I feel my absolute best when I sleep between 2 and 3 AM and wake up between 10 and 11. Any earlier and I can't function optimally. But I also don't like going to bed at 6. During COVID I had a 2 month period where I was going to bed at 7 AM every night and while that's not the worst thing, I still didn't like it. I do like me some sun...
The alphabet that Mashtots created for Classical Armenian pronunciation at the time was almost 100% phonetic, with each sound having a letter to represent it. Except for U...
Mashtots created the letter Ւ to represent the W sound (yes Armenian had a W sound), and he followed the Greek model of putting it next to the letter O to make the U sound, so that's how we get Ո + Ւ making the U sound. But why not just give it its own letter?
I feel like there has to be some sort of an explanation...
Of all the western alphabets, Georgian is the only one that remained unicase. Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, and neighboring Armenian all went on to develop lowercase letters in the Middle Ages as a way to write more easily by hand, but Georgian didn't follow that trend. I know that Mkhedruli was developed in the same time period and for the same reason (to write more easily by hand), but it didn't split the alphabet into two sets and develop rules for when to use big letters and when to use small letters. Any reason why?
As a radical egalitarian, libertarian, and individualist, I take major issue with collectivist cultures that have hierarchical social structures. To some degree this is most of the world, but certain Asian cultures, for example, are especially problematic. In Korea you're always expected to defer to elders, and this is reflected in the way people merely speak, with the language having more than 4 levels of honorifics. Neighboring Japan is not too different. In India the concept of privacy and individuality doesn't really exist, and one is always expected to do what their elders and society expect of them.
With the advent of the internet letting ideas spread and be debated on a global platform, I honestly think the death of these cultures is inevitable. Younger generations in non-western countries are already pushing back against their countries' social traditions and adopting a more egalitarian worldview. My dream is to see a world where all of the cultures I mentioned keep their languages, music, art, dance, cuisine, and everything else good, but adopt an extremely western psychology and worldview that values equality and fairness.
For anyone in Europe trying to build wealth and achieve financial independence, especially younger people, do you feel like your European country is holding you back? I keep seeing things online about how people are fleeing Germany, UK, France, etc because these countries are high tax and not convenient for doing business. Of course you don't have to leave Europe; countries like Switzerland and Bulgaria are lower tax, but on the whole Europe is not the easiest place to become a millionaire.
For anyone who does think about leaving, is it something you're unhappy about? Is it painful to feel like you have to leave your home to get what you want? Or are you unbothered by the idea of going somewhere else?
Some languages use a set of prefixes containing semantic and metaphorical meaning to form future and past tenses. The two I'm familiar with are Russian and Georgian. To form the future tense in these languages, you don't add a designated future tense ending, but rather a prefix that in most cases is related to the verb's inherent meaning.
For example in Russian, "pishu" means "I write," and "napishu" means "I will write." The prefix "na" means "on top of, on a surface," so the idea is that you're writing something on a surface. But a different verb like "to drink" uses a different prefix. "I drink" is "pyu," and "I will drink" is "vypyu." The prefix "vy" means "out," so imagine you're drinking out of a cup, bottle, container, etc.
In the examples mentioned above, the application of spatial prefixes to their respective verbs is rather easy to see, but sometimes they get a bit more abstract and metaphorical. For example in Georgian the prefix "ga" means "out," but it takes on a secondary meaning of "becoming" in verbs for which such an application makes sense. "Galamazda" means "became beautiful," and "gatsotskhlda" means "came back to life." If you want to look at it through the lense of English, it's sort of like saying "beautied out" or "revived out." And indeed this system that both Georgian and Russian use is similar to how phrasal verbs work in English.
This method of using many different prefixes to form tenses and aspect might not be the easiest for learners, since it means there's no 100% reliable way to know which prefix a particular verb might take, but native speakers have a deep-rooted intuition and abstract understanding of the patterns such prefixes follow and can apply them sensibly if they come across unfamiliar verbs or borrow verbs from foreign languages. It's a fascinating system, and I wonder how many languages in the world form their TAM paradigms like this, as opposed to having designated endings for things like future tense, past tense, conditionals, etc.
I assume if there's no taxation or inflation, leaving your just money in the bank wouldn't be such a bad thing since it's value wouldn't be rotted away by central authorities increasing the money supply.
What about just letting it sit in a vault in your house? Would that be a foolish choice? Is there any way money could lose value in a free market other than people losing trust in it?
