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Herbert Henry Asquith

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Is intelligence more about speed of one's brain or raw learning potential? Do you think no one can really define intelligence? Is it true that intelligence can only just be seen as a coarse measure? Justify why.

I don't set much store by IQ tests because they certainly don't measure a person's worth, a highly intellectual person might devise evil schemes (there were plenty of fascist and communist intellectuals) or do a bad job, like work in a nuclear weapons facility. Or maybe they are intelligent, but never get anything done because they can't find useful activity and cooperate with others in doing it.
So I think openness to new ideas and willingness to admit one's mistakes are important. Of course you need people of genius to make inventions that benefit all of society, but the society needs to exist that can harness their talents and not use them ill.
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Happy Arbor Day! PAP of your favorite tree?

Which of your children is your favourite? :)
In 2013, after a mild winter, snow suddenly fell in mid-March. And these trees, if you look carefully, have green shoots beneath the carpet of snow.
On my website, anon,
http://dry-valleys.tumblr.com/tagged/photos
It won't be until tomorrow but I'll have today's pictures, of what has to be a first, bluebells in the snow, after snow randomly fell in late April!
Here y'go then...
Happy Arbor Day PAP of your favorite tree
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Best job you ever had?

I actually quite liked, or should I speak in the present tense given that I'll hopefully revert to it, a Christmas job I had/have every year since 2006 at Royal Mail, working in data entry, quite boring but very easy and I can listen to audiobooks whilst doing it, a real education :)
I don't mind the no challenge or responsibility, as I'm getting my reading done in my head. Like I listened to one night in winter by Simon Montefiore, and I've just listened to him giving a talk. While there I drank some of the complementary vodka and got a bit tipsy :)
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/25/the-romanovs-1613-1918-simon-sebag-montefiore-review
So that job is what I hope to do again, not too much work, I'm good at it and lots of books.
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If all coloring markers were scented with scents that represent their colors, which color/scent combo would you like using best?

shehitsback’s Profile PhotoAllison
At this time of year it's all about the pale blue, which took over from the cherry blossom "wearing white for eastertide".
http://dry-valleys.tumblr.com/post/143442695604/along-the-canal-to-church-lawton-mostly-today
And apparently you can smell like a bluebell to, though I've never seen any signs of it.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/countryside/8808685/The-scent-of-the-secretive-bluebell-has-been-captured-in-a-bottle.html
Somehow I was reminded of this amazing gelaterie where my friends live in France. I had a violet ice cream, I didn't actually lie it but I was pleasantly reminded of their white chocolate and hazelnut that I did like, somehow. :)

How do you usually start a conversation? Do you always feel awkward when talking to someone one-on-one? How do you keep the conversation going?

Yes, I find it very difficult to begin and keep conversations going, as a person on the autistic spectrum. That is why I only really talk to my friends, my girlfriend and people I feel comfortable with, not to random people or even to all my family, a lot of the time people don't understand wht I say and it is quite upsetting. I'm not as shy as I was but I try never to judge other people who are awkward like I used to be, it doesn't say anything about what is in their heart.
This is what I used to think before I met my girlfriend. I met her online first, I find it easier o make a good impression in writing than in speaking/body language).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uysWaBnKVd4Hadacol’s Video 136096205308 uysWaBnKVd4Hadacol’s Video 136096205308 uysWaBnKVd4
1

Matzo ball or kugel?

Anon, I'm not Jewish and I don't know anyone who does anything at Passover but you can have a poem.
When Israel out of Egypt came
Safe in the sea they trod;
By day in cloud, by night in flame,
Went on before them God.
He brought them with a stretched out hand
Dry-footed through the foam,
Past sword and famine, rock and sand,
Lust and rebellion, home.
I never over Horeb heard
The blast of advent blow;
No fire-faced prophet brought me word
Which way behoved me go.
Ascended is the cloudy flame,
The mount of thunder dumb;
The tokens that to Israel came,
To me they have not come.
I see the country far away
Where I shall never stand;
The heart goes where no footstep may
Into the promised land.
The realm I look upon and die
Another man will own;
He shall attain the heaven that I
Perish and have not known.
But I will go where they are hid
That never were begot,
To my inheritance amid
The nation that is not.

