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< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 150 OF 963 ·
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May-01-07
 | | jessicafischerqueen: <Dom> you're at 150!! <Eyal> at 50
<Me> at 100.
We are related in "thirds"!!!
anyone know any math?
Should we be worried?
Jess of the knows no math. Or anaylticy philosopy either, so don't go by what I posted at <eyal's> house. jess of the boycotting GOOGLE still and relying on her (ever faulty) memory instead. It's all a haze to me now....
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May-01-07
 | | Domdaniel: <Jess> Coincidentally, I'm reading a book -- The Maths Gene, by Keith Devlin -- which makes quite a persuasive case for mathematical ability being older than language, ie having evolved first. I've read a few other books about the evolution of language and math ability, but Devlin has some good ideas. He also relates math to gossip and grooming activity. Some people use part of their brains for tracking the relations of fictional characters in soap operas, others use the same neural pathways to track abstract entities according to certain rules. But it's a similar process, and can be equally complex, and we certainly shouldn't feel that maths is either more difficult or intellectually superior to gossip and soap-watching. That's my Stargate addiction explained. I was doing differential equations all along. Now, have you heard what 3844 said about 1105? Shocking. |
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May-01-07
| | Domdaniel: <Jess> If you translate these page numbers into Roman Numerals... 50 = L [sounds a bit like 'Eyal']
100 = C [for Canada, see?]
150 = CL [the Seventh CL?]
Roman Dung Dung Dung Shashvili |
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| May-02-07 | | Chess Classics: Where's old twinlark been off to? He hasn't posted since mid-March, his forum is closed... I miss seeing that adorable dog with the sunglasses around. Regards,
CC |
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May-02-07
| | jessicafischerqueen: <CC> I got an email from <twinlark> about a month ago. He is currently changing careers and he's helping his son move into a new house and job etc. as well, so he told me he wouldn't be around for an extended period of time. He is well, and regrets that he will be away so long. He will be back when he has settled in his new job. (he didn't tell me what his old and new careers are, but I suspect he WAS a <rodeo clown> who is now trying his hand at <investment banking>. <JFQ, Esquire. Heir to the Fabled "Green Mountain" fortune. Here is the legend of the "Green Mountain" forum:
http://www.greenmountain.com/fortun...
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May-02-07
| | jessicafischerqueen: PS if the <green mountain fortune> weblink I posted doesn't work, it means your Computer is Broken and you should take it in immediately for expensive repairs. I hope this has all been of some help.
Jesa;dkajkdfjkajakdjfaksdjakfajd |
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| May-02-07 | | Eyal: <I suspect he WAS a <rodeo clown> who is now trying his hand at <investment banking>.> Maybe he was an accountant and is now trying his hand at lion taming (or vice versa). |
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May-02-07
| | jessicafischerqueen: LOL <Michael Palin> and <John Cleese> where <Palin> thinks the <anteater> is a <lion>!!! LOL |
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| May-02-07 | | WBP: Wise <Dom> (<Wisdom>). Greetings, sir. Have not had a chance to drop by in a bit, thought I'd drop out of the madness and take some respite in the pure, clear air of the Emerald Isle, a suitable home for the green <Frogspawn>. May I venture a (true--absolutely true) <Frogspawn> quotation of the day? A murderer in (I believe) Alabama in the 1930s asked, as he's about to be executed for his crimes, for a final statement: "I wish the whole human race had a single neck, and that I had my hands around it." Now that says repentance! |
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May-02-07
| | Domdaniel: <WBP> Yes, that quote was [*steadfastly refusing to google*] ... from ... uh ... dammit, it's gone ... Karl somebody? Vaguely Germanic-sounding? Not Caryl Chessman, obviously ... dammit, I've even used that quote in a print zine ... and sf writer Brian Aldiss uses it somewhere ... it's no use, I'm a vegetable today (I earlier exposed myself to lethal doses of Deadly Media Radiation in order to write columns about both TV and radio ... lowers the IQ, wrecks memory cells ... I've always been a cabbage.) Actually, I thought it was a 19th century quote. And wasn't it also attributed to some Roman Emperor -- Heliogabalus, maybe? If it was 1930s Alabama it musta been George Clooney. Dredge. Dredge. Karl ... Panzram?
Sounds plausible.
♘ |
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May-02-07
| | Domdaniel: <Maybe he was an accountant ...>
You do realize that this is the future Supreme Leader of the Southern Hemisphere we're talking about? The Chieftain of those who stand on their heads? Feet will roll for this. |
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| May-02-07 | | Eyal: <Angered at the rabble for applauding a faction which he opposed, he cried: "I wish the Roman people had but a single neck"> (Suetonius, "De Vita Caesarum: Caius Caligula", XXX) |
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May-02-07
| | jessicafischerqueen: <DomEyal> g[day gday Well spotted on the Roman Emperor source.
Interstingly, most of the <Suetonius> account of <Caligula's> rule is missing, lost forever, making him more legendary than he otherwise might be. Recall that <Caligula> didn't go nuts until two years after his reign. Until then he was very popular with most. Then he got a serious illness, almost died, and, we believe, spent two years doing all kinds of crazy things and then everyone hated him. Trivia- NO GOOGLING!!! (this means you <Eyal>- at least till people get a chance to answer from memory first!) What does the word <caligula> mean in Latin? (Hint- it's a nickname. His real name, of course, was <Gaius>, same as <Julius Caesar). |
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| May-02-07 | | Eyal: <Jess> Suetonius' account of <Little Boot> is actually complete (and, btw, according to this account the fellow was a hideous monster from childhood) - it's Tacitus' account which is lost. |
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May-02-07
| | jessicafischerqueen: Ah, dang that memory.
