More democratic process in awarding of medals

[plover]

Languages in Europe were far more diverse until pretty recent times also (well into the 19th century?). Most current European countries had several distinct languages, often closely related, sometimes not. Different counties in England had mutually incomprehensible dialects, which under some classification schemes might have been considered distinct languages. Even some relatively important languages such as Occitan (southern France, i.e. "Langue d'oc") have mostly vanished. (Was Flemish a language? Or did people in Flanders speak one of the other languages from that region?) Other languages are still used in their native region (Breton, Frisian, Abkhazian, Manx[?]). However, many languages belonging to small populations have more or less completely disappeared. For example, the northwestern province of Russia which borders on Finland, called Karelia, was home to several distinct cultures—one of these being the Karelians, another group was called the Veps, I can't remember any of the others. I would imagine a thorough search of Europe would turn up a large number of such groups.

 

[Integral]

Integral, what a stupid remark my dear friend

Not all these languages come from Latin, man, you are way off here.
Besides this is a consequence of history and there is nothing to do about that.
We don't want to speak English, we want to speak our own language in our own country...

regards
marlon, who speaks English when talking to a native English-speaker... I ain't got no problem with that...please do accept other cultures...LOL

and i agree with Nereid and Nate

There it one of the rotten tomatos I spoke of...

Marlon please read the last line of my post again.

 

[Gokul43201]

Even some relatively important languages such as Occitan (southern France, i.e. "Langue d'oc") have mostly vanished.

Hmmm...I wonder if Occitan vanished with the Languedocians in the 12th century or shortly thereafter, when the Church ordered their massacre ?

 

[humanino]

Integral : were you joking ?! How many languages do you speak ?

OK, you were joking all along. Everybody should speak Linux that would be simpler

% cat "food in cans"
cat: can't open food in cans
----------------------------
% nice man woman
No manual entry for woman.
----------------------------
% rm God
rm: God nonexistent

from, and other : http://ucan.foad.org/~abby/humor/stupid-unix-tricks.html

 

[humanino]

Gokul and Plover : I cannot tell for sure, but I think those dialects are still spoken by grandparents ! My grandmother does speak one The nearby village has another (well not too far dialect, but some words would not make sens at all for each other ! One mile away !)

 

[Nereid]

Manx, as in cat, also a Celtic language (like Irish, Breton, Gaelic), now extinct (formerly spoken on the Isle of Man. Karelia, from whence JRR Tolkein got some many of his language ideas (OK, from Finnish - related to Karelian - and Welsh too). Europe, apart from Basque - which is one of nine (?) languages with no known relationship - most languages spoken in Europe are Indo-European; the exceptions are Finnish, Saami (aka Lapp?), and Hungarian, which are a completely different family. If you include Turkish, then you've also got another family.

 

[Evo]

The Island of Sicily also has dialects. They speak proper Italian, but also Sicilian, which has different words. In Palermo, Sicily they speak Palermitan, (considered a language of the mafia) there is also a small area in Sicily where they speak a dialect so unique no one else in Sicily can understand it.

 

[plover]

Manx, as in cat, also a Celtic language (like Irish, Breton, Gaelic), now extinct (formerly spoken on the Isle of Man.

Right, I knew where it was from, I just didn't know whether it was extinct.

I think some people are trying to revive Cornish (another Celtic language). The last person to grow up with Cornish as their native language died in the early 20th century, I think.

Karelia, from whence JRR Tolkein got some many of his language ideas (OK, from Finnish - related to Karelian - and Welsh too).

I didn't know that Tolkien used ideas from Suomi (Finnish) or Karelian. The ritual that Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" is based on comes from Karelia, and there are many elements in the choreography of the original production that were taken from ritual gestures used in that area.

Europe, apart from Basque - which is one of nine (?) languages with no known relationship

I've never heard any other language described as being quite as isolated as Euskara (Basque) except maybe Tasmanian. Do you remember any of the others? (Ainu maybe?)

- most languages spoken in Europe are Indo-European; the exceptions are Finnish, Saami (aka Lapp?), and Hungarian, which are a completely different family.

Finnish and Magyar (Hungarian) are related to each other and to Mongol. It's called the Finno-Ugrik family; apparently, it originated in the Ural mountains in central Russia, spread to the East to become Mongol, and to the West to become Finnish, then entered Europe a second time by way of the Mongol invasions in the 12th century (?). The Magyars are descendents of Mongols who remained in Europe when the Khanate fell apart.

I can't remember where Sámi fits in, but that is what has been called 'Lapp' (which apparently is derogatory).

 

[Chronos]

Many unique languages exist in world history. Examples: Navahoe was the code language used in the Pacific theatre of WWII. Perhaps we can take a page from that experience and attempt to communicatie with other sentient creatures on this planet.. ie, dolphin and ape families. On the other hand, perhaps, we do not really want to hear what they have to say about us... what do you mean 'we' are destroying you're habitat?? Death to the whales and their ape sympathisers...

Anyways, back to the topic. The medal obsession disturbs me. I could care less about that. I think most of us already knew who was talking science and who was talking trash. Correct me if I am wrong. The reason most of us hang out here is to talk about real science and real issues with people who understand and respect the scientific method. I do not have any great new theories. I read, research and learn from people here that know a great deal more than I could ever hope to know about cosmology, physics and the scientific method. My heroes: Nereid, she really knows her stuff and gives great explanations; Marcus, he asks all the right questions and is very fair about it; Tom; a true genius who is humble and helpful to those who ask honest questions; Krab, he astonishes me with his brilliant insights to simple problems; Chroot, an old dude who tolerates our youthfull enthusiasm; Greg, who puts up with all the nonsense. And Urs, who indulges us, finds time to put up with our silly ideas, and still talks to us.

