Category: Uncategorized

-akis is the patronymic suffix used in Crete; it’s a diminutive, like most patronymics in Greek surnames are.

The surname in Greek is Galifianakis Γαλιφιανάκης or Galyfianakis Γαλυφιανάκης; I see the upsilon surname much more frequently online (except with reference to Zach himself). Galifianos means “from Galifa”; there are references online to a Galifian carnival, ΓΑΛΥΦΙΑΝΟ ΚΑΡΝΑΒΑΛΙ 2012. Galifa in turn is a village in Crete near Iraklio: Γαλίφα Ηρακλείου – Βικιπαίδεια. The village is first mentioned in a census from 1538, and has a current population of 250. The village is spelled with both iota and upsilon.

I don’t know the etymology of the village name, but the related adjective γαλίφης “flatterer” comes from the Italian gaglioffo. An Italian name makes sense as Crete was under Venetian rule; not sure why a village would be called “female flatterer” though.

The most successful one has been Blissymbols; it was conceived of as an auxlang, but has it seen usage helping disabled children acquire language.

The sample phrase on Wikipedia is:

Person-1st Verb-feeling-fire Verb-legs house camera-move
“I want to go to the cinema”

I’m 45.

I would not like to go forward. It’s already started being downhill physically, and I’m happy to take the leisurely route towards senectitude.

Not back to 16. I wasn’t really socialised back then, even if I was at my most physically rigorous.

Not back to 20. Still not properly socialised, and pretty adrift in what I was going to do with myself and who I was.

(I’m still adrift about what I’m going to do when I grow up. Life really is this thing that just happens to you.)

I’d like to go back to 25. When I was starting my PhD, was forming friends for the first time. Before I realised that it was not going to get me a job; before I realised that life just happens to you; before I was compromised and jaded. Back when everything seemed to be opening up for me.

People Rank

What languages does Quora support?

You don’t need an invite any more for Spanish. You do need an invite for French, since it is still in Beta. https://fr.quora.com/join?code=0

This was answered by Laura Hale with the data available to her in 2015:

Laura Hale’s answer to Does Quora have any black employees? I read that tech firms in Silicon Valley face challenges in recruiting and retaining minority employees.

From what I can tell, the answer appears to be zero African American employees, while Asian employees represent 55% of Quora’s employees. This is an ethnically diverse group though, and includes people of Chinese, Iranian and Indian descent among others.

The reaction of Quorans to the question even being posed is… enlightening:

Adam Nyhan’s answer to Does Quora have any black employees? I read that tech firms in Silicon Valley face challenges in recruiting and retaining minority employees.

As of this writing, Quora supports English, Spanish, a beta for French has been announced, and there are plans for German and Italian.

Outside of the currently supported languages (English, Spanish, French in Beta):

If you ask D’Angelo, German and Italian: they’re next up in the plan. Launching a beta for Quora en français by Adam D’Angelo on The Quora Blog.

If you ask Clarissa Lohr: https://www.quora.com/What-are-t…

I think I would have chosen Hindi, Tamil and Russian next. Maybe Arabic.

If you ask me, LATIN! Praeclarum enim esset!!!¡!!!11!! Ond Englisc! Maciaþ Mierce grēat āġēan!

So. Let’s approach this a little more coldly.

Quora is not Wikimedia, and Quora is not a non-for-profit, and Quora is not out there to save the world. Would that it were so, but it’s not. Quora is a business. Or rather, Quora is trying to become a business. Which means Quora’s got to be all about the benjamins: the Venture Capitalists’ benjamins in the short term, the advertisers’ benjamins in the long term.

So its choices of languages have to be strategic.

What language choices are strategic?

