This fascinating study asked whether the senses are equally expressible (or, alternatively, ineffable) in all languages. Earlier work in the color domain has operationalized this notion by referring to “codability”: The linguists who studied it showed, for example, that length of response (number of syllables or words), reaction times, and agreement across speakers and within speakers over time, all correlated highly, but that agreement across speakers had by far the highest factor loading. They also showed that codability correlated with correct recognition of colors, concluding that “more nameable categories are nearer the top of the cognitive ‘deck’”. Codability is thus an important measure, rolling in Zipf’s law (frequency of names correlates with brevity) with perceptual accessibility. So this study extended the research across 64 languages to include all senses. And the results showed that language to language, there is no Aristotelian hierarchy of senses.
In Malay, for example, shape is the most codable of the senses on average and smell is the least codable, but in Umpila the exact opposite pattern holds—smell is the most codable and shape is the least.
https://www.pnas.org/content/115/45/11369

After 500 years of scholars theorizing over the ancient symbols, Yuriy Knorozov cracked a significant piece of the Maya code in 1952. The Soviet linguist, ethnographer, and epigrapher surmised that the glyphs in question were syllables—and not letters or purely pictorial as previously thought. To this end, Knorozov published a paper called “Ancient Writing of Central America” in which he suggested that Maya script represented phonetic sounds and thus could be interpreted similarly to ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. One of the comparative linguist’s conclusions, for example, was that “because ‘west,’ in spoken Maya, is ‘chik’in,’ and ‘k’in’ is the word for sun, the hand represents the syllable ‘chi’
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/soviet-mayan-playing-cards

Khipus are Inca knots that are in fact Inca's written documents - accounting ledgers, historical accounts, genealogy and various narratives. Gary Urton, an anthropologist at Harvard University studying khipus, suspects that narrative khipus are semasiographic, a system of symbols that convey information without being tied to a single language. In other words, they would be akin to road signs, where we all know what the symbols mean without having to sound anything out. That makes sense, given that the Inca ran a multi-ethnic, multilingual empire, says Urton.

There is no solid evidence that any Spaniard living at the time learned to read or make a khipu. That suggests that they were more complicated than conventional writing – or perhaps just conceptually very different. “This is a writing system that is inherently three-dimensional, dependent on touch as well as sight,” says Hyland – and that presents us with a uniquely tangled mystery.

It also gives us an important insight. If the Inca used khipus in this way, it might tell us something about their world view. With a writing system dependent on touch, says Hyland, “you must have a different way of being in the world”.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23931972-600-we-thought-the-incas-couldnt-write-these-knots-change-everything/

The latest Ericsson mobile data report is out. Global traffic grew 79% Y-on-Y, and 140% in China, with the average smartphone there doing 7.3 gigabytes per month. 95% of the earth's population is now under 3G coverage and 60% under LTE.
https://www.ericsson.com/en/mobility-report/reports/november-2018

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Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!