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Messages - XXSockXX

Pages: 1 ... 7 8 [9] 10 11 ... 177
121
General Discussion / Re: Sheb's European Politics Megathread
« on: December 03, 2014, 06:43:21 pm »
Quote from: Helgoland on December 03, 2014, 06:36:07 pm
I'Ve definitely heard she isn't planning to become another Kohl, and there even were rumors of her leaving in 2016, halfway through her third chancellorship. But I've also heard rumors that she's looking to leave the Kanzleramt to get precisely the job Descan's been talking about...
Merkel intensifies?  ;)

Yeah, but those are just rumours so far. I'm really curious who's going to try to follow her as chancellor, looks like we're going to get another post-Kohl vacuum in the CDU, but without a strong SPD this time. It's going to be interesting...or horrifying...or both.

122
General Discussion / Re: Ukrainian Crisis Discussion Thread №3: Love your Country
« on: December 03, 2014, 06:25:39 pm »
Quote from: Knit tie on December 03, 2014, 06:09:09 pm
So what does he want?
Good question, I hope he knows himself.

Actually while I see point 1), I'm not sure about point 2). The Minsk agreement may have weakened the rebels, but from that doesn't follow what Putins intentions about it were. You could as well argue, hypothetically, that as long as "Novorossia" is not under Ukrainian control, it might still join Russia via a fake referendum Crimea-style.

I have no idea what Putin wants, but whatever it is, he is doing a lot of damage in the process of achieving it.

123
General Discussion / Re: Sheb's European Politics Megathread
« on: December 03, 2014, 06:17:01 pm »
Quote from: Mictlantecuhtli on December 03, 2014, 05:51:45 pm
Well, it's not like Merkel isn't the defacto leader of the EU's policy machine anyway..
Wouldn't be half as bad maybe, though it looks a bit like she is on her way out already anyway. Don't think she's going to do all that much till 2017 and she's probably not going to be around after that.

Quote from: Descan on November 30, 2014, 02:35:28 pm
I'm a talkative fucker.
Quote from: Descan on November 30, 2014, 05:58:34 pm
Maybe I'll up and move to Germany. :D
Quote from: Descan on December 03, 2014, 05:28:04 pm
You guys really need a Euro-President-For-Life, or at least unlimited terms.
Waitaminute, you're not trying to talk us into giving you a job, are you?

124
General Discussion / Re: Ukrainian Crisis Discussion Thread №3: Love your Country
« on: December 03, 2014, 05:53:26 pm »
Quote from: Helgoland on December 03, 2014, 05:51:23 pm
Quote from: Ukrainian Ranger on December 03, 2014, 05:29:21 pm
BTW, Helgoland. How many Germans want  Königsberg back?
None. None that should be Germans, at least. The Germans living there have been deported to modern-day German territory, so what would we want with a town full of Russians?
Not that I'd mind Kleine Grüne Männer in Königsberg, but mostly just to show Russia we can pull that shit too.
As in seriously toying with the idea? Very very few, on the far right. I very vaguely remember some people were trying to get a re-population project started in the 90s, but nothing came out of that. Generally getting East Prussia back is not something you hear about often, and if you do, it's either from the extreme right or from people that are pretty weird otherwise.

I guess while many people remember that it used to be an important German city, the semi-official viewpoint is that Königsberg has ceased to exist in 1945 (the German people and culture are gone from the area after all) and that there is now a new city named Kaliningrad in that place.

Realistically speaking, Eastern Prussia would be a huge burden anyway, re-unification was costly enough, having a new territory with no land connection, poor infrastructure and a mostly Russian population doesn't seem very attractive economically or geopolitically.

125
General Discussion / Re: Sheb's European Politics Megathread
« on: November 30, 2014, 11:40:06 am »
Quote from: martinuzz on November 30, 2014, 11:18:56 am
"Der Quatsch" would not be fitting, iirc that means something like "nonsense / bullshit" if not used as a verb.
Yes. We actually use the English expression "small talk", since there is no German equivalent.

Quote from: anzki4 on November 30, 2014, 11:27:32 am
In Finland it's actually common expression to call idle chit-chat (as in any non-important discussion) "spewing bullshit". Doesn't sound as negative in Finnish though.
Someone from Finland explained the difference in small talk habits between Finnish people and other Scandinavians to me like this:
A guy from Finland and a guy from Norway are drinking vodka. After three hours of drinking silently, the Norwegian raises his glas and says "Cheers!". Says the Finn: "Are we here to have a drink or to chit-chat?".


