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Posts Tagged 'linguistics'
Criblia
Posted in Georgian, Linguistics, Translations, tagged Georgian, Georgian Bible, Georgian font, Georgian language, Georgian New Testament, Georgian phonetics, Georgian phonology, Gospels, Greek, Latin, Latin New Testament, linguistics, translation, Vulgate on June 19, 2017| Leave a Comment »
ბიბლია / Biblia (Georgian Bible) (2013)
Georgian is the most difficult language I've ever seriously studied. Phonetically it's probably the most difficult full stop. But I continue to plod away at it and bought this Bible to help me. I wanted to encounter Georgian in the wild, as it were. Not that this is truly wild Georgian: it's a translation, not something composed by a native speaker from scratch. But Bibles are usually strong influences on the language of a Christian nation and the Georgian Bible, like Georgian Christianity, is among the oldest in the world.
This is modern Georgian, though. Or fairly modern: I can notice some archaic plurals and I've been told that there are old-fashioned verbs. If my Georgian were better, I would notice more of what's archaic, but I don't think it's as far from modern Georgian as the King James Version is from modern English. I'd been having even more difficulty with it if that were the case, I suspect. I would have preferred just a New Testament, because it would have been smaller and less intimidating, but perhaps one day I'll be able to dip anywhere into this full Bible and understand what I'm reading.
At the moment, I can't do that. I still find Georgian verbs very difficult, but that's one of the good things about the Gospels. They're repetitive and use a limited vocabulary. And I'm already familiar with the stories. Even so, I have to prime myself by reading each section in another language before I try the Georgian. Not English: that would be too simple and no good as linguistic exercise. Instead, I use the Latin of a Novum Testamentum Graece et Latine, with occasional glances at the Greek that flanks it.
Latin is easy next to Georgian and although I can't read Tacitus or Cicero in the original, the Latin of the Gospels is very straightforward. But I still need to think harder than in English, which makes the meaning grow more slowly and powerfully in my brain. I didn't appreciate the Gospels properly until I read them in Latin and Greek. There are some strange things going on and the Last Supper and Crucifixion are moving stories.
But I'm not moved or awed in Georgian: I'm still reading too slowly and understanding too weakly. The stepping-stones in Latin are close together and dry underfoot. I can walk across quickly and confidently, enjoying the sound and sight of the river:
Et recordatus est Petrus verbi Iesu, quod dixerat: Priusquam gallus cantet, ter me negabis. Et egressus foras ploravit amare. (Matthaeus 26:75)
In Georgian, the stepping-stones are far apart and slippery. I'm too busy trying not to fall off to appreciate the river:
და გაახსენდა პეტრეს იესოს ნათქვანი სიტყვა: სანამ მამალი იყივლებდეს, სამჯერ უარმყოფ მე. გამოვიდა გარეთ და მწარედ ატირდა. (მათეს სახარება 26:75)
Da gaakhsenda P'et'res Iesos natkvani sit'qva: Sanam mamali iqivlebdes, samjer uarmqop me. Gamovida garet da mts'ared at'irda.
In English, that verse is:
And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly. (Matthew 26:75)
One word is almost identical in all three languages: "me". And the Georgian genitive of Iesos uses a suffix much like the one in English. The suffix Georgian uses on nouns in the past tense – ეს თორმეტი იესომ დაარიგა, Es tormet'i Iesom daarigi, "These twelve Jesus sent forth" (Mth 10:5) – is strange to speakers of English, French or German, but it's like the -ne used not so far off in Hindi. Georgian isn't an Indo-European language and has resisted the influence of its giant neighbour Russian with surprising success, but it's not as alien as Chinese or Arabic.
Except in its phonology and phonetics. That's part of what attracts me to it: as I said in an earlier review, Georgian torments the tongue even as it pleases the eye. The alphabet is one of the most beautiful ever created. I was disappointed at first by the font used in this book, but I've got used to it now. It's minimal, distinguishing ხ and ძ, შ and წ only by orientation, and perhaps that suits the simplicity of the Gospels better.
But I would prefer a more decorative font for იოანე ღმერთისმეტყველის გამოცხადება, Ioane Ghmertismet'qvelis Gamotskhadeba, or the John Prophet's Revelation. I'm not ready for that final book of the New Testament yet, because I've not even reached the end of Matthew's Gospel, the first book of the New Testament. But I hope to be ready one day. I might even be able to read parts of it without a Latin crib. That's where the მეძავთა და დედამიწის სიბილწეთა დედა is waiting: the medzavta da dedamits'is sibilts'eta deda, the "whores' and earth's abominations' mother", is waiting. Revelation in Georgian will be even stranger than it is in Greek, Latin and English.
Pocket to Laroussia
Posted in Dictionaries, Linguistics, Translations, tagged C.S. Lewis, comics, definitions, Dictionaries, foreign languages, French, French language, French vocabulary, French words, Larousse de Poche, learning a foreign language, lexicography, Librarie Larousse, linguistics, monolingual dictionaries, semantics, Surprised by Joy on April 11, 2017| Leave a Comment »
Larousse de Poche (Librarie Larousse 1954)
Here are two good tips for anyone learning a foreign language. First, read comics. Second, get a monolingual dictionary. Both are methods of getting your mother-tongue out of the way. If you read comics, you'll see words illustrated by actions. If you get a monolingual dictionary, you see words illustrated by words. In both cases, you'll stay inside the world of the language you're learning, rather than stepping backwards and forwards across a linguistic frontier.
For example, here are some definitions from this Larousse de Poche, or Pocket Larousse:
albâtre n. m. Marbre transparent et tendre. Fig. Blancheur extrême.
béchamel adj et n. f. Sauce blanche faite avec de la crème.
colibri n. m. Oiseau exotique de très petite taille; oiseau-mouche.
fou ou fol, folle n. et adj. Qui a perdu la raison : Charles VI mourut fou.
foudre n. f. Décharge électrique aérienne, accompagnée de tonnerre et d'éclairs. Fig. Coup soudain, rigoureux, irrésistible. Coup de foudre, événement soudain. Amour subit et violent.
glouton, onne adj. et n. Qui mange avec avidité. N. m. Mammifère carnivore des pays froids.
métallurgie n. f. Art d'extraire, de purifier et de traivailler les métaux.
ramoner v. tr. Nettoyer l'intérieur d'une cheminée.
vinagrier n. m. Qui fait et vend du vinaigre. Burette à vinaigre.
If the definitions work right, you'll understand without an English word intruding. That's the ideal when you're learning another language. C.S. Lewis explained it well in his autobiography Surprised by Joy (1955):
The great gain was that I very soon became able to understand a great deal without (even mentally) translating it; I was beginning to think in Greek. That is the great Rubicon to cross in learning any language. Those in whom the Greek word lives only while they are hunting for it in the lexicon, and who then substitute the English word for it, are not reading the Greek at all; they are only solving a puzzle. The very formula, "Naus means a ship," is wrong. Naus and ship both mean a thing, they do not mean one another. Behind Naus, as behind navis or naca, we want to have a picture of a dark, slender mass with sail or oars, climbing the ridges, with no officious English word intruding. (ch. ix, "The Great Knock")
If the English word intrudes, you don't build up your mental muscles in the second language. Or you see the second language in a distorting mirror, rather than looking at it directly. That's why comics and monolingual dictionaries are good for muscles and eyes.
Even a small dictionary is good. The French lexicon isn't very big, so this Larousse de Poche usually helps even with the exotic vocabulary of a novel like À Rebours, let alone a straightforward text like Les Hommes Volants. And dictionaries have a literary appeal of their own. A good definition is like a good stroke in cricket, making minimum effort for maximum effect. This definition flies off the bat and skims away for four:
crâne n. m. Boîte osseuse contenant le cerveau.
And if understanding a language is like using a knife to cut into the world, then a bilingual dictionary is like using two knives at once. They get in each other's way. It's bad for the weaker knife: it gets blunt and chipped. Using a monolingual dictionary, by contrast, sharpens and shines the weaker knife. My French has never been very good, but I think it's improved since I've started using this dictionary. The Ramones sang about a "Rocket to Russia", so you could say that this book is a "Pocket to Laroussia" – the world of French in which that famous publisher has worked for so long.
Minimal Manual
Posted in Dictionaries, Georgia, Georgian, Linguistics, tagged Buske, Georgian, Georgian language, Georgian-German dictionary, Georgisch Wörterbuch, German, German language, German-Georgian dictionary, languages, linguistics, Michael Jelden on September 29, 2016| 2 Comments »
Georgisch Wörterbuch, Michael Jelden (Buske 2016)
My German is weak, my Georgian is weaker, so I decided to improve both by getting this German-Georgian dictionary and using it with a German-English dictionary. My plan is working, but the dictionary wasn't as comprehensive as I hoped. For example, if you look up Gott in the Deutsch-Georgisch section, you get ღმერთი ghmerti, but you aren't told that the irregular genitive is ღვთის ghvtis. Nor does that appear in the Georgisch-Deutsch section under ღმერთი ghmerti.
You could spot it from the entry for Gottesmutter, "God-mother", which is translated as ღვთისმშობელი ghvtismshobeli (literally "God's-bearer"), but you won't get help like that with many other irregular words. The entries and definitions are minimal and sometimes the dictionary only works one way. Ketzer, or "heretic", is translated as მწვალებელი mts'valebeli and ერეტიკოსი eret'ik'osi, but those words don't appear in the Georgisch-Deutsch section. And although the Georgisch-Deutsch section has წალდი ts'aldi, translated Axt or "axe", if you look under Axt in the Deutsch-Georgisch section, all you get is ცული tsuli.
Beside that, there are no verb tables or entries for morphemes (like "un-" or "-less"), as opposed to full words, and you won't get much help with the subtleties of verbal prefixes. But a minimal German-Georgian dictionary has advantages over a comprehensive English-Georgian one. It's more mental exercise, more fun and doesn't have space to transliterate the Georgian, so you get more practise in reading it.
And physical dictionaries have advantages over electronic ones. You spot things by chance in a real dictionary and you make connections you might not otherwise make. For example, if you look up the Georgian for "night", you might get a small but interesting insight into the spirit of the language:
ღამე, Nacht f […]
ღამურა, Fledermaus f
Georgian for "night" is ghame and Georgian for "bat" is ghamura. And Fledermaus, "flittermouse", is an insight into German, if it isn't your mother-tongue. So is Feuerstein, "fire-stone", for "flint". I learned Feuerstein from a German-English dictionary, but I was using that book only because I was using this one. I'd now like to get a Russian-Georgian dictionary too. Using one would be a bit like playing chess with chopsticks, but you can learn better when you make things harder for yourself.
Two Heads, Two Tongues
Posted in History, Linguistics, Translations, tagged Alyana Cazalet, Catholicism, English idioms, English language, etymology, Excuse my French, Food, France, French culture, French history, French idioms, French language, Jean-Christophe Van Waes, Kyle Books, language, languages, Latin, linguistics, meaning, pears, phrases, Rachel Best, Religion, sayings, semantics, sex, weather, workplace on March 29, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Excuse my French! Fluent Français without the Faux Pas, Rachel Best and Jean-Christophe Van Waes (Kyle Books 2013)
If you know only one language, you don't really know it. Learning a second is like travelling abroad: you'll see home with new eyes when you get back. But the title of this book is misleading: it's not an introduction to French and it won't teach you about grammar or morphology. Instead, it compares French and English idioms, from weather to the workplace, from food to sex. It's a kind of linguistic daytrip, taking you a little way from English and helping you to see it afresh. As I said in "Rosetta Rok", understanding your mother tongue is like eating a ripe apple. You can do it without apparent effort or thought.
So when you read "Don't judge a book by its cover", you understand it almost too easily if you're a native speaker of English. Now try a similar thought in French: l'habit ne fait pas le moine – "the habit doesn't make the monk" (pg. 79). You have to think again. It's like seeing a familiar sculpture from an unusual angle. And, of course, you gain an insight into French culture and history. France is a Catholic country and religion has always meant more there. So has blasphemy. In English we have "hide the sausage"; in French, they have mettre le petit Jésus dans la crèche, "put little Jesus in the cradle" (pg. 62).
Food is more important in France too. For example, I didn't know how important pears were there. In English, we discuss things "over coffee"; in French, they do it entre le poire et le fromage, "between the pear and the cheese" (pp. 146-7). Rachel Best, a native speaker of English, and Jean-Christophe Van Waes, her French husband, explain the precise meaning of this phrase, saying that it dates back to medieval times. Idioms can be like linguistic fossils. Sometimes they're misinterpreted or misunderstood in the contemporary language.
But books and covers, like monks and habits, are easy to understand and the section devoted to those sayings also mentions two Latin equivalents: cucullus non facit monachum, "the hood doesn't make the monk", and barba non facit philosophum, "the beard doesn't make the philosopher".
The Latin is easy to understand too, but there are always traps in other languages. Best and Van Waes say that the French equivalent of "to be cross-eyed" is avoir un œil qui dit merde à l'autre, which literally means "to have one eye that says shit to the other". That doesn't sound good as a literal translation. But they note that dire merde à quelqu'un, "say shit to someone", means "to wish someone luck, as in the English theatre salutation 'break a leg'" (pg. 72). So being cross-eyed in French may not be so bad after all.
