Vegetabular

Discussing what to have for tea with the boys I pointed out that we need vegetables.... only the way I was saying it (which I've forgotten) came to requiring a one-word form of "containing vegetables" and I stumbled... vegetablish? vegetablic? vegetabular?

LOL... well can I use them?

I guess not, while others have used vegetabular, vegetablic and vegetablish before; they're not appearing in dictionaries.

Word challenge

YAY I finally made a respectable score on Word Challenge (by playfish). (A round in which I recall there were finally no abbreviations or acronymns or foreign words).

My list of words I didn't know is growing, but so is the list of words I'm learning.

I like the way Word Challenge offers the hint of showing how many words are possible and then placing the words one scores with in alphabetical and length order, amongst blanks for those that one hasn't yet found.

exon & copyright

In my efforts to learn these little words (not to stave off dementia, or become more clever, but because I want more versality to achieve better scores in word games) I've built on dictionary searches with image searches.

Today I found an excellent image that helps me see and remember what an exon is (and learned more about gene structure and splicing along the way). I'd like to share it using kwout, but that image was closely marked with a copyright notice and it prompted me to reconsider whether the link and reference to source provided by kwout is enough to abide copyright law?

Lessons I learned at school and uni about 10% for study and citing references I'm sure don't come close, and I was never sure about use of others' images or diagrams for school assignments.

How does it work here? As yet I'm not sure. Let me track the places I stopped to think:

The first article I discovered by Wesley Fryer was interesting (he cited a YouTube video Privacy Issues, Photos, and the Internet, and discussed how not to make the mistakes that were made in the Chang case) but not quite what I need.

However Wes' Winter 2003 article in TechEdge, “Copyright 101 for Educators” could be more informative. First point to stand out:

Tools for the TEKS: Integrating Technology in the Classroom via kwout

His description of fair use seemed relevant and similar to what I've read before on copyright in Australia, but then I realised I needed to access Australian information.... so:

Australian Copyright Council Information...

Apparently, copyright material might, in some very specific situations, be used without permission...

Aside from the circumstances for libraries, educational institutions and government there is fair dealing (summary of which I kwout from wikipedia instead of the Australian Copyright Council because I could only find it in pdf at ACC)

Fair dealing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia via kwout

Important subsequent points were that

• "each and every such use for research or study must be evaluated individually to determine whether it is fair";
  
• "Among the criteria used to determine the fairness of a use are the purpose and character of the dealing, the nature of the work, the possibility of obtaining the work commercially within a reasonable time, the effect of the use on the potential market for the work or on its value, and how much of a work is copied.";
  
• "There is no special exception that allows you to use a work without permission just because it is used for a nonprofit purpose."
  

Hm, so maybe I could print a copy of diagrams or images for me or my children to study, but: even if kwout links to the source, the act of internet re-publishing (even by a tiny blog with a known readership of two [including me]) an image which does not have an appropriate Creative Commons licence would seem to be in breach of copyright.

I'm looking forward to the Copyright unit I'll be taking in July.

So, in the meantime, as I've not heard back from the source, I'm going to avoid the risk and not kwout the copyrighted sketch of an exon.

But then there was another image - a 3d colour image that was interesting if not particularly explanatory... it had no copyright notice; but being hypersensitive now I won't post that one either because it didn't have a CC license.

So, all I'm left with is words:

Exon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia via kwout

plew or plu

plew - Definitions from Dictionary.com

Beaver Plew, From Discovering Lewis & Clark™ via kwout

herl

Peacock Herl
Originally uploaded by Bluewingoliver.

1. The barb of a feather used in trimming an artificial fly for angling.
2. A fishing fly made with this type of barb.

mon

Mon people - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia via kwout

moa

Moa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia via kwout

Image:Giant Haasts eagle attacking New Zealand moa.jpg - Wikimedia Commons via kwout

ani

I will learn these strange three-letter words for Scramble, I will.

Particularly when lovely people photograph the subjects and label them, and add information to enhance my learning. I like the communal mothering of mother anis.

Anu-preto ou Pássaro Preto (Crotophaga ani) - Smooth-billed Ani 43 25-07-07 165 Uploaded on July 25, 2007 by Flávio Cruvinel Brandão via kwout

Vocab: ANOA

So, my latest research to nibble away at the enormous wealth of words I don't know yet:

ANOA:

anoa: Definition and Much More from Answers.com via kwout

Flickr tells me that I could see one if I plan a visit to the San Diego Zoo or Zoo Leipzig.

Vocab: toea

Today, I learn: toea: 100 toea equal 1 kina in Papua New Guinea.

Again, an image search was useful too:

Vocab: koa, tree to table or guitar

Continuing my list of words I hadn't known

1. An acacia (Acacia koa) native to Hawaii having flowers arranged in axillary racemes and small sickle-shaped leaves:

koa tree
Originally uploaded by amy.kay.

becomes
2. The light-to-dark brown or reddish wood of this tree, used for furniture, crafts, cabinetry, and musical instruments....

Koa Table
Originally uploaded by liltree.

or

Customized Kramer bass: Koa figuring
Originally uploaded by A.J. Kandy.

Vocab: kea

Kea
Originally uploaded by Small.

This New Zealand parrot expands my word game vocabulary.

Vocab: kae

Jay; Garrulus glandarius
Originally uploaded by phenolog.

According to hydroponicsearch (sourced from gcide and 1913 Webster) the Eurasian Jay or Garrulus glandarius is also called "kae".

So that is why, if I remember, I could play kae in word games :-)

Vocab: hao

How many times do we need to receive information to remember it? 7?

