Re: [silk] Fwd: Did you happen to catch the UFO?
At 2007-06-01 11:03:26 -0700, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Seriously, though. The English in which almost all the 'me too' replies are written on that board is terrible. I'm surprised that this surprises you, really. There are quite a few Indians who write pretty good English. My vague statistics can beat up your vague statistics any day. Quite a few can be both absolutely large, and relatively tiny. In this case, I think many Indians write good-to-excellent English, and a much larger number... don't. BTW, I'm not saying Indians write _worse_ English than any other sort of people (as far as I'm concerned, the majority of everyone writes horrid English). I do think Indians write bad English in a characteristically Indian way, which is, for example, recognisably different from how bad English tends to be written by Russians. I tried to write some code that guesses the nationality of an author by looking at some text, but it is (not surprisingly) a very hard problem, much harder than the gender-guessing thing someone posted once. But I'm usually able to make a decent guess myself. -- ams
Re: [silk] Fwd: Did you happen to catch the UFO?
On 6/2/07, Abhijit Menon-Sen [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I tried to write some code that guesses the nationality of an author by looking at some text, but it is (not surprisingly) a very hard problem, much harder than the gender-guessing thing someone posted once. Two really interesting, intriguing pieces of software..could I hear more about them (or at least, ams's code) please? Deepa. On 6/2/07, Abhijit Menon-Sen [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: At 2007-06-01 11:03:26 -0700, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Seriously, though. The English in which almost all the 'me too' replies are written on that board is terrible. I'm surprised that this surprises you, really. There are quite a few Indians who write pretty good English. My vague statistics can beat up your vague statistics any day. Quite a few can be both absolutely large, and relatively tiny. In this case, I think many Indians write good-to-excellent English, and a much larger number... don't. BTW, I'm not saying Indians write _worse_ English than any other sort of people (as far as I'm concerned, the majority of everyone writes horrid English). I do think Indians write bad English in a characteristically Indian way, which is, for example, recognisably different from how bad English tends to be written by Russians. I tried to write some code that guesses the nationality of an author by looking at some text, but it is (not surprisingly) a very hard problem, much harder than the gender-guessing thing someone posted once. But I'm usually able to make a decent guess myself. -- ams
Re: [silk] Fwd: Did you happen to catch the UFO?
looks like another case of me-too disease (previous incidents were related to stone statues drinking milk, and sea water turning curatively sweetand at least one incident of a boy with magic powers, you could poke his arm with a pin and he could feel no pain - it was only later his followers realized that the boy had leprosy..). I saw this news documentary about the president of kalmykia (also the president of FIDE)...who believes he was abducted by aliens... http://sport.guardian.co.uk/chess/story/0,,1877426,00.html maybe they were the same aliens (they apparently like playing chess...) On 6/1/07, Venkat Mangudi wrote: Gautam John wrote: *Swaroop R writes:* *Very happy that someone had their cameras ready when this thing flew past! Infact, I had seen the similar thing in 2004 November 5 and when I had called the newspaper offices, they laughed and ridiculed me and advised me to stop calling. However, I did make reports to UFO reporting website nuforc.org about that sighting and here is the linkage* *http://nuforc.org/webreports/045/S45254.html. And also, I had made a graphical reconstruction of how the UFO looked like and its been on my website since then http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/12029072 as I am a artist by hobby, I used my skills to reconstruct the sighting and placed it in my web gallery on nov 5 2004 itself. And I had even reported it to ufoindia.org. I am very happy that someone has clicked photos of this thing! And must say, there is no substitute for looking at the enigma of the real thing!* http://www.ibnlive.com/news/spotted-ufo-in-bangalore-airspace/41661-11.html His artistic skills and imagination is quite good, I must say. But strangely, it looks like a stealth fighter to me. Anyone else thinks so?
Re: [silk] Fwd: Did you happen to catch the UFO?
