Nepali man slurred in Northeast India
Feb. 9th, 2026 02:15 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
languagelog_feed
He's a Gurkha, the very people among whom I worked for two years (1965-67) as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bhojpur District, Nepal
He says he's a paharia ("hillman") — pahāḍī पहाडी.
Gurkhas are renowned Nepali soldiers serving in armies like the British and Indian forces, famous for their bravery, loyalty, and distinctive curved knife, the kukri, and are known by the endonym Gorkhali. They originated from the region around the town of Gurkha in Nepal, becoming integral to the British Army after conflicts in the 19th century, and are respected for their fierce fighting spirit and rigorous training, exemplified by the grueling Doko race.
Key Aspects of Gurkhas
Origin & Identity:
They are soldiers from Nepal, primarily from ethnic groups like Gurung, Magar, Rai, and Limbu, identified with the historic Gurkha kingdom.
Military Service:
Gurkhas have served the British Crown for over 200 years, forming the Brigade of Gurkhas, renowned for combat prowess.
The Kukri:
Their iconic weapon, a curved knife, has legendary status, believed to "taste blood" when drawn in battle.
Motto:
"Better to die than be a coward" reflects their martial ethos.
Recruitment:
Selection is highly competitive, involving tough physical tests like the Doko race, a steep uphill run carrying a heavy basket.
Modern Role:
They serve in various British Army units, including infantry, signals, and logistics, upholding a long tradition of service. (AIO)
Because of environmental degradation and overpopulation, Nepalis have been moving eastward into the northeastern parts of India, leading to scenes like that in the short video with which this post began.
Selected readings
- "Learn Nepali" (9/21/16)
- "'Bāphre bāph!' — my favorite Nepali expression" (8/12/18)
- "Nepal, Naple(s), Naipul, nipple, whatever" (8/14/18)
- "Dung Times" (3/14/18)
- "Royal language" (9/29/15)
- "Oli ko goli" (10/13/15)
- "Unknown Language #7" (2/27/13)
- "Unknown Language #7: update" (5/12/13)
- "Seke, an endangered language of Nepal, in Flatbush, Brooklyn" (1/11/20) — with notes on Gurumg, Tamang, Mustang
- "Tik Tok and Red Book" (1/19/25) — how many young Chinese find out about Nepal cram schools and barista training
- "Chinese learning English in Nepal" (92/25)
- "Learn Nepali" (9/21/16)
- "Fast talking" (4/9/24) — see the last paragraph
[h.t. Sunny Jhutti]
Spamming them linksss
Feb. 9th, 2026 03:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
goodbyebird+ Butches in Books. Found a bunch I hadn't heard off, looks to be a solid list.
+ 2025 Recommended Reading List by Locus. Really appreciate the addition of a translated novels category.
+ How RPGs Became A Haven For Women In South Korea.
+ What Was Luke's Plan in 'Return of the Jedi'? The ever escalating amount of hostages XD
+ We need to talk about Fournier-Beaudry and Cizeron.
Fournier-Beaudry and Cizeron are both talented skaters from the Ice Academy of Montreal, who teamed up in 2024. They are both very striking, with beautiful skating quality that makes them captivating to new and old fans alike. But there's a darker side to the beginning of their partnership that has escaped the notice of a lot of casual fans.
+ Green's Dictionary of Slang is now available online for free. Allows lookups of word definitions and etymologies for free, and, for a subscription fee, it offers citations and more extensive search options.
+ Trans athletes may not have fitness advantage in women’s sport, landmark study finds.
Trans women in the studies were found to have significantly greater amounts of body fat than cis men, but levels comparable to those of cis women.
However, while trans women appeared to have more muscle mass, there were no observable differences in upper or lower body strength, the study found.
+ Saving this for later: Wonder Man by Abigail Nussbaum (so very likely to be good).
+ Very informative step by step recap of Bad Bunny's Half Time concert.
+ 2025 Recommended Reading List by Locus. Really appreciate the addition of a translated novels category.
+ How RPGs Became A Haven For Women In South Korea.
+ What Was Luke's Plan in 'Return of the Jedi'? The ever escalating amount of hostages XD
+ We need to talk about Fournier-Beaudry and Cizeron.
