licked by the mother tongue

once upon a time there was a kid who loved linguistics but knew nothing about it so started a blog to learn and have fun and here we are. (ngl this blog has definitely drifted from linguistics a bit- still learning bout stuff and having fun tho)

[prescriptivism-literally-sucks]

hey everyone, haven’t been on here in a while and idk how many of my followers are still active but long story short, i’ve been doing a physics degree and have kind of thought that maybe it isn’t for me anymore but I really want to try and get back into linguistics again. 

can anyone recommend any kinds of jobs/apprenticeships or anything i can do in order to explore this? unfortunately i don’t have the funds to go into another degree so the option to study it at uni isn’t available to me at the moment. 

thanks in advance xoxo

[prescriptivism-literally-sucks]

hey everyone, haven’t been on here in a while and idk how many of my followers are still active but long story short, i’ve been doing a physics degree and have kind of thought that maybe it isn’t for me anymore but I really want to try and get back into linguistics again. 

can anyone recommend any kinds of jobs/apprenticeships or anything i can do in order to explore this? unfortunately i don’t have the funds to go into another degree so the option to study it at uni isn’t available to me at the moment. 

thanks in advance xoxo

[sarcastic-clapping]

ok from what i can tell there have only been like 4 moderately widespread memes on this site in the past month or so (1. pokemon go meme 2. taylor swift copyright meme 3. “you gotta” 4. halsey lyrics on spongebob caps) which others have noted is a remarkably reduced rate of meme production for this trash site. 

while i think the fact that the majority of tumblr’s user base has gone back to school definitely contributes to The Great Meme Depression of 2015 (TGMD 2k15), it cannot be the only explanation. if it was we would see the same Meme Stagnation every year around the same time, which has not been the case. september 2014 gave us unavoidable site-wide phenomena such as madden gifferator, “what’s better than this? guys being dudes,” the rebirth of loss.jpg, steal her look, what are we?, etc. 

i propose that the rapid rate of meme production we grew accustomed to in 2014 and early 2015 deflated the staying power of individual memes. our hyper-awareness of memes and the fact that our metatextual analysis of said memes became a meme within itself (”memeology”) conditioned us into constant vigilance in our search for “the next meme.” i mean, for fuck’s sake, the first meme of 2014 was “what’s going to be the first meme of 2014?” and the last meme of 2014 was “is this the last meme of 2014?” with garbage pseudo-intellectual meta we sowed the seeds of our own destruction.

deflation of individual meme value led to an even more dramatic increase in meme production (for evidence, just look at how many memes the blog memedocumentation has explained. and of course, those are only 2015 memes. the fact that memedocumentation does not document pre-2015 memes is another fucking 2015 meme) this lead to an even heavier reliance on what could be referred to as Meme Credit–we were borrowing and resurrecting old memes like pepe and the aforementioned loss.jpg to satisfy the Meme Demand in the absence of concrete, original memes. we were destined to crash when that credit ran out and the vaults of the Meme Banks were emptied. 

even now as i reflect on how meme hyper-vigilance and overproduction has destroyed the meme economy, i cannot help but wonder “but what will be the next meme?”

only some kind of……….new deal………a New Meme Deal, if u will, can save us from this Great Meme Depression. in its absence we shall continue to suffer.

[scinote]

[scinote]

This is who we are, and this is what we do.

And we need your help to do it.

Thanks to your support, we’ve already reached 5% of our goal within only a few days of launching our Indiegogo campaign! But we still have a way to go before we can start building our first Observatory in Rwanda.

We’re asking for your help in spreading the word about our campaign by reblogging this post and sharing our video with your family and friends. It only takes a few seconds to reblog, and if every one of our followers reblogged this post, we could reach tens of thousands of people.

Please help us shape the future of science by supporting us at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/scinote, and get some cool science kits and gadgets while you’re at it.

Thank you again for your support!

[scinote]

Seeking SciNote, Physics: The Fastest Star in The Milky Way

Question: What is the fastest and closest star to Earth? Answer: Great question. For comparison’s sake, let us start with our own solar system. The Sun’s orbital velocity is 220 km/s, faster than that of the solar system itself (200 km/s). Circular orbital velocity is represented with the equation:

In this equation, G is the Newtonian gravitational constant, M is the mass of the orbit center, and r is the orbital radius. Now that we have a reference point, let’s get to the answer to your question. The fastest star in our Galaxy, the Milky Way, is called US 708. It has an orbital velocity of 1,200 km/s, which is nearly five and a half times faster than that of our Sun. US 708 is now a white dwarf. A long time ago, however, when US 708 was only a red giant, it had a companion star, a massive white dwarf that pulled helium from US 708. When this white dwarf companion had collected enough matter on its surface, a nuclear explosion was triggered, which in turn ignited catastrophic nuclear burning and destroyed the white dwarf. This process, in which a star undergoes a catastrophic explosion that ejects most of its mass, resulting in a huge increase in brightness, is called a supernova.

