Brief mentions

Marcel Marceau

The media reports about his death reminded me that I'd seen him perform many years ago.

The Guardian 's obituary was one of several good summaries of his life, while The Australian's tribute included an extremely succinct yet appropriate editorial: a vertically oriented :-( . For a photo see Boing Boing .

How would you fare at this interview?

Try these questions which have apparently been asked at Google job interviews. Some of the commenters have a crack at answering them, as do others at Times Online, where I first saw it mentioned.

Disappearing hyphens

The BBC (and others) report that in the latest edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary more than 16,000 words have been dehyphenated (or should that be de-hyphenated?) . Some changes result in two previously hyphenated words combined into one (eg pigeonhole) , while others have been separated into two (eg pot belly). I also think there's an element of catchup/ catch-up here: I can't recall ever seeing "pigeonhole" hyphenated".


Why the radical surgery? Largely because of, the SOED people claim, the proliferation of modern communication methods like email: though the BBC and a few other stick-in-the-muds are hanging on the traditional "e-mail", as you'll see if you read the link.

IVF produces unexpected consequences

Some forthright comments about the case currently before a court in Canberra. In today's Advertiser (not online) Ross Buckley (UNSW law professor) has a piece "Canberra case confirms the law is an ass" which among other things points out that such a claim would be permitted in other jurisdictions inc SA and NSW. Earlier The Australian had a trenchant editorial while Caroline Overington (herself the mother of twins) spoke her mind.

Bollywood comes to Poland

Try this (from Boing Boing) for something different.