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Frazzled wrote:

Flashman wrote:

Frazzled wrote:Nice slam of Christians and Christmas there.

Not a reflection of Christians and their overall value system (which I have no problem with and admire to some extent), but Christmas as a festival is daft IMHO.

Your opinion is wrong.

Yep, celebrating the birth of jesus on the opposite side of the year from when it happened
during a pagan solar holiday that the romans attempted to replace
where people gather around a tree and give gifts to eachother to mimic a fat man in red who lives in the north pole

Christmas
Christian holiday

Nope


Really, it's bad enough that the most heavily commercialized holiday in the history of mankind is meant to represent the birth of a religious figure who supported the concept of collectivism and simplicity in living, it's gone so far into obscurity that it doesn't even represent that (unfaithfully) instead serving as a faux myth about an old dude who knows everyones sins and gives gifts to nice people. Seriously. It's daft as all hell.




As far as the topic, I admire the old japanese culture of emptiness and quiet, the new American Culture of scientific dynamism (when it's not being shut out by conservatives), and the soviet culture of collective care and humanity. These three social paradigms have very little to do with eachother.

1.japanese
2. french

All the others are uncultured trash

whatwhat wrote:

sebster wrote:

And they built the only man made structure that can be seen from outer space (although they themselves deny this to be true).

Funnily enough the Chinese made that up in the 60s, as they were embaressed by the achievements of the space programs of the US and USSR, and their own inability to keep up. So they declared the Great Wall was the only object visible from space. Which is a claim that doesn't make a lot of sense, if you think about it - the Great Wall is impressively long but along most of it's length it not more than few metres wide - something impossible to see with the naked eye from space.

Actually the wall can be seen from space as photographs taken with standard lenses by astronauts have proven, the myth is that it is the only man made structure that can be.

I'm not sure if we're looking at the same picture. The picture I'm looking at in your post has used a powerful zoom lens to magnify the region and even then it's basically a hairline where you're seeing a shadow and a clearing. This isn't the naked eye. It's not even close.

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:An oppressive Tzar with a secret police, replaced by an oppressive regime with secret police.

and yet the human spirit burned on throughout.

Add Russia to my list.

I know a fellow who writes popular history texts who plans his crowning work to be a complete history of Russia called;

"Russia - Somehow It Gets Worse"


Automatically Appended Next Post:

whatwhat wrote:Actually the wall can be seen from space as photographs taken with standard lenses by astronauts have proven, the myth is that it is the only man made structure that can be.

Ah, I was thinking of the claim that the Wall was visible from the moon (which is of course, nonsense). When we're talking about space it depends on what orbit we consider high enough to be 'space'. At the end of the day, the wall is never wider than 10 metres. If you count space as low enough to see objects 10 metres wide (at most, much of the wall is less than half that width), then you accept there are millions of other objects visible from space.

And it's quite telling that no-one has been able to verify actually seeing the wall, and most who claimed such were later shown to be mistaken. The claim 'at sufficiently low orbit, given the right viewing conditions one could see the Great Wall if they knew where to look, although we don't think anyone's actually been able to do it yet' is not quite as impressive.

This isn't to discount the achievement of building the Great Wall, which is really impressive.

ColdFire wrote:I have nothing against the American people personally though many of you seem awfully loud and obnoxious on Gameshows and TV

You think we're loud? Have you seen Japanese game shows?

Thank you for all those great appliances you make.

You should be thinking Taiwan and China for those appliances

I once saw a documentary that chronicled the "history" of the U.S following the victory of the South during the Civil War (yes the South) and I believe it first aired over there on BBC? Anyway after seeing this it made me wonder how things would have been differant if America has lost the war of succession. I think it's relevant because many of the things you thank us for may not have come into existance given a change of circumstances.

