your task began, the bees would freeze and the network would fall silent. When we appear to be doing nothing, we are clearly doing something. But what? The answer, it seems, is time travel. The human body moves forward in time at the rate of one second per second whether we like it or not. But the human mind can move through time in any direction and at any speed it chooses. Our ability to close our eyes and imagine the pleasures of Super Bowl Sunday or remember the excesses of New Year's Eve is a fairly recent evolutionary development, and our talent for doing this is unparalleled in the animal kingdom. We are a race of time travelers, unfettered by chronology and capable of visiting the future or revisiting the past whenever we wish. If our neural time machines are damaged by illness, age or accident, we may become trapped in the present. Alzheimer's disease, for instance, specifically attacks the dark network, stranding many of its victims in an endless now, unable to remember their yesterdays or envision their tomorrows. Why did evolution design our brains to go wandering in time? Perhaps it's because an experience is a terrible thing to waste. Moving around in the world exposes organisms to danger, so as a rule they should have as few experiences as possible and learn as much from each as they can. Although some of life's lessons are learned in the moment (Don't touch a hot stove), others become apparent only after the fact (Now I see why she was upset. I should have said something about her new dress). Time travel allows us to pay for an experience once and then have it again and again at no additional charge, learning new lessons with each repetition. When we are busy having experiences--herding children, signing checks, battling traffic--the dark network is silent, but as soon as those experiences are over, the network is awakened, and we begin moving across the landscape of our history to see what we can learn--for free. Animals learn by trial and error, and the smarter they are, the fewer trials they need. Traveling backward buys us many trials for the price of one, but traveling forward allows us to dispense with trials entirely. Just as pilots practice flying in flight simulators, the rest of us practice living in life simulators, and our ability to simulate future courses of action and preview their consequences enables us to learn from mistakes without making them. We don't need to bake a liver cupcake to find out that it is a stunningly bad idea; simply imagining it is punishment enough. The same is true for insulting the boss and misplacing the children. We may not heed the warnings that prospection provides, but at least we aren't surprised when we wake up with a hangover or when our waists and our inseams swap sizes. The dark network allows us to visit the future, but not just any future. When we contemplate futures that don't include us--Will the NASDAQ be up next week? Will Hillary run in 2008?--the dark network is quiet. Only when we move ourselves through time does it come alive. Perhaps the most startling fact about the dark network isn't what it does but how often it does it. Neuroscientists refer to it as the brain's default mode, which is to say that we spend more of our time away from the present than in it. People typically overestimate how often they are in the moment because they rarely take notice when they take leave. It is only when the environment demands our attention--a dog barks, a child cries, a telephone rings--that our mental time machines switch themselves off and deposit us with a bump in the here and now. We stay just long enough to take a message and then we slip off again to the land of Elsewhen, our dark networks awash in light. xponent Paging Dr Bob Maru rob ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Zen Time Travel
Three seconds after I see this title,... What is the sound of a one handed chronometer? Vilyehm **Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape. http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aolcmp0030002489 ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
On the American Standard front.....
Some funny toilets and environs... http://madhattannights.com/the-worlds-funniest-bathrooms/ xponent Fun Stuff Maru rob ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: On the American Standard front.....
On Jan 9, 2008, at 6:41 PM, Robert Seeberger wrote: Some funny toilets and environs... http://madhattannights.com/the-worlds-funniest-bathrooms/ That first one is not funny at all. -- Warren Ockrassa Blog | http://indigestible.nightwares.com/ Books | http://books.nightwares.com/ Web | http://www.nightwares.com/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Zen Time Travel
On 1/9/2008 7:40:25 PM, Warren Ockrassa ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: On Jan 9, 2008, at 3:09 PM, Robert Seeberger wrote: An interesting little article about what you are doing when you are doing nothing. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1580364,00.html This isn't Zen, actually, Of course not.G But I think it is an apt description of what people tend to ^think^ they are doing during idle-minded moments. which really *is* about doing nothing, and the time travel aspect of the brain is actually extremely well-known to Buddhist meditators. The idling mind is seen in Buddhist psychology to be absolutely packed full of discursive thought, virtually all of which is concerned either with reliving the past or anticipating the future. My understanding, introspective and otherwise, is that human brains model one's experiences and potential outcomes pretty much constantly. The only time I seem to drop out of this mode is when I have to focus on something immediate such as a conversation.Even when I am working I seem to be modeling what I am working on and only stop to perform individual tasks. xponent Modeler Maru rob ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: On the American Standard front.....
