2,650 thoughts on “Open Thread – Weekend 21 Aug 2021”

  1. Yet more and more international evidence that people have their ‘lives back’.

    Sure they should never have had freedoms removed in the first place.
    Thank goodness for countries like Sweden.

  2. Told you yesterday as soon as the first post landed it was the feathered one at dash.

    Where’s my winnings Mr Bookmaker?

  3. It appears there are no Aborigines in WA who aren’t white.

    Seriously, any of the four could have sat a lunch counter in the old Deep South without being noticed.

  4. Khorne sez:

    All wars are justified. In fact, peace requires justification.

    Khaine sez:

    War? We just do this for fun, don’t we?

  5. the missus tries to send me a funny pic:

    like the Nirvana album cover with the baby and the dollar.

    except it was Dan Andrews floating in the pool naked chasing a dollar

    she tries the TXT several times … message failed.

    Apple says your data stays on your phone.

    she’s probably already listed in a database for Mong abuse

  6. The LDP are no johnny-come-lately on the political scene and should fight hard for the right to still use their name. It’s been good for many years and many elections so far. It can’t just be washed away by fiat now. If membership numbers are an issue, then maybe I’ll join, even though I swore off minor parties after the Aust Cons debacle. I am increasingly liking most of the LDP policies.

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  7. erk. That was the copy/past for my last comment, not this one. I was replying above to areff’s comment about the unlikeliest aboriginies in WA.

  8. Someone please restore my faith in government and tell me the riot squat is preparing batons and pepper spray to restore order!

    The Polis are front-line health care workers

  9. Only one Aperol spritzer so far and I am already showing capable of messing things up.

    And now, Hairy and I have been day-camping in the garage only going home after 4pm. We’ve set our smallish but remote from the house garage up as a comfortable retreat with camp kitchen and a day bed as well as cane chairs, while the tiler does some contactless work on our verandahs to complete a job started before lockdown. Absolutely essential, I assure you. I can’t stand looking at it any more. Paddy the Irish tiler’s comment was dis was da foist toime de Oirish have been given da kay to da big house while de Engerlish are pushed out to loive in da garridge.

    Come and have a look at yer new neighbours, he says to the man next door, as we huddle down on a very cold day before the heater as he raised the garage door to display us.

    I am trying now to work out how to tell him he is going to have to remove a few tiles that are wrong.
    He doesn’t take kindly to female supervision but Hairy has passed the job on to me regardless.
    Wish me luck.

  10. He doesn’t take kindly to female supervision but Hairy has passed the job on to me regardless.

    😀

    Tough. She who pays the piper calls the tune.

    Rip em up, danno.

  11. Thank goodness for countries like Sweden.

    Yes. For an experiment I put “Captain Gars” in to DDG some minutes ago.
    I got the Gustavus Adolphus wiki.
    Perfect!

    Sweden is no longer that country, sadly.

  12. “War? We just do this for fun, don’t we?”

    SAC (Strategic Air Command) during the Cold War had the motto “Peace is our Profession”. A popular addition in the Alert Shack apparently was ” War is Just A Goddam Hobby”.

    1
  13. areffsays:

    August 27, 2021 at 7:47 pm

    It appears there are no Aborigines in WA who aren’t white.

    Seriously, any of the four could have sat a lunch counter in the old Deep South without being noticed.

    Do not adjust your sets.
    If Rosa Parks had the pallor of some Aborigines I see on TV she could have been driving the bus, no questions asked.

  14. My phone just randomly popped up a series of photos from two years ago. That simple normalcy has been completely extinguished.

    Australia is at the ragged edge of not a virus, but The Great Reset, so the elite can Build Back Better to their liking, at your expense.

  15. In Australia, the word “Liberal” is as a filth as the word “Labor”.

    If they want they stinking Liberal or Labor brands, let them have it.

    Liberty is a nice substitute given that Liberal means internationalist commie scum.

