Jun 08 2005
An interesting and amusing site about the misuse of Chinese characters in Western culture, Hanzi Smatter, reminds me of another of my favourite sites, Engrish. Rather than being a communication tool, written language may be used as a design element in products, advertising or tattoos. There may be no attempt to get it right, nor [...]
Apr 03 2005
“Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment is recognition of the pattern.” Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947), English philosopher and mathematician. Dialogues, June 10, 1943.
Oct 12 2004
I recently read a short article by Griffin Longley on page 1 of The West magazine, 18 September 2004, about a new phenomenon called “life caching”.
Microsoft is working on a “black box data recorder for the human body”. Brilliant! Worn like a pendant around the neck, the SenseCam doesn’t track your heart rate or keep [...]
Nov 11 2003
The schwa is the commonest vowel sound in the English language. It is a very short neutral vowel sound, the sound of which depends on the adjacent consonants. In phonetics, it is symbolised by an upside-down rotated e, and sometimes signified by the pronunciation “uh”.
