An article here in Spanish has some information on this, and here's some information from it:
The governments of South Korea and Peru announced today that they had successfully concluded the negotiations for the signing of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
The agreement was announced in a ceremony in the Palace of Government in Lima by the Peruvian president Alan Garcia, who was accompanied by South Korean diplomats and officials.
"This is a very long-term alliance with Korea and I'm certain it will give fruit in the coming years, but will become stronger and more solid over the coming decades", he said.
Garcia said that the FTA will allow Peru to increase its trade with the Asian country by 7 billion dollars, by 2016.
"We are starting on a global level of imports and exports of $1.4 billion, and repeating just this we would be talking about $7 billion of commerce with Korea", he said.
The negotiations which began in March 2009 had five rounds and two mini-rounds, in which they addressed market access, rules of origin, temporary entry and cooperation.
Commercial exchange between Peru and Korea as of December 2009 was $1.348, with Peruvian exports accounting for $748.7 million, and imports from Korea $599.6 million.
Peruvian exports for the most parts are copper, zinc, lead, iron and concentrates, plus well-prepared and preserved shellfish, non-decaffeinated coffee, frozen squid, fish meal and fine-haired combed yarn.
In smaller portions, Peru also exports natural colourants, clothing, textiles, fabrics, fish livers and eggs.
From Korea, Peru mainly imports transistors and televisions, high density polyethylene, automobiles and transport vehicles.
The state agency Proinversión said that direct Korean investment in Peru in December 2009 had surpassed $40 million, and was distributed in the sectors of transport, finance, industry, commerce and petroleum.
The FTA with South Korea will join a series of similar commercial agreements that Peru has signed with countries such as China and the United States, and with blocs such as the European Union and the European Free Trade Association.
Another article here has more information. From that article:
- The agreements will have to be ratified by both countries as well. Doubt that will be a problem as there isn't exactly any anti-Peruvian sentiment in Korea (in contrast there was quite a bit of opposition to the FTA with the US), and nor does Korea appear that large to Peru in comparison with the other countries it has signed agreements with.
- There is currently a 9% tax in Peru on South Korean automobiles and that will be gradually lowered, while those on large sedans will be removed immediately, and medium-sized vehicles over five years.
- Tariffs on colour TVs from Korea (one of the main products exported to Peru) will be eliminated immediately. Those on washing machines will be removed in four years, and refrigerators in ten.
- A 2% tariff on Peruvian coffee will be eliminated as soon as the agreement goes into effect.
- A 22% tariff on squid will be eliminated over a decade. This is probably one of the areas that Koreans wouldn't like (assuming they are paying attention) as they eat quite a bit of squid, and a lot of it comes from the seas around Korea itself. Not sure how much of it is already imported though. If Koreans already eat more squid than they can produce themselves then it won't be much of a problem.
General economic information:
GDP: South Korea $832.5 billion, Peru $126.8 billion
GDP per capita: South Korea $17,000, Peru $4,400
Read more...
About a week ago I filled out a survey that Google Translate users were asked to help out with, and when asked which point I found to be most inconvenient I responded the large menu when selecting the source and target language. It used to look like this:
Afrikaans
language
language
language
Bulgarian
language
language
language
Greek...
language
language
Maltese...
language
language
language
more languages.....keep scrolling...
Yiddish!
Except that the menu was 51 spaces long.
Just now it looks like they have changed the menu, and now it looks like this:
Much better. The menu is a quick pop up that disappears when you select a language. Also note the recently used language pairs. I could use an extra line, but that's okay.
Not that Google Translate was ever all that difficult to navigate beforehand, mind you. I bet that most users cited the time scrolling up and down through the menu though as the largest time waster.
Read more...
Last month I wrote a post on the difference between Eastern and Western Armenian, which included two videos from a YouTube account called Worldlanguagemovies. The account has a total of 2439 (!) uploads, most of which are the same short videos recorded in as many languages as possible, and the subject is pretty basic Protestant theology - man was born into sin, needs Jesus for salvation, that sort of thing. Not the most interesting subject matter even for a Christian (something written by Origen would be an example of something truly interesting), but it's easy to understand which is a plus. Looking for the script for the video in Armenian I emailed them after writing the post, and unfortunately they don't have the script for Armenian yet but I was provided with this link, which gives scripts for some of the videos and recordings they have and there might be something there for those looking for content, any content, in some pretty rare languages. Most of the languages there I haven't even heard of before, to be honest. Varisi, Umbundu, Nyungwe, Helong, hundreds of languages are recoded there that are scarcely available anywhere else.
Using Tok Pisin as an example: go to their YouTube page, click on see all then search for Tok Pisin. One of the two videos is this one:
and a lot of dedicated searching eventually brings up this page, and the script for the video starts down at Picture 17 (Piska 17). It's not the easiest task to match up video and script, but those studying extremely rare languages are certainly already used to long searches for very little content, and are happy to find anything they can.
I sometimes search Google News in Korean/Japanese/Chinese for the keyword Spanish to see if the language is making headlines there, and a search today led me to this article referencing a USA Today article on how Hispanic kindergarten students have increased from 19% in 2000 to 25% this year...and a quick search found the original article in English here.
The book called Geschichte der deutschen Sprache I was lucky to find for just $4 at a second-hand bookstore is copyrighted and thus I can't type it out here, but one section at the end comparing various translations of a part of the Gospel of Luke can, and so I've typed it out here. It shows twelve different translations of the same passage (Joseph and Mary go to Bethlehem and she gets pregnant), mostly in High German at different stages in its history, but also Gothic, Low German, and Yiddish. Yiddish is especially interesting as the subject matter has resulted in a lot of Hebrew words even in such a short passage.
Note the small font for e two times in Yiddish as well - that's on purpose as the book has a small and slightly raised e which looks like it's probably a schwa. I was considering replacing it with a single apostrophe.
Gothic (Bible Translation by Bishop Wulfia, 350)
Urrann þan jah Iosef us Galeilaia, us baurg Nazaraiþ, in Iudaian, in baurg Daweidis sei haitada Beþlahaim, duþe ei was us garda fadreinais Daweidis, anameljan miþ Mariin sei in fragiftim was imma qeins, wisandein inkilþon. warþ þan, miþþanei þo wesun jainar, usfullnodedun dagos du bairan izai.
Old High German, 830
Fuor thō Ioseph fon Galileu fon thero burgi thiu hiez Nazareth in Iudeno lant inti in Dauides burg, thiu uuas ginemnit Bethleem, bithiu uuanta her uuas fon huse inti fon hiuuske Dauides, thaz her giiahi saman mit Mariun imo gimahaltero gimahhun sō scaffaneru. Thō sie thar uuarun, vvurðun taga gifulte, thaz siu bari.
