capricorn-0mnikorn

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I answered "Other" because I've learned, forgotten, and relearned it so long ago, I forget if it was in school or out of it.

This fact has become the bane of my activity page so I wanted to survey tumblr on this. If you reblogged my teeth shitpost then reblog this too, maybe?

Context (quote from the Wikipedia page for tooth):

Teeth are not made of bone, but rather of multiple tissues of varying density and hardness that originate from the outermost embryonic germ layer, the ectoderm.

#tumblr polls #teeth

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

I love what humans can do with language.

I saw this on quora and thought it was cool and wanted to share it on here.  Its a long read but crazy.  Its from Erik Painter

They did try. And they did capture Navajo men. However, they were unsuccessful in using them to decipher the code. The reason was simple. The Navajo Code was a code that used Navajo. It was not spoken Navajo. To a Navajo speaker, who had not learned the code, a Navajo Code talker sending a message sounds like a string of unconnected Navajo words with no grammar. It was incomprehensible. So, when the Japanese captured a Navajo man named Joe Kieyoomia in the Philippines, he could not really help them even though they tortured him. It was nonsense to him.

The Navajo Code had to be learned and memorized. It was designed to transmit a word by word or letter by letter exact English message. They did not just chat in Navajo. That could have been understood by a Navajo speaker, but more importantly translation is never, ever exact. It would not transmit precise messages. There were about 400 words in the Code.

The first 31 Navajo Marines created the Code with the help of one non-Navajo speaker officer who knew cryptography. The first part of the Code was made to transmit English letters. For each English letter there were three (or sometimes just two) English words that started with that letter and then they were translated into Navajo words. In this way English words could be spelled out with a substitution code. The alternate words were randomly switched around. So, for English B there were the Navajo words for Badger, Bear and Barrel. In Navajo that is: nahashchʼidí, shash, and tóshjeeh. Or the letter A was Red Ant, Axe, or Apple. In Navajo that is: wóláchííʼ, tsénił , or bilasáana. The English letter D was: bįįh=deer, and łééchąąʼí =dog, and chʼįįdii= bad spiritual substance (devil).

For the letter substitution part of the Code the word “bad” could be spelled out a number of ways. To a regular Navajo speaker it would sound like: “Bear, Apple, Dog”. Or other times it could be “ Barrel, Red Ant, Bad Spirit (devil)”. Other times it could be “Badger, Axe, Deer”. As you can see, for just this short English word, “bad” there are many possibilities and to the combination of words used. To a Navajo speaker, all versions are nonsense. It gets worse for a Navajo speaker because normal Navajo conjugates in complex ways (ways an English or Japanese speaker would never dream of). These lists of words have no indicators of how they are connected. It is utterly non-grammatical.

Then to speed it up, and make it even harder to break, they substituted Navajo words for common military words that were often used in short military messages. None were just translations. A few you could figure out. For example, a Lieutenant was “one silver bar” in Navajo. A Major was “Gold Oak Leaf” n Navajo. Other things were less obvious like a Battleship was the word for Whale in Navajo. A Mine Sweeper was the Navajo word for Beaver.

A note here as it seems hard for some people to get this. Navajo is a modern and living language. There are, and were, perfectly useful Navajo words for submarines and battleships and tanks. They did not “make up words because they had no words for modern things”. This is an incorrect story that gets around in the media. There had been Navajo in the military before WWII. The Navajo language is different and perhaps more flexible than English. It is easy to generate new words. They borrow very few words and have words for any modern thing you can imagine. The words for telephone, or train, or nuclear power are all made from Navajo stem roots.

Because the Navajo Marines had memorized the Code there was no code book to capture. There was no machine to capture either. They could transmit it over open radio waves. They could decode it in a few minutes as opposed to the 30 minutes to two hours that other code systems at the time took. And, no Navajo speaker who had not learned the Code could make any sense out of it.

The Japanese had no published texts on Navajo. There was no internationally available description of the language. The Germans had not studied it at the time. The Japanese did suspect it was Navajo. Linguists thought it was in the Athabaskan language family. That would be pretty clear to a linguist. And Navajo had the biggest group of speakers of any Athabaskan language. That is why they tortured Joe Kieyoomia. But, he could not make sense of it. It was just a list of words with no grammar and no meaning.

