What Do You Think Today?

[Savor Dam]

I had been rather favoring Iolanthe's suggestion of Richard...but I am well-pleased with what was chosen.

[Iolanthe]

George Alexander Louis! Of course the current Duke of Gloucester is Richard. Charles III, William V, George VII - all good kingly names.

[peter]

You could yet see a King Arthur on the throne. Prince Charles's third name is Arthur. The new monarch gets to choose the name he/she will be known by at the time of their accession and it is by no means a done deal that it will be their first christian name. Charles could easily choose to be known as 'King Arthur', but for the fact that the associations with that name have made monarchs shy away from it in the past. To choose it would seem somehow pretentious and all monarchs have recognised this so far.

[Menolly]

To choose it would seem somehow pretentious and all monarchs have recognised this so far.

Isn't that why British "royal babies" aren't named Arthur for their first name in general?

[Iolanthe]

I'm glad they kept away from Ethelred and Canute! Edward would have been nice though. I've got a soft spot for the Confessor.

[peter]

I don't think so Menolly. As a monarch gets to select his/her regnal name at the time of accession it wouldn't make a lot of difference.

I expected there to be more comment upon the rights/wrongs of male primogeniture [as I say, I'm pretty indiferent to the matter one way or the other], but as there hasn't been I'll make my pre-prepared 'rejoinders' anyway . One of the chief reasons for *not* tinkering with the system as it stands is that to do so is to undermine a tradition. "So what?" one might say. The answer is that as the entire monarchical system is pretty much based entirely on tradition - and those foundations are pretty shakey at best in the modern world in some peoples eyes - once you start abandoning elements of the tradition in order to satisfy current thinking, it becomes much easier to then question the 'rightness' of the system as a whole. So by and large the maxim to follow in a case like this is 'if it doesn't itch, don't scratch it.'

[peter]

The situation in Egypt worsens by the day. All out civil war seems to be a real possibility in this country that, when visited as a tourist twice in the past, seemed on the surface to be a model of tolerance and sucessful co-existence. Clearly this was an illusion that has now crumbled to reveal the gulf between the army, the liberals and the Islamicists. Pray for the people - all the people. As Shakespear would have said "All are punished - All are punished!"

[Hami]

I am different
I dont fit in!

[Avatar]

First post in 5 years and that's it?

Welcome back.

--A

[peter]

I am different
I dont fit in!

Story of life Hami, story of life!

[By the way - Every one fits in here; view babybottomfeeder's posts if you don't believe me! ]

[ussusimiel]

[By the way - Every one fits in here; view babybottomfeeder's posts if you don't believe me! ]

Except that bbf has been banned for good! Still I suppose for a self-titled troll (bottom feeder), a stint of 2 years+ on a forum certainly shows that there is a good degree of tolerance on the Watch

You have to work fairly hard to not fit in on the Watch

u.

[Hashi Lebwohl]

I made myself fit in and now you are all unfortunately stuck with me.

[Avatar]

You, we can live with.

--A

[ussusimiel]

I made myself fit in and now you are all unfortunately stuck with me.

And fortunate we are that you made the effort

I'm doing a computer course at the moment and we were doing security and cryptography in the last class. I found out about hashing. Knowing your propensity for ciphers, I now understand how appropriate is your choice of KW name

u.

[Vraith]

You, we can live with.

--A

Just as long as you do so loudly and obviously.
It just doesn't do to slip up quietly on someone who, rumor has it, has a katana and knows how to use it [and some hacking skills of the electronic variety too, perhaps.]

I think all this cypher talk is making me think about reading "Cryptonomicon" again, even though I found long sections of it impossibly boring.
Some moments were great, though.

[ussusimiel]

I think all this cypher talk is making me think about reading "Cryptonomicon" again, even though I found long sections of it impossibly boring.
Some moments were great, though.

Another guy I haven't read (along with Gaiman). Are these dudes postmodern or something? I thought I was cool!

u.

[peter]

Just had a wikiscan at 'Cryptonomicon' - sounds *very* intense! I tried to read 'Quicksilver' by this author twice, and each time foundered a short way in. I know I'm missing something good - but I just can't get a handle on it.

re The Bletchly connection - I had a great-uncle who was at Bletchly during the war and who gets a few mentions in the 'Enigma' books the period has generated. I'm fascinated by codes and cyphers [codes being where different words are used eg using a 'code book' to make the substitutions, and cyphers where a particular mathematical (or other) process is used to alter the content of the text - do I have this right?]. I read a fantastic little peice demonstrating how to crack a cypher, where the guy showed how first to identify the elements peculiar to the english language (eg - last 2 letters the same in a 3 letter word nearly has to mean the word is 'too'), then substitute the T's and 0's and build up from there. The process was so logical and reasoned - and performed the seemingly impossible right in front of your eyes. Great stuff.

[Vraith]

I think all this cypher talk is making me think about reading "Cryptonomicon" again, even though I found long sections of it impossibly boring.
Some moments were great, though.

Another guy I haven't read (along with Gaiman). Are these dudes postmodern or something? I thought I was cool!

u.

Snowcrash is Neal's best, in my view...not so much because of skill at writing [he definitely has better technique now] but because of the huge quantity of interesting/quirky ideas. It has some postmodernesque-ish features.
Crypto and Anathem do NOT, and from things he says...in and out of books...he has serious dislike, and decent arguments against, several, but not all, important ideas/thought-streams in the postmodern.
Some of them I even agree with. [a couple pop up in Crypto...an argument relating to authority for example]
Some of them I think he's just wrong. [I think there is an Anathem thread, I think I talk about a few there...]
Both of those are indirect things...he doesn't have characters spouting off about how postmodernism sucks or anything. [although one good scene in Crypto ALMOST is that].

[peter]

Damn - now I have to read that darned 'post-modernism' book again.

[peter]

What a bloody mess they've got themselves into. Today a 65 year old woman and her son [25] have been arrested for encouraging the husband/father - a vulnerable [ie not fully compos mentis] 71 y.o - to travell to Switzerland and have himself euthanased by the 'dignified exit' clinic Dignitas. Who can tell whether they were acting out of compassion or less honourable motives. Not you or me. Not the policemen who will be deciding whether to press charges or not [it is still an offence in the UK to encourage someone into suicide but judges have ruled that charges will not be pursued against people who 'assist' those who have already made a decision on the matter] and certainly not the judges who may or may not ajudicate the case if it ever comes to court.