Slog - Comments on The Morning News

Comment by burnout

burnout — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 07:29:16 -0800

The Croc shoes story is awesome! I haven't finished it yet, but at least I know how I'm going to spend the next few hours.

Comment by Christin

Christin — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 07:41:48 -0800

I'm in love with the Croc shoes story. Sure, it's in the obvious-ballpark with "Research says that sex makes people happy" and "Commission finds that 9/11 was really quite awful," but it's still good to have a reminder.

Comment by Cat in Chicago

Cat in Chicago — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 07:43:33 -0800

FYI: Sell out of "Ride the SLUT" T-shirts made the national page of the Chicago Sun-Times this morning. Go figure - like we give a damn about yo dum ho trolly here in Chicago.

Comment by Joey the Girl

Joey the Girl — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 08:08:19 -0800

Crap - why can't I find the link to the Croc shoes story?

Comment by June Bee

June Bee — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 08:17:24 -0800

I can only guess that the shifty Paul Allen hired a keen marketing team to name it S.LU-T, hence more coverage. This guy is the bane of seattle culture - he's a business prostitute, selling out SAettle, the metroartficial city of the past. And I I I I I I was so so so forchunit to see him and his mom at the ribbon cutting at the Henry 8am some weekend morn . (ahem, slogging on slog is a vain stuttering excuse, for all attempts at candidness have been fabricated for your attencione.)

ignore all of the above, i just read the first couple lines of the Croc story. Much more interesteing. see ya

Comment by Judah

Judah — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 08:30:26 -0800

Last Words: A language dies every 2 weeks.

Of course, new ones are born all the time.

It's weird to me that more people don't grasp that point.

Comment by josh

josh — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 08:33:12 -0800

not that I disagree, but do you have a link to go with those dangerous Crocs?

Comment by patrick

patrick — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 08:39:37 -0800

For Immediate Release
Robin Tyler, plaintiff, California same-gender marriage case, robintyler@robintyler.com

A CALL FOR SUSAN KENNEDY, LESBIAN, CHIEF OF STAFF TO GOVERNOR ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, TO RESIGN

http://www.americablog.com/2007/09/arnold-schwarzeneggers-lesbian-chief-of.html

Comment by Cascadian

Cascadian — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 08:40:27 -0800

Yes, languages are born all the time, just like new species evolve all the time. In both cases, though, the rate of extinction is higher than the rate of new creation, and languages are more than just arbitrary communications methods. They are records of human culture and the capacity of human intelligence. When a language is lost, part of what it means to be human is lost. That would be a tragedy even if the total number of languages was constant.

As someone interested in the history and culture of the Pacific Northwest, it bothers me that 54 local languages are about to disappear. Dismissing that is morally on par with Donald Rumsfeld dismissing the destruction of the Iraqi national museum.

Comment by Jonah S

Jonah S — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 08:45:25 -0800

@7- fixed, although I think it was funnier without the link.

Comment by QuimbyMcF

QuimbyMcF — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 08:51:55 -0800

What? No mention of the fact that it's National Talk Like a Pirate Day? Not newswurrthy enow ferr ya, me little trollop? Arrr!

Comment by Christin

Christin — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 08:59:23 -0800

Jonah @10: No no no fixing. It was much better without the link. And now, comments 1 and 2 don't make any damned sense (or rather, have lost their comedic value).

Comment by writer

writer — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 09:10:11 -0800

@12
agreed. #1 were funny and thought provoking, and not how #10 explains- it wasn't funny in and of itself.

Comment by Original Andrew

Original Andrew — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 10:18:20 -0800

Re: National Intelligence Director says 9/11 could have been prevented

Wowza, so first Alan Greenspan divulges that the Iraq War is really about OIL, then this.

Did you hear that former National Intelligence Director John Negroponte just admitted that 9/11 was an inside job?

It's amazing what people will say when they have a book to sell (and yes I totally made that last bit up).

Comment by Judah

Judah — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 10:34:59 -0800

Balls. There's no comprehensive survey of new languages and there are various mechanisms in place to keep new languages from being recognized. So, English: Jamaican English, Indian English, Chicano English and Scottish English are, for most intents and purposes, completely different languages. I daresay there's a wider divergence between Seattle English and Glasgow English than there is between the Romance langauges spoken in Paris and Barcelona.

These new languages contain a huge diversity of cultural information and history, but they don't get the same respect as some obscure dialect spoken by 50 people in the Amazon.

The implications of this, by the way, are very different than they are for the extinction of biological species, which die off more completely and are much slower to re-speciate.

Comment by Jude Fawley

Jude Fawley — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 11:17:29 -0800

Judah, is your point that it is no big deal that languages are dying off?

"I daresay there's a wider divergence between Seattle English and Glasgow English than there is between the Romance langauges spoken in Paris and Barcelona."

Are you joking here?

Perhaps people are more concerned with the obscure languages because, well, they are the ones that are about to disappear...

Also, how do species die off more completely than languages (particularly unwritten ones)? If they are gone, they are gone.

Comment by Peter

Peter — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 12:04:28 -0800

@11, looks like that effort can pretty much be declared dead at this point. I'm calling it, at noon on September 19, 2007.

Comment by Megan

Megan — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 12:30:56 -0800

@15, I think you're ignoring (or unaware of) the difference between a dialect and a language. The dialects of English you mention are certainly quite different from each other and from 'standard' English, but that doesn't make them separate languages.

I also don't get why you seem to think the extinction of a language is any less final than the extinction of a species. Yes, there may be a related language still in existence, but that's like saying it doesn't matter if gorillas become extinct because there are chimps around.

Comment by Me

Me — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 12:44:19 -0800

Wait, did anybody else notice this?

"10,000 people go to the emergency room every year after accidents on escalators. Of those, 20 percent involved having hands, feet or shoes trapped."

What's the other 80 percent!?

Comment by keshmeshi

keshmeshi — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 12:52:00 -0800

@19,

Falling down? Just a guess but that seems like the most likely accident on any type of stairs.

Comment by Dianna

Dianna — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 13:19:14 -0800

I am so sick of the fucking courts reversing rulings allowing for same sex marriage. Given that whole equal-protection-under-the-law thingie in the Constitution it is the Judges who rule to make gay marriage LEGAL that are strictly interpreting the Constitution. Like back in the day when Judges ruled you can't deny interracial marriage based on that amendment. This shit should be a non-issue already.