us Georgia: Latest updates on Coronavirus By feeds.livescience.com Published On :: Tue, 17 Mar 2020 20:57:51 +0000 Georgia has 146 confirmed cases of COVID-19 Full Article
us Colorado: Latest updates on coronavirus By feeds.livescience.com Published On :: Tue, 17 Mar 2020 20:57:52 +0000 More than 130 people in the state have been diagnosed with COVID-19, and one has died. Full Article
us Utah: Latest updates on coronavirus By feeds.livescience.com Published On :: Tue, 17 Mar 2020 20:59:27 +0000 Here's a look at the number of coronavirus cases in Utah and the latest news about the COVID-19 outbreak. Full Article
us Indiana: Latest updates on Coronavirus By feeds.livescience.com Published On :: Tue, 17 Mar 2020 21:03:43 +0000 Here's a look at the number of coronavirus cases in Indiana and the latest news about the COVID-19 outbreak. Full Article
us Arkansas: Latest updates on coronavirus By feeds.livescience.com Published On :: Tue, 17 Mar 2020 21:05:00 +0000 Arkansas has reported 22 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Tuesday (March 17). Full Article
us Mississippi: Latest updates on Coronavirus By feeds.livescience.com Published On :: Tue, 17 Mar 2020 21:05:01 +0000 Here is the COVID-19 situation in Mississippi. Full Article
us Ohio: Latest updates on coronavirus By feeds.livescience.com Published On :: Tue, 17 Mar 2020 21:09:38 +0000 Here's a look at the number of coronavirus cases in Ohio and the latest news about the COVID-19 outbreak. Full Article
us Coronavirus outbreak: Live updates By feeds.livescience.com Published On :: Tue, 17 Mar 2020 21:26:55 +0000 Live Science will keep you up to date on all coronavirus news, including how far it has spread, city and local closings and the science behind the virus and the disease it causes, COVID-19. Full Article
us Tennessee: Latest updates on coronavirus By feeds.livescience.com Published On :: Tue, 17 Mar 2020 21:29:51 +0000 Here's a look at the number of coronavirus cases in Tennessee and the latest news on the COVID-19 outbreak. Full Article
us Arizona: Latest updates on coronavirus By feeds.livescience.com Published On :: Tue, 17 Mar 2020 21:53:18 +0000 Arizona has reported 20 positive cases of COVID-19 as of Tuesday (March 17). Full Article
us New York: Latest updates on Coronavirus By feeds.livescience.com Published On :: Tue, 17 Mar 2020 22:36:18 +0000 Here's a look at the number of coronavirus cases in New York and the latest news about the COVID-19 outbreak. Full Article
us West Virginia: Latest updates on Coronavirus By feeds.livescience.com Published On :: Tue, 17 Mar 2020 23:21:41 +0000 West Virginia has its first confirmed case of coronavirus. Full Article
us Tapping For Coronavirus Fears! By galadarling.com Published On :: Thu, 12 Mar 2020 18:10:49 +0000 By popular request, a video about ALLEVIATING YOUR CORONAVIRUS FEARS! I promise, this will make you feel better. Let’s be real, let’s be rational, and let’s release any panic we’re feeling. The post Tapping For Coronavirus Fears! appeared first on Gala Darling. Full Article video
us Carousel: April 2020 By galadarling.com Published On :: Wed, 01 Apr 2020 19:24:50 +0000 My darlings, my babies, my glorious creatures… I know you’re cooped up in your house. Me too! #samesies! Aren’t we all?! If you’ve been slowly going mad, never fear… I have articles, videos, case studies, and all kinds of fascinating literature for you to digest. Here’s a round-up of the best of the web, in […] The post Carousel: April 2020 appeared first on Gala Darling. Full Article carousel
us House of 1000 Doors: The Palm of Zoroaster By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Sun, 03 May 2020 04:00:00 -0400 Exclusive offer from Giveaway of the Day and ToomkyGames! No third-party advertising and browser add-ons! Guide Kate Reed as she searches for the artifacts that can break the power of a cursed gem in House of 1,000 Doors: The Palm of Zoroaster! A cursed gem that has left a trail of smoldering bodies in its wake is threatening the residents of the House of 1,000 Doors, prompting the head of the mystical dwelling to once again summon Kate Reed to its aid. Guide Kate as she searches for the artifacts that can break the power of the gem! Full Article Hidden Object HOG ToomkyGames House of 1000 Doors: The Palm of Zoroaster
us NFPA and HFSC Take Home Fire Sprinkler Week 2020 Virtual; Help Us Fill the Digital World with Life Safety Messages May 17-23 By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: 2020-04-20T17:40:00Z As the world continues to deal with the ongoing demands of COVID-19, NFPA and the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition (HFSC) have cancelled live events that week in favor of a North America wide virtual effort to show the value of home fire sprinklers from May Full Article fire sprinkler initiative home fire sprinklers hfsc fire sprinkler advocacy home fire sprinkler week covid-19 coronavirus
us Case Mod Friday: IndominAORUS Bench By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 09:00:12 +0000 This week for Case Mod Friday we have what might be the ultimate bench build! It is from KillR_MODZ and he calls it the IndominAORUS Bench featuring all new Z490 hardware and some awesome watercooling! The post Case Mod Friday: IndominAORUS Bench appeared first on ThinkComputers.org. Full Article Articles Case Mod Friday AORUS Case Mod IndominAORUS Bench KillR_MODZ Mod Modding PC Mod Test Bench Z490
us AMD’s $99 Ryzen 3 3100 Pushed to 5.9 GHz By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 14:31:53 +0000 Professional overclocker TSAIK was able to push the Ryzen 3 3100 all the way up to 5923 MHz under extreme cooling! The Vcore was set to 1.45V and the chip was put under liquid nitrogen. The post AMD’s $99 Ryzen 3 3100 Pushed to 5.9 GHz appeared first on ThinkComputers.org. Full Article All News Hardware News AMD CPU Overclocking Overclock Overclocking RYZEN Ryzen 3 3100 TSAIK
us Where do baby magnetars come from? Mysterious 'fast radio bursts' may provide clues. By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Sun, 03 May 2020 13:37:50 +0000 Magnetars — highly magnetized, rapidly rotating super-dense stars — are among the most enigmatic creatures to inhabit the cosmos and their origins are shrouded in mystery. Full Article
us A small asteroid the size of a bus will fly safely by Earth today By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Sun, 03 May 2020 15:21:49 +0000 A newly discovered asteroid about the size of a bus will zip safely by Earth today (May 3), passing at a distance just over halfway to the moon. Full Article
