ianosmond

[ianosmond]

Important safety information about the eclipse on Monday

You *can* remove the eclipse glasses during totality; not before or after.

If you find yourself falling apart instead of falling in love, turn around, bright eyes.

It is no longer considered best practice to cut the beating heart out of a human chest at the top of a pyramid to bring the sun back; nowadays, they just short out a LUCAS device.

If you are imprisoned by an evil bishop, break out, and look for a hawk and a wolf who are in love.

Most critically - No matter what, do not buy any strange and exotic plants which mysteriously appear during the eclipse.

#eclipse #safety #advice

[ianosmond]

Who wants a seasonal weird etymology thing? Everybody? Cool, let's go!

What does the word "macabre" have to do with Hannukah? Well... first, the disclaimer - it might not. There are a couple plausible etymologies. But this one is generally considered to be the most likely - this isn't one of those "cool story bro but, yeah, no" etymologies. This one is actually legit.

The first couple links in the chain are obvious and aren't controversial. The English word "macabre" comes from the French word "macabre", which means "macabre". Not a lot of mystery there. And we know the first step in the etymology of the French word: it comes from the term "danse macabre." But that's where it starts to get weird. What is the "danse macabre"?

In the Middle Ages, Passion Plays, entertaining performances on religious/theological/philosophical topics were popular. And one of the themes was the "Dance of Death." As an example, in one of the ones in this genre, three dancers dressed as skeletons would encounter three dancers dressed as members of various social classes, and drag each of them to join them. The message was, of course, it didn't matter how rich or poor you were, Death treats us all the same, and none of us can avoid it. Honestly, a pretty cool theme. I don't know if anybody still does it - searching turns up references to the Saint-Saens piece, the new Duran Duran album released a couple months ago, and the Stephen King book - searching with minus signs to get rid of those, I think there's a village in Catalonia which does it, or maybe did it once because some of the people who live there thought it was cool.

Anyway, yeah - medieval performance on the theme of death. The German name for this makes sense: their term for a Death Dance was "Totentanz" - "Death Dance". But where did the French term for "death dance", "danse macabre", come from? Well, the leading hypothesis is that it comes from the Latin "Chorea Macabaeoreum" - "Dance of the Maccabees."

WTF?

The reference here is most likely a Death Dance based on the martyrology of Hannah and her Seven Sons. This is a story in II Maccabees about a mother and her seven sons who were captured, and the sons were to be forced to eat pork. They refused, one at a time, oldest to youngest. Each was told to eat it, refused, and was tortured to death, with the mother encouraging them to stay strong even to death, and then, when her last son was killed, she dropped dead of grief. So: a story which is part of the Maccabean revolt, which was a topic of medieval passion plays because they considered it a presaging of the Christian martyrs, turned into a performance called "The Dance of the Maccabees", which the French people adapted into a general term for all their passion plays on the theme of death, which then they used as an adjective to refer to things about death, which then we took into English.

Happy Hannukah!

#etymology #macabre #hannukah #honestly i still find it a little weird that historically christians have done more with themes from the books of maccabees than jews have #because we didnt even put it into our holy books its just apocrypha for us #probably because the maccabees ended up founding the hasmonean dynasty which was the worst dynasty of rulers israel ever had #and thats saying something because israel never had a decent dynasty of kings #only king who was even plausibly decent was solomon #and his son rehobam was such a good king that half the kingdom just left and formed their own kingdom because he just sucked that bad #and he looked good by comparison

[ianosmond]

I love the word "factoid" and its meaning shift, because we can trace it near exactly, and mostly within my own lifetime.

The word "factoid" was created on June 1, 1973. Well, okay, the book was written before then, but that was the publication date of Norman Mailer's "Marilyn: A Biography", where he said that Marilyn Monroe was a person whom people just liked to make up stories about. Just as a humanoid has the shape of a human but is not a human, a factoids have the shape of facts, but are “facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper, creations which are not so much lies as a product to manipulate emotion in the Silent Majority.”

I first encountered the word "factoid," when I was almost six years old in December of 1979, in the first issue of 3-2-1 Contact Magazine, a science magazine for kids, associated with the kids' science TV show 3-2-1 Contact, by the same people who did Sesame Street.

On page 10, they had their regular feature, "Factoids." It said, "What are factoids? They are weird little facts that are stranger than strange, truer than true. Use them to wow your friends, amaze your family, and dazzle your teachers."

Six and a half years to go from "creations which are not so much lies as a product to manipulate emotion" to "weird little facts that are stranger than strange, truer than true."

#linguistics #factoids #it's not a lie if you're just doing it to sell newspapers right?

[ianosmond]

I think we do poorly to accept the "War on Christmas" framing at all. Christmas is invading us. Thanksgiving has been doing its best to hold the line, but it's been basically overrun, and we've been pushed back to the defensive bulwark at Halloween. We pretty much conceded December just in general, and it's been making strong probing sorties through November for years now. We aren't making war on Christmas - it's making war on us.

#christmas #war on christmas #victory over santa claus! #io saturnilia

[ianosmond]

A fun prank would be to stage a production of Nahum Tate's cut of KING LEAR but not tell the audience ahead of time.

