User:	john_j_enright
	Date:	2009-12-25 01:26
	Subject:	Christmas Duck
	Security:	Public

Donald Duck may not  be a big part of your holiday celebrations. But in Sweden, this is his time to shine:

Every year on Dec. 24 at 3 p.m., half of Sweden sits down in front of the television for a family viewing of the 1958 Walt Disney Presents Christmas special, "From All of Us to All of You." Or as it is known in Sverige, Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul: "Donald Duck and his friends wish you a Merry Christmas."

	User:	roadriverrail
	Date:	2009-12-25 00:19
	Subject:	Obligatory Christmas Post
	Security:	Public

I'm fairly sure this is the first year I haven't felt particularly moved to write a Christmas post. I've basically been unmoved in the entirety of the season this year. I know it's Christmas day right now, which is a day that has been special for my entire life regardless of my religious identity. It just doesn't really seem to matter, though.

Happy Christmas to you all, either way, and I hope that you've got the spirit of the season. If you do, have a little extra to make up the slack.

	User:	patrissimo
	Date:	2009-12-25 10:47
	Subject:	fight the urge
	Security:	Public

I wrote up a post on climategate b/c I saw some posts on it that reinforced my prejudices, but then I deleted it. Yay!

(tentative new years resolution: don't post about climate or genetics in 2010)

	User:	fozgen
	Date:	2009-12-25 00:03
	Subject:	Природные катаклизмы.
	Security:	Public

Только что началась серьезная гроза, с громом, молнией и сильным ливнем. За три минуты до Рождества...
Тем не менее, всех причастных с Рождеством!!!

	User:	ernunnos
	Date:	2009-12-24 17:11
	Subject:	The last piece of vacation.
	Security:	Public

Just a couple more minutes, and stachybotrys will be here!

So far I've had lots of good family time, playing with the kids, festive music, food, drink, and most of that while lounging in front of the fireplace. All I need now is to snuggle up on the comfy leather couch with my special lady friend and watch It's a Wonderful Life.

	User:	linguaphiles (posted by xenoamorist)
	Date:	2009-12-24 14:10
	Subject:	"already??"
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	curious

My friend posted a Facebook status saying that he was back in Southern California, which would be surprisingly early for winter break, and five or six of us have commented on it saying just "already??" Another friend posted "なにー？？" (which he and I are aware doesn't translate to "already??"), which got me wondering as to how to say "already" in the sense that we're using it in other languages. The direct Spanish translation would be "ya", and the Chinese translation would be "已經", but both don't have quite the same meaning as "already"; my friend who posted in Japanese said that "もう", similarly, sounds awkward, and my boyfriend added that "sudah" in Indonesian isn't the same, either. "なにー？？" and "真的??" capture our confusion but not the way we've basically been copying and pasting each others' responses.

How would you translate "already??" into other languages in a way that's both grammatical and felicitous (in the linguistic sense)?

	User:	linguaphiles (posted by iarra)
	Date:	2009-12-24 16:34
	Subject:	arabic or coptic
	Security:	Public

I was looking at some Coptic Orthodox icons and on those of saints they say "piapostolos" and on those of archangels they say "piarchangelos" in Coptic letters after their name (so, St. Mark is Markos Piapostolos).

The apostolos and archangelos parts are pretty clear but does anyone know what the "pi-" means exactly? It's probably Coptic but since Copts mostly speak Arabic now, I guess it could be Arabic, too. My first guess would be something like "holy" but in all the other Afro-Asiatic languages I've heard the word "holy" for it is something like kadish/qaddash/etc...

(I've tried looking this up elsewhere, already)

	User:	azjournal (posted by chaton_de_neige)
	Date:	2009-12-24 13:10
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

I'm planning a bachelorette party on the east-ish side of Phoenix, but I'm planning from up in Oregon. I know there's the old standby of "rent a limo, go down Mill, end up at a hotel," but I feel like everyone did that for their 21st birthday, and I'd love to shake it up a little bit. I know the bride loves that piano bar on Mill, but I don't know if it's still around, or anything. Are there any neat places you can think of that you'd go for a bachelorette party?

Everyone invited, save one, is over 21. I'd love to do a pre-drinking dinner with her, so if you have some suggestions for dinner beforehand, that'd be awesome, too.

