You

"The fact that you follows closely behind I in popularity is probably attributable to its being an eight-way word: both subject and object, both singular and plural, and both formal and familiar. The all-purpose second person is an unusual feature of English, as middle-schoolers realize when they start taking French, Spanish, or, especially, German, which offers a choice of seven different singular versions of you.

It's relatively new in our language. In early modern English, beginning in the late fifteenth century, thou, thee, and thy were singular forms for the subjective, objective, and possessive, and ye, you and your were plural. In the 1500s and 1600s ye, and then the thou/thee/thy forms, faded away, to be replaced by the all-purpose you. But approaches to this second person were interesting in this period of flux.

David Crystal writes in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of English that by Shakespeare's time, you 'was used by people of lower rank or status to those above them (such as ordinary people to nobles, children to parents, servants to masters, nobles to the monarch), and was also the standard way for the upper classes to talk to each other. By contrast, thou/thee were used
by people of higher rank to those beneath them, and by the lower classes to each other; also, in elevated poetic style, in addressing God, and in talking to witches, ghosts, and other supernatural beings.' The OED cites a 1675 quotation: 'No Man will You God, but will use the pronoun Thou to him.'

"Needless to say, this ambiguity and variability were gold in the hand of a writer like Shakespeare, and he played with it endlessly, sometimes having a character switch modes of address within a speech to indicate a change in attitude. Crystal cites Sir Toby Belch's advice to Sir Andrew Aguecheek, in Twelfth Night, on how to get under the skin of an antagonist: 'if
thou thou'st him some thrice, it will not be amiss.' Sir Toby, of course, is himself thou-ing Sir Andrew."'

Ben Yagoda, When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It, Broadway Books, 2007, pp. 202-204.

European Media Phone of the Year 2007-2008: Nokia N95

Commenting on the award, EISA praised the Nokia N95 as containing “practically every feature one could imagine in a mobile device.” Additionally, the award citation of the EISA jury goes on to say: “It’s no mere mobile phone and no mere status symbol. Pick up a Nokia N95 and you hold in your hands a state-of-the-art communication tool - the ideal way to remain permanently in touch and on track with the world that surrounds you.”

http://n95blog.com/european-media-phone-of-the-year-2007-2008-nokia-n95/

Heretical thoughts about science and society

FREEMAN DYSON is professor of physics at the Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton.

" As a scientist I do not have much faith in predictions. Science is organized unpredictability. The best scientists like to arrange things in an experiment to be as unpredictable as possible, and then they do the experiment to see what will happen. You might say that if something is predictable then it is not science. When I make predictions, I am not speaking as a scientist. I am speaking as a story-teller, and my predictions are science-fiction rather than science. The predictions of science-fiction writers are notoriously inaccurate. Their purpose is to imagine what might happen rather than to describe what will happen. I will be telling stories that challenge the prevailing dogmas of today. The prevailing dogmas may be right, but they still need to be challenged. I am proud to be a heretic. The world always needs heretics to challenge the prevailing orthodoxies. Since I am heretic, I am accustomed to being in the minority. If I could persuade everyone to agree with me, I would not be a heretic."

http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge219.html#dysonf

Changing landscapes: Improving St Mary Street and High Street

Over the next two years St Mary Street and High Street will undergo dramatic improvements. These changes mean that the area keeps pace with the transformation taking place in the heart of the city centre.

We are working to create a better place to work, shop and visit by reducing traffic, pollution and noise levels - whilst introducing wider pavements and public art to improve the feel of the area.

http://www.cardiff.gov.uk/stmaryst/

A Beginner's Guide to Mind Mapping Meetings

"Do you have trouble keeping up with meetings because you can't take notes as fast as the speaker talks? If you do jot down some thoughts and ideas, by the time you re-read your notes they make no sense? If this sounds like you, a meeting mind map may be just what you need"


http://lifehacker.com/software/note-taking/a-beginners-guide-to-mind-mapping-meetings-288763.php

Somewhere Nearby is Colossal Cave: Examining Will Crowther's Original “Adventure” in Code and in Kentucky

"“Adventure” – an interactive textual simulation of a caving expedition, augmented by fantasy-themed puzzles – inspired a generation of hackers. Playing “Adventure” involves reading prose descriptions of the setting, and typing brief commands (i.e. “light lamp”) in order to solve puzzles and collect treasure."

http://brain.lis.uiuc.edu:2323/opencms/export/sites/default/dhq/vol/001/2/000009.html

See also http://www.literateprogramming.com/adventure.pdf

Beyond batteries: Storing power in a sheet of paper

The nanoengineered battery is lightweight, ultra thin, completely flexible, and geared toward meeting the trickiest design and energy requirements of tomorrow’s gadgets, implantable medical equipment, and transportation vehicles.


http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-08/rpi-bbs080907.php

OpenDocument format adoption

Taken from "e to the power of hype" http://www.robweir.com/blog/2007/08/e-to-power-of-hype.html

Video course for learning Welsh

Video course for learning Welsh

Flash : http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/learnwelsh/bigwelshchallenge/flashconsole/index.shtml

Non-flash: (North) http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/learnwelsh/bigwelshchallenge/north/

Non-flash (South) http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/learnwelsh/bigwelshchallenge/south/

No More Hard Drive! 100 Free Software Apps to Go Online-Only

Over the past few years, webware has matured to the point that almost anything you can do with desktop software, can now be done with a free webware alternative. Webware allows you to access your programs at any time from anywhere in the world, without having to bring your computer along. In this article, we highlight 100 free webware apps which will help you cut the cord from your computer and its traditional desktop software and instead take your computing completely online.

http://www.tzunami.com/No-More-Harddrive.php

Astronomers Witness Whopper Galaxy Collision

A major cosmic pileup involving four large galaxies could give rise to one of the largest galaxies the universe has ever known, scientists say.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070806_whopper_gmerger.html