Either way, standard French is often cruder than standard English. We say: "Don't run before you can walk." They say: Ne pète pas plus haut que ton cul – "don't fart higher than your arse" (pp. 134-5). We say: "Don't split hairs" and although French has an equivalent expression, they can also say: N'enculons pas des mouches – "Let's not bugger flies" (pg. 140). And where English has a "couch-potato", French has a cul-de-plombe, an "arse-of-lead". But sometimes English is cruder: we have "colder than a witch's tit", they have un froid de canard, "a duck-cold" (from duck-hunting in winter). We have "built like a brick shithouse" and they have une armoire à glace, "a wardrobe with mirror".
Elsewhere the sayings are more or less the same. "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth" and à cheval donné on ne regard pas les dents are pretty much identical (pg. 115). "One swallow does not a summer make" and une hirondelle ne fait pas le printemps differ only in season (printemps is "spring") (pg. 101). When sayings are similar in wording, it's usually because English has borrowed from French. When they're different, sometimes French seems more vivid or funnier and sometimes English does. See above. And "cool as a cucumber" is better than d'une calme olympien, I think (pg. 28). "Rug muncher" is better than colleuse de timbres, "stamp-licker" (pg. 57). But "twilight" isn't as good as entre chien et loup, "between dog and wolf" (pg. 100). Nor is "Don't count your chickens before they're hatched" as good as il ne faut pas vendre la peau de l'ours avant de l'avoir tué, "you shouldn't sell the bear-skin before killing the bear" (pg. 133).
I wish we had those two and others in English. But if we did, I would probably take them for granted. This book helps you stop doing that to your mother-tongue. My French is too weak for me to know how good the translations, explanations and etymologies in this book are, but they seem fine and in a way it doesn't matter. Language is an imperfect medium and meaning shifts like smoke. That's one of the important lessons you can take from Excuse My French. I like the fast and funny drawings by Alyana Cazalet too.
Terms of Endrearment
Posted in English Usage, Liberalism, Linguistics, Politics, tagged bad English, British English, British media, Christopher Howse, core Guardianese, English grammar, English language, English usage, Fowler, Guardian, Guardianese, Guardianization, Guardianized, Hive Mind, iconic, in terms of, issues around, language, linguistics, mandatory, modern English, New York Review of Books, New York Times, North America, NYRB, NYT, passionate about, pedantry, prescriptive English, prescriptivism, prescriptivist, Richard Preston, semantics, She Literally Exploded: The Daily Telegraph Infuriating Phrasebook, South America, the thing is is, United States of America, vulnerable on April 21, 2015| Leave a Comment »
She Literally Exploded: The Daily Telegraph Infuriating Phrasebook, Christopher Howse and Richard Preston (Constable 2007)
Language is like architecture and art: the more modern it is, the uglier it tends to be. So it's interesting to ask what the world would be like if the United States of America didn't exist. What if North America were like South America: a patchwork of Spanish-speaking states? Or what if the US had been founded by Germans or Scandinavians?
I think the English language would be in a better state if any of that were true. English would be much less important, but also much less polluted. There would be less hype, bombast and pretension in it. The United States is the great engine of modernity, pulling the world into an ever brighter, ever drearier, ever less enchanted future. The engine would be running less powerfully, or even running in reverse, if America didn't exist or didn't speak English.
So I think, anyway. And there's a lot of evidence in this short but entertaining book. A lot of bad British English comes from America. A lot comes from the Guardian too, but that's partly the same thing. The Guardian is the main British outlet for the gas generated by the New York Times and New York Review of Books. But the whole of the British media is Guardianized now. Ironically, that includes the Telegraph:
Ironically Used as if it meant "oddly enough".
The modern Telegraph is full of feminists, ethnicists and other narcissists, but the authors of this book, Christopher Howse and Richard Preston, are evil white males and represent the dying tradition of Peter Simple:
Iconic The iconic Mulberry handbag. Anything vaguely recognizable.
Short and simple. But I didn't like the entry for the Guardianista über-phrase:
In terms of Misused as though it meant "with respect to". We have voiced our concerns in terms of childcare costs.
"With respect to" is bad too. "About" is the right word in that context. Often you can replace "in terms of" simply with "in". It's a linguistic parasite, riding in English like viral DNA in the human genome. The more often someone uses it, the deeper they are inside the Hive Mind. And this phrase is even worse:
Issues around We're facing issues around MRSA targets. There are unresolved issues around health and safety compliance. A favourite of health workers and bossy officials.
It's core Guardianese, in other words. If I ruled the world, using the phrase "in terms of issues around" would carry a mandatory jail sentence. So would using the words "mandatory" and "core" (as an adjective). But neither is in this book. Nor is "über-" or "vulnerable". But many other irritants are:
Passionate about I'm passionate about salsa / stamp collecting / equal rights.
We're bombarded by bad English and it's hard to keep alert to all of it. If you're not alert, you might start using it yourself. But I can't remember ever noticing or using this:
Is is The thing is is that postal services need to diversify. The repetition of the verb is would be almost incredible if it was not heard daily on the wireless. It is sometimes introduced by the problem. The construction is probably an unconscious echoing of grammatically correct forms such as what the problem is is that.
Interesting. And endearing rather than endrearing. It's something that might have occurred in English at any time. "Thing" is a very old word, even if "problem" isn't. So "is is" doesn't belong with "in terms of" or "passionate about". (If I have heard it, I think I'll have assumed it was a kind of stutter as the speaker paused and sorted his thoughts out.)
Fowler didn't write about any of those, but it's good that some of the bad English of his day is now gone. Alas, worse English has often replaced it, but some of the horrors here will pass in their turn. And maybe the Guardian will pass with them. I live in hope.
Tormenting the Tongue
Posted in Aesthetics, Dictionaries, Georgia, Georgian, Linguistics, tagged Anthony Burgess, Caucasus, Clark Ashton Smith, consonant clusters, English-Georgian, Georgian, Georgian alphabet, Georgian consonant clusters, Georgian Dictionary, Georgian grammar, Georgian phonetics, Georgian phonology, Georgian Phrasebook, Georgian phrases, Georgian words, Georgian-English, ghwino, Hippocrene Books, Ioseb Jughashvili, Josef Stalin, Language Made Plain, learning Georgian, linguistics, mnemonic techniques, mnemonics, Nicholas Awde, Shota Rustaveli, Théophile Gautier, The Knight in the Panther's Skin, Thea Khitarishvili, wine on March 20, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Georgian: Georgian-English, English-Georgian Dictionary and Phrasebook, Nicholas Awde and Thea Khitarishvili (Hippocrene Books 2011)
You don't know it, but you've been reading Georgian all your life. Or at least: you won't find it wholly unfamiliar if you try to learn it. Georgian words can look a lot like a number-plate or a random handful of tiles in Scrabble: zrda, zmna, zghwa, dzma, mtvrali, lghoba, mts'qemsi, grdznoba, chrdiloeti, aghdgoma, sadghegrdzelo, siskhlnak'luloba. An outsider needs courage to embark on an obstacle course of consonant-clusters when he wants to say (respectively) "grow", "verb", "sea", "brother", "drunk", "thaw", "shepherd", "feeling", "north", "Easter", "drinking-toast", "anaemia".
What accompanies the clusters is daunting too. The brief section on grammar mentions two "record-breaking mouthfuls": gvprtskvnis and gvbrdghvnis (pg. 18). They mean, respectively, "he is peeling us" and "he is plucking us". One word in Georgian can do the work of several words in English. Georgian uses prefixes and suffixes like English. But it uses infixes too. It is not an easy language to learn. But that's part of its appeal.
Another part of its appeal is the beauty and uniqueness of its alphabet. A page of Georgian is like a work of art. A sentence can look like an incantation. If Georgian didn't exist, I would like to be able to invent it and read authors like Clark Ashton Smith and Théophile Gautier in it. Fortunately, it does exist. But I can't read it yet and will never be able to read it fluently until serious brain-modification arrives and languages become as easy to don as clothing.
Georgian tombstone
Will Georgian become fashionable in those days? Or will human beings become wireheads and care only about pouring electricity into the pleasure-centres of their brains? We'll have to wait and see. Pleasure is certainly important in Georgia. The language is famous for its complexity and the people are famous for their drinking. Ghwino, "wine", is an ancient word and an ancient passion. Food is very important there too and this book describes how "each region of Georgia has its unique cuisine with its own special flavor" (pg. 183).
The Caucasus is a small but very diverse region. It's a tough and clannish region too: Chechnya is near Georgia. This helps explain how it has preserved its linguistic and cultural uniqueness in the shadow of giants like Russia, Turkey and Iran. Georgian has borrowed vocabulary from all its linguistic neighbours – often signalled by a glottallized plosive, as in t'elesk'op'i, "telescope" – but it retains its unique identity. And the influence has gone the other way: you can't think of Georgia without thinking of Josef Stalin: "Born and raised in Gori, a market town northwest of Tbilisi, his real name was Ioseb Jughashvili – and he learnt Russian only as an adult" (Introduction, pg. 7).
I'm not sure about that and I know for sure that another claim in the introduction is wrong. Or misleading, at least: "Russia … invaded and occupied South Ossetia in 2008" (pg. 8). In fact, Georgia invaded Russia and Russia counter-attacked. That might sound wrong – midget attacking giant? – but Georgians are not shrinking violets and their then president thought he would have the backing of the United States. Fortunately, he didn't get it. Even after Stalin's passing, the Caucasus continues to produce more history than it can consume locally.
And Stalin is a reminder that it isn't just pleasure that's important in Georgia. So is pain. Take the Georgian word ts'ameba. It means both "torment" and "martyrdom". Languages reflect cultures and one of the interesting aspects of this book is the way that, by saying less, it invites more. It's not meant to be a extensive dictionary or a comprehensive guide to Georgian, so you have to notice patterns and work some things out for yourself. Kartveli means "Georgian person" and Sakartveli means "Georgia". Mepe means "king" and samepo means "royal". Sakhli means "house" and sasakhle means "palace". Tsotskhali means "alive" and sitsotskhle means "life". Twali means "eye" and satwale means "glasses". And so on.
And no book on a foreign language can learn the vocabulary for you. The mnemonic technique described by Anthony Burgess in Language Made Plain (1964) is useful. Georgian for "cold" is tsiwi. To learn it, I imagined picking up a piece of sea-weed with a film of ice on it. "Sea-weed" almost rhymes with tsiwi and that initial ts– sounds like ice cracking delicately. One Georgian word for "rabbit" is k'urdgheli. I imagined a Kurd holding a rabbit with one hand. "Kurd" is a foreign word in Georgian, which is a reminder that the initial consonant is glottallized, and the Georgian for "hand" is kheli, which is almost like –gheli.
Kheli is easy to remember, but you could reinforce it by thinking of the English word "cheirography", meaning "palm-reading", from the Greek kheir, "hand". Is that related to the Georgian word? It might be. The Georgian neprit'i, meaning "jade", is certainly from Greek. It comes from nephritis, "jade", from nephros, "kidney", because jade was thought to protect against kidney diseases. So that rare word is easy to remember. But mnemonics for a Georgian word are sometimes hard to think of. Try rts'qili, "flea", or tovlch'qap'i, "sleet", or varsk'vlavi, "star".
I don't have a mnemonic for mgeli, "wolf", and didn't need one. It's phonetically simple by Georgian standards, but it's still unmistakably Georgian. The word looks and sounds primal and has a primal meaning. Tkha, "goat", and zgharbi, "hedgehog", are good too. Names for animals don't appear just in the dictionary but also in one of the specialized sections that close the book: words for weather, food and drink, winter sports, parts of the body and so on. Words like mk'lavi, "arm", ghwidzli, "liver", and ts'weri, "beard", are satisfyingly Georgian, but mnemonically challenging. Twali, "eye", is simpler, but that's a little disappointing. Mnemonically, you can think of the villainous one-eyed King Twala in King Solomon's Mines (1885).
The Knight in the Panther's Skin
That book contains another strange and phonetically challenging language: Zulu. But I don't think it would be a good book to read in Georgian. It's too straightforward and vigorous. Runes would be better for Rider Haggard. And for Robert E. Howard. I don't think Lovecraft is a writer for Georgian either. The Armenian alphabet would better match his prose. It's strange but not beautiful. As I suggested above, the writers ripest for Georgian are Gautier and Clark Ashton Smith. And if they'd learnt the language, they would have been worthy translators of its most famous literary work: Shota Rustaveli's "national epic poem" The Knight in the Panther's Skin (c. 1180-1205).
I hope I'm able to read a little of that in the original one day. This book is a good first step on the journey: an inexpensive but well-produced introduction to one of the world's strangest, most complex and most beautiful languages. You could call Georgian an angelozebis ena, a "language of the angels" (if that's right). If you did, you'd be reminded that Georgian words can sometimes be very simple: ena literally means "tongue". It doesn't challenge the outsider's tongue. If you want words that do, look no further than this book. Look no lovelier too: Georgian may sometimes martyr the tongue, but it always blesses the eye.
Knight and Clay
Posted in Archaeology, History, Linguistics, Translations, tagged Alice Kober, alphabet, archaeologist, archaeology, architect, Brooklyn College, classical Greek, classical scholar, classical scholarship, classical world, classics, clay tablets, Cretan civilization, Cretan deities, Crete, decipherment, Duncan Mackenzie, Etruscan, forgotten script, Grand Staircase, great hall, Greek gods, Greek language, inflected language, Isadora Duncan, John Linton Myres, Knossos, leaping dolphins, Linear A, Linear B, linguistics, Margalit Fox, Michael Ventris, Minoan archaeology, Minoan Crete, Minoans, Mistress of Asia, Mistress of Grain, Mistress of Horses, Mistress of the Labyrinth Throne Room, Mistress of Wild Beasts, palace of Minos, Profile Books, Queen's Megaron, Riddle of the Labyrinth, Sir Arthur Evans, syllabary, syllabic script, The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code and the Uncovering of a Lost Civilisation, unknown language, unknown script on December 12, 2014| Leave a Comment »
