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| Acmlm's Board - I2 Archive - - Posts by Arwon |
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Arwon Zora Level: 35  Posts: 62/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| I think I was accused of "spamming" for making a smartassed 2-word reply to some thread or other. | |||
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 63/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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Originally posted by Fyxe Hey, I was thinking the exact same thing. So does being mopey and withdrawn, for that matter. |
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 64/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| I think I actually agree with Legion. And as with his posts, when I speak of ugliness and brutality in this post I won't just be referring to this recent beheading, but to everything that has gone on. Torture, bombing, dismemberment, mutilation of corpses, beheadings... everything. I'm having trouble getting outraged by this beheading in particular, just like I wasn't particularly surprised or upset by the prisoner torture and abuse. This stuff always happens in any conflict - history shows us this. War is war, and in the grand sweep of human history, every single time you get conflict you get horrible heinous disgusting behaviour by humans towards other humans. Everyone should have expected this sort of ugliness and brutality - and I think this is just a taste. It is disgusting and horrible and reminds us of brutal reality, but what it isn't is surprising or new. No-one who advocated war should be surprised or outraged at what has happened - to have expected anything "nicer" and "easier" was painfully naive and dumb. This goes triple for George Bush and his gang of tiny-brained fuckups - to see them get up and bleat about evil and staying the course, after shit like this... christ it is maddening. The people who start the wars are never the people who die in them. These days, I'm having a fuckload of trouble restraining myself from saying "I told you so" because I don't see how there is any sort of decent solution for what's going on over there. I don't see any option that is going to fix things - pulling out, staying, sending more troops, bringing in the UN, instituting whatever form of government in Iraq (puppet or genuinely independant), flipping out and bombing everybody... I don't see anything that is going to work now. I also think it's going to get a lot worse. Horrible as it has been, both sides are using kiddy gloves so far, compared to some of the other nasty little perma-conflicts in the world today. At times like this, all I can do is sigh and think that everybody is wrong, nothing is sacred, all ideas are dangerously insane, all power corrupts, and the world can be a very depressing, ugly, brutal, merciless place. |
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 65/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| Estonia and Latvia were ROBBED! They were ten times better than crap like the Netherlands and Greece's entries. The guy was DRUMMING WITH HIS FISTS AND HIS HEAD, for Christs' sake. And the Latvian "Na naa naa naa" thing was the catchiest thing ever. Oh well. At least Albania and the Ukraine made it. (edited by Arwon on 05-15-04 06:49 AM) (edited by Arwon on 05-15-04 06:50 AM) (edited by Arwon on 05-15-04 06:57 AM) |
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 66/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| Soulseek is quite nifty. | |||
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 67/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| Justifiable? Yes, just about anything can be justified. Justification is a tricky thing like that. "Good" or "moral" however? No, nothing makes an act like that good or moral. Almost nothing in war can ever be "good" or "moral". |
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 68/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| Well I'd argue that it wasn't the only way to end the war, but it was a way, the chosen way. I also find the consequences of the act interesting, both intended and unintended. The "what ifs". If the bombs weren't dropped, and the world hadn't seen their power - would a later nuclear war have become more likely since their power would have only been a theoretical thing? |
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 69/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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Originally posted by Yiffy Kitten See, that's just a quirk of how I think. Using the bombs was probably the correct decision given the circumstances, but I cannot ever view it as a "moral" or "good" thing. I'm largely convinved that there isn't sucha thing as "good" or "evil" in this world, just a bunch of stuff that happens. Meanwhile: the arguement that "an invasion would have been more costly" doesn't hold - the choices were not simply "nuke or invade", there was a gamut of other potential actions. Prolonged blockade. Accepting a conditional surrender. The insistence on unconditional surrender is what put that choice into existance, and this has been justified in hindsight by raising Japanese "samurai culture" to an article of faith in western circles. I don't buy it, it relies on a