News The Decameron Time to Get Debauched With Netflix’s The Decameron It’s all fun and games until someone brings up cannibalism By Molly Templeton | Published on July 10, 2024 Image: Netflix Comment 0 Share New Share Image: Netflix In 2020, people were talking about The Decameron a lot (relatively speaking). Giovanni Boccaccio’s 14th-century tale about a bunch of nobles telling each other stories to pass the time while the Black Death raged seemed, well, somewhat more relevant than maybe most of us expected. Now, four years later, Netflix has a Decameron series—with a bit of a twist. According to Tudum, “as time goes on and social rules wear thin, the orgy of riches and liquor collapses into a struggle for survival. Wealthy citizens escaping a plague by engaging in a lavish and insular display of wealth? Doesn’t sound like this could be relevant at all!” The trailer for the series is an odd mix of actually funny and just mildly awkward, but with this cast, one can only assume that Netflix is saving the best bits for the show itself. Yes, that’s Arrested Development’s Tony Hale in a wig as Sirisco, who is described as “the affable, ill-prepared, and eager-to-please steward of Villa Santa.” Girls’ Zosia Mamet plays Pampinea, a lady who is “full of hope and absolutely lacking in self-awareness.” Amar Chadha-Patel (The Wheel of Time) is a “cocksure physician”; Jessica Plummer (The Girl Before) is “spoiled oddball” Filomena. Derry Girls’ Saoirse-Monica Jackson plays a codependent servant, and Harlots’ Douggie McMeekin an insufferable bachelor. The Decameron is created by Kathleen Jordan (the showrunner of Teenage Bounty Hunters), and produced by Jenji Kohan’s production company; Kohan created Weeds and Orange Is the New Black. Join the party July 25th on Netflix.[end-mark] The post Time to Get Debauched With Netflix’s <i>The Decameron</i> appeared first on Reactor.

Books new releases All the New Science Fiction Books Arriving in July 2024 Start a virtual family, visit a dangerous rainforest, and meet an immortal warrior in this month’s new releases. By Reactor | Published on July 10, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share Here’s the full list of the science fiction titles heading your way in July! Keep track of all the new SFF releases here. All title summaries are taken and/or summarized from copy provided by the publisher. Release dates are subject to change. July 2 The Down Deep — Catherine Asaro (Baen)A CITY DIVIDED: For centuries The City of Cries—one of the most desired locales in the Skolian Imperialate—has existed by the thinnest of threads. On the dying world of Raylicon, the “haves” live in great luxury in Cries while the “havenots” scrape by, eking out a marginal existence in the notorious Undercity beneath the desert. Major Bhaajan, formerly of the Pharaoh’s Army, knows both worlds. Born into the Undercity, she nevertheless has made a name for herself in the Imperialate. And now, she has the chance to help her people. HOPE FOR RECONCILIATION: For the first time, a member of the Royal class wants to extend an olive branch to the Undercity. Hoping to build bridges, Colonel Lavinda Majda recruits Bhaaj and her Dust Knights to act as guides and bodyguards on a mission of goodwill to those who live below the surface of their parched world. THE DOWN DEEP: But the problems of the Undercity run deeper than anyone knows. To help find peace, the Dust Knights must reach the most hidden rungs in that mysterious underground world, a place known only as the Down Deep, where the scars from centuries of distrust are greatest. There they will face an unseen enemy that may destroy the lives of everyone they know—and threaten interstellar civilization. The Icarus Changeling (Icarus #4) — Timothy Zahn (Baen)Gregory Roarke—former bounty hunter, former Trailblazer, current agent for the ultra-secret Icarus Group—has received a new assignment: locate a suspected but as-yet undiscovered teleportation portal on the backwater colony world of Alainn. The rival Patth are also searching for the device, and have considerably more resources at their disposal. Fortunately, Roarke has Selene and her incredibly sensitive Kadolian sense of smell. On paper, it should be a straightforward enough job. But that was before there was a murder in the small town of Bilswift… and another one… and the discovery that the Patth are already on the scene and have narrowed the search to a heavily forested area in the hills and mountains east of town. Most disturbing of all is the discovery that one of Selene’s people, a Kadolian teenaged boy named Tirano, is working at one of Bilswift’s fish markets. A boy who may have lost his parents before his proper socialization was completed. A boy who may be connected to both the murders and the Patth. A boy who may be the potentially dangerous wild card that the Kadolians call changelings. July 9 Toward Eternity — Anton Hur (HarperVia)In a near-future world, a new