Recent posts by beauval on Kongregate

Topic: Serious Discussion / Global Climate Change - Get off our lazy butts!

I mean, NASA isn’t stupid.

No not stupid, but they do have a record of being politically and financially motivated.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Should we tolerate the intolerant?

The comparison between Bangladeshi zealots and Hitler was, believe it or not, not intended to be quite as direct as it turned out. I was really rather more interested in hearing whether Kakkowhats’isface had anything to say about the other protests going on in Bangladesh, but as usual I was disappointed.

But having said that, for the moment at least, I will stand by the comparison. Your face doesn’t fit, so it’s off to the death camps/gallows for you, matey. Yeah, I think there are definite similarities there.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Global Climate Change - Get off our lazy butts!

Originally posted by thepunisher52:

I can tell you with certainty that plans are under way n saudi arabia to switch to solar energy in next 20 years. Not only becoming self sufficient, but exporting it to europe.

Assuming all that is possible, do you think that the Saudi royal family is likely to survive long enough to cash in on it?

Topic: Serious Discussion / The high divorce rate

…people stick together longer in times of crisis, like we have had behind us, even if they don’t like each other.

According to this report, the exact opposite is true. And according to this little thesis, a bit dry but quite illuminating, hard evidence in the form of well collated statistics is a bit thin on the ground.

Certainly cultural change has played its part. Experiences in the First World War changed my maternal grandfather into a serial shagger, and in the early twenties he demanded a divorce from my grandmother so he could marry the second of his three wives. Being a God-fearing practising Methodist she refused, seeing divorce as a source of endless shame. He proceeded to bully her into agreeing by threatening to flee the country and leave her with nothing, and then lied in court about his financial standing in order to pay her (with three children to raise) as little as possible. The social mores of the time allowed him to get away with it, which he would not be able to do today. The huge social changes which happened between the wars were only just beginning, and society was still filled with what we think of as Victorian attitudes.

Feminism, in the sense of women being seen as people rather than chattels, and the general lifting of taboos surrounding divorce, means that women at least can get a far better deal than was possible in the past, so perhaps that has led to women in unhappy marriages being more willing to sue for divorce than used to be the case.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Why are people hating on Koreans

Americans are especially stupid though.

Even the ones from Wisconsin?

Topic: Serious Discussion / Why are people hating on Koreans

Just to be clear about this, it’s not that I see Americans as being especially stupid or even deliberately ignorant. The med student is certainly not stupid, yet his knowledge of what’s happening in the EU or the Middle East for example is pretty sketchy at best. When it comes to anything outside their own back yard, most Americans I’ve come across just don’t seem to care. That’s what sets them apart from everybody else.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Why are people hating on Koreans

Gasp! From a jazz fan? Monster. As a matter of clarification, are we talking “The US” or, “The North America’s.” Us Canadians are sometimes confused if we count as them or not. We try to play up both sides, depending who we’re talking to.

I will happily concede that a nation which can produce Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong in the same generation cannot possibly be all bad. But culture goes a long way beyond my taste for American music. And I don’t include Canadians with Americans; I was at school with a Canadian from Montreal and an Americam from Wisconsin, so I learnt to tell the difference early on.

Now I have to admit that I have never been to the USA, but live within easy reach of France and Belgium where I go shopping from time to time (wine, brandy and tobacco are all very cheap there, and the French street markets are a great source of edible delicacies). My knowledge of Americans is based largely, but not entirely, on what I have read or seen on documentaries. I don’t often watch American dramas because I have difficulty following them without subtitles. Perhaps the biggest difference I observe between Americans and others is the abysmal lack of knowledge the average Yank exhibits about the rest of the world. It’s a gulf the size of the Atlantic, they’re parochial beyond belief, it’s as if the rest of the world was on another planet. They just don’t seem to be interested, and I see that as a huge difference in culture.

I can go into a French cafe, and with a mixture of bad French and bad English chat to some of the locals about international politics. They all seem to be very knowledgeable and often very opinionated, but I suspect the average American would have no idea what we were talking about. I also patronise a very cosmopolitan chip shop in London which sees customers from all over the world who live locally. I like to chat with them. Among them is a medical student from New York. Even though he is educated and has travelled, his knowledge of world affairs does not compare well with that of people from Pakistan, Somalia or the West Indies. I know it’s only a personal perception, but I do see Americans as being very different. I shall now don my flameproof suit.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Should we tolerate the intolerant?

