Tumgik
#ARTICLE
maaarine · 2 days
Text
Tumblr media
English Just 'Badly Pronounced French', Paris Academic Says (Tom Barfield, Barron's, March 09 2024)
"French linguist Bernard Cerquiglini would like to send a copy of his new book, "The English language doesn't exist: it's badly pronounced French", to King Charles III. (…)
Norman French's use by the new colonial aristocracy endowed English with words that at first glance might look homegrown, like "cabbage", "lure" or "wage", in the 150 years after William the Conqueror took the throne.
But Cerquiglini is most interested by the 13th and 14th centuries, when French -- by then a second language used in trade, administration and law -- bled freely into English because "a job, fortunes in land or cash, upholding a contract, liberty or even one's life, could depend on mastering" the tongue.
Half of English's borrowings from French took place from 1260-1400, producing words like "bachelor", from the old French word "bachelier", meaning a young noble not yet a knight.
"Travel" is related to the modern French word for labour, "travail", while "clock" stems from the French "cloche", a bell struck to sound the hours before mechanical timepieces were invented.
By the time Shakespeare came to write his plays in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, around "40 percent of the 15,000 words in his works are of French origin", Cerquiglini notes.
These days the place of "Anglo-Saxon" words in modern French can stir defensiveness in Paris, often from the Academie Francaise, charged since 1635 with preserving the language in its "pure" form.
"Language in France is official, of the state, national. And so of course we have an academy" whose members enjoy "a ridiculous outfit, a sword, a palace by the Seine" river in Paris, Cerquiglini said.
In recent years the academy has railed against imports related to Covid-19, such as "cluster" or "testing", as well as tech terms like "big data".
Cerquiglini said the academy has scored some worthwhile wins, such as convincing the French-speaking world to use the native-sounding "logiciel" instead of the once-omnipresent "software".
But he added: "This isn't an invasion, these are French words that have gone for training in England and that are coming back to us.""
24 notes · View notes
thoughtportal · 2 days
Text
An age verification bill in Kansas that is the most extreme in the country has passed both House and Senate and is on its way to the governor’s desk. The bill will make sites with more than 25 percent adult content liable to heavy fines if they don’t verify that visitors are over the age of 18. It also calls being gay “sexual conduct,” which critics say could set up the state for more censorship of LGBT+ citizens.
The bill is similar to the many others introduced or passed across the country in the last year, including ones enacted in Texas, Montana, North Carolina, Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Utah. Age verification laws in Indiana and Idaho will take effect on July 1, and bills are progressing in several more states.
The Kansas legislation has a major difference: The state will lower the bar for how much adult content a website needs to host in order to be liable. In the other states where age verification laws have been enacted, it’s been 33 percent, or one-third. Kansas reduces that number to 25 percent. Mainstream sites and social media platforms like Reddit and Twitter, as well as many other websites across the internet, host a large amount of porn despite not being “porn sites.” With an even lower bar to liability, the chilling effect of sexual content, sex education, and anything outside of heterosexual, biblical sterility could be massive.Age Verification Laws Drag Us Back to the Dark Ages of the InternetInvasive and ineffective age verification laws that require users show government-issued ID, like a driver’s license or passport, are passing like wildfire across the U.S.Emanuel Maiberg
“Any commercial entity that knowingly shares or distributes material that is harmful to minors on a website and such material appears on 25% or more of the webpages viewed on such website in any calendar month” falls under the purview of this bill, according to its text. If sites don’t comply, they could be fined up to $10,000 for each violation, and parents could sue for damages of at least $50,000.
Kansas criminal law defines “material harmful to minors” as involving “nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement or sadomasochistic abuse.” 
“Sexual conduct,” under Kansas law, means “acts of masturbation, homosexuality, sexual intercourse or physical contact with a person's clothed or unclothed genitals or pubic area or buttocks or with a human female's breast.” The Associated Press reported that the bill’s critics, including Democratic Rep. Brandon Woodard, “argued that the law could be interpreted broadly enough that LGBTQ+ teenagers could not access information about sexual orientation or gender identity because the legal definition of sexual conduct includes acts of ‘homosexuality.’” 
