Ken Fabian

That it was traditional for the dominant majority to be casually insulting to minorities doesn't mean the loss of those traditions will make America worse*, nor preserving them lead to renewed greatness. Honky cracker boys (fun terms?) find those terms fun and funny and having it pointed out that those disparaged by them find them demeaning and offensive... is offensive. Seems like the ability to press those buttons and mobilise voters on such issues got the USA Donald Trump over the line for President. (Or, as an Australian, make Australia, that has similar traditions, worse by calling them out for their offensiveness to minorities and discouraging their use.)

Weighing the conveniences against the inconveniences my mobile phone is hands down a winner. Not that there aren't annoyances and frustrations - took me 15 minutes and starting over again twice to work through to a particular purchase recently. If it worked better it would've taken under 2 minutes. But compared to phoning around shops to check availability, compared to driving to shops and... finding it isn't in stock? Clothing I probably prefer to go in person and try things for fit, but that is rarely an urgent, important purchase. My phone - is about 1/5th the cost of a landline phone to use (Aldi have phone sims and plans here really cheap). Just that is enough to be worth using. But there is more... The call log tracks calls and unanswered calls. I can make video phone calls. I can message, pass videos and pictures around easily. Email. It is a pocket watch of extreme accuracy, that handles time zone changes easily. Countdown timer, stopwatch, alarm clock. A calendar with reminder service. I can take quite decent (or indecent) pictures with it - and edit them. I can make videos with it. It has a calculator that also does unit conversions. A sound recorder. A guitar tuner. A metronome. I can do banking and could use it in place of bank cards - tap and go for small transactions. It plays my music - through ear buds or feeding into our (vintage) "stereo". I can look up all kinds of information, watch tv or movies or stream music or use the 64G of micro-SD and have my whole music collection available. I can read books and get new titles easily. It can be (and often is) our internet connection, sometimes faster than the satellite service. Not used so often that I ever have to add more data. (Unused data allowance accumulates). But there is more... Yes, i can find myself wasting time scrolling around - or read stuff on it in a waiting room - but that is time I have more of because so many things can be done so quickly and easily using it.

The time of year when it is warmest (S. Hemisphere) or coldest (N. Hemisphere) is about a month after the solstice - because there is some lag time between maximum and minimum sunlight and local temperatures topping or bottoming out. The specific timing is down to historical choices and traditions.

Sounds like the ships of the Oankali in Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis aka Lilith's Brood trilogy. An extraordinary SF talent. They were fictional aliens and spaceships of course - with fantastically fictional biotechnologies that she managed to make sound plausible, kind of. Imaginary technology. As fiction it is fun. As a way to make (grow) actual spacecraft, not actually plausible at all.

There is a limit to wine aging resulting in improvement. After that it gets worse. But perhaps Zebulon wine is different. I'm still struggling to see how trade between the moon or Mars and Earth could be economically viable. The usual solution is imaginary technology, and the "sure" way to get it is positing endless, inevitable technological progress and enough time. For things that are that far beyond us I just can't sustain that level of optimism in inevitability.

For people living amidst unavoidable, perpetual warfare I wonder if the promise of afterlife rewards and punishments makes accepting going into battle and suicidal self sacrifice for the sake of the community a bit easier and more tolerable - and make failure to support or engage in it more intolerable. But I think it may be as much about the sense of being a distinct community as the beliefs - not so much the details of those beliefs as the having beliefs in common, making Us different from Them.

Seems superfluous to make an imaginary afterlife a factor for everyday morality - so many good reasons to treat people fairly, honestly and kindly and reasons to have the rule of law (for mutual benefit) - and kinda pointless if there are easy "redemption" options for de-sinning after committing atrocities. \ Don't know if Night FM is still peddling around here but going by his own words (which rarely address any points any others make and even more rarely their main points) I'm not convinced FM has a good grasp of morality and ethics. Not convinced FM has a good grasp of theology for that matter; a lot of lifelong religious don't accept the existence of Hell or any kind of eternal damnation. At the personal level I am more interested in avoiding being a victim of criminal behavior and being treated fairly and honestly than I am in indulging in criminal behavior at the expense of others. That I live somewhere where criminal behavior is the exception - and strong religious conviction is also the exception - suggests it is not dependent on fear of Hell.

