From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Nick Dokos Subject: OT: collage of scripts [was: Re: table alignment failed for Asian characters] Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2011 12:28:18 -0400 Message-ID: <11431.1319732898@alphaville.dokosmarshall.org> References: <4C630D7B-BD05-4ED4-98A6-5CC6308EED48@gmail.com> <4f2e5228-5cbf-4e4e-bdae-81e32f0017d9@email.android.com> <83sjmey1p5.fsf@yahoo.it> <69A7E2DF-5095-4E59-B5D3-29FDD406270F@gmail.com> <81vcrapklx.fsf@gmail.com> Reply-To: nicholas.dokos@hp.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([140.186.70.92]:34006) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1RJSoe-0007QW-N7 for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Thu, 27 Oct 2011 12:28:32 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1RJSoZ-0006pe-54 for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Thu, 27 Oct 2011 12:28:28 -0400 Received: from g6t0187.atlanta.hp.com ([15.193.32.64]:14832) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1RJSoZ-0006p5-1Z for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Thu, 27 Oct 2011 12:28:23 -0400 In-Reply-To: Message from Jambunathan K of "Thu\, 27 Oct 2011 20\:06\:26 +0530." <81vcrapklx.fsf@gmail.com> List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: Carsten Dominik , Giovanni Ridolfi , Matt Lundin , Org Mode Mailing List Cc: nicholas.dokos@hp.com [I hope you'll forgive me the off-topic ruminations] Jambunathan K wrote: > If you do a=20 >=20 > C-h C-\ RET tamil-itrans RET=20 >=20 > you will see a nicely aligned table which gives translation table for > tamil characters - (OK, Tamil is the language I speak) - which look like >=20 > http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?msg=3D56;filename=3Dtemp.png;att= =3D1;bug=3D9336 >=20 Jambunathan's mention of Tamil brought to mind a picture that I had seen long ago and found mysterious, beautiful and fascinating. It is Fig. 40, p. 168, in Hofstadter's "G=C3=B6del, Escher, Bach": I looked for a copy on the web, but I only found the complete book. The picture is a collage of scripts, from the undeciphered (at least in 1980, the time of publication) script of Easter Island to Tamil to Assyrian cuneiform. I have no idea what each snippet says - yet there are people around today (and in some cases, perhaps, there *were* people some time ago, but no longer) who can (or could) extract meaning from each of these snippets. Conversely, there are scripts that I can extract meaning from, that other people find mysterious. I can't help the feeling that there is something deep going on here, I just don't know *what*! Nick