Free, White and 21 & Cabbages - Stories I've posted on Facebook

Recently I post more stories on Facebook than I put in my blog. Since they will inevitably evaporate into the ether (like this blog won't*) here are some recent stories and comments.

My kind of book. Because if pedantically correcting "less" & "fewer" gives people a "false “sense of social and intellectual smugness and superiority”", then imagine what I get correcting pedants for their unfounded pedantry? Now, about the pronounciation of H...

How English Became English by Simon Horobin review – ‘OMG’ was first used 100 years ago

Modern usages that horrify linguistic purists in fact have deep historical roots, argues this Oxford scholar who praises texting, Tesco’s grammar and ‘amazeballs’

THEGUARDIAN.COM|BY FARAMERZ DABHOIWALA

Now here's some cracking data for you. Top Tip, click every blob in the second graph. Yes, THAT many movies with 100% male dialogue!

The Largest Analysis of Film Dialogue by Gender, Ever

Lately, Hollywood has been taking so much shit for rampant sexism and racism. The prevailing theme: white men dominate movie roles.

POLYGRAPH.COOL

This is a bit of a shocker. I don't remember even hearing the phrase before, but I must have heard it a hundred times and it passed me by. Good to see it being challenged (mid-clip) by the sixties. But what a mind-set America had, which helps explain how a lot of people still think.

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Jezebel added a new video: Free, White and 21: The Buried Catchphrase of Classic Hollywood.

April 6 at 9:42pm · 

“Free, white, and 21” appeared in dozens of movies in the ’30s and ’40s, a proud assertion that positioned white privilege as the ultimate argument-stopper. Th...

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In Hitchin I walked past the Dyspraxia Association. Bumped into the manager.

Full marks to Stuart Jeffries in the Grauniad for a nifty article on maths in movies, ending in an Abbott & Costello clip. http://www.theguardian.com/…/mathematics-movies-the-man-who…

Abbott & Costello - In The Navy - 7 into 28 goes 13 times - Video Dailymotion

Watch the video «Abbott & Costello - In The Navy - 7 into 28 goes 13 times» uploaded by Dunekoff on Dailymotion.

DAILYMOTION.COM

Some fascinating footage of 1959 Bristol here in this otherwise interminable half-hour long Party Political Broadcast from the olden days

Watch Bristol Fashion online

The Labour Party takes a heartfelt look at Bristol council’s social(ist) housing and education agenda, spinning a 'new story from an old city'.

PLAYER.BFI.ORG.UK

Radio 4's brilliant More Or Less just looked at a Brexit story that's quite widely circulated, that the EU Guideline about cabbages runs to 29,000 words. Can you guess what the facts really are?

01/04/2016, More or Less - BBC Radio 4

Investigating the numbers in the news.

BBC.CO.UK

*Sarcastic. I was being sarcastic.