tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31966584470407937102024-03-05T05:52:26.518-08:00BananagrammerBananagrammer concerns itself with Bananagrams, word games, other games, related topics, analysis, navel-gazing, and occasional world conquest.Surly Teabaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07251453183815233705noreply@blogger.comBlogger123125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196658447040793710.post-80364693119756679142015-02-14T12:57:00.000-08:002015-02-14T13:00:32.341-08:00A. A. Milne on playing gamesIf you've ever hosted or attend a board games party, you might enjoy this essay by A. A. Milne about playing parlor games on a rainy day:
<blockquote><b>For a Wet Afternoon</b>
<P>
Let us consider something seasonable; let us consider indoor games for a moment.
<P>
And by indoor games I do not mean anything so serious as bridge and billiards, nor anything so commercial as vingt-et-un with fish counters, nor anything so strenuous as "bumps." The games I mean are those jolly, sociable ones in which everybody in the house can join with an equal chance of distinction, those friendly games which are played with laughter round a fire what time the blizzards rattle against the window-pane.
<P>
These games may be divided broadly into two classes; namely, paper games and guessing games. The initial disadvantage of the paper game is that pencils have to be found for everybody; generally a difficult business. Once they are found, there is no further trouble until the game is over, when the pencils have to be collected from everybody; generally an impossible business. If you are a guest in the house, insist upon a paper game, for it gives you a chance of acquiring a pencil; if you are the host, consider carefully whether you would not rather play a guessing game.
<P>
But the guessing game has one great disadvantage too. It demands periodically that a member of the company should go out by himself into the hall and wait there patiently until his companions have "thought of something." (It may be supposed that he, too, is thinking of something in the cold hall, but perhaps not liking to say it.) However careful the players are, unpleasantness is bound to arise sometimes over this preliminary stage of the game. I knew of one case where the people in the room forgot all about the lady waiting in the hall and began to tell each other ghost stories. The lights were turned out, and sitting round the flickering fire the most imaginative members of the household thrilled their hearers with ghostly tales of the dead. Suddenly, in the middle of the story of Torfrida of the Towers—a lady who had strangled her children, and ever afterwards haunted the battlements, headless, and in a night- gown—the door opened softly, and Miss Robinson entered to ask how much longer they would be. Miss Robinson was wearing a white frock, and the effect of her entry was tremendous. I remember, too, another evening when we were playing "proverbs." William, who had gone outside, was noted for his skill at the game, and we were determined to give him something difficult; something which hadn't a camel or a glass house or a stable door in it. After some discussion a member of the company suggested a proverb from the Persian, as he alleged. It went something like this: "A wise man is kind to his dog, but a poor man riseth early in the morning." We took his word for it, and, feeling certain that William would never guess, called him to come in.
<P>
Unfortunately William, who is a trifle absentminded, had gone to bed.
<P>
To avoid accidents of this nature it is better to play "clumps," a guessing game in which the procedure is slightly varied. In "clumps" two people go into the hall and think of something, while the rest remain before the fire. Thus, however long the interval of waiting, all are happy; for the people inside can tell each other stories (or, as a last resort, play some other game) and the two outside are presumably amusing themselves in arranging something very difficult. Personally I adore clumps; not only for this reason, but because of its revelation of hidden talent. There may be a dozen persons in each clump, and in theory every one of the dozen is supposed to take a hand in the cross- examination, but in practice it is always one person who extracts the information required by a cataract of searching questions. Always one person and generally a girl. I love to see her coming out of her shell. She has excelled at none of the outdoor games perhaps; she has spoken hardly a word at meals. In our little company she has scarcely seemed to count. But suddenly she awakes into life. Clumps is the family game at home; she has been brought up on it. In a moment she discovers herself as our natural leader, a leader whom we follow humbly. And however we may spend the rest of our time together, the effect of her short hour's triumph will not wholly wear away. She is now established.
<P>
But the paper games will always be most popular, and once you are over the difficulty of the pencils you may play them for hours without wearying. But of course you must play the amusing ones and not the dull ones. The most common paper game of all, that of making small words out of a big one, has nothing to recommend it; for there can be no possible amusement in hearing somebody else read out "but," "bat," "bet," "bin," "ben," and so forth, riot even if you spend half an hour discussing whether "ben" is really a word. On the other hand your game, however amusing, ought to have some finality about it; a game is not really a game unless somebody can win it. For this reason I cannot wholly approve "telegrams." To concoct a telegram whose words begin with certain selected letters of the alphabet, say the first ten, is to amuse yourself anyhow and possibly your friends; whether you say, "Am bringing camel down early Friday. Got hump. Inform Jamrach"; or, "Afraid better cancel dinner engagement. Fred got horrid indigestion.—JANE." But it is impossible to declare yourself certainly the winner. Fortunately, however, there are games which combine amusement with a definite result; games in which the others can be funny while you can get the prize—or, if you prefer it, the other way about.
<P>
When I began to write this, the rain was streaming against the window-panes. It is now quite fine. This, you will notice, often happens when you decide to play indoor games on a wet afternoon. Just as you have found the pencils, the sun comes out.</blockquote>Surly Teabaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07251453183815233705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196658447040793710.post-85516334261652251512014-06-11T18:02:00.000-07:002014-06-11T18:02:11.757-07:00More reasons that your dictionary is inadequateJames Somers, writer of many fine stimulating blog posts and a nice recent profile of Douglas Hofstadter (titled "<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/11/the-man-who-would-teach-machines-to-think/309529/">The Man Who Would Teach Machines to Think</a>"), has published a long blog post on what makes a good dictionary. He addresses the importance of a proper dictionary to a writer who wants to write well, and he closes with instructions on how to install such a dictionary on all your electronic devices.
<P><br>
Here is his "<a href="http://jsomers.net/blog/dictionary">You’re probably using the wrong dictionary</a>".Surly Teabaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07251453183815233705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196658447040793710.post-79630958815742014992013-12-15T23:09:00.000-08:002013-12-15T23:09:44.098-08:00The amazing ENABLE word-list project While looking for a good word list to use for a project that I am working on, I discovered ENABLE (which stands for Enhanced North American Benchmark LEexicon), a word list that seems to have been compiled mainly by Alan Beale (with some help from Mendel Cooper) in order to create a reference that can be used when playing word games. Since it is an open and freely available list, it has served as the basis for the word lists used in many games, such as Words with Friends. What distinguishes this word list from the many others out there is how thoroughly its creation has been documented in the many files in the ENABLE package and its supplemental archive.
<P>
For this reason, many of the disadvantages of the Scrabble Tournament Word List can be eliminated. For instance, as the compilers themselves note:
<blockquote>In contrast to other word lists, the ENABLE list has not been crippled
by being limited to words under an arbitrary length. The ENABLE list is
eminently suitable for most word games, such as Anagrams and Clabbers,
and for crossword puzzle solving, rather than just for Scrabble. A great
deal of research has gone into removing this limitation, however the
list is much the better for it.</blockquote>
Another critique of the Scrabble Word Lists and Dictionaries is that they are carrying around many words that were in dictionaries back in the 1970s but have long since disappeared from both usage and lexicons. The ENABLE supplement includes a list of 9,768 stale words (which it defines as words that appear in the Scrabble Tournament Word List but not in modern dictionaries).
<P>
Most of these stale words (like AXAL (an obsolete form of "axial") and WHERVE ("a round piece of wood put on a spindle to receive the thread")) were words I had never heard of and therefore had no problem eliminating from the word list for my project. There were also some words that I thought needed to be retained based on being in common usage including SPELUNK/SPELUNKED/SPELUNKING (which, according to the Google Books Ngram Viewer, has been used with increasing frequency since about the 1940s) and UPSTANDING (which peaked in popularity in the 1920s, reached a local minimum around 1970, but has been on the upswing since 1990).
<P>
This is only a sampling of what makes ENABLE so useful. Amateur lexicographers and other interested parties can find and download the whole ENABLE package <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090122025747/http://personal.riverusers.com/~thegrendel/software.html">through this page</a>.
Surly Teabaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07251453183815233705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196658447040793710.post-26286031377016213712013-11-04T12:15:00.000-08:002013-11-04T12:15:01.058-08:00A sesquipedalianist Boggle puzzleDuring <a href="http://www.bananagrammer.com/2013/10/the-boggle-cube-redesign-and-its-effect.html">my analysis of the effects of playing Boggle with different letter distributions</a>, I simulated more than 50,000 games of standard 4-by-4 Boggle. One statistic that I was tracking was the longest word found across each of the data sets. Invariably, each data set got stuck at a maximum word length of 11 letters. (In the Big Boggle simulations, the solver found words as long as 13 letters.) I was really hoping for something longer, but rather than keep running simulations until I finally find some 12-letter word and have it turn out to be something disappointing, like BORINGNESSES, I've decided to embed one 16-letter word in a Boggle grid and present it below as a puzzle for your solving pleasure.
<P>Good luck!<P>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifYfy-lgaCebZzSiWrvzPpLhr3ZSrZNC0vA1K76jHDtGz3XOZxKApz257Ovb9C4sqLcgKktzLhUFRBEzRRtIjgpwthptK37j2eot5BlxwxkWUviXRedhWKHCf4dbf09nF0CcxEKMNaCMWj/s1600/16-letter-Boggle-puzzle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifYfy-lgaCebZzSiWrvzPpLhr3ZSrZNC0vA1K76jHDtGz3XOZxKApz257Ovb9C4sqLcgKktzLhUFRBEzRRtIjgpwthptK37j2eot5BlxwxkWUviXRedhWKHCf4dbf09nF0CcxEKMNaCMWj/s1600/16-letter-Boggle-puzzle.jpg" /></a></div>Surly Teabaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07251453183815233705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196658447040793710.post-68203515773435744592013-10-17T11:53:00.000-07:002019-11-28T13:26:28.127-08:00The Boggle cube redesign and its effect on the difficulty of Boggle I wanted to buy a copy of Boggle. This seemingly simple mission was complicated by the facts that a) there are different kinds of Boggle out there and b) I like to make things complicated.
<P>
If you exclude variations such as <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004KCN69G/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004KCN69G&linkCode=as2&tag=bananagrammer-20" onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview ('/outgoing/amazon/Big-Boggle/link');">Big Boggle</a> [affiliate link] and the recently introduced 6-by-6 <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008GCT8ZM/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B008GCT8ZM&linkCode=as2&tag=bananagrammer-20" onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview ('/outgoing/amazon/Super-Big-Boggle/link');">Super Big Boggle</a> [affiliate link] and just limit yourself to the original 4-by-4 Boggle configuration, there are three principle versions of Boggle:
<P>
1) Boggle Reinvention (now sold as just "Boggle") - <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001MV7DQA/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B001MV7DQA&linkCode=as2&tag=bananagrammer-20"> <img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTC9ZGbylSjuPParCOByejm220v53ZLaDwfq0S_8rE0qRZhsW8j5uMW-YWaVTNkC_K4LC8aJZ1x7NkVSSVRKZyObCpu0YEcOZeZIIU8aTe44lj5afrXixmFbyhZSu7VmDpmeQn5vgQMEM9/s320/Boggle-Reinvention.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview ('/outgoing/amazon/boggle-reinvention/img');"></a> While the new sealed case design and the integrated timer mean that you don't need to worry about losing any of the pieces, there are reports that it is possible for two dice to become jammed together in such a way that it is essentially impossible to separate them without opening up the case and destroying the game. In my opinion, Boggle should not be a game that can break.
<P>
2) Plain old Boggle, made from about 1976 to 1986 (which I will call "classic Boggle").
<P>
3) The version of Boggle sold from 1987 to ~2008 - essentially the same as classic Boggle except that the letter distribution on the cubes was completely redesigned. I'll call this "New Boggle".
<P>
Below, you can see a side-by-side comparison of the classic and new sets of Boggle dice.
<center><table style="font-family: Inconsolata, Courier, Courier New;"><tr><th width=50%>Classic <br>Boggle Dice </th><th width=50%>New <br>Boggle Dice</th></tr>
<tr><td>AACIOT</td><td>AAEEGN</td></tr>
<tr><td>ABILTY</td><td>ABBJOO</td></tr>
<tr><td>ABJMOQu</td><td>ACHOPS</td></tr>
<tr><td>ACDEMP</td><td>AFFKPS</td></tr>
<tr><td>ACELRS</td><td>AOOTTW</td></tr>
<tr><td>ADENVZ</td><td>CIMOTU</td></tr>
<tr><td>AHMORS</td><td>DEILRX</td></tr>
<tr><td>BIFORX</td><td>DELRVY</td></tr>
<tr><td>DENOSW</td><td>DISTTY</td></tr>
<tr><td>DKNOTU</td><td>EEGHNW</td></tr>
<tr><td>EEFHIY</td><td>EEINSU</td></tr>
<tr><td>EGKLUY</td><td>EHRTVW</td></tr>
<tr><td>EGINTV</td><td>EIOSST</td></tr>
<tr><td>EHINPS</td><td>ELRTTY</td></tr>
<tr><td>ELPSTU</td><td>HIMNUQu</td></tr>
<tr><td>GILRUW</td><td>HLNNRZ</td></tr></table></center>
To help visualize the differences between these distributions, I sorted the classic letter distribution by number of letters (shown on the left below) and used that order to sort the new letter distribution (shown on the right).
<div style="display:table; margin: auto;">
<div style="text-align:left;">
<pre style="font-family: Inconsolata, Courier, Courier New;">
<u>
<= Classic New =====></u>
EEEEEEEEEE <u>E</u>EEEEEEEEEE
AAAAAA<u>AA</u> AAAAAA
IIIIII<u>I</u> IIIIII
OOOOOO <u>O</u>OOOOOO
LLLL<u>L</u> LLLL
NNNNN <u>N</u>NNNNN
SSSSS <u>S</u>SSSSS
TTTTT <u>TTTT</u>TTTTT
DDD<u>D</u> DDD
RRRR <u>R</u>RRRR
UUU<u>U</u> UUU
BB<u>B</u> BB
CC<u>C</u> CC
GG<u>G</u> GG
HHH <u>HH</u>HHH
MM<u>M</u> MM
PP<u>P</u> PP
YYY YYY
FF FF
K<u>K</u> K
VV VV
WW <u>W</u>WW
J J
Q Q
X X
Z Z
</pre></div></div>
In some ways (such as increasing the number of T<i>s</i> and H<i>s</i>), the new distribution is closer to the letter frequency in English words, but that motive alone would not explain why the number of A<i>s</i> was decreased and the number of O<i>s</i> was increased. It has been suggested that this change was designed to reduce the frequency of harder letters (like K and G) and make finding words easier.