Thank you guys so much. I haven't lived in Phoenix since right after I turned 18, so making plans for a grown-up night is a bit dicey.

	User:	linguaphiles (posted by runawayballista)
	Date:	2009-12-24 14:16
	Subject:	any good book recommendations for modern Hebrew?
	Security:	Public

Since my university doesn't offer any courses in modern Hebrew, I'd like to find a halfway decent teach-yourself book until I can find an actual class on it. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find anything on my own yet -- does anyone have any good recommendations for a teach-yourself type book for modern Hebrew? I'm fuzzy on the alphabet (both script and print) since it's been years since temple school, so anything that has a section on learning the alphabet is a huge plus, but not necessary. If anyone could recommend a good alef-bet workbook too that'd be great.

Thanks!

	User:	gustavolacerda
	Date:	2009-12-24 15:00
	Subject:	the linguistics of honking
	Security:	Public

If any linguists are reading this, may I suggest doing a field study in Brazil, about the semantics and pragmatics of honking. I'm sure it's different from North American honking, but the biggest advantage is that data is plentiful... all you need is a webcam + microphone and an apartment in my building.

	User:	ernunnos
	Date:	2009-12-24 12:18
	Subject:	Inglourious Basterds.
	Security:	Public

Finally saw it, and Tarantino did include an explicit Karl May reference! It may be silly to judge a movie on such a small point, but it shows a certain attention to detail, and the way it was worked in was actually rather clever.

Four stars. Happy to have paid for the DVD, will watch it again.

User:	marginalrevtion
Date:	2009-12-24 11:32
Subject:	Assorted links
Security:	Public

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/12/assorted-links-20.html

1. Best-selling authors of the decade (UK).

2. What are Californians getting for their state spending?

3. Young Ben Bernanke (photo).

4. Who really runs monetary policy these days?

5. Michael Mandel is blogging again.

6. Shifting the balance of power toward politicians.

	User:	ernunnos
	Date:	2009-12-24 12:00
	Subject:	Watches.
	Security:	Public

I haven't bought a new watch in a long time, since I'm perfectly happy with the ones I have, but I've been keeping an eye on watchdoddy.com lately out of curiosity—it's an economic indicator—and now the topic is coming up on my friends list again.

Something I don't think enough people realize about watches: they're just jewelry. Especially in the age of cell phones. There is zero reason to wear a watch besides decoration and social signaling. So anyone who says, "Expensive watches are stupid, I can get a digital that tells time just as accurately as that $5000 watch for $5!" is completely missing the point. If you're wearing a watch at all it's sending a message. You took the time to select it and put it on. A $5 watch is like a polyester clip-on tie. Those who really don't care just don't bother. If you bothered, and deliberately went that direction, it's an expression of irony or resentment. Or maybe just autism. That might be the message you wanted to send, but probably not.

So if you're going to bother, put some thought into it.

That's not a euphemism for "Spend a lot of money". Not all jewelry is expensive. There's a time and a place for inexpensive costume jewelry. And for the timepiece equivalent, the fashion quartz. There's a time and a place for sneakers, Underarmour, and an athletic watch. The cost of the watch is less important than whether or not it matches the outfit and the occasion. If it's not the kind of event where you'd see $20,000 diamond necklaces, it's probably not the right time to be wearing a $20,000 watch.

That's why I don't see the point of replicas. Wearing a replica of an obnoxiously expensive watch is just going to be inappropriate in most cases, and if I were ever to go to a place where it would be appropriate, the kind of people who would be there would rapidly see through me just as easily as my watch.

In my opinion, that makes shopping for watches even more fun, because it takes all the pressure off, and opens up a whole bunch of options and considerations.

	User:	azjournal (posted by clodappleleft)
	Date:	2009-12-24 09:58
	Subject:	Where in Flagstaff ro go sledding?
	Security:	Public

Hey, I want to take my daughter to Flagstaff this weekend to see snow and maybe do some sledding and such. I'm looking for suggestions as to where to take her.

	User:	patrissimo
	Date:	2009-12-24 21:56
	Subject:	The failure of biotech to produce cures
	Security:	Public

Article in Fast Company, via Seth Roberts.