    1
  16. He doesn’t take kindly to female supervision but Hairy has passed the job on to me regardless.

    obviously you cannot explain yourself to a physical worker and Hairy wants nothing to do with you blaming the workers for your original fk ups.

    Thats ok.

    Your a woman.

    2
  17. the communists have controlled Australia since Federation.

    But they are Fabians.

    Karl Marx wrote his crap in the British Library.

    No one has destroyed his grave nor statues in London.

  18. People laughed when @Struth said there will be supply chain disruptions.

    I said inflation will go through the roof.

    Enjoy.

    2
  19. I cannot wait and actually demand that all coal fired power stations be shut down….. NOW.

  20. Also, I just don’t have any deep urge to conduct human sacrifices or throw poofs off tall buildings.

    ..
    Sure, for now, but it’s there in you somewhere, as indicated by the fact that individuals designed 99.999% with the same architecture of you, do such, and much worse, with a incredible frequency throughout history and down to this very second, that tells us you’re quite, quite fully capable of it.

    1
  21. The Great Reset presupposes that a country cannot pay its debts from their Tax Slaves.

    Interesting that Australia has destroyed ‘small business’ and borrowed a trillion, or 2, to prop up politicians, public servants and fk heads.

    1
  22. FlyingPigssays:

    August 27, 2021 at 9:26 pm

    People laughed when @Struth said there will be supply chain disruptions.

    They did.
    Thanks for the reminder.
    It is just over a year since it was predicted that we would see depleted supermarket shelves within a week (two weeks tops).

    1
  23. obviously you cannot explain yourself to a physical worker and Hairy wants nothing to do with you blaming the workers for your original fk ups.

    It not exactly a case of blaming Paddy. It’s just that there’s a ridge of metal under a new external door where the weather brushes attach and it is quite invisible – although quite audible scraping the tiles when you try to fully open the door. Not my fuck up at all. And I’m perfectly fine with physical workers. Why wouldn’t I be? I’ve been one myself many a time in me yoof. Hairy just wants me to calm ruffled Irish feathers with some smiles and eyelash batting, which I can very effectively do by pointing out how no-one knew about this hidden ridge and we of course will pay for any extra time and tiles needed to remedy the situation and that worse things happen at sea, etc.

  24. I have Irish, and I have feathers. Ruffled!
    And Scots, and feathers.
    And English bits also feathery.
    No Welsh though. Not even gull feathers. Many a Frenchman rued Welsh gull-feathers.
    Sometimes the currawongs and the cockies leave me feathers, which I gather up and give to my old mum. She’s an artist, and does excellent things with them.

  25. I actually believe that the 50 million diaspora Irish descendants should go and kick the shit out of the crapheads currently infesting Ireland.

    1
  26. Peeples – could we unite these competing  blogues, FFS?

    The non collectivists – all over the place because they object to a millimetre’s difference.

    It has to stop, I tells ya.  ?

  27. And the emojis are working a treat – except when they don’t, which would be all the time.

    Bludee hell! ?

  28. It is just over a year since it was predicted that we would see depleted supermarket shelves within a week (two weeks tops).

    but it did happen and its actually happening.

    notice that Struth did not lay out the when and how… he merely flagged it.

    show me that Coles and Woolworths did not increase their plane loads of supplies to Chyna?

    Which mob controls the Australian food chain?

  29. Won’t we all laugh when the meat from all the government licensed abattoirs is flown to Chyna and you in your sanctimonious Capital Cities eat rats and slugs!

  30. Sure, for now, but it’s there in you somewhere, as indicated by the fact that individuals designed 99.999% with the same architecture of you, do such, and much worse, with a incredible frequency throughout history and down to this very second, that tells us you’re quite, quite fully capable of it.

