All you need for a life of action
Concern Worldwide is an international humanitarian organisation dedicated to tackling poverty and suffering in the world’s poorest countries.
They work in partnership with the very poorest people in these countries, directly enabling them to improve their lives, using knowledge and experience to influence decisions made at a local, national and international level that can significantly reduce extreme poverty.
Disappearing dialects endanger some oral traditions and their cultural heritage.
Language is the conduit of culture, distinctive accents and unique colloquialisms unite people to their past and effect how we see, interpret and engage with one another. It is therefore incumbent of tradition, to prevent the loss of language to unified translation as this erodes a nations heritage.
As the new generation rapidly embraces a version of english along with abbreviations thereof, others hope to hold on to their heritage as we explore with Month’s Mission!
Saving the Lost Languages
Closely monitoring the loss of languages is SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics, Inc): a faith-based nonprofit organization committed to serving language communities worldwide as they build capacity for sustainable language development. SIL does this primarily through research, translation, training and materials development (founded in 1934). SIL works with ethnolinguistic minority communities as they build their capacity for the sustainable development of their own languages. Language development is the series of ongoing planned actions that a language community takes to ensure that its language continues to serve its changing social, cultural, political, economic and spiritual needs and goals. SIL’s expertise related to language development includes training and consulting for activities such as linguistic analysis, orthography and writing systems development, literature development and multilingual education and literacy.
Innovative Initiatives from SIL
Net.Lang: Towards the Multilingual Cyberspace. This collection of articles explores strategies for improving Internet accessibility for speakers of all languages. Among the contributing researchers is Dr. Maik Gibson of SIL.
Graphite, the “smart font” system designed to handle complex scripts.
The FieldWorks software suite provides the tools researchers need to process linguistic and cultural data. Download the latest version.
ScriptSource provides information on the world’s writing systems and a platform for collaboration for font developers. Check out new features, including real-time discussions.
Subscribe to monthly e-newsletters from SIL International Publications and receive offers for discounts on selected titles.
National Geographic has been involved with the documentation and preservation of cultures around the world since 1888. Today, their commitment to the conservation of culture continues – through the Enduring Voices Project. The Enduring Voices Project represents a partnership between National Geographic Mission Programs and the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages.
Innovative Initiatives from National Geographic
Talking Dictionaries, giving listeners around the world a chance to hear some of the most little-known sounds of human speech.
Several communities are now offering the online record of their language to be shared by any interested person around the world. While you probably won’t walk away from these Talking Dictionaries knowing how to speak a new language, you will encounter fascinating and beautiful sounds–forms of human speech you’ve never heard before–and through them, get a further glimpse into the rich diversity of culture and experience that humans have created in every part of the globe.
Revitalisation: The Enduring Voices Project, where invited, will assist indigenous communities in their efforts to revitalize and maintain their threatened languages. By using appropriate written materials, video, still photography, audio recorders, and computers with customized language software, as well as Internet-accessible archiving where possible, the Enduring Voices Project is helping empower communities to preserve ancient traditions with modern technology.
Language Technology Kits have been given to a dozen communities, along with follow-up training and capacity building.
How you can help save the Lost Languages
Adopt a Language: Living Tongues has many ongoing documentation projects currently taking place around the world. They need your help to sustain these projects. Their mission is to record vanishing languages as well as create state-of-the-art digital audio-visual materials in collaboration with speakers of endangered language.
Volunteer: Living Tongues will be accepting new volunteers for this coming Autumn (September 17 – December 14, 2012) and will post the application form online on Monday, August 13th, 2012.
Fundraise for recording equipment and computers for 8 indigenous language activists in India, Papua New Guinea, Chile and Peru.
Support National Geographic’s Enduring Voices Project.
Learn about Language Loss and help educate others – through cultural exchange we can help preserve the rich diversity of human heritage.
Citizens expose GMO’s via collaborative initiative Label It Yourself (#LIY)
Taking a stand against the US Government’s lax labelling laws – the people of America have begun printing their own GMO ‘warning labels’.
