Re: Your Eyes by Dovina	drnick 24.176.22.254	17-Oct-06/8:45 PM
This seems quite different from what you normally write, but I definately like it!
Re: a comment on Crappy by drnick	drnick 24.176.22.254	17-Oct-06/8:42 PM
I do believe that they are, but I do not believe they "emerged somehow". That would imply that I believe that they once did not exist, which is not true. Like the universe, they have always existed and always will exist. They will exist whether the universe congregates into another "big bang" or if it expands infinitly forever. Perhaps this view is not very poetic, but then again neither is my poetry (zing!). May I ask as to what your opinion may be? I find it hard to less than no faith at all.
Re: Your Eyes by Dovina	some deleted user 171.69.144.146	17-Oct-06/6:59 PM
sweet !
Re: a comment on weather poem part 3: the hurricane (renga) by nypoet22	nypoet22 65.9.15.40	17-Oct-06/5:06 PM
Rain drops thick and fat, splatters the ground like grease on a frypan (remember, the next one's a spring and flower image)
Re: a comment on Timing by Dovina	Ranger 62.252.32.15	17-Oct-06/3:16 PM
Amen, unless of course anyone else has an interesting and enlightening view on the matter.
Re: a comment on Timing by Dovina	Dovina 70.38.78.229	17-Oct-06/3:10 PM
To that I can agree, and perhaps end a another long, and delightful I might add, discourse.
Re: Your Eyes by Dovina	Ranger 62.252.32.15	17-Oct-06/3:07 PM
Nice
Re: a comment on Timing by Dovina	Ranger 62.252.32.15	17-Oct-06/3:05 PM
I say the leap is too long because it's a gap of twenty feet and I broke my legs falling onto the ledge. But I do say that if we can fashion a crude parachute and a couple of splints it may just be possible to tumble not too fatally down to a more promising vantage point.
Re: a comment on Crappy by drnick	Ranger 62.252.32.15	17-Oct-06/3:02 PM
My point exactly. If you're a programmer, you can change anything you like within a certain world. It just happens to be the computerised possible world.
Re: a comment on Timing by Dovina	Dovina 70.38.78.229	17-Oct-06/3:01 PM
We agree on the imperative to stop population growth. We disagree on whether it can be done. We are two climbers trapped on a ledge, where we will die of exposure during the night. I say that we can take a leap to a nearby ledge, and possibly survive. You say the leap is too long.
Re: a comment on Work by half.italian	Ranger 62.252.32.15	17-Oct-06/2:58 PM
The thing I'll say about the poem is that it reads like a paragraph of prose with semi-arbitrary line breaks.
Re: a comment on Timing by Dovina	Ranger 62.252.32.15	17-Oct-06/2:53 PM
Of course I can, but how can you possibly hope to stop the entire world's population growing? You can slow it down - through birth control - but I don't believe anyone could ever stop it. Therefore, overpopulation will inevitably happen one day. Does our task, by your account, end simply with pushing back that day? We cannot predict exactly what the world will be like in 300 years, but we can say pretty confidently that the planet will not be any bigger. We can also say that the natural resources are unlikely to have suddenly replenished theirselves (*grin*), and you've already said we can't rely on future technology to provide. So yes, population control will be a useful tool for giving a bit more breathing space to the future generations. But we still need to come up with an ultimate solution (nearly said 'final solution' there, that would have been interesting...), either to hold a static population level (which I don't think can be done) or find a new way of accommodating and providing for everyone. Maybe we could build massive tower blocks and multi-storey farms.
