A better alphabet?

I’ve driven many times past church signs written in a language I didn’t understand but knew to be Korean. Actually, I’m not sure I knew they were Korean until I married a Presbyterian, and learned about the strength of the Presbyterian church in Korea. Mostly, I still thought of the unreadable symbols as another of those Asian languages that don’t use the kind of letters we do.

Beyond that, I never gave it much thought. I like learning languages, but never had any inclination to learn a language that required learning a new alphabet, except for New Testament Greek (which wasn’t too difficult because I knew much of the alphabet from math and science classes, and many of the letters are similar to those in our own alphabet). I tried learning the Hebrew alphabet once, but quickly lost interest.

I do find the whole subject of linguistics fascinating, however, and for several years, as a teenager, planned on becoming a Bible translator. I knew that it meant having to learn a tribal language unknown to outsiders, and then develop a system for writing it down, before I could even begin translating the Bible, or teach its speakers to read and write their own language. The idea was daunting, yet also an appealing challenge, all the more so because it would bring the Word of God to people who had never heard it.

I never imagined using a completely different alphabet, however. There are languages with sounds that our alphabet cannot represent, but the International Phonetic Alphabet can account for virtually all of them. In college, I took a course in which we studied how different sounds are formed by the mouth, and how to represent them all using the IPA. (I also learned that I don’t pronounce “s” the normal way, and that I have a “lazy jaw” which results in a tendency to mispronounce certain vowel sounds.)

It’s been a long time since I did much reading on linguistics, but I was fascinated to read recently, in the Wall Street Journal, about the effort of some Korean linguists to export their alphabet to other countries. The Cia-Cia language, spoken by less than a hundred thousand people on the island of Buton in Indonesia, has never had a written form. Efforts to use our Roman alphabet to write Cia-Cia produced confusion. The Korean linguists are convinced that their Hangeul script is the answer.

Why, I wondered, would the Korean alphabet be better than the IPA? It turns out that Hangeul was designed specifically to make it easy to learn. Most alphabets evolved over time, but Hangeul was created to replace the difficult Chinese and Japanese characters that had previously been the only way to write the Korean language. Not only do the symbols represent the sounds of the Korean language, their shapes even indicate the shape of the mouth for forming those sounds.

20th century artifacts

My co-worker Jerry used a very interesting approach for Table Topics at today’s Toastmasters meeting. Instead of simply suggesting a topic, he brought out a bag full of objects, and told us to imagine that we were archeologists in the year 2525. We were to pull an object out of the bag, and tell the group what the object – believed to be from the twenty-first century – might have been, and what it was used for.

The first volunteer got a screwdriver, and speculated that it might have been used as a primitive back scratcher (since replaced by robots). I got a glossy piece of paper showing a glass of Coca-cola and a hamburger and fries, with writing in English on one side and in Spanish on the other. I suggested that it might be some kind of translation tool, and added – noticing the large print at the top and the fine print at the bottom – that perhaps it was used to test the calibration of ancient contraptions worn on the face and called spectacles.

This is the same basic idea behind Motel of the Mysteries, by David Macaulay. It’s a fairly amusing book, in which an amateur archeologist of the 41st century has uncovered an ancient “Usa” burial site. (Usa had been long ago buried in an avalanche of junk mail which killed everyone.) I was fascinated by the idea, though somewhat disappointed by Macaulay’s treatment of it. I couldn’t understand what was so funny about the archeologist mistaking the porcelain fixture in one small room as an altar where people prayed; my husband (whom I met a few years later) explained about “praying to the porcelain god”).

It is a good way to take another look at familiar objects. And you don’t even have to use your imagination – try showing a child a 5 1/4″ floppy disk and ask him what it might have been used for. In a computer game I got Al for his birthday, I had to help him identify an object that I know as an eggbeater. My older son thought an eggbeater was what I call a whisk, because that’s how I beat eggs.

Al did recogize a movie projector – though I’m not sure where he would have seen one. I bet he’s never seen a filmstrip projector, which was a standard part of classroom equipment when I was growing up. I imagine he’d recognize what a fountain pen was used for, though I doubt he’s ever seen one used. (My mother preferred a fountain pen, and I taught myself to use one, but decided I much preferred ballpoint.) I was recently surprised to discover that Wite-out is still around.

