The Writers' Block

[Australian rePublic]

Can we please change the wording of 1103.1 from "delivered a plague onto us" to "delivered a plague onto our houses", as is the original Spongebob quote which that references?

[Autonomous Cleaner Bot Cleaners]

Can we please change the wording of 1103.1 from "delivered a plague onto us" to "delivered a plague onto our houses", as is the original Spongebob quote which that references?

Should directly quote Mercutio instead.

[Australian rePublic]

Can we please change the wording of 1103.1 from "delivered a plague onto us" to "delivered a plague onto our houses", as is the original Spongebob quote which that references?

Should directly quote Mercutio instead.

And what would said quote be?

[Australian rePublic]

If anybody needs an idea for an issue, apparently being a direct decendant of Mohammed used to entitle people to massive tax breaks in parts of the Islamic World. This lead to alot of people forging their ansestry. That would be an interesting issue.

I am curious as to how people used to determine their ansestors before DNA testing, with or without forgeries, but anyways...

[Trotterdam]

I am curious as to how people used to determine their ansestors before DNA testing, with or without forgeries, but anyways...

Extensive birth records.

[Australian rePublic]

I am curious as to how people used to determine their ansestors before DNA testing, with or without forgeries, but anyways...

Extensive birth records.

Huh! Well how does one forge those?

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Should directly quote Mercutio instead.

And what would said quote be?

It's Romeo and Juliet.

I am hurt.
A plague a' both your houses! I am sped.
Is he gone and hath nothing?

Anyway, no change is needed to 1103. The character is neither quoting Shakespeare NOR quoting Spongebob parodying Shakespeare. The character is just speaking in entirely normal though marginally archaic idiomatic English.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Extensive birth records.

Huh! Well how does one forge those?

The same way you forge any historical record. With ingenuity, social engineering and bribes.

[The Sherpa Empire]

By now, the Middle East is probably full of people who really are descended from Mohammed, even if they don't have the paper trail to prove it. Like how Europe is full of people descended from Charlemagne and parts of Asia have a ton of people descended from Genghis Khan.

[Autonomous Cleaner Bot Cleaners]

It's Romeo and Juliet.

I am hurt.
A plague a' both your houses! I am sped.
Is he gone and hath nothing?

Anyway, no change is needed to 1103. The character is neither quoting Shakespeare NOR quoting Spongebob parodying Shakespeare. The character is just speaking in entirely normal though marginally archaic idiomatic English.

Wasn't really suggesting anything other than the fact of Spongebob superceding Shakespeare making me die inside.

Should directly quote Mercutio instead.

And what would said quote be?

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Wasn't really suggesting anything other than the fact of Spongebob superceding Shakespeare making me die inside.

Spongebob, Shakespeare... Pretty similar

As Marilyn Monroe said "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

[Bears Armed]

Wasn't really suggesting anything other than the fact of Spongebob superceding Shakespeare making me die inside.

Spongebob, Shakespeare... Pretty similar

As Marilyn Monroe said "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

A line that originated, or so I was told by a guide at the rebuilt Globe, as a jibe at the original's main rival the Rose Theatre having a problem with drains...

[Candlewhisper Archive]

No, it was definitely Monroe. I saw it on a motivational poster on Instagram.

[Australian rePublic]

By now, the Middle East is probably full of people who really are descended from Mohammed, even if they don't have the paper trail to prove it. Like how Europe is full of people descended from Charlemagne and parts of Asia have a ton of people descended from Genghis Khan.

Probably why they stopped the program. I saw a list of Top10 people with most decendants, and Mohammed was number 3. Considering that number 2 was Abraham, and number 1 was Eve, both of whose existence is disputed, being highest ranking person who definately did exist is a pretty big deal. Charalemange has has something like 1 billion decendants or something (every single person with at least one drop of European blood), and according to the list I find, Mohammed outranks him. (At this Gengis has only 5% of all men as his decendants, excluding women). They also reacon that Queen Elizabeth II was decendant from Mohammed, and I also wonder if I am too. Man, I gotta do one of those ansestry DNA tests...

