lang – Page 79 – Denseman on the Rattis

The situation post Belgium

2007/09/11 20:20

And this was lunch!!
Originally uploaded by Pug!

Many newspapers have been following up on this blog’s speculations about the end of Belgium (e.g., The Economist and The Independent).

The most interesting angle I’ve seen so far, however, was in The Brussels Journal that points out that Wallonia might itself fall apart if Belgium goes. There’s also a useful map.

EN · IT

on a rail Originally uploaded by rod lewis I’ve started playing around a bit with Ruby on Rails, a Ruby framework for developing database-driven web applications. It’s rather neat, but at the moment I’m a bit annoyed it doesn’t do more: It’s great for creating the code corresponding to each database table, but it doesn’t do very much for the links between them. The way I see it, as soon as I’ve declared in one place that table X has a one-to-many relationship with table Y, the […]

DA · KIDS · LINGUISTICS

ʔ > C

2007/09/05 20:08

Léon har ingen problem med lange vokaler med stød – han udtaler ord som banan og tomat perfekt, omend afkortet: [‘næ??n], [‘mæ??d]. Men han har problemer med stødte konsonanter, så her udvider han stødet med et homorganisk lukke: and, blomst, seng, ild og nej udtaler han [‘æn?d], [‘l?m?b], [‘h????], [‘il?d] og [‘naj?d]. Det eneste ord uden stød, hvor han gør noget tilsvarende, er det engelske car, som han ofte udtaler [‘kha?(r)t].

DA · FOODDRINK · KIDS

Babyccino

2007/09/02 22:42

Vi var alle i dag i Costa, og jeg bestilte en såkaldt babyccino til 50p (kr. 5,50) til Léon uden at vide, hvad det var. Det viste sig at være en kop med nogle få skumfiduser og fyldt op med cappuccinoskum, og han elskede det! Han nægtede simpelthen at sætte koppen fra sig, før den var tom, og det tog ikke mange sekunder. Nu må jeg prøve, om jeg kan lave dem selv – det burde jo ikke være alt for svært.

DIY · EN

Flat for sale

2007/08/31 09:19

We’ve finally got round to putting my flat on the market. See the GSPC’s info here. It’s really a nice flat – I’m going to miss it – but it is getting a bit crowded with child #4 on its way. For people with fewer (or no) kids, who have time to take advantage of how close the cinemas and theatres are, it’s really quite ideal, and cheaper than the equivalent in the proper West End. It’ll be interesting to see how quickly it sells.

EN · POLITICS

Just impossible

2007/08/28 23:05

The Telegraph lists what the Labour rebels who are demanding a referendum on the new EU treaty want as their price for dropping this demand. A couple of the items could possibly be arranged by an additional British opt-out, but the majority involves preventing the rest of the countries from doing what they want. For instance, to “drop plans for further extension of majority voting and stick with the provisions agreed in talks on the Nice Treaty in 2000” is just impossible – this is one of […]

EN · FAMILY · SCIENCE

Relatedness

2007/08/25 23:12

Relationship Geek Logo Design Originally uploaded by Mike Rohde Phyllis and I were discussing today how closely related you actually are to different people genetically speaking. After doing some simple calculations and applying a bit of logic, we came up with the following (1/2 means that you share half your genes with that person, and so on): 1/2 child 1/2 parent 1/2 sibling 1/4 grandparent 1/4 grandchild 1/4 half-sibling 1/4 uncle/aunt 1/4 nephew/niece 1/4 double cousin (child of mother’s sibling and father’s sibling) 1/8 greatgrandparent 1/8 greatgrandchild […]

EN · FOODDRINK

Hoki

2007/09/07 22:07

Hoki Originally uploaded by dty2dty2 I had to grab some dinner for Phyllis and me quickly while in the big Tesco today. She had said she quite fancied fish, so I had a look in the frozen-fish section, and my eyes fell on a fish I had never heard about before: hoki. Phyllis had heard about it, however, so I didn’t really manage to surprise her. 🙁 The fish itself was lovely, quite like a hake (dansk: kulmule).