Fournier-Beaudry and Cizeron are both talented skaters from the Ice Academy of Montreal, who teamed up in 2024. They are both very striking, with beautiful skating quality that makes them captivating to new and old fans alike. But there's a darker side to the beginning of their partnership that has escaped the notice of a lot of casual fans.
+ Green's Dictionary of Slang is now available online for free. Allows lookups of word definitions and etymologies for free, and, for a subscription fee, it offers citations and more extensive search options.
+ Trans athletes may not have fitness advantage in women’s sport, landmark study finds.
Trans women in the studies were found to have significantly greater amounts of body fat than cis men, but levels comparable to those of cis women.
However, while trans women appeared to have more muscle mass, there were no observable differences in upper or lower body strength, the study found.
+ Saving this for later: Wonder Man by Abigail Nussbaum (so very likely to be good).
+ Very informative step by step recap of Bad Bunny's Half Time concert.
(no subject)
Feb. 9th, 2026 09:12 amseekingferretCathedrals of Science by Patrick Coffey
I picked it up because Wikipedia says Gilbert Lewis was nominated for a Nobel Prize 41 times and never won and I was like, there's gotta be a story there. I couldn't find a bio of Lewis, but I did find this, which is a group bio of Lewis and a cohort of physical chemists who revolutionized chemistry in the early 20th century. Lewis is joined in the main cast by Arrhenius and Nernst and Langmuir and Seaborg, all names I'd heard before but didn't really know.
Lewis had some Massachusetts blue blood, but he grew up in Nebraska before returning to attend Harvard and finishing his studies in Europe. And it seems clear that he was always a bit of a social oddball, even once he established himself as the king of chemistry at Berkeley.
The book has some serious parts when it covers the intersection of chemistry and the world wars, and Lewis's strange and tragic death, but mostly it's about how amazingly petty chemists are. I loved reading about how they kept stealing credit from each other for discoveries and doing backroom deals to keep each other from winning Nobel prizes.
To be clear, because I still don't understand how Nobel Prizes are awarded, it's not that Lewis was nominated in 41 years and never won. He received nominations from 41 people over a span of something like 25 years, for multiple discoveries and theoretical advancements in the field. He also devoted those 25 years, and the 20 before, to publically trashing the science of several of the people who decided who would win the prize, or had influence on the decides. Coffey digs up amazing documentary evidence of the coordinated campaign against Lewis, but also makes you think maybe you don't blame them for it.
Anyway, a long running theme in this journal is the way science doesn't move in a sphere of pure ideas but is instead a function of imperfect personalities in collision, and this was a brilliant illumination of that theme.
And if you just think Chemistry: The Soap Opera sounds fun, this is the book for you.
I picked it up because Wikipedia says Gilbert Lewis was nominated for a Nobel Prize 41 times and never won and I was like, there's gotta be a story there. I couldn't find a bio of Lewis, but I did find this, which is a group bio of Lewis and a cohort of physical chemists who revolutionized chemistry in the early 20th century. Lewis is joined in the main cast by Arrhenius and Nernst and Langmuir and Seaborg, all names I'd heard before but didn't really know.
Lewis had some Massachusetts blue blood, but he grew up in Nebraska before returning to attend Harvard and finishing his studies in Europe. And it seems clear that he was always a bit of a social oddball, even once he established himself as the king of chemistry at Berkeley.
The book has some serious parts when it covers the intersection of chemistry and the world wars, and Lewis's strange and tragic death, but mostly it's about how amazingly petty chemists are. I loved reading about how they kept stealing credit from each other for discoveries and doing backroom deals to keep each other from winning Nobel prizes.
To be clear, because I still don't understand how Nobel Prizes are awarded, it's not that Lewis was nominated in 41 years and never won. He received nominations from 41 people over a span of something like 25 years, for multiple discoveries and theoretical advancements in the field. He also devoted those 25 years, and the 20 before, to publically trashing the science of several of the people who decided who would win the prize, or had influence on the decides. Coffey digs up amazing documentary evidence of the coordinated campaign against Lewis, but also makes you think maybe you don't blame them for it.
Anyway, a long running theme in this journal is the way science doesn't move in a sphere of pure ideas but is instead a function of imperfect personalities in collision, and this was a brilliant illumination of that theme.
