Greatest hits: I surprise strangers in every language (even Ape)
(Xiaomanyc 小马在纽约) Arieh Smith spent years studying human communication (languages) and weeks secretly studying to communicate with apes in Ape: Bonobos are the closest living relatives of human beings, and he convinced them into thinking he was one of them. Bonobos have learned to use human language, but it is very rare for a human being to effectively communicate with them on their own terms (bonobo vocalizations).
Support Ape Initiative (apeinitiative.org), a non-profit that is the world’s only bonobo research center, because they are an endangered species. Ape Initiative works with scientists to understand bonobo behavior and ensure their survival in the wild. Donate:
ABOUT: I'm "Xiaoma" from NYC, real name Arieh Smith. I speak near-native level Mandarin Chinese and a smattering of some other Chinese dialects, enough to be dangerous. I speak Chinese well enough to regularly confuse the native speakers, including my own in-laws. I got fluent in Spanish in my apartment during quarantine. The thing is it didn’t start this way. I was a real language idiot in high school, not failing classes, but it was in one ear, out the other. I took Hebrew, Latin, and Greek classes, but every year I felt like I was learning the same thing over and over again. I kept thinking to myself, I wonder when any of this is going to stick. More
Anyone who disbelieves in real-life time travel may want to spend some time watching "Glitch in the Matrix" videos content creators make by gathering testimonies of inexplicable real-life experiences.
Let's time travel! - To when? - To next weekend!
An anonymous time traveler operating under the alias Darryl Dean (from 2033) claims to hold a detailed chronology of upcoming events on Earth. The mysterious man shared his shocking predictions on the internet in a bid to validate the remarkable assertion that time travel is real.
In his declaration, the time traveler prophesized alien (ET) contact and global peace. He said: "I saw that there was a lot of skepticism regarding my story, and I want to say that it is not my goal to convince everyone that I am telling the truth. I simply want to speak to those of you who will listen."
Mr. Dean insists he comes from the Year 2033 and initially intended to stay in the current era only briefly. Speaking with the paranormal investigators from the YouTube platform ApexTV, purported time traveler Dean argued his predictions will prove accurate over time.
He said: "I saw a bunch of questions asking if there are going to be any wars in the future. I can tell you that there will be no major wars, and when the aliens come in 2028, they will usher in a state of peace and prosperity. People will realize they are not so different, and the entire world will unite," reports the Daily Star.
Humanity's descendants will also embrace a single universal religion, which Mr. Dean asserted will have replaced all existing faiths by 2033. He refused to share any details about the religion, fearing it might cause a temporal paradox.
The self-proclaimed time traveler then claimed that time travel technology becomes public knowledge in 2028, along with revelations about extraterrestrial life forms beyond our planet.
What do we want? Time travel! When do we want it? Uh, it doesn't really matter because, paradoxically, once we have it, we will always have had it, going anywhere in time.
Some ancient accounts feature characters who appear to leap forward in time. In Buddhism's Pāli canon, the Payasi Sutta ("Payasi Discourse") describes how the disciple Ven. Kumara Kassapa explains to a skeptic that time flows differently on different planes of existence, particularly the long-lasting heavenly realms [4].
Christian time jumping with Rip VW
Drink and idle hands make for sleepiness.
American and European Christians (with a capitalist work ethic to teach) persistently recount the tale of Rip Van Winkle, a Dutch American man with a habit of avoiding work. Rip lives in a village at the foot of the Catskill Mountains years before the American Revolution.
One day, he goes squirrel hunting in the mountains with his dog, Wolf, to escape his wife's irritation.
You're off your rocker, old coot! - No, I'm not!
When evening comes, he hears a voice calling his name and finds a man dressed in old-fashioned Dutch clothing, carrying a keg of alcohol. Rip helps the man carry his burden to a cleft in the rocks from which thunderous noises are emanating; the source proves to be a group of bearded men wearing similar outfits playing ninepins.
