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Existential Queries

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Clarissa

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Why do doctors love to cover the walls of the rooms where patients are left waiting with pictures of diseased organs?

Why does the resumption of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks require a release of imprisoned terrorists?

Why do all symptoms of all health problems appear to torture one at night? Is it something about darkness that brings them out?

Why can’t I find any good music now that I have a device to listen to it?

Why does every single person in my street except my autistic neighbor have a dog?

Why are there so many horrible train crashes these days?

Why does The Old Reader never function?

32 responses to “Existential Queries”

  1. Stringer Bell Avatar
    Stringer Bell

    I think they’re terrorists in the same way that people imprisoned in Gitmo are terrorists.

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    1. Stringer Bell Avatar
      Stringer Bell

      I’d like to take that back. Just read that many of the prisoners did commit serious, indisputable crimes.

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  2. Tim Avatar
    Tim

    The Old Reader is an incredibly tiny project that had to handle a ludicrous amount of people. Because Google Reader came down, TOR was a place for people who did not like the most recent redesigns of GR and wanted the design of the old reader, hence its name.

    But then Google Reader came down and TOR turned from a niché project to a prime replacement. So the people behind it expanded to handle more people. However, as they aren’t backed by a big corporation, their resources ended up being awfully stretched. And they had a database change gone awry, that caused major hardware failures.

    This is the main reason why TOR is working flaky as of late. Because they are not a giant corp like Google is that can throw seemingly infinite IT resources at problems.

    http://blog.theoldreader.com/

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  3. cliff arroyo Avatar
    cliff arroyo

    “Why do doctors love to cover the walls of the rooms where patients are left waiting with pictures of diseased organs?”

    They’re beautiful to a doctor? (reference to of Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis books)

    “Why does the resumption of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks require a release of imprisoned terrorists?”

    Well neither side wants peace, so the more ridiculous pre-conditions the better for all concerned.

    “Why do all symptoms of all health problems appear to torture one at night? Is it something about darkness that brings them out?”

    There are fewer distractions and fewer options (for most people mst of the time) to create distractions. It’s like insect sounds that you wouldn’t notice in the day driving you crazy at night”

    “Why can’t I find any good music now that I have a device to listen to it?”

    Where are you looking? Popular music pretty much died around 20 years ago in the west and is in an extended death rattle. Some (south)eastern european stuff is better (though not great).

    “Why does every single person in my street except my autistic neighbor have a dog?”

    More people like dogs than have phobias about them.

    “Why are there so many horrible train crashes these days?”

    Confirmation bias.

    “Why does The Old Reader never function?”

    I have no idea what you’re writing about (since I’m a luddite at heart)

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      ““Why do doctors love to cover the walls of the rooms where patients are left waiting with pictures of diseased organs?”

      They’re beautiful to a doctor?”

      – And what a scary thought. 🙂

      ““Why does the resumption of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks require a release of imprisoned terrorists?”

      Well neither side wants peace, so the more ridiculous pre-conditions the better for all concerned.”

      – I think you are absolutely completely and totally right. Both the Israelis and the Palestinians are pretending to negotiate to appease the US but the people in power on both sides have zero interest in peace.

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      1. el Avatar
        el

        // Both the Israelis and the Palestinians are pretending to negotiate to appease the US

        That was also said on the recent “Israel Weekly” (“Izrail za nedelu”) TV program. Old news. They also said that Abu Mazen is afraid of what would happen to him and his people after the Palestinian country’s creation. The article I recently linked to on your blog talks at length and in great detail about the Jewish side.

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        1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
          bloggerclarissa

          “That was also said on the recent “Israel Weekly” (“Izrail za nedelu”) TV program. Old news. ”

          – I promise that I’m not plagiarizing from this show that I have never seen. 🙂

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      2. musteryou Avatar
        musteryou

        They can be quite interesting. At the army training camp in Australia, the doctors have a picture of somebody’s hand where the fingers had become severed due to mishandling their weapon. I don’t recall the explanation underneath.

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  4. n8chz Avatar
    n8chz

    Why are there so many horrible train crashes these days?

    Sabotage. Big Oil wants to discredit the idea of high speed rail.

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  5. el Avatar
    el

    // I promise that I’m not plagiarizing from this show that I have never seen.

    I know. I was hinting the program was worth to try to see it once, at least. 🙂

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  6. Stringer Bell Avatar
    Stringer Bell

    “Both the Israelis and the Palestinians are pretending to negotiate to appease the US”

    Moreover, how can US pretend to be an honest broker when it is pretty much an advocate for Israeli interests? These talks are a sham.

    http://mondoweiss.net/2013/07/how-fair-is-martin-indyk-who-says-he-was-motivated-by-my-connection-to-israel.html

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    1. el Avatar
      el

      Who *can* be an honest broker? Everybody has vested interests, no?

