![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
The Friday Five on a Saturday
Jan. 17th, 2026 03:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nanila- If you could change one life-changing event in the life of someone important to you, would you?
I know there's a philosophy that experiences make you who you are and you shouldn't wish them away, but I have a few friends who have been through what I feel is a disproportionate and unfair amount of tragedy in their lives. Partner suicide, early death of parents, sudden loss of physical health, financial hardship, homelessness. I don't think any one person should have to go through all of those before the age of thirty. And yet. Here we are. So yes, I absolutely would change that for certain people if I could. - Which do you think is easier to do, being friends for many years, or being life partners for many years?
Uh, neither? Both take work! You have to listen and try to empathise and forgive and communicate. All relationships require effort, and if they don't, someone is being used. - Have you ever walked away from someone you considered a friend?
Yes. It's not very pleasant. But occasionally necessary for the sake of self-preservation. - If you had to choose between telling the truth and hurting a friend or lying and making them happy, which would you choose?
Barring a handful of exceptional circumstances, most of which involve an immediate threat to life, lying and making them happy. Life is difficult enough without intentionally causing pain. - Which would you rather hear--the truth which will hurt, or the comforting lie?
The comforting lie, if it comes to that. I'd hope it wouldn't, most of the time. I'd like to believe that truths can be delivered kindly, most of the time.
Early humans relied on simple stone tools for 300,000 years in a changing east African landscape
Jan. 17th, 2026 10:10 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
physorg_archae_foss_feedOur prehistoric human ancestors relied on deliberately modified and sharpened stone tools as early as 3.3 million years ago. The selection of rock type depended on how easily the material could be flaked to the desired shape and form.
Your Verdict on Doctor Who Spin-Off The War Between the Land and the Sea
Jan. 17th, 2026 08:30 amdoctorwhotv_feed
How YOU voted on every episode of the Doctor Who spin-off.
The post Your Verdict on Doctor Who Spin-Off The War Between the Land and the Sea first appeared on Doctor Who TV.
Alor's healing plants: A treasure trove of medical knowledge and oral tradition
Jan. 15th, 2026 06:10 pmphysorg_archae_foss_feed"When a child has a fever, crush a 'candlenut' (fiyaai [Aleurites moluccanus]). Add water to the mixture, and apply it to the child's body. The fever will go down."
Digital humanities scholars map lost art in novels
Jan. 15th, 2026 12:16 pmphysorg_archae_foss_feedBooks with maps are like Captain Flint's buried loot in Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island"—a rare find, according to new Cornell research.
smithsonian_hist_arc_feedJoseph Weizenbaum realized that programs like his Eliza chatbot could "induce powerful delusional thinking in quite normal people"
Building the Online Etymology Dictionary, with Doug Harper
Jan. 15th, 2026 10:00 amgrammargirl_feed1151. This week, we look at the deep history of words with Doug Harper, creator of Etymonline. We look at the "gravitational" link between digging a grave and having a grave problem, the surprising 1839 origin of "OK," and why some of our favorite word stories are actually "folk etymologies" designed as jokes.
Visit our YouTube channel to see the video version of this episode.
🔗 Share your familect recording in Speakpipe or by leaving a voicemail at 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475)
🔗 Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.
🔗 Subscribe to the newsletter.
🔗 Take our advertising survey.
🔗 Get the edited transcript.
🔗 Get Grammar Girl books.
🔗 Join Grammarpalooza. Get ad-free and bonus episodes at Apple Podcasts or Subtext. Learn more about the difference.
| HOST: Mignon Fogarty
| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.
- Audio Engineer: Dan Feierabend
- Director of Podcast: Holly Hutchings
- Advertising Operations Specialist: Morgan Christianson
- Marketing and Video: Nat Hoopes, Rebekah Sebastian
| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.
| Grammar Girl Social Media: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook. Threads. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon. Bluesky.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
British redcoat's lost memoir reveals harsh realities of life as a disabled veteran
Jan. 14th, 2026 07:00 pmphysorg_archae_foss_feedArchival discoveries including a 19th-century autobiography transform our understanding of Shadrach Byfield, an English veteran of the War of 1812 who buried his own amputated arm and designed a custom prosthesis.
Ancient teeth are treasure troves of data on Iron Age lifestyles
Jan. 14th, 2026 02:00 pmphysorg_archae_foss_feedTeeth provide a wealth of information about the lives of Iron Age Italians, according to a study published in the open-access journal PLOS One by Roberto Germano of Sapienza University of Rome, Italy and colleagues.