us The starry dusty field from the core of our Milky Way galaxy (photo) By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Mon, 04 May 2020 11:53:46 +0000 A panoramic view of the Milky Way galaxy's dusty core reveals several colorful deep-space nebulas. Full Article
us Disney Plus drops epic 'Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga' trailer for May the Fourth By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Mon, 04 May 2020 16:21:03 +0000 "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" arrives on Disney Plus for Star Wars Day today (May 4), putting all nine films from the Skywalker saga in one place for fans and yes, there is a trailer. Full Article
us Elon Musk shows off Starship prototype's rocket engine ahead of test fire (photo) By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Mon, 04 May 2020 19:39:24 +0000 SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk just tweeted an image looking up at the belly of the latest Starship prototype, the SN4, which is on the test stand ahead of a key engine firing. Full Article
us Dirty Business: Lack of Menstrual Equity in Colombian Prisons By www.ourbodiesourselves.org Published On :: Fri, 25 Oct 2019 16:07:11 +0000 By Charlie Ruth Castro Lee este post en español Let’s talk about menstruation – a natural and necessary process among women, but one that we have been culturally taught to hate, hide or even make fun of. Also, let me talk about a dirty business perpetrated by certain officers from INPEC, the Colombian national institution in charge of penitentiary policy. In many prisons, INPEC has routinely failed to supply adequate menstrual products for the female prison population. Being deprived of ways to deal with bleeding is outrageous, ... More The post Dirty Business: Lack of Menstrual Equity in Colombian Prisons appeared first on Our Bodies Ourselves. Full Article Activism & Resources menstruation Sex Education
us The Very Early Perimenopause: What We Can Learn from Dr. Jerilynn Prior’s Research By www.ourbodiesourselves.org Published On :: Mon, 25 Nov 2019 14:49:19 +0000 by Nina Coslov In my early 40s, I started noticing changes in my body. A once great sleeper, I was now waking at 2 a.m. – often with lots of energy and sometimes with anxiety. I’d be awake for about 3 hours before I could get back to sleep. Around the same time, premenstrual breast tenderness returned — something I hadn’t experienced since my 20s, before I had children. Not long after, I’d notice from time to time a pervasive edginess, a revving — an energetic ... More The post The Very Early Perimenopause: What We Can Learn from Dr. Jerilynn Prior’s Research appeared first on Our Bodies Ourselves. Full Article Menopause menstruation
us Book Week 2019: Gretchen McCulloch's Because Internet By separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com Published On :: Mon, 02 Dec 2019 12:37:00 +0000 Welcome to the final review post of Book Week 2019. In the intro to Book Week 2019, I explain what I'm doing. The 'week' has turned out to be eight days. If you're perturbed about that, I'm happy to offer you a full refund on your subscription fees for this blog.On with the show. Today's book is: Because InternetUnderstanding the new rules of language (US subtitle)Understanding how language is changing (UK subtitle)by Gretchen McCullochRiverhead, 2019 (N America)Harvill Secker, 2019 (UK)Gretchen McCulloch describes herself as an internet linguist: writing about internet language for people on the internet. She actually does a lot more than that, with daily blogging at All Things Linguistic for years and being one half of the Lingthusiasm podcast team and writing on all sorts of linguistic themes for all sorts of publications. So, I expect many readers of this blog will already know her and have heard about this book. US CoverI expected Because Internet to be good, knowing Gretchen's work, but I also probably (in my grumpy, middle-aged, oh-do-we-have-to-talk-about-emojis-again? way) expected it to be faddish. There have been too many just-plain-bad, (orig. AmE) jumping-on-the-bandwagon books about emojis, and I've got(ten) a bit sour on the topic. This book is so much more than I expected it to be. I should have known better. Having read and heard much of her work, I should have expected that this would be a truly sophisticated approach to language and to general-audience linguistics writing. So far in Book Week 2019, I've recommended the books as gifts for A-level students/teachers, science lovers, and language curmudgeons. This book is good for all those groups and more. UK coverThe key is in the subtitle(s).* This is not just a book about emojis and autocomplete (and, actually, autocomplete isn't even in the index). This is a book about the relationship between speech and writing and how that's changed with technology. It seamlessly introduces theories of why language changes, how change spreads and how communication works in a time when the potential for change is high and the potential for changes to spread is unprecedented. That seamless introduction of linguistic concepts is the reason I've started this book from the beginning and not skipped around (unlike for other books in Book Week—where the rule is that I don't have to read the whole book before I start writing about it). In most books about language for non-linguists, I'm able to skim or skip the bit where they talk about the basics of how language works and the classic studies on the topic and the ideas springing from them. McCulloch covers those issues and those studies (the Labovs, the Milroys, the Eckerts), but since this is intertwined with looking at how language is changing in the 21st century—because (of the) internet—it was worth my while to read straight through. The great thing about the language of the internet is: even when it looks really different from non-internet language, it's still illustrating general principles about how language, communication, and society work. But it also shows how society is changing because of technology, particularly in changing who we are likely to interact with or hear from, In the process, it gives a history of the internet that's enlightening even for those of us who've lived through it all. (I've just flipped open to a section about PLATO at the University of Illinois. One of my student jobs was working in a PLATO lab, playing Bugs-n-Drugs [aka Medcenter] while signing people in and out. That game was not good for my hypochondria, but I have awfully fond memories of PLATO.)Another thing to appreciate about McCulloch's book is how unreactionary it is. She doesn't