[Australian rePublic]

I have an issue idea for whoever wants it. I have a title and description, but that's pretty much as far as I could take it:

[[title] Let the blood go


[desc] A news article revealed that more than half of @@NAME@@’s rural hospitals still practice bloodletting as their primary medical treatment, causing citizems to call upon you to modernise the health care system

[validity] high poverty and/or primativeness

1. This is terrible, says minister of health, we need proper medicine

2. Blood letting has been the primary form of treatment for 3000 years, says a barber surgeon, therefore, it obviously does something

3. Something to do with other ancient medicines (acupuncture, cupping, etc.)

[The Sherpa Empire]

By now, the Middle East is probably full of people who really are descended from Mohammed, even if they don't have the paper trail to prove it. Like how Europe is full of people descended from Charlemagne and parts of Asia have a ton of people descended from Genghis Khan.

Probably why they stopped the program. I saw a list of Top10 people with most decendants, and Mohammed was number 3. Considering that number 2 was Abraham, and number 1 was Eve, both of whose existence is disputed, being highest ranking person who definately did exist is a pretty big deal. Charalemange has has something like 1 billion decendants or something (every single person with at least one drop of European blood), and according to the list I find, Mohammed outranks him. (At this Gengis has only 5% of all men as his decendants, excluding women). They also reacon that Queen Elizabeth II was decendant from Mohammed, and I also wonder if I am too. Man, I gotta do one of those ansestry DNA tests...

DNA tests are interesting, but I don't think they can specifically tell you if you're descended from Mohammed. I suppose you could look at where your ancestry is from and how many descendants of Mohammed are in those regions and guess the probability.

DNA test helped my family confirm a rumor about one of our ancestors being black. It's a little ambiguous about what specific kind of black because it's from several generations back, and there's some randomness in which genes get passed on.

[Trotterdam]

DNA tests are interesting, but I don't think they can specifically tell you if you're descended from Mohammed.

Not unless you have a sample of Mohammed's DNA

I guess you could go "well, we keep finding these genes in many people with documented paper trails of being descended from Mohammed, maybe it's an indicator?".

Though DNA tests become less and less reliable the more generations you go back, anyway. If your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather was Mohammed (which is approximately the right number of greats according to my math based on how long ago Mohammed lived), then you would only share 0.0000000000000000867361737988403547205962240695953369140625% of his genes. Well, more, due to inbreeding. That far back, you would have had 1152921504606846976 separate great-etc.-grandparents, which is ten million times the number of people who have ever lived, meaning that some of them must be the same person.

Thinking about it, it seems improbable that anyone of Arab ethnicity isn't descended from Mohammed. If not for the tendency of people to marry within their own ethnic group (whether due to bias or just geography), I'd have just said everyone in the world.

Patrilineal and matrilineal descent are easier to determine due to Y-chromosomal and mitochondrial DNA, respectively, not constantly recombining the way the rest of it does, but it turns out that most Muslims do consider descent through both genders legitimate.

DNA test helped my family confirm a rumor about one of our ancestors being black. It's a little ambiguous about what specific kind of black because it's from several generations back, and there's some randomness in which genes get passed on.

...I assume you can at least tell the difference between Africans, Indonesians, and Central Americans?

[The Sherpa Empire]

DNA tests are interesting, but I don't think they can specifically tell you if you're descended from Mohammed.

Not unless you have a sample of Mohammed's DNA

I guess you could go "well, we keep finding these genes in many people with documented paper trails of being descended from Mohammed, maybe it's an indicator?".

Though DNA tests become less and less reliable the more generations you go back, anyway. If your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather was Mohammed (which is approximately the right number of greats according to my math based on how long ago Mohammed lived), then you would only share 0.0000000000000000867361737988403547205962240695953369140625% of his genes. Well, more, due to inbreeding. That far back, you would have had 1152921504606846976 separate great-etc.-grandparents, which is ten million times the number of people who have ever lived, meaning that some of them must be the same person.

Thinking about it, it seems improbable that anyone of Arab ethnicity isn't descended from Mohammed. If not for the tendency of people to marry within their own ethnic group (whether due to bias or just geography), I'd have just said everyone in the world.

Unless it's Arabs that have been separated in some way since before the time of Mohammed. It's a good bet that random Joe Arab is descended from Mohammed and random Joe White Guy is descended from Charlemagne, but I wouldn't be surprised to find people in western China who have European DNA without being descended from Charlemagne because, for example, they may be descended from the Roman legion that went to China. Even though that was a long time ago, if the Romans settled in one place and their descendants have stayed in the same area, they may have interbred with each other enough to still have modern people with detectable amounts of European DNA. People who live on islands can also get very genetically isolated, even if they are similar to the population on the mainland.

DNA test helped my family confirm a rumor about one of our ancestors being black. It's a little ambiguous about what specific kind of black because it's from several generations back, and there's some randomness in which genes get passed on.

