Today I learned...

Megan said:

There's a difference between saying "a person with autism" and "autistic person". The former makes it sound as if autism is some sort of sickness which feeds into the ideology of certain people that it can be "cured" while the latter makes it clear that autism is part of that person. So if you want to be respectful use the latter.

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I don't exactly have a source to back this information up, but it reminds me I heard once that it's way better to view something like depression as "I have depression" rather than "I am depressed" since the former of that can also be seen as it just being part of someone like anything else. The latter is how I personally ended up viewing mine, and in a way I guess it did kinda make things tougher.

As for what I learned, I wouldn't exactly say I learned this but I started being way more conscious of the thought that a lot of the tools and other devices we use are designed by people. Like, it's someone's job to make that look the way it does and every part of it is a conscious design decision. Someone designed how a fork is "supposed" to look for example, and that's an interesting thought to have in my mind.

Megan said:

There's a difference between saying "a person with autism" and "autistic person". The former makes it sound as if autism is some sort of sickness which feeds into the ideology of certain people that it can be "cured" while the latter makes it clear that autism is part of that person. So if you want to be respectful use the latter.

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It's also part of the broader "person first language" (PFL) movement, which basically try to avoid defining people by one given characteristic (mostly the ones that are or were considered bad in the not so distant past) like disabilities, diseases (in fact, the first group to advocate for PFL were people with AIDS), age, gender, race, etc.

That's part of the reason "colored person" is considered racist but "person of color" is considered respectful. In the second example you're emphasizing their personhood first and mentioning their color second.

I've also seen movements to talk about "people who were enslaved" in historical contexts instead of "slaves", or "people who are homeless" instead of "homeless people" for much of the same reason.

That said, while using person first language is usually a good enough default if you're not certain, it's important to keep in mind that no group is a monolith and some people may not mind or even prefer the other terminology. In some cases, entire groups actively avoid PFL (the deaf are a good example, since they usually take pride in the culture they created and positively identify with their deafness).

And now for my actual TIL, there are three real life bugs that are named after Pokémon! They're the Binburrum beetles and surprisingly enough they aren't named after bug Pokémon, but after the legendary birds of Kanto: Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres.

Meister_anon~Master_o f_None said:

very nice. I caught it because its one of my favorite episodes and I've also used that. ;)

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That makes us kinfolk then. :0

Radio said:

That said, while using person first language is usually a good enough default if you're not certain, it's important to keep in mind that no group is a monolith and some people may not mind or even prefer the other terminology. In some cases, entire groups actively avoid PFL (the deaf are a good example, since they usually take pride in the culture they created and positively identify with their deafness).

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well said, you covered that very broad topic nicely.


oh, almost broke the chain.

uhh, ok today I learned how to commit to git from the windows command line, and a little more about decomp.

There's times I need to accept help.

Today I learned some of the intricacies of ancient Roman naming conventions. A first name (praenomen) was a personal name those close to you would call you in informal conversation. It's important to note though that Roman citizens usually passsed these name down through generations, so that name was not likely to be unique to just you within the family. If your father's name was Marcus, and you were his first born son then he would name you Marcus too, his father before him probably was a Marcus and if you had a son then you would call him Marcus as well. Even if you had brothers you still might all be Marcus, because child mortality was high, and your parents would want to make sure someone goes forward with that name.

The most important name was considered your surname (nomen) which came after your first name and signified the family you were part of, not so very unlike our last names are today. The Anton part of Mark Antony is an example of this, he's Marcus of the Antonius family-- and yes, his dad was Marcus also.

If you were a female citizen then you were usually called a femininized version of the paternal family name. Mark Anthony's daughter was named Antonia. He had multiple daughters, but they were still getting named Antonia, might be distinguished with monikers like Antonia the elder, or little Antonia, on official documents they would be numbered like Antonia II.

Some special Romans had a third name (cognomen) like Gaius Julius Caesar. In this case the family name appeared as the middle name, Gaius being his individual name--that his dad also had, and Julius designiting him as part of the Julian clan. Not everybody, even noble families had the tria nomina. If you had three names then it was sometimes a hereditary name that served to further distinguish one branch from another in a larger family that you were both part of-- here's a fellow who was not only from the Julia family, but the Julii Caesares branch. I'm reminded of the Baggins family vs the Sackville-Baggins.

The other reason you would have cognomen is if you were a man who had greatly distinguished himself in some way, like Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus. He's Gnaeus (like his father) from the Pompeia family, but he gets to be styled Magnus too "the great" because of his military victories.

TIL about invasive monkeys in Florida O_O They even have STDs that can be spread through their saliva...

