Comments for Eric R. Schiller

Comment on Nice Nihilism by Eric R. Schiller

Eric R. Schiller — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 18:20:54 +0000

Thanks. Not much of my blog is hard philosophy, so I hope you still get a kick out of it.

Comment on Nice Nihilism by James Steinhoff

James Steinhoff — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 17:13:30 +0000

Hey Eric, enjoyed reading your response. Check out my re-reply. I’m going to get into some of your previous posts soon.

Comment on Two Crucial Things “Argo” Missed by MattB

MattB — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 14:06:03 +0000

I loved it! Saw it twice…

Comment on Two Crucial Things “Argo” Missed by Eric R. Schiller

Eric R. Schiller — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 04:19:15 +0000

I haven’t seen it yet. Worthwhile? Not generally drawn to Tarantino’s stuff but he can make a good movie.

Comment on Two Crucial Things “Argo” Missed by MattB

MattB — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 03:55:49 +0000

what’d you think of Django???

Comment on Guns vs. Cigarettes by TK

TK — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 20:47:53 +0000

i’m working on a cigarette gun you might like

Comment on Blog Critics by Eric R. Schiller

Eric R. Schiller — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 02:41:58 +0000

Merchant has a few big items of his own on the go. I think he inked a deal for a show with BBC/HBO, but I might not be remembering that right. Also a feature.

Comment on The End Of History by Eric R. Schiller

Eric R. Schiller — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 02:33:31 +0000

There are unfortunately not enough hours in the day for me to prove or disprove most of the nonsense I find on the internet. Thanks for the comment though.

Comment on Rewriting the Watched Pot by Assoum

Assoum — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 12:28:19 +0000

On Nov one I decided I wasn’t ready for NaNoWriMo. I hadn’t done the piimrlenary preparations that I had told myself I would do. I also made up my mind to the picture book equivalent of it, which is called PiBoIdMo. Or picture book idea month. One must write down a pb idea every day in the month of November. I’ve gotten quite a few ideas so far and fleshed out a couple as well. And to me it’s fun whereas my goals for nanowrimo weren’t going to give me this much fun. Fulfilling fun, yes. But not joyful fun. So I’m ahead I think.

Comment on The End Of History by Joel

Joel — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 12:02:21 +0000

The Mayan prediction was intevned after the Big 2012 Hoax was created, during the summer of 2003.The Big 2012 Hoax actually used three definitions of Galactic Alignment (since their goal is to fool people, it never hurts to have a flexible definition):1. The Sun lining up with the Galactic centre: this cannot happen. Ever. Never.2. The Sun crossing the Galactic equator: this happens every year, twice a year, always around June 21 and December 21. Every year.3. The position of the December solstice crossing the Galactic equator: this happens twice per precession period (twice per 25,800 years), and it will occur soon, but not in 2012.There is also a variant, which is that the Sun will cross the Galactic Plane. In its 200 million year orbit around the Galaxy, the Sun crosses the plane seven times. We are still moving away from the plane (we are 50 light-years above the plane), so the next passage will be in roughly 17 million years.The Mayan who made the original prediction is Jose9, the same guy who intevned the lie about the end of the calendar (the calendar does not end, it only passes a round figure like when our own calendar passed from 1999 to 2000). To make his own book interesting (about old calendars), Jose9 claimed to be a reincarnated Mayan priest he is not, he was born in Minnesota).The only true prediction that can be assigned to this Mayan calendar is that the round figure date (day number 13.00.00.00.00 in their numbering scheme) will fall on what would have been, for them, the New Year’s Day in their common calendar.What a surprise.It is just as surprising as saying that our own calendar must have been special, because it passed from 1999 to 2000 on New Year’s Day. Who could have guessed The concept of a Galactic equator did not exist in those days. The Mayans did not have much of an idea of what was a galaxy. However, that did not stop them from calculating the duration of the precession cycle (which they had as 25,626 years the modern figure is 25,800). The classical Greek astronomers had done the same calculation a thousand years before the Mayans.The best that the Mayans could have done is to determine that the position of the winter solstice would be passing in the centre of the Milky Way (the actual band of light that we see in the sky) and they would have been able to make this prediction with an accuracy of roughly plus or minus one generation (let’s call it plus or minus 15 years).But the important element is that the real Mayans (those who lived a thousand years ago) used their Long Count calendar to describe dates (and events) that would occur AFTER the year we call 4000. Obviously, the real Mayans expected neither the world nor their calendar to end any time soon.