&ldquo;In the Hopi language surukaphe means ‘tail coffee’, or coffee watered down to make it go further. In Brazilian Portuguese slang, chafé means ‘bad coffee’, a blend of the words for ‘tea’ and ‘coffee’. Then there’s cholo in Louisiana French, from chaud-l’eau, or ‘hot water’.&rdquo;

Blurt! — Commonplace Book
pile.org

“In the Hopi language surukaphe means ‘tail coffee’, or coffee watered down to make it go further. In Brazilian Portuguese slang, chafé means ‘bad coffee’, a blend of the words for ‘tea’ and ‘coffee’. Then there’s cholo in Louisiana French, from chaud-l’eau, or ‘hot water’.”

Also

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Diana Gitig, Your next pour-over may be Liberica or excelsa (Ars Technica, December 15, 2022)
posted 12/18/2022 8:00pm ∞
“For years, many linguists have believed that learning language is impossible without a built-in grammar template. The new AI models … demonstrate that the ability to produce grammatical language can be learned from linguistic experience alone.”

Morten H. Christiansen and Pablo Contreras Kallens, AI is changing scientists’ understanding of language learning — and raising questions about an innate grammar (The Conversation, October 19, 2022, via Ars Technica)
posted 11/4/2022 8:00pm ∞
“[T]hese hacks ultimately become a labor issue. It would not be so taxing to make a TikTok drink … if stores were well-staffed, if workers were paid a living wage, if corporations weren’t intent on busting unions, and if customers were patient and understanding when their desires just aren’t possible.”

Jaya Saxena, Hacked to Bits (Eater, October 12, 2022, via Garbage Day)
posted 10/31/2022 8:00pm ∞
“Real questions are almost never settled in terms of right or wrong but rather how best to balance the competing equities of various solutions. Sarcasm is too lazy to engage in such important discussion.”

Andrew Bosworth, On Sarcasm (July 21, 2022)
posted 10/3/2022 8:00pm ∞
“In a famous anecdote in the Confessions, Augustine describes seeing Ambrose of Milan reading on his own without making a sound. Ambrose was not the first person in history to read silently, but his quiet, private reading was unusual enough to make an impression.”

Irina Dumitrescu, How to Read Aloud (London Review of Books, September 10, 2020)
posted 3/27/2021 8:00pm ∞