Well its happened

Discussion in 'Just Talk' started by Isitreally, Oct 18, 2018.

  1. retiredsparks

    retiredsparks Super Member

    Looks like we are gone too far already...when we have "professors of rhetoric and argument"
    I joke not, that is his/her/its title.
    But Milo soon sorted it.

    RS
     
    DIY womble likes this.
  2. Broon

    Broon Active Member

    I don't see an issue with changing the name but I don't feel they made these tissues for runny noses. Kleenex know whats up. That's probably why they are man size.
     
  3. Richard_

    Richard_ Screwfix Select

    Pesky new fangled titles, it all started going downhill with Aristotle and Cicero.
     
    Tyro and btiw2 like this.
  4. Isitreally

    Isitreally Super Member


    Why??? What did they change to suit gender neutrality. !!!!
     
  5. btiw2

    btiw2 Screwfix Select

    I thought that was funny, even if IIR didn't.

    Rhetoric, philosophy, logic, ethics - these are now apparently all namby-pamby modern neo-marxist liberal values (that were invented by the Ancient Greeks).

    On the other hand, you could say that remainers have forgotten democracy and stoicism. It all evens out.

    We're all fine for cynicism** though.

    Give it another generation and we'll be mocking the other Greek contributions to thought. Trigonometry will the denial of school shootings. Geometry will become FlatEarthology.

    * Gods! I hate that term.
    ** I'm well aware that the cynics weren't actually cynical thankyouverymuch, but both sides probably want to claim skepticism and I couldn't think of another Greek philosophy/branch of philosophy that wouldn't look weird. Epicurianism (spelling?)? I don't really know what epicurianism means. Something to do with fine food? Epistemology? That sounds like a disease.
     
  6. Richard_

    Richard_ Screwfix Select

    What term? There is no single star in your text.

    How about Pythagorus? As I recall his followers believed in the sanctity of whole numbers. When one of them suggested fractions had a role in life he was driven out of the community and killed himself.

    An unwavering belief in a perfectly neat solution to all problems and driving out those who suggest that partial answers should be driven from society sermd familiar. A useful metaphor for either side of the Brexit furore?

    It might have been Euclid.
     
  7. DIY womble

    DIY womble Well-Known Member

    Google ,,,,,Power to the people
     
  8. fillyboy

    fillyboy Screwfix Select

    As a self employed artisan I can sympathise with that, a whole days money for a half days work, what's not to like?
    I'm with Pythagorus on this one, I can't be doing with fractions.
     
  9. Isitreally

    Isitreally Super Member

    Apparently I've had a post removed for inappropriate laungauage. ?????

    I can't for the life of me see how Ajax is inappropriate. ???
     
  10. Richard_

    Richard_ Screwfix Select

    As I recall (my recollection may not be 100% correct but is makes for a good story) , Pythagoras's cult had fights with other mathematicians. They were quite brutal, like mods and rockers knifing each on Brighton pier or the gangsters in Greene's Brighton Rock (also a fine example of frantic banging and string twanging - linky).

    Anyway, these street fights were over the principle of zero. You see the Pythagorean lot were fixed on integers. They saw integers, especially in the form of a[sup]2[/sup] + b^2 = c^2 as divine, the blueprint for the universe. Like a good kitchen fitter knows 3,4,5 reassures us that all is well in the world.

    The idea was that things in the world have attributes such as colour, but not everything has colour. The same for smell, taste, weight and so on. The one universal attributes that belongs to everything is number. Since everything comes as a thing (ie counting each item) then the gods must work in integers.

    So when other mathematicians proposed starting at zero life got awkard. Until then people stared counting at 1, but as Euclid showed circular geometry is tricky without zero, how can you define the centre of a sphere without zero?

    This raised the possibility that the world was not built on integers, if 1 was not the basic building bloc of life then they would have devoted their lives to nothing (pun intended). In short they were stuffed.

    Their temples and meeting rooms were burnt down, they were persecuted and forced to flee.

    So what they tell you at school is wrong. Nothing is a matter of life and death.

    ps - I must also correct my earlier post. It was Hippasus who got excited about fractions due to the square root of 2. Pythagoras took him on a boat trip and drowned him. Did it himself. Makes Putin seem quite tame.
     
    Last edited: Oct 19, 2018
    btiw2, longboat and Jord86 like this.
  11. Richard_

    Richard_ Screwfix Select

    oh. Can't seem to get superscript. :(
     
  12. btiw2

    btiw2 Screwfix Select

    Arr. The pythagorean sect had built a religion on whether numbers can always be expressed as a ratio (ie rational). It can be seen why root 2 was heresy.

    Not only is nothing a matter of life and death, but who dies is also irrational decision?

    Numbers as religion? What a strange and primitive idea! Also an accurate description of economics.
     
  13. Richard_

    Richard_ Screwfix Select

    If only they counted logarithmicly then it would have been a happy ending with some lovely ratios.

    I do like root 2, it's one of those things in life that feels right.
     
  14. retiredsparks

    retiredsparks Super Member

    I like the mysterious isochronous curve.
    Seems to defy logic.
    RS
     
    Richard_ likes this.
  15. btiw2

    btiw2 Screwfix Select

    It’s true that if the ancient Greeks had written their numbers in logs to the base 2, then root 2 would be written as a rational. It’d would work until someone asked how to write the number “3” - then ooops, it’s drowning time again!
     
  16. Richard_

    Richard_ Screwfix Select

    I was thinking log E.

    However it occurs to me that we could have had Pythagorus sequences to resolve the golden ratio using integers, which would have been a lot easier to spell than Finebaji, and saved poor Hippasus.
     
  17. Allsorts

    Allsorts Super Member

    For gawd's sakes you two, can't we just go back to talking B*****?

    Thank you.
     
  18. chippie244

    chippie244 Super Member

    Filly tried that last night and has appeared to have taken a holiday, I did screenshot his comments in case the post got deleted, which it appears to have done.
     
  19. Allsorts

    Allsorts Super Member

    Was he naughty?

    Was it very bad?

    :rolleyes:


    Who the hell does he think he's kidding...
     
  20. chippie244

    chippie244 Super Member

    The "I'm not a racist defence" has been laid to rest.
    One by one the "us" are admitting that actually they are bigots.
     

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