stereotypical view of the Japanese which while it has some merit, is not an absolute. They were not a homogenous, single-minded entity - there was a gamut of opinions, some Japanese folks wanted to surrender, and so forth. Nobody can say whether they would have surrendered ot not, or precisely what would have happaned had the atomic bombs not been dropped. The automatic assumption that "they'd have never surrendered" is based on a flawed stereotype and also smacks of conveniently shrugging off something that isn't a clear-cut thing. And on the last bit: Um, no. Japan had bombed Australia, but the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Australian defence of New Guinea by land (Kokoda Trail) turned them back, and put Australia beyond Japan's reach. No doubt more Australian troops would have died in the various island campaigns, but the Japanese weren't able to hit the Australian mainland by the closing stages of the war. But I think you've misunderstood my previous post about the interesting consequences of the act. I'm not talking about justifications and morlaity at all with this. Just a little intellectual curiosity. I'm a big fan of alternate history scenarios. The bombs were dropped, the war ended. But say they weren't. What other impacts did the bombs have? They showed the world their power in a visual and practical way - "this can happen". now, if they weren't dropped, and nuclear weapons continued to be developed roughly the way they have, would a later war have more likely turned nuclear because this fear of nuclear war wasn't as widespread and real? Another one - Japan surrendered completely and was completely cooperative in the post war. It is now a leading world power. Would this have happened anyway, or was it a consequence of the way the war went? The power of the weapons, and the complete surrender with Hirohito in charge supporting MacArthur as a virtual dictator with absolute power, were crucial to the path Japan took in the post war. What impacts would a less complete, more conditional surrender have had? A repeat of the Versailles fiasco with a simmering, bitter Japan itching for revenge? A Japan with less of a commitment to pacifism and retaining a military, which would have had various impacts on everything in the region beyond 1945 - another power in the region with its own influences and aims and ideas? What would this have meant for the development of the post-war world - Korea, Vietnam, the Asian region in general? What if the war took longer and the USSR got involved? A joint USSR-USA occupation providing another theater for emerging hostilities? What if Hirohito was killed and wasn't around to lend his authority to the US occupation? Could the war have devolved into a bloody occupation with guerilla warfare? (edited by Arwon on 05-20-04 07:02 AM) |
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 70/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| I never needed to study through school, except for the HSC, but I found that writing notes and then notes from those notes... plus a few practise essays, got me through just fine. Practise essays are damn near essential. | |||
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 71/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| Gun laws don't really affect the crime rate, I believe. They don't make it go up, they don't make it go down. Guns are a minor symptom of society's problems, not a cause or solution. Guns aren't inherently bad or good, but there needs to be a sensible registration and licensing scheme - just like with cars. ---------------- Also: I get EXTREMELY annoyed when pro-grun zealots in America claim that "Australia banned guns and the crime rate skyrocketed". This is so very not true. Firstly, we didn't "ban guns" but just a few types. Secondly, Australia has NEVER had that many guns, or an unrestricted right to own them - that's one difference between America and Australia. So it wasn't a huge crackdown that took us from an American-style gun-paradise to a "gun-banning" country - this is an delusion based on certain Americans' projecting their society's gun situation onto Australia, then applying our laws to that. And they misunderstand the laws, at any rate. Thirdly, statistics show that the crime rate has been basically steady from before the new gun laws to now. Only by very creatively twisting statistics or by making them up, can you claim otherwise. Sorry, unprovoked rant.. but it's a bet peeve of mine, that is, because it's become an article of faith for pro-gun zealots, and it gets cited as truth so often... but is so compeltely not true. (edited by Arwon on 05-24-04 02:09 AM) |
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 72/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| Plus, you don't exactly have the right to Bear Tanks or Bear Missiles... so the whole "right to bear arms" thing is rendered obsolete even if you don't have restrictions on basic guns. | |||
