by Max Barry

Latest Forum Topics

Advertisement

Search

Search

[+] Advanced...

Author:

Region:

Sort:

«12. . .590591592593594595596597»

Sad day that Sam has CTE.

I have no idea the powers of the WAD position has now. I am open to any and all suggestions to keep the region free of raiders. I do not want to impose a password as I think we all would agree that would spell the end of P115 (as well as not knowing if I have thag power).

I am sure the good doctor shall be back. Wishing him well.

P.s. Red Star you have been a valued person throughout the years here. Be sad also to see you go. Wishing you the best in life and all the happiness. Hope you shall reconsider and stay. However, the region has become a bit of slow and snail filled land. The last bit of activity was last Spring and Summer. I am hopeful that trend may continue.

P.P.S. I think, persoanlly, it would be wise to create more officer positions for those of us who have been here a time to enable more protection. Not sure if this will work but worth a go. If anyone is interested, please telegram me.

I have granted as full of a position I can for a few trusted people. I am sure that I have missed people (please say). Please also feel free to add polls and anything which may create a livelier environment. Lol.

Thanks all.

Getting fed up with NationStates is one thing, but is anyone in touch with Sam so we can see if he is ok?

Telgan, The rose, and Dusty Sandals

If it will help keep Philosophy 115 free from raiders I am happy to stay. Raiding is a part of the game I have no interest in and know very little about, so not sure how much use I will be. But I can take directions. I've endorsed all the officers of the region as I believe that helps.

I have no way of contacting Sam.

Best course of action right now is to join WA with your nation and endorse the Delegate. If a raid attempt is made, it will happen during one of the two daily updates, and likely moments before the region itself updates (between 12:15 and 12:30 EDT both am and pm). The more well endorsed the Delegate (Telgan), the more raiders it will take to seize the position. It will come down to their endorsements versus Telgan's, so the more Telgan has, the less likely they are to succeed.

If raiders take Delegate, their first order of business will be to dismiss all native Regional Officers, and the ability to kick the raiders out will be lost. This will take less than one minute for them to do, so the best defence is prevention.

Defender orgs have been made aware of the situation in P115, and may also move in and temp endorse Telgan if raiders make a move during an update. This is however, only a stopgap, and if defenders are tied up elsewhere, they may not be able to assist.

Being in the WA has almost no effect on your nation or its policies / stats, and while compliance with WA resolutions is encouraged, it's not mandatory, so you can continue to run your nation as you wish, and there is no requirement to vote on resolutions. The added regional security from your WA endorsement of Telgan, however, is invaluable.

I do endorse a TEMPORARY password or at least a vote on it as soon as possible.

As for the poll - there were many fallacies that have been used to support some loathsome policies (tradition is one of the worst there), but I had to go with the wishful thinking fallacy - I want it to be true, therefore it must be. This is the main fallacy behind climate change denial, and anyone living in the US has seen this fallacy day in and day out for the last four years, from inauguration day (This IS the largest audience ever. What, photos show it is not? The photos must be faked!) to the last day (I must have won the election. By a landslide! The votes must be rigged.). And of course, worst of all, the handling of the pandemic (It is hurting my economy and my re-election chances. It is just like a cold. It will go away miraculously by Easter 2020. It is a hoax.).

Telgan, Sunrise from the Sea, The rose, and Kolominia

The State of Telgan

I have created a TEMPORARY password for the region. I am sharing this with several people from the outset. Depending on the regional vote I WILL change the regional perference and consensus to that.

Whatever the outcome, I hope this is a temporary measure.

Thank you all.

Hello everyone! I was hoping to join your region, but instead joined an allied one since you are password protected. I see that your founder recently CTE'd, so I understand and appreciate the precaution.

Regarding the poll, looking into the USA from outside it seems like a corrupt system that makes a mockery of the idea of an independent judiciary. "Trials" that are supposed to establish the facts concerning an alleged crime are decided by politicians acting solely according to party affiliation. Back when the Senate was considering the nomination of Brett Kavanagh to the Supreme Court some of the same politicians were asked to form a view on the rights and wrongs of the sexual conduct of some students at a long ago party and then too the conclusions they reached miraculously matched the party they belonged to. When the Supreme Court itself had to settle the 2000 Florida vote, and hence the Presidential election, by a striking coincidence every judge decided in favour of the party of the President who had appointed them.

No wonder it's recognised that one of the most important thing a President does is make lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court, leading to the sorry spectacle of RBG trying so hard to survive until the election. Not since the days of Chernenko and Deng has the politics of a superpower depended so clearly on the health of an ailing octogenarian.

