Martin O'Looney 🇮🇪

Environmental Scientist, Hardline Liberal Centrist

[Martin O'Looney 🇮🇪 @Two_Rivers_]

@TerribleMaps Wait, i live on that bit that sticks out of Ireland. You have left me drowning in...California? Oregan?
We don't have guns. How will I protect myself from the ravaging non-natives?

[Martin O'Looney 🇮🇪 @Two_Rivers_]

@rtenews Not surprising. Our drainage infrastructure and planning is designed to get rid of water asap without downstream flooding. We really do not have much storage other than natural aquifers, which can drop below the level of the boreholes.

[Stelios Panagiotou @Panagiotou90St]

A friend paid a ticked for me to watch Nolan's Odyssey. Despite all of my reservations about the way the movie was marketed, I really wanted to like it. But it was worse than I expected, much worse. The casting and the costumes were the least bad thing about it.

Here are some thoughts and an antidote to the movie's gross misunderstanding of the epic's philosophy.

1. The casting was bad. Apart from the obvious examples that have been discussed on X to death, the most bizarre scene was the following:

A man asks in Greek, soldiers that are raiding his settlement: 'who are you? Are you the sea peoples?' And an Indian replies in English: 'we are Greeks.'

I have to give credit to Matt Damon though for making Odysseus likeable despite Nolan's obsessive attempts to portray him in the most negative light possible. More of that below.

2. There were massive alterations in the story. Some of them were done to save time (e.g., there is no island of the lotus eaters, no Nausicaa and the Phaeacians, etc.) But there were also changes that changed the story so much that the title Anti-Odyssey would be more apt.

3. Throughout the movie, Odysseus is represented as being hated by Zeus (just read the first pages of the epic to see that this is not the case), as being arguably worse than his crew, and as being punished for being THE SUPREME VIOLATOR OF ZEUS' LAW OF HOSPITALITY. Why? Due to the Trojan horse. He is also represented as someone who dishonoured his crew for doing things that just aren't in the epic (e.g., not burying soldiers -that Polyphemus devoured in the epic- while trying to exit the cyclops' cave).

This is a gross misunderstanding of the entire Greek lore. If that were the case, Odysseus would not get to return home. Or, he would meet his downfall if he did manage to return home (like Agamemnon who was murdered by his wife and her lover for sacrificing their daughter when he launched the Achaean attack on Troy).

Odysseus doesn't represent someone who loved warfare and carnage. He was someone who got caught in it, and contrary to those around him, he devised a stratagem to actually END it as quickly as possible. Of course, it wouldn't be by singing with the Trojans John Lennon's Imagine. This aspect of his cunning/resourcefulness is also obfuscated in the very rushed portrayal of the scene with Polyphemus.

4. Nolan represents Odysseus as having forgotten his mission and his destination to return to Ithaca because he was being fed lotuses by Calypso. And then, to make matters worse, Nolan portrayed Calypso as telling Odysseus that Zeus hates him (perhaps I misheard due to this scene's awful sound) and that she was trying to get him to leave the island.

Wrong. Wrong. And wrong.

Odysseus NEVER forgot Ithaca. Hence, one of the major themes of the epic is the nostos of Odysseus, his longing to return home.

Odysseus NEVER ate the lotuses (some of his men ate them in the island of the Lotus eaters, not the island of Calypso).

And Calypso didn't want him to leave the island. He was there for 7 years and he yearned to return to Ithaca despite the sorrow caused to him by his memory. When she was ordered by Zeus, Athena, and Hermes to let him return to Ithaca, she offered him immortality and eternal youth to get him to stay. This is another pillar of the philosophy of the Odyssey that was completely left out of the movie.

Furthermore, there was a fabrication. There was no Sinon in the Odyssey. By implication, there was no Sinon among the souls Odysseus spoke to in the underworld.

Nolan missed the opportunity to depict one of the most beautiful and philosophically substantive scenes of the Odyssey: that of Odysseus talking with the souls of Achilles and his mother, Anticleia. And why did Nolan miss such an opportunity? To insert a story that wasn't there in the Odyssey to portray Odysseus as having tricked an Ithacan in such a way that it led to his death.

5. And because he missed that, he ALSO missed the fact that in the Odyssey, Odysseus is presented as one of the very few Achaeans who got to return home and reclaim his kingdom BECAUSE of his embodiment of the qualities of Metis (ingenuity/resourcefulness/cunning/wisdom), the goddess whose marriage with Zeus represents the marriage of supreme force with wisdom and then leads him to establish a just order when he won Kronos and the titans. This is what Metis represents and to any extent that Odysseus embodies it, it is certainly not to defy the gods and to be an amoral Machiavellian.

6. Bonus rant: Menelaus is presented as an utter sleazeball and Helen is presented as hating him, which just wasn't there in the epic.

The whole thing was a missed opportunity. It could have been much better. I sincerely doubt that those defending it (progressives and conservatives who flip flopped last minute alike) are familiar with Greek mythology.

[New Scientist @newscientist]

A short spell in a heat chamber at the University of Brighton showed Alec Luhn that his body is not adapted to high temperatures – but regular exposure can train the body to respond more effectively https://t.co/ruABNFQD7p

[Martin O'Looney 🇮🇪 @Two_Rivers_]

@thebritishertwi Dont find it annoying. The islands are just a named after the celtic tribe/s here.
But it would be clearer for people who dont know that if the geographical name was different than the political name for a government on one of the islands. Even the latin would be cool

[Martin O'Looney 🇮🇪 @Two_Rivers_]

@TerribleMaps Could i get that as a rhombus?

