Zompist Bboard Again

It seems I never got around to updating my address with the DMV and so never got the reminder to renew my license plates. That leaves me less than one month to update my address, wait for them to send a replacement reminder if they even will, and get the plates renewed. More precisely, I updated th...

You don't need to concede ground to fascists by using their language. There is no such "natural law" and it decrees nothing. People who think animals are invariably violent and ruthless know nothing about animals. Well ok, natural law is a rather florid metaphor for the principles of natu...

Also, survival of the fittest does not mean "survival or the strongest/fastest/etc" but rather "survival of those who best fit a niche". I'd say most humans fit as "generalist social tool users". Caring for the sick and disabled has been a part of our species' survival ...

Not any specific dreams but I've been having a lot of dreams about being chased by weird things through maze like buildings. One had eyeball monsters, another had dinosaurs, a few had ways to teleport to different areas. Wonder what this means? Guess I am feeling a bit run-ragged

I could specifically be staying to do extra prep, and ask what he needs and he'll answer that he doesn't need anything because CURRENTLY he doesn't need help. Also I can tell him something directly, like "I need to help this customer but I'll do X, Y and Z when I'm done." And he'll compla...

I realized recently that one of my coworkers has no understanding of context. He's not a dumb person overall (although I wouldn't put him anywhere near smart either), but if I bring up anything that requires environmental context at all to understand, he acts like I grew two new heads. I could speci...

Something similar also happens in Japanese to some degree. You use different verbs for "I want" versus "You/He/She/etc (seem to) want" and also "I am happy/sad/etc" versus "You/He/She (seems) happy/sad/etc"

I knew one person at my work came down with covid, so it might have been caught at work or it might not. Now another person tested positive. So while I've had my first two vaccines, I might see if I can get a test since I realized I've been under the weather. If I have it, I might have already sprea...

I don't think vision problems was that much of a problem in the paleolithic anyway. You could still sew, make tools, gather plants, or set up traps. But weren't sewing and gathering plants considered specifically women's jobs in hunter-gatherer societies? In which hunter-gatherer societies? :roll: ...

My personal view is that there cannot be a god that has all the traits the Christians claim theirs has, so there are either no gods or godlike entities or there are many, and they have varying natures and levels of ability. Disasters can be chalked up to either a mechanical universe, or to the confl...

I believe our user LinguistCat also has made some Japonic ones, although not sure if there's anything more than snippets. Yeah, only snippets. I keep changing what I want to do with it. (Currently at "Make it less Japonic looking and then more like Japanese again.") I've never seen a Kore...

Also, while I highly respect Tolkien, he also never HAD to make his own meals or iron his clothes, do the wash, clean the house, etc. Even though we have a lot of modern conveniences, most of us still have to run to the store for essentials and do our own cleaning. As I recall, Tolkien did have some...

Thanks for the well wishes. And linguoboy, I hope by years' end things are better for both of us.

Friday, I lost a dear friend. I had one day of mourning before I found out another friend who I had less contact with had been ill and passed about a month back. And her other friends and I only found out this late because her family either didn't know to contact us, or didn't care. Even her boyfrie...

I think I generally agree with Creyeditor. I say "I think" because, while I agree with Creyeditor's conclusion, my "Learn about linguistics by soaking it up through osmosis as a result of hanging out on the ZBB" method hasn't gotten me to the point where I can really follow most...

What, exactly, do English speakers mean when they describe a place as "cavernous"? Online dictionaries give definitions like "cavern-like" or "cave-like", but that doesn't really help me much, because I don't really understand what's meant by that , either. Does it mea...

Japanese pronouns are basically an open class historically.

In most cases when chickens are raised for food by individuals, they eat insects, small animals like mice or lizards and a lot of the food waste from meals, as well as being fed grains and the like. There are cultures that eat bugs, mice, lizards etc, and almost all cultures eat grains, but I think ...

This has been going on for a while, and I've seen both positive and negative uses. For example, someone "being extra" might be acting dramatically or doing things that are unnecessary, and depending on tone, the person saying it could be somewhat impressed or extremely annoyed. I'd say ext...

Really? You can't find an example in the world? How? There are no fully extroverted human populations, just equal mixes of introverts and extroverts with most people actually being in the middle. It's true that most people aren't "fully" extroverted or introverted. But it's not an even sp...