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1

Where is the one place in the world you wish you could revisit?

Krakow, I went there in 2004 and I don't even remember that much but I love it, I was very briefly in Kazimierz and I could have spent days just there, and venturing out into the city.
Where is the one place in the world you wish you could revisit

Provided that a person takes care of their hygiene, would you prefer their natural scent or would you rather they wear perfume/cologne? Why?

I can't say I've ever thought of it :)
My girlfriend is always clean and smells nice and until now I'd never even thought of her "natural" smell!
She certainly doesn't like my scent, when my shower broke down she was giving me a massage and she demanded I get in her shower before she continue because I smelt bad. :)
I had a good dose of this.
Provided that a person takes care of their hygiene would you prefer their
1

Thank you for all the answers! I'll look into distributism as you suggested.

You're welcome, I don't know that much about it and it CERTAINLY isn't perfect, but I don't think neoliberalism has worked and I'm vaguely left-wing but not a hardcore socialist. It is an idea that should be thought about.
I think ideas like that have been influential in Christian Democrat parties in Europe more than in Britain.
1

What would pornography look like in an ideal socialist society? Is there any consensus on this? Is it worthy for me to reconcile this question with any input...

I can't say I've given it much thought :)
I don't personally watch pornography, I suppose it should be legal if it doesn't involve children, animals, or anyone else who's unwilling but I don't think it should be encouraged by society as it just encourages a cheap and degraded view of sex and gives young men in particular bad attitudes.
I can't think what would a socialist system have in porn terms :)
If all these questions about socialism mean you have an interest in economics I've heard about distributism, it certainly isn't perfect but it is an idea worth a look.
http://distributistreview.com/
1

If workers held the means of production but you maintained a representative democratic state, would you call that socialism?

I am generally left-wing and I acknowledge that one of the biggest challenges t my worldview is in 1985 by Anthony Burgess.
http://www.anthonyburgess.org/about-anthony-burgess/dystopias-burgess-and-george-orwell
That was what conservative people thought in the 1970s, but when they got what they thought they'd wanted in 1979, I don't think any of us gained from that. But it still reminds me that even ideas I agree with can be taken too far.
1

Do you agree that without money there is no way to price goods and thus economically calculate, and then socialism will fail automatically? With regards to socialism in practice, do you think they want to exterminate the wage system entirely?

I don't think any socialist has ever said everyone should earn exactly the same wage whatever their job or however many hours they work. What confuses me is when conservatives attack a rich leftie as a hypocrite, a poor leftie as just jealous, almost as if they want left-wing views to be discredited :)
For instance, if steel workers' jobs were protected instead of being left at the mercy of Indian and Chinese "investors", and railways were publicly owned instead of being run by foreign corporations and governments, or it public housing wasn't sold, allegedly to the tenants but in reality to hugely wealthy Arabs and Russians who have bought up half of London.
Right-wing "patriots" do all these things.
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what about liz's birthday

Guys, I only just heard that beacons are going to be lit for the queen's 90th birthday, I would have loved to go to one at one of the hills locally like the one I went to last week and completely failed to get a photoshoot due to bad weather.
http://dry-valleys.tumblr.com/post/142854935559/when-i-did-the-two-saints-way-i-got-waylaid-by
So have a poem instead.
From Clee to heaven the beacon burns,
The shires have seen it plain,
From north and south the sign returns
And beacons burn again.
Look left, look right, the hills are bright,
The dales are light between,
Because 'tis fifty years to-night
That God has saved the Queen.
Now, when the flame they watch not towers
About the soil they trod,
Lads, we'll remember friends of ours
Who shared the work with God.
To skies that knit their heartstrings right,
To fields that bred them brave,
The saviours come not home to-night:
Themselves they could not save.
It dawns in Asia, tombstones show
And Shropshire names are read;
And the Nile spills his overflow
Beside the Severn's dead.
We pledge in peace by farm and town
The Queen they served in war,
And fire the beacons up and down
The land they perished for.
"God save the Queen" we living sing,
From height to height 'tis heard;
And with the rest your voices ring,
Lads of the Fifty-third.
Oh, God will save her, fear you not:
Be you the men you've been,
Get you the sons your fathers got,
And God will save the Queen.

