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El Tecnológico de Monterrey e IBM redefinen profesiones e industrias con Big Data

Estamos en un punto de inflexión en el que los datos resuelven problemas y dan resultados rápidos en formas nunca antes vistas. México requiere estar listo para esta nueva era en la que los negocios e instituciones están en constante evolución. Para lograrlo, los servicios y las tecnologías de información, y sobre todo el talento detrás de estos, son clave.




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IBM et VMware étendent leur partenariat pour faciliter le passage au cloud hybride

A l’occasion de VMworld® 2016, VMware, Inc. (NYSE : VMW) et IBM (NYSE : IBM) annoncent la disponibilité de services Cloud d’un genre nouveau, permettant aux entreprises de migrer rapidement et simplement des ressources informatiques d’entreprise vers le Cloud. Avec déjà plus de 500 clients concernés, le partenariat mondial entre IBM et VMware aide de plus en plus d’organisations à étendre leurs ressources informatiques existantes vers le Cloud en quelques minutes au lieu de plusieurs semaines ou mois.




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IBM and Rail Projects Victoria keeping the $11B Metro Tunnel on track

IBM and Rail Projects Victoria keeping the $11B Metro Tunnel on track




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Successful blockchain trial for bank guarantees

ANZ and Westpac have teamed with IBM (NYSE:IBM) and shopping centre operator Scentre Group and have now successfully digitised the bank guarantee process used for commercial property leasing.



  • Banking and Financial Services

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IBM Green Data Centre To Save Victoria University Thousands in Power Costs

IBM today announced that Victoria University has selected IBM to design and build the university’s first green data centre.



  • Global Technology Services

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Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre publishes results from study using IBM Watson for Clinical Trial Matching

A Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre study has demonstrated the potential for artificial intelligence to help reduce the time for clinicians to match lung cancer patients to relevant clinical trials.




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Relaxing Victorians: Casual Wear From Unseen to Seen to Seen by Only a Few ~ Wrappers & Peignoirs & Dressing Gowns to Morning Dresses & Tea Gowns to Lingerie from Gail Carriger


One of the things the Victorian era saw, Fashionable Reader, was an exploration of that liminal space through casual around the house wear.

Wrapper 1855  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Here we have the wrapper that was only meant to be seen by family.

Dressing Gown  early 1870s The Metropolitan Museum of Art


Dressing Gown  1875  The Kyoto Costume Institute

 Dressing gowns, banyans and wrappers are often quilted all or in part.

Wrapper early 1860s  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

One of the signs of a wrapper is that the waist is designed to be loose or tied tight. Often they split up the front, like a carriage dress or a robe so they can be pulled over a nightgown or underpinnings, like a dressing down but slightly more tailored. Still NOT designed to be worn over a corset.


Peignoir 1860-1865  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Peignoir  1880s  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

 Peignoir seems to be a catch all term.

Morning Dress  1860  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Morning dresses were initially gowns for the breakfast table that did not require a corset.They're characterize by a looser top lots of details in the neck and sleeves.

Morning Dress  1872-1873  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

One of the things we see evolving (and limits being tested) after the 1950s through the 1900s is the idea of what was not meant to be seen (undergarments and nightgowns) to what was initially only meant to be seen by family or lovers (wrappers & peignoirs) to receiving casual around house guests at breakfast (morning dresses) to I'm comfortable at home and I want to show my wealth with yet another space & occasion specific outfit (the tea gown).

Tea Gown  late 1870s  The Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Tea gowns were an evolution of the morning gown.

Tea Gown  1875  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Tea Gown  1875-1880  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

1Harpers Bazar New York Sat June 13 1891 Dressing Gowns Nightshirts

This evolution is coupled with the rise of the middle class, the sexual revolution (including contraception and woman's suffrage) and various other factors.

Bed Jacket  1885  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Dressing Jacket  1885-1890  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

 We see a culmination in this towards the turn of the century in the popularity of (and wide-scale use of the word) negligées and lingerie sets, which specifically implies an article of clothing that is sexual in its nature for it is meant to be seen by a lover.

Negligée  1880  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This kind of clothing, prior to the first sexual revolution, would not have been acceptable for a fashion house to make, let alone a fashionable lady to purchase.

Negligée Callot Soeurs, 1898-1900s The Metropolitan Museum of Art


Lingerie Set  1880s  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

There was also head wear that was designed to be worn exclusively around the house, but that's a whole other story...

House Cap 1900  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

For Primrose!

Boudoir Cap 1895 The Metropolitan Museum of Art

nightgown 1894  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Dressing Gown  1897-1899  The Metropolitan Museum of Art


Retro Rack is also on facebook where I post additional images and fashion thoughts.

You can shop my recommendations via the following lists:
Steampunk, Retro Jewelry, Makeup, Retro Clothes, Lifestyle


Product links on this blog are usually to Amazon using my associate code. At no additional cost to you this means I get a slight kick back if you make a purchase. Thank you! This allows me to continue to produce this blog without sponsors.