technological therapy is quickly eradicating cancer. The body’s cells are entirely replaced with nanites—robot or android cells which not only cure those afflicted but leaves them virtually immortal. Literary researcher Yonghun teaches an AI how to understand poetry and creates a living, thinking machine he names Panit, meaning Beloved, in honor of his husband. When Yonghun—himself a recipient of nanotherapy—mysteriously vanishes into thin air and then just as suddenly reappears, the event raises disturbing questions. What happened to Yonghun, and though he’s returned, is he really himself anymore? When Dr. Beeko, the scientist who holds the patent to the nanotherapy technology, learns of Panit, he transfers its consciousness from the machine into an android body, giving it freedom and life. As Yonghun, Panit, and other nano humans thrive—and begin to replicate—their development will lead them to a crossroads and a choice with existential consequences. Exploring the nature of intelligence and the unexpected consequences of progress, the meaning of personhood and life, and what we really have to fear from technology and the future, Toward Eternity is a gorgeous, thought-provoking novel that challenges the notion of what makes us human—and how love survives even the end of that humanity. The Family Experiment — John Marrs (Hanover Square)Some families are virtually perfect… The world’s population is soaring, creating overcrowded cities and an economic crisis. And in the UK, the breaking point has arrived. A growing number of people can no longer afford to start families, let alone raise them. But for those desperate to experience parenthood, there is an alternative. For a monthly subscription fee, clients can create a virtual child from scratch who they can access via the metaverse and a VR headset. To launch this new initiative, the company behind Virtual Children has created a reality TV show called The Substitute. It will follow ten couples as they raise a virtual child from birth to the age of eighteen but in a condensed nine-month time period. The prize: the right to keep their virtual child, or risk it all for the chance of a real baby… July 16 The Backtrack — Erin La Rosa (Canary Street Press)Nearly twenty years ago, Sam Leto left her small hometown of Tybee Island, Georgia, to pursue her dreams of becoming a pilot. While she’d prefer to keep flying away from her painful childhood memories, her beloved grandmother Pearl decides it’s time to sell the family home. Reluctantly, Sam is summoned back to pack up the house. The 2000s nostalgia from Sam’s old bedroom hits immediately: Fall Out Boy posters, drawers of roll-on body glitter and even her favorite CD player with a mixtape from her best friend, Damon Rocha. Damon was always a safe place and Sam often wonders what if her teenage self admitted her feelings for him back then… Mysteriously, the CD player still works all these years later. And somehow it has the power to show Sam an alternate version of her life. Song by song, Sam receives flashbacks from her past—senior prom, graduation, leaving home. But the memories aren’t as she remembers them; they show what could have been. Suddenly, Sam knows exactly what would have happened if she’d taken a chance with Damon—and she can’t help feeling she made a terrible mistake leaving Tybee all those years ago.The Building That Wasn’t — Abigail Miles (CamCat)When Everly Tertium encounters a strange man in the park claiming to be her grandfather, she is invited to visit a mysterious apartment building. There, she finds herself in a constant state of déjà vu, impossibly certain that she’s already lived through these moments, already been introduced to these people, and already visited all of these rooms and floors. So why does she have no idea what’s happening to her? The longer she stays in the building, the more Everly becomes convinced there is more going on than meets the eye. Something is off, time seems to pass differently, and the people living there seem trapped. Slowly, Everly begins to wonder if she is trapped too. But would she even want to leave, if she could? July 23 Grand Theft AI — James Cox (Blackstone)San Francisco, 2051. Rising like neo-Shanghai over the Bay, a labyrinth of quantum accelerators, hologram dreams, and fiercely regulated androids. Forget powder, pills, or bud—kids get high slotting wafers of data under the ear, and they’ll pay fat ¢rypto for the best. At the hottest nightclub in the city… the Fang. Baz Covane is a battle-scarred thief who sticks to small-time bots. Ria Rose is the underworld “fixer” with a big-time score that could easily get ’em both killed. ‘Cuz the Fang’s psychotic kingpin Otto Rex has a vault with more security than a fusion reactor. And the glass inside is priceless—enough to set up Baz, Ria, and their crack team of cyber-misfits on the white sands of Tahiti forever. But this crime doesn’t just carry infinite VR-Prison time—it’s Baz and Ria’s