I ask former researcher Manuel López-Figueroa, a rock-star-looking vice president at prominent biotech VC firm Bay City Capital and a manager of a major academic research consortium, to tell me what genome-related treatments or tests are emerging in the field. He thinks for a minute. "As far as I know, nothing," he says, finally. "People were very optimistic about DNA studies, but I can't recall anything that has come out of them. Time will tell whether we'll eventually get there or not, but would I put money into them? Philanthropic and government money, yes; investor money, no."

I also look up all of the gene-focused companies mentioned in nine longish miracle-of-the-genome articles that ran in The New York Times and Boston Globe between 1998 and 2002: Of the 14 companies described as leading the way to remarkable new drugs and tests, all but one are out of business by virtue of having either folded, melted away in an acquisition, shifted to third-party gene-testing services, refocused on conventional drug development, or stooped to selling controversial direct-to-consumer products.
...
The simple fact is we still just don't know very much about genes, says Craig Venter, who famously spearheaded the push to sequence the human genome, founded Celera, and remains a driving force in genetics research. "We don't know what most genes do, and we certainly don't know what the variations are in most people. The idea that we can design custom drugs around genes, or change genes, is just silliness and science fiction."
...
The gene most strongly linked to intelligence accounts for less than 0.4% of the observed variation, while the top six intelligence genes together predict 1% of the variation. A 2009 study of about 6,000 people came up with a technique for predicting a person's height by looking at the 54 height-related genes; the results turned out to be one-tenth as accurate as averaging the heights of both parents and adjusting for sex, a technique introduced in 1886 by statistician Sir Francis Galton.
...
The one corner of the genome-focused biotech industry that's thriving is the one churning out equipment and services to support researchers in their endless hunt for gene links.
...
None of this is to say we shouldn't have bothered with the genome, or that we should stop working on it now. But we shouldn't base our decisions to invest in the science or in the biotech that comes out of it on an incomplete understanding of how long a task we're facing.

User:	kari_freckle
Date:	2009-12-24 15:42
Subject:	It Wouldn’t Be Christmas Without Krampus!
Security:	Public

http://karisullivan.com/2009/12/24/it-wouldnt-be-christmas-without-krampus/

http://karisullivan.com/?p=519

Merry Christmas!

	User:	katestine
	Date:	2009-12-24 09:41
	Subject:	I miss Freddy and Mango
	Security:	Public

In case you were wondering what that was all about...

I woke up yesterday morning and realized that if my new expedition buddy has to go to Florida instead of climbing Europe's tallest mountain with me, and I'm not really excited about any place I might go on expedition, I might as well get some more instruction in the US before I blow $800/day to climb in the Alps. I've heard tremendous things about the classes at American Alpine Institute and they have a perfect little 6-day seminar in late August that covers rock AND ice techniques. Woo!

While on their website, I discovered they have a 4-day learn to lead class in Joshua Tree starting Monday and realized this would be the bestest last-minute winter vacation ever. Sun! Learning dangerous skills! Cheaper than Florida! And a day at Disneyland!

I called AAI and they had space and I was thinking about booking, but started chatting with the guy about Alpinism2 and he said, "Have you considered our 12-day Alpine Mountaineering and Technical Leadership (pt 2) class? Learn to lead is the first four days of that." I had, but it says you have to take pt 1 and... Bottom-line, after about a half hour discussion, he commented that my skill set is pretty much in between Alpinism2 and AMTL2: I'm more than ready to learn to lead on rock, but I don't quite have the glacier skills they expect for the latter. The timing of AMTL2 isn't quite what I'd like - and I'm not sure I want to do 12 days of hard core exercise with strangers - and I'm bummed that if I was in Ecuador right now, I'd have the exact right background. On the other hand, Alpinism2 sounds like "intro to multi-pitch" + a review of what we learned on Rainier. *sighs*

It's hard deciding which is worse - wasting my precious summer vaca on something that will bore me or being a little behind everyone. Reading a detailed trip report helped a lot: while those guys had much more mountain experience, I think there are areas where I'm better prepared. I also feel like this is The Way To Learn This Stuff and, in one felled swoop, AMTL2 is the last formal climbing class I'll need. After that it's practice and maybe refreshers. Which is exciting. Alpine finishing school indeed.