Late Middle High German, 1343
Abir Jōsēph gīnc ouch ūf von Galilēa von der stat Nazarēth in Judēam in di stat Dāvīdis, di geheizen ist Bēthlehēm, darumme daz her was von dem hūse und von dem gesinde Dāvīdis, ūf daz her vorjehe mit Marīen ime vortrůwit zů einer hůsvrowin swangir. Und geschēn ist, dō si dā wāren, dō sint irfullit ire tage, daz si gebēre.
Early New High German (Martin Luther, 1522)
Da macht sich auff, auch Jospeh von Gallilea, aus der stadt Nazareth, ynn das Judisch land, zur stad Dauid, die da heyst Bethlehem, darumb, das er von dem hauße vnd geschlecht Dauid war, auff das er sich schetzen ließe mit Maria seynem vertraweten weybe, die gieng schwanger. Vnnd es begab sich, ynn dem sie daselbst waren, kam die zeyt das sie geperen sollte.
New High German, 18th century (1739)
Da machte sich aber auch Joseph auf, von Galiläa, aus der stadt Nazareth, in Judäa, in die stadt Davids, die Bethlehem heisset, weil er aus dem hause und familie Davids war, auf daß er sich aufschreiben liesse mit seiner braut Maria, die empfangen hatte. Und als sie daselbst waren, kam die zeit, daß sie gebähren solte.
New High German, early 20th century (1926)
So zog denn auch Joseph aus Galiläa aus der Stadt Nazareth nach Judäa hinauf nach der Stadt Davids mit Namen Bethlehem, weil er aus Davids Haus und Geschlecht stammte, um sich daselbst mit Maria, seinem jungen Weibe, die guter Hoffnung war, eintragen zu lassen. Während ihres dortigen Aufenthalts kam für Marie die Zeit ihrer Niederkunft.
New High German, mid-20th century (1963)
Da wanderte auch Joseph von Galiläa, aus der Stadt Nazareth, nach Judäa in die Stadt der Familie Davids, nach Bethlehem. Denn er gehörte zur Familie und zum Stamme Davids. Und er ließ sich in die Listen des Kaisers mit Maria zusammen, seiner Verlobten, eintragen. Maria aber war schwanger. Als sie in Bethlehem waren, kam die Zeit für sie, zu gebären.
Middle Low German / niederdeutsch, 1478
vnde ock ioseph de gynck vp van galilea van der stad nazareth in iudeam in de stad dauids de dar is geheten bethlehem darumme dat he was van dem huse vnde van dem ingesinde dauuids. dat he sick apenbarde ok mit maria siner getruweder swangeren husfrowen. vnde dat geschach do se dar weren. de dage worden voruult dat se geberen scholde.
New Lew German / niederdeutsch, 1960
Un ok Joseph reist' ut Galiläaland, ut dei Stadt Nazareth, nah Land Judäa nah David sin Stadt, nah Bethlehem. Denn hei stammt' jo her ut David sin Hus un Geslecht. Hei müßt sik ok ni upschriwen laten. Un sin Fru Maria nehm hei mit. Dei drög 'n Kind unner'n Harten, un as sei nu dor wiren, dunn wiren ok ehr Dag' dor.
Dutch, 1968
Ook Jozef trok op van Galilea, uit de stad Nazaret, naar Judea, naar de stad van David, die Betlehem heet, omdat hij uit het huis en het geslacht van David was, om zich te laten inschrijven met Maria, zijn ondertrouwde vrouw, welke zwanger was. En het geschiedde, toen zij daar waren, dat de dagen velvult werden, dat zij baren zou.
Afrikaans, 1967
En Josef het ook opgegaan van Galilea, uit die stad Nasaret, na Judea, na die stad van David, wat Betlehem genoem word, omdat hy uit die huis en geslag van Dawid was, on hom te laat inskrywe saam met Maria, die vrou aan wie hy hom verloof het, wat swanger was. En terwyl hulle daar was, is die dae vervul dat sy moes baar.
Yiddish
un jossef is oich aroifgegangen fun golil, oiss der schtot nazareth, këin jehudeh, in der schtot fun dowid, welche hëisst bëith lechem, wail er is gewen fun dem hois un mischpoche fun dowid (hamelech); as er sol sich losn registrirn zusamen mit mirjem, woss is gewen farknasst zu im, un is gewen mëubereth. un ess is gescheen, beschath sëi senen dort gewen, doss di teg fun ir kimpet senen derfilt geworn.
From an article (among others) in Spanish here. The article isn't clear about whether it's talking about Spanish as spoken as an L2 or L1, as numbers can vary wildly depending on whether one only counts native speakers or others as well, but since it attributes a greater number of students as the main reason for the increased population I assume it's including both L1 and L2. How Spanish is supposed to displace English in this area is unclear, but over a period of 35 years it certainly is possible.
Spanish will have the largest number of speakers before the middle of the century. In spite of this, there are many aspects in its teaching that need to be improved. "The most recent projections signal that Spanish will be the most spoken language in the world by 2045", said Humberto López Morales, secretary of the Association of Spanish Language Academies. He said that the new estimate brought forward by five years (from 2050 to 2045) the date at which Spanish would surpass the other languages in the world in number of speakers. Nevertheless, López Marolas warned that the teaching of the language at the moment was "catastrophic". "There's no point in knowing what the subject and the predicate is if you don't know how to speak (in the first place)" he said, pointing out that current methods are focused too much on grammar, when they should focus on other aspects such as vocabulary. At present Spanish is the second-most studied language in the world as a foreign language, only surpassed by English. This advance, according to him, is due mostly to the increase in the number of American students who study Spanish, as in the United States "being bilingual opens doors in the labour market".
Over the past few days I've been typing up a document from here, a collection of Arabic poems and (very) short stories translated into Ido from 1926. They're actually quite good, and I wonder if perhaps recording them (Ido voice, Ido text on screen, English subtitles that can then serve as a base for Google Translate into all the other languages it provides) would be a good idea. Also, now that it's 2010 it shouldn't be hard to find the original Arabic poems either, and those would serve very well as example phrases from Arabic to Ido.
There are certainly some typos in the text too, so let me know what you notice.
MONDO-BIBLIOTEKO V.
KELKA MAESTROVERKI
DIL
MODERNA LIRIKO ARABA
TRADUKITA DA RAFAEL NAKHLA S.J.
DIREKTERO DIL ARABA STUDII EN L'UNIVERSITATO
SANTA JOSEF EN BEIRUT (GRANDA LIBANO)
EDITERIO P. AHLBERG
P. AHLBERGS BOKFÖRLAG,
STOCKHOLM
1926.
Imprimerio Ed. NIMAX, Luxemburg.
PREFACO DI LA TRADUKINTO.