So this type 1a supernova sent US 708 hurtling when it was ejected from its ultra-compact binary star system, in which two stars rotate around the same center of mass. As a result, US 708 exceeds the escape velocity of the Milky Way (1,000 km/s) and will therefore exit our galaxy.

Source: Wolfram Alpha LLC. 2009. Wolfram|Alpha. http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=the+sun+speed Cofield, Calla. “Fastest Star in the Galaxy Has a Strange Origin | Space.com.” Space. Space, 5 Mar. 2015. Web. 15 Mar. 2015. Answered by John M. Edited by Anna G.

—

If you liked this article, would like to continue reading articles like these on SciNote, and/or would like to share these articles with students in parts of the world that may be more inaccessible by Internet, please support our Indiegogo campaign at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/scinote. We need your help to raise $5000 in 30 days! Thank you.

[pablothepeasant]

Real, unedited photographies of the skies published by NASA. What you see on these photographs is not the result of Photoshop and was visible to the naked eye.

[astrophysics-daily]

Nevertheless, all of these pictures are long-exposure photographs, which can exaggerate certain features and colors by taking in more light : the Milky Way, for example, can’t be seen with the naked eye in such detail as in the first and third picture.

[pleatedjeans]

men don’t scream

[cryinghanzoshimada-deactivated2]

to give you an idea on not only how hot it is in the uk, but also just how heat-intolerant we are as a country, i went upstairs to close my blind and stop the sun coming into my room and i started to get dizzy after a few minutes. i didnt sleep last night because of the weather.

is not just that its hot, its that we as a country are built for rain and sleet and hail and howling gales. we dont need AC because its pointless and a waste of space and money if the average temperature is barely above 20 degrees. we live in boxes of insulation. our foods are heavy and hearty and warm for getting us through the cold. we live in almost constant cloud cover so we’re not used to the sun.

my mother and i are constantly panicking over my 9 week old baby sister because she could very easily overheat and die.

heatwaves in the uk are not a fucking joke.

[dracofidus-deactivated20200523]

This morning I got out of bed, stood up, and it was so hot I got dizzy, my vision went black and I fell over.

All of our windows are open, there is nothing for us to do. I am lying naked on the bathroom floor because that is the coolest place.

[courtneygeek]

As someone who has lived with the unbearable combo of humidity + no AC (Louisiana after a hurricane is fucking awful) cold wash cloths are your best friend. Put some in the fridge and switch them out putting them on the back of your neck, wear as few clothes as possible, NEVER take a hot shower, avoid stimulants like caffeine, nicotine, and any medication that is not necessary because they can not only raise your temp but most of them make you pee more and will dehydrate you faster. Any type of electric fan, literally anything that gets the air moving is your friend, make sure babies get a cool wipe down often and left in only diapers as often as possible, also pedialite or a knock off of it (it’s like Gatorade for babies without all the sugars and helps keep them hydrated when they’re sick). Fuck capsaicin just don’t touch it I know curry is delicious but DO NOT FUCK WITH SPICY FOODS your systems probably aren’t adapted to handle that plus the weather. Keep your pets well watered and calm. Seriously guys any questions feel free to ask because Louisiana has humidity equivalent to a rainforest in our driest months and I will gladly help keep y'all safe.

[dracofidus-deactivated20200523]

^hero.

[charamei]

Also don’t forget that you can put plastic water bottles in the freezer overnight! Fill them about 4/5 to the top (ice takes up more space than water, so if you overfill the bottle will burst) and when you take them out the next morning you will have a bottle-sized ice cube which will melt easily in the heat. The water inside will stay cold because 1. hello, bottle-sized ice cube and 2. it’s literally only just melted. This method works way better than regular sized ice cubes because the water starts out cold.

That said, guys, don’t drink only water. It’s true that caffeine etc will dehydrate you faster, but when you sweat you lose salts and minerals that your body needs and if you only drink water then you won’t replace them. Drink mostly water but be sure to have at least 500ml of something else - orange juice and Sprite work well. And enjoy some guilt-free crisps. Right now, you need that extra salt.

