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
[silk] Living adventurously...
A good yarn has always been worth cash money, no? Cheeni http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/travel/escapes/01Lecture.html?ei=5087%0Aem=en=6d0cd0d754c72b7cex=1180843200pagewanted=print June 1, 2007 If Adventure Is the Topic, the Talk Isn't Cheap By JOE ROBINSON THE 19th-century British explorer Richard Burton once said that the reason he tempted death in searching for the source of the Nile or by penetrating the inner reaches of Arabia disguised as a Pathan was because the devil drives. Today, the response might be: Need material for the next lecture. Though Columbus and Vasco da Gama were too early to cash in, adventurers in more recent times have found that the risks they take on far-flung exploits can pay off — if they live to tell the tale. For Henry Morton Stanley, Ernest Shackleton and contemporary risk takers like the climber Ed Viesturs, having a tangle with the back of beyond can be a gateway to the adventure lecture circuit, a tradition that has become especially lucrative in recent years. While most of the blank spots on the map have been filled in since Stanley lectured about his expedition that found the Scottish missionary David Livingstone in Africa in 1871, demand for vicarious thrills from the outer edge of adventure has grown — along with the production values. Shackleton regaled thousands at the Royal Albert Hall with primitive black-and-white lantern slides to chronicle his remarkable escape from Antarctica in the early years of the 20th century, but today's adventurers can punch up the presentation with video clips, animated PowerPoint displays and digital mapping. The arsenal allows explorers to transport audiences to polar blizzards or Himalayan summits with the touch of a laptop. Armed with business presentation tools, adventurers have been able to blaze a trail into the world of corporate conferences and paydays that Burton surely never imagined. The top names in the field can make $10,000 to $40,000 a talk — a long way from the token honorariums of musty explorers' clubs. There are a few speakers' bureaus that book only spinners of adventure yarns. At the Everest Speakers Bureau in Knoxville, Tenn., 90 percent of the talent has climbed Mount Everest. Every year we're doing more events and growing in gross dollars, said Todd Greene, who with George Martin started Everest four years ago and whose clients include Peter Hillary, son of Edmund Hillary and himself a climber, and Mr. Viesturs, the first American to climb all 14 of the world's 8,000-meter (that's nearly 26,300 feet) peaks. Demands from businesses for life-or-death lessons on overcoming adversity and successful risk taking have transformed the adventure lecture circuit from a sideline to a financial mainline for the professional explorer, a career that has not been a route to gainful employment in the past. Speaking is pretty much how I make my living, said the polar explorer Ann Bancroft, who can command $20,000 for a talk and has done presentations for companies like General Mills, Pfizer and Best Buy. In 2001, Ms. Bancroft and Liv Arnesen became the first women to ski and sail across the Antarctic landmass. How successful you're going to be as a professional explorer is a function of how well you can share the experience with others — the visceral adventure of it and the wisdom and knowledge you can distill out of it, said Dan Buettner, a Minneapolis-based cyclist who turned epic journeys from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego and around the perimeter of Africa into an adventure-fueled education company. In February Mr. Buettner led an expedition to Nicoya, Costa Rica, where he and a team of scientists backed by National Geographic uncovered a local population with the longest average lifespan (people there in their 60's can reasonably expect to see 90) in the Western Hemisphere. The journey was part of the Blue Zones project to seek out places where people live the longest and healthiest. It has expanded Mr. Buettner's range as a speaker into the world of health and longevity. Mr. Buettner has been equally intrepid in melding exploration with technology. Educators were posting his expedition dispatches on the Internet as early as 1992, and in the middle of the decade, he began a series of interactive journeys that allowed schoolchildren to participate in his trips via class computers, voting on routes and delving into ancient riddles like the demise of the Mayan civilization. I think the days where you show up with a slide projector are over, Mr. Buettner said. The adventurer has to bring the full complement of production values to compete with the TV, Imax films and Web feeds. Mr. Buettner uses a professional programmer to produce his presentations, which include images from National Geographic photographers and video clips. In Stanley's day, it was enough to come back with the stories and all or most limbs attached and a few grainy, highly posed black-and-whites from impossibly distant lands. His lecture
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] Living adventurously...
Srini Ramakrishnan wrote: [ on 02:41 PM 6/2/2007 ] A good yarn has always been worth cash money, no? True, and yarns are, in general, connected to silk, as demonstrated by the last line of the piece you posted: The society's most popular presenter recently was the travel writer Colin Thubron, whose latest presentation about the Silk Road generated so much interest that hundreds of people had to be turned away. Udhay (Where's the IPO, then?) -- ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
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))
[silk] The Ignorance of Crowds
http://www.strategy-business.com/press/enewsarticle/enews053107?pg=0
Re: [silk] The Ignorance of Crowds
On 02-Jun-07, at 11:25 PM, Nandkumar Saravade wrote: http://www.strategy-business.com/press/enewsarticle/enews053107?pg=0 http://confusedofcalcutta.com/2007/05/25/nicholas-carr-on-opensource/
Re: [silk] The Ignorance of Crowds
On Sat, Jun 02, 2007 at 11:25:42PM +0530, Nandkumar Saravade wrote: http://www.strategy-business.com/press/enewsarticle/enews053107?pg=0 Somebody send the guy some clue. He could use some. -- 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] The Ignorance of Crowds
At 2007-06-02 20:15:05 +0200, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://www.strategy-business.com/press/enewsarticle/enews053107?pg=0 Somebody send the guy some clue. He could use some. I think I'm going to puke if I read another long rambling speculation based on/around The Cathedral and The Bazaar. Ugh. -- ams
