Eq0

joined 2 years ago
[–] Eq0@literature.cafe 10 points 10 hours ago

In the Alps, there are already quite some ghost towns. Small towns either turned into touristic villages or disappeared over the last 50 years. Others were border towns that slowly went out of business. So many are hanging in by a thread, with increasingly old population.

[–] Eq0@literature.cafe 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I heard the problem was with yeast interacting poorly with their digestion. Please, power of the internet, tell me if I’m wrong!

[–] Eq0@literature.cafe 2 points 2 days ago

I do this sooo often. Often times I just write intro stuff to cool ideas that might or might not be connected to what I should write about. I find honing a page much easier than writing it, so I try to write something and recursively make it into what I need.

[–] Eq0@literature.cafe 5 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I find it so upsetting that most of university’s focus is building marketable skills. That should be the side result! The main result should be in-depth education in a field of your choosing, while building critical thinking skills. Not “let’s give you 5 more years of fact based learning while cherry picking the facts to tailor it your future job”

[–] Eq0@literature.cafe 5 points 2 days ago

Last winter, our city had red flooding warnings, part of the city center under water and blocked to traffic. The city hall warning to not cross bridges unless absolutely necessary. And life went on as usual?! I was flabbergasted that the school closed, but not the university nor anything else.

[–] Eq0@literature.cafe 11 points 2 days ago (2 children)

And sometimes the importance of your work is overstated…

[–] Eq0@literature.cafe 36 points 5 days ago (5 children)

I understand… unfortunately, from the other side, I have received so many emails/links/leaflets with woefully out of date information, that I often still try to get direct contact with someone on the inside to confirm stuff.

Lately, I’ve spend an afternoon queuing and getting documents for a government mcGuffin, just to be told at the third meeting with the same staff member that I was an exception and all that stuff did not apply to me at all, I had to go to another office and bring a different set of documents.

I had to directly contact my health insurance three times in one month because the information on their website was out of date.

I had to directly request some “public” documents from HR because the website was last updated early 2024, but there was a law change January 2025.

So many instances like these make me skim emails and often reach out directly. I’m sorry it bites you in the ass.

[–] Eq0@literature.cafe 1 points 5 days ago

Considering the creator, is this historically accurate (as far as we know)?

[–] Eq0@literature.cafe 2 points 5 days ago

Ohhh daaaaam!!

[–] Eq0@literature.cafe 8 points 5 days ago

Absolutely! I just moved to a city that significantly sponsors third places, there are so many clubs and activities for free or almost (archery club fee at 45€/year, dojos go between 45€/semester to 100€, swimming pool at 2€/hour, film festivals for under 10€, knitting club and language club are free, additional discounts come with social security benefits). It makes such a difference! Meeting people becomes seamless when costs are not a constraint. It has been so much easier to build a social net.

Previously I was in a big business city. Everything costs so much, it was hard to justify. Free activities were few and far between. After years there, all my social contacts were through my work.

[–] Eq0@literature.cafe 8 points 6 days ago

Stairs are always the architectural element I look at the most. I find them neat! And this one.. wow! Who designed it?

[–] Eq0@literature.cafe 23 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Wouldn’t there be other possible plants that would provide the same alkaloid compounds?

 

I just got my hands on a small garden! But I have no idea where to start…

There are quite some plants already planted: an olive tree, some small palm trees (that I don’t like), a Japanese maple (?), a raspberry bush and some others I don’t recognize (mostly decorative). Most of the floor is lawn (that I am letting grow wilder). Unfortunately I am not able to include a photo, it’s not loading.

I am in a 9a/9b zone (I think: mild winters rarely if ever freezing, mild summers, quite wet the whole year, continental Europe).

My questions:

  • what can I do to maintain the lawn walkable but let it get more diverse?

  • what tools do I need for every-day maintenance of a small garden?

  • do you have any advice on plants both perennial and annual for newbies? I’m in particular interested in small plants that produce something edible. Ideally would like to start with a small apple tree? And a pumpkin/zucchini plant next year?