The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code and the Uncovering of a Lost Civilisation, Margalit Fox (Profile Books 2013)
I remember starting an Agatha Christie book and being delighted by the simplicity of her style. But I'd got bored long before the end. The Riddle of the Labyrinth was the opposite. I found it dull at the beginning, but was delighted by the end. I look forward to reading it again. Margalit Fox weaves a compelling story out of three complex people: the English archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans (1851-1941), the American classical scholar Alice Kober (1906-50) and the English architect Michael Ventris (1922-56); and the complex problem they all worked on: the decipherment of a forgotten script found on the island of Crete.
It's a story of clay in two ways. There's the literal clay on which the script was recorded:
It took fire to give us Linear B. In about 1400 B.C., the final conflagration at Knossos destroyed most of the palace [of Minos] and its contents, marking the end of the great civilization that had been rooted there for centuries. But the blaze had one completely beneficial effect: It preserved for future generations the clay tablets that recorded the palace's final year. (Book One, "The Digger", ch. 3, "Love Among the Ruins", pg. 67)
There's also the metaphorical clay of humanity and its frailties, physical and psychological. Sir Arthur Evans died at ninety, laden with honours, but Alice Kober died at forty-three, probably of cancer, and Michael Ventris at thirty-four, possibly by suicide. Evans and Ventris have long been famous in the Linear B story, but I'd never heard of Kober until I picked up this book. According to Fox, she was central to the decipherment and made the critical breakthrough: explaining the relationship between two known facts about the unknown script and unknown language of Linear B:
Kober had shown that the Minoans spoke an inflected language. Now came the real payoff from that demonstration: In a discovery that would have enormous implications for the decipherment, she now homed in on precisely what happens when an inflected language is written in a syllabic script. (Book 2, "The Detective", ch. 6, "Splitting the Baby", pg. 134 (emphasis in original))
The language of Linear B was infected because it added suffixes to stems, as English still does a little and Latin does a lot. Where English says "I love, you love, he loves", Latin says "amo, amas, amat". It's easy to spot stems and inflexions like am-, -o, -as, and -at in an alphabetic script, which uses single signs for single sounds (generally speaking). But Linear B was syllabic, using single signs for single syllables. For example, ka, ke, ki, ko, ku were all written using entirely different signs, as was every other combination of consonant and vowel. Inflectional patterns are harder to spot in a syllabic script.
But syllabicity itself isn't hard to spot: the number of signs used by a script is a good indication of whether it's an alphabet, a syllabary or an ideography. You might say that the decipherment of Linear B rested on three C's: counting, comparison and compulsion. Counting and comparing the signs established the relationships between them, but it took compulsive people to do that, because it was hard work. And "work" is the word:
Because she [Alice Kober] was under pressure to copy as many inscriptions as possible in her brief time in Oxford, she spent the weeks before her departure training for the task like an athlete preparing for the Olympics. Using the inscriptions in [the Finnish scholar Johannes] Sandwall's new book as test material, she put herself through rigorous time trials at the dining table. "I've timed myself," she wrote Myres in February 1947, "and think I can copy between 100-125 inscriptions in a single day." (ch. 6, pg. 133)
"Myres" was the archaeologist John Linton Myres, a former assistant to Sir Arthur Evans who both helped and hindered Kober in her work. He gave her access to a lot of material, but he also made unreasonable demands on her time by asking her to help with his own writing on Minoan archaeology. Kober put up with a lot in her short time on earth, facing obstacles that would have daunted or deflected a less determined woman. But "The Detective", as Fox calls her, forged on, straining both brain and body in her pursuit of the decipherment. It's hard in 2014 to imagine having to copy inscriptions by hand, for example. And having to analyze them by hand. Kober used "cigarette-carton card files" and "index cards":
What she had created, in pure analog form, was a database, with the punched cards marking the parameters on which the data could be sorted. But for all their rigor and precision, the file boxes also "reveal a gentler side to Alice Kober," as Thomas Palaima and his colleague Susan Trombley have written. On one occasion, they note, Kober "took extra care in cutting a greeting card used as a tabbed divider, perfectly centering a fawn lying in a bed of flowers." (Book Two, ch. 4, "American Champollion", pg. 108)
Kober might have had a gentler side, but it's no surprise that she also had a broad, masculine face and wore her hair short. Her task was a masculine one: systematizing and implicitly using mathematics. In fact, her hand-copying and "analog database" remind me of the enormous labours expended by nineteenth-century mathematicians on calculating the digits of pi or hunting for primes. What then took months and years can be performed in an instant by a computer. The same, I'd guess, is now true of Linear B. If it were discovered today and the necessary data were computerized – unknown signs, known neighbouring languages – its mask would probably be lifted very quickly.
Kober spent years on the task and died without completing it. Would she have beaten Michael Ventris if she'd lived? It's easy to think so. But work on Linear B was, in effect, her hobby: she had a full-time job as a lecturer in classics at Brooklyn College. With more time, more help, fewer distractions, perhaps she would have solved Linear B in the 1940s.
As it was, the labyrinth was mastered by someone else: "The Architect" after whom the third and final section of this book is named. Unlike Evans or Kober, Michael Ventris wasn't a professional classicist. And he went astray in a way the more cautious Kober didn't, because he hypothesized for a long time that Etruscan was the language behind Linear B. It was a "position … to which he would hold fast until only weeks before his decipherment" (Book Three, ch. 10, "A Leap of Faith", pg. 225).
If he'd been more cautious, might he have made faster progress? Probably, but he still beat all the professionals and deciphered Linear B, which turned out to be not Etruscan but a dialect of classical Greek. Ventris lifted the linguistic veil, but he found no literary treasure beneath:
There are no grand narratives lurking in Linear B – no epic poems, no romances, no tales of gods and their derring-do. Arthur Evans knew as much from the start, as did every serious investigator after him. They were all aware, as Alice Kober reminded her Hunter College audience that June evening in 1946, that "we may only find out that Mr. X delivered a hundred cattle to Mr. Y on the tenth of June, 1400 B.C." And that, of course, is precisely what they did find: records of crops harvested, goods produced, animals tended, and gifts offered up to the gods. ("Epilogue: Mr. X and Mr. Y", pg. 269)
But there's a kind of poetry in the prosaic, especially when the prosaic is many centuries old. And it's not just the gifts that are named: so are the gods. This means that if Kober had achieved her ambition, she would discovered an appropriate title waiting for her on the tablets. The names of familiar Greek gods and goddesses appear
with more curious ones, many of them pre-Greek, long-forgotten by Classical times. Among them are various female names – most likely those of local deities – beginning with the word potnia, "mistress": Mistress of Wild Beasts, Mistress of Horses, Mistress of Grain, Mistress of Asia, Mistress of the Labyrinth. (Ibid., pg. 282-3)
Kober would have been "Mistress of the Labyrinth", the one who solved Linear B. As it was, the Labyrinth had a master instead. So this book tells the story of three: the master, the mistress manquée and the man who supplied the materia of their obsession. That was Sir Arthur Evans, who discovered the tablets and began the work of deciphering them. His story contains one of the briefest but most memorable images in The Riddle of the Labyrinth. The story of Linear B isn't all about concentrated effort and mental toil: there are moments of spontaneity too:
Over years of excavation, the palace emerged as a vast, increasingly complex organism. As each section was revealed, Evans gave it a name. Beside the Throne Room, these included the Queen's Megaron, or great hall, with its elaborate bathroom and graceful mural of leaping dolphins; the Domestic Quarter, with artisans' workshops in which traces of the goldsmith, the lapidary, and the ceramicist could still be still be discerned; and the Grand Staircase, down which, in 1910, a visiting Isadora Duncan danced an impromptu dance to the horror of Evans's straitlaced Scottish assistant, Duncan Mackenzie. (Book One, "The Digger", ch. 2, "Love among the Ruins", pg. 77)
Dancing Duncan, dour Duncan and dogged decipherment. I like the contrast and it's another reason to like this book. But will it ever be matched by one about the decipherment of Linear A, another lost language found on Crete and written in a related script? Perhaps not, because the language of Linear A seems to be an isolate, without living or ancient relatives. Barring some big scientific or linguistic breakthrough, Linear A may remain a labyrinth no-one ever masters. But perhaps Margalit Fox will be telling the story of its decipherers one day too. I hope so.
Brit Grit
Posted in Geology, Mountaineering, Science, tagged Anglo-Saxon, British landscape, British landscapes, British languages, Dartmoor, English, Gaelic, geology, glaciers, gneiss, granite, Granite and Grit: A Walker's Guide to the Geology of British Mountains, history of science, linguistics, metamorphosis, modern geology, Norse, Outer Hebrides, petrology, physics and chemistry, rock, rocks, Ronald Turnbull, science, scientific history, Snowdon, Snowdonia, studying rocks, transformation, transformations, tropical botany, volcanoes, Welsh on November 27, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Granite and Grit: A Walker's Guide to the Geology of British Mountains, Ronald Turnbull (Francis Lincoln 2011)
For a small country, Britain has had a big influence on the world. Like a lot of other things, modern geology started here. There are several reasons for that and one is very simple: pioneering geologists had mountains of material to work with. According to the author, "Britain has the most varied geology of any country in the world." This is an excellent introduction to the rocks of the realm, from gneiss in the Outer Hebrides to granite on Dartmoor. I like the way Turnbull discusses not only how rocks affect your eyes – their colour, texture and contours – but also how they affect your boots. He's a hillwalker, not a professional geologist, so he conveys a strong sense of place and of how Britain's landscape varies. But there's more than geological variation here: Britain isn't just rich in rocks and its landscape is shaped by more than physics and chemistry. This is the caption to one spectacular photo of a misty mountain:
Bwlch y Saethau, where according to legend King Arthur battled his nephew Mordred; behind, Y Lliwedd stands at the centre of a far greater act of violence, the Lower Rhyolite Tuff event. (ch. 10, "Redhot Flying Avalanches: Ignimbrites in Snowdonia", pg. 98)
Britain's varied mountains are named in Britain's varied languages: Welsh, English and Gaelic give different flavours to the landscapes they describe, from Carnedd Dafydd to Eskdale, from Ingleborough to Stuc a' Chroin, from Ardnamurchan to Mynydd Mawr. But English names split into Norse and Anglo-Saxon, which have different flavours too. Underlying all these languages is a common ancestor, just as some very different rocks have common ancestors too. Heat, compression and erosion change rocks; time, separation and mutation change languages. So Turnbull is writing about two kinds of history as he discusses different parts of Britain: geological history and linguistic history.
Linguistics dwarfs geology in complexity, but geology dwarfs linguistics in time. To understand why Britain looks the way it does, you have to go back billions of years and trace its movement over many thousands of kilometres. You also have to study seemingly exotic things like volcanoes, glaciers and tropical botany, all of which are central parts of Britain's geology. Turnbull is a relaxed but knowledgeable guide to some big events and some big transformations and because he isn't a professional he knows how to write for a general reader. He doesn't just inform, he re-orientates: you won't look at Britain in the same way:
Black pointy islands of volcanic ash rise above the sea, the water around them a froth of falling ash. The shores of the new islands get washed away by tsunamis as chunks of other islands fall into the sea. Lava slides down and then runs level, to form black land made of glass. The glassy ground crackles as it cools, and then quickly weathers to orange shards and gravel. Showers of sharp-edged volcanic rubble fall into the sea, forming seabed layers 300m deep which will eventually be the summit of Snowdon itself. (ch. 10, pp. 103-4)
Geology is like cuisine in reverse: from the cooked dish you have to work out the recipe. Landscapes that seem inert can have cataclysmic pasts, full of fire and thunder or flood and frost. There are centuries of ingenious deduction and painstaking observation behind the chatty text and attractive photos in this book, but there are still mysteries to solve. More maths will be needed, because matter obeys mathematical rules in all its transformations, whether geological or culinary. And those material transformations have immaterial parallels in linguistics and sociology, where maths is the key to understanding too. And science itself has metamorphosed and mutated. Geology is an important subject not just for its contemporary research but also for its influence on other fields. It made scientists realize the vast age of the earth. Charles Darwin used that idea to transform biology. Like the pioneering geologists, he was British. That isn't a coincidence and it's something else that increases the power of this book. The planet starts here. So does the universe.


