A quick check via AI says that the oscillating universe could fit either worldview. The Stoic idea is that the universe runs in cycles, all decided by benevolent providence, 😁, and the Epicurean worldview is that the universe is infinite and eternal with no controlling will. Cycles notwithstanding.
All this stuff is hypothetical right now anyway. The science can change fast.
The news is dark energy is weakening. Eventually, it may be that the universe will collapse on itself. Something it may have done an infinite number of times in the past. Eternal expansion and contraction.
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/20/nx-s1-5333843/dark-energy-weakening-universe-collapse-desi
Gorgeous thank you! 
Just a thought, if the dodecahedrons really did have some sort of practical use, wouldn't we have seen artworks of everyday life with them in use?
Beautiful collection of Platonic solids there. 
Here's a short Pompeii video DEFINATELY made by AI! 
Something I hadn't thought of before, but Pompeii was once a populated thriving town. You see videos of it and its ruins, and of course they always show the preserved corpses, you get the impression of a cemetery. 
This video gives you a different perspective of the living city it once was and its tragic end:
The End of Pompeii: An Immersive Journey into the Past with AI / AI Short Film
Wow yes great video! I didn't see the scene you're referring to where the top of the mountain was reconstructed but I gather there is at least one fresco showing the top of the mountain to be MUCH taller!
Right at 44 seconds into the video. It shows a street scene then and now with Vesuvius in the background.
They don't say specifically that they use AI, although a little research praises the incredible vivid videos and speculates that they use advanced technologies.
The video was so sharp I thought they had to use AI to create something like that. No doubt there is considerable artistry also involved.
Stuff you can do with AI.
In one of the scenes, you can see Vesuvius as it was with its top still on in the background. The eruption blew the top of the mountain right off.
Matthew 7:6 “Do not give dogs what is holy; do not throw your pearls before swine. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.”
I never gave it a thought, but that's an intriguing find. I wonder if the dogs and swine really do represent Stoics and Epicureans, who, if you argue with them, will take your ideas and crush them and tear them to pieces? It must have been a pretty common thing for a Christian, very confident of this faith, to go to philosophers and challenge them.
There might have been a lot of deconversions that way. 
Happy Birthday!
He's a wise man, they probably figured he was bald. 😉
My guide is the guy who figured out quantum indeterminism, and doesn't scold me for beating-off.
Werner Heisenburg?
I was a pescetarian, (vegetarian but with fish), when I was 18 for about a year. (A hippie kind of diet with lots of brown rice).
I did lose a lot of weight, and strangely enough I became much paler, but I can't remember any other changes. I aced a blood test for iron when donating blood though and I still eat brown rice and whole grains when I can.
Hmmm..., the bread and water diet wouldn't be the best one. Not only would you run into nutrional problems, but you'd also get really tired of it! I suspect that would be true of other things in a person's lifestyle.
How to survive on a bread and water diet
>>But even sourdough might not be enough to survive. Eventually, just like the potato scenario, you would probably run into nutritional deficiencies. Even sourdough bread made with wild yeast, bacteria, and whole grains likely will not provide enough nutrients like vitamin C, B12, and D, as well as calcium. Without these key players, humans would run into some serious problems. With no vitamin C source, a person could develop scurvy, which results in weakness of the muscles and fatigue. Calcium is necessary to prevent osteoporosis, which results in weakened bone mass. Plus, humans need fat to survive as well, which sourdough bread doesn’t have.
If you did attempt to eat one food for an extended period of time, you would probably get sick of eating the item far before you gave yourself any severe nutritional deficiencies. That’s due to a psychological phenomenon called sensory specific satiety. Scientists have found that the more you eat something, there’s a corresponding decline in pleasantness. But some foods are more prone to this than others (like high protein foods), and some researchers have found that bread might be in fact fairly resistant to this phenomenon.<<
Busy time for me, but I'll catch up on the video.
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Admin Edit - Jan. 2, 2025 9:45am ET
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According to Philodemus, “even though god was not born, yet he is composed of soul and body and with this nature he is necessarily a living creature.” (On Methods of Inference)
What do you make of this proposition?
The gods are projections of ourselves, and are just like us, except better. 😉
With that said, I find the order here interesting: one might normally think that “for life itself”, being the most basic, would be the first one to consider in an ascending order (viz. Don ‘s reference in his notes to Maslow’s hierarchy). But the first one brought to mind by Epicurus is eudaimonia; then a body free from disturbance; and only then “life itself.”
I suspect this is not accidental, Epicurus being a careful writer. Thoughts?
Yeah, that's interesting, isn't it?
Menoikeis is INVERTING Maslow's famous hierarchy of needs. Rather than saying that the physiological needs are first, Menoikeis is saying that wisdom, confidence and friends are the most important. Safety and the basic physiological needs will follow as they are easy to obtain in Epicurean thinking once a degree of wisdom is achieved.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs2 - Maslow's hierarchy of needs - Wikipedia
“And of the natural ones [i.e., desires], on the one hand, are the necessary ones; on the other, the ones which are only natural; then, of the necessary ones: on the one hand, those necessary for eudaimonia; then, those necessary for the freedom from disturbance for the body; then those necessary for life itself.” Letter to Menoikeus, 127; Don Boozer translation. [https://www.epicureanfriends.com/wcf/filebase/download/97/]
Fairbanks Alaska I've read has about 3 hours of daylight during the winter solstice! 😮
I'll bet they're looking forward to the days getting longer! 🙂
Hi all!
Something interesting I stumbled acrossed researching breathing techniques for stress reduction, focus and relaxation.
Years ago, I became aware of a method called 'square breathing', but it is also known as 'box breathing', and I decided to look into it.
One of the things that makes this method effective is its use of the brains 'pattern recognition' abilities, what we have been calling 'prolepsis' here.
From the article:
>>Often called “square breathing” or “tactical breathing,” box breathing anchors your mind to your breath as a form of intentional cadence breathing. Each side of the “box” represents one motion — inhale, hold, exhale, hold — and each lasts for four seconds. According to Bob Soulliere, an L2 Wim Hoff Method Instructor, the secret to box breathing, and any other kind of cadence breathing, is its repetitive nature.
“Because the brain is a pattern-recognition machine, when you give it a pattern, it pays attention. It says, ‘I’m taking control.’ This immediately calms the central nervous system,” Soulliere says.<<
Enjoy!
