[HN Gopher] Mauryan Polish
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       Mauryan Polish
        
       Author : benbreen
       Score  : 59 points
       Date   : 2021-05-22 05:50 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (en.wikipedia.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (en.wikipedia.org)
        
       | pwdisswordfish8 wrote:
       | I Am Disappointed That This Isn't About A Forgotten Dialect Of
       | Polish.
       | 
       | (Seriously, The Rule That Every Word In A Title Has To Be
       | Capitalised Is Silly.)
        
         | bpodgursky wrote:
         | The upcase Polish fixed the context so firmly in my mind that I
         | actually read it as Magyar Polish, which contextually was at
         | least plausible.
        
         | dvfjsdhgfv wrote:
         | Not each of them - in your sentence the, in, a, and is
         | shouldn't be capitalized.
        
           | weinzierl wrote:
           | If you can't remember the rules, there is always:
           | https://titlecase.com/
        
           | getlawgdon wrote:
           | And generally "of" unless it's the last word. There are a few
           | other rules depending on the authority used. It's unclear to
           | me whether a post title is a title to CMOS and I don't have a
           | recent enough copy that would include such digital
           | categories.
        
             | dvfjsdhgfv wrote:
             | I'd say so since 8.156 in the 17th edition explicitly
             | mentions websites: "The following guidelines apply
             | primarily to titles as they are mentioned or cited in text
             | or notes. They apply to titles of books, journals,
             | newspapers, and websites . . ." And 8.191 elaborates
             | further: " Titles of websites mentioned or cited in text or
             | notes are normally set in roman, headline-style . . ."
             | Basically, there are some differences regarding
             | italics/quotation marks but headline style seems to apply
             | to all kinds of titles of digital resources.
        
         | codetrotter wrote:
         | I was imagining that it was going to be some tribe of Maori
         | people that spoke Polish because of Polish explorers having
         | been there some hundred years ago.
        
           | jareklupinski wrote:
           | or descendants of Polish soldiers that were sent there to
           | quash a colonial rebellion, only to join the rebels and
           | defeat the colonizers.
        
         | zmk_ wrote:
         | I'd say it is misleading rather than disappointing. The word is
         | not capitalized in the Wikipedia article and titlecase is not a
         | requirement here either.
        
           | lucideer wrote:
           | It's not a requirement but it is the common convention.
           | 
           | Wikipedia has stricter style guidelines that go against that
           | convention but in the absence of such a style guide on HN,
           | one can see why common convention would typically be
           | followed.
           | 
           | Agree in general though; I don't know why this convention
           | exists and suspect we may be better off without it.
        
         | dan-robertson wrote:
         | The submitter can edit the title to change capitalisation.
         | Moderators can also edit the title.
        
           | weinzierl wrote:
           | The title is titlecased automatically, but when I edit the
           | title manually my own capitalization sticks. Not sure who can
           | edit and if this works for everyone.
        
         | alex_smart wrote:
         | I am disappointed that most people in the West have never heard
         | about the Mauryan empire (which is at least as much of a factor
         | in you having misread the title).
        
           | sprkv5 wrote:
           | Fun fact: George Lucas named Ahsoka Tano after the most
           | famous emperor of Maurya Empire: Ashoka.
           | 
           | This historical character is fascinating to me especially, as
           | someone who lives on the banks of river Daya where Ashoka
           | fought his bloodiest war: the Kalinga war.
           | 
           | Ashoka blamed himself as the cause for destruction. In
           | repentance, Ashoka decided to devote the rest of his life to
           | Ahimsa and converted to Buddhism.
        
           | zepto wrote:
           | I'm well aware of the Mauryan empire and was curious about
           | how a polish diaspora could have ended up there.
        
       | fnord77 wrote:
       | the article doesn't describe the technique, but googling it seems
       | maybe ground diamonds were used.
        
       | webwielder2 wrote:
       | Once stone is polished, does it forever remain thus? I find it
       | amazing that a 2000 year old artifact could be shiny.
        
         | weregiraffe wrote:
         | If it is inside a building/cave and no one scratches it on
         | purpose, there would be practically no erosion.
        
           | achow wrote:
           | Some of the pillars were huge and outdoors. The Wikipedia
           | pages shows one of them in outdoors.
        
       | mhb wrote:
       | Related?
       | 
       | Dorodango: The Japanese Art of Making Mud Balls
       | 
       | https://www.laurenceking.com/blog/2019/09/26/dorodango-blog/
        
         | hallway_monitor wrote:
         | Tangentially, but wow that is interesting! Apparently polishing
         | mud is not the same thing as putting lipstick on a pig.
        
       | dharma1 wrote:
       | This guy seems like an author on the subject
       | https://youtu.be/kA7BxO-v8ng
        
       | chickenmonkey wrote:
       | The modern Indian state takes a lot of its iconography from the
       | Mauryan empire, most prominently the Lion Capital of Sarnath
       | (image is in the article). It's super interesting to hear about
       | this technique which was instrumental in producing these
       | capitals.
        
       | bernardv wrote:
       | Beautiful style. Just like their coinage.
        
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       (page generated 2021-05-23 23:03 UTC)