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Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

Posted: Mon May 06, 2019 6:51 pm
by Iversen
EN: The main public library in my town has a 'language corner' each Monday from 16 to 18, but the number of participants is minimal, and you never know if there is anybody there to speak to - even in English - and then the number of participants is of course bound to stay near point zero. Today I was lucky: there was an elderly lady who was willing (and able) to have a conversation in French, so among other things we discussed her upcoming champignon collecting excursion to the forests around Silkeborg.

FR: J'ai évidemment mentionné le cas du compositeur Schobert (avec un 'o') et sa famille et leur médécin, qui selon les dictionaires de musique sont lamentablement décédés après avoir mangé un repas basé sur des champignons collectionnés par monsieur Schobert lui-même. Leur médécin s'était porté garant pour l'innocuité des champignons, et il a accepté l'invitation du compositeur à participer dans leur consommation, une décision qu'il a payée avec sa vie. Seul un enfant qui n'aimait pas les champignons a survécu. Belle histoire ... mais madame la collectrice de champignons à laquelle j'eus le plasir de parler aujourd'hui a douté qu'il y ait en Europe des champignons si toxiques qu'ils eussent pu tuer toute une famille si infailliblement qu'une explosion dans un magazin de poudre. Peut-être a-t-elle raison, mais ajoutez la visite d'un autre médécin (ou l'acte hardie de suivre encore une fois les conseils du médécin de la famille) et l'affaire semble un peu plus vraisemblable. Consulter un médécin au milieu du 18. siècle était plus dangereux que d'être fusillé.

SP: Más tarde llegó otra señora (ayudada a encontrarnos por un bibliotecario), un estudiante de arquitectura que estaba muy interesada en un proyecto para integrar plantas - hasta arboles enteros - en edificios. Yo mencioné que esto era un proyecto con raices historicas: comenzó con la reina Semiramis de Babilonia y sus jardines colgantes, que fue una de las siete maravillas de la antiguïdad.

EN: before the session in French I read about a quarter of the Colloquial Ukrainian, which can be motivated by the fact that I'll pass through Lviv sometime next month. It worried me however that one of the texts in the book claimed that it was impossible to buy an Ukranian dictionary in Odessa. I hope it will be possible in Lviv since I have a glaring hole in my dictionary collection with Ukranian, and I really ought to do something about it.

In my last message I mentioned that I went through a number of texts yesterday, so let's do that now - but briefly:

One text in Bulgarian (from fakti.bg) about the Yeti of Himalaya.
BU: Повечето легенди около Йети ги характеризират като някаква маймуна или хуманоид, но EN: in this article it was stated that a recent test based upon DNA analysis had shown that one tissue specimen was from a dog and the rest were from 'coffee bears' (i.e. brown bears) - albeit from a lineage that had been isolated from other brown bears for more than 600.000 years and was considered to be extinct. So if such a critter could be localized it would be a discovery almost at the level of catching a live yeti.

The next text was about the Doric dialect (and in Greek), but I have already mentioned that one.

The third text (from tech.sme.sk) was in Slovakian and described the find of the first moon outside our solar system - but no ordinary Moon. The 'mother planet' is in itself massive, one of the socalled super Jupiters, and the moon is thought to be around the size of the planet Neptune. SLOK: Samozrejme je ťažké nájsť mesiace mimo našej slnečnej sústavy. EN: In this case minute variations in the extent of the occlusion of the star's light were analyzed, and they were interpreted as sign of a moon circling the occluding planet. With small moons that method won't be possible.

The fourth text was in Icelandic (from ruv.is), and it told about queen Nefertite, whose famous bust can be seen in the Neues Museum in Berlin. She was married to farao Ekhnaton, but according to the article probably not mother to his successor Tut-Ankh-Amun. And then I ask: how do they know that? Weren't the mummy of Nefertitii one of those that never were found? It seems that the speculations mostly have concerned a mummy named 'the younger lady', who actually might be the real mother of king Tut, but who seems to be too young to be Nefertiti. But if this mummy isn't Nefertiti then I don't think the archeologists have any other proposal ready. My guess is that the hatred against Ekhnaton among the Amun priesters was so great that they wouldn't have minded using his body as fertilizer, and the same fate could have befallen the mummy of Nefertiti. btw: the article also mentions the possibility that a certain Smenkare, who ruled for a very short time between Eknaton and Tut, actually was Nefertiti in disguise. Well, nobody knows, but it seems extremely unlikely to me - especially since Nefertiti disappears from public life during the last years of Ekhnaton's reign.