Probably in another generation children won’t know what to make of this object, unless they have seen it in a museum:

 

 

It’s conceivable that within a few generations these objects also will be unfamiliar to many people:

 

 

 

Centuries from now, what might an archeologist think upon discovering

• an eight track tape?
• a phone booth?
• carbon paper?
• a computer mouse?
• an incandescent light bulb?
• bottled water?
• pumps at a gas station?
• a mercury thermometer?

Guide for the Perpetually loSt

This morning we visited the local Presbyterian Church, where a group of young people was leading the service, telling about their recent mission trip. One of their adult leaders told how grateful she was for Gladys, who kept her from getting lost as they went to their work assignments. I assumed Gladys was a local resident, who knew the roads well and rode with the group. No, Gladys turned out to be the new GPS system in the woman’s van.

I’ve been in a co-worker’s vehicle that was equipped with GPS, but I haven’t actually seen – or rather heard – it in action. My husband, who admits to being directionally challenged, would much appreciate such a navigational assistant. Next time we take a road trip, we will probably avail ourselves of the service provided by our wireless phone provider, on a pay-as-you-go basis.

I’ve heard about GPS for years, and had some idea of the technology behind it, but really never gave it much thought until Al and I explored the GPS exhibit at the Putnam Museum yesterday. The exhibit consists of a maze, with information along the way on GPS technology, plus hidden treasures to find and puzzles to solve.

As Al was more interested in finding treasures and getting through the maze than reading all the information along the way (plus we had a movie to get to – see yesterday’s post), I only picked up some of it myself. But I learned that, besides being used by travelers prone to getting lost, GPS is also used by search and rescue teams, farmers, and by the global geocaching community.

Useful inventions: egg cooker

A lot of cool-looking new kitchen gadgets don’t turn out to be all that useful. My SaladShooter is in a drawer somewhere, because unless you slice/shred a fair amount at a time, the extra work to assemble it, disassemble and wash it is as much trouble as the work it saved. My wonderful Pampered Chef foaming soap dispenser stopped working and no amount of cleaning would fix it – but now I don’t need it anyway because I can get a foaming soap dispenser, complete with foaming soap, at Wal-Mart.

We got some kind of device at a white elephant exchange that was supposed to make it “onion petals.” I like onions rings, but never got around to trying the thing. Instead we tried to sell it at a yard sale, and then gave it away to a thrift store. Other gadgets sit in drawers or in a box in the basement, ones I’ve held onto but haven’t used in so long I don’t remember where they are.

But I think I’m going to get more use out of my Cuisinart Egg Cooker. I asked for it for our anniversary last month, and my husband took me shopping to get one. We looked briefly at the one advertised on TV, then picked the Cuisinart instead. My experience of “As Seen on TV” products has not been all that positive.

I finally got around to making space for the egg cooker on the counter, where it has to share room with the toaster and coffee maker and waffle iron, all of which get used fairly regularly. Then I set it up, and read the instructions. I had wondered how in the world it knew how long to cook the eggs – that was after all my reason for buying it, because I always end up forgetting to set the timer when I boil eggs or not hearing it when it goes off.

“Science Fiction in the National Interest”

When USA Today reported, back in 2007, that the Department of Homeland Security was enlisting the aid of science fiction writers to help them better respond to possible threats, the idea was met with widespread derision. I wonder what people will think of the practical fruit of the department’s intense efforts to search out speculative technology, as reported in the Wall Street Journal, “In the Spirit of Spider-Man, the Border Patrol Casts Its Web.”

One goal is to find non-lethal means to stop cars or people on foot. The Squid, inspired by Spider-Man’s web, sends out tentacles which wraps around a vehicle’s drive train and force it to stop. The LEDI is a strobe light “that flashes in a pattern and spectrum the brain simply cannot process,” causing disorientation and possibly nausea. Both devices are in the testing phase right now.

Another project being tested involves biology rather than technology, and is designed to reduce the vegetation that allows people to hide along the Rio Grande. A wasp found in Spain feeds on a weed called the Carrizo cane, and researchers have been studying it in a secure greenhouse to know what to expect if and when they release it to breed along the border.

That one has people more concerned. Unlike technology, which may simply not work or may cause intended injuries (for which tort claims would have to be paid), but can at least simply be discontinued, species new to a region have a way of getting out of hand because they have no natural predators. I would hope that the two years of greenhouse study would have taken that into account, but who knows whether wildlife will respond the same way once it is allowed to be truly wild.

Science fiction writers have a mixed record in predicting future developments. In 1970 one of my teachers had us try to imagine what life would be like in the year 2000. I don’t remember many of our predicitons, but I know that flying cars haven’t made it into production yet. Professional science fiction writers probably do better than 8-year-olds, but their visions often overestimate some technological developments while entirely missing others. Still, there are a number of now commonplace devices first imagined by writers of fiction.