(in 1681, Irish poet Nahum Tate thought KING LEAR would work better with a happy ending, so wrote one. That version became so popular that it eclipsed the original and people didn't even know it was originally a tragedy, and LEAR was performed that way until 1838 or so. So, you would have people in the audience watching LEAR, and kind of getting confused by Edgar and Cordelia falling in love, since they probably didn't remember that part, and then the bit at the end where Lear abdicates in favor of Cordelia and Edgar, and then goes off into happy retirement... they would be a bit weirded out. Come to see a tragedy, see a happy romance instead.)

#shakespeare #king lear #people who had terrible ideas about rewriting shakespeare #like dont be too precious and everything about shakespeare but still thats kind of a thing isnt it? #apparently the real problem was that nahum tate wasnt that great a poet at least compared to shakespeare and it really showed #but still it was the most popular version for near a hundred fifty years so it had to have something going for it right?

[ianosmond]

Until I get back up there, you'll have to take my word for it, but when I do, I'll post a picture. I was up near Haverhill, Massachusetts, and I saw a billboard. It said, "Existential dread goes better with coffee! Cumberland Farms, $1.29 any size." I can't find any evidence that this is part of a larger ad campaign or anything ... but now I want Cumby's coffee.

#coffee #existential dread #seriously this needs both of those tags #who the heck came up with this ad? #and why aren't they my best friend already?

[ianosmond]

"average american presdent indicted on 2 criminal charges" factoid actualy just statistical error. average american presdent indicted on 0 criminal charges. Orang Don, who lives in Mara-Lago & crimes over 10,000 times each day, is an outlier adn should not have been counted

#spiders georg #donald trump #i am sure this has been done a hundred thousand times but whatatever

[ianosmond]

You know the difference between a seal and a sea lion, right?

An electron.

#science

[ianosmond]

My naem is Tyger

burning brite

In the forests of the nite

But when Nael (of 6 years age)

Says I am out

I brake my caeg

#short poem #poetry #tiger #the tiger is out #Nael

[ianosmond]

You know what would be fun?

I think that Untitled Goose Game should have a medieval fantasy sequel in which an evil vizier turns a princess into a swan in order to take over the kingdom, and the swan just causes havok until the vizier gives up. The princess, of course, has the title "Princess", which would make it "Titled Swan Game."

#untitled goose game

[ianosmond]

A thought I had about why choices are hard

One day, I realized that the etymology of "decide" is "de-cide" - "kill away". Every decision we make kills the other decision we could have made. It is a death of an entire universe of possibility. Hopefully, we have killed the worse and kept the better - but we usually can't know for sure, and it is always a loss.

#thinking #deep thoughts #kinda depressing #hopefulness

[ianosmond]

As you may know, recently, orcas have been seen attacking the yachts of rich people; also, people have been observing populations of orcas who normally don't associate congregating - and even congregating with other cetaceans who normally would be rivals or even prey.

I found this very interesting: a recording of whalesong from one of these groups.

#orcas #orca yacht attack

[ianosmond]

HP Cephalopod could also have talked about the hideous dead stillness of the unchanging color of its skin...

If Mollusc Thorton had previously encountered archaeological remains of the drained, waterless lands where the creatures originated, he might have learned of the horrible way that their brains were only in one place - a single structure in a pit entirely surrounded by a rigid encasement at the very extreme end of the creature's longitudinal expanse - just above a strange inflexible face, in which stood a pair of eyes which were the only normal, recognizable thing about it, and whose very normalcy only threw the rest of its palid glabrous skin into more grotesque contrast.

I bet octopuses think bones are horrific. I bet all their cosmic horror stories involve rigid-limbs and hinged joints.

[ianosmond]

Note that the #walkupnotout argument "if you were only nicer to them, they wouldn't have to hurt you" is EXACTLY the argument that domestic abusers use. "If you didn't talk back, I wouldn't HAVE to hit you."

#walkupnotout

[ianosmond]