I've signed up to go to Mt. Washington with Dynamic Outdoors at the end of January. The way they do it, you pay separately for the day of ice climbing and the summit attempt. I'm considering bailing on one day and instead hiring a private guide to work on crevasse skills, esp. since my fave guide in the world works up there (probably for the same company) this season.

	User:	learn_languages (posted by kehlen_crow)
	Date:	2009-12-24 17:36
	Subject:	Paragraphs and numerals, in English
	Security:	Public

   I mean, this one is three 'spaces' long.
 While this one is only one 'space' long.

	User:	patrissimo
	Date:	2009-12-24 18:32
	Subject:	ISIL 2010
	Security:	Public
	Music:	Baby Driver - Simon & Garfunkel

Anyone going to the ISIL 2010 conference in Phoenix and want to share a room?

User:	marginalrevtion
Date:	2009-12-24 07:22
Subject:	"Late believers": more rational than you think
Security:	Public

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/12/late-believers-more-rational-than-you-think.html

It's from The Washington Post, but for a moment I thought I was reading Robin Hanson:

Santa's spell hasn't been broken for Fiona Penn, either. A 12-year-old student at Carl Sandburg Middle School in the Alexandria part of Fairfax, Fiona is aware of the ubiquitous shopping mall Santas and the fact that some presents arrive via a UPS truck, not from the sky. But she chooses to believe that her Santa is different.

"The mall Santas, they change. They get hired and fired. But he's the real one," she said.

The full story is here.

User:	marginalrevtion
Date:	2009-12-24 07:13
Subject:	Nicaragua notes (avoid walls!)
Security:	Public

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/12/nicaragua-notes.html

The keys to eating well here are: avoid walls, seek corn, and bow down to the finest white creams and cheeses you are likely to find.  They use cabbage frequently and well and they are not afraid of sour tastes.  Fried chicken is a treat and they sprinkle white cheese on top of that and on your french fries.  It is an under-mined cuisine.

Horse and donkey carts have not disappeared.  Few people speak English.  Many women carry baskets on their heads to transport goods.  I stayed in what is arguably the country's nicest hotel and my room was $100 a night.  The place was empty.

Nicaragua is wealthier than Honduras but much poorer than El Salvador or Panama.  Here is a garbage dump in Managua, La Chureca.  The economy is likely to shrink two percent this year.  On the bright side, the drug trade doesn't (yet?) have so much of a hold.  The lower income classes seem to do better in terms of social services than in many other countries of comparable wealth.

Leon has one of the best Latin American town squares for cute children, street musicians, balloons and ringing bells, and flirtatious teenage social life.  The Sandinista murals are maintained.  There are few international chain stores of any kind outside of Managua and even most of Managua is under-chained.  People will insist of getting you back the change you are due, even when you tell them to keep it because you don't want to wait for them to get it from their uncle across the street.

Appreciating the country boils down to how much you can enjoy a very direct feeling of genuineness all around; Nicaragua is a hidden jewel, at least for tourist visitors.  

I did not see anyone smoke, not once. 

	User:	patrissimo
	Date:	2009-12-24 15:58
	Subject:	Glee!
	Security:	Public

Someone out there on the internet convinced me to try Glee, and I just watched the pilot episode, it was awesome!!! Cheesy, dramatic, soulful, musical...everything a high school show glee club TV show should be. I see why Joss Whedon listed it on his top 10 things he's grateful for in 2010.

I think many of you will like it, but xleste for sure!

	User:	learn_languages (posted by aleksmilla)
	Date:	2009-12-24 11:21
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

Estimados amigos,
 
El equipo de Estudio Hispánico queire desearos a todos:
 
¡Muy Feliz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo!
 
¡Esperamos que las fiestas sean estupendas,
 
que el 2010 venga cargado de ilusiones,
 
de paz, salud y vida digna para todos! 
 
¡Que el 2010 esté lleno de humor,
 
y que sigamos juntos!
 
