There are 5 messages in this issue.
Topics in this digest:
1. What is the name of the # symbol?
From: George Lessard
2. AskOxford.com
From: George Lessard
3. Re: Time's "Person of the Year"
From: George Lessard
4. Kalahari Bushmen win ancestral land case
From: George Lessard
5. A Third Of Jailed Journalists Web-based, Numbers Increasing
From: George Lessard
Messages
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1. What is the name of the # symbol?
Posted by: "George Lessard" [EMAIL PROTECTED] themediamentor
Date: Sun Dec 17, 2006 10:24 am ((PST))
It has several names, some confusing. The most common is probably
'hash'. In the US it is sometimes called the 'pound sign' and used as
a symbol for pounds weight, but this confuses the British, for whom a
pound sign is £. In music, of course, it is a 'sharp'. The
picturesque name 'octothorpe' has also been introduced: it is said to
have been invented by an employee of Bell Laboratories in the 1960s,
in honour of the American athlete Jim Thorpe. In the large form in
which it appears on modern telephones it is sometimes called 'square'.
http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutsymbols/hashsymbol?view=uk
From
Frequently Asked Questions
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will be answered here. Simply choose a category and then browse the
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2. AskOxford.com
Posted by: "George Lessard" [EMAIL PROTECTED] themediamentor
Date: Sun Dec 17, 2006 10:24 am ((PST))
Oxford Word and Language Service
ASK THE EXPERTS · BETTER WRITING · WORLD OF WORDS · GAMES ·
GLOBAL ENGLISH · FOREIGN LANGUAGES
http://www.askoxford.com/
Word of the Day by email
http://www.askoxford.com/contactus/wotd/?view=uk
Sign up for the AskOxford newsletter
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3. Re: Time's "Person of the Year"
Posted by: "George Lessard" [EMAIL PROTECTED] themediamentor
Date: Sun Dec 17, 2006 2:11 pm ((PST))
According to "English Uncovered: the hundred commonest English words"
from (the Oxford English Dictionary site) the commonest nouns are
"time, person, and year." Man is #7 and woman is #14.
In the list of one hundred commonest English words found in writing
around the world, time is #55, person is #61 and year is #63.
Interestingly, the analysis reveals that the vast majority of the
words we use most frequently are from Old English: the basic elements
of nearly any sentence that any of us utters were in place before the
Norman Conquest of England in 1066.
http://www.askoxford.com/worldofwords/wordfrom/revisedcoed11/?view=uk
"English Uncovered: the hundred commonest English words" is from the
"English Uncovered" supplement of the Concise Oxford English
Dictionary Revised Eleventh Edition.
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4. Kalahari Bushmen win ancestral land case
Posted by: "George Lessard" [EMAIL PROTECTED] themediamentor
Date: Sun Dec 17, 2006 5:26 pm ((PST))
Kalahari Bushmen win ancestral land case
By Alex Duval Smith
December 14, 2006 Independent/UK
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article2073037.ece
[excerpt]
The Botswana High Court has given more than 1,000 Kalahari
Bushmen the right to return to their ancestral hunting grounds
by ruling they were wrongly evicted by the Botswanan
government four years ago.
Campaigners said the landmark decision will advance the rights
of indigenous people all over the world. Supporters of the
Bushmen - traditional hunter-gatherers whose proper name is
the San - accused the government of evicting them to exploit
the potential diamond and mineral wealth on their reserve.
A panel of three judges in the southern Botswanan town of
Lobatse ruled that the San were illegally moved from their
ancestral land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.
After a 2-1 ruling, Judge Mpaphi Phumaphi, who delivered the
swing vote, said the government had forced them out of the
reserve by depriving them of their livelihood. "In my view,
the simultaneous stoppage of the supply of food rations and
the stoppage of hunting licences is tantamount to condemning
the remaining residents to death by starvation," he said.
Miriam Ross, of the London-based pressure group Survival
International, said the ruling was historic because it added
to a "growing body of case law and a mounting international
consensus that recognises the rights of indigenous peoples".
She said a similar case in South Africa three years ago had
granted the San rights to mineral revenues from their
ancestral land. But the Botswana case marked the first time a
modern African court had recognised the ancestral land access
rights of indigenous people, she added.
The Botswana government would not comment on the ruling but
said it was considering appealing.
There are estimated to be 100,000 Bushmen in southern Africa,
and about half are in Botswana. None live the 20,000-year-old
traditional hunter-gatherer life centred on tracking and
killing game on foot using poison arrows.
Messages in this topic (1)
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5. A Third Of Jailed Journalists Web-based, Numbers Increasing
Posted by: "George Lessard" [EMAIL PROTECTED] themediamentor
Date: Sun Dec 17, 2006 5:28 pm ((PST))
A Third Of Jailed Journalists Web-based, Numbers Increasing
Authoritarian countries trying to control information
on the Web have driven a record increase in the number
of journalists jailed
By Antone Gonsalves
InformationWeek
Dec. 8, 2006
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196602793
[excerpt]
China and other authoritarian countries trying to
control information on the Web have driven a record
increase in the number of journalists jailed, with a
third either bloggers or Web-based editors or
reporters, a free press group said.
The number of journalists imprisoned increased this
year for the second consecutive year, up to 134 as of
Dec. 1, nine more than in 2005, the New York-based
Committee to Protect Journalists said. China, Cuba,
Eritrea and Ethiopia were the top four jailers among
the 24 nations that imprisoned journalists.
Print reporters, editors and photographers continued to
make up the largest group of imprisoned journalists,
with Internet journalists comprising the second largest
category, the CPJ said. Also increasing in number were
journalists whose work appeared primarily via e-mail or
another electronic form.
The CPJ said that the fight for press freedom was at a
crucial juncture because of authoritarian nations that
have made the Internet a major front in efforts to
control information. China was singled out as leading
the charge, with the most number of journalists in jail
for the eighth consecutive year.
"China is challenging the notion that the Internet is
impossible to control or censor, and if it succeeds,
there will be far-ranging implications, not only for
the medium, but for press freedom all over the world,"
Joel Simon, executive director of the CPJ, said in a
statement.
Messages in this topic (1)
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