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I’ve had the same supper for 10 years

theguardian.com

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Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years

#651

Post by iso8859-1 »

throw698765 wrote: post #605
leetrout wrote: post #533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not too lazy to search but is there something specific?

They are basically building urban apartments and trying to entice them to move. A Japanese director made a documentary about one of the poorest regions in China. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GgWZDvgW9OA There are English subtitles.

I watched your link, it is one-sided. Who knows if there is real opposition. Sure, this video is not showing any behaviour worth criticizing. Maybe it is true, and everybody really does love moving to the city. But just given the fact that it comes from a region with no free press, I can't trust them on that.

Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years

#652

Post by dkersten »

ryanmarsh wrote: post #551
dkersten wrote: post #469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Humans are also great at seeing patterns in noise and we like to attribute various things to things we see. So its also likely that you remember these coincidences because of your loved ones deaths and don't remember the many other times these animals were around because nothing happened to make them memorable. Also, "later that year" is a very long period of time for something to happen.

I love how people will do anything to deny the lizard brain. We have a “spidey” sense just like all the other animals and for good reason. Ignore it at your peril should you ever have a brush with the side of nature that cares not for your “lack of studies”.

I’m a strong proponent for listening to your gut, but that’s very different from a bird landing on your home predicting death, especially when the correlation is weak (sometime later that year). It’s easy to attribute something to something else if there’s an indeterminate timeframe in between.

Remember that people see what they want to see in noise too. Clouds often look like something tangible, that doesn’t mean it’s a sign. If I squint, I can see shapes in pretty much any random pattern. And people tend to remember events that they attribute meaning too (in this case the old wives tale about the birds and then the family member dying) and forget the events that have no meaning to them (how many times did the person see said birds without anything happening and just forgetting about it?)

Nobody has yet managed to prove the existence of the supernatural, but many people have tried. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist, but it seems pretty unlikely, especially when other better-understood causes exist.

Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years

#653

Post by forsakenkraken »

robotmay wrote: post #442
cogman10 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Welsh live a different way of life. This guy's attitude is far from unique. A bunch of people live in the same town, with the same job their great great great grandparents worked, that rarely travel more than 10 miles away. Don't knock it, though, there's something to be said about this level of extreme stability. It simplifies a lot of life's worries.

It's something I never understood until I moved to Wales, and now I do understand, and I think it's one of the most admirable characteristics of the people here. You can go out in the valleys right now and ask someone, ~40 years after the mines were shut, whether they'd want the mines back. And a significant proportion would say yes without pausing. I went to university with a guy who turned around to me one day and…

I don't think that many people want the mines back tbh. Easy to get and simple jobs maybe, but I don't know anyone who'd want the mines back. Anecdata I know. Wife's family is a mining family and I've lived and worked in South Wales for a while now.

Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years

#654

Post by brokencode »

throwawaaarrgh wrote: post #560
brokencode wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think eating the same thing every day is fine, though you need to make sure to have a balanced diet with good nutrition. The author mentioned his uncle who just ate bread, butter, and cheese for every meal, and I’m not sure how you can even survive off of that. Surely it’s lacking something important with no fruit or vegetables. I’ve heard that humans had a long period of time after we became sedentary and started…

> you need to make sure to have a balanced diet with good nutrition You know, you are going to die. They're going to lower you into a hole in the ground. The worms will have you for dinner. That's it. Right before you die, are you going to say to yourself, "boy, I'm sure glad I made sure to have a balanced diet with good nutrition" ? Will you say, "I'm glad I didn't enjoy cheese and bread with butter every single day…

What an insightful point! Maybe I should eat nothing but candy, smoke cigarettes, and go into bright sunlight with no sunscreen everyday. Who cares if I get diabetes or mouth, lung, or skin cancer!

Or maybe I can just take basic precautions like eating more than three different foods? You make it sound like that is such a burden, but it really isn’t. It’s possible to enjoy your life even while taking care of yourself.

In fact, I have a much easier time being happy when my health is good than when I am sick, so I’d say these precautions are important for a good life.

Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years

#655

Post by glitchc »

lelanthran wrote: post #348
renewiltord wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These threads are always so entertaining. Someone will make up this pastoral romance while implying that the city life is somehow lacking. Then someone will do the opposite and the wars will begin. Very entertaining. For my part, I enjoy modal editors so I think vim is better than emacs and I like the GPL over BSD.

> For my part, I enjoy modal editors so I think vim is better than emacs and I like the GPL over BSD. We need more fuel on this fire. What's your take on spaces vs tabs?

Tabs of course. Spaces are for people who keep missing the tab key. Maybe the target is too small to hit.

Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years

#656

Post by axiomattik »

mrphoebs wrote: post #357
usgroup wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate the romance, but those of us who have children leave behind much more than stone walls we built in our 20s. He’s a 72 year old Batchelor who’s once stepped foot outside a Welsh valley. If happiness is a lobotomy then credit to us who don’t choose it.

Children as your legacy are no less consequential or meaningful than this man's stone walls. In the end you are grasping for empty meaning and purpose in the same way the farmer is, your children will perish, their children will perish, you will be forgotten and so will they like the rest of human existence. Our lives have no larger purpose or meaning beyond what ever we pretend gives meaning to your life, like child…

Strikes me as a fallacy that in order for something to be meaningful it must persist. Meaning can exist and perish in a moment.

Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years

#657

Post by purple_ferret »

TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #589
telesilla wrote: post #266

"This valley is cut in the shape of my heart". I've known farmers like him, bachelors who are mild mannered and love their lives and the extended family that comes with living an entire life in one valley. He maybe goes to Sunday service for socialization and the local pub to watch the game, and as long as his sheep are healthy and the sky does what it promises (because he knows the day before always if it will rain)…

A successful businessman on vacation was at the pier of a small coastal village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The businessman complimented the fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The fisherman proudly replied, “Every morning, I go out in my boat for 30 minutes to fish. I’m the best fisherman in the…

But the fisherman rents and when his generous landlord sells to a real estate corp that capitalizes on market inefficiencies, he'll find himself out on the street and replaced by a remote software developer.

When he gets heart disease in 20 years, he'll find himself in an underfunded public hospital too.

When his kids grow up and he wants to send them to uni, he'll find himself taking out a 100K loan.

Then he'll find himself fishing all day long just to pay off the interest on his debt/to stay afloat and he'll regret no capitalizing on his younger days, but it's too late because all the fish are gone thanks to foreign fishing trawlers.

Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years

#658

Post by thisCtx »

generalizations wrote: post #626
erikpukinskis wrote: post #583

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems perfectly possible to me a bird could sense the difference between a vibrant, active person and a person close to death.

I agree it seems possible, but the motivation for acting that way seems missing.

Same motive you have when smelling something rotten; embedded biological response.

Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years

#659

Post by helloworld11 »

mellavora wrote: post #612
jim-jim-jim wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you talking about European or Australian magpies?

Shouldn't that be: “What do you mean, an African or European Swallow?"

Monty Python became unavoidable after the above comment. Thanks.

Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years

#660

Post by robotmay »

forsakenkraken wrote: post #653
robotmay wrote: post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's something I never understood until I moved to Wales, and now I do understand, and I think it's one of the most admirable characteristics of the people here. You can go out in the valleys right now and ask someone, ~40 years after the mines were shut, whether they'd want the mines back. And a significant proportion would say yes without pausing. I went to university with a guy who turned around to me one day and…

I don't think that many people want the mines back tbh. Easy to get and simple jobs maybe, but I don't know anyone who'd want the mines back. Anecdata I know. Wife's family is a mining family and I've lived and worked in South Wales for a while now.

Yeah I think it's less the mines themselves and more having guaranteed employment, and the camaraderie of working together in such a way. There aren't many professions that employ entire towns. You are right though, in that the attitude has changed - I think those who were alive at the time of the mine closures likely see it differently from those who have never known it. In that aspect it has changed since I first moved here, as that generation who grew up with the mines open has aged or passed away.
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