I have been saving these for the beginning of the school year. Thanks to everyone who sent things in. This is a quick hit today because I had a horrible migraine this week and today is my day to catch up on all the things I had to let slide.
Tuesday Evening Respite Open Thread: #IndigenousPeoplesDay
It's #IndigenousPeoplesDay and the UN has declared 2022-2033 the Decade of Indigenous Languages. Our researchers are partnering with the Cherokee Nation in North America to set up a digital archive model aimed at revitalising their endangered language.
🔗 https://t.co/yBUZleqkog pic.twitter.com/WZA656Y4Ef
— University of Melbourne (@UniMelb) August 9, 2022
At the intersection of language, technology, and social justice:
… The Cherokee are one of the biggest Native American nations and currently include some 3,000 speakers of the Cherokee language. But in 2002, when the Cherokee surveyed its population, they found that there we no fluent speakers of Cherokee aged under 40. This sparked the creation of the Cherokee Language Revitalisation Project.
An important part of any effort to revitalise endangered indigenous languages and heritage is making earlier records, like audio recordings and text, easily available for use today and ensuring ongoing records are made for the benefit of future generations.
But the task of managing this mass of information can be daunting, and it is crucial that the information be managed in a way that makes it accessible over time…
In Australia, at the Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures (PARADISEC) we have created and curated a major collection of language records covering indigenous languages of the Pacific, including Australia and Papua New Guinea.
Through this work, recordings that were originally made on reel-to-reel tapes and cassettes are now digitised and readily available even on mobile phones. It means the voices of past generations can be heard and learned from by their descendants.
The methods we have established at PARADISEC over the last 20 years caught the attention of the Cherokee and we have now worked with them to help organise their recordings, transcripts, manuscripts, images, and texts, all now stored on hard disks and computers in a range of locations…
All sorts of fascinating snippets on the #IndigenousPeoplesDay twitter thread!
Tuesday Evening Respite Open Thread: #IndigenousPeoplesDayPost + Comments (61)
Summer Saturday Morning Open Thread: Chalking the White Horse of Uffington
A massive prehistoric horse carved into the side of an English hill has somehow received required continuous maintenance "through changes in religion, king, climate, and empire" for some 3000 years https://t.co/cSTASJplPv
— kottke.org (@kottke) September 19, 2019
Something nice and uncomplicated, for a treat.
It’s just… something we *do*, okay? It’s been in the family for a long time!
The Uffington White Horse is a prehistoric monument that’s been around since the late Bronze Age, some 3000 years ago. Situated on a hill in the South of England and measuring 360 feet long, the horse is made of deep trenches filled with white chalk and is easily visible in the satellite view on Google Maps.
So cool. Here’s the truly amazing thing though: the horse requires regular maintenance or erosion and grass growing over the chalk will obscure the figure. Which means that the inhabitants of this area have continuously cleaned and maintained the horse — through changes in religion, king, climate, and empire — for 30 centuries…
It’s chalking day, a cleaning ritual that has happened here regularly for three millennia. Hammers, buckets of chalk and kneepads are handed out and everyone is allocated an area. The chalkers kneel and smash the chalk to a paste, whitening the stony pathways in the grass inch by inch. “It’s the world’s largest coloring between the lines,” says George Buce, one of the participants…
In the past, thousands of people would come for the scouring, holding a fair in the circle of a prehistoric fort nearby. These days it’s a quieter event. The only sounds are the wind, distant birdsong and the thumping of hammers on the chalk that can be felt through the feet…
Looks like this year’s Chalking Day is August 28. Come and get stuck into this peculiarly satisfying task and help keep the Horse visible for miles around. Protective gloves and a hammer are provided. Families are welcome…
Summer Saturday Morning Open Thread: Chalking the White Horse of UffingtonPost + Comments (157)
One Person Can Change the World: Peace of Mind Dog Rescue
Jackie sent me this article, and it seems like a good choice for a Sunday afternoon.
Keeping dogs and their senior owners together.
At least that’s how it started. But now it’s much more than that.
Broecker co-founded the nonprofit with Monica Rua, who also worked in animal rescue and added the idea of rescuing senior dogs from shelters. In 2009, Peace of Mind Dog Rescue was born.
The organization takes dogs from senior citizens who are no longer able to care for them, have gone into a nursing home or have passed away. Many times, it’s family members who contact the organization to surrender their aging family member’s dog.
