It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Sunday, January 09, 2022
UK Race against tide for archaeologists digitally restoring Seaford Head’s ancient hillfort
Sun, January 9, 2022 The Iron Age hillfort at Seaford Head has stood watch over the English Channel from its cliff top location for two-and-a-half millennia - Paul Grover
The Iron Age hillfort at Seaford Head has stood watch over the English Channel from its cliff top location for two-and-a-half millennia. Yet it is doomed to collapse into the sea, with parts of the site already lost and climate change accelerating its downfall. Archaeologists are now in a race against time to unlock its secrets.
Experts from University College London have spent recent weeks surveying the ancient monument with drones and producing 3D models of it in the hope of not only learning more about Seaford Head, but producing a template for the hundreds of other historic monuments along the British coastline set to disappear beneath the waves.
Seaford Head fort, which also contains a Bronze Age burial site (barrow) and dates to around 600 to 400 BC, perches atop the Seven Sisters headland of the same name between Brighton and Eastbourne.
Despite being known to archaeologists for centuries, it has only had investigative work done on it twice, in the late 19th century by Augustus Pitt Rivers and again in the 1980s. These surveys have done little more than date the fort and barrow.
“There are most definitely secrets that it hasn’t given up, because it hasn’t been subject to any major excavations”, Jon Sygrave, a project manager for Archaeology South-East, a part of UCL, told The Telegraph.
This latest survey, which is funded by Historic England, is not designed to reveal those mysteries, so much as identify them and decide what further archaeological work should be done and can be justified with constrained resources.
A key plank of the survey work is drone photogrammetry, which involves taking multiple aerial photographs of the site, merging them using advanced software and georectifying them so that they are to scale and measurable. This allows archaeologists to create a 3D model of the site and identify sites of potential interest.
Drone photogrammetry is a key part of the archaeologist's work to create a 3D model of the ancient monument
The drones are also used to survey the cliff face itself which, due to previous collapses, already provides a cross-section of the fort. “We’ve got one image very clearly showing the ditch and bank of the enclosure,” said Mr Sygrave.
Whatever the results, time and tide are working against his team.
On average, the coast at Seaford is retreating by 50 centimetres (20 inches) a year. That figure, however, masks a pattern of large cliff collapses followed by months or even years of stasis. The UCL team cannot predict when the chalk might next give way, but it could take with it another large chunk of the fort. Large chunk of cliff collapsed last year
In March 2021, a large section of the Seaford Head cliff face collapsed following heavy rain, leaving behind an enormous mound of debris reaching into the seawater. Elsewhere on the clifftop, large cracks have appeared, portending further losses. That prompted English Heritage to place it on the Heritage at Risk register.
“Every time that there’s a section of cliff that’s lost, it’s not just the material that’s lost in that cliff collapse. There’s also the area behind it, because you can’t safely work within the first 10-20 meters of the cliff,” explained Mr Sygrave.
Climate change, meanwhile, is likely to accelerate this process. Increasingly rough weather conditions and rising sea levels are all expected to eat away at Britain’s coastline and the ancient monuments dotted along it.
Marcus Jecock, a senior archaeological investigator and coastal lead at Historic England, said: “Coastal erosion is not a new threat, but climate change is accelerating the rate at which erosion is happening and thereby the rate at which archaeological sites of all types that exist around our coasts are being lost - often without proper record.”
The coast of Seaford is retreating by 50 centimetres a year
Because of the precarious nature of coastal heritage, the study undertaken by Archaeology South-East at Seaford Head is designed to produce results quickly and cost-effectively. The full survey work was completed in just a few weeks, while a full analysis of the findings will be submitted by the end of January.
The pilot project is also intended to spark a discussion among a general public perhaps unaware of how much of its heritage is about to plunge off a cliff face.
With sea defences potentially costing into the millions of pounds, as well as sometimes being disfiguring, few at-risk sites realistically can be saved from disappearing.
The project will produce a podcast series, bringing in institutions such as the National Trust, as well as films discussing the protection of heritage.
“It’s a discussion that needs to be had between people that manage these sites, curators and the public as well, so that they’re not under any sort of illusion that all of these sites can be protected,” said Mr Sygrave.
