communication

"... Once cats have used the meow to gain a person's attention, they generally use additional visual or tactile techniques for explaining what is so urgently needed, such as rubbing their head and flanks around our legs and then against the food cupboard, or sitting looking pointedly at the back door."

"Meow. We know this is the sound a cat makes. Five thousand years ago, so did the s. They just pronounced it “miw,” according to Sir , the deceased expert on Egyptian grammar. This is very close to how Mandarin Chinese speakers currently pronounce the word for “cat:” māo … … The consonant-vowel pattern meow may not seem important in our language—it’s just the sound a cat makes—but in Chinese, this sound pattern—spelled “miao”—occurs 16 times by itself, and at least 78 times in conjunction with other characters, according to http://www.mandarintools.com/. The Miao of China—one of the meanings of “miao”—is an ancient people known for their farming and embroidery; the word also means “family, progeny, sprout.” The ' does not include a listing for “miao” or “meow.” The closest word is “miaow,” and it means, “Imitative. Similar representations of the cry of a cat (and corresponding nouns and verbs) are very widespread in numerous languages: compare, e.g., German miau, Spanish miau, Russian mjau, Turkish miyav, Finnish miau, Chinese miāo, etc.” Even though OED claims the word is widespread, the earliest date given is 1288. Ancient Egyptian isn’t mentioned. Under “cat” however, OED offers, “History points to Egypt as the earliest home of the domestic cat, and the name is generally sought in the same quarter.” Not discussed is the fact that the Egyptians used the word “miw,” even though Gardiner’s book was published in 1927."

"... Will you meow?' "Yes—and you meow back, if you get a chance. Last time, you keep' me a-meowing around till old Hays went to throwing rocks at me and says 'Dern that cat!' and so I hove a brick through his window—but don't you tell." "I won't. I couldn't meow that night, becuz auntie was watching me, but I'll meow this time. ..."

"... Why can't people figure out what a cat's trying to say? The answer was revealed in a study conducted in England in 2015. Using an approach similar to 's, the researchers went to people's homes and recorded cats meowing in four different contexts.* Then they played the calls back to listeners to see if they could correctly identify the context of each call. An important difference from Nicastro's study, however, was that people who lived with each cat were included among the listeners. Participants were reasonably proficient when listening to the cat with whom they shared a home, correctly identifying the context sixty percent of the time. By contrast, when hearing an unfamiliar cat, they picked the correct context a paltry twenty-five percent of the time, no better than guessing randomly. These results suggest that each cat has her own specific meows that she uses in different situations, and that people who live with these cats learn to recognize what each meow means. However, these call are cat-specific; there is no universal cat language, with one type of meow proclaiming "I'm hungry" and another indicating "I'm scared." ..."

"The oral tradition is vital; it heals itself and the tribal web by adapting to the flow of the present while never relinquishing its connection to the past. Its adaptability has always been required, as many generations have experienced."

"The oral tradition is a living body. It is in continuous flux, which enables it to accommodate itself to the real circumstances of a people’s lives."

"The oral tradition is more than a record of a people’s culture. It is the creative source of their collective and individual selves."

"Individuals of some animal species have been taught simple versions of human language despite their natural communication systems failing to rise to the level of a simple language."

"When we talk about our concerns with Facebook, we’re talking about the power that it has to disseminate misinformation and disinformation. We’re never going to put this genie back in the bottle, but surely we can decide that lies are bad."

"Misinformation is just like a virus. There is an origin. It’s hard to find where the origin is, but it starts with a small group of people and it takes human hosts to spread from person to person."

"[the vaccine is] ungodly, or there's something in it that will mark you"

"Movies are one of the bad habits that have corrupted our century. They have slipped into the American mind more misinformation in one evening than the Dark Ages could muster in a decade."

"I think this [rigid thinking that treats history as a political weapon] is the greatest threat to our republic ever. Not the Depression, not World War II, not the Civil War. This is it … This moment of all these intersecting viruses, of novel coronaviruses and of racial injustice — [a] 402-year-old-virus. And it’s an age-old human virus of lying and misinformation and paranoia and conspiracy. This is the pill that will kill us unless we do something."

"The dark ages still reign over all humanity, and the depth and persistence of this domination are only now becoming clear. This Dark Ages prison has no steel bars, chains, or locks. Instead, it is locked by misorientation and built of misinformation."

"Messenger, by night, drive on like the south wind! By day, be up like the dew!"

"The messenger runs like a wild ram and flies like a falcon. He leaves in the morning and returns already at dusk, like small birds at dawn."

