Mastodawn

Hmm ... this new "energy" thing on Duolingo has turned it into a hardly usable app. Wonder what made them believe it would help learn more effectively. I don't mind getting Super but they won't let me because I don't have a google account? Don't know how else I could pay. Anyhow, I'd like them to be a little more serious about developping already existing courses like the Latin one, rather than adding new courses and making UX worse.

𝓢𝓪𝓴𝓲 𝓝.𝓼.𝓪.Jun 8, 2025

Zotero Jun 5, 2025

Zotero for Android is now available https://www.zotero.org/blog/zotero-for-android/

𝓢𝓪𝓴𝓲 𝓝.𝓼.𝓪.May 2, 2025

Ayano Nonomura (then in 2010 a student at Hiroshima Music High School) sings the Japanese national anthem "Kimi ga Yo." Yes, this is the best rendition of it that I've ever heard. Just sublime beauty. I don't mean to disregard others' performing, tho.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ORh8TKxsMU

国歌独唱／第８２回選抜高校野球大会

YouTube

𝓢𝓪𝓴𝓲 𝓝.𝓼.𝓪.Apr 1, 2025

The Biology of Language Under a Minimalist Lens: Promises, Achievements, and Limits
https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/8934/the-biology-of-language-under-a-minimalist-lens-promises-achievements-and-limits/magazine?utm_source=copy_link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=rt_magazine_share&utm_content=rt8934

The Biology of Language Under a Minimalist Lens: Promises, Achievements, and Limits

The advent of the Minimalist Program (MP) proposed by Chomsky in 1995 brought about a revolution in linguistics and in cognitive sciences. The idea of a faculty of language richly articulated was abandoned in favour of a view of language as a bare minimum interfacing with sensorimotor (SM) and conceptual-intentional (C-I) systems also involved in other abilities. At that moment, this fresh view was expected to explain better than others how language is implemented in the brain and how it evolved in the species, because it was claimed to be more in line with how biologists conceive development and evolution. Nonetheless, over the years this minimalist view has attracted some criticism, among other things because of its focus on computation, its detachment from communication, or its claim that language might have appeared as a result of one (or a few) gene mutations. <br/><br/>The goal of this Research Topic is to revisit this minimalist approach to the biology of language, at a moment when the Minimalist Program is close to reaching a quarter of a century of life. The focus will be put on four interrelated aspects: language evolution in the species, language development in the child, language implementation in the brain, and language disorders in present-day human populations. Contributions are expected to discuss whether the minimalist approach is a good/the best approach to key questions in modern (bio)linguistics, like when and how language evolved, how the brain process...

𝓢𝓪𝓴𝓲 𝓝.𝓼.𝓪.Mar 29, 2025

Japan's imperial family to debut on YouTube in April

https://japantoday.com/category/national/japan-imperial-family-to-debut-on-youtube-in-april?

Japan's imperial family to debut on YouTube in April

Japan's Imperial Household Agency will launch its official YouTube channel next month to showcase the activities of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako as well as other members of the imperial family. The YouTube channel, starting at 10 a.m. on April 1, will be used as part of the agency's efforts…

Japan Today

𝓢𝓪𝓴𝓲 𝓝.𝓼.𝓪.Mar 28, 2025

Worrisome old news. Will this shift really "make life easier for everyone," as Google claims? I'm interested to know what developers (outside Google's team) and users might have to say.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/google-makes-android-development-private-will-continue-open-source-releases/

Google makes Android development private, will continue open source releases

Google says this change will simplify things for developers and OEMs.

Ars Technica

Show thread

𝓢𝓪𝓴𝓲 𝓝.𝓼.𝓪.Jan 2, 2025

Virus 復活の日 (1980) with Olivia Hussey, Masao Kusakari et al.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1E9so7xtpU

VIRUS: DAY OF RESURRECTION 🎬 Remastered Classic Full Sci-Fi Horror Movie 🎬 English HD 2021

YouTube

𝓢𝓪𝓴𝓲 𝓝.𝓼.𝓪.Jan 2, 2025

Didn't know she was gone. I happened to be watching "Virus" late last month:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/dec/30/olivia-hussey-obituary

Olivia Hussey obituary

Actor who was catapulted to fame as one of the teen stars of Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet in 1968

The Guardian

𝓢𝓪𝓴𝓲 𝓝.𝓼.𝓪.Oct 3, 2024

2024-10-03

𝓢𝓪𝓴𝓲 𝓝.𝓼.𝓪.May 26, 2024

Shrine honors #cats at #Japan island where they outnumber humans

https://japantoday.com/category/national/shrine-honors-cats-at-a-japanese-island-where-they-outnumber-humans

Shrine honors cats at Japan island where they outnumber humans

On a small island off Japan’s northeastern coast, visitors make offerings at a shrine for unlikely local guardians: cats. The “Neko Jinja,” or Cat Shrine, mythologizes cats as guardian angels of Tashirojima, where cats outnumber humans. Legend says the island used to be famous for sericulture and farmers would keep…

Japan Today