For Japanese, even writing the language down from the radio broadcasts would be very hard. It has lots of sounds that are not in Japanese or in English. It is hard to tell where some words end or start because the glottal stop is a common consonant. Frequency analysis would have been hard because they did not use a single word for each letter. And some words stood for words instead of for a letter. The task of breaking it was very hard.

Here is an example of a coded message:

béésh łigai naaki joogii gini dibé tsénił áchį́į́h bee ąą ńdítį́hí joogi béésh łóó’ dóó łóóʼtsoh

When translated directly from Navajo into English it is:

“SILVER TWO BLUE JAY CHICKEN HAWK SHEEP AXE NOSE KEY BLUE JAY IRON FISH AND WHALE. “

You can see why a Navajo who did not know the Code would not be able to do much with that. The message above means: “CAPTAIN, THE DIVE BOMBER SANK THE SUBMARINE AND BATTLESHIP.”

“Two silver bars” =captain. Blue jay= the. Chicken hawk= dive bomber. Iron fish = sub. Whale= battleship. “Sheep, Axe Nose Key”=sank. The only normal use of a Navajo word is the word for “and” which is “dóó ”. For the same message the word “sank” would be spelled out another way on a different day. For example, it could be: “snake, apple, needle, kettle”.

Here, below on the video, is a verbal example of how the code sounded. The code sent below sounded to a Navajo speaker who did not know the Code like this: “sheep eyes nose deer destroy tea mouse turkey onion sick horse 362 bear”. To a trained Code Talker, he would write down: “Send demolition team to hill 362 B”. The Navajo Marine Coder Talker then would give it to someone to take the message to the proper person. It only takes a minute or so to code and decode.

#undescribed #navajo code talkers #ww2 history #cryptography #YouTube

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

I picked the bed on the assumption that the mattress is also the perfect firmness/softness depending on your needs when you lie down.

no multi option, agonize and choose, no results option, pick one to find out or scroll onward

#tumblr polls #magic items

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

A hiker, clearly shaken, enters a remote English village pub, his clothes all torn and he's full of scratches. 

"You won't believe this," he says to the bartender. "I was attacked by a leopard!"

"Really?"

"Yes! A leopard! In England!" The hiker sits down and orders the strongest liquor they've got. "I tried to run, but it was if course much faster than me."

The hiker gets his glass, empties it, and asks for another. "It sent me to the ground with a mighty push from its paws, but weirdly enough it then just gave me a really sad look and left."

"Ah, you met Father Andrews," the bartender says, matter-of-factly.

"What do you mean?" asks the tourist, confused.

"Father Andrews was our priest. A truly kind-hearted man, loved by all. His only goal in life was to serve his congregation as well as he could. So when he one day found a lamp with a genie, his very first wish was to be a loving shepherd to the community."

"That's nice "

"Absolutely, if only he hadn't been so prone to spoonerisms."

#laugh rule #(twice) #spoonerisms #a pun's first cousin

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

Reblogging for the info.

I saw a comment on your blog that says 'the way you eat does not cause diabetes'...are you able to expand on that or provide a source I could read? I've been told by doctors that my pre-diabetes was due to weight gain because I get more hungry on my anti psychotics and I'd like to fact check what they've told me! Thank you so much!

Pre-diabetes was rejected as a diagnosis by the World Health Organization (although it is used by the US and UK) - the correct term for the condition is impaired glucose tolerance. Approximately 2% of people with "pre-diabetes" go on to develop diabetes per year. You heard that right - TWO PERCENT. Most diabetics actually skip the pre-diabetic phase.

There are currently no treatments for pre-diabetes besides intentional weight loss. (Hmm, that's convenient, right?) There has yet to be evidence that losing weight prevents progression from pre-diabetes to T2DM beyond a year. Interestingly, drug companies are trying to persuade the medical world to start treating patients earlier and earlier. They are using the term “pre-diabetes” to sell their drugs (including Wegovy, a weight-loss drug). Surgeons are using it to sell weight loss surgery. Everyone’s a winner, right? Not patients. Especially fat patients.

Check out these articles:

Prediabetes: The epidemic that never was, and shouldn’t be

The war on ‘prediabetes' could be a boon for pharma—but is it good medicine?

