Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1558
3,831 thoughts on “Open Thread – Mon 31 Jan 2022”
This government is a train wreck.
Up there with Gough Whitlam!
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Intimations of Mortality – two of my contemporaries, now dead way before their time.
The First: A fit man who had a brain tumour excised about 12 years ago. In remission. Clot shots twice, recently, cancer revisits him and it’s over.
The second: My ophthalmologist – a genial professional and medical master. Qualified physician who then became an eye specialist because he couldn’t bear to see* people lose their sight. Last saw him in 2019 when he pronounced an annoying problem with my right eye as undiagnosable. He appeared to be in good health and good spirits, although sporting a leg injury, allegedly obtained while skiing.
They are now dead, as far as I’m concerned, courtesy of the clot shots. If that makes me a conspiracy hypothesist nutter, then so be it. 😕
*Not a pun
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Yep, like when I, a small, elderly white woman got pinged more than once for the explosives test at domestic airports while groups of young men of Middle Eastern appearance were waved through.
LOL my PB is 3 in one day. Townsville on the QF969 run to start the day. Had to do a quick run into Brisbane for a meeting, explosive residue checked again on the way back through the airport in Brisbane. Down to Sydney, had to sort something there of a personal nature then checked again when I went back through for my flight down to Melbourne final destination. By this time I had the sihts at again being trace tested and protested, had some young bint on a power trip who tried to lecture me the importance. She didn’t like me pointing out that maybe they were targeting white males to fluff their numbers and that the chances of “randomly” being tested 3 times in a day was pushing boundaries.
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Dotsays:
February 4, 2022 at 8:14 pm
Any particular Protestant doctrine you have in mind Dot?
All of them.
I notice you weren’t at all anxious to discuss the exercise of Papal infallibility by Pius XII in 1950.
Presumably you’d defend that to the death as absolute truth?
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Move down to Canberra in the Wet season, they said.
Great weather down there, said all.
It’s 11 degrees here tonight!
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Areff would remember one of the great myths of Melbourne public transport.
The benevolent tram conductor (or “connie” as they were known by their fans).
When they were ditched in favour of automated ticketing in one form or another, their supporters ran months and months of heartwarming tales of the social worth of connies far beyond the mere sale of tickets.
They helped young mothers board with prams.
They held up the tram whilst they walked frail Anzac veterans to the kerb.
They reconciled fractious couples.
They gently encouraged shy teenagers to pluck up the courage to ask the girl from Stop 51 out to the pictures.
With a wink and a nod they gave impoverished urchins a free ride to the footy.
They sang.
They joked.
They were the poets and philosophers of the rails.
Except they weren’t.
No-one except a few Age journalists, union officials and ALP politicians ever witnessed these events.
Almost without exception, Melbourne tram connies were among the most surly, indolent and objectionable arseholes to walk upon the face of the earth.
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What we have to come to grips with is that ‘reading’ is not what it was.
Like it or not, most young people read online.
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Barnaby Joyce is correct.
Of this I am certain.
Change my mind!
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It’s 11 degrees here tonight!
TE – I lived in Canberra from January 2011 until April 2017.
The weather/climate there is unlike any other Australian city. I remember entire 12 month periods where there was no summer.
A typical “summer” in the ACT consists of non stop forty degree days* from mid December until mid February (i.e. eight weeks). Then it’s back to the cool.
*Thankfully with zero humidity
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H B Bear says:
February 4, 2022 at 6:14 pm
The Media Watchdog returns for 2022
Due to enormous popular demand, Jackie emerged from her kennel early. Issue 572,
24 January 2022
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Growing Up Surrounded by Books Could Have Powerful, Lasting Effect on the Mind
This is a great truth.
Although surrounding oneself with books in and of itself is not enough.
It doesn’t work by osmosis.
Apparently you have to actually read some of them.
This is where upper secondary and tertiary education becomes a problem. It can turn someone who reads long tomes for pleasure into someone who “snack reads” morsels of research to jump through academic hoops.
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Almost without exception, Melbourne tram connies were among the most surly, indolent and objectionable arseholes to walk upon the face of the earth.
Especially the one who was condemned to death for pushing a non-fare paying passenger into the path of following traffic.
The electric chair didn’t work on him. He was a bad conductor.
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The electric chair didn’t work on him. He was a bad conductor.
How do you spell “excruciating?”
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Rabz, you have passed 50, people you thought would live forever have started dropping off the twig. Welcome to what are politely called the ‘autumn years.’
Tell me about it. A friend I had known for 30 years got Motor Neurone Disease and died. A guy I’ve been friends with since university dropped dead from a heart attack. And so on.
My old man had his 95th birthday the other day. None of his friends are alive to celebrate it. Not one.
The benefits of longevity may be overestimated.
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It is not a fact that nobody considers that explanation. It’s brute obvious to myself
I’m glad to hear you can see the bleeding obvious. Sometimes, anyway. Your quotation didn’t mention it.