Curious about the details. Thanks!
Many people think it's important to belong to established communities with common values for social and emotional reasons. And if you look at pretty much all of human history, that's how it was. Ideas and values were localized and changed slowly, getting passed down from generation to generation. This gives you groups of people who more or less think the same, behave the same, have the same traditions, eat the same foods, etc.
Now, though, things are different. With the advent of the internet, ideas and values are no longer limited by geography. You can be exposed to a world of ideas by just going onto your phone. Two siblings with the same parents growing up in the same house can become radically different people in terms of how they think, what they value, what they think is right and wrong, and what they like. What you think is polite someone else thinks is rude, which can lead to awkward social conflicts. Everyone can have different diets so when you host a dinner party you can no longer assume that everyone is going to eat the same thing. Everyone consumes different types of content which means there's no longer books or movies that everyone has read or seen which then become part of a shared pop-culture. The point is... everything is very atomized. Sure, the internet also makes it convenient for like-minded people to find each other, but this over abundance of information means that someone might have less in common with the average person than before when differences were less and took longer to change.
I'm not here to comment on whether any of this is good or bad, preferable or problematic. I'm just asking the question: has the internet killed homogenous community structures? Or will they endure? And what positive, negative, or neutrally different effects do you think this will all have on human society going forward?
I feel like a lot of people in this sub are all doom and gloom about religion never going away but I'd like to bring some rationalistic optimism to the table. The number of people who identify as atheist, agnostic, loosely religious or non-practicing keeps going up with time. There are many people who might call themselves Christians, Jews, Muslims, etc but live largely secular lives for all intents and purposes. Places like Europe are already not very religious; and even in the more conservative countries like Poland, for example, younger generations are a lot more liberal and secular.
I'd also like to mention that we're living in the era of the internet. Ideas spread fast it becomes borderline impossible to censor ideas that challenge religious narratives. People in countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran become atheists by just opening up their laptops and reading about things that they would never be exposed to in their societies or even in their countries' universities. Religious leaders are going to panic when they see that the youth are no longer buying into their scams, and there'll be no way of combatting it. And culturally speaking, when enough people abandon religion, it'll essentially make being a believer harder. The lies will get so exposed that it'll be rather silly to continue believing in religious explanations for things that science has mountains of contradictory evidence for. Many people will still believe in a God of sorts, but I honestly don't care as long as people aren't believing in mythical nonsense and harmful ideas.
People used to believe in witches and fairies, and now you'll find very few people who do. I can't see why the same can't happen with ancient mythology.
Growing up I was a patriot. I loved and worshipped my country and felt proud of who I was. Then at 15 I realized that A) your ethnicity is a very silly thing to be proud of, B) it's quite arrogant, and C) cultures and nations are social constructs.
At 16 I started questioning religion. I was never very religious to begin with, but critical thinking and rationality made me realize that all those Bible stores were a bunch of logically inconsistent nonsense that flew in the face of science and reason.
At 19 I abandoned my belief in statism, and that was the biggest and most eye-opening of my awakenings. I realized that the belief in and justification for government rests entirely on logical fallacies and a psychological tendency for people to believe in authority, similar to the arguments people make for god. After doing all my research, I came out an anarcho-capitalist.
So I'm curious to know, what beliefs other than religion have you outgrown?
Native speaker or learner, I think we can all agree that Armenian has some words that are ridiculously long and could probably be shorter if we wanted them to be. Here are some examples:
հեռակառավարման վահանակ - remote control (no one ever says this)
միկրոալիքային վառարան - microwave (again, no one says this)
տրամաբանական անհամապատասխանութիւն - logical inconsistency (this one's valid but inconvenient)
դատաբժշկական փորձաքննութիւն - forensics (my personal favorite because ov vor horinel a hastat dzer a arnum)
Bonus: I'll give a gold star to anyone who can guess what «առողջապահական վերարկու» means (hint: it's not a doctor's coat)
Did I miss any? What do you think of some of the crazy long words in our language?
I realize there's no surefire way to answer this and there's other variables at play, but assuming you get drunk every weekend from the ages of 16-22, how much older will that make you look by the time you're 30 compared to someone who never drank?
I've been strict carnivore for 4 years but once or twice a year when I go on vacation or have a huge family visit I bend the rules. What I've noticed now, though, is that a lot of plant foods just don't taste good anymore. Foods that I once liked are now rather unappealing.
