h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi there. Mudhooks.

Can you clarify that business of the Thaye Dorje Karmapa being in China/Tibet?

I will try and find out more... I was at work earlier, and can only sneak in the odd post.... not surfing for links. Now I am home. I will see what I can find.

Chai and Mud,

Am seriously considering taking up yoga

az

(or else becoming a cat!)

Well, cats are definately more elegant about licking their butts.....

Beware of slipping a disc, Az! Goodnight.

The thread was busy today!

This post is going to look really out of place due to an outage of my server , but here goes anyway:

Yes, I have come across the book, Chaiwallah. But that's a sorer subject with me than the golf ball, poplar tree, upper lip story I told over on the Mowing the Lawn thread in Peer Review. I won't get into details but you're point is perhaps well taken. It should also be pointed out that at the time she wrote the Continuum Concept, Liedloff had never been a parent.

seriously, I think you point out one of the potential explanations for infanticide in humans, but you have certainly not plumbed the depths of the behavior in humans and I suspect the chimpanzee depths, if not deeper, are certainly more obscure.

(da** server has made this post really late. sorry)

all this talk of testicles, plus the guacamole talk on another thread (don't ask), plus Chaiwallah's comment I came across on the Australian Aboriginal Art thread reminded me of the feeling I've always had that rituals such as the Australian sub-incision (I'll let Chaiwallah explain that) and the Maya penis-perforation are ritual attempst by men to become women and menstruate.

Is that far enough off the subject?

Who mentioned testicles? Am I going mad? Have you heard the one about the new worker in the Elmo factory?

...The one that goes:

A new employee is hired at the Tickle Me Elmo factory. The Personnel Manager explains her duties and tells her to report to work promptly at 8.00am.

The next day at 8.45am there is a knock at the Personnel Manager's door. The assembly line foreman comes in and starts ranting about this new employee. He says she is incredibly slow and the whole line is backing up. The foreman takes the Personnel Manager down to the factory floor to show him the problem.

Sure enough, Elmos are backed up all over the place. At the end of the line is the new employee. She has a roll of material used for the Elmos and a big bag of marbles. They both watch as she cuts a little piece of fabric, wraps it around two marbles and starts sewing the little package between Elmo's legs.

The Personnel Manager starts laughing hysterically. After several minutes he pulls himself together, walks over to the woman and says "I am sorry, I guess you misunderstood me yesterday, I said, your job is to give Elmo "two test tickles".

- on call whenever you need to be taken off topic - reasonable rates.

I always wanted to get a nice fuzzy Elmo, put it in a big jar full of vinegar and label it "Pickle Me Elmo". Maybe send it to Rosie O'Donnell. Am I sick?

Well, Chaiwallah...

Can I find the page that gave the information that he was currently in Tibet and not India? Noooo, I did, however find all the information that tells me that I was completely misreading... He does, indeed, live in India. Je has lived there since before the other Karmapa Lama escaped.

Again, it is so bleeding hard to read the articles on the topic. Quite apart from the fact that the writers don't make much of an effort to organise the material so you can differentiate between the various players.... most of the webpages are not kept up to date.

You were right and I were wrong...

And who were left?

Hi Recumbentman .

"A few pages back (Posting 290) Matholwch /|\ said "Only humans would think to find more reasons to divide themselves than already exist."
"To an evolutionist like me this is pure pessimistic baloney."

'Than already exist' are the keywords. I recognise the natural instincts of the human primate, but we often go far past that in our tribalism, especially as we are supposed to be a 'civilised' social animal.

No animal, particularly a herd or pack animal that had sufficient food, security, space and breeding opportunities would invent new ways to instigate conflict. In the wild conflict is dangerous, one infected scratch or bite and you can die, thus removing yourself from the genepool. This is why most social animals determine pecking order through 'mock' fighting and intimidation, only resorting to violence when this fails.

What natural advantage is there to slaughter people because they look at a particular religious book from a different viewpoint to you?

Blessings,
Matholwch /|\.

"What natural advantage is there to slaughter people because they look at a particular religious book from a different viewpoint to you?"

Unless they were looking at it from over your shoulder-and were reading ahead of you, giggling at the good bits you hadn't reached-that makes me sooo mad, when they do that.

"What natural advantage is there to slaughter people because they look at a particular religious book from a different viewpoint to you?"

Why none at all. So far we agree. Perhaps we don't disagree at all. You say man is unique in *formulating justifications for* his bad behaviour . . . can't argue with that.

What I don't go along with is the wish azahar (Post 350) seems to harbour: to believe that people *want* to be racist. I say that they just can't help it, until some enlightenment occurs.

The quote that makes me ascribe this wish to az is "They are not killing off the other chimps because they think they are a sub-chimp species and do not deserve to live and should probably have never been born."

This motive-projection puts the cart before the horse in my lowlyworm opinion. The theory of superior and inferior "races" (I can't take that word seriously) is roughly tacked on to the pre-existing motivation for "racist" behaviour. Belief in such a theory is in no way shape or form the motivation itself.

hi Recumbentman,

Oh, I don't think I said that people *want* to be racist - did I?

I think this is learned behaviour - could there possibly be 'born racists?' As if there is a 'racist gene' inside of us? I can't believe that!

Rather, I believe that racists are brought up in an environment that supports this very sick way of thinking. Or perhaps, through experiencing certain traumas, these people come to a very warped conclusion about things.

They are to be pitied, not hated, for the hateful things they say. Okay, you can hate their words and actions. But by hating the person you become one of them in a way.

az

hi rain,

Or worse! When they've read the book before you and UNDERLINED all the stuff they think is the interesting stuff and then stick stuff in the margins like 'Yes!' Most annoying.

az

>They are to be pitied, not hated, for the hateful things they say. Okay, you can hate their words and actions. But by hating the person you become one of them in a way.<

unfortunately i hate those who are too keen to adhere to racist ideologies and will do their best to manipulate/trick decent people into believing their dangerous lies...

that might make me the same than them in a way but it's a risk i'm willing to take... inciting racial hatred is against the law anyway as far as i know so why should they be treated with kids gloves?!... they won't listen to logic and they will twist our words like they have been doing for ages already... but i won't turn the other cheek when it comes to them... too many innocent people have died already because of them...



loup