Sign language for hearing babies

This is really cool: Every morning, when Corinthian Barthelmess’s tummy rumbles for her breakfast banana, she lets her daddy know. She communicates not through whining or babbling or pointing, but through sign language. “Banana” is a favorite sign of this sweet-natured 14-month-old girl, who has been learning American Sign Language the past several months. Through…

Common language for Africa

These guys crack me up: Mr Atukwei Okai, Secretary General of the Pan African Writers Association (PAWA), on Tuesday advocated African Common Language Policy to enhance communication among Africans as a vital ingredient in ensuring the success of African unity. He said some proponents had indicated Swahili as a possible adoptive language, but cautioned that…

Abramovich in danger?

He’ll bounce back, says Mosnews in an article on Roman’s Empire: The head of the empire navigates the world in a privately owned plane, and not some Falcon or Gulf Stream, either, but a Boing-737.

Barcepundit

Go check out Barcepundit, the new home of ex-Hispalibertas bod, Franco Alemán, who is neither a dead dictator, nor French, nor German, but who does have some rather important things to say to you in English and Spanish. I wonder if it is not time to declare a moratorium on new blogs with the prefix…

Reading in China

When people emerge from feudalism only to find themselves imprisoned once more by pyschopaths dressed as plumbers, it’s difficult to take exception to any desire they may have to change their condition and to make that change permanent. However, there is always the odd Cassandra in trousers determined to find defeat in victory. “In China…

Death at five, quoth the pisswheel

Jordan: taking the piss? Librarians are incredibly cool (I was employed as one, once, briefly), and, although not all cool people are librarians, like the just before Christ those currently unlibraried should receive the benefit of the doubt. Any doubts remaining as to the benevolence of those who devote their lives to war with the…

Der Volf

Waszynski’s extraordinary 1937 Dibuk still drifts into the occasional dream. Der Volf was written by another Polish Jewish artist, H Leivick at around the same time as the play on which Waszynski’s film was based. Both introduce the supernatural in order to help us understand why it is wrong to do wrong, but where Der…