And if you just think Chemistry: The Soap Opera sounds fun, this is the book for you.
Poetry: Knight in Shining Ardour
Feb. 9th, 2026 07:34 pmadoreKnight in Shining Ardour
byadore
My rage clawed out of my chest
And stood looking around fiercely for the enemy.
He was a radiant boy,
Never allowed to be anything else.
He blazed so that my eyes were drawn to him, fascinated.
Avidly, I watched him for what he would do next.
He didn't disappoint.
When he destroyed something, I was satisfied.
I had always wanted to be rid of it.
But I'd had too much guilt or too little courage.
When he screamed, I fell in love with his voice.
He was my rockstar.
When he cried, I collected his tears in a shot glass and cheered
Before downing them in one go.
They were a tonic.
What he killed made him more alive.
He was my knight in shining ardour
And I loved him best
When he crawled back in my chest
To recover in the warm dark quiet.
by
adoreMy rage clawed out of my chest
And stood looking around fiercely for the enemy.
He was a radiant boy,
Never allowed to be anything else.
He blazed so that my eyes were drawn to him, fascinated.
Avidly, I watched him for what he would do next.
He didn't disappoint.
When he destroyed something, I was satisfied.
I had always wanted to be rid of it.
But I'd had too much guilt or too little courage.
When he screamed, I fell in love with his voice.
He was my rockstar.
When he cried, I collected his tears in a shot glass and cheered
Before downing them in one go.
They were a tonic.
What he killed made him more alive.
He was my knight in shining ardour
And I loved him best
When he crawled back in my chest
To recover in the warm dark quiet.
minarchism
Feb. 9th, 2026 06:57 amprettygoodwordminarchism (min-ar-KIZ-uhm) - n., a belief in the desirability and practicality of minimum government.
Coined in 1971 by libertarian writer Samuel Konkin, to describe what philosopher Robert Nozick proposed -- Konkin perferred what he called agorism, involving just a pure free market without any state. A minarchy is sometimes called a night-watchman state, typically described as having a military, a police, and courts, but few other functions. The coinage is from min(imal) + -archy in the sense of type of government.
---L.
Coined in 1971 by libertarian writer Samuel Konkin, to describe what philosopher Robert Nozick proposed -- Konkin perferred what he called agorism, involving just a pure free market without any state. A minarchy is sometimes called a night-watchman state, typically described as having a military, a police, and courts, but few other functions. The coinage is from min(imal) + -archy in the sense of type of government.
---L.
Pineapple tart update, with recipes
Feb. 9th, 2026 01:43 pmqianMy entire weekend got swallowed up by pineapple tarts, as I decided to make the tarts on Sunday. I made two batches of pastry, one batch with cheese and one without, following this recipe. I basically ignored the family for much of the day in order to do this, but still had to take various breaks to make lunch for the kids, eat myself, tidy up, intervene in quarrels, etc. So there were various shenanigans by way of: had to stop making tarts so put pastry in the fridge for too long and it had turned into granite by the time I returned to it; someone must have butt-dialled the oven so it wasn't the temperature I set it at and the tarts came out darker than they should be; threw away the egg wash then remembered I had 6 remaining tarts to egg-wash so they only got a milk wash and are not as pretty; etc. etc.
The cheesy batch of pastry in particular was terribly stiff and hard to work with; I couldn't roll it without it cracking all over. I think I might have overworked the dough? In any case, my pastry doesn't seem to come together the way What to Cook Today suggests it will, so I'm going to put a rewritten recipe for pineapple tarts below -- what worked for ME. Fortunately the resulting tarts all taste great. I keep eating them to try to figure out if I like cheese-free or cheesy better, but it's hard to decide!
( Pineapple jam recipe )
( Pineapple tarts recipe )
The cheesy batch of pastry in particular was terribly stiff and hard to work with; I couldn't roll it without it cracking all over. I think I might have overworked the dough? In any case, my pastry doesn't seem to come together the way What to Cook Today suggests it will, so I'm going to put a rewritten recipe for pineapple tarts below -- what worked for ME. Fortunately the resulting tarts all taste great. I keep eating them to try to figure out if I like cheese-free or cheesy better, but it's hard to decide!
