caroljane

Exactly! That covers the vocal aesthetics. Other scholars have covered scornfully smiling, briefly smiling, grimly smiling (hard to do but ethically justifiable), grinning (only for peons) smirking and sneering (copyrightTM estate of Ayn Rand)done only by fictional villains who thought they knew better. Now laughing - is that like pre-music, like Mozart? Unthinkable about? "Howard Roark laughed!" Howard Roark is a fictional hero! We are mere mortals, and need guidance.

I think there is sufficient prima facie evidence to accept Greenberg's Amerind hypothesis, which holds that except for the Eskimo-Aleut and the Na-Dene (of North/west North America) all the natives of the Americas speak languages descended from a common ancestor. My understanding is that the anthropological evidence supports this also. There is certainly no positive evidence contradicting the hypothesis - all objections are epistemologically skeptical rather than counterevidentiary in nature. My investigation has been rather superficial, and, unlike as is the case with Siberia (where sufficient documentation and reconstruction work is available) there isn't much to go on in the Americas. But what there is all points to Greenberg being right. Greenberg is largely right in his assertion that the majority of languages of Siberia are related to Indo-European in his Eurasiatic family. But his inclusion of Ainu in Eurasiatic strikes me as obviously unfounded - so I do believe it possible he may have made mistakes in the Americas. The problem is that those who criticize him, and who are in a position to truly test his work, rely on authority and raised voices rather than an appeal to facts to disprove him. I strongly recommend: George Campbell's Concise Compendium of the World's Languages http://www.amazon.co...99991548&sr=8-1 Anatole Lyovin's An Introduction to the Languages of the World http://www.amazon.co...99991690&sr=1-5 for a survey of world languages (Cambell has sketches of dozens of languages, Lyovin detalied samples of the major families) and, especially: Merritt Ruhlen's The Origin of Language http://www.amazon.co...99991864&sr=1-1 Ruhlen's book presents the evidence for deep time linguistic relationships in a way perfectly valid and accessible to the interested layman. Thanks Ted. I will look for Ruhlen. I have been interested in linguistic history theory since I read about epigraphy-based Welsh-in-America, Troy-is-Camelot, and so on - now that we are all more and more one world it is even more fun to think about. There is a movement here to save the aboriginal languages which are dying out, and with them the irretrievable culture and history they embody. Such movements have succeeded in reviving gaelic for example (not to mention Hebrew) so I hope and will do whatever I can to help that they can succeed also. Ruhlen is out of print, buy the book used. He provides the word lists and lets you figure out which families are related by comparing the roots. My grandmother spoke a dying language which has stories evincing pagan, and even pre-Indo-European roots that would be familiar from Frazer's Golden Bough and Graves' White Goddess. I agree with the value of what is being lost be see little hope of doing more than documenting the dying tongues. I lived on Majorca for 8 months (ay Caramba!) and saw Graves's house, I loved the White Goddess and of course the Claudii.Did not care so much for his translations. For my money Mary Renault is the best storyteller of myth/history/philosophy from the Indo-European through the Hellenic. Yo Phil, are you ready for the test? "un jour triste et pensif, assis au bord des flots, au courant fugitif, il addressa ces mots: si tu vois mon pays, mon pays malheureux, va dis a mes amis, que je me souviens d'eux". Who said this (in ancient Greek or whatever)? 1. Alexander the Great, running away from the palace again 2. Theseus, dead and rememebering Athens 3. Trick question. You can guess too Ted.

