In a classic skit from Sesame Street’s first season, Big Bird is practicing reading by seeing if he can figure out what different signs say. But there’s one sign that’s really throwing him off.
What in the world does abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz mean?
(via Reddit)
I’m impressed he even came up with a way to pronounce it.
Looking at snippets of the penmanship that came from J.R.R. Tolkien’s hand, you’d think these lines could have been written in the “strong but graceful script” of Gandalf himself…
David Waddell of Indian Trail, NC resigned from the city council this week, and delivered his resignation letter in Klingon. Here’s a transcription, with a translation, courtesy of the Charlotte Observer…
His actual reasons involve his frustration with runaway development and lack of transparency in the government. But who cares? KLINGON RESIGNATION LETTER!
The New York Times just released a fun quiz based on linguist Bert Vaux’s intriguing research that asks you how you pronounce certain words and what terms you use to describe different situations. They then report back to you where those words and phrases tend to be the most common.For example, do you call a carbonated beverage: soda, cola, or pop? And do you pronounce the first syllable of “lawyer” law or loy?
Take the quiz yourself to see your results.
Here are mine. Apparently I’m most similar to Spokane and least similar to Philadelphia…
Last night, Jimmy Kimmel brought an actual sign language interpreter on his show to tell us what the “interpreter” at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service was actually saying with his gibberish hand motions…
Of course, make sure you understand both sides of the issue before judging the seemingly fake interpreter.
You may have heard in the last couple days that the man employed as the sign language interpreter at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service in fact was not using real sign language. Numerous experts claim he was simply making it up and that his hand motions were nothing more than signed gibberish, if that. Cara Loening, director of Sign Language Education and Development in Cape Town remarked “He’s a complete fraud, he wasn’t even doing anything…. He was literally flapping his arms around.”
Now, I don’t know enough to take sides, so I want to look at both perspectives in this controversy. Fortunately, the “Memorial Signer” has started a Twitter account to give his perspective on the whole debacle.
He has a lot to say, but here are several of his most clarifying Tweets…
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A prayer for London commuters…
(via @cicom)
For his final project in Spanish class, redditor TechSis needed to make a video demonstrating what he’d learned during the term. While most others in his class made music videos, he went an entirely different direction and created the best Mexican soap opera of all time…