<P>
One other interesting property of the new set of dice is that since it concentrates certain letters all on the same die, it is never possible to make words that combine F and K (like FAKE, FORK, SKIFF,...) or words that combine B and J (JOB, JAB, BANJO,...). It is also not possible to make words with three P<i>s</i> (like PINEAPPLE) or two K<i>s</i> (like SKOOKUM, which is a slang term in the Pacific Northwest, derived from the Chinook language, and having multiple meanings: as an adjective it refers to something that is massive or powerful or reliable or simply really cool; as a noun, it can refer to an evil spirit or demon or a monster somewhat like Bigfoot or Sasquatch; it is pronounced /SKOO kum/).
<P>
So does this change in letter distribution have an effect on the game? To find out, I ran some simulated Boggle games, generating random boards with each set of dice and using <a href="https://github.com/cespare/boggle-solver
">a Boggle solver</a> (written by GitHub user cespare) to determine the number of words in each board, the resulting Boggle score, and the longest word in each grid.
<P>
[The default word list used by the Boggle solver only contains words that are 15 letters long or shorter. While it's highly unlikely to find a random 4-by-4 Boggle board containing a 16-letter word, I decided to augment the word list to include 16-letter words, as well as the 17-letter words that could be made with the Qu cube (like QUATTUORDECILLION [which means 10<sup>45</sup> in the U.S. and 10<sup>84</sup> in Britain] and SESQUIPEDALIANISM).]
<table><tr><th>Dice set</th><th>Average <br># of words</th><th>Average <br>Boggle<br>score</th><th>Average<br>length of<br>longest word</th></tr>
<tr><td>New Boggle</td><td>~104</td><td>~150</td><td>6.8</td></tr>
<tr><td>Classic Boggle</td><td>~93</td><td>~128</td><td>6.6</td></tr>
</table>
<P>
The results show that there are about 12% more words to be found in a New Boggle board. These results are from simulating 10,000 boards for each set of dice, so the numbers in the table may be off by a few percent.
<P>
To try to give a little more insight into the difference between these versions of the game, I ran simulations for a New Boggle board in which a randomly chosen cube from a corner of the board was removed. The corresponding results,
<table><tr><th>Dice set</th><th>Average <br># of words</th><th>Average <br>Boggle<br>score</th><th>Average<br>length of<br>longest word</th></tr>
<tr><td>New Boggle<br>w/o one<br>corner cube</td><td>~92</td><td>~131</td><td>6.6</td></tr>
</table>
<P>
are really close to the classic Boggle results, suggesting that if you want to make your New Boggle game about as hard as a classic Boggle game, you can just remove a die from the corner of the board before hunkering down to find words.
<P>
Out of curiosity, I also ran simulations for 5-by-5 Big Boggle, using the requirement that words be at least four letters long (unlike the three-letter limit in regular Boggle) and using the Big Boggle scoring system, which yielded these results:
<table><tr><th>Dice set</th><th>Average <br># of words</th><th>Average <br>Big<br>Boggle<br>score</th><th>Average<br>length of<br>longest word</th></tr>
<tr><td>Big Boggle</td><td>~190</td><td>~395</td><td>8.3</td></tr>
</table>
<P>
(For comparison with 4-by-4 Boggle, if you include the three-letter words that are in Big Boggle boards, the average number of words increases to about 260.)
<P>
<hr width=60%>
<P>
Of course, these calculations only confirmed what I already knew: the older version of the game is harder and is the one for me. I bought a copy of classic Boggle from eBay. The dice are made of wood rather than plastic. The timer has sand in it and doesn't make some noise to tell me when time is up. Succinctly, I think it is skookum.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-n1DsNbtx8HkZohO6qb3Ypl3e1wWwsmv0Jd34oQyj9Hgv817B7PzbKdj84db6QcIrG3TQibn1KNer21JDekrm5poBxaiNRJf-l5ABWOtNT6sjG6LU7Q7YWK0PQ1hLaQiy83PbsuY-MyxJ/s1600/1976-Boggle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-n1DsNbtx8HkZohO6qb3Ypl3e1wWwsmv0Jd34oQyj9Hgv817B7PzbKdj84db6QcIrG3TQibn1KNer21JDekrm5poBxaiNRJf-l5ABWOtNT6sjG6LU7Q7YWK0PQ1hLaQiy83PbsuY-MyxJ/s400/1976-Boggle.jpg" /></a></div>Surly Teabaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07251453183815233705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196658447040793710.post-30842590836686741892013-09-15T00:40:00.000-07:002013-09-15T00:40:25.562-07:00The most difficult Bananagrams challenge I've encounteredRecently, I played a few rounds of Bananagrams. At the beginning of the last game, I flipped over my tiles and only had three vowels. As I continued to peel mostly consonants, I realized that the optimum strategy was probably to dump consonants until I obtained a more reasonable consonant-to-vowel ratio, but I wanted the challenge of trying to finish the game without dumping tiles. But by the end of the game, the situation had not improved: I had 23 consonants and 6 vowels. Furthermore, I also had a Q (with no U), an X, and a Z. I was nowhere close to finishing my grid by the time someone else won.
<P>
Here was the set of tiles that I had at the end:
<P>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDvaMNPcOv9vDbr59namaCLWQiWp8ngilTpRUFiNOAUZ7CCqp9-7JEQPAA1F_I-tc_XvgN2sil4mYedOYnQTSkgHVu-L3ad1aLLhUfN-NFFVpS0RMLglUSn6MqMrFpcgl9QZGXNu16xDDH/s1600/letter-bank-for-puzzle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDvaMNPcOv9vDbr59namaCLWQiWp8ngilTpRUFiNOAUZ7CCqp9-7JEQPAA1F_I-tc_XvgN2sil4mYedOYnQTSkgHVu-L3ad1aLLhUfN-NFFVpS0RMLglUSn6MqMrFpcgl9QZGXNu16xDDH/s320/letter-bank-for-puzzle.jpg" alt="ADEEEGGHKLLMNNNNOQRRRRRSTVXYZ"/></a></div>
<P>
ADEEEGGHKLLMNNNNOQRRRRRSTVXYZ
<P>
<P>
I decided to save the tiles and try to work out a solution later. I spent some time working on this problem on two consecutive nights. The second night I found a solution that used all the letters but one N, but that seemed to be the best that was possible.
<P>
Finally, several days later, I found a true solution. It's possible to vary some of the peripheral words and get alternate solutions, but there is a core structure that I have not been able to alter without rendering the grid uncompletable.
<P>
This puzzle can be solved without using any two-letter words or any vowelless words. (I think that violating these constraints would make the puzzle too easy.)
<P>
I leave this as a challenge. I will post a solution at some point in the future.
Surly Teabaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07251453183815233705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196658447040793710.post-7122704977729993542012-12-04T17:03:00.000-08:002012-12-05T08:54:41.057-08:00Fun with collective nounsIn England in the Middle Ages, the common practice of hunting led people to coin terms for groups of animals that were specific to each sort of animal (such as a gaggle of geese or a pride of lions). These specialized collective nouns are therefore called "terms of venery" (where "venery" is another word for hunting). In the 14th and 15th centuries, this became a full-fledged fad, with silly terms being coined just for fun and with the process being extended from animals to groups of people.
<P>
These terms are still being concocted today. For those of us who like such neologisms, there is now a site dedicated to them: <a href="http://all-sorts.org/">All Sorts</a> (subtitled "a linguistic experiment").
<P>
A good place to start is the <a href="http://all-sorts.org/popular">list of collective nouns sorted by popularity</a>.
<P>
Some of my favorites are:
<ul>
<li>a seemingly empty room of ninjas</li>
<li>a brace of orthodontists</li>
<li>a hush of librarians</li>
<li>a _____ of mime artists</li>
<li>a heard of homonyms</li>
<li>a winter of discount tents</li>
<li>a clutch of handbags</li>
<li>a knot of string theorists</li>
<li>an array of programmers</li>
<li>a herd of eavesdroppers</li>
</ul>
<P>
The way the site works is that it catalogs whatever suggestions people make on Twitter (when they use the hashtag "#collectivenouns").
<P>
Naturally, I couldn't help but suggest a few:
<ul>
<li><a href="http://all-sorts.org/nouns/skeletons">a closet of skeletons</a></li>
<li>a clattering of abacuses</li>
<li>an epiphany of light bulbs</li>
<li>an ink cloud of octopuses</li>
<li>a curiosity of question marks</li>
</ul>
The <a href="http://all-sorts.org/">All Sorts</a> project is a great concept because it clearly demonstrates the frivolity and playfulness of minting new collective nouns. Try it. It's fun!
Surly Teabaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07251453183815233705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196658447040793710.post-49248142685907753192012-11-21T23:41:00.000-08:002019-11-28T13:28:15.447-08:00A review of the word-tree building game KonexiI previously posted about how intrigued I was about a new game that involved assembling letters into a precarious tree of words. Now, I have finally played this game (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003P8QIE6?ie=UTF8&tag=bananagrammer-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B003P8QIE6" onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview ('/outgoing/amazon/Konexi/KonexiReview/link');">Konexi</a> [affiliate link]), and it exceeded my expectations.
<P>
The first player places a letter on the table, and then every successive move involves building letters off of that first letter, such that no other letter touches the table. The letters have little notches and also little isolated teeth, like the teeth of a gear, that fit nicely into the notches, while allowing a little bit of movement. By matching up a tooth of one letter with a notch of another letter, you can add the new letter to the tree, subject to the physical stability of the placement.
<P>
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003P8QIE6?ie=UTF8&tag=bananagrammer-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B003P8QIE6" onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview ('/outgoing/amazon/Konexi/KonexiReview/img');"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 369px; height: 380px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitDIllofDc4JugUqu5mLeK_tFZQXhSj_2dfmNfTDP-LBIt8hZRcIWwIQLEenvCLl9aVNZAfXZhQ_Ee0mwPBSWR0aHqjfTSDUjTU0S8dCG0YLhhaHo3oE91QF26WR__UjtvdsLrVG4HW0wl/s400/Konexi-cropped-framed.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540413421780555986" /></a>
<br>
On your move, you have a choice between two (effectively) randomly chosen letters. You take one and try to add it to the tree in a way that allows you to connect together a set of letters that can be anagrammed to form a word. The letters must be a contiguous set. Your score is the number of letters in the word that you were able to make.
<P>
Even once you find a set of letters in the existing tree that you can connect your chosen letter to, to form a new word, it can often be a huge challenge to place that new letter. It must connect one of its notches or teeth to a complementary tooth or notch of one of the letters in your word, and it must result in a balanced structure that continues to stand on its own. Consequently, whenever someone is placing a new letter, there is a tension to the process that is similar to those moments when someone is removing a piece from a Jenga tower (though it is generally not at the Jenga level of pressure). However, Konexi is actually better than Jenga because you have far more options as to where and how you can place letters. It's also a good game for building intuition about concepts like the center of mass of an object.
<P>
This game can play out in very different manners, depending upon the structure of the tree that the players form, and the letters that they choose. With enough vowels in your tree, you may find that it is easy to make four- and five-letter words on every turn. If insufficient vowels are available, players may at times struggle to form any words at all.
<P>
If someone accidentally knocks down the tree, that player loses three points, and a new tree is started on the next play. Play continues until someone scores 20 points.
<P>
This game is basically exactly as cool as it looks, so if you think it might be your kind of game, you will probably enjoy it. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003P8QIE6?ie=UTF8&tag=bananagrammer-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B003P8QIE6" onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview ('/outgoing/amazon/Konexi/KonexiReview/link/ClickHere');">Click this affiliate link</a> to see the reviews of others and buy it at Amazon.Surly Teabaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07251453183815233705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196658447040793710.post-59389245399085947092012-11-16T11:57:00.001-08:002012-11-16T11:57:11.569-08:00My addiction to, and subsequent recovery from, Drawception In my last post, I explained <a href="http://www.bananagrammer.com/2012/08/the-irresistible-game-of-picture.html">the wonderful sentence-illustrating, drawing-captioning game of Picture Telephone</a>. In the wake of the recent brief popularity of a game for mobile devices called "Draw Something", a lone developer created an online version of Picture Telephone called "Drawception". This is not the first such attempt, having been preceded by such implementations as Broken Picture Telephone and Doodle or Die, but it may be the best.
<P>
The first night that I played <a href="http://www.drawception.com">Drawception</a>, drawing anything using a mouse and the simple controls was a struggle. The resulting drawings were crude. My goal that first night was to unlock the ability to start new games (which allows you to write the initial description that seeds the game). In order to unlock this ability, I had to first earn ten points.
<P>
While Picture Telephone is a purely cooperative game, Drawception has some competitive aspects, since players earn points when other players vote for their panel. Once the game has reached its pre-designated panel limit (typically 12 or 15 panels at present), the participants, and often other players, read through the game and have the opportunity to click a little upward-pointing thumb symbol on any panel that they want to give points to. Such voting is anonymous and has no direct benefit to the player, except that it lets them express approval and have some influence on what is considered "good" in the Drawception culture.
<P>
Many of the drawings from my first night earned zero points, but some earned a few, like my depiction of the description "Rubber ducky, you're the one":
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPl7YcEFlu4cNh3kSdxSETIuMSj3zWZiJ_PW-voDi9otBQYWGb0isWlVULcVarc_5EjQft48ulejukjw4g1dx0gqofwsAd0BzgnSJeAyPv6eIuljpQ-enJrgFVbuREROV4iXbfWOz8VLWF/s1600/Rubber+ducky.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="213" width="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPl7YcEFlu4cNh3kSdxSETIuMSj3zWZiJ_PW-voDi9otBQYWGb0isWlVULcVarc_5EjQft48ulejukjw4g1dx0gqofwsAd0BzgnSJeAyPv6eIuljpQ-enJrgFVbuREROV4iXbfWOz8VLWF/s400/Rubber+ducky.png" /></a></div>
<P>
The next morning, enough of the games that I had played in had finished that I had earned the privilege to start my own first game. This is how it turned out:
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTFm8jOfbzJOqX1uIKEkFhvMmLF76pxxNgDXjVcEhomCgkjzU1ersgyfJll7u0l436gr0GVGJ_bFYx55OSvDmmpc9ng61CBQRnxRSCGUZuLH7hyAY4sxiETGiX_pGWyMmRaCn3e0wS650k/s1600/Mathematics+theme+park.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="548" width="430" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTFm8jOfbzJOqX1uIKEkFhvMmLF76pxxNgDXjVcEhomCgkjzU1ersgyfJll7u0l436gr0GVGJ_bFYx55OSvDmmpc9ng61CBQRnxRSCGUZuLH7hyAY4sxiETGiX_pGWyMmRaCn3e0wS650k/s1600/Mathematics+theme+park.png" /></a></div>
I was hooked.
