They were. Most people are entirely ignorant about them because they read the version they're taught in schools, which they keep repeating like parrots to no end. But they were an age of steady, solid progress filled with advances in mathematics, architecture, music and philosophy that culminated with the invention of the press. And then things exploded from then on. It was the idiot Voltaire (who was rabid anti-christian) who coined the term Dark Ages to refer to the Middle ages. In order to properly understand them, one has to first learn what was before them, and what they supplanted.

By most socio-economic metrics, the thousand or so years of the Middle Ages was a pretty bad time to be alive. And if we focus on math, music, and philosophy, the Middle Ages were indeed dark compared to what came before and after. I don't understand how you can possibly think otherwise.

 

By most socio-economic metrics, the thousand or so years of the Middle Ages was a pretty bad time to be alive. And if we focus on math, music, and philosophy, the Middle Ages were indeed dark compared to what came before and after. I don't understand how you can possibly think otherwise.

You probably don't understand because, as I've said, the Middle Ages were a much better period to live in than what was before them. You would have to study that part of history to get my meaning. The only problem that I see with that age, is that it might have lasted too long. It was because of the plague that things accelerated and progress developed much faster.

But think for a minute, and compare the European culture to that of the rest of the world. Sure, arab culture flourished during that time, but that was because said peninsula was the commercial hub connecting Europe to Asia. So they had a geographical advantage. And then things changed, along came the printing press, and with it a cultural revolution.

I suggest you browse through these books to learn more about what I'm trying to say:

Why Europe?: The Medieval Origins of Its Special Path
The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England
Medieval Life: Manners, Customs & Dress During the Middle Ages
Bearing False Witness: Debunking Centuries of Anti-Catholic History (This book was written by a non-Catholic, btw)
The Glory of the Crusades
The Crusades: The World's Debate
The Church Under Attack
The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century
Seven Lies About Catholic History​

 

I suggest you browse through these books to learn more about what I'm trying to say

Well, assuming I won't acquire and read all those books within the next day or so, can you give me a few examples of how math, music, and philosophy flourished in the Middle Ages? I ask because I'm quite familiar with the history of those three disciplines. In each, what came before (with the ancient Greeks and Romans) and what came after greatly outweighs -- in importance, diversity, and lasting contribution -- anything (of which I'm aware) that Western civilization produced during the Middle Ages. European mathematics, in particular, was almost entirely stagnant from the end of the classical era until the Renaissance.

 

Take your thermometer as a perfect example. If a store had one and you wanted one, should you have been allowed to buy one, even if it was the last one?

I do not think that is a valid comparison.
What i was talking about is very simple, if a store allows people to buy as many of a product as they care to during a pandemic then a lot of people that come into the store will not be able to get something that is very important to have during that time. Buying up the last one is not the same as rationing. The purpose of limiting the quantity a single person can buy in one visit helps to ensure that many people will get what they need.
The thermometer might have been a bad example though because people probably only buy one or two of them at any given time. Paper products were bought up within a day or two and that was two weeks ago and i STILL can not get any at that store or some other stores because they ran out too.
The pharmacist at a local drug store told me that they all get bought up the same day they come in. But yes that is probably different that is probably just a lot of people wanting one unless they are buying for friends like i was going to do.

The gov was also thinking of making a law that stores had to limit quantities sold to an individual probably just during this time of crisis.

The respirator shortage would also be a bad example because they were actually needed immediately, but you might notice in the news that some hospitals were hoarding supplies.

 

Well, assuming I won't acquire and read all those books within the next day or so, can you give me a few examples of how math, music, and philosophy flourished in the Middle Ages? I ask because I'm quite familiar with the history of those three disciplines. In each, what came before (with the ancient Greeks and Romans) and what came after greatly outweighs -- in importance, diversity, and lasting contribution -- anything (of which I'm aware) that Western civilization produced during the Middle Ages. European mathematics, in particular, was almost entirely stagnant from the end of the classical era until the Renaissance.

Give me a few days, and I'll be happy to answer that question. I'm not retired yet, you know... and sitll have to work for a living.

I'll be back with a few answers later on. And maybe open a new thread about this subject, so as not to disrupt the current discussion any further.

 

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/04/did-the-shutdown-of-new-york-city-fail.php

So, did New York City’s shutdown fail? Or was there never, in fact, a real shutdown at all?

 

As New Yahkas say, fugedabout it. IE Stay Home? Nah...

 

https://q13fox.com/2020/04/16/farmers-markets-to-reopen-with-restrictions-this-weekend-in-seattle/

 

will restrict time in the market to 10 minutes.

Yeah, I bet...

 

will restrict time in the market to 10 minutes.

Yeah, I bet...

My nephew who bakes artisan breads to sell at the farmers market is now doing curbside deliveries in his front yard for call-in orders.

 

My nephew who bakes artisan breads to sell at the farmers market is now doing curbside deliveries in his front yard for call-in orders.

Lemonade in the times of lemons ... that's my motto

 

will restrict time in the market to 10 minutes.

Yeah, I bet...

That's amazing to hear because i usually spend about that time in the one down the street anyway. I get in and out, but then again i do that with all stores although not quite that fast with the larger supermarkets because there is a lot of walking around to get to the stuff i need that happens to be distributed all over the store. When they move a product from one place in the store to another though that bites because then i have to go to more trouble to find it and that takes more time.

 

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/04/did-the-shutdown-of-new-york-city-fail.php

So is that highest red line New York City?
It's too hard to read the print on the right.

 

So is that highest red line New York City?
It's too hard to read the print on the right.

It says "New York, Newark, Jersey City", i.e. the metropolitan area.

The original graph comes from the White House Coronavirus Task Force, and I've looked, but I cannot find it. I don't know where WHCTF stores these things.

 

https://apnews.com/d20f283318c86bec3cc2d3d7936a9612

A flood of new research suggests that far more people have had the coronavirus without any symptoms, fueling hope that it will turn out to be much less lethal than originally feared.

While that’s clearly good news, it also means it’s impossible to know who around you may be contagious. That complicates decisions about returning to work, school and normal life.
...
None of these numbers can be fully trusted because they’re based on flawed and inadequate testing, said Dr. Michael Mina of Harvard’s School of Public Health.

Collectively, though, they suggest “we have just been off the mark by huge, huge numbers” for estimating total infections, he said.

 

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/india-cave-coronavirus-hideout-scli-intl/index.html

The tourists -- four men and two women from France, Turkey, Ukraine, the United States and Nepal -- were initially staying at a hotel, but ran out of money and took refuge in the cave, said Mukesh Chand, spokesperson for Uttarakhand police.

 

Sure there is.

But I can't prove it to you because that would violate this site's TOS.

You can’t prove it to me because it doesn’t exist to me and many other people. It is but a figment of your imagination. And what you call ‘proof’ is also a figment.

The TOS is a convenient excuse.

I like your technical ability. i enjoy and am amused your viewpoint.

 

You can’t prove it to me...

Can too!

 

Proof the multiverse does exist, at least inside everyone's head.

 

Hold onto your pants.

... if the infected patient were not wearing their pants, and they released a large amount of gas, and someone else happened to be in the vicinity and took a close and hard sniff at the gas, anything could be possible, the article said.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1180514.shtml