( Pineapple jam recipe )
( Pineapple tarts recipe )
Chocolate Box - Day 9
Feb. 9th, 2026 08:35 ammelagan posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
romancingmcshep
1. Keep Your Claws to Yourself
2. Forever On My Mind
3. Only One Bed
4. Sheppard's Award by
melagan5. Postcards from Pegasus: Atlantis Under the Siege by
escriveine6. A Bath for Two by
cassiope257. Postcards from Pegasus: Olesia (Home of the Faustian Bargain by
escriveine8. Meet the Exotic Natives of Atlantis
9. Postcards from Pegasus: Who Wore It Better (Control Chair edition) by
escriveineWED Day 9
Feb. 9th, 2026 05:31 amsakanawordsCheck-in post for day 9!
Day 1:sylvanwitch, trobadora, luzula, badly_knitted, china_shop, the_siobhan, brithistorian, sanguinity, cornerofmadness, carenejeans, ysilme, goddess47, shadaras,
Day 2:sylvanwitch, trobadora, luzula, badly_knitted, china_shop, the_siobhan, brithistorian, sanguinity, cornerofmadness, carenejeans, ysilme, goddess47, shadaras,
Day 3:sylvanwitch, trobadora, luzula, badly_knitted, china_shop, the_siobhan, brithistorian, sanguinity, cornerofmadness, carenejeans, ysilme, goddess47, shadaras,
Day 4:sylvanwitch, trobadora, luzula, badly_knitted, china_shop, the_siobhan, sanguinity, cornerofmadness, carenejeans, ysilme, goddess47,
Day 5:sylvanwitch, trobadora, luzula, badly_knitted, china_shop, brithistorian, sanguinity, carenejeans, ysilme, goddess47, shadaras, ashelterofpages, miss_ingno,
Day 6:sylvanwitch, trobadora, badly_knitted, china_shop, brithistorian, sanguinity, cornerofmadness, carenejeans, ysilme, goddess47, shadaras, ashelterofpages, miss_ingno,
Day 7:sylvanwitch, trobadora, badly_knitted, china_shop, the_siobhan, brithistorian, sanguinity, cornerofmadness, carenejeans, ysilme, goddess47, ashelterofpages, miss_ingno,
Day 8:sylvanwitch, trobadora, badly_knitted, china_shop, brithistorian, sanguinity, cornerofmadness, carenejeans, ysilme, shadaras, ashelterofpages, sakana17
Day 9:sylvanwitch, trobadora, badly_knitted, china_shop, brithistorian, sanguinity, cornerofmadness, ysilme, goddess47, ashelterofpages,
Day 1:
sylvanwitch, trobadora, luzula, badly_knitted, china_shop, the_siobhan, brithistorian, sanguinity, cornerofmadness, carenejeans, ysilme, goddess47, shadaras,Day 2:
sylvanwitch, trobadora, luzula, badly_knitted, china_shop, the_siobhan, brithistorian, sanguinity, cornerofmadness, carenejeans, ysilme, goddess47, shadaras,Day 3:
sylvanwitch, trobadora, luzula, badly_knitted, china_shop, the_siobhan, brithistorian, sanguinity, cornerofmadness, carenejeans, ysilme, goddess47, shadaras,Day 4:
sylvanwitch, trobadora, luzula, badly_knitted, china_shop, the_siobhan, sanguinity, cornerofmadness, carenejeans, ysilme, goddess47,Day 5:
sylvanwitch, trobadora, luzula, badly_knitted, china_shop, brithistorian, sanguinity, carenejeans, ysilme, goddess47, shadaras, ashelterofpages, miss_ingno,Day 6:
sylvanwitch, trobadora, badly_knitted, china_shop, brithistorian, sanguinity, cornerofmadness, carenejeans, ysilme, goddess47, shadaras, ashelterofpages, miss_ingno,Day 7:
sylvanwitch, trobadora, badly_knitted, china_shop, the_siobhan, brithistorian, sanguinity, cornerofmadness, carenejeans, ysilme, goddess47, ashelterofpages, miss_ingno,Day 8:
sylvanwitch, trobadora, badly_knitted, china_shop, brithistorian, sanguinity, cornerofmadness, carenejeans, ysilme, shadaras, ashelterofpages, sakana17Day 9:
sylvanwitch, trobadora, badly_knitted, china_shop, brithistorian, sanguinity, cornerofmadness, ysilme, goddess47, ashelterofpages,Picture Book Monday: Only Opal
Feb. 9th, 2026 08:08 amosprey_archerI was quite excited about the picture book Only Opal: The Diary of a Young Girl, as I’ve been low-key obsessed with Opal Whiteley for years, and what could be better than a book about Opal illustrated by Barbara Cooney?
