Links to Your World, Tuesday June 26

National Geographic reports that a language dies every 14 days, and thus by the next century nearly half of the languages now spoken will disappear. Russ Rymer: "Increasingly, as linguists recognize the magnitude of the modern language die-off and rush to catalog and decipher the most vulnerable tongues, they are confronting underlying questions about languages’ worth and utility. Does each language have boxed up within it some irreplaceable beneficial knowledge? Are there aspects of cultures that won’t survive if they are translated into a dominant language? What unexpected insights are being lost to the world with the collapse of its linguistic variety?" Fascinating.

 

Edward O. Wilson has his naturalistic answer to why we are, by turns, altruistic and selfish. I'm staying with Paul's answer in Romans 7.

 

I liked BU prof Thomas Hibbs' observations on comedy in films with religious themes.

 

That's one big honkin' church lobby fish tank.

 

Daredevil Nik Wallenda, who walked a tightrope across Niagara Falls last week, loves Jesus.

 

"For as long as I can remember, he was bubbling over or oozing out, as if his own skin could not quite contain him." Best line in a tragic story by Jeneen Interlandi, describing her manic father, in a NYT article about how his bipolar disorder disordered the family.

 

"Statistical evidence argues that holding up banks is a dangerous and unlucrative career that nets the average bank robber the annual salary of a cafe barista—and at the peril of getting caught or shot" (Scientific American).

 

The Libraries, Studies, and Writing Rooms of 15 Famous Men

 

"What Obama Isn’t: Antichrist, Socialist, Muslim, Kenyan, or Fit for For a Second Term." John Mark Reynolds explains.

 

"James Lovelock, the godfather of global warming, gave a startling interview to msnbc in which he acknowledged he had been unduly “alarmist” about climate change" (Story).

 

Probably not what they meant....