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Air India Flight 171 - Flawed EE Bay Water Ingress Theory

Air India Flight 171 - Flawed EE Bay Water Ingress TheoryRichard Godfrey, in many videos on the...

Air India Flight 171 Accident Summary - Key Findings

Air India Flight 171 Accident Summary - Key FindingsThe purpose of an air accident report is to...

Air India Flight 171 - Ask The experts

Air India Flight 171 - Ask The expertsAn open letter to H. Lawrence Culp, Jr., Chairman and Chief...

Air India Flight 171 - The Vital Seconds

Air India Flight 171 - The Vital SecondsThe Timeline - Vital Seconds.This timeline is constructed...

Patrick Lockerby

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. Interested... Read More »

New Hominid Discovered : Anoiapithecus brevirostris

Jun 13 2009 | comment(s)

New Hominid Discovered : Anoiapithecus brevirostris

Edit: were you looking for - New Hominid discovered in Denisova Cave?

New Hominid Discovered : Anoiapithecus brevirostris

A study published in PNAS describes a male partial face with mandible of a previously undescribed fossil hominid, Anoiapithecus brevirostris. The scientific name is derived from l'Anoia, the region where the fossil was found, and from the description 'reduced facial prognathism', or 'short face'.

It's No Soap - Laundry Saves Lives

Jun 12 2009 | comment(s)

It's No Soap - Laundry Saves Lives

On January 7th 2007, at Sizewell A power station on England's Suffolk coast, an environmental disaster was narrowly averted when a worker visiting the laundry spotted a coolant leak.

A chance decision to wash some clothes narrowly averted a nuclear disaster, a safety report has found.
While using the laundry room at Sizewell A power station, a contract worker spotted a leak from a cooling tank.

Meganonsense Alert!

Jun 11 2009 | comment(s)

Meganonsense Alert!

There is no consensus amongst linguists as to exactly what constitutes a word. How do you count words? What counts as a word? Do 'run', 'running', 'ran' count as three words or one? Is 'dotwatcher' a word? What about 'haptualize'?

Philosophers of the world: trouble yourselves no more. The problem is solved.
A word is whatever The Global Language Monitor says it is.

Web 2.0 ? Yup! That's a word. They say. The English language's 1,000,000th word, to boot!

Hype, or erudition? You decide:

Obsessive-Compulsive Language Disorder

Jun 10 2009 | comment(s)

Obsessive-Compulsive Language Disorder

If you have never heard of Obsessive-Compulsive Language Disorder, don't worry. I just invented the expression to get your attention.

In my article We Have Ways of Making You Conform, I state: "The natural laws of conformity give rise to the patterns in language that we call grammar." and "In opposition to the natural drift of language is the set of communal rules of conformity."

Word Salad And Rules Of Conformity

Jun 08 2009 | comment(s)

Word Salad And Rules Of Conformity

The conversation-capable computer has often been said to be just around the corner. All too often, what is found around the corner is an impenetrable wall.

Word salad

Word salad is a string of words which gives the impression of having been formed by selecting words mostly or entirely at random. The psychological terms for this include 'verbigeration' and 'schizophasia'. The linguistic term is 'modern poetry'.

Rules of conformity

The Brightest Candles #1

Jun 08 2009 | comment(s)

The Brightest Candles #1

The brightest candles are the people whose light remains long after they are gone.

For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them.

John Milton, Areopagitica.