POTF 27 - Nominations

[Lord Thesaurian]

POTF is about recognising the very best posts, the best arguments and discourse in the D&D, and appropriately rewarding it.

You shall progressively earn these medals once you achieve enough wins, but first you must be nominated in threads such as this one. And it works like this.

Post of the Fortnight - Rules

-Each user can nominate up to 2 posts per round, and the only valid form of nomination is by quoting with a link as shown below the chosen post in the PotF thread designated for it.

Looking forward to getting this kicked off for real!

-Each 15 days there will be a new Nomination thread put up, and all the posts written during this period are considered eligible, if properly nominated. Exception are posts who are somewhat breaking the ToS; upon being acted by Moderation, they are always considered uneligible.

- Remember: It is possible to nominate up to 2 posts each round of the competition; it is also possible to change a nomination anytime before the actual round of nominations ends.

- There will be two competitions held every month, with a period for nominations followed by a period of voting. The submitted posts can be discussed in a dedicated space.

- Only posts that have not participated in a previous poll and that have been published in the current period of given time in any section of the D&D area may be nominated.

- The authors of the nominated post will be informed so they can withdraw the candidacy if that is their wish.

- The maximum number of participating posts in the final vote will be ten. If more than ten nominations are submitted, seconded nominations will take priority. After seconded nominations are considered, earliest nominations will take priority. If the number of posts submitted to the contest is less than ten, the organizing committee may nominate posts if it considers it appropriate.

-The members of the committee will never nominate a post belonging to one of them, but the rest of the users can nominate their posts (organizers posts), and vice versa.

-In the event of a tie, both posts will be awarded and both posters will receive rep and 1 competition point.

- Public or private messages asking for a vote for a candidate post are forbidden. Violators (and their posts) may not participate in the running contest.

- People are expected to consider the quality and structure of the post itself, more than the content of the same. While it's certainly impossible to completely split the two aspects when making our own opinion on a post, it remains intended, as also explained in the Competition Commentary Thread, that commenting and discussing on the content rather than on the form/structure of the post is considered off-topic for the purpose of this competition. You are free to nominate and vote for whatever reason you want, but what happens in public has to strictly follow up with the competition rules.

A nominated post should:

1. Be focused and relevant to the topic(s) being discussed.
2. Demonstrate a well-developed, insightful and nuanced understanding of the topic(s) it is discussing.
3. Be logically coherent, well organized and communicate its points effectively.
4. Support its contentions with verifiable evidence, either in the form of links or references.
5. Not be deliberately vexatious to other users.

[Cope]

Good God. It’s depressing that journals are rejecting research just because it doesn’t fit their political worldview. Likewise, the two anonymous scholars and two anonymous reviewers is quite chilling.

I imagine Swedish academia is worse for this sort of orthodoxy, but it exists in the wider Western academic field too.

I have to say progressive articles make for much for aggrandising reading. I’m a part of the elite white patriarchy? Why that sounds much nicer than what I read in the Newsletter today.

Anyway, when societies cancel out the social differences, the innate natural ones are allowed to manifest themselves as people make individual career choices.

This is called the gender Equality paradox, but really it’s nothing of the sort. Equal freedom is equality is equality, no matter the outcome of people’s choices.

https://digest.bps.org.uk/2018/03/14...r-science/amp/


https://www.universityworldnews.com/...61212121515275


The impact of increased female participation.



And what are the potential reasons for higher female representation?



And for some reason they want to still want to increase the amount of female researchers in MENA countries?

[Aexodus]

I disagree - according to definiton, a lie requires the deliberate intent to deceive. So yes, something does become a lie when you learn it was not true, it was a falsehood before that. However, there is another element. In slander or libel, you don't have to deliberately know the statement is false to be gulty, if you recklessly disregard the truth or act negligently to ascertain whether something is true or not. In this case, Islam and Muslims are guilty of libel and slander. The Koran repeatedly makes false claims against Jews and Christians, such as Jews say Ezra is the Son of God, and Christians worship Mary as a god alongside Jesus and Allah, when any research would reveal that these things were not true., making the Koran guilty of libel. Yes, Muhammad could easily be convicted of slander for the things the Koran said, and Muslims guilty of libel and slander, since they recklessly disregard the truth and negligently ascertained whether they said was true. Not only is the Koran, Muhammad and Muslims guilty of libel and slander against Jews and Christians, Islam also libels and slanders Allah as well, by claiming such a disorganized book with a number of false statements came from Allah. To say the all-knowing Allah.did not know know Jews did not know Jews did not in fact say Ezra is the Son of God (sura 9:30) is to libel Allah. And to assert that Allah would deliberately deceive not only Jews.but his own followers and the entire world that Jesus died on the cross (sura 4:157), and did not around to.correcting his deception until 600 years later is a further.label on his character. ..