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 73/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| I speak Australian English, which is of course its own entity with differences from both English and American in vocabulary, usage and pronunciation... but having lived in the US for a while then gone back to Australia, now I can't decide whether everything sounds weird to me or nothing does. Neither spelling of colour looks right to me now. I can speak American when needs be - throwing in US words and pronunciations to aid myself being understood. However it still feels a bit weird - Americans tend to speak from the back or middle of their mouth while Brits and Aussies speak from right at the front of the mouth. So excessive use of an Ameircanish accent (probably a mashup of Californian, Midwestern and Canadian) kinda hurts my jaw. Placement of 'R's is totally different too - and key to the accent difference. Australians of course drop the R next to a vowel from words like "car" and "farm" BUT they insert Rs between words in certain situations - the phrase "the car is red" is said "the cah ris red" or something to that effect. So R placement is an instant giveaway about accents. Mostly I can deal with the vocab - aluminum, ketchup, etc... but "acclimate" just sounds weird - "Acclimatise" just sounds more natural. Oh, and I have noticed that "lucked out" has the exact opposite meaning in America to what it does in Australia. And they say "could care less" here in the US instead of "couldn't care less" - I think the Aussie term makes more sense given the meaning of the phrase. Of course there's always exceptions to generalisations - my experience of Australian English is based on New South Wales and my American English on Southern California so my observtions arent 100% correct. |
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 74/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| Yeah! That's what I was referring to, I just picked a horrendously bad example because car has an R in it. (We still add the R in the middle like those other examples but it sounds normal) | |||
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 75/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| Pet peeve of mine is people who believe they don't have an accent and there's such a think as neutral accent-free English. Everyone everywhere has an accent. |
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 77/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| Hmm. Five left. | |||
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 79/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| I should be there, since I am in SD and will be then. | |||
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 80/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| I'd go see it if he called it "Preaching to the Converted". For someone like me seeing the movie would be utterly pointless. Friends have told me it's better than Bowling for Columbine though, so maybe it's a worthwhile documentary this time. (edited by Arwon on 06-28-04 05:06 PM) |
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 81/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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Originally posted by Suri Bear I wouldn't go as far as to say there is no truth so stereotypes of the Californian accent. There's definately a different vocabulary here - "dude" as a complete sentence, for example. Hell, you just used the phrase "hella broke." It's charming, I assure you. California is awesome. Um, I am Australian. I have lived in America for two years and am back in the USA currently, visiting friends. I have a list of silly misconceptions as long as your arm, misconceptions about Australia, as well as misconceptions about America. One thing that strikes me is how little people really know about Australia. Seems like quite a few people don't realise we are a modern, civilised urban country - it's like they think we're all kind of backwards, drunk, dysfunctional and rural... bronzed meat-heads drinking beer and fighting a lot. Oh well. Australians seem to msotly have their ideas of Americaland based on a bizzare hybrid of Jerry Springer, the cowby stereotype, and 'gangsta rap'. Vast hickich wastelands punctuated by a few anarchic crime-ridden dystopian megalopolises. It's weird. (edited by Arwon on 07-21-04 05:57 PM) |
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 82/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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Originally posted by NSNick There's no such thing as "pure" or "correct" English. I don't get how Midwesterners came to the conclusion that their accents are somehow neutral non-accents. It's absurd. . . . . Um, I quite obviously have an Australian accent, of the more urban, less "ocker" variety. I have also picked up a few Californianisms/Americanisms in my speech, more in word choice than pronunciation. I think, also, I have tended to flatten out my vowels to be better understood by Americans used to their fairly flat and droney speech patterns. Rs and Os and As are the hardest things and the biggest differences, I believe. Meanwhile... one of my favourite things in Californian speech is how "our" and "are" are homonyms - they sound the same when Californians say them. It's cute. |
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 83/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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Originally posted by Gb boyOriginally posted by Bella Like Benny Hill and the Sex Pistols? |
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| Acmlm's Board - I2 Archive - - Posts by Arwon |
. It's something I'm not used to 
