sigh

@wulatum

Phonetician / 他, wù / pro-international student

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Bluesky

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sigh@wulatum· 21d

so, I can confirm that the village I work in near Douala has many speakers of both Tupuri and Mundang, two Mbum-Day languages of far northern Cameroon. I've now done a few days of Tupuri recordings to test the waters. I also tested this millet beer (also from far northern Cameroon).

white man holding a half calabash halfway filled with millet beer, a light brown liquid with some suspended solids and a bit of bubbling at the top. in the background, below the calabash, a black man can be seen scooping another serving out of a bucket placed on the dirt floor.

sigh@wulatum· Jul 15

a last minute come-from behind victory by ARG, you say?

the very tall man from Twin Peaks, AKA Tuchel, in the red room saying "It is Happening Again"

sigh@wulatum· Jul 11

Tennant Dr. Who standing in the rain, with the World Cup "PAUSA DE HIDRATACION" label in the lower left.

sigh@wulatum· Jul 4

Cape Verde's two goals against Argentina today put them at #7 in all-time WC goals per capita! (fixed to actually be goals per capita, and not points per capita)

Python notebook cell showing the top 20 national teams in terms of WC goals per capita. Uruguay leads, then the ranking goes: 2. Croatia 3. Serbia 4. Slovakia 5. Hungary 6. Sweden 7. Cape Verde 8. Switzerland 9. Northern Ireland 10. Portugal 11. Belgium 12. Curacao 13. Netherlands 14. Austria 15. Denmark 16. Iceland 17. Paraguay 18. Scotland 19. Czech Republic 20. Costa Rica

sigh@wulatum· Jun 22

update: Cape Verde's two goals against Uruguay *also* puts them in the top 20 all-time goals per capita, ahead of countries like Argentina.

A table output by a Python notebook shows the top 20 countries ranked by their FIFA World Cup goals per capita. Uruguay leads the ranking with 91 goals and a population of 3.4 million, resulting in the highest goals per capita score (0.00002676). Croatia follows in second place, and Serbia ranks third. Curaçao and Cape Verde are also featured near the top (8th and 19th with 1 and 2 goals, respectively), because of their tiny population sizes.

sigh@wulatum· Jun 14

some fun World Cup data - on a goals-per-capita basis (clearly the metric that really matters), Uruguay blows all other countries out of the water. however, Curaçao has vaulted themselves into the top 10 by scoring one goal against Germany in their ongoing match

A table displaying the top 10 countries ranked by all-time Men's World Cup points per capita. Uruguay blows everyone else away with the highest per-capita rate of 0.00002588 goals per capita, with 88 points and a population of 3.4 million. Curaçao ranks eighth with a single goal and a small population of 164,000, or 0.00000610 goals per capita. The rest of the top 10: Croatia in second place with 0.00001205 goals per capita, about half as much as Uruguay; Serbia, in third with 0.00000955, Slovakia at 0.00000778, Northern Ireland at 0.00000737, Sweden at 0.00000660, Belgium at 0.00000613, Curaçao at 0.00000610, the Netherlands at 0.00000571, and Switzerland at 0.00000567 goals per capita.

sigh@wulatum· Jun 5

what, you want a Douala - Brussels flight? on the wrong day? best we can suggest is getting stuck in a cul-de-sac and doing Douala - Yaoundé - Abidjan - Accra - Dubai - Brussels. (an actual itinerary suggested to me by Google!)

A map showing a flight itinerary of Douala to Yaoundé to Abidjan to Accra to Dubai to Brussels, with a red line on the globe connecting all the stops.

sigh@wulatum· Mar 9

don't know what everyone is up in arms about, from my prior readings on thermodynamics (see attached) this is fine

Garfield "why do they call it oven" meme: John is retrieving a pan from an open oven (or perhaps putting the pan in), as he turns back to Garfield and says: "why do they call it oven when you of in the cold food of out hot eat the food"

sigh@wulatum· Jan 26

sicko fans:

Sickos meme - black and white cartoon style drawing of a man wearing a "SICKOS" shirt peering in through a window at night, his face twisted in perverse glee as he exclaims "YES... HA HA HA... YES!"

sigh@wulatum· Jan 16

enjoy this commemorative pepper soup (with bitterleaf) which I am eating while posting