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““He is a hypocrite and a liar from my observations and that is over a long time. I have never trusted him and I dislike how he earnestly rearranges the truth to a lie,” Mr Joyce wrote.”
Unreal.
How dumb is this cockhead?
The other day he was saying that the Minister who described Scotty as a Psycho should out herself and resign.
3
Double Dekkabus. Didn’t he play for Pakistan?
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That’s right Roger, council of Trent, done and dusted.
The benefits of longevity may be overestimated
Agreed, but is there a perfect age at which to bow out?
75?
80?
xx?
3
I can accept Kelly as PM, Latho as opposition leader and Limbrick in the Senate heading up the bloc holding the balance of power?
We can only hope.
6
And harking back to discussion of moules frites as of yesterday I can attest it is possible to have not very nice ones.
Today is moules gratinees. Much better.
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The benefits of longevity may be overestimated.
Great grandmother passed away at the age of 103 – she always said that the first hundred years had been fun, but the second hundred wasn’t as much fun.
Born in the year of Custer’s Last Stand, came to Australia by sailing ship, and watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon..
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DrBeauGansays:
February 4, 2022 at 10:30 pm
It is not a fact that nobody considers that explanation. It’s brute obvious to myself
I’m glad to hear you can see the bleeding obvious. Sometimes, anyway. Your quotation didn’t mention it.
Doc that happened because it was written by a journalist. (:
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Three score and ten being the definitive standard. If I make to that, all bets are off.
And no Cats, that’s not any time soon.
Many, many hookers, container loads of drugs, multiple brand new European sports cars, tri state chases and going out in spectacular (e.g. off a massive cliff into an equally cavernous canyon) style.
It will happen. If it’s the last activity that I ever engage in on this planet. 🙂
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… but is there a perfect age at which to bow out?
A fair bit past 95, i’d say.
People get ground down by the rat race, think they’ve gotta take the same drugs everybody else does, such as the Piss, Vaccines, Uppers, Downers, pills for a headache, sleeplessness, being a fat slob, then before they know it they’re worn out at 60.
Gotta say i’m surprised that an Ophthalmologist would take any vaxxine, let alone the Covid Vaccine, why would anyone with a brain do that?
Almost without exception, Melbourne tram connies were among the most surly, indolent and objectionable arseholes to walk upon the face of the earth.
I’d say the ratios were a bit different, but yes, there were enough of the objectionable ones that the “connies” campaign failed to gain traction with the public.
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He who dies with the most toys wins.
The Catholics appear to have bought that doctrine too, just quietly.
Born in the year of Custer’s Last Stand
Wow!
Born during the seige of the Alamo by the Navajo and lived to see Noel Armfield go to the moon.
I’d say the ratios were a bit different, but yes, there were enough of the objectionable ones that the “connies” campaign failed to gain traction with the public.
Yes.
The soppy sentimentalism churned out by the likes of the Brothers Flanagan in the Age didn’t quite match the “lived experience” of the travelling public.
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Wow!
Born during the seige of the Alamo by the Navajo and lived to see Noel Armfield go to the moon.
That’s a large single malt and a new keyboard you owe me.
1
To be fair Tim are there any universally agreed ‘protestant doctrines’?
Dot is at liberty to tell me what he thinks are Protestant doctrines that he describes as “low hanging fruit”. He’s the one that made the big statement so it’s up to him to justify it. I’ll then have the discussion with him.
I didn’t want to be dragged into a critique of Catholicism. The Catholic Church is a gift from God to humanity. However it is threatened on the one side by ridiculous superstitious nonsense like Pius XII’s papal infallibility exercise in 1950 and on the other by blasphemous secular humanist treachery like almost everything Pope Trotsky says and does. No doubt God will answer the prayers of the faithful and rescue it. However that won’t be easy. In the meantime I don’t see why Protestants like me can’t question the drive by sneers of ignorant mental dwarves like Dot.
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I looked up my building’s architect Eugene Violette de Duc last night, apparently he developed a plan to revonate Narbonne Cathedral but it was rejected because it was too expensive.
I knew there was a choir and after walking around, an ambulatory, but the information board suggested the first section of the nave had been built, which was a puzzle until I walked outside to the other end. There is the unroofed walls of a nave and that’s it.
Imagine if they had finished it.
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I notice you weren’t at all anxious to discuss the exercise of Papal infallibility by Pius XII in 1950.
Presumably you’d defend that to the death as absolute truth?
God, yes.
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Ed Casesays:
February 4, 2022 at 10:44 pm
… but is there a perfect age at which to bow out?
A fair bit past 95
Mummy’s not 95, Ed.
Mummy’s dead, Ed.
Mummy’s dead.
2
Agreed, but is there a perfect age at which to bow out?
As long as the machine is still working ans hasn’t conspired to torment you. That old.
The net is a godsend with regards to ageing IMHO. At least you can find some like minded company of sorts rather than rotting away in isolation.