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Would you rather master one skill thoroughly and be clueless in other fields or have superficial knowledge on every possible subject? Why?

I certainly would like to master a subject, because I think my worry is that I'm an ocean a molecule deep :(
One of the things I'd like to do with unlimited time and money is go to graduate school, I've never done it because I work in accounts (I haven't got any accounting qualifications but I'm quite good at the job) and I probably wouldn't get a job out of grad school, but I'd like to just go anyway :)
I'd like to study the office of the 20th century prime minister, Herbert Henry Asquith. I'd spend my days lost in Irish Home Rule and become an expert on it. But I haven't really got time, so I just become a jack of all trades!
I'm going next week to listen to a speech by a real expert in his field.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/25/the-romanovs-1613-1918-simon-sebag-montefiore-review
Apparently at the launch party, he trolled the guests by serving them extra-strong drinks and they all got drunk :)
But I wouldn't know, I wasn't invited...

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1

Are you an Eco-friendly person?

Yes, certainly. My favourite environmental book (I've got several, and I'd advise conservatives to read Green Philosophy by Roger Scruton, an old-time paleoconservative) has to be Feral by George Monbiot. I'm really inspired and I'm joining treesforlife.org.uk to plant trees in September.
I'm massively looking forward to bluebell season but we need to keep this in mind.
http://www.wildculture.com/article/george-monbiot-feral-wild-boar/1209
"The British woodland floor is peculiar in that it is often dominated by a single species, such as dog’s mercury, wild garlic, bluebells, bracken, hart’s tongue, male fern or brambles. These monocultures, like fields of wheat or rapeseed, may in some cases be the result of human intervention, such as the extirpation of the boar. To visit the Białowieża forest in eastern Poland, which is as close to being an undisturbed ecosystem as any remaining in Europe, in May, when dozens of flower species jostle in an explosion of colour, is to see how much Britain is missing, and the extent to which the boar transforms its environment.
I understand people’s concerns about the loss of those uninterrupted carpets of bluebells that have made some British woods famous. They are, I agree, stunning, just as fields of lavender or flax are stunning, but to me they are an indication not of the wealth of the ecosystem but of its poverty.
One of the reasons why bluebells have been able to crowd out other species in the woods in which they grow is because the animal which previously kept them in check no longer roams there. Wild boar and bluebells live happily together, but perhaps not wild boar and only bluebells. By rooting and grubbing in the forest floor, by creating little ponds and miniature wetlands in their wallows, boar create habitats for a host of different plants and animals, a shifting mosaic of tiny ecological niches, opening and closing as the sounders pass through. Boar are the untidiest animals to have lived in this country since the ice age. This should commend them to anyone with an interest in the natural world."

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Are you an Ecofriendly person
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Do you agree with this statement: “Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile” (Billy Sunday)? Why or why not?

I'm an agnostic on the question of religion but when I was reading The Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley I came across this quote by someone called William Law, who I haven't read but it seems he was onto something.
"Would you know whence it is that so many false spirits have appeared in the world, who have deceived themselves and others with false fire and false light, laying claim to information, illumination, and openings of the divine Life, particularly to do wonders under extraordinary calls from God? It is this: They have turned to God without turning from themselves; would be alive to God before they are dead to their own nature. Now religion in the hands of self, or corrupt nature, serves only to discover vices of a worse kind than in nature left to itself. Hence are all the disorderly passions of religious men, which burn in a worse flame than passions only employed about worldly matters; pride, self-exaltation, hatred and persecution, under a cloak of religious zeal, will sanctify actions which nature, left to itself, would be ashamed to own".

