$ jlc (10,317)

That was interesting reading, johnpe. I looked up more on Lithium and discovered that between about 1930-1948, 7Up contained lithium. This was deliberate, as the drink was sold as a mood relaxer.

Carrie Fisher's story reminds me a bit of Claudia Christensen's. (The latter was Susan Ivanovna in Babylon 5.) Two actresses who tore themselves up with addiction and psychiatric problems...but ultimately clawed their way back into reality.

Thanks for the excellent link.

Jan

You are right IndianaGary. And Happy New Year to you as well.

Jan

Prepositions are good words to end a sentence with.

Jan

OK. Now I understand. I thought you were making a reference to some current tidbit of knowledge that I had missed: For instance, I looked up "Dorothy Hamell" to see if she had played a part in Jurassic World...where you could indeed have seen her running from a T-rex!

I will take your explanation as a complement. I have recently had my 63rd bday. I have never been particularly attractive, but I still do two types of martial arts. At one of them, I regularly beat up on nice 20+ year old guys who are bigger than I am.

Overall, I agree with you. As women increasingly have professions and lives of their own, we will have more to 'bring to the table' than bloodlines and bodies. But this is what society has accorded us for millennia, so it will take some time.

Happy New Year.

Jan, preening

I do not understand your comment about Dorothy Hamell and T-Rex...can you explain?

Jan

I like both of those sayings, but really really like the second one. I am an aestheticist, and to 'want life to be art' is as good as a definition of that as I can find.

Happy New Year, Brett.

Jan

Bouncing off a comment in the article: Harrison Ford continued with a brilliant movie career, so it makes sense that he gets paid more.

Carrie Fisher rocks, though. Did you see her response to comments on How do I explain to my little girl about "Princess Leia in chains in the gold bikini"? She said something to the effect of, "Tell her that I was kidnapped by a giant slug and put into that bikini against my will. Then tell her that I killed the slug with the very chains he had bound me with."

I have heard gamers rave about Mark Hamel's Joker.


Jan

Hey! The next time a bunch of us get together, we should have a 'tinfoil hat contest'. We already have suggestions for a tricornered hat and a pirate hat. Bet I could do a nifty Wagnarian 'Viking' helmet out of tinfoil.

Jan

Yes it does.

Jan

Good, Mamaemma.

Jan

What a fun thread. Why would anyone want to point it down? (I have pointed it back up, but only made it to 0.)

The answer is that 'value' does not have anything to do with comparing 'us' to 'not us'. Philosophically, one of the big changes that Ayn Rand worked in my personal life was that I could begin with a reasonable 'premise' that I was valuable to myself and that I did not need any external validation for that to be true.

Now - on to the fun stuff: The progression from 'ape-like critter' to 'our slightly dim cousins' to 'us' is a fascinating one. Many of the theories of the early 20th Century have been overturned. Chief among those theories is the image that there was a man-ape who had an ape-like body but an advanced brain. (You can still find illos of this hypothetical creature, looking like an upright chimp but gazing at the stars.)

We have discovered, however, that the body led the brain, not the other way around. That is to say, that dentition, fingers, and feet changed, showing that the hominid had started to eat more meat in his diet and was walking erect...then the brain started to grow (now that it had the additional energy source from protein). So, there was a time (~3M years ago) when hominids that looked a lot like us physically, but who had chimp-sized brains, were wandering around.

What is more, there is not ‘one’ human race. We think of ourselves as Homo sapiens, but there is genetic evidence that we interbred recently (~50K years ago) with three different sub-species. Even more interesting, about 700K years ago, we apparently interbred with some archaic hominins in Africa. So our ‘genetic tree looks a lot like a bush that has been grafted back onto itself multiple times.