La Proxim Oriento Arablingua, precipue Egiptia, Palestina, Libano e Siria (1), esas mondo-famoza, kom ex-centro di la maxim antiqua civilizeso, e kom nuna grandega muzeo de antiquaji. De la maxim fora landi, quale Usa, Brazilia, Arjentinia, Chinia, Japonia, Australia, la turisti venas omnayare milope, por vizitar e admirar ta nekomparebla muzeo. Mem ti qui ne havis la feliceso vidar Oriento par la korpal okuli, vidis ol per l'okuli dil anmo, lektante la libri historiala, a la naraci dil voyajeri, o l'artikli di la revui.
Same kam pri la civilizeso generale, eventas pri l'Araba literaturo specale; me volas dicar ke la Proxim Oriento Arablingua judikesas dal Europani ed Amerikani, kom *nura* muzeo de antiquaji. Depos yarcenti, erudita Orientalisti dil tota mondo trairas omnadirecione ta nemezurebla muzeo. Per longeg e penoza serchadi, ili sucesis deskovrar, en olua maxim fora anguleti, centi e centi de manuskripti precoza, qui jacas depos yarcenti, tote celit en lia etuyo de dika polvo. Ili lektis e rilektis milfoye ta verki; ili editis e rieditis oli; ili tradukis e ritradukis oli a la maxim importanta lingui. Singlamonate ekiras de l'imprimerii Europan ed Amerikana plura tala edituri e tradukuri.
To omna esas sendube granda glorio por la Proxim Orienta Arablingua, ma to esas samtempe granda desfortuno! Nam, judikante lu, pri literaturo, kom muzeo de antiquaji, nur kom tala, la civilizita nacioni nule sorgis pri explorar e konocar la belaji, advere poka ma ver e granda, di la nuntempa literaturo Araba. La marveloza richaji di dia ancestri deturnis ili de la konoco di nia propra richaji!
Por esar yusta, me devas deklarar ke la tota kulpo ne gravesas nur sur l'eruditi di Europa ed Amerika. Ni ipsa, Proxim-Orientani, esas multe plu grave kulpoza, nam ni facis preske nur esforco por konocigar ed admirigar dal tota mondo civilizata la trezodi di nia moderna literaturo. E pro ke ni ipsa konocas e prizas oli plu multe kam irg altra naciono, nia kulpo esas neexkuzeble granda!
Esante pasionoz admirero di nia literaturo nuntempa, precipue di nia poezio, me judikis ke mea devo, kom bon Orientano, esas utiligar nia bel e richa linguo internaciona Ido, por deskovrar, per la maxim simpla moyeno, nia nekonocata trezori kulturala, a mili de mea estimata samideani. Me intencis nur publikigar, en la revuo MONDO, kin o sis tradukuri di maestroverki di nia poezio moderna. Tre felice por nia nekonocata literature, ta kelka tradukuri multe plezis a la granda pioniro dil movado Idala e redaktero di MONDO, mea kar amiko Sioro Ahlberg. Il pregis me plurafoye ed insiste prokurar ad il suficanta nombro de samspeca tradukuri, por editar broshureto 48-pagina, en la mikra biblioteko di MONDO.
Looking at the list of Swadesh lists on Wiktionary yesterday I noticed that there was no entry for Ido or Latin, and since I'm fond of comparing IALs to Latin vocabulary (the idea is that an IAL may at least indirectly appeal to Latin revivalists as well and hopefully could garner a modicum of support from them too) I've made the list. Latin actually came from here so that part was easy as well. I won't bother indicating where Ido happens to be more similar to Latin than English as it's quite obvious where this is the case, and though Ido may not be quite as similar as Interlingua / LsF or Occidental, it's still not too bad.
Actual translations are probably more interesting though, and I hope to do some more when I can. I translated a small story about Latona in Latin into a number of IALs: Occidental, Interlingua, latino sine flexione, idiom neutral, and of course Ido. Not sure why I neglected to do an LFN translation. Perhaps this text could serve as a supplement to the Babel text.
I just finished a long plane ride so I'm a bit out of sorts, but a post embedding a video is easy. Take a look at this video uploaded yesterday showing the known asteroids in the Solar System in 1980 compared to 2010 as they continue to be discovered and grow in number.
One area where we still have a large blind spot is asteroids closer to the Sun than the Earth, as they tend to be obscured by their proximity to the Sun and if they are small then they may avoid detection even after moving out of the Sun's glare and past the Earth. That's why we still end up with near-Earth asteroids that we learn about only a few days or hours before closest approach. The solution to this is a probe that orbits the Sun in an orbit closer than ours, one that looks back at and nearby Earth where the reflected light from the Sun minus the glare (since the Sun is behind) makes them easy to spot.
Now, the Moon has a diameter of 3500 km while the asteroid 4 Vesta is 530 km, giving them an approximate visible area of:
220618 km2 for 4 Vesta,
9478715 km2 for the Moon
thus 42 times greater. 4 Vesta has a much higher albedo than the Moon though, at 0.423 vs. 0.136. This is one of the optical illusions (or brain failures as Dr. deGrasse Tyson calls them) that the Moon presents us with as it appears to be quite light when compared with the rest of the sky. So it's very likely that we should begin to see some interesting images of the asteroid (though certainly nothing yet comparable to those taken from the Hubble Space Telescope) if there are plans to photograph it in the upcoming months as Dawn continues its slow and steady approach.
Read more...
Articles on renewable energy in Spain always seem to get voted to the top of Meneame, which is good for those of us who like to keep track. The article on the front page today is this one, which has two graphs showing both the total amount of renewable energy produced from 1998 to June 2010, as well as the same in relation to the total amount of energy produced. While the former has increased by 250% over the past twelve years, the latter is a much more difficult number to increase as the economy itself continues to grow, and thus has only gone from about 20% to 35% or so. Wind power seems to be showing the most steady increase.
This in an update to this post, in order to get an idea of the distance from Dawn to its upcoming target 4 Vesta, and from when we should be able to get a clear view of the asteroid given its relatively large size. First a reminder of what 21 Lutetia looked like as seen by Rosetta when it was 900000 km away:
and then an updated image showing the distance between the two. There are actually two scales here: 21 Lutetia and 4 Vesta are to scale in terms of size, and the distance between the two is also to scale with 33 pixels representing the 900000 km distance from Dawn to 21 Lutetia, and thus 4 Vesta has moved about 100 pixels up. Its old position is shown in grey while the new position is black. Since the distance is continuing to shrink during the next update I'll need to shrink their sizes as well by a bit.
On the 19th of August a group of some two dozen people from five countries gathered in the small German city of Tübingen (pop. 85 000) for a four-day event, and though it made headlines locally in German (Stuttgarter Zeitung article here, Focus article here, Südkurier article here, Badische Zeitung here and mp3 of a ten-minute radio interview here with one of the participants) a bit of attention in English couldn't hurt.
