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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
Sheer coincidence, ephewNice ref site, 'clage. Meeting oneiric again was a pleasant surprise. Not sure that threads veer solely toward "cooked or prepared food", mind. 
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Certainly words in themselves are meaningless and functionless.
Like money.
It may be functionless, but it's fungible! (this for Dr Bill )
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
solely toward "cooked or prepared food"
Yeah, well, I was happy just finding any reference to a Greek root for food, I wasn't ready to be too picky.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661 |
Ahhhhh. Now I understand where musick is coming from!In this case having *knowledge of history leaves you no better *prepared for the future. 
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
having *knowledge of history leaves you no better *prepared for the future
Yes and no, Musick.
Philosohpically, I believe you are absolutely right, but not so much in practical terms.
Contrary to the "popular saying", history never repeats itself, nor would anyone really expect it to, if they thought hard about it. Each event has a different set of conditions - often, different people involved, and always, the world has changed since last time. Even the people, if the same, have changed to a greater or lesser extent. So, *to that extent, you cannot reliably predict any outcome.
However, when events are temporally close to each other, and the personnel and other conditions are 'constant', the likelihood of an identical outcome (or one so nearly identical as to not make a difference, in practical terms) is very greatly increased - possibly to the point where it is 'safe' to make a prediction.
(e.g., I bang my head on the wall. It hurts my head and doesn't dent the wall. If I repeat the experiment on the same place of the same wall within a few minutes, there is an overwhelming chance that it will still hurt my head and will still not dent the wall.)
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
e.g., I bang my head on the wall. It hurts my head and doesn't dent the wall. If I repeat the experiment on the same place of the same wall within a few minutes, there is an overwhelming chance that it will still hurt my head and will still not dent the wall.Rhuby, this is as close to a perfectly clear and generally understandable description of reality as I ever expect to find. Of course if you persisted in banging your head against the same place on the same wall, you'd probably start to acclimatise, and the wall would start to weaken. Eventually you would end up knocking a hole in the wall without hurting your head. Thereby proving that long-term prediction (or deciding present consequences on the basis of ancient historical analogies) isn't such a good idea. Or perhaps that we should never underestimate the stubborn eccentricity of our race.  "The fool who persists in his folly will become wise" - but then again, he might just get lucky. 
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
Several years ago I was sitting in a pub in Ireland (drinking a non-alcoholoic beverage of course!) and I noticed a fellow down at the end of the bar who was rhythmically pounding himself on the head with a hammer. I asked the bartender what he was doing.
"And isn't he hitting himself over the head with a hammer?" responded the proprietor as he pulled a Guiness (I ALWAYS sit near the tap to cut down the time between beers).
"Yeah, I noticed that, but why?"
"And wouldn't it be because it feels so good when he stops?"
TEd
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661 |
...you would end up knocking a hole in the wall without hurting your head.Anymore than you already have, of course. ----------------- I've heard recently and am now trying to popularize the folllowing quote: "Those who read history realize that they are repeating it". - ???----------------- BTW, Rub'Com', I was trying *hard to help CC assimilate my unpredictable, extra-terrestrial sponsorship...
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
"Those who read history realize that they are repeating it". - ???
Sounds like a squoz down version of my "those who do study history are condemned to realize they are repeating it."
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
From a book I read on vacation last week:
"[El Sordo] was not at all afraid of dying but he was angry at being on this hill which was only utilizable as a place to die... Dying was nothing and he had no picture of it or fear of it in his mind... Living was a hawk in the sky. Living was an earthen jar of water in the dust of the threshing with the grain flailed out and the chaff blowing. Living was a horse between your legs and a carbine under one leg and a hill and a valley and a stream with trees along it and the far side of the valley and the hills beyond."
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Earnest Hemingway, Chapter 27
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