Also - I love what Dr. Asher Larmie @fatdoctorUK has to say about T2DM and insulin resistance, so here's one of their threads I pulled from Twitter:

1️⃣ You can't prevent insulin resistance. It's coded in your DNA. It may be impacted by your environment. Studies have shown it has nothing to do with your BMI.

2️⃣ The term "pre-diabetes" is a PR stunt. The correct term is impaired glucose tolerance (or impaired fasting glucose) which is sometimes referred to as intermittent hyperglycemia. It does not predict T2DM. It is best ignored and tested for every 3-5yrs.

3️⃣ there is no evidence that losing weight prevents diabetes. That's because you can't reverse insulin resistance. You can possibly postpone it by 2yrs? Furthermore there is evidence that those who are fat at the time of diagnosis fair much better than those who are thin.

4️⃣ Weight loss does not reverse diabetes in the VAST majority of people. Those that do reverse it are usually thinner with recent onset T2DM and a low A1c. Only a tiny minority can sustain that over 2yrs. Weight loss does not improve A1c levels beyond 2 yrs either.

5️⃣ Weight loss in T2DM does not improve macrovascular or microvascular health outcomes beyond 2 years. In fact, weight loss in diabetics is associated with increased mortality and morbidity (although it is not clear why). Weight cycling is known to impacts A1c levels.

6️⃣ Weight GAIN does NOT increase the risk of cardiovascular OR all causes mortality in diabetics. In fact, one might even go so far as to say that it's better to be fat and diabetic than to be thin and diabetic.

Dr. Larmie cites 18 peer reviewed journal articles (most from the last decade) that are included in their webinar on the subject, linked below.

#fatphobia #impaired glucose tolerance #Capitalism in medicine

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

[Image description: a photo of a living sea star in shallow water. The tips of each of its arms are slightly curled. The image is captioned: "We could almost say, a living being is a memory which acts" Description ends].

#Image description #sea star #life #memory

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

Both my parents smoked since before I was born. They each tried to quit several times, and finally succeeded when I was a teenager.

My mother died of breast cancer back in 1991. My father died of lung cancer in 2006.

The smell of tobacco smoke gives me a migraine and triggers my asthma.

If you are a smoker, and you want to come visit me, please launder the smell of cigarettes out of your clothes before you come. Otherwise, we must remain Internet friends only.

Sorry. Not sorry to sound like an after-school PSA, but --

#tumblr polls #cigarettes

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

neesh vs. neech vs. nitch FIGHT

#tumblr polls #English pronunciation #niche #IRRC #I've pronounced it all three ways #depending on the words around it

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

Also, we should bring back house phones. A big selling point of phones in people's pockets is that you can reach specific people no matter where they are in the world.

But as someone who's physically disabled, when I call for help, I (often) don't need a specific person, I just need someone nearby to my specific place. for example, if I've dropped a packet of frozen food on the floor, and I can't pick it up, and I just literally need an extra hand. If it were still normal to have house phones, I could call my next door neighbor's house, and contact anyone at home -- it wouldn't matter if it were one of the parents or one of the kids who answered -- just someone nearby.

But now, if I call someone's personal number, there's a good chance the answer would be: "Gee, I'd love to help. But I'm across town, right now."

not to sound old fashioned or whatever but getting rid of payphones is a mistake, and the only reason we should do it is if we're replacing them with free, public use phones. Having the ability to reach out to others in every place of public congress and transit is an important safety feature and the advent and adoption of smartphones does not negate their utility.

I know i've already lost this battle, so it's somewhat pointless to say, but smartphones die. chargers aren't always there. smartphones break. some people don't have them. Being able to call someone and ask for help, to get in touch with friends and family, without relying on something you yourself own, is a societal good.

Furthermore, expecting everybody to have a single piece of fragile technology on them at all times to the point that critical services are not available without them is truly mind-boggling to me. This goes for things like restaurant menus and transit maps as well. you should be able to navigate the world without a brick made by Apple or Samsung, and if you can't, then something is fundamentally broken. It's one thing for new technology to augment an existing real-world experience, it's another thing to usurp it entirely.