In Hinduism's Vishnu Purana we find the story of Raivata Kakudmi (son of Revata), who visits the God Brahma in a certain heaven then returns to Earth to find that many ages have elapsed [2, 3].King Kakudmi is a king often featured in Hindu literature. He is described as the king of Kushasthali, the son of Revata [1] and the father of Revati, the consort of the deity Balarama. His account is given within texts such as the Mahabharata, the Harivamsha, the Devi Bhagavatam, and the Bhagavata Purana.
The Japanese legend of "Urashima Tarō," first recorded in the Manyoshu, tells of a fisherman who visits an undersea palace for three days, only to return and find that centuries have passed and his world is gone [5].
This should be compared to Middle Length Discourse 50 (MN 50), where Ven. Maha Moggallana describes mermaids ("sea nymphs") dancing in dazzling undersea palaces, which he can see through his highly developed psychic powers but which has not made sense to scholars and readers ever since his comments were written and included in the Pali canon: "In the middle of the ocean/There are mansions aeon-lasting, Sapphire-shining, fiery-gleaming/With a clear translucent luster,/Where iridescent sea-nymphs dance/In complex, intricate rhythms."
Jewish time travel?
In one Jewish tradition, the Prophet Mo (Moses) is transported by one of his tribal Gods to the study hall of Rabbi Akiva, where he is confused by the future evolution of Jewish law.
Another Talmudic story features Honi HaMe'agel, a 1st-century BCE miracle worker who sees a man planting a carob tree that will take 70 years to bear fruit. Honi falls asleep and awakens 70 years later to find the tree fully grown and its fruit being harvested by the man's grandson [6, 7].
In Islam, the Quran (Koran) tells of the Seven Sleepers, a group of monotheistic (more likely henotheistic) young men who sought refuge in a cave to escape persecution. As they slept, their preferred God preserved them for centuries. When they awake, they discover that the world around them has changed. This narrative, found in the Quranic Surah Al-Kahf, describes divine protection and time suspension [8, 9, 10]. More
Not asking who these men are or how they know his name, Rip joins them in drinking from the keg he has helped carry and soon becomes so drunk that he falls asleep. He awakens on a sunny morning, back at the spot where he first saw the keg-carrier, and finds that many drastic changes have occurred:
His beard is now a foot long and grey,
his hunting musket is badly deteriorated,
his dog Wolf is nowhere to be found.
Returning to his village, he discovers it to be larger than he remembers and filled with people in unfamiliar clothing, none of whom recognize him. When asked how he voted in the election that has just been held, he declares himself a loyal subject of King George III, unaware that the American Revolutionary War has taken place in his absence.
Why is this fiction so popular in the US?
He learns that many of his old friends either were killed in that war or have left the village and is disturbed to find a young man who shares his name, mannerisms, and younger appearance.
A young woman states that her father is Rip Van Winkle, who has been missing for 20 years, then an old woman recognizes him as Rip. The young woman and the young Rip are his children, and the former has named her infant son after him as well.
Rip discovers that his wife has been dead for some time but is not saddened by the news. He learns through a village elder that the men he met in the mountains are said to be ghosts of the crew of the Dutch East India Company ship Halve Maen.
His daughter takes him into her home, and he soon resumes his usual idleness (unconcerned by the major political changes during his slumber) and begins telling his story to every stranger who visits the village. The tale is solemnly taken to heart (despite some assuming him to be off his rocker) by the settlers, particularly by the old Dutch inhabitants who say that, whenever thunder is heard, the men in the mountains must be playing ninepins. More
What is wu wei?It is the art of not forcing things, non-interference, effortless action, non-doing, non-resistance, the path of least resistance, going with the flow, the way of water, acting in harmony with the way life actually moves.
Once upon a time two great martial arts masters traveled the land, unbeaten, taking on all challengers and triumphing in each case. Then one day, by chance, they met at the creek. And one said to the other, "So we finally meet? Today shall be the day we see who the greater sage is, the warrior to vanquish all warriors, the Undefeated."
