A Kickstarter project finally arrived, it's a book called A New Reality: Human Values and World Population. It is a republication of a book originally by Jonas Salk. His son Jonathan Salk created this project to release an updated edition. It talks about modern-day issues primarily caused by over population creating this 'new reality'.
It's premise revolves around the sigmoid curve and how human population growth is out the point of inflection (the middle point of the curve where it transistions). All living organisms population growth follow this sigmoid curve. It can be seen with bacteria in petri dishes, fruit flies in glass containers and sheep introduced on the secluded Tasmania island. Even outside of laboratories at some point limits (food sources or waste removal) are reached causing populations to eventually plateau. Analysing human population growth we have been experiencing a period massive accaleration; And appear to be in the phase on inflection. Through this the book offers hope and warnings for the future. Many indicators suggest we have reached the turning point in human population growth (primarily that our population growth has actually started to decalerate).
We had an awesome weekend away in Bright, a small mountain town on the edge of Victoria Australia. Completing the Spartan race trifecta. The trifecta is where one completes all three of the Spartan race types (Sprint - 7km+, Super - 14km+ and Beast - 21km+). The sprint turned out to be around 9.5km and the beast was 24km which was a little more than we were expecting.
Some enthusiasts will attempt whats called an Ultra Beast where you run the Beast course twice. Effectively giving you a full marathon experience whilst completing obstacles and mountain climbs. Three crazy monkeys were attempting it on the Sunday. Two completed and one was disqualified for surpassing the time limit. I'm blown away and impressed by these individuals.
Quick glance at The Divine Comedy and how difficult it is to read.
A while back I read Dante's Inferno, knowing next to nothing about the history or story. Only having fragments of knowledge which I'd gleaned from games. As I began to read I learnt that it is a poem, originally written in Italian. By Florence poet Dante Alighieri 1265 – 1321. His work known as Dante's Inferno or The Divine Comedy, is a masterpiece of world literature. He begun working on it c. 1308 and completed in 1320, a year before his death in 1321. Its release in Italian was contentious, as notable literature of the time was published in Latin, available only to the affluent that could read it. The Italian language was considered a 'common' language, and works published in this tongue (Italian) didn't receive the same esteem. Dante helped establish Italian as the national language.
This is a minor analysis of German - Harry Potter & The Philosophers Stone, for language learners.
A common technique for language learners is mass exposure, where you immerse yourself in all mediums of a language. The most accessible and perhaps the most beneficial when beginning a language is reading. Ebook readers make books from all languages very accessible. And have the added benefit of onboard dictionaries, where translations are a finger gesture away.
I've found it a helpful technique myself. And believe its popular amongst polyglots out there (at least the one or two I follow). And after breaking it down it starts to become clear why this is an effective learning technique.
