Re: [silk] Renaming Aurangzeb Road

[Radhika, Y.]

I would like to learn about both...sorry to hear the bad news about your
wife.


“Be careful what you water your dreams with. Water them with worry and fear
and you will produce weeds that choke the life from your dream. Water them
with optimism and solutions and you will cultivate success. Always be on
the lookout for ways to turn a problem into an opportunity for success.
Always be on the lookout for ways to nurture your dream." ~ Lao Tzu
(courtesy -Peacefrog)

““The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to
creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and
gave to it neither power nor time.” -- Mary Oliver

Re: [silk] Renaming Aurangzeb Road

[Suresh Ramasubramanian]

> On 12-Sep-2015, at 11:03 PM, Bruce A. Metcalf  wrote:
> 
> Now I need to go find something constructive to post. I don't suppose anyone 
> cares for a trip report of five weeks on a cruise ship or 8500 miles across 
> America by car? Perhaps an essay on how my wife has become collateral damage 
> in the War on Drugs?

The road trip, sure!  About your wife - extremely sorry to hear that it 
happened - whatever ‘it’ was.

Re: [silk] Renaming Aurangzeb Road

[Hari Selvarajan]

Bruce,

> I will offer as faint excuse that I've been under a bit of stress and needing 
> someone to lash out at -- Thursday morning someone shot my cat. It looks like 
> he'll recover, but I've since learned that two other cats in the neighborhood 
> were shot, killed, and draped over car hoods.

I’ve been lurking here for a short time and came out of the woodwork to say I’m 
really sorry to hear about your cat and hope he recovers. Animal abuse is a 
terrible thing -- I’m generally a mild-mannered fellow but this kind of thing 
makes me wish all manner of ill upon the perpetrator.

> Now I need to go find something constructive to post. I don't suppose anyone 
> cares for a trip report of five weeks on a cruise ship or 8500 miles across 
> America by car? Perhaps an essay on how my wife has become collateral damage 
> in the War on Drugs?

I, for one, would be very happy to read a post on any of the above.

— Hari

Re: [silk] Renaming Aurangzeb Road

[landon hurley]

-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA512

On 09/12/2015 01:33 PM, Bruce A. Metcalf wrote:
> Now I need to go find something constructive to post. I don't
> suppose anyone cares for a trip report of five weeks on a cruise
> ship or 8500 miles across America by car? Perhaps an essay on how
> my wife has become collateral damage in the War on Drugs?

Just to de-lurk (or is there no hyphen there?), I misread that as ``five
weeks on a cruise ship about 8500 miles across America by car,'' which
naturally lead me to hope that someone had revived the concept of the
Land-Titanic. I only hope it didn't strike a mailbox and go under.

My condolences towards your cat as well; that's a truly vile act.

> Cheers, Bruce

landon


- -- 
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
-BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-
Version: GnuPG v2.0.17 (GNU/Linux)
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=xWs3
-END PGP SIGNATURE-

Re: [silk] Renaming Aurangzeb Road

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

Deepa Mohan wrote:


Venkat Mangudi wrote:



But,  OTOH, I like... no,  love... Bruce's writing. I don't mind reading
more of it. Keep at it,  Bruce. :)


If at first we like your words, Alfred the Bruce...write, write, write again!


I'm glad some found entertainment in my remarks, snarky thought they 
were, but I must apologize to the list for having made them here. I do 
know better than to poke trolls, and should have refrained.


I will offer as faint excuse that I've been under a bit of stress and 
needing someone to lash out at -- Thursday morning someone shot my cat. 
It looks like he'll recover, but I've since learned that two other cats 
in the neighborhood were shot, killed, and draped over car hoods.


Clearly, our troll is not (yet) at that level of perversity, nor is he 
wanted for felony animal abuse (or so I assume), but he presented a 
broad target at a sensitive time, and I reacted with more wit than 
wisdom. I regret the disruption.


