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A Brief History Of The English Language Part 2 - The Age Of Change

A Brief History Of The English Language Part 2 - The Age Of Change

Apr 23 2009 | comment(s)

A Brief History of the English Language Part 2

Part 1 of this Brief History of English  describes the suppression of the English language under  the Normans who imposed Norman French as a national language.   As French declined and English revived there were briefly two languages in the one nation.
"Before Chaucer wrote, there were two tongues in England, keeping alive the feuds and resentments of cruel centuries; when he laid down his pen, there was practically but one speech -- there was, and ever since has been, but one people."
D. Laing Purves
Rocky Mountain Trench: Geologic Adventures

Rocky Mountain Trench: Geologic Adventures

Apr 23 2009 | comment(s)





A cool morning breeze keeps the mosquitoes down as we pack our kayaks and gear for today’s paddling journey.  It is day four of our holiday, with two days driving up from Vancouver to Cache Creek, past the Eocene insect and plant site at McAbee, the well-bedded Permian limestone near Marble Canyon and onto Bowron Provincial Park, a geologic gem near the gold rush town of Barkerville.

Rita Levi-Montalcini - Italian Nobel scientist still working at 100

Rita Levi-Montalcini - Italian Nobel scientist still working at 100

Apr 23 2009 | comment(s)

Rita Levi-Montalcini celebrated her 100th birthday this week. The Italian scientist's experiments led to identification of the nerve growth factor (NGF) for which she and American Stanley Cohen shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1986, when Levi-Montalcini was 77.

Levi-Montalcini was barred from her university job in Turin in the 1930s under the Benito Mussolini regime‘s laws that barred non-Aryan Italian citizens from academic and professional careers.
Interstellar Cosmochemistry And Yellow Stuff From Outer Space

Interstellar Cosmochemistry And Yellow Stuff From Outer Space

Apr 23 2009 | comment(s)

In last week’s column I described how Bill Irvine uses radio astronomy techniques to detect and identify organic compounds in interstellar space. Why is it so important for the origin of life on Earth that organic compounds are scattered throughout our galaxy?

Indus Script - Pictograms Or Language?

Indus Script - Pictograms Or Language?

Apr 23 2009 | comment(s)

In the 19th century, the Rosetta Stone allowed scholars to translate symbols left by an ancient civilization and decipher the meaning of Egyptian hieroglyphics. 

But many mysteries remain about the symbols found on other ancient artifact, including those of a people that inhabited the Indus valley on the present-day border between Pakistan and India. Some experts question whether the symbols represent a language at all, or are merely pictograms that bear no relation to the language spoken by their creators. 
Super Reefs To The Climate Change Rescue

Super Reefs To The Climate Change Rescue

Apr 23 2009 | comment(s)

The Wildlife Conservation Society announced at the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI), which is meeting this week in Phuket, Thailand, results showing that some coral reefs off East Africa are unusually resilient to climate change due to improved fisheries management and a combination of geophysical factors.

The study published in Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems provides additional evidence that globally important "super reefs" exist in the triangle from Northern Madagascar across to northern Mozambique to southern Kenya, they say, and should be a high priority for future conservation action.
Hydrogen From Water Using Solar Cells (Uber Clean Energy) Gets A Titanium Dioxide Boost

Hydrogen From Water Using Solar Cells (Uber Clean Energy) Gets A Titanium Dioxide Boost

Apr 23 2009 | comment(s)

A research team from Northeastern University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has discovered that a residue of a process used to build arrays of titania nanotubes (that wasn’t even previously noticed), plays an important role in improving the performance of the nanotubes in solar cells that produce hydrogen gas from water. Their results indicate that by controlling the deposition of potassium on the surface of the nanotubes, engineers can achieve significant energy savings in a promising new alternate energy system.
250 Year Old Transcriptions Of Benjamin Franklin Letters Discovered

250 Year Old Transcriptions Of Benjamin Franklin Letters Discovered

Apr 23 2009 | comment(s)

A trove of Benjamin Franklin letters has turned up in the British Library. Discovered by University of California, San Diego professor Alan Houston, the letters are copies of correspondence that hasn't been seen in more than 250 years. 

All dating from the spring and summer of 1755, the 47 letters by, to and about Franklin are in the hand of one Thomas Birch, a contemporary of Franklin's who was a prodigious – almost inveterate – compiler and transcriber of historical documents.   They are being published for the first time in the April issue of the William and Mary Quarterly. 
Circadian Workday? 8 Hours On The Job May Have A Biological Basis

Circadian Workday? 8 Hours On The Job May Have A Biological Basis

Apr 23 2009 | comment(s)

The circadian clock coordinates physiological and behavioral processes on a 24-hour rhythm, allowing animals to anticipate changes in their environment and prepare accordingly.

Scientists already know that some genes are controlled by the clock and are turned on only one time during each 24-hour cycle but now researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have found that some genes are switched on once every 12 or 8 hours.
Mooooove Over Neanderthals - Bos Taurus Is The Latest Genome Sequence On The Block

Mooooove Over Neanderthals - Bos Taurus Is The Latest Genome Sequence On The Block

Apr 23 2009 | comment(s)

Genome sequencing is getting better and faster.  Two months ago we had the first draft of the neanderthal genome and now scientists from the University of Maryland have published their assembly of the Bos taurus - the domestic cow.  Sure that's not as exciting to the wider population but it's important to the genetics community.
Assessing a cultural mythos #1 (notes toward studying big boards on the Internet)

Assessing a cultural mythos #1 (notes toward studying big boards on the Internet)

Apr 23 2009 | comment(s)

I promised myself that I would try to do a regular Wednesday blog about some aspect of my researches.  I thought I would start out with something I've been considering for awhile -- methodologies of studying large user communities on the Internet.

