Interlingua, a language for the world

Interlingua is an "artificial" language amongst others as Volapuk, Esperanto, and Ido.  Its supporters however claim it is a "natural" language because its vocabulary is extracted from the most international of West European languages with a minimum of alteration.  Heavily based on Latin and Greek roots,  with all the crazy grammar rules removed, it seems to me to be ideal method of communication among foreigners who don't want to or cannot use hard-to-master English.

Here is a sample:

"Il es, naturalmente, ben cognoscite a vos que in un affaire bancari succedite tanto multo depende super essente capace de trovar remunerative investimentos pro nostre fundos, como le augmentation de nostre clientes e numero de nostre depositores. Un de nostre le plus lucrative medios de investir le moneta es in le forma de prestos ubi le securitate es indubitabile. Nos ha facite multo in iste direction durante le ultime pauc annos, e il ha multe familias nobile a que nos ha avantiate grande summas super le securitate de lor picturas, bibliothecas, o platta." 

"Heri matino, io ha sedite a mi bureau al Banca quando un carta esseva portate  a me per un del commissos. Io esseva supersaltate quando io ha vidite le nomine, proque illo esseva aquelle de nihil altere que––ben, potesser mesmo a vos io melior non dice plus que illo esseva un nomine que es un nomine familiar in tote partes del mundo––un del plus alte, plus nobile, e plus exaltate nomines de Anglaterra. Io esseva superate per le honor, e ha essayate, quando ille ha entrate mi bureau, a dicer assi, mais ille ha immergite se immediatemente in le affaire con le aer de un homine que vole hastar presto per un carga disagradabile."

(translation by Dr. Stanley Mulaik)

Here is the original text from Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet":

   
“It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection and the number of our depositors.  One of our most lucrative means of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security is unimpeachable.  We have done a good deal in this direction during the last few years, and there are many noble families to whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their pictures, libraries, or plate.

“Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a card was brought in to me by one of the clerks.  I started when I saw the name, for it was that of none other than – well, perhaps even to you I had better say no more than that it was name which is a household word all over the earth – one of the highest, noblest, most exalted names in England.  I was overwhelmed by the honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry quickly through a disagreeable task."

Anyone with a working knowledge of a Western language will understand much of the above, since Latin and Greek word roots form a fundamental part of English as well as even non-Romance languages.  An experiment to combine non-European languages as Arabic, Hindu and Chinese with Western ones only resulted in only one recognizable pattern: that of Latin/Greek derived words.  So any international constructed language has to be European-based, sorry multiculturalists.  I think this is appropriate since Western Europe has contributed so much to the creation of the modern world through culture, science and technology.  We live in a Westernized world.  

Interlingua had its roots in Peano's Latino sin reflexione, a project to create a Latin-based language without so much horrific grammar; this started in 1903.  Later on some scholars took it up and developed Interlingua between 1937 and 1951.  Their dreams of it being adopted by the United Nations or other intergovernmental institutions fell by the wayside as English continued its uninterrupted march to dominance in the 20th century as the international language of business, politics and culture.  

Still, I think Interlingua is the best way for foreigners to communicate with each other, if they do not use English.  The European Union could use it in their official business instead of the 24 (and counting) languages they are forced to use today.  Just as medieval Latin united the educated classes in Europe for many centuries, so could its descendent, Interlingua, fulfill that role today, on a global scale.

 

From the Sublime to the Silly

Having viewed a few blogs about pens I purchased a blue Kaweco Sport AL with medium nib a while back.  The AL I presume stands for aluminum, which is what the guy in the video is trying to remember at one point.  This is a fountain pen.  It is designed to hold their own ink cartridges only, and apparently many lamented there was no converter for it.  A converter is a device with a piston inside that enables one to use ink from a bottle, and is inserted in the pen where the original cartridge is located.  Recently I discovered Kaweco now makes a converter for its Sport pen, as explained in the video located at this site. For Kaweco Sport fans, this is a big deal as now they can use their favorite ink with it.

Kaweco sounds like a Japanese company but is actually German, it started in Heidelberg in the 1880's.  This particular pen is quite short but one can make it longer by placing the cap on the end when writing.

There are a lot of interesting pen blogs out there on the Internet, it seems that really good fountain pens quite often cost over a hundred dollars, so it can get to be an expensive hobby if one takes it seriously.  Another German pen that is popular but not so expensive is the Lamy Safari series, for example.  

 

Dinky Toys

A brief history of the company by a collector.  These toys, especially the military models, were popular with kids in the 1950's.  

My favorite, the Centurion tank.

Some pretty amazing restoration projects, a history of Dinky output in itself.

American Pie Revisited

This seems to have been the first long narrative mysterious song that defied explanation for many, coming out in 1971.  There had been previous obscure songs by Dylan, for example Subterranean Homesick Blues and Mr. Tambourine Man, and the Beatles with Strawberry Fields and I Am the Walrus, but this one by Don McLean intrigued everyone.  Obviously it was a poetic history of rock and roll but interpretation was difficult.  There is one here that seems quite good, and goes on for a few more pages in a thorough explanation verse by verse. 

Crazy for Kokopelli

If you do an Internet search for Kokopelli, the browser might give you a list of possible choices associated with that word, such as: suites, wine, inn, golf club, images, bedding, meaning, trail and bed and breakfast.  This shows just how popular and widespread (mainly in the Southwest) Kokopelli has become.  Originally a fertility deity that caught on later with the  Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, it could represent Aztec traders from the South carrying sacks over their shoulders.  Often combining trade with storytelling and news, these men would announce their presence with flute playing before entering a village, to forestall any suspicions of the people. 

