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[zompist]

The earliest non-religious hoax of sufficient quality to hold our attention? https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10. ... ode=ucry20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67YzIOZTZXk

"Hoax" implies that there was intent to deceive, though I guess it has a different meaning in discussions of Voynich. I don't have access to the article, but FWIW I'm inclined to agree that it's a nonsense text.

PS. BTW, I'd really appreciate a leftist book recommendation on the New Deal.

How leftist? I found William Leuchtenberg's Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal useful, but it's certainly not Marxist. (I hope what you want is not a diatribe trying to prove that Stalin was on the right track and FDR wasn't. In retrospect, the New Deal was as remarkable, and almost as historically contingent, as the October Revolution. Both should make us think about how to achieve that level of progress, not to tear them down because they didn't produce a particular brand of utopia.)

[rotting bones]

"Hoax" implies that there was intent to deceive, though I guess it has a different meaning in discussions of Voynich. I don't have access to the article, but FWIW I'm inclined to agree that it's a nonsense text.

http://kereti.de/pdf/TTAS.pdf

"How leftist? I found William Leuchtenberg's Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal useful, but it's certainly not Marxist. (I hope what you want is not a diatribe trying to prove that Stalin was on the right track and FDR wasn't. In retrospect, the New Deal was as remarkable, and almost as historically contingent, as the October Revolution. Both should make us think about how to achieve that level of progress, not to tear them down because they didn't produce a particular brand of utopia.)

Thanks. Actually, what I've been ranting about is something like a permanent New Deal where the programs are chosen by popular vote.

[rotting bones]

Can you use slices of frozen pizza to fight vampires because of the garlic content?

[linguistcat]

Can you use slices of frozen pizza to fight vampires because of the garlic content?

It was originally garlic flowers that supposedly kept vampires away, at least according to Dracula. But assuming "modern" vampires that ARE affected by garlic bulbs, we'd still have to consider why garlic affects vampires negatively. If we assume it's a magical correspondence, then perhaps, but not as effectively as pure garlic. If it's some type of chemical in the garlic that is responsible, then likely it would have broken down or changed in the cooking process, so no, or not effectively.

Maybe try making a garlic essential oil instead, in either case.

[Travis B.]

Can you use slices of frozen pizza to fight vampires because of the garlic content?

It was originally garlic flowers that supposedly kept vampires away, at least according to Dracula. But assuming "modern" vampires that ARE affected by garlic bulbs, we'd still have to consider why garlic affects vampires negatively. If we assume it's a magical correspondence, then perhaps, but not as effectively as pure garlic. If it's some type of chemical in the garlic that is responsible, then likely it would have broken down or changed in the cooking process, so no, or not effectively.

Maybe try making a garlic essential oil instead, in either case.

Maybe it's the disulfides in garlic that repel vampires - disulfides are poisonous to many animals, actually - but that would mean that onions ought to have the same effect on vampires.

Of course, I would recommend making garlic essential oil and filling a squirt gun with it for use against vampires.

[rotting bones]

It was originally garlic flowers that supposedly kept vampires away, at least according to Dracula.

I don't believe so. I think the original first had a rosary of mountain ash, wild rose and a clove of garlic, and secondly, when they were trying to dissuade Dracula from draining the girl, Van Helsing used garlic blossoms.

But assuming "modern" vampires that ARE affected by garlic bulbs, we'd still have to consider why garlic affects vampires negatively. If we assume it's a magical correspondence, then perhaps, but not as effectively as pure garlic. If it's some type of chemical in the garlic that is responsible, then likely it would have broken down or changed in the cooking process, so no, or not effectively.

Maybe try making a garlic essential oil instead, in either case.

Good call.

Maybe it's the disulfides in garlic that repel vampires - disulfides are poisonous to many animals, actually - but that would mean that onions ought to have the same effect on vampires.

Of course, I would recommend making garlic essential oil and filling a squirt gun with it for use against vampires.

Disulfide has an antimicrobial effect. Maybe vampires are so rotten, the mere threat of moving them in the direction of a well-preserved corpse is enough to take the wind out of their sails.

[malloc]

I've often imagined vampires having daymares about working in Italian restaurants.

[zompist]

Maybe it's the disulfides in garlic that repel vampires - disulfides are poisonous to many animals, actually - but that would mean that onions ought to have the same effect on vampires.

Of course, I would recommend making garlic essential oil and filling a squirt gun with it for use against vampires.

Disulfide has an antimicrobial effect. Maybe vampires are so rotten, the mere threat of moving them in the direction of a well-preserved corpse is enough to take the wind out of their sails.

It's interesting that y'all want to treat magic as a form of chemistry. That's probably the default approach for people trying to think about magic systems (e.g. D&D players), but it feels to me like it misses the spirit of magic, which is semantic and Aristotelian. E.g. here's an actual magic recipe from the Arthaśāstra:

Fast for three nights, then take the skull of a man who has been killed with a weapon. Grow barley in it, irrigating with goat milk. Make a garland from the sprouts; this will make you invisible.

