The General Discussion Thread

[Publish Date updated to restore to front page]

Okay as an experiment here it is. Discuss your favourite generals here!

Well perhaps… Really this is simply the place to post news-items, fun-items or whatever takes your fancy. In short just post what you want here.

It’s just another wee experiment – comments welcome.

Squonk.

[Image: General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett (Stephen Fry)]

17,285 thoughts on “The General Discussion Thread

  1. When I experience a strange feeling of disconnectedness from the rest of humanity it usually means I’ve been spending too much time on my own.

    “Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto” (Terence)

  2. I think Cicero would disagree, MJ.

    “If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”

  3. “Si hortum in bibliotheca habes, nihil deerit”

    Yes. That actually means if you have a garden in your library you will lack nothing. Cicero definitely needed to get out more.

  4. Well, I agree there are those with greater/lesser needs for social interaction and that absence tends to make one more eccentric, but Terence seems a bit absolutist and that’s what I was addressing. Cicero didn’t exclude human interaction;

    “What sweetness is left in life, if you take away friendship? Robbing life of friendship is like robbing the world of the sun. A true friend is more to be esteemed than kinsfolk.”

    I happen to be one of those who is comfortable with myself in seclusion, but it has it’s limitations.

  5. MJ; Earlier (your post may have been in response to this) I described humans as viral.
    I can’t think of a single thing we have contributed that is beneficial to the planet, other than becoming worm-food and providing nutrition to plant life. On the other hand, I can think of many ways we have abused the ecosystem by plunder and waste.

    Is that what you were addressing?

  6. Not really. I was just addressing the general air of bafflement and alienation.

    Viral is a fair analogy. We spread like wildfire when the conditions are right. We’re what happens when the earth slips into one of its brief and occasional inter-glacial periods. Life thrives, then the ice returns and all traces get scoured away.

  7. ‘The board of French rail and energy group Alstom has unanimously voted to accept an offer from General Electric.

    US conglomerate GE is bidding $17bn (£10bn) for Alstom’s energy business. The deal still needs regulators’ and Alstom staff representatives’ approval.’

    [..]

    Under the deal, GE will sell its railway signal business to Alstrom, and set up three joint ventures with the French company.

    The joint ventures would cover Alstrom’s power grid business, renewable operations, and nuclear steam turbines.

    Alstom employs about 18,000 people in France. The government had asked for assurances that French energy and transport interests and jobs would be safeguarded.’

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27961448

  8. My balls up …. Thanks Ben for interacting IN THE WRONG THREAD…. yir a Man with a Soul …Lang may yir Spirit Loom….

  9. “My balls up” Mine are always on the wrong thread, Bri…

    You are very welcome Phil.

    Just a note of remembrance…..GlennUK, if you are around and about I am missing your missives and wish to apologize for any slight I may have dispensed. Misunderstanding is a human imperative, and I’m asking you to return if you are so disposed.

  10. I’ve seen Knopfler ‘s Dire Straits riding high on the Sultans of swing in Hamburg 1978/9 not sure,, buit I won’t forget the Schauspielhaus gig, the interior and resonance was brill.

    https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Hamburgs+deutsches+schauspielhaus&newwindow=1&client=firefox-a&hs=XwP&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&channel=sb&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=MlapU8-kLoGo0AXgpoCYBw&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAw&biw=1152&bih=590

    If you look at the images of it you will see a photo of the plush interior, all red velvet. I was sitting on second rank on the right.

  11. Sorry for some server downtime earlier tonight. Problem at service provider end so nothing I could do about it. Hopefully that’s it fixed now.

  12. Ben, June 21, 6:13 pm:

    I can’t think of a single thing we have contributed that is beneficial to the planet, other than becoming worm-food and providing nutrition to plant life. On the other hand, I can think of many ways we have abused the ecosystem by plunder and waste.

    The “Great Oxygen Catastrophe” occurred on Earth about 2.3 billion years ago; an utter disaster to the ecosystem at the time:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_catastrophe

    But that helped to bring about humans, who have contributed building, agriculture, music, art, mathematics, science and exploration, as well as all the dire shit of oppression, pollution, abuse and war.

    But our trump cards are that we might distribute multicellular life throughout our solar system or even beyond, we might establish intelligent dialogue with extra-terrestrials, we might harness the fundamental forces and life’s own processes to life’s advantage, and we might synthesize life and intelligence more advanced than our own.

    Or we might just cook up a virus that wipes every last one of us out. Who can tell? But we’re not all bad, more an unfathomably unpredictable wild-card.

  13. Well said, Clark. But I asked what benefits have we contributed to other lifeforms we share the planet with. Science might be argued as a benefit when it is designed to protect ecosystems for the local flora and fauna, but many times it is for our own benefit since we wish to preserve wildlands and climate primarily out of selfish motives, so we can personally enjoy. As for art and architecture; also for us. I’m sure the monkeys and iguanas, as well as the untended vines, appreciate Chichen Itza for the grabhold and hiding places, but the architecture isn’t a part of their awareness or appreciation.

