Meet The Line

 

 Saudi Arabia’s 106-Mile City of the Future

Imagine a city that isn’t spread out with neighborhoods, streets, and parks as you know them, but instead, a single, massive building stretching for miles and miles. This might sound like something out of a science fiction movie, but it's not. It’s real, and it’s being built in Saudi Arabia. This incredible project is called "The Line," and it’s part of a bigger plan called Neom, which aims to transform a vast desert into a futuristic oasis.

What Is The Line?

The Line is unlike any city you’ve ever seen or heard of. Instead of spreading out horizontally, like the cities you know, The Line goes straight up and down. Imagine two parallel skyscrapers, each one stretching 106 miles (170 kilometers) long and 1,640 feet (500 meters) high. To give you some perspective, that’s taller than most of the tallest buildings in the world! These two skyscrapers will be only 656 feet (200 meters) wide and will have a shiny, mirrored exterior that reflects the surrounding desert and sky.

Inside these buildings, everything you need for life will be stacked vertically. That means homes, schools, parks, offices, and shops will all be layered on top of each other. You could walk from your house to a park or a classroom in just a few minutes without ever leaving the building!

A City Like No Other

One of the coolest things about The Line is how it’s designed to work. Because it’s so tall and narrow, getting around won’t involve cars or buses. Instead, there will be a high-speed train that zooms from one end of the city to the other in just 20 minutes. So, if your friend lives 106 miles away, you could visit them in the time it takes to watch an episode of your favorite show.Everything in The Line is planned to be super convenient. No matter where you live, you’ll be just a five-minute walk from anything you need, whether it’s a store, a school, or even a park. And speaking of parks, The Line will have lots of green spaces and nature woven right into the city. There’s even talk of including things like waterfalls and an artificial moon that you can look at every night.

A Green and Clean City

One of the big goals for The Line is to be environmentally friendly. Unlike most cities, there will be no roads, no cars, and no pollution. Instead, The Line will run entirely on clean energy. This is part of Saudi Arabia’s bigger plan, called Vision 2030, to create a more sustainable future.

Vision 2030 and The Line

So, when will people actually start living in this futuristic city? The first residents are expected to move in by the year 2030. That might seem like a long way off, but in the world of city-building, it’s just around the corner. The Line is part of a huge project called Neom, which is designed to attract millions of visitors every year and make Saudi Arabia a top travel destination, competing with popular places like Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Neom isn’t just about The Line, though. It will also include airports, green energy plants, and other high-tech developments. The idea is to create a “country within a country,” where people from all over the world will want to live and work.

Why Not Everyone’s Excited

Even though The Line sounds amazing, not everyone thinks it’s a good idea. Some people are worried that building a city like this might not be the best way to solve problems like pollution and overcrowding. For example, one scientist pointed out that a straight-line city might not be the most efficient shape for getting around. If you live in The Line and want to visit someone far away, it could still take a long time to get there, even with a fast train.

Others are concerned that Saudi Arabia might be focusing too much on tourism and not enough on other important areas, like education and research.

What Do You Think?

The Line is one of the most ambitious projects the world has ever seen. It’s a city that could change the way we think about urban life and the environment. But like all big ideas, it has its challenges. As students and future leaders, it’s important to think critically about projects like this. What do you think about The Line? Would you want to live in a city like this? Or do you think there are better ways to create the cities of the future?

Plastic Surgery Glossary - "Nip-and-Tuck"

 

Face

Wrinkle---------------------->ρυτίδες

Frown ----------------------->σμίγω τα φρύδια

Brow -------------------------> φρύδι

Crow's feet-------------------> ρυτίδες γύρω απο τα μάτια

Glabella-----------------------> μεσόφρυο

Marrionette lines, "smoker's lines"------------->ρυτίδες γύρω απο το στόμα

Nasolabial fold -------------->Ρινοχειλική πτυχή

Sunken cheeks---------------->Βυθισμένα μάγουλα

Breast Surgery - Boob job

Breast augmentation: αυξητική στήθους

Breast lift: ανύψωση στήθους

Breast reduction: μείωση στήθους

Body Surgery

Tummy tuck: Abdominoplasty

Nose job: Rhinoplasty

Neck lift "turkey neck": Platysmaplasty

Belly button Surgery: Umbilicoplasty

Buttock lift: Gluteal augmentation

Botched plastic surgery

nasal drainage

physical disfigurement

sag

infection

itchy skin (pruritus): hissy skin

leathery or scaly patches

bumps, spots, blisters

dry, cracked skin

muffin top:

bat wings:

banana rolls:

slang 1

Slang is vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in spoken conversation but avoided in formal writing. It also sometimes refers to the language exclusive to the members of particular in-groups in order to establish group identity, exclude outsiders, or both. 

Popularized in English during the mid-18th century, “slang” referred specifically to the lexicon of tramps and thieves. It is most likely Nordic in origin, derived from the old phrase slengja kjeften, which literally meant “to sling the jaw” (κρεμάω το σαγόνι) but which carried the implication “to abuse with words.”