last shot at redemption. Forced to confess every last secret on their neurals, they’ll have to trust each other completely if they stand any chance of infiltrating Otto’s lair, raiding its spiraling rings of physical and virtual firewalls, to finally hack into his mind and crack his deepest layer of security, before the Blackhawks touch down with federal warrants—for Grand Theft AI. The Book of Elsewhere — Keanu Reeves & China Miéville (Del Rey)There have always been whispers. Legends. The warrior who cannot be killed. Who’s seen a thousand civilizations rise and fall. He has had many names: Unute, Child of Lightning, Death himself. These days, he’s known simply as “B.” And he wants to be able to die. In the present day, a U.S. black-ops group has promised him they can help with that. And all he needs to do is help them in return. But when an all-too-mortal soldier comes back to life, the impossible event ultimately points toward a force even more mysterious than B himself. One at least as strong. And one with a plan all its own. Gravity Lost (Ambit’s Run #2) — L. M. Sagas (Tor Books)After thwarting a space station disaster and planetary destruction, the Ambit crew thought turning Isaiah Drestyn over to the Union would be the end of their troubles. Turns out, it’s only the start. Drestyn is a walking encyclopedia of dirty secrets, and everyone wants a piece of him—the Trust, the Union, even the Guild. Someone wants him bad enough to kill, and with the life of one of their own on the line, the Ambit crew must jail-break the very man they helped capture and expose some of the secrets he’s been keeping before it’s too late. In the Spiral, everything has a price. In their fight to protect what they love, Eoan, Nash, Saint, and Jal will confront some ugly truths about their enemies, and even uglier truths about their friends. But nothing will come close to the truths they’ll learn about themselves. You can’t always fix what’s broken… and sometimes, it’s better that way. July 30 Navigational Entanglements — Aliette de Bodard (Tordotcom Publishing)Việt Nhi is not good with people. Or politics. Which is a problem when the Rooster clan sends her on the mission against her will, forcing her to work with an ill-matched group of squabbling teammates from rival clans, including one who she can’t avoid, and maybe doesn’t want to. Hạc Cúc of the Snake clan has always been better at poisoning and stabbing than at making friends, but she’s drawn to Nhi’s perceptiveness and obliviousness to social conventions―including the ones that really should make Nhi think twice about spending time with her. But when their imperial envoy and nominal leader is poisoned, this crew of expendable apprentices will have to learn to work together—fast—before the invisible Tangler can wreak havoc on a civilian city and destroy the fragile reputation of the clans. Along the way, Nhi and Hạc Cúc will have to learn the hardest lesson of all: to see past their own misconceptions and learn to trust their growing feelings for each other. Everything Good Dies Here: Tales from the Linker Universe and Beyond — Djuna, tr. Adrian Thieret (Kaya Press)The stories brought together in this collection introduce for the first time in English the dazzling speculative imaginings of Djuna, one of South Korea’s most provocative SF writers. Whether describing a future society light years away or satirizing Confucian patriarchy, these stories evoke a universe at once familiar and clearly fantastical. Also collected here for the first time are all six stories set in the Linker Universe, where a mutating virus sends human beings reeling through the galaxy into a dizzying array of fracturing realities. Blending influences ranging from genre fiction (zombie, vampire, SF, you name it) to golden-age cinema to Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Djuna’s stories together form a brilliantly intertextual, mordantly funny critique of the human condition as it evolves into less and more than what it once was. Saturation Point — Adrian Tchaikovsky (Solaris)The Hygrometric Dehabitation Region, or the “Zone,” is a growing band of rainforest on the equator, where the heat and humidity make it impossible for warm-blooded animals to survive. A human being without protection in the Zone is dead in minutes. Twenty years ago, Marks went into the rainforest with a group of researchers led by Doctor Elaine Fell, to study the extraordinary climate and see if it could be used in agriculture. The only thing she learned was that the Zone was no place for people. There were deaths, and the programme was cut short. Now, they’re sending her back in. A plane crash, a rescue mission, a race against time and the environment to bring out the survivors. But there are things Marks’s corporate masters aren’t telling her. The Zone keeps its secrets, and so does Doctor Fell… The post All the New Science Fiction Books Arriving in July 2024 appeared first on Reactor.