    Now if, as many sci-fi novels suggest, we can partially justify our existence to any extra-terrestrial observers based on our progress toward civilization, our cultural advances and art/architecture among them, have some benefit for self-preservation, but it’s still mainly for our own consumption

  14. Clark; If you haven’t visited Phils links (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcJxRqTs5nk) there is much to consider amongst other species. My wife often shows me videos of inter-species adoption and I haven’t followed that evolution with much time. It could be evolution working, but when I look at the totality of human evolution in it’s glacial pace, i wonder sometimes if the film ‘Idiocracy’ doesn’t presage our future.

  15. And they won’t dance for no trumpet-playing band,
    It ain’t what they call Rock and Roll

    Ben, the other species only contribute to each other accidentally, or because some species have developed to exploit niches created by other species. You seem to be expecting humanity to serve some regulatory or contributory role, which we do, of course – we contribute atmospheric CO2 and dissolved nitrates which are used by plants, for instance, just like other mammals do – but you seem to be expecting something beyond that, as if humans are a special case from whom more is expected than from the other species.

    It’s up to us as human to get our act together. We can learn from the Great Oxygen Catastrophe and change our behaviour before our behaviour destroys our current favourable environment. Or, we might show as little ability to regulate our collective behaviour as did early oxygen-producing micro organisms.

  16. Phil, thanks for those links; I’m working through them. You might like the book The Origins of Virtue by Matt Ridley, which explores the development of cooperation at genetic, cellular, individual and social levels.

  17. Quick update:

    Tuesday 24 June Assange’s Swedish lawyers filed an application to Stockholm District Court to have the EAW rescinded (on several grounds, but I provide links about the most important one below): http://justice4assange.com/Court-filing-to-remove-warrant-24.html?update

    Predictably, most mainstream reports either ignored it altogether, or focused on comments by the Swedish lawyers about the EAW no longer being enforceable given Assange has political asylum in an embassy. Only the Guardian has written about the most significant of the grounds cited in the court filing – that a new law in Sweden which came into effect on 1st June stipulates that anyone arrested or detained has the right to be made aware of “facts forming the basis for the decision to arrest” (ie. hand over the evidence you’ve been hiding from the courts all this time, Marianne Ny). The court will rule on Assange’s submission in a few days.

    http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jun/24/julian-assange-legal-bid-sweden-rape-case?CMP=twt_gu

    Finally, the Swedish press woke up to (some of) the implications of this latest move by Assange:

    The Local 25/6/14: http://www.thelocal.se/20140625/swedish-womans-texts-could-clear-julian-assange

    Perhaps some of you will remember that Assange’s lawyer was allowed by Marianne Ny’s office to view, but not copy, a cache of 100 text messages by Sofia Wilen. He managed to memorise 22 of them and four have been used in a previous affidavit by Assange:

    http://wikileaks.org/IMG/html/Affidavit_of_Julian_Assange.html#efmNEpSj6

    This article points out some troubling questions raised by the timestamps of just two of these texts about what we already (think we) know from the women’s witness statements released to the press and available on the internet:

    http://hazelpress.org/textmessagetiming/4581076519

    If the rest of the 100 texts reveal similar discrepancies in the women’s stories and case investigation, Marianne Ny will have a heart attack if the court rules she must reveal them to Assange’s defence (and the world ;)). I’m sure she will much prefer to simply cancel the EAW warrant than do that

    This article outlines some of the other evidence that Assange’s court filing will also force discovery of:

    http://assangeinswedenbook.com/2014/06/24/marianne-ny-withholding-evidence/

  18. ” but you seem to be expecting something beyond that, as if humans are a special case from whom more is expected than from the other species.”

    Your wry wit is appreciated Clark.

    Yes. In point of fact I do. We are stewards because we are conscious beings with a concept of past and future, and theoretically we should be able to see consequences from our behaviors and the intelligence to nurture our unique presence. That would, I think represent the exception, rather than the rule, and if God exists with an eye to human behavior, he can’t be pleased. (Bonobo, above)

  19. Arbed; Greetings to you. Thank you for your periodic updates. I wonder if you know the level of corruption in Swedish Federal court. Doing a quick search they have gone up a notch on property rights (personal) while the US has dropped significantly.

    “A revision to Swedish law means that Julian Assange’s prosecutors must hand over evidence against him – including text messages from one of the Swedish women at the centre of the case saying she did not want to press charges against him for rape.”

    This seems elementary, like being able to face one’s accuser. It looks as though this is headed in the right direction. The UK has spent $11 million keeping JA under siege. A pittance from their perspective if they can keep DOJ and the White House off their backs temporarily. His legal counsel are going at it from the source. Good on ’em.

  20. Ben, June 25, 2:34 pm: well I hope for better from Humanity too, but I see it as Humanity’s own problem. If humanity change the current environment on Earth so radically as to wipe out all mammalian life, or even all oxygen-dependent life, new species will evolve to fill the gaps we’ve made. Such great extinction – re-population events have contributed massively to biodiversity on Earth; in the long-term view, they are far from being entirely negative. My hopes for humanity are essentially species-selfish; I’m sure that life would get along fine without us, so we wouldn’t be wronging the Supreme Being by destroying our own future environment. We’d be collectively wronging ourselves, our peers and our descendants, of course.