<P>
This went on to become the top game for the day (where top games are determined by how many people "favorite" it).
<P>
As I got better at the game, technical aspects of the game were also being improved. Bugs that slowed down the drawing process and made the results look worse were fixed. Previously you could accidentally paint over minutes of detailed work with one false swing of the cursor; a new Undo button rectified this, expanding the horizon of what could be drawn in ten minutes. Sites of this kind are frequently plagued by trolls who draw offensive panels and try to disrupt games, and one of the biggest successes of the Drawception developer has been implementing a system that mostly negates the effects of such trolling by filtering out or hiding such panels (though there is still enough potentially objectionable material that does not get flagged by the community that children and the easily offended should still not play).
<P>
There was a satisfaction that came with contributing panels to ten or twelve games in a night: it felt like an investment because I knew that the next day, I would be getting some funny or entertaining finished games as a result.
<P>
One of the highs that I got from playing Drawception was the feeling that, within that small drawing box, I could draw anything. Not just anything that might appear as a Drawception description, but anything that I could conceive of.
<P>
The feeling of possibility led me to experiments such as starting games with a particular phrase, just to see what one person's imagination and drawing skill could do with it. If that first drawing then spawned a great game, I viewed it merely as a bonus. When I spotted this kind of description in the pool of possible drawing prompts (and yes, it is possible to develop a sense for which descriptions are the initial descriptions for a game), if I felt that I could do the description justice, I found it satisfying to produce for the game creator a drawing that would make them happy. So, for instance, when I encountered the description "Richard Feynman plays the bongos", I realized that since I knew who Feynman was, I might be the best person playing at that moment to attempt to give it a shot. I found a Google Images result showing Feynman playing bongos to use as a guide and did my best to convey it, but as time was running out, I notice that it was not sufficiently obvious who the bongo player was supposed to be. Then, in a moment of inspiration, I realized that he should be thinking about physics while playing (as this seemed like a very Feynmanesque thing to do), so I drew a thought bubble and put a Feynman diagram inside it.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkoKAxC3MNthvUNkeYyDGzI_orJ5ydFqwsRiu6UTTap669QfNisfp9Y83zPWALPk6UnVruU5TsC4_Dt6pPX4FGIG6t0uih5lFy-9AtYrcs1aIr0hmBQ3DagLmSHRM90WlKV2mcLAzwNFwM/s1600/Feynman+playing+bongos.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="112" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkoKAxC3MNthvUNkeYyDGzI_orJ5ydFqwsRiu6UTTap669QfNisfp9Y83zPWALPk6UnVruU5TsC4_Dt6pPX4FGIG6t0uih5lFy-9AtYrcs1aIr0hmBQ3DagLmSHRM90WlKV2mcLAzwNFwM/s400/Feynman+playing+bongos.png" /></a></div>
That my Feynman was subsequently mistaken for Elvis did not bother me. The player who had started the game was pleased and left me a positive comment, which made me smile.
<br><P>
At the peak of my Drawception addiction, I wondered how long it would go on and imagined that it could be part of my daily life indefinitely.
<P>
As I become habituated to the initial wonder of Drawception, many of the next hundred games began to seem pedestrian. The games where the same picture and phrase got repeated for most of the 12 or 15 panels, with artwork that was not particularly striking, became old after a while. I yearned for more novelty.
<br>
<br>
<P>
The more common a reference or idea is, the more likely it is for the person writing or drawing the next panel to correctly interpret it. Consequently, it is generally the most widely known references and characters that manage to propagate without distortion across multiple panels. This leads to the majority of games involving pop culture references or Internet "memes" at some point. If you play enough Drawception, you will likely see a lot of whoever the popular characters are at the moment (Batman or Spider-Man or Worf) and you will learn to identify others (such as Trogdor and Nyan Cat and Chthulu and various anime characters).
<P>
From this active tide pool of Internet culture emerged a new lifeform: Trouble Muffin. It started out as an in-joke between two friends who played Drawception and created games about someone named "Trouble Muffin". Soon, other players wanted to participate. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUcCNo8y4TKaykg8zK4ZCdiMKMhs8TZnvk3rl60XF5qWORC-UDnRWTbjQ1TaoIRWyltRro4vX8xIGxvsM6IoX4uhP3VzaRwRLodiLOxZKsrINVo1h6oEx_Ho3FlbDc7A8JJkZTFXlHGYte/s1600/Trouble+Muffin.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img align="left" border="0" height="83" width="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUcCNo8y4TKaykg8zK4ZCdiMKMhs8TZnvk3rl60XF5qWORC-UDnRWTbjQ1TaoIRWyltRro4vX8xIGxvsM6IoX4uhP3VzaRwRLodiLOxZKsrINVo1h6oEx_Ho3FlbDc7A8JJkZTFXlHGYte/s200/Trouble+Muffin.png" /></a> Trouble Muffin evolved into a muffin with an eye patch and a tough-guy persona. Those who did not recognize him when playing Drawception typically described him as a cupcake or a pirate muffin, but as his fame grew, he became an icon of Drawception. At the peak of his popularity, most of the top games were about Trouble Muffin and his many adventures.
<table><tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP5KlSWiu1gfaJnK-9GBwdd3LGswUgVJ1n2xSqdFhtE00ydGms6NH1k2LTbL6jDola0wddFxEKseTwGfRhruReirNOivAJLIoTi9OrxqQTUdxg2dLnyXS1d60YYzVBrMQbft7X5QcuQLdt/s1600/Trouble+Muffin+-+wanted.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="166" width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP5KlSWiu1gfaJnK-9GBwdd3LGswUgVJ1n2xSqdFhtE00ydGms6NH1k2LTbL6jDola0wddFxEKseTwGfRhruReirNOivAJLIoTi9OrxqQTUdxg2dLnyXS1d60YYzVBrMQbft7X5QcuQLdt/s200/Trouble+Muffin+-+wanted.png" /></a></td><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfWR87GxFXSxsoveMzejmyyV5qQslisg4kWmZP4u9x_iK15WlJSE_2pfk10q5LbX2-HGAiXsM6qKa3Ay9McghCufIyLOj9gBjSWIySPniBP8UrVJAxlicl6FnCLbh0dqDkvmXUt6VG3rrg/s1600/TM+pilots+spacecraft.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="166" width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfWR87GxFXSxsoveMzejmyyV5qQslisg4kWmZP4u9x_iK15WlJSE_2pfk10q5LbX2-HGAiXsM6qKa3Ay9McghCufIyLOj9gBjSWIySPniBP8UrVJAxlicl6FnCLbh0dqDkvmXUt6VG3rrg/s200/TM+pilots+spacecraft.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjPlVhcipv7P0SRrVfBWuYNhuwJo3B327ejNU4gX9ux9thfLf2HnHbaFoesK55ucIDaRJzoRdfBcLG82rup0Yx7apvwowodzeHdY246K8g8Gap_asMYfOMINK6j6PfZnGCu2x0LHcarJ2m/s1600/Trouble+Muffin+walks+into+a+bar.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="166" width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjPlVhcipv7P0SRrVfBWuYNhuwJo3B327ejNU4gX9ux9thfLf2HnHbaFoesK55ucIDaRJzoRdfBcLG82rup0Yx7apvwowodzeHdY246K8g8Gap_asMYfOMINK6j6PfZnGCu2x0LHcarJ2m/s200/Trouble+Muffin+walks+into+a+bar.png" /></a></td><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT3CfkfTBeWu1Bfjvwkc93bCzLc90tpNlz6au8XWPIjIqIv8PtHU44AmCmyOWNHgCR-_tT_rpBnjrXcFXHaokXgfUzkWc-ya6-DIp_PWbpQTwFmYpgBjAcr2AM0-E7-66h60UGsTduiryv/s1600/Trouble+Muffin+learns+the+truth+from+Vader.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="167" width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT3CfkfTBeWu1Bfjvwkc93bCzLc90tpNlz6au8XWPIjIqIv8PtHU44AmCmyOWNHgCR-_tT_rpBnjrXcFXHaokXgfUzkWc-ya6-DIp_PWbpQTwFmYpgBjAcr2AM0-E7-66h60UGsTduiryv/s200/Trouble+Muffin+learns+the+truth+from+Vader.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhefPKpX1rUpSRadiGPuNsvqzMGq99vn1f6gDKE85crxrWcgHR1naUFlgtU9Mb-ZHVbgVUHNfIAMX9kjy7oLGs3zreMNTBmZGjinTHV71EZfG7fS_SwVj0HgodNgDzHIrsNgutYS6xkc-2i/s1600/Trouble+Muffin+cracks+a+whip.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="164" width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhefPKpX1rUpSRadiGPuNsvqzMGq99vn1f6gDKE85crxrWcgHR1naUFlgtU9Mb-ZHVbgVUHNfIAMX9kjy7oLGs3zreMNTBmZGjinTHV71EZfG7fS_SwVj0HgodNgDzHIrsNgutYS6xkc-2i/s200/Trouble+Muffin+cracks+a+whip.png" /></a></td><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghYhtQ1F8CoO6HFVdHg7c_1L-j7j7PPXMEV7Y2k90tq8eYssPlOUOJRoDrkr_X31lHiDeOvifWCY0brjwKNvYUOGkyBypvfL-ovrbLIxQ7Z-6C6YflHhTi_pcgNCwTITEJngh1aAQJ4Dqq/s1600/Trouble+Muffin+intimidates+Derpy+Hooves.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="168" width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghYhtQ1F8CoO6HFVdHg7c_1L-j7j7PPXMEV7Y2k90tq8eYssPlOUOJRoDrkr_X31lHiDeOvifWCY0brjwKNvYUOGkyBypvfL-ovrbLIxQ7Z-6C6YflHhTi_pcgNCwTITEJngh1aAQJ4Dqq/s200/Trouble+Muffin+intimidates+Derpy+Hooves.png" /></a></td></tr></table>
<P>
The fun I had watching and participating in the development of Trouble Muffin helped me understand why people can be so enthusiastic about such Internet memes; it's just different when you are on the inside.
<P>
Since Drawception is played all around the world, little bits of the language and culture of other countries can manifest during the process of repeated translation between language and pictures. British English has a major presence on Drawception, so if you play long enough you will see police officers described as "bobbies", panties described as "knickers", mathematics called "maths", redheads called "gingers" (though according to <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19670686">this BBC article</a>, the use of the phrase "ginger hair" in American English is growing because "ginger" appeared in Harry Potter books published in the U.S., even though there was an attempt to remove all the British English), and cookies called "biscuits". None of that prepared me for what happened when what appeared to be a speaker of British English encountered a picture of Cookie Monster:<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9PNRCNgvhArP9mVjNyYsZ3oEyV2FwUFm31W7znTB0xAax2JzYsPqROACRA8ZICuNieCMqw-k4KBhfeDBcWLN61UzTgl-IcbKkjGidPonKy2XbX_KL8GzYnPLogcVa0uiwmAebzceuv175/s1600/blue+man.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="601" width="431" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9PNRCNgvhArP9mVjNyYsZ3oEyV2FwUFm31W7znTB0xAax2JzYsPqROACRA8ZICuNieCMqw-k4KBhfeDBcWLN61UzTgl-IcbKkjGidPonKy2XbX_KL8GzYnPLogcVa0uiwmAebzceuv175/s1600/blue+man.png" /></a></div>
I'm pretty sure that Sesame Street characters are fairly well recognized all over the world, but obviously not quite as well as Robocop is... At least he wasn't referred to as "Biscuit Monster".
<br>
<br>
<P>
As I continued to play, I became more selective in what descriptions I would draw. Only things that I had never drawn before, only descriptions that were inspiring. Sometimes I would skip descriptions for half an hour without finding anything I wanted to draw.
<P>
Toward the end, changes to the way the game worked by the developer tended to detract from my enjoyment of the game. Too many games were stuck in the queue, causing games to take days to complete. The blame was placed on descriptions that no one wanted to draw (typically because they were too difficult to draw or to understand). The developer dubbed these "dustcatchers" and decided that whenever a description panel had been skipped by too many players, it would be rejected, and the game would be backed up to the previous panel, which would be reinserted into the pool of available drawings to describe. My first two descriptions after this change were both rejected. I basically stopped playing at that point, feeling that the game was being dumbed down (as recently finished games suggested). The dustcatcher sensitivity was set too high initially, and while this was only a temporary state (I believe the developer must have started silently adjusting it (maybe even the next day)), my addiction to Drawception was finally broken.
<P>
It would be easy to say that I am done playing Drawception, that I have lived through a 15-panel pseudo-narrative arc and that my days of playing Drawception are over. But I still check in on the game periodically, and whenever the developer introduces new features, I play with them for a while. Mainly, I prefer to just start games now. It requires very little time and can sometimes yield cool results. And it is ultimately the privilege that motivated me to start playing in the very beginning.
<P>
Playing Drawception was a great experience. I got to draw a lot, which is something I enjoy. I honed my ability to paint tiny pictures using a trackpad to levels that didn't initially seem possible. I created popular games and panels. I enjoyed the challenge of trying to read the mind of the player who had drawn a particular panel, to try to come up with the most correct (or most amusing) description of it. And I participated in and enjoyed lots of hilarious and creative games with a good group of players.
<P>
The game has now entered a monetization stage, so the nature of the game, and the community around the game, are continuing to change, but there are enough good things about the game that I think I can still recommend Drawception to anyone who wants to try something new.
<hr width = "60%">
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.drawception.com">Drawception</a> - the game itself</li>
<li><a href="http://www.bananagrammer.com/2012/08/the-irresistible-game-of-picture.html">The irresistible game of Picture Telephone</a> - My post about the party game that started it all</li>
</ul>Surly Teabaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07251453183815233705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196658447040793710.post-84819200743328886682012-08-27T00:40:00.000-07:002013-10-18T09:30:36.313-07:00The irresistible game of Picture TelephoneOne of my favorite games is Picture Telephone. Like the children's game of Telephone (in which a message is whispered from one player to the next, becoming garbled in the process, to hilarious effect), Picture Telephone is about transmitting a sentence through a sequence of players. What distinguishes Picture Telephone is that sentences are alternately written and then depicted through drawing. Players are not allowed to write words in their drawings; that would defeat the whole purpose of the game.