Now I need to go find something constructive to post. I don't suppose 
anyone cares for a trip report of five weeks on a cruise ship or 8500 
miles across America by car? Perhaps an essay on how my wife has become 
collateral damage in the War on Drugs?


Cheers,
Bruce

Re: [silk] Renaming Aurangzeb Road

[Venkat Mangudi - Silk]

Of course, I meant Chopra.

On Saturday, September 12, 2015, Venkat Mangudi - Silk <
s...@venkatmangudi.com> wrote:

> I love the wisdom of copra. Sample deep thought The physical world is
> the foundation of the mechanics of timelessness.
>
>
> I am now hooked!
>
> On Saturday, September 12, 2015, Shenoy N  > wrote:
>
>> On 12 September 2015 at 10:44, Aditya Kapil  wrote:
>>
>> > Yup. Me too. Remedies anyone?
>> > On 12 Sep 2015 10:41, "Venkat Mangudi - Silk" 
>> > wrote:
>> >
>> > > BTW, James Bond has been writing to me directly. Did anyone else get
>> > emails
>> > > from 007?
>> > >
>> > >
>> >
>>
>> The best response to trolls of course is masterly inaction but there are
>> times when the blood does boil and every particle in your being wishes to
>> give it back to the sumbitch. I recommend random quotes from the likes of
>> http://www.wisdomofchopra.com/ They are pithy. They are ungoogleable.
>> They
>> are profound gibberish.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Narendra Shenoy
>> http://narendrashenoy.blogspot.com
>>
>

Re: [silk] Renaming Aurangzeb Road

[Venkat Mangudi - Silk]

I love the wisdom of copra. Sample deep thought The physical world is
the foundation of the mechanics of timelessness.


I am now hooked!

On Saturday, September 12, 2015, Shenoy N  wrote:

> On 12 September 2015 at 10:44, Aditya Kapil  > wrote:
>
> > Yup. Me too. Remedies anyone?
> > On 12 Sep 2015 10:41, "Venkat Mangudi - Silk"  >
> > wrote:
> >
> > > BTW, James Bond has been writing to me directly. Did anyone else get
> > emails
> > > from 007?
> > >
> > >
> >
>
> The best response to trolls of course is masterly inaction but there are
> times when the blood does boil and every particle in your being wishes to
> give it back to the sumbitch. I recommend random quotes from the likes of
> http://www.wisdomofchopra.com/ They are pithy. They are ungoogleable. They
> are profound gibberish.
>
>
> --
> Narendra Shenoy
> http://narendrashenoy.blogspot.com
>

Re: [silk] Renaming Aurangzeb Road

[Deepa Mohan]

What is this killfile?

On Sat, Sep 12, 2015 at 7:25 PM, Biju Chacko  wrote:
>  I put him in my killfile about a minute ago. It's been working real
> well so far. :-)

Re: [silk] Renaming Aurangzeb Road

[Deepa Mohan]

I think he's been writing to many of  us directly, complaining about
the noise some of the others are making. I am shedding this sacred
thread now. But yes, there was a nice little stir in the sedate silken
fabric.

On Sat, Sep 12, 2015 at 6:52 PM, Madhu Menon  wrote:
> On 12 September 2015 at 10:41, Venkat Mangudi - Silk
>  wrote:
>> BTW, James Bond has been writing to me directly. Did anyone else get emails
>> from 007?
>
> Yes. And he's pissing me off. Just told him to kiss my ass.
>

Re: [silk] Renaming Aurangzeb Road

[Biju Chacko]

On Sat, Sep 12, 2015 at 7:23 PM, Venkat Mangudi - Silk
 wrote:
> Tsk , tsk... This kind of language is going to get you *blocked*.  Ignoring
> his emails have been working for me so far. And if it persists,  I'll
> "report spam". Deal with metta, y'all.
 I put him in my killfile about a minute ago. It's been working real
well so far. :-)

