22 February 2010
I’m just reading the paper by the American Dialect Society (PDF) about the word of the year (2009) and the word of the decade (2000–2009).
The word of the decade was google. The word of the year was tweet. But there are some other interesting winners. […]
25 January 2010
I was thinking about tongue-twisters the other day. I think the most effective ones are two or three words long. Also, there are a lot of tricky two-word phrases—it’s not just a small few that are hard to say. […]
18 November 2009
While you’re all waiting for the next instalment of my account of the National Bible Bee, I thought I might give everyone a little something to think about—The Game.
The Game has three rules, viz.: […]
2 September 2009
I mean ‘incredible’ literally. Squares A and B are the same colour!
Go ahead and check it with a graphics-editing program, or by printing and cutting out each square.
1 September 2009
The theremin is an instrument that you don’t touch. Really.
It’s an electic instrument, invented in 1920 by the Russian inventor Léon Theremin (born Лев Сергеевич Термен Lev Sergeyevich Termen) when he was twenty-four. He was a scientist, working on proximity sensors, when he got the idea for a musical instrument. A vertical antenna affects pitch—the closer an object is to it, the higher the pitch. A looped antenna affects volume—the closer an object is to it, the softer the volume. The only time you touch it is when you don’t want it to make a sound. […]
16 June 2009
This is an interesting video I first saw yesterday of Seattle-born actress Amy Walker speaking in twenty-one different accents. Part of what her aim is is to replicate not only the consonant and vowel sounds of the people who live in the region, but also the tone and mannerisms. […]
English