<br><P>
For an idea of how it works, consider this mock-up of a typical game:
<br>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIIYmTaetKPRxoIquJ2KPi7F1QHguQgSmlor8sF04kawMxNuJ-OaSKOVUMGzrXRpkS07yAbKc-Lyon1PY_49N78X00qOBB9tEW9sxnONrXqk6oFVnO-LeaKbigDwFDprAUy-Jp6rNcx69m/s1600/PT-example.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="167" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIIYmTaetKPRxoIquJ2KPi7F1QHguQgSmlor8sF04kawMxNuJ-OaSKOVUMGzrXRpkS07yAbKc-Lyon1PY_49N78X00qOBB9tEW9sxnONrXqk6oFVnO-LeaKbigDwFDprAUy-Jp6rNcx69m/s400/PT-example.jpg" /></a></div>
<small><i>(This image is from the now defunct site for an online version of Picture Telephone called Broken Picture Telephone. In my experience, actual Picture Telephone games will have complete sentences and will be funnier.)</i></small>
<br><P>
Inevitably, there will be someone in the group whose drawings of a person talking into a microphone will be mistaken for a person licking an ice cream cone, and someone else in the group will routinely have trouble recognizing what the previous person drew. These players will only make the game more fun.
<P>
There are some unwritten rules to this game: Players must legitimately try to communicate the message that they are given. It is very easy to deliberately derail the game and really spoils the fun for everyone. This is fundamentally a cooperative game.
<P>
As a corollary, it only makes sense to write as an initial sentence, a sentence that you feel reasonably certain that the next person can draw. Action sentences, like "The picnic was ruined by ants", are good. Don't worry, the sentence will often become more complex and challenging as it makes its way around the circle.
<P>
The dynamics of this game are interesting. Occasionally one sentence will make it all the way through the game essentially unchanged. Sentences can even diverge from their original subject and then return to it. Certain concepts seem to have strange attractors in Picture Telephone, such as how many four-legged animals tend to converge to dogs or cats.
<P>
The core of the game is the challenge of receiving a written sentence and trying to figure out how you can possibly make a drawing from which the next person can correctly infer the original sentence. I enjoy tremendously this process. The drawing is fun too. Basically, there is nothing about this game that I dislike.
<P>
All that you need to play this game is a bunch of 3-by-5 note cards and writing utensils.
<P>
As your group becomes more skilled at communicating through drawing, you can use more complex sentences. Consequently, the sophistication of the game scales with the players, like Dixit and chess do.
<P>
I have enjoyed this game for years, and I consider it to be one of the most fun games to play whenever a group of seven or nine player is available. It is certainly the game that has made me laugh the most. I have decided to write about it now because I recently spent rather a lot of time playing a new online variation on Picture Telephone called Drawception, about which I will say a lot more in the next post.Surly Teabaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07251453183815233705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196658447040793710.post-24229504888912579602012-05-18T15:09:00.000-07:002012-08-22T01:24:32.056-07:00The power of recursive drawingAn MIT student has released a simple CoffeeScript/JavaScript-based tool for creating recursive drawings - combinations of rectangles and ellipses that can have a fractal-like structure. It is available at <a href="http://recursivedrawing.com/">RecursiveDrawing.com</a>. This video briefly explains and demonstrates how the tool works:
<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/41822151?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&color=cc0000" width="470" height="264" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe>
Essentially, you can:
<ol>
<li>Drag shapes into the canvas area.</li>
<li>Move a shape around by clicking on its center and dragging.</li>
<li>Resize a shape by clicking on its edge and dragging in and out with respect to the center.
<li>Rotate a shape by clicking on it edge and dragging sideways.</li>
<li>Change the aspect ratio of a shape by clicking on its edge and dragging while holding the SHIFT key.</li>
<li>Move around on the canvas by clicking and dragging the canvas.</li>
<li>Zoom in and out by scrolling on a mouse or trackpad.</li>
</ol>
You can make more drawings by clicking on the "+" button in the sidebar, and shift between them by clicking on them. And then, by dragging the little representation of the canvas in the sidebar into the main canvas, you get the magical recursive effect.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_Z-Nwm-d4BnI9VcdeHwZYg2FyBCiHuYWYZRLiSY4H5uQ5Lpbi62Cs_zkFRc_ry7nhUsyp51TwrayjdEohM71EZ-vrCJiD6wmcDAaWCl4MEmTeS4zJC37dd-pHwdMGAVYTeje8cyAUecg/s1600/Parallelogram+series.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="263" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_Z-Nwm-d4BnI9VcdeHwZYg2FyBCiHuYWYZRLiSY4H5uQ5Lpbi62Cs_zkFRc_ry7nhUsyp51TwrayjdEohM71EZ-vrCJiD6wmcDAaWCl4MEmTeS4zJC37dd-pHwdMGAVYTeje8cyAUecg/s400/Parallelogram+series.png" /></a></div>
I found it very easy to form a close approximation to a golden rectangle, subdivided into squares...
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi01DziEE9QfgJF-zSEp4FxLvYuIyBMY19IFz8SXjnQdDnHIhtmpsVAKpA6AHORq-6bCEGswZUxzyB4JswPwSTqzixRm9bgrb-N7o3_WqzX6S3J6VKSQifPnGKt0ZOPlYUMbuis8lis4A8/s1600/Golden+rectangle.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="269" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi01DziEE9QfgJF-zSEp4FxLvYuIyBMY19IFz8SXjnQdDnHIhtmpsVAKpA6AHORq-6bCEGswZUxzyB4JswPwSTqzixRm9bgrb-N7o3_WqzX6S3J6VKSQifPnGKt0ZOPlYUMbuis8lis4A8/s400/Golden+rectangle.png" /></a></div>
...or this spiral of home-plate-like pentagons:
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLME6d4br7GrJAHAp-WrhmPtnQwy6voayZVPz6bvt2eIutcNq-6EgmsutjNupExNMCCAOVkk3qns-Jt6KYZgHdzb0E_9_t7_FznzwQc2Pwd-WHHWspWimRMfmhoisPEN9j1S_zuhckdLo/s1600/Pentagon+spiral.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="275" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLME6d4br7GrJAHAp-WrhmPtnQwy6voayZVPz6bvt2eIutcNq-6EgmsutjNupExNMCCAOVkk3qns-Jt6KYZgHdzb0E_9_t7_FznzwQc2Pwd-WHHWspWimRMfmhoisPEN9j1S_zuhckdLo/s400/Pentagon+spiral.png" /></a></div>
I then made a pretty cool fractal tree:
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinHh9f9U_QdqAYK_F4hExnQNbhloMoCX8n9xVUWUEAzlrg0kBpk-H5F37k8LGh52J8U6qiiAHRGG3U7y0bEGmjmASMft6tpfxoYGOS1CcE3RXk5GHzjEo97fK2xnQlqR1yLYhi06RBFg8/s1600/RecursiveTree.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="298" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinHh9f9U_QdqAYK_F4hExnQNbhloMoCX8n9xVUWUEAzlrg0kBpk-H5F37k8LGh52J8U6qiiAHRGG3U7y0bEGmjmASMft6tpfxoYGOS1CcE3RXk5GHzjEo97fK2xnQlqR1yLYhi06RBFg8/s400/RecursiveTree.png" /></a></div>
Every time I play with this tool, I make something even better.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVpMLRq0pQpJkXuBfMsSwDg7LDOJfvniinzSPRlrcibXDyO5w5JOh4NtbaPOE9e5B7WEJG7kXTms1SCG7h__2SQg8ss4T9HaBASF5N92YTwIfl3-4b_7Z7NASrW0YZ4cF-qMDIRCqyFNg6/s1600/Double+spiral.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="241" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVpMLRq0pQpJkXuBfMsSwDg7LDOJfvniinzSPRlrcibXDyO5w5JOh4NtbaPOE9e5B7WEJG7kXTms1SCG7h__2SQg8ss4T9HaBASF5N92YTwIfl3-4b_7Z7NASrW0YZ4cF-qMDIRCqyFNg6/s400/Double+spiral.png" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsanMXAWcHGyX2AR1bfnwwYDvm3nu4f5V4DredZyylI5oYqk7QvzRawC0ABDCXWOGqAowqkhVJvB3UhlUWpTdRVcel6KCrYjVjF0_zwQsSP7ieNY4VwxhAQdH04cQazc72UW2WPN8dAB35/s1600/Recursive+double+spiral.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="258" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsanMXAWcHGyX2AR1bfnwwYDvm3nu4f5V4DredZyylI5oYqk7QvzRawC0ABDCXWOGqAowqkhVJvB3UhlUWpTdRVcel6KCrYjVjF0_zwQsSP7ieNY4VwxhAQdH04cQazc72UW2WPN8dAB35/s400/Recursive+double+spiral.png" /></a></div>
The interface is intuitive and powerful, making it terrific fun to play with. I would like to see a triangular shape, some control over color, and perhaps some kind of symmetry operator to allow flipping and reflecting of drawings. And since the source code is available, maybe someone will eventually add these features...Surly Teabaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07251453183815233705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196658447040793710.post-80931865799539467242012-05-11T16:07:00.002-07:002012-05-12T08:07:39.317-07:00Lexcavator: A cool word-exploding arcade gameA great new arcade-like word game has just been released for desktop computers. It's called Lexcavator, a name that evokes the idea of digging for words. In this game, you tunnel down through a bottomless grid of letters by forming words Boggle-style. Then you jump your little avatar (represented by the "@" symbol) around in the various tunnels that you create, as you try to avoid being pushed up to the top of the screen by the constantly rising letter grid.
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJGpgqojWDopI8J5f357mkAODCyFdHyFrMZCxsjN-5hc0iE-HlqnY7eY0tInobA9jgbJUbFMx32iMj5iXseac-Djw2UORimLCHSSFq6IiSolWig4WkdO2rpXYe8gutCmbPRpT9caRyonlj/s1600/Lexcavator-sample.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJGpgqojWDopI8J5f357mkAODCyFdHyFrMZCxsjN-5hc0iE-HlqnY7eY0tInobA9jgbJUbFMx32iMj5iXseac-Djw2UORimLCHSSFq6IiSolWig4WkdO2rpXYe8gutCmbPRpT9caRyonlj/s400/Lexcavator-sample.png" width="265" /></a></div>
The game feels like a hybrid of Boggle and an inverted Tetris. Once you get used to using the mouse to click and drag through letters to form words and navigating with the keyboard, the interface becomes quite intuitive. There are power-ups in the form of other symbols: "!" creates a deep one-column-wide vertical shaft, ">" clears all the letters in the row that it is sitting on, "_" destroys a random set of tiles, "?" randomizes all the letters, and "*" takes out all letters in a 5-by-5 grid.
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge0-U2YdqGwiic5GNylgtCLYivxLY3jvJXxzapaz_MENsjniQrHzAt8EPnE1BmIsfbkFByEiCy9eDLODRn4KC7rZE-PcBlxMVwcm9gsVeUdCXD0butR0bhkaF192TX41g4EOgBtZVBjL8a/s1600/Lexcavator-action.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge0-U2YdqGwiic5GNylgtCLYivxLY3jvJXxzapaz_MENsjniQrHzAt8EPnE1BmIsfbkFByEiCy9eDLODRn4KC7rZE-PcBlxMVwcm9gsVeUdCXD0butR0bhkaF192TX41g4EOgBtZVBjL8a/s400/Lexcavator-action.png" width="265" /></a></div>
You don't necessarily need to activate the power-ups when you uncover them. I find that using the "?" power-up usually causes the resulting letters to be harder to make words out of. You also have the option of delaying usage of a power-up by guiding it down with you: for instance, standing next to the power-up and excavating under both yourself and it works nicely.
<P>
Once you finish a game, you get a report of various statistics about your performance. If you enable the "Internet" option in the Settings, the game will also report your scores to the central server and tell you how well you did compared to other players...
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwCLBHKluMU94nwQRXibbklOf-VMYPdfYUraXbbryAe4OuzPnbx7x8xm8OaVZuM0k4UtyhBJuiShJzZq9coVRLRIyaQWFCfly9UEI5rE136OZsjq0oypQOHy-Aon5KLoIlhyphenhyphenhXLA5QMoto/s1600/Lexcavator-score.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwCLBHKluMU94nwQRXibbklOf-VMYPdfYUraXbbryAe4OuzPnbx7x8xm8OaVZuM0k4UtyhBJuiShJzZq9coVRLRIyaQWFCfly9UEI5rE136OZsjq0oypQOHy-Aon5KLoIlhyphenhyphenhXLA5QMoto/s400/Lexcavator-score.png" width="266" /></a></div>
and what words you were the first in the world to find:
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVjNVafZxUSG8F0y6lTrW5hHFqwcC6OubW7bBt49PETkPkcQd9YrOc8cxBvmIw4-OkuyzgLgrKsxh8VLdxyUEJq-4M8_cmiUJCrqtCKgIJznNFuF-PcEXXAT8COSN_WMoNpeuBLTmGpiaT/s1600/Lexcavator-new-words.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVjNVafZxUSG8F0y6lTrW5hHFqwcC6OubW7bBt49PETkPkcQd9YrOc8cxBvmIw4-OkuyzgLgrKsxh8VLdxyUEJq-4M8_cmiUJCrqtCKgIJznNFuF-PcEXXAT8COSN_WMoNpeuBLTmGpiaT/s400/Lexcavator-new-words.png" width="266" /></a></div>
As of today, only 2% of the words on the word list had been found, <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/lexcavator/status/200933550302830592">according to the Lexcavator Twitter account</a>. According to <a href="http://www.decontextualize.com/2012/05/lexcavator-is-out/">the developer's blog</a>, the leaderboard is completely anonymous, so you don't have to worry about generating a login or a password or recovering a password when you've forgotten it. It's simple and done the right way, just like everything else about the game.
<P>
This is the kind of game that you will find yourself wanting to play repeatedly. There is also a Quest Mode which consists of a series of untimed challenges (like, find four 4-letter words, all in lines, without finding any other words).
