Clipmarks | Aribeth's 'language' clips

The Meaningless of Meaning

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 09:43:21 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: <<<To Nabokov, skimming the Present without sinking into the Past is a miracle that befits only the most experienced: "Otherwise the inexperienced miracle-worker will find himself no longer walking on water but descending upright among staring fish" (if I may add) under the weight of past associations.>>>

Thus do we think we have thought and felt and experience the One, the Abyss, the Edge, the Love.... yet the graceful lightness of being is elusive and we are weighed down always, especially 'Now' (oh, its 'Power'!) by the depreciating luggage of our conceptual memories and ossified identities.

Clip Source: blogs.psychologytoday.com

Meaning is a process of filling in the blanks of the mind… with words… that trigger other words… that trigger more words… As we grow and acquire language, we, in essence, acquire a baggage of associations that weighs us down as we try to skate the thin ice of presence.

Nabokov, in Transparent Things, writes: “When we concentrate on a material object <…> the very act of attention may lead to our involuntary sinking into the history of that object. Novices must learn to skim over matter if they want to stay at the exact level of the moment.”

“A thin veneer of immediate reality is spread over natural and artificial matter, and whoever wishes to remain in the now, with the now, on the now, should please not break its tension film.”

Meaning is an artifact of the Past, not the actual fact of the Present.

instead of seeing reality as it is, we see a “so-called” reality

Language constructs perception: first, the word, then, the perceived reality.

Tags: nabokov

Did an Ancient Language of Universal Symbols Exist?

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 09:24:43 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Over the last several years, similar petroglyphs have been identified on as many as five continents. They all date from roughly the same time-period. In the late 20th century, archaeologists discovered a collection of symbols carved in stone as petroglyphs in the Negev desert of Israel that appeared to be writing. Dating of these symbols showed that they were made over an extended period time, beginning around 1700 BC.

This strange collection of symbols was first examined by Dr. James Harris, a petroglyph expert and archaeologist from Brigham Young University. He identified the alphabet as being a proto-Canaanite system, which successfully translated by using old-Hebrew or Thalmudic phonetic sounds.

Earlier, William McGlone, an amateur archaeologist and retired space engineer, discovered the same collection of symbols carved in heavily patinated stones surrounding the Southeast town of La Junta, Colorado

the patina corresponded to the same era as the writing found in Harkarkom in Israel.

Tags: petroglyphs, archaeology, language, symbols

The new shape of music: Music has its own geometry, researchers find

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:24:57 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Fascinating!

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

The connection between music and mathematics has fascinated scholars for centuries. More than 200 years ago Pythagoras reportedly discovered that pleasing musical intervals could be described using simple ratios.

Writing in the April 18 issue of Science, the trio has outlined a method called "geometrical music theory" that translates the language of musical theory into that of contemporary geometry. They take sequences of notes, like chords, rhythms and scales, and categorize them so they can be grouped into "families." They have found a way to assign mathematical structure to these families, so they can then be represented by points in complex geometrical spaces, much the way "x" and "y" coordinates, in the simpler system of high school algebra, correspond to points on a two-dimensional plane.

The work represents a significant departure from other attempts to quantify music

The method could help answer whether there are new scales and chords that exist but have yet to be discovered.

Tags: music, musicology

Heavens to Murgatroyd

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:03:39 GMT

clipped by: sahara

Clip Source: www.phrases.org.uk

Phrases, sayings and idioms at

The Phrase Finder

A Phrase A Week

Browse the Archives

Meanings and origins of phrases and sayings

Phrases Thesaurus

Heavens to Murgatroyd

Meaning

An exclamation of surprise.

Origin

'Heavens to Murgatroyd' is American in origin and dates from the mid 20th century. The expression was popularized by the cartoon character Snagglepuss - a regular on the Yogi Bear Show in the 1960s, and is a variant of the earlier 'heavens to Betsy'.

