Being able to read thoughts and feelings are very different attributes. Humans discern the thoughts of other humans through choice of words, tone of v...
Clearly, you have never had a dog console you in grief or ask you anxiously why you are on the ground with your head in the kitchen cabinet. Much has ...
It's getting plenty of attention from animal behaviorists. We're getting more and more studies of problem solving in both nature and laboratory condit...
Yes, but we've already wrecked most of the infrastructure that would reset the balance. When the rabbits die off, the grass grows back and little tree...
In a way. A number of species are capable of overpopulating, overgrazing or overhunting their territory, given the right conditions. However, when tha...
What would that accomplish? It could not be arrived-at through discussion and consensus; it could only be imposed by humans. Which is already the case...
In what circumstances, according to what law, by what standards? The pain and death other animals cause one another are generally inflicted in the cou...
Who's denying it? I'm well aware of all the things humans have accomplished and are capable of that no other species - indeed, not all the other speci...
Of course not. Why should they be? Every individual member of every species is primarily concerned with its own survival, secondly with the survival o...
And bats cannot communicate with iguanas and condors have little in common with zebras. Species within the same family are more like one another than ...
Love is older and more deeply rooted in sentient beings than rational thought. Love is a complex of emotions that connect one individual to another. I...
Sure, all that. But I read for enjoyment, not education. I've seen enough of their precious 'condition' to go right off the human race. Individually, ...
At 78, I've been exposed to most of them, and trust me, they're not new. I'm still interested in different perspectives, but I have no need of any mor...
I will, too. It's not just a question of writing quality, but of how one's mind works. There are some widely recognized masterpieces that I didn't enj...
Then why did you drag the legality into this one? The OP question was whether incest between consenting adults is immoral - not whether it should be f...
Of course it doesn't. They're not producing conditions that are likely to make an innocent suffer. I wouldn't go so far as evil. They are committing a...
It's a good reason to prevent conceiving it in the first place. Many lives are much worse than no life - ask the people who apply for assisted suicide...
That's slogan 'individualism'. The idea is to foster the illusion of choice, of personal freedom, individual responsibility. What this actually means ...
No, but many countries have religious bias of one kind or another. And that's just one factor. Political ideology is a more compelling one. Pretty muc...
That's just a hazard of public interaction. If you feel you might be influenced, don't read any other posts before you respond. I sometimes do that in...
Yes, that's what I meant. Like one of the better electoral systems. I like the idea very much. People generally do like a competition, and do like to ...
I like ranked voting much better than rating. Now, I must rummage in the bin of set-aside story ideas for one I can use. That should keep a few brain ...
The most convivial place I frequent is the quick sale rack at Food Basics. It's a magnet for old women and there is always some item of produce that o...
I suppose it would have helped not to read the book, which happens to be among my top favourites. YES - to me. The tone, the flavour, the atmosphere, ...
Several things happened. Before the internet, children were dumbed down by television. While there was some educational and socializing content, most ...
Because commercial communications media, tv, radio, internet, and print, is privately owned. Owners have control of staffing and content. Owners and s...
And now, a word from our kittens: They've discovered that collapsible tube with a window in the side. Even the big cats still play with it from time t...
Footnote to genres. I think they're like cliches: the original examples were strong literary efforts; once their popularity grew, there rose many infe...
You can be realistic; understand the futility and absurdity of life, and yet have compassion for those who suffer greater hardship or pain. So keep on...
Sounds to me like the eternal social tension: competition vs co-operation, between vertical and horizontal society. In a vertical society, there are c...
Yes. But it wouldn't be a Gothic novel then; it would be literary fiction and I hadn't signed up for that much effort.* Even the one that I intended a...
Sure, but I perceive no shortage of writers exploring the deepest, darkest crannies, describing the vilest acts in the most graphic terms. They don't ...
This thread appeared once before and immediately disappeared. I wonder why. I also wonder where this comes from Are you observing, analyzing, evaluati...
I very much doubt that was uppermost in anyone's mind. More time would certainly have helped - if the strategy had not been so gender-weighted and mor...
For good or ill, I can't do that. I get too involved in the story. I can't be jolly about a character I intend to kill off. I tried to write a Gothic ...
And there's so little sunshine on the surface at this time of year. I can't stay down too long; I'd get the bends and I'm way too claustrophobic to go...
Exactly. You're wanting to force democracy on other peoples through undemocratic means, at great cost to both your own population and the one you hope...
Ay-yup! Not entirely unforeseen or unpredicted: it's been hurtling down the track since 1972 - that I could see. Before that, I was a youthful optimis...
I thought Canada would be the first domino, but it turned out to be Germany. How many more? They all have pressure from their own right wing and a com...
That's what I've been trying to tell you: democratic nations don't "take over" other countries to fix those other countries' morality. It would have t...
Badly, yes. But I don't think this: would have helped. The first reaction from the rightward press would be :"Are they calling all young men crazy?" I...
Nor is it the "conservative" elites. It's convenient that the famous American political amnesia has sainted Reagan and blamed everyone else for the co...
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