<P>
You can get the game at <a href="http://www.lexcavator.com/">lexcavator.com</a>. It is being distributed on a pay-what-you-want model. I initially downloaded it for free, but I'm going to go back and pay for a copy to support the developer.Surly Teabaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07251453183815233705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196658447040793710.post-2541657149306987802012-04-10T23:01:00.004-07:002012-04-11T20:16:02.825-07:00How good are competitive Scrabble players at recognizing words?Researchers from the University of Calgary recently published a study (available in <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/7337j2331816v9j5/fulltext.pdf">PDF</a> or <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/7337j2331816v9j5/fulltext.html">HTML</a>) on how being an elite player in Scrabble tournaments affects one's word recognition ability. Although actually they tested for something much narrower than word recognition: wordness verification. <br /><br />Basically, the researchers showed the subjects a series of words (half concrete words and half abstract) and non-words and asked them to identify whether or not they were real words as quickly as possible. There were three test groups in the experiment: a group of undergraduates, a group of competitive Scrabble players recruited from a tournament, and a third group of subjects chosen to have the same age distribution as the Scrabble players (with an average age of 57). Additionally, some words were displayed horizontally (like normal words) and others were displayed vertically (like on a Scrabble board).<br /><br />The researchers found that the undergraduates were the fastest at responding to the word identification tasks (what the journal article terms "lexical decision tasks"), followed by the Scrabble players, and then the age-matched control group. Everyone was slower at identifying abstract words than concrete words, but the Scrabble players had the smallest added delay (120 ms for Scrabble experts versus 270 ms for the control group). The reason that this is interesting is that the added delay for abstract words is believed by some to indicate that people are thinking about the meanings of words when identifying them, and that abstract words take longer to verify due to the extra processing. (A previous study using fMRI scans showed that while certain regions of the brain light up with activity when the subjects are recognizing concrete words, extra regions of the brain come on line when recognizing abstract words.)<br /><br />The fact that the Scrabble players could recognize abstract words with little additional delay suggests that they are not thinking about word meaning during the word recognition process. This is actually a well-established phenomenon called the concreteness effect. <br /><br />The two groups of older subjects were far more accurate at identifying words than the undergraduates. Interestingly, Scrabble players and the age-matched group identified horizontal words with quite similar accuracies and speeds, but when the words were arranged vertically, the Scrabble players took a little longer, but had about the same accuracy. The control group took 35-40% longer (though the error bars are big), and made considerably more errors in recognizing words.<br /><br />The paper then carefully analyzes these results: <blockquote>The facility with vertical presentation shown by competitive Scrabble players in the present study may be attributable to experience processing words in vertical orientation on the Scrabble board. It is also possible, however, that this facility is due to the extensive word list practice that Scrabble players complete, or to strong word recognition skills that preceded the Scrabble experience. The nature of our design has not allowed us to infer causation.</blockquote><br />The subjects were also given a variety of mental tests, and the Scrabble players only did especially well in the Scrabble-related skills (anagramming words and generating words that start with a particular letter). They were able to successfully anagram 3 times more words than the control group and 14 times more words than the undergrads.<br /><br /><br />The authors conclude the paper well by saying:<br /><blockquote>The behavior of these visual word recognition experts highlights the experience-driven nature of visual word recognition and pushes the bounds on what we previously considered the endpoint of development of the word recognition system.</blockquote><br />So I am inferring from this study that either competitive Scrabble players learn to switch off the parts of the brain that think about the meanings of abstract words or else people who have this skill are preferentially drawn to Scrabble. Either way, someone should rustle up some more Scrabble experts and perform brain scans on them to verify this.Surly Teabaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07251453183815233705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196658447040793710.post-65046751536376634212012-03-19T00:25:00.009-07:002012-03-30T01:03:10.449-07:00Results of the First World Palindrome ChampionshipFollowing up on my <a href="http://www.bananagrammer.com/2012/03/first-annual-world-palindrome.html">previous post about the first annual palindrome-writing competition</a>, here is how it played out:<br /><br />As mentioned on <a href="http://www.palindromist.org/blog/1">contestant Mark Saltveit's blog</a>, Barry Duncan, who is the subject of an upcoming documentary (<a href="http://masterpalindromist.com/">The Master Palindromist</a>) had been invited to compete, but as he had not responded to the invitation, he was not expected to attend. Then he showed up on the day of the competition. His documentarian also attended and filmed the event, so we may get to see footage of the championship someday.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.themecrossword.com/">Doug Fink</a>, writer of eight crossword puzzles (and more importantly the famous palindrome "Lisa Bonet ate no basil."), was selected from the audience as the final contestant.<br /><br />Will Shortz announced that the contestants had to write palindromes meeting one of the following three constraints:<br /><ol><li>The palindrome must contain an <i>X</i> and a <i>Z</i>.</li><br /><li>Or the palindrome must include a person or event in the news in the last 12 months.</li><br /><li>Or the palindrome must be somehow about the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament</li></ol> I was rather surprised by these constraints because writing a palindrome about someone in the news is something that many of the contestants may have already done, so it didn't really guarantee that the palindrome might not have been conceived of beforehand. I was also a little disappointed that there were multiple allowable routes; it would have been more interesting to see what the results would have been if the contestants had competed head-to-head, writing the same kind of palindrome. But possibly this multi-path set of constraints was used because any single constraint could have been too limiting, potentially resulting in insufficiently diverse or entertaining palindromes. Still, in the future, I might suggest a multi-round scheme, where all contestants write palindromes for each set of constraints, the palindromes are all separately scored by round, and whoever's total score is highest, wins.<br /><br /><br />Based on the votes of the audience (mostly competitive crossword puzzle solvers who were there for the weekend crossword tournament), Nick Montfort placed fourth for his reversible poem about the Millennium Falcon. Jon Agee's submission placed third: "'Zoning' is Mr. Al Axe's sex alarm sign in Oz." The runner-up was John Connett who wrote "'Not Newt,' Ron's snort went on." And (by a vote of 169 to 165) the winner and World Palindrome Champ was Mark Saltveit who wrote "Devil Kay fixes trapeze part; sex if yak lived." which he later described as "a tale of kinky shenanigans". <br /><br /><br />Saltveit wrote other palindromes during the allotted writing period including "I tan. I mull. In a way, Obama, I am a boy, a wan Illuminati."<br /><br />He explained his third palindrome (which was about the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament) in <a href="http://metatalk.metafilter.com/21554/msalt-to-battle-for-title-of-worlds-best-palindromist">this Metafilter Metatalk thread</a>:<br /><blockquote>If anyone saw the film Wordplay, Al Sanders was the guy who has placed 3rd about 10 years in a row, and was eliminated due to a tragic error in the film after he clearly had won.<br /><br />This palindrome predicts that he will finally win the tournament this year:<br />"Gal, smiles are stellar ere crossword rows sorcerer Al lets era's elim's lag."</blockquote>(Incidentally, Metafilter is one of the coolest sites on the Internet.)<br /><br />Even before learning that the crossword puzzle tournament was going to be one of the possible constraints for the palindromes, I was thinking that including crossword references would be a good way to play to the crowd. Maybe something like this reference to cryptic crossword puzzles would do: <blockquote>We hate Seven Across: "Or can Eve set a hew?"</blockquote>(Hint: It's only a caricature of cryptic crossword clues and not intended to be solved.)<br /><br /><br />Writing palindromes is not as easy as they make it look, so congratulations to Mark Saltveit and to all the contestants!<br /><br /><hr width="67%"><br />UPDATE: As Nick Montfort informed me in the comment thread, all of the palindromes presented by the contestants are being posted at <a href="http://palindromist.org/results">http://palindromist.org/results</a>. They are definitely worth checking out.<br /><br />Also, Nick Montfort has posted <a href="http://nickm.com/post/2012/03/palindrome-sagas/">his reflections on the event.</a>Surly Teabaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07251453183815233705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196658447040793710.post-34458860367126581742012-03-03T17:43:00.009-08:002012-03-19T12:49:23.310-07:00The First Annual World Palindrome ChampionshipI've learned that, as part of this year's American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (made famous through the documentary Wordplay), a live palindrome-writing competition is going to be held! Will Shortz will give some constraints on what the palindrome has to be about (presumably preventing the contestants from recycling old work), the contestants will write palindromes for 75 minutes, and the audience will choose the winners. <br /><br />The contestants will include: <ul><li>Jon Agee, writer of many books of palindromes illustrated with cartoons including <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374444730/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bananagrammer-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0374444730" onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview ('/outgoing/amazon/GoHangASalami/link');">Go Hang a Salami! I'm a Lasagna Hog!: and Other Palindromes</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bananagrammer-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0374444730" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /><br /></li><li>Martin Clear, who is apparently flying in from Australia to compete and who has <a href="https://martinclear.wordpress.com/2012/02/04/list-of-my-palindromes/">definitely written a lot of palindromes</a>. Like these <blockquote>Goddesses, bored now, assess a wonder-obsessed dog.<br /><br />Some modem telepaths in a Danish tape let me do memos.<br /><br />Tim lifted a cat; Elton did not let a cadet film it.</blockquote>He has even posted some palindromic poetry.<br /><br />But that's not why I'm subscribing to <a href="https://martinclear.wordpress.com/">his blog</a>; it's because of <a href="https://martinclear.wordpress.com/2011/12/24/mary/">this poem</a>:<br /><blockquote>Mary had a little RAM<br />It’s free space, wired and slow<br />And every wire that Mary wet<br />That RAM would short and blow.</blockquote><br /></li><li>John Connett, professor of biostatistics, writer of these:<br /><blockquote>Eva, can I stack Rod’s sad-ass, dork cats in a cave?<br /><br />No cab, eh, Ted? I sat up. I put aside the bacon.</blockquote></li><li>Nick Montfort who co-wrote <a href="http://www.spinelessbooks.com/2002/palindrome/index.html">2002: A Palindrome Story</a>, a 2002-word palindrome, written in 2002 (also available <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0972424490/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bananagrammer-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0972424490" onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview ('/outgoing/amazon/2002PalindromeMontfort/link');">as an illustrated book</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bananagrammer-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0972424490" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;"/>). I know him from his contributions to the interactive fiction community, but he appears to be a professor of writing about interactive fiction and making cool online creative stuff (a field we can always use more professors in).</li><li>Mark Saltveit, editor of <a href="http://www.palindromist.org/">The Palindromist</a> - a magazine dedicated to palindromes (and also a great site where I found out a lot about the world of palindromes.) He also does <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/11/11022011-palindromes.html">stand-up comedy about palindromes</a>.<br /><br /><blockquote>Pay on time, emit no yap.<br /><br />Art, anise, riff of fire: Sinatra.</blockquote></li><li>... and one lucky contestant picked from the audience based on a demonstration of their palindrome prowess.</li></ul><br />It's happening March 16th in Brooklyn. It costs $80 to get in the door. See the <a href="http://www.crosswordtournament.com/info/brochure.htm#schedule">crossword puzzle tournament site for further details on the schedule</a>. <br /><br />Once I find out what the winning palindrome is, I will post a follow-up.<br /><br />UPDATE: I found <a href="http://blog.oregonlive.com/living_impact/print.html?entry=/2012/03/portlands_mark_saltveit_to_bat.html">a soft profile of contestant Mark Saltveit and the World Palindrome Championship</a>.Surly Teabaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07251453183815233705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196658447040793710.post-82824694486239859372012-02-28T12:00:00.002-08:002012-10-13T23:06:32.530-07:00Indie Game: The Movie - a documentaryLast year I wrote <a href="http://www.bananagrammer.com/2011/10/pax-omegathon-and-novelty-in-video.html">a post partially about how great indie video games are</a>, citing as an example the creativity of Jonathan Blow's temporal anomaly of a game, Braid.<br /><br />Now I've learned that a documentary about such games has been made, and one of the primary interview subjects is Jonathan Blow himself. The documentary is called Indie Game: The Movie, and it focusses on the challenges of independent video-game-making and the passion of the creators. (Fittingly, the documentary itself is also an independent production, made by two filmmakers and funded by Kickstarers and DVD pre-orders.) The film also includes 1) Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes, the artist-programmer pair behind the action-based platform game Super Meat Boy 2) and Phil Fish, whose still-to-be-released game Fez involves exploring a 3-dimensional world with a 2-dimensional character. By rotating the perspective in 90 degree increments, new faces of the world become visible, and previously uncrossable gaps in the landscape disappear. You can see it briefly in the Indie Game trailer:<br /><iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/25268139?byline=0&portrait=0&color=ffffff" width="400" height="225" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe><br /><br />Here is a bonus video illustrating Fez gameplay:<br /><iframe width="448" height="252" src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/WxOL8V-61VM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /><br /><a href="http://thefilmstage.com/reviews/sundance-review-indie-game-the-movie/">Reviews from its Sundance debut</a> were positive. The current IMDB rating is 9.4.<br /><br />In March and April, the film will be have one-night screenings in Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Asheville, Seattle, Portland, Palo Alto, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Cambridge (Massachusetts), with another screening Toronto in May. All screenings will include appearances by the filmmakers who will answer questions. The film is also showing at the South By SouthWest Film Festival. See <a href="http://www.indiegamethemovie.com/igtmscreenings/">the full schedule</a> for details. The film will later be purchasable from the <a href="http://www.indiegamethemovie.com/">documentary's official site</a>.
