theguardian.com/global-deve … rain-video
Seeing this 
has just made a cold, miserable rainy day, warm, sunny and bright! 
Vic
These days it’s good to be reminded that true humanity really exists.
So true! And how often do we see this beautiful facet of human nature, manifest itself in the face of the most horrendous circumstances?
Acts of kindness happen more often than you think…
The other day I dropped my wallet unknowingly on a downtown street corner and a man travelled two blocks and a half to give it to me! And no, the wallet was intact, money and all…He said he knew the struggle of losing a wallet, and didn’t want me or anyone else to go through that kind of pain. Can you believe that? Friggin Jesus personified.
I think we’re all born good; it’s the world that gets in the way. And it’s up to us to fight the dark side and keep it real yo.
Trouble is, they’re shrouded by all the viciousness and crap that we’re surrounded by. But, nevertheless, heartwarming and inspirational when they do occur. Good luck to your good guy. God luv 'em all.
Vic
I’m wondering if it’s a matter of perception too. I’m of course living in a first-world country and thus my opinion is different from say a beggar in Bombay. But I’m wondering if having a positive outlook on life has anything to do with actually experiencing positive experiences. I’m not sure I believe in the Book of Job, of a god that will treat you like garbage despite your apparent goodness. I’m also not a full on believer in Karma, on the notion that if you do good, it’ll come around back to you. Ultimately I think believing in this sort of thing sets up a bad precedent of you doing good things, with an expectation that you’ll get a return. You should be good for goodness’ sake…
I think of it as a sort of psychic selection bias. If you look for the positive, you leave less room in your perception (and life) for the negative. If you look for the negative, you leave less room in your perception (and life) for the positive. Everyone is born with the capacity for the positive and the negative, but the negative is always easier, as it flows with entropy. Doing positive requires a conscious choice to invest energy against the heat death of the universe.
I have a much simpler approach:
If you worry and are negative in advance, just to be ready for any negative things that might occur later on, and the negative things don’t happen, you have worried in vain. It was unnecessary to worry and you were miserable in vain.
If you are positive in advance and rejoice at positive things that might occur later on, and the positive things don’t happen, you have rejoiced in vain. But then at least you have been happy up until all hell break lose!
I can’t help but think this has a pessimistic, worst-case scenario bent. But it works sir, it works.
The world abounds with disappointed optimist, and pleasantly surprised pessimist.
A Safe New Year To You All
Vic
I’m not sure chaos in synonymic with evil. Chaos, in many instances can be beautiful. I’m wondering – dare I say it – if the same can apply to negativity. For all you philosophy folks out there I’m currently reading Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Judgment; essentially his thoughts on the experience of the sublime and beautiful. Kantian sublimity is essentially the idea of pleasure in pain. A case in point, if you watch a thunderstorm from your room window, despite the experience (a rainstorm) being a fundamentally negative experience, you’re left with a pleasurable sense of awe and thus the feeling of the sublime.
But I’m sure I’m boring you folks with this dribble so I’ll stop here. Still, I think it’s food for thought.
So … you’re stood in the middle of the prairie, and y’ know … y’ just know y’re gonna be struck by lightning any second. How you respond will depend upon whether the lightning is positively charged, or negatively charged … won’t it?
I’m not equating entropy with chaos. Maybe that’s the disconnect. Taken to its extreme, entropy is massively orderly and egalitarian. 
I wonder what Fluff would say about this lot, if she were still here/
Once again, Scrivener’s feckless Moderators … <-a euphemism if ever there was one! … have exceeded all expectations by allowing this abominable pseudo intellectualisation of the noble craft of Off-Topicking!! This nihilistic approach to Forum Etiquette should be crushed, without further ado!!
Disappointed Fluff!
PS Pangur bán isn’t too happy, either!
In the event there’s a shard of sobriety to this comment my dearest brethren, I would say, that clearly, you would consider the experience sublime – dynamic, not mathematical-- if you want to get specific, until the moment the charge ended your life. This is regardless of whether the charge is positive or negative. Even being struck by lightning, one can find beauty as one can get accustomed to the pain of a lightning bolt if one is struck by lightning enough times. If however, the pain is too much, and one cannot find not one ounce of sublimity in it, then really, it cannot be considered sublime. It just sucks.
Why do I get the vibe that Fluff IS Vic-y…
No vibes needed, yossi, 's no secret that Fluff/Lilly was my cat. She was incredibly idiosyncratic, and almost human in her ability to communicate, for which she used a phenomenal range of vocal sounds and facial expression. You engaged with her on her terms or not at all.
Once folk got to know her, they’d agree that she could ‘talk’
She’d quiet often jump up on my desk, and park her arse between me and the iMac. She seemed fascinated by my activity at the keyboard, and the goings-on on the screen. It was inevitable, I suppose, that she acquired her own voice on-line. Being so familiar with her mind-set, it required no effort at all to respond to any given scenario, from Fluff/Lilly’s point of view.
She was 18 yrs old when she died … it left quite a gap. If you see Fluff’s avatar, I’m only tapping the keys … it’s Fluff/Lilly doing the talking.
Take care,
Vic