BBC: "TikTok profits from livestreams of families begging"

 By Hannah Gelbart, Mamdouh Akbiek and Ziad Al-Qattan

BBC Global Disinformation Unit (Μονάδα Παραπληροφόρησης), BBC News Arabic and BBC Eye Investigations

Displaced families in Syrian camps are begging for donations on TikTok while the company takes up to 70% of the proceeds(έσοδα), a BBC investigation found.

Children are live streaming (σωντανή μετάδοση) on the social media app for hours, pleading for digital gifts with a cash value.

The BBC saw streams earning up to $1,000 (£900) an hour, but found the people in the camps received only a tiny fraction (μικροσκοικό κλάσμα) of that.

TikTok said it would take prompt action against "exploitative begging"(επαιτεία εκμετάλλευσης).

The company said this type of content was not allowed on its platform, and it said its commission from digital gifts was significantly less than 70%. But it declined to confirm the exact amount.

Earlier this year, TikTok users saw their feeds fill with livestreams of families in Syrian camps, drawing support from some viewers and concerns about scams from others.

In the camps in north-west Syria, the BBC found that the trend was being facilitated by so-called "TikTok middlemen"(μεσάζοντες), who provided families with the phones and equipment to go live.

The middlemen said they worked with agencies affiliated to (συνδεδεμένος με)TikTok in China and the Middle East, who gave the families access to TikTok accounts. These agencies are part of TikTok's global strategy to recruit livestreamers and encourage users to spend more time on the app.

Since the TikTok algorithm suggests content based on the geographic origin of a user's phone number, the middlemen said they prefer to use British SIM cards. They say people from the UK are the most generous gifters.

Mona Ali Al-Karim and her six daughters are among the families who go live on TikTok every day, sitting on the floor of their tent for hours, repeating the few English phrases they know: "Please like, please share, please gift."

Mona's husband was killed in an airstrike and she is using the livestreams to raise money for an operation for her daughter Sharifa, who is blind.

The gifts they're asking for are virtual, but they cost the viewers real money and can be withdrawn from the app as cash. Livestream viewers send the gifts - ranging from digital roses, costing a few cents, to virtual lions costing around $500 - to reward or tip creators for content.

For five months, the BBC followed 30 TikTok accounts broadcasting live from Syrian camps for displaced people and built a computer program to scrape information (απόξεση πληροφοριών) from them, showing that viewers were often donating digital gifts worth up to $1,000 an hour to each account.

Families in the camps said they were receiving only a tiny fraction of these sums, however.

With TikTok declining to say how much it takes from gifts, the BBC ran an experiment to track where the money goes.

A reporter in Syria contacted one of the TikTok-affiliated agencies saying he was living in the camps. He obtained an account and went live, while BBC staff in London sent TikTok gifts worth $106 from another account.

At the end of the livestream, the balance of the Syrian test account was $33. TikTok had taken 69% of the value of the gifts.

The $33 remaining from the BBC's $106 gift was reduced by a further 10% when it was withdrawn from the local money transfer shop. TikTok middlemen would take 35% of the remainder, leaving a family with just $19.

Hamid, one of the TikTok middlemen in the camps, told the BBC he had sold his livestock to pay for a mobile phone, SIM card and wi-fi connection to work with families on TikTok.

He now broadcasts with 12 different families, for several hours a day.

Hamid said he uses TikTok to help families make a living. He pays them most of the profits, minus his running costs, he said.

Like the other middlemen, Hamid said he was supported by "live agencies" in China, who work directly with TikTok.

"They help us if we have any problems with the app. They unlock blocked accounts. We give them the name of the page, the profile picture, and they open the account," Hamid said.

Agencies like these, known as "livestreaming guilds" (συνδικάτο)and based all around the world, are contracted by TikTok to help content creators produce more appealing livestreams.

TikTok pays them a commission according to the duration of livestreams and the value of gifts received, the agencies told the BBC.

The emphasis on duration means TikTokers, including children in the Syrian camps, go live for hours at a time.

Marwa Fatafta, from digital rights organisation Access Now, says these livestreams run contrary to TikTok's own policies to "prevent the harm, endangerment or exploitation" of minors on the platform.

source: {13/10/22} https://www.bbc.com/news/world-63213567 

Tallow , Suet - Word of the Day

 

Tallow (στέαρ, ζωικό λίπος) is a rendered (μεταποιημένη ) form of beef or mutton fat (λίπους προβάτου) primarily made up of triglycerides. It is used to make soap, candles, etc.

Suet (ξίγκι) is the raw, hard fat of beef, lamb or mutton (πρόβειο κρέας, προβατίνα) found around the loins (οσφύς, λαγόνια, φιλέτο) and kidneys.

Linguistic Curiosities - "Long time no see"

How many times has the average person been greeted with the phrase "long time, no see" after running into an old acquaintance? My guess is plenty. But how and why did such a grammatically awkward phrase become a widely accepted part of American speech?

The first time "long time, no see" appeared in print was in a 1900  novel, by William F. Drannan. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Drannan used the phrase to describe an encounter with a Native American he had previously met, "I knew he had recognized me. When we rode up to him he said: 'Good morning. Long time no see you,'."

