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Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

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Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#131

Post by uwagar »

notfed wrote: post #122
supernova87a wrote: post #121

There is really something to the idea that despite the daily news and political doomsaying that goes on every day, it's hard for people to remember or celebrate the long progression that we've experienced towards living in the most peaceful, materially prosperous, and positive trajectory time in the history of humanity. (I think there was a podcast on Hidden Brain about this. Also video like this https://www.youtube.…

Related: a TED talk by Steven Pinker about his analysis on whether the world is getting better or worse: https://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_is_the_world_getting...

didnt he goto that TED talk on epstein's jet? ;)

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#132

Post by mrleinad »

hunter2_ wrote: post #25

If we have something like #2, would that debunk the idea that backing things up exclusively on magnetic media (HDD, tape) is sufficient for restoration? I've never found optical media to be particularly reliable, but it might be a decent hedge against a huge magnetic event.

I know optical media deteriorates over time, so in order to be a hedge, you would need to record it over and over again periodically, preparing for an event you are not sure when it might come. Poses a problem with waste and needed resources.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#133

Post by Trex_Egg »

bckr wrote: post #127
victorcharlie wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, yeasts are unicellular fungus. I believe that fungus are the most important life-form in this planet by far . Pretty cool, huh? :)

> unicellular fungus Belongs under the Eurkaryote heading, no?

yes

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#134

Post by jaclaz »

mistermann wrote: post #109
jaclaz wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be picky, the timescale/locations of #23 is way off: Socrates (Athens= 470–399 BC Plato (Athens) 423-348 BC Aristotles (Athens) 384–322 BC Archimedes (of Syracuse) some 2-3 centuries later 287-212 BC Euclid (of Alexandria) was active in Alexandria around 300-270 BC Hyppocrates (of Kos) 470-360 BC Pytagoras (of Samos) 570–495 BC Thucydides (Athens) 460-400 BC Herodotus (of Halicarnassus) 484-425 BC Aesop (?) 620-56…

> is more accurately something like: > In the course of several centuries over a vast territory comprising almost all inhabited mediterranean countries some 10-15 people excelled in their fields and many of them happened to live in the main city (and cultural capital) of the area. Your restatement excluded what I think is the most interesting part: >> and that it might be possible to intentionally recreate such condi…

Because recreating such conditions isn't possible, basically because such conditions never existed and the idilliac setup the article seems to describe never happened.

The article seemingly conveys (at least to me) the idea that "by miracle" all those famous philosophers, writers and mathematicians were in the same place at the same time (and possibly had coffee or dinner together), this simply never happened.

So, if the idea is about creating brand new conditions (which ones?) capable to create a city/location where - over three centuries - a handful of people, excelling in their field lived, this has already been done, let's say Rome 200 BC - 100 AD, London 1600-1900, i.e. more or less the capitals (administrative and/or cultural) of large empires that lasted several centuries.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#135

Post by AlexCoventry »

k8sToGo wrote: post #99
wintermutestwin wrote: post #94

I'll take this space to mention two simple life changing gratitude practices that I have habitualized: 1. Every morning, before I allow myself to look at email/news/etc, I think of three things that I am grateful for. 2. Every night at bedtime, my partner and I tell each other three things we are grateful for about each other and one thing that we are grateful for about ourselves. I find that bookending my days with…

To me this sounds too much like the daily scrum meetings or stand ups where you have to come up with something just so you can say something and, in this case, go to bed. But I only mean this as a joke. I think it is great to have "rituals" that help us look and appreciate more stuff what we have already or where we are and where we came from.

"I'm thankful for the way the adversity you gratuitously create in my life advances my spiritual practice. Sweet dreams!"

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#136

Post by pyrrhotech »

I'm thankful we still live in a society with personal and economic liberty. Both those on the far left and the far right are trying to take those from us, and the center is vanishing as America becomes more polarized each cycle. I'm convinced one day in the future, we will no longer have the freedoms we enjoy today, so I live each day to the fullest knowing that nothing good lasts forever.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#137

Post by flatiron »

TimTheTinker wrote: post #116
dclowd9901 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had this same exact thought the last time i was making bagels. What an absolute miracle it is! And whoever came up with using it to fluff and soften bread through some natural symbiotic reliance of raw nature is just such an incredible step it seems utterly designed from above. Yes, I’m saying maybe a god exists and loves us because they gave us bread.

Benjamin Franklin thought beer was enough proof that there is a God who loves us and wants us to be happy :-)

https://www.anchorbrewing.com/blog/say-what-says-who-benjami...

He never said that.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#138

Post by tyleo »

randlet wrote: post #54
tyleo wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. I have a sucralose energy drink every day after lunch. I generally don’t add sugar and buy low-sugar products. The joy this drink gives me sometimes feels like a drug trip. Shameless plug: https://www.alaninu.com/products/energy-drinks-12pk-cosmic-s...

> The joy this drink gives me sometimes feels like a drug trip. Caffeine is a drug so saying "it feels like" is rather understating it.

Agreed but while I drink and enjoy coffee, the equivalent caffeine from this drink somehow seems to pack more of a punch.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#139

Post by HWR_14 »

victorcharlie wrote: post #86
dgb23 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I‘m thankful for nerds who make corrections so I can learn some interesting fact.

Actually, yeasts are unicellular fungus. I believe that fungus are the most important life-form in this planet by far . Pretty cool, huh? :)

Fungi, like plants and animals, are eukaryotes. However, eukaryotes and bacteria occupy the same rung in the taxonomic divisions (they are domains), so it's the more appropriate correction. The third domain is prokaryotes.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#140

Post by HWR_14 »

elil17 wrote: post #49

I’m thankful for yeast. It’s so, so convenient that we have a non-pathogenic bacteria which will eat pretty much any simple sugar, can be found on the surfaces of most fruits, and is essentially effortless to cultivate, which also does a bunch of useful things like leaven bread and make a bunch of delicious short chain fatty acids (both in bread and on their own, like in marmite) and make alcohol (although that one m…

Alcohol let our ancestors survive. Weakly alcoholic beer was far healthier than water because its production likely killed germs in the water.
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