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The Mandalorian: Behind-The-Scenes Photos from Creators and Cast

Get behind-the-scenes peeks from the production of The Mandalorian with personal photos from Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, and many more.




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Cerebria: The Card Game

Given the reputation of Mindclash Games as a producer of well themed and sufficiently complex games, I was quite optimistic about getting Cerebria: The Card Game on the table. Designed by István Pócsi and Frigyes Schőberl, the game was released in 2018, and it was due to arrive on my doorstep in March.
Once the box arrived and I saw the cutesy artwork by Villő Farkas, Jamie Sichel, and Pedro A. Alberto, I prepared a little space in my heart for the love of the game that was already starting to develop. The illustrations are playful, family friendly, and reflect the theme very well.
 
In Cerebria: The Card Game, we are organizing and controlling our emotions while toying with the emotions of others. The theming overlaid on the gameplay here works well with regard to what we are doing with our actions, but there is no explanation of who we are or why we are in this situation we find ourselves. I would have liked to see a better developed contextual narrative for the game.
Thanks to busy spring work schedules, it took a bit of time to gather friends over to play. The first game came together at the last minute when my friend Aaron was in town visiting for the weekend and our regular gaming friends John and Meagan dropped by. The five of us crowded around our gaming table, my husband Christopher explained the rules, and then we went at it.
To play the game, cards are pulled out of the main deck to form three decks laid out in vertical columns and the card at the top of each deck is flipped over and available to draw. Every player is dealt four cards. Players take turns drawing from one of the face up cards to their hand, playing cards from their hand to their personal tableau and collecting emotion fragments (blue fragments for gloom and orange fragments for bliss) on those cards if possible (some cards don’t collect fragments but have other special abilities), or both (two actions are mandatory each turn).

During a turn, a player may also activate emotion abilities of eligible cards in their tableau. These abilities involve actions that directly benefit the player, take-that actions that hurt other players, or combo actions that manage to do both at once. Gameplay moves pretty quickly and is not subject to much analysis paralysis. A round ends when any of the three draw piles is empty. At that juncture, all the emotion fragments collected in each player’s tableau are squirreled away to their personal cache and any bonus fragments are awarded to players (emotion cards have vibe symbols on them and bonus fragments are awarded for tableaus that meet set collection goals such as three different vibes or four identical vibes). If any player has amassed either twelve of the same color emotion fragments or seven of each color, they win and the game ends. If not, the game resets with the discard of any existing face up cards, replenishment of the three vertical decks, and all players drawing back up to (or discarding down to) four cards. Then play resumes and unfolds as in the previous round.

None of us are really fond of “take that” games, so the more aggressive and vindictive emotion abilities our cards presented us with weren’t used as frequently as they might have been with a different group of players. But that didn’t stop anyone from winning the game as the game has a lot of room for creative strategies and there are multiple paths to victory.

Subsequent games I played with other groups were just as enjoyable. This week, for example, I played a 4 player game at a youth center with three teens and everyone had a good time. There was a bit more time required before the under 16 crowd really understood the rules and how everything fit together but overall it went well. There were definitely more take-that actions taken by the teens than any of the adults I played with.
 

Win Condition: Be the first player to amass 12 emotion fragments of either gloom or bliss, or 7 of each.
Strategy Tip: Be careful about laying down a valuable set of emotions in your mindset (such as four of a kind) early in the game. Tip your hand too soon and you invite others to play aggressive take-that emotion abilities against you to keep you from scoring points. It’s better to lay down your final card, if possible, just before drawing the last card from a draw column, which will end the round and allow you to score immediately.

Components for Cerebria: The Card Game  include glossy cards and some plastic tokens representing emotional fragments. Everything should hold up to regular use and all components can be stored compactly in the well made, small box provided.
I really enjoyed the game and the interactions it provoked between players. If your group enjoys take-that games, you can really turn the screws to your opponents and if your group wants to steer clear of such tactics you can just as easily play and win the game without striking out against others. The theming here is unique. Other than Cerebria (also from this publisher), there aren’t any current games dealing with organizing and handling emotions. It’s a great way to remind ourselves that we can control our emotional mindset by choosing what we focus on, regardless of what emotions pass through our minds.
This easy to learn, quick playing, well-illustrated, clever game has earned a forever home in my collection.
-------------------------------------------------
Publisher: Mindclash Games
Players: 2-5
Actual Playing Time (vs the guideline on the box): About 45 minutes
Game type: set collection, take-that
Rating:

Jenni’s rating scale:
OUI: I would play this game again; this game is ok. I probably would not buy this game myself but I would play it with those who own it and if someone gave it to me I would keep it.
OUI OUI: I would play this game again; this game is good. I would buy this game.
OUI OUI OUI: I LOVE THIS GAME. I MUST HAVE THIS GAME.
NON: I would not play this game again. I would return this game or give it away if it was given to me.
