As someone who was involuntarily used as a poster child for Asian American and Pacific Islander month by my university, yet listened to some classmates rant that Asian Americans “would be nowhere without black people,” take it from me: Diversity, equity, and inclusion offices make racism worse, not better. Nobody should wonder whether circling their race on an application form would harm his or her chances of being accepted, yet I would be lying if I said that was not my first thought every time I reached the dreaded racial question. What else can you expect when your racial identity—an immutable trait that is literally skin-deep—signals to a university or workplace that you are “too privileged” or less deserving to have a seat at the table? Conversely, how could one’s race alone fairly make someone more deserving of admittance? I will never forget my senior year of high school, when I consulted a pro-DEI teacher about my essay topic for the Common App to colleges. She squinted at my face before asking, “Have you given much thought to writing about your race in your college essay? I mean … ’cause you’re clearly not white.” My heart sank. Suddenly, I went from being an impressive writer to another non-white person whose race needed to be exploited for sympathy. Little did my teacher know that I am half white and half Asian, two of the DEI scorecard’s least favorable boxes to check. To this day, classrooms preach inclusivity in the same breath that they write white people off as privileged and cultureless. The more an individual is “white-passing,” the less interesting they become. This narrative is poisoning minds in grade school and higher education. Take the “model minority” stereotype about Asians, which asserts that Asians are successful because their culture uniformly pressures them to perform well. Stereotypes such as these have been perpetuated by DEI under the guise of being inclusive when it is anything but. It treats people as groups defined by distinct levels of oppression, instead of rewarding people based on merit. In late May, former Harvard University President Claudine Gay was honored with a Faculty Award and called “our forever president” at a separate graduationfor black students, not due to her research, but because of her “commitment to social justice.” Meanwhile, Harvard’s DEI office, which Campus Reform reports sponsored the ceremony, has not commented on Gay’s inability to state unequivocally before Congress that calling for the genocide of Jews violates Harvard’s policies. I may be biracial and have Asian heritage, but that identity has no bearing on my most important and fulfilling identities: child of God, daughter of two great parents, proud sister, and friend to many. It certainly has no bearing on my ability to seek opportunities and try my best. Anyone who says otherwise is evidence that DEI offices profit from teaching people to judge others by their skin color, rather than their character. Character cannot be built by meeting  racial quotas. It’s developed through taking risks and working hard. Contrary to what the Left would have you believe, the ability to grit your teeth and work hard to pursue your dreams is not exclusive to “white-passing” people. This fact is liberating, and anything but oppressive or racist. What is unacceptable is impeding someone’s potential to learn or succeed because they do not check a favorable racial box, not to mention doing so under the guise of being against racism. Last year, the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn race-conscious admissions to colleges and universities marked a celebratory step for fairness. But it isn’t enough. State lawmakers in Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Texas, and more are prohibiting the use of taxpayer spending on racist DEI programs at colleges. Policymakers around the country frustrated by the student “encampments” on campuses this spring that claimed to be for peace, but were really antisemitic activists, would do well to follow suit. DEI is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and it’s time we exposed it as such. Like racial preferences, it too must go. The post As an Asian American, I Say DEI Must Go appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Welcome to Your Frugal Backyard Staycation

Biden Loses Stephanopoulos

George Clooney Bails on Biden: He's Definitely Not Fit for Office