The fifth text was in Bahasa Indonesia, but against expectation the article mostly tells about ... INDO: Gunung Fuji (Fujiyama) di Jepang, yang sangat indah, tetapi juga gunung api yang berpotensi beraktif. Selama gempa bumi pada tahun 1707 gunung Fuji memuntahkan abu, bukan lava, dan itu tampak seperti letusan Gunung Agung di Bali pada tahun 2018, di mana ada juga abu, a tidak lava bercahaya..

EN: It was in connection with my work with this text that I discovered an unrevised wordlist and went through some 270 words for the second time.

The last text yesterday was taken from the Low German Wikipedia and it told about the Permian and the Triassic periods in the history of the Earth. At this point I didn't really feel like copying more text by hand so it couldn't become anything more than an extensive reading of four A4 sheets in Platt (without translation because it isn't necessary). I'm slightly impressed by the length of these articles in Low German about fairly exotic topics. Somewhere in Northern Germany there must be one single laudable Plattophone nerd who has become sufficiently interested in paleontology to write (or transfer) these lengthy articles to his/her native language, and I think I owe myself to seek out any other articles from the same source about the remaining earth periods.

The book on my night-chair (not table) is still the Greek grammar from Routledge, but having worked my way through the texts above I didn't feel like reading more about ANYTHING.

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Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

Posted: Mon May 06, 2019 7:06 pm
by IronMike
Iversen wrote:The fourth text was in Icelandic (from ruv.is), and it told about queen Nefertite, whose famous bust can be seen in the Neues Museum in Berlin. She was married to farao Ekhnaton, but according to the article probably not mother to his successor Tut-Ankh-Amun. And then I ask: how do they know that? Weren't the mummy of Nefertitii one of those that never were found? It seems that the speculations mostly have concerned a mummy named 'the younger lady', who actually might be the real mother of king Tut, but who seems to be too young to be Nefertiti. But if this mummy isn't Nefertiti then I don't think the archeologists have any other proposal ready. My guess is that the hatred against Ekhnaton among the Amun priesters was so great that they wouldn't have minded using his body as fertilizer, and the same fate could have befallen the mummy of Nefertiti. btw: the article also mentions the possibility that a certain Smenkare, who ruled for a very short time between Eknaton and Tut, actually was Nefertiti in disguise. Well, nobody knows, but it seems extremely likely to me - especially since Nefertiti disappears from public life during the last years of Ekhnaton's reign.

I subscribe to KMT magazine, and in the last couple of issues there were articles on the Younger Lady, Nefertiti's mummy, and plenty on the Amarna period vis-a-vis Akhenaten. If you can get those copies you'll enjoy the articles. Unfortunately, when I am done with each issue, I give it to my local library, so I can't send them to you. :(

Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

Posted: Mon May 06, 2019 7:07 pm
by David1917
Iversen wrote:EN: before the session in French I read abaout a quarter of the Colloquial Ukrainian, which can be motivated by the fact that I'll pass through Lviv sometime next month. It worried me however that one of the texts in the book claimed that it was impossible to buy an Ukranian dictionary in Odessa. I hope it will be possible in Lviv since I have a glaring hole in my dictionary collection with Ukranian, and I really ought to do something about it.


I'm sure that's an outdated claim in general, and especially with the more recent nationalist policies in Ukraine, I think you'll have a much easier time finding a Ukrainian dictionary than when that book was first released in the mid-1990's, even in Odessa. I spent one day in Lvov a few years ago, and really enjoyed it. Don't forget to get some coffee and chocolate!

Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

Posted: Mon May 06, 2019 7:12 pm
by Arnaud
"Poisonneux" n'existe pas, on peut dire "toxique", mais pour les champignons, on préfère dire "vénéneux".
Voici un petit article qui explique la différence entre les deux mots qu'on utilise habituellement: vénéneux et venimeux (étonnamment, certains animaux peuvent être vénéneux)

Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

Posted: Mon May 06, 2019 7:27 pm
by Iversen
I definitely try to buy an Ukrainian dictionary in Lviv - although it might have the same problem as the Polish dictionary I once bought in Krakow or some of the Icelandic ones I have bought in Reykjavík, namely that they are written for local learners of foreign languages. But right now I have absolutely nothing in or about Ukrainian so I have to do something. It is humiliating and pathetic (and stupid) for a learner of the Slavonic languages not also to own an Ukrainian dictionary.

As for the Colloquial I mentioned above it seems to be a fairly good textbook, with both tapes and CDs, and if it weren't for the fact that I try to avoid textbooks like the plague I might choose to buy it.

