lang – Page 71 – Denseman on the Rattis

Seed library

2008/03/05 20:58

Colorful Carrots
Originally uploaded by GNIKRJ

I’ve just joined the Heritage Seed Library after reading about it in the Metro.

I will basically get some rare seeds every year in March, a big seed catalogue, and if I really get hooked, I can become a seed guardian!

EN · LINGUISTICS

There was an interesting posting on Linguist List today, claiming that Ket is related to the Na-Dené languages. A few extracts: Vajda shows that the abstract forms of lexical and grammatical morphemes and the rules of composition of the Ket verb find systematic and numerous parallels in the Na-Dene protolanguage reconstructed to account for the modern Tlingit and Eyak languages and the Athabaskan language family (whose daughters include Gwich’in, Koyukon, Dena’ina and others of Alaska, Hupa of California, and Navajo of the U.S. Southwest). […] The comparison […]

EN · TRANSPORT · TRAVEL

Finally!

2008/02/28 21:58

edinburgh view Originally uploaded by campru Ryanair must be reading this blog. It’s less than a month ago that I blogged that they should be opening a route from Billund in Denmark to Scotland instead of one to Birmingham. And now they’re finally doing what I’ve been waiting for ever since I moved to Scotland, opening a direct route. The one they’re starting is Edinburgh-Billund, which makes good sense, I guess. Aarhus Airport is a bit far away from most attractions, and so is Prestwick. Just a […]

EN · FOODDRINK

Korenwolf

2008/02/24 23:53

Korenwolf Originally uploaded by viralbus Some years ago, while I still lived in Denmark, I went to a TeX conference in the Netherlands. During the conference, we went on a day trip to Maastricht, and I got a chance to pop off to a specialist beer shop (together with Arne if my memory serves me well) where I bought different beers, especially some that I had never seen before. When I got back home, I went on to taste them, and I still remember that there was […]

EN · POLITICS

What does a scientist cost?

2008/02/20 22:47

Salary Negotiations Originally uploaded by Mike "Dakinewavamon" Kline I was flicking through the job ads in New Scientist today, and as usual, I was appalled by the salary levels. Some examples: Acoustic scientist in the navy: £25,000. Middle Atmosphere Scientist (PhD required): £29,360–£34,630. Post Doctoral Research Scientist (biochemistry): £24,200–£27,200. Scientist – Viral Vaccines: £20,575–£25,000. Postdoctoral Researcher Polymer Synthetics: £28,289. At the same time, the government is frustrated because so few youngsters pursue science. No wonder! Doctors earn upwards of £100,000, as do many successful bankers, lawyers, broadcasters […]

EN · GARDENING

A long fence

2008/02/20 00:32

30 metres of fence Originally uploaded by PhylB When we bought our house, the southern end of the garden was marked by five huge cedar trees that took all the sun but allowed wee Léon to run straight out onto the busy road. Not ideal. So last week we had a cowboy cut them all down, and this week another guy has put up 45 metres of fence, 30 metres to the south and 15 to the north. We’ll need to paint it and plant some nice […]

DA · KIDS · LINGUISTICS

Yummigt

2008/02/15 23:04

Pudge Originally uploaded by viralbus Phyllis har lovet, at jeg skal blogge om Léons danske sprog, så det må jeg jo så hellere se at få gjort! Han er begyndt at blande dansk og engelsk grammatik, fx bruger han ofte den engelske bestemte artikel i stedet for eller i tilgift til den danske efterhængte, fx sagde han i dag Åbn the kassen! Denne blanding er ikke kun syntaktisk, men undertiden også morfologisk, som når han i dag sagde Det er yummigt!, altså det engelske adjektiv yummy med […]

DA · FOODDRINK · GADGETS

Godt og dårligt køkkenudstyr

2008/03/03 22:24

07-01-14 005 Originally uploaded by PhylB Som alle, der kender mig, véd, holder jeg meget af køkkengadgets. Jeg er dog ved at blive gammel og vís nok til at indse, at nogle er mere nyttige i det lange løb end andre. Her er et lille udvalg af de gode og de dårlige: Gode: Riskoger: Det er så let at koge ris, at det lyder underligt, at det er en stor lettelse med en riskoger, men det er det. Man putter bare ris, vand og salt ned i […]

EN · POLITICS

Hero of the left?

