den_wolf

. . . . . . and . . . . I still don't get the point of this thread. :unsure: ? Does it mean that it's that time of the month for anileve . . . ? And why does the forum need to know . . . ?

I don't know if I posted this in the right section, but mods, feel free to move this to whichever category you think suits best. The Rebirth of Armenia By Frank Viviano Photographs by Alexandra Avakian For 3,000 years Armenians survived conquerors, calamities, and diaspora. Defiance and a long memory continue to sustain them as they rebuild their Caucasus homeland. "You are looking at the great Armenian paradox," Jivan Tabibian said. We stood at the second-floor window of the Foreign Ministry building in Yerevan, watching clouds scuttle across Mount Ararat's ice-capped 16,854-foot (5,137-meter) crown. Tabibian, a diplomat whose portfolio includes ambassadorships to four countries and two international organizations, was discussing a policy initiative when he abruptly fell silent, gazing at Ararat. It's impossible not to be distracted by Ararat in Yerevan. Despite its enormous mass, the great peak seems to float weightlessly over the city, engaged in permanent dialogue with Little Ararat, its 12,782-foot (3,896-meter) neighbor. The vast snowy brow of Ararat glowers, pronounces, with hallucinatory power. Its name is derived from that of a Bronze Age god, Ara, whose talismanic cult of death and rebirth mirrored the seasonal transitions of Ararat from lifeless winter to fertile spring. Little Ararat, by contrast, is an exercise in calm, rational idealism, a volcanic cone so perfectly shaped that it suggests not so much what a mountain is as what a mountain ought to be. You can't ponder the two Ararats for long without drifting into philosophical reflection, and the Armenians have been pondering them since the birth of civilization. The philosopher in Jivan Tabibian maintains that his people's identity is inextricably bound to the experience of loss, to the serial reorderings of the map that have often stranded their most hallowed landmarks in someone else's state. Like the Monastery of St. Gregory the Illuminator deep in the hills of Nagorno-Artsax, Mount Ararat lies outside the contemporary Armenian Republic, beyond the closed frontiers of a hostile Turkey. "The paradox embodied in that mountain," Tabibian said, "has to do with our sense of place," the concept that is so essential to most national identities. "We are not place bound"—an impossibility, given Armenia's ceaseless traumas, metamorphoses, and peregrinations—"but we are intensely place conscious." Later I repeated Tabibian's enigmatic words to Vartan Oskanian, the Republic of Armenia's foreign minister. And he too offered a philosopher's reflection on Ararat. "Every morning we look at it," he said. "It's only 25 miles (40 kilometers) from this building, and we feel we can almost touch it. But we can't go there. Ararat is our pride and our frustration. Our history. The unfulfilled dreams that drive us." http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/04...ure2/index.html --- There are also some pics on that page, so check them out. The feature is in March 2004 issue of National Geographic.

Damn!! I wish all proofs were as easy as that... a 2 liner proof. Damn, you must be really good. Anonymouse, I'll get back to your reply soon.

I feel used all the time. The girls in my class seem to want to "date" me in order to get good grades... Although I don't let them go anywhere with it, but they do flirt with me the whole time, and some even stalk me. So yeah, I definitely feel "used" in that way.

Well, how do you judge say, a poem? if it's merely prose rendered into poetry, is it still poetry? for me it is not. and yes, older poetry was great poetry, and it should be the standard by which we judge things. today's poetry is a disgrace to poetry itself, and to all the greats that gave poetry a history. don't you agree that a lot of the published poetry is solely for marketing reasons? i mean come now, surely it was more difficult in Dickinsons' time to get published than it is now.. today you can even get published if you have enough money. it's not even about artistic worth. i can reverse a sentence like this, and still get published: ?yad s'remmus a ot eeth erapmoc I llahS

I am beginning to suspect that this animosity from you is due to the feminism thread. Yes, I am bitter. For the likes of Dionne Brand, who's not even worth Emily Dickinson's toenail. Poetry is not about putting prose into poetry form, which is what Brand seems to be doing. Put her poetry in prose form, and it will still make sense. In fact, it was, I am beginning to suspect, written in prose, then transformed into poetry with the removal of punctuation marks and cutting lines. Poetry goes deeper than that. Writing a "poem" for the sake of being called a "poet" is different from writing a poem because of inspiration. And Dionne Brand admits that she's the first type: XIV i I know you don't like poems, especially mine and especially since mine never got told when you need them, and I know that I live some inner life that thinks it's living outside but isn't and only wakes up when something knocks too hard and when something is gone as if gazing up the road I miss the bus and wave a poem at its shadow. But bus and shadow exist all the same and I'll send you more poems even if they arrive late. What stops us from meeting at this place and imagining ourselves big as the world and broad enough to take it in and grow ancient is fear and our carelessness, and standing in the thrall of the wicked place we live in and not seeing a way out all the time and never clearly all at once and not at the same time and abandoning each other to chance and small decisions, but if I ever thought that I could never recover the thought struggling to live through my imperfect mouth and life and way, if I thought that I could do nothing about the world then ... well, and we've hung on to old hurts as if that was all there was and as if no amount of sadness would be enough for our old, insistent, not becoming selves; and as if sadness should not end, so for this I'll send you more poems even if they only waves and even if I only look up late to see your shadow rushing by. Dionne Brand, Land to Light On Now call her a poet, and that poem a poem, but I don't consider her or her "poem" one.