...I assume you can at least tell the difference between Africans, Indonesians, and Central Americans?

By "black" I meant African.

[Australian rePublic]

DNA tests are interesting, but I don't think they can specifically tell you if you're descended from Mohammed.

Not unless you have a sample of Mohammed's DNA

I guess you could go "well, we keep finding these genes in many people with documented paper trails of being descended from Mohammed, maybe it's an indicator?".

Though DNA tests become less and less reliable the more generations you go back, anyway. If your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather was Mohammed (which is approximately the right number of greats according to my math based on how long ago Mohammed lived), then you would only share 0.0000000000000000867361737988403547205962240695953369140625% of his genes. Well, more, due to inbreeding. That far back, you would have had 1152921504606846976 separate great-etc.-grandparents, which is ten million times the number of people who have ever lived, meaning that some of them must be the same person.

Thinking about it, it seems improbable that anyone of Arab ethnicity isn't descended from Mohammed. If not for the tendency of people to marry within their own ethnic group (whether due to bias or just geography), I'd have just said everyone in the world.

Patrilineal and matrilineal descent are easier to determine due to Y-chromosomal and mitochondrial DNA, respectively, not constantly recombining the way the rest of it does, but it turns out that most Muslims do consider descent through both genders legitimate.

Which is probably why they stopped the system

DNA test helped my family confirm a rumor about one of our ancestors being black. It's a little ambiguous about what specific kind of black because it's from several generations back, and there's some randomness in which genes get passed on.

...I assume you can at least tell the difference between Africans, Indonesians, and Central Americans?

[/quote]
Don't forget Aboriginals....
Also, if I'm not mistaking, black Central Americans are black because they were originally slaves sent from Africa

Not unless you have a sample of Mohammed's DNA

I guess you could go "well, we keep finding these genes in many people with documented paper trails of being descended from Mohammed, maybe it's an indicator?".

Though DNA tests become less and less reliable the more generations you go back, anyway. If your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather was Mohammed (which is approximately the right number of greats according to my math based on how long ago Mohammed lived), then you would only share 0.0000000000000000867361737988403547205962240695953369140625% of his genes. Well, more, due to inbreeding. That far back, you would have had 1152921504606846976 separate great-etc.-grandparents, which is ten million times the number of people who have ever lived, meaning that some of them must be the same person.

Thinking about it, it seems improbable that anyone of Arab ethnicity isn't descended from Mohammed. If not for the tendency of people to marry within their own ethnic group (whether due to bias or just geography), I'd have just said everyone in the world.

Unless it's Arabs that have been separated in some way since before the time of Mohammed. It's a good bet that random Joe Arab is descended from Mohammed and random Joe White Guy is descended from Charlemagne, but I wouldn't be surprised to find people in western China who have European DNA without being descended from Charlemagne because, for example, they may be descended from the Roman legion that went to China. Even though that was a long time ago, if the Romans settled in one place and their descendants have stayed in the same area, they may have interbred with each other enough to still have modern people with detectable amounts of European DNA. People who live on islands can also get very genetically isolated, even if they are similar to the population on the mainland.

Silk road, slavery, wars, interbreeding with other tribes who DID interact with Europeans regularly
Also, Trott's math is how they determined that every European is Charlemagne's decendant. As for determining who was decendant from Ghengis and Alex the Great, the numbers are significantly lower, so I don't know how that works. But apparently, most of Alex's decendants were wiped out in the Armenian genocide...

...I assume you can at least tell the difference between Africans, Indonesians, and Central Americans?

By "black" I meant African.

[/quote]
Fair enough

[Trotterdam]

Unless it's Arabs that have been separated in some way since before the time of Mohammed. It's a good bet that random Joe Arab is descended from Mohammed and random Joe White Guy is descended from Charlemagne, but I wouldn't be surprised to find people in western China who have European DNA without being descended from Charlemagne because, for example, they may be descended from the Roman legion that went to China. Even though that was a long time ago, if the Romans settled in one place and their descendants have stayed in the same area, they may have interbred with each other enough to still have modern people with detectable amounts of European DNA. People who live on islands can also get very genetically isolated, even if they are similar to the population on the mainland.

