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An Emerging Memetic Engineer - Looking for the Good in Everything

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Entries Tagged with 'Language'

Evolution… of Language, Culture, Technology, and Religion

June 21st, 2008 · 6 Comments

There are various uses of the word “evolution”. Some talk about “Stellar Evolution” when referring to the development of stars. (Carl Sagan does this.) Others complain the word is too widely used, and is losing its meaning, suggesting we should only use it to refer to biological evolution. (I’m under the impression that Stephen Jay [...]

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Categories: Religion and Science
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What is God?: The Tribal God

May 5th, 2008 · 7 Comments

A previous post on “What is God?”: What is God?: The Personal God.
A long long time ago, but not in a far away galaxy, tribalism was the order of the day, and it was good. Some insist that tribalism is the natural state for humanity. Borrowing a paragraph from Wikipedia’s article on Tribalism:
According to a [...]

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Categories: Religion and Religion
Tags: · ·

Erwin McManus on Eating Meat on the Streets of Athens

February 8th, 2008 · 3 Comments

This post was originally written in and scheduled for November, but never got published.
I have been talking about “Walking the Streets of Athens” in a number of places. This idea applies to anyone wanting to make a difference in other people’s lives. You need to walk their streets, understand their culture, understand their needs, and [...]

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Categories: Stellenbosch Gemeente
Tags: · · · · · · · ·

Hugo Abuses Language

January 7th, 2008 · 25 Comments

You likely know by now I’m supposedly a “bad communicator”, because I keep on using words in ways that you, the reader, are not used to. (Or as you might say, “incorrectly”. Whatever.) For example, especially when dealing with atheistic material, I love using Biblical language. This is likely to make you hopping mad. Cool! [...]

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Categories: Culture
Tags: · · · ·

On Calling a Horse a Horse

December 28th, 2007 · 7 Comments

Why must we always call a horse a horse? What is wrong with calling it a perd when talking to an Afrikaans person, a paard when talking to a Dutch person, a cheval when talking to a French person, and a knight when playing chess?
I don’t like the idea of forcing everyone to speak English. [...]

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Categories: Culture
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You Murderers! Yes! You!

November 30th, 2007 · 2 Comments

I want you to stop criticising other people’s stories. I want you to listen. I want you to understand. Seek first to understand.
Once you understand, you can tell your story. If you are unable to merge your story with theirs, then just tell your story. Let them do the merging, should they choose to.
And you [...]

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Categories: Religion and Science
Tags: · · ·

Hoekom Afrikaans Beter Is

November 13th, 2007 · 9 Comments

Ek hoor vandag vir Riaan Cruywagen praat van “twintig-vier”. Soos in, hierdie jaar is die jaar “twintig-sewe”.
Uiteindelik verstaan ek hoekom Afrikaans/Nederlands daardie lomp agterstevoor manier het om van getalle te praat. Die arme Engelse kan nie praat van die jaartal nie. “Twenty-seven”, “twenty-four”. Haha, die Engelse is n00bs, hulle taal is nie “Y2K-compliant” nie!
Kan Chuck [...]

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Categories: Culture
Tags: · · · ·

A Translation Service?

October 29th, 2007 · 13 Comments

Hi! My name is Hugo. I am completely fluent in the following languages: English, Afrikaans, Christianspeak, Atheist, and Whale. I can understand and read Dutch quite easily. Next year I hope to learn some French and some Muslim. (Eventually, some Judaism, Buddhism, Confucianism, German and Taoism will come in handy.)
For the time being, I’m providing [...]

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Categories: Religion and Science
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