Aylo, Pornhub’s parent company, has blocked access to its more than a dozen websites in seven of the eight states with age verification laws in place. Earlier this month, 404 Media first reported that it blocked Texas. Age verification laws that require sites to verify ages—done through government-issued IDs like driver’s licenses or passports—won’t stop minors from seeing porn. Instead, as Emanuel and I wrote earlier this week, they’ll just drive everyone to sites with non-consensual abuse imagery and stolen content while opening everyone up to privacy exploitation. 
31 notes · View notes
punisheddonjuan · 29 days
Text
Tumblr media
The New York Times, however, does have rules and norms. Schwartz had no prior reporting experience. Her reporting partner Gettleman explained the basics to her, Schwartz said in a podcast interview on January 3, produced by Israel’s Channel 12 and conducted in Hebrew.
Gettleman, she said, was concerned they “get at least two sources for every detail we put into the article, cross-check information. Do we have forensic evidence? Do we have visual evidence? Apart from telling our reader ‘this happened,’ what can we say? Can we tell what happened to whom?”
Schwartz said she was initially reluctant to take the assignment because she did not want to look at visual images of potential assaults and because she lacked the expertise to conduct such an investigation.
This is stunning.
The fear among Times staffers who have been critical of the paper’s Gaza coverage is that Schwartz will become a scapegoat for what is a much deeper failure. She may harbor animosity toward Palestinians, lack the experience with investigative journalism, and feel conflicting pressures between being a supporter of Israel’s war effort and a Times reporter, but Schwartz did not commission herself and her nephew to report one of the most consequential stories of the war. Senior leadership at the New York Times did.
Schwartz said as much in an interview with Israeli Army Radio on December 31. “The New York Times said, ‘Let’s do an investigation into sexual violence’ — it was more a case of them having to convince me,” she said. Her host cut her off: “It was a proposal of The New York Times, the entire thing?”
“Unequivocally. Unequivocally. Obviously. Of course,” she said. “The paper stood behind us 200 percent and gave us the time, the investment, the resources to go in-depth with this investigation as much as needed.”
The whole piece is quite long, please go read it yourself, it's quite definitive.
11K notes · View notes
Text
Yuzu Pays $2.4 Million to End Nintendo Lawsuit
8K notes · View notes
thesilvershire · 5 months
Text
I’m reading the Wikipedia page for high-fives (you know, like you do) and I’m losing it over this part
Tumblr media
Look at the misery in this last pic. The absolute sorrow. Their friendship has been shattered and will never recover.
Tumblr media
I think this has some serious meme potential
6K notes · View notes
fob4ever · 1 year
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media
patrick stump, 2006 / 2023
37K notes · View notes
Text
In photographs, she looks like a scout leader about to ask if you’ve had anything to eat today. It takes a moment to see that often, just out of focus, her fingers are holding a joint and her vest is covered in risque pins, including an embroidered cannabis leaf.
Mary Jane Rathbun, jailed thrice and the reason for California’s groundbreaking action on medical cannabis, was better known as Brownie Mary, the patron saint of AIDS patients. More than twenty years after her death, it’s not hard to understand why this grandmotherly figure remains one of San Francisco’s most beloved activists.
She’s been called the Florence Nightingale of HIV/AIDS. She was famous for bringing her magic brownies to gay men and others suffering from wasting syndrome, a name for the deleterious effects on appetite caused by the stigmatized retrovirus.
Much like Nightingale’s work on hygiene and compassionate care, Brownie Mary’s legacy lives on in the recipes and procedures still used today in medicinal edible production.
Rathbun’s illicit distribution began in the early 1970s, when she was in her early 50s, while she worked at an IHOP in the Castro, 37 years before government-approved research finally proved that her hypothesis about distributing ingestible cannabis to AIDS patients was worth investigating. (Read more at link)
23K notes · View notes
doorhine · 1 month
Text
Tumblr media
February 15, 2024
2K notes · View notes
sbrown82 · 2 months
Text
1K notes · View notes
exhaled-spirals · 2 months
Text
« To mention the global loss of biodiversity, that is to say, the disappearance of life on our planet, as one of our problems, along with air pollution or ocean acidification, is absurd—like a doctor listing the death of his patient as one symptom among others.
The ecological catastrophe cannot be reduced to the climate crisis. We must think about the disappearance of life in a global way. About two-thirds of insects, wild mammals and trees disappeared in a few years, a few decades and a few millennia, respectively. This mass extinction is not mainly caused by rising temperatures, but by the devastation of natural habitats.