Art for the sake of marketing has become the norm these days. Little can you find art for the sake of art. Art has lost its value. Art has been devalued. Anyone who can put two words together proclaims himself or herself a poet. Anyone who can paint two lines on a canvas proclaims himself or herself a painter. Look! My 2 year old kid is a poet! He can draw words out of the hat and put them together, even if they are meaningless!!! He's a poet!! Look! My 3 year old kid is a painter! He can hold the crayons and paint very beautiful gibberish!!! Suitable for the Tate Liverpool! In another 5 years, this will happen. Get ready for it. The industrialisation of art, people. I am beginning to enjoy this. Let's get the computer to randomly pick words and put them together and form a poem. Ahhh! The fun of it all!!

that was in a way sarcastic/humorous, but sad at the same time. I'm assuming it's a demo version? i don't know. didn't take a look around the website. maybe it's not done yet? but you're right, it would've been great if it had been the entire alphabet. hmm

The two obviously cannot be compared. Evolution is not simply a belief. Some of it is backed by scientific and genetic research and findings. However, a lot of atheists who bang you on the head with their theories of evolution do not actually know what it's all about, but are rather associating it with that simply because they want to have a justification for their beliefs, like the bible thumpers use the bible for their anti-abortion, anti-homosexuality, anti-euthanasia, anti-criminal-punishment activism. Having said that, however, bible thumpers who do that and atheists who push for evolution are not very much comparable, although at face value they might appear similar. A lot of atheists actually don't pass moral judgements on things, a lot of them are not liberals or libertarians, morally and socially speaking. Atheism doesn't automatically equate to loose morals, which is what the bible thumpers want people to believe. atheists are, I feel inclined to say, socially neutral lots of times (they might have other socially oriented reasons for opposing homosexuality, for example), unlike the strictly religious (conservative) right-wingers who use their beliefs as a tool to make judgements on people and circumstances, the ought and ought not of things. The theory of evolution, on the other hand, can be used in 2 ways, to support homosexuality, for example, or to oppose it.

Because there are some people who think they can prove that their faith is correct and others' is not. Simple as that.

Well, try to reverse the question. Why not drop the whole feminist thing? It's so unnecessary and pointless to continue with. (unless of course, they want privileges).

By the way, which board are we talking about? Can someone PM me with the info, if that's fine?

LOL. I agree with you for once, THOTH.

Well, now we do have a forum for both men and women, namely "gender issues." But I still fail to see why people need to constantly talk about gender, and not any other social aspects...

Well, there's always adoption, but that's a bit different. Not that I would not love the adopted kid, but there's a difference in having your own kid, and it's something I can't really find words to express. There's nothing more precious for me than holding a baby in my arms. So I fail to see how a baby can come between a couple. Yeah, and we all should appreciate health and the fact that we're able-bodied, because there might come a time that we would lose either or both. Couples might not appreciate the precious gift they've been given by I don't know who (perhaps the forces of nature) until they lose it. And then it'd be too late. Similarly for the other way around with kids not appreciating their parents until they've lost them.

LOL. Well, for men, women have something that men want (not going into details LOL). For women, women have the need to feel special. So I guess that's how it works. But you're right, I don't see why there should be a separate forum for Women or even for gender issues.. what's the big deal. If i can discuss philosophy in the "Other" forum, why can't the discussions about women, such as feminism, etc. go into that forum too? I don't know. LOL. Trying desparately not to sound too controversial, but somehow I can't help it. edit - see now all this talk about gender got me all mixed up with my spelling LOL.

I was just going to say, for the sake of artistic creation, that "I don't feel myself with myself." Well, I do. But a lot of people don't, you're right.

I believe that was Socrates, not Shake Sperian, Sip. Well it was inspired by Socrates (Know Thyself).. so you're right. LOL Damn. I keep forgetting!

UGH!! Gender issues?! MMMk thanks. But no. I'm sick of hearing the word "gender." Well, we're of different genders, sexes, or whatever the heck you want to call it, but.... not the gender discussion again! It seems to be the most frequently used word in universities.... LOL.

"Illegal" drugs AND anti-depressants both cause a decrease in sexual drive AND impotency. So next time you consider doing or taking either one, make sure you know the side-effects.

LOL. Liverpool IS the BEST place to be!!! Hahaha. I am?! Damn!!! I just got crowned!! LOL, I have the Union Jack in my flat. Damn, everyone must visit Liverpool at least once!!! Maybe come visit me, all of you. LOL!

I never knew boards had nationalities.

Hmm, I'm not sure if I like Edgar Allan Poe. Too lyrical and meaningless for my taste.

LOL Jewish Friend, is there a plan to name New Jersey Jew Jersey? Kidding. How about Palm Beach? Lots of Jews there, I hear?

my impression of the day is that my humour radar is malfunctioning.