/sci/ - Science & Math

sup /sci/ducks, kind of a sci-related post. I've been trying to teach myself german for the last year. Partly because I would consider spending time in Europe (maybe doing PhD research or something), but mostly to see if I could do it.

I started about a year ago, and now I can read German pretty well (I can make out the meaning of paragraph, but I still miss a lot of nuances). More interestingly, however, I've been able to make out the basic meaning of other Germanic languages, like Dutch, Swedish, and Norwegian (I think I've only read Bokmal).

So I've decided that I'd like to learn a lot of languages, since languages are exponential. Anyone know good cross linguistic books? A book that could give me an understanding of all Germanic languages, or all Romantic languages? Shit would be super cash, I've tried google but failed a lot...

pic unrelated, I just think it would be sick to live in a relatively compact, sustainable house. We're gonna need to change the way we look at the basic living unit. Every unit should be as self-sustainable as possible.

Let's see some futuristic modern house designs in this thread. Bonus points for actual plans or pictures with text explaining features of the house. Also, bonus points for sustainable concepts.

I think it would be so cool to live on a self-sustainable property. Maybe not 100% self-sustainable, but at least capable of generating its own energy (solar, wind, geothermal, floors that capture energy wasted from walking). It would also be centrally wired, and I would have a HUD that was like a universal remote that I could use to control everything, first with gestures, maybe eventually with thought (I want to study neural engineering in grad school). Shit would be so cash