And also in the news ......

beppi wrote:

kRUBEN wrote:

Sigh! beppi, your "Where did you get that from?" question has a tone of contention. Thus, I choose not to dignify your "remark", with a proportionate/contributing -FYI- response. I concede beppi!. You're "right" again! Ok?

I am very sorry if my question sounded contentious. It wasn‘t meant to be!
Comparative cultural studies are kind of my hobby and I do like to analyse such common preconceptions for whether they contain truth.
It is of course conceivable (and as I said an interesting concept) that civilisations mature with age, just as individuals usually do, and in some cases (for some time) this also seems to happen - but then there are as many examples (often in the same culture) where a communal amnesia seems to take place and a place descents into decadence and eventually barbary. This is how the Roman empire ended, as well as the Chinese one. It is a nice irony that the Chinese communists, who swept away the remnants of China‘s 2000-years-old monarchy, are now (ab)using it to stoke the national pride they think they need (and they invented
some older history to top it off, because otherwise it would be too obvious that China isn‘t the natural world leader they want to believe it is).
In any case, I do search examples of cultures which do mature over time (at least temporarily) to find out what caused it and how to maybe prevent eventual decline, which I believe the Western world may slide into within my lifetime if we‘re unlucky.

Now that's the beppi, that I've grown accustomed to reading.

kRUBEN wrote:

Now that's the beppi, that I've grown accustomed to reading.

Considering that I derailed the discussion from penis whitening to why civilizations decline, I take your comment as a compliment. Thanks!

beppi, you stated "It is a nice irony that the Chinese communists, who swept away the remnants of China‘s 2000-years-old monarchy, are now (ab)using it to stoke the national pride they think they need (and they invented some older history to top it off, because otherwise it would be too obvious that China isn‘t the natural world leader they want to believe it is)."

It was the 2,000+ years-old centralized provincial Chinese monarchies that I was referring to. I, currently reside in SE Asia, and have experienced (first-hand) the arrogant pretentiousness, you've referred to.

I contend that a people who consider themselves to be genetically "superior" , should also demonstrate that superiority by setting "positive" human-growth and development examples, for their perceived "inferiors" to duplicate. That, is the social maturity-level that I previously referred to.

However, paying some stupid African poacher $10,000. for murdering a Rhinosaurus, for the perceived medicinal value of it's nose-horn, and/or sitting at a high-horse rider's dining table, with the gleeful anticipation of dining on the delicacy of "live" monkey brain, is supreme insanity, in my considered opinion.

Thus, the arcane "white-skin" obsession among Asians (Hindus withstanding), is just one of my many reasons of gratitude, to have been both born, and raised in the North American Hemisphere of the world, instead. I get to see potentialities in Asia, in ways the average Asian person will never see.

There is a reason why the Chinese state sends it's potentially best students to Western Universities. Indeed, beppi, your assessment(s) of the realities, is spot-on,

beppi wrote:

kRUBEN wrote:

Now that's the beppi, that I've grown accustomed to reading.

Considering that I derailed the discussion from penis whitening to why civilizations decline, I take your comment as a compliment. Thanks!

Right, we should have gone to the PM board instead. But if the topic thread happens to evolve into a far more sensible exchange, then I'll opt for the evolutionary growth-side, instead.

Chinese superiority was invented by the mainland Chinese communists (after they more or less destroyed the said culture in the civil war and later cultural revolution) and is heavily indoctrinated by the local education system. None of this arrogance exists among overseas‘ Chinese or the people if Taiwan (whose government still claims to represent the „real“ China - another of these myths ...) and I therefore much prefer working and living with those (I am married to one), rather than „China Chinese“. There are now effectively two Chinese races, due to stupid policies by the „Communists“ (another of these myths: In fact they are among the world's most capitalist powers nowadays).

Perhaps we're getting a little off topic?

Fred wrote:

Perhaps we're getting a little off topic?

Fred, considering that you've (singularly) posted 74 "different" topic point links (my count), to this "and also in the news" thread, I'm hard-pressed to fathom how any comment, from any poster, can possibly be "off-topic", at the (post #125) point!  

Thus, if you'd (kindly) "enlighten" my pointed head, then I'd sincerely appreciate that effort, on your part, sir!

kRUBEN wrote:

Fred wrote:

Perhaps we're getting a little off topic?

Fred, considering that you've (singularly) posted 74 "different" topic point links (my count), to this "and also in the news" thread, I'm hard-pressed to fathom how any comment, from any poster, can possibly be "off-topic", at the (post #125) point!  

Thus, if you'd (kindly) "enlighten" my pointed head, then I'd sincerely appreciate that effort, on your part, sir!

My anorak was hung up far too long ago to bother counting the number of silly NEWS topics posted but they were silly NEWS topics, not chat.
My interests also expand as far as and beyond Chinese politics along with their political/social situation, but that isn't silly NEWS.

Some things just want you to change nationality and vote in referendums.
Seems she managed to make 400 men smile but she's taking a little leave at the moment as a dog bit her face. One wonders what she was doing to the dog.

http://metro.co.uk/2018/01/04/italian-w … 4050/#mv-a

A model has had to cancel her political oral sex tour of Italy after a dog bit her in the face. Paola Saulino, 28, vowed to perform a sex act on anyone who voted ‘no' in an Italian referendum on the constitution. She had already started the tour and claimed to have donated her services to 400 voters who rejected reducing the number of MPs, limiting the operating costs of institutions and giving greater power to the PM – among other measures.

Fred wrote:

kRUBEN wrote:

Fred wrote:

Perhaps we're getting a little off topic?

Fred, considering that you've (singularly) posted 74 "different" topic point links (my count), to this "and also in the news" thread, I'm hard-pressed to fathom how any comment, from any poster, can possibly be "off-topic", at the (post #125) point!  

Thus, if you'd (kindly) "enlighten" my pointed head, then I'd sincerely appreciate that effort, on your part, sir!

My anorak was hung up far too long ago to bother counting the number of silly NEWS topics posted but they were silly NEWS topics, not chat.
My interests also expand as far as and beyond Chinese politics along with their political/social situation, but that isn't silly NEWS.

Thanks, to whomever, that I was born NOT a silly ^, domineering know-it-all.

Fred wrote:

Perhaps we're getting a little off topic?

If that was a little off topic, what do we have to do for you to call it very off topic?!?

There are at least 40,000 people so sad they watch nothing at Christmas - a bit like tuning in to the BBC really.
I'll bet there was a geek style uproar when his glasses got knocked off, probably rivalling the crowd's reaction to the last goal in the 1966 world cup.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gaming/news/ … -designer/

25 DECEMBER 2017 • 12:46PM
A top video game designer spent 10 hours sat silently in front of a crackling fire yesterday – while being watched by an audience of around 40,000 people.

Thousands visited the online streaming video platform Twitch to watch the broadcast from Jeff Kaplan, head designer of the popular game Overwatch.

In a video which recalled the Scandanavian "slow TV" trend, Kaplan sat in complete silence for most of the day, staring placidly into the middle distance – except for a moment when a boom microphone bumped into his head, knocking off his glasses.

[Post under review]

I fail to see how the abovementioned programme is worse than the usual TV broadcast. I don‘t have or need a TV - it‘s more interesting to watch my washing machine or microwave oven in action - but the best are my wife‘s cakes in the oven: it takes 60min of suspense to a happy end, just like a Hollywood blockbuster, but the culinary value is far higher!