Even in a relatively backward Islamic country, 100,000 peoiple all screaming death to anyone who does not share their faith/beliefs/superstitions seems a little excessive. It leaves me wondering whether those who wish to protest about the war crimes trials and the disgraceful state of the Bangladeshi garment industry also had a hand in these riots.

As for the final question, I’m not sure whether to feel jubilant or ashamed at invoking Mr. Godwin so early in the discussion, but Hitler’s Nazi party is a fair example of why extreme intolerance should not be tolerated. IMO the right of free speech needs to have certain limits set so that everyone gets the chance to express their views without endangering others.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Educated or Informed?

This is not a purely American problem Karma, it happens all over the world. It’s perceived as a big problem in the UK, and interestingly the wealth gap tends to increase faster when we have Labour governments. So on that basis alone, I would have to challenge your inference that it is entirely the fault of big business colluding with greedy neo-cons.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Why are people hating on Koreans

The North and the Souths citizens aren’t much different whatsoever in terms of culture, it’s not like China vs Japan, it’s more like England vs The USA, there’s slight differences, and some different political/religious things, but nothing too great as far as I know.

Speaking as a Brit, I think you’re deluding yourself here. In almost every way, I feel closer to other European nations than I do to America, especially its more conservative elements. This despite being opposed to much of what the EU stands for. I rather suspect I could quite enjoy having a beer or three with someone like jhco, but culturally we are a million miles apart.

I don’t understand what the South Koreans are supposed to have done to deserve the hatred of the world. Most of the problems in North Korea are of their own making, but we all guilty to some degree. For years the North found that all their preposterous bullshit rhetoric actually worked, that they could squeeze concessions out of us by talking aggressively. For the moment it has stopped working, and they seem to be unsure about what to do next. Couple that with the presence of an inexperienced leader in Kim Jong-un, and I actually find the situation there to be quite worrying.

As I’ve said a dozen times before, it’s sometimes necessary to have a nice cosy chat with people you despise in order to make any progress. With both sides ramping up the rhetoric, any sort of common understanding or compromise is becoming increasingly unlikely.

It’s been happening too often of late, but once again we have an OP making a bald and completely unsubstantiated claim, with no attempt at elaboration. I think it’s about time Cowpower came back and explained just why he thinks I should hate the government of South Korea.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Age Gap Psychology

And that is my point, why is age such a defining factor in a relationship? Surely it should be the personality of the individual, but that seems to not be the case in a majority of cases.

If you are going to have a relationship rather than a quick shag, you have to have things in common. I also had a taste for older women when I was your age, but it worked really well just once. She introduced me to the pleasures of recreational spanking, but we also both enjoyed adventurous eating and jazz, so there was a fair bit of common ground. With other older women it just didn’t work out – we saw the world too differently. I learnt a lot from them, but I don’t think either of us was particularly interested in what the other one thought about the world at large. In short we didn’t understand each other.

These days it’s getting hard to find older women who haven’t been confined to a retirement home, so I have to settle for 40 or 50 somethings. But reversing the perspective on this, in the unlikely event that a teenaged girl made herself available to me, would I give her one? Damn right I would. But could I form a relationship with a girl whose main interests probably include fashion, five minute celebs and pop singers I’ve never heard of? Highly unlikely I would think.

So what are you looking for dd? A bit of fun, or someone you can immerse yourself in?

Topic: Serious Discussion / Problems with the girls: sterotypical case.

Don’t be fooled by the myth of man the hunter. Girls choose us, not the other way round. If she likes the look of you, she has her own way of letting you know. A furtive glance, a little smile, a toss of the hair, a gentle nudge with her elbow if she’s close enough. It’s called flirting, and we blokes find it irresistible. When you see a girl doing something like that to you, she will probably be receptive to a decent chat-up line. And if it turns out that you misread the signs, there’s really no great harm done.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Does God exists? and why?