Only a few researchers such as Nick Yee have ventued into the complex realm of studying large communities online -- and they can get vast and complex.  MMORPGs such as the World of Warcraft that Yee studied can have over 10 million users worldwide and require a lot of time and human resources to maintain.  Even message boards listed on the Big Boards watch pose special problems when you step in to study them.
Steven Chu, Earth Day, Global Warming

Steven Chu, Earth Day, Global Warming

Apr 23 2009 | comment(s)

Hank is worried about people who want to take us back to the stone age in response to environmental challenges. For my Earth Day post, here's someone who's talking sense (no, I'm not implying that Hank's not talking sense - he's blogging about people not talking sense): Energy Secretary Steven Chu, in this interview with Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria:

Zakaria:
Can we really prevent global warming? Or should we be thinking more about adaptation? Building coastal fortifications may be cheaper than halting the release of CO2.
Is 'Toxic Asset' The Dumbest Concept Of 2009?

Is 'Toxic Asset' The Dumbest Concept Of 2009?

Apr 23 2009 | comment(s)

When I was a kid, 'toxic' assets were not assets at all; they were called 'liabilities.'    That's why asset and liability columns exist on these things called 'spreadsheets.'   But I am neither a politician nor a banker so I have poor grasp of things I know nothing about.  Much like this Timothy Geithner guy.

But apparently toxic assets do exist because banks around the world are being dragged down by them.   Who would have thought that mortgage-backed securities based on a housing bubble fueled by people who couldn't afford their homes would ever be a problem?   Well, me, but I was told I hated poor people and minorities for daring to ask.
Dark Gulping - A New Hypothesis On How Supermassive Black Holes Were Able To Form

Dark Gulping - A New Hypothesis On How Supermassive Black Holes Were Able To Form

Apr 22 2009 | comment(s)

A process called ‘dark gulping’ may solve the mystery of the how supermassive black holes were able to form when the Universe was less than a billion years old.

Dr Curtis Saxton will be presenting the study at the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science at the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield.
Gum chewing leads to teens’ higher math scores?

Gum chewing leads to teens’ higher math scores?

Apr 22 2009 | comment(s)

If your child has trouble with math, give her some gum and send her to school. Researchers at a Texas medical institution say gum-chewing improves math scores.

Being Awesome - A 25 Step Program

Being Awesome - A 25 Step Program

Apr 22 2009 | comment(s)

Social media is a funny creature.   Try explaining it to someone in a third world country.  Heck, try explaining it to someone who lives next door and isn't on a social media site.
It can't be that simple (*$%?!*)

It can't be that simple (*$%?!*)

Apr 22 2009 | comment(s)

I have recently been contacted by a friend who is worried at the decline in numeracy in the West.  He asked me what I thought of the following:

In 2005, Newt Gingrich (who had been on the Hart-Rudman Commission) stated:
The collapse of math and science education in the US and the relative decline of investment in basic research is an enormous strategic threat to American national security. … Keeping America competitive in the twenty-first century is dependent upon having increasing number of students studying math and science.
Rita Levi-Montalcini: 100 Years Old and Still Going Strong

Rita Levi-Montalcini: 100 Years Old and Still Going Strong

Apr 22 2009 | comment(s)

Rita Levi-Montalcini, Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1986, turns 100 years old today: she was born on April 22nd, 1909 -before World War I had begun!

"Ok," you might say, "she's probably bedridden and demented by now."  Not in the least. She is in full possession of all her wits, is a very active Senator, and has declared a few days ago that her brain works better now than it did when she was 20, because of her experience. I bet she is not kidding.
A Brief History Of The English Language

A Brief History Of The English Language

Apr 22 2009 | comment(s)

This is part 1 of 6 in a brief series describing the history of English and its grammar.

What is Grammar?

A grammar is a set of rules for the communal use of a language. A language can never become a truly national language unless all users of that language share common rules for how words are invented, used and strung together in sentences.  When by some means the users of a language no longer share these rules, the language fragments into dialects and eventually, new languages.  It is useful to think of dialects as not being quite so large an obstacle as different languages are to trade, commerce and exchange of ideas between regions.
Hamilton's Rule, Or Hamilton's Folly

Hamilton's Rule, Or Hamilton's Folly

Apr 22 2009 | comment(s)

I recently came across a radio lecture given by Dr Lee Alan Dugatkin on 7.6.2007, titled "Is Goodness Natural?" It deserves comment. (An article on the same subject but with some differences in text was published at Huffington Post.)

The talk began well with some historical background describing the attempts by Charles Darwin, Thomas Huxley, Peter Kropotkin and W. D. Hamilton to explain the origin of goodness, (in the sense of being nice to one another,) in light of evolutionary theory. He concluded that the first three had failed to adequately explain goodness, (Kropotkin’s great work “Ethics” was obviously overlooked) but that Hamilton had solved the dilemma with a “simple but elegant mathematical equation.”