Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

[Ogrim]

I just wonder whether the Llorgs actually are more interested in cooking than they are in learning languages. But it has been very entertaining to read about the use of rösti in foreign countries.

Which reminds me about another strange fact about France: the French apparent like to eat their steaks almost raw - if I ever choose to eat a steak there I'll have to tell the cook to fry it until it stops being elastic (and stops being red inside).

I said I would stop discussing food, but since you talk about steaks in France I can't resist. The French indeed like their "filet de boeuf" or "entrecôte" red, and when a waiter asks you how you want your meat done, you're expected to answer "bleu" (just turned around in the pan so it is totally raw on the inside), "saignant" (a bit more done than "bleu" but when you cut it it will be pretty bloody), or "à point" (not bleeding any more but still red on the inside). Asking for the meet to be "bien cuit" is almost a heresy, and there are stories about chefs who have insulted the customer who dared to question the quality of the meat in this way. Personally I normally go for the "saignant" version, but I do understand it is not to everyone's taste.

[Iversen]

J'aurais préféré insulter le chef plutôt de manger un boeuf sanglant. Le problème, c'est qu'on ne sait si le chef affronté crache sur mon repas ou non ...

Kunst065.JPG

[Jar-Ptitsa]

I had a very thin steak in London, and the choice was "rare" or "well done". I asked if it's possible to have "medium" but then it was burned like on a BBQ and smelled of the burning. I don't know what the "well done" one would be, probably some ashes.

Next time I will order "rare". My friend had "rare" and it was not like I had thought, which was with the blood, but it wasn't. The differences are very big between how they make steak. Except the steak, it was a very nice restaurant. The ice cream with chocolate sauce was delicious and had chocolates like pieces from an enromous Easter egg, although it wasn't at Easter. I recommend the desserts in England, they are delicious, but you must be careful with the steak!!!

Iversen, I want to eat the pizza and fish and chips on your log. Your log will be half eaten haha In England you can buy chocolate log, which is quite nice and I think that it's a Chirstmas cake.

[Iversen]

I have been on a four day visit to my mother's place, and as usually gardening became my dominant activity - and this time there was a sequel as the upcoming berry season is drawing closer. Well, the strawberries weren't going to bother us since they almost drowned in the rain of the last couple of weeks, but the season of the blackcurrants, redcurrants and raspberries is almost here .. so for the second time this year we had to cook 3 kilograms of 'forest berry' marmelade in order to make space in her freezer for the new harvest. I/we did however also find time for a bit of TV gazing, and on my way home I read 87 pages of Spanish in the train. More about that later.

GER: Im deutschen Fernsehen gibt's eine Reihe von Quizsendungen namens "Wer weiß doch so etwas". Zwei teams, jeder mit zwei Teilnemer (darunter ein Gast und ein 'Wiedergänger'), sollen unmögliche Fragen beantworten. Sie kriegen jedesmal drei Möglichkeiten, und einmal dürfen sie das Publikum fragen - das heißt, jemand vom Publikum hinter ihnen springt auf und beantwortet die betreffende Frage. Die Lücke des Vorhaben ist, daß diese Antwort immer gilt - auch wenn die Person ein Vollidiot ist, dessen Antwort nur eine wilde Vermutung sei, die das Team besser selbst machen könnte. Mitunter könnten die Teilnemer aber besser informiert sein - als wenn es gefragt wurde, was gleichzeitig mit den Anfängen des europïachen Rittertums wäre: die goldene Zeitalter der Maya, der Anfang des chinesischen Kaisertums oder die ersten Tagen des Altpersischen Reiches. Eines der zwei Teams hat falsch geantwortet - wie kann das vorkommen mit so einer einfachen Frage ?

IT: Un'altra emissione (in inglese) descrisse il vasto sistema di grotte sotto Napoli. La città è in gran parte costruita di tufo volcanica, e le vaste miniere si trovano direttamente sotto le strade e case. Sotto la dinastia borbonica (nell'ottocento) le miniere sono stati collegate in modo che possano essere utilizzate come via di fuga per il re, e di più ci sono oggi almeno 8.000 pozzi privati che portano basso verso le cavità sotteranee. Non sò se si può visitarle come turista non-VIP, ma presumibilmente ci sono visite guidate -visite guidate per evitare la puzza di una folla di mommi essicati di turisti erranti nei corridoi.