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Great Western National Parks Itinerary and Pictorial

There was a time – before I sank my teeth into the board game hobby and before I took on the demands of being a stepmom to three children - that I planned frequent trips for my friends circle. Each month would see us jet setting off to a different part of the United States (or a different part of the world) in search of adventure and great cuisine. I would pour myself into the research project that proper trip planning requires and create a custom itinerary for our group, working to ensure we caught all the highlights of our destination. This post is about the one I worked up for our last trip to some of the great Western National Parks in the United States.  I share it here with the hope that you might find the itinerary useful in planning your trip out west.

 

--> Full Photo Gallery – Come and Explore 

DAY ONE

MORNING

Depart for Butte, Montana

Pick up rental car

AFTERNOON

Lunch (& ice cream) at Matt’s Place (Butte)

Transfer to Grand Teton National Park (4.5 hrs)

Grand Teton National Park Visitors Center (open till 7pm)

EVENING

Stop for photos @ Mormon Row Historic District (Antelope Flats Road, Grand Teton National Park, WY)

Dinner @ Peaks Restaurant, Signal Mountain Lodge

Check in @ Colter Bay Village

DAY TWO

MORNING AND AFTERNOON

5:45am Sunrise excursion to Schwabacher's Landing

• Roughly four miles north of Moose off of the main highway. The 1.5 mile gravel access road is currently closed to vehicles due to sequestration; 20 min walk is therefore required to reach the trailhead. The trail follows along the water, heads northwest then turns north to follow a trail along a smaller stream. Five minutes of hiking you should come to a large beaver dam that creates a pond. Circle around the water on the maze of paths that travel north through the woods for 5 more minutes and it will lead to an opening with the classic view. A log bench marks the area, and if you are arriving for sunrise, a photographer usually will also mark the spot.

Breakfast @ Ranch House

8am Assemble in lobby to depart for morning tour

Sightseeing in Grand Teton NP:

• Lake Jenny- Hidden Falls, Inspiration Point, & Cascade Canyon Hike

o Starts with a boat ride ($12; service from 8am) across beautiful Jenny Lake to where the trail starts. The half mile hike to Hidden Falls is short and easy. Half mile further to Inspiration Point. The hike from the boat dock to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point is like a traffic jam after 9am. Option to continue onto Cascade Canyon where the crowds thin and moose and other wildlife are abundant.

Signal Mountain Summit Road . The scenic Signal Mountain Road is a five mile, 1,000 foot climb of switchbacks to an observation area at the top of Signal Mountain. Set far apart from the next highest mountain peak, Signal Mountain provides breathtaking views of the Tetons’ towering peaks, the flat glacial plains below, Jackson Lake and the Snake River beyond. From Lake Jenny, travel N on the Grand Teton Road and take a right onto Signal Mountain Road.

Lunch @ Signal Mountain Lodge (Trapper’s Grill or Leek’s Pizza)

Afternoon at leisure at Colter Bay Village (horseback riding, kayaking, canoe rentals, etc)

EVENING

Dinner @ Ranch House or Chuckwagon

DAY THREE

MORNING

Breakfast @ Ranch House

Transfer to Yellowstone National Park (1.5 hrs)

Optional brief stop at West Thumb for photos (keep bear spray handy)

Sightseeing in the Upper Geyser Basin:

• Old Faithful

• Black Sand and Biscuit Basin Trails (1/2 mile easy boardwalk trail each)

• Geyser Hill Loop Trail (1.3 miles easy boardwalk trail)

• Morning Glory Pool

AFTERNOON

Lunch @ Old Faithful Inn Deli

Sightseeing in the Midway and Lower Geyser Basin:

• Despite its small size Midway possesses two of the largest hot springs in the world. Grand Prismatic Spring, nearly 370 feet in diameter, sits upon a large mound surrounded by small step-like terraces. The other feature, Excelsior Geyser, erupted nearly 300 feet high before the 1900s. It is now a dormant geyser and is considered a hot spring, discharging more than 4050 gallons of boiling water per minute. Other colorful springs include Turquoise and Indigo springs, known for their pale and dark blue colors. Across the Firehole River from Excelsior and Grand Prismatic springs are a series of small isolated, pristine springs and mud pots. The Rabbit Creek drainage possesses some colorful and unusual features and most are unnamed. Caution should be exercised while exploring this vicinity since the ground is unstable and trails are not maintained.

• The Lower Geyser Basin encompasses nearly 12 square miles, with most of the thermal features widely scattered in small groups. We will visit the Fountain Group, White Dome Group, & White Creek Group at minimum and venture onto the Firehole Lake Group and the Imperial Group if there is time. The Lower Geyser Basin possesses a large variety of thermal features, including mud pots, geysers, pools, springs, and fumaroles. Great Fountain Geyser is one of the grand geysers in the Lower Geyser Basin. It erupts from a large, terraced platform with massive bursts exploding up to 150 feet high. White Dome Geyser does not have spectacular eruptive displays, but it does have one of the largest pink and white streaked cones in the Park.

