Last year British slang lexicographer Jonathon Green struck a deal with the publisher Chambers Harrap to create an exhaustive dictionary of English slang. Now, says the London Telegraph, the first fruit of that relationship has appeared in the form of the Chambers Slang Dictionary.

The main sources of slang, Green says, have remained the same: sex and sexual organs, drinking, and terms of abuse. But ,there are always innovations.

The Telegraph offers some of them: boilerhouse, modern British rhyming slang for spouse. Jawsing, US teen slang for lying. And, muzzy, an Irish word for a naughty child.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/10/27/sv_slangmain.xml

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/10/27/sv_slang.xml

In the Paper Cuts blog of the New York Times, Jennifer Scheussler reviews 'On The Dot,' by Nicholas and Alexander Humez. It's an exhaustive look at the period or the dot, that little piece of punctuation that does so much. And I do mean exhaustive. The book is so digressive and sometimes so far afield of its subject matter that you might find yourself flipping to the front to make sure you're still reading the same book.

http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/27/dot-everything/

In the discussion forum on that page, I discovered the 'fini.' This is a new piece of punctuation created by Dave Rosenthal, an assistant managing editor at the Baltimore Sun. The fini is a square instead of a circle.

Dave says, 'A period is usually a fine way to end a sentence. But when there's a forcefulness attached to the words, I worry that the period will roll away. It is, after all, just a tiny black ball.'

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/books/blog/2008/07/the_endofdiscussion.html

Do you want to find out what Virginia Woolf and John Steinbeck sounded like? They're part of an audio collection from the British Library, called 'The Spoken Word: British Writers.' It was discussed and played on NPR's All Things Considered.

The audio is a rare find, as many recordings of the early days of radio were never saved. Recordings by George Orwell, for example, have yet to be found, even though he worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96030704

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Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write 24 hours a day: (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673, words@waywordradio.org, or visit our web site and discussion forums at http://waywordradio.org. Copyright 2008, Wayword LLC.

Last year British slang lexicographer Jonathon Green struck a deal with the publisher Chambers Harrap to create an exhaustive dictionary of English slang. Now, says the London Telegraph, the first fruit of that relationship has appeared in the form of the Chambers Slang Dictionary.

The main sources of slang, Green says, have remained the same: sex and sexual organs, drinking, and terms of abuse. But ,there are always innovations.

The Telegraph offers some of them: boilerhouse, modern British rhyming slang for spouse. Jawsing, US teen slang for lying. And, muzzy, an Irish word for a naughty child.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/10/27/sv_slangmain.xml

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/10/27/sv_slang.xml

In the Paper Cuts blog of the New York Times, Jennifer Scheussler reviews 'On The Dot,' by Nicholas and Alexander Humez. It's an exhaustive look at the period or the dot, that little piece of punctuation that does so much. And I do mean exhaustive. The book is so digressive and sometimes so far afield of its subject matter that you might find yourself flipping to the front to make sure you're still reading the same book.

http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/27/dot-everything/

In the discussion forum on that page, I discovered the 'fini.' This is a new piece of punctuation created by Dave Rosenthal, an assistant managing editor at the Baltimore Sun. The fini is a square instead of a circle.

Dave says, 'A period is usually a fine way to end a sentence. But when there's a forcefulness attached to the words, I worry that the period will roll away. It is, after all, just a tiny black ball.'

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/books/blog/2008/07/the_endofdiscussion.html

Do you want to find out what Virginia Woolf and John Steinbeck sounded like? They're part of an audio collection from the British Library, called 'The Spoken Word: British Writers.' It was discussed and played on NPR's All Things Considered.

The audio is a rare find, as many recordings of the early days of radio were never saved. Recordings by George Orwell, for example, have yet to be found, even though he worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96030704

--

Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write 24 hours a day: (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673, words@waywordradio.org, or visit our web site and discussion forums at http://waywordradio.org. Copyright 2008, Wayword LLC.

