The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Owlmirror:

So he gets it done by next March, and it falls into the swamp. Then the second one falls into the swamp. The third one burns down, then falls into the swamp. The fourth one vanishes shortly after construction.

"It was the dawn of a new age of mankind, ten years after the China/Uighur war. The Por-Bajin Project was a dream given form.
Its goal: to prevent another war by creating a place where Chinese and Uighur could work out their differences peacefully. It's a port of call - home away from home for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs, and wanderers. Chinese and Uighur wrapped in five hundred thousand tons of rock, all alone in the ice. It can be a dangerous place, but it's our last best hope for peace. This is the story of the last of the Por-Bajin stations. The year is 759. The name of the place is Por-Bajin 5."

"Death to —ing Gerunds!"

Dylan Meconis is also a fan of the classics, and she recently posted about finding a snippet of The Lost Books of the Odyssey posted to a telephone pole. The work appears to be similar to Borges' "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" (that is, the conceit is that the text was an archaeological discovery rather than written by a modern author).

She has two excerpts up, which I thought looked like something that the literati of the phosphorosphere might enjoy.

In the lassitude after love Odysseus asks Circe, "What is the way to the land of the dead?"

Circe answers, "You are muffled in folds of heavy fabric. You close your eyes against the rough cloth and though you struggle to free yourself you can barely move. With much thrashing and writhing, you manage to throw off a layer, but find that not only is there another one beyond it, but that the weight bearing you down has scarcely decreased. With dauntless spirit you continue to struggle.

"By infinitesimal degrees, the load becomes lighter and your confinement less. At last, you push away a piece of coarse, heavy cloth and, relieved, feel that it was the last one. As it falls away, you realize you have been fighting through years. You open your eyes."

The book itself is available as a free download (although also available for purchase in print if one so desires):

  http://the-lost-books.com/index.htm

Dylan Meconis, she of Battlestar GalactiSimpsons, has also created a small, but amusing, Nerd Taxonomy.

A direct link to the Protest Beijing 2008 image is here:

 

http://images.tribe.net/tribe/upload/photo/620/7ef/6207efe6-09b9-4936-b6b1-0f1a89ec7c46

Warning: Disturbing. Not for the young or squeamish.

After following the baobab link in the Particles, I wondered where the tree was and what its statistics were.

Well, Google suggests that this one is in fact the largest, or perhaps only the widest. I am not sure if it is the same tree as in the Particle picture.

  http://ten-thousand-trees.blogspot.com/2008/02/largest-baobab-in-world.html



  http://www.bigbaobab.co.za/

But it is quite, quite roomy inside...

Points to The Language Construction Kit, for those who might be interested in that sort of thing.

@#312, @#316, @#317, @#318, @#319, @#332, @#335:

Thank you all for your kind words.


I suspect that Paarfi's housemate(s) giggle a *lot* over his various notes and whatnot. Unless they roll their eyes instead, which well they might, after a few months or years or decades.

-

This is just to reply:

You fret
over
the strangest
things.

Just
write "plums"
on the
shopping
list,
silly.

This is a brief note containing two words on the subject of the history of our shared larder:

We have, in point of fact, been so bold as to eat the plums that happened to be in the cold-box. It occurred to us after the fact that we ought to apologize for this act, since the most likely purpose to which those fruit were to be put was your own morning meal, and now you will have to be satisfied with something else; perhaps some hot or cold cereal, to which we might recommend adding milk and honey, as well as a bit of cinnamon or vanilla for a more piquant flavor.

We wish, once again, to beg your forgiveness for this act, and to even offer recompense when the market is once again open and selling that variety of plum. We offer as an explanation, if not exactly an excuse, the extremely hot weather we have been experiencing lately, which made the cold plums seem exceedingly attractive, and once we had take the first bite, the excellent — indeed, we would even say delicious — aroma and taste of the fruit overwhelmed our self-control, leading to the regrettable result with which you are now, we are sure, quite familiar.

