Palantir

I'm now onto the new James bond novel, 'Trigger Mortis', by Anthony Horowitz.

I'm working my way through 'The People' collection of stories by Zenna Henderson.

HAVE A GREAT DAY!

LET THERE BE CELEBRATIONS IN THE VALLEY! HAVE A GREAT DAY!

Oh my! Thank you so much for the headsup on this movie William. A great story by itself but so much greater with the realisation that the events and outcomes are a portrayal of what really happened.

I just watched Akron last week too and agree with BlindAmbition's recommendation. - quite moving and thoughtful.

WAY TO GO!! WELL DONE!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

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Forceful words and powerful contrasting imagery. once again - thumbs up!

Thanks James and William for sharing your experiences of the great things that can happen when the words of an author reach a receptive mind. I too was profoundly effected by the LOTR. - Lol Both my pen-names are LOTR references. Perversely, although I've been a bookaholic since childhood, I didn't read Tolkien's stories for many, many years. I blame this on some some misguided acquaintance who described it as a children's fairy-tale and not something an adult would find interesting. This perception stayed with me till someone else insisted, with passion too strong to be ignored, that my impression was misguided and that I should at least try reading part of the book to make my own judgement. And so I was introduced to the story that has had more impact on me than any other book I have ever read. I agree completely with Jame's viewpoint of the movies cf the books. One sad effect I've noticed from the movies is that all my own mental images of the characters have been replaced with those from the movies. My favorite character, Tom Bombadil (aka Iarwain), wasn't even in the movies and I now think that's a good thing because to do him justice would need pretty much a whole new movie. - and I also still have my own image of howhe appears.

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The sadness of losing someone who means a lot can be almost unbearable and just as hard to accept so take care of yourself and accept any care and support you can. Take heed of the sage advice in all the above posts too, and all the best.

My thoughts exactly

Here's a short video clip with some current thinking about AIs. http://www.kurzweilai.net/cbc-the-national-ray-kurzweil-predicts-end-of-disease-ai-leaps and here's an article by David Brin (scifi author) with his quite extensive thinking on the subject. (warning - some fairly heavy reading involved) http://www.kurzweilai.net/preparing-for-our-posthuman-future-of-artificial-intelligence

Falling in 'love' with a robot is at present purely and simply a case of 'anthropomorphism' where things that are not human are treated as if they are. No robot has the self awareness or capability for emotion that we take for granted even in fairly simple life forms. Yes, they have a form of intelligence but it can't be equated with human intelligence - rather it's a relatively simple set of programmed instructions designed to react to limited and specific situations (or inputs). Artificial Intelligence is very much in it's early stages and what it means and where it is going are fiercely debated in the scientific community. Even state of the art AIs like IBM's Watson, which might pass the Turing Test, are not even remotely regarded by scientists as having self awareness. If the most versatile, human looking robot was controlled by a current level AI it would still be a machine. It could simulate emotion, creativity, sympathy and other human attributes very successfully without being self aware. The event called the Singularity, when computers ( or systems of computers) become so complex that somehow self awareness develops and their intelligence evolves at computer speeds is one of the most debated ideas in the AI area. Ray Kurzweil, an American futurist, believes the singularity is inevitable an could happen within decades. Falling in love with an intelligence that might compare with us as we do with microbes? It might be a bit like falling in love with a god so I'm sure it will happen. What the ethics of the situation are remains to be seen. How will such an intelligence regard humanity? I understand that Stephen Hawkins has grave doubts about Artificial Intelligence and many people are seriously concerned with the application of AI for military purposes. At the moment robots are no more than tools/machines and should be treated as such. If/when they become more than that the question might indeed be - are they going to mistreat us and exploit us as toys for their personal pleasure.

Very sad to see! 'The Dog' and his place in Australian country life are a cultural legacy.

Wow! Thanks Graeme. Two beautiful stories. edit: Whoops! And thanks Valkyrie.

To say that minority groups living in the general community face a degree of stress seems like a statement of the obvious. By definition there are differences of lifestyle, reduced opportunity for meeting like minded people, and, yes, things might be better in some places, but prejudice is still a factor. Taking responsibility for your own life is great, of course, but probably more important for minority groups than the general population.

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a*b + c = c*b - a A lovely pattern W_L and quite easy to prove. In fact you were almost there. All you have to realise is that in your pattern b is the same as a+1 and c is the same as a+2. Rewrite the left side of your equation as : a*(a+1) +(a+2) Expand and you have a*a +a + (a+2) which is a*a +2a +2 Now do the same with the right side: (a+2)*(a+1) - a Expand and you have a(a+1) +2(a+1) - a which is a*a + a + 2a +2 -a which is a*a +2a + 2 Lo and behold , we've just shown that the left side is exactly the same as the right side. In other words, as long as the three numbers are consecutive your pattern is always true.

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In 1980 an international singer I'd not long discovered, and put in that special basket as someone who must be listened to, came to Melbourne, Australia. I turned up early at the Comedy Theatre only to be told that the show was completely booked out. Seeing my disappointment the kind lady in the ticket office told me to wait and if one of the seats reserved for reviewers wasn't used she'd let me have that. I missed the first ten minutes but then I was in and seated only a few rows from the stage. Hearing that magic voice live was one of those transcendent moments where awe and emotion take us somewhere else.. Yes, it was the incomparable Leonard Cohen

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Congratulations!