Okay first time, thanks to Google:

Definitions of HAO on the Web:

* 10 hao equal 1 dong in Vietnam
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

* Hao is a large coral atoll in the central part of the Tuamotu Archipelago. Because of its shape, French explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville named it Harp Island.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hao (French Polynesia)

and again thanks to kwout and the free online dictionary:

Vietnamese monetary unit - definition of Vietnamese monetary unit by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia. via kwout

So if that sticks I can use HAO in Upwords or Scrabble or ...

And maybe this piece of geographic data will come in handy one day:

The Tahiti Traveler - Hao travel guide via kwout

Vocab: goa, hae

Scramble delightfully tells me all the words I miss - and each time there are so many it is quite embarrassing. Or perhaps not - the letters are after all scrambled, and it is more "can you see them" than "do you know them", so okay I'm not so embarrassed. And maybe not even over some of the words that I didn't even realise were words, that is: sure I saw the letter combination but wouldn't even think to jot it because it is not to my knowledge a word.

Still, maybe knowing more words will help me see them better.

goa: n. A gazelle (Procapra picticaudata) native to Tibet and having backward-curving horns in the male. [The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, 2000, Houghton Mifflin Company.]

(making GOA an acceptable Scramble/Boggle, Scrabble word which I'd have thought to not be acceptable had I known only of: Goa - a state of southwestern India; a former Portuguese colony)

And maybe the information (with pictures) from Rufford Small Grants for Nature Conservation Foundation could help me remember:...

Yash Veer Bhatnagar | The Rufford Small Grants for Nature Conservation via kwout

And now to embed 'hae' in my memory:

Scots, Wha Hae Wi' Wallace Bled Analysis Robert Burns via kwout

Scrabulous, building my vocabulary

Playing Scrabulous on Facebook with fellow students from my course, I picked up the letters T W I B I L S. Very Monty Python sounding word I thought, but I was very surprised to find it a valid word!

Plural of twibil

n. - A kind of mattock, or ax; esp., a tool like a pickax, but having, instead of the points, flat terminations, one of which is parallel to the handle, the other perpendicular to it.
n. - A tool for making mortises.
n. - A reaping hook.

Nice, thanks MoreWords (Robert Hoare). Apparently if I'm armed with a twibil, I'm twibilled - according to onlinedictionary [from a 1913 Webster].

I was fascinated by one of More Words' random words:

vug : rock cavity: a small hole in a rock or vein that often contains a mineral lining that differs from that of the surrounding matrix - MSN Encarta

from which one can apparently make an adjective: vuggy

Watch out Helen & Graham, I'll be stronger for our next Upwords game.

supunna picta

supunna picta
Originally uploaded by moonflowerdragon.

Unfortunately when I blog a photo from Flickr the description doesn't travel with it:

Cricket spotted this spider on the fridge. As it seemed clearly to not be a white tail I didn't kill it, but caught it and went looking for identification. I couldn't find its photo on the University of Queensland Find-A-Spider Guide, but then I was looking at medium-sized spiders because I measured it at 9mm rather than 8mm or less.

Thankfully the Melbourne Museum could identify it: "most likely the Painted Swift spider, Supunna picta. It is also known as the Swift Ground spider or the Spotted Ground Swift spider and is a member of the family Corinnidae (Sun Spiders)". They also linked me with the id page for the supunna picta.

Acmeism & Algonquin Round Table

The Information Services Librarian strolled me through our online databases during training today. Scanning the Gale Literature Resource Centre I caught sight of "Acmeism" and "Algonquin round table" as Literary Movements or Time Periods. What on earth?

Google?

Ah... thank you Lindsay Malcolm and Martin Kich. Acmeism... check.

I believe pbs American Masters give a more enjoyable read about the Algonquin round table than Wikipedia, although it was nice to hear from the Algonquin Hotel themselves.

I shall always remember Mrs Potter, my Grade 3 teacher: "You will learn something new every day".

Edge: The World Question Center: What's your Law?

As this blog is mostly here for me, not you, I'm posting first how I arrived at What's your Law this morning... because I generally find anyone's path to a particular destination as or more interesting than the destination.

D.H. Lawrence mentioned in passing in Kangaroo that "The man by himself" was one of the names of Erasmus of Rotterdam, so I googled to remind myself (my only inkling of a recollection was something to do with Martin Luther) of this man of my family's geographical origins. Wikipedia was very helpful, and I followed a link to learn about Erasmus' Apophthegmatum opus , whereupon, curious to discover whether an apophthegm is some sort of pithy saying, I followed the apophthegm link which diverted to "adage". What's your Law was an external link from that "adage" Wikipedia entry.

I generally apply
Gardner's First Law: Don't ask how smart someone is; ask in what ways is he or she smart.

I figure O'Donnell's Law of Academic Administration:
If it feels good, don't do it.
extends beyond Academic Administration, based on the justification.

from Minsky's:
Minsky's First Law
Words should be your servants, not your masters.
Minsky's Second Law
Don't just do something. Stand there.

I went via his bio to remind myself what I had read in The Society of Mind and surfed a while through Listmania ... overload.

I'm getting back to work, but later I'll get back to reading what Daniel Gilbert (of Gilbert's Law: Happy people are those who do not pass up an opportunity to laugh at themselves or to make love with someone else. Unhappy people are those who get this backwards.) says about AFFECTIVE FORECASTING...OR...THE BIG WOMBASSA: WHAT YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING TO GET, AND WHAT YOU DON'T GET, WHEN YOU GET WHAT YOU WANT