Vulgarian Posted May 17, 2014 Share Posted May 17, 2014 I listened to the whole thing... One thing I would disagree with her about is that trans people should be able to compete in official sporting events such as the olympics against people of the same gender. Sport is primarily a physical contest - in sport we challenge our natural physical abilities against those of others. The reason that sports competitions are usually segregated is because of the physiological differences between genders which corresponds to differences in ability. Whatever procedures trans people have undergone to bring them closer to their desired gender do not make them, physiologically speaking, of that gender. Not by a long shot. If sport is a test of natural physical ability, and is segregated because of the physiological differences between sexes, this unfortunately leaves trans people somewhere in between. For similar reasons I don't think that people with metal springs for legs should be able to compete against people with natural human legs. But then I think the olympics is a load of wank anyway. There is too much technology involved so that most sports have ceased to be a purely physical contest and become more about how much money a country can feed into these exhibitions of nationalist posturing. There is a clear correlation between expenditure and results in the olympics because of the advantages to many events that technology can bring. Tell me how a poverty stricken, landlocked African nation can hope to compete in the canoe slalom, or the pointless 'cycling round a banked oval' game. Let's literally strip it down and make it an exhibition of pure physicality celebrating the natural beauty of the human form. Don't forget the olive oil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinahand Posted August 15, 2014 Author Share Posted August 15, 2014 UV light is the part of the sun's light spectrum that most damages the skin. Looking at people with a UV sensitive camera highlights areas where UV can/has damaged your skin. The results are fascinating - especially when people put on sun cream! And look at the women right at the end - in normal light perfect teeth, in UV her dental work is clearly visible! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinahand Posted September 18, 2014 Author Share Posted September 18, 2014 Ah the joy of resonant frequencies! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinahand Posted October 2, 2014 Author Share Posted October 2, 2014 Ah preservatives etc. Assuming this is real it is pretty scary: 6 months old chips, patty and burger - and hardly a fungus, bacteria or other micro-organism to be seen. That is scary! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinahand Posted October 19, 2014 Author Share Posted October 19, 2014 A most enjoyable lecture about Zhuangzi! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinahand Posted October 29, 2014 Author Share Posted October 29, 2014 My only experience of this sort of thing is being a white man walking Chinese streets and having everyone from builders to school children make it known they've noticed the 外国人*. It gave me a small insight into what this woman has to go through: It wears you down. The response is they are just being friendly. Well, for me morality is a lot about walking a mile in someone else's shoes, and I can understand why women get fed up with this sort of harassment. It isn't friendly and can be intimidating. *waiguoren: foreigner - there are other phrases they use, some more and some less complimentary! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinahand Posted December 10, 2014 Author Share Posted December 10, 2014 Weather: Wow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinahand Posted February 6, 2015 Author Share Posted February 6, 2015 (edited) I find this video of Peaches the parrot parroting an argument fascinating. She is a rescue parrot, rescued from a couple who divorced after terrible arguments and clearly Peaches has had these arguments imprinted onto her and feels the need to relive them, not just in sound but in gesture too And also look at the poor little thing - she's lost most of her feathers: clearly she's been stressed by this experience. Isn't that remarkable. She's a parrot with a brain the size of a walnut, but I suspect she's been able, in some way, to read the stress in the divorcing couple's arguments and be affected by it. Parrots and Corvids are incredible intelligent animals, and I suppose it's not so odd that an animal gets stressed out by being forced to live in a noisy shouty environment. But seeing her reenact the fights with such accuracy is uncanny. She's one interesting bird! Hope she de-stresses. Someone needs to play her some music so she can dance (though maybe not the death metal)! Edited May 10, 2015 by Chinahand 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinahand Posted April 17, 2015 Author Share Posted April 17, 2015 Wow this is a beautiful, but awesome image, and the light science has cast on it makes it even more so. It is estimated to be about 150,000 years old and it isn't human, when its morphology and DNA have been examined they show it to be a very early Neanderthal. It got lost and fell in a cave - trapping itself and probably dying of thirst and hunger. No animals ever found it so the skeleton is almost entirely complete. The body just crumbled into a heap and the minerals flowing through the rocks have started to mineralize it. Imagine what it must have been like for the first cavers to see its empty sockets staring back at them after millennia in the dark. Look here for the scientific paper explaining about it in detail. Or here for a quick summary. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinahand Posted May 10, 2015 Author Share Posted May 10, 2015 I don't know how many people will have heard of Sabeen Mahmud. Until I read her obituary at the Economist Magazine today I hadn't. She was young, 40, and saw diversity, openness, curiosity, science, conversation, poetry and art as a way to learn about, challenge and change our world. She lived in Karachi and must have been such a courageous personality to insist on living life her way. No veil, no chaperon for her in the midst of the reactionary religious conservatism that city is infamous for. They killed her, of course, machine-gunned assassins on a motorbike. Who did it isn't clear - the corrupt state and the religious fundamentalists both had reason to hate her. We live in a world too full of people whose response to free thought is to behead or shoot those expressing opinions different from their's. Their cowardice is contemptible, their violence condemnable, but it is a sad fact that they can and do silence those who wish to think differently from them and threaten those not brave enough to challenge them into sullen retreat as they come to dominate a society. I doubt I have the courage Sabeen Mahmud possessed, but I am aware we live in a very special society and one we must protect. We need poets, and free thinkers, and people who say and do things to provoke society to examine itself. The people who shot Sabeen Mahmud are enemies of something precious, something I hold dear. Sometimes it is necessary to use force to stop the darkness treading on the light, but far better is to spread the light so it can never be extinguished. Sabeen tried to do this. May her light grow and spread, and may the ideas of those who killed her be shown to be bankrupt and consigned to the cesspit of failed ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Sausages Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 That sort of thing is all too common. Today's news: "A secular blogger has been hacked to death in north-eastern Bangladesh in the country's third such deadly attack since the start of the year. Police said Ananta Bijoy Das was attacked by a masked gang wielding machetes in the north-eastern city of Sylhet." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-32701001 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinahand Posted May 20, 2015 Author Share Posted May 20, 2015 (edited) Ah the beauties of Nature. Do not click this link if you are of a nervous disposition*. Click this one instead it contains a nice song. *It's only a picture of a fly ... yes, a fly! Edited May 20, 2015 by Chinahand Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulgarian Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 Why is that spider-looking fly hanging onto an aggrieved bat's face? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinahand Posted May 21, 2015 Author Share Posted May 21, 2015 Bow down to your parasite over-Lords. http://thesmallermajority.com/2014/11/25/mozambique-diary-not-all-flies-fly/ And have a good browse of the the linked site - the photographs are amazing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinahand Posted May 21, 2015 Author Share Posted May 21, 2015 Erm ... a theme seems to be emerging in these last few posts. Once you watch it you cannot unwatch it. Some people are really dedicated to their science ... and have very odd ideas about child birth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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