For those of you who don’t know, Opal Whiteley came to national attention in 1920 when the Atlantic Monthly published her childhood diary, in which young Opal wrote lyrical descriptions of nature and her animal friends, who have Lars Porsenna (the crow) and Brave Horatius (the dog). Some people were and remain bowled over by the beauty of her nature writing. Other people accused Opal of making up the diary wholesale. Would any kid really name a crow Lars Porsenna? It’s just too too precious.
I believe that the diary was real, though. Opal was an extremely bright child, and extremely bright children sometimes do things that strike people who don’t know them as completely unbelievable. She also suffered from a very unfortunate accident of timing, in that she fit perfectly a cultural archetype that was just coming under attack when she published her diary. A child of Nature, growing up in poverty but learning from the trees and the flowers and a few good, solid books (traditionally the Bible and Shakespeare, but in Opal’s case a book of historical figures).
After World War I this whole “child of nature” idea came to be seen as an offshoot of a sickeningly naive vision of human nature that had been exploded by the war. And then here comes Opal Whiteley, presenting to the world this diary supposedly written when she was five and six, which completely embodies this discredited vision. Well, it’s much easier to say “She’s a fraud!” than to wonder “Is there something in the child of nature idea after all?”
Unfortunately, as I recalled as I began to read the picture book, although I find Opal as a person very interesting, I can’t stand her diary. I think it’s a real diary, truly written by Opal as a child, but even in the immensely abridged form of a picture book, it does strike me as too too precious. “One way the road does go to the house of the girl who has no seeing” - good gravy, Opal, just say she’s blind. You named a mouse Felix Mendelssohn! I know you know the word blind!
But of course Barbara Cooney’s illustrations are lovely as always. I particularly liked the picture of the mouse Felix Mendelssohn asleep on a pincushion under a little square of flannel. Just the right level of precious.
For those of you who don’t know, Opal Whiteley came to national attention in 1920 when the Atlantic Monthly published her childhood diary, in which young Opal wrote lyrical descriptions of nature and her animal friends, who have Lars Porsenna (the crow) and Brave Horatius (the dog). Some people were and remain bowled over by the beauty of her nature writing. Other people accused Opal of making up the diary wholesale. Would any kid really name a crow Lars Porsenna? It’s just too too precious.
I believe that the diary was real, though. Opal was an extremely bright child, and extremely bright children sometimes do things that strike people who don’t know them as completely unbelievable. She also suffered from a very unfortunate accident of timing, in that she fit perfectly a cultural archetype that was just coming under attack when she published her diary. A child of Nature, growing up in poverty but learning from the trees and the flowers and a few good, solid books (traditionally the Bible and Shakespeare, but in Opal’s case a book of historical figures).
After World War I this whole “child of nature” idea came to be seen as an offshoot of a sickeningly naive vision of human nature that had been exploded by the war. And then here comes Opal Whiteley, presenting to the world this diary supposedly written when she was five and six, which completely embodies this discredited vision. Well, it’s much easier to say “She’s a fraud!” than to wonder “Is there something in the child of nature idea after all?”
Unfortunately, as I recalled as I began to read the picture book, although I find Opal as a person very interesting, I can’t stand her diary. I think it’s a real diary, truly written by Opal as a child, but even in the immensely abridged form of a picture book, it does strike me as too too precious. “One way the road does go to the house of the girl who has no seeing” - good gravy, Opal, just say she’s blind. You named a mouse Felix Mendelssohn! I know you know the word blind!
But of course Barbara Cooney’s illustrations are lovely as always. I particularly liked the picture of the mouse Felix Mendelssohn asleep on a pincushion under a little square of flannel. Just the right level of precious.