“The Label It Yourself campaign is not intended to disparage anyone’s personal food choices. It is about bringing attention to the lack of transparency on the part of corporations and our government when it comes to the food we buy and eat. In order for us to make informed decisions about the food we put in our bodies, we need to know what’s in it and how it’s produced,” write its participants.
The LIY website provides all the resources necessary to print your own GMO warning labels, as well as a guide to identifying foods that contain genetically engineered components.
Reminiscent of the ‘age of discovery’ when explorers took to the sea in hopes of discovering new lands – today the adventure continues with James Cameron‘s successful ‘solo-sub’ journey to the deepest point of the ocean ‘Marina Trench’.
A quest of research and endeavour that marks a new dawn in discovery and sets the precedent for further exploration of the deep. This historical event reflects years of planning, engineering genius and an unrivalled spirit for adventure – as Cameron (aged 57) underwent months of physical preparation ‘yoga and running’ to acclimate his body for the confined conditions within the sub, in addition to educating himself on the logistics of navigating the vessel.
Aptly named Deep Challenger, the 12-ton sub performed exceptionally well withstanding pressures equivalent of three SUVs sitting on your toe (according to huffington post) and at speeds ‘faster-than-expected’ as National Geographic reported a 70 minute ascent.
Surpassing the 1960 expedition of equal depth by Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh, a U.S. Navy captain which lasted approximately 20 minutes – Cameron spent a little over three hours at a depth of 35,756 feet (more than a mile deeper than Mt. Everest) before he began his return to the surface, according to information provided by the expedition team.
The film director has been an oceanography enthusiast since childhood and has made 72 deep-sea submersible dives. Thirty-three of those dives have been to the wreckage of the Titanic, the subject of his 1997 hit film, which is being released in a 3-D version next month.
Read an in-depth account of this historic event at: National Geographic Daily News
Checkout the Official Website: Deepsea Challenge
Source: Huffington Post
Peering through the lens at a distant mark high in the canopy, draws bird-watchers to the field as they explore wooded groves and nearby forests – even suburban patches of vegetation can offer a place to observe.
The energy of being amongst nature whilst not to be usurped, can be side-stepped as technology brings a ‘bird’s eye view’ to us.
Thank’s to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology live streaming from the nest makes bird-watching a pastime for all, including those who prefer to explore the world through the web. The advantage of feeds that monitor real-life go beyond convenience, they entice new generations to take interest in nature and overcome practical obstacles such as location, equipment and conditions – allowing anyone to enjoy and learn from observing a variety of birds around the world.
BirdCams current feather in focus is a Red-tailed Hawk nesting on a light pole 80 feet above Cornell University’s athletic fields, where it has been for the past four years. The webcam installed in 2012 provides a window into the lives of these majestic birds as they raise their young amid the bustle of a busy campus.
Meet the Stars of this Reality Show: Big Red and Her Mate!
The female, nicknamed “Big Red” in honor of her alma mater, is slightly larger, with a darker head, nape and throat, and is banded on her right leg. From banding records we know she was banded in nearby Brooktondale, New York, during her first autumn in 2003, making her nearly nine years old.
The male, who does not yet have a nickname, is banded on his left leg. He’s a bit smaller and has golden-tawny feathers on his face and head, and a paler neck than the female. He is at least seven years old and was first banded in 2006 as an adult bird on Judd Falls Road near the Cornell campus.
Resources for the Bird Lover
Learn more about Red-tailed Hawks
Explore NestCams
Watch and learn about Breeding Behaviour
Become a “CamClickr”
Download ‘My Bird World’ App
Eurasian brown bear (Photo: Wild Wonders of Europe/ Staffan Widstrand) On 22 May 2012, The United Nations International Day for Biological Diversity, the next Wild Wonders of Europe outdoor exhibition will open in Berlin. If your passion is photography or you simply delight in the visual beauty of nature – then you won’t want to miss this ‘free’ outdoor exhibition comprising of 100...
