Taniwha420
@Taniwha420@lemmy.world
- Comment on Lol. Lmao, even. 4 days ago:
I’ve been wondering a lot about absurdism in humour. There are people who laugh when they see something disastrous happen, like a man reflexively trying to stop a cement truck from tipping and getting squashed dead. Or a recent news story of the only fatality in a school bus crash: it was an observer who got hit by a vehicle as he ran across the highway to see if the kids were ok. A lot of the time this laughing response to a disaster is interpreted as schadenfreude, but a good portion of the time I believe it’s absurdism.
We try so hard to have agency, to do something, but the World doesn’t give a fuck. You have two choices when shit goes so wrong: you can wail about the unfairness of it all, or you can laugh at the absurdity of our efforts in the face of the colossal chaos of it all. The laughter is stronger.
It’s interesting to me that some cultures seem to have absurd humour baked in. The Aussies and Kiwis seem to have it. They just make jokes about and laugh at the most horrific situations.
- Comment on Lol. Lmao, even. 4 days ago:
I’ve been wondering a lot about absurdist humour. Dan Carlin relates a story of an old Air Force colonel who
- Comment on How did we switched from "Dinosaur are giant lizards" to "Dinosaur are giant birds" 5 days ago:
Birds are reptiles.
- Comment on Restore a garden back to life in Horticular coming in July 1 week ago:
Oh, this is something I love doing IRL. Love getting in there and pruning and shaping until things have been restored. I love being the chance to rejuvenate a neglected apple tree over the course of a few years.
- Comment on Coconuts 🥥 2 weeks ago:
IRC the genetics don’t support that. It looks more like Polynesians originate from the area around Taiwan, sharing DNA with the indigenous Taiwanese. Again IRC there are some South American genes present in the Easter Island or Tahiti area, which seem to have been introduced pre-European contact. It’s tricky to tell though because there has been so much sharing of genetics since then. It looks like maybe some Polynesians went to South America one or a few times and returned.
- Comment on What's the rule for which 'national identity adjective' suffix to use? 3 weeks ago:
Do you change the emphasis? da-ko-TANT?
- Comment on Shout Factory will be releasing "THE LAST UNICORN (1982)" on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray on August 20. 3 weeks ago:
In some ways this was the first Studio Ghibli film. The bulk of the animators went on to work at Studio Ghibli.
- Comment on Mushroom ID 5 weeks ago:
Yeah, the sponge underside mushrooms are boletes, and I am not aware of any that are poisonous.
- Comment on The evidence against Drake keeps stacking 1 month ago:
“Vamipre”.
- Comment on I don't really know how to deal with coworkers who emotionally dump their issues on me 2 months ago:
I second this. This sounds like older men seeking validation. I’m willing to bet that they’ve been sold on a mythical contract: “If you do X, you will have a smooth life and get respect.” Problem is, many in the public don’t believe in X or think it’s a problem, their families/wife probably doesn’t think much of them, and they haven’t had the life they thought they were entitled to. Often this crew is looking for someone to blame for the unfulfilled contract nobody ever agreed to.
I suspect they’re looking for validation (“Tell me I’m right and good.”), and you’re agreement that the people they think cheated them indeed did that and are bad/cheaters.
Old White Guys really got sold on this, “get a job, work hard, and your wife will lust after you,” false contract. That’s why they can be so hateful. It’s either find someone who stole their reward from them, or acknowledge they believed a lie.
- Comment on geoengineering 2 months ago:
I maintain that we have a battle of world views going on here. In some ways it’s about the myths we believe in. Most environmentalists believe in what I call the Hobbit Paradigm: we live in a beautiful garden, and if we grounded ourselves in relationships with our communities (including nature) we would have a good and sustainable life. Many technocentrists believe in what I call the Star Trek Paradigm: humans are limitlessly ingenious, technological solutions will save us, and Nature is viewed with an anthropocentric utilitarian ethic.
I do not believe in the Star Trek Paradigm. It’s hubris. I also don’t think it’s a very pragmatic paradigm. We live in a world we evolved to live in. Not worrying about this world because we think terraforming other planets and setting up space bases might be a possibility is not comprehending the Good or risk very well, IMHO.
I suppose a third paradigm is cold-blooded, individualist Realpolitik; It’s a dog eat dog world, fuck you, I’m just trying to get mine as hard as everyone else is. In this case Space Colonisation is just a beard to disguise a callous and usurious relationship to the beings is this world.
