Re: Sounds by Dovina	18-Jan-05/12:28 PM
Yes it's fascinating how sounds change, isn't it? Yes, it is.
Re: a comment on The Way by Dovina	16-Jan-05/5:00 AM
"I have an advanced degree in knowing what any kind of writer thinks and believes, which I obtained at an Accredited Poetry School." Must you punctuate all your soilings with that stamp of excellence? Such reverent qualifications put us all to shame! As it happens, I can think of a poeme that wouldn't hold together on an emotional level: a poeme about Jesu and His burrowing exploits. It is a well documented, if little known fact that Jesu spent 90% of His life underground, only coming up to the surface to feed, gather acorns, watch ER, and get crucified. But to write a poeme about it would be tantamount to grand larceny. Hold together on an emotional level? Fuck off. It doesn't even come close. Miracles. Parables. Disciples. Burrows. Trying to understand what Jesu was thinking when He made His elaborate warrens would be like trying to understand gooseberries. Empathy is impossible, and the reader is left wallowing in a lagoon of "What the fucks" and "Do you mind if I don'ts." But FACTUALLY? FACTUALLY it stands up. FACTUALLY it holds its own. And in a world where people are constantly seeking to cut nature up, organise it into concepts, and mull over the resulting cocktail of self-ascribed significance, we often forget that. I've already forgotten it.
Re: a comment on The Christ Omelette by horus8	10-Jan-05/1:05 PM
Most of Jesu's eggs never hatched; they were either trampled by oaves, stolen by monkeys, or crucified by the Romans. The one documented case of a Jesu egg actually hatching occurred shortly after the resurrection, just south of the little town of Bethlehem. Jesu had layed the egg in one of His many burrows, concealing the entrance with an extraordinarily stained toga. Exercising the sort of prescience one comes to expect from bearded deities, Jesu stuffed huge quantities of straw and rice down the burrow; the egg was well insulated, and survived the winter. Ten days later it emitted cacophonous trumpeting sound, and hatched. Inside nestled the finest pair of sandals in the Bethlehem region.
Re: a comment on War Story by dougsoderstrom	10-Jan-05/12:22 PM
It does not save you. One day I hope to see you join the crushedaceans you so callously devour. For my own part, I view consumption as a means of asserting my total dominance over the aminal kingdom. There can be no greater sense of victory than that obtained through CONSUMING an underling: by taking that which is most precious, most irreplacable, and incorporating it, rendering the victim pointless, and the victor fat and sleek.
Re: a comment on War Story by dougsoderstrom	10-Jan-05/11:23 AM
I had forgotten you were a herbivore. I think herbivores are weak, and one day I will crush them.
Re: a comment on War Story by dougsoderstrom	10-Jan-05/8:46 AM
Do you think the War in Iraq is morally equivalent to torturing children? Of course Abu Ghraib was a monumental cock-up, but do you really think what went on there was in perfect harmony with our plan and general ethos for the war? Can't you think of any potential benefits arising from regime change in the Middle East? Do you not think that at some point, something had to happen in Iraq? In accepting the status quo you would have to be willing to accept a regime that employed torture as a matter of course, killed hundreds of thousands of its own people, continuously tried to obtain WMD right up to the bitter end, hoarded millions while its people lived in squalor, harboured known terrorists (like our friend Mr Zarqawi), and which probably would only ever end after putting up some sort of fight, either now, or later on, perhaps on its own terms rather than ours. So we accept the regime. And then what? We wait till Saddam dies, and Uday and Qusay take over? That's a pleasant prospect. If you're going to disagree with the War that's fine. But to do so simply because of a perverted prison scandal strikes me as simplistic. It's like that film Fahrenheit 9/11. An entire documentary about Iraq that completely ignored the moral arguments for regime change, as if we'd never found the mass graves or tortured kittens.
Re: a comment on The Christ Omelette by horus8	8-Jan-05/12:19 PM
Yes, the one thing the Romans didn't bargain for was that Jesu would go on an egg-laying rampage after he died. They should have placed out Negroe traps. Not to harm Jesu, just to hold him in place until he could be removed.
Re: a comment on The Christ Omelette by horus8	8-Jan-05/11:36 AM
The egg came first. Easter is the celebration of Jesu hatching from an egg.
Re: a comment on Math Poem 3 by Dovina	5-Jan-05/1:53 AM
In what way does this poeme relate maths to life? By being mathematically inept? Or by having an oaf make an easily provable conjecture, then writing it on his tombstone and challenging passing dweebs to disprove it? Anyway, I'm not saying you should hold to rigorous mathematical standards. I don't see how that makes any sense in the context of a poeme. I was pointing out that your argument (c.f. "the mathematics had to be simple in order to be beyond doubt") was a silly one. There is a great deal of interesting, not-so-simple mathematics that is beyond doubt. Of course you could argue that the protagonist was an utter oaf, and therefore incapable of proving his conjecture. But then what? Does this poeme become a bold, sweeping statement about how oaves wander through life saying obvious things? You ought to be commended for your insight! Though in my experience, oaves mostly wander through life writing wallyish poetry about things they know very little about, and smelling of dung. Mostly. "And just in case you’re about to say that without logic, there is no math, let me add that much of the universe is running on chance to the chagrin of Einstein and others, and maybe the mind that made it that way likes the emotional tug of trying to outwit probability" I wasn't about to say "without logic there is no math", because any such statement would almost certainly be followed by an enormous amount of guff, no matter what anyone said about it. But I certainly would at least like to know what you mean by your implication that the uncertainty principle implies there is no logic. In answering, please say what you mean by "logic", "no", and "the emotional tug of trying to outwit probability."