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      1. Stringer Bell Avatar
        Stringer Bell

        I like how the only two choices presented are:

        a) find a 100% bias-free unicorn entity
        b) accept an ex-AIPAC lobbyist to be your chief mediator.

        Lovely. Keep creating these strawmen.

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        1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
          bloggerclarissa

          This is a big country. I’m sure that if there were political will, a person without a significant bias could be found. I’m any case, somebody who is not likely to anger and insult one of the sides can definitely be chosen.

          The whole thing just stinks.

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      2. bloggerclarissa Avatar
        bloggerclarissa

        I’m sure a mediator can be found who has no links to or particular interest in either side.

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    2. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      “These talks are a sham.”

      – Absolutely. The US has been working so hard for so long to destabilize the region that I can’t muster any optimism as to its good intentions with these talks. It’s more like putting on a spectacle than trying to achieve anything.

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    3. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      This is, indeed, a very telling choice for a mediator. Now it’s obvious that nobody is even trying all that hard to pretend that the peace talks are meant to work.

      I wonder, what is the point of the US putting on this repetitive show of promoting peace talks that have no chance of succeeding. This has been going on for decades and each new US president is smug as a clam about his invaluable contribution to peace talks that bring no peace.

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  7. Titfortat Avatar
    Titfortat

    Its not like Israel is going anywhere. The major players in the region, Iran, Saudi Arabia, need them too much. Like the States, its always good to have a boogey man to keep the population focused on something other than what you are doing to them. 😉

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      Also true.

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  8. Jodi Avatar
    Jodi

    Maybe people who are autistic are inpervious to the mind control dogs exert on their “owners”? We all know who is REALLY in control, and it’s not the beings sleeping on special pillows all day.

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      It is really interesting how little the people around here seem to know about the dogs they love so much. I often see owners let the dogs come inside the house first and then follow them. Even I, a dog-hater, know that this is a huge mistake.

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      1. cliff arroyo Avatar
        cliff arroyo

        “how little the people around here seem to know about the dogs they love so much. I often see owners let the dogs come inside the house first and then follow them”

        I’d need to see the body language of both. Dogs sometimes follow people ahead of them*. It sounds odd but it’s real and very different looking from actually taking the lead position. But then the people you’re talking about are probably not clued in to things like that and are in fact ceding pack leader position to their dogs in some instances but not in others. That’s actually more distressing to them than never being leader.

        *pack animals often move with the leader in the middle and lesser ranked individuals ahead and behind them as protection.

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      2. musteryou Avatar
        musteryou

        I’ve never had any problem with dogs –or horses for that matter. They’re not equals, but on some occasions, which are rare, you do need to defer to their animal instinct. Sometimes horses see things before you do, and sometimes dogs can be very useful, for instance when one has lost one’s way. I was once led back out of some very confusing bushland terrain by my dog. I would have been lost otherwise, which could have been quite dangerous.

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      3. el Avatar
        el

        // I often see owners let the dogs come inside the house first and then follow them. Even I, a dog-hater, know that this is a huge mistake.

        Never had a dog, but loved to read about animals, so: there are different theories and this interpretation isn’t 100% correct. Plenty of people have docile breeds, like toy breeds and goldens, and don’t have problems no matter who comes where first.

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        1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
          bloggerclarissa

          There is no such thing as a docile breed. A dog is a predator, even a tiny little one. The problem in the area where I live is precisely that people don’t realize this and treat dogs like fluffy toys. The dogs are untrained, un disciplined, and instead of putting them into training, stupid and lazy owners project their feelings onto them.

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      4. el Avatar
        el

        Is life with a dog a neverending struggle over power with a dog constantly planning to take over? How many owners don’t live like that and all is fine? If it is a constant struggle, I don’t miss much by preferring cats, though dogs are more interesting in several ways. 🙂

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        1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
          bloggerclarissa

          No, they just need to be trained. It doesn’t take long but it has to be done by a professional. Most people around here skip that step, though.

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  9. Jodi Avatar
    Jodi

    As far as the doctors go, it’s often so that they have something readily available that they can point to when they explain things. They don’t understand that it’s off-putting, because that’s what they had nonstop in school and are inured to it.

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    1. Jodi Avatar
      Jodi

      Yes, if you’re not reminding them at all times that you are the Big Dog, you will quickly slide down the hierarchy.

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      1. Jodi Avatar
        Jodi

        Well, this comment went into the wrong place!

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      2. bloggerclarissa Avatar
        bloggerclarissa

        “Yes, if you’re not reminding them at all times that you are the Big Dog, you will quickly slide down the hierarchy.”

        – Exactly! I keep seeing people struggle impotently with their animals.

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      3. cliff arroyo Avatar
        cliff arroyo

        I know this was posted in the wrong place, but it’s kind of true of doctors too. You don’t actually try dominance displays with doctors (unless you really don’t care about your health) but there’s a trick of keeping your expectations of them first and foremost to prevent them from treating you like a number or a psyche case.

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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