Tag Archives: Friday Links

A friendly reminder that the Church of Scientology is despicable, and is neither church nor scientific. Tell your friends.

Next we have Scientific American – which is, in fact, scientific – and a fascinating article on the search for alien supercivilizations. Also: did you know Freeman Dyson, the guy who came up with the Dyson Sphere idea, is still alive? And evidently still doing interviews. Kickass.

Fun facts for the editing-obsessed (who, me?): disabling MS Word’s annoying Paste Options box, the history of the comma (serial and otherwise), and a delightfully thorough investigation of the singular “they.”

Hope your weekend is Type III or higher on the Kardashev scale! See you Monday.

Here’s what’s up: English lacks a gender-neutral singular personal pronoun! Options like “he or she,” “s/he,” and “ze” are awkward; universal “he” is sexist and outdated; rephrasing or alternating the pronouns isn’t always possible! What’s a writer to do? EMBRACE THE SINGULAR THEY!

It’s good enough for Chaucer, Austen, and Shakespeare, and a growing number of copyeditors are embracing it too! They’re probably not embracing all these exclamation marks though! Tell your friends, spread the word, Singular They is the future!!

*sips coffee*

The year’s nine most hilarious New York Times corrections. My personal favorite: “An article … misidentified the character from the animated children’s TV show My Little Pony that Ms. Lindsmith said she visualized to cheer herself up. It is Twilight Sparkle, the nerdy intellectual, not Fluttershy, the kind animal lover.”

Have a below-par weekend! (That sounds negative. Below par is better, right? I might be overthinking this.) See you Monday.

Ever wondered what English sounded like in Shakespeare’s time? What about Chaucer’s time (Middle English), or Beowulf‘s (Old English)?

No? You’ve never wondered that?

Well, either way, this guy has you covered.

Oddly, the author doesn’t say anything about how anyone knows the pronunciation of Old English. I’m sure linguists have ways of guessing, but given the relative scarcity of tape recorders in the eleventh century, I’m not sure how close they can really get. Still, it’s an intriguing glimpse into the past.

Have a salutary weekend!

This one’s kind of random: the etymology of “OK.” Apparently, use of the word can be traced to a single newspaper article on March 23, 1839. After that, its rise to popularity came courtesy of Martin van Buren. An interesting read, if you’re into weird things like that.

Have a great weekend.

Here’s Wordnik: a dictionary on steroids. Type in a word or phrase, even slang and nonstandard words, and you get:

• definitions from several dictionaries
• etymologies
• examples from literature
• examples from Twitter
• synonyms and antonyms
• “hypernyms” – words that are more abstract, e.g. “greeting” for “hello”
• rhymes
• discussion
• images from Flickr and audio pronunciation, though neither seems to be working at the moment
• Scrabble score

Have fun!

As you probably know, the great Leonard Nimoy died a week ago today.

The man who breathed life into Spock was by all accounts talented, intelligent, and kind. And though he was sometimes frustrated that people only knew him for one role, he eventually realized that, if you have to be known for one role, Spock is a pretty damn good one.

Spock himself was, in a word, fascinating. He was a geek before it was cool – a scientist, a logician, an inspiration to anyone who felt like an alien in their own life. Spock was not, as many people believe, emotionless. Rather, he had decided not to let his emotions define him. We could all use a little of that self-control sometimes.

A small selection of tributes to an outstanding actor:

Nimoy’s final Twitter post, which seems just right.

Scientific American remembers.

A great painting, titled I Am Spock.

Nimoy’s Bilbo Baggins song unites two of my favorite things in the world: Tolkien and Star Trek. It’s so adorably wonderful, it’s hard to believe it really exists.

A great commercial featuring the two Spocks: Nimoy and Zachary Quinto. A surprising number of inside jokes for something that was (I imagine) aimed at the general public.

And finally, one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen: Nimoy’s starring role in the “alternate official video” for Bruno Mars’s “The Lazy Song.” He doesn’t sing – doesn’t even speak – but he’s perfect. Just shows he wasn’t afraid to make fun of himself.

That’s all I have. If you’ve got any links or thoughts of your own, please, share in the comments. Have a stellar weekend. Live long and prosper.

From The Onion: Boyfriends Who Aren’t Speaking Are Thinking About Ending Relationship 90% Of Time. As a boyfriend/husband myself, I can confirm this is definitely true. Anytime I’m quiet, that is a near-certain indication that I am thinking about the relationship, and it’s not good. It definitely isn’t because I’m guessing at the etymology of a word you recently spoke, or trying to figure out whether Stephen Hawking is still the only person to have portrayed himself in an episode of Star Trek.

Also. This. Just this.

Have a phenomenal weekend!

What happens when you let a baby lead a group of dancers? (“Questions I didn’t ask for $300, Alex.”) Because this is the Internet, we have the answer, and it’s a video.

Have a meritorious weekend!

All of these links are to DeviantArt pages, so you can click the image to enlarge.

For you Babylon 5 fans out there, here’s a stylized drawing of Lyta Alexander. (With symbolism! Ooohhh…)

For the X-Files peeps, here’s Scully in “Lights in the Sky.” (I’ve never even seen an episode, but I hear good things…)

For the Adventure Time guys and gals, we have the Lumpy Gaga Tour.

And finally, if for some reason you like Buffy (I hear there are some weirdos that do? *cough*) here’s a poster for Cirque du Slay. (Do…do you get it?)

Have an exemplary weekend, and I’ll see you Monday!