set up her discussion as "You've heard people say these stupid things about the internet, but here's the TRUTH." (A style of writing that I can be very, very guilty of.) She mostly just makes her case gracefully, based on what the language is doing, rather than reacting to what other people say the language is doing. Rather than 'This, that and the other person say emoji are a new language, but they're not', she just gets on with explaining how emoji fulfil(l) our communicative need to gesture. It's a positive approach that academic linguists will have had trained out of them by the requirements of academic publishing. This is a bit of a nerdview 'review'. Usually reviews tell you some fun facts from the book they're reviewing, whereas I'm telling you what I've noticed about its information structure. That's because that's what I really look for in books as I prepare to write a new one. In terms of information, in this book you'll learn, among other things:which "internet generation" you belong to and how your language is likely to be different from other generations'.what punctuation communicates in texting/chat and how that differs from formal writinghow language change can be traced through studying strong and weak social links and geographic tagging on TwitterInevitably, the book is mainly about English, in no small part because English rules the internet. But it does make its way to other languages and cultures—for instance, how Arabic chat users adapted their spelling to the roman alphabet and how emojis are interpreted differently around the world. In the end, she briefly considers whether space is being made for other languages on the internet.It's a galloping read and you'll learn all sorts of things. So, on that happy review, I declare Book Week 2019 FINISHED.* I love the transatlantic change in subtitles, since it completely illustrates the point of chapter 8 of The Prodigal Tongue: that Americans like to talk about language in terms of rules, and Britons in terms of history/tradition. I've also written a shorter piece about my personal experience of it for Zócalo Public Square. Full Article books computers
us 2019 UK-to-US Word of the Year: knock-on By separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com Published On :: Tue, 31 Dec 2019 20:32:00 +0000 It's the end of the year, and time to declare the Separated by a Common Language Words of the Year. As ever, I've got two categories: US-to-UK and UK-to-US. In other words: I'm interested in borrowings between these national dialects. To be a SbaCL WoTY, the word doesn't have to have been imported precisely in that year—it just needs to have been noticeable in some way. For past WotYs, see here. I'll post the US-to-UK word soon; this post is for UK-to-US.I've been noticing a lot of Britishisms in American English this year (and, as ever, Ben Yagoda is recording many of them at his Not One-Off Britishisms [NOOB] blog). I've decided to go with one nominated by Neil Dolinger last month. The UK-to-US SbaCL Word of the Year is:knock-onThe relevant sense is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as: Being a secondary or indirect consequence of another action, occurrence, or eventIt's most commonly found in the phrase knock-on effect, which is first recorded in the OED in 1972. Knock-on itself seems to have passed into general usage from physics:Ben Yagoda's blog had knock-on effect as an "on-the-radar NOOB" in 2012, and the reason I've chosen it as the 2019 UK-to-US Word of the Year is its 2018-19 surge in US usage, as can be seen here in the US portion of the News on the Web corpus:Of the 612 US examples of it in this corpus, 481 are in the phrase knock-on effect(s). Another 83 are followed by another noun, such as impact, employment, and delays.It's still very much a British expression: while knock-on still occurs about 5 times per million British words in the News on the Web corpus, it's still less than once per million in the US news corpus (.63 in 2019 overall). And that corpus is showing the marks of globali{s/z}ation—a frequent source of knock-on in the US data is from the US edition of the UK paper The Guardian and of the Irish Times international edition. Still, it is showing up in a lot of homegrown US media: local news channels, the Washington Post, Forbes, Variety, and others:Click to enlarge Why is it more common in the first half of each year than the second? Well, for 2019, there are no examples after October, so I think that might be an effect of the corpus collection methods. It could also be because of rugby, in which knock-on is a noun (for when the ball is knocked forward). The Six Nations tournament starts in February and 4 out of 24 US examples of knock-on in February 2019 and 4 of 13 in March have the rugby sense. By contrast, in January and April, zero of the 29 US hits have the rugby sense. So, while there is definitely noise from the rugby sense in two months of the year, that effect seems limited. I'll let Ben Yagoda have the last say about whether this shift is enough to take it from "on the radar" to being a full-blown Not One-Off Britishism in the US, but I thank Neil for nominating it. But before I go, it seems fitting to mention this dialectal difference: BrE Heath Robinson machine versus AmE Rube Goldberg machine. You can click on the links to learn about their namesakes, but here's an OK Go video to illustrate knock-on effects, just for fun. Happy New Year! Full Article adjectives idioms WotY
us 2019 US-to-UK Word of the Year: gotten By separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com Published On :: Thu, 02 Jan 2020 00:46:00 +0000 For part 1 of the 2019 Words of the Year, click here. Now we're on to the US-to-UK WotY.Radzi Chinyanganya, WotY inspirationI had pretty much decided not to do a US-to-UK Word of the Year for 2019. The words nominated were generally ones that had made a big splash in English recently on both sides of the Atlantic, rather than long-standing Americanisms that were making a splash in Britain. I had begun to think that BrE had reached peak Americanism. But then I went through my top tweets of the year, and saw one that made me think: "Oh yeah, that's it."The US-to-UK Word of the Year is: gottenHere's the tweet that reminded me: I'll admit getting teary over @iamradzi's departure from Blue Peter, but the reason (for a linguist) to watch his 'best of' episode is the number of times he says 'gotten'. It really is making a comeback in UK. If we can resurrect a verb paradigm, imagine what else we can do ????