Anti-coup protests in Sudan turn deadly ahead of UN-backed talks
A Sudanese protester was killed on Sunday as security forces fired tear gas at thousands of people who gathered to keep pressure on the military, a day before the UN launched talks aimed at putting end to weeks of crisis after a coup.
The October 25 takeover, led by army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, derailed a civil-military power-sharing transition established after the 2019 ouster of the long-time autocrat. date Omar al-Bashir.
It has also sparked regular protests – sometimes in the tens of thousands – from Sudanese wanting a return to democratic transition in a country with a long history of coups.
The latest death brings the number of protesters killed in the crackdown on anti-coup protests to 62, the Sudanese Central Medical Committee said in a statement.
They said the 26-year-old protester who was killed was “hit by a tear gas canister in the neck” fired by security forces.
He died a day before the United Nations held a press conference launching a dialogue between “all major civilian and military actors” to find a way forward “towards democracy and peace,” the special envoy said. UN Volker Perthes.
Earlier Sunday, a teenager died from live gunshot wounds to the neck suffered during Thursday’s protests, doctors said.
Pro-democracy protesters marched again to the presidential palace in central Khartoum on Sunday and also gathered in northern Khartoum, witnesses said.
“No, no to military rule,” they chanted, waving the national flag.
Main streets around the capital were cordoned off in an attempt to prevent people from converging there and at the army headquarters, which was the epicenter of the mass protests that forced Bashir to leave.
Protesters also gathered in Omdurman, the twin city of Khartoum across the Nile, and Wad Madani in the south, witnesses said.
“We will not accept less than a full-fledged civilian government,” said Ammar Hamed, 27, protesting in Khartoum.
Authorities have repeatedly denied using live ammunition to confront protesters and insist that many members of the security forces were injured in protests which often “deviated from the calm.”
The protests had died down by nightfall.
Doctors condemn raids on hospitals
Doctors in white coats joined Sunday’s rallies to protest the security forces storming hospitals and other medical facilities in previous protests.
The Sudanese Central Committee of Physicians, affiliated with the protest movement, said on Saturday that the medics would hand over a memorandum to UN officials listing the “attacks” against such facilities.
Last week, Sudanese civilian Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok resigned, saying the country was at a “dangerous crossroads threatening its very survival”. He did not resume his duties until November 21, after being ousted with his government during the coup.
Analysts said his departure left full control of the military and threatened a return to the repression of the Bashir era.
“It’s time to end the violence and get into a constructive process,” Perthes said on Saturday announcing the talks.
Last week, the United States, Britain, Norway and the European Union warned that Sudan could plunge into conflict and called for “an immediate dialogue, led by the Sudanese and facilitated by the international community” .
But the Forces for Freedom and Change, the civil alliance that led the protests against Bashir and became part of the transitional government, said it had received “no details” of the initiative. ‘UN.
The Sudanese Professionals Association, also central to anti-Bashir protests, said on Sunday that it “completely rejects” the UN-facilitated talks.
“The way to resolve the Sudanese crisis begins with the complete overthrow of the putschist military council and bringing its members to justice for the killings committed against the defenseless (and) peaceful Sudanese people,” SPA said in a statement.
Burhan insisted that the military takeover “was not a coup” but was intended only to “rectify the course of the Sudanese transition”.
The UN Security Council is due to meet on Wednesday to discuss developments in Sudan.
The resumption of protests since the coup has been met with a crackdown
that has killed at least 60 people.
Sudan protest organizers reject UN mediation offer
One of Sudan's leading protest organizers has refused a UN call for dialogue aimed at restoring civilian rule. The UN has hoped to broker talks between the anti-coup movement and the military.
Protesters in Sudan rallied again on Sunday in support of a return to civilian rule
One of the major organizers of Sudan's anti-coup protests, the Sudanese Professionals' Association, refused an offer from the UN to mediate talks with the military on Sunday.
The UN envoy to Sudan, Volker Perthes, has said talks were the "sustainable path forward toward democracy and peace," and called for an "end to the violence." He claimed the process would be "inclusive," though protesters do not seek a power-sharing agreement but rather a return to civilian rule.