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Born during the siege of the Alamo by the Navajo and lived to see Noel Armfield go to the moon
The siege of the Alamo was a toddlers’ tea party compared to the Vogon’s unrelenting 70 year siege of Machu Picchu in the 15th Century.
You can criticise poor ol’ Faulty all you like, but his recounting of various historical events is about as reliable as that of a dead roadside wombat reminiscing about his role in Glen Wheatley’s income maximisation schemes … 😕
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FFS – the Vogons’ – now they’ll be after me!
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Born in the year of Custer’s Last Stand, came to Australia by sailing ship, and watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon..
I’ve always marvelled at that kind of consequence of longevity.
A friend of mine’s great grandfather was the older brother of Steve Hart of the Kelly Gang, so his grandfather and his grandfather’s siblings were nephews and nieces of Steve Hart. He had a great aunt who was born in about 1870 and lived to be 100. When she was very little the family lived in a farm near Benalla on the edge of what was then a large wilderness. When the great aunt was very young her parents gave her a bag of food, pointed her up a bush track and said “walk up this track till you see Uncle Steve, give him this food and then come straight back. And if you see anyone else, don’t tell them anything about wat you’re doing.” It was only later that she realised that that was at a time when the Kelly Gang were in hiding from the law. So, in 1970, there was still someone alive who had helped the Kelly Gang evade the police.
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That’s okay Tim but my long personal experience is that Catholics spend virtually zero time on what protestants believe, whereas protestants seem to spend an inordinate amount of time critiquing Catholicism.
It’s almost as if they constantly need to feel justified.
I additionally object to the constant claims that Catholicism isn’t a Christian religion and attempts to draw people away from the church, often with outright lies.
In addition seems to me some denominations need to concentrate on getting the logs out of their own eyes.
Anglicans for example openly ordain ‘married’ homosexuals.
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Anglicans for example openly ordain ‘married’ homosexuals.
I’m shocked!
If they openly ordained ‘closeted’ homosexuals, would you be okay with that?
And, in “Hoist by your own petard” news …
Privately O’Keefe blames his arrests and subsequent charges on his victims, the police and the very system that protects women and victims of violence that he helped build and reform.
He has told friends the system had previously been biased against women but there had been an “over-correction” that loaded the system against men.
Poor Andrew.
Smugly brow-beating people from his morning telly throne, only to find the very AVO system he advocated has snookered him behind the baulk line.
I am trying to empathise.
Really I am.
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He has told (now erstwhile) friends “the system” had previously been biased against women but there had been an “over-correction” that loaded “the system” against men
Timothy.
That’s seriously cool.
A link like that to a near mythical mob.
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dover0beachsays:
February 4, 2022 at 10:58 pm
I notice you weren’t at all anxious to discuss the exercise of Papal infallibility by Pius XII in 1950.
Presumably you’d defend that to the death as absolute truth?
God, yes.
dover I don’t doubt for a second that God had power to do it if He wanted to. That is, it may be true. But as a subject matter for an exercise of supposed Papal infallibility it was idiotic.
As a question of fact it’s either true or false. I would have thought that the Catholic Church would have learned from the Galileo fiasco not to make dogmatic pronouncements about matters of pure fact not addressed and attested to in the Scriptures.
And if the dogma is meant to require people to believe it whether or not it’s true, that’s totally contrary to Christianity. Yes, we’re meant to live in part by faith, but that doesn’t mean that the Church should just make pronouncements on matters unattested in the Scriptures and then say there’s a moral obligation to believe it just because someone in 1950 wants you to.
Of all the things a Pope could have chosen as a subject matter for an exercise of supposed infallibility, that would have to be about the stupidest one that could have been selected.
3
That’s okay Tim but my long personal experience is that Catholics spend virtually zero time on what protestants believe, whereas protestants seem to spend an inordinate amount of time critiquing Catholicism.
Take a look at this thread. Was it me or Dot who started the sniping? I regret having been sucked into it.
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We are each responsible for our own posts.
Also good old Galileo.
What’s next?
Crusades?
I haven’t consumed a single glass of wine since I’ve arrived in Europe but I’m going to lash out and buy a half bottle today.
Or maybe one of 99c tetra packs at the supermarche.
1
With Galileo, it was more the manner than the content.
1
not surprisingly after producing an extraordinary percentage of the world’s wine before 1962, the remaining Algieran vineyards mostly produce table grapes
Most interesting link, thank you.
1
Exactly Franx
Little to do with science and much to do with rudeness.
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Sancho, spot on about conductors. Nasty on the trams, worse on the buses — especially if you were on the way to a private school and the connie was a lank-haired, malodorous labor-voting class warrior who really, really resented you.
The first time I ever heard the word ‘poofters’ was on a bus descending Studley Park Road into Collingwood — ‘youse poofters’ being the connie’s greeting to a couple of 10-year-olds.
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Born in the year of Custer’s Last Stand, came to Australia by sailing ship, and watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon..
