Beth Young
@bethyoung.bsky.social
Inveterate reader and book-recommender, PI of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary Online project, mom of three, opinions my own, also on 🧵
Reposted by Beth Young
We are deeply saddened by the passing of Dr. Dickson Despommier.
A brilliant scientist, storyteller, and friend, he shared his vast knowledge and infectious enthusiasm with all who listened.
We will miss him dearly. Our heartfelt condolences go out to all who knew and loved him.
#🧪
A brilliant scientist, storyteller, and friend, he shared his vast knowledge and infectious enthusiasm with all who listened.
We will miss him dearly. Our heartfelt condolences go out to all who knew and loved him.
#🧪
February 10, 2025 at 4:43 PM
We are deeply saddened by the passing of Dr. Dickson Despommier.
A brilliant scientist, storyteller, and friend, he shared his vast knowledge and infectious enthusiasm with all who listened.
We will miss him dearly. Our heartfelt condolences go out to all who knew and loved him.
#🧪
A brilliant scientist, storyteller, and friend, he shared his vast knowledge and infectious enthusiasm with all who listened.
We will miss him dearly. Our heartfelt condolences go out to all who knew and loved him.
#🧪
Reposted by Beth Young
Soldier inside Trojan Horse says he was just trying to highlight a need for stronger defenses inside the city of Troy
My eyes are rolling so hard right now.
Political consultant behind fake Biden robocalls says he was trying to highlight a need for AI rules
apnews.com/article/ai-r...?
Political consultant behind fake Biden robocalls says he was trying to highlight a need for AI rules
apnews.com/article/ai-r...?
Political consultant behind fake Biden robocalls says he was trying to highlight a need for AI rules
The political consultant behind robocalls that mimicked President Joe Biden’s voice says he was trying to send a wake-up call about the potential malign uses of artificial intelligence, not influence ...
apnews.com
February 29, 2024 at 7:33 PM
Soldier inside Trojan Horse says he was just trying to highlight a need for stronger defenses inside the city of Troy
If only the world's software designers would memorize that little ditty in Johnson's definition. That would clear everything up. newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/happy-leap...
. . . and then February hath 29 days, which in common years hath but 28. To find the leap-year you have this rule:
Divide by 4; what’s left shall be
For leap-year 0; for past 1, 2, 3.
- Harris.
Divide by 4; what’s left shall be
For leap-year 0; for past 1, 2, 3.
- Harris.
February 29, 2024 at 7:39 PM
If only the world's software designers would memorize that little ditty in Johnson's definition. That would clear everything up. newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/happy-leap...
Did you know the OED's earliest instance of ‘Vulcan’ (in the StarTrek sense) comes from a transcription of the TV program?
To learn more, watch this fascinating talk on OED Antedatings, originally delivered to one of my classes: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5Xx...
To learn more, watch this fascinating talk on OED Antedatings, originally delivered to one of my classes: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5Xx...
Antedating the Oxford English Dictionary
Antedating the Oxford English DictionaryThis talk by Peter Gilliver – Executive Editor (Lexicography): Finalisation – was originally delivered to Prof Beth R...
www.youtube.com
February 23, 2024 at 11:09 PM
Did you know the OED's earliest instance of ‘Vulcan’ (in the StarTrek sense) comes from a transcription of the TV program?
To learn more, watch this fascinating talk on OED Antedatings, originally delivered to one of my classes: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5Xx...
To learn more, watch this fascinating talk on OED Antedatings, originally delivered to one of my classes: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5Xx...
Reposted by Beth Young
The 2024 LingComm Grants are here!
Please help us share this with people who may have a linguistics communication project that needs a boost!
@superlinguo.bsky.social and I make these happen with the support of @lingthusiasm.bsky.social patrons and other generous people
Please help us share this with people who may have a linguistics communication project that needs a boost!
@superlinguo.bsky.social and I make these happen with the support of @lingthusiasm.bsky.social patrons and other generous people
Grants
2024 LingComm Grants - Small Grants for Communicating Linguistics to Wider Audiences We want to see more linguistics in the world! The 2024 LingComm Grants are $500 (USD) to support linguistics comm...
lingcomm.org
January 11, 2024 at 11:04 PM
The 2024 LingComm Grants are here!
Please help us share this with people who may have a linguistics communication project that needs a boost!