"The messenger gave heed to the words of his king. He journeyed by the starry night, and by day he travelled with Utu of heaven. Where and to whom will he carry the important message of Inana with its stinging tone? He brought it up into the Zubi mountains, he descended with it from the Zubi mountains. and the land of Anšan humbly saluted Inana like tiny mice. In the great mountain ranges, the teeming multitudes grovelled in the dust for her. He traversed five mountains, six mountains, seven mountains. He lifted his eyes as he approached Aratta. He stepped joyfully into the courtyard of Aratta, he made known the authority of his king. Openly he spoke out the words in his heart. The messenger transmitted the message to the lord of Aratta."

"The true Cynic must know that he is sent as a Messenger from God to men, to show unto them that as touching good and evil they are in error; looking for those where they are not to be found, nor ever bethinking themselves where they are."

"The listener distrusts the prophetic messenger."

"Man is a messenger who forgot the message."

"The cooling breeze is the breath of heaven, a veritable messenger of life, carrying healing on its wings."

"Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: and when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying. They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen. They say unto him. He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons."

"Every word is a messenger. Some have wings; some are filled with fire; some are filled with death."

"And cite for them the example of the people of the town, when the messengers came to it. Where We sent two to them, but they disbelieved in them, so We supported them with a third one, thus they said: "We are messengers to you." They replied: "You are but human beings like us, and the Almighty did not send down anything, you are only telling lies." They said: "Our Lord knows that we have been sent to you. And we are only required to give a clear delivery." They replied: "We have welcomed you better than you deserve. If you do not cease, we will stone you, and you will receive a painful retribution from us!" They said: "Keep your welcome with you, for you have been reminded. Indeed, you are transgressing people." And a man came running from the farthest part of the city, saying: "O my people, follow the messengers. Follow those who do not ask you for any wage, and are guided. And why should I not serve the One who created me, and to Him is your ultimate return? Shall I take gods besides Him? If the Almighty intends any harm for me, their intercession cannot help me in the least, nor can they save me. Then I would be clearly astray." "I have believed in your Lord, so listen to me!" It was said: "Enter Paradise." He said "Oh, how I wish my people only knew! Of what my Lord has forgiven me, and made me of the honoured ones." And We did not send down upon his people after him soldiers from the sky; for there was no need to send them down."

"I well believe it, to unwilling ears; none love the messenger who brings bad news."

"The heart of God through his creation stirs, We thrill to feel it, trembling as the flowers That die to live again, — his messengers, To keep faith firm in these sad souls of ours."

"The messengers of thy Ka are come for thee; the messengers of thy father are come for thee; the messengers of Rē are come for thee. Go after thy sun; purify thyself, thy bones are female-falcons, goddesses, who are in heaven, that thou mayest be at the side of the god."

"Affirm the mind, the messenger of the hour, To speed between thee and the source of power."

"He who lives to God rests in his Redeemer's love, and is trying to get rid of his old nature — to him every sorrow, every bereavement, every pain, will come charged with blessings, and death itself will be no longer the "king of terrors," but the messenger of grace."

"A king does not kill messengers."

"Without an understanding of causality there can be no theory of communication. What passes as information theory today is not communication at all, but merely transportation."

"The general rule of law is, that the noblest of human productions — knowledge, truths ascertained, conceptions and ideas — become, after voluntary communication to others, free as the air to common use."

"Die Gesellschaft hat kein gemeinsames Sprachrohr, solange sie in kämpfende Klassen gespalten ist."

"All the evidence suggests that communication between people by whatever means, far from simply accomplishing its purpose, simply creates the need for more."

"No doubt, it is a very easy matter for them, in presence of an ignorant and credulous multitude, to insult over an undefended cause; but were an opportunity of mutual discussion afforded, that acrimony which they now pour out upon us in frothy torrents, with as much license as impunity, would assuredly boil dry."

"The Internet is a communication medium that allows for the first time, the communication of many to many, in chosen time, on a global scale."

"The dictionary definition of communication [...] includes the communication of goods and supplies. [...] But transport of goods is not communication in the sense we are adopting here, and does not raise the same subtle and difficult questions. What "goods" do we exchange when we send messages to one another?"