I think there is sufficient prima facie evidence to accept Greenberg's Amerind hypothesis, which holds that except for the Eskimo-Aleut and the Na-Dene (of North/west North America) all the natives of the Americas speak languages descended from a common ancestor. My understanding is that the anthropological evidence supports this also. There is certainly no positive evidence contradicting the hypothesis - all objections are epistemologically skeptical rather than counterevidentiary in nature. My investigation has been rather superficial, and, unlike as is the case with Siberia (where sufficient documentation and reconstruction work is available) there isn't much to go on in the Americas. But what there is all points to Greenberg being right. Greenberg is largely right in his assertion that the majority of languages of Siberia are related to Indo-European in his Eurasiatic family. But his inclusion of Ainu in Eurasiatic strikes me as obviously unfounded - so I do believe it possible he may have made mistakes in the Americas. The problem is that those who criticize him, and who are in a position to truly test his work, rely on authority and raised voices rather than an appeal to facts to disprove him. I strongly recommend: George Campbell's Concise Compendium of the World's Languages http://www.amazon.com/Concise-Compendium-Worlds-Languages-Campbell/dp/0415160499/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299991548&sr=8-1 Anatole Lyovin's An Introduction to the Languages of the World http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Languages-World-Anatole-Lyovin/dp/0195081161/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1299991690&sr=1-5 for a survey of world languages (Cambell has sketches of dozens of languages, Lyovin detalied samples of the major families) and, especially: Merritt Ruhlen's The Origin of Language http://www.amazon.com/Origin-Language-Tracing-Evolution-Mother/dp/0471159638/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1299991864&sr=1-1 Ruhlen's book presents the evidence for deep time linguistic relationships in a way perfectly valid and accessible to the interested layman. Thanks Ted. I will look for Ruhlen. I have been interested in linguistic history theory since I read about epigraphy-based Welsh-in-America, Troy-is-Camelot, and so on - now that we are all more and more one world it is even more fun to think about. There is a movement here to save the aboriginal languages which are dying out, and with them the irretrievable culture and history they embody. Such movements have succeeded in reviving gaelic for example (not to mention Hebrew) so I hope and will do whatever I can to help that they can succeed also.

Exactly! That covers the vocal aesthetics. Other scholars have covered scornfully smiling, briefly smiling, grimly smiling (hard to do but ethically justifiable), grinning (only for peons) smirking and sneering (copyrightTM estate of Ayn Rand)done only by fictional villains who thought they knew better. Now laughing - is that like pre-music, like Mozart? Unthinkable about?

I love this stuff. Do you have an opinion on the pre-Columbian habitation of S.America as not coming across the Bering Strait? There seems to be some convincing evidence that people were already there, or came from somewhere southern, before the conventional dates. From lanuage we know about the Arctic and subarctic and eventual Canadian aboriginals of course. I am also fascinated by the Red Paint People. Carol dilettante

What's your point? That nothing in the entire situation could have possibly turned out better than it did? That our authoritarian, immoral method of governing has created the best possible utopia? Shayne, I thought that my point was illustrating your point. Competent people carried out a task. A superimposed government yakmouth made an uninformed announcement for his own unfathomable political reasons. The tsunami did not destroy parts of our west coast so yes,nothing could have turned out better than it did. Shayne

Iam curious though, do you know the sentence? It is sexist so of course I do not know it myself personally. Carol back from the beer store but rational and moving on in a coordinated fashion

Shayne, how apropos that you mentioned tsunamis. Just today the head of the emergency alert department in BC complimented her team on how perfectly the system worked in assessing, warning and preparation for flood danger. The only glitch was an inexplicable announcement by a federal politician that the danger was over, when it officially wasn't.

I hope and trust that your chuckle was properly integrated as appropriate. There are rules about these things you know.

Mine is Eddie. There's only one.