Nello stesso programma si ha anche parlato di Ercolano - meno visitato di Pompei, ma meglio preservato perché stava più vicino al Vesuvio - e della città di Baia, luogo preferito di balneazione per i Romani (e fuori dalla portata di Vesuvio nell'anno LXXIX). Ho visitato Ercolano e Pompei, ma non ancora Baia - ma si dovrebbe farlo prima dell'eruzione previsto del supervulcano che si trova sotto i Campi Flegrei.

SP: Mi lectura ferroviaria se llama "Introducción a la España medieval" (escrito en inglés por Gabriel Jackson, ma tradotto en español). He leído el prólogo y los tres primeros capítulos, che describian el período musulmán hasta el seculo XII. Lo más sorprendente es quanto fue fácil la conquista islamica y el derrocamiento del reino visigodo. Se hace referencia a contiendas internas entre los visigodos dominantes y a las circunstancias poco razonables de la población rural: "el campesinado había soportado una condición de cuasi-esclavitud, teniendo que entregar a los señores del 50 al 80 por 100 de las cosechas, los musulmanes trataron a los campesinos como libres, exigiéndoles solamente entre el 20 y el 50 por 100 de sus productos."

Restos-de-la-igreja-(visigoda)-San-Vincent-bajo-la-Mesquita-di-Cordoba_F5112a05.jpg

[Iversen]

I have now checked the homepage of the Polyglot conference in Reykjavik 2017 with the intention of proceeding to the actual booking of flight tickets and accommodation - provided that the prices wouldnt't too ridiculously exorbitant - but then I saw that the submission of lecture proposals ended already in April, and my interest waned.

[Iversen]

A couple of days ago I watched a TV program with N.dG. Tyson about a group of female stellar astronomers and their troubles. The American astronomer Pickering had organized a group of women known as his ....

"Computers or "Pickering's Harem", a team of women researchers under Pickering's mentorship, to catalog the spectra. This team included Annie Jump Cannon, who developed the stellar classification system, and Henrietta Swan Leavitt, who discovered the means to measure the distance from a star to the earth by its spectra, later used to identify other galaxies in the universe. Later, this team included Cecilia Payne, who would develop a good friendship with Cannon; Payne's thesis based on her work with Cannon was able to determine the composition and temperature of the stars, collaborating with Cannon's classification " (quote WIkipedia)

Quite impressive accomplishments, and I did know that these women existed, but not precisely what they did. One detail struck me, namely that Payne had sent her thesis to the respected astronomer Russell. In this thesis she demonstrated that the main ingredient in the Sun is hydrogen, with helium as a distant second contender, and that the rest of the elements are represented in more or less the same proportions as on the Earth. Russell didn't believe that hydrogen was so common, and Payne had to add a comment to her dissertation in which she basically declared that the idea probably was wrong - while keeping the calculations that proved it. Four years later Russell repented, and to his credit he did so publicly.

The name Russell reminded me about the famous Hertzsprung-Russell diagram that shows the luminosities and temperatures of stars (see below), and I wondered whether Payne's thesis had come before or after the diagram - but it turned out that the diagram had been published first. Now I have been reading about it, and just for fun I have studied the Russian Wikipedia article about it to train my Russian ("Диаграмма Герцшпрунга — Рассела" - please notice the spelling) - and I discovered that Mr. Hertzsprung may have been Danish, but he did most of his research in Germany..

RU: России статья, однако, является относительно короткой, так что я должен найти подробности на версии на английском языке. Датская версия также длиннее.. Герцшпрунга опубликовал свои выводы в 1905 году, но в неясном немецком журнале "Zeitschrift für Wissenschaftliche Photographie, Photophysik und Photochemie", и Рассел достигал своих результатов позже, но, по-видимому, не зная статью Герцшпрунга (вероятно написанный на немецком языке). Эти два астрономы встретились позже и, как видимо, сотрудничали на окончательной формулировке, которая пришел в 2011 году.

GE: Die Leute von „Wer weiß doch sowas“ haben mich gerade schockiert: die heutige Meisterfrage lautete: Wie viele Planeten kreisen innerhalb der Erdbahn? Antwortmöglichkeiten : 1 (Merkur), 2 (Merkur, Venus), 3 (Merkur, Venus, Mars). Wie kann jemand jedoch sowas NICHT wissen?? Und glücklicherweise wußten beide Teams dies (Antwort B, natürlich!) und haben mich so nicht zutiefst enttäuscht. Am anderen Ende des Sonnensystems ist die Situation etwas komplizierter, seitdem Pluto zu Zwergplanet degradiert wurde. Viele Menschen wurden wärend ihrer Schulzeit von seinem Planetenstatus anders informiert und haben vielleicht auch alte Bücher zuhause. Eine Fehler hier könnte ich verstehen.