-- b

Re: [silk] Renaming Aurangzeb Road

[Venkat Mangudi - Silk]

Tsk , tsk... This kind of language is going to get you *blocked*.  Ignoring
his emails have been working for me so far. And if it persists,  I'll
"report spam". Deal with metta, y'all.
On Sep 12, 2015 7:19 PM, "Biju Chacko"  wrote:

> On Sat, Sep 12, 2015 at 7:02 PM, Mohit  wrote:
> >
> >> On 12-Sep-2015, at 18:52, Madhu Menon  wrote:
> >>
> >> Just told him to kiss my ass.
> >
> > Tch tch. You guys have no compassion for a deranged high iq soul.
>
> I do. This list is full of them after all. That's why I gave him one
> polite, reasoned explanation for the reception he received here before
> I told him to take a flying fuck through a rolling donut.
>
> I have to say it's been a good 10 or 15 years since I've felt like
> strangling someone after reading an email. I can't remember if on the
> last occasion it was Suresh or Atul, though. :-)
>
> -- b
>
>

Re: [silk] Renaming Aurangzeb Road

[Biju Chacko]

On Sat, Sep 12, 2015 at 7:02 PM, Mohit  wrote:
>
>> On 12-Sep-2015, at 18:52, Madhu Menon  wrote:
>>
>> Just told him to kiss my ass.
>
> Tch tch. You guys have no compassion for a deranged high iq soul.

I do. This list is full of them after all. That's why I gave him one
polite, reasoned explanation for the reception he received here before
I told him to take a flying fuck through a rolling donut.

I have to say it's been a good 10 or 15 years since I've felt like
strangling someone after reading an email. I can't remember if on the
last occasion it was Suresh or Atul, though. :-)

-- b

Re: [silk] Renaming Aurangzeb Road

[Biju Chacko]

On Sat, Sep 12, 2015 at 6:52 PM, Madhu Menon  wrote:
> On 12 September 2015 at 10:41, Venkat Mangudi - Silk
>  wrote:
>> BTW, James Bond has been writing to me directly. Did anyone else get emails
>> from 007?
>
> Yes. And he's pissing me off. Just told him to kiss my ass.

Ditto.

Re: [silk] Renaming Aurangzeb Road

[Mohit]

> On 12-Sep-2015, at 18:52, Madhu Menon  wrote:
> 
> Just told him to kiss my ass.

Tch tch. You guys have no compassion for a deranged high iq soul.

Regards,
Mohit

Re: [silk] Renaming Aurangzeb Road

[Madhu Menon]

On 12 September 2015 at 10:41, Venkat Mangudi - Silk
 wrote:
> BTW, James Bond has been writing to me directly. Did anyone else get emails
> from 007?

Yes. And he's pissing me off. Just told him to kiss my ass.

Re: [silk] [ADMIN] noise reduction

[J. Alfred Prufrock]

There is such a thing as "too vanilla".
And now we have the perfect term for it.

Udhay, you think age - or more specifically, extreme youth - could also be
a factor here?
On 12 Sep 2015 12:03, "Bhaskar Dasgupta"  wrote:

> Meet na mila Man ka...
>
> https://youtu.be/EUcnIUYBR4U
>
>
>
> > On 12 Sep 2015, at 06:13, Venkat Mangudi - Silk 
> wrote:
> >
> > What's the metta with you? One does not go around punning about such a
> > serious metta?
> >
> >
> > On Saturday, September 12, 2015, Suresh Ramasubramanian <
> sur...@hserus.net>
> > wrote:
> >
> >>
> >>> On 12-Sep-2015, at 10:04 AM, gabin kattukaran  >> > wrote:
> >>>
> >>> On 11 September 2015 at 21:53, Sriram Karra  >> > wrote:
>  I fully expect to be informed soon that someone, say Shiv, ran a
> social
>  experiment on the list and to expect the results soon.
> 
> >>>
> >>> Would that be meta metta?
> >>
> >> And someone dropping in on shiv when he was running such an experiment
> >> would have met a meta metta
> >>
> >> Though - Udhay and my inclination is that this isn’t shiv.
> >>
> >> —srs
> >>
>

Re: [silk] James Bonilla - Introduction

[J. Alfred Prufrock]

If metta and goodwill are the only things that matter, should we bother to
discuss race, identity or IQ?



