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I'm no economist, but my understanding is that Marx developed his ideas about how capitalism works based on the earlier economic theories of various pro-capitalist writers. For instance, the labor theory of value comes from Adam Smith. I believe, but I may be mistaken because it’s been fifty...

wagon wheel

I’d like to add my 2¢. First, I am a recovered alcoholic and drug abuser, so my thoughts on this topic relate more to personal experience than any formal study. I believe most drugs should be made legal. I don’t think decriminalization is really an answer. Legalization does not mean making...

household

story time

I agree. Thanks, Politesse!

That sounds right. I was raised in a mid to upper middle-class family (depending on your perspective) and was taught “correct” grammar as a matter of course. My own embrace of “street” usage sometimes shocked my late mother who, for instance, refused to accept African American usage as anything...

I am very much a descriptivist as opposed to a prescriptivist, although I learned English from the latter. When I was a kid the advertising phrase “Winston tastes good like a cigarette should” raised the ire of grammarians everywhere, including my parents. Winston eventually came out with a...

nails wood

This turns out to be very unusual writing for a pop science work. First, it’s very well written, but it’s not what I was expecting. While it may not be for everyone, I rather like it. Each chapter is a somewhat fictionalized narrative, although not fanciful. For instance, the first chapter...

Ronald Reagan opened his 1980 presidential campaign in the small town of Philadelphia Mississippi. Why open your campaign in such a small backwater? It was the site where three civil rights workers were murdered, the Mississippi Burning murders mentioned above. Dog whistle anyone?

plate steel

I am just starting The Last Days of the Dinosaurs,” by Riley Black. I’m finding it very well written and an easy read. Judging from the chapter titles, it’s as much or more about the rise of mammals than about the last day(s) of the dinosaurs, and I’m finding it really fascinating. Here are the...

I fully agree with Swammerdami’s suggestion, which incidentally echoes what I have been arguing about the history of language. Modern, fully articulated grammatically complex language “as we understand it” did not emerge fully formed when the larynx descended in Homo sapiens one to two hundred...

I suppose Swammerdami’s retraction makes this discussion an official derail, but so be it. I actually agree with most of what you have to say Poli, but you haven’t convinced me because I don’t think your argument applies to this case. I guess it depends on what you mean by “human.” We are not...

First of all, let me admit that I have not read The Dawn of Everything and I probably never will, but looking through this thread, I do have a question for Politesse. My question for Politesse is, if you're studying pre-verbal societies, as Swammerdami suggests, why wouldn't you look at our...

MS Tharmas continues her whimsical welding. Here is a Statue of Liberty she actually did a while ago. Notice the arms are reversed – that “should be” the right arm holding the torch. The reversal is deliberate and copies some well-known outsider artists’ work. More recently she’s been...

bagworm

I spent a few years studying piano tuning. It was supposed to be my retirement job, but circumstances intervened and it didn’t work out. As you mention, it used to be that music was limited to only a few keys because of the perfect way intervals were tuned. Most classical music and a...