The gathering is a yearly gathering held by a group of people known as Idists, who speak a language invented in 1907 called Ido, created in order to be an easy language for the rest of the world to learn and speak as a universal second language. The language may resemble Italian and Spanish somewhat at first sight, but it has been created in order to be as easy to learn as possible, which means that nearly all of the difficulties one finds in learning a language have been removed. In Ido all nouns end in o (domo = house). Many languages have irregular plurals but not so in Ido - change the o to i (domi - houses) and you have the plural. Conjugation is easy: present tense is -as (me iras = I go), past tense is -is (me iris = I went), future is -os (me iros = I will go), and so on, with no exceptions for any verb. Compare this to just two tenses of a single French verb:
To go - aller Present tense: je vais, tu vas, il va, nous allons, vous allez, ils vont Future tense:j'irai, tu iras, il ira, nous irons, vous irez, ils iront
The Dvorak Simplified Keyboard.
and it's easy to see why this language takes much less time to learn than another. While a student of French is busy learning a single verb the student of Ido can already conjugate in all tenses for all verbs without fail, and this applies to other aspects of the language as well. No irregular plurals, pronounced exactly as written, no grammatical gender, and so on. The problem, of course, is the (relatively) tiny speaker population, the classic constructed auxiliary language catch-22: "I have a hard time being noticed because I have few speakers. I have few speakers because it's hard to get noticed." Much the same as Linux in the beginning, in fact, or the Dvorak keyboard today - something the vast majority knows nothing about, but that the users absolutely love and swear by, and that in the beginning only the most adventurous and idealistic are willing to try. As Linux today and the metric system show, however, simply starting out new and small and up against a much larger and well entrenched alternative does not always doom one to failure.
These yearly events, though in theory they could be held anywhere, are always held in Europe and have had an average of 16 participants per year which makes this year's gathering a relatively large one. Some two dozen may seem like a small number, but keep in mind that this is the two dozen that have the time and money to spend four days in Germany just to speak the language, and the number of those using it online throughout the world is estimated to be a few thousand.
To learn more about the language itself it would be easiest to simply read the Wikipedia article on the language, but YouTube also provides some interesting samples for those who want to hear what it sounds like straight away.
Here it is spoken:
and here it is sung.
So how was the conference this year? A message here in Ido from one of the participants provides some detail (translated by me).
Segun mea opiniono la Ido-renkontro 2010 en Tübingen esis vere granda suceso. -- In my opinion the Ido-gathering 2010 in Tübingen was a really large success.
Partoprenis plu kam 20 Idisti de kin landi. -- More than 20 Idists from five countries participated.
Ye la venerdio ni havis inform-estaleyo en la centro di la civito e la intereso por Ido esis tre granda. -- On Friday we had an information-exhibition in the centre of the city and interest in Ido was very large.
Me ed altra Idisti interparolis tri hori kun interesita personi e la reakti esis tre pozitiva. -- I and other Idists talked for three hours with interested people and the reactions were very positive.
Detlev anke facis publika diskurso pri artificala lingui. -- Detlev also had a public discourse on artificial languages.
Pro nia publika aktivaji quar personi - du yuna viri e du yuna mulieri - partoprenis en la mikra Ido-kurso da Detlev Groth e rapide lernis nia linguo. -- Due to our public activities four people - two young men and two young women - took part in the small Ido course by Detlev Groth and quickly learned our language.
Anke la intereso di la jurnalaro esis tre granda. -- Interest by newspapers was also very large.
Diversa jurnalisti asistis en kelka parti di nia renkontro. -- Various journalists assisted in some parts of our gathering.
Mem radio-stacioni interviuvis ni e multa germana jurnali skribis pri la Ido-renkontro. -- Even radio stations interviewed us and many newspapers wrote about the Ido gathering.
Dum la labor-kunsido di la ULI ni tre serioze e vivace diskutis pri diversa temi en nia movado quale la futuro di Parolez Ido, la linguala komitato e la futuro di privata Ido-biblioteki. -- During the work meeting of the ULI (Ido Language Union) we very seriously and lively discussed various subjects in our movement such as the future of Parolez Ido, the language committee and the future of private Ido bookstores.
La ULI-membri di la renkontro decidis ke la Ido-renkontro 2011 eventos en Luxemburgia en la urbo Echternach. -- The ULI members at the gathering decided that the Ido gathering in 2011 will happen in Luxembourg in the city of Echternach.
Ido vivas e funcionas. -- Ido lives, and it works.
Asistis jurnalistino en kelka parti di nia renkontro. -- A female journalist assisted in some parts of our gathering.
E pos du dii lu esis kapabla sen problemi komprenar nia linguo! -- And after two days she was able to understand our language without problem!
La Germana Ido-Societo adoptis nova statuto e havas multa nova projeti. -- The German Ido Society adopted a new statute and has many new projects.
Segun mea opininio la suceso di Tübingen montris ke la Idisti mustas agar publike. -- In my opinion the success of Tübingen showed that Idists need to act publicly.
Ne suficas diskutar en la interreto. -- It's not enough to discuss on the internet.
Ni bezonas aktiva Ido organizuri en plura landi, qui esas kapabla agar publike. -- We need active Ido organizations in many lands, capable of acting publicly.
Bezonas plu aktivaji en la reala mondo en plura landi e ne nur en Germania! -- We need more activity in the real world in many countries and not just in Germany!
So what does the future hold for Ido? More hard work over the upcoming years, certainly, and if there is enough of this hard work them perhaps a continued incremental increase at these conferences each year, more attention each time, and perhaps some day a breakthrough.
Spanish in the United States.
What is likely to be just as important as this, however, is the state of three or four languages: English, Spanish, Chinese, and maybe French. English remains the unrivalled default language for international communication, but shows weakness in certain areas such as Florida and California, countries such as Trinidad and Tobago are electing to make Spanish their official languages as well as English, and English hardly seems to be making a dent in South America as a whole. China now has the world's second largest GDP and interest in the language continues to increase, while French, while seemingly on the ropes, has a vast hidden potential known as sub-Saharan Africa which is expected to provide the language another half billion speakers by 2050. So if English only succeeds at remaining a first among equals, and doesn't seem to be on the road to becoming the world's universal language, perhaps this deadlock will provide more interest in an alternative, something created to be easy to learn and not just the language of one group or another. Time will tell.
Read more...
Take a look at this short clip from an interesting interview from 1988 with Isaac Asimov on the future of education. It also happens to have Spanish subtitles, which I typed out and pasted below in case anyone wants to compare the two. The translation is off in a few places and the Spanish itself seems to have been a bit lazily typed up (porqué for por qué is one example), so if anyone sees other areas that need correcting that I missed then leave a comment below and I'll do so.
As for Nate Silver - he's the owner of fivethirtyeight.com. Started out with baseball, went on to other things.