@superlinguo.bsky.social and I make these happen with the support of @lingthusiasm.bsky.social patrons and other generous people
Please help us share this with people who may have a linguistics communication project that needs a boost!
@superlinguo.bsky.social and I make these happen with the support of @lingthusiasm.bsky.social patrons and other generous people
Reposted by Beth Young
Would you like to bring medieval manuscripts into your classroom? How about a VIRTUAL CLASSROOM VISIT? We'll work with you to come up with the perfect book list for your K-12, undergrad or grad class, featuring manuscripts from Penn's collections.
schoenberginstitute.org/virtual-clas...
schoenberginstitute.org/virtual-clas...
Virtual Classroom Visits
Instructors: Dot Porter and Nicholas Herman Are you a medievalist or early modernist? Are you a K-12 teacher with a unit on medieval or renaissance history? Are you a library science instructor who te...
schoenberginstitute.org
January 22, 2024 at 8:11 PM
Would you like to bring medieval manuscripts into your classroom? How about a VIRTUAL CLASSROOM VISIT? We'll work with you to come up with the perfect book list for your K-12, undergrad or grad class, featuring manuscripts from Penn's collections.
schoenberginstitute.org/virtual-clas...
schoenberginstitute.org/virtual-clas...
"The Orange County case is unusual for the sheer volume of books removed — 699 including some duplicates, according to documents the district provided — and for the unusually large number of books about the Holocaust and Jewish identity included among them."
www.timesofisrael.com/florida-dist...
www.timesofisrael.com/florida-dist...
Florida district pulls many Jewish and Holocaust books from classroom libraries
Removed works include Saul Bellow’s ‘Herzog’ and ‘Black, White and Jewish’; no individual reasoning given for books' removal
www.timesofisrael.com
December 22, 2023 at 7:03 PM
"The Orange County case is unusual for the sheer volume of books removed — 699 including some duplicates, according to documents the district provided — and for the unusually large number of books about the Holocaust and Jewish identity included among them."
www.timesofisrael.com/florida-dist...
www.timesofisrael.com/florida-dist...
The banned books spread in the Orlando Sentinel is particularly shocking to see in print--so many titles! (I posted a share link to the e-edition yesterday(
December 22, 2023 at 3:48 PM
The banned books spread in the Orlando Sentinel is particularly shocking to see in print--so many titles! (I posted a share link to the e-edition yesterday(
The Orlando Sentinel has now published the list of 673 books newly banned in Orange County public schools. John Milton's Paradise Lost is banned (I guess because of what Adam and Eve did). But many many more contemporary titles are also now banned.
www.orlandosentinel.com/2023/12/20/r...
www.orlandosentinel.com/2023/12/20/r...
Read it yourself: All 673 books removed from Orange classrooms
Here is a list of the 673 books removed from teachers’ classroom shelves in Orange County for fear they might violate state law and rules on “sexual conduct:”
www.orlandosentinel.com
December 20, 2023 at 3:05 PM
The Orlando Sentinel has now published the list of 673 books newly banned in Orange County public schools. John Milton's Paradise Lost is banned (I guess because of what Adam and Eve did). But many many more contemporary titles are also now banned.
www.orlandosentinel.com/2023/12/20/r...
www.orlandosentinel.com/2023/12/20/r...
BC/AD or BCE/CE? Neil deGrasse Tyson argues for the former, persuasively imo. However, I don't have a good sense of the scholarly status quo (partly because my recent reading isn't restricted to this century or even the last one).
What do others think?
www.tiktok.com/@dlogamez/vi...
What do others think?
www.tiktok.com/@dlogamez/vi...
TikTok - Make Your Day
www.tiktok.com
December 20, 2023 at 12:02 AM
BC/AD or BCE/CE? Neil deGrasse Tyson argues for the former, persuasively imo. However, I don't have a good sense of the scholarly status quo (partly because my recent reading isn't restricted to this century or even the last one).
What do others think?
www.tiktok.com/@dlogamez/vi...
What do others think?
www.tiktok.com/@dlogamez/vi...
“It was not unusual for people to start crying in the middle of our interviews, and that is not typical.” The AAUP investigators were shocked--but I bet they were not surprised. www.usatoday.com/story/news/e...