Perthes has planned a news conference for Monday, where it is expected he will outline the details of his proposal. The UN Security Council will meet Wednesday to discuss Sudan.
Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change, the umbrella coalition for the groups behind the protests, said it had not received any details of Perthes' proposal. Why does the UN wish to broker talks?
The UN's offer to mediate comes a week after the resignation of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. He said the inability of the generals to compromise with protesters was behind his decision to step down.
Sudan PM quits, leaving military in control
The Sudanese Professionals' Association has said it sees Perthes as being behind that arrangement, which they've discredited as it sidelined pro-democracy forces, a position Hamdok similarly realized was untenable when he resigned.
The protest organizers' rejection of the offer came amid renewed protests on Sunday, which are expected to continue.
The Sudanese Professionals' Association said in a statement that the "only way" out of the crisis was through the removal of the generals from the seats of power in the country.
The protest movement wants civilian leadership restored, underscored by the protest slogan, "No negotiations, no compromise, no power-sharing'' with the generals.
The coup on October 25 came two years after mass protests led to the ouster of the country's previous longtime autocratic ruler, Omar al-Bashir.
Together with youth groups known as Resistance Committees, the Sudanese Professionals' Association have buttressed the movement against military rule. What happened Sunday during the protests?
On Sunday, protests in the capital, Khartoum, and other cities continued as thousands rallied against the country's military rulers.
Activist Nazim Sirag told the AFP news agency that security forces fired tear gas at protesters near the presidential palace. One protester was injured when security forces opened fire in Khartoum's Bahri district.
The Sudanese Doctors Committee said a teenage protester, Alaa el-din Adel, 17, died Sunday after succumbing to a wound to the neck during protests in Omdurman near Khartoum. His death brings the total number of people who have died since protests began to 61, the committee said.
Health care workers in white coats also joined protests Sunday calling for security guarantees at hospitals which have been stormed by the government during protests.
ar/wd (AFP, AP)
Mexico Cuts Pemex Debt Burden by $3.2 Billion Philip Sanders Sun, January 9, 2022
(Bloomberg) -- Mexico’s government said it had slashed Petroleos Mexicanos’ debt burden by $3.2 billion through a refinancing operation.
The government swapped debt that was expiring soon for a new bond with a maturity of 10 years, while also refinancing some medium maturity debt that was cheap, according to a statement from the Finance Ministry.
The operation will reduce the “financial pressure” on Pemex by $10.5 billion between 2024 and 2030, the ministry said, adding that the refinancing wouldn’t reduce the fiscal budget. The government contributed $3.5 billion to the operation, which helped narrow the spread to sovereign bonds by 50 basis points, reducing Pemex’s annual financial costs by $180 million.
Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced a $3.5 billion capital injection into Pemex in early December, saying it would be made through a series of bond market transactions. That came on top of initiatives last year to cut taxes and overhaul management at the company.
Pemex is flailing under $113 billion of debt, the most of any major oil producer, struggling to reverse over a decade of crude output declines, and is highly reliant on the federal government being willing to continue paying bondholders.
Suspected arson case a searing reminder of risks of uninsured homes
For Paul Stanczak and Danielle Bablich, the Christmas season came to an abrupt end on Boxing Day.
In a bleary state of shock, the couple learned their partially completed cottage on Ontario's Georgian Bay was ablaze after receiving a call from a neighbour at about 5:20 a.m. on Dec. 26.
Stanczak drove the three minutes from Bablich's parents' home to find the small chalet into which they'd already poured more than $425,000 destroyed in minutes due to a suspected act of arson.
"I just stood there on another neighbour's lot across the street ... and watched our dream in flames. And there’s nothing you can do about it," Stanczak, 44, said in a phone interview.
"It was one of the hardest things we've ever been through," said Bablich, 37, who joined her partner at the cottage turned crime scene after calming their six-year-old son.
“I watched it just finish burning and collapse into itself."
The Toronto couple had worked on the Scandinavian-style chalet for over a year, overseeing the project as trees were cleared, the foundation was laid and the structure went up, complete with drywall and electrical and water hook-ups by Christmas.
But they chose not to insure it, in part because they relied solely on their savings so there was no bank loan involved to require insurance.
