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9 votes
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A brief history of Nixon's 'Saturday Night Massacre'
12 votes -
Believing without evidence is always morally wrong
10 votes -
The Gauls really did embalm the severed heads of enemies, research shows
5 votes -
Found: The earliest European image of Aboriginal Australians
4 votes -
The Roman pomerium
4 votes -
American Nazis in the 1930s—The German American Bund
10 votes -
The name ‘Mormon’: Why all the fuss, and why now?
8 votes -
Pakistan’s ultra-Islamist party blocked roads in major cities for a third day on Friday in protest against the acquittal of a Christian woman on death row for blasphemy allegations
8 votes -
The island that never stops apologising
7 votes -
Does anyone here share a passion for spiritual development, the occult, metaphysics, or fringe science/academia?
One of my biggest hobbies and passions over the last 10 or 15 years has been essentially all of the above. I'm not the smartest or the most well-read lady out there by any means but I enjoy...
One of my biggest hobbies and passions over the last 10 or 15 years has been essentially all of the above. I'm not the smartest or the most well-read lady out there by any means but I enjoy exploring the more shadowy realms of discourse. There's lots and lots of dross but occasionally a nugget of something magnificent, and over the years it's eroded away my original scientific materialist atheism completely and my thinking now is more animist, panpsychist, deist. I've spent years off and on experimenting with (actual, not stage) magic, and though I was never super committed to the full ceremonial experience like others I've seen, it's become a part of how I think.
So I was wondering if there's any here that don't fit into the typical scientific materialist box in one form or another. And if so, what're you reading or experimenting with right now?
Currently I'm reading through Conversations with God and it's persuaded me to start practicing loving-kindness meditation. I've only been at that a few days but I'm interested to see what impact it has on my daily life. It's definitely true that up until these past few days I've never actively focused on trying to love myself and others, which kind of surprises me when I think about it. But that sort of thing isn't really something I see emphasized in our culture or in my own little circle.
How about you?
21 votes -
'There are no rules': The unforeseen consequences of sex robots
21 votes -
William J. Murtagh, ‘pied piper’ of American historic preservation, dies at 95
3 votes -
The myth of whiteness in classical sculpture
8 votes -
Calling prophet Muhammad a pedophile does not fall within freedom of speech: European court
39 votes -
The elusive foolproof theory of the origin of language
2 votes -
Anti-semitisim comes to a city of tolerance
13 votes -
Pittsburgh synagogue shooting leaves at least four dead, official says
34 votes -
What is the best age to learn a language?
13 votes -
Why are Americans still uncomfortable with atheism?
18 votes -
Time Traveller by Merriam-Webster—Find out when a word was first used in print
9 votes -
Hidden for seventy years, a new invaluable contribution to Holocaust literature—the diary of Renia Spiegel—was rediscovered inside a desk in New York
13 votes -
In need of cadavers, 19th-century medical students raided Baltimore’s graves
7 votes -
From the liberty cap to the pussy hat: A history of radical objects
6 votes -
Civilization and its latest discontents
7 votes -
'Toxic Christianity': The US evangelicals creating champions for Donald Trump
25 votes -
The oldest true stories in the world
6 votes -
Eureka Stockade rebellion
3 votes -
Brazil museum fire: Prized 'Luzia' fossil skull recovered
5 votes -
The pyramid scheme that collapsed a nation
6 votes -
About time: why western philosophy can only teach us so much
6 votes -
The suffocation of American democracy
8 votes -
How mail-order catalogues subverted the racial hierarchy of Jim Crow
8 votes -
How alt-right is Nietzsche really?
6 votes -
What Maniac does (and doesn't) get right about the Bible and the Gnostics
5 votes -
Sydney Anglicans to ban same-sex marriage, yoga on all church property
3 votes -
The Bosnians who speak medieval Spanish
7 votes -
One man’s (very polite) fight against media Islamophobia
5 votes -
Code hidden in Stone Age art may be the root of human writing
5 votes -
Greece's geography problem
9 votes -
Philosophical/cognitive works on the concept of "pattern"?
I'm interested in patterns and culture. I think it's a fascinating topic from many perspectives. Mathematically there are many tools for pattern analysis and formation, but at the same time...
I'm interested in patterns and culture. I think it's a fascinating topic from many perspectives. Mathematically there are many tools for pattern analysis and formation, but at the same time philosophically our minds try to make things fit into patterns generally (maybe because it requires more energy to remember a whole thing than a set of rules that describe the thing). A mathematical example of cases where order arises from pure disorder (or maximum entropy) would be Ramsey theory.
I'd like to discuss the cultural influence on our pattern analysis/synthesis, but also explore a bit what is a pattern, whether everything is a pattern or nothing is a pattern, whether patterns are interesting in themselves or not, etc.
I was wondering if anyone has recommendations for readings in this area, or if anyone has an opinion on it. I know of many works regarding a single pattern (for example the different theories of linguistics, the different theories of music, the different theories of cooking... you get the idea) but I've never seen a meta-perspective on why are we so interested on patterns and whether our approach actually makes sense.
Thanks!
9 votes -
Who speaks Indonesian, ‘the envy of multilingual world’?
5 votes -
Archaeologists have just unearthed an inscription in Pompeii that suggests the Ancient Roman city might have been destroyed a full two months later than previously thought.
10 votes -
Premier of Québec, François Legault, says crucifix 'not religious symbol'
11 votes -
Learning English from the ground up
There was a recent thread on ~talk about which linguistics habits people find annoying, and much to my horror, I have most of those which were mentioned. After thinking about it a little more, I...
There was a recent thread on ~talk about which linguistics habits people find annoying, and much to my horror, I have most of those which were mentioned. After thinking about it a little more, I realized that a lot of these habits were picked up from the media I consume and the people I interact with. I also feel that this problem is exacerbated by my poor knowledge of English grammar.
While I was taught grammar at an elementary level in school, I didn't quite grok it back then, and mostly relied on my instinct, as to what "sounded" right. I have since forgotten most of what I had learnt, and my instinct is failing me - my grammar is atrocious, my punctuation is terrible and I only have auto-correct to thank for my spelling.
I understand that English, like other languages, is constantly evolving. What is wrong now might be right tomorrow. However, I believe that this is no excuse for my shortcomings as there is merit speaking and writing in accordance with what is considered correct in the present day.
I would like to learn English from "first principles", and would greatly appreciate if some users could suggest some books/resources which could help me (bonus points for resources pertaining to British English). Any other suggestions would also be great.
Thanks, and have a nice day.
24 votes -
Tech suffers from lack of humanities, says Mozilla head
10 votes -
A map of every building in the United States
23 votes -
Maps have the power to shape history: A groundbreaking female cartographer charted the evolution of the United States—and the dispossession of Native Americans
6 votes -
Why atheists are not as rational as some like to think
17 votes -
A history of true civilisation is not one of monuments
6 votes