<P><hr width=60%>
UPDATE: This film is now <a href="http://instantwatcher.com/titles/182977">available for streaming</a> from Netflix in the U.S.Surly Teabaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07251453183815233705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196658447040793710.post-31282804579793737702012-01-18T10:33:00.000-08:002012-01-25T15:31:02.642-08:00Group read-through of "Gödel, Escher, Bach"<blockquote>Every few decades an unknown author brings out a book of such depth, clarity, range, wit, beauty and originality that it is recognized at once as a major literary event. [This] is such a work.<br />
<br />
- Martin Gardner</blockquote>One summer, long ago, I read the first half of an amazing book called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465026567/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bananagrammer-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0465026567">Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bananagrammer-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0465026567" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />, but then I had to return it to the library, and I never found the time to finish it. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="float: left; text-align: center; padding-right:20px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465026567/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&tag=bananagrammer-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0465026567"><img border="0" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41FWhmVlAJL._SL160_.jpg" ></a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bananagrammer-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0465026567" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="float: left; border:none !important; margin:2px !important;" /> </div>Now I've discovered that <a href="http://reddit.com/r/GEB">a group read-through</a> of "Gödel, Escher, Bach" is being organized through Reddit. It's being run by Rob Speer who has previously taught seminars on this book (and who has read it five times!). <br />
<br />
What makes it amazing? It discusses Escher's art, Bach's music, and Gödel's mathematics and ties them all together. It's got puzzles and paradoxes and ponderings about the nature of consciousness. And it is terribly fun. It has a whimsical style evidenced by its wordplay and humor. The author incorporated a wonderful dialogue written by Lewis Carroll called "What the Tortoise Said to Achilles" in which the Tortoise and Achilles have a discussion which illustrates a paradox of logical inference.<br />
<br />
Here is how it begins:<br />
<blockquote>Achilles had overtaken the Tortoise, and had seated himself comfortably on its back.<br />
<br />
"So you've got to the end of our race-course?" said the Tortoise. "Even though it <i>does</i> consist of an infinite series of distances? I thought some wiseacre or another had proved that the thing couldn't be done?"<br />
<br />
"It <i>can</i> be done," said Achilles; "It <i>has</i> been done! Solvitur ambulando. You see, the distances were constantly <i>diminishing</i>; and so—"<br />
<br />
"But if they had been constantly <i>increasing</i>?" the Tortoise interrupted. "How then?"<br />
<br />
"Then I shouldn't be <i>here</i>," Achilles modestly replied; "and <i>you</i> would have got several times round the world, by this time!"<br />
<br />
"You flatter me—<i>flatten</i>, I mean," said the Tortoise; "for you <i>are</i> a heavy weight, and <i>no</i> mistake! Well now, would you like to hear of a race-course, that most people fancy they can get to the end of in two or three steps, while it <i>really</i> consists of an infinite number of distances, each one longer than the previous one?"<br />
<br />
"Very much indeed!" said the Grecian warrior, as he drew from his helmet (few Grecian warriors possessed <i>pockets</i> in those days) an enormous note-book and a pencil. "Proceed! And speak <i>slowly</i>, please. <i>Short-hand</i> isn't invented yet!"</blockquote>He then wrote similar dialogues with the Tortoise and Achilles and other characters to accompany and introduce each of the book's chapters. And these are just a fraction of the things that make this book so great!<br />
<br />
<br />
The plan is to read the book slowly, over six months (from January to July of 2012), so even if you start a little late, there's plenty of time to catch up. Rob will post insights and discussion threads in the group forum at <a href="http://reddit.com/r/GEB">http://reddit.com/r/GEB</a>.<br />
<br />
It is a challenging book, but a rewarding one. If you have ever thought about trying to read it, this is a great opportunity to follow through.Surly Teabaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07251453183815233705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196658447040793710.post-66723156494157141662012-01-15T17:00:00.000-08:002012-01-15T17:00:02.444-08:00The Deeper Meaning of LiffWhile cleaning out my closet, I came across <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307236013/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bananagrammer-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0307236013" onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview ('/outgoing/amazon/DeeperLiff/TDMoL/link');">The Deeper Meaning of Liff</a> by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd. <img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bananagrammer-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0307236013" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /> The preface to the original, unexpanded version of this book (The Meaning of Liff) read: <blockquote>In Life* there are many hundreds of common experiences, feelings, situations and even objects which we all know and recognize, but for which no word exists. On the other hand, the world is littered with thousands of spare words which spend their time doing nothing but loafing about on signposts pointing at places. Our job, as we see it, is to get these words down off the signposts and into the mouths of babes and sucklings and so on, where they can start earning their keep in everyday conversation and make a more positive contribution to society.<br />
<br />
* And, indeed, in Liff.</blockquote><br />
Lloyd had helped Adams on the original Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio scripts, and while visiting Greece, where Adams was supposed to be writing the novelization, they wound up playing a game that Douglas adapted from an English class exercise. As related in Neil Gaiman's <br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0055X651U/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bananagrammer-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0055X651U" onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview ('/outgoing/amazon/GaimanHHGGbook/TDMoL/link');">Don't Panic: The Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bananagrammer-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0055X651U" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /> (also from my closet),<blockquote>...someone would say the name of a town, and someone else would say what it meant. [...] As John Lloyd explained [...] "Near the end of the holiday, I started writing them down, not having very much else to do. By the end of the holiday, we had about twenty of these things, some of the best ones in <i>The Meaning of Liff</i>, like 'Ely' — the first, tiniest inkling that something, somewhere, has gone terribly wrong."</blockquote><br />
Here are some of my favorite words from the book:<br />
<br />
<b>Ahenny</b> (ah-HEN-nee) <i>adj.</i> <br />
The way people stand when examining other people's bookshelves.<br />
<br />
<b>Ballycumber</b> (ba-li-KUM-ber) <i>n.</i><br />
One of the six half-read books lying somewhere in your bed.<br />
<br />
<b>Boolteens</b> (BOOL-teenz) <i>pl. n.</i> <br />
The small scattering of foreign coins and halfpennies which inhabit dressing tables. Since they are never used and never thrown away boolteens account for a significant drain on the world's money supply.<br />
<br />
<b>Dalmilling</b> (dal-MILL-ing) <i>ptcpl. vb.</i> <br />
Continually making small talk to someone who is trying to read a book.<br />
<br />
<b>Delaware</b> (DEL-a-wair) <i>n.</i><br />
The hideous stuff on the shelves of a rented house.<br />
<br />
<b>Duddo</b> (DUD-doh) <i>n.</i> <br />
The most deformed potato in any given collection of potatoes.<br />
<br />
<b>Dufton</b> (DUF-tn) <i>n.</i> <br />
The last page of a document that you always leave face down in the photocopier and have to go and retrieve later.<br />
<br />
<b>Farnham</b> (FAR-num) <i>n.</i> <br />
The feeling you get at about four o'clock in the afternoon when you haven't got enough done.<br />
<br />
<b>Ferfer</b> (FER-fer) <i>n.</i> <br />
One who is very excited that they've had a better idea than the one you've just suggested.<br />
<br />
<b>Frating Green</b> (FRAY-ting GREEN) <i>adj.</i> <br />
The shade of green which is supposed to make you feel comfortable in hospitals, industrious in schools and uneasy in police stations.<br />
<br />
<b>Fulking</b> (FUL-king) <i>ptcpl. vb.</i> <br />
Pretending not to be in when the carol-singers come round.<br />
<br />
<b>Hewish</b> (HEW-ish) <i>adj.</i><br />
In a mood to swipe at vegetation with a stick.<br />
<br />
<b>Hoggeston</b> (HOG-us-tn) <i>n.</i><br />
The act of overshaking a pair of dice in a cup in the mistaken belief that this will affect the eventual outcome in your favor and not irritate everyone else.<br />
<br />
<b>Kabwum</b> (KAB-wum) <i>n.</i> <br />
The cutesy humming noise you make as you go to kiss someone on the cheek.<br />
<br />
<b>Kent</b> (kent) <i>adj.</i> <br />
Politely determined not to help despite a violent urge to the contrary. Kent expressions are seen on the faces of people who are good at something watching someone else who can't do it at all.<br />
<br />
<b>Kentucky</b> (ken-TUK-ee) <i>adj.</i><br />
Fitting exactly and satisfyingly. The cardboard box that slides neatly into an exact space in a garage, or the last book which exactly fills a bookshelf, is said to fit 'real nice and kentucky'.<br />
<br />
<b>Liff</b> (lif) <i>adj.</i><br />
A common object or experience for which no word yet exists. <br />
<br />
<b>Millinocket</b> (MIL-in-ok-et) <i>n.</i> <br />
The thing that rattles around inside an aerosol can.<br />
<br />
<b>Nacton</b> (NAK-ton) <i>n.</i><br />
The 'n' with which cheap advertising copywriters replace the word 'and' (as in 'fish 'n' chips', 'mix 'n' match', 'assault 'n' battery'), in the mistaken belief that this is in some way chummy or endearing.<br />
<br />
<b>Plymouth</b> (PLIM-uth) <i>vb.</i> <br />
To relate an amusing story to someone without remembering that it was they who told it to you in the first place.<br />
<br />
<b>Quoyness</b> (KWOY-nes) <i>n.</i><br />
The hatefullness of words like <i>relionus</i> and <i>KopyKwik</i>.<br />
<br />
<b>Rochester</b> (RO-ches-ter) <i>n.</i> <br />
One who is able to gain occupation of the armrests on both sides of their cinema or aircraft seat.<br />
<br />
<b>Scethrog</b> (SKETH-rog) <i>n.</i><br />
One of those peculiar beards-without-moustaches worn by religious Belgians and American scientists which help them look like trolls.<br />
<br />
<b>Thrupp</b> (THRUP) <i>vb.</i><br />
To hold a ruler on one end on a desk and make the other end go <i>bbddbbddbbrrbrrrrddrr</i>.<br />
<br />
<b>Woking</b> (WOH-king) <i>n.</i><br />
Standing in the kitchen wondering what you came in here for. <br />
<br />
<br />
There ought to be a word for a book that you've never fully read and haven't looked at in years, but suddenly can't bear to part with. Inspired by Douglas Adams, I've decided to call it a "Spennymoor".Surly Teabaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07251453183815233705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196658447040793710.post-60590473160764665502011-12-24T19:47:00.000-08:002011-12-24T19:47:02.229-08:00Seasons Greetings from Bananagrammer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCKj_vzObN6Ec0rqI56EaJuue5Ha7-QtlQGfael1LoCzNlhHT4jn435RHxNGhVIuJ0rOkBBwb4w8lNRfPiyicU-qgkyVWIdJ-Cra-jTGIRH4cuxu7uKelV3P4qU7Qjzpn9udk4UAZvinT9/s1600/Seasons+Greetings+-+Cochin+2+medium.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCKj_vzObN6Ec0rqI56EaJuue5Ha7-QtlQGfael1LoCzNlhHT4jn435RHxNGhVIuJ0rOkBBwb4w8lNRfPiyicU-qgkyVWIdJ-Cra-jTGIRH4cuxu7uKelV3P4qU7Qjzpn9udk4UAZvinT9/s400/Seasons+Greetings+-+Cochin+2+medium.png" /></a></div>Surly Teabaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07251453183815233705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196658447040793710.post-12900800681705083232011-12-16T19:02:00.000-08:002011-12-16T19:02:36.078-08:00Impossible objects. Impossible words.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1qIwAMJ-PBwVZkeodytkGSa39PVHEchrCEVt9AAWhkTj0eRkb8F4aozKWo6T9zcqZw7Hv_APcuaQeCgBCxCj2B8le-v5PAPGZkMdhDvpMVfPBlJNPeYtzkHE9XvxsTptmJfEtYYGpM_wT/s1600/impossible-isosiblia-0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="118" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1qIwAMJ-PBwVZkeodytkGSa39PVHEchrCEVt9AAWhkTj0eRkb8F4aozKWo6T9zcqZw7Hv_APcuaQeCgBCxCj2B8le-v5PAPGZkMdhDvpMVfPBlJNPeYtzkHE9XvxsTptmJfEtYYGpM_wT/s400/impossible-isosiblia-0.jpg" /></a><a href="#footnote1">*</a></div><a name="back1"></a><br />
Impossible objects are drawings of apparently three-dimensional objects which look correct when their individual parts are examined, but when you look at the object as a whole, it turns out to be not realizable. One of the most famous examples was created by D. H. Schuster and published in a psychology journal in 1964. The paper was titled "A New Ambiguous Figure: A Three-Stick Clevis", and said figure looks like this:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQQEn6aB3Iyh1CwPhjWA84cgzmNUFYI0lAJvH6fM3ZGYYp-hqn_F6fjNZlPbaxA9rWalce4JDu_7_20ct7kQd6dRB_SNJrYVynHnokuUn9hmWrEELpejGNJTmxkpydOc8-IQPWp4kI8idB/s1600/poiuyt-200-opq.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="255" width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQQEn6aB3Iyh1CwPhjWA84cgzmNUFYI0lAJvH6fM3ZGYYp-hqn_F6fjNZlPbaxA9rWalce4JDu_7_20ct7kQd6dRB_SNJrYVynHnokuUn9hmWrEELpejGNJTmxkpydOc8-IQPWp4kI8idB/s400/poiuyt-200-opq.png" /></a></div><br />
As emphasized by the colored background, the top of the object resembles the upper part of a stirrup (which has the basic form of what is known as a "clevis") and the bottom of the object looks like three parallel rods. Somewhere in between lies the ambiguity that destroys the three-dimensionality. Martin Gardner referred to such drawings as "undecidable figures".<br />
<br />
The three-stick clevis has since gone by many other names: blivet, devil's tuning fork, widget, and poiuyt. <br />
<br />
Mad Magazine used "poiuyt" as the name for the above blivet when they featured it on their March 1965 cover. The difficulty you may be having in deciding how to pronounce "poiuyt" is due to its unusual origin. The word "QWERTY" was formed by starting from the left side of the top row of a typewriter and taking the first six letters. Applying the same technique to the other end of the keyboard you get the looking glass version of "QWERTY"... "poiuyt". <br />
<br />
Just as perspective drawing was invented to allow us to make two-dimensional depictions of three-dimensional things, spelling was invented to allow transcription of spoken language. And just as we can draw objects that are logically inconsistent, so can we write combinations of letters that correspond to no spoken word. <br />
<br />
"Poiuyt" has no apparent, standard, or authoritative pronunciation. Dictionaries ignore it. If the reader will indulge me, I will nominate it as our first impossible word.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYTVDeiDKc7DeweRhMWzkL1T-wqt4VcUzuDelFz6VVjU5QDS2qvi5W1F7oSAybziwPGO7UJ0740aqXEsl9JjFPweELb0TxMeKg5SxbXjjJHmdUJd4sMHxLmj2UXQ4XhyM-nQExZCD2Y6l_/s1600/balge-sunflower.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right; float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYTVDeiDKc7DeweRhMWzkL1T-wqt4VcUzuDelFz6VVjU5QDS2qvi5W1F7oSAybziwPGO7UJ0740aqXEsl9JjFPweELb0TxMeKg5SxbXjjJHmdUJd4sMHxLmj2UXQ4XhyM-nQExZCD2Y6l_/s400/balge-sunflower.png" /></a></div><br />
