How do you overcome a language barrier? Petru Popescu's "The Encounter: Amazon Beaming" is the story of photojournalist Loren McIntyre's encounter with the Mayoruna, said to use telepathy—"communication that was so direct that no poet could find words for it."

"The sound of language also often reminds me of water. It forms, runs, braids, pools, knocks, rustles, rushes, flows… Like a river it is always moving, even when it appears to be still."

"Let's say you have a life partner you adore. Let's say 'mate for life' means you see each other the equivalent of about two weeks a year. Let's say you reunite after months of separation. Let's say love." — Hob Osterlund. Photo credit: Hob Osterlund

"What if 'Mother Tongue' was not to be attributed to the individual mother but more ambiently to what the Greeks called Gaia, or 'Mother Earth'?"

The dark side of light: how artificial lighting is harming the natural world "Light at night is exerting pervasive, long-term stress on ecosystems, from coasts to farmland to urban waterways." Aisling Irwin for nature: nature.com/articles/d4158…

🍃 Henry David Thoreau’s language in nature: "Words, for Thoreau, were a way of moving beyond the surface of things, into a deeper understanding of the universe." @Marmeladrome for @OxfordWords blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2017/07/12/hen…

Robert MacFarlane on modern nature writing, geo-poetry, and the English Eerie @RobGMacfarlane Adam Scovell thedoublenegative.co.uk/2016/06/the-un…

🍃 "The meaning of the term 'nature writing' has shifted such that it now represents an exhortation to mankind to care for the environment, or more accurately, the ecosphere: the interactions, the web, between all life and the planet." @_ReadAmanda amandaread.net/writing-nature…

Skyglow is the most common form of light pollution—along with light trespass in cities. Planting more trees is one way of blocking artificial light from being reflected skyward. Watch the Harun Mehmedinovic trailer Vimeo: vimeo.com/204478961

Word of the day: sky·glow /skī’glō’/ brightness of the night sky in a built-up area as a result of light pollution. Harun Mehmedinovic Did you know that light's reflected off smooth surfaces—making skyglow higher in cities—and scattered by particulates? skyglowproject.com/main/

Urban biodiversity: One man's empty lot is another's hidden paradise and the half-wild landscape of a novel ecosystem.🌻🐝 whyy.org/segments/feud-…

What can we learn from the remarkable travel itineraries of animals? Nautilus Magazine nautil.us/issue/51/limit…

"Humans seem to be constructing a linguistic bridge of sorts, one that when crossed will reunite us with Eden, where animals and humans live in the harmony of communication." Stassa Edwards for Aeon Magazine aeon.co/essays/why-do-…

Animals: "Human minds, in all their variety, are not the only sorts of minds. There are, for example, the minds of other animals, such as chimpanzees, crows and octopuses." And that's not all. Murray Shanahan for Aeon Magazine: aeon.co/essays/beyond-…

"We desire for animals to talk – both to share and to comprehend our values – and then assume that they understand our complex systems of justice and morality. We misunderstand and then ascribe punishment that belongs to the human realm of reason."

What shapes language? An interesting essay from Ed Yong is not here about the randomness of language evolution. Drift. Selection. Jespersen’s Cycle. theatlantic.com/science/archiv…