Best Of

Researchers have discovered that at least one species of whale has a complex learned language similar in character to Chinese. That is to say, tonal. The otherwhale species may also have their own complex language. However, only one has enough data to confirm so.

My Neighbours are having a barbecue. They kindly warned me that the music would be finished by 10PM. Luckily I have music in various formats to play and a room which rarely hears for example efforts at karaoke and endless gibbering.

I may stay around to sniff the barbecue.

Luckily the house is completely empty so I have many choices as guests start to arrive, replace broken glasses etc. If I was evil (sadly not too much lately) I would use the time for doing some chainsaw wood cutting with my electric chainsaw.

May watch 'Dust Bunny' or some noisy film such as 'Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die' or similar... Better prepare now

Looking forward to night which tends to be very quiet even on a Saturday night.

A great many of the miscellaneous bric-a-brac (about 97.5%) in my house is just filling space. I am in the slow jettison era. It is an ongoing situation as my toss out often fall behind my "well whay's new." But going from 99% to 97.5% I consider progress...slow, granted, but progress.
Who knows, I may get to 96.3% this year.
Oh!, Lobster, my cherished beliefs are in bin XXYZX-123-A2-1A-3Z .
Or maybe tha was.....There somewhere...

Peace toall

@Lionduck said:
Researchers have discovered that at least one species of whale has a complex learned language similar in character to Chinese. That is to say, tonal. The otherwhale species may also have their own complex language. However, only one has enough data to confirm so.

The early attempts to monitor whales using networks of acoustical receivers and a database fed into an AI related to what they use for the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence radio monitoring program is very promising.

After fielding some questions on another forum why I remain so interested in the whole question of which films enduringly changed some aspect of my self, I think it is because the question invites you to explore yourself and your growing up through the lens of cinema. It is self knowledge, and having an understanding of which films triggered in you the concerns of depth.

For example, earlier I spoke a little about the film The Exorcist. It caused a big furore on its release, people queueing at the cinema, not being able to take it and leaving halfway through, and then being interviewed by the press once outside. For me, seeing the most scary scenes at age 11 was shocking. It gave me a lasting dislike of horror. And it’s only now that I can say, horror is the exploration of fear and shock, and to take into your own mind other people’s dreams of fear and shock is psychologically unhealthy.

Take as a contrast Buddhist films. They are filled with respect for elders, meditation, ideas of wisdom, the circular patterns of life. As an example take Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter… and Spring (available on YouTube here). It’s a beautiful movie which doesn’t rely on violence to get its point across. But these kinds of films are much closer to real life than a horror film, although it takes a certain maturity to realise it. I think horror films are what you get when an immature mind explores fear and shock, and it’s only as you get older that you can start to discern what is real and what is illusion in life.

Perhaps that is why I love Hayao Miyazaki’s films so much. His movies are animated masterpieces talking about spirits, bathhouses, dragons, gods and moving castles on giant legs, so fantasies, but on an emotional level they are pure gold, each one is the expression of multiple life’s lessons about friendship, openness, courage, connection — real emotional truth. Spirited Away, Howls Moving Castle and Ponyo are among my favourites of his.

It’s the 100th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe’s birth today, I just noticed.