Random Thought Thread

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

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  1. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    My cat and I watched about 20 minutes of Milo and Otis* together once; he was completely fascinated. It's not that they don't understand TV, they're just like spouses and think you're on the wrong channel.

    *yes, i know about the allegations around that movie, but I didn't then and neither did Tig. We enjoyed the evening together.
     
  2. Rzero

    Rzero Reluctant voice of his generation Contributor

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    Not all animals are smart enough or have the visual acuity to watch TV. I've never had a dog that could recognize it as some can. My sweet but dumb dog doesn't even react to dogs barking or doorbells. I've had dogs that ran to the door when they heard doorbells, but she ignores everything to do with the television entirely. She's the same with mirrors. She can't see or doesn't know what's happening. I don't know which, but it might as well be a wall so far as she cares.

    I watched a thing one time where they put a mirror in a dolphin tank, and the dolphins went wild for it. They were looking at themselves and turning to see all their parts. It was really cool. Apparently the ability to recognize one's mirror image for what it is is a higher function. That's why cats think there's another cat in there.
     
  3. Friedrich Kugelschreiber

    Friedrich Kugelschreiber marshmallow Contributor

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    It's a remarkably rare trait in the animal world--I think primates, dolphins and corvids (crows and magpies) are among the few that have it.
     
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  4. J.T. Woody

    J.T. Woody Book Witch Contributor

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    My dog will sometimes just sit infront of the mirror and stare at herself. Wont bark or do much of anything, just sit and stare. Sometimes she will even watch me through the mirror. (She also watched tv too lol! We watched Bolt, and she sat directly infront of the tv, wagging her tail.)

    My grandparents cat, however, hates mirrors. There is a mirror on a door at the end of their stairs, and my grandpa fell down the stairs. The cat thought the "cat" in the mirror made him fall. My grandpa had dementia and Parkinson's, so he gradually grew less and less mobile. Milo was always with him. Whenever he passed by the mirror, though, milo would freak out and attack the mirror, until granpa passed it "safely".
     
  5. Earp

    Earp Contributor Contributor

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    Headline of the Day:

    Florida deputy performs exorcism on child, instructs another to shoot anyone who enters demon-filled home

    "A girl, wearing body armor and a Kevlar helmet, was lying on the ground in a shooting position with a rifle."
     
  6. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    All of my cats (there were nine of them over the years) treated mirrors with the same interest as wallpaper. Dunno if that made them dumber than doorknobs or smarter than people, but they just didn't GAF.
     
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  7. Homer Potvin

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

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    Not my dog. When he hears a doorbell or knocking on TV he runs for the door. And if he hears birds he will start tracking the ceiling the see where they are. It's pretty funny until I'm watching something with an urban setting like The Wire where dogs are constantly barking in the background. Then he goes ape shit.
     
  8. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    It's fascinating how investment in certain things can be so generational, yet the form of that investment is so often the same. I belong to a couple of Mid-Century Modern groups and in one of them someone had the audacity this morning to say something snarky about Troy Donahue.

    They are currently flinging bottle of enalapril at one another.
     
  9. Earp

    Earp Contributor Contributor

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  10. Homer Potvin

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

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    I have many questions/observations:

    1. What the hell is an $18 bottle of wine? Was it $6 retail?

    2. Who decants an $18 bottle of wine? I would slap any server that did that unless specifically prompted by the guest.

    3. Who decants a bottle of anything in a wait station? And then leaves it there?

    4. That's actually not a bad price for a Rothschild.

    5. Wondering how the two were confused. Chateau Mouton is in the Paulliac region of Medoc, a subset of Bordeaux. Likely a Cab/Merlot blend and relatively deep in color, whereas an $18 bottle of Pinot Noir would have been light enough to read through.

    6. The businessmen not recognizing the difference is not uncommon. There are many wine experts that are "fooled" in blind tastings like this. Somebody had posted an article about that on this forum, I think.

    7. Great line by the manager: "I decided to veer from my normal behavior, and tell both parties the truth." Really, bruh? That sounds downright negligent to me.

    8. I'm not sure I believe that this actually happened. Sounds like a fake social media post to drum up business and appear sympathetic in the middle of a pandemic, which was has fucked NYC restaurants more than most.
     
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  11. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    Oisshi wine goes three for ten bucks, Mercian is two for 10, and the izakaya pubs always decant them to hide what their table wine really is :)
     
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  12. Homer Potvin

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

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    Oh, those whacky Japanese with their wonky portions and weird prices!
     
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  13. iowawriter

    iowawriter Senior Member

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    I really don't want rural America to lose its newspapers.

     
  14. Earp

    Earp Contributor Contributor

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    Sadly, I think we already have. The metro area where I live has a population of nearly 200,000, and the only newspaper other than the free pennysavers is an 8-page joke, mostly printing copies of wire service stories.
     
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  15. Malum

    Malum Offline

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    Ostensible is an ostensible word.
     
  16. Earp

    Earp Contributor Contributor

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    Headline of the Day:

    Costco pulling products allegedly made with forced monkey labor
     
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  17. iowawriter

    iowawriter Senior Member

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  18. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    Marathon world records shouldn't count unless they're run a second time in the opposite direction, with the new start no more than an hour after the completion of the first pass, and the average of the two recorded.

    That's the rule at the Bonneville Salt Flats, and I don't see why Boston should be any different.
     
  19. MusingWordsmith

    MusingWordsmith Shenanigan Master Contributor

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    I don't yet but I have a feeling I'm going to regret taking this Creative Writing class. I'm pretty sure it's gonna be one of those 'Literary fiction is real writing' things.

    And my writer's group on Discord doesn't seem to get that I just don't see myself getting a lot out of a class that has that kind of attitude.
     
  20. Friedrich Kugelschreiber

    Friedrich Kugelschreiber marshmallow Contributor

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    I have a distant cousin who's a sumo wrestler; last I checked he held the world record for fattest man to finish a marathon.
     
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  21. Malum

    Malum Offline

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    It's ironic, going through so much stimulation that you're eager for it to be over. Starting with such a quantity that you don't become addicted.... I guess it's a broad term though.
     
  22. Homer Potvin

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

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    Cocaine?
     
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  23. Malum

    Malum Offline

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    Overpriced drug. I drone on to my acquaintances about how needless the expenditure is but it seems even frequent drug users are closed minded.
     
  24. ruskaya

    ruskaya Contributor Contributor

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    Herbert's Dune, one of the most important works of sci-fi fiction to date, dumps Artificial Intelligence into the background, almost completely dismissing its existence as a costly mistake.

    I find this amusing.
     
  25. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    I entreat you to read his Destination: Void and the subsequent Pandora Sequence novels. He engages AI much more directly in those novels.

    Long story short, Man creates an A.I. who - upon completion - is not bound by linear time; thus, it has always existed. Within the narrative, this creation is the very literal God made reference in all of Man's religions.
     
    Last edited: Nov 3, 2020
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