    I think you’ll find if you read carefully that the number of people who enjoy conducting human sacrifices and throwing Poofs off buildings is actually quite small, and that the numbers are largely augmented by those who go along to get along. Just as most ppl are not especially devout in their religion, but don’t wish to be singled out as backsliders by those who are devout. So they watch the sacrifices and burnings at the stake but their enthusiasm is for not being the next sacrifice or victim. They want to be in the gang, but not to lead it.

    But I’m sure you’re every bit as evil as you say you are. I’m glad therefore that the fear of God inhibits you. It doesn’t inhibit me, so my admirable restraint in not conducting human sacrifices by the light of the full moon must have another explanation. Mine is that I don’t think I should enjoy it. It sounds messy and unhygienic.

  31. OK – enough*

    These two blogues need to be experiencing a phenomenon known as “Unity”, sooner rather than later.

    *FFS, I hate spelling that word correctlee, I tells ya – it’s correctlee spelled “enuff”, as good ol’ JC would vouch (among others) … 🙂

  32. Donald Trump on Biden’s Afghanistan Withdrawal: “Single Most Embarrassing Moment in the History of Our Country”

    In an exclusive two-hour-long interview with Breitbart News at his golf club in northern New Jersey, former President Donald Trump discussed President Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. The interview took place on Wednesday evening, a day before the …
    https://www.lotuseaters.com/donald-trump-on-bidens-afghanistan-withdrawal-single-most-embarrassing-27-08-2021
    By Josh Ferme
    27th Aug at 12:25 pm

    2
  33. Cities consume the majority of natural resources and all they, the cities, produce is piss, shit and rubbish.

  34. It sounds messy and unhygienic.

    Also, to be candid, I should feel very silly. The druid outfit is, I presume, mandatory.

  35. Cities consume the majority of natural resources and all they, the cities, produce is piss, shit and rubbish.

    Those who live there vote Green, and lecture the rest of us about the need to adopt an environmentally sustainable life style……

  36. … and it isn’t a trivial delusion.
    It’s the same delusion that sees idiot libertarians welcoming refos from shitholes, sees people utilise prostitutes oblivious to the fact that the women have pimps who take all the money (if you actually thought about the nature of that trade for more than 30 seconds you would understand why that has to work that way), sees people imagine that the police should be given lots of power, and which sees prisons as venues for “rehabilitation”.

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  37. which sees prisons as venues for “rehabilitation”.

    ..
    Instead of what they really are: a means to keep violent creeps away from the more domesticated humans.

    1
  38. Australian Capital Cities, a minuscule fraction of the Australian island continent, want to control the lot…

  39. Cities in this stupid, stupid country have become semi open air prison kamps over the last two decades.

    Happee about this development are we? 🙁

  40. Cities in this stupid, stupid country have become semi open air prison kamps over the last two decades.

    Happee about this development are we? ?

  41. Dover – this blogue is almost top drawer except for the abuse of those poor li’l emojiis.

    You know yo want to set them free, Squire!

    1
  42. I don’t have a garage nor a truck nor a train.

    LOL… but I have thought for 50 years how you could take over Australia.

    The current scum are doing well in their takeover effort!

  43. It’s the same delusion that sees idiot libertarians welcoming refos from shitholes, sees people utilise prostitutes oblivious to the fact that the women have pimps who take all the money (if you actually thought about the nature of that trade for more than 30 seconds you would understand why that has to work that way), sees people imagine that the police should be given lots of power, and which sees prisons as venues for “rehabilitation”.

    I don’t believe any of those things, Arky. You aren’t talking about me, you have a most peculiar image of me which is a very poor fit to the reality. I don’t feel any interest in talking about myself but I’m really not the least bit like your strawman.

  44. If an Australian Politician calls themselves a ‘Liberal’ then I immediately identify them as an American style ‘progressive’.

  45. I don’t believe any of those things, Arky.

    ..
    I didn’t say you did.
    I said you shared the underlying delusion of human goodness.
    We’re rotten. Absolutely rotten, all of us. You too.
    The fact that you don’t recognise this basic fact of human nature makes you more dangerous, not less, as the listed errors of those who share the delusion demonstrates.