Experts say a rose-tinted mindset can wind up with disastrous consequences for property owners who opt to forego coverage.
If there's no lender in the mix, homeowners can decide not to insure their building, its contents and the cost of accommodations should the house suffer damage.
But Insurance Bureau of Canada spokesperson Anne Marie Thomas says owners often neglect to consider liability insurance, which covers them in case of visitor injury and makes up part of most home insurance policies.
“I don't think it's as rare as people would imagine that it is," she said of uninsured homes.
"Even if it was literally just a shack, it's always a good idea to have insurance ... for the liability portion.
"If someone trips, slips, breaks their arm, injures their head — the dog tripped them up on the way in the door, whatever — they can be sued by the person coming into the home," Thomas said. "Even the mailman delivering mail."
Stanczak and Bablich noted that the tradespeople they contracted had liability insurance and that the property was gated.
"Especially with no gas hook-up, there’s no reason for there to be a fire either," Stanczak said.
“Hindsight is 20/20. You never think it’s going to happen to you," Bablich added.
Ontario Provincial Police Const. David Hobson said an investigation into the suspected arson is ongoing.
Anyone with information about the case is urged to contact Crimestoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or visit canadiancrimestoppers.org.
The couple are hoping a GoFundMe page titled, "Support Arson Victims Paul and Danielle," might help them carry on with the home — they foresaw it as a rural haven and a legacy for their son — but are currently in project limbo.
"We don't want this to stop us and we want to continue," Stanczak said. "But on the flipside can we actually go to a property where this much tragedy has befallen us?"
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 7, 2022.
Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press
Haiti newsman tells of escape from deadly attack by 'all-powerful' gang
Author: AFP|Update: 09.01.2022 An aerial view of Port-au-Prince, Haiti -- a city battling powerful
"The bullets were flying thick and fast," said Wilmann Vil, the sole survivor of a recent gang attack that killed two fellow Haitian journalists just outside Port-au-Prince.
Vil himself has gone into hiding, fearful that the criminal gang, one of several terrorizing Haiti's capital city, might find him.
In that fateful encounter Thursday, Vil and two colleagues -- Wilguens Louissaint and Amady John Wesley -- were walking through a dried-up river bed in the foothills overlooking Port-au-Prince while working on a story.
As they walked, members of a gang seeking to dominate the area and control a strategic passage to the country's south, suddenly opened fire.
"The bullets were flying, pouring down on us," Vil told AFP in a phone interview Saturday.
The 31-year-old reporter managed to take cover behind nearby trees and, after scrambling up the rocky hillside, was taken in by friendly farmworkers.
- The sound of gunfire -
In the chaos of the moment, he had lost track of his colleagues.
"I took my phone to call Amady," with whom he had worked for years.
"I asked him where he was and he replied, 'These guys captured me, I'm with them," said Vil, who works for online media outlet RL Production.
Vil then heard his colleague begging gang members to spare him and Louissaint.
"Amady kept telling them, 'We're not bandits, we're journalists. We were here reporting,'" Vil recalled.
He said he put his phone on speaker so the farmworkers sheltering him could listen in.
All they heard was a burst of gunfire.
Vil now knew he was the lone survivor -- and needed to get out fast.
Neighbors gave him clothes so he could disguise himself and led him to a small house to hide.
On the way, he said, "I saw armed guys already on the rooftops who were looking for me."
Knowing the risk they ran by protecting him, the farmworkers found a motorcycle-taxi to take him, along with a local official, out of the gang-controlled zone.
- 'Better armed than the police' -
Though he had escaped the immediate threat, Vil said his previously tranquil life has been shattered.
His four-year-old daughter is afraid and "doesn't sleep," Vil sighed. He and his family have been staying with friends, fearful the gang may have spies in the neighborhood.
Vil knows how the gangs operate, having met them on several occasions while reporting.
"These guys are all-powerful," he said. "I've seen how they work in the ghettos."
"They have so many weapons, and people working for them who you would never have suspected."
He reported his colleagues' deaths to the police but has little hope the killers will be brought to account.
"They know who these guys are... they even have their phone numbers," Vil said.
