Some Interesting Online Reference Sites

There are lots of interesting reference sites on the web, freely available for use. These are just a few of them.

Brewter's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
Although the hardcover version is updated and thus more extensive, it is also more expensive. The online version is based on the 1898 original but still of great use. Did you for instance know that:

• Most phrases involving Dutch mean the opposite of what is indicated. Thus, a Dutch concert is noise, Dutch courage is not really courage and a Dutch auction is an auction where bidders decrease their bids towards the minimum price.
• To whistle down the wind is to defame someone.
• To nurse an omnibus is to send a bus from a rivalling before and after another bus in order to pick up its passengers.

Myth Encyclopedia While the Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology is probably the best printed encyclopedia of myths and gods, this online Myth Encyclopedia does a pretty decent job on the digital arena.

The Phrase Finder

Wondering where you have got "once more unto the breach" from or who first said "at one fell swoop"? The Phrase Finder is a good place to look up phrases, idioms, sayings and expressions.

Urban Dictionary

Although it is a bit silly, the Urban Dictionary is useful for looking up slang. And funny wordplay of course. What, for instance, is Deja Moo? The feeling that you've heard this bull before...

and while on the subject of words...

The Online Etymology Dictionary

Etymology means the study of the true sense of words. It comes from Greek etymon which means "true sense" and logos which, of course, means "word". The word entered English via Old French. This, I found with a quick search in the Online Etymology Dictionary.

Sources as given

Post on the Occation of a Blog's First Anniversary

Today it is one year since this blog was started. It has come a long way. The first fumbling posts were, like the first inquisitive steps of an infant, an attempt to forge an identity and explore a new environment. The first posts were special in the sense that they were not targeted at any reader as such. The blog could not be found with search engines until the middle of February and I remember revelling in writing for its own sake. I could write about whatever sprung to mind with no concern for propriety or entertainment value and bask in the splendour of possibilities yet to be discovered.

This state of Arcadian simplicity only lasted so long, however. I soon became aware that one of these possibilities consisted of an excuse to study subjects closely and process them through writing. A new form of self-realising sprung to life, more constricted in form and perhaps language yet all the more rewarding in terms of content. This inevitably led to my "going commercial". I opened my blog for search engines and soon found new delight in meeting a wide array of visitors. This led to a heightened awareness of what I chose as subjects for my posts. With so many picture based blogs on trivial matters out there, I wanted to offer something of a more abstract but still utilitarian character. Granted, at times a lapse in standards would, and will, occur but I like to think that even these were somehow relevant.

I have at intervals been forced to review the parameters of my blog. With the above mentioned monitoring of traffic, was my blog becoming subject to the implied pressure of having readers and changing accordingly? Potential topics for posts would, admittedly, be discarded due to their presumed lack of popular appeal but this would happen tolerably rarely. If anything, the awareness of actual readers would have a positive impact on my blog insomuch as I would take greater care with finding reliable sources and presenting a good, readable product. This was, amongst others, instrumental in the changes the blog underwent in early spring and the first weeks of October. A stunning 38 visits on the "reopening" in the end of October was a testimony to the positive influence of having readers.

Today, I am proud of the 77 posts I have produced and sincerely happy for having dared to venture into unfamiliar and somewhat scary territory. I hope to be able to keep blogging although I must admit that the main objective remains unaltered; to allow myself room to just enjoy writing and using my favourite language.

I know it does me good.

Luminosity - reclaim your brain

I came across the Luminosity page today. There are a few of these "brain-teaser" sites around, but this one seems more recreational. The concept; you play a number of games where you test and improve your skills in all kinds of mental activity; spatial orientation, verbal fluency, task switching, you name it.

http://www.lumosity.com/

I for one especially like the verbal fluency games, but I recognise that I probably also should work a bit on face-name recall. If you are really into this sort of thing, you might even want to subscribe to get access to some restricted material. I prefer to skim the top, however, due to my quality-for-free attitude to the web.

Academic Earth

Some univertities embrace the possibilities of internet to a larger extent than others. While regular, physical attendance at lectures is still required in most forms of higher education, a number of American Universities have contributed to a digital lecture bank at http://www.academicearth.org/.

Consisting mainly of Ivy League contributors, the California based webpage philanthropically aims to provide quality lectures (availiable for grading) for free. It is based on what you might call intellectual donations, lectured volunteered by professionals with permissions from their respective institutions.

The Academic Earth Homepage (click to enlarge)

At the moment, Academic Earth offers 23 subjects, some with quite comprehensive lecture series. These range from literature studies to computer science and media studies. Taking the lectures do not give any official recognition of competence, but they give valuable insight into whatever interests you.

In an age of insatiable search for profit and lacking knowledgeability it is comforting to find a reliable, non-profit vehicle of education like Academic Earth. I, for one, plan to spend parts of my summer vacation taking the psychology and literature lessons.

Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

If I had any pluck, I would invest in apps. "What are apps?", you ask, silently. Apps, or applications, are special programs for your phone which give you maps for the strange city you are in, let you follow the temperature, the news, the stock market or the hit lists. The app is what makes your smart phone smart. There is an app for everything and everyone buys apps. The market is estimated to be worth around $ 6 million this year, which is a doubling of last year.

Just a few of the iPhone apps

At the moment Apple is hogging most of the shares through their iPhone app flora, but recently 24 operators and smart phone manufacturers have joined forces in the Wholesale Application Community (WHAC). They want to create an open platform to compete with Apple, a platform from which Apple is excluded. As it is, only iPhones take the Apple apps, but WHAC envisions a more adaptable set of apps which not only gives the customer more choice and vitalises smart phone development, but also diversifies the market and promotes competition.

For now, smart phones constitute only about 20% of the market, but as both the smart phone and the app market is expanding at an astonishing rate, it would probably be a good idea to invest in such stocks as early as possible.

Sources: CNN, http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/images/set3/apl10.jpg, last visited 15.2.2010

Where's Waldo

Everyone knows Waldo, so today I tried a time tested approach to adjectives with Zapperclass with great success. Using a scan from a Where's Waldo book I asked each student to pick a person in the painting and describe it to two of his friends. If any of these picked the right person they got to exercise their descriptive powers next. The conversation went something like this:

Zapperkid 1: Ok, my man is blue. He looks angry and has a saucer in his hand. He is wearing a yellow and black sweater.

Zapperkid 2: Yes, I can see him now it is the third guy on the right, the one beneath the table.

And so, in addition to working with adjectives, they got a small taste of prepositions as well.