Marco.org Tumblelog

May 15 2008 ∞

Researchers: written English language will weather LOL storm

I really just linked to this for the great headline.

Teenagers may be widely characterized as the most prominent abusers of “IM speak,” but it turns out that they don’t use it as much as we think—and it’s not hurting their language skills either.

I’m curious to see if IM-/SMS-speak has really just been a temporary result of limited technology. I tried typing a text message on a regular (non-“smart”) phone, and it took me a half hour because I used proper grammer. Misspellings and abbreviations are required for timely communication on dumbphones.

But on the iPhone, misspelling or abbreviating a word often takes more time and effort than writing it correctly. Once they’re more commonplace (and they will be), we’ll see a huge reduction in SMS-speak. The English language has far more to fear from our awful education standards than SMS.

As another example, technology limits me from expressing detailed facial expressions in plaintext media, so I’m stuck with :) and :(. That’s not going to stop me from using other facial expressions in real life.

May 14 2008 ∞
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(via peterwknox)
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cultrvultr:

Supposed to be 90 in SF tomorrow!

ledgergermane:

Pretty much everywhere, it’s gonna be hot. (via )

I am so glad someone reposted this. I had forgotten about it. Now Tiff’s hearing me laugh hysterically for no apparent reason again. (Apparently it’s not that funny to everyone.)

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jeffbaum:

goldenfiddle:

cannonballin’

My first instinct was to try to figure out what videogame this screenshot was from.

Mine too. Based on the thumbnail, I had already mentally guessed an updated Out Run.

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“ The longer Hillary stays in the race, the more one is prone to reflect unsentimentally on the Clinton years in the White House. Mrs. Clinton’s arrogance squandered a chance for universal healthcare. Bill helped elect a GOP Congress for the first time in 40 years. He pushed through NAFTA and a host of destructive deregulation. He brought China into the WTO with no protections for American jobs. He squandered historic opportunities, lastly sinking into the squalid Monica scandal. She picked a state in which she had never lived as her senatorial entitlement. The net was to make the election of 2000 close enough for the Republicans to steal, leading to the calamity of W and Dick.
— Rogue Columnist (via azspot)
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[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

This week’s music experiment album is Muse - Black Holes and Revelations. I wasn’t too crazy about most of the album’s preview segments, but a few good tracks stood out, and the rest might grow on me.

This was a gateway-drug purchase from Guitar Hero III, which contains this track, Knights of Cydonia. It got stuck in my head after Bill complained that it was too long. (I’m still at 4 stars on this one. It’s hard.)

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“That stupid long Boston song” is prohibited at our office Rock Band parties. I had no idea until today that this 8-minute snorefest is actually called “Long Time”.
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insertname:

Zero Punctuation review of Grand Theft Auto IV

I agree. The game’s good, but I don’t agree with the perfect-10 ratings it’s been getting. The pace is just far too slow — I don’t find myself motivated to run back to the game and play it after I’ve stopped. I’m certainly not very motivated to play the missions for long enough to unlock the other islands, because at the current pace, it feels like that will require 20+ hours of letting Michelle win at darts.

I don’t regret buying it, but I got more value out of Guitar Hero III.

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Comparing portion sizes from 20 years ago to today.

Excellent article. Very eye-opening. I highly recommend taking the 2 minutes to read it.

(thanks, yourdp)

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From triciaward: A news anchor said “[What] the fuck are you doing?” when she thought she was off the air.

The two-page New York Times story goes into great detail:

she used a word seldom heard on the noncable air, and then only by accident — a word that is not publishable in the newspaper.

the outburst

the word Ms. Simmons used

Ms. Simmons says, basically, What are you doing? But her question had two extra words.

“I said a word that many people find offensive.”

Ms. Simmons’ eyebrow-raising word-bomb

“minor errors like that”

Come on.

She said “fuck”. It’s a word, it has many effective uses, and it’s a part of the everyday vocabulary of many people. It’s probably safe to assume that at least half of the TV network’s staff, and half of their viewers, say “fuck” at least a few times per week.

Some people were offended. Oh well. People get offended too easily, and they self-righteously think that anything offensive to them should be illegal.

Nobody died. There were no injuries. Just like when everyone saw Janet Jackson’s nipple. America’s innocent children weren’t damaged. Nothing happened.

We’re in a war that has killed thousands of U.S. soldiers and an estimated 90,000 civilians — so far. And horrendous natural disasters have just killed many thousands of people this week.

The world is infested with war, injustice, corruption, hunger, and disease, yet our press and lawmakers are busy placating a small minority of people who get very angry when someone says “fuck”?

Get over it. We have better ways to spend our time and energy. If you don’t, start looking.