Oh no, that's not what it was about. It was a about a 'tightwad' attitude when it comes to romance. I have yet to see a tightwad who is a great lover, but to be fair, I have not collected enough 'personal data' to make this bold assertion. For I know about tightwads in that special field only via their partners' complaints, but those complaints were often pretty outspoken. All I can say it would be the absolute erotic 'downer' for me (and probably for most women) to know that a man makes "cost-efectiveness calculations" before engaging in a romantic relationship. Just speculating here: maybe a man who clings to his money also finds it hard to "give" in that other area. Carol: So the hidden agenda is that all women are trading what for money? Adam there is a great joke that will go along with a certain answer I think I know - is the punchline, "I already know that, we're just negotiating the price here"? Yep, See that is what I like about you. So answer the question. Adam The answer as you probably know as a mature man, is absolutely no, and some women like some men have hidden agendas but that is their problem.Everyone here is or knows someone who has a mother who married a poor man for love (that includes my mother and me)and anyone who chooses a partner for any other reason is just to be pitied but not censured.. Enough with the serious for now,I have answered your question, just don't ask me to use the word horticulture in a sentence.

Cunstituional Monarchy? We have that in Canada. Carol Cannot believe I wrote this and will deny it forevermore but could not resist, it is totally out of character, I have many excuses going to the beer store to get them right now

Oh no, that's not what it was about. It was a about a 'tightwad' attitude when it comes to romance. I have yet to see a tightwad who is a great lover, but to be fair, I have not collected enough 'personal data' to make this bold assertion. For I know about tightwads in that special field only via their partners' complaints, but those complaints were often pretty outspoken. All I can say it would be the absolute erotic 'downer' for me (and probably for most women) to know that a man makes "cost-efectiveness calculations" before engaging in a romantic relationship. Just speculating here: maybe a man who clings to his money also finds it hard to "give" in that other area. Carol: So the hidden agenda is that all women are trading what for money? Adam there is a great joke that will go along with a certain answer I think I know - is the punchline, "I already know that, we're just negotiating the price here"?

When Atlas shrugs, will a million Lilliputians pick up the pieces and reassemble their left-handed world? The idea of the single mind is so central to Ayn Rand's philosophy that it cannot be ignored in the application of that philosophy. The Romantic image of the lonely genius, labouring day and night while scorned and reviled by mindless multitudes,only to emerge triumphant with the one and only solution to the self-caused problems of those multitudes, is so powerful that we are all here,half a century after Atlas Shrugged was published, reading and thinking about it. Individuals have not changed in those fifty years. We are the same human creatures Ayn Rand knew and dealt with all her life. Politics have not really changed, in form or in content. Business has not changed. It is still business with its priorities for quality and profit. Art, music and literature have not changed, except to reflect the tastes of the current market. But the way in which we conduct these activities and consume their products has changed. Politics are still hierarchical. Employment structures, also. But the regular conduct of work in most areas is increasingly communal and dependent on the input of others, to many of whom we would not have had access fifty years ago. Nobody is more fiercely protective of his own work than an academic, for example, but nobody is less able to do it alone, or take credit for it alone, than today.Internet cooperation in areas like criminology have superseded the brilliant deductions of a Holmes or a Poirot in the popular imagination. Medical researchers, breakthrough engineers,super-chefs and fashion designers alike (if they are gracious) acknowledge that they all standing on the shoulders of giants, and holding the hands of normal-sized humans. The Randian hero stands alone. I admit that as I write this I am thinking of one particular talented person (JT) who has posted on this forum. He is a highly skilled computer programmer, who believes that his higher skill in this area makes him superior, as a human being, to everyone who is not as highly skilled. He obviously has many other problems, mainly mental,but his glom-onto the d'Anconia "doing your work well is the highest value in life" has not helped him with any of his problems. He has correctly perceived the Rand universe as hierachical, with the Sole Producers on top and the Barked-Order-Takers and the Getters-out-of-the- way in descending order. He has perceived that the world is not like that, because people are not like that, and even business and science are not like that. Rand believed that science would validate many of her philosophical claims. She revered science as she revered the brilliant clarity of her own mind. She believed scientific discoveries to be the natural consequences of correct philosophy. Yet here we all are, still unassorted together,not properly classified as to our value as Thinkers, Producers, Second-Handers etc, in as Stan said to Ollie, another fine mess.