• Languages that don’t already have a strong competitor website in place, and that aren’t likely to firewall Quora. As User has pointed out to me, that rules out China, which has Zhihu (Q&A website); and Taiwan and the Chinese diaspora aren’t enough to sustain a zh.quora.com on their own. It does not rule out French and German, where the localised equivalents have not done well: Séverine Godet’s answer to Why is Gozil (French version of Quora) not as popular as Quora?; What is the German equivalent of Quora?
• Languages spoken by lucrative demographics. That presumably rules out Hausa, for example.
• Languages whose lucrative demographics aren’t already comfortable using English Quora: the point is to grow market share, and to grow it in benjamins. That may (may) rule out Indian languages. But I’d have thought it also rules out German, if not Italian and French. I’ve seen a lot of French and German users here lukewarm about the prospect of Quora in their language.
• Languages that Silicon Valley VCs are likely to be wowed by. Here we get into identity politics, and Sam Morningstar, please don’t hit me. But permit me the idle speculation:
• A bunch of Silicon Valley VCs are likely to be wowed by Spanish, because it’s the default foreign language in California.
• A bunch of Silicon Valley VCs are likely to be wowed by French, German, and Italian, because those are the default prestige foreign languages in the Anglosphere (Britain, and those under British influence). I paused about including Italian; but music and art and the Renaissance have likely bought it a place at the table, rather than advertiser benjamins.
• A bunch of Silicon Valley VCs are likely not to be wowed by languages they have a cultural cringe against. This is irresponsible speculation, but: I have seen Indians on Quora beg for Indian language support, and I have seen Indians on Quora pooh-pooh Indian language support. Indians who have ended up as VCs in Cali, I suspect, are going to be among the latter: they loved English so much, they moved to the States. They may be biased against sending VC money back home, when being Indian on Quora in English is what they are all about. Same would go for any Chinese VCs in Cali.
• A bunch of Silicon Valley VCs are likely not to be wowed by languages seen to have been a bust for internationalisation in the past. Orkut did not fail because it was Big In Brazil and Immense In India; Orkut failed because of structural mismanagement. But “Big In Brazil” became a joke in Silicon Valley, so I can see Portuguese being demoted in the wow-factor list, among Valley VCs. Same goes for Indian languages.

My own more considered opinion: definitely Russian, as the monopoly of VK (social network) in Russia shows, and probably Arabic. There’s Benjamins to be had there. Unless…

• Languages that Silicon Valley VCs are likely to have politically-motivated distaste for, which outweighs the benjamins to be had.

I have no idea whether VCs in the Valley are so impractical as to let their cultural and political predilections outweigh their nose for money. But you gotta admit. If they are, that would explain French, German and Italian. Which I, as a cultural European, am fricking STOKED to see announced; but which I don’t think are where the benjamins are at.

It has the same reality as a story does, or a theory. It belongs in the Ideosphere. Actually, the term I’ve heard used is Noosphere; but the early notions of noosphere that Wikipedia enumerates are kinda loony. But it’s a mental construct, the kind of thing that Dawkins actually had in mind when he first spoke of memes; and as such, the ideosphere is:

the “place” where thoughts, theories and ideas are thought to be created, evaluated and evolved. […] The ideosphere is not considered to be a physical place by most people. It is instead “inside the minds” of all the humans in the world.

The performance of the music isn’t the music; it’s an instantiation, and music still exists if is never performed, but is just written down on a score. The score of the music isn’t the music either. Think of the langue/parole distinction from Saussure: the music is the underlying code, the idealised mental construct, and it exists independent of instantiation.

A2A; I’ve already listed all I could recall under Nick Nicholas’ answer to What are the funniest nicknames you’ve been given over the years? For origins, see there.

Of these:

• Nicko. Love (so Ocker!) Never used since 14.
• Acka Nicka. Hate. Never used since 15.
• Nick Squared. Like. Frequent use up to 17, very rare reinvention since.
• NSN. Indifferent (I don’t use the middle initial any more). 18–22. Is occasionally still used by people I studied with. (It’s a very computer geek thing: it was my email address.)
• The Minoan Genius. Love. Used once when I was 25.
• Opoudjis. Love. Used really only by me, since I was 25: it’s my self-chosen user name. (And I seem to be the only person who can spell it and pronounce it, anyway.)
• Niĉjo/.nitcion./nIchyon. Like. Esperanto, Lojban, Klingon versions of “Nick”, each drawn from its precedent. Niĉjo: used some when I was active (13–20). nitcion: used a lot when I was active. nIchyon: used a little when I was active.

Special mention, not mentioned in previous answer:

• Dr Nick. Love. Used when I was lecturing by my students (age 31), and intermittently since. Most recently revived by Tracey Bryan. To be delivered in Dr. Nick Riviera singsong.

Separated at birth.