SASSATIONAL ☠

(It’s applied computational linguistics developed by Lymbix 
and so far, it works like a charm.) I’ve been testing it in all sorts of terribly fucked up ….AHEM…highly stressful custody situations and it’s helped me keep my written messages calm and rational (allowing me to direct all other, say angrier, energies at a punching bag or yoga mat). 

That’s useful.

I’ve found the content-feedback-edit process with the program to be entertaining (it catches even the teensiest passive-aggressive slant) and educational. I didn’t expect it to work, but considering the fact that computational linguistics has been around since the 1950s (outdating even artificial intelligence as a field of study) — perhaps it makes sense that a capable version of the technology is now available to the public. 

I’d give my left arm to analyze their algorithms. (Come to think of it, Pandora, that goes for you too.) Anyway, here’s an interesting quote from the ToneMeter provider:

OurFamilyWizard has an exclusive partneship with Lymbix.  Lymbix has developed some incredible products like ToneCheck™ that incorporate its semantic processing tools.  They have spent years to develop linguistic algorithms to better understand how we communicate with each other.  From individual users to large corporations, Lymbix’s tools are being implemented to help reduce the potential for conflict or misunderstanding.  We are proud to add this new optional functionality to the OFW messaging system.  Hopefully, this new tool will help parents avoid conflict by having a better understanding of how their messages are being received.

(Source: sassational)

Hidden away in the Amazonian rainforest a small tribe have successfully managed what so many dream of being able to do –
ignore the pressures of time so successfully that they don’t even have a word for it.

It is the first time scientists have been able to prove ‘time’ is not a deeply entrenched human universal concept as previously thought.

Researchers, led by Professor Chris Sinha from the University of Portsmouth Department of Psychology, studied the way in which time was talked about and thought about by the Amondawa people of Brazil. Their research is published in the journal Language and Cognition.

Professor Sinha said: “For the Amondawa, time does not exist in the same way as it does for us. We can now say without doubt that there is at least one language and culture which does not have a concept of time as something that can be measured, counted, or talked about in the abstract. This doesn’t mean that the Amondawa are ‘people outside time’, but they live in a world of events, rather than seeing events as being embedded in time.”

“What we don’t find is a notion of time as being independent of the events which are occurring; they don’t have a notion of time as something the events occur in.”