http://www.meme-orandum.com too much information Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:44:17 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en When I logged into Google Reader today, I got a message that I could read what journalists and what people from the Obama and McCain campaigns are reading. So, I subscribed and started reading "what they read": read more http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2383 Romney's out? And "Bridges" Pawlenty has cancelled events tomorrow. Fox News is rumored to have the name in hand. Great way to upstage Obama tonight. http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2382 According to CNET, starting October 1, Comcast is capping your monthly usage to 250Gb a month. If anyone hears about a class action lawsuit against this, please let me know. I will gladly sign up.Not only do I have to pay $50 a month for mediocre service, but now they ... http://kairosnews.org/comcast-to-cap-monthly-broadband-usage-t Brad DeLong, my all-around favorite blogger, explains the statistical problems with the Gallup Daily Poll. http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2381 Our own Jen Mercieca, Chuck Morris, and John Murphy comment on the Democratic National Convention in the Rocky Mountain News (hat tip to Cara Finnegan). http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2380 Any Blogorists want to bet on McCain's pick? It's a bit of heresthetic tackiness to wheel him (?) out tomorrow,in order to cut down on Obama press coverage, I think, but that's what all this has become: constant short-term tactical maneuvering, in hopes that something works. If ... http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2379 I don't know how everybody else is faring now that Obama has chosen Joe Biden for his running mate...You've no doubt heard about Biden's Pro-RIAA, pro-FBI voting record. Still, we can hope that all this talk about the "little guy" will somehow pertain to people besides Jack Valenti, who is ... http://kairosnews.org/perot-nader-back-at-it http://korzybskifiles.blogspot.com/2008/08/gap-gap-oh-gap.html neither sen clinton nor former president clinton ended their speeches with "God Bless America". i'm just sayin. have your constitution handy? i'm sure you all know that yesterday was the 88th anniversary of WHICH amendment? http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2378 To return a wave to someone you think is waving at you, but is actually waving to the person behind you. Usually results in embarrassment and introversion.Damn...I thought that girl was waving at me :( HHAHAHAHA MIS-WAVE!!!!!! http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=mis-wave&defid=2437062 Folks....please read Jenny Edbauer Rice's post about Marc Santos' daughter Rowen, who is battling for her life....but doing so thanks to the power of the net. It's amazing, and heart-wrenching. http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2377 The most recent issue of the CWRL's e-journal Currents in Electronic Literacy is now live. The issue's theme is "The Commons" and it features some heavyweights: Lawrence Lessig, Johndan Johnson-Eilola, Stuart A. Selber, Alan Liu, Cedrick May, and Robert Scholes. It also includes the musings of a lightweight. Congratulations ... http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2376 If you're in a mood to eavesdrop on some smart conversations about language, tune in to any of these fine programs on the BBC Radio 4 website. A word of... http://grammar.about.com/b/2008/08/27/talking-about-english-on-the-bbc.htm To remove a 'friendship' from facebook due to having either accidentily adding him/her as a friend or actually adding them and reconsidering later."Yeah, there was this guy in my network who added me. I thought he looked ok, but his updates were really cramping my news feed, so I ... http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=deface&defid=2747153 Hi, I am just about lead a major change to the way we assess learning and teaching at our University. I am hoping some members of this community will vist this site and post a comment http://medusa.ballarat.edu.au/wordpress/jameso/student-evaluation-of-tea... Lookng forward to hearing from you http://kairosnews.org/looking-for-feedback-about-student-evalu "Bitter" Hillary supporter claims McCain supports Roe v. Wade. Does he or not? The trial balloon of a pro-choice VP by McCain (Ridge or Lieberman) seems to be sinking. Is the strategy here to assume that angry Hillary supporters don't attend to the same news outlets as ... http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2375 An historian of some sort has started a gossip blog for the field of History. Are there such things for other academic fields? Should "we" have one? (I don't think so; Communication, at least, is toxic enough, thank you.) http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2374 The removal of excess body hair via waxing, shaving, plucking. Also manscap - ing, ed See MetrosexualWhen your chick calls you a Yeti, it might be time for a little manscaping. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Manscape&defid=213351 http://tcbdevito.blogspot.com/2008/08/prejudice.html Have you ever experienced textpectation? According to the Urban Dictionary, that's "the anticipation one feels when waiting for a response to a text message." To a linguist, textpectation is an... http://grammar.about.com/b/2008/08/25/six-ways-to-create-new-words.htm The process a candidate for president goes through to choose a running mate. It's a portmanteau word combining the colloquial pronunciation of VP as "veep" and sweepstakes. The winner of the veepstakes is awarded the honor of being trashed in the media for the next 5 months.A: Who should Obama pick ... http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=veepstakes&defid=3136951 A fascinating essay on spiritualism and 19th century law. A collection of Victorian death photos (which I never knew of until I saw The Others). Marconi and Edison both thought radio could let us hear the voices of the dead. read more http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2373 Having finally reached page 1085 this morning, after a month of reading, I wish it would go on for another 1000 pages. Anyone else read it? http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2372 Exploring a Corpus-Informed Approach to Writing Research CFP: Since the development of the Brown Corpus in the 1960s, leveraging language corpora and corpus-based methods to analyze and to describe spoken and written language has become an established tradition within the broad field of linguistics. read more http://kairosnews.org/cfp-journal-of-writing-research-http-www With all the whining about Biden coming from the left-wing blogs, I'm sure we're about to have another round of support for Ralph (support for gay rights is "gonadal politics") Nader. But here's what's really at stake. http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2371 I have become to the generation of Communication and Critical Cultural Studies as Lloyd Bitzer was to mine. http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2370 the medical condition causing pain in the wrists after playing guitar hero for an extended amount of time"Man my wrists hurt from my guitarthritis" "You sure its not from jackin' it?" http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Guitarthritis&defid=2988027 Where does Skinny, meaning inside information, come from? http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-ski3.htm A rare word meaning something scurrilous, Fescennine comes from the name of an Estruscan town. http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-fen1.htm American cartoonists sometimes call symbols in a text balloon to indicate profanity grawlixes. http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-gra1.htm Check out the NYT story on the unbelievable debate in this youtube video. http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2369 1.A car that is wrecked, totaled or not drivable. 2.A very old car that needs a lot of servicing. 3.A car that is a lemon. 4.Any car that either looks like it will, or has fallen completely apart while someone was driving it Clint took his doom buggy in the shop. But ... http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Doom%20Buggy&defid=2245260 Despite pandering to anti-abortion forces, neither Reagan nor Bush 1.0 ever did much to try to overturn Roe v. Wade. W. did, leaving the Court one vote away from declaring the existence of full fetal rights (perhaps on 14th Amendment grounds). As Dahlia Lithwick points out, no one ... http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2368 http://korzybskifiles.blogspot.com/2008/08/2008-beijing-olympics-chinas-porcelain.html Writing near the end of the 19th century, Matthew Arnold made it all sound pretty simple. "Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is... http://grammar.about.com/b/2008/08/22/whats-the-secret-of-style.htm from the very start, or from the beginningI never believed that boy's BS story from the gitgo. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gitgo&defid=2040088 According to Austin Sound, Jake Mitchell of the Austin Band Boxing Lesson was sentenced to 5 years in prison for growing Marijuana. But Mitchell was sentenced under the Patriot Act as a "narco-terrorist" which changes EVERYTHING. Here is part of a statement from Boxing Lesson’s publicist, Ryan Cano: read ... http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2367 v. 1. To gain entry; to connect, as to a network. 