Rogate me!

[Ducky123]

That is sad to hear

Fortunatily the war is over, hopefully for ever! I just have to   due to the (imo ridiculously) threats from North Coreas dictator to threw a nuclear bomb at the US  
And have you already heard of the terrorist attack in boston? Sad and evil things happen everyday on planet earth... Sometimes I doubt that the mankind is the most intelligent species since we do so much damage to our planet   just think of the trees that are cutted everyday  
Ok... I'm off-topic now : If you want to discuss this a bit more let me know

Thanks for your detailed answers

[jansenov]

Everytime you think about how humans are greedy and bad for the planet, try imagine what another species, like lions, rats or chickens, or any other, would do to the Earth if they had our intelligence and technology. I can't think of a single animal species that would do better than humans in our situation. So, there's some comfort for you.  

Must we do better? Absolutely. Can we do better? History gives us reason for hope. As time went by, and human societies become wealthier and more enlightened, generally more and more rights were given to an ever greater part of human society, and then rights began to be given even to animals and the rest of the biosphere. Also, societies became less violent, with the occurence of homicide and rape ever decreasing, a process that still continues today. Even when taking into account the occasional war, even a devastating one like the world wars, the trend is unmistakable. We are living in an increasingly peaceful world, despite all the bad news with which we are bombarded daily. I mean, look at yourself. How many times have you found yourself in a situation where you truly feared for your life or the lives of your loved ones? A few times or never, I suppose. In previous ages it was different. The deeper you go into the past, the more reasons people had to fear for their lives, until you reach the Paleolithic, where people were thankful to the spirits for everyday they managed to survive. Can you imagine living your entire life (20-40 years) like that?

We mustn't be discouraged by what is going around us now. It is nothing compared to what our ancestors had to endure.  

[Ducky123]

How many times have you found yourself in a situation where you truly feared for your life or the lives of your loved ones? A few times or never, I suppose.

I never had to fear for my life or the life of a person who's close to me so far, fortunatily...
I was there twice when people I was more or less close to had an accident.
The first situation was(it happened few years ago): Me and my sister were playing at a playground with our great cousin at my uncle's birthday once. Our GC climbed at a climbing frame and then suddenly she had an accident and fell from it. She was knocked unconscious. Back then I hadn't a clue, what had to be done, so we ran to our parents and told them about the accident. My uncle took care of her until the ambulance arrived. She had a brain concussion, though a few days later she was already fine

The other accident happened nearly exactly a year ago at a athletics competition(this time I just spectated the scene since there were some ambulance men, who helped immadiately)
The girl had to run 300 meters but she must have been too fast so she was completely exhausted. She tried to reach the finish, but suddenly she fell forward and crashed on her belly. She got a Cardiovascular collapse sadly. At least she felt better after some time and needn't go to the hospital...

There were also two situations in my life, where a member of my family died(both died of cancer), but it was forseeable that they wouldn't make it(though in one case it happened within two days..) so I hadn't feared of their lifes( their death wasn't very hard to get over).

Speaking of death I sometimes hope that my grandma would finally die because she had a grave apoplexy. She's hemiplagic and she lost nearly her whole memory. She can only speak some sentences which she repeated over and over... and she lies in her bed the whole day. I don't consider this a life anymore, the women's just suffering so why can't we help her a bit( I know it's forbidden in Germany and in many other countries, too)?

Whoops! I'm very much off-topic so I'll stop now It's an ask me thread so I rather should ask you something, shouldn't I? :

However I agree to your argumentation, it's xery conclusively

next question: Do you do sports regularly? If so, which kinds of sports do you do?

[Pangaea]

Sorry, rather stupid question, but I was confused by your post in the "The Above Poster's Avatar Is You" thread. What exactly did you mean?

[jansenov]

^It was supposed to be a joke about the ubiquity of Lystrosaurus. The facial expression looks like it conveys curiosity, so I imagined the Lystrosaurus' attention was caught by an animal that was not a member of his species, a rare occurence since Lystrosauri were supposedly all over the place.

I guess the joke didn't turn out well.

[rhombus]

In terms of literary works, do you prefer fiction or non-fiction?  On a related note, what are your favorite books?

[jansenov]

Non-fiction. There are only a few books that I found interesting enough to read  through more than once. The Bible, Aleph, The Illustrated Encylopedia of Dinosaurs, The Horse, Wheel and Language, Crime and Punishment, Elementa Latina and Chemical Physics(2nd semester, pharmacy).

[rhombus]

Earlier in this topic, you indicated that politics was one of your intellectual pursuits.  Likewise, I also have a strong interest in political science, which is why I minored in the discipline during my undergraduate studies.  In particular, I have an interest in constitutional design and how changes in how institutions function relative to another (for example, switching from a semi-presidential form of government with an independent chief executive to a parliamentary form with a chief executive who is accountable to Parliament) can cause great changes in the policy decisions that are made.  

I was wondering if you had a particular sub-discipline of political science that interested you and (if so) what made you interested in that discipline?

[jansenov]

No, my interest does not go that deep. I had a more specific interest in the political systems of the European Union and Russia, but I have moved away from politics since then. I now more heavily focus on natural sciences and languages.

[rhombus]

I now more heavily focus on natural sciences and languages.

Ah, that is interesting.  I have dabbled in certain construed languages (Lojban and Esperanto) but I never learned them to any meaningful degree, I simply found their construction and the history behind them to be quite fascinating.  The only language (besides English) that I have been trained in is French, which I took for 2 years in High School.  However, not having used the language in over 12 years, my comprehension of the language has since lapsed.

Is there a particular sub-discipline of linguistics that interests you or are you simply interested in learning new languages?

[jansenov]

Comparative linguists is absolutely my favorite sub-field. Comparing two similar languages, finding regular sound, morphological and lexical correspondences between them, and reconstructing their common ancestor, and then reconstructing the language ancestral to that one, and the insight such reconstructed languages provide into the life of communities which must have used them, I find utterly fascinating. I pay particular attention to the Indo-European family of languages and their common ancestor, the proto-Indo-European language, which in the 1950s has been conjectured on a number of lexical and morphological arguments to have been spoken 5000-6000 years ago somewhere in central or eastern Europe, and whose reconstructed vocabulary shows an eerie match with archaeological cultures which have been examined in detail in the 1970s and 1980s in Ukraine and southern Russia, which, of course, have been radiocarbon dated to 4500-3000 B.C.

[The Chronicler]

Speaking of Proto-Indo-European, did you hear that someone recently made a recording of his best attempt to speak that ancient language? (If not, here is where I found out about it.) What do you think about it?

[jansenov]

^That is almost exactly how proto-Indo-European must have sounded like.  

There are some imperfections (the values of the vowels are a bit off, the dental sounds should be pronounced by putting the tongue on the teeth, the laryngeals sound all the same), but overall it's the best pronunciation of PIE I've heard so far.

I, at this stage, can pronounce it with good accuracy, but not quite as good as this person.