"Indeed, just as you say."
Then the first drew his sword with a resonant schwing and stabbed it into the water. It stood glimmering. Then he took out a piece of paper and placed it onto the water above the sword. The water carried the paper down, and his sharp sword sliced it in half down the middle just as it flowed by. At this, the first warrior shouted: "Behold!"
The second warrior drew his sword and stabbed the creek with his longer, stronger sword, shimmering more brightly on the surface of the water.
The first warrior trembled in anticipation, his confidence beginning to slip.
The second warrior took out a piece of paper, placed it above the sword on the surface of the water. And the current carried it down to the blade, going around the sword just as it passed.
The first fell to his knees, defeated, understanding too late, of course, that it is always wiser to avoid conflict and not fight. He cried out, "Indeed, master, we have settled it. And let it be known from this day forward, I am the inferior."
The other gently smiled and turned away.
Did it happen? Who knows. Could it have happened? Indeed! The Tao flows, wu wei, unobtrusive, doing nothing but leaving nothing undone. Forcing nothing but accomplishing everything. Behold, what we call Mother Nature!
(Evan Bnormal) A monk of 28 years reveals why he abandoned society... [then gave up and left, to again live in the world, praying and meditating, but now being able to "pop out for a pint," as he explains]
At UC Berkeley, my roommate Nathaniel and I used to mull over the Big Questions -- rebirth, telepathy, PSI, ultimate reality, physics, infinity, the nature of space, psychic powers, black holes, UFOs, the meaning of life, the futility of death, and the importance of birth control, in addition to debating whether reading fiction (like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) could serve any practical function. Those were the salad days, under a powerful red light in a half-mannequin lamp in otherwise very hippie digs, there was no question we would not tackle. I came at things from mysticism, literature and psychology, whereas he was the numbers man, practical engineer, and theoretical physicist.
He loved sports, I loved music. He did homework (problem sets) with all his free time, and I meditated at the Berkeley Zen Center and more or less gazed at my navel the rest of the time. He was much smarter, but I got better grades. We were in school to be schooled and went on to grad school to continue the cat and mouse, chasing GPAs and glory of a most trivial and nerdy sort. Because what college really gives a person of privilege is the leisure to think, philosophize, question, debate, foster intellectual creativity, and expand. How sad that so many people spend it drinking or doing all the things they missed out in high school from having to study so much to get into a place like Cal, Harvard, Stanford, UCLA, or Yale in the first place. We were sober for our discussions.
If only I had done more math, if only he had taken a real philosophy class (instead of accidentally landing himself in a course on logic), what might have been? We'd be two doctors having this debate:
Natty, my good man, let me propose a problem for analysis.
Yeah-yeah, Dawg, wassup?
As you are a privileged white male in our society, having undertaken a full and rigorous course of mathematics up to and including calculus, I have a thought experiment for you.
Aw, Man, drop that b*tch, and let's hear it.
Would you mind, Friend, dispensing with the urban diction?
The whuh?
The Ebonics or whatever manner of slang you're currently employing.
Say whut, Nugs? I be talkin' like I always be talkin! Word!
You never talk like this! Anyway, if it's what you prefer, it's just that you're making a mockery of these proceedings.
Ahh, yeah, lemme git da redlight! Sounds like an all nighter to wax on 'bout.
Here it is. I say pi (π, 3.14159...) is stupid because it is, as you say, "irrational." I want it to be rational rather than go on forever. And I think I thought up a way to do it.
Do whut, Dawg?
Get it to end, get it to be rational, get it to divide cleanly (without remainder), get all the measurements in order, from say a perspicacious, anal, or OCD drive in me to make better pyramids, architecture, and other low-to-no margin of error constructions by making the calculations in the blueprints better.
"Better"?
They'll be better in that they come out without infinite remainders of trailing digits beyond the decimal point.
No need, my Brutha.