2. To enter or connect by deceptive or unscrupulous means, esp. with malicious intent."He tried to jack in and take down their group from the inside after he heard what they were saying about him behind his back." http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=jack%20in&defid=908292 Would Hillary really be so bad for VP? http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2366 Here's a question you won't find on either of the two most widely used college admissions tests: What do the letters "SAT" and "ACT" stand for? The answer, in each case, is... http://grammar.about.com/b/2008/08/20/composing-an-essay-for-the-sat-or-act.htm A game that can be played in large meetings. The players write down management-nonsense word like "Out-of-the-box-thinking", "Synergy", "Content streamlining" etc. in a 5 by 5 square bingo card. If a word or phrase is used during the meeting you check the box. When you get a five box line (horizontally, ... http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bullshit%20bingo&defid=3039627 Just read that some 100 odd college and university presidents are calling for a reduction of the drinking age to 18. They seem to think that'll cut back on drinking, since there will no longer be a need to binge when the coast is clear. However, MADD is, uh, not ... http://kairosnews.org/presidents-say-lower-drinking-age PC Magazine has published a list of 12 Tools for students who want to stay organized this semester. The list includes the usual suspects (RateMyProfessors, Facebook), but there are some here that I hadn't heard of before, such as MyPunchBowl, Mint, and TheDailyPlate. There are also some citation and bib ... http://kairosnews.org/12-online-tools-for-students-w-reviews In this month's Atlantic, James Fallows performs an interesting rhetorical analysis of primary debates in order to predict what kind of president Obama or McCain might be. He focuses much more on Obama, arguing that the Republican debates played a smaller role in McCain's nomination. In many ways ... http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2364 The level of thought control in Economics is overwhelming. Someone should write a similar article about Political Science. http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2363 http://tcbdevito.blogspot.com/2008/08/suicide.html Someone just suggested that they wanted to Tweak my Twitter on Twinkle — you wanna what?! In an age where many of us are offended, indeed upset that that our privacy is being diminished by the growing executive powers and their deemed right to listen in, watch, and read ... http://kairosnews.org/tweak-my-twitter-on-twinkle To draft off of, when cycling. often said to friendsDude,if you're hurting, grab a wheel before we hit this hill http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=grab%20a%20wheel&defid=474111 "In Lacanian terms, Conservative presidential candidates speak within the Discourse of the Master, while liberal presidential candidates speak within the Discourse of the University." Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not? http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2362 Robin Masters has some advice for Obama's and McCain's convention speeches. http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2361 David Cheshier at Georgia State has a splendid new blog. http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2360 By now, you've probably read about or seen the video documenting an unpleasant exchange between the Pitt and Fort Hays State debate coaches at a tournament last spring. Looks like there's plenty of blame to go around, from the initial bit of race-baiting by the Pittsburgh coach to the ... http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2359 The 3rd Circuit strikes down a Temple University speech code that would have prohibited "generalized sexist remarks." http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2358 Thirty years ago, two Canadian educators wrote a spirited, well-informed defense of the teaching of grammar. In "Twenty-one Kicks at the Grammar Horse," Ian S. Fraser and Lynda M. Hodson... http://grammar.about.com/b/2008/08/18/the-difference-between-grammar-and-usage.htm To be reprimanded via sms messages on a mobile (aka cell) phone."I was suppoesed to take her out for dinner but I stayed with me mates at the pub and boy did she give a right thumb lashing." http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=thumb%20lashing&defid=2552784 Here are the transcripts from the Faith Event at Saddleback Church. Videos here. I think Obama blew the "when does life begin?" question (and I note it's the section featured by Drudge this morning.) http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2357 "Perhaps history this century, thought Eigenvalue, is rippled with gathers in its fabric such that if we are situated, as Stencil seemed to be, at the bottom of a fold, it’s impossible to determine warp, woof or pattern anywhere else. By virtue, however, of existing in one gather it is ... http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2356 A little less than gr8 (great) but still better than just good said grr-sev-enA:how are you? B: gr7 you? A: Just good http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gr7&defid=2628011 Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy is pleased to announce the release of Issue 13.1 for Fall 2008 and our new redesign by Kathie Gossett, Karl Stolley, and Doug Eyman. In addition to the redesign, we are also launching two new sections: Inventio, which covers the process ... http://kairosnews.org/kairos-13-1-released-and-redesign-launch We investigate the origins of the expression Cleft stick http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-cle2.htm What’s the origin of the expression Know the ropes? http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-kno2.htm Big banners in processions are fairly common, but the word for them isn’t: Gonfalon. http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-gon2.htm We've seen Lenovo beefing up its consumer offerings of late, but this is really taking it up a notch. The company just announced its very first netbook, the recently spotted 10.2-inch, Atom-powered little wonder. Sadly, there's little of note in the design -- it seems to have more in common ... http://kairosnews.org/lenovo-goes-netbook-with-ideapad-s10 Looks like Florida may be in for the first storm of the season. It may or may not become a hurricane, but certainly we will get some strong weather no matter what. If you have family around S. Florida, you may want to start making plans, especially if they are ... http://kairosnews.org/looks-like-florida-is-going-to-get-its-f You may or may not seen the news about Harry Potter and the release date being pushed back, but the Harry Potter fans have definitely seen it and they are not happy, to say the least.read more http://kairosnews.org/harry-potter-fans-are-up-in-arms v.- Describing someone with the ability to use their feet to pick things up. Also, pedextrousSusie dropped her pencil on the floor during school and, thanking Sweet Jesus for her pedexterity, slipped her foot out of her flip-flop and picked it up with her toes. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pedexterity&defid=3009080 http://www.figarospeech.com/it-figures/2008/8/15/i-like-know.html For heaven's sake, you've been taking courses in reading and writing since you were in first grade. And yet what's the one class that almost every first-year student in every... http://grammar.about.com/b/2008/08/15/why-freshman-composition-is-not-a-waste-of-time.htm A social offense that can be called out when one is being falsely spoken for."God, we got so plastered last night." "The royal we. I had a vodka tonic and called it quits. You got so shitfaced you puked on my jacket and then attempted to fornicate with it." "Good times. We ... http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=the%20royal%20we&defid=2733312 Why has no one in the MSM pointed out that the Rick Warren/Obama/McCain faith event, besides continuing our drift toward a State Religion of Evangelicalism, is scheduled at a time when observant Jews cannot attend or watch? Should you wish to point out that being evangelical seems never to mean ... http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2355 http://korzybskifiles.blogspot.com/2008/08/are-you-skeptic.html "This is not 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia where Russia can threaten a neighbor, occupy a capital, overthrow a government and get away with it," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. "Things have changed." Well. No velvet, I guess. http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2354 Your middle finger. Usually refers to the one on the left hand so it can be displayed out the driver's side window to comment on another driver's behavior.Your driving finger is the longest finger. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=driving%20finger&defid=2675602 This post is slightly personal, but after one of my former students' posted this story about online student-teacher relationships onto my facebook account, I started thinking about several things regarding being a graduate student educator, a female educator, a female educator who looks unfortunately younger than most of her students, ... http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2353 I just saw this piece from Fortune reporting that Lawrence Lessig is predicting a catastrophic online event within the next decade that will prompt the US government to unveil an already-written bill similar to the PATRIOT Act which will grant the Fed additional powers in Internet surveilance and investigation. ... http://kairosnews.org/lessig-predicts-an-internet-catastrophy- RSA has announced it's Third Biennial Summer Institute. It will be held at Penn State, June 22-28. Once again, RSA has put together an impressive collection of rhetoricians to run their 5-day seminars and 2-day workshops. http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2352 If you're not yet reading Language Log, I'd highly recommend that you start. The authors are linguists, and some of the posts are clearly geared toward linguists (just as some of the Blogora content excludes the non-rhetorician). But on the whole, they have some interesting stuff. read more http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2351 The fracking hotels are already full for NCA in San Diego???? Anyone know any alternatives? http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2350 With or without a McCain victory in November, it's time to start watching for a much more coordinated effort by the Right to destabilize higher education. Charles Murray, who made social Darwinism respectable again and provided the main rhetorical ammunition for the destruction of welfare in 1996, is back ... http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2349 Thanks to a tip from the Polymath From Portsmouth, Lancelot Kirby, I just read a fascinating article by Kenneth Krause in the July/August 2008 issue of The Humanist: "Mapping