H-R-diagram-(Wiikipedia).jpg

[Iversen]

This year my musical digressions have taken time from my language learning, and some languages have suffered more than others. I decided to do something about Bulgarian - and what was more natural than to continue my forays into the world of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram? I found an article by Rumen Dimitrov on a site called physicstime.com ("Диаграмата на Ейнар Херцшпрунг и Хенри Ръсел") and supplemented with some Wikipedia articles - well, actually it was the other way round because I first had to discover how to spell the two astronomers' names, but I read the Dimitrov article first.

And curiously, this lead into a different direction. I had made bilingual printouts, but that was not really necessary since I found that I still could read the Bulgarian text with very few peeks into the translation (one advantage of reading popular science texts instead of fiction!). I noticed a linguistic particularity which reminded me of Romanian, namely that the enclitic definite article in Bulgarian goes to the adjective if it precedes the substantive - which isn't the case in the Nordic language,s where we also have enclitic definite articles: "над главната последователност" ("over mainThe sequence"). And then I began thinking about whether this also would be the case in Albanian, which according to some theories is the original source of the enclitic articles in a number of other Balkan languages). Now the normal position of the adjective in Albanian is after the substantive, often with a connector in between, but some examples suggest that other possible members of the nominal phrase can stand first and receive the article. I do however find it worrying that I have forgotten my fledgling Albanian to such an extent that I can't even remember whether adjectives can precede their substantive - and even more that my books about Albanian and the homepages I located couldn't give me a simple answer in seconds. Now I also have to revive my Albanian, which will put even more strain on my time management - but it has to be done. I do not expect to learn to speak Albanian anytime soon, but it is a shame and disgrace that I have problems remembering even the most basic grammatical facts .. and even more that I have problems reading simple sentences.

BU: Изненада ме кратко, че мога да чета споменатите български статиите без големи проблеми. Но това е много време, от както съм написал нещо на български език. За щастие, аз притежавам граматика (на френски) и малки речници до и от италиански и немски. Купих тези пътувания на пътуване. Харесва ми, че на българскията език винаги пишат на кирилица. Последният път, когато посетих Сърбия, аз не можах да намеря двуезичен речник сръбски във версията на кирилица. Въпреки това, аз рано сте купили един английски до и от сръбски речник, а в допълнение и Langenscheidt речник до и от немски език.

BA I: Juga membaca tentang diagram dan artikel lain mengenai bintang di Wikipedia Indonesia. Dalam artikel umum pada bintang saya membaca kalimat yang mengejutkan saya (karena ditambahkan ke sendiri Newton): "Untuk menjelaskan mengapa bintang-bintang ini tidak memberikan tarikan gravitasi pada tata surya, Isaac Newton mengusulkan bahwa bintang-bintang terdistribusi secara merata di seluruh langit, sebuah ide yang berasal dari teolog Richard Bentley." . Rata-rata ada mungkin banyak massa ke segala arah, tapi itu tidak masalah. Kami berdiri di atas bumi, bumi berputar mengelilingi matahari, dan matahari mengorbit pusat Bima Sakti - dan bergerak terburu-buru gila menuju suatu tempat di mana ia akan bertabrakan dengan nebula Andromeda. Ide alam semesta secara keseluruhan latar belakang telah disalahgunakan untuk menjelaskan teori relativitas Einstein membuat astronaut muda dari orang-orang yang tinggal di rumah - tapi itu menyebabkan akselerasi.

Astrologi.JPG

[Iversen]

GE: Ich spendete gestern ziemlich viel Zeit auf Musik, und zwar vor allem auf Musik aus Rumänien. Es begann eigentlich damit, daß ich das Stück "Rumänisch" des deutschen Komponisten Josef Bernhard Knümann gespielt habe - das absolut einziges in der Welt, wofür dieser Herr bekannt sei. Und mir ist dann der Gedanke eingefallen, daß er vermutlich mehr geschrieben hätte, und dann gibt's nur ein Ding zu tun: Youtube besuchen. Und ich fand tatzächlich von Jo Knümann ein "Hungarisch", dessen erstes Thema das Hauptthema ersten Klavierkonzert von Liszt ähnelt, und ein "Russisch" mit mehrere wohlbekannte Russischen Melodien. Es kann aber nicht wundern, daß mir auch die Gedanke gekommen sei, daß es außer Enescu auch andere echt Rumänischen Komponisten in der Tat geben könnte, und so war es tatsächlich.

