Words and pictures

[shewhomust]

I don't know; I turn my back for a moment (well, for the best part of three weeks, actually) and when I look again, there are old newspapers everywhere, and tabs open all over my browser. Can't something be done about this?

Words: Awumbuk:

From a Guardian article about words I didn't know we needed for emotions I didn't know we had (not all equally useful or desirable). Awumbuk is explained: "There is an emptiness after visitors depart. The walls echo. The space which felt so cramped while they were here suddenly seems weirdly large. Sometimes everything feels a bit pointless. The indigenous Baining people who live in the mountains of Papua New Guinea are so familiar with this experience that they name it awumbuk. They believe departing visitors shed a kind of heaviness when they leave, so as to travel lightly. This oppressive mist hovers for three days, leaving everyone feeling distracted and apathetic. To counter it, the Baining fill a bowl with water and leave it overnight to absorb the festering air. The next day, the family rise very early and ceremonially fling the water into the trees, whereupon ordinary life resumes."

Pictures:

Also from the Guardian, the joy of Soviet bus stops (accompanying words, if required)