[Brivael Le Pogam @brivael]

Tu confonds deux choses, et c'est exactement le piège que la French Theory a tendu.

Liberté, égalité, fraternité — égalité *de droits*, égalité *devant la loi*, égalité *de dignité*. C'est la promesse républicaine, et personne ici ne l'attaque.

Le wokisme, ce n'est pas ça. C'est l'égalitarisme des résultats. Et l'égalitarisme des résultats, contrairement à l'égalité des droits, n'est pas un élargissement de la liberté — c'est sa négation.

Quelques exemples concrets :

— San Francisco supprime les classes de maths avancées au collège pour "réduire les inégalités". Résultat : les écarts entre élèves explosent, les familles aisées prennent des cours privés, les pauvres se font enterrer. L'égalitarisme a creusé l'inégalité.

— Les politiques de discrimination positive à Harvard : étudiants admis avec des scores très en dessous de leurs camarades, taux d'échec dispropportionné, sentiment d'imposture, ressentiment généralisé. On a saboté ceux qu'on voulait aider.

— L'aide humanitaire qui distribue du riz gratuit pendant 30 ans en Afrique : effondrement des filières agricoles locales, dépendance institutionnalisée. Donner un poisson, c'est empêcher d'apprendre à pêcher.

Le wokisme ne détruit pas l'humanité dans le sens dramatique. Il fait pire : il dessert systématiquement ceux qu'il prétend protéger, et il génère du ressentiment des deux côtés — ceux qu'on infantilise et ceux qu'on culpabilise.

La fraternité républicaine dit : tu es mon égal, donc je te traite en adulte capable.
Le wokisme dit : tu es ma victime, donc je dois te protéger de toi-même.

L'un élève. L'autre infantilise. Ce n'est pas la même chose, et confondre les deux est exactement le tour de passe-passe qu'on dénonce.

[Martin O'Looney 🇮🇪 @Two_Rivers_]

@disparutoo @Aris_Utensil True for homo sapiens (at least in some part). Homo species are long distanse runners mainly. We run animals to exhaustion and then poke them with sticks. But the intelegence fluke has allowed us to get cool sticks and not have to run as much.

[NASA Artemis @NASAArtemis]

The Artemis II astronauts were all smiles on the flight deck of USS John P. Murtha after they were extracted from their Orion spacecraft after splashdown.

[NASA @NASA]

HOME.

The Artemis II crew has arrived back on Earth, ending a nearly 10-day journey around the Moon. The trip took them farther into space than humans have ever gone before, and now they're safely home with us.

https://t.co/XmDQwNlCPR

[NASA @NASA]

All four of the Artemis II astronauts have been successfully extracted from the Orion spacecraft following splashdown and are now on the USS John P. Murtha. Next up, they will be escorted to the medical bay where they will undergo post-mission medical evaluations.

[Martin O'Looney 🇮🇪 @Two_Rivers_]

@Independent_ie You never see RTE critisising the negative impacts of middle and upper class protests (climate change, pro-imigration, etc etc). And those issues do not have simple solutions.

[Martin O'Looney 🇮🇪 @Two_Rivers_]

@Network_Guy8 It moves! The Great A'Tuin

[Martin O'Looney 🇮🇪 @Two_Rivers_]

@JohnyHelzapopin I take more exception to "simply could not see her as an equal". No i had not seen a black person until 97 (kinda funny story), but there was one indian woman in our half of the county and she fit in well. ICA member and all

[Kurt Mahlburg @k_mahlburg]

Finland tracked every gender-referred adolescent in the country for up to 25 years.

Their psychiatric needs didn't improve after 'gender reassignment'. They surged.

A landmark peer-reviewed study just dropped. Here's what it found. 🧵

[Martin O'Looney 🇮🇪 @Two_Rivers_]

@annie_mcginley So why are the multinationals hiring so many non-irish for high paying jobs, and irish graduates leaving for other countries. Are the degrees worthless in Ireland? Why cant universities meet the demand for skilled jobs here

[Martin O'Looney 🇮🇪 @Two_Rivers_]

@Rum_raisin_RIP @Brink_Thinker Very common in Ireland. But we also tend to curse a lot (I think it is mainly to keep the rhythm as we speak fast and 'singsong-y'. Sounds better than umm or uhh)

[Martin O'Looney 🇮🇪 @Two_Rivers_]

@Brink_Thinker Hey thats cool. We do this in Ireland too, thanking drivers stopping at pedestruan crossings. It is the law, but it is also important to reward good behaviour as a matter of politeness. Thank your public bus driver too, its just good to do

[Martin O'Looney 🇮🇪 @Two_Rivers_]

@laoisedebrun Also, i dont think the term "white" works in a european context. It bearly works in America. Ethinicity includes the cultural factors that influence behaviours and norms

[Martin O'Looney 🇮🇪 @Two_Rivers_]

@laoisedebrun Also, I understand that in English precincts that do record this data, the default is "white". So if the officer does not fill out that option, it defaults to that. Many instances identified of mid-east and other people being classes under this. The default should be blank