  21. Ben, so whether we get to count as stewards or not depends upon whether we effectively tackle the job at hand. Meritocracy.

    Book suggestion – novel, Iain M Banks, Against a Dark Background. Written in the approach to the current millennium, it concerns a society in their year 9999, approaching their deca-millennium. Societies at least as advanced as our own have risen and fallen for longer than Earth’s recorded history; entire technologies have been lost in the mists of time and pointless commercial wars…

  22. “If humanity change the current environment on Earth so radically as to wipe out all mammalian life…We’d be collectively wronging ourselves, our peers and our descendants, of course.”

    And the other mammals.

    BTW I don’t recognise this collective responsibility that you assume. Collective responsibility is something individuals willingly consent to accept. Imposition of collective responsibility because of species is a queer notion designed to make the innocent feel guilty and the guilty less responsible.

  23. Phil, 1:54 pm

    “And the other mammals”

    Yes, them too, and other species that could suffer.

    “Imposition of collective responsibility because of species is a queer notion designed to make the innocent feel guilty and the guilty less responsible”

    This is true when making considerations at the next scale down, within the human domain – I was ignoring such complexity and evaluating humanity as a species.

    But who is innocent? I indulge myself by not extending my activism beyond argument and non-destructive peaceful protest, while my conscience argues that matters are so desperate that really I should fight and destroy. I have to face the facts – I’m simply too lazy, cowardly and contented to actually do the distasteful things I should. So when humanity crashes, my failure to act will have contributed to it.

  24. Clark, Phil. Excellent thoughts, all. I don’t mean to suggest that the Earth with all it’s variety of life and surrounding life-support will be harmed by our presence. No matter what we do it, and life on it, will emerge and thrive. Perhaps we won’t recognize the adaptations, but it is a sturdy House in which we are visiting guests. Viewing Gaia as the complex organism it is, and our past and present behavior, it could see us as a bad cold that eventually will be shaken off. Millions of species have gone extinct before us, without our help. I’m just saying we could be more considerate as guests in someone else’s home.

  25. Yes, I’m getting “Error establishing a database connection”. That happened for a short time a couple of days ago; by the time I’d rebooted my system it’d cleared.

  26. Shameless Paleo that I am, I am loading up my freezer with Porterhouse steaks from the local supermarket. At $4.99 lb I can’t help my greed. Hamburger (usually from old dairy cows) is almost as much. Crazy freakin’ world. As you may know, PH is cut from the loin comprising the two most prized (short loin and tenderloin). Baked potato w/sour cream and asparagus tonight.

  27. Here they go again.

    Was MH370’s cockpit tampered with? Australian investigators discover evidence of mysterious power outage during early part of the flight
    Missing plane’s satellite data unit tried to log-on to a satellite, report reveals
    Australian Transport Safety Bureau says this could be due to power outage
    Log-on attempt occurred half an hour after plane left Kuala Lumpur
    Expert suggests power interruption could have been caused by an attempt to switch off Boeing 777’s communication systems to avoid radar detection

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2674694/Was-MH370s-cockpit-tampered-Australian-investigators-discover-evidence-mysterious-power-outage-early-flight.html

  28. What has Cumbria done to deserve this?

    30 June 2014
    Nuclear deal boosts Cumbria’s Moorside plant plans
    Westinghouse nuclear reactor in China
    The Westinghouse reactor proposed for Moorside is being built at a number of sites across the world

    Plans to build Europe’s largest new nuclear project in Cumbria have taken a step forward after Toshiba and GDF Suez signed a deal to develop the site.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-28090612

  29. Mary; Daily Mail seems to be fed these stories. Why did it take them so long to discover tampering? Now they are focusing, not farther North, but farther South. The US found a Soviet sub at 16,000 feet in 1968 with mile long cables equipped with cameras.

    This search is too stupid to be believed.

  30. Mary, 3:27 pm

    “What has Cumbria done to deserve this?”

    Well it’s sparsely populated, not near anywhere much, it already has Sellafield and a lot of the locals are used to the idea of living with nuclear installations. At a guess.

    There’s a looming electricity production shortfall. I can’t remember the details, but the companies who build nuclear power stations can demand exorbitant prices. I think, the longer the government leaves it, the higher the value of a new nuclear power stations becomes. So from an investment perspective, it’s more profitable to name a price so high that the government won’t pay it, because they’ll have to pay even more in the future. Meanwhile, the government policy is to patch things in the shorter term with gas powered stations which although also overpriced are much cheaper and quicker to build, though this leads to dependence on imports.

  31. “What has Cumbria done to deserve this?”

    …and it’s already contaminated, which is rather convenient when there’s another release of radioactive material.

  32. Thanks Clark. I think your reasoning is spot on. It just surprised me that the reactor is already being built abroad but I can’t remember hearing anything about it before.

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