Don't believe me? Google it...

Today I learned that, in several countries in Europe (mine included), it is illegal to show an email/message that you received, to someone else, without the sender's consent. It's called the secrecy of correspondence. This law also says that, if your partner reads your messages on your phone without your consent, besides breaking up, you can even sue them.

How did I end up here? A Youtuber tweeted one of his emails, which was a proposal to make a video on how one of the covid vaccines was dangerous (the sender wanted the Youtuber to spread fake news). The Youtuber hid the sender's address and posted the email on Twitter and later raised the question of whether it was even legal to do that.

Today I learned that "cynic" derives from the Greek word κυνικός, kynikos, "dog-like". It's origins lay in the ancient Greek philosophical school of Cynicism. The philosophy is critical of human society, viewing social conventions and material things with indifference, or even disdain as pretentious and inevitably corrupting influences to be disillusioned with and broken away from. Cynics seek a more honest and free way of living that is meant to ultimately bring you and others greater satisfaction. Early cynics were viewed as so crude that they were mocked as living like dogs, particularly Diogenes whose slept on the street inside of a giant wine jar, and was so candid that he ate, made love and even used the bathroom right there in public, and didn't care what anyone thought. He embraced the insult that his behavior was like an animal, and is claimed to have said, "other dogs bite their enemies, I bite my friends to save them."

There is much we can learn from dogs. Dogs are honest, they express themselves naturally as they move through the world. There's no hypocrisy or deceit, they are what they are. They are also faithful animals that defend those they love and also aren't afraid to warn you of unpleasant truths. They're brave actually. Usually dogs are also good judges of character, and know what's what. Cynics have historically been likened to watch dogs of their philosophical tennets. Sometimes their bark or bite is nasty, but that doesn't mean they are not helpful.

Something else Diogenes is supposed to have famously said is, "I fawn on those who give me anything, I yelp at those who refuse, and I set my teeth in rascals."

Note that when Diogenes says "those who give me anything" he is really talking about someone who can teach him anything, not the finer things.

In fact Alexander the Great went to meet him, and offered to grant him anything he wished, Diogenes, who was relaxing out in the sunlight motioned the king way and retorted that what he could do for him was, "Stand aside to stop blocking the sun."

Legend has it that once an Athenian was leaving a food offering to the Gods, and a white dog took the meat from him, and ran off. The man chased the dog, who dropped the dish outside the gates of Athens and fled. A temple to Heracles was later said to be built on the spot where the food fell. It was called the Cynosarges, or "White Dog". Later a gymnasium was built there and this is where Antisthenes, the founder of Cynicism, taught others. He was referred to as "The Absolute Dog"

Aether Raids in feh doesn't give a shit. They'll give me lv 40 opponents when I want to use lv 20 heroes. So much for training.

Today I learned that even back in Ancient Egypt kids had a tendency to start coloring on the walls of their house. At the Great Palace at Amarna there was a main hall that led to six sleeping chambers, believed to be bedrooms for six daughters of Pharoah Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti. Adjacent to the bedrooms was a child-sized room speculated to function as a playhouse for the princesses. Lots of paintbrushes and pens were found there along with traces of colors and markings scribbled on the walls-- these were likely left by children at play. Awww

today i learned how water cooler systems are put together in PCs...and how the liquid is subsequently dyed. i'm so fixated on PC build videos lately and ngl, i'm living for this food.

Today I learned that in Turkey the color of mourning is violet. In China, white is the color associated with funerary customs. In Egypt it's yellow, and Ethiopia uses brown instead.

Today I learned there's something called the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and it's made up of four constituent countries: The island countries of Curaçao and Aruba, the country St Marteen, and of course, the Netherlands itself.

Today I learned that the region of Tuscany in Italy derives it's name from the Etruscan civilization that flourished there in antiquity. The ancient Romans called this older, prosperous culture to their north Etrusci or Tusci, while Etruscans called themselves Rasenna.

Today I learned I really need to eat better if I wanna see age 45

TIL Pokemon Unite is basically pay to win.

Today I learned Bill (from Pokemon) doesn't like fancy parties.

Today I learned that the diet of chimps (and most apes, except gorillas apparently) includes meat. Meat is not the main part of their diets, but still, I've always thought that apes ate only fruits/roots/leaves and maybe bugs (which is what gorillas do, except they don't eat that many fruits).

MiamiHeat305 said:

Today I learned I really need to eat better if I wanna see age 45

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I know that feel ^^"
Be strong, it's for your health.

TIL I enjoy my off mornings a lot more due to losing all of my mornings to work.