America, this is not a good look.

Looking at the USA from the inside has been difficult also. But the rise of the right and populism is not limited to the USA. I don't mind that people have different beliefs than me - that's as it should be. But when facts and reason are rejected I worry. Of course your beliefs are going to be a major determinant in your views - but not to the exclusion of reality.

Regarding the poll, it is not clear which impeachment it is referring to. But no matter, the answer to both is Yes. And the small victory in both is that there were at least one or more Republicans who put their country over their party. It is not enough, but it is something.

A bit of personal news to share. I made the most of the coronavirus slowdown to *finally* finish off my masters degree - Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Analytical Biochemistry. So nice to have it finished!

Central Kadigan wrote:A bit of personal news to share. I made the most of the coronavirus slowdown to *finally* finish off my masters degree - Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Analytical Biochemistry. So nice to have it finished!

Congratulations!

Central Kadigan wrote:A bit of personal news to share. I made the most of the coronavirus slowdown to *finally* finish off my masters degree - Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Analytical Biochemistry. So nice to have it finished!

That's wonderful news!

Central Kadigan wrote:A bit of personal news to share. I made the most of the coronavirus slowdown to *finally* finish off my masters degree - Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Analytical Biochemistry. So nice to have it finished!

Congrats

Telgan wrote:I have created a TEMPORARY password for the region. I am sharing this with several people from the outset. Depending on the regional vote I WILL change the regional perference and consensus to that.

Whatever the outcome, I hope this is a temporary measure.

Thank you all.

This is a very prudent move. I will move my WA membership here as soon as possible, but I am currently assisting against a raider invasion in another region. Stay prepared.

Post self-deleted by Rizles tri.

Central Kadigan wrote:A bit of personal news to share. I made the most of the coronavirus slowdown to *finally* finish off my masters degree - Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Analytical Biochemistry. So nice to have it finished!

Congratulations, CK. A great personal achievement and the hard work paying off. Wishing you the best of luck for the future. I would love to go back to be a student again. Lots of learning, reflecting and changing yourn previously held positions. Challenges us to be more open.

The rose

Central Kadigan wrote:A bit of personal news to share. I made the most of the coronavirus slowdown to *finally* finish off my masters degree - Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Analytical Biochemistry. So nice to have it finished!

Excellent. Wishing you a happy and successful career!

When you write job applications, remember there's a potential fallacy embedded in the process: We tend to stop taking samples as soon as an acceptable job offer appears. So usually, we get n rejections and just a few interviews, and 1 acceptable job. Unless we employ a headhunter to look for even better jobs for us while we're busy working, we usually don't have time to continue taking enough samples to find out what other jobs would also have been offered to us. :)

Reprise of the red herring poll:
page=poll/p=170195

I think I've enountered all of these red herring fallacies, much more in writing than in spoken conversation. (I don't tend to hang out with people who 'reason' like this.)

The rose, the story, at its heart has a combination of 1. Appeal to authority and 5. Appeal to tradition. The motive for murder in the book goes something like this: We have been using authority figure X to corroborate certain traditions for a long time. If new evidence shows up, which suggests authority figure X undermining a cherished assertion - let's hide that evidence!

There are so many fallacious arguments to choose from. I suppose by looking at what we cannot stand, I wonder what type of arguments or relationaloties or logic really brings us into a conversation more than others? What is the most persuasive? Could be a new poll for after, Rose. ;).

I persoanlly detest appeals to tradition. Really if truth be told all are pet hates. But i suppose, if we are turly honest with ourselves, we have all made these mistakes in every day conversation or in a work setting. Most of the times, we try and either justify it or reason to ourselves in some other fashion to try and smooth over the otherwise congitive dissonance we experience. I am going to use a fallacy here from the list: we are only human and it is human nature. :).

The rose

Edit: Whoops, multitasking! I accidentally edited this post, while I was trying to write the new one today. Thus stuff disappears online! Lesson learned: It's much better to write posts in a text editor.

Post self-deleted by Rizles tri.

A kind of Bulverism can be a good thing. Since we've already had an example from The Name of the Rose, consider that the papal delegation comes to the debate to be held at the abbey to argue that Christ had possessions not for scriptural or theological reasons but because it seeks a rebuttal to criticisms of the increasing wealth of the church. The abbot is obsessed with glorifying God by filling the abbey with treasure. Crucifixes are being carved in which Christ is nailed by one hand with the other patting a pouch of gold on his belt. The Franciscan order is repulsed by such displays of earthly wealth and argues that the church should follow the example of the humility of Christ and the apostles, from which it's only a short jump to the violent apocalyptic sects that target wealth with violence. None of this has any direct bearing on the merit of the arguments that are brought to the debate, but if you ignore the context you fundamentally misunderstand the whole process.

