Zompist Bboard Again

Hey, if it brings in more taxes, why wouldn't regional borders get wibbly-wobbly? Imperial Rome would be proud. :D Oh, the Roman Empire seems to have had mostly consistent regional borders. The Holy Roman Empire, on the other hand... Well, the Romans changed the administrative divisions in their em...

Anyway, now that we're talking Papal elections, and now that Pope Francis is gone, I have to ask: How on Earth did his own election ever happen? I mean, OK, he wasn't nearly as progressive as some people have made him out to be, but by the standards of the Catholic hierarchy, he was still apparentl...

Gotta love when the internet (or a helpful friend) comes through like that

I think I've had three panic attacks in my life. Maybe four, maybe two. I remember two clearly. The most recent one was actually really strange. I was at a bar, probably 2019, watching RuPaul's Drag Race and someone had a fluffy puppy with them. As the show went on, I started to get extremely aller...

It’s cool how they used them to add depth to the worlds in Foundation. I think the conlanger behind it is David J. Peterson, right? He’s done a lot of work on conlangs for shows like Game of Thrones. As for other languages, I’m pretty sure the Cloud Dominion and Ignis don’t have their own conlangs, ...

I love how you've incorporated various linguistic influences, especially Proto-Iroquoian and Inuit-Yupik-Unangan. The phonology and morphophonology details are super interesting too, especially the way the language has vowel and consonant changes depending on the suffixes. It adds a lot of depth to ...

One that comes to mind is the Japanese "hai" meaning "yes," while in Romanian, "hai" is more like "come on" or "let’s go." Not exact opposites, but still feels funny when you hear it the first time.

The term “left” in the U.S. has shifted a lot-what counted as progressive in The West Wing era now feels pretty centrist. On this site , it’s explained how certain legal acts, like the Impoundment Control Act, could play a big role if Trump were to return. Might be worth a look if you're following h...

Folks paint flat, bright shapes on pottery and carve wooden masks with leaf or animal motifs. Most pieces celebrate the changing seasons or local landmarks. It’s not photorealistic-more like bold patterns that anyone can recognize and enjoy.

There are words in English that can mean their exact opposite – like oversight, which is either careful watching or a mistake; sanction, which can be to allow or to punish; or dust, which is either to add fine particles or to take them away

One trick that’s helped me is setting a timer for each pass-once it dings, I move on, even if it’s not “perfect.” Also, talking it out with someone (a friend or therapist) can really break the cycle and clear your head.

I often heard it the claim that the Greek of the Gospels is, in fact, pretty bad Greek and obviously non-native. I'd love to know enough Greek to be able to see that for myself! I don't know Greek either, but from what I've heard, it depends on which one: Mark is the most obviously non-native, whil...

Raphael wrote: ↑Sat Apr 12, 2025 5:05 am I just had my first ice cream of the year. It's pretty appalling what inflation has done to the price of a scoop, but still - ice cream.

Honestly… there’s just something about that first ice cream of the year that makes it worth it, no matter the price. Summer mode officially unlocked.

Has anyone else observed the following in English ─ my daughter regularly pronounces the 3rd singular indicative present of taste as /ˈteɪsəz/, as if she has underlyingly lost the /t/ in the word taste and has reformed its conjugation accordingly? The /sts/ cluster in tastes is pretty tricky to art...