Stone Age dentistry

I’m always amazed to learn what ancient peoples were able to do in terms of medical treatment. We know how recently (relatively speaking) people became aware of the role of germs in causing disease, and that draining out blood from a sick person was not a way to make him well. Yet thousands of years ago, tools made of stone were used to do surgery – and patients survived, at least sometimes.

I remember visiting the Smithsonian as a child, and looking with morbid fascination at the skulls showing holes from trephination. The thought of it horrified me, but I couldn’t stop looking at them. (Of course, they were in some ways easier to look at than modern photographs of people who extended their earlobes – or worse, their lips - with large circular inserts.)

Today I read about a somewhat more recent practice, of decorating teeth with semiprecious gems. This was practiced in what is now Mexico from as long ago as 2500 years ago, until some time prior to the Spanish conquest of the area. The practice was purely ornamental – as some people do today. What is impressive is that the ancient dentists knew how to drill just far enough in to make a hole to place the gem in, without penetrating to the pulp.

From there I discovered a link to a much older practice, dating back 9000 years ago in what is now Pakistan. Archeologists have discovered teeth that were clearly drilled, and it appears to have been done for medical reasons. Any fillings that may have been used have not survived, perhaps having been made of a much less durable material. But a close examination of the teeth shows that those teeth continued to be used for chewing food after the dental work was done.

Oddly enough, the practice ceased with the beginning of metal-working – which you would think would have enabled those ancient dentists to refine their work. It’s amazing what knowledge we sometimes discover that people had thousands of years ago, that was later lost and only rediscovered much, much later.

I am very glad, of course, to have a dentist with very modern tools. Those stone age dentists may have known what they were doing, but without modern anesthetics it must have been very painful for the patient.

Movies: Meet the Robinsons

I had been wanting to see this movie for quite a while, since I had heard that it was one of Disney’s better animated films compared to the previous few years. But I didn’t know enough about it to be motivated to go out and rent it. When my younger son found it in the library and picked it out, I was quite happy to agree to check it out (especially as getting it from the library means no rental fee, and we get it for a whole week).

If you haven’t seen it, it’s a good family movie. It’s imaginative, humorous, and has a good lesson without being the slightest bit “preachy.” It’s about not giving up, even when you fail over and over. And it’s about the importance of family – even if your family is a bid odder than most. Some of the words I’ve seen in comments about it (at imdb.com) are “quirky” and “heartwarming,” and I think both apply very well.

It’s hard to describe it without either being confusing or giving away too much of the story, but it’s about an extremely smart little boy whose inventions don’t always work quite right. He’s also an orphan, and one of the things he’s about ready to give up on is ever being adopted. It’s also about time travel, and the bad things that can happen from messing with the past. I’m not sure when the story is supposed to take place (the part that’s not in the future, that is) – I don’t think there have been kids living in orphanages waiting to be adopted for a long time (in this country, which is where one assumes it takes place). But that doesn’t detract in the least from the story.

There have been other movies about kids waiting to be adopted, other movies about inventions that don’t work right, other movies about time travel, and other movies about the importance of family. But this one doesn’t give the feeling of having copied any of the others – it’s just too quirky to feel like a ripoff of anything (although there are some very oblique references to other Disney movies).

If you like the music of Danny Elfman, it may interest you to know that he composed and produced the score for this movie. I haven’t seen very many of the movies that use his music, but I tend to associate his music with movies that are more dark or at least quirky than heartwarming. My older son’s marching band did an entire show this past year using the music of Danny Elfman, and I recognized very little of it. But I since I was barely aware of the music during this movie, it must have fit very well with the action and mood.

Birthday of a Polymath

I took an online vocabulary quiz some time ago (I forget at what site, I was trying out several of their quizzes), and one word I was unfamiliar with was polymath. My first thought was of mathematics, and then of polynomials, but as the quiz was multiple choice (what other kind can you put on the web and have it scored by computer?), I could tell that wasn’t the answer. But I was able to figure it out: a person whose knowledge is not restricted to one subject area, and generally used to refer to someone who excels in a wide variety of subjects or fields. (I wondered where the “math” fit in, but I just learned that it comes from the Greek polymathēs, πολυμαθής, “having learned much” – and now I remember from my New Testament Greek that mathētēs, μαθητής, means “learner” or “disciple.”)