— Lynne Murphy (@lynneguist) April 30, 2019 Now, this choice might be controversial in that gotten is not just and not originally American. It is one of those linguistic things that mostly died in the UK while it thrived in the US. When I moved to the UK, a colleague told me that you'd still hear gotten among old people in Yorkshire. I haven't had the chance to bother any old people in Yorkshire about that, but -en forms of get were found far and wide in English dialects. That said, the OED has it as "chiefly U.S." and it is widely perceived in the UK as an Americanism. In England you do hear it more from Americans (in the media, if not in person) than from British folk. Here's a bit of what I said about it in The Prodigal Tongue:That part of the book goes on to examine the evidence that gotten only really got going in the US—that it was not used much in the formal English of those who came from England to the Americas, and that its use exploded only in the late 19th century, when the US was finding a voice of its own. (Want to know more? I have a book to sell you!)So, while gotten is not just American nor originally American, America is where gotten made its fortune. The "standard" British participle for get is have got, as discussed (along with its meaning) in this old post.What's interesting about gotten in Britain in 2019 is that it's been used quite a bit in places where you don't tend to hear non-standard, regional grammatical forms: like on the BBC and in Parliament. And I have heard it among my child's middle-class (orig. AmE) tween friends here in the southeast. Here are some interesting examples, besides our friend Radzi.* On the CBeebies (BBC channel for young children) website:In a BBC news story about an orange seagull in Buckinghamshire:Hospital staff said the bird "had somehow gotten himself covered in curry or turmeric". In the linguistically (and otherwise) conservative Telegraph newspaper:**Yet, it is the ageing filter that has gotten most people talking.By then-Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry, who got into trouble for saying:The Lib Dems have gotten kind of Taliban, haven’t they? And in the House of Commons:"I would like to share some of the thoughts of organisations that have gotten in touch in recent days to share their experience of training mental health first aiders..." —Luciana Berger, 17 Jan 2019"...those in Sinn Féin say, 'Well, we’ve gotten away with two years of saying we’re not going back into government until...'" —Gregory Campbell, 5 Mar 2019 "...the mess that this place has gotten itself into..." —Deirdre Brock 19 Mar 2019"...the best way of dealing with this is not through a voluntary levy based on the least that can be gotten away with" —Jim Shannon, 2 July 2019There's a difference, though, between the ones from the House of Commons and the others. The parliamentary ones have gotten in a set phrase of some sort. It's long been the case that British speakers say gotten in close proximity to mess and into, since they're alluding to Laurel and Hardy films, where gotten is indeed the form. And in the other cases above, we've got gotten away with and gotten in touch, which are figurative and idiomatic uses. (Neither of those particular idioms is particularly American.) Since gotten is heard in Parliament as part of set phrases, it's not clear that it would be a 'normal' way for those speakers to form the past participle of get in general.The other examples above (and indeed Radzi's uses that inspired my original tweet) are have gotten just as a plain old verb in its many meanings. Those interest me more because they do seem more like the re-introduction of the get-got-gotten paradigm, and not just certain constructions that have been remembered with a certain verb form. A lot of the British gotten that I've been exposed to is from homegrown children's television and children, and that's what really seals it for me as a 2019 word. After 20 years of not hearing it much (and training myself out of saying it much), I'm really noticing it. You can find lots of people, particularly older people, in the UK talking about its ugliness or wrongness, but the fact that younger people are un-self-consciously saying it makes me think that it will get bigger still.And on that note, a bit later than is decent, I say goodbye to 2019! Footnotes:* I haven't presented corpus numbers in this post, since the bulk of the gotten numbers in corpora tend to be (in news) quoted Americans or (in other things) in set phrases. The Hansard corpus tool at Huddersfield University doesn't seem to be able to separate the gottens from the ill-gottens—which is a form that has remained in BrE despite the more general loss of gotten.** (I got quite a few google hits for gotten in the Telegraph, for which I could see the gotten in the preview. But for some, when I clicked through, the same sentence had got. Might this be because some stories were originally posted with gotten then changed when the "error" was caught?) Full Article morphology WotY
us 'X's Y' versus 'the Y of X' By separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com Published On :: Sun, 29 Mar 2020 21:45:00 +0000 [I had said I'd be blogging weekly, but that didn't happen when I had to travel for family reasons. I have got(ten) back to it, not that you'll always notice. I've decided that my goal is to *write* for the blog each week, but not necessarily to publish. So, I started writing this one last week, finished this week.]I'm doing a lot of reading about the genitive case at the moment. Grammatical case is some kind of marking (e.g. a suffix) that shows what 'job' a noun is doing in a sentence. You might know a lot about case if you've studied German or Latin or Finnish (or some other languages), which have case suffixes on nouns. You'll know a little about case from being an English speaker who knows the differences between they, them, and theirs. Modern English marks pronouns for case, but not other nouns, except...Old English (Anglo-Saxon) had a robust case system, which it got from the ancestor it shared with German. The case suffixes pretty much died during Middle English. (English lost a lot of other kinds of suffixes over the centuries too, in part because suffixes are the kinds of things that get swallowed up in speech and in part becuase they're the kind of thing that become vulnerable when different languages come into contact—as happened for English and Norman French nearly 1000 years ago.) But one English case suffix, rather than disappearing, morphed into something else, and that something is the scourge of English spelling, the apostrophe-s: 's. So in the Old-English