This started out as an experiment to see if I could find a pretty melody over the walking notes of major and minor down the fretboard of the guitar. The words about walking hand in hand with the one you love fit with the idea of the walking down the guitar neck.
Remember them in your sleep - In your sleep.
Leaving gravity keep a hold on me….


text:
C-reactive protein relaxes human vessels in vitro
Leonid Sternik, Saquib Samee, Hartzel V. Schaff, Kenton J. Zehr, Lilach O. Lerman, David R. Holmes, Joerg Herrmann, Amir Lerman
Objective - C-reactive protein (CRP) is a sensitive marker of inflammation and a prognostic marker in cardiovascular disease. Evidence suggests direct biological activities of CRP within the vascular wall. The study was designed to examine the vasoreactive effects of CRP. Methods and Results - Human internal mammary artery rings were obtained during cardiovascular bypass surgery and suspended in an organ bath chamber. The rings were precontracted with endothelin-1, and response to cumulative concentrations of CRP was obtained. Experiments were repeated after initial incubation with 20, 40, and 60 mmol/L KCl, the potassium channel blockers BaCl, tetraethylammonium chloride, and glibenclamide, and the NO synthase inhibitor N-monomethyl-L-arginine and also after removal of the endothelium. CRP caused dose-dependent relaxation of human internal mammary artery rings, which was not affected by preincubation with N-monomethyl-L-arginine or removal of the endothelium. Maximum relaxation response to CRP (79.5±10%) was attenuated by KCl (2.5±11.5%, P<0.001), BaCl (24.5±7.5%, P<0.001), and tetraethylammonium chloride (34.9±8.25%, P<0.01) but not by glibenclamide. Conclusions - The present study demonstrates that CRP exerts an endothelium-independent vasorelaxing effect via potassium channels. Thus, the study suggests a role of CRP in the regulation of vascular tone.
https://doi.org/10.1161/01.ATV.0000033821.96354.90
Potassium channels
Vasorelaxation
Dive into the research topics of 'C-reactive protein relaxes human vessels in vitro'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
C-Reactive Protein Medicine & Life Sciences 100%
In Vitro Techniques Medicine & Life Sciences 49%
Endothelium Medicine & Life Sciences 37%
Tetraethylammonium Medicine & Life Sciences 36%
Mammary Arteries Medicine & Life Sciences 34%
Glyburide Medicine & Life Sciences 33%
Arginine Medicine & Life Sciences 26%
Potassium Channel Blockers Medicine & Life Sciences 21%
Sternik, L., Samee, S., Schaff, H. V., Zehr, K. J., Lerman, L. O., Holmes, D. R., Herrmann, J., & Lerman, A. (2002). C-reactive protein relaxes human vessels in vitro. Arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, and vascular biology, 22(11), 1865-1868. https://doi.org/10.1161/01.ATV.0000033821.96354.90
C-reactive protein relaxes human vessels in vitro. / Sternik, Leonid; Samee, Saquib; Schaff, Hartzel V. et al.
In: Arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, and vascular biology, Vol. 22, No. 11, 01.11.2002, p. 1865-1868.
Sternik, L, Samee, S, Schaff, HV, Zehr, KJ, Lerman, LO, Holmes, DR, Herrmann, J & Lerman, A 2002, 'C-reactive protein relaxes human vessels in vitro', Arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, and vascular biology, vol. 22, no. 11, pp. 1865-1868. https://doi.org/10.1161/01.ATV.0000033821.96354.90
Sternik L, Samee S, Schaff HV, Zehr KJ, Lerman LO, Holmes DR et al. C-reactive protein relaxes human vessels in vitro. Arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, and vascular biology. 2002 Nov 1;22(11):1865-1868. doi: 10.1161/01.ATV.0000033821.96354.90
Sternik, Leonid ; Samee, Saquib ; Schaff, Hartzel V. et al. / C-reactive protein relaxes human vessels in vitro. In: Arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, and vascular biology. 2002 ; Vol. 22, No. 11. pp. 1865-1868.
@article{1ca009ff7dab435587de021c2547790a,
title = "C-reactive protein relaxes human vessels in vitro",
abstract = "Objective - C-reactive protein (CRP) is a sensitive marker of inflammation and a prognostic marker in cardiovascular disease. Evidence suggests direct biological activities of CRP within the vascular wall. The study was designed to examine the vasoreactive effects of CRP. Methods and Results - Human internal mammary artery rings were obtained during cardiovascular bypass surgery and suspended in an organ bath chamber. The rings were precontracted with endothelin-1, and response to cumulative concentrations of CRP was obtained. Experiments were repeated after initial incubation with 20, 40, and 60 mmol/L KCl, the potassium channel blockers BaCl, tetraethylammonium chloride, and glibenclamide, and the NO synthase inhibitor N-monomethyl-L-arginine and also after removal of the endothelium. CRP caused dose-dependent relaxation of human internal mammary artery rings, which was not affected by preincubation with N-monomethyl-L-arginine or removal of the endothelium. Maximum relaxation response to CRP (79.5±10%) was attenuated by KCl (2.5±11.5%, P<0.001), BaCl (24.5±7.5%, P<0.001), and tetraethylammonium chloride (34.9±8.25%, P<0.01) but not by glibenclamide. Conclusions - The present study demonstrates that CRP exerts an endothelium-independent vasorelaxing effect via potassium channels. Thus, the study suggests a role of CRP in the regulation of vascular tone.",
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AU - Sternik, Leonid
AU - Samee, Saquib
AU - Schaff, Hartzel V.
AU - Zehr, Kenton J.
AU - Lerman, Lilach O.
AU - Holmes, David R.
AU - Herrmann, Joerg
AU - Lerman, Amir
N2 - Objective - C-reactive protein (CRP) is a sensitive marker of inflammation and a prognostic marker in cardiovascular disease. Evidence suggests direct biological activities of CRP within the vascular wall. The study was designed to examine the vasoreactive effects of CRP. Methods and Results - Human internal mammary artery rings were obtained during cardiovascular bypass surgery and suspended in an organ bath chamber. The rings were precontracted with endothelin-1, and response to cumulative concentrations of CRP was obtained. Experiments were repeated after initial incubation with 20, 40, and 60 mmol/L KCl, the potassium channel blockers BaCl, tetraethylammonium chloride, and glibenclamide, and the NO synthase inhibitor N-monomethyl-L-arginine and also after removal of the endothelium. CRP caused dose-dependent relaxation of human internal mammary artery rings, which was not affected by preincubation with N-monomethyl-L-arginine or removal of the endothelium. Maximum relaxation response to CRP (79.5±10%) was attenuated by KCl (2.5±11.5%, P<0.001), BaCl (24.5±7.5%, P<0.001), and tetraethylammonium chloride (34.9±8.25%, P<0.01) but not by glibenclamide. Conclusions - The present study demonstrates that CRP exerts an endothelium-independent vasorelaxing effect via potassium channels. Thus, the study suggests a role of CRP in the regulation of vascular tone.
AB - Objective - C-reactive protein (CRP) is a sensitive marker of inflammation and a prognostic marker in cardiovascular disease. Evidence suggests direct biological activities of CRP within the vascular wall. The study was designed to examine the vasoreactive effects of CRP. Methods and Results - Human internal mammary artery rings were obtained during cardiovascular bypass surgery and suspended in an organ bath chamber. The rings were precontracted with endothelin-1, and response to cumulative concentrations of CRP was obtained. Experiments were repeated after initial incubation with 20, 40, and 60 mmol/L KCl, the potassium channel blockers BaCl, tetraethylammonium chloride, and glibenclamide, and the NO synthase inhibitor N-monomethyl-L-arginine and also after removal of the endothelium. CRP caused dose-dependent relaxation of human internal mammary artery rings, which was not affected by preincubation with N-monomethyl-L-arginine or removal of the endothelium. Maximum relaxation response to CRP (79.5±10%) was attenuated by KCl (2.5±11.5%, P<0.001), BaCl (24.5±7.5%, P<0.001), and tetraethylammonium chloride (34.9±8.25%, P<0.01) but not by glibenclamide. Conclusions - The present study demonstrates that CRP exerts an endothelium-independent vasorelaxing effect via potassium channels. Thus, the study suggests a role of CRP in the regulation of vascular tone.
KW - Atherosclerosis
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Laura McLeod is a Senior Marketing Manager at 99designs. Having studied History of Art in London, she is passionate about the visual arts, design and aesthetics. This, combined with her 11 years' experience in digital marketing where she's led successful integrated content campaigns for a number of international B2B and B2C brands, drives her passion for helping business owners to grow by design. When she's not championing the 99designs brand you'll find her practicing yoga or taking snaps around her current home city of Berlin.


