it's_a_fact oldephebe test 030920 ... oldephebe Don't you just hate it when the local genious begins a sentence with "It's a fact" and then usually follows it with some absurd postulation or opinion..when you challenge him to support his thesis, when you try to remedially illustrate to him that what he is asserting is an opinion not a fact..he then begins to bellow the same phrase "It's a fact" as if by becoming belligerent and bellicose..this somehow imbues his absurdist assertions with empirical and hence logical authority.. It cracks me up..that's why as User24 said once I sometimes stay out of conversations.."red is better than green on Tuesday..it's a fact..why..because more people bought red shirts five years ago..? sure that is a satirically reductive illustration..but man..do people listen to themselves when they speak? Hey I don't care if people have different opinions than mine but c'mon don't get all indignant and try to elevate opinion to the realm of the sacrosanct and inarguable, empirical substatiation. I'm not a science adept or anything but sometimes people waste vast spumes of ire, on arguing an attribution that just simply not exist..are there any rhetoricians or linguists out there? this really bugs me.. ... 030920 ... oldephebe and of course i'm talking about the water cooler impromptu wordfests at work or in your local sportsbar or anywhere men of great means and meager minds assemble..not referring to any sort of simulated simulacra of sentience or anything.. ... 030920 ... jane this reminds me of kids in the hall "it's a fact. the it's a fact girl wants more money..." 030920 ... oldephebe man i used to love that show those zany avante garde canadians kind of like a permutation of monty python.. kids in the hall..excellent show except for the overt and manically alternative life style character..foley or something was his name..not that there's nothing wrong with that..it's just not my cup of tea 030921 ... ferret i need to be held. i also need to scream. both at the same time would be lovely now. 030921 ... nomme i remember the first episodes, well the show itself blurs in my memory, mostly i remember watching and not being able to stop laughing, i guess i was about 10 (give or take a birthday), when 'kidzindehalson!' became the family call to gather...on top of the old 'saturnitlivs'bout to start' and 'dinner' calls kids in the hall died eventually (living only in reruns) and saturday night live slid off my compass. it's impossible to shake the influence of them crazy kids. hard to cook soy-sausies without somebody laughing "sthautheges! i want sthautheges" home reno shows turn into chiken-lady skits "hi house! this was My house!" thirty helens agree....so it's a fact! (and now, being that i'm rambling, i'm ending my nonsense with a dot) . 030921 ... oldephebe But what about the chasms of dissonance between what is asserted as fact, but really is passionately asserted opinion..it is an inately fraudulent tactic of argumentation. What about the cold clinical analysis of delineating the distance between the cognitive illusion so deftly asserted and direct empiricical validation? anyone? anyone? ferret - I was genuinly touched by your words, that your heart is on fire..that you are slowly burning down inside..are the things that howl within you and without..are they truly insuperable? Are the things you are telling yourself about yourself..are they really true..or are they a reflection of what someone has projected on to you..It's okay to stride into the cathedral and shout I just can't take it any more!! Now that we've acknowledged our pain and given it expression..where do we go from here? Do we simply fold fetally in the fire? Is there a reaonable expectation of redemption, resuscitation, restoration? Forgive me for my presumption but I think you are worth more than you think, and I think if you can begin by wrapping your arms around yourself not out of desperation, not some writhing portraiture of pathos..but how about slowly beggining to honor yourself..how about speaking across the tables of time to that young man or little boy who endured all those ignominies, tell him that it's okay..cherish him..see him as honored..I don't have all the answers but I believe it's possible for one to transcend the agony, the seemingly endless train of adverse circumstances that assail us. Whatever faith you observe..I think, the Divine accepts you, cherishes your uniqueness..I pray that you are able to make contact with that Divine source of unconditional love and begin the path to wholeness. In my own life as a young man when I stopped looking for external validations I found aspects of myself I actually could be proud of and celebrate my own uniqueness..I also found that once people note that you are not beholden to anyone's idea of subjective acceptnance that you begin to actually draw people to you. People of depth. Okay this went really long and I apologize ferret for my presumption - I was just moved by your revelation be well ... 030921 ... oldephebe oh and nomme, jane - kids in the hall!! yeah!! I loved the cigar smoking guy with cabbage leves glued to his scalp..hilarious..apoplectically so ... 