In 2013, at a
conference on endangered languages, a
retired teacher named Linda Lambrecht announced the extraordinary discovery of
a previously unknown language. Lambrecht--who
is Chinese-Hawaiian, 71 years old,--called it Hawaii
Sign Language, or HSL. In front of a
room full of linguists, she demonstrated that its core vocabulary--words such
as “mother”, “pig” and “small"--was distinct from that of other sign
languages. The linguists were
immediately convinced. William O’Grady,
the chair of the linguistics department at the University of Hawaii, called it “the
first time in 80 years that a new language has been discovered in the United
States--and maybe the last time.” But
the new language found 80 years ago was in remote Alaska, whereas HSL was
hiding in plain sight in Honolulu, a metropolitan area of nearly a million
people. The last-minute arrival of
recognition and support for HSL was a powerful, almost surreal vindication for
Lambrecht, whose first language is HSL. For
decades, it was stigmatised or ignored; now the language has acquired an
agreed-upon name, an official “language code” from the International Organization for Standardization,
the attention of linguists around the world, and a three-year grant from the Endangered Languages Documentation
Programme at the School of
Oriental and African Studies in London. But
just as linguists were substantiating its existence, HSL stood on the brink of
extinction, remembered by just a handful of signers. Unless the language made a miraculous
recovery, Lambrecht feared that her announcement might turn out to be HSL’s
obituary. Three years after announcing
its existence, Lambrecht is still unearthing her language sign by sign. She may be the only person in the world who
still uses HSL on a regular basis, signing into a camera while a linguist named
James “Woody” Woodward and a handful of graduate students from the University
of Hawaii document her every move. Led
by Lambrecht, Woodward, and researcher Barbara Earth, the project aims to
document what may be the last-ever conversations of native HSL signers. The goal is to record at least 20 hours of
high-quality video footage of natural HSL and then transcribe, translate, and
archive it. The researchers hope that
this work--along with a series of illustrated handbooks depicting over 1,000
signs, and a regular class at the University of Hawaii set to begin next year--will
jump-start the revitalisation of HSL. The
project faces numerous obstacles. The first is the scepticism of many of the
remaining signers themselves. Hawaii’s
tiny deaf community is deeply divided. Some say HSL is not a real language, others
see it as backward; still others are sceptical of Lambrecht. Read much more at https://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/aug/10/race-to-save-hawaii-sign-language
Peri- is
a Greek prefix. That means
that it will normally be associated with roots from the Greek language. (There may be some exceptions, but that will
be the rule). It means
"around" or "about."
For example, the word perimeter literally means "measurement
around." And that pretty well
describes what a perimeter is. This may
occasionally be confused with the Latin prefix per-. Per- means
"completely" or "by, by means of, through." For example, perfect literally means "completely made
or done." Percent means "by the hundred." Para- can be a Greek root or a prefix and literally
means "alongside, beside." It
usually suggests something similar but not identical or something that aids or
accompanies something else. The Latin root -para- is less common in English and means
"beyond." For example, parachute literally means "alongside a
fall" or "with a fall," in the sense that a parachute
accompanies someone falling. Even the
word paragraph literally means "written
alongside," because the paragraph mark or indentation is noted along the
margin of the page. We can also
understand the distinction between perimeter and parameter, which sound very similar and whose
root is the same. We see the less common
Latin meaning for para- in paranormal, which means "beyond the
normal." http://www.englishplus.com/news/news1199.htm
Ekphrastic writing
is a Greek term for “writing about art.”
In the Toledo Museum of Art's annual Ekphrastic Poetry Contest, visitors
write original poems inspired by objects in the Museum’s collection. Judges review the entries based on
originality, form, language, grammatical skill, and the creative interpretation
of ekphrastic writing. Cash and/or and
membership prizes are awarded, and the winning poems are displayed next to the
works of art that inspired them. Judges
reviewed nearly 300 entries to select winners in adult, high school and middle
school categories. Among the judges on
this year’s panel was Joel Lipman, former Lucas County poet laureate, who has
taught ekphrastic writing at the Museum.
In addition to the place winners, Lipman selected additional poems to be
honored for “Judge’s Special Merit.”