Medieval burials shed light on Menga dolmen's multicultural significance over thousands of years
Jan. 14th, 2026 01:00 pmphysorg_archae_foss_feedThe Menga dolmen in Antequera, Spain, is a Neolithic monument and part of a UNESCO World Heritage site. The monument, built in the fourth millennium BCE, has seen continued use for burials and rituals through the Bronze Age, Iron Age, Antiquity, and medieval times.
Samuel Green Freed Himself and Others From Slavery. Then He Was Imprisoned Over Owning a Book
Jan. 14th, 2026 11:00 amsmithsonian_hist_arc_feedAfter buying his own liberty, the Marylander covertly assisted conductors on the Underground Railroad, including Harriet Tubman. But his possession of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" turned him into an abolitionist hero
physorg_archae_foss_feedOne of the best-preserved ancient Roman homes on the Palatine Hill is opening to the public for the first time, albeit via a livestreamed tour of its hard-to-reach underground frescoes and mosaics.
Possible Black Death mass grave discovered near Erfurt, Germany
Jan. 13th, 2026 11:00 amphysorg_archae_foss_feedAn interdisciplinary research team from Leipzig has discovered strong evidence of a Black Death mass grave near the deserted medieval village of Neuses, outside Erfurt (Germany). It represents the first systematically identified burial site associated with plague burials in Europe.
Hygienic conditions in Pompeii's early baths were poor, according to isotope analysis
Jan. 13th, 2026 09:30 amphysorg_archae_foss_feedThe city of Pompeii was buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. Researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have now reconstructed the city's water supply system based on carbonate deposits—particularly the transition from wells to an aqueduct.
Glazed sherds in remote Gobi Desert reveal ancient Persian trade connections
Jan. 13th, 2026 07:30 amphysorg_archae_foss_feedIn a study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, Dr. Ellery Frahm and his colleagues analyzed two unusual blue-green glazed ceramic sherds discovered in the Gobi Desert in 2016.
Using ‘impact’ as a verb. ‘Sympathy’ versus ‘empathy.’ Big help, Irving.
Jan. 13th, 2026 10:00 amgrammargirl_feed1150. This week, we look at "impact" as a verb and why it's a pet peeve for so many editors and readers. Then, we look at the linguistic shift between sympathy and empathy, exploring how "sympathy" began to sound patronizing and how "empathy" expanded to fill the gap.
Links to Get One Month Free of the Grammar Girl Patreon (different links for different levels)
- Order of the Snail ($1/month level): https://www.patreon.com/grammargirl/redeem/687E4
- Order of the Aardvark ($5/month level): https://www.patreon.com/grammargirl/redeem/07205
- Keeper of the Commas ($10/month level): https://www.patreon.com/grammargirl/redeem/50A0B
- Guardian of the Grammary ($25/month level): https://www.patreon.com/grammargirl/redeem/949F7
🔗 Share your familect recording in Speakpipe or by leaving a voicemail at 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475)
🔗 Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.
🔗 Subscribe to the newsletter.
🔗 Take our advertising survey.
🔗 Get the edited transcript.
🔗 Get Grammar Girl books.
🔗 Join Grammarpalooza. Get ad-free and bonus episodes at Apple Podcasts or Subtext. Learn more about the difference.
| HOST: Mignon Fogarty
| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.
- Audio Engineer: Dan Feierabend
- Director of Podcast: Holly Hutchings
- Advertising Operations Specialist: Morgan Christianson
- Marketing and Video: Nat Hoopes, Rebekah Sebastian
| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.
| Grammar Girl Social Media: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook. Threads. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon. Bluesky.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
physorg_archae_foss_feedToday, trans people face politicization of their lives and vilification from politicians, media and parts of broader society.
Surface ceramics reveal self-sufficient rural economy in Ancient Samos
Jan. 12th, 2026 03:19 pmphysorg_archae_foss_feedAn international team of researchers has uncovered hidden clues about life in the hills of ancient southwest Samos, Greece.
How White Southerners Distorted the History of Ancient Egypt to Justify Slavery in the U.S.
Jan. 12th, 2026 01:00 pmsmithsonian_hist_arc_feedAmerican writers misleadingly interpreted Egypt's past to argue that slavery was a divinely sanctioned institution