Lucky lady. She witnessed western civilization take rapid steps to its peak in 1969. Electricity, radio, tv, film, cars, planes and rockets all invented within her lifetime. The future would have seemed so full of potential.
But no. Didn’t quite happen that way.
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Lucky lady. She witnessed western civilization take rapid steps to its peak in 1969
Pay that one, jupes.
4
Demographer Ed, on lifespans:
A fair bit past 95
They meant years, Ed. Not fahrenheit degrees. Keep her cool or the insects will get at her.
Can only speak of FB, depends on what you want out of it.
I have family connections and lots of interesting building and hobby sites.
No banning on these, and I’m yet see anything posted that is political.
Plenty on the family site but LOL.
2
I am staying up to watch Father Ted to see if it gives me any great insight in to matters raised on here..
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Zulu,
Cameron Highlanders (aka The Poison Dwarves) used to be armed in Church.
They were disbanded, not amalgamated.
Not saying the two were related.
4
Rabzsays:
February 4, 2022 at 10:33 pm
The benefits of longevity may be overestimated
Agreed, but is there a perfect age at which to bow out?
75?
80?
xx?
Two French doctors were at a party smoking and were chided for doing so. One replied that longevity is over rated. There may be something to that. In Aus men over 80 commit suicide at the highest rate of any demographic. We are living longer, and longer with disability, with pain, with failing sensory and cognitive faculties.
People wonder why I have gone back to the gym. They haven’t seen the data. Even a study released this week highlighted that to prevent musculoskeletal pain old coots must be at least once a week do some type of moderate to intense exercise. I read that yesterday but couldn’t think of a physiological reason until this morning. I hope to write that up on my blog.
5
Two French doctors were at a party smoking and were chided for doing so. One replied that longevity is over rated. There may be something to that. In Aus men over 80 commit suicide at the highest rate of any demographic. We are living longer, and longer with disability, with pain, with failing sensory and cognitive faculties.
People wonder why I have gone back to the gym. They haven’t seen the data. Even a study released this week highlighted that to prevent musculoskeletal pain old coots must be at least once a week do some type of moderate to intense exercise. I read that yesterday but couldn’t think of a physiological reason until this morning. I hope to write that up on my blog.
Historically, we were not meant to live beyond 50-60 years of age as life was hard on the body and mind. Also we didn’t have remedies for many basic illnesses.
Life is worth living as long as you can find a purpose for your life.
Once you lose purpose, life becomes intolerable 🙁
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There was another absolute cracker of longevity I saw.
On American television in 1956 a 96 year old man was interviewed.
He described how, as a 5 year old, he was taken to the theatre by an aunt and saw John Wilkes Booth shoot Abraham Lincoln.
It’s accessible on the internet.
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Franx says:
February 4, 2022 at 11:41 pm With Galileo, it was more the manner than the content.
Read a book many years ago (packed away somewhere) that stated Galileo was possibly the most abrasive prick who ever lived.
Most of his troubles were due to this fact and not the doctrine of the Church.
3
but that doesn’t mean that the Church should just make pronouncements on matters unattested in the Scriptures
This is the whole point I am making.
The Catholic Church does this the least and usually with good reason.
“The King of England is the Head of the Church”
“Communion is poison”
“It is totally legitimate to give a sermon like a Tony Robbins seminar”
“We can can change what is in the Bible, we need those dinner parties”
1
Timothy Neilsonsays:
February 5, 2022 at 12:48 am
There was another absolute cracker of longevity I saw.
On American television in 1956 a 96 year old man was interviewed.
He described how, as a 5 year old, he was taken to the theatre by an aunt and saw John Wilkes Booth shoot Abraham Lincoln.
It’s accessible on the internet.
I hope this is clear enough. Honestly I tried to make it so!
OK I’ll break the bad news now. Longevity has a very pronounced genetic component. There is even a biological clock(Horvath’s clock) that can measure our biological age with reasonable accuracy by the rate of DNA methylation(epigenetics). Methylation is the latest you beaut craze in genetics. Methyl groups attach to specific portions of the DNA changing the rate of gene expression. A few weeks ago I read a study which demonstrated that demethylating T cells DNA could be very important in enhancing tumour destruction.
When the mice were studied after two months of progressive weighted wheel running, it was determined that they were the epigenetic age of mice eight weeks younger than sedentary mice of the same age—24 months. Murach noted that while the specific strain of mice and their housing conditions can impact lifespans, “historically, they start dropping off after 24 months at a significant rate.” Needless to say, when your lifespan is measured in months, an extra eight weeks—roughly 10 percent of that lifespan—is a noteworthy gain.
The good news. It is only since 2000 that research into longevity has been a serious undertaking. We’ve learned a great deal. So while to date longevity is very much genetically driven there is no reason to think that will always be the case. The basics are obvious but there are other possibilities like NMN, fasting, restricted eating time, and add your favourite remedy here XXXX.
1
Fat Tonysays:
February 5, 2022 at 12:52 am
Franx says:
February 4, 2022 at 11:41 pm
With Galileo, it was more the manner than the content.