Another candidate for impossibility is "balge" (as in "balge yellow"), a term that is listed in Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary as having no known pronunciation and no known origin (as if it spontaneously generated on a piece of paper on some lexicographer's desk). "Balge yellow" has been defined as "a brilliant yellow color" and "sunflower yellow", so at least that part of its wordhood is known.<br />
<br />
A 1976 survey of color names by the National Bureau of Standards identified <div class="separator" style="float: left; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPaDRvAh6w1_aI7XO9b9jY6zgEuzy5JvjTuoCiaGlAxji4vdLIAdeoVorl3CCz2VD6YrC4E3SOnOVPqnJkSpQz7OBVFPLWBQvO8bU3h9QCAgl5wJuH20rm3Svy_3TtjmEKql2WWUTRLj7W/s1600/balge+yellow+-+NBS.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="72" width="76" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPaDRvAh6w1_aI7XO9b9jY6zgEuzy5JvjTuoCiaGlAxji4vdLIAdeoVorl3CCz2VD6YrC4E3SOnOVPqnJkSpQz7OBVFPLWBQvO8bU3h9QCAgl5wJuH20rm3Svy_3TtjmEKql2WWUTRLj7W/s400/balge+yellow+-+NBS.png" /></a></div>balge yellow as the color pictured here, which also goes by names such as "jonquil" and "Naples yellow". These redundant names may explain why "balge" use ended.<br />
<br />
Even though no one seems to know how to pronounce "balge", it doesn't feel undecidable in the way that "poiuyt" does, probably due to the latter's discombobulating four consecutive vowels.<br />
<br />
My third nomination for impossible word is YHWH which is the English version of the Hebrew word: יהוה. Controversy surrounds this word. It is used throughout the original Hebrew texts of the Old Testament as the primary name for God. Some pronounce it as "Jehovah" or "Yahweh". Since ancient Hebrew lacked was written without vowels, the correct pronunciation of יהוה is not known. There is a strong taboo against speaking this name in Judaism, so it may be that whatever correct pronunciation might have existed has disappeared due to lack of use. Some believe that the pronunciation is a secret preserved by only a few people in each generation. What I like best about this word is that there is another name you can use when talking about it: "the Tetragammaton" (from the Greek for "having four letters"). The undecidability of YHWH's pronunciation is in an entirely different class than that of poiuyt, but maybe a property of impossible words is that they are all impossible in their own ways. This one seems to be more of an arms-crossed, exasperated "Tetragammaton, you're impossible!" way.<br />
<br />
I feel obligated to mention one word that I thought would be impossible but has turned out not to be: Mxyzptlk. Mister Mxyzptlk is a mischievous prank-playing imp from the fifth dimension who occasionally visits Earth to wreak havoc until Superman deals with him. The gimmick was that the only way to send Mister Mxyzptlk back home was to trick him into saying his name backwards.<br />
<br />
While Mxyzptlk has been pronounced in a variety of ways throughout the years, allegedly the DC Comics editor gave an authoritative pronunciation early on: "mix-yez-PIT-elick". But I suppose that one could claim that it is in Mxyzptlk's trickster nature that the pronunciation of his name refuses to be nailed down.<br />
<br />
<br />
Then there are heteronyms which are words that are spelled the same way but pronounced differently:<blockquote>"bass" can rhyme with "glass" or "space".<br />
<br />
"wind" can be pronounced with a short <i>I</i> (like the thing that blows) or a long <i>I</i> (the verb that describes forming a ball of yarn).</blockquote>They're better classified as ambiguous than outright impossible. <br />
<br />
As heteronyms change pronunciation based on the context they are used in, they are analogous to the Necker Cube:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj05_zfZ7vnXcZfVam63X53nRCONALyxFP_TV8CNA1SIetoh2ZVd35B12jJ2HuXg3_BxFlM8SpoazVDjeOZrmaFIKe46kE3JAHU5v_LSzuJZhSdNZ668VttUvYdKiZL74yLVA8OudsC28h3/s1600/Necker-cube.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="270" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj05_zfZ7vnXcZfVam63X53nRCONALyxFP_TV8CNA1SIetoh2ZVd35B12jJ2HuXg3_BxFlM8SpoazVDjeOZrmaFIKe46kE3JAHU5v_LSzuJZhSdNZ668VttUvYdKiZL74yLVA8OudsC28h3/s320/Necker-cube.png" /></a></div><br />
Rather than representing a figure that has no sensible three-dimensional realization, the Necker cube confounds the viewer because it has more than one realization. Most people initially see it as a wire-frame cube, viewed from the top, with the lower-left square as the front face. After studying the figure for some time, it may seem to suddenly shift to a cube seen from above with the upper-right square as the front. I find that I can switch between the viewpoints by focussing on a face that appears to be at the back of the cube which seems to cause it to pull forward.<br />
<br />
<br />
The impossible word is an exceedingly rare thing because we tend to make up pronunciations for words, even if we have to break the laws of phonics. (Doing so yields ultraphonic words (words outside the range of normal phonics), such as Big Bird's pronunciation of ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ as a single long word by sneaking vowel sounds into strings of consonants like JKLMN.) <br />
<br />
<br />
Spelling a word is a reductive, lossy process. Accents, tones, sarcasm, are all generally omitted. English orthography, in particular, requires collapsing the full spoken word into a few characters, introducing considerable ambiguity, but from this ambiguity is born many good things, like puns and poiuyts.<br />
<br />
<hr width="67%"><br />
<i>Further reading:</i><br />
<ul><li>On balge: According to an 1875 Bulletin from the National Association of Wool Manufacturers, balge yellow was "generally employed on cassimere for vestings". Google Books also has <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=6vcoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA410&hl=en&ei=_bwOTtCPGoTegQemwcDUDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false">the recipe for dying wool balge yellow</a>.</li>
</ul><hr width="99%"><i><a name="footnote1"></a>A word about the <a href="http://www.neo2.es/blog/2009/10/isosibilia-font/">very cool font</a> used for the IMPOSSIBLE graphic above: “ISOSIBILIA Typography Designed by <a href="http://www.rfuenzalida.com">Rodrigo Fuenzalida</a> for <a href="http://www.neo2.es">Neo2</a>.</i> - [<a href="#back1">Back to footnote reference</a>]Surly Teabaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07251453183815233705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196658447040793710.post-63342208455577865692011-11-07T23:49:00.000-08:002011-11-07T23:49:00.125-08:00How Scrabble dictionaries are madeA web site called Word Buff has an <a href="http://www.word-buff.com/darryl-francis.html">interview with Darryl Francis</a> on the making of the British Scrabble tournament word lists. From his self-description, Francis sounds like a cool guy with interests in wordplay and language. He writes articles for <i>Word Ways</i>, a magazine of recreational linguistics (which I can recommend if you enjoy wordplay). And he cites Martin Gardner's Scientific American columns as a major influence. <br />
<br />
Darryl Francis and Allan Simmons are the Dictionary Committee for WESPA, the World English Scrabble Players Association. They've basically been in charge of the British Scrabble word list since its inception. <br />
<br />
The British Scrabble tournament word list (previously called SOWPODS and now apparently "CSW" as an abbreviation for Collins Official Scrabble Words) is formed by taking all the words in the most current American Scrabble tournament word list and adding in any valid words from the Chambers Dictionary and the Collins English Dictionary. Francis's interpretation of what constitutes a valid word is given in his response to a question about whether he would ever exclude words that satisfy all the rules: <blockquote>Let's go back to a group of dictionary entries I mentioned earlier - the internet domain names for countries. There's around 200 of these, running from AC (Ascension Island) to ZW (Zimbabwe). They appear to satisfy the criteria for acceptability of words.<br />
<br />
They're not dictionary-listed with an initial capital letter, nor a hyphen nor an apostrophe. They're not marked as abbreviations, they're not marked as foreign. On what basis should they not be allowed as two-letter words?</blockquote><br />
My answer to this question is that a) these two-letter abbreviations (called "country code top-level domains") are proper nouns, and b) they are in fact abbreviations, whether the dictionary says so or not.<br />
<br />
Francis goes on to say:<br />
<blockquote>Yet to allow a sudden influx of two-letter words, most of which are unpronounceable and not recognisable to the man in the street, would be to upset the fine balance that already exists with two-letter words.<br />
<br />
Two-letter words are so key to the game that to double their number overnight would almost certainly provoke an outcry from Scrabble players - and probably the media, too.</blockquote><br />
I could portray this as a question of how to balance strict rule-following with common sense. Ultimately the Dictionary Committee chose not to include all those country codes, so they do use some common sense in their decisions. And they do have to make many difficult judgment calls. But it seems like they only rejected these country codes because there are so many of them and because Scrabble players would be upset by their inclusion.<br />
<br />
To me, this demonstrates the subtle biases that have crept into the system to make official Scrabble dictionaries (unsurprisingly) give tournament Scrabble players what they want. As I understand it, what a plurality of them want is a word list that retains the words they have spent so much time memorizing, while occasionally adding handfuls of new words that increase Scrabble scores and make the game easier and more fun for them.<br />
<br />
And this is perfectly fine, so long as these Scrabble word lists aren't misappropriated as authoritative sources for other games...<br />
<br />
<hr width="60%"><ul><i>Further reading:</i>
<li><a href="http://www.bananagrammer.com/2009/12/well-that-about-wraps-it-up-for-the.html"> Well, that about wraps it up for the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.bananagrammer.com/search/label/dictionaries">All of my dictionary rants</a></li>
</ul>Surly Teabaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07251453183815233705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196658447040793710.post-19253108576106399572011-10-22T18:58:00.000-07:002013-11-02T19:21:47.683-07:00The 27th Letter of the Alphabet<blockquote>Rogues, to speak thus irreverently of the alphabet, I shall live to see you glad to serve old Q — to curl the wig of great S — adjust the dot of little i — stand behind the chair of X. Y. Z. — wear the livery of Etcetera — and ride behind the sulky of And-by-itself-and.<br />
<br />
From Act I of Charles Lamb's <i>Mr. H</i><br />
</blockquote><br />
If you were a schoolchild in the 19th century, the alphabet that you learned would have had 27 letters: all 26 letters of our current alphabet, plus the ampersand symbol. <br />
<style type="text/css">
table tr td{
text-align: center;
font-size: 14px;
}
</style><center><table><tr><td>A</td><td>B</td><td>C</td><td>D</td><td>E</td></tr>
<tr><td>F</td><td>G</td><td>H</td><td>I</td><td>J</td></tr>
<tr><td>K</td><td>L</td><td>M</td><td>N</td><td>O</td></tr>
<tr><td>P</td><td>Q</td><td>R</td><td>S</td><td>T</td></tr>
<tr><td>U</td><td>V</td><td>W</td><td>X</td><td>Y</td></tr>
<tr><td> </td><td>Z</td><td> </td><td>&</td><td> </td></tr>
</table></center><br />
Due to the awkwardness of ending a recitation of the alphabet with "W X Y Z and", it was traditional to instead say "W X Y and Z, and <i>per se</i> and", where <i>per se</i>, Latin for "by itself", means that &, standing by itself, represents "and". (Words with one-letter spellings, like A or I, were often orally spelt as "A <i>per se</i>" or "A <i>per se</i> A".) It was this process of alphabet recitation, and hurried enunciations of "and <i>per se</i> and" which spawned a variety of names for the & symbol which ultimately converged on "ampersand". & had been part of the alphabet going back to the days of Old English. <br />
<br />
Other than standing for the conjunction "and", the ampersand also sometimes appears in the abbreviation &c, for <i>et cetera</i>. This is due to the origins of the & symbol in the first century A.D., when the Romans would write <i>et</i> (Latin for "and") in cursive in a run-together fashion which became a stand-alone written symbol.<br />
<br />
So why do we no longer consider & to be part of the alphabet?<br />
<br />
The leading theory is that it's because of that alphabet song, the one that goes<br />
<blockquote>A B C D E F G<br />
H I J K LMNOP<br />
Q R S, T U V<br />
W X, Y and Z.<br />
Now I know my A B Cs.<br />
Next time won't you sing with me?</blockquote>Many incorrectly believe that this is based on a tune by Mozart. While Mozart wrote variations on this theme at the age of 25 [see Köchel listing K. 265], the original melody that inspired him was a French folk song called "Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman" which eventually served as the music for Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. In 1835, the alphabet song was copyrighted under the name "The A.B.C., a German air with variations for the flute with an easy accompaniment for the piano forte", so it does seem like Mozart was responsible for popularizing the melody.<br />
<br />
It turns out that that song has influence beyond the ousting of the ampersand. Historically, it has been mainly in the U.S. that Z has been pronounced <i>zee</i>; pretty much everywhere else they say <i>zed</i>. But a quick look at the rhyming scheme of the alphabet song, shows that the <i>zee</i> pronunciation works better. And apparently a lot of children who learn English outside of the U.S. are still exposed to this alphabet song through American children's programming, like Sesame Street. Teachers in England reportedly have to correct kindergarteners who enter school singing the alphabet song in an American accent, right down to the <i>zee</i>.<br />
<br />
I leave you with this quote from Steven Wright: <blockquote>Why is the alphabet in that order? Is it because of that song? The guy who wrote that song wrote everything.</blockquote>Surly Teabaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07251453183815233705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196658447040793710.post-36758616197010048822011-10-09T16:40:00.000-07:002011-10-09T16:40:40.971-07:00PAX, the Omegathon, and novelty in video gamesI love books and documentaries that examine quirky subcultures. The book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0142002267/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bananagrammer-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399381&creativeASIN=0142002267">Word Freak</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bananagrammer-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0142002267&camp=217145&creative=399381" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /> provides a fascinating look inside the world of tournament Scrabble. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000B5XP24/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bananagrammer-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B000B5XP24">Murderball</a> was a great film about the players of wheelchair rugby. My favorite quirky documentary though is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000XQ4HR8/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bananagrammer-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B000XQ4HR8">The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters</a> which dramatizes the competition between two players for the high score in the classic arcade game Donkey Kong.<br />
<br />