But he questions the ability of the police to dislodge gangs from areas they control, noting they are "better armed than the police."
He also blames certain powerful people -- whom he would not name -- for Haiti's plunge into chaos.
"I'm not defending the bandits -- they're guilty," he said. "But the politicians and private sector in Haiti are also guilty, because these guys in the ghettos don't have the money you would need to buy the kind of weaponry I've seen."
Now he speaks in resigned tones of taking his family abroad.
"The country," he says, "is really finished because of the crime."
Canada's English dictionary hasn't been updated in almost 2 decades. What does that say about us?
Social Sharing
Facebo
Twitter
Email
Reddit
LinkedIn
Without up-to-date dictionary, what makes language
A copy of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary. First published in 1998 under editor-in-chief Katherine Barber, the dictionary was last updated in 2004, making it difficult for writers and editors to remain current on the changing nature of Canadian English. (Jackson Weaver/CBC)
"Just how far removed we had already become from Britain even in the nineteenth century was not well understood in the mother country," begins an essay in the first pages of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary.
"So it happened that the first person in recorded history who ever spoke of 'Canadian English' did so disparagingly. The Rev. A. Constable Geikie, in an address to the Canadian Institute in 1857, ten years before Confederation, stated that 'Canadian English' was 'a corrupt dialect.'"
That anecdote paints a disheartening picture of Canadian heritage near its inception. Although Canada has evolved since then, that perception largely hasn't, and it can be difficult for even Canadians to believe there is anything special or distinct about our English.
But while we may have a hard time believing that our version of the language is distinct enough to warrant attention, linguists, lexicographers and writers would disagree.
Everything from our spelling to our idioms to our grammar warrants and necessitates research, documentation — a dictionary. Because of that, experts see a Canadian English dictionary as a vital tool, but it's a tool that has a much shorter history than you might think — and largely exists due to the passion and drive of one woman.
"I think if you'd spoken to her, she would have said it's absurd that there wasn't a dictionary beforehand," said Mike Barber, nephew of Katherine Barber, the late editor-in-chief of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary.
WATCH | Katherine Barber on the language of hockey:
In this CBC Television clip from May 22, 2000, language expert Katherine Barber stickhandles us through the many hockey words that have seeped into Canadian parlance. 3:34
"She saw herself ... as a Canadianist, in a sense that there was something important about Canadian language that needed to be codified and explained and shared with people — who tend to have a real inability to see themselves through the prism of public and national identity."
Hailed as the "maven of Canadian English" by the Washington Post and known widely as Canada's "word lady," Katherine Barber was renowned for researching and documenting how language works in this country. In 1991, she became the founding editor of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary — the country's first authoritative and comprehensive reference work for Canadian English — with the first edition publishing in 1998.
But despite her work, it has been nearly two decades since the most recent edition was released (the COD's second edition was published in print in 2004, and released online in 2005) while Barber herself died in April 2021. The entire Canadian Oxford research staff was laid off in 2008 due to declining sales, and responsibility for identifying our country's words was placed largely in the hands of researchers in the United States and Britain (though Canadian researchers continue to add Canadian influence).
Without an up-to-date dictionary to rely on, writers and editors are left to flounder in the dark over how the language "should" be written. At the same time, the representation of Canada on the world stage suffers and our understanding of what makes the language unique becomes increasingly obscure.
'A dictionary, in a way, serves as a mirror'
"I definitely think it puts Canadian English at a disadvantage — or at the very least, it doesn't give it the same kind of visibility and representation as you see for other varieties," said Daniel Hieber, a research linguist at the University of Alberta in Edmonton who also shares linguistics information on social networking site TikTok.
Lacking a contemporary study of its language, he said, puts Canadian English in the realm of "low resource" languages: those that lack adequate learning and reference documentation. That makes it difficult, for example, to create a version of Microsoft Windows in Canadian English or make decisions on the evolving spelling and meaning of words.
Hieber said that doesn't threaten Canadian English's existence. While past dictionaries were sometimes created for the explicit purpose of dictating how people "should" speak — such as the first truly American dictionary, Noah Webster's A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, first published in 1806 — modern dictionaries document how people are already speaking.