Read a book many years ago (packed away somewhere) that stated Galileo was possibly the most abrasive prick who ever lived.
Most of his troubles were due to this fact and not the doctrine of the Church.
Ya really think he was justified in being threatened because he was abrasive? I didn’t realise the Catholic Church was so woke back then.
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John H.says:
February 5, 2022 at 1:22 am Ya really think he was justified in being threatened because he was abrasive? I didn’t realise the Catholic Church was so woke back then.
Dunno – I’m not that old. The author made the point that he was a rather abrasive fellow who made pronouncements but couldn’t back them up. The Church authorities asked him to give some proof of what he was claiming and his reponse was aloing the lines of Fuck you.
Unforrtunately, the book in question is packed away with about 5 cartons of other books – a legacy of moving around the last few years for work.
4
Guess I’m being a bit of a looser tonight – I didn’t poof reed that last post to wel
3
Dotsays:
February 5, 2022 at 12:59 am
but that doesn’t mean that the Church should just make pronouncements on matters unattested in the Scriptures
This is the whole point I am making.
The Catholic Church does this the least and usually with good reason.
“The King of England is the Head of the Church”
“Communion is poison”
“It is totally legitimate to give a sermon like a Tony Robbins seminar”
“We can can change what is in the Bible, we need those dinner parties”
The first is Anglican doctrine, admittedly. I won’t try to defend it.
The other three are just your febrile masturbatory delusions.
3
I’ve always marvelled at that kind of consequence of longevity.
CL reported that the US formally closed down the Civil War pension system only last year with the death of the last person entitled to the pension. It was the daughter of a Civil War soldier who was conceived much later in his life.
4
High summer in NE Vic and at 7am it’s 5.5 degrees.
1
The benefits of longevity may be overestimated.
There’s not much peer group pressure.
2
Maybe Galileo was abrasive because he was sick of being surrounded by stupid people.
Up there with Gough Whitlam!
Intimations of Mortality – two of my contemporaries, now dead way before their time.
The First: A fit man who had a brain tumour excised about 12 years ago. In remission. Clot shots twice, recently, cancer revisits him and it’s over.
The second: My ophthalmologist – a genial professional and medical master. Qualified physician who then became an eye specialist because he couldn’t bear to see* people lose their sight. Last saw him in 2019 when he pronounced an annoying problem with my right eye as undiagnosable. He appeared to be in good health and good spirits, although sporting a leg injury, allegedly obtained while skiing.
They are now dead, as far as I’m concerned, courtesy of the clot shots. If that makes me a conspiracy hypothesist nutter, then so be it. 😕
*Not a pun
Yep, like when I, a small, elderly white woman got pinged more than once for the explosives test at domestic airports while groups of young men of Middle Eastern appearance were waved through.
LOL my PB is 3 in one day. Townsville on the QF969 run to start the day. Had to do a quick run into Brisbane for a meeting, explosive residue checked again on the way back through the airport in Brisbane. Down to Sydney, had to sort something there of a personal nature then checked again when I went back through for my flight down to Melbourne final destination. By this time I had the sihts at again being trace tested and protested, had some young bint on a power trip who tried to lecture me the importance. She didn’t like me pointing out that maybe they were targeting white males to fluff their numbers and that the chances of “randomly” being tested 3 times in a day was pushing boundaries.
Dotsays:
February 4, 2022 at 8:14 pm
Any particular Protestant doctrine you have in mind Dot?
All of them.
I notice you weren’t at all anxious to discuss the exercise of Papal infallibility by Pius XII in 1950.
Presumably you’d defend that to the death as absolute truth?
Move down to Canberra in the Wet season, they said.
Great weather down there, said all.
It’s 11 degrees here tonight!
Areff would remember one of the great myths of Melbourne public transport.
The benevolent tram conductor (or “connie” as they were known by their fans).
When they were ditched in favour of automated ticketing in one form or another, their supporters ran months and months of heartwarming tales of the social worth of connies far beyond the mere sale of tickets.
They helped young mothers board with prams.
They held up the tram whilst they walked frail Anzac veterans to the kerb.
They reconciled fractious couples.
They gently encouraged shy teenagers to pluck up the courage to ask the girl from Stop 51 out to the pictures.
With a wink and a nod they gave impoverished urchins a free ride to the footy.
They sang.
They joked.
They were the poets and philosophers of the rails.
Except they weren’t.
No-one except a few Age journalists, union officials and ALP politicians ever witnessed these events.
Almost without exception, Melbourne tram connies were among the most surly, indolent and objectionable arseholes to walk upon the face of the earth.
What we have to come to grips with is that ‘reading’ is not what it was.
Like it or not, most young people read online.
Barnaby Joyce is correct.
Of this I am certain.
Change my mind!
TE – I lived in Canberra from January 2011 until April 2017.
The weather/climate there is unlike any other Australian city. I remember entire 12 month periods where there was no summer.
