Is there a search feature that I missed? How does one search one's notes?
714 karma · joined May 4, 2019
https://palladiummag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/gobekli-...
I went through a couple of major mental health episodes during the last two Covid years, related to self-isolation.
Took up breathing exercises related to buddhist meditation (called pranayama) seriously.
I'm doing fine now.
* in case you care, the 5 pranayamas I work with are called: ujjayi, anulom vilom, kapalbhati, bhastrika, brahmari
* wim hof method also works well (it's a combination of multiple pranayamas).
...here's something I find astonishing.
The word "R" doesn't appear anywhere in this article.
He doesn't mention anywhere that he's using "R", and within "R" he's using the "tidyverse".
So much good work to write a tutorial, but a rank beginner will have a hard time figuring out how to replicate it.
I suspect this is the first tiny domino. It's going to become normal for hundreds of colleges to close every year. Buckle up.
If it's sold to us, it wouldn't have any oil in it, now, would it?
I'm an educator in higher-ed.
Always aced IQ-type standardized tests.
Over the years I've observed brilliant students who do very poorly in IQ-type tests. But they write brilliant long-form essays.
The world will be fine.
It seems it just needs Water + Solar Energy.
One would think it would be the top priority worldwide.
It was written 1,000 years ago, but could have been written 75 years ago. It reads that fresh.
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/cul/text...
The level of oppression of lower castes (described in this book) is unbelievable, and remains partly practiced even today. The biggest problem was that you couldn't escape your caste ("caste" is derived from "cast", something you were locked, or cast, into).
They hadn't asked me my name yet. I was taken to them by a rental intermediary. A guy who helped people find apartments. Online rental finding places, like Craigslist, weren't common back then (at least in India).
The most shocking thing about the experience to me was that even though it was illegal for them to deny me an apartment on the basis of my caste, there was simply nothing I could do about it. If I went to the police, it would be a whole other circus (bribes, inaction, etc.).
It might be "compensation". It's like people who live in lily-white areas who constantly harp on about George Floyd. To show they're truly down with the struggle. But if a black man shows up in their neighborhood, they call the police on him.
It was just Bharat Natyam. A commonly taught classical dance form of India. But this performance hall denied her request to perform it because she wasn't a Brahmin.
4) Brahmin friend of mine at work. Brilliant fellow. Solid decent chap overall. I tell him about this article I read about how in some city, a non-Brahmin girl wasn't allowed to do Bharat Natyam (a classical Indian dance form that is widely taught) on some stage because she wasn't a Brahmin. I guess traditionally only Brahmin girls were allowed to perform it. Turns out he agrees with this decision.
5) I'm eating South Indian food with a colleague in Chennai (I suppose he was a Brahmin, but am not 100% sure). I love South Indian food. I comment to him how good the food is. He says, it's not as good as it used to be because in the past only Brahmins were allowed to cook at that restaurant, but now they allow anyone to cook. He knows I'm not a Brahmin, and still he thinks it's okay to say such things to my face.
I'll just leave my comment here so that the truth is available for anyone who cares.
I'm a member of the so-called "upper castes", but not a Brahmin.
Parents were very bohemian, never taught me anything about caste.
Go to college in India. My best friend in college is a Brahmin. I knew that Brahmins were priests, didn't really know anything else about their ideology. One late night, well after we had established a very strong friendship, he starts to tell me about how Brahmins are superior to non-Brahmins. Tells me that because I was "x" caste, I was meant to do "y" types of jobs. And that I shouldn't try to compete with him in things where "pure IQ" was relevant. I pointed out to him that in the national Civil Service and IIT exams, people of my caste were usually the "toppers", and usually made up 40% to 60% of the top 10 selected. Routinely doing better than Brahmins. (In India the last name is associated with one's caste, and newspapers routinely publish names of "toppers" of these exams). He shrugged it off. The crazy part? In every other aspect of his character, he was such a good guy that we remained best friends for years after.
Upper castes will tell you there's no caste discrimination in India. Three more anecdotes:
1) I take up a one-year position with my job in Chennai. Go around looking for an apartment. Looked at 2 apartments in a nice neighborhood. First question the landlords asked me: are you a Brahmin? They told me they couldn't rent to me because I wasn't.
2) In my office in Chennai I become friendly with a lot of the female staff. They start to tease me one day that they're going to find me a girl to marry. "Don't worry, we'll find you a Brahmin." The kicker? They weren't Brahmins themselves. This is the level of self-hate the Brahmin has bred into non-Brahmins.
3) I now live and work in the U.S. A new hire, Indian, joins. Visits my office one day. Tells me he left India because he hates the caste system. I start warming to him. A little while later informs me that he's a very high Brahmin. Not an ordinary Brahmin, mind you, a high Brahmin.
(I just rolled-up my fist and breathed through it. And it provided lots of resistance. So it looks like I might be able to make this work with just my fist.)
If anyone knows, please hit reply and let me know.
Does it mean that masks and social distancing were actually useful? Or the opposite?
There's a territory. There was digital land-grab on this territory. A tiny number of people bought all the available digital-land. Now everybody else needs to buy the land from them. At extortionate prices.
The good news? It's easy to create another territory. It's easy to create an infinite number of territories.
Aside 1: as big of a joke the original dotcom boom was, it looks serious compared to web3's $200,0000 floor price jpeg apes.
Aside 2: I read this week about a couple of people losing their jpeg apes because they connected their wallet to some scam site. I thought web3 was supposed to be smarter than "connecting one's wallet to a non-scam site in a way that allows the non-scam site to scam you if they wanted." Is this the best they can do? I was told we'd be connecting our wallets to everything in the future.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixtamalization
This complicated process of preparing maize makes more nutrients bioavailable.
The Aztecs figured it out somehow.
I learned about this when trying to buy maize flour and discovering that there are 2 types: nixtamalized and non.
Reminds me of how certain South American indigenous tribes have this very complicated ritual to prepare Cassava/Tapioca. They didn't know it, but it removes cyanide and makes it much safer to consume (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-48859333 ).
Thanks.