All posts tagged radar ↓
“Such is the dilemma of the linguist, or at least the linguist who has any desire to reach anyone outside their—excuse me, his or her—discipline. A sizable group of people is partial to attending discussions and reading books about language. But what this group wants to hear is antithetical to what scholars of this subject want to say.”
My shell always has the best advice
Dictionary pronounces Myanmar “Burma” in British English (Language Log: Fun with pronunciation guides)
Tumblr Tag Cloud Generator, in case you use tags. (Tumblr API = love.)
Coding Horror: A Tribute to the Windows 3.1 “Hot Dog Stand” Color Scheme
“The truly funny thing about this color scheme is that all the other Windows 3.1 color schemes are surprisingly rational, totally reasonable color schemes. And then you get to ‘Hot Dog Stand’. Which is utterly insane.”
Semicolon: the latest adorable wallpaper from His Vladness
(All elements made with Georgia)
Tumblelog: love the format, not the name
I’m sure we can do better!
- TUMBLELOG /tʊmbl̩lɔɡ/
Pros: Mainstream usage
Cons: Phonetically awkward /l̩l/, tends to collapse to tumblog - TUMBLOG /tʊmblɔɡ/ (TUMBleLOG)
Pros: Solves /l̩l/ problem
Cons: Prescriptivists will insist this is a bastardized form of “tumblelog” which must be shunned (shunned, they say!) - SHLOG /ʃlɔɡ/ (SHort form weBLOG)
Pros: Concise, somewhat descriptive
Cons: Someone already decided it refers to “slogging through shit” - SHFLOG /ʃflɔɡ/ (SHort Form weBLOG)
Pros: Slightly more descriptive than ‘shlog’
Cons: Illegal English consonant cluster, punishment associations - SCRAPLOG /skræplɔɡ/
Pros: Seems descriptive — scraps of the internet
Cons: Contains “crap”…but actually, descriptive of most tumblelogs, including this one - MMMBLOG /mːblɔɡ/ (Mixed Media Micro weBLOG)
Pros: Perfectly descriptive, valid English consonant cluster, implies deliciousness: inherently awesome!
Cons: Almost a Hanson song…automatic failure :-(
Clearly I’ve got nothing. Any other ideas?
The coconut crab is “the biggest land-dwelling arthropod in the world…And why the name? Because they’re actually strong enough to break coconuts with their claws. Aren’t they adorable?”
An unsettling thought
If you only get psyched about things you’re not really getting paid to do, you’re getting paid to do the wrong things.
“Photograph taken by the Hubble space telescope on December 17, 2002, featuring the variable star V838 Monocerotis.”
(via Adam)
“It is something we seem hard-wired to do. When you find new information, you get an opioid hit (the brain’s pleasure-enhancing neurotransmitters), and we are junkies for those. You might call us ‘infovores.’”
Hint: not the same
Have you ever hit a bird with your windshield? Yeah, me too.
Have you ever hit a bird with your helmet, going 50 miles an hour, almost crashed, started to pull over, then had inertia suddenly flip a destroyed bird carcass down in front of your face, because its wing somehow got caught in your helmet without your knowledge?
I think I’m going to look into this “walking everywhere” deal.