Once we have outlets, computer outlets in every home
Una vez que tengamos sistemas - de computadoras - en cada hogar
each of them hooked up to enormous libraries
cada una de ellas "colgadas" a enormes bibliotecas
where anyone can ask any question
donde cualquiera pueda realizar cualquier pregunta
and be given answers; be given reference material
y que se le den respuestas; y que se le brinde material de referencia
be something you're interesting in knowing
que sea algo en lo que tú estás interesado en saber
from an early age, however silly it might seem to someone else
más allá de cuán tonto le pueda sonar a otro
that's what you're interested in.
eso es lo que a tí te interesa.
and you ask...
y preguntas...
and you can find out, and you can follow it up,
y puedes averiguar...
and you can do it in your own home, at your own speed, in your own direction,
y lo puedes hacer en tu propia casa, a tu velocidad, en tu dirección,
at your own time.
a tu propio tiempo.
Then everyone will enjoy learning.
En ese entonces, todo el mundo disfrutará el aprender.
Nowadas, what people call learning
Hoy en día lo que el mundo llama aprendizaje
is forced on you
se da a la fuerza
and everyone is forced to learn the same thing on the same day at the same speed, in class.
y todos están forzados a aprender lo mismo el mismo día, a la misma velocidad, en clase.
And everyone is different.
Y todos somos diferentes.
For some it goes too fast, for some it goes too slow, for some in the wrong direction.
Para algunos va muy rápido, para otros va muy lento, para otros va en una dirección errónea.
But give them a chance, in addition to school.
Pero démosle una chance, como complemento de la escuela.
I don't say we abolish school, but in addition to school
Yo no hablo de abolir la escuela, pero sí como complemento de ella
To follow up their own bent from the start.
Para seguir su propia veta desde el principio.
Well, I love the vision...
Bueno, me encanta esa visión...
but what about the...
pero qué pasa con...
what about the argument that machines, computers, dehumanize learning?
¿qué pasa con el argumento de que las máquinas, las computadoras, "deshumanizan" el aprendizaje?
Well, as a matter of fact the situation is just the reverse.
Bueno, es que de hecho, la situación es la opuesta.
It seems to me that it's through this machine that for the first time
A mí me parece que a través de estas máquinas, por primera vez,
we'll be able to have a one to one relationship
tendremos la posibilidad de disponer de una relación de uno a uno
between information source and information consumer.
entre la fuente de información y el consumidor de esa información.
What do you mean?
¿Qué quiere decir?
Well, in the old days, you used to have tutors for children
Bueno, en los viejos tiempos, habían tutores para los niños
A person who could afford it could hire a pedagog,
Una persona que pudiera afrontarlo, podía contratar a un consejero,
a tutor,
un tutor,
and he would teach the children and if he knew his job,
y él le enseñaría a ese niño el conocimiento de su trabajo,
he could adapt his teaching to the taste and abilities of the students, you see.
podía adaptar su enseñanza al gusto y las habilidades de los niños, usted verá.
But how many people could afford to hire a pedagog?
Pero ¿cuántas personas podrían afrontar o contratar un profesor?
Most children went uneducated,
La mayoría de los niños eran analfabetos,
then we reached the point where it was absolutely necessary to educate everybody.
luego llegamos a un punto en el que fue absolutamente necesario educar a todos.
The only way we could do it
La única manera que había para hacer esto
is to have one teacher for a great many students,
era utilizando un sólo profesor para una gran cantidad de estudiantes,
and in order to organize the situation properly,
y para poder organizar la situación propiciamente,
we gave them a curriculum to teach from
les dimos un plan de estudios del cual enseñar
So...how many teachers are good at this too?
Entonces...¿cuántos profesores son buenos haciendo eso?
Like in everything else, the number of teachers is far greater than the number of good teachers.
Es como que, en todo lo demás, el número de profesores malos es considerablemente superior a la cantidad de buenos profesores.
So...we either have a one to one relationship to the very few
Entonces...tenemos una relación de uno a uno para los menos
or a one to many relationship for the many.
y una relación de uno a muchos para la mayoría.
Now, there's a possibility of a one to one relationship for the many.
Ahora, tenemos la posibilidad de una relación de uno a uno para la mayoría.
Everyone can have a teacher in the form of access to the gathered knowledge of the human species.
Todos pueden tener un profesor en la forma de acceso al vasto conocimiento de la especie Humana.
Through the libraries that are connected to the computer -
A través de las bibliotecas que están conectadas a la computadora -
That's right.
Exactamente.
...on my desk, in my home?
¿...en mi escritorio, en mi casa?
Right.
Correcto.
I can sit there and call up...well, what if I want to learn only about baseball?
Me puedo sentar ahí y "llamar" ... bueno... qué pasa si yo sólo quiero aprender sobre béisbol?
Well, that's all right! You learn all you want about baseball,
Bueno, ¡eso está bien! Aprende todo lo que quieres acerca del béisbol,
because the more you learn about baseball,
porque cuanto más aprendes sobre béisbol,
the more you might grow interested in mathematics
más te verás interesado en las matemáticas
to try to figure out what they mean by those earned run averages and the batting averages and so on,
para intentar averiguar qué quieren decir con esos promedios de corridas y promedios de bateos,
you might then become more interested in math than baseball, if you follow your own bent,
y tal vez entonces te interesarás más en las matemáticas que en el béisbol, si sigues tu propia veta,
and you're not told!
y ¡nadie to le impone!
On the other hand, someone who is interested in mathematics,
En la otra mano, alguien que sí está interesado en las matemáticas,
may suddenly find himself very enticed by the problem
puede de pronto encontrarse muy entusiasmado por enfrentarse al problema
of how you throw a curve ball.
de cómo tirar una bola curva.
And he may find himself engaged in sports physics, so to speak.
Y puede encontrarse a si mismo enganchado en la física de los deportes, por decir algo.
Hiere me lektis che Facebook ke en la cayarala renkontro trovesas plu kam 20 idisti, bona novajo por la linguo. Se on vidas hike on povas vidar ke la mezvaloro dil maxim recenta renkontri (ecepte 2008, 2009 e 2003 ube la nombri ne trovesas) esabas
On trovas anke kelka artikli pri la renkontro (en la Germana) ante la komenco: hike e hike. Nam la habitantaro di Tübingen esas nur 85 000, on esperas ke la lokala jurnali anke skribos pri la renkontro, certe interesanta novajo por urbo di ta grandeso.
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Grammatical gender in a language is an interesting phenomenon in that in a language one is personally very interested in it's fun to have, while in other languages it can be an annoyance, especially considering how gender does not always (or even usually) match up between languages. An object that is masculine in one language may be feminine or neuter in another.
Actually, there are probably four types of languages with respect to grammatical gender:
1) Languages with GG and little or no way to guess at the gender of a noun. German is an example here. Besides a few types of nouns (those ending with -keit, or diminutives, a number of other types as well) the lucky student gets to learn the gender along with the noun.
