Zompist Bboard Again

Travis B. wrote: ↑Wed Jun 18, 2025 10:27 am
I don't know what species those are, but those are certainly wasps to me.

Oh shit.

I think they're wasps too. Maybe Polistes wasps? If so, they don't like people close to their nests, unfortunately, so you'll probably have to something about it. One telltale is whether they have hair or not -- if not, wasps.

Raphael wrote: ↑Wed Jun 18, 2025 3:49 amFolk linguistics note: while, of course, bumblebees are biologically part of the bee clade, over here, most people who aren't biologists probably often don't really see them as bees, but as a different category of animals. The German word for bumblebee ("Hummel") doesn't even contain the German word for bee ("Biene").

malloc wrote: ↑Wed Jun 18, 2025 7:06 am Really? When I was young, I assumed that bumblebees were just larger than average honeybees.

It's really interesting, linguistically. In French it's bourdons vs. abeilles and while I know they're close relatives, I don't think of them as 'a kind of bee.'
(Okay, pendantically, drones are faux-bourdons so there's a linguistic connexion.. but I don't think people who aren't beekeepers really think of drones at all )

a good spray of insecticide,
directing the jet directly at the wasps coming out of their nest,
and you will be rid of them,
otherwise you expose yourself to repeated stings
as soon as you are on your balcony...

Ares Land wrote: ↑Wed Jun 18, 2025 10:38 am

Raphael wrote: ↑Wed Jun 18, 2025 3:49 amFolk linguistics note: while, of course, bumblebees are biologically part of the bee clade, over here, most people who aren't biologists probably often don't really see them as bees, but as a different category of animals. The German word for bumblebee ("Hummel") doesn't even contain the German word for bee ("Biene").

malloc wrote: ↑Wed Jun 18, 2025 7:06 am Really? When I was young, I assumed that bumblebees were just larger than average honeybees.

It's really interesting, linguistically. In French it's bourdons vs. abeilles and while I know they're close relatives, I don't think of them as 'a kind of bee.'
(Okay, pendantically, drones are faux-bourdons so there's a linguistic connexion.. but I don't think people who aren't beekeepers really think of drones at all )

At the house I grew up in I practically never saw honeybees, whereas I saw bumblebees extremely frequently, so for me growing up bumblebees were the prototypical "bee".

OK, so far, over here, this day has been mostly cloudy, with some rain, but also some times of sunshine.

So, according to an outdated piece of weather lore that never really applied in this part of the country, I can now, err, "look forward to" seven weeks of clouds, rain, and occasional sunshine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Sleepers%27_Day

Doing research for the previous post, I learned that there's a dog which plays a somewhat prominent, and apparently generally positive role, in a small part of the Quran: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qitmir_(dog)

Given what I've heard about the traditional attitudes of Muslim communities and majority-Muslim societies towards dogs, I find that a bit surprising.

Raphael wrote: ↑Fri Jun 27, 2025 4:00 pmDoing research for the previous post, I learned that there's a dog which plays a somewhat prominent, and apparently generally positive role, in a small part of the Quran: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qitmir_(dog)

Given what I've heard about the traditional attitudes of Muslim communities and majority-Muslim societies towards dogs, I find that a bit surprising.

Whoa careful there, that sounds like a me-post.

If I understand the maps on the weather service's website correctly, I seem to be about a dozen kilometers or so East of the dividing line between the baking heat bright sunshine that we still have here at the moment and the chillier, stormier, wetter weather that is said to be moving towards us.

My cat has chosen to sit on me. A lovely feeling, but it also prevents me from doing anything¹ easily or risk losing him.

¹ Say, the relay torch

Lērisama wrote: ↑Wed Jul 30, 2025 6:18 am My cat has chosen to sit on me. A lovely feeling, but it also prevents me from doing anything¹ easily or risk losing him.

¹ Say, the relay torch

About 24 hours later, I have to wonder: Why no updates? Does your cat still sit on you?

Raphael wrote: ↑Thu Jul 31, 2025 6:16 am

Lērisama wrote: ↑Wed Jul 30, 2025 6:18 am My cat has chosen to sit on me. A lovely feeling, but it also prevents me from doing anything¹ easily or risk losing him.