That makes the conflict one of story, of myth, which means no one will have their minds changed by facts. They’re belief systems. We need to expose those fundamentally short -sighted or selfish beliefs. We need to tell better stories, and expose the ridiculousness of the other stories.
- Comment on What's a small cleared space in a forest where people can live called? 2 months ago:
Old English was ‘den’. Place names ending in ‘den’ or ‘don’ were originally farmsteads cleared in the forest, i.e. Wimbledon, or Camden.
- Comment on Rachael Dixon, 53, dies in suspected mushroom poisoning (Ballarat). 2 months ago:
Oh yeah, and the number of times I’ve heard people who obviously don’t know what they’re talking about look at an Agaricus sp. mushroom and confidently answer, “oh yeah, that’s a field mushroom. It’s good.” No. It’s not. A good number of species in that genus will fuck your liver up real good and even kill you.
- Comment on Oops 2 months ago:
Like, what made him vomit, what was his vomit made of, and if that wasn’t a fucking joint then what was it?
- Comment on acceptable screws 2 months ago:
I don’t know what you’re talking about. They’re naturally superior.
- Comment on mOLecuLaR maN 2 months ago:
That sounds like Gabor Maté’s work.
- Comment on When asked a question, what is your first reaction, to answer the question or to defend yourself? 2 months ago:
Not sure you’ve given us enough context. Why would I feel the need to defend myself when someone asks me directions.
I have a suspicion you’re asking if someone questions my actions or something.
- Comment on What do you see that you wish others saw? 2 months ago:
I’ve started to think of “optimum solutions” rather than “right solutions”.
- Comment on brilliant as silver 3 months ago:
Vapours too.
- Comment on brilliant as silver 3 months ago:
I thought it was the vapours from using mercury inside that got them.
- Comment on neanderthal flute 3 months ago:
Wow. Never heard of it. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divje_Babe_flute
Not a rudimentary instrument by any means! Capable of 3.5 octaves and modern scales and ornamentation.
- Comment on Shit shit shit shit shit 5 months ago:
More like the moment you realised that a paddle board really is not a sea-worthy vessel, and contrary to what you told Noah, you are NOT, going to be, “just fine.”
- Comment on Male Loneliness 5 months ago:
So who is she? Because she looks fun.
- Comment on Let's meet those headlines 6 months ago:
I would also like entomologists to pronounce the insect orders properly. That ‘p’? It belongs to the ‘-ter’. It’s ‘pter’, for wing. As in ‘coleo-ptera’, the ‘shield wing’, not ‘col-e-OP-tera’. Or ‘neuro-ptera’, the ‘lace-wing’, not ‘neur-OP-tera’.
We actually put the accent on a syllable THAT DOESN’T FUCKING EXIST in the Greek.
Fucking nonsense.
- Comment on s there a way to make an interface or to use an app like Signal so your texts can't get "legally intercepted" via bluetooth from all car manufacturers? 7 months ago:
Hey, do you recall what it was that was causing it? I’m pretty sure there is a leak in the vac system somewhere because the engine not stopping coincides with the door locks not working.
Yeah, and I’m doing the same thing: popping the hood and hitting that ‘STOP’ switch to kill the fuel supply.
Mine was babied until I got it 6 years ago. I live in a place now that uses lots of road salt. I made a decision at one point: I can’t afford to baby it, so I’m going to drive it to death. I’m going to mourn when it dies. I wish they still make simple cars like that. Ironic it was such a luxury back in the day. Pretty sure I’ve got the original receipt and it was bought for $38 000 in '84.
- Comment on s there a way to make an interface or to use an app like Signal so your texts can't get "legally intercepted" via bluetooth from all car manufacturers? 7 months ago:
Yup. That’s the drill. It’s so reliable it won’t stop without direct interference.
- Comment on s there a way to make an interface or to use an app like Signal so your texts can't get "legally intercepted" via bluetooth from all car manufacturers? 7 months ago:
I have a '84 Mercedes 300D Turbodiesel. That thing will keep running after an EMP. It’ll even keep running when I take the key out (I got a vac system leak somewhere). I’m going to cry when that thing dies. It’s so not fussy either. Radiator instructions: “Try to use clean water.”
- Comment on Where did the abbreviation "w/" for "with" come from? 7 months ago:
The Foreword? Or is that answer? Forward in English would be the author’s message at the beginning of a book.
- Comment on Where did the abbreviation "w/" for "with" come from? 8 months ago:
… I think it’s actually a Latin word, “re,”, meaning, “the matter (subject)” not an abbreviation at all.