WATCH | Linguist Daniel Hieber on dictionaries, language and Canadian English:
University of Alberta research linguist Daniel Hieber explains how the lack of an up-to-date dictionary could impact Canadian English. 3:09
A dictionary's relationship with writing is more direct. Writing is not the same as language, Hieber explained, but is instead a "fairly arbitrary set of conventions for representing language." A dictionary observes and documents those conventions. Without one, writers have to make it up as they go along — and they're quickly losing track of the rules.
"A dictionary, in a way, serves as a mirror. In continuing to use the COD, Canadian editors might well be contributing to an increasingly stagnant Canadian English. We look in the mirror and see ourselves as we looked on the day we saw Shrek 2 in theatres," Emma Skagen, managing editor of British Columbia's Nightwood Editions publishing house, wrote in a recent op-ed for Quill and Quire.
A page from Barber's own copy of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, in a photo taken by her nephew, Mike Barber. A lifelong lover of ballet, she referred to herself in the dictionary's definition of 'coordinated.' CBC's Language Guide stipulates that the word should be spelled 'co-ordinated.' (Mike Barber)
The Canadian Press Stylebook, which many outlets — including CBC — use as a main reference, expresses similar concerns. Stylebook editor James McCarten told CBC in an email that — while the COD continues to be their "official dictionary of record" — "the fact that it hasn't been updated in quite a long time is a challenge for us — one we haven't quite figured out how to address just yet, since there's really no comparable replacement."
"Any good editor will know to use this dictionary (and any dictionary, for that matter) with a critical eye, and perhaps we're still mostly making do with the COD and a random mishmash of other resources," Skagen added in her email. "But for how long can we keep using a dictionary that's not getting updated? And what will we do without it?"
No plans to update dictionary
In a statement to CBC News, a spokesperson for Oxford University Press said there are no plans to produce a new edition of the COD, though the company "continues to track new developments in Canadian English and to update and expand coverage of Canadian vocabulary across our existing dictionary titles, including the historical Oxford English Dictionary."
Sali Tagliamonte, chair of the linguistics department at the University of Toronto, said in an interview that she is one of the researchers tasked with adding Canadian words to the Oxford English Dictionary.
Although she and other researchers have succeeded in adding roughly 700 specifically Canadian words to the OED, that pales in comparison with the nearly 2,000 Canadian words in the first edition of the COD in 1998. In the followup edition six years later, 5,000 words were added — 250 of them Canadian.
And as it has now been 18 years since the second edition of the COD was released, English-language writers in Canada are at a significant disadvantage.
Copies of the Oxford English Dictionary. A publicist for Oxford University Press says there are no plans to provide a new edition of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary. Researchers in the U.S., Britain and Canada are tasked with identifying and adding Canadian words to the OED. (Caleb Jones/The Associated Press)
"In a sense, it cripples them," said James Crippen, an assistant professor of linguistics at McGill University in Montreal, "because it means that they have to do the work of searching for answers themselves."
In response to that exact problem, Editors Canada — a professional organization for editors — "thoroughly investigated the possibility of securing government financial assistance for a new dictionary of Canadian English" in the mid-2010s, but its grant requests were rejected — partly due to the fact that the project is monolingual, Skagen, of Nightwood Editions, wrote in her op-ed.
More recently, Stefan Dollinger, a professor of English linguistics at the University of British Columbia and editor of A Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles, told CBC News that he's in talks with Editors Canada to make "a new dictionary right from scratch that would replace the aging Canadian Oxford," but nothing has yet been confirmed.
Indigenous languages suffer from lack of resources
The more than 80 Indigenous languages within Canada's borders are suffering due to a lack of resources — and their systematic and deliberate destruction is orchestrated in part by residential schools.
"[These languages are] up against unfathomable odds and still persisting," Crippen said. "Why? Because the identity associated with the language is so important to them because it is a representation of who they are, even if it's been taken from them."
Attempts to save these languages face far steeper challenges, making dictionaries even more important. Tracey Herbert, CEO of British Columbia's First Peoples' Cultural Council and FirstVoices — an online language learning tool that combines definitions of Indigenous words with audio recordings of native speakers — is one of the people fighting for them.