030921 ... oldephebe MOZART’S INCREDIBLE FEAT OF MEMORY - JUST ONE OF THEM Whether or not you like classical music in general or the music of Mozart in particular, it has to be admitted that Mozart was an enormously gifted person. A child prodigy from a musical family, he began composing at the age of five and was showcased as a wonder-boy in the courts of Europe. When Mozart was in Rome in 1770 on one of his "infant prodigy" tours, he demonstrated his immense powers of memory in a way the world has never forgotten. The celebrated Miserere by Allegri, which is Psalm 51 set to music, was to be performed at the famous Sistine Chapel. Not everyone was allowed the privilege of hearing this “heavenly” work performed. Gregorio Allegri had written his nine-part Miserere to be sung by the choirs of the Sistine Chapel during Easter week, and particularly when Tenebrae was celebrated. Tenebrae is the special Easter service during which 27 candles are gradually extinguished to commemorate the darkness at the Crucifixion. The Pope, who was then vastly more powerful than he is today, did not allow this work to be performed anywhere in the world outside of the Sistine Chapel, and anyone who dared to even try to copy it would be in danger of excommunication. To follow the performance with a score was impossible. No scores were available. The Miserere was neither published nor known outside the Chapel; to play any part of it on any but consecrated ground was considered a sacrilege. Because of these restrictions, the parts of the players had to be passed from performer to performer in the Papal Chapel. Mozart, then fourteen years old, eagerly sought and obtained admittance to the performance in the Chapel. He listened to the “overpoweringly beautiful” Miserere entranced, his head between his hands, his every faculty concentrated. After the performance, which climaxed with “a solitary voice holding a haunting, impossibly high top C”, he spoke to no one, but hurried home as though in a trance. He at once went to his desk, secured pen and ink and music-paper, and began the task of writing what he had heard. Overnight, he reproduced the entire score from memory - playing, singing, and writing until it was done. Sometime later, Mozart happened to meet Christofori, one of the singers at the Chapel, and asked him to sing a certain place in the Miserere. Christofori hesitated. The song was forbidden and they were on unhallowed ground. But he did not want to refuse. Christofori checked to make certain that no spies were nearby then he deliberately sang the requested phrase in the wrong key. Mozart interrupted. "No, no, that's wrong. This is the way it goes." And he sang the entire excerpt flawlessly in the correct key. A few days later Mozart gave a concert before a brilliant audience. As always, his hearers were transported by his playing and called loudly for encores. He seated himself at the harpsichord, struck a few chords and then, carried away by the excitement of the moment, began to sing the Miserere. When he had finished, there was no applause, but a stunned silence instead. Though his listeners wanted to show their admiration, they were aware of what the consequences would be if Mozart’s daring act should come to the ears of the Pope. There was no need to worry, however. Although the Pope did learn of what the young Mozart had done, he later granted him audience at which he did not reprimand him, but praised him highly and bestowed on him the knightly Order of the Golden Spur. Mozart’s feat was so extraordinary, the Pope himself must have realized that he was in the midst of something way above his comprehension. from some egghead web page... 040122 ... oldephebe h2g2 Help Feedback Developed by Frank Drake in 1961 as a way to focus on the factors which determine how many intelligent, communicating civilizations there are in our galaxy. The Drake Equation is: N = N* fp ne fl fi fc fL The equation can really be looked at as a number of questions: (N*) represents the number of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. Question: How many stars are in the Milky Way Galaxy? Answer: Current estimates are 100 billion. (fp) is the fraction of stars that have planets around them. Question: What percentage of stars have planetary systems? Answer: Current estimates range from 20% to 50%. (ne) is the number of planets per star that are capable of sustaining life. Question: For each star that does have a planetary system, how many planets are capable of sustaining life? Answer: Current estimates range from 1 to 5. (fl) is the fraction of planets in ne where life evolves. Question: On what percentage of the planets that are capable of sustaining life does life actually evolve? Answer: Current estimates range from 100% (where life can evolve it will) down to close to 0%. (fi) is the fraction of fl where intelligent life evolves. Question: On the planets where life does evolve, what percentage evolves intelligent life? Answer: Estimates range from 100% (intelligence is such a survival advantage that it will certainly evolve) down to near 0%. (fc) is the fraction of fi that communicate. Question: What percentage of intelligent races have the means and the desire to communicate? Answer: 10% to 20% (fL) is fraction of the planet's life during which the communicating civilizations live. Question: For each civilization that does communicate, for what fraction of the planet's life does the civilization survive? Answer: This is the toughest of the questions. If we take Earth as an example, the expected lifetime of our Sun and the Earth is roughly 10 billion years. So far we've been communicating with radio waves for less than 100 years. How long will our civilization survive? Will we destroy ourselves in a few years like some predict or will we overcome our problems and survive for millennia? If we were destroyed tomorrow the answer to this question would be 1/100,000,000th. If we survive for 10,000 years the answer will be 1/1,000,000th. When all of these variables are multiplied together when come up with: (N) the number of communicating civilizations in the galaxy. ... Now I like thrashing around in shallows of my science fiction geekdom..but uh while i do not question Drakes intelligence or integrity...I gotta say the formula is still pretty open ended. It's still open to a lot of what if's and when's. There is a yawning chasm between what can reasonably be empirically refuted and or substantiated. What do YOU think? ... 040123 what's it to you? who go blather from