Today we Hindus celebrate the traditional festival of colours. I share a few of 18th and 19th century artwork of the festival. The common portrayal of Bhagwan Krishna playing Holi with folks of Mathura is also there.

युक्तियुक्तं वचो ग्राह्यं बालादपि शुकादपि ।
युक्तिहीनं वचस् त्याज्यं वृद्धादपि शुकादपि॥१।।

"तर्कसंगत बात कोई बच्चा कहे या कोई तोता, उसे स्वीकारें। तर्कहीन बात कोई वृद्ध या महर्षि शुक भी कहें तो भी उसे त्याग दें!"
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Other versions:

युक्तियुक्तं वचो ग्राह्यं बालादपि शुकादपि।
युक्तिहीनं न च ग्राह्यं साक्षादपि बृहस्पतेः॥ २।।

युक्तियुक्तमुपादेयं वचनं बालकादपि।
अन्यत्तृणमिव त्याज्यमप्युक्तं पद्मजन्ममा॥ ३।।

युक्तियुक्तं वचो ग्राह्यं
बालादपि शुकादपि।
मूढः पश्यति जात्यादि
मूलं शालां च सर्वदा ॥ ४।।

युक्तियुक्तं वचो ग्राह्यं बालादपि शुकादपि।
युक्तिहीनं वचस्त्याज्यं व्यासादपि शुकादपि।। ५।।

युक्तियुक्तं वचो ग्राह्यं बालादपि शुकादपि।
युक्तिहीनं न च ग्राह्यं साक्षादपि भिषक्तमात्॥ ६।।

(Take what is logical even from a child or a parrot, but never take what is illogical even from the best of physicians/doctors.)

युक्तियुक्तं वचो ग्राह्यं बालादपि शुकादपि |
अयुक्तमपि न ग्राह्यं साक्षादपि वृहस्पते: ||७।।

(अर्थ - यदि कोई युक्तियुक्त बात आपसे कही जाती है, चाहे वह् एक बालक या एक बोलने वाले तोते द्वारा कही गयी हो, तो उसे ग्राह्य करना श्रेयस्कर है|
परन्तु कोई अयुक्तियुक्त बात यदि साक्षात देवगुरु वृहस्पति भी आपसे कहें तो उसे नहीं मानना चाहिये|)

युक्तियुक्तं वचः ग्राह्यं बालात अपि शुकात अपि ,
मूढ़ः पश्यति जाति आदि मूलं शालां च सर्वदा।

US FDA on ingredients of hand sanitizers:

: Triclosan, benzethonium chloride, and 26 others.
: nothing
: ethyl alcohol, benzalkonium chloride, and isopropyl alcohol
: "If soap and water are not available, the CDC recommends using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60 percent alcohol."

fda.gov/news-events/press-anno

Madhur boosted

@madhur Happy Holi! And today it is Purim for the Jewish people!

Today we share a Holiday! :D

Its today.
The famous festival of colours.

Wishing every Qoton a . Have a colourful day! 🏳️‍🌈🎊🌈☂️

Nitpicking on the Oxford Comma 

Recently, @APStyleBook@twitter.com (henceforth, AP) was criticized much after posting a 9 tweet thread explaining their usage of the (henceforth, OC). Criticism was for the length of explanation (9 tweets!) by those who don't see the grammatical role of OC. Essence of AP's guidelines, given with examples of usage, is two rules:

1. Do not use OC in simple series or anywhere else where it is not needed to bring clarity or accuracy. (the "no OC rule" of AP)
2. Use OC in complex series, where the final phrase of series includes a conjunction, and wherever it brings clarity.

Philosophy behind these is encapsulated in general rule for punctuation: Use punctuation that is needed; don't use what is not needed.

Missing was a demonstration of how blatant ambiguities arise if OC is used everywhere without discrimination. This, I indicate here by borrowing examples given by @svenosaurus@twitter.com :

... If "I want to thank my parents, Ayn Ran and God" is confusing, then so is "Donald will be accompaid by his three nephews, Huey, Louie, and Dewie."

NOTE ON CONSISTENCY OF OXFORD COMMA

The "do not use OC" policy misses the point entirely, while the "use OC everywhere" policy misses is that without AP's "no OC rule", OC in itself becomes totally pointless, while it serves a useful, even essential, grammatical function if used as per AP style. Thus, consistency for OC renders it useless and serves no purpose.

for :

What do you think of warrant canaries? Do you think that Canary Watch should had continued?

More info:
eff.org/deeplinks/2016/05/cana

My answer to #RandomQuestion on dietary preferences. CW: #LongText ( > 1000 characters) 

Good , from the birdsite.

twitter.com/GadSaad/status/103

I'll attempt to answer where I stand. Consider the following:

1. It is generally considered bad (kinksters, kindly excuse me) to capture, enslave, kill, or eat humans.

2. Animals are much like us. In particular, their flesh and blood is like ours. They even die by same mechanisms as we do. To see an animal in pain invokes empathy in many of us.

3. Insects are not as much like us as animals. Many of their organ systems are totally different from those of animals. Their blood isn't even red!

4. Insects, alive or dead, provoke disgust (or fear, in many of us), rather than empathy. To see an insect in pain doesn't change that.

To summarize: Most vegetarians avoid eating animals because of empathy; but they avoid eating insects for different reasons - disgust and fear.

I come from a largely lacto-vegetarian community. Personally, while I occasionally consume animal meat, I find the idea of eating insects as disgusting even to consider.

Replicability in social sciences.

Only 13 out of 21 (about 0.62) major studies of decade past (which were attempted to be replicated) were found replicable to significant (more than 0.75) extent.

Sample size used in replication was 5 times of the original studies. These replication efforts have been described as 'collaborative' as against 'hostile' efforts from earlier.

theguardian.com/science/2018/a

Its today.
The birthday of Lord Krishna as per Hindu calendar.

A to all!

A good thing about the instance is relative absence of cat pics (or dig pics, or... well insert your preferred aninal), compared to, say, mastodon.social, where nearly half my TL was cat pics. Not that I hate cats or have something against them, but there is more to life than cats!

Hello ,
I am and this is my .
I am Madhur, an Indian engineer with many interests: chess, philosophy, maths, science, politics, fountain pens; trying a shot at writing.

Qoto's ad on the birdsite, mentioning its character limit (2^16-1) sold it to me, besides the fact that it focuses on STEM. One can basically post a decent sized novel here, or an essay, or a research paper here. I intend to use it for something like that.

One may also find me at the birdsite as @MadhurVarshney@Twitter.com, or as @Muo.

Qoto Mastodon

QOTO: Question Others to Teach Ourselves
An inclusive, Academic Freedom, instance
All cultures welcome.
Hate speech and harassment strictly forbidden.