A typical “summer” in the ACT consists of non stop forty degree days* from mid December until mid February (i.e. eight weeks). Then it’s back to the cool.
*Thankfully with zero humidity
Due to enormous popular demand, Jackie emerged from her kennel early. Issue 572,
24 January 2022
This is a great truth.
Although surrounding oneself with books in and of itself is not enough.
It doesn’t work by osmosis.
Apparently you have to actually read some of them.
This is where upper secondary and tertiary education becomes a problem. It can turn someone who reads long tomes for pleasure into someone who “snack reads” morsels of research to jump through academic hoops.
Especially the one who was condemned to death for pushing a non-fare paying passenger into the path of following traffic.
The electric chair didn’t work on him. He was a bad conductor.
How do you spell “excruciating?”
Rabz, you have passed 50, people you thought would live forever have started dropping off the twig. Welcome to what are politely called the ‘autumn years.’
Tell me about it. A friend I had known for 30 years got Motor Neurone Disease and died. A guy I’ve been friends with since university dropped dead from a heart attack. And so on.
My old man had his 95th birthday the other day. None of his friends are alive to celebrate it. Not one.
The benefits of longevity may be overestimated.
I’m glad to hear you can see the bleeding obvious. Sometimes, anyway. Your quotation didn’t mention it.
Unreal.
How dumb is this cockhead?
The other day he was saying that the Minister who described Scotty as a Psycho should out herself and resign.
Double Dekkabus. Didn’t he play for Pakistan?
That’s right Roger, council of Trent, done and dusted.
Agreed, but is there a perfect age at which to bow out?
75?
80?
xx?
We can only hope.
And harking back to discussion of moules frites as of yesterday I can attest it is possible to have not very nice ones.
Today is moules gratinees. Much better.
Great grandmother passed away at the age of 103 – she always said that the first hundred years had been fun, but the second hundred wasn’t as much fun.
Born in the year of Custer’s Last Stand, came to Australia by sailing ship, and watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon..
Doc that happened because it was written by a journalist. (:
Three score and ten being the definitive standard. If I make to that, all bets are off.
And no Cats, that’s not any time soon.
Many, many hookers, container loads of drugs, multiple brand new European sports cars, tri state chases and going out in spectacular (e.g. off a massive cliff into an equally cavernous canyon) style.
It will happen. If it’s the last activity that I ever engage in on this planet. 🙂
A fair bit past 95, i’d say.
People get ground down by the rat race, think they’ve gotta take the same drugs everybody else does, such as the Piss, Vaccines, Uppers, Downers, pills for a headache, sleeplessness, being a fat slob, then before they know it they’re worn out at 60.
Gotta say i’m surprised that an Ophthalmologist would take any vaxxine, let alone the Covid Vaccine, why would anyone with a brain do that?
Safe and effective
A Pastor in Canada
Coutts Alberta Feb 3 2022. 5:30
PTSD from being attacked by a gazebo would be a first.
To be fair Tim are there any universally agreed ‘protestant doctrines’?
Dr. Malone Hits Back at The Mail Online, who he says “Substitute Disinformation for Actual Data”
Almost without exception, Melbourne tram connies were among the most surly, indolent and objectionable arseholes to walk upon the face of the earth.
I’d say the ratios were a bit different, but yes, there were enough of the objectionable ones that the “connies” campaign failed to gain traction with the public.
The Catholics appear to have bought that doctrine too, just quietly.
Wow!
Born during the seige of the Alamo by the Navajo and lived to see Noel Armfield go to the moon.
Official Data shows Covid-19 Vaccines cause serious Immune System degradation; and every shot makes things considerably worse
Yes.
The soppy sentimentalism churned out by the likes of the Brothers Flanagan in the Age didn’t quite match the “lived experience” of the travelling public.
That’s a large single malt and a new keyboard you owe me.
To be fair Tim are there any universally agreed ‘protestant doctrines’?
Dot is at liberty to tell me what he thinks are Protestant doctrines that he describes as “low hanging fruit”. He’s the one that made the big statement so it’s up to him to justify it. I’ll then have the discussion with him.
I didn’t want to be dragged into a critique of Catholicism. The Catholic Church is a gift from God to humanity. However it is threatened on the one side by ridiculous superstitious nonsense like Pius XII’s papal infallibility exercise in 1950 and on the other by blasphemous secular humanist treachery like almost everything Pope Trotsky says and does. No doubt God will answer the prayers of the faithful and rescue it. However that won’t be easy. In the meantime I don’t see why Protestants like me can’t question the drive by sneers of ignorant mental dwarves like Dot.
I looked up my building’s architect Eugene Violette de Duc last night, apparently he developed a plan to revonate Narbonne Cathedral but it was rejected because it was too expensive.
I knew there was a choir and after walking around, an ambulatory, but the information board suggested the first section of the nave had been built, which was a puzzle until I walked outside to the other end. There is the unroofed walls of a nave and that’s it.
Imagine if they had finished it.
God, yes.
Mummy’s not 95, Ed.