EVENING

Check in @ Old Faithful Inn

Dinner @ Old Faithful Lodge Cafeteria

DAY FOUR

MORNING AND AFTERNOON

Breakfast @ Old Faithful Inn

Traverse the Fishing Bridge Sightseeing in Hayden Valley:

• Wildlife Viewing

• Sulphur Caldron

• Mud Volcano Interpretive Trail (3/4 mile, easy)

Sightseeing in Canyon Area:

• South Rim Drive

o Picnic Lunch at Artist Point

• North Rim Drive

o walk from Inspiration Point to Grandview Point

o Brink of the Lower Falls Trail (1/2 mile, steep/moderate)  Especially scenic, this trail branches off of the North Rim Trail at the Brink of the Upper Falls parking area

• Canyon Visitor Center

EVENING

Check in @ Canyon Lodge

Dinner @ Canyon Lodge Dining Room

DAY FIVE

MORNING

6am Depart for wildlife viewing in Lamar Valley (snacks in the car)

9am Breakfast @ Roosevelt Lodge

Sightseeing in Northern Yellowstone:

• Tower Falls

o Stop at Tower General Store to pick up Picnic Lunch supplies

• Undine Falls

o Scenic pullout on the right

• Gibbon Falls

• Mammoth Springs (2 hrs)

o Lower Terraces including:

Opal Terrace

Liberty Cap

Palette Spring

Minerva Terrace

Cleopatra Terrace

Jupiter Terrace

Main Terrace

Canary Spring

Overlook

o Upper Terraces including:

Prospect Terrace

New Highland Terrace

Orange Spring Mound

Bath Lake

White Elephant Back Terrace

Angel Terrace

• Fort Yellowstone, time permitting

• Optional stop @ Norris Geyser Basin, time permitting

EVENING

Check in @ Three Bears Lodge

Dinner @ Taqueria Las Palmitas ($) or Madison Crossing Lounge ($$)

Ice cream @ Espresso West

DAY SIX

MORNING

Breakfast @ Woodside Bakery in West Yellowstone (world famous cinnamon rolls)

Check out & transfer to Butte (2.5 hrs)

AFTERNOON

Lunch on the road

Depart for home from Butte airport





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World film project: Nigeria

Nobody had any recs for Nigeria, so we poked around a bunch of internet best of lists and came up with Lionheart, (2018, dir Genevieve Nnaji), which turned out to be a great choice.

Lionheart is about a young business woman, Adaeze, who has to overcome sexism and save her father's struggling transport business. The director, Nnaji, also plays the title role and does a brilliant job. What I particularly loved about this film was that it undermined my genre expectations of feel-good feminist films. Adaeze doesn't have to outsmart and triumph over the sexist men, she has to learn to collaborate with people different from herself. And the company doesn't win by beating its rivals but by conducting a merger that at the start seemed unthinkable, requiring cooperation between her Igbo, Christian family and some Hausa (I think?) Muslims.

In particular, the eccentric uncle who is inexplicably appointed as acting MD when everybody knows it should have been Adaeze turns out to have some key strengths. He is in fact only annoying, and not a jerk. His people skills and intuition perfectly complement Adaeze's business acumen. (And how nice to have a female lead be the excessively competent and rational one!)

Adaeze does experience some sexism, particularly creepy men who expect sexual favours in return for investment in the business. But most of the antagonists are just nasty in a gender neutral way, like they want to sell the business to a conniving rival for quick money.

Anyway that was a really sweet date-night movie and I do feel our film project is back on track

Any recs for Bangladeshi films? We are most excited about 21st century films not primarily about violence or depressing real-world history.

comments



  • world film project

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Nicolas Hafner: Creative Block - May Kandria Update


It's a new month, and that usually means I'm supposed to write a monthly update on the progress with Kandria. Thinking about that though made me feel very depressed because I realised that I hadn't really done anything at all for the game, all of April.

I can blame however much I want of that on the quarantine and university stress, or whatever else, but it won't change the fact that there has not been much progress on any front. While I have been slacking a lot, it's not like I haven't been working at all - plenty of time has gone into Courier, after all.

When I had this realisation yesterday, I tried my best to push myself to work on the game any way I could, but I failed to find anything that I could actually convince myself to do. That isn't to say that there aren't things to do; god forbid there's a tonne of things! Tuning combat, drawing animations, writing the UI, fixing dialogue, starting on enemy AI, optimising performance - just to name a few. And yet, despite the breadth and depth of things to do, there was absolutely nothing that looked appealing to me.

This kind of feeling is nothing new to me. It's a creative block, and happens more often that I'd like to admit. It's also why I often don't like to start long running projects, because I'm afraid of a creative block that would ruin it. The worst part about the creative block is that there's no remedy for it. You just get stuck in a rut, and it sucks a whole lot for a completely unpredictable amount of time. Often what I end up doing, whether consciously so or not, is switching to another project and just working on that.