"The theory of communication is partly concerned with the measurement of information content of signals, as their essential property in the establishment of communication links. But the information content of signals is not to be regarded as a commodity; it is more a property or potential of the signals, and as a concept it is closely related to the idea of selection, or discrimination. This mathematical theory first arose in telegraphy and telephony, being developed for the purpose of measuring the information content of telecommunication signals. It concerned only the signals themselves as transmitted along wires, or broadcast through the aether, and is quite abstracted from all questions of "meaning." Nor does it concern the importance, the value, or truth to any particular person. As a theory, it lies at the syntactic level of sign theory and is abstracted from the semantic and pragmatic levels. We shall argue … that, though the theory does not directly involve biological elements, it is nevertheless quite basic to the study of human communication — basic but insufficient."

"The harm which is done by credulity in a man is not confined to the fostering of a credulous character in others, and consequent support of false beliefs. Habitual want of care about what I believe leads to habitual want of care in others about the truth of what is told to me. Men speak the truth of one another when each reveres the truth in his own mind and in the other's mind; but how shall my friend revere the truth in my mind when I myself am careless about it, when I believe things because I want to believe them, and because they are comforting and pleasant? Will he not learn to cry, "Peace," to me, when there is no peace? By such a course I shall surround myself with a thick atmosphere of falsehood and fraud, and in that I must live. It may matter little to me, in my cloud-castle of sweet illusions and darling lies; but it matters much to Man that I have made my neighbours ready to deceive. The credulous man is father to the liar and the cheat"

"An undesirable society, in other words, is one which internally and externally sets up barriers to free intercourse and communication of experience."

"Early states had a hereditary leader with a title equivalent to king, like a super paramount chief and exercising an even greater monopoly of information, decision making, and power. Even in democracies today, crucial knowledge is available to only a few individuals, who control the flow of information to the rest of the government and consequently control decisions. For instance, in the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1963, information and discussions that determined whether nuclear war would engulf half a billion people were initially confined by President Kennedy to a ten-member executive committee of the National Security Council that he himself appointed; then he limited final decisions to a four-member group consisting of himself and three of his cabinet ministers."

"Speech is one symptom of Affection And Silence one— The perfectest communication Is heard of none—"

"Not long ago, if you wanted to seize political power in a country you had merely to control the army and the police. Today it is only in the most backward countries that fascist generals, in carrying out a coup d'état, still use tanks. If a country has reached a high degree of industrialization the whole scene changes. The day after the fall of Khrushchev, the editors of Pravda, Izvestiia, the heads of the radio and television were replaced; the army wasn't called out. Today a country belongs to the person who controls communications."

"The power of communication of thoughts and opinions is the gift of God, and the freedom of it is the source of all science, the first fruits and the ultimate happiness of society; and therefore it seems to follow, that human laws ought not to interpose, nay, cannot interpose, to prevent the communication of sentiments and opinions in voluntary assemblies of men."

"They communicate, but their communication system is though touch, posture, looks – body language you could call it, but it goes a bit deeper than that. They can learn 400 or more signs in American sign language."

"Mathematics and computational languages are among the most thrilling and transformative tools for AI-driven recognition and voice communication ever created by humanity."

"The full impact of printing did not become possible until the adoption of the Bill of Rights in the United States with its guarantee of freedom of the press. A guarantee of freedom of the press in print was intended to further sanctify the printed word and to provide a rigid bulwark for the shelter of vested interests."

"The priceless heritage of our society is the unrestricted constitutional right of each member to think as he will. Thought control is a copyright of totalitarianism, and we have no claim to it. It is not the function of the government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error. We could justify any censorship only when the censors are better shielded against error than the censored."

"When language is used without true significance, it loses its purpose as a means of communication and becomes an end in itself."

"Since balloons could not be flown back into Paris due to their erratic and uncontrollable flight patterns, the only means of getting information... was the carrier pigeon. Pigeons had been used to convey messages since antiquity, and a pigeon post... operated as late as 1850 by Paul Julius Reuter... proved... swifter than the railway in carrying stock prices between Brussels and . The carrier pigeons used in the Siege of Paris were able to carry much more information thanks to... microphotography invented by . In 1859 Dragon had received a patent for microfilm, and over the next decade he produced... photographs shrunk to fit inside jewels, signet rings [etc.]... He also developed... a profitable sideline in pornography... enjoyed with the aid of a special magnifying viewer. During the siege, Dagron turned.. to more patriotic endeavors. ...photographing government dispatches, shrinking them.., printing them on lightweight membranes.., and fitting as many as 40,000... into a canister strapped to the legs of a single carrier pigeon. The pigeons... encountering on their return to Paris... falcons specially trained by the Prussians. ...[T]he pigeons also carried personal communications."