• It's 6.30 pm on a weekday in a German city. The map on your smartphone is blank, with no reassuring icons indicating available cars nearby. They have all been snapped up; other drivers got there first – again. It's a familiar scenario for anyone registered with a car-share app such as DriveNow or Car2Go. At rush hour cars are in short supply. But it's the reverse problem for the providers: apart from peak periods, their cars are mostly standing around empty.
Access without ownership is the slogan of the sharing economy. On average, a privately owned car is unused for nearly 23 hours a day, often taking up public parking space as well. Futurologists believe cars will become less important as status symbols, arguing that one day there will be few private cars left, least of all in big cities. Instead, people will use a mix of self-driving electric cars, public transport and bicycles.
But those days are a long way off and Germans still love their cars; every year more cars are registered, even in big cities with plenty of alternative transport. In January 2018 some 46.5m cars were registered in Germany, up from 45.1m the previous year. Of these, only 17,950 – 0.04% - are car shares. However, the number of shared cars and customers is growing. There are now more than 2 million users, according to the German Car-Sharing Association (BCS). But some of those customers are registered with more than one provider so are counted several times. And the number of dormant or inactive members is unknown.
Unlike schemes where the car has to be returned to the pick-up point, so-called "free floaters" can be left anywhere in the area where the company operates. The BMW subsidiary DriveNow and the Daimler-owned Car2Go are the only two national free-floating providers in Germany. They own 40% of the shared cars and claim to have more than 1.5 million registered customers. Some 161 "stationary" operators, including Stadtmobil and Cambio, account for the rest of the German car-share fleet with 500,000 customers. Stadtmobil and Book-n-Drive also have some flexible floating vehicles.
But making a profit with free floaters is difficult. Neither Car2Go nor DriveNow could have stayed in business without the big carmakers propping them up. DriveNow, which operates throughout Europe, claims to have been profitable in Germany since 2014, but its annual report admits that the business as a whole is still making a loss. Car2Go is larger, operating in 26 cities around the world, but its press officer is vague about its finances, saying only that it is "profitable in more and more cities".
Neither firm offers a breakdown of figures for individual cities, but one example may give a picture close to the truth: Hamburg is one of Car2Go's most successful cities with 800 cars for 150,000 customers. In the three months from January to March 2017 those cars were used nearly 600,000 times, which works out at about eight trips a day per car. These figures match the car-sharing data recorded by Stefan Weigele of Civity, one of the leading consultancies for public services in Europe. "In Hamburg a journey takes 20 minutes, on average," he says. At a charge of €0.29 a minute that makes a turnover of €46.40 (£40.80) a day per car, or €13.5m annually just in Hamburg.
More rural areas are served by stationary providers. Their business model is more like that of conventional car-hire firms. The two biggest, Stadtmobil and Cambio, both emerged from the environmentalist movement. Their aim was to cut car traffic, not necessarily to make big profits. Their fleets are operated by limited companies or corporations in the individual towns. "They are not huge cash cows," says Weigele. But making a quick profit was not the primary goal of the free-floating providers, either. They were initially out to establish themselves in the market, gather data on consumer behaviour and wait for the future of mobility to arrive, the future everybody is talking about. So the big concerns kept their subsidiaries afloat. DriveNow leases its cars from BMW for one or two years. They come fitted with the necessary hardware and software "on standard market terms", says Hofelich.
A prominent victim of the tough competition was the stationary provider CiteeCar, which went bankrupt in 2016 when the investor was not prepared to inject any more capital into the struggling business. Citroën's free-floater Multicity capitulated at the end of 2017, blaming inadequate infrastructure for recharging electric cars. Its fleet was largely electric. DriveNow and Car2Go have recently announced they are to merge. Customers may only have to visit one platform, the fleet would be expanded and could be distributed better. But interviewed before the announcement, Hofelich did not wish to comment on the rumours. "In the next few years car-sharing is likely to get cheaper," was all he would say.
Even so, if the service is to develop into a really lucrative business, there has to be greater public acceptance, and private car ownership has to become less attractive. Driving bans in congested town centres - a prospect currently in the news – might play a role. In 2017 in a new car-sharing law came into force in Germany. It allows cities and municipalities to designate special free parking for share cars. A higher proportion of shared cars would mean fewer cars in total in Germany but not much less motorised traffic on the roads. But at least the parking problem would be eased and the roads would have fewer drivers searching for somewhere to park.