So far that project has been Courier, but that's at its end and I'm also starting to feel burnt out on it, too. I don't have any other projects queued up that I'd like to tackle, or new ideas on what to do at the moment, so I'm just... stuck.

I suppose the right thing to do in this situation is to take it easy and not fret too much over it, since that's often one of the many factors causing the block. I've never been good at actually doing that, though. Maybe I should try to take a break from programming in general? I don't know.

You may be wondering why I'm writing this all to begin with. Well, partly I feel like I promised to do monthly and weekly updates, and I really hate to break that promise without notice. Another part is that I just feel like I owe you the discretion to tell you what's going on with me. I'm very thankful for the email replies and general responses I've gotten for Kandria so far, I really am! Because of that genuine interest, I feel all the more pressured not to disappoint. Since I have nothing to show though, I thought the only proper course of action is to just be open and direct about it. So I'll just say it again: aside from updating the public demo, no progress has been made at all.

Maybe it would help me to have a more open discussion about this topic in general, instead of just it being me telling you that I'm in a bad place. So please, let me know: have you been in similar situations before? What helped you deal with them? Is there something in Kandria I could try to focus on that you, personally, would like to see?

You can reach me at shinmera@tymoon.eu.




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Registration open for USGL Lover Triad Convocation

A convocation of the Lover Triad of United States Grand Lodge will be held in Cleveland, Ohio, August 14-16 2020. Registration for the convocation is now open. See this site for more information.




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The sound and sense of Tocharian

Readers of Language Log will certainly be aware of Tocharian, but when I began my international research project on the Tarim Basin mummies in 1991, very few people — only a tiny handful of esoteric researchers — had ever heard of the Tocharians and their language since they went extinct more than a millennium ago, […]








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Ministerial visit to Iriss

On 20th July, Mark McDonald, the Minister for Childcare and Early Years paid us a visit at our offices in Glasgow.

read more




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Austria, incident

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - A gust of wind slammed a hot-air balloon into the ground as it was preparing to land near Austria's border with Germany on Saturday. Police said five people were injured, one seriously.
The accident happened around 11 a.m. (1000 GMT) about five kilometers (3 miles) outside the Bavarian town of Koessen as the balloon was about to touch down.
Authorities said the wind drove the basket into the ground and caused it to overturn.
One occupant suffered serious injuries, and four others were less severely hurt, Austrian public broadcaster ORF reported.
Koessen hosts a popular annual series of balloon races.




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#148: The Trial




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LARIA Listens

When: Fri Nov 20, 2015

Where: Glasgow City Council Learning Academy
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: The second of what will be regular events and networking sessions to support the work of local area researchers in Scotland under the umbrella of the Local Area Research and Intelligence Association More information http://laria.org.uk/t-event/laria-listens/



  • http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#event

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How to Stop Resentment from Ruining Your Marriage

When two people meet and decide to pursue a romantic relationship with each other, they always start with high hopes. They are very happy and look at the other person through rose-colored glasses. But as most of us know, that loving feeling doesn’t always last forever. It does for some couples, but for many, they [...]Read More...




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Book Week 2019: David Shariatmadari's Don't Believe a Word

Welcome to the third review post of Book Week 2019. In the intro to Book Week 2019, I explain what I'm doing this week. In the end, there will be four posts. I thought there would be five, but one of the books has (orig. BrE) gone missing. Having had a day off yesterday, I will also have a day off tomorrow, so the final review will appear during the weekend. Probably.

Anyhow, today's book is:

Don't believe a word
the surprising truth about language

by David Shariatmadari
Norton, 2019 (N America)
W&N, 2019 (UK/RoW)


David Shariatmadari writes for the Guardian, often about language, and is one of the sensible journalists on the topic. The number of sensible journalists writing about language has really shot up in the past decade, and judging from reading their books, this is in part because of increasingly clear, public-facing work by academic linguists. (Yay, academic linguists!) But in Shariatmadari's case, the journalist is a linguist: he has a BA and MA in the subject. And it shows—in the best possible way. 

The book is a familiar genre: busting widely held language myths. If you've read books in this genre before, you probably don't need these myths busted. You probably know that linguistic change is natural, that the border between language and dialect is unfindable, that apes haven't really learned sign languages, and that no form of language is inherently superior to another. Nevertheless, you may learn something new, since Shariatmadari's tastes for linguistic research and theories is not always on the same wavelength as some other books directed at such a general audience.