Metaphor:... http://grammar.about.com/b/2008/08/13/feed-your-head-irony-and-metaphor-are-good-for-you.htm When you get to where you were intending to go, you forget why you were going there in the first place. Not to be confused with being stoned, destinesia often occurs during working hours, and is the cause of much frustration.John ran down the stairs to the dry storage ... http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Destinesia&defid=2714353 It's sad to see someone whose work I used to admire (up until his assaults on free speech and church-state separation) drift into the Horowitz camp, and in a publication of the Hoover Institution, no less. I've been trying to write something on Fish and jurisprudence for a while, ... http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2348 "That intellectuals are at once beneficiaries of a bad society, and yet those on whose socially useless work it largely depends whether a society emancipated from utility is achieved--this is not a contradiction acceptable once and for all and therefore irrelevant. It gnaws incessantly at the objective quality of ... http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2347 Those were the days: http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2346 We see the world, as Burke told us, through terministic screens. This insight, along, perhaps, with Orwell's "Politics and the English Language," as well as widespread belief in the (now-discredited) Sapir-Whorf hypothesis as well as General Semantics, led my generation to fixate on changing language in hopes of changing ... http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2345 (test-OSS-ih-cross) v. The movie moment when every man in the theater crosses his legs and moans, right after someone's groin has been pummelled onscreen. "Oh! DUDE! That was the worst testosticross moment EVAR!" http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Testosticross&defid=1576589 Inspired by the discussion about to-protest or not-to-protest the NCA hotel, and reflecting on the social movement legacies (or an ambiguous legacy, as Zizek calls it) of 1968, I found this article by David Zirin, one of my favorites, about the politics of protest of the Olympics "shut up and ... http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2344 Ronald D. Asmus and Richard Holbrooke at WaPo offer a "told you so" on Georgia and also a plan of action (apparently for the next administration): read more http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2343 The English language contains well over half-a-million words. More than a million, in fact, if you start counting proper names, abbreviations, and technical terms. Still, as shown by such recent... http://grammar.about.com/b/2008/08/11/olympics-special-more-imported-words.htm 27 seconds a day, 4 days a week, i.e. quite rareKev: Hey Boss, I work 27/4 for you. Boss: You lazy bastard! http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=27%2F4&defid=1503400 What does the Blogora make of (failed?) attempts to frame the Russia/Georgia conflict with Cold War rhetoric? Alexander Lomaya, secretary of Georgia’s National Security Council, said conflict arose because Russia sought to “thwart its neighbors’ movement toward Western society and Western values” and framed the stakes in expansive terms that were ... http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2342 a word used to express absolute astonishment!(from JUNO) Juno: I'm pregnant. Leah: Oh my God! Phuket Thailand! http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=phuket%20thailand&defid=2945633 CRTnet is abuzz with discussion of a boycott of the NCA convention hotel in San Diego this November. The owner has contributed a sizeable sum to the effort to ban gay marriage in California. The AALS is having a similar discussion about the same hotel. I haven't ... http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/2341 “They landed in a huge circle of white dust, with a rim of sharp-looking rocks all the way round the outside. Everything was bathed in harsh colourless light, like moonlight but ten times as powerful. In the middle of the circle of rock was a massive square stone slab, and ... http://kairosnews.org/the-puzzle-box-chapter-7 Where does the British Tom for a prostitute come from? http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-tom1.htm Might the verb Waddle come from the family name of an American Confederate naval captain? http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-wad1.htm A Truepenny is an honest man; though extremely rare it remains in the language because Shakespeare used it. http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-tru3.htm When one uses a story/saying/information/anecdote that they recieved or overheard from another individual they know and they do not cite the source. In turn, implying that they themselves are the original source of information. Maegan tells Leann that she talked to the band about their performance date change in Santa ... http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=social%20plagiarism&defid=2743070 http://tcbdevito.blogspot.com/2008/08/john-edwards-and-affair.html http://tcbdevito.blogspot.com/2008/08/body-image.html