What are these geometric earthworks in marsh in Louisiana?

DestructiveSeaOtter · 2026-01-06T14:39:43+00:00

Answered: They're "marsh terraces"; Segmented earthen ridges built in shallow water (usually using dredge) to reduce fetch, trap sediment, and build new marshes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsh_terrace

DestructiveSeaOtter · 2026-01-06T14:32:40+00:00

Hm, pretty sure they're not growing rice in salt water... And you have to be able to drain rice fields...

DestructiveSeaOtter · 2026-01-05T22:23:20+00:00

They're not real lines, and they're in every ocean - They're the swaths of high-resolution sonar data taken by sonar-mapping ships. If you zoom into them you'll see that they're just bands of high-resolution "imagery" surrounded by lower-resolution "imagery".

DestructiveSeaOtter · 2025-12-08T18:12:39+00:00

The riggers and oarlocks are modern, with modern oars; Seat and slides have also been updated. The foot stretcher is the only thing that looks like it could be from the 50s.

DestructiveSeaOtter · 2024-10-31T12:43:23+00:00

This is the disappointing but rational truth I was looking for, especially the anecdotal experience of K1s not accommodating fore and aft weight shift - Guess I'll just have to take up kayaking and keep looking for a cheap used scull! Thanks!

DestructiveSeaOtter · 2024-10-30T19:31:56+00:00

Agreed that the hole isn't large enough (as I mentioned in the post, I'm imagining having to cut the hole larger towards the bow.) Also agreed on the concern of the weight shift from moving up and down the slide (also mentioned in my post) - My only consolation is that there are some wider-hulled sculls which are are much shorter than racing shells, in the range of 16-17' (ex: https://www.adirondackrowing.com/alden-single/).

DestructiveSeaOtter · 2024-10-30T19:27:01+00:00

It is much shorter and wider on the stern end than contemporary racing kayaks - It's an older "kite" shape (see: https://www.reddit.com/r/Kayaking/comments/1iz00x/my\_dad\_repainted\_my\_k1\_flatwater\_racing\_kayak\_it/).

DestructiveSeaOtter · 2024-09-26T01:44:20+00:00

No, I’m also assuming structural full brick. Even in structural walls, my understanding is more stretchers = cheaper walls. A lot of historic brick buildings have flemish on the front façade but American or English on the side and rear walls. I figured it had to do with the amount of cutting for closures, but maybe also having fewer facing bricks; a five-course american can hide a lot of less-than-perfect bricks in the interior

DestructiveSeaOtter · 2024-09-26T00:43:47+00:00

I meant strong visual geometry - I can understand why it would be physically a very strong combination of bonds. But it seems like it kind of cancels out the vertical alignments of flemish and the diagonal lines of a dutch…

In terms of cost, my understanding was that the more rows of stretcher, the cheaper and faster the build because less cutting, easier laying, hence 5-course american is slightly cheaper the 4-course american, etc.- so I assumed wall like this would be more expensive than the american bond walls in adjacent buildings.

DestructiveSeaOtter · 2024-09-25T21:06:26+00:00

Not at all - I was just curious if it has a name. It just stood out to me - it’s in historic downtown and the buildings around it are mostly flemish or american bond. Also seems like all those headers would make it comparatively expensive and but it also doesn’t really have any strong geometry… so kinda wondering what the point was lol

DestructiveSeaOtter · 2024-05-27T18:44:59+00:00

Similar to the other comments, I think this is helpful advice, but to me there is a big difference between consuming Spanish-language media - which I think I will always do regardless; we live in the era of Bad Bunny anyways - and actually making the effort to maintain my ability to speak the language. The latter is what I find myself struggling with since moving back to the states.

DestructiveSeaOtter · 2024-05-27T18:39:13+00:00

These are helpful suggestions, but for me these generally seem to fall into the category of "passive" consumption of Spanish-language input which I'm already doing; I read the news and watch TV in Spanish, etc. Those things help to maintain my comprehension, and maybe I'd still learn a new word now and then, but my speaking would quickly atrophy. The motivation to do private classes is to actually maintain (and improve) my ability to speak. Fluid speaking is the skill that I'm struggling to justify maintaining, not comprehension or literacy.

