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Why I've been away and why I'm back.

Why I've been away and why I'm back.I'm 79yo now.  I receive a state pension which falls short...

Understanding The Voynich Manuscript #4

Understanding The Voynich Manuscript #4 If not Latin, then what? Please see the links at...

Understanding the Voynich Manuscript #3

Understanding the Voynich Manuscript #3 Plants and the moon. For thousands of years, people...

Understanding the Voynich Manuscript #2

Understanding the Voynich Manuscript #2 An i for an i ? Not nymphs: women! There are...

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Patrick LockerbyRSS Feed of this column.

Retired engineer, 79 years young. Computer builder and programmer. Linguist specialising in technical translation. Interested in every human endeavour except the scrooge theory of accountancy.... Read More »

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Random Noise #10 : New Math

Random Noise #10 : New Math

May 24 2009 | comment(s)

Solving Problems in the New Math


Generations of schoolkids have been puzzled by this problem:

If it takes 10 workers 10 days to fill in a hole,
how many days does it take 5 workers to fill in 1/2 a hole?

Walsall Housing Group in the UK thought they had the definitive answer,
but it didn't stand up to the scrutiny of peer review.
Ethics, Expertise and Law

Ethics, Expertise and Law

May 23 2009 | comment(s)

Ethics, Expertise and Law

Dear reader: please excuse the style of this article.  I am dealing here with observations in law.  I have chosen a legalese style so that any student of law stumbling upon this article may more easily perform a web search for authoritative legal sources.   I have studied legalese out of a linguistic interest in its attempted logical use of language.  I have studied the history of British law for its impact on the history of the English language.  But nothing I say here should be relied on as a statement of law.  I am not a lawyer!
 
The Beauty of Justice

The Beauty of Justice

May 22 2009 | comment(s)

The Beauty of Justice


Some celebrities use their status to promote the most idiotic ideas. Fortunately, there are many more, who use that status to help make the world a better place.   In the UK, many TV stars and presenters make an annual contribution to the Children in Need charity.
A Grammar of Questions.

A Grammar of Questions.

May 20 2009 | comment(s)

A Grammar of Questions.

Quistic grammar is based on what I believe to be the biological basis of language in the brain: a set of models of our internal and external environment, specifically including the social environment, with the models being labelled with tokens for purposes of logical manipulation of ideas.

... it is my contention that the development of language is a direct consequence of our brain’s data organization function which gives rise to a data framework, or belief system.
Gerhard Adam

Language and the thirst for knowledge.
Random Noise #9 : De Wiskundige en de Canyon

Random Noise #9 : De Wiskundige en de Canyon

May 20 2009 | comment(s)

I just came across this little gem on the QED blog:

De Wiskundige en de Canyon
Don't worry - it's in English!

Enjoy!  :)
What is Language ?

What is Language ?

May 19 2009 | comment(s)

What is Language ?

We are tool-using social  animals. The most powerful tool known is the one we use to build every other tool: language - spoken or written. But tools can be used with little or no skill to turn out mundane artifacts and garbage. By honing your skills with language you - yes, you - can craft masterpieces. A study of linguistics can help you acquire such skills, but be warned: the pursuit of linguistic knowledge is highly addictive.