The Fora: A Higher Education Community

General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Economizer on October 13, 2020, 08:41:18 PM

Title: Covid 19 - Wild Ass Guesses
Post by: Economizer on October 13, 2020, 08:41:18 PM
Covid 19, perhaps, deserves more input from the masses. So, being a masses member, here goes nothing:

There was a report on NPR recently which taught about an insect, the silverfish. It was stated that it was a household pest, it was attracted to dampness, it was no direct danger to humans, its rear portion might remind one of that of a prehistoric creature. Additionally, it emits a yellowish liquid.

So, yellowish. The silverfish at my place, which are reddish, leave a relatively large yellowish substance near my sink each morning, are fast, appear at times to be aggressive, and are generally 1/16 to 1/8 inch in length and might have a prehistoric look to their rear quarters. Now, I think "YELLOW PERIL"!

Could that term have originated at another time, possibly ancient, in another tongue, took the color yellow as indices of a plague born by a substance or creatures within the yellow stuff? Maybe scientists, anthropologists, or ancient scholars should GOOGLE my point or something?

Any of Y'ALL got any better thoughts on the subject?
Title: Re: Covid 19 - Wild Ass Guesses
Post by: Hegemony on October 13, 2020, 09:44:57 PM
What??
Title: Re: Covid 19 - Wild Ass Guesses
Post by: Economizer on October 13, 2020, 09:48:12 PM
Quote from: Hegemony on October 13, 2020, 09:44:57 PM
What??
Thank you for your reply.  NEXT!
Title: Re: Covid 19 - Wild Ass Guesses
Post by: Economizer on October 14, 2020, 12:13:15 AM
Quote from: Hegemony on October 13, 2020, 09:44:57 PM
What??
Thank you for your reply.  NEXT!
Title: Re: Covid 19 - Wild Ass Guesses
Post by: nebo113 on October 14, 2020, 05:52:32 AM
Might move this over to "Posting while Plastered."
Title: Re: Covid 19 - Wild Ass Guesses
Post by: Economizer on October 14, 2020, 06:41:32 AM
Quote from: nebo113 on October 14, 2020, 05:52:32 AM
Might move this over to "Posting while Plastered."

I never touch the stuff!
Title: Re: Covid 19 - Wild Ass Guesses
Post by: Thursday's_Child on October 14, 2020, 08:56:11 AM
Quote from: Economizer on October 14, 2020, 06:41:32 AM
Quote from: nebo113 on October 14, 2020, 05:52:32 AM
Might move this over to "Posting while Plastered."

I never touch the stuff!

Thank you for straightening up my perceptions on that point...
Title: Re: Covid 19 - Wild Ass Guesses
Post by: clean on October 14, 2020, 10:40:12 AM
I dont know if I want to participate.
However, I took the challenge and googled it.  It gave me the meaning I suspected.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Peril

Now You try.

What does this have to do with silverfish, or their remains.

IF You have a pest infestation, I suggest that you cure the issues in your bathroom that make it unhealthy for you, and a great place for silverfish (and perhaps molds) to thrive.  Perhaps a pest control specialist visit is called for.

(Or perhaps consider stop peeing in the sink at night, in the dark and blaming 'silverfish').
Title: Re: Covid 19 - Wild Ass Guesses
Post by: Economizer on October 14, 2020, 05:41:24 PM
I think my idea of Yellow Peril predates the racism explanation on the WIKIPEDIA article you presented. It would seem to me to be an adaption of the term for political expediency at a later time than use of the term, in whatever language, applied to roots of epidemic illnesses. I admit that I have no real proof of that. Maybe it will become an applicable label in the here and now?

Oh, by the way, I live in a cheap studio apartment where pest control is iffy. I'm moving. Maybe a change will give me other ideas toward removing we humans from this poxhole.
Title: Re: Covid 19 - Wild Ass Guesses
Post by: Economizer on October 14, 2020, 05:54:02 PM
Quote from: Economizer on October 14, 2020, 05:41:24 PM
I think my idea of Yellow Peril predates the racism explanation on the WIKIPEDIA article you presented. It would seem to me to be an adaption of the term for political expediency at a later time than use of the term, in whatever language, applied to roots of epidemic illnesses. I admit that I have no real proof of that. Maybe it will become an applicable label in the here and now?

Oh, by the way, I live in a cheap studio apartment where pest control is iffy. I'm moving. Maybe a change will give me other ideas toward removing we humans from this poxhole.

NEXT!
Title: Re: Covid 19 - Wild Ass Guesses
Post by: Hegemony on October 15, 2020, 03:27:51 AM
If you really want to know, and not just throw out wild-ass guesses that the term "yellow peril," universally understood as a racist phrase applied to certain Asian minorities in the U.S., actually originated from silverfish, a tiny insect which causes little alarm in anyone — all you have to do is to go to Google Scholar and put in the search term "Yellow Peril," and you will get a host of scholarly articles on the background of the term and of the prejudice.  I know undergraduates think you can make stuff up out of your own head in a random second or two and overturn the scholarship of people who've spent their whole careers studying the subject, but I think as academics we ought to be beyond that kind of thing.
Title: Re: Covid 19 - Wild Ass Guesses
Post by: Economizer on October 16, 2020, 08:58:48 AM
Actually, I was soliciting the wild ass guesses of the intelligent which might be germaine to the study and progress toward treatment and/or cure of the Coronavirus 19.  We may now have clues but not facts forward that point. And, you're no fun!