Well, all of Islam is based on just what one person, Muhammad, said, nobody else witnessed these revelations. And initially, Muhammad thought he was possed until his wife, who did not witness these revelations, convinced him otherwise. Since everything in Islam comes down to Muhammad, what is Muhammad's character that we should trust what he say?

1. Muhammad had 2 singing girls of Mecca, Fartana and Sara, murdered for criticizing him. (Ibn Kathir v.3 p. 403). Fartana was killed when tyr Muslims captured Mecca, but Sara ran away ans was later trampled ro death under a horse (Ibn Ishaq 819).

2. Muhammard had all the men of a Jewish village murdered and the women and children enslaves, and thei property taken. There is no evidence the people of the village were actively opposing Muhammad , Muhammad did this because he was directed to. https://quranx.com/Hadith/Bukhari/US...-52/Hadith-68/

3. Had men tortured and killed. While the men were.rohbers and killers, Muhammad didn't just execute.them but tortured them first. https://quranx.com/Hadith/Bukhari/US...4/Hadith-234/e Sahih Bukhari Haeith 233.

4. Had Kinana al-Rabi tortured and killed to find hidden wealth ("Life of the Prophet" translation by A. Guillaume of Ibn Hisham's biography of Muhammad, page 515)

5. Muhammad repeated received convenient revelations that applied only to him and were for his benefit. While Muslim men are allowed 4 wives, surah 33:50 makes an exception just for Muhammad in having more. And when Muhammad wanted to marry his adopted son's wife (after she was divorced from his adopted son), surah 33:37. The rational in the surah is nonsense, since it said it was to show that it was ok for men ronmarry the wives of their adopted sons, but Islam abolished adoption, so the surah only applies to Muhammad. And while in sura 4:3 tells men to treat their wives equally, sura 33:51 again gives an excrption to Muhammad.

If Muhammard had been alive today, he would have been charged with war crimes. The character of Muhammad is not one to trust a revelation from. And the number of very convenientn revelations that make exception for just Muhammad or only apply to him for a book that is supposed to be the eternal word of Allah makes it suspicious that revelations really are from God/Allah.

[Flinn]

Sumskilz being spot on, I'd like to add that a lot of the old testament rules that can be found in the bible made very much sense at the time they were introduced, and partly even today. It does, to my knowledge, not say anywhere that the rules that these are meant to be enforced for eternity with your brains switched completely off. Not only is that argument a disingenuous one, trying to "defeat" something by presenting it the worst way possible, but also quite false. E.g. you have Jesus saying "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." [Matthew 5:17], whilst several of his sayings, when looked through this superficial, absolutist lense which the hardline fundamentalists and atheists share, would be bound to be contradictory. Ergo there's no way this was meant to be understood this religious fundamenetalist/atheist way.

E.g. "Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" was pretty much the only way to obtain justice in the very old days with lots of tribal warfare and little to no government authority, and already had a limiting effect (don't take 2 eyes for 1), but in the later times, which btw. Jesus already lived in, it was much better to turn the cheek, as the old genocidal danger no longer existed the same way it had previously, and certain types of governmental law enforcement existed to protect you.

Same can be said about circumcision and kosher food. Both are overkill in todays age, but made good sense and likely saved lives in the centuries after their introduction.

Disclaimer: I'm not going to claim to have read the bible from start to finish multiple times. Kinda ridiculous to obsess so much about something one's already decided to disagree with.

&

Nope, quark is distinct from both. But I wouldn't put it past Americans to call it cottage cheese just because they have to be special...