Only on Monty Python.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Gun Issues

Karma, why don’t you go outside and find a nice brick wall to bang your head against? It’s easier.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Real-life Muting and Ignoring through Augmented Reality

Aren’t the people we would all like to erase also the kind of people who are most likely to start poking you in the chest, or far worse, precisely because you are ignoring them?

Topic: Serious Discussion / Real-life Muting and Ignoring through Augmented Reality

If Fred’s not just an annoying bastard but an annoying American bastard, wouldn’t he be able to get busy with his six shooter without you seeing it?

Topic: Serious Discussion / Gay Marriage

They will only be equal once a woman walks around the streets topless with a beer belly.

You obviously haven’t been to some of the rougher parts of London after a rowdy Saturday night. But seriously, do you really think that being equally objectionable is a necessary part of being equal?

Topic: Serious Discussion / Clean, renewable ENERGY

thijser, I understand your point, but the initial investment still has to be found from somewhere. No politician on earth is going to support numbers like that, and private enterprise will need a very long time to come up with that kind of money. Add to that the political difficulties of using the Sahara to power Europe, and that whole idea becomes a non starter.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Clean, renewable ENERGY

That looked a bit too easy, so I tried applying a little basic maths to it. Now maths is not my strong point, so do let me know if I have got this all wrong.

The Andasol solar power station in southern Spain, recently opened and state of the art, produces enough electricity to satisfy 200,000 people. The station cost US$380,000,000 to build. There are around 7,000,000,000 people in the world, so we would need 35,000 such plants to produce enough juice for everyone. $380,000,000 × 35,000 comes out as $13,300,000,000,000, which I think is 13.3 trillion dollars. That figure alone is enough to relegate this idea to the box marked impractical. It also requires a lot of water to keep it cool, so you can’t just slap a couple of thousand of them down in the middle of the Sahara and hope for the best – they need to be sited very carefully.

While renewables are undoubtedly the long term future, it does worry me more than a little that the whole process seems to be driven by bunny huggers who refuse to contemplate the spectre of nuclear power. The French, who to their eternal credit don’t give a stuff what anybody else thinks, now use nuclear as their primary energy source. That hasn’t stopped them from researching and investing in other alternatives, but they have had the good sense to use solutions which actually work until somebody comes up with something better.

Topic: Off-topic / Alternative Legal Systems

Like Sisyphus, you mean? It didn’t end well for him, but I’m sure there are plenty of criminals who richly deserve such a punishment.

Topic: Serious Discussion / What do you think about the statements of Sarah Palin?

Phew, I was beginning to think I was on my own there.

Topic: Serious Discussion / What do you think about the statements of Sarah Palin?

It has to do with Palin having previously shown herself to be abysmally ignorant of the world outside her own front door. Even by her standards, this is utter drivel. Please don’t tell me that it’s a genuine report.

Topic: Serious Discussion / What do you think about the statements of Sarah Palin?

I am not familiar with the Daily Currant, but judging by the other newsworthy gems on that web page, I am assuming that it is a spoof newsfeed, rather like our own Daily Sport (Lancaster bomber found on the moon, London bus discovered in Antarctica etc.).

But where the gormless Palin is concerned, this actually could be true.

Topic: Serious Discussion / What's the last book you've read?

The World According to Clarkson vol. 2, a collection of Jeremy Clarkson’s observations on the insanity of the world around us. Sometimes serious, sometimes witty, but always deliciously politically incorrect. He’s a national treasure, absolutely priceless.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Gay Marriage

To me marriage isnt something that has with religion to do it has with people showing their love for eachother. I honestly dont see whats such a big deal about 2 people of the same sex getting married its not like theyre hitting on you just let them get married.

That’s how it used to be, at least where I come from. This came up a while back in another thread, but marriage involved two people agreeing to be married. That was about it. But it did cause a problem with bigamy becoming widespread, and in the 18th century the government decided that all marriages had to be state sanctioned. The Church of England, still a mighty power in the land at that time, got the job of conducting the ceremonies. It wasn’t until the 19th century that civil ceremonies became legal.

Now while there is a strong case for marriages being “official”, what with inheritance rights, pension rights etc., marriage being an exclusively religious institution was actually relatively very short lived.