Suppose we managed to invent clean and unlimited energy. This technological feat would be feted by the vast majority of scientists, synonymous in their eyes with a drastic reduction in CO2 emissions. In my opinion, it would lead to an even worse disaster. I am deeply convinced that, given the current state of our appetites and values, this energy would be used to intensify our gigantic project of systemic destruction of planetary life. Isn't that what we've set out to do—replace forests with supermarket parking lots, turn the planet into a landfill? What if, to cap it all, energy was free?
[...C]limate change has emerged as our most important ecological battle [...] because it is one that can perpetuate the delusional idea that we are faced with an engineering problem, in need of technological solutions. At the heart of current political and economic thought lies the idea that an ideal world would be a world in which we could continue to live in the same way, with fewer negative externalities. This is insane on several levels. Firstly because it is impossible. We can't have infinite growth in a finite world. We won't. But also, and more importantly, it is not desirable. Even if it were sustainable, the reality we construct is hell. [...]
It is often said that our Western world is desacralised. In reality, our civilisation treats the technosphere with almost devout reverence. And that's worse. We perceive the totality of reality through the prism of a hegemonic science, convinced that it “says” the only truth.
The problem is that technology is based on a very strange principle, so deeply ingrained in us that it remains unexpressed: no brakes are acceptable, what can be done must be done. We don't even bother to seriously and collectively debate the advisability of such "advances". We are under a spell. And we are avoiding the essential question: is this world in the making, standardised and computed, overbuilt and predictable, stripped of stars and birds, desirable?
To confine science to the search for "solutions" so we can continue down the same path is to lack both imagination and ambition. Because the “problem” we face doesn't seem to me, at this point, to be understood. No hope is possible if we don't start by questioning our assumptions, our values, our appetites, our symbols... [...] Let's stop pretending that the numerous and diverse human societies that have populated this planet did not exist. Certainly, some of them have taken the wrong route. But ours is the first to forge ahead towards guaranteed failure. »
— Aurélien Barrau, particle physicist and philosopher, in an interview in Télérama about his book L'Hypothèse K
1K notes · View notes
one-time-i-dreamt · 3 months
Text
Was promised a party. What I got was a friend dragging me to her church where a bunch of demons escaped and I was forced to write articles about them.
1K notes · View notes
maaarine · 1 year
Photo
Tumblr media
Mystery of why Roman buildings have survived so long has been unraveled, scientists say (Katie Hunt, CNN, Jan 06 2023)
“Roman concrete, in many cases, has proven to be longer-lasting than its modern equivalent, which can deteriorate within decades.
Now, scientists behind a new study say they have uncovered the mystery ingredient that allowed the Romans to make their construction material so durable and build elaborate structures in challenging places such as docks, sewers and earthquake zones.
The study team, including researchers from the United States, Italy and Switzerland, analyzed 2,000-year-old concrete samples that were taken from a city wall at the archaeological site of Privernum, in central Italy, and are similar in composition to other concrete found throughout the Roman Empire.
They found that white chunks in the concrete, referred to as lime clasts, gave the concrete the ability to heal cracks that formed over time.
The white chunks previously had been overlooked as evidence of sloppy mixing or poor-quality raw material.
"For me, it was really difficult to believe that ancient Roman (engineers) would not do a good job because they really made careful effort when choosing and processing materials," said study author Admir Masic, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (…)
Additional analysis of the concrete showed that the lime clasts formed at extreme temperatures expected from the use of quicklime, and "hot mixing" was key to the concrete's durable nature.
"The benefits of hot mixing are twofold," Masic said in a news release.
"First, when the overall concrete is heated to high temperatures, it allows chemistries that are not possible if you only used slaked lime, producing high-temperature-associated compounds that would not otherwise form.
Second, this increased temperature significantly reduces curing and setting times since all the reactions are accelerated, allowing for much faster construction."
To investigate whether the lime clasts were responsible for Roman concrete's apparent ability to repair itself, the team conducted an experiment.
They made two samples of concrete, one following Roman formulations and the other made to modern standards, and deliberately cracked them.
After two weeks, water could not flow through the concrete made with a Roman recipe, whereas it passed right through the chunk of concrete made without quicklime.