I also agree with you about Japan. As a tattoo artist I've done alot of research into various cultures because being a tat artist is more then just being able to draw well and ink with a steady hand. You have to understand symbology, cultural referance and belief and many cultures throughout history have expressed these values in tattoos. So in learning about tattoos (and other body modificatons used through out history) you learn a great deal about the culture that they reflect. Over the last few years Japanese tattoos have had a large surge in popularity but sadly many people don't understand the ritchness of the culture behind the tattoos.

A little off topic but I also have plans to visit Japan with the purpose of having my left leg tattooed in the traditional manner by one of Tokyos few remaining masters who practice the art

Warboss Imbad Ironskull wrote:

ColdFire wrote:I have nothing against the American people personally though many of you seem awfully loud and obnoxious on Gameshows and TV

You think we're loud? Have you seen Japanese game shows?

Thank you for all those great appliances you make.

You should be thinking Taiwan and China for those appliances

I once saw a documentary that chronicled the "history" of the U.S following the victory of the South during the Civil War (yes the South) and I believe it first aired over there on BBC? Anyway after seeing this it made me wonder how things would have been differant if America has lost the war of succession. I think it's relevant because many of the things you thank us for may not have come into existance given a change of circumstances.

Well yes the Japanese gameshows are inherently louder and far more enthusastic but it borders so much on obsenity its hialriously adorable. I just dont get the same reaction from Americans being loud and obnoxious, that goes for video games as well especially on Call of Duty.

Your right on Taiwan and China too Silly me, I forgot noone actually makes their own products anymore
I agree with you on the symbolism and the cultural richness involved in tatoos, Im personally not a fan of them as I like my skin the way it is but also it seems to me that Tatooing has just become another tradition turned superficial by the mass's into something it was never supposed to be. People who get tatoos which represent something important to them or use it to define their heritage is inspiring but I dont get the same feeling when I see some of the gangster trash garbage people seem to find so fascinating.

Actually a funny one around my area is people getting little stars tatooed on the sides of her face, a girl was on the news a while back planning to sue the Tatoo artist because she decided she didnt want stars on her face, silly her, she decided to get a tatoo while she was drunk now didnt she.
Popel went on for ages how dumb she was but now everyones got them.

Another one which bugs me is people who get the Southern Cross tatooed on them or get stickers for their cars, these are the same people who trash our country on Australia Day and cause all of the antisocial problems on Anzac Day, these so called patriots are also the morons who put "white australia" and "australia's full" stickers on their cars.
Im sure these are the equivalent of American Red Necks, our proud aussies

Eh not exactly. I'm originally from a small town in Colorado filled with rednecks (I too enjoy mudding, hunting, smelling nasty fish baits for the hell of it etc.) and here in georgia there are plenty of them and you'd be surprised how many of them don't fit the stereotype of a Redneck. Now yes we do have some extremist groups like the Arian Nation or the KKK but mostly that kind of thing is limited to gangs. Mostly when people get tattoos associated with the south in my experience they actually live in the south and simply identify it as a symbol represinitive of the south in general.

And even gang tattoos have cultural signifigance in that most of them are related to that members parent culture in some way, heck Japanese tattoos where mainly used by the Yakuza traditionally. I do agree though that tattoos should have meaning, I try and advise customers against getting tattoos simply because they look cool. In 30 years your perspective on something can change so what looked good then may not look good now. But in contrast if you get a tattoo that means something (a portrait of a loved one, a dedication to your religion) it represents something that will most likely stick with you forever.

As for that girl with the stars I don't know how the laws work there in Austrailia but here our clients have to sign a waver saying they can't sue us if their unhappy with the result which is why we try to make sure that they are 100% positive on placement, design etc before we actually begin. We also try and talk to the customer as much as we can before hand and answer as many questions as we can so that they can make an informed decision, I've had 5 people in the last month who decided not to get a tattoo just because I talked to them about it before hand and they decided it wasen't for them. We are also not allowed to do work on someone whose intoxicated and if we do then we can face criminal charges.

Anyway I just brought up tattoos in that it's one way I have been introduced to various cultures. I don't think we should derail the thread anymore with talk of tattoos