Re: "Usefull languages"

Padraic Brown scripsit:
> Am 19.02.02, J Y S Czhang yscrifef:
>
> > b.> IMHO it is a better constitution than most - including the
> > American one.
>
> OK. You've got my interest. What's the url?
>
> > I really like the fact that the Dutch constitution was actually
> > created by the input of the people living in the Netherlands rather than just
> > an elitist cabal of politicians, capitalists, technocrats, militarists,
> > police, priests, etc. creating a constitution behind closed doors and then
> > foisting it on "their" people and saying: "we know what is best for you, so
> > stop whining about 'democracy' and shutup."
>
> Totally ignores the history of the moment: there had _never_ been
> a C like it before the US one; the Netherlands had a couple
> centuries of history and scads of constitutions and dozens of
> constitutional congresses to look at for help; that elitist cabal
> _was_ elected (if imperfectly by 21st century standards) and the
> whole thing _was_ ratified by reps from the States; closed doors
> is interesting - I wonder if they could have even done it at all
> with 100% public scrutiny. But anyway...
>
> > BTW I learned to read from the _Curious George_ series and Sendak's
> > _Where the Wild Things Are_. My Mum thinks this explains a lot about my early
> > childhood development and core-character.
>
> Definitely two excellent sources to learn from!
>
> > One of my favourite items in my linguistics collection is a brochure that
> > came with my French press for coffee-making :) The brochure is in 12
> > languages! (Mostly European languages, but Japanese, Russian, Korean and
> > Chinese are also represented).
>
> Unhappily, it seems that actual instruction content is reduced to
> 'figure it out yourself' because of all the languages they have
> to publish the instruction book in. Not that I'm complaining,
> mind. Such things are easy enough to sort out; and it's fun to
> see how they translate (or completely screw up the
> translation! of) things into other languages. I also note that a
> lot of product labels (especially foods) are found in both
> English and French.
>
> > czHANg23
>
> > musical mad scientist
>
> What weird and terrible concoction have you come up with now? ;)
>
> Padraic.
> --
> Gwerez dah, chee gwaz vaz, ha leal.
>

--
John Cowan           http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              cowan@ccil.org
To say that Bilbo's breath was taken away is no description at all.  There
are no words left to express his staggerment, since Men changed the language
that they learned of elves in the days when all the world was wonderful.
        --_The Hobbit_