<12 Caesars> has the missing segment, true enough. However, ALL of it is not lost. There are still a few paragraphs in <Tacitus> about Caligula. However, the historical consensus is that <suetonius'> account is slanted too far in the "mad idiot" direction. <Heicheimer and Yao>'s <History of the Roman People> gives a good account of the current state of "scholarship" on Caligula. Dang it and I read BOTH <Lives of the Caesars> and <12 Caesars>. Plus I saw <13 Monkeys> and I still can't remember things the right way. EYAL WINS TRIVIA PRIZE!!
And extra points for not saying <little boots>, since the nickname is in singular form. FULL MARKS!! |
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May-02-07
| | jessicafischerqueen: PS I'm still boycotting <google>, but the only result so far is that I seem to be getting stupider and stupider. What did people do before Google?
Jess of the Can't Keep all the Info in my head straight and I refuse to Google anymore. Or re-read books (except for HOD and SAF).
I've decided to stop aspiring to dilletantism.
I'm now going for moronicism!!
Jess of the Yard, soon to be Jess of the Liberry looking for NEW books. |
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May-02-07
| | jessicafischerqueen: <Eyal>
(throws towel into ring)
OK I surrender!! I'm tired of being a <not getting the details straight moron, I'm starting to feel stupid>. sigh
So here's the CORRECT info from (choke) Google:
<A History of the Roman People: Books: Fritz Heichelheim,Cedric Yeo,Allen Mason Ward by Fritz Heichelheim,Cedric Yeo,Allen Mason Ward.> I Got BOTH names wrong!!
Anyhoo, very good discussion of the <historiographical controversey> over <Caligula> in this volume, also HIGHLY readable-- very excellent book IMO. I read it ten or eleven times truth be told.
Jess of the Surrenders to Google.
ARchhhhhrhchchch
dang it. |
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May-02-07
| | jessicafischerqueen: Speaking of "truth be told," (Josh Waitzkin's signiature phrase), I finally got to his last <vocally annotated game> on my <Chessmaster Tutorial> and in this game, for the Under 18 World Championship, Josh misses a hanging rook-- His opponent (the Vietnamese under 18 champ- Josh was the under 18 American champ), however, who hung the rook in the first place, noticed right away. After he noticed, he threw his coat on the ground and stalked off from the table. When he returned, he was flabbergasted that Josh had missed the rook <en prise>, and played a quiet move. He got so excited to be back in the game that he went on to make two more mistakes, and Josh won. But after the game, Josh said that if he had noticed he missed the free rook, he doubts he would have had the emotional/intellectual "presence" as he puts it (he's a Buddhist, btw) necessary to press on for the win. He didn't know he missed the free rook till AFTER the game. His Coach at the time, <Pal Benko>, was in the audience with Josh's parents and they report that when Josh did not take the free rook, and seemed to be analyzing for several minutes, <Benko> practically pulled the rest of his already thinning hair out. He was visibly shaking, they said. They all had a good laugh after.
But the best part is that on the Tutorial Josh is describing this, while showing the game, and he starts laughing his head off. He's trying to press on with his points, but he keeps breaking into laughter and has to start over. OK I love Josh.
Sue me. |
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May-02-07
| | Domdaniel: <Jess> B.G. -- before google -- people had Oracles whom they consulted incessantly and without mercy. The phone never stopped ringing. You had a lucky escape. |
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May-02-07
| | jessicafischerqueen: Thanks for the kind words, <Dom>, but my memory seems to be failing and I'm only 22. Google is the new Oracle.
It's enough to make one turn to writing <science fiction>, for Cripe sake. So all that stuff I razzed you about concerning <sci-fi>... Nevermind.
Jess of the Newly Converted, will check out <Borges Big Book of Stories> and <Neuromancer> from the Liberry when I next get to town. Jess of the Surrendering all over the place.
Help!! Does this mean I'm a <cheese eating surrender monkey>? Shudders.
All Hail the Frogs. |
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May-02-07
| | jessicafischerqueen: PS <from Asterix>
"You're declining and falling all over the place!"
LOL |
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May-03-07
| | Domdaniel: Or, from sci-fi writer Michael Moorcock -- one of his Jerry Cornelius books, eg A Cure For Cancer, or The English Assassin, or The Condition of Muzak: "You're going to bits all over the carpet. And you used to be such a nice young man, too." Memory fluctuations at age 22 are just, ah, quantum effects in the temporal tubercules caused by proximity to the maximal state of enlightenment that is age 23. |
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| May-03-07 | | WBP: <Memory fluctuations at age 22 are just, ah, quantum effects in the temporal tubercules caused by proximity to the maximal state of enlightenment that is age 23.> And it's all downhill after that. |
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May-03-07
 | | TheAlchemist: <Memory fluctuations at age 22 are just, ah, quantum effects in the temporal tubercules caused by proximity to the maximal state of enlightenment that is age 23.> Ah, so that's why... so finally I have an excuse... |
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May-03-07
| | Domdaniel: <Jess> As for science fiction, of course the overwhelming bulk of it is juvenile rubbish or illiterate nonsense or both. But the best stuff -- intrageneric like Dick, Lem and early Ballard, or tangential like Borges and Pynchon -- is magnifique. Even without a magnifiquing glass. Sturgeon's Law -- prpounded by sf writer Theodore Sturgeon -- says that "90% of everything [including sci-fi] is crap". The trouble is that this leads to a simple recursive formula (90% of everything, then 90% of the remainder, then...): 9/10 + 9/100 + 9/1000 + 9/10000 + ...
= 0.9999...
= 1.
Therefore, everything is crap.
Back where we started, it seems. |
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