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Home » Open thread 6/18/21

Open thread 6/18/21

The New Neo Posted on by

Carla Fracci again, this time in the Rose Adagio from Sleeping Beauty. This is a variation that can easily turn into a series of show-offy circus tricks, and very often does. Fracci has another idea in mind:

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Open thread 6/18/21 — 30 Comments

  1. I have never seen this … it made me weep.

    Every other performance of the Rose Adagio I have ever seen has been all about the suspense over whether or not the ballerina will keep her balance. So there is drama in that. One cannot help worrying a bit. But Fracci knows she will keep her balance. She is on a different plane entirely. She is savoring every moment. And so do we — she takes us with her. She bestows this lovely dance upon us.

    Sublime.

    Thank you, Neo

  2. It is something about her confidence and smile. She has this and knows it. The gracefulness of her arms tells everything. Nothing hurried or rushed. Just elegance.

  3. To me, Fracci’s dancing epitomizes the great joy of a young woman celebrating her 16th birthday with love in her heart for the entire world.

    Just divine.

    Thank you, Neo….

  10. UFO issue cont’d–

    UFOs having several different configurations and colors have been reported, described, and sometimes pictured—saucer shaped, tictac, triangular, pyramidal, cylindrical, as well as some unusual and odd shapes, very large UFOs and relatively small ones–single UFOS, or several UFOs in formation, and sometimes swarms of them.

    This leads me to wonder if UFOs are, indeed, of extraterrestrial origin, whether we might not actually be being visited by several separate species of aliens, with us, our planet, and solar system perhaps the equivalent for such an array of extraterrestrials of a free, all you can eat buffet.

    Why haven’t they contacted us?

    What would be their incentive to do so?

    The Universe is a vast and violent place, which proceeds on it’s way without concern for our needs or feelings, and the usual way of things is that “the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.”

    Thus, I see no reason for us to assume that any such extraterrestrials would necessarily be benevolent, or want to get involved with what they would likely see as a troublesome, violent, primitive, and “difficult” species.

    Do we somehow just assume that any extraterrestrials we might encounter would see it as their duty to, or have an irresistible urge to rescue, enlighten, or to “uplift” our species?

    Given the apparent technology/power differential between us and them, why would such aliens feel compelled to even talk to us?

    Moreover, if they are here and observing us–not just out of curiosity, but because they need something that we have–they can obviously just take it, and may already have been doing so.

  13. Snow on Pine:

    That’s another baffling thing about the UFOs — assuming they are some sort of intelligence(s), as I believe. What the heck are they up to?

    Beats me. The stories don’t fit any direct rationale that makes sense at our level. Jacques Vallee discarded the Star Trek spacecraft hypothesis for a broader approach that included psychic phenomenon. He conjectured that it’s a long game to manipulate humanity for unknown purposes.

    Which is vague and unsatisfying but may be as close as we can get for now.
    ___________________________________

    The Earth is a farm. We are someone else’s property.

    –Charles Fort

  14. @huxley:

    “The Earth is a farm. We are someone else’s property.”

    Shut it down, the Humans Know!

    🙂

    There was a movie a few years ago with precisely that premise + some Porn for Women:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_Ascending

    And don’t forget how Asimov voices his Second Foundationers when they’re in dissimulation mode speaking and not being telepathic.

  15. Shut it down, the Humans Know!

    Zaphod:

    That’s one of the arguments against investigating too closely the “we live in a computer simulation” hypothesis…

    There is an interesting recent argument that limit of the speed of light is a giveaway that we live in a simulation — the limit makes the computations simpler.

    Was “Jupiter” any good? I see the Wachowski Bro has transitioned to Lilly and his wife, Lana, is one of the directors. She was a domme of some note in the Bay Area before connecting with the Wachowski.

  16. @Huxley:

    Apart from the Heinlein short story about Llamas buying an IBM tabulating machine and grinding out the Names of God, can also remember reading in my teens a sci-fi story about some guy discovering that Humor (Where *do* jokes come from?) was an Alien experiment and that being the end of Humor.

    Jupiter Ascending had interesting visuals and a boat load of Mother Issues. Worth a look, but wouldn’t pay for it. Saw it a few years ago before threw TV out figurative window in disgust.

    In addition to the purely degenerate and wanting to shock everyone brigade and the medically compassionate edge cases, there’s definitely some kind of epidemic of transitioning autogynephiliac autistics — more than a few in higher reaches of tech and would imagine Wachowskis fit this mold too. It’s a puzzlement.