This has never been about a need. This is pure science with no (apparent) application, research for its own sake, and you're just the man to do. Take this back to your professors and put it to them. They may see the wisdom of such a pursuit in building, calculating, and approaching the verities of life in a perfect simulation/world.
Pi can'ts bee evenly divided; it stays irrational.
I know. But I have a way to evenly divide it and make it rational, that is, to turn it from an odd number to an even number.
Ain't gonna happen, Bruh.
That's what the purpose of this thought experiment is! I'm going to make it happen. See if you don't agree, as my mind is not bogged down with all the math knowledge, rules acceptance, and numerical assumptions you labor under, I think I'm onto something. It's very easy in theory. How it would be proven, that I leave up to you. I'm the visionary madman making a creature. You are a white lab coat wearing functionary in this thought lab.
STEP 1: Switch from Base 10 to another base, such as Base 11 (or 13, 22, 7, 28, 60, 364, or 365). We'll start with those first.
STEP 2: Calculate pi. I bet it will break even without all those digits after the decimal.
Aww, ai don't think it'll work, Dawg, ai'ight?
STEP 3: Keep plugging in different bases until it does work.
Whut's da use? If it ain't workin, how's swtichin gonna work it?
I suggest we try Base 11.5 or Base 5. Then Base 10.66 or 10.67. See Base 10 is even, and I think that's the fundamental problem, so let's switch to an odd base.
"Odd base"?
Yes, something that is not even like 10.
Ya may be onto sumthin.
I know. And I need you to prove it. Otherwise, I'm going to have to resort to Mathletics, AI, Chat GPT, Grok, and other demonic entities to work it out. And you know they can't, for all they can do is tell me what a genius I am and how I just invented a new math system, and all that other back patting and feelgood replying they do to sincere saps who resort to such compliments when, in fact, they need pushback.
I ain't sure Texas Instruments calculators can handle this job cuz, internally, they might be juzz as jacked as math books in publik schoolz, ya hear?
Yeah, I hear. We may have to use a computer or supercomputer for this one. Doesn't your physics class have a lab with just such a program or IBM, Apple, or Hewlett Packard device?
Supporting mixed-level math learning: Mathletics success story from elementary
In classrooms where students read at different levels, teaching math becomes a double challenge: helping students understand both the mathematics and the questions [word problems] themselves.
Teaching a split class in rural Alberta, Canada, Jennifer Doherty at Alder Flats Elementary School needed a program flexible enough to support all her students.
She found that solution in Mathletics, an online math program for schools that has become an essential tool for building numeracy [the number version of literacy] skills and confidence.
Watch Doherty explain how Mathletics works in her classroom every day, from audio support to clear progress reporting. More
What is history? Who knows? Who has time to read? If only there were a way to learn about historical figures and events of significance through music and rap lyrics, like Hamilton, but with wit, humor, and bravado galore. If only. There are Epic Rap Battles on YouTube that concern themselves with history. Imagine seeing the battle LIVE.
Tickets on sale now. Thursday, June 12th, 2025: LIVE in West Hollywood, Los Angeles @ THE ROXY
9009 West Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles. erbofhistory.com
Monty Python's Flying Circus competitive mass spectacle sport of Novel Writing (The Final Rip Off)
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A century of spelling keeps going strong
A field of 243 top young spellers will converge on National Harbor, Maryland, from [today] May 27 to May 29, 2025, to compete in a historic Scripps National Spelling Bee.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the iconic American competition, which was first held on June 17, 1925, with just nine participants.
“Reaching 100 years is more than a milestone — it’s a testament to the enduring power of words, learning and the human spirit,” said Corrie Loeffler, executive director of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
“For a century, this competition has brought people together through eras of profound change — from world wars to the digital age — and still, the Bee continues to inspire excellence, curiosity, and connection. It’s a living piece of American history, and we’re honored to celebrate its legacy.”
This year’s 243 national qualifiers advanced through local and regional bees that took place through the end of March. All rounds of this year’s national competition — preliminaries, quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals — will take place at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Maryland.
