woolf woolf

9/10. I've taken my first step into a larger world.

Thanks BSchultz19, your post was insightful.

I agree with what you said, despite my limited knowledge about the funding, subsidies or taxes. It has weight in my opinion. In Europe, specially in the interchangeable centre, there's the notion that states are volatile or frail. Germany, now one of the world's major powers and one of the oldest and most historic territories, is in his current form only for twenty-four years. Russia, another powerful state, suffered in the last century social changes that both made it more powerful and more fragile than ever, and is now trying to reassert its place in the globe. The United Kingdom faced, a few months ago, a referendum about one of its states segregation; less than a century ago, it was the biggest empire in History. In the United States, the culture and the political organization deem very difficult that a state even amasses enough support for independence in the first place, but it'll inevitably come a time when that changes. It might be in the next fifty years, or in the next five thousand. Personally, a segregation in today's US is almost impossible and would only cause trouble.

Chesilbeach wrote a good opinion of the book, but that isn't what I'm searching for. You don't tell me plot elements, but the truth is I don't intend to read the book, regardless of how good it might be. If sometime later I read it, the spoilers are something I'll have to accept; if the book is good, I'll enjoy it either way. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by R.L. Stevenson, is an amazingly built suspenseful thriller; sadly, popular culture already spoiled me the book's climax. However, it did not take from me the pleasure of reading it. David Copperfield, idem. If this changed your mind, you can use the spoiler tag [ spoiler ] [ / spoiler ]

Could you please elaborate on this book? I'm curious about what you thought of, and I don't know it. Is it called because Jane only percepts the world in different shades of grey? Is there anyone in the book capable of seeing all the colours from the spectrum? Also, the author's name is very cool.

The United States is composed of fifty states, and each of them possesses particularities and individual identity. As a whole, the United States is a huge and rich country, encompassing a huge territory. I don't know nothing about history outside Europe before the Discoveries, and I know even less from Europe outside my country. I blame local education, in which we barely learn about Charlemagne, Felipe II (despite he was our King) or Peter the Great (I don't know his local name). But I have an idea of the amount of european countries we have now, and we had before, and considering the territorial changes of existing countries, it's my opinion that a country is never safe from segregation, conquest, change or extinction. Even the most fundamental way we have of territorial division today, the nation-state, is a phenomenon from the 19th century, despite some early emergences. Which means humanity has before seen a huge amount of ways to divide territory and organize populations, and it'll probably see many more. In my opinion, I consider just a matter of time before some state segregates from the United States. A few months ago, I've read an article that referred an eventual independent California as one of the most powerful nation-states in the world, and many other states in the US are perfectly capable of maintaining themselves. I'm not saying it will happen soon, and I don't know how your country is; I just know society is interchangeable and interdependent, and the elements of the present won't be the elements of the future. This is compatible with what you wrote so far, but I'm not asking if you agree or disagree with it. I'm not asking if you believe the United States will change or extinguish, or if a state will segregate. What I'm asking is, if a state is to campaign for segregation, will Thomas Paine's argument about the colonies' segregation from the British Empire be used, and in what way? Is it usable by both separatists and unionists? How does your country's culture interpret Paine now; would he be irrelevant to the discussion? Also, you skipped the second question, in which I was more interested. I don't know if it escaped your attention, or if you chose not to answer. I won't hold it to you if you don't answer, because it's just a conversation and you might not feel like it. I understand completely. I thank you for the answers so far.

I can't understand what's said on stage. I've been fortunate to see two mainstream, open to everyone plays in London; I already knew the stories, but I didn't understand what they said, ever. I also have difficulty in hearing listening to films and series, but that happens to me as well in my local language. Anyone else?

I'd like to go to Iceland, and see what you've seen. Some would say I have a borderline obsession with the northern world, and they wouldn't be wrong.

Good answer, thanks. One of the things it most confuses me about your country is that, in a land of enterprise and progress, the presidents must aknowledge acknowledge God. The United States are now fifty groups, constantly mending the breaks and cracks between them. Aren't you afraid this argument by Paine might be later used for segregation? How radical was Paine, to the point that both you and the founding fathers don't agree with some of his ideas?