¹ Say, the relay torch

About 24 hours later, I have to wonder: Why no updates? Does your cat still sit on you?

No, I forced the cat off about half an hour later because I was hungry and it was lunchtime. I suppose the feelings around that are contradictory too, but I just didn't put them here

In practicing for the Sproochentest (the Luxembourgish language test I need to become a loyal and faithful citizen of the Grandest of Duchies), I found a few practice tests for listening. I did them... and I did quite well, getting well-above-threshold scores. And I'm also finding I can get the key points from newscasts, which is probably a good start (and I can also understand slow-ish conversations; I'm still defaulting to Dutch when responding, though, which is a problem!). The thing is, though, that the scoring for the language test is a bit funny:

• There are two parts: a listening and a speaking test. (The listening test has 3-4 prompts, each with 4-7 multiple-choice questions to answer; the speaking test has a short interview which counts for about a third and a description of a picture which makes up the other two-thirds.)
• If you get above a 50% for speaking, you pass the test. Your listening score is then irrelevant.
• If you get below 50% for speaking, your listening score is then added to the speaking score: if the average for both sections is above 50%, you pass.

This means, while I think I'm rather okay for the listening (which is at a B1) and I know enough of the grammar for the speaking (at A2), what I need to make sure of is the vocabulary and that I don't default to Dutch. Which is challenging, because it's not a language that's spoken day-to-day as Dutch was in the Netherlands: even at most stores, French is far more used/useful!

as long as you don't conlang during the test...
i'm sure it will be ok...

f¹eª|¬ª¾]Lf¹tªºO

My workplace training enabled me to identify a phishing e-mail to one of my personal e-mail addresses pretending to be from AAA.

On the one hand, I was able to identify it. On the other, it would’ve convinced me had I not been primed to look after eight and a half years in the field of anti-money laundering.

hwhatting wrote: ↑Wed Aug 09, 2023 4:59 am Our cat brought home a young blackbird yesterday. Not being grateful at all for the food he wanted to provide us with, we freed it to his disappointment. As it was injured, my wife brought it to the vet, who treated it, and then to an animal shelter where it will be cared for until it can be set free again. Mixed emotions - pride wrt the hunting prowess of our cat, pity for the poor bird, relief that the bird lives, and positive surprise that there actually is a sensible system in place for such situations - the vet didn't charge us because the bird counts as a found animal, and it's great that animal shelters take in such cases. We donated 25 € to the shelter.

Cats feel sorry for the clumsy movements of humans. When they bring injured animals, they are trying to teach their owners to hunt. That's what they do when they encounter other cats whose movements they feel are insufficiently graceful.

rotting bones wrote: ↑Tue Sep 02, 2025 10:53 pm Cats feel sorry for the clumsy movements of humans. When they bring injured animals, they are trying to teach their owners to hunt. That's what they do when they encounter other cats whose movements they feel are insufficiently graceful.

Well, yes, that's how they teach their young. I read somewhere that cats think of us as incredibly large and clumsy kittens. But that still doesn't mean we're going to start catching, killing, and eating the animals they bring us

At one point, our cat brought home two mice or shrews a day. It's more like she didn't quite know what to do with them once she caught them; it took her a few months to figure out she could eat them.

Ares Land wrote: ↑Wed Sep 03, 2025 4:29 am it took her a few months to figure out she could eat them.

Hey, isn't the stereotype that cats are smart?

My mate had a cat which would on the regular catch whole ass brown snakes and bring them into the house. It didn't want to eat them, it just wanted to let them loose inside. It only got bit once but it survived and went straight back to collecting snakes.

Raphael wrote: ↑Wed Sep 03, 2025 4:43 am

Ares Land wrote: ↑Wed Sep 03, 2025 4:29 am it took her a few months to figure out she could eat them.

Hey, isn't the stereotype that cats are smart?

Sometimes I joke that I didn't get the smartest one out of the litter; on the other hand, she gets free food and spends most of her sleeping while I have to work for a living. So I guess the cat wins.