4
Oct
2014
You're doing it wrong
Submitted by Karl HagenRandall Munroe is a smart guy, but to me it looks like he flubbed the punchline here in the latest XKCD:
Topic:
Crankiness
30
Mar
2009
Do me a favor
Submitted by Karl HagenThe next time you start bitching about "grammatical errors" that set your teeth on edge, have the decency to make the things you complain about actual issues of grammar. Grammar is a somewhat vague term, but it certainly includes syntax, as well as a good chunk of morphology. And a case can be made for certain parts of semantics. But spelling errors, such as the confusion between "affect" and "effect," certainly aren't grammatical problems. And I would argue that most questions of word usage, that is those that turn on pure semantics (e.g.
10
Oct
2008
Hot for Chronological Accuracy
Submitted by Karl HagenI have mixed feelings about Hotforwords. On the plus side, she's talking about language, she generally does some research, and she seems to have a clue about linguistic matters. (Oh, yeah, and she really is hot.) On the other hand, she confines herself to a fairly trivial form of etymology: stories about word origins shorn of historical linguistics. It also appears that her research is confined to looking things up in a few of the standard references (like the OED), and, more questionably, Wikipedia.
Topic:
11
Jan
2008
Google News is pissing me off
Submitted by Karl HagenMy browser's home page is Google news, and when I am signed in, it gives me a list of "personalized" news stories that are supposedly based on my previous searches and news. Yet it continually serves up stories that I have absolutely no interest in (most recently the Britney Spears tragicomedy), and there seems to be no way to override what Google thinks is good for me. Why, oh why, don't they have a "not interested" button like Amazon?
For the time being, I've given up on their personalization and will go to Google news without signing in.
Topic:
