Wordy Blog Archive 2018-01
#philosophy. Alice in Wonderland, and Logical Positivism Alice in Wonderland, and Through the Looking-Glass
#math #history #scifi. FLATLAND: A Romance of Many Dimensions FLATLAND: A Romance of Many Dimensions It's mock-history of class struggle and dark politics, and you start to understand the 4th dimension. It's an old classic, but deemed not ok by political correctness since 1990s.
The Anatomy of Melancholy
The Anatomy of Melancholy (full title: The Anatomy of Melancholy, What it is: With all the Kinds, Causes, Symptomes, Prognostickes, and Several Cures of it. In Three Maine Partitions with their several Sections, Members, and Subsections. Philosophically, Medicinally, Historically, Opened and Cut Up) is a book by Robert Burton, first published in 1621, but republished five more times over the next seventeen years with massive alterations and expansions.
On its surface, the book is presented as a medical textbook in which Burton applies his vast and varied learning, in the scholastic manner, to the subject of melancholia (which includes, although it is not limited to, what is now termed clinical depression). Although presented as a medical text, The Anatomy of Melancholy is as much a sui generis work of literature as it is a scientific or philosophical text, and Burton addresses far more than his stated subject. In fact, the Anatomy uses melancholy as the lens through which all human emotion and thought may be scrutinized, and virtually the entire contents of a 17th-century library are marshalled into service of this goal.[1] It is encyclopedic in its range and reference.
In his satirical preface to the reader, Burton's persona and pseudonym “Democritus Junior” explains, “I write of melancholy by being busy to avoid melancholy.” This is characteristic of the author's style, which often supersedes the book's strengths as a medical text or historical document as its main source of appeal to admirers. Both satirical and serious in tone, the Anatomy is “vitalized by (Burton's) pervading humour”,[2] and Burton's digressive and inclusive style, often verging on a stream of consciousness, consistently informs and animates the text.[citation needed] In addition to the author's techniques, the Anatomy's vast breadth – addressing topics such as digestion, goblins, the geography of America, and others[1] – make it a valuable contribution to multiple research disciplines.[citation needed]
The sacred, and the profane. today's #xahwords is profane. Now, the article on its own page Meal on a Pill Meal on a Pill
the etymology of profane is: in front of temple. i.e. you not allowed in.
China Dollar Bill Multi-Lingual (old. repost)
The Carnal Prayer Mat 肉蒲团 (old. repost)
when it's man, it's virile.
when it's girl, it's nubile.
when it's earth, its fertile.
#xahwords of the day
Definition of General Artificial Intelligence
lol. machine translated chinese often is silly nonsense. If you goto Wikipedia on general AI Artificial general intelligence u see several people defines a test. I'll add one. We got general AI when it can translate Chinese properly.
today's words: pinnacle, harbinger, expunge, impudicity, gonzo, sectarian, surreptitiously, fusillade, foist, inimical GRE Words #xahwords
ICE Resin Opals, Crystal Opal
there is such a thing “ICE Resin Opals, Crystal Opal” Buy at amazon apparently, opal is “a hydrated amorphous form of silica (SiO2·nH2O)” and used in jewerly or something. Opal do people spray it onto walls or something? #xahpop
what becomes of autumn leaves?
it's autumn again, leaves all over pavements. What if nobody sweep them up? well, they become dirt, or soil.
hedonism and epicureanism
And this holiday season stuff of normality is upon us again. your job, is BUY amazon Empower urself with material pleasure. Little gadgets to enhance your happiness, Drugs to increase well being, watches to shine your status. Pleasantries you deserve and can afford.
canker sores
the wonders of modern medical science, with virtual realities et al, have not resolved the cause of Aphthous ulcer or, canker sores. when i was young, i had it often. but basically never after 40
when you live with chinese from china or taiwan, everyday, you'll hear terms such as Shang Huo (上火) or 补 (“nurturing blood/chi”) food. these chinese medicine concepts about diet is instilled in the brain.