 
Saludos desde España,
 
Estudio Hispánico

http://www.estudiohispanico.com/es/index.html

	User:	azjournal (posted by sinizter_aengel)
	Date:	2009-12-24 02:08
	Subject:	AZ Clubs - Best Music?
	Security:	Public

Hoi! Coulc any of you fine ladies and/or gentlemen please recommend a fine, fly, and whizbang hip club that plays some good music? Tempe/Scottsdale/Phoenix

"Good Music" in a club atmosphere being, imho, something other than top 40's and overplayed hip-hop/pop. Techno, disco, house, scene music (bloc party, de de mouse, etc). Dancible is the (made up) key word!

Thank you and happy holiday stuff ;-)

	User:	azyardsale (posted by page3)
	Date:	2009-12-24 16:30
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

In this ferosh installment,
we present you girls with specially selected apparels that is exclusive to Page3. 

One word:
STUNNING

Page3 Promotions:
♥FREE NORMAL MAILING
♥For those who've gotten our namecards at the fleas, present the password for 5% off purchase of 1 item!

♥With X'mas & Page3's 1st Anniversary, we offer everyone 10% off if you purchase 2 items or more.

Thank you one and all for your support in our December fleas & Episode #10. We hope you love our X'mas episode!
Do look out for our upcoming bazaars in 2010. 

Love,
Page3 girls. 

HAVE A HEARTY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Episode #11

	User:	azyardsale (posted by creezla)
	Date:	2009-12-24 15:52
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

h





Last post of the year!

http://www.mytwenteen.com/2009/04/new.html
http://www.mytwenteen.com/2009/04/new.html

Join our mailing list to get mailing list price!

http://groups.google.com/group/mytwenteen


www.mytwenteen.com

Fb: http://mytwenteen.livejournal.com/1008.html(+7/-0)

	User:	linguaphiles (posted by brigittefires)
	Date:	2009-12-24 02:34
	Subject:	Need tattoo help.
	Security:	Public

I'm looking to get another tattoo in kanji* (like the one in my icon! :) but I want to make sure I have the characters right.
*I'm still unsure whether this is "kanji" or something else. It's the supposedly mandarin chinese from the side of the Firefly class ship in Firefly/Serenity, the characters mean "peace" and "tranquility" which loosely translates to Serenity. I'd like something in the same language, but either Chinese or Japanese will do. Any non-english lettering will do, but I'm looking for something similarly picturesque.

I need another two-character tattoo so it balances. I want it to say "polyamory" or some variation on the theme. I was looking at "many" and "love" in kanji, but then I wasn't sure if using those literal translations together would form something like "giant slut".

So I'd like to know how "many" + "love" would translate, if there is a Chinese/Japanese term for consensual non-monogamy, and any suggestions for a two-character tattoo in the said theme. Any help would be appreciated :)

	User:	fearga
	Date:	2009-12-23 22:38
	Subject:	The year in review.....
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	chipper

Egads, I do an appalling amount of work...just reading my LJ for the year utterly exhausted me. I was thinking that I never get out, and then read about going to Florida and Las Vegas. I do think the quote I posted at the beginning of the year kinda sums it up:

January:

The difference between a creative person and a creative producer is hard work.
~~Mary Elaine Jacobsen, Psy.D.

( The rest of it back here.... )

	User:	john_j_enright
	Date:	2009-12-24 00:37
	Subject:	Wild Doings
	Security:	Public

The Chicago Tribune has the story:

A guy gets kidnapped by a car full of armed young people.

They drive him to an ATM. One takes the guy's ATM card and demands his PIN.

They pulled into an alley. As they bumped along the snowy path, the woman told the driver to toss her the gun because she didn't want police to see it, he said.

"All of a sudden, by the grace of God, between these two fools, I hear 'boom,' and then I hear her hollering and screaming, 'I shot my finger off, I shot it off.' The driver starts panicking and he goes right into a Dumpster," the victim said. "That's when I knew it was my moment."

"I don't know if she's going to kill me or not, so I fire a warning shot," the man said. "Unfortunately, it hit her. I never fired a gun in my life."

	User:	linguaphiles (posted by hellokurva)
	Date:	2009-12-23 20:07
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

I've noticed something unusual about my friend that I can't quite put my finger on. She has a range of peculiarities in the way she structures her sentences; here are a couple of examples:

- Saying, "for I can take a walk" instead of what's normally, "so that I can take a walk"
- "Are you wanting to go?" instead of, "Do you want to go?"