A woman from New Jersey has died less than three months after becoming the second person in history to receive a genetically modified pig kidney transplant. Lisa Pisano underwent the historic procedure in April as an experimental last resort for severe illness, but had to have the porcine organ removed 47 days later.The 54-year-old made history as the first person ever to receive both a heart pump and a kidney transplant after both organs failed. Typically, patients with heart pumps are not considered for new kidneys, although doctors decided to go ahead with the operation using a livestock organ.At present, there are more than 100,000 people in desperate need of organ transplants in the US alone, with the greatest demand being for kidneys. Tragically, 17 people die each day while on the waiting list, which is why researchers are so keen to master the art of xenotransplantation, which refers to the use of animal organs in human patients.The difficulty, however, lies in the fact that our bodies are primed to reject any non-human components. To overcome this hurdle, scientists have been using CRISPR gene-editing technology to tweak livestock organs so that they become more acceptable to our immune system.For instance, pig organs have been modified to prevent them from producing a molecule called alpha-gal, which our bodies recognize as foreign before triggering an antibody response to destroy it.After transplanting the edited kidney into Pisano’s body, doctors reported that the organ had not been rejected, indicating that their modifications had been successful. Sadly, however, the kidney failed due to insufficient blood supply as a result of the patient’s heart pump.As a consequence, surgeons at NYU Langone Health – where the transplant was performed – decided to remove the organ after less than seven weeks, placing Pisano on dialysis. Earlier this week, it was announced that she had passed away.“Lisa’s contributions to medicine, surgery and xenotransplantation cannot be overstated,” Dr. Robert Montgomery, director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute, told the New York Times. “Her bravery gave hope to thousands of people living with end-stage kidney or heart failure who could soon benefit from an alternative supply of organs.”Sadly, Pisano’s passing comes just two months after the death of the first patient to receive a modified pig kidney. Richard Slayman entered the history books in March of this year when he underwent the transplant at Mass General Brigham in Boston, and while initial signs showed that the procedure had been successful, the patient later experienced complications and died in early May.

Fiberglass has been found in the food chain for the first time. A “disturbing level” of the artificial material was recently detected in oysters and mussels along the south coast of the UK, although the researchers say it’s likely to be a global issue. Scientists at the Universities of Brighton and Portsmouth collected oysters and mussels from an active boatyard in Chichester Harbor, a popular sailing location in South England.Within their edible soft tissues, they detected an abundance of fiberglass, aka glass-reinforced plastic (GRP). The team’s experiments found up to 11,220 fiberglass particles per kilogram in oysters and 2,740 particles per kilogram in mussels."Our findings show a disturbing level of GRP contamination in marine life. This study is the first of its kind to document such extensive contamination in natural bivalve populations. It's a stark reminder of the hidden dangers in our environment,” Dr Corina Ciocan, principal lecturer in marine biology from the University of Brighton, said in a statement.Fiberglass is a reinforced plastic material that’s made of extremely fine fibers of glass embedded into a resinous matrix. Revered for its tough and lightweight properties, it’s been widely used in boat manufacturing since the 1960s.The new study shows that the material can release tiny glass particles into the surrounding environment when boats are crushed, dismantled, or repaired. Levels of GRP contamination were especially high during winter, a season when many sailing enthusiasts take advantage of the poor weather to work on their boats. Once in the water, the particles are then “sucked up” by filter-feeding bivalves, including oysters and mussels. Their method of eating means that filter-feeding bivalves consume all kinds of microparticle contamination, including infectious pathogens and plastics.The researchers believe it’s possible that GRP contamination negatively impacts the health of the shellfish and might even kill them. They’re now keen to investigate whether the fiberglass microparticles can be transferred up the food chain and impact human health."It's a global issue, particularly for island nations with limited landfill space. Efforts are being made to find viable disposal solutions, but more needs to be done to prevent at-sea dumping and onshore burning,” explained Professor Fay Couceiro from the University of Portsmouth."We're just starting to understand the extent of fibreglass contamination,” she noted.The new study is published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials.

