Zompist Bboard Again

Anyway, I mostly stay out of the "Libs discover world politics" threads, but geez, this one is bad. Err, what? If by "Libs" you mean "anyone who's neither a tankie nor a right-winger", then, whatever the flaws of their own understanding of the world, they at least make...

rotting bones wrote: ↑Sat Mar 30, 2024 2:00 pmTaking random vitamins for general health is a scam. (Originally, scammers sold them as a cure for cancer!)

Yes, that's the reason why I posted my initial question.

Problem is, I'm not in an actual apartment building. I'm in what different parts of the English-speaking world apparently call an ADU or a granny flat. So all things related to house management are generally handled less "formally" than they would be in a regular apartment block. The annoy...

Our heating and hot water are gone, and our landlady and landlord are on vacation.

rotting bones wrote: ↑Fri Mar 29, 2024 7:19 pm
The US used Japan and South Korea as forward bases to exert influence on the Far East too: https://youtu.be/12ddOpt7Hio

Yeah, but both of those are geographically larger and have significant numbers of US troops stationed there, so the US can use them as bases for operations.

I'm obviously not a doctor, but if you don't want to take a pill then you could look into eating foods high in natural vitamin D, like whole milk, some mushrooms, leafy greens, certain kinds of fish, etc. The main reason doctors suggest pills for this is it's easier than changing your entire diet, ...

I do believe the leadership of rich Western countries -- the US, of course, but also others -- sometimes/often thinks of Israel as a 'middleman country', a useful foothold in a resource-rich troubled region. Both many of Israel's supporters and many of Israel's opponents like to talk about how impo...

Thank you!

OK, everyone, I need a second opinion: I had a general health checkup at my GP's office on Monday, and the result was apparently that I'm mostly in fine health, but seriously lack Vitamin D, presumably because I don't get out enough. So now my GP wants me to take Vitamin D supplements. Is that legit...

jcb wrote: ↑Tue Mar 26, 2024 10:57 amWhen I was a child/teenager in the church, I wasn't aware about the sexual abuse scandals until the Boston Globe report in 2002.

Weren't jokes, or, if you prefer, "jokes" about that stuff already fairly common before 2002?

My last working day of my contact where I work now is tomorrow. I do enjoy working there, with mostly fun coworkers and lots of fun (and liquid crystally) Science happening... but, at the same time, I have my next adventure lined up starting from June/July which I'm very excited for. Bittersweet. G...

I find it a bit surprising to see Nietzsche defended by someone who basically sees anyone who shares any minor opinion with Heidegger as a nazi.

(Mostly staying out of this for now, but this caught my attention) As for Le Pen and Meloni... I do believe there's a certain continuity. Most noticeably in seeing Arabs and Muslims as some sort of barbarian enemy. Though of course, there is also a strong anti-semitic element in the far-right too. I...

Does anyone here know anyone affected by that bridge collapse?

A couple of specific examples: As part of a recent post about ancient floor mosaics , she discusses how ancient people viewed art and artists (i.e. primarily as a form of manual labor that served a purpose, rather than a form of individual expression.) I kind of have the impression that in that reg...

vlad wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2024 9:15 am Racists like Linguoboy should not be tolerated.

This discussion was just starting to get interesting, and then you have to pop in. Great.

sasasha wrote: ↑Sun Mar 24, 2024 12:07 pm Just to mention that I’ve had a chest infection and been too busy IRL but will post some updates soon. Thanks zomp for the roundup of new musical vocab - I like the Kebreni calques!

Get better!

As I write this, the forum claims that there are more than six million views for my Could this work as a collaborative project?-thread in Ephemera. That thread is less than a month old, and has 30 replies. What on Earth is going on there?

It seems to have caused quite a stir among scholars of classical antiquity.

For his achievement, the student, 21-year-old Luke Farritor, has won $40,000. But he should probably share the prize with AI as it helped him to identify a single word on the scroll: Should people who do scholarship by analysing photographs share any prizes they win for it with the concept of photo...