Now that’s going to be a lot easier, thanks to a little programming trickery by John Tantalo. He created a handy bookmarklet that takes standard International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcriptions (as found on many Wikipedia pages) and runs them through a text-to-speech (TTS) system to speak them aloud.

Checking a few known pronunciations against Wikipedia’s IPA for them, I see that either the TTS server or the listed IPA needs some work. I suspect the latter, because the IPA for the Niger River entry (/?na?d??r/) sounds great, while the IPA for Nagios (/?n???i.o?s/) sounds way off (as I write this at least). Still, most entries work great, and I expect this tool to encourage more authors to include IPA as it gets used.

Certain skills are considered key signs of higher mental abilities: good memory, a grasp of grammar and symbols, self-awareness, understanding others’ motives, imitating others, and being creative. Bit by bit, in ingenious experiments, researchers have documented these talents in other species, gradually chipping away at what we thought made human beings distinctive while offering a glimpse of where our own abilities came from. Scrub jays know that other jays are thieves and that stashed food can spoil; sheep can recognize faces; chimpanzees use a variety of tools to probe termite mounds and even use weapons to hunt small mammals; dolphins can imitate human postures; the archerfish, which stuns insects with a sudden blast of water, can learn how to aim its squirt simply by watching an experienced fish perform the task.

I can say that my sheep definitely recognize me over other people — although I think it’s my voice, more than anything, that gives me away. However, my sheep do look at my face and make eye contact. Anyway, the article is a worthy read.

Nuthatches appear to have learned to understand a foreign language – chickadee. It’s not unusual for one animal to react to the alarm call of another, but nuthatches seem to go beyond that – interpreting the type of alarm and what sort of predator poses a threat.

[via TeresaCentric]

I hope that works!!

I hope that works!!

To quote from Sex and the Singular Pronoun:

Gentle reader (and listener), please open your ears and eyes. Listen and look for statements that contain an indefinite pronoun or a singular noun and hear and see what pronoun follows. In almost every case that pronoun will be a form of they. We do that because the device is historically tested. We do that because it is more graceful than “he or she.” And we do that because it avoids making a minority of us the linguistic norm and a majority of us a linguistic afterthought.

That settles it as far as I’m concerned.  I’m going to start using the singular they with impunity, and I’ll let anyone I meet know that they’re welcome to do so as well.  ¡Viva la evolución!

They declared English the national language of the United States. Or maybe the common language. Something like that.

Sigh. What exactly does this get anyone? Nothing.  Then again, what harm could it do?  Plenty, actually. From the amendment:

Unless otherwise offered or provided by law, no person has a right, entitlement, or claim to have the Government of the United States or any of its officials or representatives act, communicate, perform or provide services, or provide materials in any language other than English.

Which is all well and good until you realize that this opens the door to effectively deny non-English-speakers who are legitimately in the country any assistance when, say, facing the charge of, say, Driving While Brown.  Perhaps I’m just being oversensitive, but I’ve learned that it’s never too early to oppose stupid policy.

At first I thought it was just deranged kookery, but then I noticed that there were lots of apparent supporters of the idea, smiling and cheerful in their “Nuke The Moon” t-shirts. Was I missing something? I tried re-reading it as a tongue-and-cheek Onion piece, but there just wasn’t enough actual humor in it to make that plausible. [1] Could there be some merit that I was missing, then? I reread it again from the devil’s advocate perspective. It certainly had some rhetorical interest, so why was it so obviously wrong? Worse yet, why did it feel so dangerous?

Then it dawned on me. Attacking the innocent in order to send a message to the guilty is terrorism. It’s the core principle of terrorism. Whether it’s bombing a plane to focus attention on oppressed people, or killing the judge’s spouse to stop a mafia investigation, or attacking a nation to make an example to its neighbors, or exposing a CIA agent’s identity because her husband broke the rules, it’s all terrorism.

Does that seem a bit extreme of me? After all, calling one’s opponent a terrorist has been the neocon M.O. for five years now. Just look at the dictionary definition of terrorism, though: “The use of violence and intimidation in pursuit of political aims.” All of my examples fit that definition handily, while the neocon usage of the “terrorist” label applies to things like refusing to show ID or exposing unjust policies to the press. So yes, I think I’m justified in calling this “Nuke The Moon” business terrorism.

But I digress. I don’t need a rant, I need a word. A word that describes “protecting marriage” by outlawing it, “supporting our troops” by not removing them from harm’s way, “balancing news” by only reporting one side, and “promoting freedom” by becoming a police state. I need a word for this thing so I can go on the record as opposing it… and make damn sure I don’t become it.

[1] Yes, I understand that IMAO is intended to be funny. It’s not ironic funny like The Medium Lobster, but instead slightly-exaggerated funny like Rush Limbaugh. The difference is that IMAO’s readers laugh because they agree.