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PaperclipPerfector  16d ago (text post)   3503 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 28, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Anyone here concerned about bird flu passing to cattle? Anyone avoiding dairy, beef, or chicken?

Bird flu remains mostly a threat for chicken flocks, birds are very different from mammals and don't have as good a history of mutation to affect humans like pigs do.

There is also a variant of Ebola in swine that is hypothesized to have an airborne transmission, which is fun.

It is still mostly about food prices tho.

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A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


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