Nice People Thread Number 10 -the official residence of Nice People

LydiaJ

zagubov wrote: »

The weirdest bit I remember was learning that we (or our ancestors) used to have emotions that are extinct now. :eek:

Intriguing. Examples???

zagubov

LydiaJ wrote: »

Intriguing. Examples???

Back in the first millenium there used to be mystical depressions that drove people to sit on poles in the desert for long periods. The mental states involved are difficult to recreate now.

I don't think that was the only one but it's one that stuck in my mind as I remember reading about pole-squatters ages ago.

I think this book dealt with it and if there's a meet-up you can borrow my copy.

Masomnia

I think it'd be pretty cool to meet you guys! Travelling and staying somewhere far-ish isn't much of an option atm sadly.

Car needs a major service, local Peugeot specialist does it for £160 (worth going to a specialist for the major one, right??? I'm not sure), which sounded pretty good to me. It's just when they say 'Ah now it's ten years old you really need to get your timing belt changed....' as I'm sure they will Lots of expenses at the moment and atm no income. Reckon the brake pads will need changing too.

Masomnia

zagubov wrote: »

Back in the first millenium there used to be mystical depressions that drove people to sit on poles in the desert for long periods. The mental states involved are difficult to recreate now.

I don't think that was the only one but it's one that stuck in my mind as I remember reading about pole-squatters ages ago.

Hermits and the like?

I do wonder if we experience 'stress' differently now from in the past. People didn't seem to talk about that the same, say 50 years ago as far as far as I can tell; is it just because in those days people just got in with things. People had very precarious and hard lives but didn't seem to be 'stressed' as such. Is it a purely social construction, if we 'say' we're stressed, is that how we experience it?

zagubov

Masomnia wrote: »

Hermits and the like?

I do wonder if we experience 'stress' differently now from in the past. People didn't seem to talk about that the same, say 50 years ago as far as far as I can tell; is it just because in those days people just got in with things. People had very precarious and hard lives but didn't seem to be 'stressed' as such. Is it a purely social construction, if we 'say' we're stressed, is that how we experience it?

I'm not sure how modern ideas of stress map onto earlier human states. We can nowadays check for cortisol in the urine of chronically stressed people.

But just a bit over 50 years ago we were carried off with terrifying efficency by arbitrary infections. People's ideas of what was worrying was probably very different from ours. Maybe people were much more fatalistic about it. Certainly less doctors got sued in those days.

neverdespairgirl

PasturesNew wrote: »

Is it the one with the light/pastel green front door?

That'll be SO handy for her.... she can nip round whenever she wants

Probably totally uncool to say so, but personally I think it would be great if my mother lived within nipping-round distance all the time. But then, my mother's not only great company, she's the sort who doesn't get remotely offended if invited to un-nip as it's not convenient (-:

lostinrates wrote: »

Ok.....in looking for non res p, I've seen something that would be a nice bTl..........

Something I've always thought a hideous idea.........

Given your exisiting commitments, it might also be a case of too many financial eggs in the same "UK property" basket?

lostinrates

zagubov wrote: »

Sounds like my Masters degree.

We're not logical, it's just an aspiration. Science doesn't deliver absolute truths, just claims that have high truthlikeness.

I studied whether there really were scientific laws and if so what they were (or if Nature was organised so they weren't needed). And whether there were laws of behaviour . The weirdest bit I remember was learning that we (or our ancestors) used to have emotions that are extinct now. :eek:

That sounds AMAZING. Please, please, please tell more. what emotions, for example.....

( hmm, I'm reading down now. Lack of patience still alive.....)


Is it really dead or just expressed differently, that one?

neverdespairgirl

zagubov wrote: »

But just a bit over 50 years ago we were carried off with terrifying efficency by arbitrary infections. People's ideas of what was worrying was probably very different from ours. Maybe people were much more fatalistic about it. Certainly less doctors got sued in those days.

I wonder at what stage in modern medicine consulting a doctor was likely to do you more good than harm? Because in much of even relatively recent history, I do wonder if staying clear of the medical profession wasn't the better idea. Think of all those doctors cheerfully spreading (deadly) childbirth fever between a whole group of women in labour, and the newly-delivered, for example.

Or the "triple obstetric tragedy", when Princess Charlotte - an apparently fit, healthy young woman before she got pregnant - appears to have been starved and bled during her pregnancy to the extent that she and her baby both died, and the doctor then killed himself. Princess Charlotte was, remarkably, the only legitimate grandchild of King George III - remarkable, as he had 15 children. He did have up to 35 illegitimate grandchildren, who couldn't, of course, inherit the British or Hanoverian thrones.

As the below article says, "Her many bachelor uncles had to disentangle themselves from various mistress and live-in lovers, and join in a rather undignified stampede to the altar, to try and produce another legitimate heir for the British and Hanoverian thrones."

http://www.webhistoryofengland.com/?p=1131

zagubov wrote: »

Positive thoughts please. DD going into hospital for an op tomorrow.

Which makes the above seem tactless. But I've thought about it and typed it now, so I'm not deleting (-:

Very best to Miss Zag, the Professor's Daughter (in true young-child-book traditions) and I hope all is successful and low-key for her.

lostinrates wrote: »

For the record I don't see me getting to a meet if one were planned very soon.

Me neither, really, but I could cart young Master NDG along to one in the summer, if not too far away?

neverdespairgirl

Generali wrote: »

All the best zag. I hope it all works out ok.

Another cool day today although I've clearly gone soft as I was shivering slightly this am when it was 18C. It's going to be a beautiful weekend: 28C and sunny. Lovely.

Hope everyone's coping with the Tube strike. It reminds me of a quote from a senator who remained in place until well into his 90s. He suggested resolving a steel workers strike by drafting them all into the army, ordering them to work and then to have any that refuse shot for insubordination! I think it's being viewed as a bit of an oddity over here, people can't really get their heads around it.

Yeah, you're a wimp. Like the relatives in Israel who use to fuss at us to put hats and jumpers on the infant Isaac the moment the temperature fell towards 20 C in the winter, when we were visiting.....

lemonjelly wrote: »

On another note, is missk alright? Just feels like ages since we've heard from her.

And FC - she was having serious angst with her mother being ill, hope all's OK with her and hers.

Re tube strike - I left very early yesterday morning, strolled to Waterloo, and caught my train to Feltham with no particular trouble (apart from actually getting into the station - what with more people catching trains instead of tubes, and then all of them piling off the trains and coming out of the main station exits instead of diving underground, it was a struggle to get into the building). It was a bit tiring, though, lugging my stuff and walking 2.75 miles each way. I'm the one who is a wimp, now, but I blame it on my "Interesting Condition" as euphemistic Victorians might have put it. Got to do the same today, hence me posting at a silly hour this am.

Our Dear Leader in Chambers has declined to postpone the Chambers meeting scheduled for this evening, which I think is a bit silly. If I'm tired, I'll give it a miss.

neverdespairgirl

zagubov wrote: »

Back in the first millenium there used to be mystical depressions that drove people to sit on poles in the desert for long periods. The mental states involved are difficult to recreate now.

I don't think that was the only one but it's one that stuck in my mind as I remember reading about pole-squatters ages ago.

I think this book dealt with it and if there's a meet-up you can borrow my copy.

DO you mean, like the religious nutter types who lived on pillars in the desert for years on end? The early Christian mystics, mostly in Syria and the Levant?