There's a few more but I'm blanking on them--these are the most consistent though. Another thing I've noticed is her placement of the primary stress in a word sometimes differs to the pronunciation that a native speaker might have.
What makes me (and her, now that I've mentioned it) most curious is that she is a native English speaker, having been raised in a Southern Californian neighborhood with little to no contact with anyone who might have impacted her learning of the language in a significant manner.

Does anyone have an idea of what, if anything, may have caused these slight irregularities? Or was it just coincidental?

(she is descendant of a fully norwegian family, if that makes a difference).

	User:	azyardsale (posted by dandzelia)
	Date:	2009-12-24 11:48
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

22 Dec 09, 3PM LAUNCHED!

Xmas Special ! $3 off total bill for any 3 items purchase!

Free normal mail for all mailing listees!
Click HERE to join our mailing list!

Free registered mail for purchase of $50 and above!
(Pls note: Registered mail is highly recommended for this season, as singpost is experiencing high volume!)

**Meetup available on 22, 23 & 24 Dec, specially for this collection! **

22 Dec 09 (Tue) : 7PM at Bukit Batok MRT
23 Dec 09 (Wed): 5.30PM at Jurong East MRT
                           : 6.15PM-6.30PM at Raffles Place MRT
24 Dec  09 (Thurs): 2.30PM at Bukit Batok MRT



Status (24 Dec 09, 9.00 AM) : Invoiced all & all payments verified !

                           : Stock status updated!

If you are interested in any of the pending items, you may still leave a comment, and I'll put you in the waiting list should any buyer backs out and also check if restocking is possible =)


If you have left a comment, but did not receive our email, kindly check your junk box also.
Alternatively, you may email us dandzelia@gmail.com to enquire.

Thank you & Happy Shopping!

Feedback: +22/-0

	User:	john_j_enright
	Date:	2009-12-23 20:57
	Subject:	Waiting for Gitmo
	Security:	Public

They were coming to Illinois but there's been a delay -
the president can't get the money to move the prisoners away
from Guantánamo Bay.

As a result, officials now believe that they are unlikely to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and transfer its population of terrorism suspects until 2011 at the earliest...

	User:	john_j_enright
	Date:	2009-12-23 20:22
	Subject:	Nude with Violin
	Security:	Public

I've been reading Nude with Violin, a play by Noel Coward. It put me in mind of Art, a play by Yasmina Reza. Both plays ask whether modern art might be a fraud.

Reza's play is about a guy who buys a big all-white painting, and then shows it to his 2 buddies.

They in turn question their relationship with a man willing to spend such a large amount of money on something that they find hard pressed to consider 'art.'

Modern sculpture, music, drama and poetry will all shrivel in the holocaust. Think what will happen to those tens of thousands of industrious people who today are making a comfortable livelihood by writing without grammar, composing without harmony and painting without form. These poor miserable wretches will be either flung into abject poverty or forced really to learn their jobs.

	User:	capitalism_yeah
	Date:	2009-12-23 17:52
	Subject:	Oh boy
	Security:	Public

Being forced to scrapbook your fertility journey, in the hopes an American surrogate will choose *you*.

ENJOY INDIA, PATRI AND CHOICEFUL ! AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHOICEFUL!

	User:	linguaphiles (posted by tisoi)
	Date:	2009-12-23 16:57
	Subject:	The name of this decade.. and the one to come..
	Security:	Public

I was reading this Time Magazine article about what to call this decade that'll be ending next Friday.

So what are your thoughts? What should it be called? For the life of me, I can't seem to choose one that I like. Though, I am leaning towards the "zeroes." While we're on the subject, the next decade will be called "the teens" right?

Also, I'm curious as to what the situation is in other languages... Does this problem exist?

	User:	herbaliser
	Date:	2009-12-23 16:16
	Subject:	let's try this
	Security:	Public

I was planning a big indepth essay on dog types vs. cat types in the dating world, but they broke open the beer at work. Not that I would drink at work.

Anyway this is a broad generalization, but some people are really into these games and won't call back immediately and pretend they are busy and don't actually seem to like you. Sometimes this works ok b/c the other person is like that too. These are the cat types.

The dog types, on the other hand, are happy to see you and slobber all over you. If one dog type dates another dog type, they just get super giddy and happy and see each other more and more till it burns out. Not that it always burns out!

