News

Vanishing languages

Of the estimated 7,000 languages spoken in the world today, linguists say, almost half are in danger of extinction and are likely to disappear this century, The New York Times reports. New research has identified five regions where languages are disappearing most rapidly: northern Australia; central South America; North America's upper Pacific coastal zone;

eastern Siberia; and Oklahoma and the southwestern United States.

Indian English

Binoo John, a 50-year-old Indian journalist, has compiled a collection of expressions found in Indian English. His book's title, Entry From Backside Only, refers to a phrase commonly used on signposts to indicate the rear entrance of a building. He says young Indians have embraced their country's variant of the language as a charming offspring of the mingling of English and Hindi, rather than an embarrassing mongrel. Mr. John was inspired by years of reading newspaper reports of politicians "air-dashing" to a destination, "issueless" couples (those without children) and people "preponing" (bringing forward meetings). Such phrases are entrenched. A driver, when asked what he does, may refer to his occupation as "drivery." Housemaids on their way to buy vegetables say they are going "marketing." Receptionists ask "What is your good name?" before informing them that the boss has gone "out of station" (out of town) with his "cousin-brother" (male cousin). A government official urged farmers in Rajasthan to grow "herbs in their backsides" (backyards).

Source: The Daily Telegraph

The nature of work

"The elevation of hard work to the status of noble pursuit is, in the sweep of human history, relatively recent," Eric Weiner writes in the Los Angeles Times. "The ancient Greeks and Romans viewed hard work as a curse."

All in a day's work

A New Jersey singer known only as DaVido says he has been "kicked out of" more than 200 Starbucks outlets in the New York-New Jersey area in his attempt to give a rendition of Java Jitters, an ode to caffeine that he has written. He is determined to get the song on a Starbucks retail CD, and regards himself as "the singing Rocky" who never gives up. DaVido is now brewing plans to go on an expanded "rejection tour" that could bring him to the coffee giant's hometown of Seattle, The Seattle Times reports.

"Sergei Zimov bends down, picks up a handful of treacly mud and holds it up to his nose. It smells like a cow pat, but he knows better. 'It smells like mammoth dung,' he says." For almost 30 years, the scientist has studied climate change in Russia's Arctic. He is based in Yakutia, northeast Siberia. For millennia, layers of animal waste and other organic matter left behind by the creatures that used to roam the Arctic tundra have been sealed inside the permafrost. Climate change is now thawing the permafrost and lifting this prehistoric ooze from suspended animation, Reuters reports. "Permafrost areas hold 500 billion tonnes of carbon, which can fast turn into greenhouse gases," the 52-year-old scientist says.

Smooch, smooch

Kissing is practised in 90 per cent of all cultures, says Gordon Gallup, a psychologist at the University of Albany, N.Y. Our closest animal relatives kiss to show affection, which would suggest the human race inherited kissing from our ape predecessors. In his book Our Inner Ape, primatologist Frans de Waal writes that chimps kiss with their mouths closed, but not their close relatives, the bonobos, who engage in a form of tongue kissing so humanlike that it never fails to shock Dr. de Waal's students.

Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer

Sex around the house

The latest issue of 2: The Magazine for Couples offers relationship and intimacy advice. It includes some suggestions for sex at home from Siski Green, author of How to Blow Her Mind in Bed:

Kitchen: Dressing sexily while doing mundane tasks can be a huge turn-on. Put on just a kitchen apron and do your household chores as you would usually.

Laundry room: The washing machine has a fast spin cycle and gets nice and warm, too - perfect for a naked bottom. The vibrations of the spin will add an extra element to the proceedings, shaking up your entire body.

Tool shed: The kitchen table is never quite the right height for sex, so opt for the only worktop in the house with adjustable height. Simply raise or lower until you've got the perfect angle nailed. But watch out for splinters.

Thought du jour

"Work keeps at bay three great evils: boredom, vice and need."

- Voltaire

mkesterton@globeandmail.com