Category Archives: News to use

Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

How to Learn Chinese Tones

Foundation Operation X for Languages, Cultures and Perspectives

Written by Dyami Millarson

I have always been interested in prosody as a topic within the field of phonetics which has always been one of my main linguistic interests, and that is why I found it particularly satisfying to learn the Chinese tones and perfect my ability to recognise and reproduce them over the years. I still recall how I started learning Chinese tones: I found a Chinese tone game on the BBC website. I still recommend this to people who have zero knowledge of Chinese tones. It is a helpful tool for absolute beginners. As I progressed more, I found a tone drill game on the website of ArchChinese. I still use that tool up to this day, because I find it quite convenient for perfecting my tones. My goal is to be able to pronounce Chinese exactly like a Chinese native speaker. That is why I…

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Xamã Yanomami, Amazonas, Venezuela

As Yanomami spokesman Davi Kopenawa says in the “Metal Smoke” chapter of his book “The Fall from Heaven”: “That’s what our elders who are great shamans say. These are the words of the xapiri, who transmit to us. These are the ones I want the whites to hear.… As soon as the miners arrive at our house… They smeared the rivers with yellowish mud and filled them with the smoke of the Xawara plague from their machines. I saw them devastate the river springs with the greed of hungry dogs. Everything to find gold, so that whites can use it to make teeth and ornaments or keep it locked in their homes. … The thinking of these whites is obscured by their greed for gold. They are wicked beings. ”

Barbara Crane Navarro

Como diz o porta-voz Yanomami Davi Kopenawa no capítulo “Fumaça de Metal” de seu livro”A Queda do Céu”: “É o que dizem os nossos mais velhos que são grandes xamãs. Estas são as palavras dos xapiri, que nos transmitem. Estas são as que quero que os brancos ouçam.… Assim que os garimpeitos chegarem à nossa casa… Eles sujaram os rios com lama amarelada e os encheram com a fumaça da peste xawara de suas máquinas. Eu os vi devastar as nascentes do rio com a ganância de cães famintos. Tudo para encontrar ouro, para que os brancos possam usá-lo para fazer dentes e adornos ou mantê-lo trancado em suas casas. … O pensamento desses brancos é obscurecido por sua ganância por ouro. Eles são seres perversos.”

NÃO ao ouro de sangue ! – Uma mensagem para Davi Kopenawa, Claudia Andujar e Survival com um aviso do cacique Raoni Metuktire:

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Trump Supporter Arrested For Requesting Absentee Ballot For Dead Mother | HuffPost

Robert R. Lynn, a registered Republican and Trump supporter in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly requesting an absentee ballot for his mother, who died in 2015.

Lynn, 67, is a resident of Luzerne County, a largely white, working-class, political bellwether that Barack Obama won twice, but which swung hard for Trump in 2016. Lynn is being charged with voter fraud and forgery for faking his deceased mother’s signature on the absentee ballot request form.

Source: Trump Supporter Arrested For Requesting Absentee Ballot For Dead Mother | HuffPost

Hacker says he correctly guessed Trump’s Twitter password—it was “maga2020!”

Illustration that includes a Twitter logo, President Trump's Twitter account, and a password that reads

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson)

A security researcher reportedly logged in to President Trump’s Twitter account last week by guessing the password—it was “maga2020!”—and then alerted the US government that Trump needed to upgrade his Twitter security practices.

Security researcher Victor Gevers reportedly guessed Trump’s password on the fifth attempt and was dismayed that the president had not enabled two-step authentication. The news was reported today by de Volkskrant, a Dutch newspaper, and the magazine Vrij Nederland. Both reports had quotes from Gevers, while Vrij Nederland also published a screenshot that Gevers says he took when he had access to the @realdonaldtrump account.

Gevers reportedly gained access to Trump’s Twitter account on Friday last week. He says he tried passwords such as “MakeAmericaGreatAgain” and “Maga2020” before hitting on the correct password of “maga2020!” Gevers is a well-known security researcher and has been quoted in several Ars articles on other security topics going back to 2017. He is a researcher at the nonprofit GDI Foundation and chair of the Dutch Institute for Vulnerability Disclosure.

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Apparently Foxconn’s Wisconsin LCD Factory is Fake

z4ylfpjmdeqfajlzm4ia.jpg Last week, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) rejected electronics maker Foxconn’s tax subsidy application for failing to not only hire the number of employees it promised, but to build a Gen 10.5 LCD factory. The company had instead built a Gen 6 facility to manufacture phone screens instead of a larger factory for TV displays, and hired only 550 out of the 13,000 employees it was supposed to, 281 of whom did not qualify under the terms of the contract. But now, a report from The Verge has confirmed the Gen 6 facility is not being used to manufacture anything at all.

Source: Apparently Foxconn’s Wisconsin LCD Factory is Fake

State sends emergency help to El Paso as COVID-19 cases rise across Texas | The Texas Tribune

A new University of Texas report says the El Paso area is at high risk of exceeding hospital bed and ICU capacity early next month, and many other Texas cities could see similar problems in the coming weeks. Source: State sends emergency help to El Paso as COVID-19 cases rise across Texas | The Texas Tribune

Blood of recovered COVID-19 patients shows little benefit as treatment – The Jerusalem Post

Using blood of recovered COVID-19 patients – or so-called convalescent plasma – as a potential treatment is of little benefit in helping hospitalised patients fight off the infection, according to results of a clinical trial in India.

Published in the BMJ British Medical Journal on Friday, the results show that convalescent plasma, which delivers antibodies from COVID-19 survivors to infected people, failed to reduce death rates or halt progression to severe disease.

Source: Blood of recovered COVID-19 patients shows little benefit as treatment – The Jerusalem Post

Report: Trump Supporters Obstruct And Intimidate Voters In Albuquerque | KRWG

A voting rights group says that caravans of flag-waving President Donald Trump supporters appeared to obstruct and intimidate voters at two polling location in predominantly ethnic-minority neighborhoods last weekend in the Albuquerque area. Common Cause New Mexico Director Heather Ferguson said Wednesday that the incidents took place on the first day of balloting at voter convenience centers in the South Valley area and the western reaches of Central Avenue. The areas are heavily Latino. She estimates that dozens of potential voters in each location left without voting as a result of the incidents. Local prosecutors say they are investigating. Source: Report: Trump Supporters Obstruct And Intimidate Voters In Albuquerque | KRWG

Armed Men Who Claimed to Be Hired by Trump Showed Up at a Florida Polling Place

Pinellas County elections supervisor Julie Marcus, a Republican, said that the men, dressed like security guards, arrived at an early voting site in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, pitched a tent, and told sheriff’s deputies they’d been hired by the Trump campaign, according to WFLA, NBC’s Tampa affiliate. They also said they’d be back on Thursday. Source: Armed Men Who Claimed to Be Hired by Trump Showed Up at a Florida Polling Place