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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...

Understanding The Voynich Manuscript #1

Understanding the Voynich Manuscript #1 Tom, Dick and Harry explain a statistical method. ...

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Patrick LockerbyRSS Feed of this column.

Retired engineer, 73 years young. Computer builder and programmer. Linguist specialising in language acquisition and computational linguistics. Interested in every human endeavour except the scrooge... Read More »

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Who are your all time favourite childrens' authors?

Dr. Seuss, Enid Blyton, Charles Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson, Adolf Hitler?

Warning: satire alert!
Adolf Hitler - World's Best-Selling Children's Author.

Adolf Hitler, famous author of the philosophical masterpiece Mein Kampf has his children' early learning books and methods placed on lists of approved materials for use in British and American schools.

Whaaat!!!???
What is a Fudge Factor ?

It is a most unfortunate fact that, however beautiful a theory is, the data plots just don't want to fit the nicely drawn curve.  It is a problem in all fields of investigation.  The solution is easy.  Just take the function that defines the curve, determine the correction necessary to bring outliers into the curve and - voila! - the theory works!

All that remains is to invent a new name for the correction that must be applied.  There is no universal standard for this.  One person's dark energy is another person's epicycle.
A Brief History of the English Language Part 6 - Global English


Part 1 briefly covered the period from the 5th century CE to the 14th century.
Part 2 describes Chaucer's influence on the development of English.
Part 3 covers the period from Chaucer to the Elizabethan age.
This isn't bad science.  It's a whole new ball game.  It's below the level of pre-school science.
It's unterkindergartnischwissenschaft.


Is Michael O'Leary a virus expert ?

Michael O'Leary is the boss of RyanAir, a budget airline with a not-so-good reputation.

Various sources today quote Michael O'Leary as saying that the swine flu outbreak is only a risk to Asian and Mexican slum dwellers.  He thinks that the viral infection can be cured with a common anti-bacterial sweet.
A Brief History of the English Language Part 5 - Early Modern English

Part 1 briefly covered the period from the 5th century CE to the 14th century.
Part 2 describes Chaucer's influence on the development of English.
Part 3 covers the period from Chaucer to the Elizabethan age.
A Brief History of the English Language Part 4 - The People's English

Part 1 briefly covered the period from the 5th century CE to the 14th century.
Part 2 describes Chaucer's influence on the development of English.
Part 3 covers the period from Chaucer to the Elizabethan age.


The People's English