Random Thought Thread

Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by Justin Phillips, Apr 10, 2016.

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  1. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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  2. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Nope. Reading through the wiki page as we speak. :) Is it good?
     
  3. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    yep ... Mason is a Vietnam vet ... his other book Chickenhawk is an auto biog of the time he spent flying slicks for the air cav (he eventually suffered PTSD and his life kind of fell to bits after DEROS)

    Weapon is basically without giving any spoilers about an AI Robot which is built by the CIA to be the ultimate weapon and is deployed in Nicuragua during the Contra vs Sandistina conflict, however once it'd exposed to real people rather than just propaganda it's intelligence develops serious question s about what it's doing and it sort of goes rogue ... its definitely worth a read
     
  4. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Yeah, the wiki page gives the author's history in Vietnam. Weapon would seem to be a metaphor for the internal conflict a soldier will face in combat.
     
  5. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    Partly that and partly about american foreign policy.... Solo (the robot in question) is taught that the contras are the good guys and that the americans won their war in vietnam .... his whole programing revolves arround America good, communists bad ... when he gets out in the world and meets nicuraguan peasants who are being victimised he ses thats its not that simple

    (probably a paradigm Mason saw himself in vietnam)

    I can associate, I went to NI believing it was a case of Britain good, IRA bad .... it didn't do anything for our morale to find that it wasn't the simple...
     
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  6. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    I think they go hand in hand, though. No?

    I can't tell you specifics, of course, but I can tell you that I was stationed in Berlin right at the moment when the East Block was falling apart and everything was... not violent, but clearly huge changes were under way. When I went to Berlin, I was just as wrapped in the comfortable blanket of American propaganda as any boy my age in 1990. Some of the conversations I heard from "the enemy", in the wee hours of a mid-shift were heartbreaking. Heartbreaking to hear guys my age deeply emotionally troubled by what was going on and what their futures were or weren't, and troubling to feel my layers of propaganda turned into lies as I imagined their faces, as young as mine, just in different uniforms. I know I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. You saw combat. You know that the last thing it is is simple.
     
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  7. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    Yeah - seeing the enemy as a human being "just like us" is difficult ... I came back from NI fairly convinced that if I'd grown up on the falls road i'd have been an IRA gunman... I still have/had no truck with terrorism ie deliberately targeting civilians, but it didn't take much to see myself as one of the guys going out at night with a mask and a gun and shooting at "the forces of occupation" (ie us - although that's not why we were there)

    I often thought that if the guys actually doing the fighting could sit down and hash it out over a beer or three you could get a peace deal much quicker than when politicians start talking
     
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  8. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Now there's your novel, bro. I would totally read that. :bigwink:
     
  9. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    Of course the other often repeated fantasy was to make the politicians do the fighting ... you'd have a lot fewer wars if they had to be settled mano et mano by the leaders themselves.

    Take an abandoned warehouse (Of which there were not a shortage in belfast at the time) John Major our PM at the time starts from one end with a Browning 9mm , Gerry Adams starts from the other with a Marakov PM ... a cordon sanitaire of British soldiers and IRA men form a ring around the premises to ensure no interference ... may the best man win.

    (brought up to date you could have Trump vs Bashir Assad, or Trump vs Putin.... IS would be more difficult to pin down an actual leader)
     
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  10. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Good lord... I much prefer my odds in a sitch where I talk it out with one of the lads from over the other side of the line than pinning my odds on Trump in a hand-to-hand. Seriously, given that choice I would be volunteering faster than Katniss Everdeen.

    [​IMG]
     
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  11. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    True dat ... the idea is of course that if they had to put their own necks on the line there'd be a lot less fighting, but human nature being what it is I suspect that instead you'd see leaders elected for their martial prowess

    My feelings about our ellected leaders and the armed forces are pretty much summed up in the intro to my short - honest intent - from the November contest. Its on my list to rewrite that as a longer story (although i've pulled the MC into the darkest storm)

     
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  12. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    Did Weapon appear as a short story in Analog magazine? It sounds familiar, but not as a novel. Chickenhawk was amazing, I may have to seek out Weapon.
     
  13. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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  14. Earp

    Earp Contributor Contributor

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    From our "you think you've got troubles" department:

    http://punemirror.indiatimes.com/news/world//articleshow/47205992.cms

    "Shimiken — real name Ken Shimizu — has slept with more than 8,000 women for his 7,500 movies, and recently caused a stir by begging for reinforcements, tweeting that there were more Bengali tigers alive than male porn actors in Japan. "There are about 70 male actors to 10,000 women," he said. Shimiken's call to arms was retweeted thousands of times by fans worried about Japan's $20 billion adult video industry coming under threat. "It is boring for viewers to watch the same actors all the time. That's the biggest worry," he added."
     
  15. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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    Is it me or do some titles just sound mellow dramatic
    just to make them sound more exciting than the really
    are?

    Seems as of recent this question has been on my mind.
    (Must be a gimmick thing, or a hype thing.) Either way
    it better deliver on the intensity of such a title or there
    is a bit of disappointment.
     
  16. NoGoodNobu

    NoGoodNobu Contributor Contributor

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    I used "flummoxed" as a sign off to an email.

    It was the only thing that I could reasonably and honestly put there, as I had no regards of any kind to send.
     
  17. Myrrdoch

    Myrrdoch Active Member

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    "...and so, I hope you see why that would be impossible.

    Eternally flabbergasted,
    Myrrdoch."
     
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  18. minstrel

    minstrel Leader of the Insquirrelgency Supporter Contributor

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    Or, depending on your feelings towards your correspondent:

    "...and so, I hope you see why that would be highly unlikely.

    Together in L. Ron Hubbard,
    Minstrel."
     
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  19. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    That's interesting. And it ain't like you need to be particularly endowed to be a Japanese porn star. They're into some weeeeeeird shit over there.
     
  20. minstrel

    minstrel Leader of the Insquirrelgency Supporter Contributor

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    Weird, like not being particularly endowed? o_O
     
  21. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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    In this instance feel happy you are ignorant to the subject.
    Granted the majority of all Asian culture on the topic of
    porn tends to get a little out there. :p
     
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  22. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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    Ask and ye shall receive. :supergrin:
    Grate.jpg
     
  23. Spencer1990

    Spencer1990 Contributor Contributor

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    Anyone know why this is? I mean, obviously not all Asian cultures have weird porn, and I know that non-Asian cultures have weird porn, but why are they known for this?
     
  24. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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    Well where do you think tentacle Hentai started?
    Where can you buy worn panties from a vending machine?

    I could go on, but I think the point is pretty clear.
    Also do you really think that their isn't bagel head
    porn out there. It was a pretty trendy thing over
    in that culture for a bit.

    In contrast here in the western world like the
    extreme stuff, that is our strange. Check out BME
    (Body Mod Ezine) that is the best way to really
    get a good reference on our version of weird and
    strange. :)
     
  25. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Maybe because it's easy to point the finger so far away and say sketchy shit happens over there. Eli Roth (director) has pretty much hung his hat on that peg. People like to accuse him of racism and then other people like to point out that he's Jewish, so how can that be, and blah, blah, blah..... What Eli Roth banks on in his movies is American xenophobia. Eastern Europe: sketchy shit. South America: sketchy shit. Anywhere the American eye glazes over when looking at a world map because we don't really get information passed through our highly selective filter: sketchy shit.

    But... I mean... One of the most popular gay porn sites on the interweb right now is one based in the U.S., with American "actors", that makes a fetish of Mormonism. So *shrug* weird shit is everywhere.
     
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