Pepper soup (orange, thin sauce) with bitterleaf (dark green leaves) is pooled in a white bowl with floral details on a wood table. There are two pieces of meat and two boiled plantains in the sauce. In the background on the table, some SD cards and a receipt book can be seen.

sigh@wulatum· Jan 2

Not the main concern, but what is even going on in this photo? "Hey guys, check out my new TV"

A photo captioned "Medical professor teaching young students at a university (Wavebreak Media/Getty Images)" which appears under the lede of the article in the quoted post. What the image actually shows is four people in scrubs or lab coats seated on one side of a table, facing front where an older man in a lab coat is gesturing at a wall-mounted TV which is turned off. They are all taking notes.

sigh@wulatum· Dec 10

just saying that someone might find this useful

In black, lightweight, serif font on a white background, the banners from the republican convention in the one Simpsons episode has been typed: "We want what's worst for everyone! We're just plain evil!"

sigh@wulatum· Sep 6

New tongue twister spotted

Photo of a produce bin filled with, and labeled as containing, "local okra"

sigh@wulatum· Aug 30

like this

a crudely drawn Freeform (MS Paint for fancy-pants modern Apple people) figure of a person wearing an ultrasound stabilization headset. a mirror is floating to one side and permitting a view of the mouth from two different angles at once when viewed from the front.

sigh@wulatum· Aug 29

when you decide that yes, you're going to assign your own paper in the grad seminar

The meme of Obama solemnly awarding himself an award, against a regal curtained background somewhere in the White House. (Before there was cheap gold-colored plastic crap glued to all the walls.)

sigh@wulatum· Aug 22

Dusk, Guamá campus of UFPA

A shot from a sidewalk over the riverbank out over the Guamá river in Belém. It is dusk and streetlights have just come on. People are sitting along the walk with their legs dangling off, mostly silhouettes here. The sky is pinkish and reflected in the river. Some deeper blue shadows or rays are being cast across the sky, one of which lines up with a streetlight almost exactly. Across the river, dark trees.

sigh@wulatum· Aug 9

Backlog photo from Nasarawa State University, Keffi

A yellow plaster, squared off facade is geometrically arranged across a courtyard and to the right approaching the camera's view point. The photo is taken from the second floor in the courtyard and the floor is not visible. The sky is bright, lightly hazy, and filled with clouds above. One student in a head scarf is visible leaning against the rail of the courtyard, her phone is out and she seems to be taking a picture of the photographer. The photographer is also reflected in a window opposite the courtyard.

sigh@wulatum· Jul 18

A proper suya to celebrate the last full day of work with Yoro consultants

A white plastic table shot from overhead is covered in unfurled foil packets. Darkly roasted, deep red suya chopped into bite size pieces fills two of the packets, with an especially large amount at the top. Masa (yeasted rice breads) fill the other smaller packet. Three hands are reaching towards various things in the packets.

sigh@wulatum· Jul 14

Trip to Bwari, FCT - pots and local food

A rocky gray hill with trees against a white sky. There are two especially large rocks at the hilltop. The sun is faintly visible behind some haze at the right edge.

Bwari Pottery Village, at the edge of Bwari. The picture centers on a large white pillar, beyond which is a brightly lit courtyard which is mostly white. A Nigerian woman holding a phone is standing next to the pillar looking right, out of the frame. She is wearing a white wrap dress with brown details and large decorative glasses. In the courtyard behind and under more verandas, there are tables and shelves completely covered in handmade pots in dark colors, whites, and blues, and other larger urns are scattered around.

The Gbagyi delicacy called zhepwo - fufu broken up in cold water, which is drained and eaten out of the ladle, and a sort of salad of chopped raw eggplants, smoked fish, and pepper, eaten by the spoonful alternating with the fufu.

sigh@wulatum· Jul 13

Pictures from Limbe (SW Cameroon) I forgot to post

A colonial-era church in Limbe Down Beach with two motorcycle taxis crossing on the road in front, under the steeple. The sky is blue and power lines cross overhead in front of the steeple.

A view of the ocean from above a resort near the Limbe botanical gardens. A green landmass is visible at far left on the horizon, and a similar island is visible center right on the horizon. On the shore below in the foreground, a cluster of white roofed buildings sits, with an unfinished concrete building to their right.

