Monthly Archives: January 2006

Cadences and harmonies of verbal and dramatic narratives

Several years before his death, the famous Estonian semiotician Yuriy Lotman came to Prague and the thing that I still remember from his talk is an admonition that boundaries are the places to study because that’s the most interesting phenomena … Continue reading

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Periodicity of nationalist conservatism: A hypothesis to be tested

I was just listening to the UK Prime Minister’s Question Time. I don’t do it very often, because the questions and answers are predictable in content and not particularly informative, but maybe I should tune in more often to get … Continue reading

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Multiple perspectives-models-stories in fiction and science

AfterEllen.com – The L Word’s Vanishing Bisexual The L Word’s representation of bisexuality reflects popular and sometimes opposing ideas about bisexuality. One belief–represented best on the series by Jenny–is that those who identify as bisexual are merely experimenting with their … Continue reading

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Semantic prosody of web design

Technology News: E-Commerce: Study: Poor Web Design Alienates Customers One twentieth of a second. That’s about how long it takes for a Web site Get Linux or Windows Managed Hosting Services with Industry Leading Fanatical Support. to make a first … Continue reading

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Geena Davis and the importance of individual role-model narratives

CNN.com – Quotes from the Golden Globes – Jan 16, 2006 “As I was coming in, I felt a little tug at my skirt. And I looked, and there was a little girl maybe 8 or 10 in her first … Continue reading

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Posted in Cognition, Feminism, Literature and narrative | 1 Comment

Prejudice, shared meanings, local grammars and Google as a resource for research

The Prejudice Map The Prejudice Map According to Google, people in the world are known for… Here’s an interesting ‘mash up’ of Google’s API that supposedly answers the question above. It uses a very simple Google query as in http://www.google.com/search?q=”germans+are+known+for+*” … Continue reading

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Franklin and the complexities of American national identity

January 13, 2006, Science Friday = Franklin at 300 Franklin as inventor, socialite and statesman, and take a look at the Tercentenary Exhibition in his honor, now open in Philadelphia. America is often said to be an experiment in new … Continue reading

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Wired News: Military Women Can Hack It

Wired News: Military Women Can Hack It Female soldiers have long fought off perceptions that their bodies just aren’t equipped to handle the rigors of training and warfare. But a decade’s worth of research suggests that women are hardly as … Continue reading

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Self-organization of iconic linguistic items

The Aargh Page # Not surpisingly, “argh” is much more frequent than any of the alternatives, and the items with fewer ‘a’s or ‘r’s are more frequent than their longer neighbors. # However, there are high-frequency islands, even way out … Continue reading

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Public interest, public interestedness and the self-organization of need

ABC News: Sharon Reportedly Moves One of His Hands One headline, two blog posts. What value! There seems to be a fine line between what is in the public interest and what the public is interested in. Personally, I find … Continue reading

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