July 2010
15 posts
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-7-25) →
The Avett Brothers (2)
The Be Good Tanyas (2)
Skinny Jean (1)
José González (1)
The Get Up Kids (1)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
"Lost" Languages to Be Resurrected by Computers? →
Using no more computing power than that of a high-end laptop, the new program compared symbol and word frequencies and patterns in Ugaritic with those of a known language, in this case, the closely related Hebrew.
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-7-18) →
The Decemberists (5)
Stars (3)
Andrew Bird (3)
Sublime (3)
Okkervil River (3)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Stream of Consciousness: Scots dialect 101 →
Just for fun, I thought I’d let you lovely people in on a few of the gems(?) of the Scots lingo. I find it as amusing a language to listen to/read as I’m sure most outsiders do (and I’m a native…). I would stress at this point that not everyone here speaks in the manner which I am about to…
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-7-11) →
The Beatles (4)
The Be Good Tanyas (2)
Kate Walsh (2)
Sublime (1)
Sufjan Stevens (1)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
I write like Chuck Palahniuk
I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!
The language of a marriage - The Boston Globe →
There’s a clichéd idea that what makes people stay in love is things like candlelight and flowers and sexy glances across crowded rooms. All that is lovely, and it helps. But so does our nerdy private language. The language of marriage is personal. It doesn’t translate, and it’s not transferable. Nobody reading this column is going to start mentioning serrated knives or waiting rooms. You have...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-7-4) →
The Beatles (9)
The Weepies (7)
Camper Van Beethoven (5)
Andrew Bird (5)
The Be Good Tanyas (4)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
How Pornography Drugs & Changes Your Brain →
givemesomethingtoread:
While some have avoided using the term “addiction” in the context of natural compulsions such as uncontrolled sexuality, overeating, or gambling, let us consider current scientific evidence regarding the brain and addiction.
Little Evidence Jesus Died on a Cross, Says... →
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Samuelsson’s thesis has caused something of an unheavenly row. While fellow theologians have complimented his highly detailed research, many critics in the blogosphere have claimed that he wants to undermine Christianity. Samuelsson — who believes that “the man who walked this earth was the Son of God, and that he will return to judge the living and the...
June 2010
10 posts
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-6-27) →
The Beatles (23)
The Decemberists (10)
The Mountain Goats (7)
Cat Power (6)
The Weepies (5)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
A web-based survey of North American English →
“They’re looking for participation from “anyone who has grown up speaking English in America or Canada”. All you need is an internet-connected computer with a microphone and a web browser that can run Flash. You participate by connecting to a Flash application that gives you prompts and records your responses.
They ask for basic demographic information, but participants...
If it’s the beaches
If it’s the beaches’ sands you want
Then you will have them
If it’s the mountains’ bending rivers
Then you will have them
If it’s the wish to run away
Then I will grant it
Take whatever you think of
While I go gas up the truck
Pack the old love letters up
We will read them
When we forget why we left here
The Avett Brothers, If...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-6-13) →
The Beatles (31)
Iron & Wine (14)
Blitzen Trapper (10)
Ryan Adams & The Cardinals (10)
Neutral Milk Hotel (8)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-6-6) →
Sublime (2)
Leonard Bernstein (2)
London Symphony Orchestra, Jennifer Vyvyan, Rudolf Petrak, Donald Bell, Shirley Carter, Josef Krips & BBC Symphony Chorus (2)
The Airborne Toxic…
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-5-30) →
Andrew Bird (8)
Miley Cyrus (4)
Fleetwood Mac (3)
Neutral Milk Hotel (3)
Sublime (2)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
May 2010
28 posts
Language Log » Mapping the Demographics of... →
“To say Twitter is colloquial is putting it lightly. “Brother,” for example, occurs in Twitter data during the week of May 10-17, 2010 with an average frequency of once every 7,338 words, not too distant from its frequency in its closest cousin, the Corpus of Contemporary American English (once every 9,405 words). The difference for “bro,” however, is much more...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-5-16) →
Flobots (14)
Andrew Bird (9)
The Beatles (9)
The Decemberists (7)
Modest Mouse (7)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Are Digital Devices Like iPads Rotting Our Brains?... →
“What’s happening is this: we are being so overwhelmed by the noise and junk zooming past us that we’re becoming immune to it. We’ve become a nation of Internet-powered imbeciles, with an ever-lower threshold for inanity.”
Doubt Is Cast on Many Reports of Food Allergies -... →
“Part of the confusion is over what is a food allergy and what is a food intolerance, Dr. Fenton said. Allergies involve the immune system, while intolerances generally do not. For example, a headache from sulfites in wine is not a food allergy. It is an intolerance. The same is true for lactose intolerance, caused by the lack of an enzyme needed to digest sugar in milk. And other medical...
Cloth merchant uses Sanskrit as business lingo -... →
languageaficionada:
These days, a revival in ancient languages is palpable, and Sanskrit is no longer a forgotten tongue. There is also talk of establishing a Sanskrit and Vedic university in the state. But off campus, right in the city, is a trader who uses the language for his day-to-day business.
“According to the brothers, Sanskrit is the language of God, and learning it...
Using Laser to Map Ancient Civilization in a... →
“We were blown away,” Dr. Diane Chase said recently, recalling their first examination of the images. “We believe that lidar will help transform Maya archaeology much in the same way that radiocarbon dating did in the 1950s and interpretations of Maya hieroglyphs did in the 1980s and ’90s.”
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-5-9) →
The Beatles (20)
The Decemberists (15)
Barenaked Ladies (14)
Cat Stevens (12)
Weezer (11)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
20 Fascinating Lectures for Serious Foodies |... →
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-5-2) →
The Beatles (32)
Barenaked Ladies (23)
The Decemberists (21)
Gillian Welch (12)
Colin Meloy (10)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Betty White draws the line at nudity
“Important Mother’s Day Reminder: Betty White will finally make her long-awaited “Saturday Night Live” debut this coming weekend, along with musical guest Jay-Z.”
Shanghai Is Trying to Untangle the Mangled English... →
“A commission has been trying to clean up English-language signs and menus to rid them of their malapropisms, like “Teliot” and “Urine District.”
How to build a time machine →
givemesomethingtoread:
All you need is a wormhole, the Large Hadron Collider or a rocket that goes really, really fast