I also just learned that today, besides being Tax Day in the U.S., is the birthday of probably the most famous polymath in Western civilization, Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci. Usually he is referred to as the quintessential Renaissance Man, rather than a polymath, but I rather like the shorter term. He certainly knew math – along with being a scientist, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer. I never had any ambition to study engineering, anatomy, or botany, but I did aspire to study both broadly and deeply. I’m not sure how well I have achieved that, but I’ve also learned that just learning a lot is not worth all that much unless you can do something worthwhile with your life.

I think da Vinci might have agreed with that. I found a variety of interesting quotations by him at wikiquote.com (under April 15, his birthday), including this one:

Shun those studies in which the work that results dies with the worker.

If the learning only benefits me by giving me more knowledge and the satisfaction of knowing many things, then certainly all that will die with me. On the other hand, attempting to do worthwhile things without having the proper knowledge is not good either.

Those who are in love with practice without knowledge are like the sailor who gets into a ship without rudder or compass and who never can be certain whether he is going. Practice must always be founded on sound theory, and to this Perspective is the guide and the gateway; and without this nothing can be done well in the matter of drawing.

He seems to have been speaking of drawing in this context, but the principle applies equally well to other fields of study and practice. He had quite a bit to say about study, knowledge, and wisdom.

He who thinks little, errs much.

Virtual museum visit

One of my favorite museums has always been the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. It’s been a long time, however, since I’ve lived close enough to Washington, D.C. to make such a visit practical. So I was very happy to discover one of their traveling exhibits nearby – on my computer screen.

It started because I was looking up the meaning of “industrial design.” I’ve read enough books on inventions that I had a rough idea, but I wanted to see whether to classify it as a subset of engineering. Part of my job is to update our asset database, so we know where all our computer equipment is, by location, department, and user. Generally I’m just told a user name when the equipment is assigned, and I can look up either in Active Directory or our human resources application to find out the person’s location and department.

The problem is, there are only so many department descriptions in the database to choose from, and a very wide variety of job titles, some of which are not very informative – at least not to me. (My own title, IT Production Control, is a holdover from when I worked for a different manager, and tells virtually nothing about what I do. But at least it shows that I’m in the IT department.) I have figured out the “product management” means Marketing, and that internal audit is considered part of Accounting. Operations Coordination and Project Management can be safely categorized in the catchall descriptoin of “Administration.”

But what about “Industrial Design”? The title sounds a lot like “Industrial Engineering” but I know that the people with that title work at a different location, in our Technology Center. Last year I had him listed as Marketing – does that mean that Industrial Design is Marketing, or that he changed jobs? I decided to try to get a better definition of the term.

Wikipedia helpfully – or unhelpfully, depending on your point of view – points out that industrial design fits somewhere in between Engineering and Marketing, and requires some of both kinds of skills and good communication with both departments. I’m somewhat tempted to create a new department in the database for Industrial Design, but if I did that for every group that doesn’t fit nicely in the current scheme, I’d soon have so many departments the list could become unmanageable. So I left the Marketing label on the asset record.

Back on the wikipedia page, however, I couldn’t help noticing, under External Links, an interesting title: Doodles, Drafts and Designs: Industrial Drawings from the Smithsonian. I followed the link, not hoping for much – perhaps a blurb about some exhibit at the Smithsonian. I was very pleasantly surprised to find the the exhibits themselves are on this website. Since it’s all about drawings, of course those are the kind of exhibits most easily converted to electronic form. Each drawing is accompanied by a brief explanation of who made it, when, and why.

Have jetpack, will travel – but not very far

I always like it when the Wall Street Journal has a front page story that’s not about the economy, politics, or world events. For one thing, it may mean that the usual flood of bad news has temporarily slowed down. Plus it’s usually more fun to read.

Today it’s about jetpacks (and people who fly them). They’ve been around for decades, so it’s not exactly breaking news. But it was news to me that people use them outside of stunts for movies. For that matter, I wasn’t too sure the stunts in the movies involved any real jetpacks.

[Disclaimer: As the WSJ article points out, what are commonly called jetpacks are more properly called rocket packs. A true jet pack would require turbines to mix the fuel with air.]

I’m not sure what some people find so appealing about the idea. But then, I’m not a guy. One of our pastors explained, last Christmas, that one of the main criteria in finding a good present for a guy was that it have a power cord. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say it needs a motor – a jetpack lacks a power cord, but a hydrogen peroxide-powered motor probably more than makes up for that lack.