Just having some thoughts today
Feb. 9th, 2026 08:02 pmscaramoucheThe algorithm feeds you more of what you already like, so this is likely to be a snapshot of a subsection of certain social media platforms (instagram and youtube, because I've seen it myself; tiktok and twitter, as reported to me by friends since I'm not on either; maybe others). Within this subsection of certain social media platforms, you'll find that if there are posts or videos praising Malaysia or showing photos/footage of major Malaysian cities, there will be comments from my fellow Malaysians jokingly decrying it as AI, or fake news, or "actually this is Singapore/Thailand/Indonesia, please don't come to Malaysia, we still live in trees". It's a whole joke and in-joke, and some non-locals have figured it out and play into it. We will be there, in the comments, refusing to directly claim the positivity from outsiders.
I've seen some comments claim that this trend is because we're afraid of overtourism. That may be the motivation of some, but IMO not the major one.
With a disclaimer that this is my personal impression of why we feel and respond this way, and of course I can only speak to those of my own social and business circles that have discussed this, and I think that younger generations have their own interpretation of it. I think the real reason goes back to how we used to feel in the 1980s and 1990s, as a South East Asian country that the international community didn't really know about. Oh, people know about our famous neighbours: Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia. But we kept getting left out of the global conversation; an afterthought in news, business dealings and pop culture, or folded in/mistaken for our more-famous neighbours.
After a while, I believe, we preferred it that way. Being low-key means we don't get sucked into geopolitical drama as much, and the global perception of us (IF ANY) would be so wrong that it's easier to laugh about it than get upset. (The "we still live in trees" was a legit thing for years, before we took it.) Singapore can get the high-profile billionaire expats. Indonesia and Thailand can get the cultural exposure. To not know about us is to have no expectations about us, which is to be pleasantly surprised by us, if you visit.
Because we know very well what our shortcomings are. We love our food, our cultures (major lion dance troupes are ours!), our mishmash of identities. But we also know our infrastructure is uneven, our cities are not walkable (with only a few exceptions), our salary levels are not competitive, conservative populism still reigns, LGBTQ people might as well not exist (though they do, in the cracks of plausible deniability), and that we can be insidiously bigoted in ways that aren't obvious without context. But on the flipside, our standard of living has improved in such a way that a lot of us don't realize it has improved: our metro lines are great, some of our government services are better than some more advanced countries, our banking and payment systems are excellent, the multiculturalism is so ingrained that we take it for granted until non-locals point out how unusual it is. So while we do feel pride in ourselves, whatever that means, we also don't feel that being loud about it is the right way to go.
It's not self-deprecating, I think. More like, it comes from an awareness that we can do better and wincing preemptively before our ugly bits get exposed.
I've seen some comments claim that this trend is because we're afraid of overtourism. That may be the motivation of some, but IMO not the major one.
With a disclaimer that this is my personal impression of why we feel and respond this way, and of course I can only speak to those of my own social and business circles that have discussed this, and I think that younger generations have their own interpretation of it. I think the real reason goes back to how we used to feel in the 1980s and 1990s, as a South East Asian country that the international community didn't really know about. Oh, people know about our famous neighbours: Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia. But we kept getting left out of the global conversation; an afterthought in news, business dealings and pop culture, or folded in/mistaken for our more-famous neighbours.
After a while, I believe, we preferred it that way. Being low-key means we don't get sucked into geopolitical drama as much, and the global perception of us (IF ANY) would be so wrong that it's easier to laugh about it than get upset. (The "we still live in trees" was a legit thing for years, before we took it.) Singapore can get the high-profile billionaire expats. Indonesia and Thailand can get the cultural exposure. To not know about us is to have no expectations about us, which is to be pleasantly surprised by us, if you visit.
Because we know very well what our shortcomings are. We love our food, our cultures (major lion dance troupes are ours!), our mishmash of identities. But we also know our infrastructure is uneven, our cities are not walkable (with only a few exceptions), our salary levels are not competitive, conservative populism still reigns, LGBTQ people might as well not exist (though they do, in the cracks of plausible deniability), and that we can be insidiously bigoted in ways that aren't obvious without context. But on the flipside, our standard of living has improved in such a way that a lot of us don't realize it has improved: our metro lines are great, some of our government services are better than some more advanced countries, our banking and payment systems are excellent, the multiculturalism is so ingrained that we take it for granted until non-locals point out how unusual it is. So while we do feel pride in ourselves, whatever that means, we also don't feel that being loud about it is the right way to go.
