dieppe

There's a _great_ book about that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Name_Is_Red

Helps understand how arts, religion, and power are intermingled. Made me question what we mean by "tradition" ; they always seemed fixed to a present observer, but are also the result of constant change.

Anyway, there's more to the book and it is really a great read (maybe more so if like me you know close to nothing about the Ottoman empire).

(and just to be clear: this book talks about what was admitted as acceptable art at a specific period in a specific region where Islam was the state religion, not commenting on the art in Islam as a whole as I would be incapable of doing so)

Thanks for this reply. I guess I now understand what people mean by "space is expanding".

If I understand correctly, space is what supports matter? Like a table supports dishes for instance (well, except that space is also "inside" particules) — and so if the table grows, the dishes don't.

I never actually even thought of what "space" means before. I thought that when we talked about space, matter was included in that (in the sense that quarks or whatever is the smallest — known? — particle take some "space" ; they're not points that can't be measured — or are they? ^^').

Anyway, it sparkled back an old interest of mine for astrophysics (well, I read one book from Hubert Reeves when I was a kid — and loved it).

Thanks again :)

(oh, as an added bonus: I guess we have no idea _why_ space is expanding, right? Because, I mean, it's a bit mind boggling...)

Edit: to be a bit clearer; I thought space was just void that "always" existed and extended indefinitely. Like, there was nothing except a small point with all the energy in the universe ; "everywhere" else a bit nothingness. Then, bim, the big bang, and matter was just booming away and making stars and planets and then galaxies and all that was just floating in this void/nothingness that was always there, never changing, still extending indefinitely. And that was why we were saying the universe was expanding — because galaxies were still speeding away from each others due to the big bang ; like an explosion with no friction perpetuing indefinitely. Now I guess I'm really confused about what "space" is...

> The Universe is expanding at > every known point at the same > time at the same rate

This part I don't get (I am in no way versed in astrophysics).

If I am in a box, and that the box grows 10%, but that at the same time I grow 10%, what has changed?

I mean, if every point in the universe expands at the same rate at the same time, what does it change? Relatively speaking, everything is the same size before and after expanding right?

It feels a bit like expanding a 1 meter line and expanding the meter standard the same rate as the line.

If anyone has an explanation and is willing to spend some time writing it down, I would be most grateful :)

This itches my brain ^^

> Socialism prevented capitalism from self-destructing and instead empowered it by showing everyone that capitalism, with all its flaws and disgusting habits, is the only system that is able to empower and uplift more people from poverty than all other systems COMBINED.

I disagree. Capitalism has not empowered people (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marx%27s_theory_of_alienation) and does not uplift people from poverty. Human kind is now able to produce so much that extreme poverty should not even exist anymore. We're able to produce thousand times as much goods per worker as in the 1700s, and yet do we live (and by we I mean all the workers, not just us with high-level jobs in rich countries) that much better than at that time? We produce enough food for hunger to disappear on a global scale, and yet we prefer to burn or stock what cannot be sold because we care more about the exchange value of things than the lives it could save. We could use machines instead of workers in mines (like in Congo), but we prefer to send workers through toxic muds because we care more about profit than the lives of these workers.

I do agree that capitalism is a system that has had a significant impact on our ability to produce more goods, and that in some countries we can see a positive impact (mostly due as you said to socialism and the fact that workers actually fought to soften their living conditions), but look at it globally. And look at recent years too, with poverty skyrocketing even in the most "advanced" countries.