There's an abandoned cement plant about 90 miles west of here that I keep passing on trips to the west, and now that the semester's over, I decided to take a look at it.



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The National Union of Jewish LGBTQQI Students's 14th annual conference will take place January 15th to the 17th at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. As usual the conference will be held over a weekend, and co-hosted by a campus Hillel, the NUJLS leadership conference features workshops, services, community building, and social time. This year's keynotes are Rabbi Bradley Artsen, Dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and comedian Dana Goldberg!

We welcome students from all sorts of backgrounds (religious, not, newly out, not, liberal to conservative, and more). Workshops, speakers, and text studies address such topics as Judaism and homosexuality, activism, relationships, ethics, coming out, and politics. Last year more than one hundred students came from across the United States and Canada to participate, and we anticipate a similar turnout this year! Registration ($80) includes meals (all kosher), housing, and all conference events. Travel and registrations subsidies are available upon request (in the registration form). View past schedules and register at http://www.nujlsonline.org/conferenceinfo.html

Dear Melissa,

Thank you for contacting NPR.

We appreciate you sharing your concerns. Both "different from" and "different than" are acceptable usages. Which one is preferred is generally a matter of context within the sentence. We recognize that the British favor "different from," and that there has been some debate about this over time.

We are always delighted to hear from listeners. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Thank you for listening to NPR, and for your continued support of public broadcasting. For the latest news and information, visit NPR.org.

Sincerely,
Justin
NPR Services
(202) 513-3232
www.npr.org

...aka the-coming-of-age-story? I've had 3 different professors pronounce it very different and I'd like to know what is the most common way of pronouncing it.

I have a question about writing dialogue. When you leave off in the middle of a sentence (perhaps the character was interrupted), you put a dash. There's no punctuation at the end, is there? One of my friends always does that and it always sticks out as wrong to me.

Like this:

He sighed. "I don't want this to--"
"Sssh," she cut him off.

She writes it like this:

He sighed. "I don't want this to--."
"Sssh," she cut him off.


It's the first, right?

Губернатор Петербурга Валентина Матвиенко на заседании городского правительства предложила ввести налог для туристов, прибывающих в город. Подробнее на travelforlife точка ру.

This is a question that has come out of a somewhat heated debate I had with my boyfriend this morning.* I'm not sure how relevant it is in the US but it's something of a hot topic here in the UK.

Yesterday the government announced that it will be slashing higher education budgets in the next few years. The minister suggested that to make up for it Universities should offer more two year intensive degrees instead of three or four year courses. This announcement sits in the wider context of the fact that the government and businesses are pushing Further and Higher Education establishments to produce students with 'business skills' instead of (or at least in addition to) the traditional curriculum.**

Two questions then: can intensive courses be a replacement for the traditional three year degree? And can we (should we?) produce students with 'business skills'?



*I shouldn't be allowed to listen to Radio 4 before I've had a cup of tea.
** For those in the US Further Education is 16-18ish and Higher Education is 19 onwards. HE provides bachelors degrees, masters degrees and the like. I've never quite figured out how that matches up to the US system.

In departments, do professors sleep with each other/is there constant animosity over who gets tenure and who doesn't/or any other types of drama? Just curious if what I "heard" is actually true in terms of what kind of environment it is.
~Karrie

Is addicting a word?  I've come across it several times in the last few weeks.  Someone sent me a book with this note attached; "I hope you like this book. It was totally addicting to me."  I'm certain that she meant to write addictive, but since it was about the fourth time I'd seen addicting used in such a short time, I'm starting to doubt myself. 

So grammarians, help me out. When would you use addictive, and when would you use addicting (if at all)?