Restrictions on tenure and academic freedom have college professors eyeing the exits
Republican-led efforts to dismantle free-speech protections on college campuses could reshape the geography of higher education.
www.usatoday.com
December 19, 2023 at 11:09 PM
“It was not unusual for people to start crying in the middle of our interviews, and that is not typical.” The AAUP investigators were shocked--but I bet they were not surprised. www.usatoday.com/story/news/e...
Glad I'm not a lexicographer in China.
"Some netizens believe that the term ["playing with women"] is insulting to women, while others believe that the reference book simply explains the usage of the phrase."
www.breakinglatest.news/news/xinhua-...
"Some netizens believe that the term ["playing with women"] is insulting to women, while others believe that the reference book simply explains the usage of the phrase."
www.breakinglatest.news/news/xinhua-...
December 18, 2023 at 11:24 PM
Glad I'm not a lexicographer in China.
"Some netizens believe that the term ["playing with women"] is insulting to women, while others believe that the reference book simply explains the usage of the phrase."
www.breakinglatest.news/news/xinhua-...
"Some netizens believe that the term ["playing with women"] is insulting to women, while others believe that the reference book simply explains the usage of the phrase."
www.breakinglatest.news/news/xinhua-...
Reposted by Beth Young
I truly am gobsmacked at how damaging that British Library cyberattack continues to be. Several months without being able to function! Many of us who research books are heavily dependent on that place physically and virtually. It's devastating even if you didn't have your personal info stolen.
Cyber incident update – last updated 8 December 2023
We’re continuing to experience a major technology outage following a cyber-attack affecting our website, online systems and services, and some onsite services. However our buildings are still open a...
blogs.bl.uk
December 12, 2023 at 3:21 PM
I truly am gobsmacked at how damaging that British Library cyberattack continues to be. Several months without being able to function! Many of us who research books are heavily dependent on that place physically and virtually. It's devastating even if you didn't have your personal info stolen.
Reposted by Beth Young
"Our first guest tonight has credits that are far too impressive for any guest on this program."
Letterman interviewed Grace Hopper back in 1986 and it is a *delight*.
www.dailymotion.com/video/x35dsz7
Letterman interviewed Grace Hopper back in 1986 and it is a *delight*.
www.dailymotion.com/video/x35dsz7
December 9, 2023 at 11:57 PM
"Our first guest tonight has credits that are far too impressive for any guest on this program."
Letterman interviewed Grace Hopper back in 1986 and it is a *delight*.
www.dailymotion.com/video/x35dsz7
Letterman interviewed Grace Hopper back in 1986 and it is a *delight*.
www.dailymotion.com/video/x35dsz7
"Rather, in 1528, an anonymous monk scrawled this parenthetical into the margins of a De Officiis manuscript: “O d fuckin’ Abbot.”" Any chance an image of this marginalia is online where students can see it? @jessesword.com
bigthink.com/the-past/his...
bigthink.com/the-past/his...
A very short history of the F-word
The first use of the F-word comes from a monk in 1528. It's just one part of the weird, mysterious history of this infamous four-letter word.
bigthink.com
December 6, 2023 at 11:30 PM
"Rather, in 1528, an anonymous monk scrawled this parenthetical into the margins of a De Officiis manuscript: “O d fuckin’ Abbot.”" Any chance an image of this marginalia is online where students can see it? @jessesword.com
bigthink.com/the-past/his...
bigthink.com/the-past/his...
I was thrilled to see that something I work on every day was useful to Judge Chutkan in her work. Citations to Johnson's Dictionary aren't unusual, but those citations don't always link back to johnsonsdictionaryonline.com. And they aren't always part of such consequential opinions.
U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan cites Johnson's Dictionary in a recent ruling. See p. 9; links go to entries for "nevertheless" and "notwithstanding."
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
storage.courtlistener.com
December 4, 2023 at 9:00 PM
I was thrilled to see that something I work on every day was useful to Judge Chutkan in her work. Citations to Johnson's Dictionary aren't unusual, but those citations don't always link back to johnsonsdictionaryonline.com. And they aren't always part of such consequential opinions.
The Times interviewed a dozen academics — in fields ranging from law to psychology to agronomy — who have left Florida public universities or given their notice, many headed to blue states. . . . www.nytimes.com/2023/12/03/u...