2) Languages with GG but a way to determine the gender most of the time. Spanish and Bulgarian are here. Spanish has two genders and Bulgarian three, but since most of the time the student can guess at the ending the student's task then becomes simply watching out for the exceptions. A language of type #2 is much, much easier to use properly than #1. Then we get to something similar:
3) A combination of #1 and #2: Norwegian, Swedish and Danish are here. Though endings won't tell you the gender of a noun, nouns in these languages are usually the common (en) gender and thus the student's task is once again to watch out for et nouns as opposed to keeping an eye on the ending plus watching out for exceptions as in #2. And then of course:
4) Languages without grammatical gender, or just remnants of it (referring to ships as she in English for example). When not exceptionally motivated to learn a language or if resources are scarce / I have little time, I usually prefer one of type #4. Indeed, if German happened to be spoken by just a few hundred thousand people in a corner of Europe with few resources to learn it I doubt I ever would have touched it. Armenian is an example of an Indo-European language without gender, and so is Bengali. (Eastern) Armenian is one that I've been personally interested in for a while and I recently acquired a textbook so lucky me, and I've also been meaning to start learning a language spoken in India (or more specifically, one that uses a Brahmic alphabet) for a while and taking a look at Bengali it also lacks grammatical gender while being spoken by some 230 million people, so I have tentative plans to find a textbook for that this year or the next. Bengali also has noun counters as in Persian and a ton of Asian languages (including Japanese and Korean) as well as varying levels of politeness, so nothing new there.
Other irregularities (irregular plurals, verbs) can also make a language with few resources difficult to learn, but Armenian and Bengali don't seem to be a problem here either.
So expect posts on Armenian and Bengali here in the future. I'm still looking for samples of Armenian with recordings to accompany them, as there aren't any on Librivox, the Armenian Wikipedia, etc. I even emailed the people that made this video but there is no script for Armenian just yet. Bengali is a much more recent interest so I haven't had time to do any searching for resources but I'm sure they are much easier to find. Something like those found here would be ideal.
Finally, the Armenian keyboard is very easy to learn. As it's almost entirely mapped to Qwerty, the student's task is simply to memorize the location of about a dozen or so other characters scattered to the right and above the keyboard in the number section. Very convenient. Whether this works well when typing the language at high speed though I can't say.
Space.com has an article here today about a proposed asteroid detection system called ATLAS that is both cheap and effective, involving simply using two observatories separated by a distance of 100 km, which are then able to use parallax when comparing their results in order to more easily find asteroids, which are otherwise identified by their movement across the sky compared to the stars which are more or less fixed in place in relation to each other (unless you happen to live centuries or millennia instead of decades).
The search range for such a system: around 4 million km. The article also references the asteroid 2008 TC3, which was that asteroid a few metres in diameter that broke up over Sudan, and the first asteroid hit that we knew about beforehand. What was too bad about that asteroid though was that we only found out about it a few hours in advance, which is enough for astronomers to have an easier time tracking the fragments, but unfortunately not enough time to make headlines. Had we had the ATLAS system in place at the time the asteroid would have been detected some three or four days before it hit instead of just a few hours, and that would have been a great way to make asteroids and space in general the subject of the week. For a glorious three days, instead of having to search through science and astronomy news sites and blogs for the news the public would get it straight from here:
and since nothing drives public opinion like fear and awe (even if it's just a few metres in diameter), that could only be good for space as a whole.
Read more...
Last week I spent about two days answering questions on Reddit under a subreddit called IAMA where interesting / talented / famous / etc. people can offer to answer questions, and if the submission is interesting it will be voted up and receive more attention.
Around that time I noticed on /r/Christianity that a certain poster's grandfather was a professor of Ancient Greek, and perhaps would be interested in answering some questions. Yesterday the professor himself showed up and started the IAMA, and the submission has been massively upvoted and questions are everywhere. So bookmark this thread and/or keep an eye on this user page if you're interested in Biblical Greek. He also happens to be the authour of a textbook that takes Biblical Greek, adds an interlineary (literal) English translation below, followed by an actual translation to the right. There is a screenshot of the textbook here.
A few days ago I mentioned that you can make your own frequency list from the data here, and the two most useful to a student of Chinese are those at the bottom - the news frequency list, and short story frequency. Since my Chinese is only halfway proficient and it should be of interest to others, I think I'll go through the list twenty at a time, giving the pronunciation plus one example sentence for each. The list is pretty extensive so I'm not sure how far I intend to go, but since it's helpful to my own study there really isn't any reason to stop halfway.
And now, here are the first twenty. Let me know if there are any typos.
1. 一个
yīgè - one, a
一个女人的个人空间
Yīgè nǚrén de gèrén kōngjiān
A woman's personal space
2. 什么
shénme - what
美国人在看什么网站？
Měiguó rén zài kàn shénme wǎngzhàn?
What sites do Americans see?
3. 没有
méiyǒu - no, nothing, not
没有钱，我们能爱多久？
Méiyǒu qián, wǒmen néng ài duōjiǔ?
No money, how long can we love?
4. 自己
zìjǐ - self
学会让自己快乐
Xuéhuì ràng zìjǐ kuàilè
Learn how to make yourself happy
5. 我们
wǒmen - we
如何联系我们
Rúhé liánxì wǒmen
How to contact us
6. 他们
tāmen - they
他们代表谁？
Tāmen dàibiǎo shuí?
Whom do they represent?
7. 知道
zhīdào - know
如何知道自己怀孕了
Rúhé zhīdào zìjǐ huáiyùn le
How to know you're pregnant
8. 起来
qǐlái - arise, put at the end of verbs to show completion
早上起来腰疼怎么办好
Zǎoshang qǐlái yāoténg zěnme bàn hǎo
Wake up in the morning with hip/back pain, what to do
9. 这个
zhège - this, these
这个有阳光的冬日
Zhège yǒu yángguāng de dōngrì
This sunny winter day
10. 时候
shíhou - time, when
什么时候最容易怀孕？
Shénme shíhou zuì róngyì huáiyùn?
When is it easiest to get pregnant?
11. 这样
zhèyàng - this way, like this
这样说,孩子才会听
Zhèyàng shuō, háizi cái huì tīng
Talk like this so kids will listen
12. 怎么
zěnme - how, why
没有我你怎么办?
Méiyǒu wǒ nǐ zěnme bàn?
What will you do without me?
14. 现在
xiànzài - now
现在天气. 城市天气查询
Xiànzài tiānqì. Chéngshì tiānqì cháxún
Weather now. Check city weather
15. 出来
chūlái - emerge, come out
小便尿不出来怎么办？
Xiǎobiàn niào bù chūlái zěnme bàn?
I can't pee, what to do?
