SO IT GOES.

New favorite word: MANICULE

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:43:00 -0800

The symbol ☞ is a punctuation mark, called an index or fist. Though rare today, this symbol was in common use between the 12th and 18th centuries in the margins of books, and was formerly included in lists of standard punctuation marks. Its typical use is as a bullet-like symbol to direct the reader’s attention to important text, having roughly the same meaning as the word “attention” or “note”… Other names for the symbol include printer’s fist, bishop’s fist, digit, manicule, mutton-fist and pointing hand. (Wikipedia)

This joins “homonculus” and “animalcule” in my growing collection of “favorite cule words.” Cule = most hilarious Latin root.

An awesomely comprehensive essay on this symbol: Toward a History of the Manicule. (Sadly, the etymology of the WTF-worthy “mutton-fist” seems to be lost.)

THE POINTING FINGER FROM OPTIMALITY THEORY HAS A NAME!!!1ELEVEN!!! (which I will now ignore, instead calling it the mutton-fist)

catsforgold.com

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:16:04 -0800

catsforgold.com:

CAN’T. STOP. LAUGHING.

h/t roboppy

Hey look, not only did linguistics get its own category,...

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:47:00 -0800

Hey look, not only did linguistics get its own category, it’s listed ahead of math, physics, chemistry and biology (but crucially, away from the books on drugs).

"Communicating the dangers of nuclear waste to unfathomably remote descendents may seem like a topic..."

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:00:58 -0800

“Communicating the dangers of nuclear waste to unfathomably remote descendents may seem like a topic best left to third-drink philosophers in dorm rooms. It’s actually been left to the most humdrum of all Cabinet-level departments after commerce, agriculture, and the interior: the Department of Energy, which oversees the disposal of radioactive trash at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. According to government guidelines, DoE must plan for the continuing safety of the site over the next 10 millenniums. So in 1991, the department (through Sandia National Laboratories) hired 13 linguists, scientists, and anthropologists at a cost of about $1 million to devise a conceptual plan for a 10,000-year marker system.”

- Slate | How can we communicate the dangers of nuclear waste to future civilizations?

Jobs for linguists, they exist!

The most adorable spambot killer ever - Ars...

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:11:00 -0800

The most adorable spambot killer ever - Ars Technica

“Enter Oli, and his moment of “thinking outside the text box.” While computers are getting better and better at optical character recognition, one thing that they still have great difficulty doing is recognizing the contents of pictures… So he came up with KittenAuth, a test that requires the user to identify which three out of nine pictures contain kittens.”

I forget why, but this came up during discussion section while talking about vector spaces and dimensionality reduction. Im in ur intarwebs, cleenin out teh spam.

sfhaps: Awesome map, “abandoned avenues” via...

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:55:00 -0800

sfhaps:

Awesome map, “abandoned avenues”

via scenes-from-my-hood, generic1, sexpigeon, davidenos

“No Public Transit Zone” is perfect.

"But Gladwell frequently holds forth about statistics and psychology, and his lack of technical..."

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:55:13 -0800

“But Gladwell frequently holds forth about statistics and psychology, and his lack of technical grounding in these subjects can be jarring. He provides misleading definitions of “homology,” “saggital plane” and “power law” and quotes an expert speaking about an “igon value” (that’s eigenvalue, a basic concept in linear algebra). In the spirit of Gladwell, who likes to give portentous names to his aperçus, I will call this the Igon Value Problem: when a writer’s education on a topic consists in interviewing an expert, he is apt to offer generalizations that are banal, obtuse or flat wrong.”

- Steven Pinker reviewing Malcolm Gladwell’s ’What the Dog Saw - And Other Adventures’

My first response was, “Shut up, Sapir!”, but this...

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:05:47 -0800

My first response was, “Shut up, Sapir!”, but this cover is pretty awesome.

You may have hugging kitties, but you’re still a creepy...

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:24:00 -0800

You may have hugging kitties, but you’re still a creepy retweeting bot.

Wikipedia | List of animals with fraudulent diplomas

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:38:12 -0800

Wikipedia | List of animals with fraudulent diplomas:

Cats are a lot more ambitious than dogs.

See also: List of cats, Categories: Famous cats

"A study released Tuesday by the Stanford University Department of Linguistics revealed that nearly..."

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:08:24 -0800

“A study released Tuesday by the Stanford University Department of Linguistics revealed that nearly two-thirds of all animal species have been adopted to describe various gay subcultures… The study concluded that if immediate conservation measures are not taken, all animal species will be exhausted by 2015 and the gay community will have to start dipping into the plant kingdom.”

- The Onion | Report: 65% Of All Wildlife Now Used As Homosexual Subculture Signifier

We demand a shrubbery!

"Men have become so openly affectionate with each other using mobile technology they’ve taken..."

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:18:00 -0800

“Men have become so openly affectionate with each other using mobile technology they’ve taken to signing off text messages to male friends with a kiss (x), giving rise to a new generation dubbed “Metrotextuals.””

- Phone texting reveals sensitive new metrotextual

They have to be coming up with the portmanteau first and then making up the trend story after, right?

"A-Rod has a lot of money, and (presumably) a lot of vanity. Just think about all the other..."

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:00:21 -0800

“A-Rod has a lot of money, and (presumably) a lot of vanity. Just think about all the other mythological scenes he could have had painted over his bed: The entrance to Hades with A-Rod as both Hades himself and Cerberus, the three-headed dog; A giant portrait of Medusa’s head, with the heads of all the snakes replaced by A-Rod’s face; A-Rod as young Zeus, freeing all of his siblings (all with matching A-Rod faces) from the belly of his father Cronus (also A-Rod). It could have been so much more spectacularly ridiculous and bombastically ego-centric.”

- The Hater | Evidence That A-Rod Is Really, Really Dull

I really, really want to be friends with Amelie Gillette.

via blogs.sfweekly.com

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:20:09 -0700

via blogs.sfweekly.com

"A former Rodriguez fling remembers seeing portraits of the slugger, 34, as a centaur hanging over..."

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:55:00 -0700

“A former Rodriguez fling remembers seeing portraits of the slugger, 34, as a centaur hanging over his bed. “He was so vain,” his ex tells Us Weekly. “He had not one, but two painted portraits of himself as a centaur. You know, the half man, half horse figure?””

- Ex: A-Rod Had Portraits of Himself as Centaur Hanging Over His Bed

Are you a pre-op trans centaur?

They should have recruited ninja cat.

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:54:00 -0700

They should have recruited ninja cat.

Acoustic Kitty

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:47:00 -0700

Acoustic Kitty:

bestofwikipedia:

Acoustic Kitty was a CIA project in the 1960s attempting to use cats in spy missions. A battery and a microphone were implanted into a cat and an antenna into its tail. Due to problems with distraction, the cat’s sense of hunger had to be addressed in another operation. Surgical and training expenses are thought to have amounted to over $20 million. The first cat mission was eavesdropping on two men in a park. The cat was released nearby, but was hit and killed by a taxi almost immediately. (via Kaylie)

pwnd! But really, this is like the greatest thing I have ever read.

Das Racist - Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (Wallpaper...

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:23:42 -0700

Das Racist - Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (Wallpaper Remix)

Incredibly stupid, brilliant, and STUCK IN MY HEAD.

h/t @michaelischool

wind-chime-ish

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:50:55 -0700

wind-chime-ish

I Can Has Cheezburger? Has school turned my brain to mush? This...

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:02:00 -0700

I Can Has Cheezburger?

Has school turned my brain to mush? This made me laugh way too much.