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woodenghost [comrade/them] @ woodenghost @hexbear.net
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1 yr. ago

  • Outside of mating season, birds definitely do sing just for fun.

    And even in mating season, I wonder if birds really consciously try to "get laid" or if they just sing, because it feels like the right thing to do in the moment and then getting laid happens. I mean, some start singing very young. How would they know what it's for the first time? Not all birds are as smart as crows.

    This review paper looks at the motivation for both kinds of singing: intrinsically motivated (just for fun, all year round) and singing that attracts mates. In the latter, it's unclear, what triggers the motivation. The author supposes, it might be a combination of socially reinforced behavior and the vicinity of a mate, rather then the act of copulation, that triggers the reward.

  • Yes, have you heard of Paulo Freires Pedagogy of the Oppressed? Some central points: liberation must come from the oppressed and not be imposed externally, rejecting internalized oppression is necessary to reclaim our humanity, awareness of economical contradictions in order to become active to change them, praxis as the combination of reflection and action. Also much more.

  • Juggling. I'd find some nice stones or pinecones and teach everyone how to juggle and do some tricks. I also know an ancient game you can play with stones or knuckle bones. And I know some songs. And stories. People in the stone age had lots of free time to pass, so all of these would come in handy.

  • I think, Venice is still the only city literally charging an entrance fee. They do that, because they got more tourists, than the city could handle. But I think what you have heard might be about tourist taxes. Many cities charge those per night. But you won't notice it directly, it's just that, if you're staying in a hotel, they'll automatically add it to the price of the room.

    I second Prague. It's beautiful and worth it whether you come for the history or the culture or the atmosphere.

  • Crows are so shy, it's too cute! They're like cats, if you stare at them or lock eyes, they get really nervous. So slowly close your eyes and look away to put then at ease. If you pull out food they like, like peanuts in their shell, you can almost see a little exclamation mark appearing above their heads, like 🥜 ❗ 🐦‍⬛

  • It's what limits their size. If insects had lungs, they could get larger. 300 million years ago, when the oxygen content in the atmosphere was temporarily higher, there were huge dragonflies with 75 cm wingspan (2.5 ft).

  • Wonder what that would look like the even more extreme case of matter-anti-matter?

    By the way, energy density is exactly what you look for in bombs. It says nothing about energy prices per joule. It's also great for nuclear submarines or nuclear powered aircraft carriers. So war, basically. Light from the sun has a pretty low energy density, yet powers live on earth.

  • purpose

    Jump
  • That's usually the case, but it's just not true for mosquitos. Entomologist quoted in this Nature article:

    "If we eradicated them tomorrow, the ecosystems where they are active will hiccup and then get on with life. Something better or worse would take over."

  • Tell Ea-nasir: Nanni sends the following message:

    When you came, you said to me as follows : "I will give Gimil-Sin (when he comes) fine quality copper ingots." You left then but you did not do what you promised me. You put ingots which were not good before my messenger (Sit-Sin) and said: "If you want to take them, take them; if you do not want to take them, go away!"

    What do you take me for, that you treat somebody like me with such contempt? I have sent as messengers gentlemen like ourselves to collect the bag with my money (deposited with you) but you have treated me with contempt by sending them back to me empty-handed several times, and that through enemy territory. Is there anyone among the merchants who trade with Telmun who has treated me in this way? You alone treat my messenger with contempt! On account of that one (trifling) mina of silver which I owe(?) you, you feel free to speak in such a way, while I have given to the palace on your behalf 1,080 pounds of copper, and umi-abum has likewise given 1,080 pounds of copper, apart from what we both have had written on a sealed tablet to be kept in the temple of Samas.

    How have you treated me for that copper? You have withheld my money bag from me in enemy territory; it is now up to you to restore (my money) to me in full.

    Take cognizance that (from now on) I will not accept here any copper from you that is not of fine quality. I shall (from now on) select and take the ingots individually in my own yard, and I shall exercise against you my right of rejection because you have treated me with contempt.

  • You're out of touch with reality with this idealist conception of wages as a result of knowledge. The value of labor is the cost of its reproduction. Capitalists pay workers exactly as much as they need to for them to turn up again the next morning. Knowledge does not directly factor into their calculation. Don't expect to be rewarded for the work you put into your education - the system isn't fair and doesn't work like that.

    Instead, wages are the result of a collective power struggle between labor and capital. High wages occur either when labor is strong and capital weak or when you betray other workers and aid capital in their exploitation.

    Now expert knowledge is one of many things that might help by increasing bargaining power in the struggle with capital, but it's neither necessary nor sufficient. For example an automotive engineer might have just as much knowledge as a chemical engineer, but where I live, chemistry earns you about 50% more, because the chemistry union is stronger.

    So union power, strikes and social movements are a big factor. Others are location, the average rent, international competition, the reserve army of labor. At any specific time, the boom and bust cycle of periodic crisis strongly effects wages.

    The organic composition of capital plays an indirect role: If the degree of automation suddenly rises, this will lower workers bargaining power short term and lower profits long term which increases pressure on wages.

    So if you want a career with stable, high wages but don't want to help exploit others, look for sectors with a long-term chance of a strong bargaining position for labor.

  • Twain also wrote often about meeting annoying US tourists on his travels and going out of his way to avoid them. For example in "A Tramp Abroad", after describing a particular annoying interaction with one he writes:

    And away he went. He went uninjured, too—I had the murderous impulse to harpoon him in the back with my alpenstock, but as I raised the weapon the disposition left me; I found I hadn’t the heart to kill him, he was such a joyous, innocent, good-natured numbskull.

  • Private space. I used to share one room with my siblings. It was alright as a child, but I don't want to go back. And I know that many families around the world have very little space for two, three or four generations living under a roof.

  • If reddit and lemmy (to a lesser degree obviously) have anything in common, it's that they both desperately need perspectives from outside the US to be heard more. I mean just knowing what is meant by "foreign", shouldn't happen. Like foreign to which country? Oh of course the global hegemon again... Why is this the default on an anti-imperialist site?

  • It's remarkable how there are uncountably many non-normal numbers, yet they take up no space at all in the real numbers (form a null set), since almost all numbers are normal. And despite this, we can only prove normality for some specific classes of examples.

    It helps me to think, how there are many "totally random" or non computable numbers, that are not normal because they don't contain the digit 1.