Find a list of 2016 winners and the art works that inspired their
poetry, plus link to poems at http://www.toledomuseum.org/learn/writingcontest/ekphrastic-poetry-contest-winners-2016/
Siping is a process of cutting thin slits across a rubber surface to improve traction in
wet or icy conditions. Siping was
invented and patented in 1923 under the name of John F. Sipe. The story told on various websites is
that, in the 1920s, Sipe worked in a slaughterhouse and grew tired of slipping on the wet
floors. He found that cutting slits in
the tread on the bottoms of his shoes provided better traction than the
uncut tread. Another story is that he
was a deckhand and wanted to avoid slipping on a wet deck. John Sipe's invention was unsuccessful. It was applied to solid rubber tires, rather
than pneumatic tires, and so the tires had poor wet grip anyway, owing to their
limited contact patch. It was his son,
Harry E. Sipe, who popularised the use of sipes in the USA for the new
low-pressure balloon tires around 1939. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siping_(rubber)
August
29, 2016 For cash-strapped life insurance companies, the deal sounds almost too
good to be true: A state law allows them
to create complex financial instruments to transfer liabilities to new
subsidiaries, wiping huge obligations off their balance sheets. So-called "shadow insurance" agreements have exploded over the last
decade. But a growing number of critics,
including economists and consumer advocates, say the practice threatens the
solvency of insurers and puts policyholders and taxpayers at risk. These opaque instruments are emerging in
places like Cedar Rapids, Iowa, at the headquarters of TransAmerica Life, a
subsidiary of the Netherlands-based Aegon NV.
Joseph M. Belth is a professor emeritus of insurance at Indiana
University. He calls the practice
"a shell game" and has asked Iowa to release more documents related
to companies that use it.
An August
30, 2016 Google search using "pasta
all'amatriciana"recipe brought
up about 108,000 hits. The dish is named for the town of Amatrice, about an
hour east of Rome. Mario Batali's recipe
uses thinly sliced guanciale pancetta (or good bacon) and freshly grated
Pecorino Romano.
Amatrice, located in central Italy, was devastated by a 6.2
magnitude earthquake and powerful aftershocks on August 24, 2016. Nearly 300 lives have been lost. Both architecture and infrastructure have
suffered significant damage, with many buildings left in ruins. Many visitors had come to town for the now-canceled
Sagra dell’Amatriciana, a festival that had been scheduled for this past
weekend. It would have been the 50th
annual celebration of the city’s most famous dish: Pasta all’Amatriciana
[ahl-ah-mah-tree-CHAH-nah]. This isn’t
just any old spaghetti with meat sauce but rather a sublime dish topped with a
tomato-based sauce that features guanciale [gwan-CHAH-leh—cured hog’s
jowl—pecorino cheese, and hot pepper flakes.
To support efforts to rebuild Amatrice (pronounced ah-mah-TREE-cheh),
chefs around Italy and the rest of the world are joining in a culinary campaign
and using the pasta dish as a fund-raising tool. Italian graphic artist and blogger Paolo
Campana, who lives in Rome, first suggested the idea on his Facebook page soon
after the earthquake. As simple as the
dish’s few ingredients, the effort is very straightforward: Restaurants should feature Pasta
all’Amatriciana on their menus and donate money to the Italian Red Cross for
each plate ordered. By the next day, 700
restaurants in Italy had already signed up for what is being called
AMAtriciana, with the capitalized letters emphasizing the Italian word for
love. Each establishment will donate 2
Euros to relief efforts for every order of the dish. http://www.toledoblade.com/Mary-Bilyeu/2016/08/30/EatForItaly-aids-quake-relief-efforts.html
In Toledo, Mancy’s Italian Grill at 5453 Monroe St., the menu
lists Bucatini all’ amatriciana | Spicy Pomodori Sauce, Tube Spaghetti,
Crushed Red Pepper, Pancetta, Onion, Romano Cheese The origin of this dish was Amatrice, Italy
devastated by an earthquake, $2 for every dish sold will be sent to the Italian
Red Cross #eatforitaly https://mancys.com/uploads/Italian_Dinner.pdf
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 1520
August 31, 2016 On this date in
1895, German Count Ferdinand von
Zeppelin patented his Navigable Balloon. On this date in 1897, Thomas Edison patented the Kinetoscope, the first movie projector.
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