“Often times, the dog can be your last connection to that person,” Broecker said. “You’re giving away a part of that person who was so special to you. So, it can be really hard.”
Peace of Mind Dog Rescue finds these dogs new homes and checks in on the dog every year for the rest of their life.
“We’ve seen it over and over again that dogs can adjust after losing their person and become part of a new family,” Broecker said.
“You’d love for them to be together forever, but when that’s not possible, we’re really glad we’re here to be a safety net.”
Typically, a senior doesn’t need to surrender their dog, they just need some assistance. As part of the organization’s dog walking program, a volunteer will go to the senior’s house to walk their dog for 30 minutes or an hour.
“We can preserve that human-animal bond and make this person’s life better and brighter through our services … it’s about honoring the elderly,” Broecker said.
The nonprofit also helps senior dogs find forever homes. It can be challenging for overcrowded shelters to give senior dogs the attention they need, so Peace of Mind Dog Rescue is in contact with local animal shelters to see what senior dogs they can pull and help adopt out.
That’s just the middle of the article. There’s video, too. Read the whole thing!
Open thread.
One Person Can Change the World: Peace of Mind Dog RescuePost + Comments (88)
Sunday Morning Open Thread: Celebrate the Good Things
They armed the orangutans pic.twitter.com/Q6NHdSD5DZ
— mr.dry ?? (@seahorseradish) July 29, 2022
I’m *quite* sure the late Sir Terry Pratchett would approve this message!
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It Got Dusty In Here All Of A Sudden
Just found this (yes, the hellsite that may yet cost Musk a bundle has its uses) and had to stop everything else to listen and look:
ETA: This just turned up w. an email alert. It’s a piece about Mitchell’s set at the Newport Folk Festival yesterday, with videos of a number of other songs. Enjoy!
Joni Mitchell released the Clouds album–her second–in 1969. I was eleven (and that was a very tough year in our house for other reasons) so I don’t think I came across it for a couple or three more years. But one of my older sibs picked it up, and one afternoon I grabbed it and took it to our basement kinder-pen…and the whole record just kicked my ass.
The song “Clouds” itself was fun, though not my favorite. At 14, I was sure I would do things so much better than the character in the song had…surely I would never let a love or a life go by with such regrets…
Well–I’m lucky as hell in so many ways (and seriously unlucky in others; see that tough 1969…) but in my mid sixties I gotta say the song has a different edge than it did half a century ago.
And watching Joni sing, with all the obvious limitations and struggle she has just with sound production…and yet, OMG, how she manages to inhabit the song? Well, I’m just going to say that hers is a performance that I found very powerful indeed.
Damn. It’s getting dusty again…
We all have soundtracks of our lives. They kick in when we don’t expect, in ways that we could not have anticipated.
That’s my afternoon. How’s yours?
Anyway–a mid-afternoon* break for y’all. Talk about whatever.
Image: J. W. M. Turner, Hannibal Crossing the Alps, 1810-1812.
Sunday Evening Open Thread: Let’s Pray for A Slow News Week…
Hidden-gem thread I turfed up during my backstage Draft Purge:
Everyone on my team (5 men ages 48-75) texts me to make sure the slang they’re using is correct in context. Some examples below:
— The Meanest TA, PhD. (@MeanestTA) April 1, 2022
WorkDad (58): “What does yeet mean?”
Me: pic.twitter.com/X3zCeeqc5y
— The Meanest TA, PhD. (@MeanestTA) April 1, 2022
… In return they translate my frustrations into professional corporate.
Me: “How do I say this meeting is a waste of my time I am not paid enough to deal with your bullshit?”
Boss: “Can you provide me with a meeting agenda so I can ensure my presence adds value? I want to prioritize my schedule to support our most urgent needs.”
Me: “How do I say there is no way you are this fucking stupid?”
WorkDad: “I think there was a disconnect, can you restate your definition of this concept so we can ensure there’s no miscommunication?”
Me: “How do I say I am not your secretary?”
Elder Curmudgeon: “I’m going to redirect you to (name) for assistance on this particular task.”…
Me: “How do I say fight me?”
Project Manager: (deep sigh) “I think we should discuss this offline.”…
Me: “How do I say you fucked around now you’re finding out?”
Boss: “I think you’ll find that this outcome is in line with the predictions we made during the (date) meeting.”…
Read the rest here.
Watcha y’all doing to gear up for another week?
Sunday Evening Open Thread: Let’s Pray for A Slow News Week…Post + Comments (42)