The perception of colors "logic" is definitely cultural, I recall reading about certain African tribes - and maybe the Navajo Indians? - having very different ideas about the composition of the color spectrum. Then there's also the matter of color blindness, which is common enough (something like 8% of the male population, much rarer in females) to have to take into consideration. (And there are several kinds of it, not just the most common red-green type.)

<Dom> I think the "Space is a province of Brazil" line was quoted or referred to by L. Sprague DeCamp in one of his humor/SF books - maybe 'The Swords of Zinjaban'(?) or another book from that series.

Eeek, Stanislaw Lem. I read his Solaris, which IMO is worse than any book formally belonging to the Horror genre. I don't mean it's not a good story, it's damn good - it's just... horrifying. I stayed away from Lem after that... although I've been told that he's not one of the "single-style" authors and that his stories differ widely in tone and theme.

Another such writer would be Philip Jose Farmer, who also has a tendency toward the morbid, and even the *gross* in several of his works, yet has other works which completely lack these qualities.

I like Mel Gibson. :) Great performance in Braveheart, and I really enjoyed the Lethal Weapon series and Maverick (although the latter would have been even better with Terence Hill in the role IMO...) ;p He also comes across as a very nice guy in what few interviews I've seen or read with him.

Perhaps he *did* say second Bishop. As in, a Bishop on the same color as another (first) Bishop that is already/still on the board - i.e., completely unnecessary, superfluous, just getting in the way more often than not, and basically the worst possible piece to have promoted to?

Spoken like a true scientist! :) True enough. Though I think the point of the saying (not mine, something I heard) may be that worrying about "which is the correct time" out of what two more-or-less accurate watches show, would be, in most normal scenarios (<-I just caveated that :p) , a case of obsessive nitpicking about something merely artificially defined and not-all-that-important (watches are not to be confused with actual time after all...)- akin to getting seriously upset about the difference between two IQ scores. ;)

If/when you get a chance, would you consider looking at my latest video?

Any notes are very valuable to me if you gave some.

This doesn't work with all questions. Nobody says "Do you happen to know your name?"

I am pond scum.

Lem wrote to Philip K Dick once, having been told by fans that Dick was the most Lemmian American SF writer. But Phil was a little paranoid just then, and thought it was either a commie plot or a rightist ruse - so he called 'their' bluff by handing the letter in to the FBI.

As a good American does.

<Dom> I cut myself slightly this afternoon commenting on "the" video, I felt, as I was only able to concentrate on lyrics and visuals, with the sound/audio, turned off. I hope and know you'll fare better.

<Compared to the Wechsler and Binet scales, it cuts the apparent selection bias in half;>

This might make it sound like Raven is the name of the third scale - it isn't, it's just the name of the test; the scale used for it is Cattell's.

Just thought I might clear that up for the sake of completeness, since you seem to have covered everything else. :)

<Dom> funny how previously mentioned points like distancing techniques and the influence of language differences on the thought process just keep popping up repeatedly in these conversations! ;)

Ouch, re: <Lem/Dick> anecdote. PS - no puns on that please. :p

It brings up the image of a person who can't quite find a use for himself; a man with no "raison d'etre" - the sort of feeling like when you're well into middle age and still haven't figured out what you want to be when you grow up.

Although particularly this last one strikes me as the way out of the dark in itself - because I'm not at all convinced that the childhood question it's based on is a legitimate one.

<So, what do you want to be when you grow up?>

A terrible thing to ask a child, that can create stress and lasting trauma. And usually this idiocy/atrocity is committed just because the "adult" in question couldn't think of anything else to say to the poor kid... along the same lines as

<So, what's your favorite color?>

which, at least, has less potential for being directly and permanently harmful. I just recall wondering whyonearth I am supposed to prefer a particular color over any other; I thought they were all very pretty.

Hans Eysenck, author of countless pop-IQ books (I went off the top of the scale when testing myself, but of course I cheated -- cheating is smart, isn't it?) was a supporter of Spearman's 'g'.

But, apart from the usual level of 'cultural difference', there are factors like the perceived relevance of abstract tests. Some people have exam-friendly cultures, others don't -- and there isn't really a way to compensate for such a deep-seated bias.

Heh. Me too. But I eventually developed a mild aversion to green, probably because of its association in Ireland with atavistic nationalism. In my view, an allergic reaction to one's so-called 'national' colour is entirely healthy.

Less healthy is my dislike of green vegetables.

Ah yes, I've read some of his posts here and there, leading to the same impression. :)

BTW - I haven't read any Borges - any relation to the Borgias? Or just the Bourgeois? Oh, the hazards of "pattern recognition". ;) Italo Calvino yes, him good, as I recall - it was a long time ago.

My SF interest range is comprised mainly of books - IMO this genre doesn't transfer too well to the visual media. At least the best parts of it don't.

Pity about green there - to me, it's the color of grass and trees, one of the main colors of nature. I remember being disappointed the first time I saw a photo of Earth taken from space - all blue, white, and brown, but far less green than I expected to see. :s

Yanno, I reckon when an adult asks a child what their favorite color is, they are probably trying to find out what color clothes and toys to buy them for birthdays and such. They shoulda been more specific about that - I thought it was a theoretical question. I love green and blue in nature, but not so much for clothes. (Ah, so THAT'S what "situationalism" is! Maybe.) Well, that only took me about 30 years to figure out - I can be a little slow on the uptake sometimes, apparently. :p

A handful of SF films escaped the SFX-in-space curse of StarTrekWars. Some have no effects at all. Such as:

Alphaville ... who needs SFX when you can *pretend* that Paris is a distant planet?

Friendship's Death ... Tilda Swinton, humanoid emissary from out there, mistakenly beams down to Amman 1970 during the 'Black September' PLO/Jordanian conflict, instead of landing at the UN. So she talks ethics with a hack journalist.

1984. Ironic. Somebody's future, somebody's past. William Gibson wrote a great short story about the 'lost' tomorrows of yesteryear ... the blimps and spiral towers of metropolis, 1930s version ... the flivvers and psionics of the 1950s ... the plasticized utopias of the 60s.

Cyberpunk discovered the *dirty future*: the obvious fact that tomorrow is built on top of today which was built on yesterday ... and they all rust together.

Rust never sleeps. Apple users don't want to sleep, and PC users toss and turn anxiously, crashing even in hibernate mode.

Yet, if any party 'plays the green card' it is understood as a reference to tribal politics. Usually in relation to Northern Ireland, as all that stuff has become passe in the South. The question being is it passe *enough*, with the economy in tatters and the centenary of the 1916 'rising' looming.

I don't mind if people make dough from the rising as long as they don't try to make hay with it.

Green as in outdoors? Fine, in photos and landscape paintings, but it's usually raining in real life. I prefer indoors.