right now i need to learn with hands, not eyes, i need to change with the times

[reckless_rex]

I currently have three people I consider to be close friends: one who I met a little less than a year ago and consider to be one of the best people I know in just about every way; one I've been chums with for about five years running but only really considered a friend for about the last two or three; and one who I've known for about six years,

Comments

Hah.

[airstrip]

I'm fairly certain that, if I could get my hands on enough inscriptions, I could demonstrate that the phrase "to make money/wealth" goes back to Egypt. Really, the obvious point in the phrase is that it is likely linked to agriculture. Had Language Log bothered to mention it, this would seem an obvious connection in Latin: pecus refers to cattle. I would bet that most observations about wealth will, if from a culture that did not arise near rich deposits of gold, refer to the "creation" of wealth (through agriculture, work and divine will) or even to its "multiplication."

Re: Hah.

[drumnbach]

I was going to reply to Matt's journal a day or two ago but forgot. Funny how I was also going to give an Egyptian example...

Anyway, according to the Jehovah's Witnesses, the word 'evolution' goes back to Egyptian times, when they used a similar word to describe the motion of a beetle crawling under a rock, and coming out the other end as a different creature. My mum (who's a JW) went to the big JW HQ and asked them about evolution (because I'm an evolutionist and she and JWs are creationists), and asked for a piece of advice so that she could finally lay it down to me once and for all. They told her the Egyptian beetle story.

JWs and I'm sure quite a lot of other religions (but I know they do it especially in JW) seem obsessed with the origin of words. It's pretty freakish.