Once again, I'm reviewing with a partial view of the book (this is the practical law of Book Week 2019). In this case, I've read chapters 1, 5, and 9 and skimmed through other bits. The introductory chapter gives us a bit of insight into Shariatmadari's conversion to full-blown linguist, as a reluctant student of Arabic who was quickly converted to admiration for the language and to the study of language as an insight into humanity. "It's not hyperbole to say that linguistics is the universal social science", he writes. "It intrudes into almost every area of knowledge."
UK cover

I chose to read chapter 5 because I'd had the pleasure of hearing him talk about its topic at a student conference recently: the popularity of "untranslatable word" lists. Goodness knows, I've contributed to them. What I liked about the talk was his detective work on the words themselves—some of the words and definitions presented in lists of 'untranslatables' are practically fictional. And yet, those of us who don't speak the language in question often eat up these lists because of our ethnocentric need to exotici{s/z}e others. This leads inevitably to discussion of linguistic relativism—the notion that the language you speak affects the way you think—and the bad, old (so-called) evidence for it and the newer evidence for something much subtler. The chapter then goes in a direction I wasn't expecting: introducing Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM), an interesting (but far from universally taught) approach to meaning that uses about 65 semantic building blocks to represent and compare meanings across languages. NSM adherents make the case that few, if any, words are truly equivalent across languages. But while any word in one language may have no single-word equivalent in another language, that doesn't mean those words are untranslatable. It just means that translating them can be a delicate and complicated thing.

US cover
The final chapter (9) takes the opposite view to David Adger's Language Unlimited (in my last review), and argues that the hierarchical (and human-specific) nature of linguistic structure need not be the product of an innate Universal Grammar, but instead could arise from the complexity of the system involved and humans' advanced social cognition. While Adger had a whole book for his argument, Shariatmadari has 30-odd pages, and so it's not really fair to compare them in terms of the depth of their argumentation, but still worth reading the latter to get a sense of how linguists and psychologists are arguing about these things.

Shariatmadari is a clear and engaging writer, and includes a good range of references and a glossary of linguistic terminology. If you know someone who still believes some language myths, this might be a good present for them. (Though in my experience, people don't actually like getting presents that threaten their worldview. I still do it, because I care more about myth-busting writers earning royalties than I care about linguistic chauvinists getting presents they want.) It would also make an excellent gift for A-level English and language students (and teachers) and others who might be future linguists. After they read it, send them my way. I love having myth-busted students.




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A pair of industrial buildings are reborn as a creative office in Portland

In Northwest Portland, two former industrial structures have been given a new lease on life as Redfox Commons, a light-filled campus for creative, tech and retail workspaces. Local design practice LEVER Architecture led the adaptive reuse project that spans 60,000 square feet and is split between a west wing and a larger east wing across two floors. The architects reclaimed over 6,500 linear feet of timber and combined the salvaged material with new industrial-inspired elements — such as weathering steel cladding and ribbon windows — to pay homage to the building’s history. [...]




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Grade II listed Victorian home undergoes a green renovation

London-based firm Will Gamble Architects has breathed new life into a dilapidated building in the small village of Gretton, U.K. The complex consisted of a Grade II listed Victorian house, a disused cattle shed and a set of ruins of a former parchment factory. Although the project presented several challenges, the architects managed to strategically incorporate the existing structures, as well as several reclaimed materials found onsite, into the new design in lieu of complete demolition.[...]




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Natural materials make up this energy-saving Jakarta home

Architecture firm Atelier Riri has reaped the energy-saving benefits of Indonesia’s tropical climate in their design of the House at Serpong, a climate-responsive suburban house in Jakarta. After conducting solar studies and site analyses, the architects crafted the four-story home with strategically placed voids, windows, elevated gardens and solar shading devices to reduce unwanted solar gain and take advantage of natural cooling. The home was built primarily of natural materials that give the building a warm and tactile feel.[...]




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Sweden and Austria close their last coal plants

Europe just gained its second and third coal-free countries. Sweden and Austria have both shut their last coal-fired plants in late April, joining Belgium in going coal-free in favor of renewable energy sources.[...]




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Community collects locally sourced materials to construct a school in Vietnam

The Xuan Hoa commune in the Lao Cai province of northwest Vietnam is, like much of the surrounding area, a region that has suffered from economic hardships in the past. A large number of households in Xuan Hoa live in extreme poverty, including many of the school district’s 78 students aged 6 to 11 years old. The new Dao school by 1+1>2 Architects was completed in 2019 to provide provide education to the area’s children in first through fifth grades.[...]




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Superblock of Sant Antoni reclaims Barcelona streets for pedestrians

As part of Barcelona’s efforts to reclaim its car-congested streets for pedestrians, the city has tapped architects to create "superblocks” — groups of streets transformed into car-free public plazas. One such project was completed in 2019 by Leku Studio in the trendy neighborhood of Sant Antoni. Redesigned with attractive way-finding elements and street furniture, the Superblock of Sant Antoni is the second of six superblocks completed to date.[...]




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Brian May Hospitalized

Brian May was admitted to a hospital earlier this week  ...for a torn butt. The guitarist/astrophysicist injured himself while gardening, which is a bit reminiscent of the line from the movie This Is Spinal Tap in which one drummer's death is attributed to a "bizarre gardening accident." May is expected to recover, but it may take some time.  

