DEBUNKING BULLSHIT LANGUAGE MYTHS! YAAY!
This viral email crap about Cambridge University saying that you only need to have the first and last letters of a word in the right positions in order to read it has always bothered me. You know, this:
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?
It is NOT TRUE. Seeing as I've studied linguistics and languages, people always fricking send me this thing and I hate it so much. This video is hilarious, and touches on all the key points as to why this whole thing is bullshit.
Another thing...most of the vowels are in the right order within the longer words, which is a major clue to the pronunciation of the words.
Maybe someday we can talk about "all the eskimo words for snow" or those "groups of people who only see five colors".
For coffee snobs (like me) everywhere...this print by Brian W. Jones.
This collection of portraits of soldiers from the American Civil War from the Library of Congress is so cool. Click on that link to see almost 700 of these. Some have notes along with them, some are painted, and some are kind of funny, like these two:
Look how young this sailor boy is! Aah!
This peanut butter and jelly wallet from The Spoon Sisters. It's currently sold out but here's hoping they make some more because...awesome.
Watching water drop at 10000 frames a second.
It's really really really really weird.
Tips on how to make life simple again.
Tip #1 - Don’t try to read other people’s minds. Don’t make other people try to read yours. Communicate.
Tip #14 - Don't try to please everyone. Just do what you know is right.
Tip #24 - Single task. Do one thing at a time and give it all you got.
Having my mind melted by these paper sculptures by Jen Stark
Photos of Bettie Page. (click for more)
She always looks like she's having fun in her photos. Plus? Totally beautiful.
No x in espresso. Love that!
ReplyDeleteI love the 60 ways to make life simple again!
ReplyDeleteThe espresso thing drives me bananas! Express - o
ReplyDeleteThat water droplet video is nuts. <3
ReplyDeleteum, seriously, if we lived in the same country maybe we really could be a 2 person linguistics nerdherd? first the "they", now the stupid reading thing. everyone sends that to me all the time too and it really irritates me. sigh. i'm glad there is linguistics nerdery similar to my own in a corner of the internet. thanks!
ReplyDeleteAbby Gail is my twin from another country I guess.
ReplyDeleteLove the Language Myths and the water droplet videos! I love to share things like this with my students.
ReplyDelete