CowperKettle

> One of the proposed etymologies for "Spain" is that it may be a derivation of the Phoenician I-Shpania, meaning "island of hyraxes", "land of hyraxes", but the Phoenician-speaking Carthaginians are believed to have used this name to refer to rabbits, animals with which they were unfamiliar.

Animal of the day: hyrax

Hitler was antisemitic and pro-Madagascar

> VR might be able to increase activation of the immune cells that are targeted by vaccines, the authors say. That could boost the immune response to vaccines, and, therefore, their efficacy.

> The immune activity in those approached by infectious avatars mirrored that of participants who received an influenza vaccine.

The brain activates front-line immune cells in response to the mere sight of a sick person

Or even the fruit fly brain

What if someone comes up with an alternative architecture?

:)

Weather yesterday

@DanGetz In the way that an AI system is able to self-reflect and check suspicious statements it comes up with

Meta is offering hundreds of millions of dollars in salary to top AI researchers

@Robusto What if tomorrow someone solves the hallucination problem?

I thought that MAOB works to dismantle neuromediators, but it produces GABA, it turns out

Amazing.

> The study thus confirms astrocytic MAOB as a central driver of PTSD symptoms, and MAOB inhibition as a viable therapeutic path. medicalxpress.com/news/…

@Arfrever phys.org/news/…

I've listened to the audio version of the memoir three times thus far

He taught the auntie to call them licorice babies, but the next time he came to her house, she misnamed them "licorice n*****s"

By the time of his childhood, they were called licorice babies, but one of his aunts insisted on calling them n***** babies

Bill Bryson mentions this candy in his memoir

In Russian it's also Нарцисс

Etymology of the day: daffodil - from Ancient Greek ἀσφόδελος (asphódelos), of Pre-Greek origin. The initial d- is perhaps from merging of the article in Dutch de affodil, the Netherlands being a source for bulbs

Politics of the day: to bork - In 1987, conservative judge Robert Bork endured such virulent criticism … that to this day, a nominee sidelined by activists is said to have been "borked"

> A diverse set of languages all across the globe systematically lengthen the initial consonant of a word, according to a 2024 study. This is one of many very subtle phonetic cues that speakers use to determine word boundaries

Walk of the day: soleus walk

My hometown of Noyabrsk will turn into a ghost town too once oil is all pumped out.

@Arfrever Ah, that situation, yes, I know. Depopulation

A riff on a Russian meme where cats have broken everything in the flat, or want to eat, or something, and tell to the woman to wake up, because "we did (something bad) again"

> Wake up Trump, there's a war again!

"You are a cannabinoid theoretician, Harry"

Good for publishing

@M.A.R. Low-dose naltrexone seems to work for some people, although quality studies are absent

@Arfrever Nope

Sure