At 2007-06-02 11:32:47 +0430, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Two really interesting, intriguing pieces of software..could I hear more about them (or at least, ams's code) please? http://bookblog.net/gender/genie.php is a web site where you can paste text, and it guesses the gender of the author by using this algorithm http://www.cs.biu.ac.il/~koppel/papers/male-female-text-final.pdf You'll find more references if you follow the first link. There's not much to tell about my project. It basically doesn't exist. -- ams
Re: [silk] Fwd: Did you happen to catch the UFO?
On Sat, Jun 02, 2007 at 11:12:38AM +0530, Alok G. Singh wrote: Judging by the comments on /., digg and others, there are precious few of them worldwide. (People using English 'well' worldwide, not Indians who have above average facility with the language). What's the chance of Mandarin being the next lingua franca? -- Eugen* Leitl a href=http://leitl.org;leitl/a http://leitl.org __ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE
Re: [silk] Fwd: Did you happen to catch the UFO?
Eugen Leitl wrote: [ on 04:52 PM 6/2/2007 ] What's the chance of Mandarin being the next lingua franca? Low, I think. But any number of events could prove me wrong. Udhay -- ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
Re: [silk] Fwd: Did you happen to catch the UFO?
On Sat, Jun 02, 2007 at 05:08:51PM +0530, Udhay Shankar N wrote: What's the chance of Mandarin being the next lingua franca? Low, I think. But any number of events could prove me wrong. I hope you're right, I'm getting to old to learn another language, especially non-indoeuropean one. But the compartments seem to be quite stable, it takes a conscious effort to see them. -- Eugen* Leitl a href=http://leitl.org;leitl/a http://leitl.org __ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE
Re: [silk] Fwd: Did you happen to catch the UFO?
Eugen Leitl wrote: [ on 05:30 PM 6/2/2007 ] But the compartments seem to be quite stable, it takes a conscious effort to see them. Expand on this, please? Udhay -- ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
Re: [silk] Fwd: Did you happen to catch the UFO?
On Sat, Jun 02, 2007 at 05:41:35PM +0530, Udhay Shankar N wrote: Eugen Leitl wrote: [ on 05:30 PM 6/2/2007 ] But the compartments seem to be quite stable, it takes a conscious effort to see them. Expand on this, please? The linguistic compartments on the world wide web, the character set input (though, once you prime the pump cut paste will do) is a threshold, even if you speak the tongue. In practice many people never bother, so they never see that alien part of the web, and can't even gauge how large it is. -- Eugen* Leitl a href=http://leitl.org;leitl/a http://leitl.org __ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE
Re: [silk] Fwd: Did you happen to catch the UFO?
Eugen Leitl wrote: [ on 05:50 PM 6/2/2007 ] The linguistic compartments on the world wide web, the character set input (though, once you prime the pump cut paste will do) is a threshold, even if you speak the tongue. True, and I suspect this will become an area of focus over the next few years. In practice many people never bother, so they never see that alien part of the web, and can't even gauge how large it is. This might selectively advantage those who speak the Lingua Franca (i.e, English) as a second language. Here [1] is a very interesting paper called As You Like It: Catching Up in an Age of Global English that attempts to look at the ways in which English has evolved, and some of the implications of this. It also includes a hilarious Singlish poem: Wah! I heard we all now got big big debate. They said future of proper English is at stake. All because stupid Singlish spoil the market, want to change now donno whether too late. Aiyoh! Ang mo hear us talk like that also want to faint. Even our U graduates speak like Ah Beng, Ah Seng. Singlish is like rojak, everything throw inside anyhow mix. Got Malay, Indian, Chinese and English, can give and take. When you donno something is under table or chair, you ask loud loud Oi! Under where? Under where? When you see somebody behave very bad, you scold him, aiyah! Why you so like that? When you ended up in a traffic jam, and got stuck, you complain, today, I sai chia kena very chia lat. When you warn your kids to be careful all the way, you tell them, careful har, you better don't play-play! When you see moon cakes with many egg yolks, you say, wah! This type good to eat, very shiok! When your friend mistook his mother for his aunt, you disturb him, alamak! Why you so blur one? You write like that in exam you sure liao. Teacher mark your paper also kee siao. This kind of standard how to pass? Wait, you sure kena last in class. Other people hear you, say you sound silly. So like that how to become world-class city? Basically Singlish got good and got bad. Aiyah! Everything in life is all like that. Actually Singlish got one bright side. I am talking about our national plight. Maybe I must explain to you what I mean. If you're prepared to hear me, I'll begin. Other people all say we all got no culture. All we got is a lot of joint business ventures. So we got no culture to glue us together. End up we all like a big bunch of feathers. Wind blow a bit too strong only we fly away. Everybody all go their own separate ways. Now we must play internet otherwise cannot survive. Next time the only way to make money, or sure to die. When other countries' influences all enter, we sure kena affected left, right and centre. Sekali our Singporean identity all lost until donno go where. Even Orang-Utan Ah Meng starts thinking like a Polar Bear. But still must go IT otherwise become swa koo, only smarter than Ah Meng of the Mandai Zoo. Wait the whole world go I.T., we still blur as sontong, next time we all only qualified to sell laksa in Katong. So got this kind of problem like that how? Either sit and wait or do something now. But actually we all got one culture in Singlish. It's like rice on the table; it is our common dish... I know this funny culture is not the best around so we must tahan a bit until a better one is found. Not all the time can marry the best man, so bo pian got no prawns, fish also can. I donno whether you agree with me or not? I just simply sharing with you my thoughts. Singlish is just like the garden weeds. You pull like mad still it would not quit. Sure got some people like and some do not like. Singlish and English, they'll still live side by side. [1] http://www.demos.co.uk/files/As%20%20You%20like%20it%20-%20web.pdf -- ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
Re: [silk] Fwd: Did you happen to catch the UFO?
On 6/1/07, Udhay Shankar N [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I seem to recall some small item in the newspaper saying this was a hoax, but can't find it now. Does anybody here know more? Oooh... well isn't there supposed to be some historian school of thought that records space ship flights in ancient India? http://ufo.whipnet.org/creation/ancient.aircraft/india.html http://ufo.whipnet.org/creation/india.4000BC.ufo/ http://ufo.whipnet.org/creation/ancient.aircraft/vimanas.html :-) Cheeni
Re: [silk] Fwd: Did you happen to catch the UFO?
On 6/1/07, Udhay Shankar N [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I seem to recall some small item in the newspaper saying this was a hoax, but can't find it now. Does anybody here know more? Udhay I also recall seeing an article when such a UFO sighting was reported. I saw it last time. It was a light from a powerful searchlight (remember bat-signal[1]) reflecting from the clouds. That also explains the pendulum motion (which I witnessed) and reported by another guy in the comments. -- Vinayak [1]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat-Signal
Re: [silk] Fwd: Did you happen to catch the UFO?
Gautam John wrote: *Swaroop R writes:* *Very happy that someone had their cameras ready when this thing flew past! Infact, I had seen the similar thing in 2004 November 5 and when I had called the newspaper offices, they laughed and ridiculed me and advised me to stop calling. However, I did make reports to UFO reporting website nuforc.org about that sighting and here is the linkage* *http://nuforc.org/webreports/045/S45254.html. And also, I had made a graphical reconstruction of how the UFO looked like and its been on my website since then http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/12029072 as I am a artist by hobby, I used my skills to reconstruct the sighting and placed it in my web gallery on nov 5 2004 itself. And I had even reported it to ufoindia.org. I am very happy that someone has clicked photos of this thing! And must say, there is no substitute for looking at the enigma of the real thing!* http://www.ibnlive.com/news/spotted-ufo-in-bangalore-airspace/41661-11.html His artistic skills and imagination is quite good, I must say. But strangely, it looks like a stealth fighter to me. Anyone else thinks so? Venkat
Re: [silk] Fwd: Did you happen to catch the UFO?