2008/03/01 22:12

fidel_castro Originally uploaded by Joan Guerrero Daniel Finkelstein has a brilliant response to Harriet Harman’s embarrassing statement that Fidel Castro is still a hero of the left. A must-read.

DA · KIDS

Brune øjne?

2008/02/24 23:57

Anna’s right eye Originally uploaded by viralbus Da Anna blev født, var hendes øjne nærmest skiferfarvede. Med tiden blev de mere og mere klart grå, men i dag fik jeg pludseligt øje på en lille brun plet (omkring vestsydvest) i hendes venstre øje. Er det et tegn på, at hun er ved at få brune øjne som sin mor? Eller blandede øjne som sin morfar og faster? Eller er det ikke et tegn på noget som helst?

DENMARK · EN · POLITICS

ID cards

2008/02/21 23:03

My Flickr Badge Originally uploaded by viralbus I got another email from Nick Clegg today about his opposition to ID cards. I must admit my opposition to them is much more subtle. I’m actually in favour of a simple ID card scheme, if it’s seen primarily as a cheaper passport. That is, if one could buy a passport-light which consisted only of the laminated page with the photo and the name at fraction of the price of a real passport, it’d be really convenient, and for people […]

EN · WEB

Smile?

2008/02/21 22:29

I’ve been a satisfied customer with smile, the Internet bank, for years. They pay decent interest on a current account, cash-back on the credit card, and their email-based customer service is normally helpful and fairly efficient. My first grievance with them was when I added Phyllis to my credit card last year. They didn’t give her a separate pin number, and when she tried to change it away from mine, the card was swallowed and had to be replaced. More importantly, when I asked them to add […]

EN · HEALTH

Water

2008/02/20 22:17

Glass of water (4/365) Originally uploaded by Jim Murphy Dominic Lawson has a good rant about water in The Independent today. He’s questioning why so many people are drinking so much water: This organised panic about dehydration seems to stem from a misreading – quite possibly deliberate – of guidelines from the US Food and Nutrition Board in 1945. These stated that “a suitable allowance of water for adults is 2.5 litres daily in most instances. An ordinary standard for diverse persons is one millilitre for each […]

EN · LINGUISTICS

Prishtina and other place names in Kosova

2008/02/19 22:56

Prishtina…wake up! Originally uploaded by agroni It’s interesting how everybody uses Serbian names (without the accents) in English for place names in Kosova, for instance Pristina (Serbian Priština) and Kosovo, rather than Albanian Prishtina (or Prishtinë) and Kosova. This goes against the general rule that the official language of a country (or the biggest one, if there are more than one) is used as the basis for the name in English, thus Ibiza (rather than Catalan Eivissa), Bilbao (and not Basque Bilbo), Helsinki (and not Swedish Helsingfors), […]

DA · GARDENING

Erantis

2008/02/18 22:50

Erantis Originally uploaded by carl_henrik_nielsen I Danmark var jeg vant til to almindelige forårsbebudere, vintergækker og erantis. Vintergækker er også ganske almindelige i Skotland, men erantis kender de slet ikke. Jeg prøvede at vise Phyllis og hendes mor et billede, og det sagde dem slet ikke noget. Jeg vil nu prøve at få fat på nogle frø/løg/planter, så jeg kan finde ud af, om de ikke kan gro herovre, eller om de bare aldrig er slået an.

DIY · EN

Planning a new kitchen

2008/02/13 23:28

IKEA Kitchen Planner Originally uploaded by Daniele Muscetta In order to move our kitchen into the adjacent narrow room, we need to get a building warrant from the council. Till now, we thought we needed an architect for that, but Phyllis talked to them today and found out that they will accept a home-made drawing, so long as it is to scale etc. So now we just need to do it. But what shall we use? Pen and paper? Ikea’s Kitchen Planner program? Some fancy CAD program?

Earlier stories »