It's not self-deprecating, I think. More like, it comes from an awareness that we can do better and wincing preemptively before our ugly bits get exposed.
Interesting Links for 09-02-2026
Feb. 9th, 2026 12:00 pmandrewducker- 1. Jurassic Tank Top: The Uncanny Valley of Agency
- (tags:scarlettjohansson patriarchy movies JurassicPark )
- 2. Etymology of "Foo"
- (tags:language history swearing )
- 3. World's first mass-production sodium-ion battery keeps 90% capacity even at -40c
- (tags:batteries temperature )
- 4. Blood omega-3 is inversely related to risk of early-onset dementia (incidence drops from 0.19% to 0.11%)
- (tags:omega3 )
- 5. I was totally blown away by this beatboxing. Just totally unbelievable. (Wing: Dopamine)
- (tags:music video voice impressive )
- 6. Substack's "Nazi problem" won't go away
- (tags:Nazis blogs )
- 7. The time of day when you eat could be key to success for intermittent fasting
- (tags:food time diet health )
- 8. Last week the Prime Minister lost control of how documents should be reviewed for security reasons.
- (tags:security politics uk constitution )
Tags:
- batteries,
- blogs,
- constitution,
- diet,
- food,
- health,
- history,
- impressive,
- jurassicpark,
- language,
- links,
- movies,
- music,
- nazis,
- omega3,
- patriarchy,
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- temperature,
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- voice
Why Some People Think in Words, While Others Think in Pictures & Feelings
Feb. 9th, 2026 10:00 amopenculture_feed
The age of social media has shown humanity a fair few truths about itself, not all of them flattering. But once in a while, one of the waves of discourse that roll through the internet really does help us better understand one another. Take the surprise some have expressed in recent years upon finding out that the expression to “picture” something in one’s head isn’t just a figure of speech. You mean that people “picturing an apple,” say, haven’t been just thinking about an apple, but actually seeing one in their heads? The inability to do that has a name: aphantasia, from the Greek word phantasia, “image,” and prefix -a, “without.”
That same template has lately been used to create another term, anendophasia, whose roots endo and phasia mean “inner” and “speech.” As you might expect, the word refers to the lack of an internal monologue. That sounds bizarre to many who hear it for the first time: some because they can’t imagine thinking in words, and others because they can’t imagine thinking in anything else.
These, as explained in the Voided Thoughts video above, are just some of the ways the experiences inside our heads differ. Some 40 percent of us hear and even have conversations with “internal voices,” about 50 percent of us see things in our mind’s eye instead, and some 20 percent report thinking exclusively in feelings. Those who belong to one of those groups will have trouble imagining what life is like for anyone in the others.
This owes to the inherent inaccessibility of one human being’s subjective experience to another, a condition that has bedeviled philosophers practically since the emergence of their profession. But scientific researchers have also been looking into it, and their studies have suggested that the capacity for internal monologues and mental pictures makes more than a trivial difference in one’s life. Visual thinkers, the video notes, tend to be better at memorization; verbal thinkers “usually have an edge when it comes to planning, problem-solving, and rehearsing,” but they’re also “more prone to looping thoughts.” In practice, most of us use both forms of thinking in different proportions depending on the situation, and thus, to an extent, enjoy both sets of advantages — and should watch out for both sets of disadvantages.
Related content:
How to Silence the Negative Chatter in Our Heads: Psychology Professor Ethan Kross Explains
How to Improve Your Memory: Four TED Talks Explain the Techniques to Remember Anything
Why You Do Your Best Thinking In The Shower: Creativity & the “Incubation Period”
What a Lack of Social Contact Does to Your Brain
Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. He’s the author of the newsletter Books on Cities as well as the books 한국 요약 금지 (No Summarizing Korea) and Korean Newtro. Follow him on the social network formerly known as Twitter at @colinmarshall.
Monday 09/02/2026
Feb. 9th, 2026 10:50 amdark_kana posting in 3_good_things_a_day1) nice colleagues at work, lovely chats
2) going for a walk during lunch break
3) visiting Lhune after dinner for another dr who related episode :D