2-HeadedGiraffe: Alex and the Question of the Mind

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Alex has died.

From what I've heard, it sounds to me as if he and some other animals (such as gorillas like Koko who can use sign language or a pair of chimps from whom I wish I had a link who they taught to associate symbols and even combinations of letters with different objects) have some understanding of the meanings of words. It seems they are able to learn to express thoughts and desires. They're individuals with unique brains that are, even if only on a simple level, capable of communicating with us. I would not be in the least surprised to find out we shared this little blue-green marble with a number of other sentient or at least presentient species.

Sometimes, when people ask if we're alone, I wonder if the answer isn't a little closer to home than they imagine.

But that's all just speculation.

Mood: Saddened and Curious
Music: From down the hall
Etc: Japanese Class

Comments (3)

2-HeadedGiraffe: Minimum Security

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Over at Comics.com, there's a strip called Minimum Security. It's not the best strip on the site. The dialog often sounds too scripted. It almost never sounds natural. The characters are over the top and the political agenda of the strip is about as subtle as a shotgun blast to the face.

The thing is, some of the content is so controversial, I'm just surprised they print it in the newspapers. Today's strip (August 31st), for example, proposes a mass suicide of corporate CEOs. Like I say, it's not the best written comic out there, but I read it, if nothing else because I'm just amazed they print it.

Mood: Content
Music: Air conditioner hum
Etc: Leaving for Kalamazoo in the morning.

Comments (1)

2-HeadedGiraffe: Burkas, Prostitutes and Burka-Wearing Prostitutes

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I was going to put this as a comment on Nathan's post about Saddam, but I thought I'd make my own post.

I don't see what's wrong with the burka. I have a problem with a man forcing a woman to dress a particular way, but there's really nothing wrong with the garment itself. So while I understand that it's commonly used as a symbol of the oppression of women in the cultures where women are forced to wear it, I think that leads people away from seeing it as a dignified, functional article of clothing. In America, you see people dressed like prostitutes, wearing as little as they can legally get away with, something with the underwear hanging out of the over-tight pants or other such indignities. Then these women get offended when men stare at them.

Also, I don't really have a problem with prostitution. I see it as more or less an issue of morality. I try to come to my morality through logic*, and I see no logical reason why mature adults shouldn't be allowed to buy and sell sex. The major problem I see with it is the spread of disease, which happens just as much through casual sex without exchange of money.

As for the whole Iraq situation, though, Saddam was a bastard, and so is Bush. It's a damned if you do, fucked if you don't situation.

And that's my ten cents (my two cents is free).

*my morality, though backed by my own logic admittedly overlaps in many ways with that with which I was raised, though I have tried to reject some so-called sins with which I can find no intellectual fault

This: Is
Not: A
Hidden: Message

Comments (5)

2-HeadedGiraffe: Wells

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Orson Wells broadcast a radio dramatization of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds. Everyone knows that. My question is whether there was any other connection between them. I mean, was Orson in any way related to H.G. or is their shared surname a mere coincidence? I did a search online, but none of the info I found speaks to any relationship, but it seems to me at the very least that Orson might have deliberately chosen a piece by someone with his same last name even if there was no previous connection.

If anyone knows whether they were related, please, let me know.

Mood: Feelin
Music: None
Etc: Toyota

Comments (3)

2-HeadedGiraffe: Yone Minagawa

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Yone Minagawa has died.

Long live Edna Parker!

Comments (1)