"How Irish Falconry Changed Language"

This very cool article describes a transition of several words "from medieval falconry to modern English" (with William Shakespeare as intermediary and interpreter).

Tales from the ArXiv: A Population with Two Genders

The English language has reared its ugly head again.

In the paper Constrained evolution algebras and dynamical systems of a bisexual population, the authors actually mean a population with two genders (as one can see from the abstract). This is one of those cases where the direct translation of their desired word into English happens to have a very different meaning.

Pronouncing Words in the United Kingdom

This poem from a 1906 anthology says it all.

(Tip of the cap to Jonathan Adams.)

Update: Here is another poem on pronunciation in the English language. (Tip of the cap to Martin Gould.)

Singular 'They' and Personal Pronouns of Indeterminate Gender

Damn you, English, for not having a non-awkward singular personal pronoun of indeterminate gender.

Apparently, the singular 'they' --- which I like to use informally, but which I have ingrained in me from my education as being technically incorrect --- used to be considered correct until a 19th century backlash. (Also see a discussion on Wikipedia of various alternatives to a generic 'he'.

Bah, I think we've gone backwards.

Update: I didn't state this explicitly, but I have third-person in mind.

Update 2: Travis Hime reminds me of an issue of Dinosaur Comics about this issue (though 'they' was used historically in the singular to achieve gender neutrality until the backlash).

"Bloody Minded"

Yesterday, Somerville's Principal told me that I am "bloody minded". I've decided to take this as a compliment.

(As far as I can tell, this is the British term for "pain in the ass".)

2012 Summer Olympics: Epic Mascot Fail

I hadn't been paying attention to the Olympics --- because, really, who the fuck cares about that nonsense (except for ping pong, of course) --- but this article (posted by Alexander Morisse on Facebook) shows a picture of one of the twin Olympic mascots. And I'll be damned: it looks like a cartoony CCTV camera. That's actually rather apt for this country, especially since I can't even fathom what a large cartoony queue would look like. But really, England? You actually want to brag about the fact that you invade people's privacy beyond belief? Sheesh...

(That said, it would be nigh impossible to sink beneath the official mascot low point that Atlanta gave the world for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. But London certainly has done it's best to try, hasn't it?)

Translating Between British English and Other Forms of English

Here is a nice translator between British English and other forms of English.

This hits the nail right on the head. What amazes me most is that the Brits wonder why I almost never understand what they actually mean...

(Tip of the cap to Alexander Morisse.)

Classic "Awesome" Spam

Courtesy Felicia Gottmann, here is an oldie-but-goodie --- a list of "awesome" (and occasionally awesome) sentences by some future Bulwer-Lyton laureates. (A few of these actually are legitimately good, though most of them are just "awesome." Make sure you get all the way down to #56. I approve!) I can't remember precisely when in my life these sentences (or many of them) arrived in my e-mail box back in the day, but I definitely saw at least many of these sentences at some point many years ago.