There are over 500 paleoanthropological samples that show hominins in various stages of evolution into humans. (I say this to refute the ‘no intermediary forms’ BS, in case someone throws that at you at some point.) Ancestors with the genus “Homo” had physical traits that overlapped with previous genera; our cousin species overlap with modern man in every measured respect. It does not look as if there is a ‘point’ at which we ‘became human’. It seems to be a gradient, where physical and cranial morphology change in spurts (and sometimes go backwards) until we get to fairly recently...maybe as recent as 20,000 years ago.

Of course, by 20K years ago, we are dealing with tribal societies with extensive tool kits, including boats, atlatls, clothing...obviously human beings.

So, at what point in this process did we get soul? It is a lot easier if we dispense with such a need: Occam’s Razor answers that we do not have this hypothetical attribute for which there is no concrete evidence. A soul is not necessary.

Jan

Ha! Me too. I like to drink; I do not like getting drunk.

Jan

Beautiful poetic answer, Zenpharmy! Thank you for providing this.

Jan

"...(not really)"

Jan

allosaur! You were reading her heart, not her expression.

Jan

I love the idea of 'herding slugs'. It is the verbal antithesis of 'herding cats' and we must make room for it in our vocabulary of metaphors.

Jan

I agree with blarman and Thoritsu: judge, but- by and large- keep your mouth shut. The bottom line has to be 'whether their fist hits your nose' in some respect.

That being said, I am increasingly aware that the 'superficial' judgments we are supposed to refrain from are actually important metrics.

For example: A person with an 'old clunker'. Does this person realize that he is unable to get a date because the quality of woman he looks at is unimpressed by his vehicle (and clothes, which are 'old clunker' too). How does this effect me as his neighbor? It means that this is someone who is oblivious to how human beings judge on appearance. If I interact with this person, I need to be prepared to deal with this huge lacuna in his psyche.

Similarly, the woman who dresses like a teen or the guy who's speedo you cannot see but for his pot belly overhanging it. These are people who have some defect in their vision of reality, and a wise person will take this into consideration when dealing with them.

It is cosmically true that there should be no designated 'teen dress code' or 'correct car age', but there is actually such a thing in effect in our culture. If someone broadcasts that they are outside of 3SD from the local norm, you are advised to understand 'why' in order to interact with them effectively.

Do not ignore input from observation in order to maintain a politically correct philosophy.

Jan

Name that expression contest:

Jan says: Oppressed waif.

Thank you for your praise.

The first thing you will be amused to learn is that all of the ancient copies of the Hippocratic oath are missing that particular (do ye no harm) clause. If you look up translations (I do not speak/read Greek) you will find that most of it is concerned with promising to teach other doctor's sons for free! It also promises not to do surgeries or abortions or euthanasia.

Most medical schools do not require the Hippocratic oath - of any era - to be taken by doctors. So, many doctors have never taken it.

As usual, behavior is a personal choice on the part of the individual, be he doctor or not.

Jan

Yep. That would be Molly.

Jan

Love dogs; hate kids.

On the other hand, if we ever meet in person, I see a bottle of nice brandy and some discussions til the wee small hours o'the'night.

Jan, thinks babies look like grubs

I have an acre, but much of it is not fenced dog-escape-proof, so the dogs only routinely have access to the yards alongside the house. Right now, just one of the yards, actually, since I had to move the sheep into the other yard after coyotes killed the little goat.

Molly interacts. Whew! Does she ever. Fortunately, she likes one of my shepherds pretty well and they run around together a lot. I don't think that Molly has internet access yet, but I am careful to not leave my computer accessible...who knows what would be showing up in the next FedEx delivery.

Jan

I have a hiking staff (Wm and some friends made it) carved with Elvish (Quenyan). Tolkien's Middle Earthis a great world to visit.

What is the name of your boat? Vingilote?

Jan

Mythopoeic?

Not me: I am definitely a proponent of an objective reality!

Jan

I sprawl in my living room as I type this, my 3 German Shepherd dogs (all from the salvage heap) around me comfortably...plus one hyperactive border collie that I am watching. They are the best of companions.

Jan