poem Beowulf, you can read about Grendles guðcræft. That -es on the name of the monster Grendel is the forebear of 's. We can translate it as something like 'Grendel's power' or 'Grendel's warcraft'. That (masculine, singular) genitive case marker says that there's a very close relation between Grendel and the guðcræft. Grendel is the power's source or its possessor. But when that poem gets translated into Modern English, the translators sometimes translate the -es as an 's and sometimes not:the might of Grendel (Francis Gummere) Grendel's power of destruction (Seamus Heaney)That's because something else happened in Middle English: English started using of in the way that French uses de to express genitive relations—because French got all up in English's business at that point. Because of that change, of occurs only 30 times in Beowulf (where it has its original meaning of 'away from' or 'off'*), but over 900 times in Gummere's translation of it (where it means next to nothing).So English has ended up with two ways of expressing those kinds of relations. We tend to talk about them as being 'possessive' relations and of the X in X's Y or the Y of X as 'the possessor'. But the relation is not necessarily possessive. Think about something like the theft of the bicycle and the bicycle's theft: the bicycle doesn't possess the theft. The relations between the nouns in 's/of expressions are varied and hard to pin down (but they are very close relationships, covering a lot of the same ground as the genitive in Old English). We don't exactly use 's and of interchangeably, though, and even where we can use both we often have preferences for one or the other. One of the strongest predictors of whether it'll be 's or of is the animacy of the thing in the X position (the 'possessor'). Linguists often talk about an animacy hierarchy in which expressions that refer to animate things are preferred in certain positions in sentences over non-animate things. In terms of what's animate, humans (the teacher, Heidi) come above animals (the badger, the parrot) and collectives (the company, the union), which come above objects (the table, the book). All of the below noun phrases are "grammatical" but the higher up the list we go, the more apt people are to use the 's instead of the of phrase, all other things being equal: the teacher's size the size of the teacherthe badger's size the size of the badgerthe union's size the size of the unionthe table's size the size of the tableA lot is going on in that 'all other things being equal' (a phrase used in both AmE and BrE, but AmE also likes all else being equal). Some other things that swing a possessive in favo(u)r of 's phrasing rather than of phrasing are:heavier (more syllables/more complex syntax) possessed NPs rather than lighter ones(the table's dirty and worn-out alumin(i)um edge vs the dirty and worn-out alumin(i)um edge of the table)the need for denser texts, as in newspaper headlines speech (rather than writing) informal writing style (rather than more formal writing styles)the dialect being spokenSo, on the last point: English in general used to be a much stronger avoidance of 's on inanimate object names. Inanimate possessors have become more and more accepted in English over the last 200 years or so. But that change has been happening faster in American English than British. This is like a lot (but not all!) of other changes in English (see The Prodigal Tongue, or if you really like to read about statistical methods, Paul Baker's book)—the change has roots deep in English's history, but goes faster/slower in different places. In this change's case (like some others), the "newer" form ('s on inanimates) is perceived as less formal and it's more condensed (and therefore quicker to say/read). Both of these properties might characteri{s/z}e some differences between the cultures that maintain the "standard" versions of English in the two countries. AmE tolerates more informality and more brevity in more situations.So, having been thinking about all this, I did a Difference of the Day on Twitter, showing these two charts:Here you can see that North Americans are much more happy than others to say the book's cover or the book's title or the table's edge or the table's width (or whatever other nouns might go after book's and table's). Here's the flipside, the of versions, which I didn't post on Twitter.The table chart goes with what we'd expect to see: BrE doing a lot more with of than AmE. But the book table has AmE doing more of the book than BrE. You know why? Because American talk about books more. No, really:So that's a lot more detail than you needed in order to see the AmE/BrE difference, but, hey, reading is good for you!*Why does off look like of? Because they used to be the same word! Some of the things I've been reading that influenced this post:Carlier, Anne and Jean-Christophe Verstraete. 2013. Genitive case and genitive constructions: an introduction. In Carlier and Verstraete (eds.), The genitive. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Carlier, Anne, Michèle Goyens and Béatrice Lamiroy. 2013. De: a genitive marker in French? Its grammaticalization path from Latin to French. In Carlier and Verstraete (eds.), The genitive. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Szmrecsanyi, Benedikt and Lars Hinrichs. 2008. Probabilistic determinants of genitive variation in spoken and written English: A multivariate comparison across time, space, and genres. In Terttu Nevalainen, IrmaTaavitsainen, Päivi Pahta, and Minna Korhonen (eds.), The Dynamics of Linguistic Variation: Corpus Evidence on English Past and Present. Amsterdam : John Benjamins. Full Article grammar morphology prepositions