Looks like the UFO did some travelin'! *Srinivasa Rao writes: * *My Name is Srinivasa Rao, working as a software engineer in Lifetree Convergence. Yesterday when we are coming home (with my borther) on a bike, I saw the special bluish colour object traveling at a high speed towards the earth. I told to my brother. * * * *Sujith says:* *I live in BTM first stage. Just thought to share the info that I was able to spot this couple of times too, but wasn't successful in taking pictures as the object was traveling really really fast and in quiet good heights. The second time I spotted it, I inferred that no human made object can fly so fast in the sky. * *Well my friends used to make fun of me when I told them so. But now I have proved them wrong. * *Ramani from West Mambalam, Chennai: * *I live in Chennai and I spotted a similar object during the same time above my residence. It was green in colour. It appeared like the Diwali fireworks and I did not take it seriously until I saw this report on IBNLive.com.* * * *Animesh writes:* *I and some of my friends had seen this on Thrusday night at around 09:30 pm. There was a bunch of glowing lights in the northwast direction with an elevation of 35-40 degrees. At first glance, I thought it was mere reflection aircratft lights. But after carefull observation, we saw that the light was moving in like a swinging pendulum. We obeserved it for almost one-and-a-half hour.* *Thrusday night was a bit cloudy, yet it was quite easy to make out the streak of light moving here and there. It was peak time for filghts to land and take off . I am sure some of the pilots must have spotted it. I stay in HSR layout and after encountering this, I called up two of my friends who stay in BTM and Banneraghtta respectively. Even they spotted the same.* * * *I have taken the pics of almost 20 shots with my old camera. As soon as the print comes, I'll share them with you people.* *Hemachandra Kavoor writes:* *I remember watching something similar to this but very very small in size like a dot from the ground during 2003-04 in Gujarat (Bharuch). It looked like a small star running in one direction like a flight and after few minutes it vanished. After some time, it came in the same direction thrice or four times. I guess it was rotating in some direction. We could watch this for 3-4 days during 8 to 9 pm. It was not very bright. Someone said it could be a space shuttle/satellite.* *Swaroop R writes:* *Very happy that someone had their cameras ready when this thing flew past! Infact, I had seen the similar thing in 2004 November 5 and when I had called the newspaper offices, they laughed and ridiculed me and advised me to stop calling. However, I did make reports to UFO reporting website nuforc.org about that sighting and here is the linkage* *http://nuforc.org/webreports/045/S45254.html. And also, I had made a graphical reconstruction of how the UFO looked like and its been on my website since then http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/12029072 as I am a artist by hobby, I used my skills to reconstruct the sighting and placed it in my web gallery on nov 5 2004 itself. And I had even reported it to ufoindia.org. I am very happy that someone has clicked photos of this thing! And must say, there is no substitute for looking at the enigma of the real thing!* http://www.ibnlive.com/news/spotted-ufo-in-bangalore-airspace/41661-11.html On 6/1/07, Srini Ramakrishnan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 6/1/07, Udhay Shankar N [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I seem to recall some small item in the newspaper saying this was a hoax, but can't find it now. Does anybody here know more? Oooh... well isn't there supposed to be some historian school of thought that records space ship flights in ancient India? http://ufo.whipnet.org/creation/ancient.aircraft/india.html http://ufo.whipnet.org/creation/india.4000BC.ufo/ http://ufo.whipnet.org/creation/ancient.aircraft/vimanas.html :-) Cheeni
Re: [silk] Fwd: Did you happen to catch the UFO?
Does stealth need bright lights? Adit. On 6/1/07, Venkat Mangudi [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: But strangely, it looks like a stealth fighter to me. Anyone else thinks so?
Re: [silk] Fwd: Did you happen to catch the UFO?
On 6/1/07, Gautam John [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Looks like the UFO did some travelin'! *Srinivasa Rao writes: * *Sujith says:* *Ramani from West Mambalam, Chennai: * *Animesh writes:* *Hemachandra Kavoor writes:* *Swaroop R writes:* These UFOs must, apparently, somehow affect our language centers. Almost every one of these eyewitness reports is written in crappy English. Thaths -- Homer: He has all the money in the world, but there's one thing he can't buy. Marge: What's that? Homer: (pause) A dinosaur. -- Homer J. Simpson Sudhakar ChandraSlacker Without Borders
Re: [silk] Fwd: Did you happen to catch the UFO?