In Florida’s Hot Political Climate, Some Faculty Have Had Enough
Liberal-leaning professors are leaving coveted jobs with tenure. And there are signs that recruiting scholars has become harder.
www.nytimes.com
December 4, 2023 at 1:11 AM
The Times interviewed a dozen academics — in fields ranging from law to psychology to agronomy — who have left Florida public universities or given their notice, many headed to blue states. . . . www.nytimes.com/2023/12/03/u...
Reposted by Beth Young
Benefactress. n.s. [from benefactor.] A woman who confers a benefit.
buff.ly/3uqCxQg
#lexicography #dictionary #samueljohnson #18thcentury #18C
buff.ly/3uqCxQg
#lexicography #dictionary #samueljohnson #18thcentury #18C
November 17, 2023 at 3:18 PM
Benefactress. n.s. [from benefactor.] A woman who confers a benefit.
buff.ly/3uqCxQg
#lexicography #dictionary #samueljohnson #18thcentury #18C
buff.ly/3uqCxQg
#lexicography #dictionary #samueljohnson #18thcentury #18C
Reposted by Beth Young
Four years ago today, I hosted an “ask me anything about sharks” booth at the Sigma Xi conference.
At one point, I got up to go to the bathroom, and when I came back, a ten year old kid was sitting in that seat, answering people’s questions about sharks. 😂
🧪🦑
At one point, I got up to go to the bathroom, and when I came back, a ten year old kid was sitting in that seat, answering people’s questions about sharks. 😂
🧪🦑
November 16, 2023 at 12:36 PM
Four years ago today, I hosted an “ask me anything about sharks” booth at the Sigma Xi conference.
At one point, I got up to go to the bathroom, and when I came back, a ten year old kid was sitting in that seat, answering people’s questions about sharks. 😂
🧪🦑
At one point, I got up to go to the bathroom, and when I came back, a ten year old kid was sitting in that seat, answering people’s questions about sharks. 😂
🧪🦑
Reposted by Beth Young
163 Jewish leaders have written a followup statement in response to Elon Musk's antisemitism. Here it is in full.
You can read it and our previous statements here: xouthate.org
Please help us spread the word.
You can read it and our previous statements here: xouthate.org
Please help us spread the word.
November 16, 2023 at 10:56 PM
163 Jewish leaders have written a followup statement in response to Elon Musk's antisemitism. Here it is in full.
You can read it and our previous statements here: xouthate.org
Please help us spread the word.
You can read it and our previous statements here: xouthate.org
Please help us spread the word.
Reposted by Beth Young
Reposted by Beth Young
Next item on the WotY watch: Cambridge Dictionary goes for 'hallucinate'
news.sky.com/story/cambri...
news.sky.com/story/cambri...
Cambridge Dictionary reveals word of the year – and it has a new meaning thanks to AI
Tools such as chatGPT have sparked a surge of interest in AI technology in 2023. However, as some people have learnt the hard way, AI-generated text can't always be relied upon.
news.sky.com
November 15, 2023 at 7:16 PM
Next item on the WotY watch: Cambridge Dictionary goes for 'hallucinate'
news.sky.com/story/cambri...
news.sky.com/story/cambri...
Reposted by Beth Young
St Pancras Workhouse dig: “While the facilities are spartan, the inmates were not there to be punished … There were gardens, an infirmary and nursery. These acknowledge their needs as much as the heated rooms, or the pale blue paint on the walls.”
Archaeologists uncover colourful walls and fireplaces of London workhouse
Discoveries suggest St Pancras workhouse that may have inspired work of Charles Dickens was intended to be place of comfort
www.theguardian.com
November 15, 2023 at 4:33 PM
St Pancras Workhouse dig: “While the facilities are spartan, the inmates were not there to be punished … There were gardens, an infirmary and nursery. These acknowledge their needs as much as the heated rooms, or the pale blue paint on the walls.”
Reposted by Beth Young
Want to come to Amsterdam and hang out at the Rijksmuseum? This 9-month fellowship for early career researchers supports historical research on objects in their collections
www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/education...
www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/education...
November 15, 2023 at 11:46 AM
Want to come to Amsterdam and hang out at the Rijksmuseum? This 9-month fellowship for early career researchers supports historical research on objects in their collections
www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/education...
www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/education...
Reposted by Beth Young
