#neat stuff

A video of "human calculator" Shakuntala Devi solving complex mathematical equations within seconds.

In 1982, she was awarded the Guinness World Record for fastest human computation. She was assigned a multiplication problem with two random numbers of 13 digits each (7,686,369,774,870 × 2,465,099,745,779) and gave the correct answer (18,947,668,177,995,426,462,773,730) in 28 seconds.

She travelled to several countries for the purpose of having her talents studied. In 1988, her abilities were tested by Arthur Jenson, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Problems given to her included calculating the cube root of 61,629,875 and the seventh root of 170,859,375. Jensen reported that Devi came up with the solutions (395 and 15) before he could write them down in his notebook.

Before all that, in 1977, at Southern Methodist University, she gave the 23rd root of a 201-digit number in 50 seconds. Her answer (546,372,891) was confirmed by calculations done by the UNIVAC 1101 computer, for which a special program had to be written to perform such a large calculation. The computer took longer to solve the problem than Devi did.

Oh, also, in 1979, she wrote the earliest book about homosexuality in India.

for example, here are the parts of a dog if you were curious:

There's this section in the game toward the end that's a bit abstract (keeping it vague to avoid spoilers), but I liked this part. At first, I was a bit confused what it was showing. Took a hot minute, but I realized the circular thing in the center is the table in the Lighthouse library (the central room of the main building), around which Rook and their companions meet occasionally. And the floating clusters of objects represent each of the companions:

I saw this beautiful The Beatles yellow submarine wind spinner advertised online but I'm skeptical they'd be selling something this good looking for $38. For all I know it's bait and switch and the real one is crafted and sold on Etsy.. 🤔💜

aka names that mean any of the following and more: camels, sheep, goats, deer, bison, giraffes, pigs, antelopes, hippos, and whales...but not horses, actually, which is good because the number of names meaning horse deserves its own list. these are the even-toed ungulates, and the variety of names we have that directly related to them just really show how significant human-ungulate interaction and domestication has been!

but anyway, enough of that...onto the names! source is behind the name, not user-submitted.

[format: name - meaning, origin language]

~ feminine ~

aegina - of goats, greek

ahu - deer/gazelle, turkish

alana - possibly deer, old breton/old welsh

aqbota - young white camel, kazakh

aqmaral - white deer, kazakh

arwa - ibex/mountain goat, arabic

awinita - fawn, cherokee

ayala - doe, hebrew

ayalet - doe/gazelle, hebrew

burçin - hind/doe, turkish

capri - wild boar, greek or etruscan, or goats, latin

caprina - see above

ceren - gazelle, turkish from mongolian

ceylan - gazelle, turkish from persian

delphia - dolphin, greek

delphine - see above

delphinia - see above

dorcas - gazelle, greek

dymphna - fawn or calf, old irish

eilonwy - either deer/stag or song/melody, welsh

erva - ibex/mountain goat, turkish from arabic

euboia - good ox, greek

everly - boar clearing, old english

fawn - young deer, english

hazal - possibly gazelle, turkish from kurdish

hind - possibly group of camels, arabic

jorunn - boar + to love, old norse

maha - oryx, arabic

maral - caspian red deer, persian

meral - see above

nyala - nyala antelope, bantu

oanez - lamb, breton from latin

ofra - fawn, hebrew

ovidia - possibly sheep, latin or sabellic

periboia - around/exceedingly + ox/cow, greek

porcia - pig, latin

portia - see above

rachel - ewe, hebrew

rahela - see above

rasha - young gazelle, arabic

reem - white antelope, arabic

tabitha - gazelle, aramaic

tzvia - gazelle/roebuck, hebrew

úna - probably lamb, old irish

~ masculine ~

aegeus - probably goat, greek

alan - possibly deer, old breton/old welsh

aniello - lamb, Italian from latin

aries - ram, latin

ayal - stag, hebrew

bakr - young camel, arabic

buck - male deer

buğra - baby camel

damhán - fawn or calf, old irish

delphin - dolphin, greek

delphinius - see above

delphīnus - see above

dren - deer, albanian

eberwin - boar + friend, old high german

everald - boar + power, old high german

garnik - little lamb, old armenian

gautama - best ox, sanskrit

giles - young goat, greek

hirsh - deer, yiddish from old high german

hjörtur - deer, icelandic

howard - possibly ewe herder, middle english

irwin - boar + friend, old english

jaala - wild goat, hebrew

luay - little wild ox, arabic

ofer - fawn, hebrew

oisín - little deer, old irish

ophrah - fawn, hebrew

oscar - possibly deer friend, old irish, or god + spear, old english

ovid - possibly sheep, latin or sabellic

ovidio - see above

porcius - pig, latin

roscoe - roebuck forest, english from old norse

skenandoah - possibly deer, oneida

tatanka - bison, sioux (dakota/lakota)

tauras - aurochs, lithuanian

taurus - bull, latin

tzvi - gazelle/roebuck, hebrew

vitellius - young calf, latin

wilbur - wild boar, middle english

zsombor - possibly bison, turkic

~ neutral/unisex ~

hartley - (male) deer clearing, old english

isi - deer, choctaw

jael - ibex/mountain goat

ofri - my fawn, hebrew

yael - ibex/mountain goat, modern hebrew

I'm quite happy with this list, so I hope you enjoy! as always, additions, corrections, and questions are welcome :)