Last year British slang lexicographer Jonathon Green struck a deal with the publisher Chambers Harrap to create an exhaustive dictionary of English slang. Now, says the London Telegraph, the first fruit of that relationship has appeared in the form of the Chambers Slang Dictionary.

The main sources of slang, Green says, have remained the same: sex and sexual organs, drinking, and terms of abuse. But ,there are always innovations.

The Telegraph offers some of them: boilerhouse, modern British rhyming slang for spouse. Jawsing, US teen slang for lying. And, muzzy, an Irish word for a naughty child.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/10/27/sv_slangmain.xml

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/10/27/sv_slang.xml

In the Paper Cuts blog of the New York Times, Jennifer Scheussler reviews 'On The Dot,' by Nicholas and Alexander Humez. It's an exhaustive look at the period or the dot, that little piece of punctuation that does so much. And I do mean exhaustive. The book is so digressive and sometimes so far afield of its subject matter that you might find yourself flipping to the front to make sure you're still reading the same book.

http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/27/dot-everything/

In the discussion forum on that page, I discovered the 'fini.' This is a new piece of punctuation created by Dave Rosenthal, an assistant managing editor at the Baltimore Sun. The fini is a square instead of a circle.

Dave says, 'A period is usually a fine way to end a sentence. But when there's a forcefulness attached to the words, I worry that the period will roll away. It is, after all, just a tiny black ball.'

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/books/blog/2008/07/the_endofdiscussion.html

Do you want to find out what Virginia Woolf and John Steinbeck sounded like? They're part of an audio collection from the British Library, called 'The Spoken Word: British Writers.' It was discussed and played on NPR's All Things Considered.

The audio is a rare find, as many recordings of the early days of radio were never saved. Recordings by George Orwell, for example, have yet to be found, even though he worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96030704

--

Get your language question answered on the air! Call or write 24 hours a day: (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673, words@waywordradio.org, or visit our web site and discussion forums at http://waywordradio.org. Copyright 2008, Wayword LLC.

interview with Alan Cassels, co-author of 'Selling Sickness: How the World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All into Patients'

read more

Welcome to the CraftyPod, a craft podcast all about making stuff.

Click the âPlayâ button at the bottom of this post to listen!

In this show:

- Interviews with Christina Loff, a publicist at Chronicle Books, and Kate McKean, a literary agent.

- Find out what really goes into writing and publishing a craft book.

- Discussion of agents: do you need one?

- And how has the blogosphere affected craft book publishing? Bookish Links:

- Visit Chronicle Books online.

- Christina Loff has a blog and an Etsy shop.

- Kate McKean can be found online at the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency website.

- Kate mentioned Publishers Marketplace as great resource for keeping track of craft book deals.

- Christina mentioned Publisher's Weekly.

- Here's a good outline of what goes into a book proposal.

- Here's a very thorough article on proposal writing.

- Definitely read this post on book proposals from an editor's view, at the Chronice Books Blog.

Welcome to the CraftyPod, a craft podcast all about making stuff.

Click the âPlayâ button at the bottom of this post to listen!

In this show:

- Interviews with Christina Loff, a publicist at Chronicle Books, and Kate McKean, a literary agent.

- Find out what really goes into writing and publishing a craft book.

- Discussion of agents: do you need one?

- And how has the blogosphere affected craft book publishing? Bookish Links:

- Visit Chronicle Books online.

- Christina Loff has a blog and an Etsy shop.

- Kate McKean can be found online at the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency website.

- Kate mentioned Publishers Marketplace as great resource for keeping track of craft book deals.

- Christina mentioned Publisher's Weekly.

- Here's a good outline of what goes into a book proposal.

- Here's a very thorough article on proposal writing.

- Definitely read this post on book proposals from an editor's view, at the Chronice Books Blog.