here's Wikipedia on Traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine its kinda pseudo science, but remember, no worse than say, California's yoga zen fad or American's vitamins and nutritional supplements fad. U ask for placebo, u get it
when thinking about the ills of Traditional Chinese medicine to chinese in china or taiwan, well, it's probably better than, say, McDonnald's supersize do to Americans and drug corp's instillation on you of it. now, take this pill, and have a good night.
a literal mile stone
Romans put a stone marking distances from Rome every mile.
echelon. An echelon of them. Word of the day
“An echelon of J-20 fighters are seen at the 12th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition (Airshow China) in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province, Nov. 11, 2018, commemorating the 69th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army Air Force.”
Word of the day is docile
and there is this thing. you feed it to your cat, and she becomes docile amazon
todo. find pages that doesn't have side panel, add them
Analytic Languages vs Synthetic Languages
Logorrhea
to read
The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade By Edgar Allan Poe
litany against fear
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
from Dune Dune
sucker punch
sucker punch, is punching someone in a sneaky, unexpected, undeclared way, like, coward's punch this video shows https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1mIN92XYBk that guy, went to jail for 4 months, and later killed a friend, is in jail to 2033.
not sure when did the phrase came to be. apparently there's a movie named Sucker Punch Buy at amazon starring pretty white chicks, with swords and guns in ninja plus nz land
which word came first: algorithm, procedure, formula
- [etymology of algorithm https://www.etymonline.com/word/algorithm]
- [etymology of procedure https://www.etymonline.com/word/procedure]
- [etymology of formula https://www.etymonline.com/word/formula]
quiz. which word came earlier?
- [etymology of remove https://www.etymonline.com/word/remove]
- [etymology of delete https://www.etymonline.com/word/delete]
quiz. which word came earlier?
- [etymology of coherent https://www.etymonline.com/word/coherent]
- [etymology of holistic https://www.etymonline.com/word/holistic]
Disappearance of Tiffany Daniels
At 4:43 p.m. on August 12, 2013, Tiffany Daniels (born March 11, 1988) left her job as a theater technician at Pensacola State College in Pensacola, Florida. She told her supervisor that she would not be returning for a few days, but did not say why.[1] Although she returned home briefly afterwards, her housemate was busy with a telephone conversation and did not see her. She has not been seen since.
Because she had told her supervisor she would be taking time off, Daniels was not reported missing until the end of the week, after she had failed to return to work. Her friends and family were unaware of any plans she might have made that would explain her absence. Tiffany's housemate also reported that she had left unusually early for work that day after some strange activity even earlier that morning.[1]
A security camera on the Bob Sikes Bridge connecting Pensacola and Santa Rosa Island recorded her car crossing the bridge almost three hours after she had left work. Eight days after her disappearance, the vehicle was found at a parking lot in Pensacola Beach, along with her bicycle, purse and cell phone. Residents in the area said the car had only been there a few days,[2] and reported seeing an unidentified male around it. Two unidentified fingerprints were found on it, but a search of the surrounding beach area found no trace of Daniels.
Several theories have been put forth to account for Daniels's disappearance, ranging from foul play to an accidental drowning. Based on an anonymous tip and several reported sightings further west along Interstate 10, her family believes she was a victim of human trafficking and may still be alive.[3] The case was the subject of a 2016 episode of Investigation Discovery's Disappeared. Contents
swimming in ocean and you don't know salt exist
the info world is so big, if u don't specifically look for something, you thought it didn't exist. I go to lib daily in 1990s. Thought i knew every cranny, what type of book lie where. Until, you have a subject, and wow, all the books you never knew existed.
context: #Wingsuit pilots fly through moving targets in Saturday's contest at 2018 World Wingsuit Championship in China's Zhangjiajie https://twitter.com/Echinanews/status/1041408947037581313
It's similar to when you get into a new programing language. Some 5 years ago, i started to learn ruby. And, wow, i didn't know there are so many websites that i've never seen. And communities, celebrities, stories.