    1
  46. Headingley, Leeds, current temperature 16C, flanneled fools in long wooly jumpers, large noisey crowd.

    No COVID panic, no global warming, normality. It can be done. All it takes is Imagination – Imagine there’s no COVID, it isn’t hard to do…

  47. DrBeauGan

    A legendary figure in the unrelenting stroogle against fascism in this stupid, stupid country! 🙂

    1
  48. Imagine No Big Cities
    Dennis Prager Posted: Aug 24, 2021

    https://townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/2021/08/24/nis-prager-n2594620

    Remember John Lennon’s silly song, “Imagine”?

    Well, here’s my (much shorter) version.

    Imagine if some of the biggest cities in America seceded from their states. Imagine Illinois without Chicago, Pennsylvania without Philadelphia, California without Los Angeles or San Francisco, New York state without New York City, or Texas without Houston, Dallas or San Antonio.

    Those states would lose a major tax base and some of their best orchestras and other artistic institutions. But the gains in quality of life would completely offset any financial or artistic losses.

    Big cities have been and continue to be centers of destructive ideas, and the people living in them are generally coarser and often just plain meaner. Of course, there are decent individuals in big cities and obnoxious people outside of big cities. But having a greater proportion of nice to obnoxious is more likely in smaller cities and other non-urban areas. Everyone reading this knows that one is more likely to be treated warmly when entering a store or dining in a restaurant in Cooperstown, New York, than in Brooklyn, New York; in Laramie, Wyoming, than in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

    As regards bad and destructive ideas, big cities almost hold a monopoly.

  49. Imagine Victoria without the weight of Melbourne.

    Imagine NSW without the weight of Sydney.

    Imagine Queensland without the weight of Brisbane,

  50. We’re rotten. Absolutely rotten, all of us. You too.

    I don’t think it’s as simple as that. Most people are capable of behaving atrociously in a crowd. That’s because most people are natural slaves who need someone else to tell them what to do, think and feel. If the guy who tells them is a homicidal lunatic, they’ll be homicidal lunatics, just to keep in with the crowd. If it’s Jesus Christ in charge, they’ll behave charitably and decently.

    I’m poor slave material, otherwise known as an arrogant, antisocial bastard. I prefer to work things out for myself. If I felt an urge to conduct a human sacrifice, I’d carefully figure out how to get away with it. But I don’t.

    Perhaps I really am a nicer person than you are. It’s a dreadful thought, but I’m brave enough to consider the possibility.

  51. DrBeauGan

    do you get your cigars rolled on the thighs of humans???

    Probably not, fp. They’ve run out of virgins in Cuba. And non-virgins tend to have hairy legs which ruins the flavour.

  52. Talking slavery, Mick Jagger now much regrets recording Brown Sugar. Notwithstanding, it is one of the greatest riffs of all time (Mick Taylor).

  53. I am so looking forward to the closure of coal and gas fired power stations and watching the green luddites make their coffee.

  54. Probably not, fp. They’ve run out of virgins in Cuba. And non-virgins tend to have hairy legs which ruins the flavour.

    An Islam bloke can get you a slave.

    What color skin??

  55. Dunno how accurate the maths is on this BG, I think they have horribly understated Mao’s contribution.

    Relatively few Maos, lots of Red Guards.

    I used to think the world would be a better place if more ppl thought for themselves, but having seen some of them try and fail for lack of the requisite wet-ware, I’ve come to doubt it.

    Maybe if someone invents a way of doubling the IQ of everybody then gets them to think for themselves it might work. Hell, just adding forty points to everyone might do it. We seem to be going in the opposite direction.

  56. Boy, it’s hard to get praise around here.

    I saw it
    couldn’t tell if it was deep deep sarcasm or holy truth

  57. Technology of killing people has advanced considerably, Arky. Genghis Khan would have done more if he’d had nukes. Also, population has gone up since medicine got some science in it, so the moderns have an advantage in straight body count.

