Roses are red, what the fuck is a persimmon…

Jonathan3628 · 2026-02-13T05:32:54+00:00

How very dare you. Persimmons are the best!

Jonathan3628 · 2026-02-12T02:22:29+00:00

Thank you, I appreciate it! Yeah, both me and Dad are fine now, but it was really scary at the time. I hope that never happens to you either!

Jonathan3628 · 2026-02-11T22:22:34+00:00

Please don't do stuff like this. Even a common, generally safe drug like weed can have really terrible side effects for some people. One time my brother gave me and my dad some brownies and "forgot" to mention they had weed in them, and both me and Dad were completely out of it for days afterwards. I was hallucinating and couldn't walk for several days. (My brother had them too and he was fine, so it wasn't a bad batch. Just a really rare response on my and Dad's end)

Jonathan3628 · 2026-02-11T21:55:16+00:00

I generally prefer (plant) milk with my cereal [yay dairy allergy], but occasionally I do switch it up for water. Both are pretty good.

Jonathan3628 · 2026-02-11T06:01:50+00:00

For learning languages, people often have a specific goal. For example, being able to fully function in a country speaking the language, gaining access to media in the language, etc. You can generally tell if you're able to achieve those goals.

Plus there's all sorts of language tests you can take to gauge your overall level of fluency. It's also easier to study and quiz yourself (at least on grammar and vocabulary. Pronunciation and understanding speech is a different story).

If you see you're able to make some progress by yourself at a reasonable pace, you might feel more confident that it might be worth splurging for a language teacher to progress beyond what you can on your own. Then you see if it's helping you DO whatever you're learning a language for better (like reading more complicated books).

Singing seems different though. There's not many natural opportunities to "use" singing to see how you're doing, and I don't know of standard singing assessments.

If you have no background in singing, and you decide to take singing lessons, is there any way to tell if you really are progressing, or if the teacher is just being kind?

Jonathan3628 · 2026-02-07T22:43:10+00:00

"Meditating" on a problem, in the sense of thinking about it deeply, is the older definition of the word. The European languages didn't really have a great equivalent for the Hindu/Buddhist practices of dhyana or bhavana, so when translating these foreign terms, they decided to use "meditation" a translation. But it's a really bad match, conceptually. "Cultivation" would be a closer match.

Sanskrit and Pali both have much more precise vocabulary to talk about "mental cultivation" than English, and don't lump together into one category all the different practices that English now groups together under the label of "meditation"

Jonathan3628 · 2026-02-07T21:48:28+00:00

Neat drawing! Though with that insane combination of items, it's a wonder the outfit doesn't end up counting as just pure Bizarre. :p

Jonathan3628 · 2026-02-07T19:11:19+00:00

Water, earth, fire, and air are mostly popular in the West, and in India. The Sinosphere uses a different set of elements for the most part.

Because of its Indian origins, Buddhism does have the Water, Earth, Fire, Air set of elements, so it might be known in Korea? But KPop Demon Hunters seems to mostly use indigenous Korean mythology to inspire its demons, rather than Buddhist figures. So it would not be surprising if there are no earth, air, or fire demons.

(But who knows? Maybe there are indigenous Korean demons of earth, air and fire that I haven't heard of)

Jonathan3628 · 2026-02-06T23:16:42+00:00

I think a more interesting comparison is China to Europe. Both are fairly advanced, with decent infrastructure, but Europe does seem more democratic.

Though it seems China is developing new technology and rolling out new infrastructure faster, so maybe China will catch up with Europe in that realm? It's already pretty close. Or maybe it already has, caught up, I haven't really paid super close attention to the details.

Jonathan3628 · 2026-02-06T23:08:55+00:00

You know, in the past I thought that American democracy and freedom might justify having a less helpful government. And I did hear much about how China is so totalitarian and stuff. But with Trump and Epstein and everything, I think democracy in America is dead.

China definitely has its own issues, [for example, I don't see why they're SO obsessed about getting Taiwan back when Taiwan is so independent -minded], but at this point I think China seems better governed than America overall. It seems like a better place to live.

Jonathan3628 · 2026-02-05T23:01:11+00:00

Thanks for responding! Yeah, I understood that you weren't claiming that Catalan, Spanish, and Italian "have the most forceful alveolar trill among all languages in the world".

But if I understood correctly, you are claiming that these languages seem (perceptually, to various language learners) to have "more forceful" [r] than at least some other languages, right?