RO: Eu am găsit muzica compozitorii precum Brânzeu, Bretan, Negrea și Kogalski - și asta s-a dezvoltat chiar în direcția de lectură în limba română, așa cum sa dovedit că Wikipedia în limba engleză sau daneză nu dețin articole despre acești compositori - dar există biografii mici despre ei în limba română. Descoperirea cea mai neașteptată de azi totuși a fost o femeie pe nume Liana Alexandra, care a trăit în anii 1947-2011 - ceea mai neașteptat este că ceaa mai mare parte dintre muzica ei de fapt suna bine (într-o perioadă în care muzica a cei mai mulți colegi suna ca porci țipânzi furați de către motani isterici - cu fermierul aruncăndu-și într-un colț). Una dintre lucrarile cele mai răsunătoare Alexandrei este Simfonia 9 "Ierusalim",care amintește de sunetul muzicii lui Hovhaness, pe care l-am menționat recent.

Există un alt lucru pozitiv de spus despre Alexandra: se poate descărcată gratuit notele pentru toate lucrările sale la situl IMSPL. Poate fi că acest lucru se datorează faptului că nu a putut câștiga destui bani pentru ca editorii comerciali să le-ar imprima - și dacă este adevărat, asta este desigur un gând trist. Cu toate acestea Alexandra are un tind să părăsească o părți mare ale design creativ pentru muzicieni, cum ar fi trecerea de mai jos de la Fantazia pentru violoncel și pian. Uneori nu există o diviziune clară în baruri, sau muzica este notat doar în mod aproximativ. De pilda a lăsat violoncelistului inventarea de alunecare în sus și în jos corzile instrumentului în pasajul ilustrat mai jos - o ce da un efect ca un fel de sirenă (cfr. min. 4'42"). Ar trebui să sune urât, dar de fapt Alexandra - și muzicieni! - faceau ca să sune ca muzica. Totuși eu nu pot citi notele și ghici cum ar trebuie să sune muzica - și aceea mă deranjează.

Alexandra.jpg

[Iversen]

LA: Quoties ego coquo (servum non habeo) saepe cucinam relinquere non possum ut ne cibaria periclitetur - placenta compressa (italica lingva "pizza") valde nigra fieri potest si in fornace sine tutela perpetua relicta sit. Sed tempus sperandi mihi odiosus est et quamobrem occulatione ephemeri requiro. Interdum ephemeridas lego, interdum omnes earum jam legi et alterna optioni requiro - et quamobrem ludum japonicum "sudoku" solvo (inflectio quam "genu", credo).

Ludus matematicus est, ubi chartam cum cellulis LXIV habemus de IX quadra composta, unusquisque cum III * III cellulis. In omnibus columnis, omnibus ordinibus et omnibus quadris numeri I ad IX distribuendi sunt, sed auctores jam aliquot numeri indicaverunt, id quod restrictiones solvatoribus ludi imponet. Exempli gratia: hic modo numerus V in loco vacuo licitus est

Sudoku-1a.jpg

Alium exemplum:

Sudoku-1.jpg

In ordine I, positione V, modo numerus IV licitus est. IX Illicitus est quia jam IX in eadem columna stat, et V illicitus est quia in eadem quadra de III * III cellulis. Bone, quid in positione IV scribere? Numerum V jam utimus, et V etiamnum illicitus est, igitur IX scribimus. Et positioni IX modo optio V restat:

Sudoku-2a.jpg

Tamen solutio immediata non semper exstat. Se inter plures optiones nescio quam eligere, in omnes cellulis vacuis numeros chirographo minusculo et in alia colore scribo. Hic numerus IV in positioni V certus (et licitus) erat, sed nescimus quid in positionibus IV et IX scribere:

Sudoku-3.jpg

Forsitan nunc restrictiones occultas extant quae mihi permitterent novas cellulas cum numeris implere, sed ars sudokua solvanda valde complicata est, et hic non omnis stropha enumeratura est. Modo unum exemplum:

Sudoku-4.jpg

Putamus in positionibus V et IX modo numeros V et IX licites esse. Istae duae cellulae igitur occupant duas ex tria optionium quae in positone IV licitae erant, et modo restat numerus IV, qui igitur certus est:

sudoku-4a.jpg

Programmata computralibus existant qua sudokua solvent, et ego egomet iamdudum tabulam calculatoriam (Excel) construxi, quae strophes diversam per grados intermediarios applicavit, ita ut supra descripsi. Sed - homo vel macchina - interdum situationes occorent ubi solutiones immediatae non sunt - ne quidem restrictiones 'occultas' observante inter cellulas cum solutionibus alternativis. Facte semper solutio unica in sudoku bonum existat, et itaque situatio (ut videtur) sine solutio modo situatio est ubi stropha idonea non jam inventa sit. Tamen saepe simplicius est experimentum facere. In cellula (potius cellula cum solum duas optionibus, aut cellula quae una ex solum dua cellula sit quae quendam numerum capere posset) conjectionem indicatur, et opera solvendi continuatur. Si contradictionem inveniemus, conjunctio falsa erat et alterna possibilitas igitur vera essere debet. Et ego opino quod ars conjectiones jucundas agnoscendi summum opus solvatoribus constituit.