On 1/9/2008 7:45:00 PM, Warren Ockrassa ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: On Jan 9, 2008, at 6:41 PM, Robert Seeberger wrote: Some funny toilets and environs... http://madhattannights.com/the-worlds-funniest-bathrooms/ That first one is not funny at all. Kind of makes pissing an adventure. xponent Off With Their Heads! Maru rob ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: On the American Standard front.....
On Jan 9, 2008, at 7:18 PM, Robert Seeberger wrote: On 1/9/2008 7:45:00 PM, Warren Ockrassa ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: On Jan 9, 2008, at 6:41 PM, Robert Seeberger wrote: Some funny toilets and environs... http://madhattannights.com/the-worlds-funniest-bathrooms/ That first one is not funny at all. Kind of makes pissing an adventure. Xtreme urination? Or just circumcision with an attitude? Off With Their Heads! Maru Indeed. -- Warren Ockrassa Blog | http://indigestible.nightwares.com/ Books | http://books.nightwares.com/ Web | http://www.nightwares.com/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: On the American Standard front.....
On 1/9/2008 8:27:50 PM, Warren Ockrassa ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: On Jan 9, 2008, at 7:18 PM, Robert Seeberger wrote: On 1/9/2008 7:45:00 PM, Warren Ockrassa ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: On Jan 9, 2008, at 6:41 PM, Robert Seeberger wrote: Some funny toilets and environs... http://madhattannights.com/the-worlds-funniest-bathrooms/ That first one is not funny at all. Kind of makes pissing an adventure. Xtreme urination? Or just circumcision with an attitude? Making a Prince Albert just the perforation in preparation? I suppose in the case of a Jacobs Ladder one would need a Veg-e-matic. Off With Their Heads! Maru Indeed. This conversation is decidedly discomfiting.G xponent Lorena Bobbit's Ginsu Maru rob ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: On the American Standard front.....
Wow.even more! (some repeated though) http://www.2spare.com/item_91339.aspx xponent Don't Cross The Streams Maru rob ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
What are you doing here?: man asks wife at brothel
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSL0910395120080109?rpc=64 WARSAW (Reuters) - A Polish man got the shock of his life when he visited a brothel and spotted his wife among the establishment's employees. Polish tabloid Super Express said the woman had been making some extra money on the side while telling her husband she worked at a store in a nearby town. I was dumfounded. I thought I was dreaming, the husband told the newspaper on Wednesday. The couple, married for 14 years, are now divorcing, the newspaper reported. (Writing by Chris Borowski, Editing by Matthew Jones) And I bet they are both Catholics too. So much for religion. Again. -- William T Goodall Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/ Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Zen Time Travel
On Jan 9, 2008, at 7:14 PM, Robert Seeberger wrote: On 1/9/2008 7:40:25 PM, Warren Ockrassa ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: The idling mind is seen in Buddhist psychology to be absolutely packed full of discursive thought, virtually all of which is concerned either with reliving the past or anticipating the future. My understanding, introspective and otherwise, is that human brains model one's experiences and potential outcomes pretty much constantly. There's a difference between modeling and playing alternatives (If I'd only said... or The next time he tries that I'll... and so on). Modeling or planning is certainly useful -- to a point -- but getting caught up in different versions of the narrative might not be as useful. The only time I seem to drop out of this mode is when I have to focus on something immediate such as a conversation. Yes, concentration on a single point is difficult. And in conversations, we're planning out our replies at least as much as we're listening to what's being said. Even when I am working I seem to be modeling what I am working on and only stop to perform individual tasks. Which, when you think about it, is almost saying that you're not actually doing what you're doing. :) -- Warren Ockrassa Blog | http://indigestible.nightwares.com/ Books | http://books.nightwares.com/ Web | http://www.nightwares.com/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: What are you doing here?: man asks wife at brothel
On Jan 9, 2008, at 9:41 PM, William T Goodall wrote: http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSL0910395120080109?rpc=64 WARSAW (Reuters) - A Polish man got the shock of his life when he visited a brothel and spotted his wife among the establishment's employees. Yeah, one of the first things I wondered when I saw that story was whether she did things with the clientele that she refused to do with her husband. The other thing I wondered was who would file for divorce first, and who would ultimately be granted it. And I bet they are both Catholics too. So much for religion. Again. Really, William, that's disappointing. If they were Catholic she couldn't work in a brothel (not very long anyway), since she'd be forbidden to use birth control; and he probably wouldn't have married anyway, favoring a life in the priesthood groping choirboys. If you're going to be pathologically insulting to religion, at least put some effort into it next time. -- Warren Ockrassa Blog | http://indigestible.nightwares.com/ Books | http://books.nightwares.com/ Web | http://www.nightwares.com/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
