Recent Posts - page 53

  • The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia

    By on

    How does one review an encyclopedia? Look specific things up in it? Dip into it randomly? Read it in order cover-to-cover? I suppose one solution is for us to look up a term that we are familiar with, and then… Read More ›

  • “Tell it to Kim and I.”

    By on

    “Tell it to Kim and I.” That’s grammatically correct, right? Not to those of us who were traditionally trained: older people like me and younger people who were indoctrinated by people like me. But apparently it’s correct now. And not… Read More ›

  • The Quantum Spy

    By on

    Espionage, quantum computing, cryptography: a fascinating trifecta of themes. Mostly techno-thriller, with a bit of science fiction, The Quantum Spy by WaPo columnist David Ignatius seamlessly combines all three themes. There are two orthogonal ways to look at a novel like this…. Read More ›

  • Forensics? Forensic linguistics?

    By on

    What does the word “forensic” mean to you? And what on earth could forensic linguistics possibly be? Let’s see what Mr. Google says about “forensic”: relating to or denoting the application of scientific methods and techniques to the investigation of… Read More ›

  • BuffySpeak

    By on

    Who remembers Buffy? Hands up so I can see them! OK. You can put them down now. If you remember Buffy, you probably also remember some of the quirky language used in that show.  Or maybe it was too long… Read More ›

  • The Doomsday Book

    By on

    Connie Willis is my second favorite science fiction author, so I decided to read The Doomsday Book for the third time. Yes, I do read books more than once. I know that I’m in the minority in that respect. And yes, I… Read More ›

  • Language families: amazing maps!

    By on

    What a diversity of languages we have! With 7000 languages spread out over the world in a patchwork quilt, we can fuse linguistics and maps into a single combined representation. That’s what Annemarie Verkerk’s article “Language Family Maps” is all… Read More ›

  • Wedding follow-up: Why is this ratio so strange?

    By on

    A couple of mathematical follow-ups to my recent post about my niece’s wedding: Wedding favors are a standard perk; in this case we received tote bags hand-made by the bride. But there was a mathematical twist to the posted sign:… Read More ›

  • High School

    By on

    “High school is the best time of your life.” That‘s what they say. Whoever they might be. Actually, some people do say that and even mean it. Then there’s the rest of us, those whose lives were much better after high school…. Read More ›

  • Jed Sutter

    By on

    I recently attended a small but wonderful exhibit of the paintings of the distinguished local artist Jed Sutter. Reflections is probably my favorite. I love the representation of the reflection, of course (and not just because it’s a geometric concept), but… Read More ›

  • Fox & Hound

    By on

    Lacking Halloween spirit, Barbara and I escaped by taking her sister Brenda to the Fox and Hound for a long, leisurely dinner — not only long and leisurely but also a truly excellent feast, as it turned out! Wedge salad,… Read More ›

  • Seattle 4: The Food

    By on

    Seafood and Asian food — that’s what you would expect in Seattle, amirite? Well, one of two ain’t bad: we did have lots of good seafood. The first night we  went to RockCreek Seafood, which was spectacularly good. It turned… Read More ›

  • Seattle 3: The City (with insufficient rain)

    By on

    This was supposed to be a mini-vacation along with Hannah and Ben’s wedding, but was it? Yes, it counted as one in my book, even though there wasn’t a whole lot of down time. Here are a few of the… Read More ›

  • Seattle 2: The Wedding

    By on

    As I indicated yesterday, our principal reason for this long weekend in Seattle was to attend the wedding of our niece, Hannah. Although I had worried that I would be overwhelmed by the large number of guests (over a hundred),… Read More ›

  • Seattle 1: Chihuly

    By on

    Barbara and I are here in Seattle for our niece’s wedding and a mini-vacation, while Barbara’s sister Brenda house-sits and cat-sits. William appreciates her long fingernails, which are designed for scritching. Anyway, all the details about Seattle will come in… Read More ›

  • Rendezvous with Rama

    By on

    The late Arthur C. Clarke and the late Isaac Asimov used to have a running dispute, which they resolved by agreeing that Clarke would always say that Asimov was the second best science fiction writer in the world, and Asimov would… Read More ›

  • Is that even a word? Is it in the dictionary?

    By on

    “That isn’t a word: it isn’t in the dictionary!” is heard all too frequently. There are two problems with statements like this: There is no such thing as THE dictionary; there are many different dictionaries, and no two lists of… Read More ›

  • Translation and culture

    By on

    Translation is impossible. Traduttore, traditore. That’s the lovely word pairing in Italian — roughly “a translator is a traitor”, where there’s only a small vowel change and a doubled consonant distinguishing the two words. A recent article by Matthew Reynolds explored… Read More ›

  • The bathroom is finally finished!

    By on

    It took nine weeks. First the workmen demolished everything, down to the studs. Then they built a complete new bathroom in the same space. Some fixtures from Kohler and Home Despot, but primarily from our local Norfolk Hardware and Home Center. (Shout-out… Read More ›

  • Intertwingled/“Hypertext in the Age of Trump”

    By on

    Hypertext pioneer Mark Bernstein has just published Intertwingled, a collection of nine essays and one short story. No one could ever say that Bernstein is shy about expressing his opinions, so don’t expect some dry attempt at scientific “neutrality.” If you… Read More ›