Preamble : An Improbable attempt at an etymological background: • McDonaldization : (noun) The process by which a society (or part thereof) takes on some of the characteristics of a fast-food restaurant. • De-McDonaldization : (noun) The process by which a society (or part thereof) reverts back from displaying some of the characteristics of a […]
Tag: words
Tautogram paper record?
Improbable suggests that attorney Dwight H. Merriam FAICP may have set a record back in July 2003. The record for the longest tautogrammatic title of any published scholarly paper. His title, which takes the from of an uninterrupted tautogram of no less than 10 words, was published in the journal Land Use Law & Zoning […]
Love-words have been disappearing from love songs
Words about love are, or at least were, disappearing from love songs. This University of Colorado study quantified the phenomenon: “Expressions of love, sex, and hurt in popular songs: A content analysis of all-time greatest hits,” Richard L. Dukes [pictured here], Tara M. Bisel, Karoline N. Borega, Eligio A. Lobato, Matthew D. Owens, The Social Science […]
Why brain extraction is not as bad as it sounds
Scientists marvel at how other scientists – the ones who study something other than what they themselves study – give strange meanings to common words. Evan Shellshear, at Fraunhofer Chalmers Centre in Gothenburg, sent me an example, a study called Fast Robust Automated Brain Extraction. Shellshear said: “I stumbled across this article somehow [whilst] looking for […]