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A new form of gambling called historical racing allows people to “wager on horse races that have already taken place” and promises to be as fast & addictive as slots. (via mr)
Update: Here’s a company that provides an historical racing service. (thx, sam)
In this video, an autistic woman speaks in her native language and then translates it into English. But it’s not really a direct translation because, as she states, her language is not limited to expressing her thoughts to other human beings…it’s more about her reacting to every element of her environment. More about the video on MetaFilter (one commenter calls the thread “perhaps the most enlightening thing I’ve ever read on MetaFilter”), including a comment from the video’s creator.
Diagram that charts instances of the “x is the new y” snowclone from 2005. See also: a list I compiled last last year.
English Sentences Without Overt Grammatical Subjects, or the grammar of swearing. “Chomsky observes that the adverbial elements of (39)-(42) are outside of the verb phrase and that only elements within the verb phrase play a role in strict subcategorization of verbs. That principle would clearly be violated if fuck were a verb.”
The best niche blog yet: it’s devoted to the use of the lowercase “L” in otherwise uppercase text. “WHAT THE HEll? WHY DO PEOPlE WRITE lIKE THIS?”
The web is perfect for taking jokes too far: a list of the phrase “my hovercraft is full of eels” in dozens of languages.
Jargon watch: “book” as a synonym for “cool”. Sample usage: “That YouTube video is so book.” As books are decidedly uncool, you might wonder how this usage came about. Book is a T9onym of cool…both words require pressing 2665 on the keypad of a mobile phone but book comes up before cool in the T9 dictionary, leading to inadvertent uses of the former for the latter. (thx, david)
An Elvis taxon is the apparent rediscovery of an animal that has vanished from the fossil record, but that is really the discovery of a look-alike animal. “The term Elvis taxon is used because of the large number of sightings of Elvis Presley long after his death, as well as for his many impersonators.”
True Hoop’s Henry Abbott does a bit of research into baby names inspired by NBA players. “[Kobe] was drafted in 1996, and in 1997 the name debuted at #553. 2001 was its best year ever, when it was the 223rd most common name in America. Donald, Keith, Troy, Lance, Simon, Chad, Dante, Douglas, Tony, Joe all ranked lower.”
Hillel Cooperman purchased a small autograph book dating from the 1940s in a Hong Kong shop and has posted scans of the book online in hopes that people will help translate it. A commenter says: “This book is used to leave comments — quite popular at graduation time when your classmates left you good wishes of your future. The owner of the book is named ‘Xi Rao’, and the college he graduated from in Spring 1942 is ‘Jiao Tong’ university.”
What is Wrong with the Use of these Terms: “Deaf-mute”, “Deaf and dumb”, or “Hearing-impaired”? “Overwhelmingly, deaf and hard of hearing people prefer to be called ‘deaf’ or ‘hard of hearing.’”
Gawker has a list of blog-media cliches. I’m especially tired of “Best. Thing. Evar!” and “teh”. They also forgot “Internets” and “the Google”. Then again, I’m partial to “wait for it” so whatever.
“Pizza upskirt” is the term for a from-underneath-the-crust photo of a slice of pizza. Example. Does that make this a hamburger down blouse?
Prewalking: walking down the subway platform so that when you board the train, you’ll be close to the exit or transfer point when the train reaches its destination.
Update: Photo of the Way Out -> tube map, which marks which side of the train to exit from and where exits/transfers are for each station. (thx, tom)
Update: Exit maps are available for the Toronto and Toyko subways. (thx, adam)
A paper by two economists tracks politically loaded phrases used by Democrats and Republicans. For instance, the Republicans use “illegal aliens” while the Democrats speak of “veterans health”. Full list of loaded phrases is here and the original paper is here.
Wordie is “like Flickr, but without the photos”. “Wordie lets you make lists of words — practical lists, words you love, words you hate, whatever. You can then see who else has listed the same words, and talk about it.” Lots of people love schadenfreude. (via clusterflock)
Worst analogies ever written in a high school essay. “He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree. ”
In an entry yesterday, I (knowingly) used the word nonplussed in a non-standard fashion. The Oxford American Dictionary on my computer tells me: “In standard use, nonplussed means ‘surprised and confused’. In North American English, a new use has developed in recent years, meaning ‘unperturbed’ — more or less the opposite of its traditional meaning. Although the use is common, it is not yet considered standard.” I’m happy to help move the English language forward (backward?) in this manner. That and I wanted to see if the language pedants in the audience were paying attention…and they certainly were. ;) (thx, everyone who sent this in)
the fifteen pounds that new Google employees supposedly gain in their first year at Google from gorging on the omnipresent free food.
Finally! An answer to the question “if a thousand monkeys robots type at a thousand typewriters for one thousand years, will they produce Shakespeare?” The answer is “police undies”.
I’m sure native Bostonians will find much to argue about in this list of Boston slang. (via cyn-c)
The Cupertino effect: a term for incorrect spellcheck suggestions that make it into finalized documents. The term comes from the appearance of the word “Cupertino” in several European Union documents in the place of “cooperation”. “The fact that Secretary General Robertson is going to join this session this afternoon in the European Union headquarters gives you already an idea of how close and co-ordinated this Cupertino is and this action will be.”
Oxford University Press has announced their word of the year for 2006: carbon neutral. Runners up included DRM, ghostriding, CSA, and Islamofascism.
Alright, anyone using the term Web 3.0 gets poked in the eye. Cripes.
The entry for calling shotgun on Wikipedia. There are almost 60 special amendments to the “official” rules, including “Amendment IX: Australian Shotgun. Originally from Australia, if two people tie for shotgun, then the first person to put their thumb on their head is awarded shotgun. If they both do this at the same time, then an immediate pissbolt (race) to the car is required.” (via zach, who says “best Wikipedia entry ever?”)
James Gleick on how the Oxford English Dictionary staff is dealing with the proliferation of words on the internet. “New words weren’t proliferating at quite the rate they have done in the last 10 years. Not just the Internet, but text messaging and so on has created lots and lots of new vocabulary.”
Headline: Naked man arrested for concealed weapon. This reads like an entry in a six words story competition.
Cockney rhyming slang meets celebrity namedropping. “I left my Clare Rayners down the Fatboy Slim so I was late for the Basil Fawlty. The Andy McNab cost me an Ayrton Senna but it didn’t stop me getting the Britney Spears in. Next thing you know it turned into a Gary Player and I was off my Chevy Chase.”
“Wans sup pawn at I’m their worth reel ladle pegs hole eft tome deuce seethe a whirled.” Listen to the audio file and it’ll all make sense. (thx, azrael)
Update: See also Ladle Rat Rotten Hut. (thx, carol)
Snowclone watch watch: Anil discovers the multivalent story of America.
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