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[zompist]

Why are sour drinks and things to eat more refreshing when it's hot than less sour drinks and things to eat? What makes sour things so refreshing?

Are they? People in the US, at least, consume far more soft drinks than lemonade or orange juice. For that matter, they consume nearly twice as much soft drinks as beer.

Some of what you're perceiving might be due to age. Kids usually prefer very sweet things; as we get older, we develop more of a taste for sour or bitter. I've been slowly decreasing the amount of sugar I put in my coffee,though I'm far from my parents' taste for black coffee (i.e. no sugar).

And culture, of course. As I noted in my India book, Indians like Coca-Cola... but think it's improved by adding spices (lemon, rock salt, pepper, and cumin).

[Raphael]

Hm, interesting perspectives.

[foxcatdog]

Are they? People in the US, at least, consume far more soft drinks than lemonade or orange juice. For that matter, they consume nearly twice as much soft drinks as beer.

Some of what you're perceiving might be due to age. Kids usually prefer very sweet things; as we get older, we develop more of a taste for sour or bitter. I've been slowly decreasing the amount of sugar I put in my coffee,though I'm far from my parents' taste for black coffee (i.e. no sugar).

And culture, of course. As I noted in my India book, Indians like Coca-Cola... but think it's improved by adding spices (lemon, rock salt, pepper, and cumin).

Gotta try some spiced cola.

[MacAnDàil]

History question: when did academia become the hotbed of the left we know today? The first universities, founded by the Catholic Church under feudalism, were obviously far from anything we'd recognize as left wing. For centuries after that, they were the preserve of wealthy elites. Yet at some point they became heavily associated with the left.

I think it's partly to do with personality: More open-minded people are likely to want to learn things and are more likely to be socially liberal.

[Raphael]

I think it's partly to do with personality: More open-minded people are likely to want to learn things and are more likely to be socially liberal.

Partly true, but I guess these days, the most common reasons why people go to college/university are probably a) they come from a community or section of society where that's the default thing to do after secondary school and/or b) they want a job that requires higher education, so just because people study, it doesn't necessarily mean that they like to learn things.

[Raphael]

Another point on malloc's question: the way many right-wingers these days have effectively declared war on reality these days might have forced even many academics who didn't start out as left-wing into a sort of left-ish position, because when they simply state the consensus opinion of their field of expertise, many right-wingers will vilify them as "evil leftist communists" or whatever.

[hwhatting]

It's not just the students, though - being at least to the left of conservatives seems to have been the norm among the faculty in many departments for quite a while, too.

The leftist students from yesteryear are the faculty of today; the 68er students became faculty already during the 70s.

[Raphael]

The leftist students from yesteryear are the faculty of today; the 68er students became faculty already during the 70s.

True enough, but there seem to have been places where, even before the 1960s, academic faculty already had a reputation for being left-leaning.

[hwhatting]

True enough, but there seem to have been places where, even before the 1960s, academic faculty already had a reputation for being left-leaning.

According to what I've read about 60s student movements in Germany, faculties tended to be conservative in general, but there was also a number of progressive professors. We now would have to go into the histories of individual faculties, of which I don't know a lot. But the trope that "universities are a hot-bed of left-wing activism" mostly goes back to the 60s.

[Raphael]

I was thinking more of the Anglophone world than Germany.

[Raholeun]

Something quite unrelated; I have been looking for an etymology of the term Agartha, but have not been able to find an explanation. Presumably it is from Sanskrit? It has been suggested that the term was a mere invention of Ferdynand Ossendowski, but Godwin seems to suggest the term was introduced in the West through two independent sources (d'Alveydre and Ossendowski).

[fusijui]

Something quite unrelated; I have been looking for an etymology of the term Agartha, but have not been able to find [snip]

I remember wondering about that, too, but also not being able to come up with any answer. Back then there was no internet and tracing down the Theosophist literature was a lot harder, but I had reasonable Sanskrit resources & skills then and couldn't find anything that seemed like a solution from that side, either. I'd still like to know, though!

[zompist]

Something quite unrelated; I have been looking for an etymology of the term Agartha, but have not been able to find [snip]

I remember wondering about that, too, but also not being able to come up with any answer. Back then there was no internet and tracing down the Theosophist literature was a lot harder, but I had reasonable Sanskrit resources & skills then and couldn't find anything that seemed like a solution from that side, either. I'd still like to know, though!

