Counting - Tumblr Posts
In the remote Arctic almost 30 years ago, a group of Inuit middle school students and their teacher invented the Western Hemisphere’s first new number system in more than a century. The “Kaktovik numerals,” named after the Alaskan village where they were created, looked utterly different from decimal system numerals and functioned differently, too. But they were uniquely suited for quick, visual arithmetic using the traditional Inuit oral counting system, and they swiftly spread throughout the region. Now, with support from Silicon Valley, they will soon be available on smartphones and computers—creating a bridge for the Kaktovik numerals to cross into the digital realm.
Today’s numerical world is dominated by the Hindu-Arabic decimal system. This system, adopted by almost every society, is what many people think of as “numbers”—values expressed in a written form using the digits 0 through 9. But meaningful alternatives exist, and they are as varied as the cultures they belong to.
Continue Reading
Box Breathing
This breathing exercise is great for de-stressing and grounding yourself for meditation.
To start, get into a comfortable seated position, straighten your spine, keep your hands relaxed by your sides or on your lap, and legs relaxed with your feet on the ground.
Inhale deeply, counting 4 beats.
Continue by holding that breath and counting another 4 beats.
Exhale slowly for another 4 beats.
Hold for another 4 beats.
Repeat 3 or 4 times.
*For help pacing, you can use a 60 bpm metronome, which can be found on any music streaming platform or Youtube.
*DBT guides here*
Also my ocd is in full force today. On the plus side I know that the laundry mat in my home town has 367 tiles in the dryer room and 1,667 in the washing machine room. Totaling 2,034 tiles in all.
So at least there’s that.
Waiting for Mike to call back
when a song hits so hard your chest physically hurts
Yeah, they are pretty similar.
Another thing I didn't mention in the ask was thus:
Say a culture has a word for sand: Nate. ['natɛ]
If one Nate is one grain of sand, what are Multiple Nate (Natel).
What does Natel represent? Multiple grains of sand? A pile of sand? Would they have a new word for a pile of sand? Would it be derived from Nate? Should it be considered plural? It is referring to *a* pile, but it's referring to a *pile*, which has lots of sand grains!
This kind of thing keeps me up at night.
Again, sorry for ranting.
CW: Venting then asking for opinion
I stayed up last night thinking. About what? Sand.
But not sand itself. Nono. Counting with sand.
When you count sand, you count grains of sand. Then you say it's a pile of sand. Then a dune of sand. Then it's just... sand. But there is no clear distinction between any of those counting words.
When does "grains of sand" become "a pile of sand" become "a dune of sand?"
Sand doesn't even have a plural. Think about it. You cannot refer to multiples of sand without using another words. Sands? Nope. Types of sand.
You might say it's the same as with Bison and Sheep, but those can be counted. (1 Bison, 2 Bison, 1 sheep, 354 sheep) You can't count with sand. (1 sand? 2 sand? what?)
Opinions on the subject? Sorry for ranting
Yeah, it's certainly an interesting subject. I remember hearing about this thought experiment with snowflakes instead of sand. Like how many little flakes have to fall in one particular place before you notice you have a small pile of snow? And how many flakes would you have to take away for it to *cease* being a snow pile?
I guess snow and sand are similar things. Like sand has grains, and snow has flakes. But when you have enough flakes grouped together, it just becomes... snow.