That's odd though. Quark is the primary component of the filling of the cheesecake, including the american versions (which I find rather bland and sugary). So you should be able to find it in shops.

Nah, American cheesecake is made with cream cheese. Americans generally don't know what quark is because Americans don't eat it.

From the wiki page:

Although common in continental Europe, manufacturing of quark is rare in the Americas. A few dairies manufacture it, such as the Vermont Creamery in Vermont,[42] and some specialty retailers carry it.[43][44][45] Lifeway Foods manufactures a product under the title "farmer cheese" which is available in a variety of metropolitan locations with Jewish, as well as former Soviet populations.

I have had it a couple times. The closest thing Americans might have had that is similar to it, is queso fresco, which is a white cheese that's crumbled on top of beans in authentic Mexican restaurants.

Regarding Gallic and Germanic people eating dairy products, here is the modern frequency of adult lactase persistence:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

That would be the percentage of the population who are lactose tolerant. According to genetic evidence, this has been under significant positive selection, to the point that that adult lactose tolerance would have been much lower even 2,000 years ago, the gap between Northern Europe (lactose tolerant) and the Mediterranean (lactose intolerant) would have been greater. African and Arabian lactose tolerance has a separate genetic origin, and was also much less common in the past.

The strongest signal of selection is at the SNP (rs4988235) responsible for lactase persistence in Europe 15,16. Our data (Fig. 3) strengthens previous reports that an appreciable frequency of lactase persistence in Europe only dates to the last four thousand years 3,5,17. The allele’s earliest appearance in our data is in a central European Bell Beaker sample (individual I0112) that lived between approximately 2300 and 2200 BCE.

Genome-wide patterns of selection in 230 ancient Eurasians

Thus, the arrival of migrants associated with the Beaker Complex significantly altered the pigmentation phenotypes of British populations. However, the lactase persistence allele at SNP rs4988235 remained at very low frequencies across this transition, both in Britain and continental Europe, showing that the major increase in its frequency occurred in the last 3,500 years 3,4,25.

The Beaker Phenomenon and the Genomic Transformation of Northwest Europe

Initially this trait was highly correlated with steppe ancestry, which remains true to some extent:

A major debate in archaeology has revolved around the question of whether the spread of the Beaker Complex was mediated by the movement of people, culture, or a combination of both 9. Genome-wide data have revealed high proportions of Steppe-related ancestry in Beaker Complex-associated individuals from Germany and the Czech Republic 2–4, showing that they derived from mixtures of populations from the Steppe and the preceding Neolithic farmers of Europe.

Central European Bell Beaker individuals had up to 75% steppe related ancestry. Germanic and Gaullic people would have been primarily descended from them.

Whereas in Italy:

We collected data from 11 Iron Age individuals dating from 900 to 200 BCE (including the Republican period). This group shows a clear ancestry shift from the Copper Age, interpreted by ADMIXTURE as the addition of a Steppe-related ancestry component and an increase in the Neolithic Iranian component (Figs. 2B and 3B). Using qpAdm, we modeled the genetic shift by an introduction of ~30 to 40% ancestry from Bronze and Iron Age nomadic populations from the Pontic-Caspian Steppe (table S15), similar to many Bronze Age populations in Europe (10, 13, 14, 19, 22). The presence of Steppe-related ancestry in Iron Age Italy could have happened through genetic exchange with intermediary populations (5, 23). Additionally, multiple source populations could have contributed, simultaneously or subsequently, to the ancestry transition before [the] Iron Age.

Ancient Rome: A genetic crossroads of Europe and the Mediterranean

So there is a gene-culture coevolution aspect to food preferences and choice of staples. A lactose persistent population gets a lot more calories out of dairy products, in addition to not feeling ill when eating them.

[Prodromos]

The alt-right (what we're discussing) is enthnonationalistic and fascistic, not religiously conservative. It tends to view Christianity as a servile "Jewish" religion while cynically treating it as useful vehicle for uniting certain European ethnic groups (since it is a point of cultural contact). The Church's historic practices are used as a justification for homophobia, misogyny and anti-Semitism, but Christ's messages of love, forgiveness and universalism are openly denounced. In terms of their own religious views, followers of the alt-right tend either to be atheists or "Pagans" (they're really just appropriating paganism for nationalist reasons). To this extent the movement mirrors the attitude of the NSDAP.