On 11 Sep 2015 09:10, "James Bonilla"  wrote:
>
> Thank you for a very warm introduction --- and the fascinating discussion
> that followed.
>
> I'm afraid I don't have the time to respond to each and every question. I
> will do so when I free up. Time is in very short supply right now.
>
>  - James B., 007
>
> P.S. I don't know what to make of some of the comments (e.g. the "Double O
> Seven" and the 007" comment). I will wait for a clarification from whoever
> made those comments.
>
> On Thu, Sep 10, 2015 at 8:38 PM, James Bonilla 
> wrote:
>
> > Yes, metta is goodwill. Goodwill is metta.
> >
> > Metta, goodwill, these are the only things that matter. Everything else
is
> > quite pointless.
> >
> >  - JB 007
> >
> > On Wed, Sep 9, 2015 at 11:23 PM, Venkat Mangudi - Silk <
> > s...@venkatmangudi.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Almost forgot,
> >>
> >> P. P. S:  I think Eugen Leitl is a great guy and seriously jealous of
him
> >> for a bunch of reasons.
> >> On Sep 10, 2015 11:51 AM, "Venkat Mangudi - Silk" <
s...@venkatmangudi.com
> >> >
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >> > Welcome to Silk, James.
> >> >
> >> > P.S: I hate top posting.
> >> > P.P.S: I hate responding to a long email thread with one sentence and
> >> top
> >> > posting.
> >> > :)
> >> > On Sep 10, 2015 9:33 AM
> >> >> to block? Is there an absolute number (i.e., there will always  be
3-4
> >> >> pests irrespective of number), or does this tend to be
proportionate to
> >> >> the
> >> >> number of members in the group? Logically, it should be directly
> >> >> proportionate to the number of people in the group, but I can see a
> >> >> counter-intuitive argument for inversely proportionate.
> >> >>
> >> >> I am a bit confused about the philosophy what
> >> >> Voltaire
> >> >> summed up so succinctly. I am not as familiar with Buddhist doctrin

very little.
> >> >> > > >
> >> >> > >
> >> >> > > ​As a quick reminder, the most important rule of silklist is
> >> "Assume

> >> >> > > goodwill". This means that you expect the listmembers to be
acting
> >> in
> >> >> > good
> >> >> > > faith as a default position, in the absence of other evidence.
> >> >> > >
> >> >> > > I'd encourage you to keep that in mind. Also, keep silklist
> >> >> discussions
> >> >> > on
> >> >> > > silklist, please.
> >> >> > >
> >> >> > > Udhay​
> >> >> > >
> >> >> >
> >> >> > I have seen all too ofte
> >> blocked
> >> >> > them. Following that idea to its logical conclusion, I think I
should
> >> >> > publish a list of people I shall plan to block. Before I even made
> >> the
> >> >> > first post on this List, I went through some of the earlier
> >> discussions.
> >> >> >
> >> >> > Based on this, I have decided that I am going to block the
following
> >> >> > people. This list seems to generally have goodwill, so perhaps,
that
> >> is
> >> >> why
> >> >> > I don't have to block a lot of people. To all these people I am
> >> >> > blocking/filtering out, I will simply say that there is no reason
to
> >> >> assume
> >> >> > that one is going to be compatible on the Internet with everyone,

Re: [silk] Renaming Aurangzeb Road

[Venky TV]

On 12 September 2015 at 10:44, Aditya Kapil  wrote:

> Yup. Me too. Remedies anyone?


Umm.. block him? :D

- Venky (the Second).

