“Some people prefer ‘sneakers’ to ‘running shoes,’ others ‘soda’ to ‘pop.’ But it’s in Montreal – where many people use the French ‘liquor douce’ instead of ‘soft drink’ – that some Canadian language scholars are really bubbling with enthusiasm over the nature of English. ‘It’s so special because it’s the only major city in North…
“Music, a social and artistic activity of the first importance, inevitably makes its way, often quite a substantial way, into literature of all kinds. Monographs have been, or could be, written on music in Jane Austen’s novels, or Thomas Hardy’s, or J. B. Priestley’s, or on music in Galsworthy’s FORSYTE CHRONICLES, to name a few…
“An act of reading electronic language involves: Setting up an electronic language environment; Selecting particular input into the electronic text; Receiving the output; Analyzing what the electronic text does.” —Someone Writing about Their Reading of GoogleTechnacy Weblog) I’m reminded of Espen Aarseth’s definition of Cybertext — a system that includes not only the array of…
“Although office clutter is usually almost entirely work-related, it tends nevertheless to be treated as though it consisted of the dirty socks and crisp packets of an adolescent. Workers are confused. They know that creating clutter is an essential part of the way they work, but they are made to feel guilty about it.” —In…
“By downplaying competition, There hopes to attract women to its universe, which is roamed much like the legendary computer game Myst. In fact, some areas look and sound like the mythical Myst island with the constant chirping of birds and distant roar of surf. ‘If we can build a product that women love, guys will…
Amusing WebWord thread about awful headlines and the misuse of “Ye Olde English” grammar. This particular awful title detracted from a very sensible article by Peter Seebach. —“Here ye — let thine site visitors speak” discussion on WebwordWebword) Similar:The girl as Gimli, Legolas, Aragorn and Thorin. #proudofthegirl #notentirelysurewhy #still…AestheticsDo you really keep a diary?ALGERNON Do…
“As his twenty fourth year as Pontiff comes to a close, the physically frail yet still forceful Pope John Paul II has told his clergy to add ‘Blue Stars’ to the revered rosary beads. These stars will replace every fifteenth bead on the traditional talisman.” —In Departure For Catholic Church, Pope Adding ‘Blue Stars’ to…
“A recently leaked trailer for The Return of the King has Tolkien fans outraged over the apparent addition of a new character – Jar-Jaromir. The scene depicted in the trailer shows Jar-Jaromir shouting, ‘Gondora gonna fallsa’; he then trips over a corpse and knocks down a couple of Uruk-hai.” Brian Biggs —Fans Outraged at New…
“2002 Year-End Zeitgeist offers a unique perspective on the year’s major events and hottest trends based on more than 55 billion searches conducted over the past year by Google users from around the world.” Top 5 gaining Google queries from 2002: spiderman shakira winter olympics world cup avril lavigne Top 5 declining Google queries from…
“Creating imaginary worlds while trying to do it in a personal style to at least be able to retain some originality in my work, was always an enjoyable challenge for me and my favorite thing while drawing Fantasy themes.” Luis Peres —Fantasy Illustration by Luis Peresworld4mysheep.com) Similar:We ask 3 Broadway photographers: How do you turn…
“The evidence that mother-only families contribute to crime is powerful. When two scholars studied data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth, they found that, after holding income constant, young people in father-absent families were twice as likely to be in jail as were those in two-parent families. And their lives did not improve if…
Bjorn Lomborg – the director of Denmark’s Environmental Assessment Institute and a leading would-be debunker of mainstream scientific opinion on issues like global warming and overuse of natural resources – has been found guilty by a Danish government committee of ‘scientific dishonesty’. —Paul Brown —Anti-green Author Dishonest, Says Scientific Panel (Guardian) This is the peer-review process…
“Apparently Jennifer Lopez is coming out with a new ‘fragrance’ (which is what they call perfume these days, I guess) called Glow by J-Lo. Here’s some others that will follow on its heels. Mince by Prince This Is How You Should Smell by Martha Stewart Texas Tea by G.W.B. Free For The Taking by Winona…
“Welcome to Google Village. This is part of a wider project exploring, analyzing, detailing and educating people on the issues to do with the new skills required to communicate now and in the next century. Literacy is no longer the key attribute to desire, work for and acquire in this world of electronic language (where…
“The speed of gravity has been measured for the first time. The landmark experiment shows that it travels at the speed of light, meaning that Einstein’s general theory of relativity has passed another test with flying colours.” Hazel Muir —First Speed of Gravity Measurement Revealed New Scientist) Similar:Bing's AI chatbot helped me solve a technical…
“There may well be people who abandon Neuromancer on the grounds that it’s riddled with sentence-fragments, but, in a sense, the sentence-fragments are there to scare off readers who aren’t ready for that, and to encourage those who want to see the envelope of language pushed even further, the pedal taken even closer to the…
“The MetroCard Vending Machines in New York’s subways are a classical case of programmer-directed hierarchical menu hell, forcing the user to make choices without knowing the consequences, and throwing the user off altogether at the smallest problem. With a little careful thought, we are able to improve the interaction considerably, while at the same time…
“This is the story of the revival of York Mystery Plays from the Festival of Britain in 1951 to the present day told by the many individuals who have been involved with the Plays – whether as actors, stage hands or front of house – through their personal memories, photographs and press cuttings.” —York Mystery…
Blessed be God, at the end of the last year I was in very good health, without any sense of my old pain, but upon taking of cold.1 I lived in Axe Yard having my wife, and servant Jane, and no more in family than us three. My wife . . . . gave me…
“The high-tech industry plans to launch a sophisticated new lobbying campaign later this month to strike back against Hollywood in a battle to shape rules of the road for new digital technologies. The Business Software Alliance and Computer Systems Policy Project….hope to convince Congress that strict copy-protection legislation that sets technological mandates would stifle innovation,…