Mummy’s dead, Ed.
Mummy’s dead.
As long as the machine is still working ans hasn’t conspired to torment you. That old.
The net is a godsend with regards to ageing IMHO. At least you can find some like minded company of sorts rather than rotting away in isolation.
The siege of the Alamo was a toddlers’ tea party compared to the Vogon’s unrelenting 70 year siege of Machu Picchu in the 15th Century.
You can criticise poor ol’ Faulty all you like, but his recounting of various historical events is about as reliable as that of a dead roadside wombat reminiscing about his role in Glen Wheatley’s income maximisation schemes … 😕
FFS – the Vogons’ – now they’ll be after me!
Born in the year of Custer’s Last Stand, came to Australia by sailing ship, and watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon..
I’ve always marvelled at that kind of consequence of longevity.
A friend of mine’s great grandfather was the older brother of Steve Hart of the Kelly Gang, so his grandfather and his grandfather’s siblings were nephews and nieces of Steve Hart. He had a great aunt who was born in about 1870 and lived to be 100. When she was very little the family lived in a farm near Benalla on the edge of what was then a large wilderness. When the great aunt was very young her parents gave her a bag of food, pointed her up a bush track and said “walk up this track till you see Uncle Steve, give him this food and then come straight back. And if you see anyone else, don’t tell them anything about wat you’re doing.” It was only later that she realised that that was at a time when the Kelly Gang were in hiding from the law. So, in 1970, there was still someone alive who had helped the Kelly Gang evade the police.
That’s okay Tim but my long personal experience is that Catholics spend virtually zero time on what protestants believe, whereas protestants seem to spend an inordinate amount of time critiquing Catholicism.
It’s almost as if they constantly need to feel justified.
I additionally object to the constant claims that Catholicism isn’t a Christian religion and attempts to draw people away from the church, often with outright lies.
In addition seems to me some denominations need to concentrate on getting the logs out of their own eyes.
Anglicans for example openly ordain ‘married’ homosexuals.
I’m shocked!
If they openly ordained ‘closeted’ homosexuals, would you be okay with that?
And, in “Hoist by your own petard” news …
Poor Andrew.
Smugly brow-beating people from his morning telly throne, only to find the very AVO system he advocated has snookered him behind the baulk line.
I am trying to empathise.
Really I am.
Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.
O’Keefe is a cuck.
The Fender is not.
Compare and contrast.
Timothy.
That’s seriously cool.
A link like that to a near mythical mob.
dover0beachsays:
February 4, 2022 at 10:58 pm
I notice you weren’t at all anxious to discuss the exercise of Papal infallibility by Pius XII in 1950.
Presumably you’d defend that to the death as absolute truth?
God, yes.
dover I don’t doubt for a second that God had power to do it if He wanted to. That is, it may be true. But as a subject matter for an exercise of supposed Papal infallibility it was idiotic.
As a question of fact it’s either true or false. I would have thought that the Catholic Church would have learned from the Galileo fiasco not to make dogmatic pronouncements about matters of pure fact not addressed and attested to in the Scriptures.
And if the dogma is meant to require people to believe it whether or not it’s true, that’s totally contrary to Christianity. Yes, we’re meant to live in part by faith, but that doesn’t mean that the Church should just make pronouncements on matters unattested in the Scriptures and then say there’s a moral obligation to believe it just because someone in 1950 wants you to.
Of all the things a Pope could have chosen as a subject matter for an exercise of supposed infallibility, that would have to be about the stupidest one that could have been selected.
That’s okay Tim but my long personal experience is that Catholics spend virtually zero time on what protestants believe, whereas protestants seem to spend an inordinate amount of time critiquing Catholicism.
Take a look at this thread. Was it me or Dot who started the sniping? I regret having been sucked into it.
We are each responsible for our own posts.
Also good old Galileo.
What’s next?
Crusades?
around town are info boards about the 1907 wine wars, interesting piece of history
not surprisingly after producing an extraordinary percentage of the world’s wine before 1962, the remaining Algieran vineyards mostly produce table grapes
I haven’t consumed a single glass of wine since I’ve arrived in Europe but I’m going to lash out and buy a half bottle today.
Or maybe one of 99c tetra packs at the supermarche.
With Galileo, it was more the manner than the content.
Most interesting link, thank you.
Exactly Franx
Little to do with science and much to do with rudeness.
Sancho, spot on about conductors. Nasty on the trams, worse on the buses — especially if you were on the way to a private school and the connie was a lank-haired, malodorous labor-voting class warrior who really, really resented you.
The first time I ever heard the word ‘poofters’ was on a bus descending Studley Park Road into Collingwood — ‘youse poofters’ being the connie’s greeting to a couple of 10-year-olds.
Lucky lady. She witnessed western civilization take rapid steps to its peak in 1969. Electricity, radio, tv, film, cars, planes and rockets all invented within her lifetime. The future would have seemed so full of potential.
But no. Didn’t quite happen that way.