Why stay at a hotel on the water when you can channel your inner-Sonny Crockett and stay on the water, thanks to this "fun and funky" Airbnb houseboat that sleeps six, rocks exposed beams and dual decks, and is docked in a Harbor marina that's within walking distance of both downtown and Old (but-not-Michael) Ironsides.
Cut down on expenses by going BYOG (Bring Your Own Groceries). Who wants Pop Tarts?
...whilst the other dudes share the two twins and Aero Bed in the upstairs loft.
End the day the same way you began it, kicking back on the promenade deck.


text:
Comparing the Performance of Mathematical Models for Surgical Decisions on Head Injury Patients
Yu-Chuan Li, Ten-Fang Yang, Li Liu, Wen-Ta Chiu
International Ph.D. Program in Biotech and Healthcare Management
Computerized medical decision support systems have been a major research topic in recent years. Intelligent computer programs were implemented to aid physicians and other medical professionals in making difficult medical decisions. This report compares three different mathematical models for building a head injury medical decision support system (MDSS). These models were developed based on a large head-injury patient database. This MDSS accepts a set of patient data such as the types of skull fracture, Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), episode of convulsion and return the chance that a neurosurgeon would recommend an openskull surgery for this patient. The three mathematical models described in this report including a logistic regression model, a multi-layer perceptron (MLP) neural network and a radial-basisfunction (RBF) neural network. From the 12,640 patients selected from the database. A randomly drawn 9480 cases were used as the training group to develop/train our models. The other 3160 cases were in the validation group, which we used to evaluate the performance of these models. We used sensitivity, specificity, areas under ROC curve and calibration curves as the indicator of how accurate these models are in predicting a neurosurgeon's decision on open-skull surgery. The results showed that, assuming equal importance of sensitivity and specificity, the logistic regression model had a (sensitivity, specificity) of (73%, 68%), compared to (80%, 80%) from the RBF model and (88%, 80%) from the MLP model. The resultant areas under ROC curve for logistic regression, RBF and MLP neural networks are 0.761, 0.880 and 0.897 respectively (P < 0.05). Among these models, the logistic regression has noticeably poorer calibration. This study demonstrated the feasibility of applying neural networks as the mechanism for head-injury decision support systems based on clinical databases. The results also suggest that neural networks may be a better solution for complex, non-linear medical decision support systems than conventional statistical techniques such as logistic regression.
Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Yu-Chuan_Li/publication/25901275_Comparing_the_Performance_of_Mathematical_Models_for_Surgical_Decisions_on_Head_Injury_Patients/links/0912f50cfddda71e60000000.pdf
http://libir.tmu.edu.tw/bitstream/987654321/9702/1/%E6%91%98%E8%A6%81.pdf
Fingerprint Dive into the research topics of 'Comparing the Performance of Mathematical Models for Surgical Decisions on Head Injury Patients'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
Craniocerebral Trauma Medicine & Life Sciences
Neurosurgeons Medicine & Life Sciences
Calibration Medicine & Life Sciences
Databases Medicine & Life Sciences
Li, Y-C., Yang, T-F., Liu, L., & Chiu, W-T. (1997). Comparing the Performance of Mathematical Models for Surgical Decisions on Head Injury Patients. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA, 870-.
Comparing the Performance of Mathematical Models for Surgical Decisions on Head Injury Patients. / Li, Yu-Chuan; Yang, Ten-Fang; Liu, Li; Chiu, Wen-Ta.
In: Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA, 1997, p. 870-.
Li, Y-C, Yang, T-F, Liu, L & Chiu, W-T 1997, 'Comparing the Performance of Mathematical Models for Surgical Decisions on Head Injury Patients', Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA, pp. 870-.
Li Y-C, Yang T-F, Liu L, Chiu W-T. Comparing the Performance of Mathematical Models for Surgical Decisions on Head Injury Patients. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA. 1997;870-.
Li, Yu-Chuan ; Yang, Ten-Fang ; Liu, Li ; Chiu, Wen-Ta. / Comparing the Performance of Mathematical Models for Surgical Decisions on Head Injury Patients. In: Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA. 1997 ; pp. 870-.
@article{9cf61e52b2b842ebacc3334f25ab4acc,
title = "Comparing the Performance of Mathematical Models for Surgical Decisions on Head Injury Patients",
abstract = "Computerized medical decision support systems have been a major research topic in recent years. Intelligent computer programs were implemented to aid physicians and other medical professionals in making difficult medical decisions. This report compares three different mathematical models for building a head injury medical decision support system (MDSS). These models were developed based on a large head-injury patient database. This MDSS accepts a set of patient data such as the types of skull fracture, Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), episode of convulsion and return the chance that a neurosurgeon would recommend an openskull surgery for this patient. The three mathematical models described in this report including a logistic regression model, a multi-layer perceptron (MLP) neural network and a radial-basisfunction (RBF) neural network. From the 12,640 patients selected from the database. A randomly drawn 9480 cases were used as the training group to develop/train our models. The other 3160 cases were in the validation group, which we used to evaluate the performance of these models. We used sensitivity, specificity, areas under ROC curve and calibration curves as the indicator of how accurate these models are in predicting a neurosurgeon's decision on open-skull surgery. The results showed that, assuming equal importance of sensitivity and specificity, the logistic regression model had a (sensitivity, specificity) of (73%, 68%), compared to (80%, 80%) from the RBF model and (88%, 80%) from the MLP model. The resultant areas under ROC curve for logistic regression, RBF and MLP neural networks are 0.761, 0.880 and 0.897 respectively (P < 0.05). Among these models, the logistic regression has noticeably poorer calibration. This study demonstrated the feasibility of applying neural networks as the mechanism for head-injury decision support systems based on clinical databases. The results also suggest that neural networks may be a better solution for complex, non-linear medical decision support systems than conventional statistical techniques such as logistic regression.",
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journal = "Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA",
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AU - Li, Yu-Chuan
AU - Yang, Ten-Fang
AU - Liu, Li
AU - Chiu, Wen-Ta
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AB - Computerized medical decision support systems have been a major research topic in recent years. Intelligent computer programs were implemented to aid physicians and other medical professionals in making difficult medical decisions. This report compares three different mathematical models for building a head injury medical decision support system (MDSS). These models were developed based on a large head-injury patient database. This MDSS accepts a set of patient data such as the types of skull fracture, Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), episode of convulsion and return the chance that a neurosurgeon would recommend an openskull surgery for this patient. The three mathematical models described in this report including a logistic regression model, a multi-layer perceptron (MLP) neural network and a radial-basisfunction (RBF) neural network. From the 12,640 patients selected from the database. A randomly drawn 9480 cases were used as the training group to develop/train our models. The other 3160 cases were in the validation group, which we used to evaluate the performance of these models. We used sensitivity, specificity, areas under ROC curve and calibration curves as the indicator of how accurate these models are in predicting a neurosurgeon's decision on open-skull surgery. The results showed that, assuming equal importance of sensitivity and specificity, the logistic regression model had a (sensitivity, specificity) of (73%, 68%), compared to (80%, 80%) from the RBF model and (88%, 80%) from the MLP model. The resultant areas under ROC curve for logistic regression, RBF and MLP neural networks are 0.761, 0.880 and 0.897 respectively (P < 0.05). Among these models, the logistic regression has noticeably poorer calibration. This study demonstrated the feasibility of applying neural networks as the mechanism for head-injury decision support systems based on clinical databases. The results also suggest that neural networks may be a better solution for complex, non-linear medical decision support systems than conventional statistical techniques such as logistic regression.
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JF - Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA


Kyle Bass is a master market manipulator, and that seems to be his primary skill. He used to work for Bear-Stearns, the first bank to fold during the sub-prime lending market collapse of 2008. Bass, soon after his employment relationship with Bear-Stearns collapsed, gave proprietary trading information to a journalist who then asked probing questions on the mainstream media. Even though the questions asked were essentially moot, and concerned regular practices between banks, the end result was a loss of investor confidence which led to a collapse of Bear-Stearns' stock value so penultimate J.P. Morgan-Chase bought them out by the end of the week. Bass would go on to predict that an economic meltdown was coming in America. Of course he knew that, he's the one that knocked over one of the first dominoes! Yet this declaration of his made him internationally famous, and is one reason he is touted as an economic authority today.
When looking at Bass' actions contemporarily, it seems he hasn't stopped using such manipulative techniques. Currently he's endorsing Hillary Clinton while pointing out that, though China is headed for a recession, it probably won't be quite as dire as the one America saw in 2008. Why is Bass saying this? What does he hope to gain? These are important question, because with Bass profit always seems to be a prime motivator. Consider his pseudo-humanitarian organization, CAD.
CAD stands for the Coalition for Affordable Drugs, and through petitions, lawsuits, and the like, Bass is able to force big-ticket pharmaceuticals to cut the prices they sell their medicine for, thus reducing their stock value. When the price-drop hits, he short-sells his holdings with the pharmaceutical company and makes millions. It's almost as though Bass' prime mode of profit comes from the misfortune of big-ticket companies.
Bass is an Argentine by birth, and regularly works with Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who is the socialist leader of Argentina currently. De Kirchner has defaulted Argentina twice in only 13 years, yet Bass says nothing but good things about her. Perhaps Bass and De Kirchner are working together under some ulterior socialist motive. While this isn't exactly clear, his manipulative efforts are, and these predicate caution in any dealings with the man.