Writing on Instagram, the Queen guitarist said: “I managed to rip my gluteus maximus to shreds in a moment of overenthusiastic gardening. So suddenly I find myself in a hospital getting scanned to find out exactly how much I’ve actually damaged myself. Turns out I did a thorough job – this is a couple of days ago – and I won’t be able to walk for a while … or sleep, without a lot of assistance, because the pain is relentless.”

May is 72, and had been at his home after Queen was forced to cancel a tour due to the pandemic. Now he is recovering at home, and requests peace and quiet. -via reddit




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In Memoriam 2016: LxListening

2016 was not-so-great, and most pertinently here, it was the year the music died. Not only did we lose three stone-cold legends in David Bowie, Prince, and Leonard Cohen, we also lost many more way too soon.  So below is a brief tribute to some of those we will miss the most as well as … Continue reading "In Memoriam 2016: LxListening"




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Podcast Episode 294: ‘The Murder Trial of the Century’

In 1957, an English doctor was accused of killing his patients for their money. The courtroom drama that followed was called the “murder trial of the century.” In this week’s episode of the Futility Closet podcast we’ll describe the case of John Bodkin Adams and its significance in British legal history. We’ll also bomb Calgary and puzzle over a passive policeman. Intro: In 1959, James Sellers proposed installing microphones in baseball bases. In the Strand, Henry Dudeney offered a puzzle about asparagus bundles. Sources for our feature on John Bodkin Adams: Patrick Baron Devlin, Easing the Passing: The Trial of...




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Haiti: CEP Failed to its Mission, But an Electoral Miscarriage Can Be Avoided

By Wadner Pierre

This article was originally published by UnlessWeCare.org

Screen Shot 2015-11-06 at 6.34.24 AM It has been over a month since Haiti’s Conseil Electoral Provisoire (Electoral Provisory Counsel), known as CEP, published its foreknown controversial fraudulent results for the first round presidential and second round legislative elections. The CEP’s preliminary results for the presidential elections placed President Michel Martelly’s hand-picked candidate Jovenel Moise of Parti Haïtien Tèt Kale, or P.H.T.K in the first place with 32.8 percent of the popular votes. Jaccéus Joseph, a member of the electoral council, qualified the results as unacceptable.

Miami Herald’s Jacqueline Charles reported, Joseph refused to sign “the presidential and legislative preliminary results” because of irregularities and frauds that plagued them. Joseph thought his refusal to endorse the results would prompt the Tabulation Center to verify “the allegations of electoral fraud, including checking the voter registration lists against the ballots cast in the Oct. 25” elections to avert an unnecessary electoral crisis.

Joseph said, “We asked the director of the Tabulation Center did he have enough time to thoroughly verify if there was fraud.” According to Joseph, the director told them, “[H]e didn’t have enough time for that.”

Despite Joseph’s insistence on verifying and correcting the irregularities and frauds threatening the credibility of the results, CEP’s President Pierre-Louis Opont decided to publish the tainted results. The electoral crisis that was avoidable is now becoming an inevitable crisis. This man-made electoral dispute could further derail the political and social stability of the country.

read more




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Love Triangle Squared

QUARANTINE TIP – Get a new plant for your home, to prove to yourself you can take care of something plastic. Yeah, get a plastic plant. Make it easy on yourself. We can all use a win right now. HI! PLEASE DISABLE YOUR ADBLOCKER OR WHITELIST US! IT MEANS A LOT! THANK YOU!!




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Book Recommendation: DIANA: PRINCESS OF THE AMAZONS by Shannon & Dean Hale, Victoria Ying (DC Zoom)

Happy launch day to DIANA: PRINCESS OF THE AMAZONS, the newest in the DC Zoom line of graphic novels for middle graders. Written by Shannon & Dean Hale and illustrated by Victoria Ying. Thanks to Michele Wells at DC Kids for sending me a copy!

For more of my book collages, feel free to browse my BookADay Padlet as well as my BookADay and Book Recommendation archives. I read a lot more books than I have time to post, especially now that I've joined the Goodreads 2020 Reading Challenge!




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Polyamory and Patriarchy Zine Questionnaire

This is a zine an amazing aquaintance of mine is putting together.
Please send your stories to: polypatriarchyzine@gmail.com, or mail them to 4951 Catharine St., Philadelphia, PA 19143.


Polyamory and Patriarchy Zine Questionnaire

These questions are for a zine I’m writing about polyamory and patriarchy. So often, people feel either that polyamory is the only revolutionary way to be intimate, or the worst way. I’d like to hear what you’ve learned from polyamory – ways it felt liberatory, and ways it may have felt like familiar oppressive gender roles dressed up in revolutionary language. My agenda isn’t to discredit polyamory, but to identify how much we have to learn about truly liberatory relationships.
These questions are fairly personal and ask you to revisit some painful memories, so please take your time, answer only what you feel comfortable answering, and let me know how you want your anonymity protected. Please use pseudonyms! Do give me contact info, though, if you want to review how I use your material before the zine is published.