EN: 'Nuff said about sudokus. I have also read some popular science texts and one about a Westgothic law text, which now has appeared in a Russian translation, but that will have to wait for later. I could however not resist from mentioning that while I composed the Latin text above I was watching TV made by a fringe phenomena, namely people who believe in the idea that extraterrestrial beings not only have visited the Earth, but also restructured the human genome .. and maybe even 'terraformed' the Earth to make it suitable for us. The idea of terraforming has come up in connection with Mars, which by some individuals is seen as the place we (all?) should emigrate to if (or rather when) we have destroyed the environment here ourselves or will see it destroyed by an asteroid soon. The idea is that by deliberately infusing the Martian atmosphere by greenhouse gases and liberating the frozen water at the poles we could make the climate there somewhat more clement. The reality is that even after an impact the size of the one that eradicated all dinosaurs (minus the birds) 65 mio. years ago it would be easier to re-terraform the Earth than to do the same work at Mars. Besides the Earth has been successively terraformed throughout its history, but the main events took place several billions of years ago: first when water was reintroduced to the Earth by a swath of waterbearing meteorites after its first scorching 2-300.000.0000 years, next when blue-green algae started producing an extremely poisonous gas named oxygen ... at least most of the organisms who lived back then found it extremely unpleasant and they had to retreat to the most inhospitable locations on the planet, like inside rocks or in hot lakes. Everything that has happened since then is of minor importance and has absolutely nothing to do with us ... except of course the changes in the nature which we are causing. But we can't blame extraterrestrials for those.

[Josquin]

GE: Ich spendete gestern ziemlich viel Zeit auf Musik, und zwar vor allem auf Musik aus Rumänien. Es begann eigentlich damit, daß ich das Stück "Rumänisch" des deutschen Komponisten Josef Bernhard Knümann gespielt - das absolut einziges in der Welt, wofür dieser Herr bekannt sei. Und mir ist dann der Gedanke eingefallen, daß er vermutlich mehr geschrieben hätte, und dann gibt's nur ein Ding zu tun: Youtube besuchen. Und ich fand tatzächlich von Jo Knümann ein "Hungarisch", dessen erstes Thema das Hauptthema ersten Klavierkonzert von Liszt ähnelt, und ein "Russisch" mit mehrere wohlbekannte Russischen Melodien. Es kann aber nicht wundern, daß mir auch die Gedanke gekommen sei, daß es außer Enescu auch andere echt Rumänischen Komponisten in der Tat geben könnte, und so war es tatsächlich.

Hallo Iversen,

ich möchte deinen Post nicht korrigieren -- das ist bis auf ein paar Kleinigkeiten auch gar nicht nötig --, aber ich möchte dir den Tipp geben, dass es den Ausdruck "Zeit auf etw. spenden" im Deutschen nicht gibt. Das ist eine wörtliche Übersetzung aus dem Englischen ("to spend time"), die auf Deutsch leider keinen Sinn ergibt. Der richtige Ausdruck wäre "Zeit mit etw. verbringen". "To spend money on sth." wäre übrigens "Geld für etw. ausgeben". Außerdem übertreibst du ein wenig mit dem Konjunktiv, meistens wäre der Indikativ richtig. Und "Ungarisch" schreibt sich ohne h. Aber nein, ich wollte deinen Eintrag ja nicht korrigieren...

Danke übrigens dafür, dass du mich mit Herrn Knümann bekannt gemacht hast! Er war mir bisher gänzlich unbekannt. Das Thema von "Ungarisch" ähnelt nicht nur dem Hauptthema aus Liszts erstem Klavierkonzert, es ist genau dasselbe Thema. Liszts Anhänger pflegten darauf "Das versteht ihr alle nicht" zu singen, da dessen Musik so neu und avantgardistisch erschien. Aber ich muss dir hier sicher keine Vorträge über die Neudeutsche Schule halten...