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Via LinguistList:

‘Setting Language Research to Music’ is a Newcastle University project whose aim is to compose orchestra and choral music to demonstrate infant perception and production. The first piece of music to emerge from the project, ‘Swing Cycle’, mimics babies’ experience of discovering word boundaries, taking work by Peter Jusczyk and colleagues as a starting point.

It’s the craziest thing I’ve seen in a long while… it reminds me of the Music: Materials and Design course I took a couple years ago. My final project was an electronic composition building a rhythm with political speech samples and echos and cracking noises, representing the hollowness of political rhetoric. It was one of my academic low points at Chicago, for sure.

Maybe it’s because I’m an artist, but I’ve never understood the drive for modern art, including compositions like these. I would much rather listen to some music and read about language acquisition separately… the motivation to combine the two eludes me.

You can listen to The Swing Cycle and read the lyrics (or their approximation) on the Setting Language Research to Music website.

From Rands in Repose’s Nerd Handbook, probably a good guide for Bailey (though I don’t quite fit the target completely):

But in nerds’ bit-based work, progress is measured mentally and invisibly in code, algorithms, efficiency, and small mental victories that don’t exist in a world of atoms.

I feel this phenomenon exists in formal linguistics as well, where the elegance of an analysis may be measured in theory-internal terms. It’s hard to get other people excited when they don’t share that same background, precisely as there is no physical manifestation of an analysis. At least Bailey’s good about listening, trying to understand, and being happy for me. ^^

(via Daring Fireball)

From a CLV job description:

The division currently provides language and cultural-immersion programs to over 4500 children, youth, families and adults in a variety of settings, primarily near Bemidji, Minn. with a significant expansion to a location in the Twin Cities metro area anticipated in 2008. Enrollment is targeted to more than double in the next five years. [Emphasis mine.]

Wow.

From Gore Derangement Syndrome:

Today, being a good Republican means believing that taxes should always be cut, never raised. It also means believing that we should bomb and bully foreigners, not negotiate with them.

While I agree wholeheartedly with most of this Op-ed, I just don’t think this statement is valid. Granted, the sentiment is there. From the news, the speeches, you do get the sense that the Party is in this direction and that the conservative populus is. But would an individual Republican politician really feel this way? But then where’s the disconnect. Maybe I should ask a Republican politician. Or have someone ask for me.In addition, the idea of a smaller government and fiscal responsibility in no ways rationally leads to such a conclusion nor situation. Maybe Lakoff has the answer.

From the U of C Development page:

Together, at last. I feel so honored.

From tribe says its dialect needs official recognition for exam:

Under an affirmative action program set up by the Ministry of Education, members of Taiwan’s tribes are entitled to have their high school and college entrance exam scores raised by 25 percent. Under a policy expected to be made effective next year, those who pass a tribal language exam would have an additional 10 percent added to their scores.

The article is directly addressing the Kangke (寒溪) dialect of Atayal, which apparently received more Japanese influence during the occupation than did other dialects, making the new Atayal aboriginal language tests difficult for their students to pass.

I’ve heard Jennifer mention a couple times now how some student (often in their middle elementary years) who is half-Atayal had changed their last name from their father’s clearly-Chinese last name to that of their mother’s, precisely to be (more) eligible for such affirmative action down the line. While it struck me as strange that the student’s last name would be a real consideration in such policies, the language incentive makes more sense for me. My views on affirmative action aside (I’m not sure exactly where I stand, and of course Taiwan’s diversity is a whole other ballgame), I’m a fan of government systematically encouraging the continued use and study of aboriginal languages, especially given their rich connections to heritage and culture.

I just stumbled upon my elementary/junior high school’s website:

The fifth grade Math team took first place in the regional math competition. Great job!  

Fifth grade!? Now that’s just ridiculous. At least Ms. Henke’s not the culprit.