WATCH | Canada has a responsibility to make up for the past, expert says (WARNING: Video contains distressing details):
McGill linguistics professor James Crippen says that Canada has a duty to help preserve Indigenous languages. 3:20
She said that while there are about 23 First Nations dictionaries in the province, a considerable number are copyrighted by linguists, which represents a challenge to make them accessible.
And due to the high language diversity and how few speakers are left, Indigenous languages without adequate documentation are at increasing risk of becoming "sleeping languages" — ones without any living fluent speakers.
Tracey Herbert of the First Peoples' Cultural Council, left, shown in February 2018 with Scott Fraser, at the time B.C.'s Indigenous relations and reconciliation minister, is fighting to save Indigenous languages. (Submitted by Tracey Herbert)
For that reason, Herbert says, support is needed to create more dictionaries and keep these languages alive.
"I am very hopeful — with the right supports and investments — that we can ensure that Indigenous Peoples in the future have access to their heritage and their birthright through their languages," Herbert said.
Social media linguistics
In the absence of up-to-date dictionaries, young people have largely taken the helm of documenting the idiosyncrasies of language in Canada. On TikTok, English speakers have taken part in trends showcasing the language's unique nouns and accents. Conversely, some Indigenous creators have started "word of the day" series, compiling information about their languages that is otherwise difficult to find.
Kylie Jack, a 25-year-old University of Victoria law student and speaker of the nsyilxcən language (spoken by the Syilx Okanagan people), is one of those creators. While there are many fluent speakers in her family, she was unable to learn the language directly from her father, as he was forced to attend a residential school at the age of five. Instead, she began learning in 2019 and has been been posting videos sharing her language ever since.
She says she does it because of a desire to see her language continue to thrive and because of the connection it offers to her past.
"Language is who you are as an Indigenous person. It's how you see the world." Jack said. "So I feel like I have an obligation and a duty to uphold, and perpetuate, langua
Meet the Ontario linguist bringing Canadian English to the Oxford Dictionary
Duration2:04
University of Toronto linguistics professor Sali Tagliamonte is so committed to preserving Canadian English, she's taken it upon herself to send in submissions to the Oxford English Dictionary.
‘Feeling & Knowing’ explores the origin and evolution of consciousness
Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio discusses his latest book
To understand consciousness, the brain’s connection to the rest of the body must be understood, a new book explains.
Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio believes that the link between brain and body is the key to understanding consciousness. In his latest book, Feeling & Knowing: Making Minds Conscious, he explains why.
Consciousness is what gives an individual a sense of self; it helps one stay in the present, remember the past and plan for the future. Many scientists have argued that consciousness is created by vast networks of nerve cells, or neurons, in the brain. While it’s clear that the brain plays a major role in conscious experiences, it doesn’t act alone, argues Damasio, director of the University of Southern California’s Brain and Creativity Institute.
Instead, he argues, consciousness is generated by a variety of structures within an organism, some neural, some not. What’s more, feelings — mental experiences of body states — help connect the brain to the rest of the body. “The feelings that we have of, say, hunger or thirst, or pain, or well-being, or desire, etc. — these are the foundation of our mind,” Damasio says. In his view, feelings have played a central role in the life-regulating processes of animals throughout the history of life.
In Feeling & Knowing, Damasio suggests that consciousness evolved as a way to keep essential bodily systems steady. This concept is also known as homeostasis, a self-regulating process that maintains stability amid ever-changing conditions. Consciousness emerged as an extension of homeostasis, Damasio argues, allowing for flexibility and planning in complex and unpredictable environments.
Science News spoke with Damasio about why feelings are crucial to understanding consciousness, why consciousness is not exclusive to humans and whether it’s something a computer could ever have. The following conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.
SN: Why is understanding homeostasis so crucial to understanding consciousness?
Damasio: Homeostasis is central to the entire operation. It’s why we developed consciousness. Once we access feeling, we can then get a mental picture of how the state of life really is in our organism. So, we can get a warning that things are going wrong, and we get suffering. Or, we get a signal that things are reasonably OK, and we can afford to do other things, which is what happens with positive feelings. So I can afford to have this conversation with you because I’m not having a fever; I’m not terribly thirsty, hungry, or I’m not in pain.