I don't mean to bring up politics here, I just wanted to point out a common error, and this quote from an editorial presented a perfect opportunity: "There are lots of reasons to oppose the Senate bill in its current form, and hope that, if the Senate does pass a bill, that the final form of the bill is closer to the House version..." (emphasis added) I hear this a lot, but I see it in writing pretty rarely. You only need to say "that" once. It covers the whole if-then part of the sentence. In fact, the protasis ("if the Senate does pass a bill") is sort of parenthetical, and so could be dropped. Then the error is more obvious: "There are lots of reasons to oppose the Senate bill in its current form, and hope that that the final form of the bill is closer to the House version..."

I am so happy it is winter break because the library is empty and the perfect environment for me to get work on my thesis done. It is lonely and I wish I could take a break, but it is also so wonderful.

Poll #1501556 Todays Poll .
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 121

Did you/Are you attend(ing) your top choice

So we all know we can "ring in the new year", but today I came across an article that says someone will "bring in the new year".

Is this grammatically correct? I wouldn't have thought so, but a quick search pulled up quite a few uses of "bring".

I'm moving and already packed up all of my style and usage guides, so I figured I would turn here for the answer. I saw the word "myriad" used in a gaming magazine today, and the sentence grated the hell out of me because I couldn't get past that word. Which of these choices would you folks use?

a) The inventor has been hard at work creating myriad crazy gadgets for use.
b) The inventor has been hard at work creating a myriad of crazy gadgets for use.

Choice "a" is what the magazine (GameInformer) went with. Why does that sound wrong to me? If "a" is right, please share why. :) Thanks everyone!

* EDIT * Thank you all for your insight! I appreciate it!

Every year, Regret the Error publishes a list of the top corrections, errors and retractions from the English-speaking press.

I thought you might enjoy the award for Best Science Reporting, which went to the UK-based Daily Telegraph for the following correction:

Owing to an editing error, our report “Women who dress provocatively more likely to be raped, claim scientists” (June 23) wrongly stated that research presented at the recent BPS conference by Sophia Shaw found that women who drink alcohol are more likely to be raped. In fact, the research found the opposite. We apologise for our error.

How much do they matter when applying for post-doc or tenure-track positions after grad school? Is it different if the positions are non-academic?

A few weeks ago, my mother was at my house and saw one of my textbooks and marveled at its existence. Therefore, I am giving it to her for Christmas.

A Student's Introduction to English Grammar

I just thought I would contribute to the heartwarming side of this community, as opposed to the "how does this person even know how to put on pants?!" side.

Also, I just finished my fall semester. My Grammar & Syntax final was my last. I don't think I did very well, but that was mostly because I forgot the names of types of clauses and I still don't understand what a complement is, not because I don't know where things go in a sentence. I love my sentence trees. :-)

For those who missed it: The US Government is currently hosting a "public consultation on Public Access Policy...seeking public input on access to publicly-funded research results, such as those that appear in academic and scholarly journal articles."  It's similar in scope to what's already required for NIH-funded research, but extending it to other agencies and asking for implementation ideas. They have a surprisingly short comment period, especially given the traditional holiday vacation season.

From the link:

OSTP will conduct an interactive, online discussion beginning Thursday, December 10. We will focus on three major areas of interest:
* Implementation (Dec. 10 to 20): Which Federal agencies are good candidates to adopt Public Access policies? What variables (field of science, proportion of research funded by public or private entities, etc.) should affect how public access is implemented at various agencies, including the maximum length of time between publication and public release?
* Features and Technology (Dec. 21 to Dec 31): In what format should the data be submitted in order to make it easy to search and retrieve information, and to make it easy for others to link to it? Are there existing digital standards for archiving and interoperability to maximize public benefit? How are these anticipated to change.
* Management (Jan. 1 to Jan. 7): What are the best mechanisms to ensure compliance? What would be the best metrics of success? What are the best examples of usability in the private sector (both domestic and international)? Should those who access papers be given the opportunity to comment or provide feedback?

The blog postings are here: http://blog.ostp.gov/category/public-access-policy/

First of all, thanks to all who gave such helpful advice regarding my previous post to the community earlier this semester. My reference situation sorted out nicely after considering what y'all had to say.