Today, in the United States, we celebrate a story of a group of people who were fleeing religious persecution, and came to the New World for freedom. It's a myth. There is some truth in it; there is other truth . . . missing. We also may discuss a story of a continent full of various cultures, many of which are now completely gone -- we can discuss this day as commemorating a significant event in the whole process of cultural destruction that took place across most of the Americas, both North and South. There is truth in that story, too. And, of course, neither story is the whole story -- no story ever is. I'd like to talk about another, third, story, which is also part of this. It's the story of a man named Tisquantum. Or, at least, CALLED Tisquantum -- it was probably a nickname, since it means something along the lines of "Wrath of God." Could that be because he had a terrible temper? Maybe. Or could it be because his life was cursed? Tisquantum was a Patuxet Indian, and therefore a subject of the Wamponoag Confederacy. In 1605,as a young man, he and some companions were traveling in modern-day Maine, when they were captured and enslaved by English explorers. He was sent back to England, and put in the hands of the man who was in charge of the expedition that had captured them. He was taught English, and expected to work as a translator. He went back to the New World, serving under Captain John Smith, and, after nine years of service in England and the New World, Captain Smith freed him to go back home. On his way back, one of Captain Smith's men re-captured him, took him to Spain, and attempted to sell him into slavery. Again. This was just a little bit beyond the pale for even that time, and local Catholic friars took control of the Indians, and decided to try to convert them instead of enslaving them. Tisquantum convinced them to let him try to get back home, and he moved to London. In London, he moved in with a shipwright who was planning to move to the New World, and worked with him for a few years. When the shipwright moved to Newfoundland, Tisquantum came with him, and tried to sign up with an expedition which would be exploring the East Coast, his home. Unfortunately, that expedition fell through, and Tisquantum moved BACK to London, since that was where more expeditions started from. And the next year, 1619, fourteen years after he was taken, he finally managed to get back home. Where he found a post-apocalyptic nightmare. His entire village had been wiped out by disease. His home was a devestated, deserted wasteland. Everyone he'd grown up with, all his friends, all his family -- were dead. He was picked up by Wampanoag Indians. And then, a shipload of unprepared, inexperienced, unsupplied, and ignorant Englishmen landed at Tisquantum's village. They had no food. No skills. No way of creating shelter. And they moved into Tisquantum's abandoned village. They took over the houses that his family and friends had built. They found, and ate, the food that had been stored. They even dug up graves and found goods buried with the bodies of his tribe. For that whole first winter, Wampanoag Indians watched them, trying to figure out if they were a threat or an opportunity. But, to keep their options open, the Massasoit of the Wampanoags assigned Tisquantum to work with them, to analyze them, to keep them alive if he could. It was a no-brainer for the Massasoit. If things went wrong, it'd be on Tisquantum's head -- and he was basically expendible. He had many useful skills, not least of which that he spoke English probably as well as most of the pathetic Englishment there -- but, if he died, well, he had no family, no position. But if they succeeded? The disease and devistation which wiped out all of Tisquantum's tribe, as well as several others, had left a huge gap in the Wapanoag Confederation. Other tribes were already feeling out for weakness -- and now a new power had just . . . dropped in. An entirely new piece of the equation. These folks were ignorant and, left to their own devices, would just die off -- but if that happened, the whole Patuxet region would be open, and SOMEONE would take it over. If Massasoit could keep these Pilgrims alive, they could be enough of a power to keep other tribes away. Long-term, it'd be adding another factor to the political calculus of the region, but Europeans were already a reality and were clearly goingto be a factor from now on -- Massasoit had an opportunity to introduce Europeans that were, in some sense, under his control, or at least, influence. They would be dependent upon him, through Tisquantum, which would give him both ethical and pragmatic influence -- they'd be grateful to him, and dependent on him. The whole northern border of the Confederation was empty. And there were lots of other people -- Indian and European -- who'd be perfectly happy to take over prime land like the abandoned Patuxet village. There was decent farmland, great fishing, and good hunting right there. SOMEONE was going to move in there. From Massasoit's position, the best possible choice was a village of incompentent Europeans who were dependent on him. He could leverage their connection to the British Empire if he needed it, yet they weren't likely to be as big a threat, at least immediately, as a group of settlers who actually knew what they were doing. So Tisquantum saved them. He helped them break into his village's storehouses, he taught them planting techniques that he'd learned from other Patuxet, like co-planting beans, squash, and maize, and also planting techniques that he'd learned in England, like fertilizing plants with fish guts and otherwise inedible fish. (There's no evidence that any Wampanoag Confederacy tribes did that -- only Tisquantum. And he'd spent a bunch of time in parts of England where they DID do that.) Tisquantum was never completely trusted by Massasoit, especially as he became more connected to the Pilgrims. Nonetheless, Massasoit's expert political manipulation maintained peace in the region for at least fifty years. So, there's another side to the Thanksgiving story -- the story of a cursed man whose world was destroyed, but helped create another on the very site of his lost world; the story of another man, who used the first man's creation to balance political realities, and create a peace that lasted for generations. Maybe not very many generations -- but nonetheless, an accomplishment to be celebrated.

[ianosmond]

On how social media chooses to fracture us.

Why is it so hard to understand how people who are politically different from you are thinking? Most of us get a lot of our news, and even more of the commentary on our news, through social media. And modern social media algorithmically decides what will make us feel best to see, and that is things which comfort us by reinforcing our mindset. You and I are genuinely not seeing the news stories that would be letting us know why people on the other side feel the way they do, and they're not seeing the ones we do. We can't understand, because our social media are literally preventing us from seeing the information that we could use to understand why other people are coming to the same conclusions they are.

[ianosmond]

The warlord strode fearlessly across the battlefield, laughing maniacally. Bullets and explosions whizzed around him, leaving him unharmed. His fanatic armies screamed and charged behind him. "Fools!" he screamed. "I have told you that I am protected by the gods and demons, and that they have charmed me so that no man will ever defeat me!" Then he fell with a sniper bullet through his head, and died. StSgt Laura Outis-Nemo raised her head from her scope and said to nobody in particular, "And THAT is why it is important to have a good education in the Humanities."