[silk] Does Your Language Shape How You Think?

[Thaths]

"Some 50 years ago, the renowned linguist Roman Jakobson pointed out a
crucial fact about differences between languages in a pithy maxim:
“Languages differ essentially in what they must convey and not in what they
may convey.” ... if different languages influence our minds in different
ways, this is not because of what our language allows us to think but
rather because of what it habitually obliges us to think about."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/magazine/29language-t.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=Guy%20Deutscher&st=cse

*Seventy years ago, in 1940, a popular science magazine published a short
article that set in motion one of the trendiest intellectual fads of the
20th century. *At first glance, there seemed little about the article to
augur its subsequent celebrity. Neither the title, “Science and
Linguistics,” nor the magazine, M.I.T.’s Technology Review, was most
people’s idea of glamour. And the author, a chemical engineer who worked
for an insurance company and moonlighted as an anthropology lecturer at
Yale University, was an unlikely candidate for international superstardom.
And yet Benjamin Lee Whorf let loose an alluring idea about language’s
power over the mind, and his stirring prose seduced a whole generation into
believing that our mother tongue restricts what we are able to think.
Continue reading the main story
RELATED
COVERAGE

   - Letters: You Are What You SpeakSEPT. 10, 2010
   


In particular, Whorf announced, Native American languages impose on their
speakers a picture of reality that is totally different from ours, so their
speakers would simply not be able to understand some of our most basic
concepts, like the flow of time or the distinction between objects (like
“stone”) and actions (like “fall”). For decades, Whorf’s theory dazzled
both academics and the general public alike. In his shadow, others made a
whole range of imaginative claims about the supposed power of language,
from the assertion that Native American languages instill in their speakers
an intuitive understanding of Einstein’s concept of time as a fourth
dimension to the theory that the nature of the Jewish religion was
determined by the tense system of ancient Hebrew.
Photo
CreditHoracio Salinas for The New York Times

Eventually, Whorf’s theory crash-landed on hard facts and solid common
sense, when it transpired that there had never actually been any evidence
to support his fantastic claims. The reaction was so severe that for
decades, any attempts to explore the influence of the mother tongue on our
thoughts were relegated to the loony fringes of disrepute. But 70 years on,
it is surely time to put the trauma of Whorf behind us. And in the last few
years, new research has revealed that when we learn our mother tongue, we
do after all acquire certain habits of thought that shape our experience in
significant and often surprising ways.

Whorf, we now know, made many mistakes. The most serious one was to assume
that our mother tongue constrains our minds and prevents us from being able
to think certain thoughts. The general structure of his arguments was to
claim that if a language has no word for a certain concept, then its
speakers would not be able to understand this concept. If a language has no
future tense, for instance, its speakers would simply not be able to grasp
our notion of future time. It seems barely comprehensible that this line of
argument could ever have achieved such success, given that so much contrary
evidence confronts you wherever you look. When you ask, in perfectly normal
English, and in the present tense, “Are you coming tomorrow?” do you feel
your grip on the notion of futurity slipping away? Do English speakers who
have never heard the German word *Schadenfreude* find it difficult to
understand the concept of relishing someone else’s misfortune? Or think
about it this way: If the inventory of ready-made words in your language
determined which concepts you were able to understand, how would you ever
learn anything new?

*SINCE THERE IS NO EVIDENCE* that any language forbids its speakers to
think anything, we must look in an entirely different direction to discover
how our mother tongue really does shape our experience of the world. Some
50 years ago, the renowned linguist Roman Jakobson pointed out a crucial
fact about differences between languages in a pithy maxim: “Languages
differ essentially in what they *must* convey and not in what they
*may* convey.”
This maxim offers us the key to unlocking the real force of the mother
tongue: if different languages influence our minds in different ways, this
is not because of what our language *allows* us to think but rather because
of what it habitually *obliges* us to think *about*.

Consider this example. Suppose I say to you in English that “I spent
ye