    I don’t think we’re intrinsically better people than our ancestors, but we are much wealthier so can afford to be kinder. We’re probably more cowardly and more detached from reality, which allows crowds to go insane more readily.

  58. Arkysays:
    August 27, 2021 at 11:28 pm
    I don’t believe any of those things, Arky.

    ..
    I didn’t say you did.
    I said you shared the underlying delusion of human goodness.
    We’re rotten. Absolutely rotten, all of us. You too.
    The fact that you don’t recognise this basic fact of human nature makes you more dangerous, not less, as the listed errors of those who share the delusion demonstrates.

    The fact that you entertain that misunderstanding of human nature makes you very dangerous because it gives you license to behave like a sociopathic killer. Most human beings are not inherently violent, do not wish harm on others, and have recognised that co-operation is a better long term strategy. The known history of human evolution points to ever increasing co-operation and a decline in violence on a per capita basis.

  59. Happy to see this because while everyone was thinking REM sleep was about cognition I have long thought it was about brain cleansing. Not proven yet but it makes sense to me.
    Why the dreaming phase matters
    Why the dreaming phase matters (medicalxpress.com)

    Given that reduced blood flow in the brain and decreased REM sleep are correlated with the development of Alzheimer’s disease, which involves the buildup of waste products in the brain, it may be interesting to address whether increased blood flow in the brain capillaries during REM sleep is important for waste removal from the brain. This study lays preliminary groundwork for future investigations into the role of adenosine A2a receptors in this process, which could ultimately lead to the development of new treatments for conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.

  60. *sees people utilise prostitutes oblivious to the fact that the women have pimps who take all the money*

    So it’s slavery? Okay, explain Only Fans, Sugar Babies and sex worker tax returns.

    You have thought about this for about three seconds, which you have smugly said wrong-thinkers do.

    Streetwalkers maybe.

  61. ever increasing co-operation and a decline in violence on a per capita basis.

    ..
    Sounds incredibly effeminate.

    1
  62. “We’re rotten. Absolutely rotten, all of us.”

    No, we’re not.

    Stop projecting. Your thesis is also heretical.

  63. Arkysays:
    August 28, 2021 at 12:22 am
    ever increasing co-operation and a decline in violence on a per capita basis.

    ..
    Sounds incredibly effeminate.

    You are very dangerous.

  64. You are very dangerous.

    Don’t worry, John H, you’ve seen him in his videos. If you see him coming, you can hide.

  65. The known history of human evolution points to ever increasing co-operation and a decline in violence on a per capita basis.

    I put that down to affluence. Nothing more. Humans are violent bastards. They have to be, in order to survive, and they will do anything to remove another food drain because if you’re hungry enough yu’ll do anything.

    Take the electricity and food away, and your average punters will be killing each other in the street with mallets inside 36 hours.

  66. explain Only Fans, Sugar Babies and sex worker tax returns.

    ..
    Very, very, very recent developments. And temporary ones.
    The life of a prostitute for the vast majority of history starts in a cathouse doing it in return for food and board, with the madam handling all the money, then once the prostitute is old, infected or otherwise not required, out into street prostitution. Street prostitutes get managed by street pimps.
    I dare say a minority of chicks with some business sense can for a time make money doing it. But it’s a minority.

  67. Don’t worry, John H, you’ve seen him in his videos. If you see him coming, you can hide.

    Also, he’s told you he’s an evil shit. Now dot is a nice guy you could trust…

  68. Take the electricity and food away, and your average punters will be killing each other in the street with mallets inside 36 hours

    Been saying this for years. One good solar flare to take out all the servers on the planet and the affluent West will violently fall apart. Ancient Ukrainian grannies, Mongolian camel herders and remote African tribesmen will continue life as usual.

