Turtle's recent activity

  1. Comment on Tell me about your weird religious beliefs in ~humanities

    Turtle
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    I think you might enjoy this YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@Helmofphilosophy/videos A (as he argues, historically informed) Zoroastrian Mesopotamian polytheist Stoic with a background in...

    I think you might enjoy this YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@Helmofphilosophy/videos

    A (as he argues, historically informed) Zoroastrian Mesopotamian polytheist Stoic with a background in Reformed theology/apologetics. He has a much more interesting and nuanced perspective than your average ex-christian Youtuber.

    5 votes

  2. WWOOFING/workaway stories?

    ~life Ask (survey)
    I've been looking into this sort of thing for a while. Looks like a nice way to get a change of scenery (if you don't know WOOFING is basically volunteer farm work for room/board). Anyone have...

    I've been looking into this sort of thing for a while. Looks like a nice way to get a change of scenery (if you don't know WOOFING is basically volunteer farm work for room/board). Anyone have experience doing this in the USA/anywhere else? Would love to hear from you if so!

    14 votes

  3. Comment on Spotify is the world's biggest music streamer but rarely turns a profit and just cut 17% of its workforce – its business model looks increasingly precarious in ~tech

    Turtle
    Link Parent
    Buying used CDs and ripping them is usually cheaper than buying the mp3s. At least for anything relatively popular the going rate is $5-$10 per CD with free shipping.

    Buying used CDs and ripping them is usually cheaper than buying the mp3s. At least for anything relatively popular the going rate is $5-$10 per CD with free shipping.

    8 votes

  5. Comment on Most US Black and Hispanic adults expect to get the new COVID-19 vaccine, though most white adults don’t in ~health

    Turtle
    Link Parent
    The thing is, the vulnerable are practically certain to get it whether everyone vaccinates or not, as the vaccine only slows transmission AFAIK. I feel like that changes the moral calculus of not...

    The thing is, the vulnerable are practically certain to get it whether everyone vaccinates or not, as the vaccine only slows transmission AFAIK. I feel like that changes the moral calculus of not getting vaccinated/boosted a lot compared to the early days of the pandemic when Covid could theoretically have been exterminated.

    7 votes

  6. Comment on Mexican Congress holds second UFO session featuring Peruvian mummies in ~science

    Turtle
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    It's not a composite of different animal/human parts created by hoaxers. In other words it's actually the remains of an unknown humanoid organism.

    It's not a composite of different animal/human parts created by hoaxers. In other words it's actually the remains of an unknown humanoid organism.

    4 votes

  7. Comment on Mexican Congress holds second UFO session featuring Peruvian mummies in ~science

    Turtle
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    Summary of Nazca Mummy history to date: Grave robbers found a cave filled with diatom powder, a natural preservative, in 2016 near the Nazca Lines. In the powder, they found strange bodies and...

    Summary of Nazca Mummy history to date:

    Grave robbers found a cave filled with diatom powder, a natural preservative, in 2016 near the Nazca Lines. In the powder, they found strange bodies and artifacts.

    A French archeologist who was friends with Maussan bought them from the grave robbers and tried to get the Peruvian government to study them. CT scans were taken and distributed to several scientists and a paper was released concluding the skulls are likely those of llamas shaved down to just the brain case but that more studies should be done to be sure. Peru declined to study the bodies believing them to be desecrated human remains.

    The archeologist contacted Maussan, who teamed with with a conspiracy media company called Gaia. Funding was raised to have an international team of scientists review the mummies. DNA samples, carbon 14 dating, and more scans were taken. A documentary was made about the investigation of the bodies. A website was crowdsourced to post the data from the studies.

    In 2018, Peru invited the scientists to testify before their legislative body. Multiple presentations were given from an international team of scientists. All concluded that the mummies were real biological beings.

    A group of archeologists came out against the findings pointing to a lack of publications on the mummies, the involvement of suspect characters like Maussan, and supposed incongruities in the anatomy of the bodies. They concluded that the data presented showed that the bodies are taxidermies made from human and animal remains.