  17. Regarding the recent post on Jason Reilly’s new intellectual biography of Thomas Sowell:
    https://www.thenewneo.com/2021/06/15/a-new-thomas-sowell-biography-is-out/

    From Maverick, pages 198-199:

    Most analyses of social and economic intergroup differences focus on the immediate surroundings in which people live. Sowell’s writings exposed the limitations of that approach. He concluded that it isn’t the immediate environment per se, but cultural values and human capital – skills, work habits, saving propensities, attitudes toward education and entrepreneurship, developed sometimes over long period of time – that are the more dominant factors in explaining disparities.

    https://cafehayek.com/2021/06/quotation-of-the-day-3561.html

  18. Philosopher David Gordon has some comments on the origins of capitalism:
    https://mises.org/library/capitalism-isnt-modern-invention-its-medieval

    These relate to and convey Mises’ view, which I posted in this earlier thread:
    https://www.thenewneo.com/2021/05/18/leftist-influence-in-the-military/

    Note that some things are not available now in the Online Library of Liberty, which I linked to before. It appears that this is part an overall site upgrade. I hope that they add back some things like ePub versions that are no longer there, but I’m not sure that they will.

  19. UFOs are reported to congregate around nuclear sites, but a la “The Day The Earth Stood Still” I can’t see aliens worried about us having/using nuclear weapons.

    I would imagine that, at this moment, we pose no direct threat to beings who hold the high ground of space, and may have the technology to travel from star to star. If we did pose such a threat, I’d imagine we’d already have gotten a demand to disarm, or our weapons would just have been taken out.

    The other pattern is UFOs appearances over water, and under water as well.

    Water and depth are great concealing mechanisms.

  20. The problem here is that, while the government may know a great deal more about UFOs than they are willing to admit, given the apparent disparity in levels of technology between us and possible extraterrestrials, there is likely very little, if anything, that we can do to stop ETs –if they are here–from doing whatever they want.

    I’d imagine that our various political leaders and militaries–beneficiaries of trillions of dollars in funding–would not like to advertise this liklihood.

  22. A recent essay distinguishing crony capitalism from capitalism:

    https://lawliberty.org/why-we-need-truly-free-markets/

    . . . Liberals frame their policies as the antidote to what they argue is a “capitalist system” of exploitation, and conservatives are quick to label such programs as “socialist.” In truth, these policies represent not capitalism as a system of free exchange, but the ultimate form of crony capitalism—the explicit exchange of favors between business and government, which takes power and money from the people and centralizes it in the hands of a few elites. Today’s Left equates the two because it offers not a return to a free economy, but just a different form of elite domination.

    The real conflict of our time, then, ought to be understood as the struggle for localized and virtuous free markets against a corrupt political-economic regime. That ought to unite Americans in the defense of freedom. . . . .

    The Left has rather successfully established this premise: crony capitalism is capitalism. . . . . .

    . . . it’s not capitalism we should be against, but the centralization of power that elites of all stripes continue to support.

  23. Can someone coherent and in their right mind explain the weird highjacking going on here?

  24. Jeanne:

    It’s an Open Thread, so I take it anything civil goes. Your mileage may vary.

    I’m talking about UFOs because Snow on Pine brought them up and I have some thoughts too.

  26. Jeanne:

    In an open thread like this, there’s no topic although I provide a sort of opening topic, if anyone wants to take it up, with a video or photo and/or a few words. However, sometimes the threads degenerate into fighting, which I try to monitor but sometimes I’m too busy and it gets past me. Some arguing or fighting is okay, but I try to discourage petty personal squabbling, name-calling, and obscenities.

  27. I liked Fracci’s smile throughout, especially in the close-ups. Very elegant lady.

    “Apart from the Heinlein short story about Llamas buying an IBM tabulating machine and grinding out the Names of God,” – Zaphod

    Did a double-take there on the visual of llamas & computers, however:
    It was Clarke writing about lamas.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nine_Billion_Names_of_God

    One of my favorites. Best punchline ever, so DON’T read the Wiki article if you haven’t read the story.

  28. AesopFan, Zaphod:

    I keep my lamas straight thusly:
    ________________

    The one-l lama,
    He’s a priest.
    The two-l llama,
    He’s a beast.
    And I will bet
    A silk pajama
    There isn’t any
    Three-l lllama.

    –Ogden Nash
    ________________

    I used to argue with poets who insisted poetry required “contemplation” or some fancy, time-consuming, psycho-spiritual activity by quoting Ogden Nash or other such poets. Not that it did much good.

    Here’s to Ogden Nash.

  30. Ogden Nash rules!

    https://interestingliterature.com/2019/11/10-of-the-best-ogden-nash-poems-everyone-should-read/
    #2 is particularly well known.
    #5 presages the current pronoun wars
    #6 is a serious, and poignant, exception to the comical wit of the others
    #8 is a striking combination – a serious subject expressed in a comic metaphor
    #10 is a more humorous extension of the idea in 6
    He was not, in fact, deficient in “psycho-spiritual activity” – he just left off the “fancy, time-consuming” part of it.

    However, this is my favorite short-short poem.
    “Lines on the Antiquity of Microbes; or, Fleas”
    Adam
    had ’em.

    https://genius.com/Strickland-gillilan-lines-on-the-antiquity-of-microbes-fleas-annotated
    “Often attributed to Shel Silverstein, Ogden Nash, or simply an unknown or anonymous author, this poem was likely really penned by Strickland Gillilan.”

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