Category: Pop Culture

Merriam-Webster Unabridged

Merriam-Webster Unabridged

Merriam-Webster Unabridged is the largest, most comprehensive American dictionary currently available in print or online. It is built on the solid foundation of Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged and is the best source of current information about the English language.

We are actively engaged in creating an entirely new edition of the Unabridged, and new and revised entries and usage content will be added to the site on a continuing basis.

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Merriam-Webster Unabridged includes rich, clear definitions and more usage information than ever before. Definitions have been enhanced with over 123,000 author quotations. Supplementary notes provide additional context, and usage paragraphs offer clear guidance and suggestions for words with confused or disputed usage. Dates of first known use are being added, and editorial style changes are being made throughout the dictionary to make entries more readable and easier to understand.
Continue reading “Merriam-Webster Unabridged”

The True Story of the Backward Index (Video) | Merriam-Webster

The True Story of the Backward Index (Video) | Merriam-Webster

There it sits, hidden in plain view on a set of shelves in the basement of the Merriam-Webster offices: the Backward Index. But why would anyone type out 315,000 words spelled in reverse?

Pelican Books

Pelican Books

All Pelican books are available to read online. Read the first chapter for free, and unlock the full book for £4.99.

In 1936, Allen Lane, the founder of Penguin, overheard a woman at a bookstall in King’s Cross station asking for ‘one of those Pelican books’. Presumably she meant a Penguin, but Lane, concerned that his competitors might snatch up bird names, decided to launch a new flock of non-fiction books. The Pelican imprint was born.

Costing no more than a packet of cigarettes, and aimed at the true lay reader, Pelicans combined intellectual authority with clear and accessible prose. As the first British publisher of intelligent non-fiction at a genuinely low price, Pelican became an informal university for generations of Britons. With books on economics and history, art and literature, philosophy and culture, Pelican was, according to the Spectator, ‘a decisive influence on the growth of public understanding of the world.’ Over nearly half a century, the series sold more than 250 million copies, becoming, in Lane’s words, ‘the true everyman’s library for the twentieth century’.

In 2014, after nearly three decades in retirement, Pelican was reborn. In its new incarnation Pelican continues the same mission: to publish truly accessible books from authoritative and award-winning writers on a wide range of essential subjects. Continue reading “Pelican Books”

How can we be sure old books were ever read? – University of Glasgow Library

How can we be sure old books were ever read? – University of Glasgow Library

Owning a book isn’t the same as reading it; we need only look at our own bloated bookshelves for confirmation.

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With the help of Tom Gauld, one final thought: just how easy will it be for academics of the future to look back at our present reading behaviour? Bits, bytes, page-clicks and logged keystrokes will surely be able to tell them what web pages we visited but what of physical material evidence confirming reading? That may be more elusive.

How can we be sure old books were ever read? – University of Glasgow Library

How can we be sure old books were ever read? – University of Glasgow Library

Owning a book isn’t the same as reading it; we need only look at our own bloated bookshelves for confirmation.

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Although this is surely a more common anxiety in a time of relatively cheap books and one-click online shopping we should be reassured that it’s nothing new: Seneca was vocal in criticising those using “books not as tools for study but as decorations for the dining-room”, and in his early 16th century sermons Johannes Geiler (reflecting on Sebastian Brant’s‘book fool’) identified a range of different types of folly connected with book ownership that included collecting books for the sake of glory, as if they were costly items of furniture1. When we look at our own bookshelves we can fairly easily divide the contents into those we’ve read and those we haven’t. But when it comes to very old books which have survived for hundreds of years how easy is it to know whether a book was actually read by its past owners?2

Continue reading “How can we be sure old books were ever read? – University of Glasgow Library”

Restoring the world’s oldest library |

Restoring the world’s oldest library |

The ancient al-Qarawiyyin Library in Fez isn’t just the oldest library in Africa. Founded in 859, it’s the oldest working library in the world, holding ancient manuscripts that date as far back as 12 centuries.

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First, some history. The al-Qarawiyyin Library was created by a woman, challenging commonly held assumptions about the contribution of women in Muslim civilization. The al-Qarawiyyin, which includes a mosque, library, and university, was founded by Fatima El-Fihriya, the daughter of a rich immigrant from al-Qayrawan (Tunisia today). Well educated and devout, she vowed to spend her entire inheritance on building a mosque and knowledge center for her community. According to UNESCO, the result is the oldest operational educational institution in the world, with a high-profile role call of alumni. Mystic poet and philosopher Ibn Al-‘Arabi studied there in the 12th century, historian and economist Ibn Khaldun attended in the 14th century, while in medieval times, Al-Qarawiyyin played a leading role in the transfer of knowledge between Muslims and Europeans.

Unicode Emoji

Unicode Emoji

Unicode Emoji Resources

Unicode Emoji Subcommittee

The Unicode Emoji Subcommittee is responsible for the following:

  • Updating, revising, and extending emoji documents such as UTR #51, Unicode Emoji and Unicode Emoji Charts.
  • Taking input from various sources and reviewing requests for new emoji characters.
  • Creating proposals for the Unicode Technical Committee regarding additional emoji characters and new emoji-related mechanisms.
  • Investigating longer-term mechanisms for supporting emoji as images (stickers).

The Unicode Emoji Subcommittee is a subcommittee of the Unicode Technical Committee operating under theTechnical Committee Procedures. Current co-chairs are Mark Davis (Google) and Peter Edberg (Apple).

Participation in the Unicode Emoji Subcommittee weekly video/phone meetings and mailing list is open to members of the Unicode Consortium as listed in §13.1 of the Technical Committee Procedures, plus invited guests. Contact usfor more information.