1. Let’s start with gender. What gender roles did you learn from your family of origin? From the media? From your chosen community? How do you express gender now – is it different than how you were socialized to express gender?

2. What were your reasons for first trying polyamory? Was it your idea or a partner’s? Did you have any models in your community for successful polyamorous relationships?

3. What was the most empowering experience you’ve had in polyamory?

4. What was the hardest situation to handle in a polyamorous relationship? Looking back, what would you have done differently, if anything?

5. What kinds of insecurities did polyamory raise? Did they concern your gender or body image? How did you handle these insecurities?

6. How have you felt most empowered in polyamory? How has it felt expansive, liberatory, or healing?

7. Do you have a different kind of intimacy with lovers than with friends? Who are you more likely to turn to for emotional support?

8. How do your expectations change based on what kind of relationship you’re in? Do you have different standards of behavior for partners and lovers?

9. Has polyamory ever made you feel silenced, or unable to ask for what you needed?
What have your relationships with your lover’s other lovers been like? How have you handled feelings of jealousy and competition? How have you handled your partner’s jealousy?

10. Tell me a little about your best relationship, polyamorous or otherwise, and what made it work so well.

11. Today, what is your ideal relationship?

12. Do you want to see the zine before it’s published? Do you want a copy mailed to you? If so, let me know how to reach you.

Please send your stories to: polypatriarchyzine@gmail.com, or mail them to 4951 Catharine St., Philadelphia, PA 19143.

I also welcome your analysis and thoughts about sexual politics, polyamory, and this project – thanks!




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Sunshine Pad Thai (Vegetarian)

The pad thai recipe you're looking for! Try this simple trick to make a turmeric noodle version.

Continue reading Sunshine Pad Thai (Vegetarian) on 101 Cookbooks




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VIDEO: MOVIES: CARTOONS: REVIEW: My Little Pony: Equestria Girls (2013)

VIDEO: MOVIES: CARTOONS: REVIEW: My Little Pony: Equestria Girls (2013) Claire: 4/5 stars, 8/10. Carolyn: 5/5 stars, 8.6/10. “I am a chick and I like cartoons, so I am allowed to love My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.” (Notice how she leaves me in the lurch there?) Jesse: 3/5 stars, 7/10. “OK, I actually enjoyed […]




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VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: My Little Pony: Equestria Girls 2: Rainbow Rocks (2014)

[IMDB link] RATINGS: Claire: Netflix: 5/5 stars. IMDB: 8/10. Carolyn: Netflix: 5/5 stars. IMDB: 8/10. The native public rating for this movie is: IMDB: 7.4/10. Netflix strangely doesn’t have this. CAROLYN’S THOUGHTS: My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic had a sequel movie for Equestria Girls where Twilight Sparkle becomes a human in a parallel pony […]




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VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: My Little Pony: Equestria Girls 3: Friendship Games (2015)

[IMDB link] RATINGS: Claire: Netflix: 4/5 stars. IMDB: 7/10. Carolyn: Netflix: 4/5 stars. IMDB: 7/10. The native public rating for this movie is: Netflix: N/A/5 stars, IMDB: 7.5/10. CAROLYN’S THOUGHTS: This one seemed lackluster compared to the other two. It doesn’t have the same “oompf” as the previous two movies. Different writer might explain some […]




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Nicholas Johnson named valedictorian, Grace Sommers selected as salutatorian

Nicholas Johnson named valedictorian and Grace Sommers salutatorian for Princeton's Class of 2020.




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Beyond Ordinary: A Good Marriage Isn’t Enough

Some people suffer from mediocrity. I don't. I enjoy it! But. it's one thing living alone this way, it's entirely another thing if your marriage suffers from it. If you aren't quite ready to join us here at 50alone.com, you might want to re-examine your relationship to make sure you don't wind up here by […]




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Historian Kruse revisits the legacy of Princeton alumnus and civil rights champion John Doar

Using the John Doar Papers at Princeton, Kevin Kruse uncovers new insights into the civil rights movement.




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Fast and fragile: Two new studies explain the strange electron flow in future materials

Crystalline materials known as topological insulators conduct surface current perfectly, except when they don't. In two new studies published in the journal Science, Princeton researchers and their collaborators explain how these "fragile" poorly conducting topological states form, and how conductivity can be restored.




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RIP Florian Schneider




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EPA Selects City of Alexandria, La., for $300,000 Brownfields Assessment Grant

DALLAS – (May 8, 2020) Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing that the city of Alexandria, Louisiana, will receive $300,000 as a Brownfields assessment grant.




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Heathrow starts temperature trials

But airports and airlines call on Govt for more support




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Expression Web Tutorial: How to Design a Website with Microsoft Expression Web

Microsoft's free web editor is a sophisticated WYSIWYG web editor with many features usually only found in commercial offerings (and no wonder, since it was previously something you had to buy). This tutorial series takes you through the process of designing a fully functional multi-page website with Expression Web.