You can set fire to a bishop's house because he is rich, William tells Adso, or because you do not believe in the hell that he preaches. It is always done because here on Earth there is a hell, where dwell the people of God whose shepherds we no longer are.

C.S. Lewis named Bulverism for an imaginary person whose destiny was set as a child when he heard his mother tell his father "You only say that because you're a man." Yet perhaps an appropriate response to patriarchy is not to engage rationally with every argument for the status quo but to fight back because some people do indeed say things because they are men, and more importantly because others tend to listen. I feel this may link back to my last post on the US Supreme Court, where political appointees construct legal arguments after the fact to support the outcome they wanted from the beginning.

New poll: I used to believe... culture edition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions
page=poll/p=170661

Which of these do I remember believing? All of them. :D

For this poll, I've only selected only misconceptions from the long list on wikipedia that I remember I once thought were correct. Where did I get them from? Pop culture, entertainment, cinema, contemporary fiction, even guided tours as a tourist.

In the case of sculptures, I first just took them literally at surface value: as they look like today with the paint eroded off, until I learned that they used to be painted. How did I change my mind? Read about traces of paint hidden in crevices. Had more trust in contemporary experts (archeaeologists, restorers) than romantically waxing art historians of centuries past. Compared in my mind with popularly venerated sculptures today. Colourfulness tends to be popular; examples of austerity in design tends to be limited to certain groups: Reason by analogy. Recognised that the specific paint reconstructions are not intended as complete, exact reproductions 'This is exactly how the sculpture looked like', but, due to scarcity of traces, as models 'This is how the sculpture may have looked like'. More trust in claims/experts who:
1. Don't idealise something that was widely popular.
2. Use painstaking methodology: analyse traces of paint.
3. Make relative, cautious rather than sweeping, absolute claims.
So, changing my mind in this case was a mixture of trust in expertise, analogies, even psychological factors.
https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/gods-in-color-ancient-world-polychromy/index.html

I wonder how might such a list of common misconceptions look like in 100 or 500 or 1000 years?

Still looking for a few opinions on these question, please:
1. How many days is a good poll duration?
2. How many days minimum between 2 polls by the same person? (So as not to accidentally monopolise.)
3. Limited to nations in Philosophy 115, open to all nations, no preference?
Thank you!

This is a diplomatic update from Forest. By a strange coincidence of timing, we find ourselves founderless just after the same thing happened to your region.

Greetings, friends and allies of Forest!

In last night's major update, beginning the 7th of March 2021, Forest's founder and longest resident Errinundera CTE'd. Though we are unsure of the causes, and hope that all is well for the person behind the name, this event was not entirely unexpected. For some time we have seen the signs, and were able to lay out all the steps and safeguards necessary to ensure an orderly transition to Forest being a stable, Delegate-led region. Because of the nature of Forest's democracy, this change will not significantly impact the long-term function of our government.

As we speak, the necessary Constitutional procedures are being undertaken to make this transition smoothly, and we do not anticipate any significant interruption or alteration to our status, alliances, commitments, or activities. In accordance with Forest law long-ago written for just such an occasion, a password has been placed on the region while we complete this process. This is a temporary state of affairs, and we anticipate that within a short period of time, the necessary votes will have been completed to allow the lifting of this password, and our long-awaited transition to the next government.

We thank you for your ongoing friendship, and look forward to many years of continued growth together.

Verdant Haven
Forest Keeper of Forest

On the subject of the poll, I must confess that until a few moments ago I believed that spiral staircases were built to hinder right-handed swordsmen. I must now go and look into this further.

Hello philosophers!

Not to bombard your RMB with Forest posts, but I am eagerly awaiting the Decennial Anniversary of our oldest embassy, which is with you! We are up to 9 years and 358 days, so it looks like in one week, our regions will have shared ten years of fellowship, which is six years longer than I have even been on NationStates for, so that is quite an testament to our long term unity and stability!

All the best, and feel free to drop by and say hello!
Ruinenlust :-)

Hello! I am a older citizen of Forest and wish for you to have a happy 10 year old region! “Happy birthday to you, happy birthday, happy birthday to you!”

«12. . .590591592593594595596597»

Advertisement