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Liked by: Herbert Henry Asquith

Do you listen to literary audiobooks?

I adore audiobooks! When I'm walking or cycling I obviously can't read paper books, so I listen to them instead.
When I was doing www.twosaintsway.org.uk I loved listening to a book about Samuel Johnson (if you've never heard of him, I consider "Rasselas" his best work) and he was born and bred in Lichfield, the final town along the route, and there's an excellent museum to him there.
When I go past a place, I remember what was happening in my books or music when I passed there last, for instance last week I was with my friend and I said that's where Titus Price killed himself in September, and he had no idea what I meant until I had to explain it was in a book, "Anna of the Five Towns" by Arnold Bennett :)
My favourite such experience was listening to the book of Ecclsiastes by an excellent reciter called Glenn Hascall (a god reciter makes the difference) whilst doing this:
http://dry-valleys.tumblr.com/post/138208268289/no-eternal-reward-will-forgive-us-now-for-wasting
That was a good question, thanks!

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2

If you wouldn't like to receive my question(s), do tell me so. Have a nice day! :-)

I enjoy your questions, if I don't respond to one it's because I can't think of an answer, but they're certainly welcome, as are question by anyone (including anons) that politely ask intelligent questions :)

I have heard of him, yes. Have you read any of Stephen Fry's books?

No, but I once watched a programme when I was visiting some friends of my family at Christmas.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/bears-wild-weekends/videos/all/bears-wild-weekend-with-stephen-fry-clip-2
He looked really uncomfortable! Bear Grills, the host, is a quite a good-looking, rugged man and I joked to my friend's grandmother that when they offered him a "wild weekend with Bear Grills" he thought he'd be having a wild weekend in the hotel room, and that's why he accepted ;)
Unfortunately, being 91, she didn't get the joke so it was wasted :)
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How do you tell the difference between someone who is actually intelligent and someone who is just feigning intelligence?

It depends what you mean by intelligence, doesn't it? :)
I hope never to fall into the second category, but I don't know whether I do.
Stephen Fry, I don't know if you've ever heard of him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Fry
He was once described as the stupid person's idea of a clever person, which any British person would acknowledge is a bullseye. I think there are several other people to whom that can be applied too.
1

Why do you think people idealize others? Would you rather idealize or be idealized? Why?

I think people idealise others because they feel unsure of themselves, which may be a good or a bad thing:
-deferring to someone's expert knowledge of an issue is good because it leads us to be humble, make better decisions and learn ourselves.
- out of insecurity, idealising someone who doesn't deserve it leads to dependence on that person and being led astray.
So it all depends. I know some people will make me think twice and if they disagree with me, I'll examine why they think that and whether I'm wrong. But I hope no to unrreasonably idealise someone and as for being idealised myself?
“It's the story of my life. You see, the quality of any advice anybody has to offer has to be judged against the quality of life they actually lead. Now, as you look through this document you'll see that I've underlined all the major decisions I ever made to make the stand out. They're all indexed and cross-referenced. See? All I can suggest is that if you take decisions that are exactly opposite to the sort of decisions that I've taken, then maybe you won't finish up at the end of your life" --she paused, and filled her lungs for a good should--"in a smelly old cave like this!”

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Most humans only have 3 opsins (light-sensitive proteins in the eye) that allow to absorb 3 colors while dragonflies have 4-5 opsins that allow them to perceive a wider color spectrum, including UV light. Would you like to possess more than 3 opsins or are you happy with your vision as it is? Why?

Like so many of your questions, I'd never heard of the topic and don't know what to say :)
I just got back from seeing this though and it was a blast, I don't normally go to London so it was extra special.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jan/17/photography-exhibition-planets-natural-history-museum
Have a sunrise on Mars :)
Most humans only have 3 opsins lightsensitive proteins in the eye that allow to
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Liked by: Shahd

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