The first use of the phrase wasn't by Snagglepuss but comes from the 1944 film Meet the People. It was spoken by Bert Lahr, best remembered for his role as the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz. Snagglepuss's voice was patterned on Lahr's, along with the 'heavens to Murgatroyd' line. Daws Butler's vocal portrayal of the character was so accurate that when the cartoon was used to promote Kellogg Cereals, Lahr sued and made the company distance him from the campaign by giving a prominent credit to Butler.

Tags: language, origins

The next Guggenheim Museum

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:48:29 GMT

clipped by: Aribeth
clipper's remarks: This new museum and cultural center might open as soon as 2011.

Clip Source: dvice.com

Next Guggenheim Museum looks like a designer UFO

The Guggenheim Museum has established a tradition of building structures to house and display art that are themselves works of art. Following the lead of the original Guggenheim in New York designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and the stunning Bilbao, Spain building by Frank Gehry, this latest design is no exception. Created by 2004 Pritzker prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid, this gorgeous metallic aircraft-like structure with crazy-shaped windows will be the new Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in Vilnius, Lithuania.

If that exterior isn’t mind-bending enough, the inside promises to be equally innovative. The architect says the interior is a “canyon-like air space,” with areas designed for people to congregate, with the structure allowing for “architecturally refined communication and circulation spaces.” This is what Hadid calls a “future architectural language,” and ~~his~~ her words are speaking to us with profound fluency.

Clip Source: dvice.com

Tags: architecture

nine most terrifying words in the English language

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 20:52:06 GMT

clipped by: swampfoxz
clipper's remarks: Greener grass.....

Clip Source: aslowerpace.com

Greener grass.....

It's important in life to reach out, to strive for greater achievements, to go for that greener grass that is on the other side of the fence.....

But one must also be careful……

Sometimes you can reach too far!

But when you find yourself overextended and you’re stuck in a situation that you can’t get out of, there is one thing that you should always remember.....

Not everyone who shows up is there to help you.

It kind of reminds me of Ronald Reagan's quote --

"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.' "

Tags: greener grass.....

The Dread of Dying as Source of Woe: Irvin Yalom

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 17:07:33 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Nice interview

Clip Source: www.salon.com

it is not just love that we look for in all the wrong places. If Irvin Yalom is right, it is life itself. By denying death, the psychoanalyst suggests, we misdirect our search for happiness. The true meaning of life, his work suggests, lies in engaging what we most fear.

"The primitive dread of death resides in the unconscious -- a dread that is part of the fabric of being, that is formed early in life before the development of precise, conceptual formulation, a dread that is chilling, uncanny, and inchoate, a dread that exists prior to and outside of language and image." -- "Existential Psychotherapy"

"A real confrontation with death usually causes one to question with real seriousness the goals and conduct of one's life up to then. So also with those who confront death through a fatal illness. How many people have lamented: 'What a pity I had to wait till now, when my body is riddled with cancer, to know how to live!'" -- "Love's Executioner"

Tags: yalom, fear of death, repression, denial

Blue

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 09:57:35 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LhwlsaA-Vc

Clip Source: www.dublinka.com

Clip Source: www.lomography.com

Clip Source: www.sarudama.com

Clip Source: www.abm-enterprises.net

Clip Source: www.labellecuisine.com

Clip Source: catherinemarie.wordpress.com

Clip Source: www.thevarsity.ca

Clip Source: picasaweb.google.com

Clip Source: astroprofspage.com

Clip Source: secondat.blogspot.com

Clip Source: www.discogs.com

Clip Source: www.chicagobluesbar.com

Clip Source: www.westminsterdc.org

Clip Source: www.saudiaramcoworld.com

Clip Source: www.bluemurdergames.co.uk

Clip Source: www.techspot.com

Clip Source: awesomephotos.wordpress.com

Oct

Clouds at night

Clip Source: www.tate.org.uk

Clip Source: darkinthesun.stumbleupon.com

Clip Source: thor.info.uaic.ro

Clip Source: www.bmgst.com

Clip Source: redvelvetcreations.blogspot.com

Clip Source: www.fotosearch.com

Clip Source: www.tulipgirl.com

Clip Source: www.ablueplanet.org

Clip Source: adreampuppet.wordpress.com

Clip Source: healing.about.com

Clip Source: press.princeton.edu

Blue has a long and topsy-turvy history in the Western world. Once considered a hot color, it is now icy cool. The ancient Greeks scorned it as ugly and barbaric, but most Americans and Europeans now pick it as their favorite color. In this entertaining history, the renowned medievalist Michel Pastoureau traces the changing meanings of blue from its rare appearances in prehistoric art to its international ubiquity today in blue jeans and Gauloises cigarette packs.

