Posts Tagged ‘Reference’
Keeping Up With the Times
The Oxford English Dictionary has a reputation as the best, most comprehensive dictionary in the English speaking world. If asked, most people would agree that it has been geared more for academics than regular folks. That reputation doesn’t sit well with the new chief editor, Michael Proffitt, who believes the dictionary still has a place in today’s modern and technologically driven age.
Read MoreCapturing Cultural References
Webster’s move over, the Urban Dictionary is quickly becoming the “go to” source for those trying to keep up with cultural and current terminology. Their existence on the Web allows them to be the anthropologist capturing cultural moments in real time.
Read MoreMapping the Stars
Floating around the Milky Way galaxy is the most recent space observatory launched by the European Space Agency (ESA). Gaia will monitor each of its target stars about 70 times over a period of five years – all unmanned.
Read MoreHow is your qi?
Is qi a word? According to Word with Friends, yes. It is reported to be another spelling for chi. For hardcore Scrabble-ites, this can sometimes be a hard pillow to swallow. The purist resist words that are popular for those hard to use letters like q and z.
Read MoreSpelling Bee Superstars
I have a confession to make. Your content writer is a spelling bee geek. When I was a child, my father would hold spelling bees with my sister and I, and well, I always won. Not to brag, but really to show the benefits of phonetics. My older sister did not go to kindergarten (I have no memory of why), but kindergarten is where phonetics were taught in the 60’s. I was taught to sound the words out and that there, my friends, was my secret weapon.
Read MoreThe World is Your Classroom
One class. One facilitator. 10,000 students. With a massive online open course — known as a MOOC — this could become a new reality for the higher education world.
Read MoreRewriting History
With the future word inclusion policies of the Oxford English Dictionary unclear, various professionals were invited to attend a one-day international symposium. Stefan Dollinger, a lexicographer at the University of British Columbia, was one of the invited. Dollinger, one of two Canadians on the list, believes it is time the historic dictionary considers including English words…
Read MoreFinding Treasures
ou have no idea how excited I am to share this latest find with you. Ironically, it came on the same day that I found a vintage pocket handbook of synonyms and antonyms at a local thrift store. It was the best $1.99 I have spent in a long time. My shopping companion found it humorous that I was so excited to find something that “the Internet could provide.” Tsk, tsk, tsk, my naïve little friend. Google will never give me the pleasure of turning yellowed pages full of antiquated words like a vintage book.
Read MoreFoodie Resources
Hi, my name is Melody and I am a foodaholic, or foodie. I love cooking, experimenting with ingredients, and reading cookbooks. Yes, I read cookbooks like others read novels. There are notes in the margins and dog eared pages for future reference.
Read MoreWe’re Not In Kansas Anymore
I like to lift up interesting and sometimes humorous things I find in the world of language, vocabularly, taxonomy, etc. Today is different. Today’s find makes me sad.
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