So that's the rough sketch.

	User:	linguaphiles (posted by merirustryfe)
	Date:	2009-12-23 19:14
	Subject:	Hopefully an OT Question
	Security:	Public

I'm on a hunt, but it's going rather vaguely, so I thought I'd try to narrow my search and just suck it up and ask someone...

I want to buy German manga (comics in the Japanese cartoon style). There is one in particular that I'd want to buy, and it is written, drawn, and produced IN Germany (not translated from the Japanese). However, as I'm trying to continue my study of the German language, I wouldn't mind buying some German translations of other things as well.

So my question is this: Do any of you know of any specific sites from which I could order German comics? I'm looking for something based in Germany (for more variety), but by all means, if you know of one that's based in the US, the shipping savings would be appreciated. =^_^=;

	User:	linguaphiles (posted by theunixgeek)
	Date:	2009-12-23 18:28
	Subject:	Learning Language Greetings
	Security:	Public

For some reason I always have a really hard time when it comes to learning basic greetings in a language (hello, good morning, what's your name?, how are you?, etc) yet I can dive into things like "Are there any nice restaurants near the plaza?" Does anyone else experience the same thing? Is there a way to get through greetings quickly, painlessly, and effectively?

User:	marginalrevtion
Date:	2009-12-23 17:07
Subject:	What does programmer productivity look like?
Security:	Public

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/12/what-does-programmer-productivity-look-like.html

I am unable to judge the details of its contents, but this article intrigued me.  The key question is why pay across highly-talented and lesser-talented programmers isn't more unequal.  (That's a question I'd like economists to study more generally, given the disparities in productivity across individuals within a firm.)  Here is an excerpt:

Software output cannot be measured as easily as dollars or bricks. The best programmers do not write 10x as many lines of code and they certainly do not work 10x longer hours.

Programmers are most effective when they avoid writing code. They may realize the problem they’re being asked to solve doesn’t need to be solved, that the client doesn’t actually want what they’re asking for. They may know where to find reusable or re-editable code that solves their problem. They may cheat. But just when they are being their most productive, nobody says “Wow! You were just 100x more productive than if you’d done this the hard way. You deserve a raise.” At best they say “Good idea!” and go on.  It may take a while to realize that someone routinely comes up with such time-saving insights. Or to put it negatively, it may take a long time to realize that others are programming with sound and fury but producing nothing.

For the pointer I thank Hamilton Ulmer.

User:	marginalrevtion
Date:	2009-12-23 16:08
Subject:	Christopher Hayes on China
Security:	Public

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/12/christopher-hayes-on-china.html

The article is interesting throughout, here is one good bit:

The foremost difficulty is immigration. In English we'd call it "migration," but our translators unfailingly used the word "immigration," and I began to see that it was the more accurate description of what was happening. Just as developed countries like the United States and members of the European Union face an influx of workers from the developing world, so does China: it's just that China contains both the developed and developing worlds within its borders.

The way China regulates this flow is not that different from the way nation states do. There is a residence permit called a hukou that anchors people to their home region by tying social services (healthcare, pension and, most important, schooling) to that area. But just as walls and laws have a hard time restricting human traffic from Mexico to the United States when the economic incentives are so extreme, so do the internal regulations of the Chinese state.

And this:

Pick any major city in America and start adding 500,000 people a year. It wouldn't be long before it broke under the strain.

	User:	azyardsale (posted by room290)
	Date:	2009-12-24 05:13
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

room290 self manufactured item!!!

	User:	guns (posted by skreidle)
	Date:	2009-12-23 15:50
	Subject:	Local Literature
	Security:	Public

I love VA--I picked these up by the register at a local gas station. :)

	User:	jungehexe
	Date:	2009-12-23 20:16
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

( игрушки )

	User:	guns (posted by darxus)
	Date:	2009-12-23 13:50
	Subject:	Why are there non-carbine rifles without integral bipods and butt stock monopods / butt spikes?
	Security:	Public

I can understand rifles made for only shooting from a bench, or perhaps short AKs and ARs.

But any rifle that might be used at long range... why wouldn't it have basically a built in unfoldable bench rest system? Sure, most of them you can easily attach a Harris bipod to. But that's so much more cumbersome and less elegant than the integral bipods of the FAL and HK91.