Any history of color is, above all, a social history. Pastoureau investigates how the ever-changing role of blue in society has been reflected in manuscripts, stained glass, heraldry, clothing, paintings, and popular culture. Beginning with the almost total absence of blue from ancient Western art and language, the story moves to medieval Europe.

Clip Source: press.princeton.edu

Blue:
The History of a Color
Michel Pastoureau

Cloth | 2001 | $39.95 / £23.95
216 pp. | 8 7/8 x 9 3/8 | 100 color plates

Tags: blue

Beware of Buffalo buffalo, buffalo, for they may buffalo you

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 05:04:21 GMT

clipped by: Deepti

Clip Source: www.mentalfloss.com

Believe it or not, this sentence is grammatically correct and has meaning: “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.” First devised by professor William J. Rapaport in 1972, the sentence uses various meanings and parts of speech for the term “buffalo” (and its related proper noun “Buffalo”) to make an extremely hard-to-parse sentence

Although most people know “buffalo” as both a singular and plural term for bison, and “Buffalo” as a city in New York, “buffalo” is also a verb meaning “to bully, confuse, deceive, or intimidate

Still too hard to follow for those of us who don’t know “buffalo” as a verb

[Those] buffalo(es) from Buffalo [that are intimidated by] buffalo(es) from Buffalo intimidate buffalo(es) from Buffalo

once more

Bison from Buffalo, New York who are intimidated by other bison in their community also happen to intimidate other bison in their community

Tags: language, buffalo, english, sentence, strange

Chatter away with an AI agent!

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 19:02:39 GMT

clipped by: Sheroug

Clip Source: www.jabberwacky.com

About the Jabberwacky AI

Jabberwacky is an artificial intelligence - a chat robot, often known as a 'chatbot' or 'chatterbot'. It aims to simulate natural human chat in an interesting, entertaining and humorous manner.

Jabberwacky is different. It learns. In some ways it models the way humans learn language, facts, context and rules.

The 'general AI' of Jabberwacky stores everything everyone has ever said, and finds the most appropriate thing to say using contextual pattern matching techniques. In speaking to you it uses just that learnt material, and borrows a little bit of your intelligence as it learns more. With no hard-coded rules, it relies entirely on the principles of feedback. This is very different to the majority of chatbots, which are rule-bound and finite. If you speak in a foreign language it will learn it, and respond appropriately if it has enough to go on.

Tags: ai, chatterbot

For The Love Of Words...

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 22:25:49 GMT

clipped by: carrerinyes

Clip Source: www.writinghood.com

For the Love of Words: Seven Wonderful Websites Where Words Matter

Words are beautiful, and these seven wonderful word websites illustrate the reason why they are.

For passionate writers around the world, choosing the right words to communicate are more than just clever wordplay, it's an obsession. Wordsmiths who routinely exercise their extraordinary vocabulary are continually positioned to learn new words, thus making them outstanding communicators.

Word Spy

Devoted to lexpionage, “The sleuthing of new words and phrases”.

Write Express

Confusing Words

The English language is one of the most difficult languages to learn in the world and here at Confusing Words the reason why is apparent. Confusing Words is a collection of 3210 words that sound alike, but are spelled and used differently. A great website for both readers and writers to learn the difference and stop being a confused word victim.

