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I was involved very tangentially in a project to store human genomes (and other data about us) on sapphire digital disks on the moon. I even got some quotes from Thunderdome stories from these forums included. It kinda fell apart, I believe due to a combination of big egos and running out of money. But my big takeaway was that sapphire seems to be the way to go for multi-million-year digital data storage. It's probably actually a good thing it fell apart, since we only got a good full-length human genome sequence in the last year or so.
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Apr 24, 2022 05:17
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Anyone know what the hell this thing is There was no signage to even tell what era it was from
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Apr 24, 2022 08:51
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FreudianSlippers posted:Anyone know what the hell this thing is Fellatio-themed ocarina?
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Apr 24, 2022 09:07
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Water feature or something music/sound related I wouls guess.
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Apr 24, 2022 09:10
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FreudianSlippers posted:Anyone know what the hell this thing is it had a ritual significance
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Apr 24, 2022 09:22
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Maybe an incense burner?
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Apr 24, 2022 09:43
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FreudianSlippers posted:Anyone know what the hell this thing is Is it a herm?
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Apr 24, 2022 11:28
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It kinda just seems like it'd be a pretty metal fountain, get some water vomiting from 4 faces, would look pretty neat. I'm basing this off absolutely nothing except I think it'd look cool. So, I've been reading a bit about the Siege of Suiyang during 757, are there any sources except for the Old Book of Tang/New Book of Tang? The records of cannibalism seem really doubtful to me and I wondered if there'd been any attempt to verify it. I could believe there'd be some incidents of cannibalism in an extreme famine, but I'm struggling to believe that soldiers and people in this besieged city would not mutiny and surrender under the conditions described. Historian friend is convinced its true because why would the Tang dynasty record themselves doing something like this? quote:Yin Ziqi had besieged the city for a long time. The food in the city had run out. The dwellers traded their children to eat and cooked bodies of the dead. Fears were spread and worse situations were expected. At this time, Zhang Xun took his concubine out and killed her in front of his soldiers in order to feed them. He said, "You have been working hard at protecting this city for the country wholeheartedly. Your loyalty is uncompromised despite the long-lasting hunger. Since I can't cut out my own flesh to feed you, how can I keep this woman and just ignore the dangerous situation?" All the soldiers cried, and they did not want to eat. Zhang Xun ordered them to eat the flesh. Afterwards, they caught the women in the city. After the women were run out, they turned to old and young males. 20,000 to 30,000 people were eaten. People always remained loyal. quote:After the city was besieged for a long time, at the beginning, the horses were eaten. After horses ran out, they turned to the women, the old, and the young. 30,000 people in total were eaten. People knew their death was close, and nobody rebelled. When the city fell, only 400 people were left. I think she's assigning current day values a bit there, because I don't know, it reads more to me like they're saying it as some kind of boast about the loyalty and integrity of the soldiers and citizens for obeying instead of surrendering. Or maybe intimidation. I'm not sure. If there was cannibalism during the siege I can't imagine it happening in the figures described, I honestly can't imagine it happening more than isolated and unorganised. I know cannibalism does happen during famine, but I would think the fact that surrender would end the famine would make that a preferable alternative for basically everyone except perhaps the top officers. Friend thinks the soldiers were too weak to mutiny because of the famine, but I mean. It'd not just be soldiers rebelling though, people living there could do it on sheer numbers, if the numbers of the eaten were even close to the truth.
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Apr 24, 2022 13:12
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Grand Fromage posted:Yup. This period in particular will probably have terrible documentation unless there are efforts made to preserve it in readable forms. I know that exists but I don't know that it's sufficient. The Library of Congress just printing the internet off and storing it in a basement is an important job. Edgar Allen Ho posted:This post right here is going into the Library of Congress. unfortunately they don't have an account here, so they seem to mostly archive the frontpage
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Apr 24, 2022 13:50
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https://twitter.com/GravitysRa1nbow/status/1524061273507483648?t=jiI6RblAqH6NathS3wOJtA&s=19
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May 10, 2022 21:17
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Reminds me of how Socrates was basically "kids today are too soft: another Spartan occupation —like back in my day— would set 'em straight."
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May 10, 2022 23:12
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Arglebargle III posted:https://twitter.com/GravitysRa1nbow/status/1524061273507483648?t=jiI6RblAqH6NathS3wOJtA&s=19 This is an Alcibiades reference, isn't it?
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May 10, 2022 23:47
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Kylaer posted:This is an Alcibiades reference, isn't it?
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May 10, 2022 23:49
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Part of the reason Socrates was killed in the first place is because he has supported (in the eyes of the restored democratic government at least) the Thirty Tyrants, the pro-Spartan oligarchy who had a very short lived but bloody reign of terror following Athens's defeat in the Peloponnesian War. At very least the tyrants allowed him to live while killing almost everyone who directly opposed them but whether that was because at least one (possibly more) of them was a former student of his or because Socrates was a collaborator/sympathizer was somewhat controversial. Plato didn't think so but he wasn't exactly neutral also the aforementioned former student Criatas was Plato's cousin. So double not neutral. Source: It came to me in a dream
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May 10, 2022 23:58
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Bone study suggest Anglo-Saxon elite ate about less meat than previously thought.
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May 21, 2022 20:04
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It's May 29th again, hope everyone is doing okay on this difficult day. :cryinghagiasophia:
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May 29, 2022 17:48
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It's Centralia coal fire day
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May 29, 2022 18:39
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Arglebargle III posted:It's Centralia coal fire day Every day is Centralia coal fire day!