You are supposed to use money to get women? Oh no, that's not what it was about. It was a about a 'tightwad' attitude when it comes to romance. I have yet to see a tightwad who is a great lover, but to be fair, I have not collected enough 'personal data' to make this bold assertion. For I know about tightwads in that special field only via their partners' complaints, but those complaints were often pretty outspoken. All I can say it would be the absolute erotic 'downer' for me (and probably for most women) to know that a man makes "cost-efectiveness calculations" before engaging in a romantic relationship. Just speculating here: maybe a man who clings to his money also finds it hard to "give" in that other area.

Lucky for me, fun above the neckline is compatible with purity. Those pure fun zones are such moveable feasts!Er.. wait a minute, isn't it Lent yet?

Adam - you know how Respectable I am but "dicktatorship"-LOLOL. I am proud to say we do have many of our metrosexuals well trained here, though there is still much to be done. I remain an activist through my community work, along with with my sisters-in-arms, the two Mrs. Omaratentis,Rahida and Mumtaz,and Mrs Xiangbo Fa(Changabanga-bo-banga, banana as we affectionatly call her) from next door. We use the husband of Mrs Beatie McArdle as a shining example.I would ask his his first name but he is seldom allowed to speak.

Michael, I think your question, like mine to Hsieh, is rhetorical, but just in case it is not I will answer it. I cannot go on Noodlefood for legal reasons. The conditions of my position with the Canadian League of Cowards require me to avoid situations and individuals of whom I am scared half to death. After the appearance and retraction of W's little artwork I did some research into her, here and on her own site. I see that she is a philosopher specializing in practical ethics. From what I have read by and about her, her ethics suck, and her general gruesomeness is well worth commenting on from time to time.

Phil and Xray, you know I love you, but please stop calling those things that you drink "coffee". They are evil, possibly Kantian, milkshakes.

Adam, if you are trolling for shapely redheads again, down boy. My BFF Xray is a slim blonde, and I have warned our new girl Annie to be on her guard with you. Honestly, there used to be a time when men were Past It. Usually when their wives told them they were. Carol the mother of them all

Coincidence! That's how I like mine too. Carol Sedentary feminist

I drink my coffee the same way. My first coffee at age 7 was a cream and sugar filled nightmare prepared by an Irish great-aunt. When finally allowed to drink coffee at age 16 via an intervention with Ma ("Of milk and cold water you may have aplenty, but no tea or coffee until you are twenty"), I went for the real stuff. Love at first taste. Carol stupider woman

Neil Schulman isn't here any more, methinks, so I'll take the liberty of quoting his description in Alongside Night, written in 1979, of a New York café that his two teenaged protagonists patronize: Oh, no! J. Neil has been melding with my mind! And I thought it was just Aristotle again!

Carol, I'm getting that left-out feeling. It's time to reveal that my paternal Grandmother was a Ferguson, with plaid and all - AND, to cap it, she and Grandad considered moving (from '50's London) to Ontario! So, don't I qualify for your clan? Tony (I'd join any club that wouldn't have me as a member.) FRATERNAL ORDER OF THE SACRED IGLOO Local 13 Dear Brother McWhynot, Please be advised that as per your membership in the Brotherhood you are also automatically registered as an Intuitive Scot and entitled to wear any tartan of your choice including the Maple Leaf and our distinctive Secret Tartan which is invisible to the uninitiated. Do not wear it to the next meeting however, as even more subzero temperatures than usual are forecast. Your entitlements are clearly stated in the small print of the Sacred Oath which you signed in blood. I see that I will have to conduct a refresher course on the rights and responsibilities of Brotherhood. You have just volunteered as Course Facilitator and Sled Driver #2, you know who has gone missing again. ISS, Nanook McGuire assistant to the Grand Shaman and the Assistant Shaman

Opera is the only way to go. All in the public domain so it would be cheap to produce. I see the "viva la libertar" chorus from Don Giovanni as a finale. And long recitatives would be perfect for the speeches.