Josh Witten

You say “Hippopotamuses”, I say “Hippipotamus”

Apparently, a herd of hippos derived from animals kept by deceased drug cartel lord Pablo Escobar have been running amok in Colombia for something like two decades¹. Unfortunately, I could not find any references to extinct South American members of the Hippopotamidae family. So, this cannot be considered an accidental experiment² in rewilding.

The multiple articles that have sprung up (no reputable news organization could ignore this story) have heightened the focus on a key question of grammar. What is the plural of hippopotamus. In terms of authority, we have disagreement, with the Oxford University Press voting for hippopotamuses, “The Smartest Man in the World” comedian Greg Proops arguing on behalf of hippopotami, and would-be Internet language scholars suggesting hippopotamoi from the Greek.

What should the plural of hippopotamus be? Continue reading “You say “Hippopotamuses”, I say “Hippipotamus””

Survey Says

Paige Brown Jarreau is a graduate student at LSU. Her PhD thesis is on the science of science blogging. To collect data for her project, she has setup an online survey for science bloggers, which you should be taking if you are a science blogger.

As the role of science blogging expands and diversifies in today’s science news ecosystem, the practices and routines of science bloggers remain under-studied.

The goal of my project is to survey science bloggers about their blogging practices. Please take this survey if you consider yourself to be a science blogger.
–Paige Brown Jarreau

I have taken the survey and found the self-reflection inherent in the process rewarding in its own right.

Two-Piece Chicken Suit

Last week, I posted on the biological elegance of using the simple building blocks of Legos to create complexity in objects using a crow built by nobu_tary as an example. Another creation of nobu_tary illustrates how few of those simple building blocks are necessary, if you look at them from an unanticipated point of view.

I give you a chicken…