SN: How do feelings help an organism manage life?
Damasio: Feelings are representations of the state of your body. To have a feeling of pain, pleasure, well-being, sickness, thirst, hunger or desire is to generate a picture of some parts of your organs. For example, the feeling of well-being is related to parameters that you can locate and measure. This is something that we can analyze; we can actually study it in the laboratory. A lot of what would be described as [the feeling of] well-being is related to the simple musculature that is around blood vessels in organs, like the stomach, the gut and so forth. And even muscular skeletal components of our body, how they are: Are they contracted? Are they distended, a large part, or not so much? What we are feeling from well-being is, in fact, describing states of our body; that’s what feelings are about. So the root of feeling in the state of the organism is unquestionable.
SN: How did the nervous system enable the coordination of diverse systems in the body?
Damasio: Once organisms became more and more complex, it was very difficult to maintain coordination [among respiration, digestion and other systems]. Having a system that runs a survey of the whole organism is a great advantage. With that master coordinator, the nervous system, came the possibility of generating [internal] representations [of one’s self]. We had to have nervous systems to have some kind of mapping of different parts of the body. Out of that, an image was generated, and a new development, which is a mind connected to the body. The entire story of consciousness is really a story that the body is telling about itself. Consciousness did not emerge from the get-go. It was not available, for example, in bacteria, or very simple organisms.
SN: You argue that consciousness is unlikely to be exclusive to humans.
Damasio: Right. We have different lineages in evolution, but it doesn’t mean that other creatures don’t have the possibility of getting to consciousness. Take, for example, the octopus. They have extremely complex behaviors. I would be flabbergasted if someone said they are not conscious. They have all the hallmarks of creatures that were able to develop a mind and have a sense of who they are and an awareness of how to protect themselves.
SN: In the future, could machines and computers be conscious?
Damasio: For robots to be conscious, we would need to give them a bit of vulnerability that they don’t have [right now]. If you could introduce into a computer something that would be homeostatic and regulatory — that would allow it to sense deviations — then you would be on the way to creating feelings for the computer, and it could detect its own inner states.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he plans on taking paternity leave after daughter's birth
Social Sharing
Facebook
Twitter
Email
Reddit
LinkedIn
Singh and his wife Gurkiran Kaur welcomed their 1st child into the world on Monday
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and his wife Gurkiran Kaur and new baby are shown in this handout image provided by Singh. Singh has become a father for the first time, to a baby daughter. Singh announced Thursday that he and his wife Kaur welcomed a baby girl into the world on Monday. (Jagmeet Singh/The Canadian Press)
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has become a father for the first time, to a baby daughter.
Singh announced Thursday that he and his wife Gurkiran Kaur welcomed their child into the world on Monday.
"Our powerful little baby girl is basically my birthday present for life," Singh wrote on Twitter.
"Momma bear and baby are healthy and our hearts are filled with gratitude."
Singh celebrated his 43rd birthday the day before his daughter's birth.
The NDP leader's daughter will not be named immediately. In Sikh tradition, a newborn is named around two weeks after their birth in a ceremony called Naam Karan.
Singh has previously expressed his excitement about becoming a father.
He and his wife, a fashion designer, were married in February 2018 in a traditional Sikh wedding. They honeymooned in Mexico.
The NDP leader, who has campaigned in the past for better paternity and maternity benefits for new parents, is planning to take some paternity leave.
Parliament has not yet returned after the winter holiday break.
"He's planning to take some time off to spend time with his wife and new baby," said an NDP spokesperson.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was among a host of MPs and public figures to offer congratulations, amid hundreds of such messages posted on Twitter from around the world.
Trudeau tweeted well wishes from him and his wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, saying the birth was "wonderful news."
"Sophie and I are wishing you all good health and many happy moments together," Trudeau said.
Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole also offered his congratulations on Twitter, adding: "Wishing you all the very best as you both enter parenthood!"
"There are few happier events or magnificent results than a birth," Blanchet tweeted.
British Columbia NDP Premier John Horgan, and Valerie Plante, mayor of Montreal, were among the many other well wishers to congratulate the couple on the birth of their baby girl.
