I found some stone tablets written in a strange alphabet amongst a bunch of graves from different eras at the city museum of
Tire, Turkey. The guy working the desk at the museum didn't know what they were. Pictures in extended.
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posted by Theiform
on Mar 15, 2013 -
12 answers
This envelope with a letter inside was found inside a large decaying bound edition of Shakespeare auf Deutsch in a junk shop in Bushwick that was only apparently open for a few months before disappearing. The letter, postmarked 15 March, 1939 - was sent to Paris by a Mr. Henri Wolf. The contents of the letter appear to be German shorthand. Included was small piece of what looks like code, there's nothing else on the back.
The letter, envelope, postcard, etc in question are at this imgur album. Hivemind: What the hell is this?
posted by The Whelk
on Mar 14, 2013 -
28 answers
How do other languages (non-English) express the scientific term 'race?' vs the colloquial?
In taxonomic terms, the word "race" is 90% used as a misnomer in US discourse. This is rooted in "Social Darwinism," or contemporary racist applications of seminal evolution concepts. This colors verbiage across the sciences, especially the social sciences. To wit, the term 'racism' is in fact based on a dehumanizing paradigm.
So, um, how does this shake out elsewhere?
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posted by es_de_bah
on Mar 11, 2013 -
9 answers
To what extent do cultural values affect foreign policy making between U.S. and China?
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posted by espada0
on Feb 14, 2012 -
11 answers
Do immigrants need a higher level of proficiency in English to get along in the world today than our ancestors did when they immigrated?
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posted by christinetheslp
on Dec 7, 2011 -
19 answers
If I had never seen the internet before, where would you direct me in 2011? What are the best news, film, music, art, fashion, history, technology, gossip, sports websites and blogs out there?
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posted by maca
on Oct 3, 2011 -
14 answers
What could have happened in 1663 specifically to change the meaning of "decimate?"
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posted by Naberius
on Jun 16, 2011 -
9 answers
Where did the "America is a republic, not a democracy" argument come from, and how much truth is there to it?
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posted by Rhaomi
on Jan 17, 2011 -
30 answers
I just bought a postcard written in what looks like Armenian sent from what is now Lviv to what is now Chernivtsi (in what is now Ukraine), sometime between 1905 and (I'm guessing from the stamp) the end of the First World War/Austrian rule of Galicia. What does it say?
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posted by mdonley
on Aug 25, 2010 -
22 answers
Have Americans evolved their speaking style/accent significantly in the past 50 years? I'm not talking about de-regionalizing of an accent. I'm talking about normal conversations, let's say with a midwestern, suburban accent.
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posted by sandmanwv
on Jun 2, 2010 -
27 answers
Sacrifice, speech, writing and art: I am interested in the different ways in which a sacrifice, a sacrament, a spoken word and a written word act as signifiers. The notion for instance that the sacrament, at the point of its acceptance, is understood as
becoming the signified. What can you tell me / what has been written about the notions of sacrifice and their relationship to speech, art and the technologies of writing?
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posted by 0bvious
on Feb 24, 2010 -
8 answers
Is there a Medieval Linguist in the house? I need a very short conversation between Cistercian nuns in Saxony translated into Medieval Latin. Any help so I don't sound like a complete idiot warmly welcomed.
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posted by The Whelk
on Oct 23, 2009 -
7 answers
I am looking for writings on
mimesis in regards new, digital, hypertext and hypermedial technologies and cultures.
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posted by 0bvious
on Feb 16, 2009 -
7 answers
What are the reasons for and against constitutionally requiring a specific national language?
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posted by netbros
on Aug 28, 2008 -
74 answers
How is the
meaning of art and artefacts being altered by the methods we use to:
Experience,
Define and
Preserve them... In other words, in what ways have technologies been used to experience, re-define and/or preserve art and artifacts?
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posted by 0bvious
on Feb 5, 2008 -
12 answers
I am searching for examples of The Infinite, or the immeasurably large, in our mythologies and archetypes. I am also interested in the categories of Truth which came out of the emergence of Western, ontological thought. Does the trust in a rationally conceivable reality deny us the infinity of the mythological realm? By rooting ourselves in the present, and denying atemporal mythologies, do we also deny the infinite origins from where we came?
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posted by 0bvious
on Nov 28, 2007 -
22 answers
I want to learn more about the origins of the English language and about the roots of English words.
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posted by Foam Pants
on Jan 1, 2007 -
25 answers
The abbreviation R.I.P. stands for the Latin "Reqiescat in Pace." I'm trying to get past the insensitivity of not bothering to spell out the epitaph on someone's tombstone and instead concentrate on understanding why and how this convention originated.
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posted by Jeff Howard
on Feb 23, 2005 -
25 answers
Where did the term "asshat" originate, and what's it's definition?
posted by SpecialK
on Jan 8, 2004 -
10 answers
