Names
Astri (Aster)
Aster spp., genus of flowering plants in the Asteraceae family. A fascinating piece of trivia about this flower is that the number of petals is a Fibonacci Number, i.e. 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21... (Fn = Fn-1 + Fn-2, where F0 = 0 & F1 = 1), a series revealed (although apparently known by Indian mathematicians as far back as 200 BCE) by Leonardo of Pisa, aka Fibonacci (= son [filius] of Bonaccio), in his Liber Abaci (1202) to calculate a theoretical growth in rabbit numbers. The book was also one of the prime movers introducing Arabic numerals, algebra, and the ‘number’ 0 (using it became illegal in 13-14th-C Florence) to Europe. Mathmatophobes, you now have a name to play darts with. See also Kreegi.
Asula (Asula)
Dwelling, settlement, urban community, any populated place. Lit. place of settlement, related to the verb asuma, to settle (or, in Olonets Karelian, azuo, to prepare or have offspring) and hence asum. Estonian geopolitical statisticians have the ranking thereof down to a fine art... Below a population density of 20 (in villages) or 2000 (in towns), the asula is designated as kääbus (dwarf or, in boxing parlance, bantam). They then grow through the following stages – jugu (stunted), taru (hive/buzzing), väike (small), siire (transitional), suur (large), kasa (large-heap), hiid (giant) and rait (colossal [over 5M for towns]) – before becoming mega-cities, a state yet to be reached by certain communities in, for example, Jõgevamaa.