 

I have been thinking more and more about how our personal lives impact our access to literature and information in general.

For example, I am reading a book I am rather enjoying, but it's in French with no translation in any other languages. It's also from a local small publishing company. At the moment, I am not aware if it has been published as an e-book, that would make it more available, but for what I know this one book is accessible only to people in a rough 100km radius from where I am, and has a language requirement.

In a similar way, news is highly language based, and new outlets will differ significantly in what news they are distributing depend ing on language and geographical location (have you heard about the Serbian protests in the last weeks? I wouldn't if it hadn't been for a Serbian friend - and I have very limited first hand access to news about it).

How conscious are you that you live - necessarily - in a bubble? When do you notice it most?

Related, check out this website: novelty-insights.com where you can analyse your goodreads book data to see what sort of categories you read most from - a sort of "filter" we apply to ourselves, sometimes willingly, sometimes unconsciously.

 

Overview: 3.5/5 stars

This book talks about difficult themes in the history of Africa and then US, centered around discrimination and exploitation. The book follows a variety if people along the last three centuries that dealt with various elements of discrimination, with slavery being a central theme.

While the topic in interesting, the writing style felt mostly flat to me. The characters were human, but it felt most of them were objects of their own lives instead of subjects. It seems they suffered not only from the outside world but also a lack of inner development. That was true not only of the characters that had limited to no agency, but also of the ones that had freedom and took revolutionary actions: they all felt limited and fairly unengaging.

From the more academic perspective, it gives glimpses of philosophical debates in the history of African Americans. This was the but I personally enjoyed the most.

All in all, an okay book about an interesting and well-researched topic.

 

I’m looking for a book that would explain the ideologies that played into the creation and development of the European Union. I’m less interested in the practicalities. Do you have a suggestion?

 

My kid is crawling all over the place and learning to stand. He is little less than a year. What are some games I can start playing with him? What games did you play with your little one?

 

No spoilers here, but there will be spoilers in the comments

As the third book of the Locked Tomb quadrilogy, Nona the Ninth is wild. What do you think of it? And what do you think the ending means?

 

Politically, Napoleon divides the history of Europe in “before” and “after”. He grabbed the power in France after the Revolution with such skills that he had virtually no opposition. From there he conquered everything, from Egypt, to Russia and Spain. His fall was equally momentous. And then he did it again, leaving everyone confused and the political board of Europe forever reshuffled.

Victor Hugo is a man of that time, trying to make sense of all of this turmoil while mainly talking about people and their inner worlds. In Les Misérables he concentrated on the lowest of the low, poor people making bad choices.

At the time, it was believed that crimes had to be punished, but there was no hope for the criminal to be reinstated into society as a fully functioning member. Hugo makes the opposite claim: criminals are just good people in bad situations. And he talks about them.

While the length can scare readers off, I would encourage anyone to start it. Every page is a little masterpiece of human perception and empathy, with an author taking his time to fully build up not only stages but also souls.

 

By this I mean, a book you had to brace yourself to read, and you feel proud for having read. Did you enjoy the process of reading it?

 

Is it interesting characters? Or believable motivations? Maybe writing style? Is the world building?

And how likely are you to enjoy a book that doesn’t fit your own criteria?

 

A bit criticism to the Silmarillion is that the style is very dry and the plot is disconnected.

This is by design. The Silmarillion wanted to be the creating work of the UK mythology. As such, it mimicked the style of other mythological sagas: the Mabinogion most notably, the minor Homer, the Eddas. Part of the idea is to create a shared well-know scene from which other authors can draw to set their own works.

In some ways, it was incredibly successful: nowadays it’s impossible to talk about Elfs without referencing Tolkien’s in some ways.

 

I read Plainsong by Haruf some two years ago, and I was immediately enamored with it. All characters are so easily relatable and the whole story unfolds along a sweet melody. While bad and sad things happen, you still feel lulled by the background song and you know things are going to get solved. For any fan of “slice of life” and small stories.

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