Beauty on Earth

Boingboing brings to my attention a collection of sixty satellite images of Earth. Absolutely breathtaking views in high resolution photographs right at your fingertips.

The Himalayas

Nature, NOT Nurture

Yet another scientist comes out as saying that our moral compass is innate and that it originated early in our inchoate social structures.

(Forgot where I found this article. Maybe The Daily Dish...)

The Case for Albanian

A friend of mine has posted a very interesting article from The Economist on his Facebook page (thank you, A. S.), which discusses the difficulty of learning certain languages. English with its very irregular pronunciation and spelling makes the list, as well as highly inflected languages such as German, Latin, and Slavic languages. Here, I would like to make a short case for Albanian, which did not appear in that list and, in my opinion, should have.... :(

Albanian is, at the origin, and Indo-European language, though it has evolved to such an extent that it was not proven to be Indo-European until the XIX century. Part of the argument for the Indo-European origin are also its numerous inflections.

Albanian has three genders, masculine, feminine, and neuter. The first two are the most common and they comprise almost all the words in Albanian. The last is mostly used for words related to the body and its conditions, such as 'dhjamët' (hernia), 'të verdhët' (jaundice), 'të ftohtët' (cold), etc.. Masculine or feminine nouns can be singular or plural (if logic dictates) and they are declined into five primary cases (rasa): nominative (emërore), genitive (gjinore), dative (dhanore), accusative (kallëzore), and ablative (rrjedhore). There is also a vocative case (thirrore), but it is so infrequently used that it is not even taught in grammar cases; it mostly consists of an 'O' before the non-declined form of the noun, which is a form of its own. In general, then, every noun (proper ones included in the singular) has twelve primary and common forms to be remembered by, though some may be identical.

e.g.: punë (work, singular / plural)

Undeclined: punë / punë

Nominative: puna / punët

Genitive: i/e/të punës / i/e/të punëve

Dative: punës / punëve

Accusative: punën / punët

Ablative: prej pune / prej punësh

The same cases exist for personal pronouns as well as adjectives, which have to agree with the noun they modify not only in gender and number, but also in case. Moreover, there are many endings to feminine or masculine nouns and they all require their own method of transforming them into plural or of declining them into the five cases.

Verbs are also quirky and highly inflected. First of all, when asking someone to conjugate a verb, we never use the infinitive (as in, conjugate the verb 'to be'); instead we use the 'representative form of the verb' (formën përfaqësuese të foljes), which is the verb in its present indicative, first person singular form. There are eight tenses in the indicative mood (mënyra dëftore) in Albanian: simple present (e tashme), imperfect (e pakryer), simple past (e kryer e thjeshtë), present perfect (e kryer), pluperfect (më se e kryer), past anterior (e kryer e tejshkuar), simple future (e ardhme), and future anterior (e ardhme e përparme). Besides the indicative, there are five other moods in Albanian: subjunctive (lidhore), conditional (kushtore), imperative (urdhërore), admirative (habitore), and optative (dëshirore). The good news is that some of these moods do not have forms in all the tenses or persons (mostly for logical reasons).

Like many other languages, Albanian also has three unconjugated forms of the verb: the infinitive (paskajore), present participle (përcjellore), and past participle (pjesore). Verbs also have transitive/intransitive and reflexive/non-reflexive forms, as well as a passive and active voice.

There is also something to be said about pronunciation. Standard Albanian has thirty-six sounds, each represented by a letter (or digraphs with their own place in the alphabet). Although most are shared by English and other western languages, two (Q [c] and Gj [ɟ]) are unique to Albanian (and, some say, Hungarian, though I'd have to hear them pronounce them). You can find the rest on Wikipedia or something.

Spoken Albanian is highly varied, too, depending on the region where you find yourself. Although all Albanians are educated in standard Albanian, most use regional sounds, words, expressions, and inflections. The two main dialects comprising these regional 'accents' are mutually intelligible for Albanians, though I don't know how a foreigner will fare with them.

That's it.... I'll add more if I think of anything.

Healthcare Reform Faltering

Keith Olbermann's plea voices my concerns if the healthcare reform bill, as it currently stands, passes both houses of Congress. Don't do it!

Obama will lose my next vote if this passes and he signs it.

Is It Me?!

In the vocabulary section of the final exam for my French class, there was the following question:

Je n'aime pas que le professeur donne une interrogation sans nous ______.

a. apprendre

b. enlever

c. retirer

d. avertir

The correct answer, of course, is (d), making the sentence: 'I don't like it that the teacher gives quizzes without notifying us.'

Most of the students, however (almost exclusively, in fact) opted for (a), making the sentence: 'I don't like it that the teacher gives quizzes without teaching us.'

Are they trying to tell me something??

Fotoreportazh

Njëri gozhdës, tjetri patkoit...

(Burimi i pamjes)

Kur lindi partia

Jo, jo ajo e 8 nëntorit 1941; ajo e 12 dhjetorit 1990.

Sipas një artikulli botuar tek Kolektivi, Sali Berisha kujton 8 dhjetorin si ditën e krijimit të Partisë Demokratike në Shqipëri, ndonëse ai vetë nuk ka qenë i pranishëm në mbledhjen e asaj dite, madje nuk ka qenë as në Shqipëri. Shumë nga themeluesit e PD-së thonë se themelimi zyrtar u bë më 12 dhjetor 1990 dhe se firma e Sali Berishës është e dyta në listën e vendimmarrjes.