    Out of money, the French archeologist turned the now “debunked” bodies over to the UNICA for further studies.

    A YouTube video was made in 2021 summarizing the story and proposed the theory that the bodies were an attempted hoax paid for by Maussan. The video claimed that the bodies contain human femurs for arms, llama skulls for heads, and mismatched and backwards bones in the hands.

    Following US a hearing in July on UAPs, Mexico held an open session to congress about UFOs. Videos of UAPs, testimony from pilots, and interviews with scientists were presented. At the end, maussan brought out two nazca mummies and presented them as authentic. Several doctors and scientists including the head of forensic science for the Mexican Navy testified to their authenticity. DNA, carbon14, and other evidence was presented.

    The bodies raised an immediate worldwide controversy. The grave robber who found them was arrested and the ministry of culture in Peru attempted to confiscate them from UNICA accusing the university of further desecrating the human remains. More bodies were found and confiscated as they were attempted to be smuggled from Peru to Mexico. Maussan claims the confiscated bodies are being destroyed.

    In a second hearing to Mexico’s Congress about UAPs, a letter from 11 doctors and scientists was read attesting to the authenticity of the bodies although it was stressed that they do not believe the bodies to be extraterrestrial. Additional evidence of the authenticity of the bodies was given along with testimony from a multitude of the doctors and scientists who examined them. Evidence of intelligence in the form of metallurgy and surgical expertise was shown. One of the bodies was speculated to be a genetically modified hybrid, and a surgeon from Argentina claimed that the bodies could be future humans from 3 million years in the future.

    The hearing was picked up by Reuters and several other internet media companies but was largely ignored by the mainstream western media. The Rector of UNICA was fired at midnight the same night as the hearing. He was one of the 11 signatures on the letter.

    Skeptics point to a lack of scientific peer reviewed papers and the checkered past of the presentation team as evidence of a hoax. Claims have been made that UNICA is not an accredited university and that those who gave testimony are not qualified to properly analyze the data. Claims have also been made that the university has acted as a gatekeeper of the mummies presented and have not let anyone but a select team analyze the bodies.

    UNICA is accredited, although is rated as an average university worldwide at best. Some of the team who have analyzed the bodies have been involved in sketchy behavior, and many are MDs with no known peer reviewed papers. The university has publicly declared the doors open for scientists to collect samples and analyze the bodies.

    Believers point to the lack of evidence the mummies are taxidermies, the testimony from numerous scientists, the fact that some of the bodies have gestating eggs connected via veins, and the lack of known DNA found on the bodies as evidence they are real. They also point to transparency in making the data easy to find in the form of the website and documentaries. Many will point to an archeologist named Cliff Miles who wrote a 300 page paper about the authenticity of the mummies summarizing his findings after reviewing the data.

    15 votes

  8. Comment on Mexican Congress holds second UFO session featuring Peruvian mummies in ~science

    Turtle
    (edited )
    Link

    Anthropologist Roger Zuniga of San Luis Gonzaga National University in Ica Peru said researchers had studied five similar specimens over four years.

    "They're real," Zuniga told Reuters on the sidelines of the session.

    "There was absolutely no human intervention in the physical and biological formation of these beings," he added, saying he didn't know the origin of the beings.

    Zuniga presented a letter signed by 11 researchers from the university declaring the same. The letter made clear, however, they were not implying the bodies were "extraterrestrial".

    Tuesday's session, at times, dipped into a more extreme explanation. Argentine surgeon Celestino Adolfo Piotto said he believed, after reviewing test results and images of the bodies, they were an evolved version of today's human beings, calling them "our descendants".

    In a more colorful moment, Mexican rapper Claudio Yarto, said he had personally seen UFOs before ending his speech with a rhyme, sparking applause from the crowd.

    2 votes

  10. Comment on Fika, four-week-holidays and zero overtime – Sweden's stunningly healthy work culture in ~life

    Turtle
    Link Parent
    Pfizer is an American company...