Re: Dying In The Corner by Zalev	5-Jan-05/12:12 AM
Fantasising about killing yourself is the most worthwhile thing you will ever do.
Re: a comment on Math Poem 3 by Dovina	5-Jan-05/12:07 AM
Dear boy, you may brush your trousers until they gleam, but you can't change the fact that '(x/x/3) = 3' is a provable, non-axiomatic statement in arithmetic, and so is a theorem of arithmetic. Just because something isn't an interesting X doesn't mean it isn't an X. Also, why are you suddenly waffling on about Goedel? If you're talking about the incompleteness theorem, you're buncombing up the wrong pair of stilts. That says there are some true statements that aren't theorems because they aren't provable. But '(x/x/3) = 3' is provable.
Re: The Widow Bird by Bhaskaryya	4-Jan-05/2:02 PM
"But none could appreciate the pain That lurked behind that melancholic strain" O how often I have felt like that, as naked, lewd, and writhing, I toil o'er the pit. And in the garden, do not womenfolk and dung-cherubs behold my wails? And yet they pay but little heed. For 'tis oft' heard told, in the wooded glades of Derbyshire, that 'tis sweet and proper for an Gentleman to labour ere he casts stool. I daresay such whisperings hold little comfort for those forced to dine on rock-porridge and boiled chestnuts. O Jesu! Becalm my gnashing buttocks!
Re: Dying In The Corner by Zalev	4-Jan-05/1:30 PM
O wayward minstrel! Bestill thy warbling tongue! Thine irksome ballads tumble like elves 'pon the ears of wailing Netherfolk!
Re: a comment on Betwixt and In Between by dougsoderstrom	4-Jan-05/11:16 AM
Or like when they sampled "Batman" -- his actual voice.
Re: Math Poem 3 by Dovina	4-Jan-05/10:01 AM
This poeme is a stain on the face of mathematics, and a stain on the bum of literature (literature has no face, because it is obscured by a giant bum). Again, it is mathematically uninteresting. On reading your defence of its simplicity, it became clear you have no idea about how mathematicians work. You say the protagonist's assertion that "for all x: x/(x/3)=3" has to be simple so as to eliminate any doubt. This is stupid for two reasons: 1. No mathematician doubts a theorem, because it is true by definition. The question is: how do we know if a mathematical assertion, e.g. "for all x: x/(x/3)=3", is a theorem? Answer: We obtain a proof of it (or a counter-example, if it is not a theorem). If we can find a proof of the assertion, how in Sodomy can you doubt it? It may be an incredibly complicated proof that only a genius would understand, but this is not true in most cases. It's also the case that a proof, if written out to a suitable degree of formalism, can be checked by a computer. It is therefore perfectly feasible for your dweeb to have come up with some interesting mathematics that was not open to doubt. 2. You shoot yourself in the bum because while the protagonist's assertion is a simple one, as a mathematician he has every reason at least to question it, since he has not obtained a proof. Note that showing an assertion holds for 1, 6, 7, log 7, and (2^(1/3))^(1/8) is not grounds for generalising to all x!
Re: a comment on Math Poem 3 by Dovina	4-Jan-05/9:19 AM
"your example is more of a logical tautology than math" Are you saying theorems aren't mathematical?
Re: a comment on Disable by -=Dark_Angel=-, P.I.	30-Dec-04/10:07 AM
http://www.poemranker.com/poem-details.jsp?id=116824
Re: Math Poem 2 by Dovina	28-Dec-04/9:01 AM
What the hell are you talking about? This is just shit. Mathematically, this poeme is uninteresting. Unless you're fascinated by the fact that not all operators are identical. Poetically, all you've done is sprawl out this observation in a stupid, non-rhyming, tedious blanket of guff.
Re: a comment on Disable by blacksoul	26-Dec-04/7:26 AM
"Indeed they are not overwhelmingly so." Yes they are. "And what if he did?" Then he's a plagiarist. Obviously. "And what if he didn't?" Then he independently came up with the same idea. He has not taken someone else's idea and passed it off as his own. "You simply listen to yourself and blah blah blah" Humbug.
Re: a comment on Disable by blacksoul	25-Dec-04/4:19 AM
"Chances are that he did" Indeed they are. Overwhelmingly. It would be an extraordinary coincidence if he had independently come up with a virtually identical quote. That is why it is YOU who is leaning heavily on an inclination, because all the evidence points the other way. You even go so far as to accuse ME of being ridiculous(c.f. "ridiculous accusation of plagiarism and your more ridiculous trying to support it"). You probably see yourself as the compassionate old vicar, -=Dark_Angel=-, P.I. as the marauding hobo-bully, and blacksoul as the victim. But what about the original author of the quote? If the evidence suggests this quote was regurgitated from another source (perhaps blacksoul just heard it somewhere), then as a compassionate person shouldn't you be defending them? Aren't they the more likely victim in all this?