us coronavirus and COVID-19 By separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com Published On :: Sun, 03 May 2020 22:41:00 +0000 A retired colleague contacted me with this query:Has a dialect difference emerged between US novel coronavirus/new coronavirus and UK COVID-19, do you think? Novel coronavirus/new coronavirus is favoured by Reuters, but I don't know whether that counts in the dialect balance.I hear plenty of COVID-19 from US sources, so that didn't strike me as quite right, but I had a look (on 29 April) at the News on the Web (NOW) corpus, which (so far this year) had 226 covi* (i.e. words starting with covi-) per million words in US and 49 per million in UK. For coronav* it's 362 US v 92 UK. (I searched that way so that I'd get all variations, including COVID without the -19, without the hyphen, coronaviruses, etc.). Now, I don't trust the geographical coding on the NOW corpus very much, because you have things like the Guardian showing up in the US data because it has a US portal that has US-particular content, but also all the UK content—and that doesn't do us much good in sorting out AmE from BrE. I really don't know why the per-million numbers are so much higher in the US sources, since the news in both places is completely taken over by the virus and stories related to it. But anyway, about 38% of the (named) mentions of the disease are COVID in the US and 35% in the UK, so there is no notable difference in preference for COVID. I found it interesting that the two newspaper apps on my phone (Guardian [UK] and New York Times) prefer coronavirus in headlines, even though COVID-19 is shorter. But my colleague is right that there is a lot more new/novel coronavirus in US than UK. About 12% of AmE usages are prefaced by an adjective that starts with N, while only about 3% of BrE coronaviruses are. Distribution is fairly even between novel (from medical usage) and new. It's worth noting that since I'm only searching news media, new/novel is probably far more common in this dataset than it would be in everyday interactions.Including the definite article (the coronavirus) seems to be more common in AmE. If I just look for how many coronavirus occurrences are preceded by the, the proportion is 45% for AmE and 37% for BrE. this search hits examples like the one in the 'middle school' story on the left: the coronavirus lockdown where the the really relates to the lockdown. So, to try to avoid this problem, I searched for (the) coronavirus [VERB] and (the) coronavirus [full stop/period]. In those cases, then AmE news media have the the about 50% of the time, while BrE ones have it less than 30% of the time. That misses the new/novel coronavirus (because of the adjective between the and coronavirus), so the real difference in the before coronavirus is probably more stark. The media's style guides are supposed to guide the choices journalists and editors make in phrasing such things, but how strictly they follow their own guides is another matter. I had a look at a couple:The Guardian Style Guide (UK) says:coronavirus outbreak 2019-20The virus is officially called Sars-CoV-2 and this causes the disease Covid-19. However, for ease of communication we are following the same practice as the WHO and using Covid-19 to refer to both the virus and the disease in our general reporting. It can also continue to be referred to as the coronavirus. [I've added the bold on the latter]The Associated Press (US) gives similar advice, though it goes into more particular rules for science stories.As of March 2020, referring to simply the coronavirus is acceptable on first reference in stories about COVID-19. While the phrasing incorrectly implies there is only one coronavirus, it is clear in this context. Also acceptable on first reference: the new coronavirus; the new virus; COVID-19. In stories, do not refer simply to coronavirus without the article the. Not: She is concerned about coronavirus. Omitting the is acceptable in headlines and in uses such as: He said coronavirus concerns are increasing. Passages and stories focusing on the science of the disease require sharper distinctions. COVID-19, which stands for coronavirus disease 2019, is caused by a virus named SARS-CoV-2. When referring specifically to the virus, the COVID-19 virus and the virus that causes COVID-19 are acceptable. But, because COVID-19 is the name of the disease, not the virus, it is not accurate to write a new virus called COVID-19. [bold added]In comparing the two passages you can see one predictable difference between them. AP writes COVID in all caps, Guardian has Covid with the initial capital only. There is a widespread preference in BrE (and generally not in AmE) to differentiate between initalisms and true acronyms. (There's been a bit in the Guardian about it, here.)In an initialism, you pronounce the names of the letters: the WHO stands for World Health Organization and it is pronounced W-H-O and not "who". It's spel{led/t} with all caps (or small caps), no matter where you live. (AmE styles are more likely than BrE styles to insist on (BrE) full stops/(AmE) periods in these: W.H.O.—but styles do vary.)Acronyms use the initial letters of words to make a new word, pronounced as a word. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's short name is pronounced "nasa", making it a true acronym. All AmE styles that I know of spell it with caps: NASA. Many BrE styles spell it like any other proper name, with just an initial capital: Nasa. This disease name provides a slightly different case because it's doesn't just use initial letters: COronaVIrusDisease. That's probably why I'm seeing some initial-only Covid in AmE, for instance in the Chronicle of Higher Education, where they spell other acronyms (like NASA) in all caps. Other variants, like CoViD and covid are out there—but they are in the minority. COVID and Covid rule.While some other UK sources, like the Guardian, follow the initial-cap style (Covid), many UK sources use the all-cap style, including the National Health Service and the UK government.And on that note, I hope you and yours are safe.P.S. Since I'm talking about newspaper uses, I haven't considered pronunciation—but that discussion is happening in the comments. Full Article acronyms determiners medicine/disease spelling
us RFP now open for Fire Protection Research Foundation project on “Combustible Gas Distribution in Buildings and Detector Location Analysis” By community.nfpa.org Published On :: 2019-08-27T14:26:24Z Recent experiences with combustible gas releases in residential buildings have led to a proposal for NFPA Standards Development for locating combustible gas detectors and consensus on installation location requirements. NFPA is considering a proposed Full Article building & life safety research fire protection system researchers
us Breeching Valves – Should They be Used in Sprinkler Systems? By community.nfpa.org Published On :: 2019-09-24T20:27:32Z What on earth is a breeching valve? A breeching valve, also known as a safety shutoff valve or excess flow valve, monitors pressure and flow in a system. Upon seeing excessive flow, the valve will automatically close, essentially shutting off or Full Article nfpa 13 sprinklers research nfpa 16 breeching valve excess flow valve
