Interesting Links for 03-12-2025

[andrewducker]

1. Humble Comic Bundle: Image Comics in the '10s (175 trade paperbacks, many of them awesome, for cheap)

(tags:comics charity )

2. Gaelic and Scots gain official status on St Andrew's Day

(tags:Scotland language )

3. Shingles vaccination caused a 29.5% reduction in deaths due to dementia

(tags:dementia vaccine )

4. The real reasons why courts have a massive backlog

(tags:UK law austerity organisation OhForFucksSake )

5. HBO Max's 'Mad Men' Vomit Scene Proves 'Remastered' Doesn't Mean 'Better'

(tags:TV resolution fail )

Comments

3.

[channelpenguin]

One of the reasons I paid for a shingles vaccine with my own money last year. Plus shingles is horrible says everyone thats had it. Well worth €400!

*Germany has older thresholds for some things and SOMETIMES you have to pay, others it seems to be the doctor can justify it to my (public) health provider. I get flu and covid free but only cos I ask, it is not offered.

Re: 3.

[andrewducker]

Looks like I can get it on the NHS once I'm 65, and it lasts about a decade. Or longer, it's not very clear.

Sadly, the Shingrix patents don't run out until 2039, when I'll be...67. Hence it being so expensive.

Re: 3.

[channelpenguin]

I thought it lasts a lot longer. Oh well, I'll ask in a few years if and when a booster might be needed

Re: 3.

[channelpenguin]

I guess it's not been in use long enough to tell. We'll find out. Still worth it

Re: 3.

[andrewducker]

Yeah, how fast it fades will be interesting to see.

Re: 3.

[mellowtigger]

Hmmm. I'm disappointed to hear about the duration of effectiveness. That limitation didn't cross my mind earlier. I had to check, but it was in 2019 when I got the Shingrix series of vaccinations.

Re: 3.

[channelpenguin]

Well, maybe they just don't know yet? How long has it been available?

[juan_gandhi]

With years, I feel more and more like I'd vomit just thinking of watching all those assholes of "Mad Men".
Same with "The Office", by the way.

[calimac]

2. And Scots, how interesting. I find Scots an intriguing case, as the impression I get is that its relationship to English is much the same as, for instance, that of Dutch to German, and I'd like to see what linguists say about that. I do know that the classification of what's a language or not is heavily influenced by cultural factors, that "a language is a dialect with an army" has truth to it.

[andrewducker]

Oh yes. They're both related.

Interesting history here: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/scots-language

[calimac]

Yes, I know they're related: that's more than obvious. My question is: how different are they? Is Scots as different from English as Dutch is from German? The article doesn't use that example (which I chose because I have a moderate knowledge of both German and Dutch, so I can see how related they are and how much they differ), but it seems the answer is yes. OK, then, it ought to be considered a language, and contemplation of it by an English-speaker will give an idea of what, e.g., Portuguese seems like to a Spanish-speaker.