Zompist Bboard Again

few people have heard of Catch-22. That one surprises me a little, because it feels close to French humor to me. I don't know how typical I am, but I didn't really get the humor. (In fact I couldn't finish the book.) I hate to say it, but build more . Oh, it's all right. At least it feels like ther...

People die every year at about the same rate, but people we've heard of don't. I'm pretty sure that if you went though all celebrity deaths in your lifetime, and omitted the ones you'd never heard of, you'd get a rising then falling curve. In early years you'd get deaths of your parents' favorite a...

Oh, hi! It's been a while. Hope everyone's doing well :) On the general decline in living standards -- I feel I could add a few points, with the huge caveats that I don't live and work in the US. I think we have kind of the same problem here in France, though with quite a few differences. I'm sure t...

me being a remote worker the plan is fixing 'er up and moving there. I don't know if i'll like it, living relatively far from the capital (it's one hour by car or bus), but i think I will, having a yard is lovely, and my living expenses will drop by a lot. Nice! Plus, one hour out seems about ideal...

I am become Torco, owner of land. I've just returned from my first trip as owner to a little plot i bought on the rural bits, about an hour's drive from santiago. Mostly bought it for the land, the house that sits on it is shitty. the main purpose of the trip was to ascertain next steps: demolition...

I don't know what exactly these three comments are referencing, but I suspect that there might be people on the ZBB who do. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complaint_tablet_to_Ea-n%C4%81%E1%B9%A3ir Probably my favorite internet meme; poor Ea-nasir. You sell one batch of copper, that one time... A use...

No, I think the designer just wasn't terribly inspired. In much the same vein I used to have kitchen-themed table mats.

I don't think shower curtains are great for elderly people -- what if they fall, take the curtain down and get all wrapped in it?

Thankfully, you don't have to get rid of computers. It's possible to avoid Big Tech to a large extent; there are good free software alternatives for just about anything. That can partly solve the problem for yourself, but it doesn't really do much about Big Tech's impact on the world. You're right ...

I realize this forum is trying to avoid the AI topic, but I must say that the latest entry in Mark's blog really chills me to the bones. Between its enthusiastic embrace of far right politics and its aggressive war on human art and literature, the tech industry has really soured on me. Unfortunatel...

The past week has shown me that 0 degrees F really isn't that bad in the big scheme of things if there is little wind and you don't have to stand outside long to shovel snow. (However, at like -10 degrees F even without wind your nose starts feeling funny outside from the moisture in it freezing.) ...

I remember seeing, many moons ago, an article on the BBC website (I think) which argued that Yes, Minister was actually an insiduous piece of libertarian propaganda intended to foster the idea that government is inevitably heavily bureaucratic, immorally inefficient, and interested principally in s...

Twin Peaks , which turns out just as great as people say it is. Often funny, at times horrifying; Cooper is one of the best, if not the best character in television. I don't really know why the soap opera angle works, but it works. Same with the music, which stays with you but in a good way. The pr...

Anyway, one result of this is that in our troglodyte family, I still sometimes give her music CDs as presents. Yes, I know, that's arguably a form of cheating these days, almost as if you'd give someone a can of air as a present. But I think as a present to a not-very-tech-savvy person who uses nei...

I'd say the 19th century, with Phalanstères?

In literature, there's Rabelais' (purely fictional!) Abbaye de Thélème (16th century). (linked to Gargantua's friend, Jean des Entomeures who is, like Rabelais himself, technically a monk but, to put it mildly, shows no interest in religion.)

bradrn wrote: ↑Thu Jan 15, 2026 10:14 am

Ares Land wrote: ↑Thu Jan 15, 2026 9:15 am [I can't find a good equivalent pun]

What’s the pun in French?

confesse (confess, also short for confession) con-fesse (cunt, buttcheek)

I remember my mother saying about how when she was a kid and she had to go to confession (she was raised as a Catholic) she would literally have to make up sins because she simply did not have enough sins to confess. (She's since become an atheist, in a large part as a reaction to her having been r...

I simply don't agree. The thought might make sense if you're mainly thinking of more traditional versions of, say, Christianity, or Hinduism, or Buddhism. Not other religions, or even other strains of these religions, might see things differently. For instance, from what I've heard about Judaism, s...

I don't disagree. The way I'd put it is that some people need more ego, some people need less. There's a personality type that really suffers under Christian teaching-- they're already too meek and mousy, they don't need more of that. It's certainly a good way to put it! I'd also add that people do...

More occured to me last night: "As far as I can remember I always wanted to be a gangster." -- OK, that's a movie ( Goodfellas ). And thinking of mob movies, the opening line of The Godfather makes an impression too: "I believe in America." Mythology: "This is the account of...

I generally agree with Raphael here. It reminds me a bit of the -- often rather underwhelming -- reaction of the Church to abuse scandals. Many (not all!) bishops seemed to consider that, of course , priests were terrible sinners anyway, they went through appropriate penance and received absolution ...