Their findings suggest that the lime clasts can dissolve into cracks and recrystallize after exposure to water, healing cracks created by weathering before they spread.
The researchers said this self-healing potential could pave the way to producing more long-lasting, and thus more sustainable, modern concrete.
Such a move would reduce concrete's carbon footprint, which accounts for up to 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the study.
For many years, researchers had thought that volcanic ash from the area of Pozzuoli, on the Bay of Naples, was what made Roman concrete so strong.
This kind of ash was transported across the vast Roman empire to be used in construction, and was described as a key ingredient for concrete in accounts by architects and historians at the time.
Masic said that both components are important, but lime was overlooked in the past.”
9K notes · View notes
thoughtportal · 5 months
Text
There are two configurations available: one with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage for $599 and another with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for $679. The storage of both models can be expanded via microSD, and the phone features a modular design that can be easily disassembled using a standard Phillips #00 screwdriver to replace broken components. It also has an IP54 rating, meaning the device is protected against dust and water sprays.
The Murena Fairphone 4 will ship to US customers with 5G and dual SIM support, a removable 3905mAh battery, a 48-megapixel main camera, a 48-megapixel ultrawide, and a 25-megapixel selfie camera. The phones will be available to order exclusively from Murena’s webstore starting today. 
22K notes · View notes
punisheddonjuan · 1 month
Text
This whole essay is filled with horrific details but there's one that stood out to me.
I stopped keeping track of how many new orphans I had operated on. After surgery they would be filed somewhere in the hospital, I’m unsure of who will take care of them or how they will survive. On one occasion, a handful of children, all about ages 5 to 8, were carried to the emergency room by their parents. All had single sniper shots to the head. These families were returning to their homes in Khan Yunis, about 2.5 miles away from the hospital, after Israeli tanks had withdrawn. But the snipers apparently stayed behind. None of these children survived.
This is a depth of depravity and moral sickness I associate with something like the Dirlewanger Brigade.
9K notes · View notes
Text
Tumblr media
Everything Everywhere All at Once Passes Return of the King as Most-Awarded Movie Ever
Everything Everywhere All at Once can add another historic win to its list.
According to IGN’s calculations, the multiversal hit is now the most-awarded film ever with 158 accolades to date from major critics organizations and awards bodies. This spot was previously held by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which earned 101 major awards by IGN’s math. (via IGN)
8K notes · View notes
m-ushroomtale · 3 months
Text
.
Tumblr media
Since the war, electronics and high-tech factories in Israel have been facing difficulties importing electronic components from China. These components are essential for both civilian and military purposes. Importers argue that Chinese suppliers did not declare or announce any sanctions on Israel, but in reality, there seems to be a kind of bureaucratic obstacle. Chinese suppliers have begun demanding the completion of numerous forms, causing shipment delays due to inaccurately filled-out paperwork. The result is challenges in receiving the necessary supplies. "In recent weeks, companies in the hi-tech sector have complained about delays in shipments from China of dual-use components. In all the checks we conducted with official bodies, it appears that there is no change in regulations, but rather enforcement that was not practiced in the past. Such technical requests create bureaucratic hurdles," a government official told Ynet. "We are concerned that the strict enforcement is happening because we are in a state of war. Inquiries have been made to the Chinese, and their official response is that there is no change in policy. The problem is that until we overcome all the new requirements we cannot be certain if the supply will be fulfilled. It is clear to us that there is a direct link to the war," according to the official. The Chinese government has unmistakably taken a pro-Palestinian stance in the war. "The Chinese are imposing a kind of sanction on us. They don't officially declare it, but they are delaying shipments to Israel," a senior figure in one of the factories told Ynet. "They have various excuses and pretexts, such as requiring suppliers from China to obtain export licenses to Israel that did not exist before. Additionally, they demand that we fill out numerous forms, causing significant delays. This has never happened to us before. We are talking about many different types of components. In electronic products, there are tens of thousands of components, but if even one component doesn't arrive, we cannot deliver the product." Some importers in Israel, who import products from China, have found a workaround by duplicating orders to distributors or their representatives in other countries, where the Chinese do not require an export license. However, importing through a third party leads to higher costs and delayed delivery times.
x
1K notes · View notes