Mountains. Titanic monoliths of granite, stretching towards infinity, 
obscuring the sky and blotting out the Sun itself. Massive cathedrals of 
vastness, their shoulders covered in snow, their crowns wreathed in 
cloud. Mighty forests cling to their sides, seemingly nothing more than 
an inconsequential layer of algae. All of Mankind's skilful artifice is 
rendered moot, insignificant, /irrelevant/ before the incomprehensible 
magnitude of these indomitable mountains. A tangled network of crazy 
roads criss-cross their sides, and entire cities cling to their sides 
like mere specks of dust. Our most magnificent creations are barely 
noticeable besides the almighty scale of these monsters.

The mountains exhibit a bemusing degree of scale-invariance. That face 
over there looks for all the world like the broken edge of a small 
pebble that one might find on a beach. And yet, nestling snugly in one 
of the seemingly small cracks is an entire city! The sight simply defies 
cognition - intellectually trivial, yet emotionally unfathomable. It is 
difficult to believe that such things /exist/ in the real world. This is 
more like some kind of demented fantasy, some fantastical delusion of a 
madman. The mind simply cannot assimilate these things. To see the 
awesome majesty of Mother Nature and her complete indifference to 
Mankind's petty trivialities makes one feel very, very small.

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Keep taking the dried frog pills.


-- 
Regards
     Stephen

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On 27/03/2012 10:57 AM, Stephen wrote:
> Keep taking the dried frog pills.

Those will probably take effect soon...

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> Mountains. Titanic monoliths of granite, stretching towards infinity,
> obscuring the sky and blotting out the Sun itself. Massive cathedrals of
> vastness, their shoulders covered in snow, their crowns wreathed in
> cloud. Mighty forests cling to their sides, seemingly nothing more than
> an inconsequential layer of algae. All of Mankind's skilful artifice is
> rendered moot, insignificant, /irrelevant/ before the incomprehensible
> magnitude of these indomitable mountains. A tangled network of crazy
> roads criss-cross their sides, and entire cities cling to their sides
> like mere specks of dust. Our most magnificent creations are barely
> noticeable besides the almighty scale of these monsters.
>
> The mountains exhibit a bemusing degree of scale-invariance. That face
> over there looks for all the world like the broken edge of a small
> pebble that one might find on a beach. And yet, nestling snugly in one
> of the seemingly small cracks is an entire city! The sight simply defies
> cognition - intellectually trivial, yet emotionally unfathomable. It is
> difficult to believe that such things /exist/ in the real world. This is
> more like some kind of demented fantasy, some fantastical delusion of a
> madman. The mind simply cannot assimilate these things. To see the
> awesome majesty of Mother Nature and her complete indifference to
> Mankind's petty trivialities makes one feel very, very small.

Went skiing in the Alps, again?

-- 
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/*   gmail.com     */}camera{orthographic location<6,1.25,-6>look_at a }

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On 27/03/2012 12:52 PM, Francois Labreque wrote:

> Went skiing in the Alps, again?

Yah think? ;-)

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On Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:44:07 +0100, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:

>  The sight simply defies
> cognition - intellectually trivial, yet emotionally unfathomable. It is
> difficult to believe that such things /exist/ in the real world.

On the one hand, I agree - my first time in Salt Lake City, I didn't see 
the mountains until sunrise the following morning (I had a late flight 
in, and it was a very impressive sight.

A friend and I used to joke that they look like an oil painting rather 
than something real.

At the same time, it's not difficult to believe they exist - one doesn't 
have to "believe" they exist when you can see them with your own eyes. :)

Jim

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Why are you talking about scale invariance while you yourself are not 
even time invariant?


-- 
tip: do not run in an unknown place when it is too dark to see the 
floor, unless you prefer to not use uppercase.

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Orchid Win7 v1 escreveu:
> Mountains. Titanic monoliths of granite, stretching towards infinity, 
> obscuring the sky and blotting out the Sun itself. Massive cathedrals of 
> vastness, their shoulders covered in snow, their crowns wreathed in 
> cloud. Mighty forests cling to their sides, seemingly nothing more than 
> an inconsequential layer of algae. All of Mankind's skilful artifice is 
> rendered moot, insignificant, /irrelevant/ before the incomprehensible 
> magnitude of these indomitable mountains. A tangled network of crazy 
> roads criss-cross their sides, and entire cities cling to their sides 
> like mere specks of dust. Our most magnificent creations are barely 
> noticeable besides the almighty scale of these monsters.
> 
> The mountains exhibit a bemusing degree of scale-invariance. That face 
> over there looks for all the world like the broken edge of a small 
> pebble that one might find on a beach. And yet, nestling snugly in one 
> of the seemingly small cracks is an entire city! The sight simply defies 
> cognition - intellectually trivial, yet emotionally unfathomable. It is 
> difficult to believe that such things /exist/ in the real world. This is 
> more like some kind of demented fantasy, some fantastical delusion of a 
> madman. The mind simply cannot assimilate these things. To see the 
> awesome majesty of Mother Nature and her complete indifference to 
> Mankind's petty trivialities makes one feel very, very small.

sounded like the beginning of some Lovecraft...

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On 28/03/2012 08:00 PM, nemesis wrote:

> sounded like the beginning of some Lovecraft...

Wasn't Howard Lovecraft regarded as one of the most influential writers 
of the 20th century? I doubt my trivial babblings are quite as good...

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On 27/03/2012 10:44 AM, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
> All of Mankind's skilful artifice is
> rendered moot, insignificant, /irrelevant/ before the incomprehensible
> magnitude of these indomitable mountains. A tangled network of crazy
> roads criss-cross their sides, and entire cities cling to their sides
> like mere specks of dust. Our most magnificent creations are barely
> noticeable besides the almighty scale of these monsters.

Some data:

The world's tallest building is rather less than 1km in height. My hotel 
was at 1730m, and was still nowhere near the summit. Some of the ski 
runs are easily higher than 2km at the top, and /still/ nowhere near the 
summit. Apparently the /tallest/ mountain in the Alps is almost 5km, but 
they're all pretty tall.

(According to Wikipedia, the tallest building in the world is the 
impronouncible Burj Khalifa, standing at 830m. The next tallest is a 
mere 601m, and the next is only 509m. After that, they start doing down 
in smaller decrements. Any of these magnificent structures would simply 
/vanish/ in the Geneva valley...)

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