Re: a comment on Israel (Through The Eyes Of One Jewish Soul) by slana5	Ranger 62.252.32.15	17-Oct-06/2:42 PM
You are inconceivably thick. 'Land stolen from the Palestinians' - which is the oldest surviving race with a claim to that land? "The land was at a crossroads of the Middle East and the Mediterranean and was therefore conquered many times: by Egyptians, Hittites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Seleucid Greeks and Romans, as well as invading Philistines. Of these, only the Jews made the land into their national home. Jewish national culture, fused with religion, centered around the geography, seasons and history of the land and of the Jews in the land." (http://www.zionism-israel.com/zionism_history.htm) Here's one: ENGLAND Land of broken promises Land stolen from the Celts, not to mention the other third of the globe we managed to acquire from its unsuspecting natives Land of liars, crooks and Boer-murderers Land supported by the Yanks Land being slowly wiped off the map
Re: a comment on Timing by Dovina	Dovina 70.38.78.229	17-Oct-06/2:39 PM
I will grant you “theirselves,” but just barely. You have pushed against my fence of morality just about hard enough, spared only by confession that “the obvious solution is fewer births . . .” What you don’t seem to accept is that if population growth stops, then overpopulation will never occur. We cannot predict much about the world in 300 years, except that if population grows at the present rate, our descendents will have a huge problem. Can you not see how imperative population control is for our generation?
Re: a comment on Timing by Dovina	Ranger 62.252.32.15	17-Oct-06/2:24 PM
I'll have to ask forgiveness for sidetracking. I tend to chase butterflies when I'm supposed to be hunting the jabberwock, although they always turn out to be Jabberwock-Life-Force butterflies, so they're a partly relevant quarry. So the world's population is going to outgrow the planet's means of supporting it. That's true enough, but while the human race is prosperous it will always grow, and that cutoff point will be reached one day regardless of how long it's put it off. I don't believe it could ever be practically possible to keep the earth's population static. If you only want to look fifty or a hundred years into the future, then fine. Your argument is valid, regardless of whether it can be successfully implemented. But this is immediately either giving a greater moral status to the children of the next 50-100 years than to those born after, or it's saying that we have a diminished responsibility towards those born after the cutoff point. Unless, of course, you are just going for buying us a bit more time in which to find a complete answer. That's fine by me. And I'll grant that the obvious solution is fewer births...plus social change which makes it unnecessary to have many children. But, if you accept that we're going to max out the planet sooner or later, you've also got to accept that we need a more permanent solution as well. Maybe we could populate Mars. Please grant me 'theirselves'. It'll make my day.
Re: a comment on Crappy by drnick	Dovina 70.38.78.229	17-Oct-06/1:52 PM
You have gone beyond my request - by not only considering the cause’s cause, but by considering also reasons for the cause’s cause. You have considered whether any benefit derives from gravity, and have asked whether it is reasonable to apply “human qualities to something that is not human, not living, not material.” It’s like asking how these things came to be. It’s almost like asking who made them. But as an atheist, you do not ask that. Instead, you believe that they are, and emerged somehow. My faith is less than yours.
Re: a comment on Crappy by drnick	drnick 24.176.22.254	17-Oct-06/1:41 PM
Perhaps you have some advice(since that's what comments are intented for)???
Re: a comment on Crappy by drnick	drnick 24.176.22.254	17-Oct-06/1:31 PM
I will explain both the cause and the cause's cause. Cause: The rain sliding down the window is caused by a force, particularly gravitational force. The attractive force of gravity between the earth's mass and the rain's mass is allowed to acclerate the droplet because it has a greater magnitude than that of the force of static friction in the opposite direction. The gravitational potential energy the droplet has is now transferring to kenetic and thermal energy. This is why the rain slid down the window. Cause's Cause: I'm not sure what you mean by "cause's cause" so I'll answer both ways...#1 The gravitational force was caused by both the droplet and the earth having a non-zero mass. Without mass, there is no grav. force. #2 This question is inherantly a theological one as you are assuming there is a reason for gravitational force. For it to have a reason, it would have to benefit from it's action: attracting masses together. As of now, I know not of any benefit to any law of physics for existing. You are trying to place human qualities on something that is not human, not living, not material. I wouldn't mock a question like that, it was a good question.
Re: Pope Benedict And The Limbo Problem by Edna Sweetlove	Dovina 70.38.78.229	17-Oct-06/12:58 PM
Already a 10! It will soon work "its" way to the best list.
Re: Work by half.italian	Dovina 70.38.78.229	17-Oct-06/12:56 PM
"Loophole" is one word. A bit wordy: "This time I watched a movie that reminded me of life It woke me from boredom" could be "A movie woke me from boredom."