126
Life Advice / Re: Professional proofreading/editing job - Where should I start?
« on: November 30, 2014, 10:42:34 am »
Quote from: LordBucket on November 29, 2014, 11:59:37 pm
It's not going to be very many more years before automation replaces us completely. True, a lot of what I do for a writer is not simple proofreading. And even spellcheck hasn't eliminated the need for that. But give it another five years and version 2 of Siri/Cortana/Amelia or whatever replaces them might be able to do everything that we do.
I doubt that, spelling and grammar yes, but stuff like logical contradictions or missing content, no.

The problem is more that many newspapers/newssites or companies do not even bother anymore with having their texts proofread. I could spend the whole day correcting the local newspaper, it's not even funny anymore.

I made what amounts to pocket money by proofreading academic papers and students essays in university (mostly not in English obviously  ;)), but it's very very hard to make a living off that, since there are so many people doing it for so little money.

127
General Discussion / Re: Sheb's European Politics Megathread
« on: November 30, 2014, 10:32:53 am »
Quote from: Erkki on November 30, 2014, 10:08:11 am
I was greeted by someone I came across while on a walk a couple of weeks ago. I cant recall when that had happened before, and I was so surprised  I didnt manage to reply before we had already passed each other.  :)
If a complete stranger greets me on the street, that's confusing too, since I normally only greet people I somewhat know from regularily seeing them around. Sometimes it is that thing where you are the only people on a walk in the forest and greet each other while passing by to signal that you're not going to kill each other, but otherwise I will usually assume that someone who greets me also knows me from somewhere.

Then there is also that thing, in rural areas, where elderly people will be annoyed if you don't greet them. They won't tell you, but they will tell all the other old people in the village. "That guy? Can't even say "Good Morning"..."  ::)

Seems to be really different in other places though, I remember a particularly hilarious incident where an exchange student from Africa tried to personally introduce himself to hundreds of people at the central university bus station, which caused quite a bit of confusion.

128
Life Advice / Re: Very specific hearing problem.
« on: November 30, 2014, 10:17:29 am »
I think I have that too, especially when trying to have a conversation in loud areas or when talking on a phone. I've heard it is a mild form of hearing loss, which in my case would be entirely possible since I've blasted my hearing with loud music for most of my life. It is annoying, since I spend a lot of time talking in noisy surroundings, but so far I can cope with it without seeing a doctor about it.

129
General Discussion / Re: Sheb's European Politics Megathread
« on: November 30, 2014, 10:04:38 am »
Quote from: Erkki on November 30, 2014, 09:01:58 am
More about Nordics vs. Germany, for example in Germany it seems to be very common to greet people, strangers included, shortly, such as "Guten abend! / Morgen! / Guten tag!" depending a bit on the surroundings. When interrupting someone while for example trying to move in a crowd or something, you can say "Entschuldigung!" ("Excuse me!") to get the attention and nobody. I dare you, just try to do those in Finland or try to start small talk in a train or bus(anywhere but a bar, restaurant or in hobbies) and you will probably get looked at funnily and receive either no response at all or a hastily whispered one while looking at ones feet and trying to get away from the situation asap.  :D
Greeting people (or just nodding) is not uncommon, much more in rural than urban areas, but it's more about politely acknowledging each other's existence than an invitation to small talk. Strangers that start small talk in trains will usually be foreigners, someone who needs help or someone who is mildly annoying and possibly slightly insane. :)

130
General Discussion / Re: The Roman Catholic Church: Equal Rites.
« on: November 25, 2014, 05:54:04 pm »
Quote from: Dsarker on November 25, 2014, 04:33:18 am
Quote from: Veylon on November 24, 2014, 01:19:38 am
Does the infallibility of the Church still hold when it is broken up into several factions headed by competing popes? If so, how?

This is something that has actually happened in the Church before, with the antipopes. Technically, Pope Benedict XVI isn't the first to resign.

Usually, the Church in these times has been too busy fighting amongst itself to issue any decrees or such. Actually, there is one thing that did happen with an Antipope - the canonisation of Charlemagne. This didn't actually start with the Antipope itself - there was already a popular cult - but it wasn't ratified by the Universal Church following the reunification. So presumably, the antipopes do not hold such infallibility.
Papal infallibility as a religious dogma was only established in 1870, the idea is much older, but like many other Catholic traditions it wasn't firmly established before the 19th century. So the problem never really occurred since then, because there haven't been competing popes (Ratzinger has resigned, he's not an antipope).

Quote from: Dsarker on November 25, 2014, 04:53:21 am
While I am not a scientist, I am reliably informed that cosmology today suggests there is more likely to be a Creator.
No scientist that deserves the name and is actually looking into stuff like that (so no theologists) would make a serious statement like that.

