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Comment by lukehollis

10 hours ago

It's something we have to be careful of while working on site! We're really careful around the rooms that have mercury in them--there are few that I didn't put in the guide also.

I was wondering about this too: they've found high levels of mercury in the water supply at Maya cities and believe now it contributed to the eventual collapse: https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/06/mercury-and-algal-bl...

> “The drinking and cooking water for the Tikal rulers and their elite entourage almost certainly came from the Palace and Temple Reservoirs,” wrote Lentz and his colleagues. “As a result, the leading families of Tikal likely were fed foods laced with mercury at every meal.”

This makes me think: what if today's rulers are being poisoned by something making them act like idiots?

  • > This makes me think: what if today's rulers are being poisoned by something making them act like idiots?

    Leaded gasoline! With how old politicians are in the US, they are almost certainly affected.

  • It could be that there is something making our leaders mentally ill, or it could be that only the mentally ill think that they should be leaders.

  • Claiming that today’s rulers are acting like idiots seems off topic. And subjective too; even if only because yesterday’s rulers weren’t different.