On land, they're hulking, belching, flatulent 1 tonne beasts. They have a substantial layer of blubber covered by thick skin (up to 4cm which is amongst the thickest skin in the world – human skin is only around 1.3mm thick) and coarse hair. But most impressive are their long tusks and stiff bristles around their mouths. Walruses certainly make a statement.
They can live to around 40 years old, and it shows. Most of them carry a vast map of scars on their skin – wounds inflicted by fellow walrus when they gather in tightly packed "haulouts" (pronounced hall out). They let their neighbours feel their displeasure with a sharp puncture from a tusk. Walruses also use their incredible tusks for fighting, to form breathing holes and to haul their huge bodies onto the sea ice.
Underwater, they're almost majestic. They make many strange underwater sounds - one of them is like a deep-pitched church bell. They're rarely found in the deep, instead preferring to feed at the bottom of shallow waters around coastlines, mostly eating molluscs.
Pacific walruses, like the ones in the Our Planet series, spend spring and summer feeding over the huge, shallow continental shelf. They use the sea ice as a platform for resting, and where mothers leave their young calves, between dives.
In the past decade, earlier melting of sea ice in summer has meant the ice has receded hundreds of kilometres north of the shelf, forcing abnormally large numbers of Pacific walruses - tens of thousands - ashore.
These mass gatherings are deadly. Stampedes occur as easily spooked walruses trample one another in their attempt to reach the water. Many walruses, particularly young calves, die. Those that do survive must travel exhausting distances to find food, as nearby sources are quickly depleted.
Unlike Pacific walruses, Atlantic walruses prefer to rest ashore, as most feeding grounds in the Atlantic are closer to land. This means they're highly susceptible to disturbance and noise - from tourists, low-level aircraft and passing ships. This human-made noise is only set to worsen as the Arctic becomes more accessible with diminishing sea ice.
Opportunities for shipping routes, commercial fishing and infrastructure such as housing and harbours are opening up across the Arctic. These activities cause a huge amount of noise and break-up sea ice, whilst fishing can result in the accidental capture of walrus in nets and bottom trawlers destroying feeding grounds.
Killer whales, with their tall dorsal fins, aren't designed for swimming in thick sea ice. But melting ice means these predators have a whole new feeding ground to hunt in. And they hunt walrus.
We support research into walrus populations and feeding areas. Our findings enable us to make recommendations to better safeguard them.
In Russia where the biggest haulouts occur on land, we're working with nearby communities to keep people safe, by removing dead walruses and scaring any polar bears away.
We're working with tourist operators and shipping companies to reduce the risks to walruses, as well as researching walrus behaviour at haulouts and the effects shipping has on them.


Why does preload not load my entire media file?
According to w3.org, preload has one of three methods ("none", "auto" and "metadata"). Each setting is only "suggestive" to the browser user agent. Read more here: https://www.w3.org/TR/html5/embedded-content-0.html#attr-media-preload. That said, preload behaves differently on different browsers because the preload attribute is only "suggestive".
Also, preload does not work on mobile devices according to https://www.aerserv.com/why-does-video-autoplay-on-mobile-devices-not-work/.
One other thing to keep in mind is that the "autoplay" attribute will automatically disable "preload" (see this site: http://www.w3schools.com/tags/att_video_preload.asp).


text:
guestSteps: Abingdon Town 0 Winchester City 2
Southern League Division 1 South & West
Northcourt Stadium, Abingdon
att. 101*
Ben, our Newcastle-supporting chum currently exiled in Oxfordshire, threw himself into the Southern League Scarf & Vest again back in March, having not been put off by his first go, and once again comes across a former Hawk. This time it was Chris Tardif who appeared briefly in the 1999/2000 season on loan from Portsmouth. Thus our terrace chant "One f'n Tardif, There's Only One F In Tardif" has re-entered my mind's ear. So, thanks to Ben for that, and another excellent read.
My second skinny-dip into the murky pool of the Southern League Division 1 South & West this season, and once again it's a case of inopportune timing. Having decided to pay a visit to Didcot Town's Loop Meadow stadium in early November for what turned out to be a 0-1 home defeat to Totton, I missed out on the thrilling derby match against Abingdon Utd a couple of weeks later, which ended 5-4 to Town. And now here I am at United to discover I've missed the return fixture by a week – a 2-2 draw, with the home side fighting back thanks to a dodgy penalty according to the Town website. Strangely, the United website makes no mention of there being any controversy…
Oh well, you take what you're given – and in this case that's the visit of Winchester City, bottom of the league and largely expected to be easy pickings for lower-mid-table United even without their leading scorer Anaclet Odhiambo. It doesn't quite pan out that way.
United can hardly be accused of complacency, as City don't even allow them the luxury of catching their breath from kick-off and have a header chalked off for offside within the first ten minutes. That said, the visitors may be sporting black and red stripes made famous by AC Milan (did the Italians borrow the design just as Juventus took inspiration from Notts County, I wonder?) but the two sides couldn't be easily confused, and the game settles into more of a shouting contest than a football match.
City's left-back is so youthful he's swamped in his full-size shirt and looks in constant danger of tripping over his umbilical cord, but thankfully for him one of the centre-halves is on hand, telling him constantly where to be and what to do like a well-meaning but overbearing parent. I half expect him to come over at one point, rub the corner of the wee mite's mouth with a handkerchief and ask him if he's got his dinner money.
The two 'keepers briefly take centre stage – City's ex Oxford Utd custodian Chris Tardif smothering a trundling shot and his opposite number Sam Warrell lucky to get away with making trying to catch a routine corner look like trying to catch a Teflon-coated eel – but then the weather takes over. The game may have kicked off in bright spring sunshine, but now we get wind, then rain, and then a flurry of hailstones so large that the players could be forgiven for thinking its multi-ball. Us hardy few in the stands shuffle into the central area and huddle together to avoid the elements, the hail rattling on the corrugated metal roof so loudly that it drowns out even the players' shouts.
When the storm subsides, the playing surface is left greasier than an estate agent dipped in chip fat, and it's City who capitalise, a low shot from John Docker skidding underneath Warrell and into the back of the net. This is the alarm call United needed and they belatedly wake up, but their crossing is poor and City remain the more threatening side on the break.
I head into the clubhouse at half-time for a swift pint, parting with the princely sum of £3.45 and admiring all the memorabilia that adorns the walls – signed shirts, pictures, scarves and pendants relating to the England '66 squad, Aston Villa, Arsenal, Pele, Beckham, Juninho, Jimmy Greaves, Pat Jennings and, er, local lad Matt Taylor. As the start of the second period draws near, a couple of older gents rearrange the chairs in the window so they can sit and watch the rest of the game in warmth and comfort, like knotted-hankied pensioners looking out to sea at Bournemouth.
Early United pressure subsides and, with the game reverting back to being the very epitome of short-on-goalmouth-incident, the home side make a double substitution. One of the players hauled off is no surprise, the lanky striker having shown as much grasp of the offside rule as Joey Barton has of professionalism.
Two players to catch the eye are no-nonsense United defender Richard Peirson, who has a solidity that isn't fatness and who looks like a gentle giant of a farm labourer, and the City midfielder referred to as "Pedro" by his team-mates, a stocky and creative dynamo with flowing locks and a headband who counterbalances the tricksy Docker on the other flank and who's unlucky to see his hooked left-foot shot drift wide.
Arguably United's best chance of the afternoon falls to young sub Pablo Haysham, but he clips his close-range shot straight into Tardif's arms. (Later, in the bar, I'll hear him telling his mates it was his first shot on target for the first team, and that he didn't realise it was such a good opportunity.)
To my left, I notice a man in a deerstalker scribbling notes – presumably for the report which will appear on one of the clubs' sites. Lacking any headgear at all, I feel shamefully underdressed. Meanwhile, behind me and to the right is a City supporter who seems to have a curious and immensely irritating form of Tourettes whereby he can't utter a sentence without tacking the word "mush" onto the end of it. Even though I'm nominally rooting for United, it comes as something of a blessed relief when the visitors get the killer second – a fluent move involving Pedro finished off with a neat turn and shot by Jones Awuah – and he buggers off, satisfied the game's won.
Peirson is pushed up front for the final few minutes but to no avail, and the rowdier elements among the home support console themselves by chanting "Going down, going down, going down" at the visitors. Not if they can notch up a few more comfortable victories like this they won't be.**
No post-match Lucozade Sport for the players – it's straight on the beers in the clubhouse. Peirson has a pint of Guinness waiting for him on the bar in time for the kick-off of the England v Slovakia friendly. Bar snacks arrive on cue too – given the price of the lager, I've been anticipating prawn sandwiches and antipasti, but no, it seems someone at the club has a soft spot for Kerry Katona because the onion bhajis, spring rolls and cream-cheese-filled jalapenos in breadcrumbs all have the unmistakeable air of Iceland about them.
A lively debate about the David Beckham "roadshow" erupts next to me, one bloke making the argument-winning claim that "he's only in the squad because he's got a haircut"; someone I could swear is Ron Mael of Sparks turns up to contemplate others' conversations in silence; there's a cheer for another chap who comes in with his dog, announcing triumphantly "She's gone into hospital early so I'm free to do what I want". I leave them settling in for the night and head out the door, reflecting on the fact that Abingdon Utd can be added to Cardiff, Didcot Town, Gillingham and Newcastle in the list of clubs I've managed to curse by my mere presence this season.
* Just to clarify, the attendees were all humans, not dalmations.
** Er, they were.
Ben Woolhead
Abingdon Town website