Apologies to the other mentors I forgot to mention. I have great respect for all of you guys. I mentioned the others because they were the first that came to mind. I have great respect for all of you.

 

[Integral]

Integral : were you joking ?! How many languages do you speak ?

OK, you were joking all along. Everybody should speak Linux that would be simpler

% cat "food in cans"
cat: can't open food in cans
----------------------------
% nice man woman
No manual entry for woman.
----------------------------
% rm God
rm: God nonexistent

from, and other : http://ucan.foad.org/~abby/humor/stupid-unix-tricks.html

I struggle with English! Color me Ugly American! I can tell you in 2 different languages, Spanish and German, that I do not speak that language, does that count for anything? I did make an effort to learn Cech. a few years back,... But then came a divorce so that went no where.

 

[Integral]

Chroot, an old dude who tolerates our youthfull enthusiasm;

LOL! I have always thought he was a brash youngster!

Edit: Thought I'd add a bit.

It is a fear of the Mentors that a student just beginning to learn will NOT be able to differentiate between a solid physical post and a crackpot. Let's face it some of the valid ideas of Physics can seem pretty outlandish (ie entanglement) so where do you draw the line between Physics and science fiction. The medals are our effort at marking the reliable posts. Unfortunately we may never be able recognize all who make significant contributions.

It is our goal to provide a resource on the web where a student or interested person can actually be exposed to current physical concepts without having to sort through crackpot material. Thus our recent crack down on the crackpots. I am hoping that we can bring to an end all speculative personal theory posts and leave only good physics...It ain't easy.

Bear with us and feedback is always heard.

Integral

 

[Clausius2]

Congratulations to our newest medal recipients:

humanino
marlon
Tide
Clausius2

You all have been deserving medals for a while now -- thanks for your patience, and thanks so much for being a huge part of what makes PF special!

Keep those nominations coming!

- Warren

It's an honour! ufff, ufff

Let's go friends. We have to celebrate this with Queen... Sing with me!

"Weee are the chaampions, my friends!...

Cause we kept on fighting tiiiiillll the eeeennnd...

Weeee are the chaaampions,
Weee are the chaaampions,

No tiiime for loooosing,

Cause we aaare the chaaampions...


Thanks to all people, my mother, my family, my cat, my grandparents, my professor, thanks to Sharon Stone for being my girlfriend , thanks to the Oscar Academy for giving me this award, thanks to Warren and PF's mentors for bearing my bad humour, thanks to all people for reading this poor english, thanks to Greg for having that computerized man face, thanks to Tom for giving such freezing answers, thanks to Enigma for answering my dull questions, thanks to Integral for having the same beard since the last 30 years, thanks to everybody... (I'm reduced to tears right now).


Muchas gracias, chavales, algún dia iré por ahí y nos tomaremos unas birras!
Translation: Thank you, folks, some day I'll go there and we'll have some beers!.

 

[quantumdude]

I struggle with English! Color me Ugly American! I can tell you in 2 different languages, Spanish and German, that I do not speak that language, does that count for anything?

I did make an effort to learn Cech. a few years back,...

I think that's spelled, "Check".

 

[chroot]

Isn't it... Czech?

- Warren

 

[Integral]

I knew it was some combination of those letters nothing looked right. Anyway that is ancient history now..

Dobry den

 

[Gokul43201]

I'd like to nominate one more member : chem_tr is new here (<60 posts so far) but everything (s)he posts (in Chemistry) is rock solid...and very helpful.

 

[quantumdude]

Isn't it... Czech?

- Warren

Of course, but if you had been reading Integral's "creative spelling" for as long as I have, you'd have responded with a " " too.

I've been watching him spell the word "puzzel" for almost 3 years now, and I still crack up when I see it.

 

[Integral]

Of course, but if you had been reading Integral's "creative spelling" for as long as I have, you'd have responded with a " " too.

I've been watching him spell the word "puzzel" for almost 3 years now, and I still crack up when I see it.

HEY! I resemble that fact!

I thought I have been very careful with my spell czech for some time now.

Man you should have seen what it was like before I learned to spell! I once spend 2 hrs looking in the i's for envelope.

 

[Moonbear]

HEY! I resemble that fact!

I thought I have been very careful with my spell czech for some time now.

Man you should have seen what it was like before I learned to spell! I once spend 2 hrs looking in the i's for envelope.

That's what always used to baffle me when I was a kid and asked my mom how to spell and word and she'd tell me to look it up in the dictionary. "But, if I don't know how to spell it, how do I know where it is in the dictionary?" Now I know she told me that because she didn't know how to spell those words either. One of my friends is a very "creative" speller, as Tom Mattson put it. I finally realized, he types with a NY accent! If I say the words aloud the way they are spelled, there is a clear NY accent to it. It's pretty cool, actually. Well, some are just the wrong word, and I get a good laugh about that too...he used to go to the gym and would tell me about which "mussel" he was working that day. Poor spell-check never had a chance.

 

[Chronos]

When I was 6, I promised my teacher I would learn every word in the dictionary as penance for sticking a live cricket down the back of her tube top. To this day, I am very tough when it comes to words through the letter 'C'.

 

[chem_tr]

Please consider giving a science advisor metal to Sirus, whose posts on chemistry are remarkable.

 

[maltun]

Chemicalsuperfreak has done a good job since the beginning, I think. Please check.

 

[Gokul43201]

I'd like to nominate Curious3141 for advisorship. Anyone second this ?

There was one other name I had in mind but have forgotten...it'll come back to me.

 

[courtrigrad]

yes I second you Gokul