16. 不能
bùnéng - can't, unable
不能结婚的男人
Bùnéng jiéhūn de nánrén
The man who can't get married
17. 还是
háishì - or, still
Android，开源还是封闭？
Android, kāiyuán háishì fēngbì?
Android, open source or closed?
18. 不知
bùzhī - ignorance. Here though it is the first two of 不知道 - (I) don't know
我不知道我是谁
Wǒ bù zhīdào wǒ shì shuí
I don't know who I am
19. 可以
kĕyĭ - okay, is possible/permitted
我可以去你们家玩吗？
Wǒ kěyǐ qù nǐmen jiā wán ma?
Can I go to your house to play / hang out?
20. 女人
nǚrén - woman
爱美是女人的天性，女人最珍爱的就是自己的头发了
Àiměi shì nǚrén de tiānxìng, nǚrén zuì zhēnài de jiùshì zìjǐ de tóufǎ le
Beauty is a woman's nature, a woman's most precious thing is her hair
Hodie esas la 19ma di agosto (o 20ma di agosto nun en Germania), qua signifikas ke la Ido-renkontro di ica yaro komencabas. Che la Germana Ido-Societo on povas vidar ke (posable ne nova chanjo, ma me recente ne vidas ca pagino) la situo chanjesas a wikio, uzante preske la sama desegno ma certe kun plu bona e rapida chanji se la administranti devas facar tale.
e komprenende ica yaro anke me ne povis irar. Kam Kanadano qua vivas en Korea (e kun tri kati + un amikino), irar ad Europa nur por kelka dii ne esas posibla. Forsan en la venonta yaro. Por idisti en Europa esas multe plu facila, e nia amiko Anvarzhon (Johnny) dicis ke il anke iros. Pos (o dum) la renkontro ni povos vidar quale multa idisti irabas por la konfero, e kande me ton saveskos me skribos pri to hike. La mezvaloro di Idisti en tala renkontri esas 12 a 25, e pro ke irar a Tübingen en Germania esas plu facila kam Estonia, esas posibla ke multa iros cafoye.
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Here's a short but informative article on the Gagauz, the majority Orthodox Christian but (nearly) Turkish-speaking group concentrated mostly in Moldova.
The Turkish Language and Culture Faculty from Near East University (Yakın Doğu Üniversitesi, YDÜ) held a conference on Gagauz Turkish. There the Turkolog Erdoğan Saracoğlu said that the large majority of the Christian Turk Gagauz live in Moldova, while others live in Ukraine, Russia, East Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and Macedonia. According to a USSR census in 1989 there were a total of 197,164 Gagauz in the country (which included Moldova at the time). According to Saracoğlu there are a total of up to 5,000 Gagauz in Bulgaria, and small groups of Gagauz in Kazakhstan and Central Asia who fled Bessarabia from 1908 to 1914. Saracoğlu said that the total Gagauz population is about 500,000.
Olivier has translated yet another movie, and it starts here:
Born of Hope is another great choice as it's not too long, made by fans of a world that contains its own constructed languages, and it's absolutely free. I'm supposed to write today about something else he translated last week, but I think I'll do that tomorrow or the next day instead.
Esperanto por mi estas plej bona kiel lingvo pasiva.
Unue mi devas ekskuzi min: ŝajnas ke la tempo de mia esperanta eksperimento ne estis bona - en la venontaj tagoj mi voyaĝos (du aeroplanoj) kaj ne povos skribi esperante ĉiun tagon; do la eksperimento daŭris nur dek-unu tagoj, ne dudek-unu. Sed mi pensas ke la dek-unu tagoj estis sufiĉa.
Kial?
Unue, mi volis scii pri la Esperanto-komunumo en la reto. Mia demando estis: ĉu oni povas rekomendi Esperanto kiel lingvo por blogisto, blogisto kiu volas 1) skribi pri aĵoj kaj vidi komentoj; 2) krei amikeco inter aliaj blogistoj. La respondo estas emfaza jes. En mia unua skribaĵo venis multaj personoj kiuj skribis komentoj, dicante ke jes, ili vidis la skribaĵon, kaj jes, la esperanto-blogistoj estas multaj. En la reto oni trovas situoj kiel: Verda Stelo kaj Kiberio (kaj komprenende Libera Folio); komprenende ekzistus multaj aliaj. Do mi rekomendos Esperanton a personoj kiuj volas lerni lingvon artefaritan, kaj konsideras ke la grandeco de la komunumo estas la plej grava.
Due, mi volis scii pri miaj pensoj pri Esperanto se mi uzus ĝin serioze. En 2005 mi studis Esperanton nur kvar/kin tagoj, kaj poste eklernis Idon. Ekde 2005 ĝis nun mi uzis Idon (mi ankoraŭ scias Idon plej bone), Interlingua-n, Occidental-on, LFN, ktp., sed ne Esperanton. Do mi mankis la sperton uzi ĝi.
Kaj kiam mi uzis Esperanton, mi trovis ke mi ŝatas Esperanton pli kiel lingvo pasiva, sed ne multe kiel lingvo aktiva. Honeste, kiel Idisto kiam mi uzis Esperanton mi sentis ĝin kiel fruan Idon. Ido vere estas la kuzo de Esperanto, ĉar kiam mi uzis Esperanton mi ĉiam pensas pri Ido, sed kiam mi uzis aliajn lingvojn mi neniam pensas pri Ido. Sed interesa aĵo - kiam mi uzis Interlingua mi ĉiam pensas pri Occidental, kaj ankaŭ preferas Occidental. Eksemple kiam mi skribas "Illo habeva essite in le scholoa" mi preferus skribi kurte "Il hat esset in li scol". Miaj okuloj ŝatas Interlingua-n kaj Esperanton, sed miaj manoj preferas skribi en Ido kaj Occidental.
Do la konkludo estas: 1) Mi povas rekomendi Esperanton al personoj kiuj pensas ke la grandeco de komunumo gravas; 2) En la estonteco mi foje skribos esperante - ne ĉiun tagon, sed kiam mi havas aĵo por skribi; 3) Mi daŭros preferi Occidental kaj Ido al Esperanto kaj Interlingua kiam mi volas skribi grandan aĵon.
Here's a short article in Turkish on street signs in Kirkuk written in Turkish, due to the Turkmen population there. The total number in Iraq is anywhere from 500,000 to 3 million.
According to the 4th article of the constitution of Iraq, areas with large number of ethnic minorities are permitted to have signs written in their language as well as Arabic. In areas with a large Turkmen population (Kirkuk, Arbil, Tal Afar, Mosul) schools can be conducted in Turkish, and one can find TV, radio and newspapers in Turkish as well.
Although the language spoken by Iraqi Turkmens is South Azeri (not Turkmen as spoken in Turkmenistan), if you look at the home page for the Iraqi Turkmen Front (Irak Türkmen Cephesi) you can see that it's written in standard Turkish, not Azerbaijani as seen in Azerbaijan. Their page is also written in English, Arabic, and Persian.