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May 29, 2022 18:43
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Anyone have any recs for spooky/scary/skeleton stuff on ancient religions, cults, witches and the like? Bonus points if it's a popular book from the 1920s. Yes, it's for an RPG thing: I'm thinking of running Call of Cthulhu for my friends and I'm looking for some inspiration for occult stuff.
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May 29, 2022 18:47
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Siivola posted:Anyone have any recs for spooky/scary/skeleton stuff on ancient religions, cults, witches and the like? Bonus points if it's a popular book from the 1920s. Take a look at the Greek magic papyri if you want to learn what to say and do in actual ancient occultism, complete with spells far more tongue-twisty than even Lovecraft would have come up with:  PDF available here
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May 29, 2022 18:55
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"PTABAIN AAAAAA AEEIOYOYOOIEEA..." "Did you just say 'AAAAAA'? It's supposed to be 'AAAAAAA'!" "Oh shi--" [ROOM EXPLODES]
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May 29, 2022 19:05
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May 29, 2022 19:06
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Fixed
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May 29, 2022 20:50
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Grand Fromage posted:It's May 29th again, hope everyone is doing okay on this difficult day. :cryinghagiasophia: Incidentally they're talking about excommunicating the moscow patriarchate because Kirill is a poo poo, which means depending which tradition you follow we've got a Fourth Rome up for grabs
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May 29, 2022 21:23
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Grand Fromage posted:It's May 29th again, hope everyone is doing okay on this difficult day. :cryinghagiasophia: What is so bad about the day of the glorious conquest of İstanbul?
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May 29, 2022 21:54
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Grand Fromage posted:It's May 29th again, hope everyone is doing okay on this difficult day. :cryinghagiasophia: They say time heals all wounds, but it never seems to get any easier.
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May 29, 2022 22:00
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Zopotantor posted:What is so bad about the day of the glorious conquest of İstanbul? The loss of a robust tradition of feminine wisdom as part of the Son in the Trinity is a pretty big deal to some people, even if they aren’t orthodox.
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May 29, 2022 22:21
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skasion posted:Take a look at the Greek magic papyri if you want to learn what to say and do in actual ancient occultism, complete with spells far more tongue-twisty than even Lovecraft would have come up with: If someone knows about early Christian heresies (and especially the slander from their opponents), I'm all ears for that stuff too. 
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May 30, 2022 17:52
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Gaius Marius posted:They say time heals all wounds, but it never seems to get any easier. Username post etc
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May 30, 2022 18:12
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Siivola posted:Sick, thanks! Checked out a couple of books cited in the introduction and now I've got Egyptian magic for days. This also might be helpful: https://www.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de/cmawro/magic-witchcraft/ It's actual Babylonian witchcraft and such, which is probably what Lovecraft was imagining when he came up with the Cthulhu mythos. Unfortunately it looks like you can only get a German translation for free online (that site has one). There seem to be English translations kicking around, but those mostly seem to be spellbooks for modern people who literally believe the Cthulhu mythos is real, so YMMV.
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May 30, 2022 18:18
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Siivola posted:
The best source for responses to early Christian heresies is Irenaeus's bluntly named Against Heresies. He wrote around 180 CE and the text refutes heretical ideas from a variety of sects that existed in his days, including Gnostic groups.
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May 30, 2022 18:20
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Lead out in cuffs posted:This also might be helpful: https://www.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de/cmawro/magic-witchcraft/ this rules thank you
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May 30, 2022 18:25
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That's great stuff, thank you both.
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May 30, 2022 18:29
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Lead out in cuffs posted:This also might be helpful: https://www.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de/cmawro/magic-witchcraft/ There are English translations of those texts on Oracc, an archive run by the University of Pennsylvania: http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/cmawro/corpus. There's a ton of collections of translated cuneiform texts on that site too, organized into categories, so there are probably some other collections relating to witchcraft you could find by browsing the site a little.
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May 30, 2022 18:39
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CrypticFox posted:There are English translations of those texts on Oracc, an archive run by the University of Pennsylvania: http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/cmawro/corpus. There's a ton of collections of translated cuneiform texts on that site too, organized into categories, so there are probably some other collections relating to witchcraft you could find by browsing the site a little. Oh that's awesome, and it has the transliterations too! For the OP, that could be pretty useful -- Sumerian is utterly unlike any other language on this planet, so already sounds extremely occult. Like: "Šamaš upīšūšunu ana muḫḫīšunu litūrū!" for "Šamaš, may their sorcerous devices return to them who turned to evil against me!"
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May 30, 2022 19:04
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Lead out in cuffs posted:Oh that's awesome, and it has the transliterations too! For the OP, that could be pretty useful -- Sumerian is utterly unlike any other language on this planet, so already sounds extremely occult. Just needs some more Y's and I'd have thought it was Finnish. (I do not speak or read Finnish)
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May 30, 2022 19:16
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Cuneiform Digital Library Journal posted:Ninkasi, you are the one who handles dough (and) … with a big shovel, Ok so is this a straightforward description of Ninkasi's duties or is it full of innuendo? I can't tell.
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May 30, 2022 19:27
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Arglebargle III posted:Ok so is this a straightforward description of Ninkasi's duties or is it full of innuendo? I can't tell. IIRC this has been posted before and it's a recipe that is also a prayer.
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May 30, 2022 19:37
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Kylaer posted:IIRC this has been posted before and it's a recipe that is also a prayer. For beer, specifically.
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May 30, 2022 20:20
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Siivola posted:Sick, thanks! Checked out a couple of books cited in the introduction and now I've got Egyptian magic for days. In a lot of cases the slander from their opponents is the only evidence we have at all 
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