#台风山竹 #Mangkhut and #Jebi both seems worse than hurricane #Florence
Typhoon Mangkhut in China. looks like we have cyclone all over now. #台风山竹 Typhoon #Mangkhut in China, Typhoon Jebi in Japan, Hurricane #Florence in US.
here's #台风山竹 tag on twitter [ https://twitter.com/hashtag/台风山竹?src=hash ]
Hurricane and Typhoon are the same thing, just diff name, around USA or in Asia. The etymology of Typhoon (台风 颱風) may actually came from Greek Typhon, a serpentine giant who fought Zeus for supremacy of the cosmos but lost.
- [etymology of Typhoon https://www.etymonline.com/word/Typhoon]
- [etymology of hurricane https://www.etymonline.com/word/hurricane]
this guy, knows linguistics. Watch this 3 parts intro on Japanese. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcdYKxHT8kY Japanese writing system, is truly the most complicated.
how English was pronunced in ~1600.
the idiocy of Iambic Pentameter
Iambic pentameter, is the most idiotic thing in English. Back in early 1990s, i tried to understand it, but never did. Today, info is ripe. I read Wikipedia, understand it in 5 min. English, can't rime, period. you just have alliteration and the like.
here's Iambic Pentameter:
Noble patricians, patrons of my right, Defend the justice of my cause with arms; And, countrymen, my loving followers, Plead my successive title with your swords.
from opening of Shakespeare's Titus “Titus Andronicus” Act 1 Scene 1
the problem with English “meter” is that, you scholastically dissect lines into “meters”. but in no practical sense they rime. you cut words into two parts, read them in a strange way, in order to say it rimes.
The typa poems that actually rime, are things like limerick, with alliteration n assononance. The proper definition of rime, is that it rolls off ya tongue. In this sense, rap is kinda rime. Now, that's vulgar.
On Saturn the sexes are three, A nuisance, I think you'll agree. For performing 'con brio' you must have a trio, While it even takes two for a pee.
nephrologist
The steel and glass house was commissioned by Edith Farnsworth, M.D., a prominent Chicago nephrologist , as a place where she could engage in her hobbies -- playing the violin, translating poetry, and enjoying nature
news from the astro belt. #pluto ♇ is loved again as planet. Astrology Symbols 🌛 Astrology Symbols 🌛 #unicode
freshmen, sophomore, junior, senior
i just learned, in today's universities, they don't say freshmen anymore. The problem, lies in the men, of course. It's now first year students. So, freshpeople? that doesn't sound right. Sophomore, junior, senior, i suppose stays put. #xahwords
Sophomore came from sophism, meaning specious but fallacious argument devised for purposes of deceit or to exercise one's ingenuity. Or Greek sophos “wise” + moros “foolish”.
[etymology of Sophomore https://www.etymonline.com/word/Sophomore]
chlamydia gonerrhea syphilis
chlamydia gonerrhea syphilis. Each is hard to pronounce, hard to type, hard to spell.
there is a word for that: poetic
word of the day: facile desiderata ineffable
admit I was never truly facile in the language. So I abandoned the idea.
We wrote on the white board a bunch of stuff that we wanted, desiderata if you will.
