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Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Language research uncovers Shakespeare's dirty puns

A few days ago, I posted a clip of Beowulf being read in the original Old English dialect --- it's nearly incomprehensible to modern ears.

In the same vein, research into Shakespearean dialects (just 400 years ago) is turning up some surprises.

For example, some passages which are recited reverentially today were actually bawdy jokes and sexual puns.

The best example, I think, comes from As You Like It:
"And so, from hour to hour
we ripe and ripe
And then from hour to hour
we rot and rot.
And thereby hangs a tale."
An elegant statement about time and mortality, sure. But in the original pronunciation, "hour" sounds like "ore," or "whore," "ripe" like "rape," and "rot" like "rut." The meaning we understand is still there, but the line becomes a bawdy joke — "from 'ore to 'ore, we rut and rut." It must’ve played well to a boisterous, standing-room-only crowd of drunken Englishmen in hose. —Tucker Morgan, Paris Review
More examples, including verses recited in both modern and Shakespearean pronunciations appear in this clip. It's 10 minutes long; if you just want to hear one spoken example of a pun that's been lost as pronunciation has changed, jump to 5:20:

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Surprising details about the Orion spacecraft

I thought I was more or less up to speed on Orion, the new crew capsule/spacecraft that NASA's been developing.

Turns out I wasn't.

I dunno if my news sources are poor, or if NASA's PR machinery has succumbed to budget cuts, but I was very surprised by a Quora article written by a NASA flight engineer, "What tech upgrades does the Orion ship have compared with those used in the Apollo missions?"

Among the tidbits:

  • The main part of the capsule is reusable for up to 10 flights. The outer skin of the capsule (heat shield and side panels) get trashed in each flight, but the pressure vessel --- containing the crew space, life support systems, command/navigation/communications gear --- all gets reused.
  • Orion is wired like a decent home office: gigabit Ethernet, 120v AC circuitry, and a big uninterruptable power supply: banks of Lithium-ion batteries recharged by solar cells.
  • It has a glass cockpit. There are only 60-some manual switches in Orion, and they're there to ensure that critical circuits can be controlled even if the software-driven controls fail.
  • It uses GPS (among other redundant systems) to navigate in low orbit.

Lots more: http://www.quora.com/NASA-Launches-Deep-Space-Orion-Capsule-December-2014/Its-been-45-years-since-NASA-first-sent-a-person-to-the-moon-Thats-a-long-time-in-technology-terms-What-tech-upgrades-does-the-Orion-ship-have-compared-with-those-used-in-the-Apollo-missions

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Language geeks might enjoy this.

There are real, grammatically correct sentences, with legitimate meanings, that consist of one repeated word or sound. Example:
"Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo."
The key in this example is to realize that Buffalo can be an animal, a city, or a verb.

Similar constructs:
"Dogs dogs dog dog dogs."
"Police police police police police."
It's not just English. Spanish:
"Como Como? Como Como Como!"
Some variants allow several words:
"Boston cats Boston-chase Boston mice Boston rats Boston-eat."
French: "Le ver vert va vers le verre vert."
Dutch: "Toen wij in Baden-Baden baadden, baadde Baden-Baden in de zon."

Explanations, and more:
The Most Confusing Sentence in the World Uses Just One Word

A History of the Sentence 'Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo.'

Weather buffs will enjoy this

Stormscapes 2 from Nicolaus Wegner on Vimeo.

Alternate link:  http://vimeo.com/110140870#embed

Story: http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/12/10/stormscapes2_nicolaus_wegner_time_lapse_video_of_storms.html

Wednesday, December 10, 2014


Many people think Old English is the language they hear in Robin Hood movies --- an English accent with some thees, thous, and m'Ladys thrown in.

It's much, much older (and much weirder) than that.

Take a listen:

Full article: http://www.openculture.com/2014/10/hear-beowulf-read-in-the-original-old-english.html

Video clip: http://youtu.be/_K13GJkGvDw

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Sh*ttiest rocketry launch ever

For reasons probably best left unexplored, the Michiana Rocketry Club decided to equip a 450-lb/200-kilo Porta-Potty with rockets and launch it as high as they could.

They called the event "Thrusting the throne."

Their motto was, "To boldly go where no can has gone before."

Total development time was two years. They built and flew scale models. They made changes. They engineered the details, including a parachute recovery system.

I suspect Michigan's long winters played a role.

But they succeeded!

Here they are prepping the toilet for its moment of glory this past weekend.

The ---pardon the expression --- business end:

The, um, historic flight:

It landed on a car. Imagine the car owner's call to his insurance company.

Congrats to the rocketeers!




Monday, December 8, 2014

Read the comments for Samsung's $40,000 85" 4K-Utra 3D HD TV

Yes,a $40,000 TV, available on Amazon.

Some of the comments are wonderful.Examples:

  • Just cashed in the kids' college funds and dropped them off at the Army recruiting station. I got the TV, they got a career. I think it worked out well for everyone.
  • This is the best TV out there for watching documentaries about starving children. You can really feel their pain.

The Q&A's not bad, either. Examples:
Q: Is it free shipping to Ireland?
A: Unfortunately, they have discovered that it is actually cheaper to ship Ireland to the television. 
Q: Will the Amazon drone deliver this?

Samsung UN85S9 Framed 85-Inch (216cm) 4K Ultra HD 120Hz 3D Smart LED TV: Electronics

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Literally millions of free ebook, movie, and music offerings for phones, tablets and browsers.

No matter what kind of device you own or are reading this on --- phone, tablet, or browser --- there are thousands of places offering you literally millions of no-strings, free ebooks, audiobooks, movies, and music.

For example:

You probably already know that your local public library likely offers myriad ebooks and audiobooks (fiction, non-fiction, reference...) plus streaming movies and music, for free. Smaller libraries often are linked electronically to the catalogs of larger libraries in nearby cities or at schools and universities. Public libraries tend to have current offerings, too; e-media often shows up at libraries at about the same time it shows up in commercial locations.

One of the most popular free apps for borrowing books from a public library is Overdrive (http://app.overdrive.com/); one of the most popular apps for borrowing movies and music from a public library is Hoopla (https://www.hoopladigital.com/). Your local library's home page will clue you in to what works best with their collections.

Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org/) focuses mostly on public domain books, which usually means older, classic literature. At last count, Project Gurengerg alone has almost 50,000 titles on offer, all free.

The folks at OpenCulture have curated a list of some 700 free ebooks and audiobooks offered by a variety of sources.

Free-ebooks (http://www.free-ebooks.net/) offers two levels of membership: A free account gets you up to 5 ebooks a month; a paid account gets you unlimited ebooks, and audiobooks, too.

Free Book Spot (http://www.freebookspot.es/) and eBooks-share (http://www.ebooks-share.net/) are related sites that tend to focus on newer, up-and-coming authors who may not have landed on the bestseller lists yet.

An article at hongkiat lists their choice for the 20 Best Websites To Download Free EBooks.

And if you need still more, a Google search for free ebooks turns up over 84 million hits.

In short: there's never a reason to be without something to read, watch, or listen to, on whatever electronic device you own.