The shore at Down Beach at dusk, facing the ocean. Everything is tinted a pastel orange color due to the setting sun. Black sand and rocks on the shore are visible in the foreground. Against the horizon an island and its trees are visible in silhouette. In the middle ground, surrounded by low waves, are a row of rocks silhouetted against the water, on which a man and a woman are visible as very small figures, about two meters apart. The man is standing straight with his arms against himself, and the woman is spreading her arms as if balancing or beginning to make some gesture.

sigh@wulatum· Jul 10

So long Douala, hello Abuja

A picture snapped out of a plane window, over the right engine, as it takes off. A thick forest is visible on the ground nearest the plane. Further out, there is a neighborhood of Douala with a large number of white metal-roofed buildings arranged irregularly up to the edge of a small river. More forest is beyond that, and a gray sky past that.

A picture out the same plane window on the tarmac at Abuja airport. A taxiing lane curves away and to the right, with the terminal visible behind. A steep rocky hill stands out in the far distance.

sigh@wulatum· Jun 21

Under the mountain

Mt. Cameroon in the distance shrouded in clouds. The sky is partly cloudy and bright. The foreground is a dirt path leading into the bush.

sigh@wulatum· Jun 17

super helpful clarification there

Bare bones "error" page that reads: "Access denied, Error 16" with a timestamp below. The notice helpfully explains that "This request was blocked by our security service". There is no way provided to contact customer support, because they don't care.

sigh@wulatum· Jun 4

Fwonss

A picture of an orange sun in an orange sky over the river Seine in Paris, from a bridge between the Rive Gauche and the Île de la Cité. A row of buildings curves away into the distance to the right. People are milling about on the bridge in the foreground, looking at the sunset.

sigh@wulatum· Apr 10

"Will the John Birch Society be making anime real?"

X post from the John Birch Society (because we're in hell already, sure, why not) saying:

Yes, hello

The John Birch Society is pleased to announce a new wave of upcoming content, highlights, and material in the works

Refill your popcorn. You're going to love this next part

A possibly photoshopped image follows, of Tucker Carlson at his Fox News desk gleefully laughing, with the inset news graphic showing the smirking chad bodybuilder guy from the meme in sunglasses and a button-down shirt with the buttons undone, next to a cheering anime girl.

A response, from New Hampshire republican state representative Michael Granger through his official account, is posted below: "will the John Birch Society be making anime real?"

sigh@wulatum· Apr 1

you know, I think that we as a society don't give enough respect to this kind of hating

Screen cap of NYT article on Cory Booker's marathon speech on the Senate floor, which notes: "By Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Booker appeared to be pressing to break a record set by Senator Strom Thurmond, who in 1957 delivered a 24-hour-18-minute filibuster opposing a piece of civil rights legislation. Mr. Booker, who for weeks had contemplated giving a marathon floor speech, has long been bothered that Mr. Thurmond, a segregationist from South Carolina, held the record, according to Mr. Booker’s office. (The Senate’s log of longest speeches does not reach back to the founding of the nation, but Mr. Thurmond’s is the longest on record.)"

sigh@wulatum· Dec 5

hold on, I missed the good stuff. you can "compound" two minimal pronouns (in various combinations not already represented by an augmented pronoun) to refer to groups of precisely two people, *and* nouns can be compounded in! the compositional semantics get complex (note 13a)

table 13, showing subject pronouns compounded with nouns: yúwū Búŋ "1+2 and Bung", wyè wàyn "you sg. and the child", wɛ́ kyìí "3sg and women"

sigh@wulatum· Dec 5

Babanki, like a lot of other languages of the area, has a relatively complex system of grouping pronouns that seems to work well with a "minimal"/"augmented" division of pronouns rather than "singular"/"plural", since "plural" is not precise enough!

Table 3 from the linked paper: "Babanki basic subject pronouns arranged according to minimality versus augmentation." The usual 1/2/3 person rows have a "1+2" row added, and rather than the two columns being "singular" versus "plural", a "minimal" versus "augmented" (which adds some number of third-person referents) is shown.

sigh@wulatum· Sep 29

Possible eggcorn spotted in the wild 🐦🐦

A sign is in the middle of a planted garden bed in front of a wrought iron fence. The egg corn at top reads: "GARDENS S E W N, MANAGED, AND SPONSORED BY:"

sigh@wulatum· Sep 13

I lack perspective on this, and the relevant studies I can locate and read are often not specific about *how* signers are prompted to produce, e.g. Tyrone & Mauk (2010) doi.org/10.1016/j.wo..., who just say "asked to produce" here.