As for Nefertiti and Ekhnaton and the younger Egyptian lady (found in the same tomb as an elderly lady) it's fascinating theme. I mostly know about those mummies from TV programs, but I faintly remember that one earlier program had pointed to the elderly lady as the most plausible Nefertiti - something about a tooth that was missing from the mummy and found somewhere else in the same room should point in that direction... well, my memory may have deluded me there. However I have never seen any plausible explanation concerning the whereabouts of the body of Ekhnaton. I do however remember that when one of Ramses III's sons rebelled against his father his body was actually buried, but not mummified first - the ultimate punishment for an Egyptian of royal stock. His assistants were burned alive.

FR: Merci à Arnaud pour la correction. J'ai choisi d'employer le mot "toxique" pour souligner la similarité entre la consommation de champignons vénéneux and la consomption (délibérée ou non) de strychnine ou acide cyanhydrique.

Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

Posted: Wed May 08, 2019 11:21 am
by Iversen
Monday evening I studied a Polish text about the eruption of Mount Samalas on Lombok and another one about volcanoes in Poland - luckily all extinct (they hope...). The article followed nicely in the footstep of the article in Indonesian, but I have actually had it lying around for quite some time.

INDO: Apakah saya mengatakan bahwa Gunung Samalas ada di Lombok? Itu salah karena hanya ada satu danau, dengan tetangganya Gunung Rinjani. Tetapi pernah ada gunung berapi yang meledak pada tahun 1256 dan mengganggu iklim Bumi selama beberapa tahun. Dan bahkan ada cerita dari saksi mata yang tertulis di daun palem.

POL: Wczoraj i dziś nic nie zrobiłem - przynajmniej nic o nauce języka. Mam kolekcję muzyki, zbieram również w językach, ale zbieram też na wycieczki i mam dużą kolekcję fotografii i pocztówek z moich podróży. A teraz przeglądam tę kolekcję.

Whenever I visit my mother we run through the photos and postcard from some of my and some of her travels, all in all around 41.500 items (inclduing those still waiting on my camera) . As you might expect from a multipharious nerd like me these things are all documented in a computer system designed by myself as an intranet homepage. But almost every time we do that I spot errors, like misleading photo titles (typically because two photos have been inerchanged when I made the registration), or the order is wrong or the picture has orié patterns or something. When I discover something at my own computer I can fix it right there, but yesterday I fixed some errors I had noted down from my latest family visit - and then it occured to me that I DON'T LIKE THAT MY PHOTO COLLECTION ISN'T SPOTLESS AND IN PERFECT ORDER!!! I don't like that at all :twisted: , so just as I recently went through my music collection to fill out holes and replace bad items and correct other kinds of errors I have now started a correction campaign targeting my photo and postcard collection and its registration system (which is based on HTML with half-automatized input from an Excel sheet). I started out yesterday with the first photos from around 1960 and have now reached the year 1981 - the last year before the gruesome experience of 1982, where I paid my study loans from my unemployment allowance and for the first and last time couldn't afford to go anywhere. And in a moment I intend to continue this task, and that means that there won't be much time for studying the next couple of days.

One element in this is that I also 'improve' on some pictures. I have done so before, and each time I add new pictures I have been editing most of them to make lines vertical or horisontal, remove ugly entities like scratches, telephone lines and people, but there are still a few photos and postcards that can be improved - and in a few cases that even means sheer wholesale reconstruction of an image. When colour photos first were introduced in the early 70s the blue and green colours weren't stable so now many of the old paper photos have become almost uniformly orange in colour. Sometimes I can however rescue them, although it may take some rather drastic masures to do so - like replacing the sky with another sky. Isn't that cheating you may ask? Well, maybe, but when I first pressed the button the sky didn't look like we were living on the planet Venus so why should I accept that now?

In a moment I'll show you some 'before and after' photos just for fun, even though this hasn't really anything to do with language learning. But right now it interferes heavily with my language learning so maybe that can function as an excuse, albeit admittedly a rather lame one.

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Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

Posted: Wed May 08, 2019 12:15 pm
by Iversen
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Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

Posted: Wed May 08, 2019 3:41 pm
by Cavesa
Iversen wrote:Belle histoire ... mais madame la collectrice de champignons à laquelle j'eus le plasir de parler aujourd'hui a douté qu'il y ait en Europe des champignons si toxiques qu'ils eussent pu tuer toute une famille si infailliblement qu'une explosion dans un magazin de poudre.

Mais si! L'Amanite phalloïde en est capable sans moindre doute. Et plusieurs autres, si le pauvre collecteur en aurait utilisé beaucoup.