Things like broccoli, Brazil nuts, and buckwheat taste terrible to me now and I refuse to eat them.
Things like potatoes, rice, and white flour don't taste bad, but they're nowhere near as tasty as I remember them. Honestly they're just really bland and boring.
Fruits still taste good, and there's a valid reason for why that is.
I'm thinking from the point of view of a student, you could just break whatever school rules you want, defy teachers and administration, get detention and not show up, and then you'll just suspended which means you'll get a few days off from school.
Assuming the parents don't discipline the child, then it basically means the student is immune to punitive measures from the school. You can show up to school, not let the rules inconvenience you, and then when you get suspended you enjoy your time off, and keep doing that until the school gives up trying to fix you or just expels you. And even then you can just rinse and repeat until you're out of the system.
Is this how it works? If it helps to give context, I'm not suggesting our imaginary student is committing crimes or doing anything violent or obscene. Rather, they just cut class, argue with teachers, cheat on tests, etc.
For anyone who doesn't know "breathy voice" in linguistics means when a vowel is pronounced very airy and exaggerated. I feel like I hear this sometimes with the vowel ა in Georgian when it's the first letter of a word. I don't know if this is just stress falling on the first syllable, but a lot of people will pronounce ა somewhat heavily, but all the other words that start with vowels will sound normal.
Thoughts?
Growing up in America, you'll often hear people say that you should be grateful to live in a country free from war and political turmoil. You should be grateful to live in a wealthy first world country with lots of economic opportunities. There's validity to all these statements, but what some people overlook is what a privilege it is to live in a society that accepts the values of individual liberty, independence, and minding your own business. And this is one thing a lot of Americans don't think of.
Coming from an immigrant culture and having spent a significant amount of time in my home country, I can tell you that non-Western cultures have some horrendous values: collectivism, conformity, social hierarchy, people imposing their will onto others, people projecting their views onto others, and so many other backwards social practices that thankfully aren't as prevalent in the U.S. Some Americans might not realize how much of a living hell it can be to live in a culture where people are constantly trying to tell you what to do, shaming you for doing things your own way, and in some cases even punishing you for going against the norms of society. It can be especially difficult for teenagers and young adults who wish to start their careers or their post-high school plans but the parents and families at large actively get in the way since they don't view their children's lives and futures as belonging to them and think it's THEIR responsibility to set up their kids' lives. While these problems no doubt exist in the U.S. as well and might be more prevalent depending on the specific region of the Country, they are often nowhere near as burdensome as they are in many other parts of the world. Children of immigrants in the U.S.—and other western countries—often deal with the pain and frustration of wanting to enjoy the freedoms of the west but sadly are victimized by their traditional parents who strongly want to maintain the ways of the places they came from. It's a very unfortunate problem a lot of immigrant children have to experience, while a lot of their American friends might not even have to think about such things. This is why I think a lot of Americans take their freedom for granted. Not for the political or economic benefits that come from living in America, but for the privilege of living in a society where one can live their life according to their personal vision and be left unbothered by other humans.
I've always taken it as a given that we should treat people the way we want to be treated, but for some reason a lot of people think children aren't owed the same respect and decency. People will talk about how important equality and justice is and then turn around and start yelling at their children, insulting them, punishing them, etc. There's a logical inconsistency here. Adults who will be very kind and courteous to other adults suddenly toss all their decency out the window when it comes to children, insisting that the are lesser beings who need to be disciplined.
I don't get why people think it's necessary to get angry at children and subject them to suffering in order to get them to learn proper behavior. And if you ever say to these kinds of parents "How would you feel if someone did that to you?" they have a conniption—because their views are based on emotion, not logic.
If you were a strict parent and have adult children now, have you realized that you hurt them? That you damaged your relationship with them? Have you apologized to your child?
Contrary to what everyone expected, remote jobs did not start popping up everywhere after Covid. Companies are pushing RTO for selfish reasons and it's gotten to the point where getting a fully remote job is basically as unlikely as winning a lottery ticket.
I know it won't be like this forever though. Pretty soon those commercial real estate leases will end and companies will be filled with younger people who don't believe work needs to be in person. Do you think there will be a remote job boom in 10 years?
If I grind the wheat berries and pass them through an ultra fine sifter multiple times, will it get 90% of the bran out? Can I get to 100%? What has your experience been and do you have any tips?
Thanks!