But you can't take out everything. You need building blocks such as an idea about how types behave, and syntax that works well in practice, and some ineffable thing that makes libraries interoperate well.
from [on golang, less is exponentially more By Rob Pike. At https://commandcenter.blogspot.com/2012/06/less-is-exponentially-more.html ]
better nav panel for the following
#xahwords today are: Marvelous and Luscious. Mario Sisters Cosplay
today's #xahwords is: lugubrious. Latin lugubris “mournful, doleful, pertaining to mourning,” from lugere “to mourn,” from PIE root *leug- “to break; to cause pain” (Greek lygros “mournful, sad,” Sanskrit rujati “breaks, torments,” Lettish lauzit “to break the heart”). Yeah.
usage example: lugubriousness has done me.
now, in the name of English, i will inaugurate the commencement of sleeping.
why do river meander
apparently, they don't have a Chinese proofreader 三月月湖 upside down, and i'm not sure that's the correct Chinese term.
the correct Chinese term is 河迹湖. Wikipedia at Oxbow lake the YouTube video is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a3r-cG8Wic
he is a purveyor of beauty and discretion, both equally important
game of thrones words: promontory, hoodwink
Casterly Rock is the ancestral stronghold of House Lannister. It is located on the Western coast of Westeros on a rocky promontory overlooking the Sunset Sea.
According to legend, Casterly Rock was found and held by House Casterly after its founder slew a pair of fearsome lions that lived in the gold-filled subterranean cave where the castle would be built upon. They were hoodwinked into giving the Rock to Lann the Clever, a legendary trickster and ancestor of House Lannister, thousands of years ago, during the Age of Heroes.
2018-08-03 from http://gameofthrones.wikia.com/wiki/Casterly_Rock
word of the day: glance
Jaime briefly rallies a group of archers to target Daenerys as she dives again (riding the dragon Drogon), hoping to kill her and leave her forces leaderless, but Drogon pulls up sharply and the arrows glance harmlessly off his scales.
2018-07-29 from http://gameofthrones.wikia.com/wiki/Daenerys_Targaryen
#xahword of the day: fractious, conscription, mustered, buffed, belligerent, caricatures, pompous, bombastic.
at the speed of light, my dick becomes a disk, i rushed back in time, bid for my fly back.
today's lexicon is fear and trepidation.
D.B. Cooper jumped out of a plane with $200,000 cash in 1971 -- and he's never been found
“This has been a cover up, they're stonewalling,” Colbert told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. He believes that the FBI protected Rackstraw because he was involved in numerous classified units during the war and may have worked for the CIA. “This is an old fashioned scandal,” he said. (A rep for FBI's Seattle field office told Rolling Stone that they have received “an immense number” of tips over the years, but “none to date have resulted in a definitive identification of the hijacker.” They did not respond to a request for comment on whether the FBI stonewalled an investigation into Rackstraw.)
[D.B. Cooper: Investigators Claim They've Discovered Skyjacker's Identity By Amelia Mcdonell-Parry. At https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/d-b-cooper-investigators-claim-theyve-discovered-skyjackers-identity-693912/ ]
See also Wikipedia D. B. Cooper
See also:
#xahwords: stonewalling. “In March of this year, they charged in a letter published in Microwave News that these attempts were met with stonewalling and foot-dragging.” 1999, wired. Vocabulary: Combination Words
Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World
By the way, basically all movies or comics of Gulliver is completely misleading of the book's nature. Its nature, is offensiveness, misanthropy.
Dogs Bark, Cats Meow, Horses Neigh, and Hyena?
“Some I recognized as a kind of hypertrophied raspberry and orange, but for the most part they were strange”
The first man I saw was of a meagre aspect, with sooty hands and face, his hair and beard long, ragged, and singed in several places. His clothes, shirt, and skin, were all of the same colour. He has been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put in phials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw inclement summers.
Gulliver's Travels. PART III. A VOYAGE TO LAPUTA, BALNIBARBI, LUGGNAGG, GLUBBDUBDRIB, AND JAPAN. #xahwords #english
In the interest of full disclosure, I must relate that I own a bunch of HP and Agilent doodads. Mostly, I like all of them, too.
Ulysses, etc.