Pay that one, jupes.
Demographer Ed, on lifespans:
They meant years, Ed. Not fahrenheit degrees. Keep her cool or the insects will get at her.
New Gold Dream … 🙂
Can only speak of FB, depends on what you want out of it.
I have family connections and lots of interesting building and hobby sites.
No banning on these, and I’m yet see anything posted that is political.
Plenty on the family site but LOL.
I am staying up to watch Father Ted to see if it gives me any great insight in to matters raised on here..
Zulu,
Cameron Highlanders (aka The Poison Dwarves) used to be armed in Church.
They were disbanded, not amalgamated.
Not saying the two were related.
Two French doctors were at a party smoking and were chided for doing so. One replied that longevity is over rated. There may be something to that. In Aus men over 80 commit suicide at the highest rate of any demographic. We are living longer, and longer with disability, with pain, with failing sensory and cognitive faculties.
People wonder why I have gone back to the gym. They haven’t seen the data. Even a study released this week highlighted that to prevent musculoskeletal pain old coots must be at least once a week do some type of moderate to intense exercise. I read that yesterday but couldn’t think of a physiological reason until this morning. I hope to write that up on my blog.
Historically, we were not meant to live beyond 50-60 years of age as life was hard on the body and mind. Also we didn’t have remedies for many basic illnesses.
Life is worth living as long as you can find a purpose for your life.
Once you lose purpose, life becomes intolerable 🙁
There was another absolute cracker of longevity I saw.
On American television in 1956 a 96 year old man was interviewed.
He described how, as a 5 year old, he was taken to the theatre by an aunt and saw John Wilkes Booth shoot Abraham Lincoln.
It’s accessible on the internet.
Franx says:
February 4, 2022 at 11:41 pm
With Galileo, it was more the manner than the content.
Read a book many years ago (packed away somewhere) that stated Galileo was possibly the most abrasive prick who ever lived.
Most of his troubles were due to this fact and not the doctrine of the Church.
This is the whole point I am making.
The Catholic Church does this the least and usually with good reason.
“The King of England is the Head of the Church”
“Communion is poison”
“It is totally legitimate to give a sermon like a Tony Robbins seminar”
“We can can change what is in the Bible, we need those dinner parties”
I hope this is clear enough. Honestly I tried to make it so!
OK I’ll break the bad news now. Longevity has a very pronounced genetic component. There is even a biological clock(Horvath’s clock) that can measure our biological age with reasonable accuracy by the rate of DNA methylation(epigenetics). Methylation is the latest you beaut craze in genetics. Methyl groups attach to specific portions of the DNA changing the rate of gene expression. A few weeks ago I read a study which demonstrated that demethylating T cells DNA could be very important in enhancing tumour destruction.
I mentioned upthread I’m back at the gym … . Another news item from this week I want to follow up
Late-life exercise shows rejuvenating effects on cellular level
The good news. It is only since 2000 that research into longevity has been a serious undertaking. We’ve learned a great deal. So while to date longevity is very much genetically driven there is no reason to think that will always be the case. The basics are obvious but there are other possibilities like NMN, fasting, restricted eating time, and add your favourite remedy here XXXX.
Fat Tonysays:
February 5, 2022 at 12:52 am
Franx says:
February 4, 2022 at 11:41 pm
With Galileo, it was more the manner than the content.
Read a book many years ago (packed away somewhere) that stated Galileo was possibly the most abrasive prick who ever lived.
Most of his troubles were due to this fact and not the doctrine of the Church.
John H.says:
February 5, 2022 at 1:22 am
Ya really think he was justified in being threatened because he was abrasive? I didn’t realise the Catholic Church was so woke back then.
Dunno – I’m not that old. The author made the point that he was a rather abrasive fellow who made pronouncements but couldn’t back them up. The Church authorities asked him to give some proof of what he was claiming and his reponse was aloing the lines of Fuck you.
Unforrtunately, the book in question is packed away with about 5 cartons of other books – a legacy of moving around the last few years for work.
Guess I’m being a bit of a looser tonight – I didn’t poof reed that last post to wel
Dotsays:
February 5, 2022 at 12:59 am
but that doesn’t mean that the Church should just make pronouncements on matters unattested in the Scriptures
This is the whole point I am making.
The Catholic Church does this the least and usually with good reason.
“The King of England is the Head of the Church”
“Communion is poison”
“It is totally legitimate to give a sermon like a Tony Robbins seminar”
“We can can change what is in the Bible, we need those dinner parties”
The first is Anglican doctrine, admittedly. I won’t try to defend it.
The other three are just your febrile masturbatory delusions.
CL reported that the US formally closed down the Civil War pension system only last year with the death of the last person entitled to the pension. It was the daughter of a Civil War soldier who was conceived much later in his life.
High summer in NE Vic and at 7am it’s 5.5 degrees.
The benefits of longevity may be overestimated.
There’s not much peer group pressure.
Maybe Galileo was abrasive because he was sick of being surrounded by stupid people.