Analysis from environmental charity WWF shows that, as of this week, the amount of fish consumed this year in the European Union (EU) has already reached the annual amount that can be obtained from the Mediterranean. To match demand, Italy and other southern European countries have to rely on imports. The WWF and New Economics Foundation call it “Fish Dependence Day”. Every year the EU sets the Total Allowable Catches (TAC) for most commercial fish stocks. They are looking at how many, or how many tonnes, of each species can be caught sustainably. How much fish Europeans want to eat, though, is another question, and demand doesn’t match supply. On average EU citizens eat 24 kilograms (53 pounds) of fish per year, but this number is higher across Mediterranean countries. Here, people eat 33 kilograms (73 pounds) – a high demand that the Mediterranean sea can no longer meet. It’s not only the EU that is limiting the amount of fish caught in the Mediterranean. The size of catches has been decreasing as many populations dwindle due to decades of overfishing, and rising temperatures. Warming waters have brought in invasive species, which can prey on local fish or compete for resources. Native species are moving to find more suitable climates. Overfishing is the poor management of fish resources. It can be caused by catching too many individuals, as well as by catching more young individuals. A loss of young fish doesn’t allow the populations to grow back. In the late 1990s and early 2000s overfishing led to a crisis in the bluefin tuna population in the Mediterranean. Careful management of fishing quotas and protection of juvenile fish has allowed the species to come back. The case of the bluefin tuna shows that there is a way forward. However, today, 58 percent of the Mediterranean fishing stock is still being overfished. By marking Fish Dependence Day, the WWF urges all EU countries to work towards having fish self-sufficiency: you can only eat what you can catch.     So what can we eat? Giulia Prato, WWF Italy’s marine programme manager, encourages consumers to choose seasonal, adult fish, besides reducing overall consumption. Eating unpopular species is also a more sustainable choice. Hake, shrimp, sardines and mullet are the most at-risk species today. It’s time to make mussels and anchovies cool again.

With just one living fluent speaker, N|uu is one of the most endangered languages in the world. Its story is one of pain and tragedy – but also great hope and determination. Together with her family and local linguists, the last remaining speaker of N|uu is striving to keep the dying embers of the language aflame by passing it on to the new generation. N|uu is a click language, traditionally spoken by some factions of the Khomani people from the southern Kalahari, a sandy savannah that sits within the modern-day borders of Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa. They are a branch of the San people who have lived here for over 20,000 years and are some of the earliest known hunter-gatherers in southern Africa. While N|uu has evolved great distances over the centuries – no different to English or any other vernacular – the language has deep, deep roots in a part of the world that’s integral to the story of humankind.Five primary click sounds are used in N|uu, including one unique click that’s only found in a handful of very closely related languages. Linguists call the click a “bilabial plosive”, but the layman's term is “a kiss click” because it sounds like the clack of a lip-smacking smooch.This was the beginning of the demise in a way because it's started to separate people. Their families were split up.Dr Kerry JonesHistorically, the language was spoken and heard, not inscribed. With little written evidence, it hasn’t left behind a “paper trail”, making its history and age very tricky to trace. We do know, however, that it started to fall into trouble during the unwelcome arrival of the British Empire during the 19th century. As part of their brutal attempt to control Africa, the British naively set up political boundaries, many of which cut through people’s homelands.“People used to move through that whole region between South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana all the time. Then all of a sudden, these people came and started putting up fences and saying you had to have identification and passports,” Dr Kerry Jones, a linguist and Director of African Tongue, an organization that looks to preserve and promote endangered languages of southern Africa, told IFLScience.