Quote of the day

"There are a number of mechanical devices which increase sexual arousal, particularly in women. Chief among these is the Mercedes-Benz 380SL."
--Lynn Lavner

Phrasebooks for time travelers

This news report seemed quite interesting:

What the researchers found was that the frequency with which a word is used relates to how slowly it changes through time, so that the most common words tend to be the oldest ones.

For example, the words "I" and "who" are among the oldest, along with the words "two", "three", and "five". The word "one" is only slightly younger.

Interesting, but a bit dubious. Mark Liberman (HT, by the way!) is inspired to provide a precise distinction between lies and "bullshit" (see original post) and comments:

Though I still hold out some hope that Prof. Pagel is being systematically misquoted, I'm afraid that I'm now reluctantly coming to believe what a colleague of his told me in confidence: "He knows better, but he just doesn't care".

Sense of humor not applicable in this one

Sometimes it is argued that gay marriage is a rather frivolous cause - that pretty much all the important things are available without it. This story emphasizes why it can be important.

The gist?

As her partner of 17 years slipped into a coma, Janice Langbehn pleaded with doctors and anyone who would listen to let her into the woman's hospital room.

Eight anguishing hours passed before Langbehn would be allowed into Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center. By then, she could only say her final farewell as a priest performed the last rites on 39-year-old Lisa Marie Pond.

I admire his sense of humor...

The guy in this story might have been a loser, but talk about a good loser!

The prank resulted in him becoming a national laughingstock, an indecent picture of him becoming widely available, and the end of his marriage.

His reaction?

“There’s no doubt I’ve been done good and proper by the lads from Liverpool.

“It was cruel, but I’ll hold my hands up and say they really wound me up.”

Perhaps he is merely trying to lull them into a false sense of security while he thinks up a revenge prank that will top it.

HT The Agitator

Quote of the day

If you suffer from paranoid schizophrenia, i know who you are and what you want. Stay online so i can trace where you live.
- Sharnna Harris

Quote of the day

I’m delighted Kate Winslet finally got a Best Actress Oscar, because she deserves it for being so good for so long but also because now that means, pace Halle Berry and Charlize Theron, that she will now immediately make a God-awful action film in which she wears very tight black latex, and I’m all for that.

- John Scalzi, stolen shamelessly from Coyote's blog. What can you add to THAT?