    Pfizer vaccine

    You mean the one where all the R&D was done by a German company in Germany? By people with 30-40 days of vacation?

    Pfizer is an American company...

    1 vote

  11. Comment on Fika, four-week-holidays and zero overtime – Sweden's stunningly healthy work culture in ~life

    Turtle
    Link Parent
    Spain, UK, Greece, Italy, Portugal. Probably missing something idk

    Spain, UK, Greece, Italy, Portugal. Probably missing something idk

    1 vote

  12. Comment on Fika, four-week-holidays and zero overtime – Sweden's stunningly healthy work culture in ~life

    Turtle
    Link Parent
    I stand corrected. Looks like Sweden bucks the "unproductive Western Europe" trend by quite a lot. Interesting...

    I stand corrected. Looks like Sweden bucks the "unproductive Western Europe" trend by quite a lot. Interesting...

    1 vote

  13. Comment on RIP Omegle 2009-2023 in ~tech

  14. Comment on RIP Omegle 2009-2023 in ~tech

    Turtle
    Link Parent
    Wasn't too hard to meet cool people if you gave Omegle your interests (the site tried to pair you with people who wrote down the same interests). I had a lot of success with philosophy, religion,...

    Wasn't too hard to meet cool people if you gave Omegle your interests (the site tried to pair you with people who wrote down the same interests). I had a lot of success with philosophy, religion, and books. Off the top of my head I remember an extremely kind muslim man from Uzbekistan (which I didn't even know existed at the time, much less it being Muslim. Actually I seriously considered converting for a little while bc. of the impression he made on me), an Irish forest ranger getting off the night shift (he had to kill a deer family :(), a really smart pantheist who somehow had pages and pages of his unpublished metaphysical writings on hand in seconds to answer my questions (he was also really into psychedelics if you can believe it), lots of really nice Filipinos, lots of Indian engineers (one was working at the worlds first solar powered airport I think?). I'll miss this site a lot, it got me through some dark times...

    35 votes

  16. Comment on Fika, four-week-holidays and zero overtime – Sweden's stunningly healthy work culture in ~life

    Turtle
    Link Parent
    That is precisely what I'm asking here. What I'm saying is that "healthy work cultures" such as Sweden seem significantly less innovative (again, just based on vibes) than the United States, even...

    That is precisely what I'm asking here. What I'm saying is that "healthy work cultures" such as Sweden seem significantly less innovative (again, just based on vibes) than the United States, even accounting for population. So is our "unhealthy" culture driving more innovation? I feel this is probably true.

    3 votes

  17. Comment on Fika, four-week-holidays and zero overtime – Sweden's stunningly healthy work culture in ~life

    Turtle
    Link Parent
    "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." It's a sacrifice we're willing to make. Plus you have to factor in how much they're improving QOL in the rest of...

    You present an interesting ethical conundrum here: are these 'technological paradigm shifts' worth it at the expense of many people's quality of life?

    "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

    It's a sacrifice we're willing to make. Plus you have to factor in how much they're improving QOL in the rest of the world. See: Polio vaccine, Pfizer vaccine, SpaceX rockets, ChatGPT, and countless more. Plus all the charity/foreign aid we give away through the wealth we create (US is the most generous country by far)

    4 votes

  18. Comment on Fika, four-week-holidays and zero overtime – Sweden's stunningly healthy work culture in ~life

  19. Comment on Fika, four-week-holidays and zero overtime – Sweden's stunningly healthy work culture in ~life

    Turtle
    Link Parent
    On the other hand, how many cutting edge/paradigm shifting technologies are developed in Sweden compared to the US? Seems like a lot less even accounting for population size (feel free to fact...

    Personal life and leave are of much greater importance

    On the other hand, how many cutting edge/paradigm shifting technologies are developed in Sweden compared to the US? Seems like a lot less even accounting for population size (feel free to fact check this, just going on vibes here).

    2 votes