Never Give a Sucker an Asymptotically Even Flip
The Variational Enigma
The Fisher King
Independence Day
Return to Monte Casino
The Man Who Measured the Bank at Monte Carlo
Between 99 and 103 Dalmatians
8.5 +/- 0.2
The Metropolis Method (void where prohibited by law)
Improper Priors go wild on Cancun
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
War reporting
Yesterday Wikileaks posted a shocking video taken from an Apache helicopter in Iraq. It
Julian Assange, who founded Wikileaks, was interviewed about this. . He feels that the soldiers in the helicopter obviously committed a war crime, and that
Julian Assange, who founded Wikileaks, was interviewed about this. . He feels that the soldiers in the helicopter obviously committed a war crime, and that
Plain speaker's guide to "any more" and "anymore:
First here's a rephrasing of what Huddleston and Pullum's epic Cambridge Grammar of English says about "any more" and similar adverbs. The main discussion is on p 710 and following, with other bits on 823 and 831
My own impressions follow. Most speakers can say :
"She is still here" (i.e. she is here and has been for a while)
"She is still not here" (i.e. we are waiting, and she still hasn't arrived),
"She is not here anymore" ,"She is no longer here" (in both cases, she was here, but now isn't)
Many speakers find: "She is not still here","She is here anymore" awkward. For the first one the intended meaning is the same as the one expressed by "She is no longer here". Some speakers, including me, blow a fuse when confronted with the second one, and don't even understand what it means. For others, "anymore" can be used anywhere that "nowadays" is, with much the same meaning, so "She is here anymore" could be used (if you are, say, in a bar) when the person in question used to avoid the bar but now hangs out there on a regular basis. Similarly "Ice cream is cheap anymore" works for many people, but in my natural dialects, I would have to either turn it round and say "Ice cream isn't expensive anymore" or punt and say "Ice cream is cheap nowadays".
Unfortunately, linguists have taken to confusing themselves and others by talking about "positive anymore". If they had called it "nowadays anymore" there would have been no trouble. These adverbs are neither positive nor negative, just a little fussy about what kind of sentences they like to be wrapped up in. The "nowadays" translation helped me, and is from John Lawler. As he says
Apparently, for users of positive "anymore", "nowadays" doesn't
cut it anymore. Anymore, they use "anymore" instead. Or perhaps
only in certain speech contexts; the definitive sociolinguistic
study remains to be done.
I guess I can forgive him for using the term "positive", because he puts it in quotes and gives an amusing example.
By the way, in Columbus, Ohio. ice cream really is cheap and good at Graeter's and Jeni's . No ice creams were consumed in the creation of this post, but several area shops are on high alert.
- They are polarity sensitive: this means that there is a difference in acceptability between "She isn't here any more" and "She is here any more". For many speakers, the first is OK, the second not.
- The difference between "any more" and "anymore" is a British/American spelling difference.
- You can line up "anymore" with "still" and "no longer". They differ in how they work with negation.
My own impressions follow. Most speakers can say :
"She is still here" (i.e. she is here and has been for a while)
"She is still not here" (i.e. we are waiting, and she still hasn't arrived),
"She is not here anymore" ,"She is no longer here" (in both cases, she was here, but now isn't)
Many speakers find: "She is not still here","She is here anymore" awkward. For the first one the intended meaning is the same as the one expressed by "She is no longer here". Some speakers, including me, blow a fuse when confronted with the second one, and don't even understand what it means. For others, "anymore" can be used anywhere that "nowadays" is, with much the same meaning, so "She is here anymore" could be used (if you are, say, in a bar) when the person in question used to avoid the bar but now hangs out there on a regular basis. Similarly "Ice cream is cheap anymore" works for many people, but in my natural dialects, I would have to either turn it round and say "Ice cream isn't expensive anymore" or punt and say "Ice cream is cheap nowadays".
Unfortunately, linguists have taken to confusing themselves and others by talking about "positive anymore". If they had called it "nowadays anymore" there would have been no trouble. These adverbs are neither positive nor negative, just a little fussy about what kind of sentences they like to be wrapped up in. The "nowadays" translation helped me, and is from John Lawler. As he says
Apparently, for users of positive "anymore", "nowadays" doesn't
cut it anymore. Anymore, they use "anymore" instead. Or perhaps
only in certain speech contexts; the definitive sociolinguistic
study remains to be done.
I guess I can forgive him for using the term "positive", because he puts it in quotes and gives an amusing example.
By the way, in Columbus, Ohio. ice cream really is cheap and good at Graeter's and Jeni's . No ice creams were consumed in the creation of this post, but several area shops are on high alert.
Facebook's de facto terms of use
If you are thinking of collecting and distributing data from social media sites, you should read
Pete Warden's account of how Facebook responded to his activities.. Facebook appears to be keen to exert more control than one would think they are entitled to, and certainly more than is convenient for academics. Nobody knows how this would play out in court… Twitter is looking better than ever as a data source.
Pete Warden's account of how Facebook responded to his activities.. Facebook appears to be keen to exert more control than one would think they are entitled to, and certainly more than is convenient for academics. Nobody knows how this would play out in court… Twitter is looking better than ever as a data source.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Genuinely funny April Fool article
This one actually made me laugh:
A would-be saboteur arrested today at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland made the bizarre claim that he was from the future. Eloi Cole, a strangely dressed young man, said that he had travelled back in time to prevent the LHC from destroying the world.
The LHC successfully collided particles at record force earlier this week, a milestone Mr Cole was attempting to disrupt by stopping supplies of Mountain Dew to the experiment's vending machines.
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gadgets/0,39029552,49305387,00.htm?s_cid=33
A would-be saboteur arrested today at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland made the bizarre claim that he was from the future. Eloi Cole, a strangely dressed young man, said that he had travelled back in time to prevent the LHC from destroying the world.
The LHC successfully collided particles at record force earlier this week, a milestone Mr Cole was attempting to disrupt by stopping supplies of Mountain Dew to the experiment's vending machines.
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gadgets/0,39029552,49305387,00.htm?s_cid=33
Environmentally concerned spouse
"It felt so good to throw away that Martha Stewart dishwasher liquid"
Context: in our machine, Martha Stewart's green dishwasher liquid may be green, but isn't effective for washing.
Context: in our machine, Martha Stewart's green dishwasher liquid may be green, but isn't effective for washing.
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