#communication tech #the right to public communication #public phones #house phones

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Shirt that says REJECTING ONE INCORRECTLY BLACK AND WHITE VIEW OF HISTORY FOR ANOTHER IS NOT PROGRESS

#laugh rule #privilege #history revisionism

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#tiktok video #open captions #eye contact #debunking misinformation #fascinating real information #life on earth #human evolution #undescribed video #citing sources

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

Hey, so this video showed up in my YouTube feed just the other day, and I scrolled past it at the time, but it might be helpful:

3 Native strawberries and an Imposter!

when the type of plant you thought was one plant is definitely two different species

#strawberries #plant identification #YouTube link

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

I dunno... this may just be my own experience of being on the aroace spectrum, but this reads to me a lot like demisexuality/demiromanticism.

Which is when you don't feel attraction for someone until after you form a strong emotional connection, first. And no, that's not the same as "waiting to become friends before acting on our sexual and/or romantic attraction;" it's the absence of attraction until the connection is there.

(And the emotional connection does not need to be positive. It just has to be strong)

I’ve officially decided my favorite relationship trope is “at first I was perpetually bothered by your mere existence but somewhere along the way you became my best friend and oh yeah I’m also in love with you.” Nothing else matters.

#character relationships #demisexuality #demiromantic

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

I slipped into the One Piece rabbit hole ~9 months ago, when I stumbled on a cover of "Bink's Brew" (English dub lyrics). I'm glad I don't care about spoilers, cause I've been simultaneously following along with people watching/reading from the beginning, and people reviewing the latest chapters.

Anyway, what impresses me most about Oda's writing is that he's created an alien planet with a true planet's worth of different cultures and histories. That is so rare in sci-fi, and I love it.

its insane how many of one piece's quirks have insane plot twist reasons behind them. like no one expects there to be a reason why the world is made entirely out of islands, or why the technology is so strange.

these worldbuilding details are played off so casually that you don't think too much about them too much. why would you? one piece is such a weird series that you just adjust to it!

ive seen so many people joke about how one piece has robots and cloning but no cars and they have to use snails as telephones. the concept is so ridiculous that you don't think on it at all.

so when its revealed that this world used to be super technologically advanced before the world government's creation you lose ur fucking mind!!

and thats happening again now with the reveal that this world has been slowly mass flooding for centuries now!! this might happen more in the future so im gonna think myself into a hole over what other silly quirks could be lore important later

#one piece

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

Quoted tags:

#2 stacks onto 4 to make 6 then 7+8 is just 8+8-1 and I know 8+8 without thinking about it so that's 15 which stacks onto 60 to make 75

Round up to 30 and round up to 50, add them. Get 80. Subtract 3, then subtract 2 (aka subtract 5). Get 75. Double-check with 20+40 (equals 60), then add 7+8 (equals 15). 60 + 15 also equals 75. So I was right the first time. And I know 7+8=15 because it's 10+10 - 2+3.

#This is such a fun experiment people do this all sorts of ways

Agreed.

#I was taught to do it least significant digit first but it's more practical to do most significant digit first

I was taught the same in school.

I figured out the other ways by talking to myself outside of school.

#arithmetic #how my brain works #different ways to count sheep #when you can't sleep

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

Question that's been on my mind for a while:

So far, it's impossible for A.I. to perfectly imitate human art. There's always some "Tell." Because no matter how many data points you hand over to the algorithm to "analyze," it can never know the context of a thing without the experience of being an Embodied Mind.

But:

Could a human perfectly imitate an A.I. generated image? Or will there always, likewise, be some "Tell?" Will there always be some sign, some subtle clue, if you look closely enough, that there was a desire and reason behind the image's creation?

And how chaotically evil would it be for a human to try?

(Okay, that's two questions)

#AI art #human art #philosophical questions

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

Bodh? Was it Bodh who went to the Globe for the first time?

(I clicked "See results" because I couldn't decide between the given charges).

And seeing the choice with Miranda and Prospero sparked this question in my head:

How did Ariel and Caliban (not to mention all the other spirits) get on after the humans all left, and they were no longer enslaved/abused?

Me: I don't need to start new WIPs. Also me: SHAKESPEARE FANFICTION/SEQUELS/INSPIRATION.

Guess who went to the Globe for the first time.

#tumblr polls #shakespeare #fanfic ideas #the tempest #twelfth night #king lear #love's labour's lost #romeo and juliet