The lack of rear monopods blows my mind more. (Accuracy International calls them "butt spikes".)

I can't believe HS Precision doesn't even seem to make a stock with an integral rear monopod.

Fortunately Accu-Shot makes a monopod that attaches to a rear sling swivel stud (and provides another for a sling), so that covers my 700P pretty well, but not my FAL.

	User:	linguaphiles (posted by oh_meow)
	Date:	2009-12-23 18:36
	Subject:	dan-down merger?
	Security:	Public
	Music:	needle in the hay- elliott smith

I've been back in Medway this week, and thinking about phonetics (too much time on my hands for sure!). Round my way, there's almost sound merger between words like Dan and down, but not quite (often represented in writing as things like Saarf London). So aʊ gets turned into just plain a contrasted with the æ of words like cat or the ʊ:w of words like dawn or horse . Is there an official name for this change, along the lines of "trap-bath split" or "cot-caught merger"?

So to make it clearer
Dan= dæn (RP) dan (Medway)
down= daʊn (RP) da:n (Medway)
Dawn= dɔ:n (RP) dʊ:wn (Medway)

	User:	linguaphiles (posted by andorus)
	Date:	2009-12-23 12:44
	Subject:	Morphing non-English name pronunciations
	Security:	Public

What's the deal with how Iraq is pronounced in the west? Where did this "eye-rack" mess come from? "Ee-rock" (sorry, I don't have any formal linguistics knowledge and don't know the proper symbols/terminology for the sounds) isn't difficult or unnatural for English speakers in the US and other countries to manage, so how did this change occur?

It just bothers me so much, partly because I'm Indian-American and sick of people butchering my own not-hard-if you-actually-stop-and-think-about-it name and the names of my friends of various ethnicities. I was so thrilled to hear Obama pronounce "Pakistan" properly, as opposed to "pack-uh-stan"--I get that a short A sound is more common in English, but once again, it's not that hard to pronounce it properly.

Anyway, I guess this was more of a rant than an actual question, but if you have any ideas of how this came about, I'd be interested in hearing them. Thanks!

EDIT: I should add that "ee-rock" is an approximation. I don't pronounce it that literally, but I don't know the terms for the various sounds, and I was focusing far more on the errors in the vowel sounds, since we have access to a very wide range of vowel sounds in our natural vocabularies, but on a day-to-day basis we don't use the same consonant sounds as needed to pronounce "Iraq" accurately according to Arabic. Apologies for not being more specific on that!

User:	marginalrevtion
Date:	2009-12-23 11:59
Subject:	Assorted links
Security:	Public

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/12/assorted-links-19.html

1. Can a current Congress bind a future Congress?

2. Don't buy gift cards.

3. What's in the Guantanamo gift shop?

4. Are pets less "green" than Indians?

5. The best food books of the decade?

	User:	gustavolacerda
	Date:	2009-12-23 14:15
	Subject:	writing for a specialized audience
	Security:	Public

Right now I'm reading William Cohen's book "A Computer Scientist's guide to Cell Biology", and I find the delivery to be very efficient (though I have little to compare it with), probably because he takes an informational perspective, and isn't shy about using CS concepts and terminology.

You know the "X for dummies" collection? I'd love to see some "X for geeks" series. It could be specialized into "X for mathematicians", "X for Computer Scientists", "X for type theory geeks", etc.

According to Sussman, the legacy of Computer Science is its formal language:

<< Computer Science is not a science, and its ultimate significance has little to do with computers. The computer revolution is a revolution in the way we think and in the way we express what we think. >>

User:	daviddfriedman
Date:	2009-12-23 07:25
Subject:	Toleration vs Diversity
Security:	Public

http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/2009/12/toleration-vs-diversity.html

User:	katestine
Date:	2009-12-23 10:23
Subject:	Posted using TxtLJ
Security:	Public

Is driving around Los Angeles really any different than driving in the Bay Area suburbs?

Edit: To clarify: I'm thinking of the scene in Clueless where it's a big deal to the female leads to drive on the freeway. I'm bad at changing lanes and parking, which is why I don't drive in Manhattan, but I don't have particular issues with traffic.