Saturday, October 03, 2009



(via http://www.theophys.kth.se/mathphys/SYM/tilings.html)

'The centipede is jealous of the snake.
The snake is jealous of the wind.
The wind is jealous of the eye.
The eye is jealous of the mind.'

    The Way of Chuang Tzu


Scanned Codex Seraphinianus. (via Metafilter)


Zaglosses

Almucantar- a line of celestial latitude

thrang- filled

Barcelona- old apartments in Oak Cliff I lived in for five years

Amethyst = Jyestha

porismatic- pertaining to a proposition that affirms the possibility of finding conditions that will render a certain problem either indeterminate or capable of innumerable solutions

flerd- a trick or snare

Mira = the star Omicron Ceti

Liber Logaeth = Doctor Dee’s Enochian grimoire

Moorawathimeering- (Aboriginal word) the Land of the Lost, a sanctuary for outcasts

oolongphaeic- dusky as the taste of oolong tea

slub- thick mire

aidle- to earn one’s bread indifferently well

dernely = secretly

atninga- (Abo.) a vengeance party

dealth- a division; a share

wishness = silence

khamsin- a warm, dry wind from the Sahara

yowee- (Abo.) the spirit of death

tallabilla- (Abo.) outlaw

eulowirree- (Abo.) the rainbow

ilka = every

mellsylvester = honeysuckle

rightful mind- (Newspeak) patriotism

smoking mirror = Tezcatlipoca, the Aztec trickster god

Virginia Opossum- once sponsored by the store where I work

zarf- an ornamental coffeecup holder; a frame

clyte- to suddenly alight

vaib- (Glaugnea) the characteristic excellence of one’s psychological type

coolth = coolness

jairce- (Gl.) the smell of rain on the wind

karcist- a summoner of spirits

lurg- a marine worm

fulmar- a seabird that can spit oil

Curufin- father of Celebrimbor

ogmic- pertaining to ogham

sobornost- (Russian) feeling of fellowship

sharawadji- pertaining to an aesthetic of combining opposites

toom- having boiled over

zonda- a hot wind of the Argentine pampas

chull- Central Asian wasteland

walburn- (Spook word) cryptographic equipment

batiushka- (Rus.) "little father," a nickname for the Tsar

railgun = (an undefined Spook Word)

oiwi- (Hawaiian) native

waam-waam = the Pluriverse

Xanadu- a plateau on Titan

walg- (Abo.) homeland, patria

kalavinka- (Rus.) bird with human head

scroggy = stunted

Big Nightfall- when the oil runs out

thalassa- (Greek) the sea

ibrik- Turkish coffeemaker

giardino- (Italian) garden

ryotwar- a system of collecting land rent or taxes in which the government settlement is made directly with the peasants

chirg- (Pashto) sharp, clever, well-made

harfang- a large arctic owl

Zaqaziq- a place in Albania, useful in constructing English pangrams

ordalic- pertaining to ordeals

qucaq- (Azerbaijani) hug

yarons- years

Xibalba- the Maya underworld

lurry- tumult; jumble of sounds

padishah- emperor

frith- a safe place; in Watership Down, the God of the rabbits

rhyparographic- pertaining to the depiction of humble subjects

arrack = arak

Ogpu- forerunner of the KGB

mukataba- a contractual agreement in which a slave may eventually buy his freedom

shigol- (Korean) country

latifundia- landed properties

Al Azif- the sound of the wind; the proper name of the book known as the Necronomicon


"In fact, she argues, shamanism cannot be described as "it" at all; i.e., there is no single Shaman, but shamans. Moreover, "among practitioners there was no name for the various activities that outsiders have called ‘shamanism’ and these practices were not thought of as all one thing" (p. 4). In calling shamanism a "dispersed religion," the authors mean that the ideas and practices of the various parts were associated with different kinds of knowledge and specialists (bagchi, bariyachi, barishi, kiyanchi) having particular abilities (chidal) in these spheres (p. 320).."