Lit Fun #6: Tongue Twisters
Published June 6th, 2010 | 
respironics oxygen concentrators — try saying that three times fast. Yes, tongue twisters are fun and have a long history in the English language (as well as every other language/culture in the world).
Typically, a tongue-twister is a phrase consisting of words that are difficult to pronounce when strung together. This is due to the order, number of syllables, use of rhyme, and/or alliteration.
Many famous tongue twisters have appeared throughout literature. A number of writers, from Shakespeare to Dr. Seuss have employed tongue twisters. When the first tongue twister first appeared is difficult to date as a number of early tongue twisters were known in common folklore long before any were ever written down.
New Scanners to Revolutionize Book Publishing
Published April 16th, 2010 | Japanese researchers at Tokyo University have developed a new scanner that can take 500 pictures per second and scan printed pages as pages are flipped. According to professor Masatoshi Ishikawa:
"As it can film while understanding the underlying shape, it’s very easy to then take the pages that are being scanned and save them as a normal flat copy."
The current system is able to scan an average 200-250 page book in a little over 60 seconds using basic computer hardware that is available off-the-shelf.
While it now requires extra time to process the scanned images, the researchers hope to eventually make the technology both faster and much smaller.
"In the more the distant future, once it becomes possible to put all of this processing on one chip and then put that in a iPad or iPod, one could scan just using that chip. At that point, it becomes possible to scan something quickly to save for later reading."
I’ve been talking about this kind of technology for ten year — the ability to scan books quickly, if not instantaneously and how that could fuel better print-on-demand processes in the future. Seriously, how would you like to have that scanner as part of your office supplies? Technology is changing publishing faster than publishers can adapt to the changes.
The Problem With Online Research
Published April 12th, 2010 | I read it somewhere that if you want to know how to get rid of acne fast, what you should do is apply toothpaste for about 20 minutes, then rinse your face and apply alcohol with a q-tip. I’ve never tried it, so I don’t know if it works. Yet, I’m sure you’ll find plenty of places on the Internet that will swear by this remedy. But that’s the problem with the Internet and information overload. You can find an answer to just about any question online, but is it THE answer, or just something someone heard about somewhere and posted online? That’s a big problem with research — finding information that is tested, definitive and has real authority.
