comScore
  1. Mediaite
  2. Gossip Cop
  3. Geekosystem
  4. Styleite
  5. SportsGrid
  6. The Mary Sue
  7. The Jane Dough
  8. The Braiser

language

she blinded me with science

Female Scientists Describe Their Jobs Using Only the 10,000 Most Common English Words

by Susana Polo | 12:28 pm, January 23rd, 2013

A little while ago there was an XKCD picture that explained the Up-Goer Five, “the only flying space car that’s taken anyone to another world,” using only the ten hundred most used words in the very large group of words that I’m using right now. The Up-Goer Five is not easy to explain, so this was pretty funny, but also pretty interesting. Now on Tumblr, Theo Sanderson, Anne Jefferson, and Chris Rowan have a world wide computer place where men and women like the men and women who made the Up-Goer Five can explain how their jobs work, using only those same ten hundred words. They even made a world wide computer place that shows you what words to pick!

We think women who do things like making Up-Goer Fives are very cool, so we want to show you some of the things they do here on our world wide computer place! There are lots more at Sanderson, Jefferson, and Rowan’s world wide computer place. And in case you haven’t guessed already, these words were also written using their word-picking computer place.

READ MORE

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Start Your Vocal Chords, Ladies: Young Women Are the Biggest Linguistic Trendsetters

by Susana Polo | 11:53 am, March 7th, 2012

We all know that language changes pretty fast. Dictionaries, while useful reference materials, aren’t what language is derived from, but merely a blurry snapshot of an ever changing lexicographical landscape. Who pushes most of that change? Who appears to be on the cutting edge of significant, lasting, and eventually socially widespread changes in inflection and diction?

Young women, according to a lot of linguists.

READ MORE

Excelsior!

The Avengers Trailer, Exactly How Black Widow Would Want It

by Susana Polo | 9:35 am, December 29th, 2011

You know, in Russian. Did you think I meant something else? Oddly enough I think my favorite dubbed trailer is the German one (below). There are just so many more fun cognates in it. Plus, now I know how to say “philanthropist” in three languages.

READ MORE

what is this I don't even

Learn Questionable Chinese From Creepy Webseries, Wait, Is That David Tennant?

by Susana Polo | 10:24 am, December 15th, 2011

So, upon being introduced to iamxiaoli’s YouTube channel by The Daily What, I forwarded it to the only Chinese speaker I know because I had to know why this chick was teaching Chinese with a drugged lady and what looked like David Tennant duct-taped to a chair.

Upon further investigation, it appears that what we’re looking at is mostly a webseries of vague creepyness, under the pretense of teaching possibly-questionable Chinese. And it’s probably not David Tennant, just a guy with big eyes and scruffy hair.

But I’m not going to let all that hard-hitting investigative journalism go to waste, so here. Second video under the cut.

READ MORE

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Watch This Japanese Woman Teach Herself English by Explaining Star Wars [Video]

by Jamie Frevele | 10:58 am, December 14th, 2011

Mika is a young Japanese woman who is learning how to speak English. But how she’s chosen to apply her new language skills is super fun: she’s making videos explaining the plot of Star Wars. Above, Mika covers The Empire Strikes Back. In her quest to become multi-lingual, she has become a superfan! After the jump, see her takes on A New Hope and Return of the Jedi.

READ MORE

Lies Damned Lies

The Majority of Americans Believe that “Geek” is A Compliment

by Susana Polo | 10:21 am, May 25th, 2011

At least, according to the Opinion Research Corporation, who enacted a telephone survey of 1000 American adults on the general subject of the concept with a margin of error of +/- 3.1%.

As one might expect, however, there’s something of an age gap at work:

Two-thirds (66 percent) of Millennials (respondents aged 18-34) think being identified as a “geek” is a compliment, while only 39 percent of respondents aged 65 and older agree. The cultural shift in the way Americans perceive geeks is further evidenced by the findings that eight out of 10 (82 percent) respondents feel it is more acceptable to be a geek today than it was 15 years ago.

READ MORE

X