Highlights of 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee field
Yes, well, it comes as no surprise really. *Yawn*
The spellers range in age from 8 to 14.
Only 53 spellers return from the 2024 field, and 178 spellers – 73% – are competing in their first Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Only one 2024 finalist advanced to the 2025 national competition: Faizan Zaki, who finished second last year behind Bruhat Soma, following his record-breaking spell-off.
Tarini Nandakumar is competing in her fifth consecutive Scripps National Spelling Bee. She was a finalist and finished ninth in 2023.
Navtaj Singh, Micah Sterling and Avinav Prem Anand are competing in their fourth straight national competition. Harini Murali is in her fourth Bee overall, as is Zaki.
There are spellers from all 50 states and the [ruling imperial seat of power known as the] District of Columbia [Columbia being the original name of "America," after the titular goddess who was buried and erased from U.S. history, as if Amerigo Vespucci gave the Americas their name].
Texas has the largest representation with 22 national competitors. California is next with 20, followed by Ohio with 15, and Illinois with 13. Florida and New York have 12 each.
There are 13 competitors from outside the 50 United States, representing the Bahamas, Canada, Germany, Ghana, Guam, Kuwait, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. More
Celebrating a 100-year tradition...
2025: 100 YEARS OF THE BEE
(Scripps National Spelling Bee) 2025 - For a century, the Scripps National Spelling Bee has been much more than a competition. It has become a symbol of perseverance, intellect, and community. From its humble beginnings to becoming a cornerstone of American culture, the Bee has empowered millions of students, fostered lifelong friendships, and united communities in the love of language and learning. Through the words we spell, we tell stories — stories of personal triumph, academic achievement, and the diverse fabric of the American experience. As we honor this incredible milestone, we celebrate not just 100 years of history but 100 years of making an impact on generations of learners and the communities they inspire. Join us in commemorating this momentous occasion, as we reflect on the past, celebrate the present, and look forward to an even brighter future.
What is spelling but memory? Memory, like most things, is due to karma: Ananda
Ananda recounting all the suttas, beginning each with, "Thus have I heard." (First Council)
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This is the Middle Way avoiding extremes
Among all the disciples of the Buddha, foremost in memorization was his personal assistant [and possibly one of his sons with a dancing girl named Mriga, according to some traditions, which would make him Ven. Rahula's half-brother] Venerable Ananda.
[It makes sense that Ananda would also be the Buddha's son but that this would have been suppressed or discarded in most traditions. One shining piece of evidence is when Ven. Rahula (whom the Buddha had ordained at age 7) was 18, he was getting very frisky and overwhelmed by sensual craving, presumably due to hormones at that age and the luxurious life he had left behind in the palace in his former kingdom of Kapilavatthu. He was walking with the Buddha and Ananda, if memory serves, making comments about how at that moment there were in the world only three people with the past karma to become "world monarchs" (cakkavati or chakravartin rulers).
Ven. Rahula, the Buddha, and Ven. Ananda
Prince Siddhartha had turned his back on that possibility, forecast by soothsayers when he was a child, much to his father King Suddhodana's delight. Ananda was already a monk for a long time. And there was him. If Rahula disrobed, returned to the palace, and let nature take its course, he could become king of this world. Such talk worried the Buddha, who instructed a monk that -- after 11 years in the robe learning the basics -- Ven. Rahula was now ready to intensively put the Teachings into practice. He did and thereby attained arahantship. If the other person there was Ananda, it would be among these three close relatives that the karma existed to attain to the status of a world-monarch.] Was Ananda the Buddha's son?
Ananda lived one kappa = 120 years
It is only because of Ananda that we have "Buddhism" as we do. When the Buddha passed into final nirvana, having established the Sangha (the Buddhist Monastic Community) and left in place the Noble Sangha (the community of enlightened disciples in any of the four stages of awakening), Ven. Maha Kassapa took it upon himself to begin a religion. He did this by calling together the First Buddhist Council of fully enlightened disciples (theras and, presumably, theris). The texts say 500 arahants (fully enlightened beings) attended, but this number simply means "a large number." It was almost 499, as it were, because Ananda was the most important person to be invited, but he did not qualify to attend. He was needed to recount the suttas (sutras, sermons, narrated teachings, the Buddha's "discourses").
