Obsidian Wings

A whoops! Friday open thread

by liberal japonicus

Couple of links for you
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/butterflies-parasitic-wasps-finland

https://www.npr.org/2021/10/11/1045084704/an-invasive-plant-is-taking-over-the-kansas-prairie-it-may-be-too-late-to-stop-i

But that's plants you say
Scientists Built an AI to Give Ethical Advice, But It Turned Out Super Racist

A bit of opining here, Something to consider when people suggest that we can just science our way out of climate change. But open thread, so talk about that or anything else.

Yet another mysterious lost culture Friday open thread

Meet the Toaloans, not to be confused with the Talosians. Discuss.

I know you think you are, but what am I Friday open thread

by liberal japonicus

An interesting article about mindreading and its relation to a theory of the mind.

In one of those 'papers I want to write but will probably never get around to', I wanted to make the argument that teaching students, Japanese student in particular, how to lie was a key component of communicative competence. Because many students learn by rote, the response to 'how are you?' is 99.999% of the time 'Fine, thank you, how are you?'. Communicative competence depends on being able to understand when someone is asking you to do something just out of politeness and when they are actually asking. Anyway, a Friday open thread.

Friday open thread literary cage match

by liberal japonicus

In the red corner, all the way from Mother Russia, the killer with Karenina, he knows war and he knows peace, Leeeeeooooooo Tolstoy!

And in the blue corner, the champion, the man coming to bury you, not praise you, from that scepter'd isel, Willlllllll Shakespeare!!!

Are you ready to rumble???

https://bigthink.com/high-culture/tolstoy-shakespeare/