Of course, of course. But the Arab/Muslim world was pretty unified as recently as 1200, with merchants and scholars travelling as far as al-Andalus and Persia. Plus Mohammed lived before the impetus that drove Arabs to spread so wide in the first place, being responsible for it. Even if not everyone was descended from Mohammed yet at the time of the expansion, descendants would likely have been spread fairly evenly among the groups as they fractured, so they'd finish the job in parallel.

By "black" I meant African.

I figured. Just saying that's not really an accurate term, since there are other dark-skinned ethnicities.

Don't forget Aboriginals....

Oh right. I just looked them up and they're definitely dark enough to count.

Also, if I'm not mistaking, black Central Americans are black because they were originally slaves sent from Africa

Well, I was thinking more of the Amazon Rainforest tribes (which is not a perfectly accurate use of the term "Central American", I guess). Actual Central Americans (as in Panama and further north) are a lighter brown, but still pretty dark compared to people of European descent.

Yeah, there's also a fair number of Africans in the area, but they're not the only dark-skinned ones.

Also, Trott's math is how they determined that every European is Charlemagne's decendant.

Of course, everyone is also descended from some random nobody who lived at the same time as Charlemagne.

[Jutsa]

AIright, I think it's time to address that I'm probabIy, unfortuanteIy, not going to be an active writer here anymore.

SimpIy put, I started working, and on top of that I have so much irI that I can't even work on my most desired projects, much Iess projects-I-do-for-fun-but-stiII-take-a-Iot-of-time-and-isn't-the-same-as-pIaying-a-game (#GI), much Iess other NS reIated stuff (as of now I'm mostIy a shadow of what I used to be, over in my region).

And on top of that, this means I'm extremeIy unabIe to work on NSI rn. I'd stiII Iike to get some things finished, and I stiII want to do a Iot,
but I know I won't have time for any of it, at Ieast not for another few months.

This aIso means I won't be reaIIy keeping updated my issues Iist, unfortunateIy; again, it's aImost miracuIousIy faIIen to a very Iow spot on my priorities Iist.

It sucks, cause I honestIy didn't think I'd ever type something Iike this, but aIas, it's time I announce that I'II be on a hiatus.
Forever? Eh, not sure; again I'd honestIy Iove to stick around and do more here, it's just I don't have the time.
But it'II at Ieast be a few months before I start up a draft, get my issues Iist finished, or update NSI for reaI. Just a heads up, more than anything.

edit: accidentaIIy used discord formatting

[The Free Joy State]

*snip*

Thank you for all the work you've put into NS and to the list, Jutsa

RL > NS, every time.

[Australian rePublic]

AIright, I think it's time to address that I'm probabIy, unfortuanteIy, not going to be an active writer here anymore.

SimpIy put, I started working, and on top of that I have so much irI that I can't even work on my most desired projects, much Iess projects-I-do-for-fun-but-stiII-take-a-Iot-of-time-and-isn't-the-same-as-pIaying-a-game (#GI), much Iess other NS reIated stuff (as of now I'm mostIy a shadow of what I used to be, over in my region).

And on top of that, this means I'm extremeIy unabIe to work on NSI rn. I'd stiII Iike to get some things finished, and I stiII want to do a Iot,
but I know I won't have time for any of it, at Ieast not for another few months.

This aIso means I won't be reaIIy keeping updated my issues Iist, unfortunateIy; again, it's aImost miracuIousIy faIIen to a very Iow spot on my priorities Iist.

It sucks, cause I honestIy didn't think I'd ever type something Iike this, but aIas, it's time I announce that I'II be on a hiatus.
Forever? Eh, not sure; again I'd honestIy Iove to stick around and do more here, it's just I don't have the time.
But it'II at Ieast be a few months before I start up a draft, get my issues Iist finished, or update NSI for reaI. Just a heads up, more than anything.

edit: accidentaIIy used discord formatting

Thanks for your service!

[USS Monitor]

You gotta do what you gotta do, Jutsa. I hope you can come back, but if you've got RL stuff you need to keep up with, do the RL stuff.

[Merconitonitopia]

Jutsa, we all are in debt for the good you have done for this community.

Don't forget Aboriginals....

Nor the Melanesians, who so reminded the white man of Africa that he named their greatest homeland New Guinea. It should also be noted that a number of South Asian populations reach skin pigmentations comparable to Africans, exempli gratia the Tamils of Southern India and Sri Lanka.
The diversity of human populations is of course more complicated and interesting than the simple categories we use in the West, but I don't think the term 'black' (referring to Africans) is really objectionable. A literal interpetation of the word is inaccurate, but meaning its nonetheless understood.