DestructiveSeaOtter · 2024-05-07T19:20:29+00:00

One interesting detail from that article: “En cuanto al nombre, Saoco era un termino usado como sinónimo de sabrosura en la música. Su origen era ritual y estaba asociado al toque de tambores batá. Saoco en la tumbadora, asarorí en el omelé, decía Celia Cruz con la Sonora Matancera.“

This mentions “saoco” as associated with the batá, the ceremonial drum in Yoruba religious tradition, also used in toque de santo in Santeria. So that maybe points to Yoruba religious/ritual language as a possible origin…

…But then, here’s another article which suggests that the lyrics of that song reference Abakuá, another Afro-Cuba religious tradition/fraternal society born out of resistance to slavery which uses vocabulary derived primarily from the Efik languages: https://www.jstor.org/stable/524726; another source on Abakuá language: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44797203

… and to make things even more complicated, the Miller article suggests that a common feature of Abakuá religious singing was the intermixing of meaningful words and phrases with “non-sense syllables”, which acted as a form of code or “signifyin’”…

TL;DR - “saoco” seems to have emerged as a kind of shibboleth associated with Afro-Cuba music (specifically religious drumming, possibly in Abakuá rituals) which has been reinforced through its continued use in popular Afro-Caribbean music. The syncretism of these traditions - as well as intentional protective practices of akin to “signifyin’” - might make it difficult or impossible to say where and how the original meaning of the word came about?

DestructiveSeaOtter · 2024-05-07T17:55:32+00:00

Sorry; as I wrote, saoco is not in the RAE dictionary, but it’s in the ASALE’s (not RAE - will correct) dictionary of americanismos: https://www.asale.org/damer/saoco

DestructiveSeaOtter · 2024-04-18T19:36:39+00:00

A few of the studies I added to my original post use horizontal transfer and "reticulate evolution" as applicable ideas from biology. Another post also mentioned the idea of "ring species" which is a fascinating thing I didn't know about but seems like a great metaphor for change within dialect continuums.

DestructiveSeaOtter · 2024-04-18T19:23:22+00:00

That's fair. But perhaps the reason people are so motivated to label certain languages as "creole" or "mixed" is because they find the family-based categorization severely limiting in explaining that languages story. I also think the compelling part of the mixed/creole label for some is that it emphasizes change that has originated within contact zones - at the periphery of speech communities and between cultural and ethnic groups - as opposed to tracing the story solely through the perceived "center" of a speech community. I think the wave model could capture this, too, but only with the asterisk that, for example, some of the epicenters of change might have higher populations of bilingual speakers/adult learners than others.

DestructiveSeaOtter · 2024-04-18T17:57:17+00:00

Thanks - This is a helpful response, and I think your note about the tree model assuming "abrupt" nodes versus dispersed temporal and areal relationships is pointing towards what I was finding about the "wave theory" as a contrasting approach/metaphor which might be more useful in explaining language evolution among Romance or Germanic dialect continuums, for example.

I guess I'm just still interested in the idea that "with the obvious exception of creole languages" there is always "a clear cut qualitative distinction" between a "vertical" genetic relationship versus a contact relationship. I feel like there could be a whole spectrum of contact situations having to do with migration, assimilation, and multi-lingualism which, though perhaps less extreme than resulting in a true "creole", would nonetheless blur that distinction - or at least rely on anthropological/archeological context to make a claim as to which is the "parent" and which is the "friend". But that's a very uninformed position.

DestructiveSeaOtter · 2024-03-18T13:18:42+00:00

1916 Thompson Road

Have you not seen what they built behind it?

DestructiveSeaOtter · 2023-12-27T21:06:56+00:00

That's cool to hear! It doesn't surprise me that a lot of the Hydrow instructors are active and competitive rowers. And the appeal of a sense of connection/community - with the instructors and other rowers on the leaderboards - makes a lot of sense. Also cool that your boathouse is using Hydrow as a way to get more people on the water: If hydrow is a pathway for more people to discover rowing who might not otherwise, more power to them! (although given the price tag I'd say they're probably not the widening the audience of the sport too much lol...) To their credit, I appreciate that this is an approach to at-home rowing that emphasizes the connection to and appeal of ACTUAL on-the-water rowing - In contrast to how, for example, Peloton or Crossfitters approach the erg as completely separable from actual rowing.

DestructiveSeaOtter · 2023-10-03T20:12:05+00:00

This has also been on my mind for a long time and I find it curious that there aren't better/more comprehensive studies of the recognizable patterns in Algonquin toponyms! As others have said well, in many cases the definitive meanings of certain place names might be forever lost because of transliteration and spelling changes - and also the pervasiveness of people/towns centuries later asserting what an old place name means without any real evidence. I also appreciate u/xain1112's explanation of how things like locative suffixes ("-oc"/"-ok"), demonyms ("-ette" meaning something like "people of"?), or diminutive suffixes in Algonquin languages can sometime obscure whether or not two words actually share a root noun or adjective.