The key question: why do you have to fast? Does that change how the barley grows? For that matter, what about the skull of a man who just died from an anvil falling on his head?

My answer would be: this is prescientific thinking; it was assumed that the universe operates the same way humans think. Magic isn't a chemical process; it knows if you have been fasting or not, it knows if the skull you used came from a murder victim. It knows if you use goat milk and not, say, sheep milk with additives to make it more like goat milk. How can that be? It makes no sense if the universe is a godless automaton, but the prescientific feeling is that the universe works according to human categories, and the units that make it up are things that matter to humans-- e.g. "goat milk", not "an emulsion of butterfat globules within a water-based fluid that contains dissolved carbohydrates and protein aggregates with minerals".

So if it's garlic that repels vampires, you had damn well better get garlic... cloves or flowers according to your recipe, but not garlic powder, garlic oil, disulfides, onions, or whatever.

[rotting bones]

why do you have to fast? Does that change how the barley grows? For that matter, what about the skull of a man who just died from an anvil falling on his head?

In Hinduism, the answer to every mystery is always "sacrifice". You give up something so that you can get what you want from the universe. The flames of sacrifice sustain the entire world of the gods.

Depending on the school of thought, you can sacrifice the self to access the infinite karmic reserves of God, but only if you're truly free of ego. At that level, skulls and barley are all illusory props the ignorant use to trick their own minds, like Dumbo's feather.

[foxcatdog]

Would anybody be interested in a ZBB minecraft server? To clarify i can't make it since i might not have the means to create one and will be going on holiday in 2 months just seeing if anybody is interested. I assume it would be in creative since this is a creative site and this suits me since i don't like survival minecraft. I could create a texture pack for it or we could agree on a texture pack as well as a world to use. (since default seeds in minecraft aren't as appealing to me and also i assume the people here).

[zompist]

Would anybody be interested in a ZBB minecraft server? To clarify i can't make it since i might not have the means to create one and will be going on holiday in 2 months just seeing if anybody is interested. I assume it would be in creative since this is a creative site and this suits me since i don't like survival minecraft. I could create a texture pack for it or we could agree on a texture pack as well as a world to use. (since default seeds in minecraft aren't as appealing to me and also i assume the people here).

I would, actually! Most of my friends were way into Minecraft like 7 years ago, so I've never had a chance to do multiplayer.

[Man in Space]

I can look into this if you would like.

[Raphael]

Re: rotting bones's New Deal request: I haven't read it, but I've heard good things about Ira Katznelson's Fear Itself. Among other things, it's said to deal directly with how various New Deal programs perpetuated Jim Crow.

[rotting bones]

Re: rotting bones's New Deal request: I haven't read it, but I've heard good things about Ira Katznelson's Fear Itself. Among other things, it's said to deal directly with how various New Deal programs perpetuated Jim Crow.

Thank you.

[foxcatdog]

Would anybody be interested in a ZBB minecraft server? To clarify i can't make it since i might not have the means to create one and will be going on holiday in 2 months just seeing if anybody is interested. I assume it would be in creative since this is a creative site and this suits me since i don't like survival minecraft. I could create a texture pack for it or we could agree on a texture pack as well as a world to use. (since default seeds in minecraft aren't as appealing to me and also i assume the people here).

I would, actually! Most of my friends were way into Minecraft like 7 years ago, so I've never had a chance to do multiplayer.

Cool anyways i found a bunch of maps we could potentially use.

https://www.planetminecraft.com/project ... k-support/
https://www.planetminecraft.com/project ... t-5107571/
https://www.planetminecraft.com/project ... 1-12-1-16/

[zompist]

There are four new official metric prefixes: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03747-9

ronna = 10²⁷
quetta= 10³⁰
ronto 10⁻²⁷
quecto 10⁻³⁰

The major need was because of big data (e.g. measuring Elon Musk's ego), but this is kinda cool:

Earth weighs around one ronnagram, and an electron’s mass is about one quectogram

Though I think the last bit is wrong. An electron is 9.1 x 10^-28 g or about 10^-27 g, thus one rontogram. I think they found a definition in kg and forgot the k.

[foxcatdog]

There are four new official metric prefixes: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03747-9

ronna = 10²⁷
quetta= 10³⁰
ronto 10⁻²⁷
quecto 10⁻³⁰

The major need was because of big data (e.g. measuring Elon Musk's ego), but this is kinda cool:

Earth weighs around one ronnagram, and an electron’s mass is about one quectogram

Though I think the last bit is wrong. An electron is 9.1 x 10^-28 g or about 10^-27 g, thus one rontogram. I think they found a definition in kg and forgot the k.

What does a quectogram even measure?

[zompist]

What does a quectogram even measure?

Not much, but it looks like a neutrino masses something under 1000 quectograms.

[keenir]

The key question: why do you have to fast? Does that change how the barley grows? For that matter, what about the skull of a man who just died from an anvil falling on his head?

well, that'd be more oatmeal, but okay.
(sorry)

[Travis B.]

What does a quectogram even measure?

Not much, but it looks like a neutrino masses something under 1000 quectograms.

This the kind of scale where raw Planck units become useful.