ELECTION · EN · POLITICS

Voting should be hard

2007/09/06 22:55

Old School Voting. The way it should be. Originally uploaded by Just-Us-3 There was an interesting comment in The Telegraph a couple of days ago. Mr. Hannan rightly points out that “for 10 years, ministers have made voting progressively more convenient. They have introduced postal votes, telephone votes and e-votes. They have placed polling stations in supermarkets. They have sought to enfranchise felons, lunatics and foreigners. Yet the only people whom they have succeeded in encouraging are fraudsters.” He then goes on to suggest that perhaps it […]

DA · KIDS · LINGUISTICS

ʔ > C

2007/09/05 20:08

Léon har ingen problem med lange vokaler med stød – han udtaler ord som banan og tomat perfekt, omend afkortet: [‘næːʔn], [‘mæːʔd]. Men han har problemer med stødte konsonanter, så her udvider han stødet med et homorganisk lukke: and, blomst, seng, ild og nej udtaler han [‘ænʔd], [‘lʌmʔb], [‘hɛŋʔɡ], [‘ilʔd] og [‘najʔd]. Det eneste ord uden stød, hvor han gør noget tilsvarende, er det engelske car, som han ofte udtaler [‘khaː(r)t].

DA · KIDS

Små børn og wc’er

2007/09/01 23:39

Pudge playing with the toilet Originally uploaded by viralbus Hvad er det, små børn ser i toiletter? Tag nu Léon – han er for tiden uhyggeligt fascineret af dem. Han har endnu ikke lært at bruge dem til deres egentlige formål (han sidder nogle gange på potte, men den er altid tør bagefter), men han vil enormt gerne bruge dem til alt muligt andet. I morges lå Phyllis og mig stadig i sengen, mens han løb rundt i lejligheden og legede med Charlotte (troede vi), da vi […]

DA · KIDS

Små børn og wc'er

2007/09/01 23:39

EN · LINGUISTICS

A blog in IPA

2007/08/29 22:52

John Wells today has a blog posting in IPA, pointing out that Le Maître Phonétique used to be written entirely in phonetic transcription. I think that’ll make a good basis for a blog, so I’ve just created a new blog, named after that old and wonderful journal. If anybody wants to contribute to that blog, just send me an email, and I’ll set you up. All languages and all topics are welcome, so long as the text is entirely in IPA.

ELECTION · EN · POLITICS

North and South

2007/08/28 00:47

north south divide.jpg Originally uploaded by remarked The Guardian has some very interesting regional breakdowns for their latest poll. About the LibDems, it says: In the north Lib Dem support is firm: 22% now, against 23% in 2005. But in the south – where most Lib Dem MPs are elected – it has collapsed, down nine points at 19%. That means the Liberal Democrats are now stronger in the north than the south for the first time since their formation. The party has also dropped back seven […]

DA · SIGN

Hvilket dyr er dette?

2007/08/26 23:08

Not Sure Originally uploaded by chuzohombre Jeg fandt dette skilt på Flickr i dag. Jeg formoder, den sorte klat skal forestille et dyr, men hvilket? En blanding af slange og en præriehund? Et krabbemenneske? En deform søstjerne? Jeg har aldrig været i Panamá, så jeg véd ikke, om det er et hyppigt forekommende væsen dér, men jeg tvivler nu lidt, ikke mindst da kommentarerne på Flickr også er dybt undrende.

DA · EN · IT · LINGUISTICS · WEB

Machine translation

2007/08/25 22:27

Since there probably is found readers by this blog which doesn’t understand Danish, and therefore sometimes stay a little irritated about my contributions in Danish, tried I today to find an usable translation programme, which can handle Danish. There weren’t many to choose in between, but finally I found a rather good one from VISL (I’d like to know whether Eckhard has brought a finger in the pie). As always with that kind of programmes there is the result not always well, but if one knows Danish […]

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