Vlen të theksohet se nga tetëmbëdhjetë krijuesit e Partisë, sot dy nuk janë më në jetë (Gramoz Pashko dhe Azem Hajdari), ndërsa dymbëdhjetë të tjerë nuk janë më anëtarë të PD-së. Ja ku duket fuqia dhe politika përçarëse që Sali Berisha ushtron në Partinë e tij, çka vë në dukje edhe regjimin e tij autokrat brenda PD-së. Nuk mund të mos përmend këtu edhe fjalët dhe premtimet me të cilat hyri në arenën politike kjo parti, të cilat për vite me radhë mbetëm boshe siç vazhdojnë të mbeten edhe sot.

«Se ti tagliassero a pezzetti»

Se ti tagliassero a pezzetti

il vento li raccoglierebbe

il regno dei ragni cucirebbe la pelle

e la luna tesserebbe i capelli e il viso

e il polline di Dio

di Dio il sorriso.

Ti ho trovata lungo il fiume

che suonavi una foglia di fiore

che cantavi parole leggere, parole d'amore

ho assaggiato le tue labbra di miele rosso rosso

ti ho detto dammi quello che vuoi, io quel che posso.

Rosa gialla rosa di rame

mai ballato così a lungo

lungo il filo della notte sulle pietre del giorno

io suonatore di chitarra io suonatore di mandolino

alla fine siamo caduti sopra il fieno.

Persa per molto persa per poco

presa sul serio presa per gioco

non c'è stato molto da dire o da pensare

la fortuna sorrideva come uno stagno a primavera

spettinata da tutti i venti della sera.

E adesso aspetterò domani

per avere nostalgia

signora libertà signorina fantasia

così preziosa come il vino così gratis come la tristezza

con la tua nuvola di dubbi e di bellezza.

T'ho incrociata alla stazione

che inseguivi il tuo profumo

presa in trappola da un tailleur grigio fumo

i giornali in una mano e nell'altra il tuo destino

camminavi fianco a fianco al tuo assassino.

Ma se ti tagliassero a pezzetti

il vento li raccoglierebbe

il regno dei ragni cucirebbe la pelle

e la luna la luna tesserebbe i capelli e il viso

e il polline di Dio

di Dio il sorriso.

Fabrizio de ANDRÈ

«Deklarata e Partisë»

Një deklaratë e dyfishtë e «partisë». Për t'u lexuar!

Mund ta gjeni tek Tirana Calling.

Mos harroni të lexoni post scriptum-in dhe të ndiqni udhëzimet e tij.

Dartmouth Ridiculousness

Dartmouth's Office of Alumni Relations forwards this video as its greeting for this year.

Looks like fun....

Hug the Gay Away, Continued

Rachel Maddow interviews Richard Cohen, an unlicensed therapist with no credentials or degrees, other than an M.A., and author of two books claiming that you can cease to be gay (so as not to use the word 'cure,' to be fair to him). His books are being used to promote anti-homosexual legislation in Uganda, whereby homosexuality or knowledge of it with failure to denounce it, would be punishable by anywhere between three years (for the latter) and death by hanging (for 'homosexual acts').

This is a heated interview that, in my opinion, discredits and exposes him for the fraud and money-grubbing hypocrite he is.

And, by the way, I feel sorry for his wife. But then again, she's probably as deluded as he is....

Hug the Gay Away (Or Beat the Parents)

Either works according to a formerly gay loon.

Rachel Maddow reports:

I Guess I'm a Desperate Actor

I saw this a couple of days, but didn't want to make it more public than it already is. Now, I find myself wanting to present it as the waste of youtube space and broadcast time it is.

It's the most ridiculous anti-health reform ad I've seen in a while....

Flocci Nivis

Behold, the world of snowflakes.

(Found via boingboing)

Bigotry (and Humor) at Yale University

Notice the list of hell-bound individuals: not just the staple sodomite and homosexual, but a more extensive list including, in all,

Fornicators, Homosexuals

Liars, Thieves, Masturbators

Obama Voters, Buddhists,

Dirty Dancers, Hindus,

Gangster Rappers, Muslims,

Drunkards, Feminists,

Immodest Women,

Democrats, Liberals,

Evolutionists, Atheists,

Potheads, Sodomites

Image Source

Here's the attention whore:

Man Created God In His Own Image

Scientific research confirms what I've always believed and what Freud said decades ago about who created whom in the man-god relationship.

In this study, it was discovered that people's own opinions coincide more closely with what they think god would think than with what they think other people believe. Furthermore, the same areas of the brain are activated when they ponder their own opinions or god's opinions, which is not the case when they ponder other people's opinions.

(Found via The Daily Dish)

Something Good Out of Switzerland

They may be xenophobic and fine art snatchers, but the Swiss do have beautiful alpine scenery.

Behold!

(Found through boingboing)

The Bigotry Army

This year, the Salvation Army must have watched too much Lou Dobbs or something. Before they give out toys, they are requiring that immigrant families be here legally, or that they have at least applied for legal status, or that at least one of their children is legal. What boobs! I knew they were homophobic, but this year they seem to be embracing all the ugly phobias.

(Found through boingboing)

How Will You Die?

Well, as a white male in my twenties, I'm most likely to die of suicide. Then, my biggest foe for the rest of my life is heart disease, followed by cancer.

How will you die? Check it out. Or go to the source if you'd like to see a zoomable version.

(Found via BuzzFeed)