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  • Thread starter The Fallen Angel
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Then again you could try to
Eichhorns
There is a German saying der Teufel ist ein Eichhörnchen -- lit. the devil is a squirrel -- which means to say you never know where danger or misfortune may appear, even in something that appears harmless.

As in if someone says, Absolutely nothing can go wrong with this update, it's been tried on similar systems with no ill effects, we don't need to run a backup -- you would say - der Teufel ist ein eichhörnchen, you never know. (It is often falsely rendered as the devil is in the details, it's not quite the same).

For German ears, Eichhörnchen sounds obviously like the combination of "Eich" and "Hörnchen" with Eich being for the Eich/Eicheln (oak/acorns), and Hörnchen (literally a diminutive of Horn, like 'hornlet') well then is assumed to be a genus of rodent. Today the German language knows dozens of hörnchens but etymologically this is appears a false conclusion ... there never was a horn-like sounding old German word for a rodent.
 
etymologically this is appears a false conclusion

Yes, it struck me as an odd word. Similarly, 'acorn' sounded like (and was sometimes spelt like) 'āc-corn', 'oak-corn', i.e. oak-seed, but it was actually from a word æcern apparently unconnected with 'oak' or 'corn', cf. Old Norse akern, Dutch aker (German Ecker is apparently from Low German).
But I wondered what was horny about squirrels.
 
For German ears, Eichhörnchen sounds obviously like the combination of "Eich" and "Hörnchen" with Eich being for the Eich/Eicheln (oak/acorns), and Hörnchen (literally a diminutive of Horn, like 'hornlet') well then is assumed to be a genus of rodent. Today the German language knows dozens of hörnchens but etymologically this is appears a false conclusion ... there never was a horn-like sounding old German word for a rodent.

The proto Germanic form (according to the Leiden Indo-European Ethymological dictionary) of 'Squirrel' , seems to be 'Alkwernan', where 'Alk' seems to refer to oak indeed. 'Horn' seems to derive from 'hurna'.
 
Aha - Old English āc-weorna was a squirrel, that would be cognate with aik-wernan > Eichhorn. There was apparently a Proto-Indo-European root werwer- meaning 'squirrel' from which those would be derived, as would Latin viverra, Russian vevirca, Scottish Gaelic feorag, etc.
 
In book 6 (I had to read that too) Aeneas meets her in the underworld and tries with typical male clumsiness and insensitivity to apologise for buggering off when Mercury told him to, but she turns away from him and goes to join her first husband, who'd at least remained faithful till he died.

BEAUTIFUL. AND I DO APPRECIATE ANY SONG THAT SUGGESTS I AM A WELCOME GUEST. ;) YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE HOW MANY PEOPLE JUST ARE NOT HAPPY TO SEE ME. :confused: :rolleyes::devil:
tumblr_ms6lauQOug1rvzxygo1_1280.jpg
 
BEAUTIFUL. AND I DO APPRECIATE ANY SONG THAT SUGGESTS I AM A WELCOME GUEST. ;) YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE HOW MANY PEOPLE JUST ARE NOT HAPPY TO SEE ME. :confused: :rolleyes::devil:
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It's surprising how many songs are inviting you - some very lovely, this is a favourite of mine

 
Aha - Old English āc-weorna was a squirrel, that would be cognate with aik-wernan > Eichhorn. There was apparently a Proto-Indo-European root werwer- meaning 'squirrel' from which those would be derived, as would Latin viverra, Russian vevirca, Scottish Gaelic feorag, etc.
I would guess that with the evolution of the German word coming from something like aik-wernan, there was a duplication along the way ... as aik /eck / whatever became eich, and the w dropped, did you say "Eich - orn" or "eich - horn" ... the latter won out. The diminutive was tacked on later (possibly as recently as the 18th century) and only after that was 'hörnchen' used to refer to a genus of rodents, especially those that hadn't been known in Germany historically -- chipmunks are 'stripe-hörnchens', there are gliding-hörnchens and ground-hörnchens - but other rodents in the group that were traditionally well known in Germany like the Murmeltier (marmot) or Ziesel (??) have their own original names that don't refer to 'horn'.
 
But I wondered what was horny about squirrels.
Now you know the answer :p

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(Image hosted on Imgur. The squirrel is from this page.)

Disclaimer: No animal was harmed in taking that picture - She's more or less like Barbaria (except that she doesn't drive and doesn't complain as much). She can be crucucified, hanged, impaled, etc. and will always resurrect for the next story, somehow.
 
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Mhm, I did not know how many experts on squirrels and Eichhörnchen are here to find.

So, maybe it's time for the next "German" conspiracy theory on wildlife and it's again an animal with a red coat.

The "German" red seven-black-point ladybug is endangered by the Asian ladybug, which looks different, can have several colors and more points. The Asian ladybug is often orange or yellow but unfortunately, it is not a lovestory like in this video ...


... and it is not like the first news about this danger explained, because at first ca. 5 years ago, the theorists thought it to be similar as in my description of the "great German squirrel conspiracy theory":
There were much less European & German ladybugs to be found but many more Asian ladybugs, so all theorists thought, these are Asian ladybugs which are more "lively", "powerful", "resistent against certain viruses" and "superior" to the German red red ladybug which are in danger to disappear because these Asian ladybugs are maneaters - hrm - ladybug-eaters and cannibals and because they are much faster than the European, they will kill all those poor German ladybugs. (Conspiracy theorists certainly believe that bugs are usually behaving like the humans in the countries of their origins and they certainly know how lively all these Asians are!)

But those theories about the Asian killer ladybugs were wrong because it is much more complicated than everyone believed. In fact, both ladybugs - from Europe and from Asia are cannibals and both eat usually lots of aphids but also larvae of other insects as well as of other ladybugs, but the more aggressive European ladybugs can also eat weak grown-up Asian ladybugs - and this is their certain death!
Incredible, but the Asian ladybugs seemed to have mutated during the last 10 years in their fight against bacterias and viruses by inventing something which is now a subject of Europe's best insectologists at the Sorbonne university in Paris, who say, these new Asian ladybugs do now have an ability like bugs from a science-fiction movie.
Their blood circulatory system does not kill the usually dangerous bacterias or viruses any more, it obviously can identify potentially dangerous microsporidiaes (fungal infectious paraites), bacterias and viruses and then, they are encapsulated in a mix of fat coating and unknown jelly combination and integrated in the circulatory system.
When they are eaten by the more aggressive European ladybugs, the acids of their digestion are dissolving the insulating coats of the encapsulated bacterias & viruses of their victims and every European ladybugs is dying within hours after having eaten an Asian ladybug - the same seems to happen to other insects which are eating Asian ladybugs because they are suddenly overflowed with several - for insects - dangerous microsporidiaes, bacterias and viruses!

The biologists at the Sorbonne are of the opinion that the European ladybugs will survive in European forests but if they cannot follow the Asian ladybugs in such a mutation, they are really in danger as long as they try to eat Asian ladybugs.
One professor in Paris is already dreaming of inventing something similar for higher life forms like domestic animals, but even he says, ladybugs are not so complicated as human beings. (Ouch! - touché !)




In any case, they are surprising enough when you look at their folding system for their wings:

 
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There's something I've been wondering lately. Is it just me or that the forum has become less active for the past few months?

I joined the community earlier this year and I've developed a habit of refreshing the website frequently while I'm at work. (I work from home nowadays and spend most of the day in front of my PC, with CF permanently open in one of the tabs on my browser.)

I feel like I'm seeing new posts less frequently nowadays compared to how it was a few months ago. Is it just my perception which has changed, or the website actually became quieter for some reason?
 
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