Consulter un médécin au milieu du 28. siècle était plus dangereux que d'être fusillé.

:-D J'adore cette faute!
Mais vous avez raison, bien sûr. En ce temps-là, il y avait pas grand différence entre la médecine, la torture, et la boucherie.

Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

Posted: Wed May 08, 2019 4:36 pm
by Iversen
FR: J'ai corrigé l'anachronisme dans mon texte. Et je suis content que l'aimable collectrice de champignons à laquelle j'ai parlé lundi collectionne seulement des espèces qu'elle connait ici au Danemark. Si elle allait chercher des champignons ailleurs elle aurait peut-être une surprise désagréable - ou ce qui est pire.

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LAT: Aros, Urbs mea, facte museum habet scientiarum, Museum Stenonis nominatum, et istud etiam collectionem medicinatam continet, sed nec vero crudelitatem veram medicinae de temporibus proximis nobis reviciscere posset (aut non animum habet curatores hospites terrere). Imago infra pars collectionis prioris in modo stereoscopico ostendet.

EN: .. and if anybody wonders why the picture is double it is not because you have eaten poisonous toadstools or had too much to drink. I have made a series of stereoscopic pictures, and If you somehow can convince your left eye only to look at the image to the left and the right eye only to look at the one to the right then you'll see some medical ustensils from the collections of the Steno museum in stereo, i.e. with depth perception as if you actually was there.

And speaking about torture: those of you who go to the gathering thing in Bratislava can visit a wine and torture museum in the building right beside the City museum in the old townhall. If you miss that one there are similar museums in Sighisoara in Transylvania and in the wall surrounding the independent country of San Marino, or you can just sit down and watch the TV news or X factor in your preferred language. This world is a truly horrible place in many respects, and the only consolation must be that the good old days were even worse.

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PS: I just looked the Amanite phalloïde up, and lo and behold, we have also got it here in Denmark ('grøn fluesvamp'). But I guess that the lady from my Monday conversation is aware of that fact. I'm not a fungae specialist - I only eat the kinds of toadstools you can buy in a supermarket.

Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

Posted: Thu May 09, 2019 11:03 am
by Iversen
Today will also mostly be spent on revising my photo/postcard collection (or rather its digital version) and the registration system that makes it possible for me to access it in an orderly fashion. However in order not totally to be buried in this project I started the day with a bit of Romanian: two articles about astronomy.

RO: Eu nu adăugasem traduceri pentru acele texte, dar cel puțin în acest tip de subiect românul meu este destul de bun să-mi poate descurc fără ajutor. De fapt, nu am deschis nici un dicționar, și era cel mult una sau două cuvinte pe care nu eram sigur de sensul. Având în vedere cât de rar eu folosesc limba română, asta este destul de bun. Primul articol a fost despre un uriaș gigant roșu, care pare să fie aproape de a exploda ca o supernova. Ea și-a aruncat deja mantaua sa exterioară și apoi e normal că ceva se va întâmpla în curând (dar în astronomie, "curând" poate dura mai mulți ani - nu sta în sus așteptând acest lucru să se întâmple). Din fericire, steaua W26 nu este un al nostru vecin. Al doilea articol se referă la planete fără adăpost, adică planete care nu orbitează în jurul unei stele. Acest lucru poate fi rezultatul luptelor de putere între planete într-un sistem solar: una planetă se apropie mai mult de pe stea și o altă planetă este lovită. Apoi ea se rătăcește în spațiu, în timp ce devine mai rece și mai rece. Și nu-i de loc ușor pentru astronomii să descopere astfel de planete rătăcite.

EN: As for my photo/postcard/registration data revision I got to the year 1991 yesterday (or rather after midnight around 2:00). And my travel activity soared throughout the 90s so this project has become more labour consuming than I had expected, but it was also about time for something to be done about it. And in the process I get all my travel experiences refreshed, which from any point of view is a good thing. For instance I visited the USA, Mexico, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, most of Eastern Europe and the USSR outside Moscow and Leningrad (as it was called back then) during the time period I covered yesterday, and today I hope to reach at least the year 2000. OK, that may be a wee bit optimistical, but at least I'll cover my one and only tour around the Globe plus my first trips to Egypt and Japan and China and Australia. And not least the trip to Chile, where it turned out that I remembered enough of my Spanish to get by - which actually came as a complete surprise. I think the seminal point was when I sat down with an innkeeper in Villarica and discovered that I could discuss travel experiences in Spanish while eating Apfelkuchen.

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