Peterkin

Oh, scary boy, are the next-door neighbours aware of that!

Yeah. Apt metaphor!

We may as well make fun while the sun shines. There is no way this can play out without extensive damage to the nation.

I'm not surprised. Yes. Maybe we have flying squirrel or bat genes, from somewhere way back in evolution. More probably, it's something children wish to do, when they see that other creatures can, and the weightless sensation of falling asleep, which happens faster for children than adults, adds to the creation of a dream experience. I take that last bit from the fact that so many physical sensations - being too warm or cold, some noise in the night, an itch, restricted blood supply to a badly placed limb, tension, snoring, etc. - present as fully formed imagery in our dreams. Of course, emotional state is the deciding factor in the form that imagery will take. Sight-seeing from a great height maybe wish-fulfillment, while careening off bulkheads at breakneck speed as one flees an armed enemy is an anxiety dream. These are distinct categories of dream, each with its own vocabulary of symbols.

A very common dream. One of the most popular, especially in youth. It can take the form of levitation, floating, winged flight or weightlessness as in a spaceship, where there are solid objects against which to push off or stop. https://dreamtending.com/blog/common-dreams-and-what-they-mean/ That's normal to experience, but unusual to recall. Dreaming about it, however, is also normal. This happens quite often. https://www.psychmechanics.com/problem-solving-in-dreams/ In the same way, when you're learning a new skill, like forming letters, driving a car or scything hay, you keep seeing the same things and going through the same motions in your dreams, so as to fix the memory in long-term storage. Your mind keeps working on analytical problems, too, sorting and re-configuring the data you put in while awake - only without the distractions of a physical life. No, not at all. People like to exaggerate, embellish, form a narrative around something imperfectly understood.

Why do you care who put a red or green sticker on your post, or if anyone did? You don't get a prize at the end of the term, just as being told - and by whom - that you're going to heaven or hell after you die changes neither your behaviour nor the outcome of your demise.

That's what I meant about the "design" theory. It meets his criteria. "Opiate of the people". Yes, religion is often used that way, and also as a banner under which to muster them for war, and also as club to enforce obedience, and a bribe to induce compliance, and as bait to con money out of them. All of these are true; all of these things are on the negative side of the enormous concept of sprituality, and endeavour of religious practice. Whereas the parts of truth you present: instruction, social harmony, compassion, empathy, reaching out to the eternal and infinite, community, appeal to the benevolence in man, are on the positive side. None of these things are the whole truth.

Do you access to a centrifuge, or are you relying on sedimentation? For long-distance transport, slides would be more practical than sediments. https://diatoms.org/practitioners/how-to-make-permanent-diatom-microslidesOf course, it depends on the sample size you want. If it has to be liquid, you might do better with ethanol as a preservative for long term, since it doesn't crystallize. The microscopy is simple enough.

What? Like known Russian agents entering with bulky shopping bags and exiting with slim folders?

Where's yours arriving from? Mine - likely gouda or chevre, just have to roll some 30 Km down a gentle grade; probably won't go fast enough to kill anyone. I'd still like a study that's more income-inclusive.

Don't count on it!

I can't have a lot of English cheese, either. Nothing in Canada, I don't think, under $15.00/lb. Even the ordinary, locally mass produced ones are shooting up in price.

...and some old Brits still preserve the illusion that they have an empire for when the Lion wakes up.... Yeah, nobody has a monopoly on denial, but the Confederate South and US right wing are particularly adamant, and Trump is an example of self delusion the likes of which anyone's never seen.

I got your point. I was not concerned with merit; merely attempting to put the subject matter in historical perspective. Mistermack is content that his explanation covers his criteria; you are content that your POV is represented; everyone is fine.

Jarlsberg is very nice - and quite expensive. So is Camembert. So why didn't they plug in the ordinary cheddars and mozzarellas people can actually afford to eat on a daily basis? I do.

He can plead anything and its opposite - in the same sentence. In any case, "Talk to Rudy." But he will never admit to incompetence; what stable genius and the greatest American who ever lived, would ever say such a thing. His basic and only sincere stance is that of the seagull: "Mine! Mine! Mine!"

Fine.

Not really. For one thing, it wasn't designed: it grew and evolved and was adapted for cultural, as well as corrupted and subverted for political and economic reasons. The central myth is considerably older and more primitive than Christianity, and it appeals to a deep human yearning, which is not easy to comprehend, but pervasive. This impulse motivates a good deal of human activity and feeling besides the religious one. It's about dedication and sacrifice (being 'part of something greater than oneself' is a phrase we hear in other contexts) as much as it is about obedience and promise. The doctrine itself demands self-control, discipline, tolerance, endurance, forbearance, charity and loving-kindness, none of which are easy in practice. Some fairly strong minds have been applied to this theology over the centuries. Weak minds follow - as they always do - whatever doctrine is adopted by their overlords of the time, and whatever is expected by their communities.

The forum isn't dead; the thread died at birth. It wasn't attempting to discuss anything then, and you're not proposing to discuss anything now. A more coherent version of the history of India's religions might lead to some kind of discussion, but there would be need to be a relevant question at the center of that discussion. I don't see one here.

Perhaps atheism should not be judged as a single mode of thought, any more than faith should be. Each atheist thinks differently, just as each religionist does, from different perspectives, with different mental tools according to different motivations. It's true, some people don't really bother to reflect on or question their convictions (not just about faith, about politics, economics and interpersonal relations, too) but even they hold different degrees and flavours of belief.

Mebbe so.... also stooopid....

I'm still skeptical. If they're valuable and he's marketing them, surely he would take care that nobody who hadn't paid up had a chance to look at them. Documents are not the kind of merchandise you just let prospective buyers handle and look over; you dole them out page by page to select bidders. Just speculating, of course.

No, it's not. He desperately wants to be important - preferably crowned emperor of America the Great - and he craves constant attention; needs to be center stage. In the case of these documents, I think he told his stooges to bring all the good stuff, but they knew how illegal it was, so they just grabbed whatever they could as fast as they could and scarpered. None of them knew exactly what they had stolen; they just handed it over and Trump (who doesn't know what's in any document, because he doesn't read) which is why they sat in an unsecured basement storage for a year and half. That doesn't sound as if he were looking to cash in, so much as just own the presidential stuff, as if he still had a right to it. Pretending. He still doesn't know what he's taken, or what it's worth to whom.

It's a proposal for further study, not a finished plan.

You might want to consider unforeseen consequences. Depending on the scale of the operation - say, the Sahara - you might risk turning the Mediterranean into another Dead sea. https://www.thoughtco.com/salinity-definition-2291679. But here's an alternative: