Jepler's Feeds

Help me figure out this strange laptop battery behavior.

2008-11-23T19:26:50+00:00

Help me figure out this strange laptop battery behavior.

This is a Dell Latitude D410 with a six cell battery.

It holds a charge, powers the laptop, recharges while running on AC, but doesn't show up as installed in either the BIOS or Windows. No battery icon, the power hot key shows it as missing, and the text in the BIOS says, "not installed."

This is extra annoying because the OS thinks it is on AC power and will run full bore until it abruptly looses power.

All drivers are current, BIOS is up to date. This problem started started a few weeks ago at an unknown time. I've looked all over the Dell forums and can't find any explanation for this behavior. Is the battery failing?

The OS is Windows Server 2003 SP2.

RIP Mac... help me make Windows not suck

2008-11-23T19:24:06+00:00

Long time Mac guy stuck for the foreseeable future using Windows. I'm out of the loop, but very computer literate. Looking for the BEST software for everything. What can't you live without? Of course, there is

I was a Mac kid, a PC teenager, and switched back to Macs after high school. My Mac broke, and I'm broke. So now I'm stuck with my PC I built a while ago. I'm fully computer literate (built the PC) but I am totally out of the 'PC loop'. I am used to reading sites like The Unofficial Apple Weblog... Help me get back up to speed!

Already given up on trying to replace my tricked out Quicksilver setup. I'm running Google Chrome (couldn't be happier), Digsby instead of Adium.. I use Gmail through Chrome. I run a lot of music production and graphic design software and have a dual monitor setup.

Also running FileZilla, Picasa, and InfraRecorder...

Looking directly for these types of software:
Text editing (Replace TextMate for me please)
App launching (Someone port Quicksilver for me)
iCal (I use Google's Cal, but it just doesn't "feel right")
File Organization (Hazel...?)
iTunes global hotkeying

+ anything else you can't live without!

(bonus question for extra credit: point me at a great article for dual booting Ubuntu and XP 64bit, starting with a clean drive.. )

Mrs Maninsuit Music video

2008-11-23T19:22:27+00:00

We're excited around the Maninsuit household that Mrs. Maninsuit's video for our friend's song was featured in today's NYT Magazine. But we are sad the the paper contains no mention of the director, nor any link to the video. So I'm posting it here:Tomboyfriend End of Poverty video. About the video. Mrs Maninsuit (aka Margaux Williamson). It's a cool video (I think) made up entirely of youtube footage of dancing teenagers.

[Link]

Fur Coat Summer Storage

2008-11-23T19:16:13+00:00

Summer Fur Coat Storage: Is this a Fur Industry scam or a way to extend the life of your coat? (animal activists, please don't go whacky on me, I'm a vegetarian but I live in Chicago and I'm sorry, down jackets are just not as warm nor can you wear a down jacket to a wedding, the opera, etc). Every summer I mull over whether or not to have my coat and jacket cleaned and stored--obviously the fur industry promotes this, but does it REALLY prolong the life of the garment (or does it just increase the income of the fur store)?

Help me find some two-year-old cool.

2008-11-23T19:05:53+00:00

Please help me find a specific New York Times tshirt. It's the one Eric wears in Las Vegas in Season 3 episode 9 of Entourage. It is blue and uses the classic NYT typeface and logo, set at an angle on the shirt.

I can't find any pictures of it on the web, but I'm hoping you fashionistas out there can give me a hand. Thanks a lot!

Here is a clip for reference.

Thank you very much!

Thoughts on the US presidential election

2008-11-23T19:03:25+00:00

I'm writing this as a timed posting; assuming I did the setup right, you won't be reading this until polling has closed. I'm not American, and it's not really for me to tell those of you who are how you should vote.

However ...

If I was an American voter, I would have cast my vote for Barack Obama. Here's why.

I expect President Obama to disappoint me. He's center-right by American standards, and I'm not — I'm mostly off the American political map in a socially liberal/economically socialist direction that doesn't really compute.

However, he's intelligent, highly organized, and gives every indication of being extremely competent. He's run a campaign that, astonishingly, has not left him beholden to large corporate interests for funding — the vast majority of his campaign was funded by small individual donations. And if there's one thing the USA has been short of for the past eight years, it's competent governance administered by people who believe the system can be made to work in the public interest and who are not beholden to lobbyists.

I don't think John McCain will be a very good president. He tends to be hot-headed, during the campaign he's shown a worrying tendency to seek patronage wherever he can get it (resulting in his platform being held hostage to special interests), and I think many of his espoused policies are half-baked or counter-productive. There are also lingering questions over his health (and age). I don't think he would automatically be a bad or disastrous president, especially in comparison to his predecessor, but ...

The one thing that terrifies me about McCain's candidacy is his choice of running-mate.

John McCain's presidency not only places him in the oval office; it threatens to place Sarah Palin at the heart of the unitary executive welded together by Dick Cheney. The office of the vice-president has become swollen and excessively powerful in its own right under the Bush administration, and the incumbent vice-president wields unprecedented power. Cheney's constitutional theories make it neither fish nor fowl, a weird hybrid of executive and legislature that is subject to the rules of neither, but makes its own authority up as it goes along.

Sarah Palin frightens me because her grasp of US constitutional structures is worse than mine — and I'm a foreigner. She frightens me because she thinks her first amendment right to freedom of political speech is threatened by the existence of an independent media. She frightens me because she thinks the vice president runs the senate. She frightens me because she's a member of the New Apostolic Reformation who believe in spiritual warfare, casting out of demons, witch hunts, and the imposition of her brand of Christianity on unbelievers, if necessary by force. She frightens me because she fears and ridicules the findings of science and the scientific method, and holds it in disdain where it contradicts the elements of her faith. And she frightens me because I don't think she's entirely sane.

It doesn't matter whether John McCain lives to retire at the end of his presidency — letting a loose cannon like Sarah Palin anywhere near the spiderweb of special executive powers accumulated by Dick Cheney would be a disaster for the entire world.

And that is why, were I an American voter, I would have felt morally obliged to vote for Barack Obama.

PS: Okay, so my deferred-posting scheduler broke when I moved servers. No matter; better late than never.

PPS: I am going to sleep easier tonight, in view of the outcome.

Which to use: PHP, Django, Rails or something else?

2008-11-23T18:53:10+00:00

What programming language or framework should I use for my simple Web database project?

Here's my project: taking a database of local property assessment data and posting it, searchably and sortably, onto a usable public Web site. Ideally with goodies like a mobile-friendly version, links to Google Maps and so forth.

I want to do this, in part, because I want to learn skills that'll be useful in future public-facing Web projects.

I know HTML and can wrangle PHP about as well as I could speak Spanish after two years in high school. I messed around a little with Django back in 2006, but didn't seem to have the basic programming vocabulary that its creators assumed.

I've been running a couple Wordpress blogs off a Dreamhost server for a couple years, so the hosting is lined up.

There's no deadline, but I'm giving myself one week to work on this full-time.

Right now, I'm thinking of either:

- doing it all in PHP/MySQL (the boring and perhaps sloppy option)
- diving into Django again (the dogged option)
- trying to learn Rails, like the friends keep telling me (the A.D.D./ambitious option)

My questions:

- Are Django and Rails way too overpowered for this project?
- At this point, is Django looking like a dead end? Should I be investing my framework-learning energy in the broader Rails community?
- Should I be considering some other option altogether, such as Drupal?

img_2744

2008-11-23T18:51:48+00:00

Michael Cornelius posted a photo:

Stone and Bronze

2008-11-23T18:50:21+00:00

Michael Cornelius posted a photo:

Photographing Three Wise Monkeys

2008-11-23T18:48:26+00:00

Michael Cornelius posted a photo:

Three Wise Monkeys

2008-11-23T18:46:52+00:00

Michael Cornelius posted a photo:

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2008-11-23T18:45:38+00:00

Michael Cornelius posted a photo:

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2008-11-23T18:43:32+00:00

Michael Cornelius posted a photo:

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2008-11-23T18:41:20+00:00

Michael Cornelius posted a photo:

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2008-11-23T18:40:10+00:00

Michael Cornelius posted a photo:

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2008-11-23T18:38:03+00:00

Michael Cornelius posted a photo:

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2008-11-23T18:36:35+00:00

Michael Cornelius posted a photo:

Sunday Paper Pledge Drive?

2008-11-23T18:30:22+00:00

Can nonprofit news models save journalism? The advertising-supported, for-profit institutional model of journalism (skip this ad) is on the wane. Except for a few large and successful outlets, investment in comprehensive reporting has suffered from a shrinking bottom line, even as the hoped-for development of citizen journalism has been generally underwhelming. But some see a solution taking shape in not-for-profit, independent, citizen-supported online news organizations that would employ skilled professional journalists. Pointing to the encouraging recent growth of NPR and PBS as news outlets, many industry thinkers are starting to agree that "The only way to save journalism is to develop a new model that finds profit in truth, vigilance, and social responsibility." Editors are beginning to experiment with models like that of Paul Stieger's ProPublica (a sort of reporting clearinghouse), Geoff Dougherty's ChiTown Daily News, The NYC Center for an Urban Future's City Limits, and Scott Lewis' Voice of San Diego. Great idea - will it work?

Different names for the same place across languages

2008-11-23T18:22:50+00:00

Why do cities and countries have such vastly different names in different languages?

Like English speakers say Germany, French speakers say Allemand, and German speakers call it Deutshland. I can understand minor letter shifts like Bombay/Mumbai, but none of those are even close. What are some other examples, and what is the explanation?

Prophesy of economic collapse 'coming true'

2008-11-23T18:15:40+00:00

In 1972 the Club of Rome published the famous book Limits to Growth that predicted exponential growth would eventually lead to economic and environmental collapse. It was criticized by economists and largely ignored by politicians. Now Graham Turner at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia has compared the book's predictions with data from the intervening years. According to Turner (PDF report) changes in industrial production, food production and pollution are all in line with the book's predictions of collapse in the 21st century. According to the book, the path we have taken will cause decreasing resource availability and an escalating cost of extraction that triggers a slowdown of industry, which eventually results in economic collapse some time after 2020.(via; previously; previously)

The stench of winter is upon us.

2008-11-23T18:03:33+00:00

How can I identify a bad sewage smell in my living room?

Every winter my rented apartment smells like feces, in my living room. The apartment is an all-ground-floor place, stand-alone shack of a house; it's old; the bathroom is behind the living room; we have radiators with an old gas-burning furnace; the drains back up easily.

I don't know much about houses but my four guesses are:

1. A squirrel happens to die in the wall every winter.

2. The drains / septic thingies stink and we can smell it through the foundation somehow???

3. The gas heater which is on the other side of the house is magically pumping gas stink along the pipes ??? No, that doesn't make sense.

4. The radiators have gross stuff on them that stinks when they get hot? But only in the living room.

I'm puzzled because I only smell the smell in the winter, causing me to suspect it's heating-related. My girlfriend smells it too. The landlord says he doesn't smell it. In the summer, fall and spring (when the heat is off), no smell.

Why just the winter? Why???

This week's HiHB moment

2008-11-23T17:53:06+00:00

Among the comments on Information Week's story of 11/20/08, "Woolly Mammoth Genome Sequenced", is this rant from "Guest" (Nov. 20, 2008 8:32:45 AM), which will provide this week's Hell in a Handbasket (HiHB) moment:

I'm not worried. Whenever I see the deteriorating English skills contained in all these blogs and comments, I am convinced that Homo Sapiens are now in a stage of "devolution" and within less than 10,000 years we will once again be equal in intelligence to not only Neanderthals but Cro-Magnons as well. Maybe we will need whatever beasts we can "manufacture" now so we can use them in the future.* not to mention the ridiculous reasoning or lack therof reflected in so many absurd comments.

According to this commenter, not only are English skills deteriorating, but in fact human cognition itself is deteriorating. (You can supply the implied intermediate steps: the English language is deteriorating, language in general is deteriorating.) You don't see such overheated alarm very often.

I know, I know, what does deteriorate mean in such discussions, and how do we detect deterioration?

Passing from such imponderables, I turn to the commenter's own English skills.

To start with, the expression Homo sapiens is singular. The idea that it's plural, because of the -s on sapiens, is widespread but mistaken.

And it's Homo sapiens, not Homo Sapiens. There are conventions for species names.

The spelling therof for thereof is non-standard (the OED doesn't recognize it as a variant from any period of English), though to judge from the Google hits it's pretty popular.

Then, the commenter apparently intended the footnote "not to mention …" to be attached to "the deteriorating English skills contained in all these blogs and comments", but there's no asterisk on this earlier expression to tell you where to attach the footnote. Oh yes, the punctuation "future. *not to mention …" (rather than "future.* not to mention …") would be standard.

Finally, I would have reworded "the ridiculous reasoning or lack thereof" to avoid the possible (and absurd) mis-reading 'the ridiculous reasoning or lack of ridiculous reasoning', when the writer's intention was to refer to reasoning that was ridiculous or lacking. In fact, "ridiculous reasoning" — or something a bit more focused, like "poor reasoning" — should have sufficed here.

All small points, but telling in the writing of someone who raves so wildly about the state of English skills these days.

(An earlier version of the comment had "**** Sapiens", perhaps because of the mistaken belief that the word homo needed to be avoided, as a taboo word referring to homosexuals.)

[Added 11/23: A number of readers have pointed out that, in addition to the faults in writing, there's probably also a factual error in this passage: "we will once again be equal in intelligence to not only Neanderthals but Cro-Magnons as well" suggests that the writer believes that Cro-Magnons are more primitive than Neanderthals. This is just wrong; Cro-Magnons are early humans (Homo sapiens).]

Everything with a Schmear

2008-11-23T17:52:07+00:00

The perfect Sunday nosh: A short history of the bagel. In an age when allegedly edible breadstuffs that my grandmother would have barely recognized have become ubiquitous, did you know that even the Pharaohs had a yen for the iconic Jewish comfort food that is as much a symbol of New York City as baguettes are to Paris? Bagels turn out to be surprisingly easy to make at home, too, though they won't be the same without a schmear and some nice Nova. (Previously on Ask.) Extra credit: the history of everything.

Lake sailing near San Diego?

2008-11-23T17:44:56+00:00

Anywhere to rent a sailboat on a lake near San Diego?

I know all about the bay and ocean sailing rentals, but I'd like to go sailing like I did back home in Wisconsin - Go to a park, rent a little boat for cheap, have a picnic on shore, maybe BBQ a bit... Are there any county or state parks nearby where you can rent a sailboat on the cheap and go lake sailing?

Doth my eyes deceive me? Or was is it Spielberg?

2008-11-23T17:40:39+00:00

Wasn't Steven Spielberg playing one of the medics at the end of E.T.?

There is a medic with no speaking part at the end of E.T. when Elliot and E.T are hooked up to the machines. He has a thick beard and wears glasses. It looks exactly like Spielberg (who yes, of course I understand he directed the film), but I can't find him listed in the credits as one of the medics. I tried looking at IMDB, and online crediting Spielberg as a medic with no avail.

Am I nuts or is it really him?

Nicotine-free crafts: crafting with cigarette and cigar packaging

2008-11-23T17:37:50+00:00

If you've quit smoking and you're trying to get through the early withdrawal symptoms without gaining 20 pounds, one coping strategy is to get busy crafting. Sure, you say, you've made naughty figurines out of your cigarette packages in bored moments before, but now if you're going to craft you want to make something that celebrates your fantastic self-discipline and can serve as a worthy memorial to your renounced habit. If that's how you feel, check out these links.
If you were a cigarette smoker, you can make a cigarette wrapper purse or two, gift tags or cards, a flash diffuser for your camera, or a model Lamborghini. Or you might launch into the creation of a photographic series like artist Chris Jordan.

If cigars were more your thing, you can also use them to make some truly lovely purses (here's how). The boxes can be découpaged, collaged, and decorated to make boxes for jewelry or what have you. If you were a really heavy and brand-faithful smoker, you can make a chest of drawers. Then perhaps you should make a shrine for yourself. Cigar boxes also lend themselves to making good planters, mini memo boards, or stationery sets. If you think you'd like to take up a musical instrument once you've finished making things out of all your old cigar boxes, why not make your own guitar, fiddle, kalimba, or cigar box amp. You can also make a cigar box battery for a tube radio. And now that you're looking at what you have wrought, thank you for crafting and recycling and for not smoking.

Where does mac store thumbnails of photos and videos?

2008-11-23T17:33:01+00:00

Where does mac store thumbnails of photos and videos? e.g. Finder thumbnails an SD disk I have plugged in that I pulled out of my digital camera. (where are those thumbnails?) e.g. A folder of movies are thumbnailed.

how do pirates hijack a supertanker?

2008-11-23T17:29:51+00:00

What are the logistics of the pirate attack on the supertanker? How is this possible? Does one just need two speedboats and some rocket launchers?

I aint Cube and I'm havin a f*cked up day

2008-11-23T17:24:11+00:00

Eric 'MC' Breed, a well known rap artist popular in the 90's, died yesterday at the age of 36.
Back in September he collapsed from kidney failure, was on life support for a time and was told he needed a kidney transplant. In what is likely his last interview, he talks extensively about his kidney failure and hospitalization, going on to say he had been released from the hospital with a clean bill of health. He was found at a friends house in Ypsilanti, according to Darryl Morris, Breed's manager. He had 3 daughters and a son.

.

Stand By Me

2008-11-23T17:09:05+00:00

Playing for Change - Peace Through Music (flash) is a documentary film by Mark Johnson. He traveled the world and recorded various musicians playing the song Stand By Me. Each musician was charged with layering a single song over the previous artist thus building upon it. Over thirty musicians globally participated in this project and not one artist knew the other or came in contact initially.
Bill Moyers talks with Mark Johnson, the producer of a remarkable documentary about the simple but transformative power of music.

Uptalk v. UNBI again

2008-11-23T17:03:03+00:00

A reader from France, SW, wrote to ask some questions about English intonation:

It is with great interest that I discovered your posts on ‘uptalk’ on Language Log, in which you briefly retrace the history of the study of the phenomenon. In several of these posts, you highlight the fact that the association of uptalk with unassertiveness and tentativeness is unfounded, to say the least.

May I ask you if you thereby intend to correct the view propagated by somewhat simplistic newspaper articles, or if you are also disputing the views held by certain linguists?

(I would like to specify that my question is by no means meant to be polemical. I am currently doing research on language change and suprasegmental innovations in Leeds, where young people have recently been observed to use rising tones (UNB rises, not HRTs) at the end of declaratives, and I am trying to obtain information about the history of research on uptalk.)

I also noticed that you had entitled one of your posts ‘uptalk is not HRTs’. Could I ask you what difference you would then make between uptalk and HRTs (I had hitherto assumed that Alan Cruttenden and Robert Ladd established a clear difference between UNB rises on the one hand, and HRTs, *that is, uptalk*, on the other hand).

These questions and their answers are a bit more "inside baseball" than usual for Language Log — but perhaps some readers will be interested, and the rest of you are hereby warned to move along to another post.

To understand SW's questions, you need to know that uptalk means "the practice of using final rising pitch on statements, stereotypically attributed to younger speakers of English as of the 1990s"; and you need to translate the acronyms UNB ("Urban North British") and HRT ("High Rising Terminal"). For more background, the end of this post offers a list of links to previous LL posts on these topic.

Let me try to answer the questions in several stages. I'll focus mainly on the issues that relate to the American version of "uptalk", since I've never worked on the Australia/New Zealand variety.

1. First, is it only journalists who are wrong to claim that "uptalk" is typically unassertive or tentative?

Answer: no. Anyone who says something that isn't true is mistaken. Journalists have no monopoly on error.

2. Second, is (American) "uptalk" exclusively or characteristically composed of "high rises" as opposed to "low rises", as some descriptions have claimed?

Answer: no. As far as I know, none of those who have asserted this have ever offered any evidence, beyond and example or two; and it takes only a few minutes of looking at the pitch contours of uptalkers to find counter-examples. (For a few examples, see e.g. Angry rises, 2/11/2006, and Satirical cartoon uptalk is not HRT either, 11/14/2006.)

It's possible that North American uptalkers tend to begin their stress-associated uptalk rises statistically higher in their pitch range than their yes-no question rises — though no one has ever systematically studied this, as far as I know, and it might well also turn out to be false — but I have no doubt that they sometimes produce uptalk rises that start right down at the bottom of their range.

3. Third, do English speakers, and American uptalkers in particular, make a qualitative distinction between (the stress-associated) "high rise" and "low rise" tonal accents?

Answer: I don't know, but I doubt it.

As far as I know, there has never been a demonstration of multiple modes in the distribution of rising tone patterns in production, or a clear category distinction in perception, or any other non-anecdotal evidence for a qualitative distinction rather than a continuous space of variation.

The history of this idea is rather complicated, so I'll postpone a detailed account to another post or two; but in brief, Henry Sweet in his 1877 Handbook of Phonetics made a basic distinction among English "tones" as level, rising, and falling, following Alexander Melville Bell's 1860 Elocutionary Manual. And obviously, as Sweet observed,

All these tones can be varied indefinitely according to the interval they pass through. As a general rule, the greater the interval, the more marked the character of the tone.

In the 1902 edition of his Handbook, Sweet added two sentences in which he proposes the additional option of adding the degree modifiers high and low, simply for descriptive convenience in referring to different parts of a continuous space of choices:

For ordinary purposes it is enough to distinguish between a high rise and a low rise, the former passing through a less interval than the latter. Conversely a high fall passes though a great interval than a low fall.

In later work in the same tradition, Sweet's convenient degree-modifiers are sometimes treated as if they were qualitatively distinct categories of rise and fall, but rarely with much conviction. Thus in his 1986 Intonation, Alan Cruttenden writes:

Three basic factors are involved in a taxonomy of nuclear tones in English …

(i) the initial movement from the nucleus: fall or rise or level
(ii) the beginning point of this initial movement: high or low; if there are syllables preceding the nucleus, a step-up will often signal high and a step-down will often signal low
(iii) a second change of pitch direction following the nucleus: this produces complex tones such as rise-fall and fall-rise (and even rise-fall-rise).

If we permuted all possible combination of these three basic factors, a very large number of nuclear tones would result, so in practice we limit ourselves to describing just those variations which most obviously carry major differences in meaning. This is an area where almost every analyst varies in his judgment of what constitutes a 'major difference of meaning' and hence in the number of nuclear tones which are set up. Nor are the arguments for any one particular set of nuclear tones ever very convincing or indeed explicit; in fact, given that intonational meanings are often intangible and nebulous, it is difficult to see how a wholly convincing case of any one set of nuclear tones can be made. So the set of nuclear tones which I establish should not be regarded as 'God's truth'.

And in her 1980 dissertation, Janet Pierrehumbert suggested (without empirical support beyond illustrative examples) that the distinction between low rise and high rise should be regarded as categorical in nature (i.e. as a phonemic distinction in the system of English intonation), while the distinction between low fall and high fall should be regarded as a gradient one. This proposal, after some further elaboration, was taken up in a once-popular attempt ("ToBI") to provide a standard notation for English intonation.

Against this background, when researchers began looking into the phenomenon of uptalk in Australia and New Zealand, they assumed that "high rise" was the right terminological choice. Even in the ANZ studies, as far as I know, this decision was never supported by a careful quantitative study of a corpus of examples — it wouldn't surprise me to find an Australian uptalker starting some rises at the bottom of his or her range, or after step-downs, or etc.

4. Among uptalkers, are "uptalk" rises and rises on yes-no questions categorically distinct?

(This is a separate question from the previous one, since there are other differences besides low-vs.-high rise that might distinguish them. For example, the "tail" of the final contour, as most clearly seen on a series of post-main-stress syllables, might be rising, level or "slumping".)

Answer: No, as far as I can tell, though different interactional contexts have different distributions of contours, under both gradient and categorical descriptions.

Note that this is essentially the same answer that Bob Ladd gives for UNB intonation in his 1996 book Intonational Phonology, p. 144:

...it is not clear whether there is a difference between ordinary statement intonation and ordinary question intonation in these varieties of English. Native speakers of Glasgow-area varieties among my students over the past several years have mostly maintained that there is not such a difference …

5. Finally, are uptalk rises different from UNB rises?

Answer: Yes and no.

From the point of view of the distribution of pitch contours across contexts, an American uptalker (and there are almost certainly many different subtypes) is almost certainly rather different from a UNB speaker (among whom there are probably also many different subtypes). However, there has been remarkably little systematic empirical study of North American uptalk, and certainly nothing that would support a reliable answer to this question.

With respect to the phonetics of individual pitch contours, I'm skeptical that the UNB rises are different in kind from the rises found in American uptalk.

Alan Cruttenden has a great deal of experience with intonation in the British Isles, but as far as I know, his discussion of the differences between UNB rises and uptalk (e.g. in his 1995 "Rises in English") is based on secondary sources for the North American and Australia/New Zealand patterns.

And as for Bob Ladd, he asserted in a comment on an earlier LL post that

It's important not to confuse the rises in Belfast, Glasgow, etc. with uptalk. They're phonetically and functionally very different. I've laid out the reasons in my book Intonational Phonology (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1996; second edition due out shortly), and won't repeat them all here because it would take too much space.

But the discussion in the 1996 edition of his book (pp. 143-147) is much more equivocal than his comment. He comments on the variability of shape and alignment in these tone patterns in Glasgow; he suggests that the various UNB regions may well vary among themselves in various ways; and the only empirical work on American English that he cites is Pierrehumbert's, which he characterizes as describing "stylized" (i.e. artificial) contours. He proposes somewhat tentatively that "the UNB rising intonation is a sequence [of a nuclear rise followed by a level-to-falling tail] which does not occur in standard British or American English"; but as you can see from several of the pitch contours in the posts linked below, it's easy to find such "sagging" tails following stress-linked rises in American speech.

For additional background, here are some of the earlier Language Log posts that deal with related questions:

This is, like, such total crap? (5/15/2005)
Uptalk uptick (12/15/2005)
Angry Rises (2/11/2006)
Further thoughts on "the Affect" (3/22/2006)
Uptalk is not HRT (3/28/2006)
Poem in the key of what (10/9/2006)
Satirical cartoon uptalk is not HRT either (11/14/2006)
Intonation contours and polonium poisoning (12/16/2006)
Uptalk anxiety (9/7/2008)
The phonetics of uptalk (9/13/2008)
Word (in)constancy (9/16/2008)

note stepgen quadrature mode behavior

2008-11-23T16:27:00+00:00

Commit by seb on TRUNK :: emc2/docs/man/man9/hostmot2.9:

note stepgen quadrature mode behavior

Cheap but meaningful stuff in London?

2008-11-23T16:11:23+00:00

A friend of mine just got his first paycheck (£20) and he wants to get a small keepsake instead of just pissing it away. He's already got a Swiss Army knife, so any recommendations on a small tchotke he can get for about twenty quid? FWIW, he's in London, and has pretty much the widest range of interest ever, so go crazy.

Should I Eat The Cheese? (Slight variation on past questions)

2008-11-23T16:08:11+00:00

I have some Spanish 'Queso Tetilla' cheese (a soft cheese completely surrounded by a hard rind). It's about a month old and got taken in a suitcase from Barcelona to the UK for about 16 hours - apart from that, it's been in the fridge the whole time. There are a couple of spots of blue mould on the rind, and a soft patch where a sticker was (through cellophane), but having cut into it the inside seems OK. Should I Eat It?

Note: I realise variations on this question have been asked before, but the advice seemed to be 'eat hard cheese, chuck soft cheese'. Since the mould is on the hard rind (and as far as I can tell, not the soft innards) I thought the question was justified - that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Plus, it's lovely, help me eat it.

updated

2008-11-23T15:49:33+00:00

Commit by flo-h on TRUNK :: emc2/src/po/de_rs274_err.po:

updated

[Insert clever lyric pun here]

2008-11-23T14:57:58+00:00

Hall & Oates are suing their publisher, Warner/Chappell Music Inc., claiming the publisher failed to enforce the copyright on their song "Maneater" and sue an unnamed singer-songwriter (quite possibly Nelly Furtado) for infringement. The only problem is, Timbaland and Nate "Danja" Hills - the composers of the Furtado track - also work for Warner/Chappel Music. What happens when publishers don't protect songwriters from other songwriters working for the same publisher.

In the Vicinity of the Cone Nebula

2008-11-23T14:06:01+00:00

In the Vicinity of the Cone Nebula Strange shapes and textures can be found in neighborhood of the Cone Nebula. The unusual shapes originate from fine interstellar dust reacting in complex ways with the energetic light and hot gas being expelled by the young stars. The brightest star on the right of the above picture is S Mon, while the region just above it has been nicknamed the Fox Fur Nebula for its color and structure. The blue glow directly surrounding S Mon results from reflection, where neighboring dust reflects light from the bright star. The orange glow that encompasses the whole region results not only from dust reflection but also emission from hydrogen gas ionized by starlight. S Mon is part of a young open cluster of stars named NGC 2264, located about 2500 light years away toward the constellation of Monoceros. The origin of the mysterious geometric Cone Nebula, visible on the far left, remains a mystery.

This is your brain in overdrive

2008-11-23T13:21:34+00:00

Christopher Farmer of Opord Analytical has just posted his solution (PDF) to part 4 of the much studied "Kryptos" cipher. He's recently cracked Zodiac Killer ciphers thought unsolvable for nearly 40 years and has a theory (PDF) about the Zodiac Killer's possible identity that is hard to be ignored. Mr. Farmer freely shares his many discoveries on his website's forum board.

TkTableCalendar

2008-11-23T11:59:28+00:00

TkTableWrapper

2008-11-23T11:56:58+00:00

Serenade the swimmer

2008-11-23T11:56:44+00:00

Can anyone recommend an FM radio suitable for swimming?

I have seen recommendations for some MP3 players (SwiMP3 etc.) for swimming. I would prefer a radio as the person I'm buying this for enjoys listening to the radio and doesn't enjoy updating her MP3 player.

I have seen a few swimmer's radios on the web, but it's hard to tell what's good. I'm looking for a recommendation from someone who has found a product that they like.

TkTableCalendar

2008-11-23T11:46:20+00:00

A beautiful truthful mind

2008-11-23T11:45:31+00:00

Brain reorganizes to make room for math. But does math easily lead to truth? Is it really just beauty?

TkTableCalendar

2008-11-23T11:34:01+00:00

TkTableWrapper

2008-11-23T11:24:25+00:00

Choosing more suitable feed reader after Netvibes

2008-11-23T11:00:59+00:00

Feedreader that fits my needs? Shows read feeds, has good browser view...

I was using Netvibes until now but it is developing in a direction that I don't like so I want to move to more usable feed reader. I tried Google Reader, Feed Demon and Newzie but there is some stuff that they lack or I don't know how to unlock.
One of the things that I need is to see as many as possible from my list ordered by categories and feeds and not by read and unread. I basically refer too much to already read feeds so I need them to be there too.
The other thing that I need is to see the post in the feed reader as I will be able to see it on the actual page. This was something Netvibes had and it helped with blogs that don't offer their full posts, cause when you switch to this mode you still browse the blog in your reader, you just get the actual page.
From all three that I tried Google Reader looked the most promising but it still lacks the second feature.

Thematic relations from both sides of the aisle

2008-11-23T10:51:10+00:00

From President-elect Obama's latest weekly YouTube Address:

I know that passing this plan won't be easy. I will need, and seek, support from Republicans and Democrats; and I'll be welcome to ideas and suggestions from both sides of the aisle. (emphasis added)

This sounds to me like an amalgam of

1. … ideas and suggestions will be welcome from both sides of the aisle; and
2. … I'll welcome ideas and suggestions from both sides of the aisle; and
3. … I'll be open to ideas and suggestions from both sides of the aisle.

misread from the teleprompter. But maybe not.

The construction X is welcome to Y is glossed in the AHD's entry as

3. Cordially or willingly permitted or invited: You are welcome to join us.

As this suggests, there's a third argument hidden in the background — the source of the permission or invitation. And normally, "X is welcome to Y" means that "(Someone) cordially permits or invites X to (have or do) Y", with the inviter implicit. The president-elect's usage means, instead, that "X cordially permits or invites (someone to have or do) Y", with the invitee implicit (or expressed here in the phrase "from both sides of the aisle").

This kind of role-shifting is not uncommon. Thus grateful used to be used to mean not only "feeling gratitude", but also (alternatively) "engendering gratitude", i.e. (OED sense 1) "Pleasing to the mind or the senses, agreeable, acceptable, welcome":

1814 SCOTT Wav. viii, Enjoying the grateful and cooling shade.

And a web search turns up more than a few examples of "I'm welcome to suggestions" or "I'm welcome to ideas" as a way to say "I'm open to suggestions/ideas" or "I welcome suggestions/ideas". So if Obama or his speech-writers have adopted this alternative (and new?) welcome-construction, they wouldn't be the first to do so. And if it was just a momentary linguistic confusion, it's a natural one.

[I wouldn't be shocked to find that this construction has been around for a long time, though it doesn't seem to be in any of the dictionaries that I've checked, and I don't recall having seen it before. And I'll note in passing that Jacob Weisberg is unlikely to add this to a prospective list of "Obama-isms". ]

[In case it's not clear, I think that this use of welcome is somewhat more non-standard than Sarah Palin's use of verbiage was. But I'll be surprised if someone at the New Yorker takes it as emblematic of a trend in social degeneracy; though perhaps someone at the National Review will take it as emblematic of trend in political economy ("he plans to be welcome to their ideas, and your money"). My own position is that it's an interesting development in the use of welcome, whose trajectory in space, time, and society I'd like to know more about.]

Collectivism through Korean food culture

2008-11-23T10:12:22+00:00

Culture Clash Filter: Help me find information on Collectivism and Individualism reflected through Korean and North American food and restaurant culture.

I'm wishing to write an article about South Korea, and I would love some help brainstorming. Some examples I'm looking for are:

-Tipping culture common in the West but not the East.
-Soju culture
-Budae jjigae
-Koreans sharing one bowl of soup with many people
-Eating together or separately as a cultural norm
-Pepero Day
-Sharing side dishes
-Business done around meals

While I'm focusing on Korea, information of other cultures would also be appreciated.

Thanks for your help.

Fix integer variable window to display labels again after adding the IW and QW...

2008-11-23T10:08:45+00:00

Commit by cmorley on TRUNK :: emc2/src/hal/classicladder/spy_vars_gtk.c:

Fix integer variable window to display labels again after adding the IW and QW variables

Matter is merely vacuum fluctuations

2008-11-23T09:23:08+00:00

Confirmed: Scientists Understand Where Mass Comes From. An exhaustive calculation of proton and neutron masses vindicates the Standard Model. Matter is merely vacuum fluctuations.

Is there a Jott-type service in Australia?

2008-11-23T08:52:26+00:00

Hi all. I've read a bit about Jott and its integration with other web services. At the moment I'm using gmail, gcal, google docs, google notebook, google reader, toodledo and iwantsandy.com. I'd like to be able to integrate these services to have just one entry point, ie, Jott (or a similar service). Unfortunately, as far as I am aware, it isn't available in Australia yet. I have managed to integrate most of the these services into my igoogle which works great when I'm at a computer. Jott would make it easier for me to use these services whilst out and about. Any ideas about how I can more easily get access to all these services without being overwhelmed by the them by having to use them all seperately? Thanks in advance, Max

Update classicladder man page a little

2008-11-23T08:41:50+00:00

Commit by cmorley on TRUNK :: emc2/docs/man/man9/classicladder.9:

Update classicladder man page a little

Created new variables IW and QW to represent S32 in and out pins instead of...

2008-11-23T07:44:14+00:00

Commit by cmorley on TRUNK :: emc2/src/hal/classicladder/ (8 files):

Created new variables IW and QW to represent S32 in and out pins instead of mapping them to W variables. Defaults to ten of each. Aligns us with mainsteam Classicladder. ladder programs will need to be updated, HAL files will be fine

Blindspots

2008-11-23T07:20:38+00:00

Blindspots is a continually-updated collection of movie reviews based around one very interesting concept -- how accessible they are to the visually impaired.
Movies that score high in accessibility include "The American President" (10/10) and "Ghosts of Mississippi" (9/10). At the other end of the scale are "101 Dalmatians", "Buddy", and "Spawn", each receiving 2/10.

jazz theory resources online

2008-11-23T06:55:09+00:00

where are quality net resources for learning about how musical theory applies to jazz? for instance what sort of tunes use a mixolodian scale, or unusual guitar tuning, strange timing, etc. i want to expand my understanding of theory in jazz compositions

Add support for three of the four hm2 step_types: step/dir, up/down, and...

2008-11-23T06:53:13+00:00

Commit by seb on TRUNK :: emc2/src/hal/drivers/mesa-hostmot2/ (TODO hostmot2.h stepgen.c):

Add support for three of the four hm2 step_types: step/dir, up/down, and quadrature

Add support for three of the four hm2 step_types: step/dir, up/down, and...