us Transition in the Refrigeration Industry Will Have an Impact on Emergency Response By community.nfpa.org Published On :: 2019-11-12T19:46:05Z The ongoing push toward sustainability of refrigeration systems requires the adoption of low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants to meet the shift in environmental regulations. In 2016, nearly 200 countries signed the Kigali Agreement, a Full Article fire service research training emerging issues refrigerants ashrae flammable refrigerants kigali agreement
us Despite relatively small numbers, more women are assuming leadership roles in the US fire service By community.nfpa.org Published On :: 2020-02-25T17:00:56Z It will come as no surprise to women in the fire service but the number of female firefighters in the U.S. remains relatively low, according to the most recent U.S. Fire Department Profile from NFPA. The newest data was released today on the heels of a Full Article fire service data research emergency responder firefighters first responder careers women in fire us labor market workforce fire service data
us Cool, California ranch house in San Francisco is a sustainable gem By inhabitat.com Published On :: Fri, 17 Apr 2020 14:30:00 +0000 San Francisco-based firm Malcolm Davis Architecture has managed to combine the cool vibe of Cali design with the energy-saving principles of sustainable living. Their latest design is a modern ranch home that was built using reclaimed materials and boasts several active and passive strategies that reduce the home's environmental impact.[...] Full Article Architecture Solar "sustainable architecture" green design natural light modern home design green homes sustainable landscaping Landscape Architecture solar water heaters solar powered homes Sustainable Home Design Design post-format-gallery Malcom Davis Architecture energy efficient home designs
us Giant wooden pavilion in Taiwan is a birdhouse for humans By inhabitat.com Published On :: Fri, 17 Apr 2020 18:30:00 +0000 Designed by the creative minds behind Taipei-based[...] Full Article pavilion design timber buildings wooden pavilions timber pavilions Public Spaces Phoebe Says Wow Architects Boolean Birdhouse birdhouse for humans Yangmingshan National Park
us A pair of industrial buildings are reborn as a creative office in Portland By inhabitat.com Published On :: Mon, 20 Apr 2020 17:30:00 +0000 In Northwest Portland, two former industrial structures have been given a new lease on life as Redfox Commons, a light-filled campus for creative, tech and retail workspaces. Local design practice LEVER Architecture led the adaptive reuse project that spans 60,000 square feet and is split between a west wing and a larger east wing across two floors. The architects reclaimed over 6,500 linear feet of timber and combined the salvaged material with new industrial-inspired elements — such as weathering steel cladding and ribbon windows — to pay homage to the building’s history. [...] Full Article reclaimed wood Reclaimed Materials Wood adaptive reuse green renovation Portland repurposed materials Oregon campus offices glulam clerestory windows Lever Architecture Businesses Redfox Commons
us Prefab Danish home was built from CLT and weathered steel in just 3 days By inhabitat.com Published On :: Tue, 21 Apr 2020 17:30:00 +0000 Set into the lush green landscape of Denmark's Fyn island, Villa Korup is a large home designed for a family of six. A collaboration between Danish architect Jan Henrik Jansen and Australian architect Marshall Blecher, Villa Korup, which features three elongated "wings", was prefabricated offsite using weathered steel and CLT panels.[...] Full Article Homes Prefab cross laminated timber CLT
us Marine veteran converts a school bus into a nonprofit traveling art studio By inhabitat.com Published On :: Thu, 23 Apr 2020 14:30:00 +0000 It's safe to say that Marine veteran Jessica Rambo is not one to rest on her laurels. After 10 years of service in the Marine Corps, the mom of two worked day in and day out for two years in order to convert a 1997 Blue Bird school bus into a full-time tiny house on wheels that also serves as a roaming art studio. Now, Rambo and her two kids are about to embark on a long road trip to bring her nonprofit art organization, The Painted Buffalo Studio, to veterans around the country.[...] Full Article art studio Tiny Homes on Wheels tiny house on wheels bus conversion diy bus conversion skoolie Bus Conversions Painted Buffalo Traveling Studio diy skoolie
us Isle of Man retreat is carbon-neutral and focused on conservation By inhabitat.com Published On :: Thu, 23 Apr 2020 17:30:00 +0000 The carbon-neutral Sartfell Restorative Rural Retreat is located on the Isle of Man, a self-governing island possession of the British Crown. The British Isle is known for its medieval history, museums, castles and rugged landscape. The product of a collaboration between architect Foster Lomas, local charity Manx Wildlife Trust and a retired couple with a background in biological science, medicine and education, this unique project was designed to blend seamlessly into its picturesque surroundings.[...] Full Article Architecture carbon-neutral retreat conservation
us Indonesian Microlibrary uses prefab FSC-certified timber By inhabitat.com Published On :: Thu, 23 Apr 2020 18:30:00 +0000 In the Indonesian city of Semarang, international architecture firm SHAU has completed Microlibrary Warak Kayu, an inspiring new public space that raises the bar for community design and sustainable architecture. Prefabricated with only FSC-certified timber, the new neighborhood icon is the fifth built project in the Microlibrary series, an initiative to encourage reading in low-income areas by creating "socially performative multifunctional community spaces with environmentally conscious designs and materials." In addition to the exclusive use of sustainably grown and logged timbers, the project is the first library in Indonesia made entirely of FSC-certified wood. The Microlibrary Warak Kayu is also[...] Full Article Architecture Prefab brise soleil prefab architecture natural ventilation FSC wood fsc certified prefabrication library passive solar indonesia cross-ventilation timber architecture SHAU microlibrary Semarang Microlibrary Warak Kayu
us 'Tiger King' drama overshadows abuse of captive tigers in U.S. By inhabitat.com Published On :: Fri, 24 Apr 2020 14:30:00 +0000 Netflix's wildly popular "Tiger King" documentary series has been progressively sweeping the nation since it first aired on March 20. As an outrageous, binge-worthy drama released when self-isolation and uncertainty were spreading around the world, the show certainly came at the right time to provide an escape from the news. Overnight, it seemed, conversations that didn’t revolve around the coronavirus or Joe Exotic were hard to come by. Photos of celebrities who’d visited the zoos were flooding the internet, Joe Exotic’s power-ballads were hitting it big on Spotify and even President Donald Trump was fielding questions about the gun-toting zookeeper[...] Full Article ecotourism zoo Wildlife animal cruelty tigers animal rescue illegal wildlife trade endangered animal welfare Endangered & Extinct