@StringJunky - is your choice of username guitar related? All this time and I never really thought about it - or thought to ask. And yes, my guitar has gotten better with use and age. I was also trying new guitars on a tight budget - something of equivalent quality being out of my range. And I was not fully appreciating what I've got. My addiction (and sometimes it does seems like it) to playing guitar comes and goes a bit, with and without attempting to sing. I think am still getting better at it but with age and arthritis catching up with me that window isn't going stay open. I've always been a bit (a lot) self conscious about it and don't perform well under pressure. But I also don't do the practicing and rehearsing that performing well under pressure requires - too many interests, not enough time, not enough persistent focus on any of them to achieve excellence. I do kinda regret my lack of interest in singing earlier in my life - probably never would have had a powerful voice but maybe could've sounded good.

Oops, misread that - had it built, had built it. My own guitar is Takamine C136s classical, which was acquired more by chance than intent. I'd always thought it sounded good but it is getting in need of re-fretting and has two splits in the top (from a drought/extreme low humidity a few years back) so I tried out a couple of classical guitars at a local music shop. None sounded anywhere near as good. When finances permit I'll have it repaired.

Hats off to your woodworking skills then. And perhaps your ability to source suitable wood too. No small project to make a guitar - to have it turn out good has to be gratifying. As for Yes and their lyrics - they always seemed a bit... close to the edge... of some deeper meaning. Which I didn't quite get. But maybe that was the intention?

It isn't to everyone's taste and the lyrics seem more about atmosphere than story or meaning - but I do like Yes. They didn't tour Australia much and I missed them every time. In truth I don't spend a lot of time listening to music, not even as radio in the background and get my regular music "hits" from messing around with a nylon guitar - sloppy, choppy, undisciplined and over time the flaws have morphed into features, but I have fun with it. What listening I do can include anything from JJ Cale to Beethoven (Violin Concerto lately, with Isaac Stern). Django and Stefan. Jazz mixes - Dave Brubeck, Cannonball Adderley, Mongo Santamaria, Satchmo, the "easy listening" sorts - a lot of Jazz doesn't work for me.

A kind of rat evolved that was "smart" enough to adapt it's behavior by eating another animal's faeces because it made creasote bush edible (probably because it was hungry, other food was not available and those are what it could findbut instead of being poisoned, it gained nutrition)? It's young learned to do so from parental example. Sounds like "conventional" evolution to me. Humans evolved the ability to pass on complex knowledge about tools and working collectively that enhanced their abilities to obtain food and defend against predators. Again, sounds like conventional evolution.

I've been revisiting some of the music I liked when (much) younger. Not much of it still has appeal. Even going back over Beatles albums there were a lot that just don't do it for me, but still leaving some that really, really do. The hard rock likes of Led Zep, Deep Purple, I liked then, not much now. One band - at least some of their catalogue - has managed to impress me more than I expected going back around; I was a fan of Yes in 70's and 80's and much taken back then with Steve Howe's guitar and Rick Wakemen's keyboards especially. Still am but this time around I am floored by Chris Squire's bass playing. Not necessarily has wide appeal but since people seem to be including linked examples. (People who make videos of live performances suck at showing what anyone apart from lead singer and lead guitar are doing but this one segue's into Squire's signature solo piece - him showing off, and a bit indulgently; the basslines across so many songs are awesome, better than that imo, as often the lead instrument as not but so few videos show what he is doing (and how any video people who were AT a Yes concert failed to pay notice to him has me scratching my head)) - "Long Distance Runaround/The Fish" -

Yet I suspect a majority of atheists have a lack of belief in magic or miracles in common and - in my own case - the disbelief in gods and supernatural beings flows from my disbelief in magic rather than the other way around. It is a lack of belief that includes (excludes?) the supernatural and non-physical realms and, by that, disbelieves in gods. Am I therefore actually a-magicist, with my disbelief in gods a subset or is it distinctly different?

As a not-American I expect my opinions aren't worth much and are going to be information poor - yet poor information amplified by partisan media looks like the very essence of recent American election experience. Who was it that predicted media companies would become defacto political parties? As businesses who's principle paying customers are other businesses most media ownership will naturally lean Right and those that do go after the Center and Left clicks and views are either inclined to the sensationalist and superficial, without much real conviction or do have ideals of democracy and fair play, bringing good manners to a gutter fight and wondering why they are ineffective. The shift away from (further away from) unbiased and factual reporting to news and current affairs as political partisan marketing is looking like a winning combination, so they will probably just do it more. Whilst it looks like Trump and supporters have demonstrated a ready willingness to cheat it would take compelling, court appropriate evidence to make such charges and despite media massaged perceptions I expect official election oversight is competent enough to find it. I did wonder if US Democrats would have a "claim the election was rigged" playbook ready. Seems like some serious problems with polling predictions too - they probably expected to win.