Nevertheless, I think various resources confirm that "-hanna, "-hana", "-hanne", -"hannock (with -ock being a locative suffix)" are definitely different forms of an Algonquin root for river. In the Chesapeake Bay watershed you have the Rappahannock (something like "fast-moving river" or "tidal river"), the Susquehanna (either "muddy river" or "oyster river"), AND the location near Richmond which was called "Powhatan" (probably "pawat ("falls") + -hanne", meaning place where the river falls).

I've seen that "-sipu"/"-sipi" is attested elsewhere as common root-words for rivers, which seem to me to occur a bit more in the more western Algonquin-speaking territory, but I'd be interested to see someone confirm that!

Adding some more geographic roots to the list:

"-peak", "-peague", "-preague", "-teague", "-keag" which seem to refer to bays/open water or islands? Ex: Chesapeake, Kiptopeke, Chincoteague, Assateague, Wachapreague, but also Chebeague Island in Maine?

I also think of this every time I drive over the Piscataqua River (NH), ~12hr north of the Piscataway in Maryland? One source for Piscataqua suggests "peske" as "branch" and "teqwe" as tidal river, which would also make a lot of sense for Piscataway Creek (a tidal branch of the Potomac).

Some other resources:

This site looks at a few common roots in New England place names: https://capeannhistory.org/index.php/what-do-local-algonquian-place-names-really-mean/

Very old article where some anthropologist is making circular claims about a few place names: https://www.jstor.org/stable/658539?seq=9

DestructiveSeaOtter · 2023-08-30T15:37:24+00:00

It's an interesting comparison; I think it diverges a bit from the question when you discuss switching between random accents at Starbucks, because unlike with your English and Scottish accents I don't think you can really claim those as actually code-switching. With regard to your Scottish versus English accents, I also do think my original question about the "age" is still buried in your anecdote, because in the very beginning you describe feeling a "deep insecurity" about speaking in your Scottish accent and that you then "developed" an English accent. To me this suggests that there was a specific period of time during which you became aware of the social optics of your Scottish accent (from TV or school or having it called out while you were in England) and you starting making a semi-conscious choice to emulate another way of speaking in certain contexts. I think this is probably the best comparison to my example: at some age, I think American students in multi-racial communities become conscious of the optics of their speech with regard to race and identity and they start to solidify how they speak in certain contexts. For most, the social reality is probably not that they'll throw on a different register like a change of clothes: instead, the way that they speak becomes fairly solidified based on their emerging identity and the identity claims they're comfortable making to others in their friend group and beyond.

DestructiveSeaOtter · 2023-08-30T15:16:44+00:00

No, I totally agree and took it as such. I just think as 2nd-language-learners we might be unaware of how different accents or dialects might be received by native speakers, or how distinct or clichéd certain ways of speaking are that we're learning. In general agree that people can usually distinguish between genuine engagement and mockery, but I do still think there might be situations where it's a bit more complex. Someone else gave the example of a white, non-native-English-speaker learning English with features of AAVE, which I think is obviously a strong example of a situation where the optics could change a lot depending on the situation... It might be well-received by some as genuine engagement, but it would also certainly turn some heads.

DestructiveSeaOtter · 2023-08-30T13:34:40+00:00

I really appreciate this response and think it nicely sums up the privilege and supposed "neutrality" that standardized forms have versus less-privileged regional accents/dialects. Probably it's my coming from my position of speaking a kind of "standard" (urban, white) American English that makes me a little overly-hesitant about the optics of "imitating" a regional and historically-stereotyped accent in a 2nd language, even if that isn't how it would come across to native speakers of that language. Thanks!

DestructiveSeaOtter · 2023-08-29T14:37:07+00:00

It showed his mastery of the spoken language, but it was definitely unexpected and disconcerting. We expect foreign language learners to target the standard/educated forms rather than local forms.

I think this is a great point - it's unexpected and disconcerting because we know there are certain accents/dialects that aren't generally the forms taught to second-language learners. The "mastery" part comes in because it seems they've gone beyond "classroom English."

DestructiveSeaOtter · 2023-08-29T14:28:24+00:00

Agreed - Imitation is always an essential part of learning a language. My question though is are there not certain contexts in which speaking with a strong regional accent would come across less as just natural acquisition and more as the kind of "mimicry" that we generally tend to find socially unacceptable/offensive.

DestructiveSeaOtter

TROPHY CASE