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- ARE PEOPLE LESS VIOLENT? (COMMENT). (2)
- Dick Weisfelder: My prior comment was just in the context of sports. Whether or not from Pinker, I have seen the...
- erik: It seems doubtful that human nature has changed. The most likely explanation would be that modern culture gives...
- HOW BANKS PREPARED FOR A U.S. DEFAULT. (2)
- GREECE’S ADVANTAGE IN THE CHICKEN GAME. (2)
- Nick: That makes sense. It reminds me of the stories Pater Familias would tell me about how in Boston the person with...
- Dick Weisfelder: Greece seems to me to be playing a game that Karl Deutsch called “underdog.” While one...
- FOOTBALL PLAYERS DELIBERATELY CAUSING CONCUSSIONS? (3)
- Nick: It was my understanding that boxing gloves were to protect the puncher’s hands and not the...
- Dick Weisfelder: Remember the Roman arenas? Bare knuckled boxing? Such injuries were taken as natural and accepted in...
- Mary Jane Schaefer: This isn’t about football. Or even sportsmanship. Well, it is about sportsmanship. But what...
- A 25 % CHANCE OF A EURO DEFAULT? (1)
- Nick: The fact that this has gone on for so long is pretty perplexing. The Economist is referring back to articles it...
- DECIDING WHAT KIND OF PATIENT YOU ARE. (1)
- Dick Weisfelder: One can be very open to new technology, but also risk averse. The recent debates about how to...
- THE EUROZONE—A CHICKEN GAME WHERE EVERY MEMBER CAN BLOW IT UP? (1)
- Mary Jane Schaefer: This is not a matter of chicken. These are all turkeys.
- ARE PEOPLE LESS VIOLENT? (COMMENT). (2)
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Category Archives: Uncategorized
THE EGGCORN DATABASE.
THE EGGCORN DATABASE. There is an eggcorn database, maintained by Chris Waigl and located here. At the same site there is an eggcorn forum. There are over 625 eggcorns in the database, with examples of usage and discussion for each … Continue reading
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EGGCORNS.
EGGCORNS. I have learned another new word—”eggcorn”. This wikipedia article defines an eggcorn as: “an idiosyncratic substitution of a word or phrase for a word or words that sound similar or identical in the speaker’s dialect. The new phrase introduces … Continue reading
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TWINS COMPETING WITH EACH OTHER.
TWINS COMPETING WITH EACH OTHER. I posted here on twins in sports and speculated that twins seem to have done better in basketball because it is a sport that you can practice one on one. Dick Weisfelder sent me this … Continue reading
Posted in Basketball, Football, Sports, Uncategorized
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PAINTING AN AVERAGE UNIVERSE.
PAINTING AN AVERAGE UNIVERSE. I encountered the study of the average color of the universe from this article by Edward Tenner in the Atlantic about Jonathon Keats, a conceptual artist who has taken to heart the findings of the study. … Continue reading
Posted in art, Science, Uncategorized
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THE APOSTROPHE.
THE APOSTROPHE. Henry Hitchings recent article on the apostrophe on the Huffington Post (November 1) asked whether the apostrophe has a future. He points out that there is an Apostrophe Protection Society (wikipedia article here) which is concerned about that … Continue reading
Posted in History, Uncategorized
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THE DASH.
THE DASH. Annalisa annotated my copy of Henry Hitchings article. She noted that the most interesting part of the article for her was Hitchings argument that punctuation is being increasingly used for rhetorical—rather than grammatical—reasons. Hitchings main example is the … Continue reading
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DOUBLE SPACING AT THE END OF A SENTENCE.
DOUBLE SPACING AT THE END OF A SENTENCE. I have always used only one space after the end of a sentence, but many people do not. This article in Slate by Farhad Manjoo argues strongly that using a double space … Continue reading
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GETTING RID OF THE CAPS LOCK.
GETTING RID OF THE CAPS LOCK. This Slate article by Christopher Beam from 2010 about how Google is eliminating the caps lock feature of the keyboard. The article thinks this is long overdue: “What’s most shocking about Google’s announcement isn’t … Continue reading
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STEALING A BRIDGE; STEALING A FERRIS WHEEL.
STEALING A BRIDGE; STEALING A FERRIS WHEEL. I posted here about the thefts of a building and of a gold bathtub. Nick, who discussed the gold bathtub in one of his standup routines, called my attention to this article about … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Uncategorized
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THE HIGH QUALITY OF AP COURSES.
THE HIGH QUALITY OF AP COURSES. The key to allowing any student to take a crack at a college level course in high school is the rigorous standard set by the AP tests, which will keep the material from being … Continue reading
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