csyphrett Posted March 10, 2023 Report Share Posted March 10, 2023 Eric Williams, one of the survivors of the border kidnapping that made the news, is home here in Winston. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DShomshak Posted March 10, 2023 Report Share Posted March 10, 2023 Instead of a specific news event, here's an article about a wider cultural trend with some pondering about what it means. Possibly some material here for SF or urban Fantasy campaign design. https://studyfinds.org/robots-hindu-rituals/ Dean Shomshak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted March 10, 2023 Report Share Posted March 10, 2023 Shooting in Hamburg Germany leaves 7 dead. The victims were Jehovah's Witnesses. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64910415 Robert Blake who played Baretta dies aged 89 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64911189 Prince Edward becomes the new Duke of Edinburgh https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64913224 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ternaugh Posted March 10, 2023 Report Share Posted March 10, 2023 8 hours ago, DShomshak said: Instead of a specific news event, here's an article about a wider cultural trend with some pondering about what it means. Possibly some material here for SF or urban Fantasy campaign design. https://studyfinds.org/robots-hindu-rituals/ Dean Shomshak I've often seen it as a bit of a cheat. Spinning a prayer wheel or reciting the Rosary should be a contemplative act, an outer ritual to foster an inner journey. Automating the act so you don't have to think about it seems to me to be missing the point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnia Posted March 10, 2023 Report Share Posted March 10, 2023 1 hour ago, Ternaugh said: I've often seen it as a bit of a cheat. Spinning a prayer wheel or reciting the Rosary should be a contemplative act, an outer ritual to foster an inner journey. Automating the act so you don't have to think about it seems to me to be missing the point. See also all those comics that has a brat running a program and printing out "I will not misbehave in class" x amount of times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted March 10, 2023 Report Share Posted March 10, 2023 10 hours ago, DShomshak said: Instead of a specific news event, here's an article about a wider cultural trend with some pondering about what it means. Possibly some material here for SF or urban Fantasy campaign design. https://studyfinds.org/robots-hindu-rituals/ Dean Shomshak 1 hour ago, Ternaugh said: I've often seen it as a bit of a cheat. Spinning a prayer wheel or reciting the Rosary should be a contemplative act, an outer ritual to foster an inner journey. Automating the act so you don't have to think about it seems to me to be missing the point. There's an old story in the science fiction canon bearing on this sort of theme ... Arthur C Clarke's The Nine Billion Names of God. Logan D. Hurricanes and DShomshak 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DShomshak Posted March 10, 2023 Report Share Posted March 10, 2023 Oh, I can come up with a theological rationalization: In Hinduism, everything is an aspect of Brahman. You are Brahman; the god you worship is Brahman; the offering you make to the god is Brahman. It's all Brahman worshipping itself. The robot, too, is Brahman, so its worship is just as valid. OK, it's really all the other strain of South Asian religion: magic. No deep theology, really: Do the act, get the merit. Pour X many ash oblations into a stream, say the mantra Y thousand times, get magic power. The goal in Hinduism and Buddhism is supposed to be liberation/enlightenment, but that can be defined in multiple ways. For many people, that means a magic power to get what you want. But then, I remember seeing an ad for a Gold Prosperity Cross allegedly dipped in Lourdes water, so I dare say no religion is immune to the lure of magic charms and mechanical rituals, with no shortage of con men ready to supply them. If the magical merit -- tapas, "heat" in Hinduism -- accumulates to the robot instead of the person who set the robot in motion, though, eventually the gods are compelled to give magical power to the robot. Potential Champions character/scenario, here. Dean Shomshak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grailknight Posted March 11, 2023 Report Share Posted March 11, 2023 More likely a Terminator movie. But how to fit in the Bollywood dances? assault 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted March 11, 2023 Report Share Posted March 11, 2023 Lotsa room in my dumpster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wcw43921 Posted March 12, 2023 Report Share Posted March 12, 2023 Chris Pine And The New D&D Movie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnia Posted March 12, 2023 Report Share Posted March 12, 2023 Upcoming total solar eclipse will be last in contiguous US for 20 years Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan D. Hurricanes Posted March 12, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 12, 2023 I thought that said it will last for twenty years. Which would be a hell of an eclipse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted March 12, 2023 Report Share Posted March 12, 2023 Here's the tracks, so you can assess your own plans. Pariah 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan D. Hurricanes Posted March 12, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 12, 2023 Eh, my plans never work out anyway. I was in an airplane for the last one and missed the fun stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted March 12, 2023 Report Share Posted March 12, 2023 After the one in Mexico/US/Canada next year, the next total eclipse is in the North Atlantic (the track runs down the east coast of Greenland, dead across Iceland, and then skirts the north coast of Spain and the Spain/France border); it is in August 2026. The one in August 2027 goes across the south edge of the Mediterranean before running diagonally across Egypt, down the Red Sea, and across SE Saudi Arabia (it might pass over Mecca; the map I have isn't that detailed). It's a 6-minute-plus eclipse, so that one's worth considering a cruise for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted March 12, 2023 Report Share Posted March 12, 2023 The one in 2017 was amazing. One of those spectacles of the universe that felt almost spiritual to me at the time Pariah 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted March 12, 2023 Report Share Posted March 12, 2023 The one in 2017 is the only total solar eclipse I've seen. Probably gonna pass on the one in 2024, since we can't afford to get lodgings in Cozumel for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan D. Hurricanes Posted March 12, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 12, 2023 And you call yourself a scientist! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted March 12, 2023 Report Share Posted March 12, 2023 Staying there is a lot more expensive than blowing it up! Old Man and Logan D. Hurricanes 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted March 13, 2023 Report Share Posted March 13, 2023 Roman burial found in Yorkshire https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-64917979 tkdguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grailknight Posted March 13, 2023 Report Share Posted March 13, 2023 Hmmn, 2024 looks like it's going to go right over San Antonio or Austin, and I do have friends and family in both ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted March 13, 2023 Report Share Posted March 13, 2023 More detail is available here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted March 13, 2023 Report Share Posted March 13, 2023 I know this isn't the place for videos, but this channel is one of my main sources. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnia Posted March 14, 2023 Report Share Posted March 14, 2023 Ke Huy Quan’s Goonies Co-Stars Gave Congratulations for His Oscar Win Tom Cowan, Old Man and tkdguy 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DShomshak Posted March 14, 2023 Report Share Posted March 14, 2023 As good a thread for it as any, I suppose... Happy Pi Day! It's the most nerdiful time of the year... Dean Shomshak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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