By nature, he was a scattershot writer, scribbling on scraps of paper, composing in notebooks and revising excerpts after they appeared in magazines -- and in 1922, when “Ulysses” first appeared, all that chaos was botched into print by French typesetters, most of whom spoke no English. That flawed version was banned in America, so a notorious pornographer, Sam Roth, rushed into print a pirated and even more corrupt edition. What had riled the censors (and attracted the vanguard readers) were a few scenes in “Ulysses” where women indulge sexual fantasies.
Not a few paragraphs later, Kidd called out a slew of new mistakes and then guffawed, “Is no one awake at the wheel?” The piece carried on like this, as the tone gathered more of this vernacular force. After another volley of attacks about a misspelling here, a single dropped letter there, it read: “The Corrected Text is marbled with the fat of such pseudo-restorations from shoulder to shank.”
Responding in a subsequent issue, Gabler maintained a stiff, dismissive stance. “The scanty array of examples,” he wrote, “provides not even the flimsiest of foundations for a critique, let alone a condemnation.” Kidd was permitted to reply in the same issue, and his rebuttal preened with unforgiving attitude. After challenging Gabler on substance, he slipped into mischievous singsong: “Irony abounds. What redounds to Dr. Kidd rebounds. On several grounds, it sounds, he's out of bounds.”
[The Strange Case of the Missing Joyce Scholar (John Kidd) By Jack Hitt. At [ https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/12/magazine/the-strange-case-of-the-missing-joyce-scholar.html ] ]
Alice in Wonderland, and Through the Looking-Glass (added nav panel on the side)
English Accents. updated index.
Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese
here's chinese text, first 2 paragraphs on Chinese Wikipedia's article on keyboard.
highlighted words are characters that are in Japanese (i.e. kanji).
so, this gives a picture what Japanese can understand whan seeing Chinese.
鍵盤是指经过系统安排操作一台机器或设备的一组键，主要的功能是輸入資料。电脑鍵盤是电脑的外设之一，由打字机鍵盤发展而来。通过鍵盤可以输入字符，也可以控制电脑的运行。依照鍵盤上的按鍵數，可分為101鍵和104鍵兩種，而104個按鍵的鍵盤又稱為Windows 95鍵盤
通常，电脑鍵盤由矩形或近似矩形的一组按钮或者称为“鍵”组成，鍵的上面印有字符。大部分情况下，按下一个鍵就打出对应的一个符号，如字母、数字或标点符号等。然而，有一些特殊的符号需要同时按下几个鍵或者按顺序按几个鍵才能打出。另外还有一些鍵不对应任何符号，但是影响到电脑的运行。不同的输入法定义不同的输出符号。
on the other hand, when Chinese read Japanese, all the kanji Chinese can understand. It's easy to tell, because kanji are those complicated characters.
the purpose of this, is to answer the curiosity, that whether chinese can understand more Japanese, or the other way around.
similar question is, whether Spanish can read Portuguese better or the other way.
The dictionary bundled with macOS sucks donkey ass. American Heritage Dictionary vs New Oxford American Dictionary
behold a pale horse
And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
—Bible
behold a pale horse (1964), movie. Buy at amazon
Based on the real-life exploits of Francisco Sabater, this is the story of a Spanish guerrilla living in exile in France and still leading raids on Spain, long after the Spanish Civil War has ended. An elaborate trap is set for him by a vicious police chief, using his mother and a priest as bait.
The Arabian Nights
“Oppression hideth in every heart: power revealeth it and weakness concealeth it.”
from The Tale of the Wazir and the Sage Duban
of all literature i've read in my life, 2 most enjoyable are Shakespeare's stuff and Arabian Nights of Sir Richard Burton.
Q: What to do if someone is bugging you?
A: Growl.
Q: What to do if you disapprove?
