Sunday

GUYS! IT'S RAINING!

Heh. Okay, it's not raining very hard, but still. It's cloudy and 79 degrees, and it's only supposed to get up to 84 today. Oh, it's so nice.

Quiet Fourth -- cooked a brisket and had that with mashed potatoes and a green salad. The (illegal) fireworks started around 9 p.m. Chango jumped up and growled fiercely, then went and hid in her den. Hee.

Not much else at the moment. Making blueberry pancakes for breakfast.

Fascinating Article on Language

Via Firedoglake, here's a very interesting article by neuroscientist Lera Boroditsky, called How Does Our Language Shape the Way We Think? One of the most interesting parts concerns an Australian Aboriginal community called the Kuuk Thaayorre:

Instead of words like "right," "left," "forward," and "back," which, as commonly used in English, define space relative to an observer, the Kuuk Thaayorre, like many other Aboriginal groups, use cardinal-direction terms — north, south, east, and west — to define space.1 This is done at all scales, which means you have to say things like "There's an ant on your southeast leg" or "Move the cup to the north northwest a little bit." One obvious consequence of speaking such a language is that you have to stay oriented at all times, or else you cannot speak properly. The normal greeting in Kuuk Thaayorre is "Where are you going?" and the answer should be something like " Southsoutheast, in the middle distance." If you don't know which way you're facing, you can't even get past "Hello."

There's much more, including male chairs and female beds, jagged and golden keys, personifications of Death, and just how the Kuuk Thaayorre make sense of natural progressions. It's all fascinating stuff.

( Full text beneath the cut )

Sunday Evening and A Couple of Odds and Ends

Overcast and drizzly all day, which was just fine with me. More rain out to the west so we may get wet again tonight.

In other news ... I'm pretty sure this guy is a close cousin of one of my OCs:
Viktor Mirosiichenko will accept your immortal soul as collateral.

A really cool, really expensive watch. Don't miss the part where it's painted with a brush of just two sable hairs.

Saudis will allow Israeli overflight to strike Iran. No comment except to say I'm surprised it made it into the Times.