    2
  69. Take the electricity and food away, and your average punters will be killing each other in the street with mallets inside 36 hours

    ..
    Hurricane Katrina, the Superdome:

    Inside the Superdome, things were descending further into hell. The air smelled toxic. People had broken up into factions by race, separating into small groups throughout the building that the National Guard struggled to control. A few of these groups wandered the concourse, stealing food and attacking anyone who stood up to them.

    The tiny jail cell down in the bowels of the Dome, which they kept for game-day security, was filling up. A man had been caught sexually assaulting a young girl. Reports of other rapes were widespread. Three people died in the Superdome; one apparently jumped off a 50-foot high walkway.

    Supplies were running low, and as the National Guard began to ration things like water and diapers the crowd grew incensed and accused them of hoarding goods for their own use.

  70. Take the electricity and food away, and your average punters will be killing each other in the street with mallets inside 36 hours

    I think you’d find that most of them will wait for someone to tell them what to do and look for some authority to do the telling. If they don’t find anyone, they’ll starve to death. Meanwhile, Arky will be out with his mallet inside thirty six minutes.

    It’s very distasteful, but I might have to start telling ppl what to do. First we’d establish some corp d’ esprit by lynching politicians. Then we’d offer our services to a farmer or two, food in exchange for protection.

    It’s a well travelled route.

  71. It’s very distasteful, but I might have to start telling ppl what to do. First we’d establish some corp d’ esprit by lynching politicians. Then we’d offer our services to a farmer or two, food in exchange for protection.

    ..
    So after only a relatively minor year or so of petty tyranny, you’re already wanting to murder people and stand over some peasants.
    That didn’t take long.

  72. So after only a relatively minor year or so of petty tyranny, you’re already wanting to murder people and stand over some peasants.
    That didn’t take long.

    Sure. I never said I was a nice guy, just nicer than you. And I shan’t do it unless faced with starvation.

  73. Knuckle Draggersays:
    August 28, 2021 at 12:29 am
    The known history of human evolution points to ever increasing co-operation and a decline in violence on a per capita basis.

    I put that down to affluence. Nothing more. Humans are violent bastards. They have to be, in order to survive, and they will do anything to remove another food drain because if you’re hungry enough yu’ll do anything.

    Take the electricity and food away, and your average punters will be killing each other in the street with mallets inside 36 hours.

    During times of crisis the average punter will help put the pieces back together, there are a few who go berserk. There are examples of people being evil, there are many more examples of people choosing other ways to solve problems. I’ve read Milgram and Zimbardo, and I’ve also read how dodgy and suspect those social experiments were. If you going to argue that all hell breaks loose when crises because of some inner demon within us, as if you subscribe to the Calvinist concept of original sin, you need to explain why so many do not fall prey to unbridled violence in times of chaos.

    Instead of good and evil, think of cost and benefit. In times of crisis violence is a short term solution adopted by some. The long term solution is co-operation, which requires delayed gratification. So groups of co-operators emerge. Groups of violent individuals also emerge but don’t tend to last because as a whole they lack delayed gratification and hence tend to tear the group apart. That in part explains the changes in the human brain over the last 2 million years because frontal lobe maturation is critical for delayed gratification, impulse control, and understanding other people. The smarter and productive people demonstrate better delayed gratification.

  74. And I shan’t do it unless faced with starvation.

    And I wouldn’t enjoy it. I hate telling ppl what to do nearly as much as I hate being told what to do.

  75. During times of crisis the average punter will help put the pieces back together, there are a few who go berserk.

    It depends on the nature of the crisis.

    Let us know your address, some of us might want to eat you. You’ll doubtless cooperate.

  76. Unicorn shit.

    If he tells me his address, Arky, I’ll pass it on to you. In exchange for a steak or two.