2008-11-23T06:53:12+00:00

Commit by seb on TRUNK :: emc2/docs/man/man9/hostmot2.9:

Add support for three of the four hm2 step_types: step/dir, up/down, and quadrature

aliases - show alias and show pin now working, commit for collaboration

2008-11-23T06:51:47+00:00

Commit by jmkasunich on TRUNK :: emc2/src/hal/utils/halcmd_commands.c:

aliases - show alias and show pin now working, commit for collaboration

Megaman the Movie

2008-11-23T06:49:19+00:00

Speaking of robots, here is a trailer for Megaman the Movie, a low budget live action adaptation of the classic NES game. [sort of previously]
(Warning, the last link is experiencing bandwidth spikes, so may be down.)

Slightly higher def trailer here.

Pfft! You Was Gone

2008-11-23T06:44:29+00:00

What began as a gospel song became Archie Campbell's signature song on Hee Haw, with the help of Gordie Tapp and some surprise celebrity guests.

Getting college right the second time around

2008-11-23T06:39:09+00:00

How do I get college right a very belated second time around?

My college experience sucked. I chose a very small, church-affiliated college for all the wrong reasons and it was a terrible fit for me, largely because I was 16 years old and had no business on any college campus, especially not one 800 miles from home. Anxiety, homesickness and a sense of not belonging led to mediocre grades, poor social connections and I lasted through an academic year, took a year off, stupidly went back to that same school for a semester, then gave up and dropped out in defeat.

Fast forward. It's now (a shameful) 17 years later. I took one semester of classes at the local community college about 12 years ago. That was my last experience in a classroom. I'm now 35 years old, single and working as an administrative assistant, not my life goal. I want to go back to school, do it right this time, get a degree, actually accomplish something. I know what I want to pursue, but I'm not any more sure how to find a school which is a good fit for me now as I was back then.

Beyond the academics, what should I be looking for in a school? I won't be living on campus this time around so my "needs" are quite different, but I'm honestly not sure what my needs are. Do I need a specific "non-traditional students" program? I have a mobility-limiting handicap, should I look for a school with the most accessible campus/best services for students with disabilities?

I know which schools are my first to look at (because they're all local and I won't have to move) but I'm at a complete loss as to what I'm supposed to be assessing. Ultimately, I'd like not only earn a BA, but also a Masters and a professional certification, and I don't want to get derailed and messed up again. How do I avoid that?

How Does My American System Work?

2008-11-23T06:29:37+00:00

I'm looking for a good book that will help me learn more about how the American government actually works. Specifically, how lobbyists influence Congress, how House committees work, etc. Now that a new administration (that I'm really happy about) is coming in, I want to really understand what's happening in Washington (or at least how its worked in the past).

Come on lets go space truckin!!!

2008-11-23T06:21:08+00:00

I don't typically listen to classic rock, but I'm SURE they're out there.. what are some big, stupid, loud rock songs about space? I don't mean spacey sounding, I mean.. Deep Purple "Space Truckin," Monster Magnet "Space Lord." More, please.

In fact, even if those two songs & any others you name are about something else and just cover it up with lyrics about space, that's cool too, anything you can think of. I'm really looking for the stomp-y, overwrought, RAWK type of stuff.. no "Space Oddity" for this list. Space aliens are most definitely OK.

(If only Soundgarden "Spoonman" were "Spaceman" and Zeppelin "Immigrant Song" were "Astronaut Song"..)

This adds basic reciprocal-time encoder velocity computation. Still freaks out...

2008-11-23T06:07:38+00:00

Commit by seb on TRUNK :: emc2/src/hal/drivers/mesa-hostmot2/ (TODO encoder.c hostmot2.h):

This adds basic reciprocal-time encoder velocity computation.

Still freaks out on index for now...

describe encoder.reset better

2008-11-23T06:06:42+00:00

Commit by seb on TRUNK :: emc2/docs/man/man9/hostmot2.9:

describe encoder.reset better

sample config now uses the new GPIO pin names

2008-11-23T06:06:03+00:00

Commit by seb on TRUNK :: emc2/configs/hostmot2/hm2.hal:

sample config now uses the new GPIO pin names

aliases - work in progress, commit for collaboration

2008-11-23T05:48:20+00:00

Commit by jmkasunich on TRUNK :: emc2/src/hal/utils/ (halcmd_commands.c halcmd_completion.c):

aliases - work in progress, commit for collaboration

2008-11-23T05:48:12+00:00

Commit by jmkasunich on TRUNK :: emc2/src/hal/hal_lib.c:

aliases - work in progress, commit for collaboration

Ride the Roomba!

2008-11-23T05:25:56+00:00

Pets have long been afraid of anything robotic, whether it be R oo m b a or Robo tic Dog, but times they are a'changing and Pets are fighting back and have learned to overcome.

Cleaning Up.

2008-11-23T05:24:23+00:00

As the Bay Area looks to become the electric vehicle capital of America, the 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI won the Green Car of the Year Award at the LA Auto Show.

Why are there fireworks tonight in west Houston?

2008-11-23T05:19:28+00:00

What is the massive fireworks display tonight in west Houston?

Wife and I are sitting here watching TV and I start hearing thuds and booms in the background. Stuck my head out a window and I hear what's obviously a BIG fireworks display, but I can't see anything and googling "november 22 fireworks houston" turns up nothing.

So, why the fireworks between approximately 10:30 and 11:15pm?

start of adding alias command - alias now gets called with the correct number of...

2008-11-23T05:13:32+00:00

Commit by swpadnos on TRUNK :: emc2/src/hal/utils/ (3 files):

start of adding alias command - alias now gets called with the correct number of arguments