November 2009

In Russia’s Wall Street Journal/Financial Times

November 30, 2009
Press
32 comments

The Russian version of The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times (Vedomosti) wrote an article about me.

Here is a jpeg version:

Or a PDF version if you’d like to run it through a translator:

Thanksgiving

November 26, 2009
Lessons
310 comments

A little history of Thanksgiving and the term.

Hope you are all having a nice Thanksgiving!

Oh, and please rate, favorite and comment over at YouTube. Thanks :-)

Cleavage

November 24, 2009
Lessons
178 comments

Cleavage as requested by RayWilliamJohnson.

We can thank Hollywood for this word

Please rate, comment and fave over at YouTube

fryguy451 sent me this on Twitter, and it’s the Atlas of True Names where German cartographers Stephan Hormes and Silke Preust, inspired by the place names in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, decided to go back time and through etymology, find the original, descriptive names of each place in the world. As stated by the authors:

Many geographical names are clearly rooted in Man’s observation of his natural environment;
the physical location of a settlement: “At the Foot of the Mountain” – Piedmont,
the character of an important water course: “The Gentle One” – The Seine
or even just the local vegetation: “Under the Oaks” – Potsdam.

Unsurprisingly, countries and landscapes often derive their names from the characteristics
of the people who lived there: “Great Land of the Tattooed” – Great Britain,
whilst local mythology and regional rulers also frequently leave their legacy:
“Isle of the Monster’s Eye” – Peleponnese or “Illustrious Emperor” – Zaragoza.

I never thought of the Brits as the Tattooed ones, but I love it! Take a look at the map above and you will see how descriptive these names were.

The only problem with the book is that the authors encountered something that I encounter every day.. and that is false etymologies.

In the authors’ desires to keep the book interesting, rather than throw out the false etymologies, they decided to leave quite a few of them in, for example the word-origin of the Mexican peninsula of Yucatan, which is stated in the Atlas as “I don’t understand you!” — supposedly uttered by the Maya when addressed by the first Spanish conquistadores. You’ll recall a similar folk etymology that I did of the word kangaroo and a supposed miscommunication between aboriginals and British explorers which I did here. Even I had fun with it, as folk etymologies are often more exciting than the true origins.

So, the authors left quite a few of these in the book, agreeing that the book is only about 80% true. The authors claim that they are just trying to get you to look at the world through new eyes, so you will have to take 20% of the names with a grain of salt! The only problem I see, is that, I’m not sure if they point out which etymologies are false and which ones are true, making this book not the most accurate reference book for place names (wikipedia anyone?), but a fun read nonetheless.

What do you think about their approach?

Excerpts from the book can be found here.

Interview for Associated Content

November 20, 2009
Interviews, Press
62 comments

Here is an interview I did for Associated Content. Check it out and show them some comment love

COP15

November 17, 2009
News
145 comments

Hey guys… in December, Copenhagen, Denmark will be hosting the COP15 or Climate Change Conference. Global warming is a topic of intense debate from all sides. So speak up and express your thoughts about Global warming and have your voice be heard by world leaders who will be attending this conference. You can submit your video at COP15 on YouTube.