Regarding sleeping, I know a lot of people can’t sleep with wet hair but if you are one of the lucky few, and especially if your hair is long or thick enough that it takes a while to dry even in this weather, try it. It’ll keep your body temperature down, and it beats sleeping in wet pyjamas.

[officaljohncage-deactivated2017]

Also! I live in Brazil, I’m used to 40+ temperatures so here is a handy trick: if you have a box fan, put a tray of icecubes in front of it and you get a sort of kind of air conditioner. Put a pillow in the fridge or freezer an hour or so before going to sleep. Try staying close to the bottom floor of your building, or staying near the ground because hot air rises. Do not wear tight clothing and try to stay with open toed shoes. Hang a wet sheet in front of an open window. Try to spread out in your bed while sleeping, wear light clothing (sorry, Dan, you’re going to have to). The best trick of all: brew peppermint tea, wait till it cools. Put it in a spray bottle and mist it over yourself. Works like a charm.

Stay safe!

[jootsteel-deactivated20200918]

Yes. These posts offer swell advice.

[blue-plastic-hairbrush]

If in lack of ice cubes wet cloths in front of a fan will work as well. Keep the blinds drawn in the day but leave your windows open at night if it is cool. If you can make it to a cinema or a mall they typically have ac here I don’t know if they do there but that may work. No hats, just don’t. Cool rinse downs work very well. Hydrate even if you aren’t thirsty. If you can take a nap it will help lower your body temp and keep you cool. Avoid being out from 12-2:30 that is the hottest part of the day typically. Also if you have swamp coolers I would advise you stay away from them, they tend to only increase humidity in a room and will actually make it much hotter than is was before which is awful really. Best of luck! (Source: living most of my life in southern California without any ac)

[bisexualr2d2]

If you drive, never underestimate how hot a parked car can get. Never leave pets or children in one, even if you leave a window cracked open. Also, invest in one of those windshield reflectors. They’re pretty inexpensive and keep your car a LOT cooler.

[masterofthepotato]

[riahreah]

he meows so hard he falls over :o

[motionlesscreature666]

omg i want them all.

[misguidedandmisfortunate]

Can you die from a cuteness overload!?

[edsgrammy-blog]

[birdschoolforbirds]

million dollar idea: instead of spending thousands of dollars on steady-cam equipment, filmmakers should just attach a camera to the head of a chicken and carry the chicken around as you film.

[birdschoolforbirds]

[ob2komario-blog]

Fact:

They actually did that.

[the-emef]

cannot. stop. laughing.

[me-equals-mc2]

Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars—mere globs of gas atoms. Nothing is 'mere.’ I too can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more? The vastness of the heavens stretches my imagination—stuck on this carousel my little eye can catch one million-year-old light. A vast pattern—of which I am a part—perhaps my stuff was belched from some forgotten star, as one is belching there. What is the pattern, or the meaning, or the why? It does not do harm to the mystery to know a little about it. For far more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the past imagined! Why do the poets of the present not speak of it? What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were like a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent?

Richard Feynman’s Six Easy Pieces (via me-equals-mc2)

[leays]

[tablo4president-deactivated2016]

me

[sashayed]

ps: in case u guys didn’t know, this is Jim Obergefell, the named plaintiff in the case that just made gay marriage LEGAL for EVERYBODY IN AMERICA. His husband and partner of 21 years, John Arthur, died of complications from ALS while they were fighting for their home state of Ohio to recognize the validity of their marriage (which took place in Maryland). The Obergefell case centers on Jim’s right to be recognized on his terminally-ill husband’s death certificate. That’s John in the photo. Jim is still carrying it on CNN right now. 

[naotarou]

It took me 18 years to realise Saturday has turd in it

[beecommunist-deactivated2019052]

shit shit shit

guys im so boned

it’s like? $220 at least for a new wheelchair charger and as im sure youre all aware i have nothing to my name right now

someone just sent me $50 which is almost a quarter of it

so please please can you reblog and donate

will do cute portrait art of u/ur friends/ur ocs/whatever for like $5

guys this is important i cant go out without this or do anything without it. i was supposed to be going to a really important rally tomorrow and now i cant and this just sucks so hard.

please reblog/donate/commission stuff.

[flowisaconstruct-deactivated202]

smashgirls:

the worst!!! thing!!! is having certain names POISONED for you……every time you hear That Name your gut twists and you feel sick and unsettled or angry

This reminds me of a post I saw the other day where a guy was saying “you never realize how many people you hate until you try to pick a name for your baby” and it’s so true. You and your mate will be sitting there going “No, it can’t be Jessica, that bitch stole my necklace in 3rd grade.”