Uh what?Spoilers:



Arya, Daenerys, John Snow, Bran, Tyrion are all alive and well. (Actually, one of them is in limbo, but whatever).

Your problem is that you bet on all the wrong horses. This is not another generic fantasy tale where house Stark is the good guys and House Lannister are the bad guys. There are a lot of flaws with the series, but unhinged and unpredictable are not on that list. The most popular prediction for the outcome of the series is actually quite interesting, and so far, all the books and pieces of the puzzle fit.

That said, GRRM is taking an awful long time with the set up, and if you didn't like the first 3 books, definitely don't bother with the next two.

OK, this clip was quite interesting once I actually got around to watching it. I skipped it several times because although I like Penn Jillette, I hate reality TV and have less than zero interest in "Celebrity Apprentice" or whatever else.

So, I was tempted to just reply with a snarky "it certainly does suck" (referring to Celebrity Apprentice / Reality TV in general) without even watching the clip. Glad I didn't do that, so here's a sheepish upvote to compensate for my near faux pas.

I looked up the whole "what to do about bears" thing last time a bear vid came up here. Its quite interesting really.

Anyway, I believe the whole "shout and man up" thing only applies if the bear charges you, which usually occurs if you surprise the bear since they mostly avoid humans if they know you're there. If you see a bear from a distance you should try and attract its attention, if you come across a bear without it noticing you should back away quietly and slowly. Maybe they did the former before this video starts, and the latter sort of isn't possible when it decides to join you in the tree. Basically you don't want to surprise a bear because thats what triggers their defensive behaviour, and thats when acting like prey gets you eaten.

The real danger are the bears which have been conditioned somewhat, ie they associated humans with food and not as possible threats. This is why you shouldn't feed a bear or leave food lying about etc. It could be that this bear knew they were there, didn't care and smelt some food up there with them, in which case I think playing dead/keeping quite may have been the best strategy.

but this is all academic (and interesting!), it seems they survived their encounter so go them.

Hey @shinyblurry,

I've had this bookmarked since it came out and finally watched it today. Thanks for this video. I found it quite interesting, and it brought me face-to-face with something I've been kinda half thinking about lately -- the meaninglessness of life.

I read some of the comments, but skipped most, so I may be repeating. Lemme know if that's the case.

About the video itself. To get this out of the way, many of Keller's individual arguments were made in intellectually dishonest ways, like using two meanings of the same word (e.g. "meaningless") to create false logic, and using philosophers' quotes as fact without challenging their validity or pertinence to the argument at hand. Keller isn't the topic though, so that's all I'm going to say about that.

About all the meaninglessness. I agree with the overall point, that if there's no god, then there's really no meaning to life in the grand scheme of things since we're here for a meaningless slice of infinite time. That's hard to face sometimes. That discomfort tends to drive me towards other people. Sharing that feeling with others feels really good. Helping them feel better about it makes me feel good. I might even say it gives me a purpose, gives my life meaning.

I don't see any contradictions in my philosophy yet though. Or, at least, I didn't agree with any of the ones that Keller brought up. For example, about love and about evil. I found those arguments fatuous. I believe there's love because I feel it, just like I feel pain. Also, I don't believe that evil exists as part of reality. There are certainly actions I've done, seen and heard of that I judge as horrible things to do, and which some would see as "evil", but that's my judgement or someone else's, a label, something external both to myself and the person who did the action. Conceiving of it as "evil" is either a metaphysical statement, or an internal reaction to the thought of you doing that action yourself. Good and bad? Yes. Virtue and Evil? No.

So let's go with good and bad. You and I have already spent many screenfulls talking about morality, but to reiterate my belief, I think that people have an instinct for which actions are good and which are bad based on how they affect other people. We instinctively know that torturing babies is bad. We also instinctively know that doing something to ease another's problems or enhance their life is good. The more we try and connect with those feelings of what's good and what's bad, the better we feel about our actions and the happier we are overall. I believe that following that sheer bliss wherever it leads us is the best thing we can do. Specifically, anything the Bible promotes against following your bliss and knowingly causing pain in others should be snipped out.

When I think of my own depression, how it might relate to a lack of reason for my life, and how I might feel better if I were able to believe in God, it makes me feel better when I think of other people I know who are genuinely happy people without a whiff of religion in their lives, and I ask myself what makes them happy, and try and emulate that. The answer is always following their bliss, which is always helping other people find their bliss. Wonderful how that works. FWIW, I don't know any happy, fulfilled people who actively judge any other people as right or wrong, good or bad.

Doesn't BBC produce QI? I find it quite interestingly funny, indeed.

...A simple "no" would have done.

(Actually, that was quite interesting and moving)

I've been reading Schama's "Citizens" on the French Revolution and the lead-up to it, and I have found it quite interesting to compare parallels between Louis XVI's France and contemporary U.S.A. It's actually a bit scary that the language being used is so similar in both cases, given what happened after 1791.

For instance, my initial comparison between Ron Paul and free market reformer Turgot is, I think, reasonably fair doesn't reflect badly on Paul. Although Turgot ended up losing his job after rushing through his reform program and some of his reforms were reversed in the short term, others were retained or re-instated in a slightly altered form a few years later.

So anyway, which of Paul's policies were you referring to as having potential to improve the U.S.? You're right that I haven't studied it in depth, and my background is not political science or media studies, but I have read the various related discussions on the sift and in the local and U.K. media.

@BoneRemake I believe you meant that it was Quite Interesting

Seems like a cool lady. Ancient Egypt in general is fascinating, but I don't think I'd want to be mummified though.

This is also quite interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokushinbutsu

I live in Alberta. Thankfully, 800 kms south of this stuff. There is a huge drug problem in Ft. Mac as well.

Here is an interesting documentary that was produced by my friend's brother. It is called "Downstream" and speaks about the Aboriginal community of Fort Chipewyan that lives near the Athabasca River that flows through the Tar Sands. The entire thing is on Youtube if this site is region blocked or whatever.

http://intercontinentalcry.org/tar-sands-documentary-downstream/

We enjoy an advantage in Alberta for having such vast proven reserves. Some new technology that refines the sands "in situ" using steam-assisted gravity drainage with special catalysts looks promising, like at the Suncor Firebag site. I used to work for Suncor, and am happy to not anymore.

WhyatI never understand is why we have high gas prices here just like everyone else. You'd think since we make the stuff, we would give ourselves a little break at the pumps.

The giant trucks and huge scoops up there is quite interesting. Brobdingnagian.

Gotye really does do some amazing songs and videos. This is the third or fourth to show up here, and they've all been quite interesting, to both ear and eye.

Thanks I thought it was quite interesting.
In reply to this comment by Fusionaut:
*promoterino

I'm not a chemist, but this is quite interesting.

blocked in the UK :*(

Perhaps its just as well. The actual idea of Big Brother, ie forcing people who wouldn't ordinarily socialise into living with each other and monitoring their interactions, is actually quite interesting imo. The problem with Reality Television is that its not Reality. The aim is entertainment, so they pick extreme personalities that are likely to create conflict and drama, and the very nature of television attracts fame-hounds with a vacuum where their brain should be. I suppose what annoys me is that people watch it at all, and then those very same complain about the state our little Island is in. No fucking shit, stop watching garbage television, or at least change the Channel to BBCNews and get some REAL reality TV.

Interesting Sift thanks :-)

On a side note I found it quite interesting that the speaker on Nanoscience changed slides with one of the biggest remotes I've seen in a while :-P