Another monk was put in charge of the Vinaya (Monastic Disciplinary Code rules). But Ananda was only a stream enterer at the first stage of awakening. So he made a strenuous effort to put into practice all that he knew, had heard directly from the Buddha, and committed to memory. It was no use. He failed. This path cannot be accomplished simply by a "sense of urgency" (samvega), which is important to recognize the meaning of the Buddha's last words to be a lamp unto oneself and work out one's own salvation with diligence (to mindfully put into practice the theory of the Teaching in so consistent a manner that one makes an end of all suffering in no long time). Because he tried so hard, Ananda failed. He had slacked off for years, so he never attained arahantship, full realization.
Now the opposite problem was impeding him -- to much efforting, too much strain, too much craving and grasping. He needed santosha ("contentment") to ease his mind so it could blossom. The night before the Council was to meet, he practiced intensive meditation deep into the night. Finally, he recognized his failure with frustration and exhaustion, so he gave up and decided to go to sleep.
Laying off the pressure (surrendering, giving up, letting go of craving it and needing it), he began to lie down. He was going from the extreme of too much to the other extreme of too little, at one moment achieving balance between the two, the Middle Way that avoids extremes of austerity and luxury. He became the only disciple to achieve awakening outside of one of the "four bodily positions" (lying down, sitting, standing, or walking). He attained, because he let go, between sitting and lying down.
He sat right up and experienced the paths-and-fruits of self-realization (magga-phala). He was welcomed into the Council by the other fully enlightened beings and recited all the discourses he had heard over the preceding 25 years as the Buddha's chief assistant. This is why all sutras begin not with "once upon a time" but rather "thus have I heard" (Evam me sutam).
Buddhist tradition maintains that the disciple Ānanda used the formula for the first time, as a form of personal testimony... [to say that he himself was attesting that this is what the Buddha had said]. Scholars may rightly doubt that this could be true for all sutras, certainly not applying to later apocryphal Mahayana inventions, which have become some of the most famous "sutras" [sutured together sermons with a single throughline or thread] of all, namely, The Heart Sutra, The Diamond Sutra, The Lotus Sutra... More
Nevertheless, it is undisputed that Ananda had a tremendous memory like a spelling bee champion. And one is forced to wondered what it is about India (ancient Maha Bharat, Jambudvipa, Asoka's Empire) that produces to many remarkable memory banks in little boys and girls of Indian origin.
Is it Goddess Saraswati's doing?
Is it the clean vegetarian (ahimsa) diet?
Is it past study of the Vedas (in previous lives) as Brahmins memorizing countless slokas?
Is it genetically handed down?
Is it training and the way the Indian system chose to educate its children?
Is it rich minerals in the soil coming down from the Himalayas nourishing the babies?
Is it Hinduism (or Islam or Jainism or Sikhism)?
Is it yogic magic?
Is it British colonial rule, forcing everyone into a Western model of learning and punishment and stealing Indian and Islamic innovations (in mathematics and sciences, like the invention of "zero" and the Ayurveda or "health sciences") and calling them British?
No, it's not likely this last one, but possibly any of the previous ones.
The Buddha praises Ananda
“The foremost of my monastic disciples who are very learned is Ānanda… with a good memory is Ānanda. ...with an extensive range is Ānanda. ...[foremost] in retention [memory] is Ānanda. ...[foremost] as a personal attendant is Ānanda.” Source: AN 1.219–234: Catuttha Vagga—Ven. Sujato (trans)
Scripps National Spelling Bee; Monty Python; Ven. Sujata (suttacentral.net); memory and the story of Ananda explained by Dhr. Seven; Ashley Wells, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
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