  77. Neil Thomas On His Book “Taking Leave of Darwin: A Longtime Agnostic Discovers the Case for Design”

    The Eric Metaxas Radio Show Published August 27, 2021

    https://rumble.com/vlr7xd-neil-thomas-on-his-book-taking-leave-of-darwin-a-longtime-agnostic-discover.html?mref=5f67r&mc=7xi0y

    Rumble — From England, Neil Thomas, part of the Discovery Institute, looks into one of the sacred cows of atheists with his book, “Taking Leave of Darwin: A Longtime Agnostic Discovers the Case for Design.”

  78. Isaiah 5:20
    Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

    1
  79. DrBeauGansays:
    August 28, 2021 at 1:30 am
    During times of crisis the average punter will help put the pieces back together, there are a few who go berserk.

    It depends on the nature of the crisis.

    Let us know your address, some of us might want to eat you. You’ll doubtless cooperate.

    Please come. We’ll have whole place will be booby trapped and I’ll guarantee a slow painful death for anyone who dares cross the threshold. Co-operators are better at killing. You are confusing co-operation with passivity.

    Arkysays:
    August 28, 2021 at 1:31 am
    John H.says:
    August 28, 2021 at 1:26 am

    ..
    Unicorn shit.

    You’ve already proven you believe in fairy tales so no need to invoke more fairy tales. Obviously you are too stupid to understand how evolution works.

  80. Well, this forum has really come into its own now. The discussion above was just like ole times. I found it most enjoyable, about what we know of human nature, the human mind and its evolution under the circumstances of small group survival. Obviously a range of pressures, some of them contradictory to each other in results, produced the complex mind/body mechanism that is the human species. And many would say that God intervened there somewhere too, introducing self-knowledge and a conscience; others might say that pressures just produced survival aggression, especially but not entirely in males, tempered by in-group sympathies and recognition, especially but not entirely in females, which evolutionists suggest explains our at times ‘inexplicable’ altruism putting group before self.

    So groups of co-operators emerge. Groups of violent individuals also emerge but don’t tend to last because as a whole they lack delayed gratification and hence tend to tear the group apart. That in part explains the changes in the human brain over the last 2 million years because frontal lobe maturation is critical for delayed gratification, impulse control, and understanding other people. The smarter and productive people demonstrate better delayed gratification.

    But the chimp brain still survives, because aggression can have survival value. As can empathy.

    The ‘mouse’ experiments could be illustrative for us too. When there are too many in a confined space, then chaos and decline eventuates, even if food is plentiful. When food is not plentiful then only the strong elite survive. As Dr. BG says upthread, history is replete with the failure of stable wider cultures and the resultant rise in warlordism. It is the usual way of things. Read Gildas for his account of the rise of warlordism as Rome loosed its hold on Britain from the 4th century onwards.

    I am not fond of ancient South American civilisations; mostly they showed how cultures living on an environmental precipice, where a storable food surplus resulted in many people, existing marginally. But as these places also suffered regular droughts and famines, the situation produced a bloodthirsty culture where elites used surplus population for extensive human sacrifice. The more pain in the sacrifice, all the better to appease the weather gods.

    As someone said quite a way upthread, no wonder Christianity, which stopped these sacrifices, was a choice many readily accepted. It also tended to ‘civilise’ warlordism. See King Alfred for that. Note I said Alfred, not Arthur. Arthur in my thesis was the ancient god Odin, god of the European Iron Age, and also of warlord Vikings.

  81. Elizabeth (Lizzie) I would like to talk with you off site re dilemma I have at the moment . I believe from your posts and your life experience you could be some help.

  82. John H, overnight:

    If you going to argue that all hell breaks loose when crises because of some inner demon within us, as if you subscribe to the Calvinist concept of original sin, you need to explain why so many do not fall prey to unbridled violence in times of chaos.

    It’s not about original sin or inner demons. It is in our nature. To eat, to not be eaten, to make more of us (by fair means or foul) and not to die. That’s it.

    We do not, as a general rule, capture and eat other people’s children to survive because we undoubtedly live in the most affluent period in human history.