The event kicks off at 10 a.m. PT from the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, Calif.
The tech giant has convened stars and Hollywood dealmakers at its Cupertino, California, headquarters, where it's expected to unveil its streaming video strategy. The March 25 event, which kicks off at 10 a.m. PT from the Steve Jobs Theater, will set the stage for the company's entertainment push.
Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Garner and J.J. Abrams are among the talent expected to take the stage to help CEO Tim Cook, senior vp Eddy Cue and video heads Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht lay out their plans for the more than two dozen shows Apple has bought over the last two years. Also expected during the presentation is the unveiling of a new service that will offer access to third-party subscriptions from the likes of Showtime and Starz. In addition, Apple is planning to announce the relaunch of its Texture news subscription service.
Apple is investing heavily into these products as a way to keep people in its ecosystem and grow revenue from subscriptions and transactions. That is becoming increasingly important to the company as people start to hold onto their iPhones for longer, slowing sales of Apple's signature product.
Watch all the announcements below.


should be made compulsory for all cats to undergo the "Miner Treatment"
before people can own one (grin).
but I think it would be fairly humane. Or better still start to feed it.
When it trusts you, pick it up, put it in your car and take it to the RSPCA.


We spend our whole life trying to buy security from the unknown, to ensure known outcomes so that we are protected from everything that might be unknown, such as a death, a car accident or a fire.
We get life insurance, health insurance, car insurance, disability insurance, homeowners insurance, personal property insurance, casualty insurance, state and federal unemployment insurance, income insurance via social security and retirement savings. The list goes on, and these are just basic insurance types. You can see many more types here. Businesses have their own class of insurances and derivatives to ensure earnings.
Because of our interest in known outcomes, we spend a large amount of our income insuring ourselves and our businesses to reduce our risk. My wife and I are fascinated by the cost to just live and breathe with basic insurance, even if it is a very simple life. But it can feel very reassuring to have insurance, even though we all seem to pay an arm and leg for it. For those that worry, it helps them worry less.
For many of us, we work for big companies that provide us with the comfort of job insurance. The larger the company, often the more insured you might be from termination. And even if you do get the axe, you will likely end up with a very nice severance package.
Now let's examine entrepreneurism. Entrepreneurial innovation is all about taking big risks. Big risks that can have completely unknown outcomes, which is radically opposite of all of the insurance that we surround ourselves with. Moreover, being an entrepreneur can also mean lower quality insurance plans. So, with our enormous interest in insurance, it seems counterintuitive to be an entrepreneur; taking on so much risk while forging so much security.
"The history of business is the history of dreamers, and entrepreneurs, those rare individuals who cast aside the security of a paycheck, mortgage everything they have, and chase a dream that ends up creating our futures. The great economist Joseph Schumpeter referred to this process as the 'perennial gale of creative destruction.' The tempo of business is not one of stability, order, and a level playing field, but rather of disequilibrium and instability. Stability and equality only exist in the graveyards."
Entrepreneurial innovation isn't for everyone. A startup is often a roller coaster ride with highs and lows and unexpected drops. It takes quite a bit of energy and enthusiasm to bear the unknowns, and quite a bit of commitment and dedication to forgo some of the insurances that come from working for a big company. Trying to create something new that no one else has done before takes guts. And it gets more difficult the longer you wait. The significant others, kids, car, mortgage, savings and needed retirement money exponentially contribute to tying you to a known paycheck.
That's why one of the most common attributes in successful entrepreneurs is enthusiasm for the unknowns. They often have a well of hope and energy that helps push the team forward and forgo things now in hope of better things to come.
If you do decide to take the entrepreneurial leap, take comfort in the fact that millions have come before you and gone for the ride. Every small to big business you see in your community started with some person in their garage following a vision who decided to step outside the comfort level of known outcomes and explore the unknown - trying to create something new that has value to others.
A version of this post originally appeared on freshconsulting.com/blog.
Jeff Dance is Founder & CEO of Fresh Consulting, a student of all things creative and fresh, a professional snowboard instructor trainer, and the father of Brighton & Boston.


Dena Fleisher has been a list maker ever since she learned to write. She grew up in Bethesda, Maryland. She received her B.S. in nursing from American University and practiced as an RN for 11 years before hanging up her stethoscope to become a full-time mom. She wanted to use her organizational skills to help people tidy their homes and lives, so she became a professional organizer. Lifting heavy items took its toll and Dena needed a new direction. Inspiration hit her—all the lists she had made and used in her own life could be helpful to other people!
In early 2014, with a stack of 54 hand-written lists, Dena met a book designer, brought in an editor, and Team Dena was formed. Over coffee and lots of superfluous conversation, every list was scrutinized, ten more lists were added, friendships were made, and Listful Thinking: Organize Your Life with Lists was born. Dena also writes a blog, and has a growing presence on Facebook. Follow Dena at http://www.facebook.com/listfulthinkers.
Dena can coach you or your group as to how to organize your life with lists.
Dena is a member of the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce.


Because, you know, the Kaiser stole the zero.
Best of lists are designed to piss off everyone that didn't write them. That's why they crack me up. Also, fair warning, I hate it when people say the decade is ending when there's still a year left in it. That said: these are my favorite albums of the years that start with "2-0-0"


text:
Why is England warmer than it should be?
Why is the UK warmer than it should be?
Is England becoming hotter?
Is the UK getting hotter every year?
Why Britain has no climate only weather?
Is London warmer than New York?
What is causing UK heatwave?
How will the UK be affected by global warming?
Is London getting warmer?
Is the UK getting drier?
Are summers in the UK getting hotter?
What was the hottest day in England?
The British Isles undergo very small temperature variations. This is due to its proximity to the Atlantic, which acts as a temperature buffer, warming the Isles in winter and cooling them in summer. Coastal areas tend to be more temperate than inland areas, as the influence of the ocean is less acute.
Britain is warming more quickly than global average over past decade, says study. British summers could regularly reach a "new normal" of 40C within a decade warn meteorologists in a new study by the Met Office.
The year 2020 was third warmest after 2014 and 2006, the fifth wettest and eight sunniest on record for the United Kingdom. … "No other year has fallen in the top-10 for all three variables for the UK," the report said.
Britain is in the temperate climate zone and does not have extremes of temperature or rainfall. The Gulf Stream, a large Atlantic Ocean current of warm water from the Gulf of Mexico, keeps winters quite mild whilst during summertime, warm but not excessively hot temperatures are experienced.
THIS IS FUN: What station is the Scotland rugby game on?
London generally has warmer weather than New York in Winter, Spring, and Autumn. New York is however warmer in Summer months.
Met Office operational meteorologist Andy Page said: "The extension of the Azores high is the principal reason behind the UK's current weather pattern, which will see much of the UK reach heatwave thresholds over the weekend and into early next week.
As the world warms, the UK is likely to have hotter, drier summers and warmer, wetter winters, according to the Met Office. Extreme weather events such as heatwaves and heavy downpours could become more frequent and more intense. Many scientists are concerned.
London is experiencing hotter and drier summers that are further impacted by the Urban Heat Island effect (UHI). The UHI can cause London to be up to 10'C warmer than neighbouring rural areas. … We expect London's population to be 11 million by 2050 and need to build more homes to accommodate our growing population.
Is the UK getting drier and more susceptible to drought? The latest UK State of the Climate report showed there has been a general decline in the longest sequence of consecutive dry days in recent decades.
Scorching summer days are getting hotter as the duration of warm spells – when temperatures soar above average – have more than doubled in the last 50 years. … Although still rare in the UK, and largely confined to southern England, they are now being included in the report on temperature and rainfall extremes.
THIS IS FUN: How long is summer break in London?
What are the hottest temperatures ever recorded in the UK?
Cambridge Botanic Garden, East Anglia: 38.725 (July 2019)
Faversham, South East England: 38.510 (August 2003)
Cheltenham, Midlands: 37.13 (August 1990)
Cranwell, East and North East England: 36.325 (July 2019)


Ouch on having to pay higher, but you know, in Sea-Tac, that's not a bad price. Sounds a great location.
So, congratulations on getting your home! I know this must be a big relief to you both, as well as a bit of excitement. And a smaller yard means less care and more time in the parks and your kayak.
Well, I'm certainly relieved, if not elated, and the only time I woke up last night was when Skye started barking ferociously at something in the garden at 3:45.
I'm certainly going to miss my large garden, and the particular kind of therapy that has provided for me over the years, not to mention the unbeatable organic food.
But I will enjoy increased walking, particularly along the beach, and more kayaking if I can find someone to go with me during the week.
How beautiful. I hope you have a calm and trouble-free move. There's something beguilingly intimate about "seeing inside your house" even if it's not yours quite yet.
Park, beach, kayak, walking. Sounds unbeatable. Now I have to look up Tacoma in the atlas!
gah! Just hearing about anything slightly near Seattle makes me so so so so homesick. I love Boston, but it's just not the same! Congrats on the house!!!
Beautiful. I really like the deck. Good luck with the move. And, boy, I miss the NW too, even though I've been away for 20 years.
Actually, moving to Tacoma almost feels like going home.
Vancouver Washington is delightful with the smaller population and the Columbia Gorge, but being back around Puget Sound (even though it's not West Seattle) makes it seem like I'm finally back home.
I'm going to enjoy my walks around the Sound and my kayaking trips.
Congratulations, Loren, and best of luck with the move!The house sounds great…. you are making me homesick for the Pacific Northwest!
Love the gardens. It's interesting the way they have the bright blue stones or whatever they are in the path.
Bill, another ecotone blogger, how delightful.
I've been trying to convince a friend to start a blog using that theme.
I certainly identify with place and the blogs identified with your group. Once I've moved I'm sure I will be including more of a sense of the Puget Sound in my blog, not that the Seattle-area needs any more bloggers.


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