English is currently one of the dominant languages on the planet due to the spread of the US and UK empires in the last century. With the rise of technology English may be made redundant with the advent of automatic language translation.
Just waiting for made up languages to become the norm (e.g. Esperanto), or hyper language learning.
Now ponder, as Douglas Hofstadter did, translating Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky from English into French, German, and Russian (Cyrillic .GIF) or (ASCII transliteration).
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday January 28 2019, @04:09AM (3 children)
There’s a book whose author and title I’ve sadly forgotten as I’ve wanted to read it for years
It’s about how Coffee, Tea, Cacao, Opium and Coca changed the world
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Monday January 28 2019, @04:49AM (2 children)
Could it be "A History of the World in 6 Glasses" by Tom Standage ?
I would also recommend "Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond as an interesting read.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday January 28 2019, @04:23PM (1 child)
From my army doctor grandfather
But I’ll never read it as it’s all about how wars are won or lost by public health problems. Consider that not Cortez but smallpox that conquered the Aztecs.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 29 2019, @01:28PM
This is very true. Up until the 19th century the biggest threat to a large army was disease. There are stories about how WW1 and WW2 were so different due to supply lines and better insect repellent soaked cloth.
In order for an empire to spread it has to win wars.