Category Archives: humanities

another one

Posted on Saturday, 2005 December 10 by Anton

Everyone’s doing it, and now David Friedman is doing it. What’s wild is that my bookmark chooser showed me his home page, with a prominent link to “My New Blog”, about eleven hours after his first post.

Posted in blogdom, economics, law | Leave a comment

education is for whom?

Posted on Tuesday, 2005 December 06 by Anton

Is education a public good? Does someone else’s learning algebra or Shakespeare make you better off? Well, there are network externalities — in reading this you benefit not only from my learning but from that of anyone from whom I’ve … Continue reading →

Posted in economics, humanities | 1 Comment

pun history

Posted on Monday, 2005 December 05 by Anton

There are scholars of slang who hunt for earliest documentable uses. Does anyone do the same for puns? In 1971, Larry Niven and David Gerrold published a novel The Flying Sorcerors. Recently for the first time I found that pun … Continue reading →

Posted in language | 2 Comments

I do not understand young women, film at eleven

Posted on Friday, 2005 December 02 by Anton

I don’t know how many times this has happened. I’m on the phone with some chirpy Career Gal, she says something to which I say “Yes, fine,” and then she warbles “Okay??”, leaving me somewhat bewildered and impatient. It has … Continue reading →

Posted in language | 1 Comment

this website supports integration

Posted on Thursday, 2005 December 01 by Anton

The Answer Desimplified, on a t-shirt. Ligatures for our times Many translations of a conceivably useful phrase (possibly inspired by a similar project) (all cited by the muted horn) when grammarians go bad

Posted in arts, fandom | Leave a comment

like illiteracy is a kind of literacy

Posted on Wednesday, 2005 November 30 by Anton

Another thing I wouldn’t mind hearing less of: the word infamous used as an emphatic synonym for famous.