Author Archives: Andrea

The total number of school-children killed by bullets to date (as of February 1, 2018) is 218 school-children.

Add 17 to the total, which now rises to 235 (source).

Another school shooting in the USA. No need to link, it’s all over the internet. For this foreigner who has spent her whole life in a country were very few people have guns and where regulations are strict (and became even stricter after the Winnenden school shooting in 2009 in which 15 students were killed) it is still incomprehensible why the majority of US politicians (and citizens? voters?) still support the current status quo and the second amendment.

Garret proposes to take over the NRA. I wonder if that would work.

Superhero-vision camera

NPR all tech considered: Super Sensitive Sensor Sees What You Can’t.

“A team of engineers at Dartmouth College has invented a semiconductor chip that could someday give the camera in your phone the kind of vision even a superhero would envy. […] Fossum calls his new technology QIS, for Quanta Image Sensor. Instead of pixels, QIS chips have what Fossum and his colleagues call “jots.” Each jot can detect a single particle of light, called a photon.”

“We are a nation of second chances.” (President Obama)

Nation of Second Chances. “During his presidency, President Obama granted clemency to 1,715 people —
mostly nonviolent drug offenders serving sentences in federal prison — more than any other president in history. Through beautiful photos and powerful words, Nation of Second Chances tells their stories.”

Link via MetaFilter.

The “more than any other president in history” doesn’t seem to be quite correct though. Obama has granted clemency “more than any other president in recent history” is more exact, since Harry S. Truman pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 2,044 people, and before him Franklin D. Roosevelt granted 3,687 pardons in his four terms in office, while Barack Obama pardoned 212 people and commuted the sentences of a further 1,715 people, 1,927 people in all. (Source: Wikipedia, but the numbers seem to agree with those of the United States Department of Justice.)

“Gebt mir einen Job, keine Zeitarbeit!”

Deutsche Welle: “Gebt mir einen Job, keine Zeitarbeit!” “Mohamad ist Medizintechniker mit viel Arbeitserfahrung. Das ist derzeit auf dem Arbeitsmarkt gefragt. Eigentlich. Denn der Geflüchtete kassiert nur eins: Absagen. Das Protokoll einer systematischen Erniedrigung.”

“Mohamad will seine Chancen auf dem deutschen Arbeitsmarkt nicht endgültig verspielen. Deshalb will der 29-Jährige Flüchtling aus Syrien seinen Nachnamen nicht nennen. Was er über seine Jobsuche zu berichten hat, könnte nämlich einige verstören. Denn es wirft kein gutes Licht auf den Umgang deutscher Unternehmen mit Geflüchteten. Und es zeigt, was schief läuft bei deren Integration am Arbeitsmarkt. Derzeit kämpfen rund 500.000 anerkannte Flüchtlinge um einen Job. Die meisten vergeblich. So wie Mohamad.”

“I’m gobsmacked by this sticky wicket full of codswallop”

BBC Culture: How Americans preserved British English. “Americans today pronounce some words more like Shakespeare than Brits do… but it’s in 18th-Century England where they’d really feel at home.”

How Americanisms are killing the English language. “A book released this year claims that Americanisms will have completely absorbed the English language by 2120. Hephzibah Anderson takes a look.”

Why British English is full of silly-sounding words. “From ‘gazump’ to ‘gobsmack’, ‘squiffy’ to ‘snog’, British English is full of words that sound like barmy balderdash. Christine Ro explains why.”