“This was the beginning of the demise in a way because it's started to separate people. Their families were split up,” she added.Along with fracturing communities, the Empire made active attempts to quash native African languages in favor of English and Afrikaans, a language derived from the form of Dutch brought to southern Africa by European Protestant settlers in the 17th century. Some San people still speak of how their ancestors were belittled, beaten, and even killed just for speaking N|uu.To make matters worse, people were stripped of their ethnic and cultural identity. Instead of being recognized by their real ethnic identity, such as San, people were clumsily put into main categories: White, Black, Indian, and “Coloured” (meaning people with a mixed ethnic background).After decades of colonial rule and apartheid, many feared the language had fallen into extinction by the end of the 20th century, never to be uttered again. However, like finding sprouts of a long-lost plant in the savannah, speakers of N|uu were found.Antjie Kassie and Andries Olyn, two fluentspeakers standing in front of a salt pan in the Kalahari.Image credit: Khomani Hugh Brody ArchiveThrough the work of sociolinguist Dr Nigel Crawhall and the United Nations in the mid-1990s, around 25 speakers from the Khomani community revealed they had some competence in the N|uu language. “The 90s was a massive turnaround point and where people were starting to feel safe to come forward,” said Dr Jones. “We had these elderly people who were coming forward saying, ‘look, I'm gonna die soon anyway, so it's okay. I'm gonna let you know: I’m not actually Coloured, I'm San. And I can prove it because I can still speak the language.’ The language became key in proving their identity,” she explained.Unfortunately, many were elderly and have since passed away, taking their knowledge of the language with them. In December 2021, the penultimate speaker of N|uu passed away, leaving behind just one person with true knowledge of the language: Ouma Katrina Esau.Although in the later years of her life, Ouma Katrina has spent the past few years diligently working to preserve the language. Together with Dr Jones and other members of the community, she has helped to create a digital N|uu language dictionary. The project, 20 years in the making, hopes to act as a vital repository of information that will keep the language alive. Despite never having had the opportunity to learn to read herself, Ouma Katrina has worked with her granddaughter, Claudia Snyman, to create a N|uu children’s book called Qhoi n|a Tijho (Tortoise and Ostrich).“Her granddaughter, Claudia can speak the language. Not fluently, but as an additional language. But she's literate and Ouma Katrina isn't literate, so between the two of them, it's a good combination,” said Dr Jones, speaking to IFLScience.                            In May 2024, Ouma Katrina became an integral part of a program that’s teaching local school kids the basics of N|uu. For the first time in decades, knowledge of the language is being passed on to the next generation. They're not going to be fluent speakers [...] but they will be able to greet, they will be able to sing songs, they will be able to understand a basic children's story.Dr Kerry Jones“Children are learning to greet, they are learning to sing songs, they are learning names for animals and plants,” explained Dr Jones.“They're not going to be fluent speakers and be fully monolingual in N|uu. That's not reality, but they will be able to greet, they will be able to sing songs, they will be able to understand a basic children's story,” she added.N|uu is unlikely to be a “mother tongue” ever again. Like many traditional languages, it has been crushed by globalization and cultural homogenization, weighty forces that have leveled many ways of life.Under the strain of these pressures, around nine languages die every single year. Like an animal species falling into extinction, each passing is a loss of the world’s richness and beauty. The squandering of cultural riches seems somewhat inevitable in the 21st century when profits and practicality are favored over intangible wealth. Nevertheless, as the story of N|uu’s attempted revival shows, there’s a deeply human need to keep alive the languages that we use to understand the world and our place within it. Without them, we lose a little part of our story. “There are these codes that we use to communicate and we label these codes ‘languages.’ Your experience with one code or another code is the structure that creates your reality. That is fascinating,” Dr Jones concluded.“Because of globalisation, we are losing access to these codes. That's such a loss. It's the same as saying ‘Well, why give a sh*t about animals and plants that are going extinct?’ It’s because it’s part of a bigger network – it's important.”