    As a species, we are the equivalent of coddled rich kids. When the slightest blip appears on our otherwise untrammelled existence of long life, comfort, shelter and food it becomes a monumental, Mount Everest of an issue that the people of only a couple of centuries ago wouldn’t have blinked at.

    2
  83. I don’t agree kd.
    When was the last time cannibalism of the dead, let alone the living was a regular feature of western civilisation?

  84. Min, delighted to engage in a private email conversation. I am sure we have things in common to talk about. I don’t know if Dover will give out emails as Sinc did, but here’s asking, Dover can you please put Min in touch with me?

  85. Stephen Meyer—Return of God Hypothesis: 3 Scientific Discoveries Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On-4lOWuWQQ

    May 29, 2021
    Skeptic
    Beginning in the late 19th century, many intellectuals began to insist that scientific knowledge conflicts with traditional theistic belief — that science and belief in God are “at war.” Philosopher of science Stephen Meyer challenges this view by examining three scientific discoveries with decidedly theistic implications. Building on the case for the intelligent design of life that he developed in Signature in the Cell and Darwin’s Doubt, Meyer claims that discoveries in cosmology and physics coupled with those in biology help to establish the identity of the designing intelligence behind life and the universe. Previously Meyer refrained from attempting to answer questions about “who” might have designed life. Now he provides an evidence-based answer to perhaps the ultimate mystery of the universe.

    Shermer responds to each claim and a stimulating and enlightening conversation ensues.

    Note: It is Dr. Shermer’s intention in his podcast to periodically talk to people with whom skeptics and scientists may disagree. In some episodes Dr. Shermer tries to “steel man” a position held by someone with differing views — that is, he says in his own words what he thinks the other person is arguing — but in this case the other person is in the conversation and can represent his own position clearly, which is what happens. As well, such conversations enable principles of skepticism to be employed in ways constructive to those who hold views not necessarily embraced by skeptics and scientists. Such principles should be embraced by all seekers of truth, and that is why we want to talk to people with whom we may disagree.

  86. Megan, I too have had occasional thoughts about how the world might cope with a huge electronic pulse that puts out our digital civilisation. It doesn’t present a pretty picture, for many would die and violence would at first prevail, but as in the best dystopian novels small pockets of c0-operating people would come together under weapon-wielding warlords to rebuild again into new forms of wider civilisations based initially on tribal affiliations. That is what one might call the longue duree.

    Egypt didn’t die after the Santorini blowout sent a tsunami crashing into Crete and the Egyptian Delta, but it had to suffer ten years of Akhenaten’s single sun-god appeasement before rising slowly again. And in 536AD a world-wide volcanic winter from an Indonesian volcanic major (one theory) changed a lot (Arthur the sun-god for instance is recorded in the Annales Cambrae as dying then), but it didn’t wipe out all human life and cultures.

    Gotta go, dance class starting online now.

  87. Hello, hello, is this thing on?

    Last comment I can see is Lizzie’s at 9.27. A refresh doesn’t bring up any more.

    Maybe it’s just a quiet Saturday.

  88. Lol, Top Ender, I think I must have scared them away. Too serious. Hope not. The conversation was flowing well before that and interesting.

    Perhaps they all went searching for online exercise and dance classes. They won’t find ours though as we are a self-selected private paying group. Joining them in real time three mornings a week is a great way to exchange a few pleasantries and keep the sense of doing something together. Today the dance leader’s cat came ambling in and did a tummy presentation to her as cats are wont to do when they are happy and in the middle of their own living room. Attapuss did the same to me. A routine using some high kicks seems to have sent them both out, hitting the identical cat vibe.

  89. Easier still. Get min into zippy’s or Nilk’s
    Discord and private message each other

    Yes. Cassie has mentioned this to me. I haven’t worked it out yet.
    Email is probably more likely to get my attention and I am happy to share mine.

  90. Purple/blue button top left corner of main screen.

    Click that, then you are in direct messages

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