Humor
- Linguistics Paper Written In Guyanese Creole- Possibly The Only One (corrected Title)
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Hubert Devonish, who is Professor of Linguistics at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston, Jamaica, is one of the very, very few researchers to have published a scholarly paper written entirely in Guyanese Creole. An example paragraph: ...
Article - Martin Gardiner - Dec 4 2013 - 9:35am
- ‘Stray Sock Syndrome’- A Robotic Investigation
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The ubiquitous ‘Stray Sock Syndrome’ can be a considerable headache for human sock-owners and sock-sorters. But help is afoot courtesy of the Computer Science Division at the University of California at Berkeley, US, and the Max Planck Institut Informatik ...
Article - Martin Gardiner - Dec 5 2013 - 12:25pm
- 'The Slimeball' (Maritime Weapon)
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Shaving foam and baby diapers might not be the first key components to spring to mind if you were tasked with developing a gargantuan Non Lethal Weapon (NLW) for use against enemy warships. But spring they did, however, to the mind of Lieutenant Commander ...
Article - Martin Gardiner - Dec 11 2013 - 8:13am
- Dr. Martens’ Bug Extermination Machine
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Dr. Andy Martens, of the psychology dept. at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and colleagues from the University of Arizona, US, have devised an Extermination Machine [pictured at right]. The machine was designed to experimentally investigate a ...
Article - Martin Gardiner - Dec 13 2013 - 8:58am
- Ghastly Mathematics
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A good number of very high profile philosophers and mathematicians have drawn attention to what they see as the intrinsic beauty in mathematical solutions. For example: "It seems to me now that mathematics is capable of an artistic excellence as grea ...
Article - Martin Gardiner - Dec 19 2013 - 1:48pm
- Progress In Gibberish Computing
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Part 1, ‘Generative Text Generation’ Daniel Shiffman is Assistant Arts Professor at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. The professor has developed a Markov chain-based Generative Text computer programme which he ...
Article - Martin Gardiner - Jan 1 2014 - 11:20pm
- Progress In Gibberish Computing #2
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#2 ‘Implementing a Jabberwocky Gibberish Generator’. In contrast to some computer-programme developers who create gibberish by jumbling word-orders (see Progress In Gibberish Computing #1) others take a different approach, and scramble the letters of Engl ...
Article - Martin Gardiner - Jan 3 2014 - 1:06pm
- Why Eggs Are Not Round [The Math(s)]
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Bearing in mind that the word ‘ovoid’ means ‘egg-shaped’, the question: ‘Why are eggs ovoid?’ has much in common with questions like or ‘Why are hearts heart-shaped?’ or ‘Why are sausages sausage-shaped?’ And the Zen-like qualities of the egg-shape questi ...
Article - Martin Gardiner - Jan 11 2014 - 7:49am
- Counting On Fingers- Not Quite So Simple?
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Everyone (who can count) will instantly recognise the numbers 1 2&3 in the picture below: Or will they? Well, no they won’t. All is explained in an article for Osaka Keidai Ronshu, Vol. 60 number 5, where Professor Yutaka Nishiyama (Osaka University o ...
Article - Martin Gardiner - Jan 15 2014 - 3:21pm
- Boomerangs- Why Do They Come Back?- The Math(s)
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Many may have asked the questions ‘Why are boomerangs crescent-shaped?’ and ‘Why do boomerangs come back?’ – but few, however, are in a position to provide scientific explanations – aside, that is, from Prof. Yutaka Nishiyama of the Osaka University of Ec ...
Article - Martin Gardiner - Jan 21 2014 - 9:13am