Imagine a Wikipedia constantly patrolled by academics. Can you do it? Well, someone has, and they've made it look like this.
Scholarpedia, a peer-reviewed version of wikipedia (whatever the hell that means... isn't wikipedia, in a sense, peer-reviewed?). Currently, the Linguistics section seems to be written by Mark Arnoff and "peer-reviewed" by his longtime collaborator Wendy Sandler, both of whom I have respect for but hardly what I would call a balanced peer-review process.
Where are all the linguists at? It's not like we have anything better to do...
(I remembered to use the 'linguistics' tag for the first time on this blog... lame)
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Rerun
At this point I would like to reiterate my love for Motion Trio as well as my disappointment that I will miss them live in Chicago by only three weeks. But I have a plan. If I can convince 800 people in SD to buy their CD they may consider stopping by next time they tour the US.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Scientific reporting
Shortly after posting my last poorly-thought-out-stream-of-consciousness post, I randomly stumbled on this article titled "Is scientific Journalism Doomed?" which is a more interesting informal analysis of the problem. (via slashdot)
podcast is a noun which can be verbed, etc.
Having recently become the owner of an iPod through the kindness of a friend I have begun to fall in love with the podcast once again.
I used to listen to these things a lot when I was living abroad but stopped when I came back to the US and had AM/FM in English to listen to. On top of that, my days became busier with a lot of academic reading which precludes the opportunity to simultaneously listen to someone talking (or podcasting if you will).
But the dead time that I often have when commuting or doing household chores can now be filled with talky goodness.
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It is thus that I was reacquainted with the NPR show RadioLab. In a world where science reporting for the general public tends to do greater harm then good, as the diluted versions are often misrepresenting the facts or obscuring the significant bits thereby distorting the results, WNYC's RadioLab does a little bit better. And they tell the stories in such clever ways, managing to explain generally complicated processes via audio more thoroughly than most science shows do it using the medium of TV.
RadioLab isn't perfect; I'm sure it falls pray to many of the pitfalls of simplifying science. I was a bit surprised by some of their oversimplifications of E&M physics in their relativity episode, for example. But I think it's really fun to listen to, and it has familiarized me with topics that I may have otherwise been forever ignorant about. Besides, I'm sure that the majority of pitfalls really come from reporting verbatim the reports on linguistic phenomena provided by a respected neurologist. I'm sure the neurologist knows a lot about the nervous system and a little about neuro-linguistics, but her oversimplification of linguistic phenomena will then be simplified further by RadioLab (assuming, as everyone often does, that the expert knows exactly what she's talking about) leading to poor science reporting.
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I'm still looking for more podcasts to listen to. Right now I've got "this american life", "chinesepod", "car talk", "all songs considered", CNN and MSNBC's hourly news updates, and "Help! a bear is eating me!" Any suggestions?
I used to listen to these things a lot when I was living abroad but stopped when I came back to the US and had AM/FM in English to listen to. On top of that, my days became busier with a lot of academic reading which precludes the opportunity to simultaneously listen to someone talking (or podcasting if you will).
But the dead time that I often have when commuting or doing household chores can now be filled with talky goodness.
==================
It is thus that I was reacquainted with the NPR show RadioLab. In a world where science reporting for the general public tends to do greater harm then good, as the diluted versions are often misrepresenting the facts or obscuring the significant bits thereby distorting the results, WNYC's RadioLab does a little bit better. And they tell the stories in such clever ways, managing to explain generally complicated processes via audio more thoroughly than most science shows do it using the medium of TV.
RadioLab isn't perfect; I'm sure it falls pray to many of the pitfalls of simplifying science. I was a bit surprised by some of their oversimplifications of E&M physics in their relativity episode, for example. But I think it's really fun to listen to, and it has familiarized me with topics that I may have otherwise been forever ignorant about. Besides, I'm sure that the majority of pitfalls really come from reporting verbatim the reports on linguistic phenomena provided by a respected neurologist. I'm sure the neurologist knows a lot about the nervous system and a little about neuro-linguistics, but her oversimplification of linguistic phenomena will then be simplified further by RadioLab (assuming, as everyone often does, that the expert knows exactly what she's talking about) leading to poor science reporting.
==================
I'm still looking for more podcasts to listen to. Right now I've got "this american life", "chinesepod", "car talk", "all songs considered", CNN and MSNBC's hourly news updates, and "Help! a bear is eating me!" Any suggestions?
Monday, September 24, 2007
Being an avid hater of tailgaters and a huge fan of pirates, I found this photo of a license plate amusing on at least two different levels. (You probably can't read the small print on the license plate frame, but you could if you were on the guy's ass. The top line says "too close for cannons" the bottom says "prepare to be boarded!")
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Japanese innovation will never cease to impress me
Why can't American corporations invent something as cool as beta gel. This gel is such an amazing shock absorber that you can drop an egg on it from 22m high, heck, you can even throw an egg at it from up close, and the egg will not break. Watch it in action:
So why aren't American corporations inventing these things? Because they're busy funding creation museums and designing the next best war machine (saw this two mornings ago on the local channel 8 morning news show). Who's got the money to R&D these frivolous toys? (That's right, I verbed R&D)
So why aren't American corporations inventing these things? Because they're busy funding creation museums and designing the next best war machine (saw this two mornings ago on the local channel 8 morning news show). Who's got the money to R&D these frivolous toys? (That's right, I verbed R&D)
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