CHATTING ABOUT CHATGPT AND OTHER A.I. PART 2
YESTERDAY, The New York Times offered several viewpoints about ChatGPT, Generative Pre-trained Transformer capabilities (and its potential threats). Today in Part 2, AAAS Science offers insights. And a previously unknown … Continue reading
CHATTING ABOUT CHATGPT AND OTHER A.I. PART 1
CHATGPT, AS IN Generative Pre-trained Transformer, has been much in the news. Maureen Dowd has written about it in The New York Times, January 28, 2023. In a full-page ad … Continue reading
LRB LETTERS—A READER’S PLEASURE
LETTERS TO THE LONDON REVIEW of Books are no less insightful and erudite than the editorial matter of this wonderfully British publication. Here are tidbits gleaned from LRB, January 19, … Continue reading
THE GREAT FRICATIVE SHIFT, GRIMM’S LAW, AND WIFE DOTTIE’S KIN PART 2
TODAY WE PICK UP with Part 2, bringing the Brothers Grimm into the tale of Friedrich von Schlegel’s philology (not to say his other activities with Felix Mendelssohn’s auntie). The … Continue reading
THE GREAT FRICATIVE SHIFT, GRIMM’S LAW, AND WIFE DOTTIE’S KIN PART 1
I WAS LOOKING FOR SOMETHING or other in Stephen Fry’s Mythos: The Greek Myths Reimagined, when I came upon the Appendices of this marvelous book. In its “Feet and Toes” … Continue reading
PH.D. STUDENT SOLVES SANSKRIT GRAMMATICAL PUZZLE
A RECENT ARTICLE IN Nice News caught my eye for several reasons: First, the grammatical puzzle arose in the linguistics of Sanskrit. I’ve been tantalized by this language after learning … Continue reading
DIALECTS, EVEN ACROSS A CLEVELAND STREET
WIKIPEDIA HELPED IN THE RECENT Berkeley item by noting that this British car name is pronounced/ˈbɑːrkliː/, “Barkly.” A link to “Help: IPA/English” got me thinking about George Bernard Shaw’s saying … Continue reading
TOMORROW’S VISIT
SOME TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO, Santa Claus lore was collected into what has been called “arguably the best-known verses ever written by an American.” Author of ” ’Twas the night … Continue reading
CELEBRATING VIVA MAGENTA—AND ALSO 1797, 716, 107, 356, 2748, AND 2607
WHAT BEGAN IN THE 1950s as a systemization of color pigments has evolved into Pantone and its PMS (Pantone Matching System). Today the company’s standards are used in a variety … Continue reading
FREUDENFREUDE—THE ETYMOLOGY OF HAPPINESS
THE WORD FREUDENFREUDE, “pleasure’s pleasure,” is a feeling of happiness encouraged by another’s success. It evolved from its opposite Schadenfreude, the German word describing the malicious joy resulting from another’s … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 