As a side note, I find it funny that Creationists think any "evidence" for the existence of a creator would be proof of (their interpretation of) Christianity/whatever religion too. If we assume for the sake of the argument that some kind of higher being created the universe (which I don't believe), there is still very little probability that it would be anything like common/Christian/Catholic/whatever conceptions of a god. A completely incomprehensible beyond-any-morals Lovecraftian "blind idiot god" seems just as or even more likely. Having a particular religious conception be "true" would require many many more assumptions to be true than "There is a creator" or even "There is a god".

131
General Discussion / Re: Christian beliefs and discussion
« on: November 24, 2014, 02:32:06 pm »
Quote from: MonkeyHead on November 24, 2014, 02:23:44 pm
Well, with regards the Roman empire Christianity first took root in the poor and disenchanted masses on the fringes of society who most easily identified with the message of reward in exchange for piety, poverty, pacifism and humility. Its not like they had much to lose.
Plus early Christianity was essentially an apocalyptic cult, Christians expected the end of the world (and thus all the rewards in the afterlife) rather sooner than later until well into the Middle Ages.
(That is actually still reflected in the name "Holy Roman Empire", according to the prophet Daniel the end of the world was to come after the end of 4 empires, Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. So after the end of the Western Roman empire, the Frankish (and later German) empire became the Roman Empire by translatio imperii, so that the prophecy could be fulfilled.)

132
General Discussion / Re: Marijuana Legalization Discussion: BE CIVIL!
« on: November 23, 2014, 07:47:54 am »
Quote from: Neonivek on November 23, 2014, 07:34:32 am
It is actually the sole reason why Absinth is illegal (except when it is legal) and why Marijuana also stays that way.
Is Absinth still illegal anywhere? The main reason it was ever prohibited was just an Absinth scare in the early 20th century. IMHO the hallucigenic effect of Absinth is pretty neglible, in the brands sold today it is not noticeable at all.

Obviously the main reason why alcohol and tobacco are legal and pot isn't is simply cultural, no real logic involved. Alcohol is a huge part of Western culture, Tobacco too, to a much lesser extent though, but pot isn't.

133
General Discussion / Re: Sheb's European Politics Megathread
« on: November 22, 2014, 02:44:27 pm »
Quote from: Sergarr on November 22, 2014, 02:06:24 pm
These Russian people killed democracy in Russia, while ironically trying to promote democracy in Russia. Isn't this fucking ironic? Isn't this the very essence of our history?
Well, the Weimar Republic was our first real attempt at democracy (1848 was just too ahead of the time to count) and we all know how well that went. Still, you don't have to repeat the same history over and over again. You can't change your history and it takes a long time to change the mentalities that are formed by that history, but it can be done.

Quote from: Guardian G.I. on November 22, 2014, 02:16:32 pm
The results of the first few years of Western liberal democracy, as described in a Russian article from 1995:
That is not how liberal democracy is supposed to work. Russia made a transition from planned economy to the worst kind of turbo-capitalism. The shitty kind of 19th century capitalism Marx and so many others rightfully criticised. What took many decades to grow in the West was implemented in Russia in just a year or so, without any counterbalance, no surprise it worked out disastrously.

Quote from: Ukrainian Ranger on November 22, 2014, 02:29:52 pm
Simple geopolitical truth is that USA\EU need stable Russia
That is true, like I said people were very willing to accept a semi-authoritarian rule in Russia, as long as it provided stability. Unfortunately, while Russia is relatively stable now, it has become totally unreliable in terms of foreign policy.

134
General Discussion / Re: Sheb's European Politics Megathread
« on: November 22, 2014, 01:48:22 pm »
Quote from: Sergarr on November 22, 2014, 01:08:54 pm
Russians cannot into democracy.
I don't believe that. If we can do it, you can do it too. We're even quite good at it now, we just had to lay waste to half the world in the process. I'm sure you can do better than that. Please try.

135
General Discussion / Re: Sheb's European Politics Megathread
« on: November 22, 2014, 12:58:28 pm »
Quote from: Sergarr on November 22, 2014, 12:51:52 pm
>Yeltzin
>democracy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnz9lOXQP3w
Well, that certainly was not very democratic, but what would have been the alternative? Zhirinovsky, or maybe the communists? That was a transitional phase that we hoped Russia would have overcome by now, but it has not.

Quote from: Sergarr on November 22, 2014, 12:44:38 pm
Means you don't really understand Russians.
That may very well be true BTW, but I don't think Russians (at least many of them) do understand us either. We had that already, with the post-socialist thinking and the cynical Russian soul being too pessimistic to believe that democracy might actually work. From what I see many Russians today seem to think that "democracy" means a dictatorship of what the masses are ok with, and that is not how democracy is supposed to work.

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