We remain,
your most humble servant,
Paarfi Roundwood Paarfis

Pulled from the Seed evolv-o-mat:


Fluorescent Nightshade: 57.2, 0x0, 6, 9, 43.9, 0.4, 2.5, 1.4, 4.3, 90.0, 1.3, 4, 0.6, 0.4, 0.0, 0.1, 1.8, 0.1, 0.8, 0.9, 0x160016, 0xf0705, 12.4, 7.2, 11, 20, 0.8, 1.9

"πενθεσιλεια" is indeed nifty.

OH, and the horses look about ready to charge.
And perhaps to trample someone.

Are they just horses qua horses, or are they particular and specific horses (the horses that pull Apollo's chariot, as a random classical example)?

Regarding Seed: One page that I found by the author mentions a useful tip that I have not seen elsewhere: If you want to clear away a specific flower, shift-click on it.

Culling is sometimes necessary, especially if you want to make sure that a particular set of flowers breed with each other.

I have an idea in mind that I think I will need to read the genome project pages to accomplish. Mwahahaha.

Catholic Universal Translating Infallible Etheric Pisciform Omnilingual Unit

(Mind-bogglingly useful, too)

Bah.

Catholic Universal Thoroughly Infallible Telepathic Omnilingual Unquestionable Translator

Owlmirror -- what did you mean by German dialects?

I think that my notion was that:

German language + English education + lots of English popular culture => greater use of English cognates and phrasing by young German speakers from all over Germany when wishing to communicate with young German speakers from all over Germany; that is, in preference to the phrasings of their own specific dialects.

However, that's just my random uninformed noodling.

Alas, quantum doesn't mean "infinitesimal amount" in Latin

Doesn't "quantum" just mean amount, though? Thus:

Quantum Infinitesimus Solacii, perhaps?

Although in checking "infinitesimal", I note that it is a relatively recent coinage from the Latin, like "science". Yet "infinitesimus" follows the Latin grammatical rules, does it not?

"der letzte Mensch auf der Erde ist nicht allein"

Random notion: I wonder if word choice and phrasing in German of 2008 has in any way been influenced by the near ubiquity of modern English, in order to gain the broadest accessibility among speakers of the various German dialects. I mean, that's a lot of cognates in there, directly translating the English phrase it comes from.

But what do I know?


Although I do recall reading somewhere that some German organizations were thinking of changing internal policy, or had already changed their policy, such that certain communications and documents were to be in English, simply because everyone knew it, and because the results were always so much shorter than the equivalent German, thus taking less time to write and read, and using less paper, for greater efficiency and reduced costs.

But that above may be apocryphal. Oh, that wonderful source "somewhere".

Re: Quantum of Solace - Given that both of the words are of Latin origin, perhaps the theme song could be a Gregorian chant in that language?

Quantum Solaci?
(Hey, this time I looked it up - genitive case, right? Right? No? Damn.)

abi @ 390, David Goldfarb @ 422 (and other Latinists):

Am I correct in inferring that "ars" is the the more general and classical term, whereas "scienta" is more modern and specific?

Actually, looking up the etymology for "science", I note that 'Modern sense of "non-arts studies" is attested from 1678', and 'Main modern (restricted) sense of "body of regular or methodical observations or propositions ... concerning any subject or speculation" is attested from 1725'.

Also: 'To blind (someone) with science "confuse by the use of big words or complex explanations" is attested from 1937, originally noted as a phrase from Australia and New Zealand.'


: Deploying surprise in 5... 4...

abi @ 390:

FABRICATUS GLORIANAM!

I should really stop even trying until I read a genuine Latin grammar.
(have them imagining to I will mangle Englishness similarly like way?)

Congratulations, [subject_name_here]! Now you may have some moist, delicious cake.

(I know I'm not up to it)

(Jocularum est. HAHA. Fortuna magna!)

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