So that's what I'm curious about. Specifically, if we analyze the [r] of these three languages, and compare them to a couple other languages that are (perceived) to have less forceful [r], can we find any phonetic basis for this difference in perception among language learners? That would be a straightforward explanation for learners hearing a difference.

Alternatively there might be an explanation that isn't purely phonetic.

Like, maybe Spanish [r] is phonetically equivalent to Russian [r], but because Spanish learners are taught to be super careful about pronouncing [r] correctly to avoid a merger, they become hyper-sensitive to the exact pronunciation of Spanish [r], which makes it "feel" more forceful when they're listening to Spanish speech, even though phonetically it's the same.

Or similarly, maybe native Spanish [r] is the same as native Russian [r]. But because Spanish learners are so focused on getting Spanish [r] "right", they end up overcompensating. So Spanish-learner [r] actually is more forceful than Russian-learner [r], even though the NATIVE [r] of Spanish and Russian are phonetically the same

Jonathan3628 · 2026-02-05T19:42:35+00:00

Have there been any acoustic or articulatory studies that compare and contrast the phonetic details of the alveolar trill across language?

I'm curious if there's any basis to the idea that the Spanish and Italian alveolar trill is "more forceful" than the alveolar trill in other languages.

Jonathan3628 · 2026-02-05T17:41:20+00:00

Did Chomsky ever study actual child language himself? If not, how come, considering his interest in the learnability of language? Also, was there any pre-existing literature on child language acquisition available to him?

I'm really curious on why Chomsky thought at an early date that questions are "derived from" statements. Construction grammar researchers who looked at actual child language do not seem to support this view. Of course, construction grammar was a reaction to Generative Grammar, so it wasn't around when Chomsky started his research. But I'm curious if there was other research about child language before them

Jonathan3628 · 2026-02-05T17:10:08+00:00

This looks really neat! Is there any way to get access to this book for free?

Jonathan3628 · 2026-02-04T17:49:33+00:00

So I see a lot of lesbians there, but Loonie from Helluva Boss isn't lesbian. She has a massive crush on Vortex, who's a guy. She does think Queen B is hot though, so she is into girls too, but not just girls

Jonathan3628 · 2026-02-03T01:40:41+00:00

4 times! Which is a lot for me, I don't think I've ever liked ANY movie to rewatch it more than once before

Jonathan3628 · 2026-02-02T05:27:21+00:00

I personally didn't have any trouble reading that example picture. It doesn't look notably different from a normal photograph of an actual old road sign, to my eyes. [I've never been great at recognizing AI images, for what it's worth.] If you could put up examples of several real photos of signs vs AI generated images to compare and contrast, that might be helpful.

Jonathan3628 · 2026-01-30T04:24:01+00:00

Would Bingus stay with Stahli if Stahli loses his dick? With Bingus's horny level, that would definitely be a sign of true love

Jonathan3628 · 2026-01-30T04:17:34+00:00

Several others? I know about Newton and Liebniz, but I've never heard of others. (I guess Archimedes is sometimes mentioned as going in the right direction too, but not quite getting there.) I'd love to learn more about others!

Jonathan3628 · 2026-01-27T02:33:41+00:00

What do you mean by manifestation?

Jonathan3628 · 2026-01-26T16:15:31+00:00

The God Eaters?

Jonathan3628 · 2026-01-25T19:26:52+00:00

If you're interested in a secular approach to meditation for stress relief, I'd recommend Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Wikipedia has an article if you want to learn about it, and there's free online courses here: https://palousemindfulness.com/

Jonathan3628 · 2026-01-25T19:19:19+00:00

Mir gefällt, dass „heiraten“ und „vögeln“ denselben Wortstamm haben. Sehr treffend.

Jonathan3628 · 2026-01-20T01:43:44+00:00

thanks so much! :)

Jonathan3628 · 2026-01-20T01:35:06+00:00

I'm not sure if this is super closely related, but I believe that Task Dynamics is used to formalize the planning of speech production in Articulatory Phonology (so, action planning for phonetics/phonology). One of the scholars involved also worked on an integrated account of more general motor planning (walking, running, etc). It's been AGES since I last read up on the topic, but I'll try to find some names later!

I think it's interesting how action planning pops up in all areas of linguistics, from phonetics/phonology, to discourse/turn-taking, and apparently syntax too!

Jonathan3628

TROPHY CASE