|k| clippings: 2015-12-15 — Homoj estas ridinda

WORK

LISTER: Rimmer, you’ve been doing Esperanto for eight years. How come you’re so utterly useless?

RIMMER: Oh, speaks! And how many books have you read in your entire life? The same number as champion the wonder horse: zero!

LISTER: I’ve read books.

RIMMER: Uh, Lister, we’re not talking about books where the main character is a dog called “Ben.”

LISTER: I went to Art College!

RIMMER: You?

LISTER: Yeah!

RIMMER: How did you get into Art College?

LISTER: The normal way you get into Art College. The same old, usual, normal, boring you get in. Failed me exams and applied. The snatched me up.

RIMMER: Ah, but you didn’t get a degree, did you?

LISTER: No, I dropped out. I wasn’t in long.

RIMMER: How long?

LISTER: 97 minutes. I thought it was going to be a good skive and all that, you know? But I took one look at the time table and just checked out, man. I mean, it was ridiculous. They had, they had lectures at, like, first thing, in the afternoon. We’re talking half-past twelve everyday. Who’s together by then? You can still taste the toothpaste.

—dialogue from “Kryten”
—Red Dwarf episode 2.1, September 6, 1988

WORD(S)

pareidolia /payr-it-DOHL-yə/. noun. The human tendency to find patterns where none exist, whether seeing images in random or ambiguous visual patterns or hearing intentional sounds in similarly random or ambiguous audio patterns. For example, seeing the face of Jesus in a tortilla or hearing words on a record being played in reverse. From German pareidolie (a coinage for a disorder known as “confusion of objects”), from Greek par- (abnormal) + eídōlon (image, reflection).

“There was supposed to be some rational explanation to justify the mumbo jumbo. Left-hemisphere pattern-matching subroutines amped beyond recognition; the buggy wetware that made you see faces in clouds or God’s wrath in thunderstorms, tweaked to walk some fine line between insight and pareidolia.” (Peter Watts)

“…Arcimboldo might either have experienced pareidolia or wanted to; in any case he arranged it ceaselessly for others—also faces in lichen, ice formations, rock forms, patterns of stars.” (Kim Stanley Robinson)

“Expectant attention and pareidolia have undoubtedly transformed sightings of birds, otters, logs, and waves into sightings of Nessie. Mirages have transformed more than one merganser into a monster.” (Rick Emmer)

WEB

1. A History of Punctuation for the Internet Age

2. “Taking the [terribly sexist, ignorant] words of Scott Adams and combining them with the art of Scott Adams.” → MRA Dilbert

3. What Happens When You Can’t Talk to Yourself?

4. The Science of Gratitude. Pair with: Happiness Doesn’t Help You Live Longer.

5. Today is Zamenhof Day, a worldwide observance celebrating the birth of L.L. Zamenhof and the Esperanto language he created. Zamenhof, a Russian ophthalmologist, created the simple artificial language in hopes of furthering peace and harmony between people of different countries. A simple language with just 900 roots and a 28-character alphabet, studies have shown that learning Esperanto takes about 1/10 the time for the same amount of gain as studying English. In this TEDx talk, Tim Morley makes a good case for learning Esperanto. But Esperanto never took off the way Zamenhof hoped: there are an estimated 1000 native Esperantists and 100,000 active users among a total population estimated at between 1–2 million who have studied the language significantly. The lernu! site has Esperanto learning resources in dozens of languages, but I prefer learning Esperanto soap-opera style. And, of course, YouTube has plenty of Esperanto learning videos. But the one Esperanto link to rule them all: ► Incubus, the 1966 horror film—in Esperanto—starring William Shatner, written and directed by Leslie Stevens of The Outer Limits and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.

WATCH/WITNESS

Tired of the same old holiday fireplace videos? How about 45 Straight Minutes of Nick Offerman Quietly Drinking Single Malt Scotch by the Fire?

REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES

• Reader T. goes down the rabbit hole: “…I opened my browser to ‘google’ something, but was pleasantly distracted by your email, links and all the wonderful things I learned by clicking on the article about using bigger words, and the Emily Dickinson! Thanks!”

• Reader G. brings in some Kingly support: “As tempting as it is to beseech and implore, Stephen King in his book advising writers says to just use said. Because it’s not as distracting and irritating as beseeching and imploring and shouting and barking. What you say should convey how you say it.”

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