On 01-Jun-07, at 4:53 PM, Gautam John wrote: Looks like the UFO did some travelin'! I can't recall seeing anything, but I'm sure if I read some more reports, my memory will come back. Must be the work pressure. Darn thing. Can no longer even remember what I was supposed to be working on.
Re: [silk] Fwd: Did you happen to catch the UFO?
At 2007-06-01 07:08:32 -0700, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: These UFOs must, apparently, somehow affect our language centers. Almost every one of these eyewitness reports is written in crappy English. Then it's true, they must have started acting on ancient India, because this is pretty much how most people in India would write English. -- ams
Re: [silk] Fwd: Did you happen to catch the UFO?
At 2007-06-01 07:08:32 -0700, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: These UFOs must, apparently, somehow affect our language centers. Almost every one of these eyewitness reports is written in crappy English. Thaths...here's an exception to your rule ** Email Address: [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL: http://silkboard.wordpress.com hey no kidding, I saw something bright on Monday late evening, about 8:30 pm. It was like a bright lit thing in the sky coming east from north-west (from Whitefield, looking up towards north Bangalore, it was coming east). It seemed a bit odd because the light was too bright for planes (so used to see them land from skies above Whitefield). God knows, may be I saw the same UFO these reports are talking about :) * Deepa. On 6/1/07, Abhijit Menon-Sen [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: At 2007-06-01 07:08:32 -0700, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: These UFOs must, apparently, somehow affect our language centers. Almost every one of these eyewitness reports is written in crappy English. Then it's true, they must have started acting on ancient India, because this is pretty much how most people in India would write English. -- ams
Re: [silk] Fwd: Did you happen to catch the UFO?
I did cover my behind saying 'almost'. :-) Seriously, though. The English in which almost all the 'me too' replies are written on that board is terrible. I do not subscribe to ams' view that this is the sort of English that a majority writes (What I call the we are like that only school of explanation). There are quite a few Indians who write pretty good English. S. On 6/1/07, Deepa Mohan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: At 2007-06-01 07:08:32 -0700, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: These UFOs must, apparently, somehow affect our language centers. Almost every one of these eyewitness reports is written in crappy English. Thaths...here's an exception to your rule ** Email Address: [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL: http://silkboard.wordpress.com hey no kidding, I saw something bright on Monday late evening, about 8:30 pm. It was like a bright lit thing in the sky coming east from north-west (from Whitefield, looking up towards north Bangalore, it was coming east). It seemed a bit odd because the light was too bright for planes (so used to see them land from skies above Whitefield). God knows, may be I saw the same UFO these reports are talking about :) * Deepa. On 6/1/07, Abhijit Menon-Sen [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: At 2007-06-01 07:08:32 -0700, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: These UFOs must, apparently, somehow affect our language centers. Almost every one of these eyewitness reports is written in crappy English. Then it's true, they must have started acting on ancient India, because this is pretty much how most people in India would write English. -- ams -- Homer: He has all the money in the world, but there's one thing he can't buy. Marge: What's that? Homer: (pause) A dinosaur. -- Homer J. Simpson Sudhakar ChandraSlacker Without Borders
Re: [silk] Fwd: Did you happen to catch the UFO?
On 1 Jun 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: There are quite a few Indians who write pretty good English. Judging by the comments on /., digg and others, there are precious few of them worldwide. (People using English 'well' worldwide, not Indians who have above average facility with the language). -- Alok Never leave anything to chance; make sure all your crimes are premeditated.
Re: [silk] Fwd: Did you happen to catch the UFO?
On 6/1/07, Udhay Shankar N [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I seem to recall some small item in the newspaper saying this was a hoax, but can't find it now. Does anybody here know more? Udhay Reported in Bangalore. http://www.ibnlive.com/news/spotted-ufo-in-bangalore-sky/41661-11.html On Tuesday night at around 09:00 PM I was driving on Hosur road and turning left towards St. Johns hospital road when I saw something bright moving on the sky. This would have been in a southerly direction on the map. This looked too small to be an aircraft and too big to be fireworks. Erased in from my mind till this mail. However the reports cited say Monday while this was Tuesday.