The second widely accepted etymological explanation is that the phrase is a loan translation* from the Mandarin Chinese phrase "hǎojǐu bújiàn", which means exactly "long time, no see."

 

Sources: 1. wordreference.com  9/14/22

               2.npr.org 9/14/22

What's the meaning of the phrase 'Roly-poly'?

 

In modern-day language 'roly-poly' is most often used to refer to a short and stout person :

or roly-poly pudding:

However, there are other meanings:

1. A worthless person; a rascal.
2. Games which feature the rolling of a ball, especially roulette.
3. A plump person, especially a child.
4. A type of lively dance.
5. A steamed or baked pudding made from suet pastry and jam, formed into a roll,
6. Australian plants which form a ball and roll around in the wind, like tumble-weed.

7. A coil of hair.

 

8.An American bug that coils itself into a ball.

 

The first time that roly-poly is encountered in print, which we assume is the original meaning, is number one on the above list. Ben Jonson uses the expression in his poem Poetaster, 1602:

How now, good man slave? What, rowle powle? All rivalls, ras∣call? Why my Master, of worship, do'st heare? Are these thy best projects? Is this thy desseignes and thy discipline, to suffer knaves to bee competitors with commanders and gentlemen? Are wee paralells, rascall? Are wee paralells?

All of the early reference to roly-poly in print, which appear in several spellings, (Rowle Powle, rowle-powle, rowley powley, rowly powly) have a more specific meaning. A 'rowly powly' was not so much a worthless rascal but a buffoon with delusions of grandeur and who does not know his place.

It is possible that the term was coined as a reference to the actor William Rowley, who often played the part of a deluded clown. He played at Paul's playhouse, which was also called Powles. So, Rowley of Powles could have become Rowley Powley. That's speculation but the circumstantial evidence appears to support it.

The 'short stout person' meaning didn't emerge until the 19th century and doesn't appear to be connected with the earlier. The buffoon/rascal meaning of roly-poly had died out by the end of the 17th century and it's likely that later meanings were independently coined.

The first example of the later form of roly-poly is found in the London Magazine. November 1808:

The eye has its fire and consequence correspondent with the fierté belonging to a man of rank; the good-humoured rolly-polly which gave the appearance of twinkling stars to those organs, is no more.

The 'pudding' name came about soon afterwards. The first example I know of is in the English writer Isaac Hurlstone's novel Fatal Interview, 1835:

I have heard such puddings called blankets and sheets, and a hunting pudding; but commonly we call it a rolley polley.

 

How every day of the week got its name

A friend of mine recently posted where "Monday" was named after. An action that triggered the following post. Let's see how every day of the week got its name.

The ancient Mesopotamians first associated the days of the week with figures from astrology and mythology, and the ancient Romans kept this tradition alive in their own naming conventions. The speakers of other languages, though, swapped the Roman gods and goddesses for some of their own, and that change has had a lasting impact on the names of the days in modern English.

Sun Day and Moon Day

The first two days of the week evoke solar and lunar power, respectively. The ancient Romans celebrated diēs sōlis, meaning “day of the sun.” “Sunday,” as we know it, comes from the Old English word Sunnandæg, which is a translation of the Latin name.

The word “Monday” comes from the Old English word Mōnandæg, meaning “moon's day” (mōna means “moon,” and dæg means “day”). This is a translation of the day’s Latin name, diēs lūnae (“day of the moon”).

Tiu’s Day

The Romans called Tuesday diēs Mārtis (“day of Mars”) in honor of Mars, the Roman god of war. In Old English, Mars was replaced with Tiu (sometimes spelled “Tiw”), the Germanic god of war. As a result, diēs Mārtis became Tīwesdæg in Old English. The names used in Middle English are even closer to our “Tuesday”: Tewesday and Tuesdai.

Woden’s Day

The Latin name for Wednesday is dies Mercurii, meaning “day of Mercury.” In Old English, “Woden” was substituted for Mercury and the name Wōdnesdæg (“Woden's day”) was used instead. The counterpart of the Norse god Odin, Woden is the supreme god in Germanic mythology, and is commonly identified with Mercury, the Roman god of commerce and the messenger of the gods.

Thor’s Day

The Romans called Thursday diēs Jovis, meaning ”day of Jupiter” (“Jove” is another name for Jupiter, the supreme Roman god). Yet in Old English, this name became Thūres dæg, a name likely influenced by the Old Norse Thōrsdagr, meaning “Thor's day.” Thor is the Norse god of thunder and the sky, and he is commonly identified with Jupiter.

Freya’s Day... Or Frigg’s Day

The Latin name for Friday—diēs Veneris—invokes Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. In Old English, Venus was replaced with a Norse goddess—but which one? The Old English name Frigedæg has been said to refer to both Freya and Frigg, perhaps because they are both are goddesses of love (like Venus). Either way, TFIF.

Saturn’s Day

“Saturday” is closely related to the Latin diēs Sāturnī, which literally means “Saturn's day,” referring to the Roman god of harvests and father of Jupiter. The Old English name Saternesdæg is a translation of the Latin name, and “Saturday” is not far removed from the Middle English word for this day: Saturdai.