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Post by Little Jack Horner on Jan 1, 2022 11:19:00 GMT
I have nothing to say except Happy New Year to everybody.
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Post by Twoddle on Jan 1, 2022 11:21:21 GMT
Likewise.
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Post by Little Jack Horner on Jan 6, 2022 16:12:39 GMT
I have recently been engaged in a philosophical discussion about “the problem of evil” and, in particular, of natural evil but, to me, evil implies a moral judgement which I think is absent in the context of circumstances ocurring naturally. I am wondering whether there is a word in English which is synonymous with catastrophe or disaster but which implies a long-term event such as, for example, the ongoing consequences for a child of being infected by onchocerciasis (river blindness).
I have searched an on-line thesaurus and the words offered include catastrophe, cataclysm, disaster and calamity but all seem to me to imply a sudden event rather than a continuing situation. The child suffering from river blindness has experienced a catastrophic infection but what is it experiencing now as time goes by?
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Post by Verbivore on Jan 6, 2022 20:21:56 GMT
Interesting question, LJH, for which I have no simple answer. It's the kind of thing I asked a lot during my Theology studies and my later years reading/discussing Philosophy at uni but even then, when I had a god and a devil to blame, I came to no satisfactory conclusion. FWIW, I think evil (and 'sin') are human-conceived notions (your 'moral judgments') and I don't think either can be natural. Nature just is; it is neutral, neither good nor evil. Humans, OTOH … .
The question is all a tad navel-gazing to me, which is fine for easy days, but right now I'm more concerned about whether I need a 4-tonne or 8-tonne removalist truck.
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Post by Twoddle on Jan 6, 2022 23:26:37 GMT
May I be nosey and ask why and whither you're moving home, Verbivore? I thought you were well settled.
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Post by Verbivore on Jan 7, 2022 5:42:54 GMT
May I be nosey and ask why and whither you're moving home, Verbivore? I thought you were well settled. Nose(y) away, Twod! (Warning: rant ahead!)I, too, thought I was well settled, but my landlady wants to sell the property and cash in on the outrageous local property market. Over the past two years, property ‘values’ (I use the word with considerable reservations) in my region have soared to where they are now the highest in the land. Byron Shire is, unfortunately, now a hugely popular holiday destination and all the potential rentals have been converted to parasitical Airbnb, Stayz, or similar short-term holiday-lets, pushing the majority of local tenants far out of the region. Ownerships have moved from long-term locals to ‘celebrities’. One property in my street (a 10 km rural road) – très ordinaire, one hectare with a 30-year-old house – recently sold to a ‘celebrity’ for a mind-boggling $9M. The new owner, if he follows the pattern being set, will demolish the plain, if serviceable, house and replace it with a luxo holiday pad that he’ll occupy for a couple of weeks a year. Half of Hollywood has moved into Byron Shire, adding to the ever-burgeoning count of Beautiful People Whose Faeces Have No Odour. A couple of years back, the property I rent (part of – a ‘garden studio’) was valued at AU$600K; it was recently valued at $2.2M. My rent is about to increase from $350/wk to $550, which would leave me nothing for food, utilities, transport … . Not sustainable. The region is experiencing both mass arrivals (cashed-up newbies) and a mass exodus (locals). I’ve spent four months searching for new digs and found nothing affordable; even hovels unfit for animals are going for $600/wk everywhere within 150 km of me. One of those that I looked at was a converted shipping container! Whither? Most likely the NSW Central West, almost 900 km away (check a map for the city of Orange and you’ll be in the Central West). At least I do have some good friends there. Rural houses in the Central West, the likes of which are renting in my region now for $600+, are available for $200–300/wk. It’s a region not plagued by tourism or Airbnb. My mind wants to revert to my angry, socialist, uni-student times long past. P***ed off but resigned to fate.
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Post by Dave Miller on Jan 7, 2022 6:54:53 GMT
I’m hurting for you, Vv - and hoping very strongly that you’ll find somewhere appealing. And then get to find and enjoy a new wholesomeness in it.
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Post by Verbivore on Jan 9, 2022 22:17:43 GMT
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Post by Twoddle on Jan 12, 2022 10:09:36 GMT
A mathematico-literary puzzle-joke for you.
A mathematician is asked what he did at Christmas. The mathematician replies, “The square root of minus one divided by the square root of sixty-four”. In other words, what?
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Post by Verbivore on Jan 12, 2022 12:30:30 GMT
A mathematico-literary puzzle-joke for you. A mathematician is asked what he did at Christmas. The mathematician replies, “The square root of minus one divided by the square root of sixty-four”. In other words, what? (Almost) nothing?
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Post by Twoddle on Jan 12, 2022 14:44:12 GMT
Any advance on almost nothing?
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Post by Little Jack Horner on Jan 12, 2022 23:34:04 GMT
This is the sort of puzzle which I usually enjoy but I have to admit that I have no idea what the answer is in this case. The square root of minus one is the imaginary number i and the square root of 64 is eight. I can’t take this anywhere. I have tried inserting punctuation in various places within the question so as to change its meaning but have been unsuccessful. Unless there are cleverer people persons around, I’m afraid we will need you to provide the answer, Twoddle.
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Post by Twoddle on Jan 13, 2022 9:14:03 GMT
You’re nearly there, LJH. “Divided by” is often called “Over”, so the sentence can be written as, “i over eight”. (I over ate.)
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Post by Verbivore on Jan 16, 2022 4:41:44 GMT
How’s this for a mouthful of repetitive gabble? (It’s from the AU Federal Court hearing Novax Djocovid’s appeal against the (justified!) cancellation of his visa.)
What we would hope to do is to spend the afternoon hopefully, and perhaps the early evening, dealing with the arguments that have been put to the court, not with a view to delivering full reasons today, but with a view if possible as to reach a view as to the outcome of the matter and on one hypothesis, if it be relevant, Mr Lloyd, the individual basis for it.
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Post by Twoddle on Jan 17, 2022 9:57:15 GMT
How's the house move going, Verbivore?
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