My new question is this: what happens to a Ph.D. student who has failed comps? Dropped from h/er program? Had h/is assistantship killed, leaving h/im with no income? Is there hope to apply for a new Ph.D. program? If it depends on the discipline, then this is a Ph.D. in literature.

Any ideas/advice/stories of others who have gone through this would be helpful. Thanks!

I suspect that the Association for the Abolition of the Aberrant Apostrophe still wouldn't pass this.

Dear a_a,

I need to make a slightly tricky choice. I'm a departmental administrator currently working in a medical faculty, but my own background is in humanities (specifically history and literature). I've been in this post for about 9 months. I really like my job and I work with a good team of people. I'm currently leading the team planning a pretty major conference for the middle of 2010.
BUT my dream job, the thing I've said is the next step I want to make in my career, has just appeared on the College website. It would be a more senior position with a bit more responsibility and most importantly it would move me into the history department.
Do I go for it? I'm worried that I haven't been in this post very long and I don't want to leave people in the lurch with the conference, but at the same time this opportunity might not come up again. If I don't get it I will be perfectly happy staying where I am.

Thanks in advance.

In the spirit of end-of-semester procrastination, may I present: "Il Destino di Grant Application, A Tragic Opera in Three Acts." (Please note that I didn't write this; it was apparently written by a Lloyd Fricker. It was sent out on a listserv for grant administrators.)

( Don't click here if you don't like fake Italian )

Надвигается шторм. Подробнее на Travelforlife точка ру.

Not to interrupt the seasonal troll-watching (two of the most appealing features of which have been knut_hamson's increasing disdain and the attempts to lay the blame and/or ferret out the troll's identity), but I do have two questions for the collective wisdom.

First, a student has just complained about having to know and use proper style within a course. She/he dismissively called it "minutiae" and objected to losing points over it. I will take away a point in a 20-point question if proper style is not used (for example, if a student writes "Beethoven's Fifth Symphony" instead of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony). Do you grade on style, or do you simply not care? Or does it depend on how many students you have in that semester?

Second, this student made the complaint anonymously, on a Blackboard discussion board set up for my course. I allow students to post anonymously to encourage them to ask questions about the course they might not otherwise ask. Most of the time, the questions are just about the material. Sometimes a student will use it as a forum to kvetch about the course. Do any of you feel strongly for or against using anonymous bulletin boards for your courses? If so, why?

Yes, I am procrastinating from grading right now.

As of this post, there are EXACTLY 666 members of this LJ group....

Today is Bill's birthday - he would have been 48 years old

This image was posted at billhicks.com. It's pretty fantastic!



Happy birthday, Bill!

Hi,

I need a print job done quickly but cheaply. Who can you recommend in the Cary/Morrisville area. I may be willing to go as far as Southpoint, but I'd rather not. I have a 104 page document in Adobe pdf. format that needs to be printed (front and back) 6 times and each spiral or comb bound with the first page as a card stock cover and the back with another piece of card stock.

I'd like to get these in the mail in the next week so if you can recommend someone who can do this cheaply and quickly, please let me know!

Thanks!

View and sign up for these classes and more at http://techshopdurham.com/classes

You do NOT need to be a TechShop member to take classes.

( December 15-19 )

What is TechShop?

TechShop is a 25,000 square-foot membership-based workshop in Durham that provides members with access to tools and equipment, instruction, and a creative and supportive community of likeminded people so you can build the things you have always wanted to make. TechShop is designed for everyone, regardless of their skill level. TechShop is perfect for inventors, “makers”, hackers, tinkerers, artists, roboteers, families, entrepreneurs, youth groups, FIRST robotic teams, arts and crafts enthusiasts, and anyone else who ever wanted to do something, but couldn’t.

Visit our web site at http://techshopdurham.com/welcome