Citation desperately needed for the pretty bold claims that mainstream media regularly blame heavy-metal and board games for the alt-right phenomenon. So, should I take the word of two notorious Internet activists of the alt-right, the first one a misogynist and the other one from the Holocaust apologia variety, that the alt-right or any other euphemism for Fascism, Neo-Nazism or any other extremist right-wing ideology, poses no threat to society? I think not. Of course, I agree that the political impact of the 4chan losers is minuscule, as their capabilities are limited to review-bombing and dislike games and videos, whose message may trigger their fragile sensitivities. Beyond that, they don't really play any major role in the society, although they are insecure enough to pretend they are responsible for Brexit or the presidential election of Donald.

That being said, similar to Salafists, for example, their overall insignificance doesn't mean that we should not criticise them for their hateful dogmas and morally bankrupt actions. Their embellished parroting of bigoted, Antisemitic and unscientific stereotypes undermines the quality of the political discourse and directly contributes to a normalisation of vile ideologies that were smashed 75 years ago. Moreover, the most mentally unstable of them also commit terrorist attacks that have claimed the lives of tens of innocent civilians, from Hanau and Halle in Germany to El Paso and Pittsburgh in the United States. Nowadays, "part and parcel of living in a global, digital word is you’ve got to be prepared for these things, you’ve got to be vigilant, you’ve got to support the police doing an incredibly hard job. We must never accept terrorists being successful, we must never accept that terrorists can destroy our life or destroy the way we lead our lives".

By the way, I find the reference to the Satanic ritual controversy (which was highlighted in the media, because sensationalism sells, not to scare the populace into submission) not a very apt comparison. It's not completely dead yet, as the alt-right, which Black Pigeon so painstakingly tries to exonerate, has often revived the myth to attack its perceived opponents. Far-right fans of Trump were whining that the Democratic elite participates in culinary orgies of blood and sexual fluids, because they were genuinely incapable of comprehending that you cannot possibly bake, fry and grill abstract concepts, like emotions. Not to mention the fact that their hysterical conspiracy theory about a pedophile ring operating in the nonexistent basement of a pizza restaurant almost led to a tragedy, when a vigilante completely lacking in critical thinking intervened. To summarise, regardless of how weak and feeble the far-right ease, complacency is never recommended, when dealing with the groupies of Franco, Hitler, Mussolini and Pinochet.

[Akar]

Celtic and especially Germanic people rarely organized armies in a same sense as Romans did. They were more used to the raiding style of warfare, so they'd be able to live "off the land", pillaging and foraging as they went, and from time to time, actual migration like Galatians, in which case they'd supplement their diet from the herds they brought along. Nevertheless, sometimes they did organize armies, in which case, the basics weren't much different than any other ancient and medieval army, because the needs and solutions to them were pretty much universal. Nevertheless, specifics would be different a bit.

While foraging and pillaging would provide fresh meat, fruit, vegetables, milk and dairy products, the army needed some non-perishable provisions. Vast majority was flour, and here you'd see first differences. While around mediterranean, flour would be mostly made from wheat with some barley, further north, barley would mostly disappear and wheat was increasingly supplemented by rye, which is hardier and more tolerant of cold temperatures. Flour was usually consumed either as porridge or flatbread. Meat and dairy products are interesting part. Though meat was a bigger part of the diet among Germanic and Gallic people and they knew how to preserve it by curing and salting, on the march it would be most likely restricted to the higher positions within society, although if Roman authors are any indication, meat was more common part of Germanic diet than elsewhere. They also knew how to prepare butter (and probably how to make salted butter), which wasn't at the time common in mediterranean, although it was known, because it spoiled too quick in hotter climate. Cheese was also a staple of their diet. Rather interestingly, one Roman author (forgot which) mentions Germanic people "eating milk", and since cheese and butter were known to Romans, it points to a different dairy product, probably quark.

But keep in mind that they served quite often as mercenaries, in which case the provisioning would mostly be subject to sources accessible by their employer.