On a totally different note, does anyone who actually speaks Mandarin watch Firefly? Among the premises about the future that the show uses is that English and Chinese (presumably Mandarin) are the universal languages. So the crew swears at each other in Chinese. I want to know if they're actually saying anything, and if it makes any sense whatsoever, or if they're just making Mandarin-type noises.

Hey Pat (if you're still reading this) -- surely that's a linguistic grant waiting to happen. I'm sure you can come up with something suitably academic-sounding about the speculative take on language in future-based entertainment. Or something. Or do you concentrate on Gaelic-type languages?