us Modern farmhouse targets net-zero energy in Vermont By inhabitat.com Published On :: Mon, 27 Apr 2020 15:30:00 +0000 On a hillside meadow in rural Vermont, local architecture firm Birdseye has completed Bank Barn, a new residence that, from afar, might look like any another agricultural building. But it is actually a modern farmhouse strategically engineered to meet future net-zero energy targets. The architects drew inspiration from the regional farm structures built into the banks of hills to create the gabled dwelling, which is clad in weathered cedar and topped with a durable metal roof. An intensive energy consultation and modeling informed all parts of the design. The resulting project features an electricity-based energy system that is expected to[...] Full Article Homes triple glazing Solar Power "solar energy" geothermal heating geothermal energy natural light net zero net-zero energy vermont minimalist design floor to ceiling glass gabled airtight envelope Birdseye Bank Barn
us Research center sits lightly near turtle nesting grounds in Australia By inhabitat.com Published On :: Mon, 27 Apr 2020 16:30:00 +0000 When architect Richard Kirk was tapped to lead the design for the Mon Repos Turtle Centre, he knew that his team at the international architecture firm KIRK would need to tread lightly. The project’s coastal site, located in Bargara, Queensland, is home to one of the most significant seasonal nesting grounds for the loggerhead turtle. To minimize landscape impact, the architects designed the center with a prefabricated glulam timber frame that is wrapped in low-maintenance copper and wood to visually blend the building into the surroundings.[...] Full Article Architecture Recycled Materials Prefab natural light prefab architecture natural ventilation australia turtle copper glulam patina glue laminated timber minimal site impact Mon Repos turtle nesting KIRK Mon Repos Turtle Centre
us Sweden and Austria close their last coal plants By inhabitat.com Published On :: Wed, 29 Apr 2020 15:30:00 +0000 Europe just gained its second and third coal-free countries. Sweden and Austria have both shut their last coal-fired plants in late April, joining Belgium in going coal-free in favor of renewable energy sources.[...] Full Article Sweden Renewable Energy coal Austria Clean Energy coal-free
us New net-zero LivingHomes capture the future of sustainable living By inhabitat.com Published On :: Wed, 29 Apr 2020 16:30:01 +0000 Koto Design has teamed up with Plant Prefab to create two new incredible net-zero energy homes. Koto LivingHome 1 and Koto LivingHome 2 are modular homes that incorporate sustainable living systems of the future. Under the ethos of creating great architecture that is more sustainable, the dwellings are powerhouses of energy-efficiency, with passive elements to reduce energy demand and active systems that allow homeowners to reduce electricity consumption through an app.[...] Full Article Homes Prefab LED lighting net zero energy-efficient homes livinghomes green living modular design homes of the future Koto Design Plant Prefab Koto LivingHome 1 and 2
us New Airstream camper uses solar panels for off-grid power By inhabitat.com Published On :: Thu, 30 Apr 2020 15:30:00 +0000 For nearly a century, Airstream has been designing campers built for both adventurous forever roamers or big families looking to enjoy summer time trips together. Now, the iconic camper brand has just introduced its latest concept, which is geared towards sustainable travelers of all types. The 2020 Atlas Camper features a solar-paneled rooftop and an ultra luxurious living space.[...] Full Article Solar Automotive Solar Power off grid living Tiny Homes Design Renewable Energy post-format-gallery solar powered campers off grid travel off grid campers airstream campers airstream models airstream designs modern camper design off-grid airstreams Design Tiny Homes On Wheels Airstream 2020 Atlas off grid caravans sustainable camper design
us Eco-friendly coffee range uses cork to reduce plastic waste By inhabitat.com Published On :: Fri, 01 May 2020 14:30:00 +0000 These days are filled with stress and anxiety, but it’s also time to take pleasure in the small joys of life — such as a good cup of coffee. For coffee-connoisseurs, designer Samson Chung has just released a new collection of coffee and espresso makers called Kork Kafeware that, thanks to its sleek combination of stainless steel and cork accents, lets you sit down to enjoy a superb cup of joe, slowly and sustainably.[...] Full Article "natural materials" minimalist design cork products Sustainable sustainable kitchen products scandanavian design Design post-format-gallery Food Drinks Samson Chung cork coffee maker Kork Kafeware eco-conscious kitchen products sustainable kitchen gadgets sustainable cork coffee maker
us Peaceful floating villa in Australia runs on solar energy By inhabitat.com Published On :: Fri, 01 May 2020 15:30:42 +0000 Australian architect Chuck Anderson has created a beautiful, solar-powered floating villa that has us dreaming of brighter days. Anchored just north of Sydney’s Palm Beach, the Lilypad is meant for those travelers who are looking to spend a little down time on serene waters while staying true to their sustainable lifestyles.[...] Full Article House Boats Solar Power hotel Floating Home villa
us Nina+Co sustainably furnishes a zero-waste London restaurant By inhabitat.com Published On :: Fri, 01 May 2020 18:30:00 +0000 In an industry notorious for food waste, award-winning chef Douglas McMaster has achieved the seemingly unattainable — Silo, the world’s first zero-waste restaurant. For Silo’s second outpost in London, local interior design studio Nina+Co teamed up with McMaster to craft an interior that reinforces the restaurant’s sustainable ethos with locally sourced natural materials and innovative design aimed at minimizing environmental impact.[...] Full Article Recycled Materials locally sourced materials London Restaurant UK Biodegradable green renovation recycled glass "natural materials" zero waste cork silo mycelium Douglas McMaster Interior Design zero waste restaurant foraged seaweed Nina+Co