Read more...
I love this page. Not only can you create your own frequency list for Chinese, but you can choose whether you want it to be based on short stories, or newspapers. The difference between the two is pretty huge.
Short stories top ten: 一个 (one, a), 什么 (what), 没有 (no, don't, didn't), 自己 (self), 我们 (we), 他们 (they), 知道 (know), 起来 (signified verb completion), 这个 (this). Nothing out of the ordinary there. Switch it to news though and we get: 中国 (China), 美国 (United States), 发展 (development), 经济 (economy), 国家 (country), 问题 (problem), 一个 (one, a), 工作 (work), 台湾 (Taiwan), 社会 (society). So out of the top ten only one is the same. Based on the kind of Chinese you need to concentrate on you can pick one, though I would recommend knowing the top 500 of the other list even if you choose to concentrate on one.
Hodiaŭ estas la deka tago de mia esperanta eksperimento, kaj dum la dek tagoj mi povis akiri interesan perspektivon de la lingvo, kaj aliaj lingvoj artefaritaj.
La unua impreso estas: mi ŝatas Esperanton pli kiel lingvo pasiva ol lingvo aktiva. Mi ŝatas ĝin legi, sed skribi ĝin ne estas plezuriga. Legi libron en Esperanto estas plezuriga, skribi leterojn - ne.
Kaj se mi pensas pri aliajn lingvojn, ĉiu lingvo estas la sama - unu lingvo estas bona por aktiva uzo, alia lingvo estas bona por pasiva uzo. Eksemple (se mi devas uzi nombrojn - 0% estas malprezuriga, 100% estas tre plezuriga):
A thought for today: there certainly have been instances where a far too rapid progression of technology has led to a possible overall reduction in progress overall. It's similar to the Federation's Prime Directive in that extraordinary technology in the hands of a society that is not yet ready for it will certainly bring about disaster (think Caligula with nuclear weapons), but not quite as dramatic or obvious.
One possible example: heavier-than-air flight. What would have happened if the first successful flights had taken place a decade later, in 1913 instead of 1903? The balloon had been around for quite some time already, and let's assume the Wright Brothers had instead spent their time working on lighter-than-air transportation, and due to advancements made there the Hindenburg disaster had never happened, and though airplanes were eventually invented dirigible technology also happened to progress at the same time and remained a transport option into the present age.
If so, would we have launched our first satellites through rockets, or would we have devised a method similar to the one JP Aerospace is currently working on? This method involves a small airship which then docks at a permanent station far up where a much much larger airship then takes the satellite to orbit using both hydrogen (there is still a bit of atmosphere to work with at that altitude) and an engine. If that had happened we would have had a method of launching satellites into orbit with an incredibly high rate of success, much higher than a chemical rocket.
And one other: if the space race between the US and the USSR had never happened, space travel would certainly have taken much more time, perhaps an extra five years to a decade more for each milestone achieved. At the same time though there would not have been the immense outpouring of energy in the beginning followed by the hangover afterwards, after bragging rights had been won by the US and much of the motivation for going there had faded. What if the first Moon landings had taken place in the late 1970s instead, after a smaller but steady increase in NASA's budget instead of the huge spike followed by a massive decline?
Unfortunately there is probably little practical application to this; these are more what-if type scenarios than anything else, as it is next to impossible to predict during the present day which technology we are ready for, which we are ready for but would be better off without for a few more years, and which we are ready for right now. But a look into the past this way may lead us to a rediscovery of something forgotten that we would do well to begin working on again, as is the case with JP Aerospace, a concept that deserves much more attention and funding than it is currently receiving.
Read more...
Today I noticed a particularly impressive resource on Librivox.org for Bulgarian, a collection of ten stories of anywhere from 13 to 52 minutes in length that also happen to be recorded particularly well. The best site online for reading and listening to Bulgarian is certainly still the Bulgarian Bible site given that Bible stories are commonly known and knowing the subject of a text ahead of time always helps, but more content and variety always helps, and these stories are written by a Bulgarian author (Yordan Yovkov) as well so it's not just a work translated from another language.
Hodiaŭ mi trovis interesan artiklon ĉi tie pri hispanoj kiuj parolas ĉefe la anglan lingvon en Usono - ŝajnas ke mem ili sentas grandan influon de la hispana televido. Kial? La ĉefaj motivoj:
- sporto kaj amuzaĵo
- kultura kunligo
- sento ke ili aparas malbone en la angla televido
Here's the newest post on 90 Years Ago Today. 90 years ago Russia (USSR) and Poland were at war, and it was anyone's guess who would emerge the victor.
Short explanation: Windy is our cat, we got him when he was a kitten.
When we left the house during the day we put him in the pink carrier bag to keep him from chewing wires or who knows what when nobody was around; as a result Windy got to love the carrier bag and treated it as his bed.
Windy grew up, we upgraded his box to a hard plastic one. He sleeps there but still feels an attachment to the pink one.
Then we got another kitten. The pink carrier bag is just right for him so he'll use it from time to time. Windy's way too big to fit in there anymore. Windy begs to differ.
Even with an extra plastic bin inside (don't ask me how it got there), Windy makes a valiant effort to protect his territory, against the newcomer.
At the end of the day though, it's not a big deal.
Checking the current location of the Dawn probe you can see that it's now 0.2283 AU away from 4 Vesta, which works out to 34 million km. 34 million km is touch to imagine but luckily we have Rosetta's encounter last month with the asteroid 21 Lutetia to provide some perspective. 21 Lutetia is the largest asteroid we have encountered thus far, with a diameter of 100 km. For comparison, 4 Vesta has a diameter of 530 km.
The first image released from the Rosetta probe of the asteroid was this one at 900,000 km, over twice the distance from Earth to the Moon.
So let's transpose this on a map showing the size of these two bodies to scale, along with their distance from the probe. You'll want to click on the image to see it in greater detail, but even without doing so you can get an idea. The tiny thing there on the top says 'probe' and that's the location of the probe. The next dot represents the size and distance of 21 Lutetia, when it was 900,000 km away. That dot at the bottom there is 4 Vesta, much larger but also 38 times farther away...but still not a tremendous distance anymore. Due to Dawn's extremely slow approach (it won't enter orbit around Vesta for almost a year) that means that within perhaps six months it will be at a fairly good distance to provide the public with some precious eye candy.
Bedaŭrinde hodiaŭ mi havas preskaŭ nenian tempon por skribi en Esperanto. Sed eksistas unu bona novaĵo: mi akiris lernolibron por la Armena lingvo (la orienta Armena lingvo). Do mi legis ĝin hodiaŭ kaj forgesis mian ret-situon. ^^
Se vi volas vidi, mi skribis ĉi tie (angle) pri la unaj vortoj en la armena.
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