Orange Orange (category:geeky)

A bit of shameless re-blogging to get me back into the swing of things:

Collins English Dictionary is adding an entry for meh (”an interjection to suggest indifference or boredom”) to next year’s 30th anniversary edition. It was the winner of a campaign launched by Collins seeking public nominations for new words, and it beat out such competition as jargonaut (a fan of jargon), frenemy (an enemy disguised as a friend) and huggles (a hybrid of hugs and snuggles). This follows on the heels of another Collins competition that we discussed last month, where the public was invited to vote for which old, infrequently used words should be saved from deletion.

[Ben Zimmer via Ideas]

Apparently this announcement has caused a certain amount of support and disapproval from the blogosphere, centered around whether onomatopoeias and interjections are worthy of inclusion in dictionaries.

Zimmer, the linguist who wrote the column I linked to above, also describes a bit of the surprising etymology behind “meh”:

An additional problem with meh is that it still feels like a bit of a novelty, since it owes much of its current popularity to online discourse. But meh has a fascinating story to tell. As I learned when I researched the word for a 2006 Language Log post, the onomatopoetic roots of meh, along with its slightly more disapproving sibling feh, go back to Yiddish.

The word was then popularized of the Simpsons and spread “as an all-purpose lukewarm reaction in online communication, particularly in fan forums, chatrooms, and the like.” Now it’s even made its way onto American Idol in noun form as “meh-ness.”

Thank goodness. Meh is probably one of my favorite words, and I fully support the idea of dictionaries tracking innovations in the use of language — even if it’s through transparent publicity stunts. Now I was going to write a little bit on the purpose of dictionaries, but meh, maybe I’ll save that for another day…

Two more gems from The Best American Scientific Writing 2007, both about molecular biology being applied to something unexpected, and both from Discover Magazine.

First, molecular paleontologist Mary Schweitzer uncovers soft tissue in 65-million year-old T-rex fossils. You can imagine the huge uproar the media raised, running the gamut from whimsical (”Now we can create Jurassic Park!”) to the crazy (”Now we know the Earth is only 6000 years old!”). Craziest thing, though, is that when Schweitzer injected the tissue into lab animals their blood raised antibodies active against turkey proteins. There you have it — definitive proof that God exists, and intends for us to eat stuffed T-rex next Thanksgiving dinner. Please, NSF, fund this woman so our gastronomical dreams come true.

Speaking of which, molecular gastronomy is the next hot thing among techno-savvy chefs in Europe, and apparently, a well-funded field of scientific endeavor in France (maybe Mary Schweitzer should try to get funding from the French for potentially growing dinosaur steaks). How could you refuse a grant to these researchers, after hearing the following mouthwatering description of the coagulating proteins responsible for an egg’s texture?

when an egg cooks, its proteins first unwind and then link to form a rigidifying mesh. But not all its proteins solidify at the same temperature. Ovotransferrin, the first of the egg-white proteins to uncoil, begins to set at around 61 degrees Celsius, or 142°F. Ovalbumin, the most abundant egg-white protein, coagulates at 184°F. Yolk proteins generally fall in between, with most starting to solidify when they approach 158°F. Thus, cooking an egg at 158°F or so should achieve both a firmed-up yolk and still-tender whites, since at that low temperature only some of the egg-white proteins will have coagulated.

“Cooking eggs is really a question of temperature, not time,” says This. To make the point, he switches on a small oven, sets the thermostat at 65°C, or 149°F, takes four eggs straight from the box, and unceremoniously places them inside. “I use an oven in the lab; it’s easier. But if the oven in your kitchen is not accurate, cook eggs in plenty of water, using a good thermometer.” About an hour later—timing isn’t critical, and the eggs can stay in the oven for hours or even overnight—he retrieves the first egg and carefully shells it. “The 65-degree egg!” he announces. The egg is unlike any I’ve eaten. The white is as delicately set and smooth as custard, and the yolk is still orange and soft. It’s not hard to see why l’oeuf à soixante-cinq degrés is becoming the rage with chefs in France. (Salmonella can’t survive more than a few minutes at 60°C, or 140°F, so a 65-degree egg cooked for an hour should be quite safe.)

["Cooking for Eggheads" by Patricia Gadsby]

Did you know that even though one egg white can only yield half a pint of meringue, simply by adding water you can extend this limit several-fold? This is because the egg-white proteins hold air bubbles in a matrix containing water molecules, and the limiting reagent normally is water. I know. I’m moving to France.

[UPDATE 17:16: It's out! Download the Google browser here.] Yes, they’re making a browser too, and it’ll be ready for download later today. Here is the official info page, and a comic book about the technology behind the browser — if you’ve ever done any programming or just appreciate good UI design, prepare to salivate.

[via Official Google Blog]

After the jump: first thoughts on the browser, T = 5 min after download

1. A writeup about Starcraft and the community portal SC2GG.com in Escapist Magazine, a gaming/digital culture e-publication. The author identifies himself as an English-speaking, American-born Chinese “artist’s soul living in an engineer’s mind.” Which probably explains why his article seems to accomplish what I tried to do earlier on this blog. At one point, the author even lapses into describing my life (creepy, right?):

After cooking my dinner (usually pasta or rice), I would load one of Klazart’s, diggity’s or moletrap’s StarCraft videos. Here I was: tired after a long day, my room a mess, nursing a bowl of carbohydrates with Zerg versus Protoss on my computer screen. Weeks earlier, two Korean teenagers competed furiously in a televised match 7,000 miles away. An Indian-born Irishman and two Californians watched the raw video, ignored the Korean announcers and provided their own analysis of each game.

2. A gamer explains why Starcraft ought to be considered an Olympic sport. I say why not, especially since Starcraft requires just as much skill as chess? Oh wait…

3. My friend CJ’s post on some firsthand experiences attending pro Starcraft competitions in Korea.

You know, like on Facebook.

Apparently somebody registered VPILF.com 2 years ago, and I bet you equally appropriate t-shirts (Yulia Tymoshenko anyone?) will be out faster you can say the word “sexism.”