Virtual Salt

100 Words

101 Words

Wordie

The Writer's Voice

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 09:26:32 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: charisconnection.blogspot.com

“Even in a sentence or two, the reader apprehends not only what the author is thinking of, but also how he or she thinks—with hesitations and qualifications, sharply and straightforwardly, conversationally, contemplatively. Each author’s diction is characteristic, and so is his or her sense of rhythm and directness. His or her mental life, at least with regard to that particular subject, is more and more perfectly expressed by the style he or she uses. He is artful; he chooses; he manipulates; he decides; he judges every word and sound pattern and character detail and twist in the action, and yet every one of these things is automatic, given, natural, right. The mind writing is no longer made of parts—the conscious and the subconscious, the voluntary and the involuntary; it is rather one integrated whole, focused and choosing, from all the worlds in the language, the single perfect one.

Jane Smiley’s 13 Ways of looking at the Novel

Clip Source: charisconnection.blogspot.com

Tags: writing, voice

seven quotes

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:18:28 GMT

clipped by: rogerlinda76

Clip Source: garypresley.blogspot.com

"All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion and desire," said Aristotle.
"Marriage is three parts love and seven parts forgiveness of sins," said Lao Tzu.
"Fall seven times and stand up eight," according to Japanese wisdom.
"We shall never understand one another until we reduce the language to seven words," said Khalil Gibran.
"I can't write five words but that I change seven," Dorothy Parker.
"You may poke a man's fire after you've known him for seven years," an English proverb.
"Naturally we would prefer seven epiphanies a day and an earth not so apparently devoid of angels," Jim Harrison.

Tags: quotes

The Meaning of Flowers

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 07:44:34 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Getying complicated for the believers.

Clip Source: gardening.about.com

Has Valentine's Day panic set in? Before you rush out to order the typical dozen roses, give some thought to expressing yourself more creatively with flowers. What can you say with flowers? How about saying perfected loveliness with Camellias or gratitude with white bellflowers (Campanula carpatica). Not the flower type at all? Send a basket of hazelnuts in hopes of a reconciliation.

If you can't decide, there are still always roses. But first check out About Landscaping Guide David Beaulieu's article on the meaning of rose colors. When it comes to the language of flowers, you have to watch what you say.

Tags: how, do, you, express, love

Online Chat With Professor Seth Lerer

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:12:42 GMT

clipped by: carrerinyes
clipper's remarks: The full transcript is available at the source along with upcoming chat details. Anu Garg is the Author of the popular "A Word A Day" calender books.

Clip Source: wordsmith.org

A Chat With Seth Lerer

Today, we have as our guest Seth Lerer, a professor at Stanford University and the author of "Inventing English: A Portable History of the Language". He is joining us from California.

Anu Garg
The topic of today's chat is The Journey of the English Language.

Tom Doyle - DC
I very much enjoyed your Teaching Company lectures. Could you clarify something that you mentioned in them? You cited the Cornish accent that became “pirate talk” (due to the movie portrayal of Long John Silver) as an example of a form of English that had not completed the Great Vowel Shift. Some folks (without much authority) challenge this online -- have you or others written anything more detailed on this that I could point them to? And do you have anything further to say about it here?

Seth Lerer
Tom: not Cornish, but East Anglia, late 17th century English.

Jim Bisso - Sonoma
What do you think has been the biggest change in the English language in the last 100 years?

Clipmarks | Aribeth's 'language' clips

The Meaningless of Meaning

Did an Ancient Language of Universal Symbols Exist?

The new shape of music: Music has its own geometry, researchers find

Heavens to Murgatroyd

The next Guggenheim Museum

nine most terrifying words in the English language

The Dread of Dying as Source of Woe: Irvin Yalom

Blue

Blue:The History of a ColorMichel Pastoureau

Beware of Buffalo buffalo, buffalo, for they may buffalo you

Chatter away with an AI agent!

For The Love Of Words...

For the Love of Words: Seven Wonderful Websites Where Words Matter

Words are beautiful, and these seven wonderful word websites illustrate the reason why they are.

The Writer's Voice

seven quotes

The Meaning of Flowers

Online Chat With Professor Seth Lerer

A Chat With Seth Lerer

Blue:
The History of a Color
Michel Pastoureau