Click to Listen to the Show (24 MB MP3)

We have entered the age of the faceless, agile enemy. From London to Madrid to Nigeria to Russia, stateless terrorist groups have emerged to score blow after blow against us. Driven by cultural fragmentation, schooled in the most sophisticated technologies, and fueled by transnational crime, these groups are forcing corporations and individuals to develop new ways of defending themselves. The end result of this struggle will be a new, more resilient approach to national security, one built not around the state but around private citizens and companies.

John Robb, Brave New War, June 2007.

Security will become a function of where you live and whom you work for, much as health care is allocated already. Wealthy individuals and multinational corporations will be the first to bail out of our collective system, opting instead to hire private military companies, such as Blackwater and Triple Canopy, to protect their homes and facilities and establish a protective perimeter around daily life. Parallel transportation networks -- evolving out of the time-share aircraft companies such as Warren Buffett's NetJets -- will cater to this group, leapfrogging its members from one secure, well-appointed lily pad to the next.

John Robb, Security: Power To The People, Fast Company, March 2006.

John Robb

Author, Brave New War Blogger, Global Guerrillas

Richard A. Clarke

Advisor to Presidents Reagan, Bush (I), Clinton, and Bush (II) National Coordinator for Counter-terrorism, National Security Council, 1998-2001 Author, Against All Enemies and, most recently, Breakpoint Chairman, Good Harbor Consulting

Moisés Naím

Editor-in-chief, Foreign Policy Author, Illicit: How Smugglers, Traffickers and Copycats Are Hijacking the Global Economy Former Venezuelan Minister of Trade and Industry

Extra Credit Reading

John Robb, Security: Power To The People, Fast Company, March, 2006: "This terrorist-criminal symbiosis becomes even more powerful when considered next to the most disturbing sign coming out of Iraq: The terrorists have developed the ability to fight nation-states strategically--without weapons of mass destruction. This new method is called "systems disruption," a simple way of attacking the critical networks (electricity, oil, gas, water, communications, and transportation) that underpin modern life." Michael Tanji, Brave New Review, Haft of the Spear, April 22, 2007: "Comparisons are going to be drawn between Robb’s work and that of Tom Barnett of Pentagon’s New Map and Blueprint for Action fame... Suffice it to say that their work is complimentary in many areas save for issues related to the roles of government and the long-term. Tom is Pooh Bear, John is Eeyore." Grim, COIN: The Gravity Well, BlackFive, April 23, 2007: "Give me ten minutes, and I'll tell you everything you need to know to understand this new model of insurgency. Plus, I have a little addition of my own -- a way to visualize David Kilcullen's "disaggregation." Ten minutes, and you'll both understand how the Global insurgency works, and how to fight it -- even in those times and places when we have no combat troops to devote to working it." Chris Monasterski, Most powerful force in the international economy?, Private Sector Development Blog, March 21, 2007: "Naim painted a picture of transnational criminal networks of "specialists in logistics" operating as independent cells. He warned of the growing criminalization of politics and the politicization of crime in many corners of the world." Dan tdaxp, Guerrillas as Petty Realism, Tdaxp.com, April 24, 2007: "Unable to hold territory, and unwilling to join a minimal winning coalition capable of achieving victory, all global guerrillas can do is generate violence. All they can do is make some other group even more attractive, if that group promises to end or reduce the violence." Richard Clarke, Breakpoint, Powells Books Blog, January 23, 2007: "In Breakpoint, somebody is attempting to destroy the technological facilities making scientific advances. They are using the vulnerabilities that exist today in cyberspace, in our computer controlled networks."

In Episode 55: Links You Can Use: Free Audio Books Blog Love: Open Resource Centre Call the podcast to say hello, comment, add, suggest, or rant: 415-944-1691 Our Interview: Alan November shares his thoughts about the current state of education, collaboration, education & other sectors, SMARTBoards, and things that you can do to engage students in learning.  His Building Learning Communities [...]