Japanese Koto Music

The koto, like many Japanese instruments, came from China, but evolved in its own way after that. It sits on the floor or is placed on a stand and measures over 6 feet in length.  It belongs to the zither family of stringed instruments.  Often used with shakuhachi flute to create so-called meditation music.

Shopping Cart Etiquette at the Market

If you look this subject up in an online search engine you will find quite a few entries from people in the form of blog entries, discussion groups, videos and so forth.  Obviously it is a hot topic, although a minor one from the point of view of the Big Issues of Life. Here is one site that analyzes all this in a practical manner.  But given the intensity of these entries or rants, it is an issue that doesn't go away, and unless one is wealthy enough to send others to do one's shopping, it is an irritation one has to always deal with. 

There are two subdivisions of this issue, that of parking lot problems with shopping carts, and that of maneuvering a cart within the store aisles.  I want to deal just with the latter issue.  Naturally there are the obvious problems of people blocking aisles with their cart and themselves while they wander away or stand staring at the shelves, or rolling along too fast through aisle intersections without slowing down.  One issue that I find appalling that isn't mentioned much is how shoppers stop their carts in front of the meat section or the cold foods compartments, preventing  anyone else from having access to about eight feet of that section, or being able to open the glass doors the compartment area.  

One of the things Buddhist meditation practice aims at is to cultivate mindfulness in what is termed the post-meditation experience, when we are finished with our formal sitting practice and we return to the world of our daily affairs.  If we can't avoid being a nuisance to others in the simple act of grocery shopping, then we haven't practiced properly.  The idea is to allow us to better see the play of our mind, its fickleness jumping from one thought to another, and to realize how heavy and compulsive much of this thought process actually is.  We would like our meditation practice to open us up a little, bringing a sense of lightness and upliftedness to our mind. In this way we can apply what we learn from meditation, the cultivation of a sense of spaciousness and egolessness, to the nuts and bolts of our daily routine.

George Harrison's Spiritual Quest

Some of the old  European veneration of the sun seems to continue in psychedelic-influenced rock lyrics.  In the past Persian Mithra, the Greek Phoibos Apollo (radiant Apollo), and Roman Sol invictus (unconquerable sun) were major solar deities worshiped in the classical world.  The Sixties seemed to resurrect these religions in another form.

Here is the other side of George: the Hare Krishna devotee.  This is what is termed a bhakti or devotional yoga, as opposed to other types, such as jnana yoga (path of knowledge, scholarship), karma yoga (path of action, service to others) and raja yoga (way of meditation).  There is a book out now called Working Class Mystic that chronicles his spiritual journey, I haven't read it, but it sounds reliable, the book is described here. 

Truth in Advertising or Nanny State Psychosis?

Anyone who turns on their TV these days is soon inundated with hearing a detailed and seemingly never-ending list of the  nauseating side effects of advertised prescription drugs.  This is supposedly due to the FDA's truth-in-advertising requirements to present a balanced picture of the proffered product.  Behind the scenes of course are the rapacious trial lawyers who hope to capitalize on some missed symptom or legal detail to sue the hell out of the drug manufacturers.  Then of course we have all sorts of reality shows from The Dog Whisperer to Dual Survival with their "don't try this at home" or "without the help of a professional" warnings to protect them from those human sharks known as trial lawyers. 

What this really amounts to is a farce and paying homage to nanny state rules instead of using common sense.  Of course if one sees a drug advertised on TV, one has to ask one's doctor for a prescription, and that is where one should learn about side effects.  Every medicine and drug that ever existed has side effects, what is the big deal?  As far as adventure or reality shows demonstrating some obviously dangerous stunt or ordeal, no one with half a brain can claim they did not realize the activity was dangerous, and yes, kiddies, life itself is dangerous, let's just use some common sense and get on with it. 

There is a website that satirizes this sort of side effect descriptions here.  Another site that specializes  in listing outrageous nanny state policies such as San Francisco's ban of  free McDonald's Happy Meal toys, is here.  Another list is here.  I'm afraid we may be headed the way of Great? Britain where the right of self defense has evaporated in the rush to protect the criminals from bodily harm when they are in the act of committing a crime.  Here is one example of what has transpired there.  Apparently things have gone so far in the nutty nanny state direction that some legal authorities are trying to return to a reasonable interpretation of the law.  

The riots that England experienced a while back were out of control because everyone except a few Turk or Pakistani immigrants knew it was against the law to offer resistance to people who entered their neighborhoods to break, steal and set fire to everything.  In fact in one instance when a policeman took action during a melee it was to attempt to arrest an immigrant who had successfully beaten off some rioters in his street.  Luckily he was pulled away from the cop by his friends.  Meanwhile it was normal for other cops to just look on at the rioters without moving a muscle.   You can't even defend yourself with a letter opener or brandish anything that could be used as a weapon to ward off would-be thieves or assailants. 

Donovan

The Sun is a Very Magic Fellow, from the Hurdy Gurdy Man album.  Have to admit I don't recall it, very pleasant though.  Wanted to put in video of Cosmic Wheels, but none of the ones posted on youtube have any decent graphics.  This song reminds me though, of my musings on the ubiquity of sun imagery or what amounts to solar worship in psychedelic music, in song names, lyrics and band designations.  One could mention songs by the Beatles: Here Comes the Sun, I'll Follow the Sun, Sun King; the Grateful Dead's Anthem of the Sun, Sunshine Superman by Donovan, the Doors' Sunshine of Your Love, Sunlight in Her Hair, Waiting for the Sun; I Can Take You to the Sun by the Misunderstood, Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun by Pink Floyd, Paper Sun by Traffic and so forth. 

Solar imagery plays a big part of psychedelic art posters and album covers as well.  The whole hippie counterculture movement could be seen as a return to some imagined solar pagan worship, from communes to outdoor festivals, nudity and food co-ops based on small outdoor gardens.