I went through a little rabbit hole of Googling on agartha and agarthi, including checking a few Sanskrit dictionaries, and all I found was occultist pages with no proposed meaning. So I'd guess it's pseudo-Eastern claptrap.

(The Wikipedia article says it's supposed to be a Tibetan concept; if it were, it should be easy enough to find actual Tibetan Buddhist sources that reference it, as exist for Shambhala.)

[fusijui]

(The Wikipedia article says it's supposed to be a Tibetan concept; if it were, it should be easy enough to find actual Tibetan Buddhist sources that reference it, as exist for Shambhala.)

It looks even less like a Tibetan word, and even trying to interpret it as a Tibetan transcription of a Sanskrit word (or Middle Iranian word) doesn't get you anywhere better, either. I kinda lean toward the 'European simulation of an Indian-sounding name'* origin story -- unless someone can come up with a new angle.

[Ed: * And hey, don't get me wrong, conlanging is OK! ]

[rotting bones]

Shinzo Abe was assassinated. The ex-navy killer did not oppose his politics, but was "dissatisfied" with him. I've read suggestions that the killer believed Abe was a member of an imaginary organization. Chinese and Korean (edit: social) media were delirious with joy.

Something quite unrelated; I have been looking for an etymology of the term Agartha, but have not been able to find an explanation. Presumably it is from Sanskrit? It has been suggested that the term was a mere invention of Ferdynand Ossendowski, but Godwin seems to suggest the term was introduced in the West through two independent sources (d'Alveydre and Ossendowski).

The etymology suggested in these pages could be used to interpret it as something like 'pitless': https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/garta#buddhism https://culturemachine.net/vol-16-drone ... ectrocene/

I have never encountered this word in Vajrayana sources. If it were at all common, I would expect to at least find a search result in rigpawiki.org, wisdomlib.org, etc. I am obviously not a native speaker of Sanskrit, but I have to say, the 'pitless' interpretation sounds a bit off, like the Sanskrit equivalent of Engrish usage.

Then again, with Vajrayana, you never know when a terton might discover ancient wisdom inside a crumbling wall somewhere.

[zompist]

The etymology suggested in these pages could be used to interpret it as something like 'pitless': https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/garta#buddhism https://culturemachine.net/vol-16-drone ... ectrocene/

The second link looks like more claptrap, but the first is interesting. Garta is not gartha-- people knew Sanskrit even in 1910 and could tell their त from their थ-- but at least it's a word. Still, "not a pit"? Like fusijui, I suspect it's pseudo-Sanskrit. The fact that references don't give a meaning or a Sanskrit form is pretty sus.

[rotting bones]

The second link looks like more claptrap, but the first is interesting. Garta is not gartha-- people knew Sanskrit even in 1910 and could tell their त from their थ-- but at least it's a word. Still, "not a pit"? Like fusijui, I suspect it's pseudo-Sanskrit. The fact that references don't give a meaning or a Sanskrit form is pretty sus.

The whole thing is bogus if you ask me. If you're determined to interpret it, it's not unheard of to use th as a dental t, right? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th_(digra ... _stop_/t̪/

[Man in Space]

I just tried out for a grindcore band and apparently got in.

[Moose-tache]

Shinzo Abe was assassinated. The ex-navy killer did not oppose his politics, but was "dissatisfied" with him. I've read suggestions that the killer believed Abe was a member of an imaginary organization. Chinese and Korean (edit: social) media were delirious with joy.

I had to dig pretty deep to find anybody celebrating Abe's assassination in Korean, at least on the sites I use (I'm not on the BTS MMORPG or wherever the youth are wasting their lives these days).

The best take I've seen about the media coverage is this illustration of the diminishing quality of coverage by various Japanese news agencies. A rough translation:Asahi TV: complaining about foreign media; TBS/JNN: voyeurism of the arrest; Fuji TV: filming directly in front of the victim's house; TV Tokyo: Wow, look at the view!

[WeepingElf]

I just tried out for a grindcore band and apparently got in.

Congratulations, and have great fun with your new band! Being in a band is one of the greatest things one can have.