Introspective and Intellectually Cautious

Hilarious quote comparing medieval Europe to Al-Andalus:

(talking about how Muslim scholars studied ancient Greek philosophy and the medieval Christian’s suspicion towards pagan texts)

“Set against this vibrant Islamic culture Europe can appear an introspective and intellectually cautious place.”

Muhahaha … “introspective and intellectually cautious” … this cracked me up 😀

CRE191 Internet im Festnetz

Der CRE über Internet im Festnetz ist besonders lustig geraten. Es ist teilweise echt überraschend wie dreist wir zum Narren gehalten wurden/werden … 🙁

Besonders lustig (d.h. die Szenen haben auch komödiantisch was her):

  • 43:19 über die “digitale Revolution” für Leute in der DSL-Wüste und den “heiligen Akt” der Einwahl 😀
  • 1:58:53 über die Möglichkeit 200Mbit über den gewöhnlichen Hausanschluss zu bekommen.

Money Quote:

Tim: “… Könnte ich ja im Prinzip 100Mbit …”

Gast: “200”

Tim: “… in jede Richtung? …”

Gast: “Mhmm”

(3s Schweigen)

(Zögenrndes Lachen)

Gast: “Aber warum … warum sollte die Telekom dir sowas legen, wenn sie dir auch ein Bussinesprodukt verkaufen kann, wo sie schön den Bürgersteig für aufmachen und ‘ne Glasfaser rein legen und dich tausend-quietsch Euro im Monat dafür zahlen lassen.”

Wirklich deprimierend. 🙁

It’s blue, wait … green, no … actually it’s 青

There are certain concepts that don’t translate well over language borders. It is difficult to convey a nuance of something to someone which she is not able to conceptually grasp (be it mentally or linguistically).

There are obvious things like Phonems (everyone loves those 😉 ) …

  • “L” vs. “R” in some Asian languages
  • “B” vs. “V” in Spanish
  • Turkish “ı” and Korean “” ([ɯ])
  • [x] vs. [ç] in German “ch”

… and less obvious things like … colors. 🙂 The most interesting thing is that almost all languages seem to make a black<->white and a red/yellow<->green/blue distinction. I came across a Wikipedia article talking about distinguishing blue from green in language as not all of them do. Another interesting concept that was described is that in some languages it is also hard to distinguish blue from black. There are studies showing the interdependence of color concepts:

According to Brent Berlin and Paul Kay‘s 1969 study Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution, distinct terms for brown, purple, pink, orange and grey will not emerge in a language until the language has made a distinction between green and blue. In their account of the development of color terms the first terms to emerge are those for white/black (or light/dark), red and green/yellow.

– Wikipedia

😀

Der Weg nach Mekka

Ich habe ein neues Buch 😀 … naja, mein Vater hat noch die Ausgabe von 1982 😉

Thri…

Customer: (buys a decent set at a breakfast place in Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport)

Tenant: Thri … ahh … (then silently points at the number on the cash register)

Customer: (hands over a $100 bill)

Tenant: (silently leaves to get change, but doesn’t tell them)

CHAOS!!! 😉

Why would anyone with no workable knowledge of English (because she even struggled with the 3 -> 30 transition 😀 ) work behind the counter at a busy food place in the international flights section?