A: Hiss.
the Story of Cupid and Psyche. classic. #ValentinesDay ♥
[The Shallowness of Google Translate By Douglas Hofstadter. At https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/01/the-shallowness-of-google-translate/551570/ ]
Cultural References Lost in Movie Subtitles
你不想学扬琴了 你说了不算 为什么 因为是它指引你来到世上的 陪伴了你11年 这是你跟它前世今生的缘分 现在你不想要它了 但是它对你也有感情 你跟它商量一下吧 如果它同意你不用跟妈讲 妈没意见
English translation:
you can say you want to quit learning yangqin, but it's not up to you. why? it guided you to this world you've been together for 11 years you are destined to be together you may not want it but you are all its got. talk to your yangqin. if it agrees, then that's it i won't object
from 闪光少女 (Our Shining Days), Cosplay Culture, and Chinese vs Western Music
when doing translations, there's a tricky business. There's literal translation, and at the other extreme is translation by the intended meaning, subsuming context, which may have NOTHING to do with the words uttered. (called “pragmatics” in linguistics)
In most “good” translations, eg big movie's subtitle, the latter is done. By that, you can readily enjoy foreign films, but you are completely robbed from seeing how Chinese say things, and any cultural references are necessarily removed.
here's a more literal translation:
you don't want to learn yangqin anymore but what you say doesn't count why? because it guided you to the world together for 11 years it's your karma of reincarnation now you don't want him anymore but he has feelings for you talk to him. if he agrees, no need to tell mom mom has no opinion on this
Note the word “karma” and “reincarnation” used. If you are a nerd hipster, you probably knew what it means. But to most English speakers, it's a blank.
It fact, the actual word used is 缘分 (“yuanfen” in English), and Chinese language colloquial usage actually don't have or use the word “karma”.
If you are a Chinese, you would hear and use word 缘分 yuanfen, several times a month, thru out your life. It's a Chinese folk concept tied to bddhism and taoism. It is applied to relationships.
缘分 yuanfen means:
- together by destiny
- natural affinity to be together
- fortuity, that binds people together
Japan Net Jargon: “2D World”
in Japan, China, there's net jargon of “2D world”, meaning, the world of anime. i.e. idealized, fantasy, unrealistic. Many anime fans (what westerners'd call gamers), is said to live in 2d. As opposed to 3d world, real world. This is analogous to @SecondLife gamers of USA.
This award-winning movie from China, is a depiction of such youngsters in that world.
闪光少女 (Our Shining Days), Cosplay Culture, and Chinese vs Western Music
Lesson of the widow's mite
He sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents. Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.”
conscientious
- governed by conscience; controlled by or done according to one's inner sense of what is right; principled: She's a conscientious judge, who does not let personal prejudices influence her decisions.
- careful and painstaking; particular; meticulous; scrupulous: conscientious application to the work at hand.
that's the dictionary definition.
Apparently, the word has a particular meaning in psychology, different from dictionary meaning. Its meaning focuses on fulfilling obligation, duty, disciplined, dependable.
Conscientiousness is the personality trait of being careful, or vigilant. Conscientiousness implies a desire to do a task well, and to take obligations to others seriously. Conscientious people tend to be efficient and organized as opposed to easy-going and disorderly. They exhibit a tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement; they display planned rather than spontaneous behavior; and they are generally dependable. It is manifested in characteristic behaviors such as being neat and systematic; also including such elements as carefulness, thoroughness, and deliberation (the tendency to think carefully before acting.)[1] Conscientiousness is one of the five traits of both the Five Factor Model and the HEXACO model of personality and is an aspect of what has traditionally been referred to as having character. Conscientious individuals are generally hard-working and reliable. They are also likely to be conformists.[2] When taken to an extreme, they may also be “workaholics”, perfectionists, and compulsive in their behavior.[3] People who score low on conscientiousness tend to be laid back, less goal-oriented, and less driven by success; they also are more likely to engage in antisocial and criminal behavior.[4]
简体繁體字表 List of Simplified/Traditional Chinese Characters (minor update)
Decoding English: “I'm not at liberty to say” = i won't say. I can't say. I'm not allowed to say.
Xah's Log, 2018-01-10, I Met a Beautiful Girl.