Could you explain in what ways the common sense and fundamental rights justify the inception of the United States, according to the author?

I liked it; we could have seen more of the houses, though. Hear about their location, and a little history about them. But they were aiming for a trailer, not a documentary.

It's fine, do it when you have time to.

There's one supposedly to premiere next year; however, J.J. Abrams stepped down as the director to direct Star Wars VII instead, and Roberto Orci (screenwriter of the two previous) also stepped down as director. The plot is yet unknown, there's no footage or trailers, there's no complete cast. I'd wager we'll have to wait some more.

I never read the actual book, but Lilliput is only the first land of several Gulliver visits. I'm also pretty sure the movie doesn't make justice to the book one bit.

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The Medical University of Vienna, Austria successfully implanted the first mind-controlled bionic limbs in three patients. Amazing. News: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/25/bionic-reconstruction-prosthetic-hands-austrian-men-controlled-mind Video of limbs being used: http://www.theguardian.com/science/video/2015/feb/25/world-first-bionic-hand-controlled-by-mind-video

20.

That's what I thought about Game of Thrones before the third season. Little did I know... nonetheless, I think it still needs some more.

You're welcome; perhaps you didn't need a lot of convincing in first place.

You're saving for a Tesla. Splendid idea, I should do the same. The automaton you've mentioned seems like the ones created by the swiss Henri Maillardet (you said so yourself, or something similar).

I watched Citizenfour, the documentary by Laura Poitras that won an academy award this past weekend. Laura Poitras was contacted by a stranger, codenamed Citizenfour, that offered her information on illegal wiretapping from the NSA and other intelligence agencies. Some time later, she traveled with journalists Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill to a hotel in Hong Kong where Edward Snowden (a.k.a. Citizenfour) was staying. Together, they leaked and denounced several agencies and governments that were guilty of illegal and hidden global surveillance. This documentary is an edited sum of her recordings from their meetings in his hotel room, and other moments of relevance to this story around the world. It's strange to see a film about espionage, with the planning and the tension, and at the same time realizing that it's not only based on real events, but the real events themselves. An interesting aspect of it is that the subject of this film would usually be deemed irrealist, if this were to be fiction. This documentary is well-made in my opinion because it doesn't try to trick me into their side: it shows their meetings and discussions where they also explain to a certain point what they were denouncing and I can clearly see their stance on this matter, but at any moment I felt like I was forced or tricked into adopting their views. It's a great watch, I recommend it. Also, it's legally free on the internet, so there are no concerns of piracy about it.

I only knew about this human wonder a few minutes ago, and it's marvellous. A huge bridge, far above a green landscape with agricultural lands and a river. Too bad the town doesn't seem as scenic. It's called Viaduc de Millau (Millau Viaduct), and it's located in Millau-Creissels, southern France. Some photos on the official site (http://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/millau-viaduct/) and the wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millau_Viaduct).

Earth is a small and fragile planet in an infinite universe. Sooner or later, either by internal or external events that may or may not be impossible to prevent, Earth will suffer in a way that destroys the planet's living conditions, or the planet itself. Right now, human race is in a fragile position. Downgrading the scale, imagine the people of an entire country live inside one building, can't leave it and there's no one to help them outside: they're more susceptible to diseases, fires, natural disasters, building's disintegration, lack of drinkable water and many other things. There are other buildings in the country, and growing new families in each of these buildings creates more chances of survival. So, the reasonable thing to do is to find ways to both travel to these buildings and build conditions for people to live there. This doesn't mean we shouldn't understand better how to preserve the buildings and enhance the living conditions for everyone. All these things can be done at the same time.

From what you write, the book seems intriguing and one of those classic/generic books we can usually find inside the stories. Especially if it has an hardcover. Did the book have some explanation to how the automation worked back then, how was it used in society?

Have you been successful, so far? I never read anything by her, except one interview. She seemed nice, one could clearly tell she's a writer.