I've just found an amazing article online called <a href="http://www.themorningnews.org/article/pax-primer">PAX Primer</a> which is the perfect introduction to the quirky subculture that is the Penny Arcade Expo. It covers the origins of the Expo (in case you ever wanted to know how a web comic can spawn a convention dedicated to video games and board games), the growth of video games, and their transition from fringe to mainstream culture. <br />
<br />
Earlier this year, I <a href="http://www.bananagrammer.com/2011/03/bananagrams-to-be-event-at-pax-east.html">posted about PAX</a> because <a href="http://www.bananagrammer.com/2011/03/follow-up-on-bananagrams-at-pax-east.html">Bananagrams was an event in the PAX East Omegathon</a>. It turns out that the Omegathon organizers decided to feature Bananagrams in the west coast PAX Omegathon as well. The article says that in the convention program, Bananagrams is described as "like Scrabble, only not boring and for old people".<br />
<br />
It later goes on to discuss a few computer games which I might opine are "like video games, only not boring and for old people". The new wave of computer games does not suck you into endless repetition.<br />
<br />
Portal is a game where you solve puzzles by shooting two holes on different walls, ceilings, or other surfaces in your environment. These "portals" are connected (as if by a wormhole), so whatever goes in one, comes out the other, with the same momentum. I recently started playing this game and can not get enough of it.<br />
<br />
Braid is an even stranger game in which the player gets to control the flow of time. The selling points of the game are listed on <a href="http://www.braid-game.com/">the game's web site</a>:<br />
<ul><li>Every puzzle in Braid is unique. There is no filler.</li>
<li>Braid treats your time and attention as precious.</li>
<li>Braid does everything it can to give you a mind-expanding experience.</li>
</ul>Braid's programmer, Jonathan Blow, self-financed the game as he coded it over three years as a statement about how video games could and should be different.<br />
<br />
Braid does not look like any other computer game. The artwork is great. It was done by the artist behind the surreal web comic <a href="http://www.alessonislearned.com/archive.php">A Lesson Is Learned But The Damage Is Irreversible</a>. Braid also does not sound like any other computer game. Its atmospheric music helped to win me over.<br />
<br />
With the success of these games, even more ambitious games are in the works, on topics such as non-Euclidean geometry (<a href="http://www.antichamber-game.com/">Antichamber</a>) and four-dimensional space (<a href="http://marctenbosch.com/miegakure/">Miegakure</a>).<br />
<br />
<br />
In a world where video games have become mainstream, it makes sense for a niche to develop for games that emphasize originality. I am glad that quirky subcultures exist to sustain this kind of bold experimentation.Surly Teabaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07251453183815233705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196658447040793710.post-48407760988732175792011-09-20T14:35:00.000-07:002011-09-20T21:34:25.544-07:00Why words are the lengths they areSome words are long and others are short. What determines how long a particular word should be? If you look at some long words (like "serendipity", "pandemonium", and "hypothesis") and some short words ("my", "in", and "of"), you might come to the conclusion that short words are short because they are used frequently while long words can afford to be long because they come up rarely. This idea was first proposed by a Harvard linguist named George Zipf in 1936. <br />
<br />
Researchers at the MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences took a fresh look at this question and came up with a new theory. They present their results in a paper titled (spoilers!) <a href="http://web.mit.edu/piantado/www/papers/PNAS-2011-Piantadosi-1012551108.pdf">"Word lengths are optimized for efficient communication"</a>. <br />
<br />
How much information is conveyed by a word? Consider the sentence that starts "After I got home, I walked the...". If I finish the sentence as "I walked the dog", the extra word "dog" doesn't convey much information because it's probably one of the words your brain was expecting. More surprising would have been "I walked the cat" or "I walked the bulldozer", "I walked the quasar" or "I walked the plank". It is the amount of surprise that researchers are equating with the information contained in a word. Consequently the information content of a word depends on the context that it appears in. [For those who want a more quantitative explanation, the information contribution from a particular context (like, "I walked the...") is -log(<i>p</i>), where <i>p</i> is the probability that the word appears at the end of that phrase and where log() is the natural logarithm function. To get the total information for a word like "dog", you just sum -<i>p</i> log(<i>p</i>) over all the contexts that "dog" appears in.] <br />
<br />
Ideally what the researchers would have liked to examine is the relationship between how long it takes to say words and how much information they convey, but it was easier (and, they argue, an adequate approximation) to use the number of letters in a word in place of its utterance duration. But later, they went back and ran the same tests (for a few languages) using number of syllables instead of number of letters, and the results were the same.<br />
<br />
To calculate the relationship between word length and frequency, the researchers used the same N-gram data set that Google used in <a href="http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/">its N-gram viewer</a>. This figure from the paper summarizes their findings:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-U6tdG859S2o3Hb7yjsV3rpnBP4ylkFywH8J-S1UGLRwtvKGV4wc0SQvBoKRh7G4HRBT0gKkM1Zlx2Jv_1SxdItgiziss41ShsrYD4DJvMFbvCf9-ZkHvqrUPTVT1dQLU1WeErXW3_aew/s1600/word-lengths-figure.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="219" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-U6tdG859S2o3Hb7yjsV3rpnBP4ylkFywH8J-S1UGLRwtvKGV4wc0SQvBoKRh7G4HRBT0gKkM1Zlx2Jv_1SxdItgiziss41ShsrYD4DJvMFbvCf9-ZkHvqrUPTVT1dQLU1WeErXW3_aew/s400/word-lengths-figure.png" /></a></div>The plot on the left shows word length versus word use frequency, with frequency decreasing from left to right. (Here the data has been divided into large groups of words ("bins") and the average lengths and frequency have been used.) For the first few points (high-frequency words like "the"), the slope of the line is strong, but then it quickly flattens out, indicating that for low-frequency words, the frequency of the word doesn't change the length very much. <br />
<br />
The plot on the right shows average word length versus the information content of the word. Here, the line starts off jagged but then becomes strongly-sloped and very straight. This tells us that how much information a word carries is indeed a good predictor of how long the word will be.<br />
<br />
The researchers also cite other work that has shown that, when speaking, people will speak more information-dense syllables more slowly than less information-dense syllables. (If you've ever listened to the synthesized voice of something like a GPS, you'll be familiar with the jerkiness of the pronunciation that sounds like it is speaking some syllables too slowly and others too quickly.)<br />
<br />
It would seem that a corollary to this principle is that as a word becomes more common (or more precisely, loses information density), it experiences a linguistic force, pushing it toward a shorter form. This shortening process is called <i>phonetic erosion</i>. Examples of the resulting shortenings (also called <i>clippings</i>) are "refrigerator" becoming "fridge", "going to" becoming "gonna", and "cabriolet" being completely replaced by "cab". Here are a few other terms that have evolved much shorter forms:<br />
<ul><li>advertisement → ad</li>
<li>caravan → van</li>
<li>examination → exam</li>
<li>gasoline → gas</li>
<li>gymnasium → gym</li>
<li>influenza → flu</li>
<li>public house → pub</li>
</ul>So, essentially, the researchers found that the old idea that word length is based mainly on frequency of word usage (short words are used often while long words are used rarely) does a poor job of explaining why words are the lengths they are. The amount of information in a word (averaged over the various contexts that it is used in) is a far better predictor for how long the word will be. The only exception to this is the 5% to 20% of words that are the least informative (generally short, high-frequency words like "the" and "and"). <br />
<br />
This result holds, not just for English, but also for the other ten languages that they examined (Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, and Swedish).<br />
<br />
The basic idea that I take away from this work is that there is some maximum rate that our brains can understand incoming speech, and that our speech patterns reformulate what we are saying to evenly distribute information over time. It makes me wonder whether pausing for effect is taking advantage of this fact. Similarly, when I say a word slowly to emphasize it, maybe I am just slowing it down to suggest that it contains a lot of information.<br />
<br />
<i>Epilogue</i>: In case you were wondering, the actual ending to the sentence that started "After I got home, I walked the..." was "...tightrope.".<br />
<br />
<hr width="67%"><ul>Further reading:
<li><a href="http://web.mit.edu/piantado/www/papers/PNAS-2011-Piantadosi-1012551108.pdf">"Word lengths are optimized for efficient communication"</a> - the actual paper, in PDF</li>
<li><a href="http://www.bananagrammer.com/2011/02/zen-and-art-of-google-n-gram-viewing.html"> "Zen" and the art of Google N-gram Viewing</a></li>
</ul>Surly Teabaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07251453183815233705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3196658447040793710.post-20985021469703280182011-08-06T13:01:00.000-07:002011-08-06T13:01:00.209-07:00The Bananagrammer Equation<i>A warning to regular readers: This post is not about games nor about words. It is about math and bananas.</i><br />
<br />
Recently the "Batman Equation" has been memetically propagating around the Internet. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsodqn6F1VBWRCoGe_kNoBWpxFFKtRQ9HAuTCUTnb5a_YixxAR9Qd7GQeMtoByE3jI9IZChNaFES8gRYBIgQnrKFaioMALmrpKQ5U7IpifEL5uCP195pTVJGGg_hbeGGfnpBXCMFoMsZLK/s1600/BatmanEquation.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="388" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsodqn6F1VBWRCoGe_kNoBWpxFFKtRQ9HAuTCUTnb5a_YixxAR9Qd7GQeMtoByE3jI9IZChNaFES8gRYBIgQnrKFaioMALmrpKQ5U7IpifEL5uCP195pTVJGGg_hbeGGfnpBXCMFoMsZLK/s400/BatmanEquation.png" /></a></div>The equation represents the outline of the Batman logo. It is apparently <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/j2qjc/do_you_like_batman_do_you_like_math_my_math/">the work of a user on Reddit</a>. <br />
<br />
I liked it enough to try to make my own. There are a few tricks to this process. First break the shape up into curves that you can easily write equations for, of the form <i>f</i>(<i>x</i>,<i>y</i>)=0. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjayuUWC2m9-OLUrtNHYpL9KGec6l9PxOvNTV3j7LQ_6ByDqaLzCo3t-CB0rnGMQE7PeyVntLMRu1y_lM_d-Ms7-AtN-uI2Qr2_Sa57zG0sAvSyysyyzfPgbc0B0vJ00Is9z0s6yQN55WPR/s1600/bgr-curve-with-extensions.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjayuUWC2m9-OLUrtNHYpL9KGec6l9PxOvNTV3j7LQ_6ByDqaLzCo3t-CB0rnGMQE7PeyVntLMRu1y_lM_d-Ms7-AtN-uI2Qr2_Sa57zG0sAvSyysyyzfPgbc0B0vJ00Is9z0s6yQN55WPR/s400/bgr-curve-with-extensions.png" /></a></div>Then, to make the curves stop at the desired end points, add in terms like the ones you see under the square roots. They evaluate to either 1 or -1, depending upon the grid position; when this value is negative, the square root is no longer real, and the plotting program will not plot anything. Finally, multiply all the equations together, and you get one big long equation:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzX_fx65lhwMdN1L9azbKDt6S8NjzHD8n8z5sjPM9NiFaJqwsOcf0fNZjfoYf3_I4VoRm-wmmwPXQhkS0zpaTxaD9UnhWkrrRMEI6nAFKwLuv6xxG5Zr78_IA0e1EqhjPLnQyGd7iFes1a/s1600/the-Bananagrammer-equation.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="344" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzX_fx65lhwMdN1L9azbKDt6S8NjzHD8n8z5sjPM9NiFaJqwsOcf0fNZjfoYf3_I4VoRm-wmmwPXQhkS0zpaTxaD9UnhWkrrRMEI6nAFKwLuv6xxG5Zr78_IA0e1EqhjPLnQyGd7iFes1a/s400/the-Bananagrammer-equation.png" /></a></div>(This is a cleaned-up and slightly approximated version of the <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGcK-2YzL0Kq_cV9x4xxSzvBIAKnCHLinPOGbs40F1GKHKmJxFM4OIjfOhtzg7h-ANMwntH6q7BPpMRRCuhUTqzh0WIujyeHILP2xUKNsohGttYxNXwM6qlHGtMvgtw8VDDxYOvXWybc8I/s1600/bgr-equation.jpg">equation I used for plotting</a>.)<br />
<br />
The final plot looks like this:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSmWAqmh-6uzBpKHgc8hpiX8IVPFtEqTqwgxKJ_-WA44CCU5vRjIBAUc3_UncObTF6w7GrOk_8yvGvaNNxUxH2FNcpAyJpgZxcn28gKDVcZBAz7hLhLG-ioYZxA70iDNJNKM7wmC6fB9yY/s1600/Bananagrammer+plot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="354" width="363" alt="If I stay there can be no party. I must be out there in the night, staying vigilant. Wherever a party needs to be saved, I'm there. Wherever there are words that need anagramming, I'm there. But sometimes I'm not because I'm out there in the night staying vigilant, watching, lurking, running, jumping, hurdling, sleeping. No, I can't sleep. You sleep. I'm awake. I don't sleep. I don't blink. Am I a bird? No. I'm a banana. I am Bananagrammer. Or am I? Yes, I am Bananagrammer. [applies chapstick]" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSmWAqmh-6uzBpKHgc8hpiX8IVPFtEqTqwgxKJ_-WA44CCU5vRjIBAUc3_UncObTF6w7GrOk_8yvGvaNNxUxH2FNcpAyJpgZxcn28gKDVcZBAz7hLhLG-ioYZxA70iDNJNKM7wmC6fB9yY/s400/Bananagrammer+plot.png" /></a></div><br />
It is remarkable how well a single ellipse traces out the outer edge of a banana silhouette. I checked a couple of other bananas, and they also have this property. I finally went to a grocery store and sifted through all their bananas to find the least elliptical one I could:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkvKfVqMEUDz8tQmCz1krEjbgk6OiYwx-c-WXWPMBMm8wYwAGezKmLDjHP8yCii0ypvRF_7UY1ifgkRIDLubJO2DlNAyPdS6BPjQqN5yI1drm_pzWZLJCx9AjBWA8Hlv8MdpGIfy75qsDu/s1600/least-elliptical-banana.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="162" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkvKfVqMEUDz8tQmCz1krEjbgk6OiYwx-c-WXWPMBMm8wYwAGezKmLDjHP8yCii0ypvRF_7UY1ifgkRIDLubJO2DlNAyPdS6BPjQqN5yI1drm_pzWZLJCx9AjBWA8Hlv8MdpGIfy75qsDu/s320/least-elliptical-banana.png" /></a></div><br />
From the red sample points along the edge, I found that even this banana was almost well-approximated by an ellipse. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEDQT_E59lUc0CHRqySsbBUX1mEZFK_gJYEH-_ZdrKzLGpj9uAiF_FAw6BziVkG0Mc_g5l08HXsK-6RafQRtNtQ6bzq_vjgvLd3lAoQ21wMN4on-zgDVROQfVFpw-dxojhbvnrQ8YjQC8J/s1600/least-elliptical-fit.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="124" width="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEDQT_E59lUc0CHRqySsbBUX1mEZFK_gJYEH-_ZdrKzLGpj9uAiF_FAw6BziVkG0Mc_g5l08HXsK-6RafQRtNtQ6bzq_vjgvLd3lAoQ21wMN4on-zgDVROQfVFpw-dxojhbvnrQ8YjQC8J/s400/least-elliptical-fit.png" /></a></div><br />
It is the first three data points that make this an exception to Bananagrammer's First Law of Bananas:<br />
<blockquote>The outer edge of the longitudinal section of a banana follows an elliptical path, with the banana's stem being roughly on the end of the ellipse's long axis.</blockquote><br />
The question to ask at this point is, "Why are bananas shaped the way they are?". The simple answer is that when a bunch of bananas start growing on a tree, they are initially pointing more down than up. As they become larger, they curve up toward the sun. A banana's exact shape will therefore depend on where it is with respect to its neighbors. <br />
<br />
A full explanation of why bananas are so elliptical will require more investigation. People who want to give me research grants are welcome to do so. Actually, everybody is welcome to do so. To everyone else, tune in next week. Same Banana-time, same Banana-channel!Surly Teabaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07251453183815233705noreply@blogger.com